[3.8] Guide to Min-Maxing Physical Wanders (Standard League)

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Mystrl wrote:

I think it's probably still better to craft %life regen on a flask and use bubonic trail right?

aka

Though to balance res I'd have to use

instead of another grim nail. Are there any mirror rings with t1 cold instead of all res?

Sorry, what is this in reference to exactly?

Mirror helm with 2 res + boots with %regen vs tri res mirror helm + bubonic trail

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Mystrl wrote:

Mirror helm with 2 res + boots with %regen vs tri res mirror helm + bubonic trail

Well, if you are comparing min maxed setups, then the Mirrored Boots + Helm combo is objectively better than Mirrored Helm + bubonics.

Vinktar is pretty much the most important gear/item in your build, since its a flask that gives lots of dps/defenses/mana sustain/immortality. Without it you cant really facetank and the game becomes exponentially more difficult.

Likewise, Taste of Hate + Dying Sun cant be dropped since they are BIS. Nor do you want to drop quicksilver of adrenaline for obvious reasons.

This leaves you with a choice of either diamond flask or wise oak. If we don't factor in Blood Rage yet, Wise Oak is superior in damage and defenses, assuming you're using Hatred Crit + Convert eye, which is BIS (price is continually falling so is worth picking up at some point).

Now let's factor in Blood Rage. In this case, diamond flask with regen mod will give only slightly more dps (<2%) than Wise Oak, because most of the damage from Blood Rage is cancelled out by Wise Oak's intrinsic damage advantage. However, you lose 42% all res from the bismuth base and ~10% reduced ele damage taken, which translates to 600ish life or 2 passive nodes. So the net gain from diamond flask with regen is <2% dps, and the net loss is 42% all res + roughly 2 passive nodes. A passive node can net you about 2% dps on average, so if you just remove one life node and spec into damage, you can cancel out diamond flask's overall dps advantage.


Now let's compare the mirrored helm + boot combo vs mirrored helm + bubonics combo.
Your net resists would not change since both combos would yield the same resists. The only difference lies in the life and damage mods. Bubonics gives a 20% increased damage since you use murderous + searching. This 20% increased damage is roughly equal to 2% real increase in dps or half a jewel slot/1 passive point. Now what do you lose?
1% increased life on the tree is roughly equal to 8 flat life on gear. The mirrored helm + boots combination will give you 112 flat or 14% increased max life compared to bubonics + mirrored helm. You also get 5% increased movespeed. So the real comparison is: 14% increased life or 20% increased damage? 20% increased damage can be acquired in <2 passive points whereas 14% increased life would take more than 2 passive points, so the mirrored helm + boots setup wins without even considering the 1% regen mod/Blood Rage.
Now let's factor in the 1% boot regen mod, enabling Blood Rage with Wise Oak . This eliminates virtually any advantage diamond flask has over Wise Oak.


As for a mirror worthy ring with %cold res, I would advise against purchasing one even if it exists because it would have little resale value. The reason they don't exist though is because there is no profit incentive for the crafter. Ever since the introduction of Wise Oak, any serious mirrored ring has to have either no resists or 16% all resists. To have a single T1 resist would sabotage the unrivaled advantage of Wise Oak, resulting in a ring that costs thousands of ex to craft, but with very little demand. If you did try to buy a mirrored ring with %cold res, you would have to search for a very old one possibly crafted on a diamond base, which then defeats the purpose of using one in the first place... Even if one did exist, you would have to replace a dps suffix mod, which is yet another drawback that Grim Nail users don't have.

Diamond flask can now be dropped, since you can cap 100% crit. ^.^'

I've moved this build guide to another thread and consolidated it with a budget version of the build for temp leagues.


For future updates go to this thread:

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2460575

Thanks guys; I've also updated the helm section to include rare non-mirrored options.