[3.1] Icy Siege Ballista
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Hello, I am ArtCrusade.
Before we head into theory-crafting and lengthy anecdotes on how you hit mobs and hit them hard, here are several questions you want answered before reading on: - are you tired of being a meta slave? - have you always had the urge to be special? - do you like letting other people handle the workload and collect the merits? If you silently nodded 'yes' to yourself reading these questions, this build is for you. Shoutout to my boy _Jakko who made the original build in 3.0. I picked up and refined his thoughts thoroughly for 3.1, and here we go! Also, here's a screenshot of my first Atziri kill:  So what's popping?
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You'll run around at mach speed with 1000+ Dexterity collecting loot while your Siege Ballistas do the dirty work for you. You'll have a lot of evasion and accuracy and an easy time overcapping your resistances, essentially allowing higher flexibility with your gear.
At the time speaking, I have reached 1,000,000 DPS total at level 90. With meme ballistas. ;) Also, who doesn't love having 6 big ass ballistas firing at will? -Elder and his guardians: done (white / yellow / red) -Atziri: done -Pale Court: done -Vaal Temple: done The build can farm Shaped Bog (T15) like no tommorow. The enraged Rhoa boss never even touches the ballistas, because he's pushed back and slowed.  PoB-Link (Pastebin)
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Honest Pro's
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- flexible currency farmer / boss killer
- never worry about melee mobs and bosses thanks to knockbacks and perma-freezes - lots of movement speed and permanent phasing / onslaught - cheap to start running, lots of room for optimization - viable for all content - viable for SSF - special. fucking. snowflake. - fun and diverse playstyle Honest Con's
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- no room for fancy IIQ/IIR items
- rather squishy without good gear - wouldn't recommend for HC - have to level with different skill until you have enough Dexterity piled up Bandits
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Simple: kill all them bandits. We need 6 unique jewels to scale into late game, so there really is no other option.
Ascendancy
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We'll be playing as a Raider as it is most beneficial for this kind of build. Here's how we proceed:
Normal: Quartz Infusion Cruel: Avatar of the Veil Merciless: Way of the Poacher Eternal: Avatar of the Slaughter What does this give us? - permanent phasing when at max frenzy charges - +1 to maximum frenzy charges - 40% movement speed - 40% elemental damage - 28% attack speed - 18% attack damage - lots of dodge and evasion & additional ways to gain and keep frenzy charges Gear
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Required gear:
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These 3 should always be used for the build to run effectively: Iron Commander: Allows us to stack Dexterity and never regret it. Every 200 points nets us another Ballista, translating directly to damage. Having 3 of these is great, having 6 is amazing! Hrimburn: Converts half our physical damage to cold elemental damage. This unique really helps us scale well into endgame content. If you're anxious of dying, you can trade DPS for survivability and run Shaper's Touch which will add around 600 health just with one item. Astramentis: This amulet is fundamental for the build, because we're losing around 20% of our intelligence rating thanks to 2 Brawn jewels. Also the biggest source of Dexterity this build sees. Head piece:
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Starkonja's gives us a lot of stats we want. What's really important though is the Siege Ballista enchantment. You can of course buy one with ballista damage or attack speed, but remember you have 6 totems to deploy and reposition as you progress through maps. Alternatives to Starkonja's would be Devoto's Devotion or Rat's Nest, although the latter doesn't sport any Dexterity. My current gear Since I started the league playing two other characters, I had a good bunch of currency to throw into this build. The investment payed off, though, and you can easily build this character with two five-links as well. Flasks
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The above is my current setup. It offers great survivability and damage but is by no means set in stone. Personally, I switch out The Writhing Jar for a Ruby Flask for Atziri. Other options are Lion's Roar for the added knockback and if you already have a lot of money, The Dying Sun or Sin's Rebirth will be great assets to your DPS. In general: play what you feel comfortable with. Recently, I am using a Diamond flask instead of the Writhing Jar one to boost DPS and remove RIP curses we definetly don't want on us. I recommend this switch if you're comfortable with your mana pool. Made my DPS jump from 1 million to 1.3 million with all buffs. Jewels
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This is how we are able to generate so much Dexterity! The corrupted mods help but are in no way necessary for the build to be successful. For Brawn, look for 6% Dexterity and 10-11% Intelligence, Rain of Splinters is fine around 32-35% and Fluid Motion should always be 24 Dexterity. If you have great gear already and want to stay around 1k Dexterity, look below for my jewel setup at level 90 which helps a bunch with adding DPS:
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If you're looking for corrupted mods, increased frenzy/power charge duration is what we want. Anything else is fancy, but doesn't add much. Gem links
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6-link: Siege Ballista - Added Cold Damage - Cold Penetration - Pierce -
Elemental Damage with Attack - Increased Critical Damage If you don't have access to a Tabula early on, prioritize Elemental Damage, Cold Penetration and Added Cold Damage. 5-link, 6 slots: Frenzy - Projectile Weakness - Volley Support / GMP - Curse on Hit - Power Charge on Critical Hit - Solo: Vaal Haste Prioritize Frenzy > Curse on Hit > Projectile Weakness > Power Charge > Volley / GMP > Vaal Haste 4-link: Cast when Damage Taken - Increased Duration - Immortal Call - Phasing Prioritize CWDT > Immortal Call > Phasing > Increased Duration and don't forget to stop leveling your CWDT and support gems at a comfortable health range! 4-link #1: Blink Arrow - Faster Projectiles - Faster Attacks - Culling Strike 4-link #2: Haste - Herald of Ice - Clarity (lvl 6-8) - Enlighten These auras give you the best damage output. Enlighten support will help you sustain a mana pool to be able to re-position ballistas frequently, but it is not a must. The instand recovery from the hybrid flask Writhing Jar balances mana outages on those maps with disgusting mods. Stat Goals
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1000 Dexterity: having 5 additional Siege Ballistas really lets you feel the change in DPS with every level up. It is certainly possible to get even more, but you'd have to give up on other things for that sole purpose which I do not find efficient.
~115 Intelligence: the build runs 3 level 20 Intelligence gems - Curse on Hit, Power Charge on Critical Hit and Increased Critical Damage Support. Also noteworthy: no mana, no totems. ;) ~200 Strength: not having many options for building life or energy shield, having some Strength adds a great deal to your survivability. After all, dodging oh-so-many hits means nothing if the one that actually hits is a 1HKO. Mapping
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Which mods to avoid: -Elemental reflect (your totems will just die instantly) -No regeneration (can be bypassed with Writhing Jar & Watcher's Eye with Clarity mod, but will slow you down considerably. Just reroll) -Reduced evasion chance -Rippy numbers of extra damage / accuracy In general, the build does very, very well on maps with small corridors like Vault or Atoll. This is due to the fact that you can place ballistas around corners without fear of getting shot at. When farming low-tier maps like Gorge or Grotto, you can place one ballista in front of a pack and just through it thanks to your high movement speed from frenzy stacks / Quicksilver and only turn around for currency. Things I learned: you can "push" totems through closed doors that cannot be shot through by stacking them up in front of it. This is especially useful on maps like Vault. Just remember that this build runs a low healthpool. You won't facetank Shaper beams. You won't laugh into the Minotaur's face while he smacks you with his mace. In fact, he'll crush you if you don't run around frantically while replacing turrets. But in the end, you'll kill him. ;) This build is really good at clearing out big packs of monsters and doesn't fear most bosses. Just some are a pain in the arse like The Eradicator for example who simply is overtuned right now. The most important factor why I chose to take this one to level 90 and not any other build is simply that it is a TON OF FUN to play. You won't believe it until you've played it! Pictures and videos:
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Here's a screenshot of my first Atziri kill. Died once to a Flameblast at the very start due to lag, but killed her easily afterwards. Shaped Beach [T5]: https://youtu.be/13PJ_EHVNLk Caer Blaidd [T7]: https://youtu.be/_CP00H5FezU Acton's Nightmare [T12]: https://youtu.be/o0Mytd6pYyc Normal Atziri: https://youtu.be/PC4dfiauGJo I'll add more pictures and also videos of me running maps at a later point. :) ~ So we've come this far, haven't we? By now you'll have decided if you want to build this character or not. What I can tell you is that I have no regrets putting my money here! Let me know in the comments what you think about it. I'll post my progress and update the guide accordingly, including feedback and videos. Stay sane, exile! ~ Changelog: 18/01/18: Build Guide created. 19/01/18: Updated skill links; Added Bandits section; Added Ascendancy section; Added Sin's Rebirth to flask recommendations; Added videos of T5, T7 and T12 clears; 28/01/18: Added video of Atziri run (7:40) 05/02/18: Added mapping section The opposite of knowledge is not illiteracy, but the illusion of knowledge. Last edited by ArtCrusade#4438 on Feb 5, 2018, 4:06:22 PM Last bumped on Jun 25, 2018, 3:33:26 AM
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The opposite of knowledge is not illiteracy, but the illusion of knowledge.
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The build looks really fun :)
I love totem builds and I was thinking about maybe giving siege balista a try. Before I try it however, i'd like to see it running. Would it be possible for you to had some video soon ? Also I'm really not an expert in the game yet and I was wondering, does Atziri's leech work with totem ? I mean do you gain life back, or does it serves to heal your totems ? Last edited by Shiiroi#4370 on Jan 18, 2018, 5:49:18 AM
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I'm curious to see how this build looks, although I would like to know how Ice Bite interacts with the Siege Ballistas as the support gem itself states that it doesn't work with totems.
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what to do @ bandits?
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" Totems are quite unique. For all the details on how totems are affected, read the wiki article on them, it is really comprehensive and well written. In summary though to answer your question, totems copy your offensive stats but have their own defense values and defensive modifiers like elemental resistance and so forth. So yes, they're affected by flasks (e.g. Atziri's Promise!) I'll try and add a video of me running a T10 and maybe how I run Atziri today, so stay tuned! " Kill all! We run 6 unique jewels to scale our dexterity, so there is no other option. I'll add that point to the build guide so it's easier to read! " That was actually my bad. When playing around with skills, I kind of over-read that. Luckily, I leveled a cold penetration gem which I just switched in. New total DPS with all charges and buffs is 75k per totem for me now. Thanks for pointing that out! :) EDIT: Got a video up. Recording software was kinda lagging me out, so please bear with me. <3 The opposite of knowledge is not illiteracy, but the illusion of knowledge. Last edited by ArtCrusade#4438 on Jan 18, 2018, 1:11:26 PM
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This build looks hilarious. I might give it a try.
I've been looking for builds this league and can't settle on one I enjoy playing! |
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" Then try this one! When I started building I was like "oh yeah, let's try a meme build" and actually got to see the full potential behind using the Siege Ballistas. Of course it'll be a little squishy, but as long as you avoid maps with lots of open areas and ranged mobs, it's super easy to farm. :) I finished the entire unidentified rare maps achievement T1 through T10 with this build if that says enough! The opposite of knowledge is not illiteracy, but the illusion of knowledge.
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Hi nice build you have there im looking forward to try it but would it be not better if you choose scion over raider? She got acces to skill socket and stats also way more easily from what I read . Im a new players from this season so dont realy know but I'm realy torn between raider and scion.
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" Hello there! That's an interesting idea as indeed Scion has more access to jewel slots than building a Ranger. As I haven't built a Scion before I might not have found the best pathing yet, but it is quite similiar to my original build with some modifications. What's different as Scion: - access to 10 jewel slots (3 Fluid Motion, 5 Brawn, 1 Pure Talent, 1 Rain of Splinters) - somehow even less health than my original build (3k instead of 4k) - 500 extra Dexterity which means 2 extra ballistas - roughly the same DPS It has to be noted that I switched my original 6l-chest for a 6l-Briskwrap because of the +15% Dexterity value it has. You'd have to adjust the items as to max out your elemental resistances with the ring and boot slots, but that's quite doable imo. You can respec at some points and invest into all-res from the tree. PoB-Pastecode: https://pastebin.com/YguMVSRE I'd say if you can afford buying the correct gear, go for Scion. Maximizing the little details about the build will net you higher DPS than I have with my Ranger setup. I'm looking forward to your results. :) Please consult with me if you have any questions. EDIT: Switching Hrimburn for Shaper's Touch nets us 600 health in exchange for 12k DPS per ballista. It's worth considering, especially if you respec a couple points for extra health nodes! The opposite of knowledge is not illiteracy, but the illusion of knowledge. Last edited by ArtCrusade#4438 on Jan 23, 2018, 5:36:27 PM
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