[3.7] LL RF Scorching Ray Guardian | 19K ES | 52k Armour|1.5 mil dps| Uber Elder & HoGM DEATHLESS

On the topic of Malevolance vs Determination, Malevolance is a great aura when you are understuffed, and strongly relying on Mana Guardian by playing a lot of Healthy Mind just like in the super budget pastebin I provided and that was added by zzang.
When we are on super budget stuff, Malevolance is an excellente subtitute to Determination. While a super budget imply limited amount of currency, we can assume we will run low tier map (mostly white to yellow). Under T10 map, we should be able to drop Determination and play Malevolance instead.
But when we start to reach red maps, monster start ton hit hard. And we should start to upgrade step by step our stuff to a ~15-20ex budget (with 6L shavronne, Chayula, Clarity Watcher Eye, etc.). At this moment, the dps should be ok for red map even without Malevolance.

I will also complet this with a quote of what I told to zzang in PM :

"

On the armor topic ... I have a different feeling. As I see it, Armor is as good as it was in previous patch. It's just that, for some content, we will most likely suffer a lake of clear speed. Especialy in Incursion and in Synthesis because those contents are timed.
But at the same time, Incursion, Delve, Bethrayal, Synthesis, all have introduced some monsters that hit extremly hard. The armor saved my ass so many times that I can't realy say it's not as needed as before. If you sacrify this layer of tankiness you should sacrify for a huge amount of extra ES in order to keep the tankiness at the same level.

Malevolance is, in my eyes an interesting option in terme of clear speed and regen. But mostly because with Aul amulet, we may run Malevolance as a 8th aura. We just have to accept to sacrify a bit of our ES (not so much in reality regarding Chayula). Or if you get your hand on an Eyes of the Greatwolf with %global defense as second implicit. Otherwise I hardly see how we could make some space for this one.

So to resume my point of view and my tests :
Malovelance for super budget stuff is good if you feel the lake of dps way to harsh. In mid range budget, go back to Determination.
Malovelance can be added in min maxed version relying on Aul amu or Eye of Greatwolf %globaldefense/%inc attribute.

"

mkdnpna wrote:

Other option in this build may be switching socket #5 jewel to Transcendent mind thus reducing ES back to around 18k, RF dps to around 535k but increasing healing up to +5560.

I've seen similar approach in leaderboard but that guy was using Shavronne's Revelation to compensate Vitality aura removal. In this build we need to sacrifice one of our flask for Divination Distillate to be able to regen mana. Also 1 dex point is missing :). But this way there will be around 540k RF dps, 18.3k ES, 46k armour, and +5865 healing.

https://pastebin.com/aTm5xGvd

Yeah except there will be only one little problem : we won't have any mana regen with Shavronne revelation. Without mana regen, Scorching ray, Storm Brand and our move skill will be absolutly unusable.

To make it clear, Shavronne revelation is only playable on 100% pure RF build. And it force a setup with -x mana cost mods on ring, and on a watcher's eye in order to be able to use completly free Shield Charge and, potentialy Storm Brand/OOS.

So no, Shavronne revelation isn't playable with this build.

I may look into unwavering stance boots as I didn’t even know those were a thing and I like that idea. That really frees up the amulet which could then be a malevolence or determination auls. Malevolence seems to have more synergy but are rare and/or expensive.

If I actually get all that I’ll still have to figure out what gem to drop... I’ll probably drop arcane surge since the buff is so short.

"

mkdnpna wrote:

There is actually a way to fit both Determination and Malevolence at a cost of significantly reduced healing (+5220 instead of +6000) while still maintaining around 19k ES, 48k armour and 580k RF dps.
Unfortunately to fit Malevolence we have to sacrifice Vitality.
Fortunately no Enlighten_4 is needed, Enlighten_2 is enough.

https://pastebin.com/MshdgQwt

Other option in this build may be switching socket #5 jewel to Transcendent mind thus reducing ES back to around 18k, RF dps to around 535k but increasing healing up to +5560.

I've seen similar approach in leaderboard but that guy was using Shavronne's Revelation to compensate Vitality aura removal. In this build we need to sacrifice one of our flask for Divination Distillate to be able to regen mana. Also 1 dex point is missing :). But this way there will be around 540k RF dps, 18.3k ES, 46k armour, and +5865 healing.

https://pastebin.com/aTm5xGvd

I think option 1 is too much of a loss in terms of regen especially unbuffed regen for too little benefit. I dont value the armour drop as much as i do value 20% more damage.

Option 2 doesnt work because Shavrones Revelation is for pure RF builds. Scorching Ray is primary damage for this build and a mana flask wont do much as it stops mana replinish as soon as mana globe is full and we have only a tiny bit of mana unreserved.

"

Cruxation wrote:

I may look into unwavering stance boots as I didn’t even know those were a thing and I like that idea. That really frees up the amulet which could then be a malevolence or determination auls. Malevolence seems to have more synergy but are rare and/or expensive.

If I actually get all that I’ll still have to figure out what gem to drop... I’ll probably drop arcane surge since the buff is so short.

I dont know if the tradeoff is worth it. You drop a shit ton of ES for Auls porbably 1500 ES, and 60% chaos resistance plus a bunch of exalteds just for the sake of having a tad bit of armour thats barely worth it and in some cases like uber elder its totally useless. Plus when you plan to drop Arcane Surge you lose another 12% more spell dmg and the benefit of malevolence is almost half gone. However if that fits your needs you can try it out and report back how the setup feels.

"

Grafdelver wrote:

Hi,

First of all, thanks for the cool buid and maintaining the thread (you know who you are ;)

I am revisiting the build and wanted to ask some advice on how to improve further.
Account is GrafDelver, PizzaChernobyl.

Cheers

The build does look good what do you want to improve on?

You could exchange your sceptre for a rare alt/regaled one like i have posted earlier. Another option would be % Life Regen Helm corruption and Ele Weakness on hit gloves and maybe Malevolence if you like more damage instead of Detemrination. You might check out new skill tree play around with it compare regen/ES values and see if you like it.

I feel like I need to find that old post that broke down armours effectiveness based on hits. I am about 50k with rumis but without it I’d be down to 25k. I’m curious what the extra 25k affects in terms of bosses that the armours valves really matter. Seems like something I’ll never really know though haha.

If you get a malevolence auls you get 30 int and 20% energy shield over instead of life converted to ES. Plus in theory I could get boots with higher ES to make up for it. Gives me similar ES but I gain 20% damage without losing Armour.

"

Cruxation wrote:

I feel like I need to find that old post that broke down armours effectiveness based on hits. I am about 50k with rumis but without it I’d be down to 25k. I’m curious what the extra 25k affects in terms of bosses that the armours valves really matter. Seems like something I’ll never really know though haha.

If you get a malevolence auls you get 30 int and 20% energy shield over instead of life converted to ES. Plus in theory I could get boots with higher ES to make up for it. Gives me similar ES but I gain 20% damage without losing Armour.

Here is the formular:

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Armour

I always take 10k physical hit as base for my calculation since everything below that isnt worth mentioning.

Regarding Auls: from path of building i tested it and i lost 1,7k ES and 60 chaos res by replacing Chayulas with Auls amulet. And for boots you can use onslaught boots instead with chayulas for example while also improving your ES with those boots. I dont think you will end up with similar ES without sacrifices. I think ultimativley it boils down to Malevolence vs Determination and there is no 100% right or wrong - pick what you like.

Well I just read the wiki on Armour and I gotta say it really reminded me why literally everyone ignores this stat. I will definitely be switching out determination for malevolence. The real kicker to me is Armour will NEVER reduce more than a 10th of your total Armour... at 50k best case scenario is 5k reduction at 30k 3k reduction. That helps but really doesn’t seem like end of the world. Maybe if we could find a way to get some endurance charges going instead...

Thanx zzang, ill look into the new aura as damage seem a bit low at times. The helm and glove corruptions are best in slot imao. Scepter seem fun to craft. And ill try to lvl a bit more.

Cheers

"

Grafdelver wrote:

Thanx zzang, ill look into the new aura as damage seem a bit low at times. The helm and glove corruptions are best in slot imao. Scepter seem fun to craft. And ill try to lvl a bit more.

Cheers

I would disaggree about burning damage being best in slot. With a 2% life regen corrupt you would gain ~30% more net regen without buffs thats pretty big if your base regen is low.

The damage loss is compensated by going for Ele Weakness or Despair glove corruption. It depends on your goals and how much you value the extra cold resist.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to make skill tree that maintains 6k regen without sacrificing Chayula amulet (tree that have both Determination and Malevolence)
Best I can come up with is

https://pastebin.com/N7iP62Zh

with 21k ES, 641k RF dps, +6k regen and no chaos res at all (-60%)

"

zzang wrote:

"

Grafdelver wrote:

Thanx zzang, ill look into the new aura as damage seem a bit low at times. The helm and glove corruptions are best in slot imao. Scepter seem fun to craft. And ill try to lvl a bit more.

Cheers

I would disaggree about burning damage being best in slot. With a 2% life regen corrupt you would gain ~30% more net regen without buffs thats pretty big if your base regen is low.

The damage loss is compensated by going for Ele Weakness or Despair glove corruption. It depends on your goals and how much you value the extra cold resist.

:) thnx, ill go do my pob homework