[3.5] Pure Uniques Molten Strike HOWA. 4 Mill Shaper DPS, Good Defences

Thanks for the guide WaffleT, I had been looking for a way to use the Trickster's hybrid nodes and harness the void and you gave an excellent blue print to work with. I can only get to about 8/8.5 k es without the clarity gem (I can get close to 10k with a blade flurry variant that doesn't travel to point blank) but evasion is capped at full ES and blind. The trickster grants some awesome move/attack speed perks. It's not 4 million dps, but does gaurdians/shaper plenty fast. Thanks again for the info, your guardian set up looks dope too.

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Casting a spell is distinct from triggering a spell, its a bit confusing that the gem is called "cast when damage taken" anyway Basion of Hope is not giving you spell block from a triggered spell and its not worth spending the cast time to manually cast so you don't get the bonus spell block.

Right now that 4-link is only proccing the immortal call which I find redundant after getting decent evasion/block

That could be the case, but I am constantly proccing the buff for 10% spell block based on a spell being casted. I don't know if this is an error. I get it for enfeeble, immortal call, and bladefall. Bladefall might be a bit redundant. I could probably stick a vaal haste in there if I wanted. Anyway, this procs all the time for me.

Anyway, thanks for weighing in on the Le Heup of All ring. It seemed like it solved some of the problems of dual wield HoWA. But you still need at least one or two good resist jewels to avoid speccing into additional resist nodes.

Regarding other commentary about nerfing molten strike, the reason I bothered to play this build in Flashback was practice for 3.3. I imagine the tree doesn't change other than the wildfire jewels. It's a very solid build for lightning projectiles scaling off of int from what I can see. I am not sure what will be meta in 3.3.

I enjoy using molten strike instead of having to use blade flurry. But it is kind of silly that a lightning build like this is so good with molten strike. I'd imagine that it makes sense to buff a lightning attack that you would prefer people to use in 3.3. Who knows if that actually happens?

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AXPcikle wrote:

Thanks for the guide WaffleT, I had been looking for a way to use the Trickster's hybrid nodes and harness the void and you gave an excellent blue print to work with. I can only get to about 8/8.5 k es without the clarity gem

I've tried so many times over the game to make trickster work as it embodies the evasion/ES hybrid kind of build that this character uses but sadly every attempt was worse then the other options. The rework of escape artist was the nail in the coffin unfortunately now giving much less then the free 250 ES it used to have. Capping evasion is neat but overkill and the raider does that too with better damage. It does have some neat utility though and I'm glad you had fun with it

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Zindax wrote:

That could be the case, but I am constantly proccing the buff for 10% spell block based on a spell being casted. I don't know if this is an error. I get it for enfeeble, immortal call, and bladefall. Bladefall might be a bit redundant. I could probably stick a vaal haste in there if I wanted. Anyway, this procs all the time for me.

Uhh I've tested this in the past and just tested it again. When I trigger a bladefall, enffeble and immortall call in a CWDT setup with the defense tab opened I do not gain any spell block. When I manually cast a spell I do gain spell block. Maybe you are doing something different?

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Zindax wrote:

Regarding other commentary about nerfing molten strike, the reason I bothered to play this build in Flashback was practice for 3.3. I imagine the tree doesn't change other than the wildfire jewels. It's a very solid build for lightning projectiles scaling off of int from what I can see. I am not sure what will be meta in 3.3.

I enjoy using molten strike instead of having to use blade flurry. But it is kind of silly that a lightning build like this is so good with molten strike. I'd imagine that it makes sense to buff a lightning attack that you would prefer people to use in 3.3. Who knows if that actually happens?

I like molten strike as a skill, unless they really nerf it I think I will prefer to use it. The next best is spectral throw which feels really clunky to me although I know is popular with people.

I mentioned before that just removing the projectiles from threshold jewels halves the damage and I really can't seeing them doing that without buffing the skill at least a bit to make up for that. For example they could remove the projectiles from the jewels and add in 2 projectiles into the base skill which would be a 25%ish damage nerf. 2 extra jewel sockets with good jewels is about 15% more damage so that example would only be a 10% actual damage nerf which would be fine.

They are reworking old skills so buffs to them could include one that feels smooth to play with good damage. They will need to have really good damage to be able to compete with ones that can utilise point blank though. It has way too much low investment extra damage for melee characters

So far tree changes seem limited to ignite and trap but its pointless to speculate until we get final data. Not needing to get the scions threshold socket could result in some changes

Hi do you think it will be possible make a life based version of this build in 3.3 using the new helm Mask Of The Stitched Demon?
Also could frost blades work in this build instead of MS?

Cheers mate

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floridon wrote:

Hi do you think it will be possible make a life based version of this build in 3.3 using the new helm Mask Of The Stitched Demon?
Also could frost blades work in this build instead of MS?

Cheers mate

That unique is very... interesting. It has so many downsides and not a whole lot of upsides. The advantage to stacking Int is that it gives free %ES which frees up skill points on the tree and the flat ES just comes from gear. Stiched Demon gives a decent quantity of life but no %life which still means a large investment in the tree which doesn't scale as well while also disabling a whole lot.

I threw together a build swapping ES uniques for life ones and a simple skeleton tree. It ended up with a bit better damage but only about 5k life which is considerably worse then the 9k ES of the scion or the 10k ES of the guardian.

I shall keep an eye on this item though as it does seem like it has room to combo with something and be made to work but it wouldn't be the first 'interesting' item that sadly never gets its time to shine

In reference to frost blades yep sure you can use it. It'll have about 1/6th of the damage of molten strike though. It inherently has lower damage and can't be scaled with things like additional projectiles or points blank so it doesn't grow that much

So, no spell block. You were right about that. Sorry. I confused it with the stun part of Bastion of Hope some of the time, and some of the time I had re-casted lightning golem. So, bladefall is obviously worthless. The question is, what is worthwhile for the boots?

Is immortal call useful? One of the weaknesses I see is to physical damage, like bleeds. Immortal call usually removes a bleed. It's possible you want a CwDT + immortal call, but maybe you have a differing perspective. Would you put a vaal aura in there?

I also think Molten Strike is a solid skill. I am open to trying new things, but it would have to be nerfed and the new skill or rework would have to have a significant buff. I don't know what is being done with Vaal Lightning Strike. They would have to make the damage at least equal to regular lightning strike if you didn't have souls, bosses like Izaro, Shaper, and Elder would have to give souls as they lost life, and there would have to be jewels for it like molten strike with added projectiles, and possibly a chance to pierce or chain.

Otherwise, I don't see it being comparable.

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Op says Immortal call isn't useful because we don't get hit much which is very true.
A consideration on why to use IC is we do get endurance charges which makes it better than nothing and in 3.3 we would get to use Vaal Immortal call in its place which is godly. Being completely immortal for a even 1s is nice.

as is Ancestral call + blind + faster attacks is quite good for us

Scion doesn't get endurance charges which makes immortal call pretty irrelevant. Guardian does so it might be relevant, haven't really tested but in theory still seems like it won't be doing much and it needs to beat out the value of alternative options

Using some or all of those sockets to level a random spell for 10c profit per level 20 gem is still my preference as it really helps fund upgrades that improve survivability by more then immortal call will.

Other option is vaal skills. I disagree about Vaal immortal call. It takes 0.42 seconds to cast in order to give 1.5 - 2 seconds of immune to damage.

Vaal discipline takes 0.37 seconds to cast and gives 3 - 5.22 seconds of basically immune to damage

You won't have time to activate both and the more vaal gems you have the more souls get spread out and more likely you won't have the one you want active when you need it

Damage vaal options may also increase in popularity with vaal haste and things like vaal Lightning Strike getting reworks that may make them more attractive to use

I just want to say this build is pretty lackluster. Definitely boring for the most part. I found it decent but it was a complete bore to play. Hopefully in incursion with the skill revamps there will be a better screen clear abilities other then tornado shot or reave. The investment for the gear could be spent on another build that would do better I think.

I never said it was too expensive. the 6 link chest is the most expensive part considering it was over an exalt for one not six linked when i made the build. My jug does a whole lot better for about the same cost. The build is just lack luster like i said, and pretty boring to play.

I wouldn't describe a 6L as part of the build any more than I would describe a watcher's eye with:

Gain (12-18)% of Maximum Mana as Extra Maximum Energy Shield while affected by Clarity
+(20-30) Energy Shield gained for each Enemy Hit while affected by Discipline
Damage Penetrates (10-15)% Lightning Resistance while affected by Wrath

as part of the build. I bought this in flashback for 10c and then five-linked it. There were some selling for 1c, but not good ones:



The most expensive part of the build so far was the 59c that I spent on a bricked Level 3 Enlighten in Flashback.

I spent far less on this guy than my aurabot, which I had to buy a Presence of Chayula in Beastiary for 550c to make it work, and that was the "cheap aurabot" using Victario's.