[3.10] Zeft's Dancing Duo Herald of Agony Pathfinder, Good Clear, Amazing Bossing, Ez Uber Elder

3.10 Changes
Spoiler
Agony Crawler got nerfed a little this patch. But it wont kill this build. It just makes it harder to EZ mode all content. Still super cheap to get u to endgame but requires you to get perfect rings, amulet and jewel to breeze endgame. In 3.10, going iron reflexes and molten shell instead might be a better route.

for cluster jewels, u can go for pure agony or Invigorating Portents


3.10 Cleared Sirius woke 6. https://youtu.be/oczNxY5N4iE

3.10 PoB link https://pastebin.com/bFpPsuJw
3.9 PoB link: https://pastebin.com/CBYxisH9

The gear in the PoB is updated with Arakaali's Fang as an alternative.



1. Introduction
Spoiler

Tired of your minions dying even with the new buffs to minion this league? I know that too well. That's why I've chosen a minion that doesn't die to damage but only to negligence. I hereby present to you my Dancing Duo Agony Crawler Pathfinder! Why Pathfinder? Worm flask requires the level of sustain only Pathfinder can provide. Plus, Herald of Agony has superb synergy with Pathfinder w/ the Master Toxicist ascendancy notable. Why only play one immortal minion when you can have 3 of them!? That's right this build also include the Unique Two Hand Sword Dancing Duo which doubles as your minion.Get it? xD



2. Build Summary
Spoiler

The main engine for pack clear will be relegated to Dancing Duo.

Dancing Duo aka DD is a big ass sword that manifest itself into two floating sword minion that cyclone across packs blending them into dust. DD has amazing aggressiveness and it only downside before was it has low accuracy. With the recent changes to how accuracy works and buffs to minion accuracy across the passive skill tree, this is no longer an issue.

When it comes to single target damage, no minion can rival the Agony Crawler aka AC

AC is an undying scorpion that relentlessly shoots spikes at your enemies from afar. For every poison you inflict, you generate one virulence and Virulence is the fuel for AC. The more virulence stacks you have, the stronger AC will become.
We will be using the spell storm brand

to apply poison to our enemies. It has a fast hit rate which is suitable for apply poisons and the skill is easy to use which allow us to pay attention to the fight allowing us to bop n weave around while it applies poison for us. With the keystone rune binder, we can attached an additional brand to an enemies which helps us tremendously with maintaining Virulence on bosses. We generate 5-6 poison per sec with 2 brands attached to our enemies. To further augment our number of poisons per second, we use the Unique Jewel The Golden Rule to reflect poison you inflict back to us essentially doubles the poison per sec. The total virulence we generate per sec is 10-12 which helps us cap it at 40 stack 90% of the time.
To start rampage and sustain it in boss fights we are using two The Writhing Jar aka Worm Flask

We need 15 kills to start rampage and with 35% reduced flask charges used in our build, we can use each flask 4 times in a row. Each times we use the worm flask we generate 2 worms. 2 flask * (2 worm each time * 4 uses) = 16 worms which is just nice. We are using Host Chieftain and Carnage Chieftain spectres to give DD and AC frenzy and power charges.
We are scaling DD and AC using Phys as Extra Cold by using Hatred Aura linked w/ Generosity and the Unique Gloves Grips of the Council

We also proc Elemental Equilibrium by using lightning damage from Storm Brand to give -50% cold resistance to the target.

PoB link: https://pastebin.com/uPYjgkz9


Gameplay
Spoiler


Pros & Cons
Spoiler
Pros
+Fast Mapper
+Good Bosskiller
+Low investment needed to get do end game content
+Can do all map mods with a flask swap
+All you do is zoom zoom around and DD and AC kills stuff for you, very fun

Cons
-Momentum base build due to the nature of rampage, suffers from reduced clear speed and damage if you lose rampage
-Eventhough minion AI has been improved, sometimes they just dumb
-You have no damage whereas your minions are super strong and fast
-You needed to kill something right now but minion is somewhere else and your convocation is still on cooldown. SAD


3. Play style

Spoiler

Enter a map, proceed to start applying poisons by casting storm brands on packs. AC kills the pack and DD will manifest after 15 kills. DD dances across the screen killing mobs off screen while you walk around looting. AC will just follow you around if you have no brands attached to an enemy nearby. You, AC and DD will just delete everything and anything that crosses your path. Remember to reapply the brands after 10 secs or so to continue generating virulence for AC.

OR

You can start the fight by killing all the worms you squeeze out of the worm flask to start rampage and manifest DD. DD clears the trash and AC will delete the tankier ones.

To sustain rampage we need a kill every 5 seconds, we alternate between the 2 worm flask every 3 seconds to be save as sometimes the worm spawn behind you when you are moving through the map and it takes time for DD to backtrack and kill it.


4. Ascendancy, Passive Tree, Bandits and Pantheons
Spoiler

4.1. Ascendancy
Nature's Reprisal > Nature's boon > Master Alchemist > Master Toxicist

4.2. Passive Tree
Lvl 95 with 3 jewel sockets


4.3. Kill all Bandits Lords

4.4 Pantheon
-Major: Solaris
-Minor: Gruthkul


5. Gems
Spoiler

Gems socketed in Dancing Duo does not need to be link, they just need to be socketed. You get your 7-Linked DD as soon as you hit lvl 65

Dancing Dervish
7L: Added cold damage support-Minion Damage-Damage on Full Life-Feeding frenzy-Multistrike-Ruthless

Herald of Agony
6L: HoAG-Damage on Full life-Minion Damage-Pierce-Vicious Projectiles-Maim

Swap Empower lvl 4 with Maim when you have the budget. Put the maim from HoAG 6-linked and replace Multistrike

Storm Brand
4L: Storm Brand-Poison-Lesser Poison(lvl 1)-Faster Casting

Steelskin
2L: CWDT(14/23)-SteelSkin(18/23)

Hatred
2L: Hatred-Generousity

Aspect of the Spider on one of our jewelry for the extra damage taken and hinder.

Arakaali's Fang
3L: Minion Damage-Damage on Full Life-Melee Physical Damage/Melee Splash


6. Gearing
Spoiler

Necessary Uniques to make the build work
Spoiler


Helmet

The Herald of Agony reserves 30% less mana is mandatory as with some mama reservation nodes on the tree we can reserve an Aspect + Hatred + a 6-linked HoAG.
Affix to look for will be life, resist, +2-3 levels to minion gems to make our specters more tanky.

Body Armor
Currently using

Rare evasion body with high life and resist.
We can save a bleeding flask by using the Craiceann's Carapace, adding a basalt flask instead to reduce the tendencies of 1 shots.
If we want more damage on our AC, we can use a 6-linked Coming Calamity as itgives +2 to socketed herald gems which will boost our AC's damage even further.

Boots
Rare boots with life and resist. The best will be getting a temple mod that gives spell dodge. An atziri's step would be a good option if you have your resist filled elsewhere.

Belt
BiS will be a stygian vise with high life, resist, reduced flask charges used, flask effect.

Rings
Unset rings for more sockets as we are starved for more. Because we have 2 6 linked thus we dont have much space for utility and defenses. You want to get life, resist and minion movement speed. Get a +1 min endurance charge for more survivability if you can spare the suffix.

Amulet
We go for the Charisma Anointment to reserve Aspect, Hatred and HoAg togther. You want life, resist and minion movement speed as well. This is a good place to get the last min endurance charge roll if u decide to go for it.
If you dont plan to use an Aspect, you can drop the Charisma Anointment and get some defensive options like Silent Steps or Survivalist.

Flask
Other than the 2 worm flask, we go for an instant bleed life flask, a quicksilver for more zoom zoom and a Quartz flask for more dodge w/ a curse immune mod.
You can do a flask swap after manifesting dancing dervish to a defensive flask like a basalt or wise oak if u manage to triple balance your resist


7. Leveling
Spoiler

Level with caustic arrow and then swap to storm brand at 12 if you have a witch character that is lvl 12. If not, just use toxic rain until act 3 siosa. Put on Herald of Agony as soon as possible as it will carry us through all the act bosses. Path to life + mana nodes near the witch and templar area. Prioritze getting spiritual aid as early as possible to boost our clear with storm brand.


8. FAQ
Spoiler

Can i play substitute HoAg with other minions?
-Yes, if you drop HoAg, u can swap in skeletons or zombies. However, be mindful that they will die alot in reflect maps as out minions deal both physical and magical damage.

I dont like Dancing Duo's in general, what should i change?
-A good alternative without much investment is to swap into spiders using arakaali's fang. Spiders are immortal just like DD and AC.
-The other thing you can do is go all in on AC using a +3 gems VP elder bow, u will reach 2m+ shaper dps but your clear speed will reduce.


9. Conclusion
Spoiler

All in all this is a fun and easy build to play. All you need to do is survive and your minions will clean up the rest for u. Thx for taking out the time to read this guide. Please feel free to discuss and provide feedback as I myself still have alot to learn in PoE. Tq
Last edited by Slyvanus#0272 on Apr 15, 2020, 11:27:31 PM
Last bumped on Aug 8, 2020, 12:00:10 AM
updated for 3.9
Amazing
Last edited by FlungiNun#1497 on Dec 17, 2019, 12:47:02 AM
"
FlungiNun wrote:
Amazing
\

tq :D
Is going Pathfinder very important? I'm just a noob but I was wondering if necro or scion would be good choices as well. Seems like clearing would be faster on a necro with the increased AoE and movespeed on the duos.

Sustain doesn't seem like a problem when you can easily start another rampage with the agony crawler alone and there's no reduced flask charges used on pathfinder tree. Flask effect seems pretty good though.
"
NifesNforks wrote:
Is going Pathfinder very important? I'm just a noob but I was wondering if necro or scion would be good choices as well. Seems like clearing would be faster on a necro with the increased AoE and movespeed on the duos.

Sustain doesn't seem like a problem when you can easily start another rampage with the agony crawler alone and there's no reduced flask charges used on pathfinder tree. Flask effect seems pretty good though.


The reason we go pathfinder is for the Nature's Boon, Master Alchemist & Master Toxicist ascendancy node.

Nature's Boon:
With all the increased charges gained we have, we'll get 4.5 charges every 3 sec plus the benefit of out flask have 20% not to be consume.

Master Alchemist:
We get ailment immunity from this, without it we usually need 2 flask slots to be freeze+shock immune

Master Toxicist:
Easier sustain of virulence stacks


Any ascendancy would need at least 3 to comfortably sustain rampage in boss fights but we only need 2.

During mapping Agony Crawler will take care of the rampage generation no problem at all. But Rampage get stronger as your kill count get more so its better to keep it going as long as possible.
1% increased Movement Speed per 20 Rampage Stacks
2% increased Damage per 20 Rampage Stacks

An alternative route to go is to go Scion and get the pathfinder ascendancy and the other either necro for damage/jug for survivability & ailment immunity.

However, going scion would shift your single target focus to Dancing Duo instead of Agony Crawler as sustaining 40 stacks of virulence will be harder due to the lost of Pathfinder's Master Toxicist ascendancy node. I havent tested a scion version yet. but i might try it out this league.
Last edited by Slyvanus#0272 on Dec 19, 2019, 12:33:16 AM
Have you tried Triad Grip with 4 Green Sockets instead of Grip of the Council?
"
Slyvanus wrote:
The reason we go pathfinder... etc

Thanks, makes more sense to me now. Leveling with storm brand was a pain until I got Runebinder but now it's pretty smooth sailing, excited to get into maps with this build.
"
ShadowBlazinIce wrote:
Have you tried Triad Grip with 4 Green Sockets instead of Grip of the Council?


Triad Grip Mesh Gloves with 4 green sockets is only better if you

1) use frostbomb linked with curse on hit then frost bite.
but u have to spec out of flesh offering as you have limited sockets

2) you have to get different gem links
For DD: Added Cold-Damage on full life-minion damage-EDWA-Deathmark-Ele Focus if you dont plan to freeze/Vile Toxins

For HoAg: Damage on FL-Minion Damage-EDWA-Deathmark-Pierce(clear)/Vile Toxins/Ele Focus

However u need to get more reduced reservation nodes on either the jewel or on the tree as the new gem links will cost more mana reserved

Doing this will net you roughly 30% conditional DPS increased over the previous setup but end up losing some life resist n strength. Its a small sacrifice if u need more damage.
Last edited by Slyvanus#0272 on Dec 22, 2019, 12:50:50 PM
What about using Dancing Duo with Herald of Purity? I'm currently setup as a Scion/Pathfinder/Necro once I finish Uber lab.

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