[3.5] (This is a bad league starter) Lancing Steel + Shattering Steel - Deadeye - League Starter
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Ya I switched mine around to a pure phys variant to test out that method and it felts better than the mixed and ele versions I tried before. Dunno if its the impales or what but the damage just feels significantly better, despite being a lot worse on paper.
Im actually quite enjoying it now. I still think both the steel skills need a little work, theyre more clunky than a lot of the alternatives and they kind of need to edge over them in raw damage output to justify themselves, and I dont think they do. But, I played the character a fair bit today and Im sticking with it, Im gonna keep it built for steel and push a few levels out of it, maybe take to about lvl96, get a proper feel for sustained red mapping. Heres what Im dealing with, fairly similar tree to a lot of peoples phys versions Ive seen in here. I went back to farshot, the acc node started feeling increasingly redundant on the switch to phys because of the acc added by the warbanner. Loving that warbanner btw. After trying out the diff methods and settling on the best one, I actually think these skills are better than spec shield throw. Not quite as good as frostblades on launch, and FB on launch got a fairly bad reception. I thought it was good, I enjoyed it a lot, but they buffed FB the league after and thats when it really took off, becoming a worthy skill. FB was more clunky than reave and just needed that extra edge to give it something, I think if they revisit these skills and do the same thing, give em a bit of love, then they will be really solid skills that have a strong, continuing place in the game. But theyre not there yet. |
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How do you feel about shattering steel in pure phys setup in late game? no GMP viable? Only for single target with point blank?
Whats the best defensive mechanics, including passives you found for both clear and boss fights? I see quite a few options here: Stack evasion Acrobatics + phase acrobatics More spell dodge with atziri's steps + vaal grace + chest crafting Iron reflexes Blinds via smoke cloud/new crafting on weapon CWDT enfeeble (2-nd curse, or replce vulnerability/proj weakness) Beastcrafting aspects slowing/freezing options (source???) Ofc its not possible to take it all. I want to know priorities. Last edited by Dyvz#6725 on Dec 19, 2018, 5:01:55 AM
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" I'm still not into endgame, only up to t10 maps (Limited playtime, no map drops!) but am getting a pretty good idea how the build plays. Just haven't hit the rippiest syndicate encounters yet. My thoughts - Single target on pure phys shattering steel is way better than the PoB figures suggest, once you get levels and gear. - I'm not using GMP with the beltimber setup, and I do have the helm enchant. I'd use GMP with other weapons. Possibly you could drop if you have the enchant, deadeye extra projectile and dying sun. Or corrupt weapons for extra proj. - Layering evasion and acro is very powerful, especially if you throw in a stibnite or other blind mechanics (I might link blind to my herald of purity). A lot of the issues some people are having with syndicate encounters, even from a low level, I'm just not having. - Phase Acro, with extra spell dodge from boots, and a quartz flask is great for incursions. Must be helping with syndicate a bit, though the real danger is mostly attacks. Vaal grace would be a decent idea, but I'm sticking with Vaal double strike for burst damage. - Freeze would mean no brutality. getting some conversion is a valid option though, just ignore impale. Heralds would definitely help clear. - I wouldn't go iron reflexes at all. The armour wouldn't help when you need it. Evasion might. - enhanced fortify from dread banner seems to help a lot though hard to quantify. - CWDT enfeeble could be an option. CWDT Vortex/Arctic Breath for chills maybe. - I've got some mana unreserved. I was thinking an aspect (Probably Cat). But realise I totally forgot about arctic armour. That could be worth using. - I had under 4.5k life all the way until lvl 85ish. Deathless from 75-85 apart from mastermind fight (I didn't know what I was doing) which is very low for melee. I rejigged tree to take a bit more life (Hint, fencing cluster isn't that good for 4 points). Could definitely be more defensive, be less greedy on jewels, grab more life and still do plenty of damage for clearing. |
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" The best defence mechanics for a life based ranger who stays mostly in her tree with a bit of a dip into duelist and shadow is almost always evasion + acrobatics + a lightning coil imo. Ive tried everything, pure ev with a rare/queen otf and dodge, evasion with a kaoms, evasion with a legacy kaoms, iron reflexes, Ir + block, armour evasion hybrid, you name it Ive probably tried it. I dont think any of them can top coil+eva+dodge in practice when ur in this area of the tree. cwdt enfeeble on virtually every build ever, I dont even consider that char by char its just a given 99% of the time unless I rely on warlords for mana sustain. Gmp... I mean you could, but why would u? There was a time when all the skills were single shots and to make them into a viable aoe youd need multiproj and then some kind of value bonus like chain or pierce. Then we started getting gems that had a bit of inbuilt value, spec throw pierces and hits on the way back, so youd just need multiproj. Now I feel like theres so many ways to get the value bonuses like a chain or pierce without needing to use a gem, and skills like steel are already multiproj attacks. Youre just nerfing your damage when really its all built in to the skill and the passives. It was same with frostblades when it came out, do we want pierce gem? Chain gem? gmp?... nah, u just go frostblades and 5 dps gems. IF you get to the point where ur doing 1.5 million dps u can say ok, for map clears I can sub in chain for a dps gem and still 1 shot everything. But really you dont need it and for most people its not worth the loss of dps. In my opinion pick chain or pierce, get it passively from your tree and youre good to go. |
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about GMP: i mostly concenrned about shattering steel.
my calcs: from 3 to 7 proectiles and 0.75 mod we have x1.75 thats in perfect scenario when you just stand in boss and spam. no other dps gem is near close however if you have +1 proj from other source it turn into x1.5 if + 2 then it is x1.35 But really depend on playstyle: if you cant hit at least 6/7 proj then GMP isnt good choice for single target. Math can be more complicated ofc, since impale benefits more from harder hitting attacks. Enfeeble is good, but what about blasphemy +proj weakness/vulnerability? Since dps isnt that great, dumping another 40% is huge. Doedre's ring / windscream boots? | |
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youd have to stand so close to the boss to hit 7 proj tho right? The arc is so wide, youd literally have to be touching toes with a target to hit even close to all ur proj on a single target. The skill has 100% more damage at the point where the projectiles explode, and at that range us basically be hitting 2 or 3, u might already be hitting 2 without gmp.
The thing with damage curses like that, Im running grace + herald of purity + warbanner on my version. With curses theres so much reduced curse effect on bosses that when u need it the most its not rly there, so personally I stay away from blasphemy in almost all situations because regular auras like the ones Im using work at the proper strength when they matter. Thats how I see curse auras, I think the only time Ive given up mana for a curse aura is needing warlords to fuel blade vortex on certain chars, so id use a warlords aura. |
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How this build is doing? My poison PF version is shaping up very well for endgame, so I wants to compare it with physical version!
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Curently playing shattering steel champion lvl 65 so far and it's probably the easiest build i have ever played, i melt everything doing the story face tanking bosses is possible with Thief's torment, also i was lucky to get a 6 link chest early with Shattering steel > Brutality > vicious projectiles > maim > slower projectiles > fork, im using yellows i found leveling and nothing more, i have insane movement speed and whirling blades get's spammed, i also use herald of purity + maim + life gain on hit + life leech support, it's basicly impossible to die unless you afk, besides that i have vaal haste, dread banner and summon ice golem, most fun i had on anything, but i don't know about end game tho this is just what i use leveling and it's perfect, im pretty new at the game so im just trying different things out. i like the 3 heralds giving me leech and health on hit on top of thiefs torment and some health per kill on gloves.
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