ELE LIGHTNING STRIKE - ALL T16s, Shaper, Uber Atziri, HOGM, Chayula, Elder

Thanks for all the comments, appreciate any feedback.

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tmaciak wrote:

IMO It's much saver than using Blood rage - and reasoning is very visible in your video from Collonade map - I would never allow my character HP to drop so rapidly, one small freeze and she's dead.

Thanks for the comment. I rarely use Blood Rage because my chaos resistance is very low, however I used it in that map to add extra life leech to my life gain on hit. As long as you are play smart (position well, use flasks as necessary) - you will be fine.

I also carry a chaos flask that has a mod to dispel freeze - I have never had a problem with freeze in this build, as the build is highly evasive against freeze projectiles and you can also dispel the freeze using a flask.

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tmaciak wrote:

I have melee ranger build, done from scratch before I found this topic to test Reave (and eva/acrobatics/block), which shares a lot of similarities with yours but I put much more emphasis to build HP pool (will have 3,5K HP @ 77 lvl) and instead of Enfeeble I use Blind on Reave/Tempest Shield. I think that I will have even more survivability but will see if I will have enough patience to level it past 77. Anyway, playing 99,99% solo I haven't died once till 70 lvl.

This build also uses Blind (along with Enfeeble) - it is one of the key concepts behind the build based on Bringer of Rain. I highly recommend using Enfeeble - as it synergizes very well with the build by reducing enemy accuracy and damage. I'd be interested in hearing how your build turns out - let me know, you will probably have to lower your DPS to get more survivability - but that is the trade off.

Strong DPS is a form of survivability too - every second you spend in a fight increases the chance of you taking damage. It is critical to be able to quickly remove threats.

Reave is a good skill to use however the downside is that you have to position very well (vs. using melee splash) to make good use of the AOE. The AOE buff also resets every time you using another spell (i.e. curse, Enduring Cry), another downside is you cannot use Soul Taker with Reave.

As always I am open to suggestions about improving this build.

I am uploading a video with the Jungle Valley level 72 map. With 2x Unique Boss - the Weaver, and physical reflect. The map had a lot of charging rhoas, double reflect, and chaos damage.

The new Weaver also has extremely high burst damage from its Ethereal Knives. Hope this can highlight the strength of blind/eva/dodge/block combo, rapid life regen and the strong DPS of the build.

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Ceryneian wrote:

This build also uses Blind (along with Enfeeble) - it is one of the key concepts behind the build based on Bringer of Rain.

I meant, that I use exclusively Blind and you probably would be able to drop Enfeeble, which as you know, beside many advantages have disadvantage of very high int requirement.

Probably, because if we would be talking about armor characters, my TBoR based lighting strike templar with 18K armor can facetank any map boss except Maze Vaal using only Blind from TBoR and Tempest Shield.

I still have to replicate it on eva/acrobatics character where I dropped my Reave DPS to use Blind on ordinary 5L. So I need only ~100 int for Tempest Shield and it gives me a little more room in passives and gear. Till now, it works, will see how it will work on >70 lvl content.

Of course with high attack speed, I have 9 APS and will have probably 10 in few levels, without frenzy charges. But you probably have similar or bigger attack speed, at least on charges.

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tmaciak wrote:

I meant, that I use exclusively Blind and you probably would be able to drop Enfeeble, which as you know, beside many advantages have disadvantage of very high int requirement.

Probably, because if we would be talking about armor characters, my TBoR based lighting strike templar with 18K armor can facetank any map boss except Maze Vaal using only Blind from TBoR and Tempest Shield.

I think we are basically agreeing on the same thing - that Blind is very powerful.

Our builds have the same concept except you are focusing more on life. This build already has strong survivability but I would be excited to see a build that has more survivability while still maintaining good DPS. Just curious - are you incorporating any spell block?

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Ceryneian wrote:

Just curious - are you incorporating any spell block?

Yes, but for a moment only from Stone of Lazhwar, so I have 54% block/27% spell block. It's one of reasons I still use Crest of Perandus - it saves me few passive points and I have enough evasion from other gear.

I have Raibowstrides on other character but I prefer those boots for time being:



And the other gear:



Planned build @ 77 lvl - quite similar, yet a little different:

New video of very high difficulty map added! Hope this can further showcase strong survivability of this build, even on my low 2.6K life pool. The majority of the fight I fought at full life, in the cases I took a heavy hit - I regenerated extremely quickly back to full life in less than a second.

Level 72 Jungle Map with 2x Weaver Unique Bosses and physical reflect:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkRe7Z6YoYM

Highlights:
- Rapid life regeneration of build from life gain on hit and fast attack speed
- Survivability vs. projectiles, charging rhoas, double reflect, chaos damage (viper strike), spell avoidance, and extreme high burst physical damage
- A lot of the spiders flicker strikes and the bosses autoattacks were evaded/dodged/blocked

Interesting Math on the 2x Weaver Fight:
The 2 Weaver bosses used a total of 15 Ethereal Knives bursts against me, of which 9 were spell dodged through Phase Acrobatics (20% chance to dodge) or spell blocked with my 56% spell block chance. The other 6 I took, but was able to rapidly regenerate back to full health. I did not manually avoid any EKs as the spells is too fast and covers a broad range.

EK is a spell and does a lot of damage. The number of EKs I was able to avoid in this build is close to the estimated spell avoidance I calculated in the guide.

Chance to Take Spell Damage = Chance Spell is NOT Dodged x Chance Spell is NOT Blocked
= (1-20%)x(1-56%)
= 35% chance to take spell damage

Compare this to the 2x Weaver fight:
EKs taken = 6
Total EKs used against me = 15
% chance of taking EK damage = 6/15 = 40%

Please note: Ondar's Guile did not apply in this fight against EK as it doubles our chance to evade projectile attacks, not projectile spells. So I was relying only on spell dodge and spell block.

I said I'd give you an update when I did some mapping, and I'm still having amazing fun with this build.


My gear as of today



I'm facerolling any map I get into with almost no problems. Got my Bringer of Rain today so I'll be doing some higher level maps (70+). All I want to do with my gear right now is to get a pair of Rainbowstrides for the spell block, and some rings with physical damage, HP, and resists on them to replace my current ones.

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imoshu wrote:

I said I'd give you an update when I did some mapping, and I'm still having amazing fun with this build.

I'm facerolling any map I get into with almost no problems.

Thanks for update! You will find end game a breeze with this build and you can handle even the most challenging of mods that other melee characters cannot.


I've tried to show videos with exciting play on the hardest mods on maps I could get (reflect, vulnerability, 2x unique bosses, etc) in order to take this build to its limits, and to demonstrate that it can still hold its ground in even the toughest of maps.

Enjoy!

Quick update - for those interested in min/maxing this build, there is a way to achieve both max regular block and max spell block at the same time - while still maintaining high evasion and high DPS. Details are below. This may actually be cheaper than original build as you do not need Rainbowstrides, however it is tricky as it requires you to solve for various constraints on your ring/belt/gloves. I would recommend sticking with the original build (which is very strong already) - until we get more details on the new uniques being released soon.

Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X7amZ40Ci8&feature=youtu.be
Note that I also tried this scenario on the regular build - the one in the guide with ~56% spell block instead of the 75% in this video - and the results were very similar - you hardly take any damage.

Constraints
- You will need to use both Stone of Lazhwar and Rathpith Globe (these 2 items can apply 100%+ of your regular block as spell block).
- However to use Rathpith Globe - you will need a decent amount of intelligence as it requires 159 int to use. The shield also does not provide any evasion, and only provides resistance to lightning.
- I had to solve for this high int. requirement, while still maintaining high resistances, life, and physical damage from gear. You can use Grace to solve for the missing evasion from the Shield. I worked around the other requirements using the following:
i) Used Sin Trek boots to provide some intelligence (+30) and a good amount of evasion
ii) Solved for remaining int and res requirements from a new belt and a new ring, while also trying to keep up +life and added physical damage from gear (since without Meginord's Girdle - DPS is lowered).

It requires some fine tuning and balancing, but it can be done. Ideally I would like to keep Meginord's on, and solve for the constraints using new gloves/rings.

Here's to hoping there will be a new unique in the coming patch that will further empower this build!

Finally got my hands on two Level 77 maps:

Level 77 Shipyard Map - 2x General: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3XrAe4rY7c

Level 77 Shrine Map - 2x Piety: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMil_u9tkfk

These bosses were a lot easier than the 2x Weaver and 2x Vaal bosses. I think this is because the Weaver's EK burst has a mix of chaos and physical damage - which was hurting a lot because of my low chaos resistance. I have also managed to now run with both max regular block and max spell block, however I still need to find a better belt to give me more life.

These videos show the strength of the blind/evasion/dodge/max block combo and how well it scales.