[3.9] Facebreaker Cyclone Champion | Deep Delve | Depth 2000, #1 deepest tank in league

This is not a build guide for beginners to PoE. This is a guide for more experienced players, looking to delve to 1000+ or 1500+ depths. I delved to depth 2000 with this build, and am currently ranked #1 among all non-zhp delvers in 3.9

Depth 2000 delve: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPa-HX7I2M8
Depth 1300 Aul: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQMidCC5yuA

DISCLAIMER: The crafting info in this guide has not been updated for 3.10. While the build is still intact, fossil crafting the gear (especially chest and helmet) has changed drastically due to needing multi-influenced bases. Please do your own research before fossil crafting.


TLDR:
Current PoB: https://pastebin.com/SZN4hCPQ
Character: AulForBreakfast

Budget build: 20ex, Estimated Depth: 800
Midway build: 50ex, Estimated Depth: 1100
Luxury build: 120ex+, Estimated Depth: 1400+
My current build: ~350ex, Depth: 2001


CURRENT GEAR:
Spoiler


INTRODUCTION
Spoiler

There's two distinct ways to approach deep delving. The first is to invest all your resources into damage, and rely on not getting hit at all. These builds are commonly known as zhp (Zero-HP) builds since they usually have 1 life (from CI) and less than 200 energy shield. These builds have super high DPS and although they die often, they can delve extremely deep, to the 6k delve limit and beyond. For a demonstration of how these builds feel at super high depths check out this excellent video from Tuna: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYylkV9l8aw from a couple leagues ago.

The second approach is to build a very tanky character that relies on damage mitigation, but may also have varying amounts of damage avoidance. Up till 3.8, the best way to do this was to stack "reduced damage taken" effects, since they stack additively to each other. The best build with this approach was an Unshattered Will Juggernaut build that could delve to around 2000-2500 depth. The second best build was a Nebuloch Juggernaut build that could delve to around 1400-1800 depth. Most other tank builds capped out in the 1000-1600 depth range.

In 3.9, there were massive nerfs to both Fortify and Unshattered Will, making the two builds mentioned above much weaker, as well as nerfing most other tank builds. The build described in this guide is a novel approach to delving to the 1500+ depth range with a tank build.


CONCEPTS - OFFENCE
Spoiler

This is a Facebreaker build so it uses no weapon, and instead relies on stacking flat added physical damage. There are a couple of reasons why Facebreaker is a good choice for a tank build.
1. It allows us to use a shield, and pick up shield nodes on the tree which are often a very good mixture of offence and defence.
2. It does not need to invest into crit (we go Resolute Technique) to get decent dps, which frees up a lot of skill points to use for defence instead.

The way this build stacks added phys damage is to have a high level Herald of Purity (lvl 27 with optimal gear), and then multiplying that by 3x, by equipping two Circle of Guilt rings, each with the "Herald of Purity has #% increased Buff Effect" mod, which goes upto 100% with perfect divining.

We go impale on this build. The Champion ascendancy node "Master of Metal" is absolutely bonkers, not just because it gives +2 impale stacks, but it gives upto +63 added phys damage which Facebreaker is crazy for. Not to mention the free 1000 armor on that node. That ascendancy node is the one of the primary reasons why we opt to go Champion instead of Juggernaut or Gladiator on this build.


CONCEPTS - DEFENCE
Spoiler
We rely on both avoiding, and mitigating damage.

Defence layer 1: Cyclone. Since we are always moving, we get hit by significantly less attacks and spells than if we were stationary while attacking.

Defence layer 2: VMS. With 50k armor we have a 30k Vaal Molten Shell buffer, and with Soul Ripper and supports to extend VMS duration to 20sec, we have 100% uptime on VMS as long as we are killing mobs fast enough to get vaal souls and flask charges for soul ripper. If not using Soul Ripper, we still get 10k Molten Shell buffers with a 60% uptime.

Defence layer 3: Life. We have a good 7k life on this build.

Defence layer 4: Evasion. Our ascendancy gives us a flat 1000 evasion, and 60% increased evasion. A jade flask (if we can fit it in) gives a huge chunk of flat evasion. Optionally, there are a few ways to apply Blind to enemies; conqueror mods that say "Nearby enemies are blinded", or Flesh and stone if you can find the mana. I prefer to socket Blind Support on our Herald of Purity, which is great for blinding single targets (specifically, bosses like Aul). Note however that I stopped using Jade flask around 1100 depth when I switched it for a Soul Ripper.

Defence layer 5: Attack block. We invest heavily into capping our attack block chance at 75%. This is great against bosses that rely almost completely on attacks (specifically Aul, but also Chimera, Minotaur, Drox etc). This is also great for general delving, but not as much because there is indeed a lot of spell based mobs in delve. Unfortunately we have zero spell block on this build. Worth noting however, if we are going to a fight that specifically has only spells (eg. Sirus, Eradicator), it is easy to respec our shield to a Saffell's Frame, and our Red Nightmare jewel to a Blue Nightmare, and get 31% spell block (and higher overall max resists).

Defence layer 6: Spell dodge. While we don't go for Phase Acrobatics, we have upto 37% spell dodge (if hit recently) from gear and pantheons

Defence layer 7: Max resists. The standard version of the build has 85/89/84 maximum Fire/Cold/Lightning resists. We achieve this by running triple Purity of Fire/Cold/Lightning auras at level 23 (+5% max), with exactly 60% increased aura effect (another +3% max), and an Aegis Aurora (+5% cold). The focus on cold res is to help in Aul fights and mitigate weta degens, but if needed it is easy enough to switch our Shield to a different one, eg. Rise of the Phoenix (+5% to fire), Saffell's Frame (+4% to all, but only blocks spells) or Lioneye's Remorse (high life roll).

Defence layer 8: Physical damage from hits taken as elemental. Currently my gear has 44% of physical damage taken as elemental (15% from chest, 10% from helmet, 19% from purity watchers eye). This is not only great with high max resists, but it makes our armor more effective since the remaining physical hit is smaller.

Defence layer 9: Armor. We have a ton of %increased armor on our tree, a flat +2000 armor from ascendancy, and some armor on several pieces of our gear. With a Lion's Roar pop we should be able to reach 50k armor. This gives us consistent 10k molten shells, and 30k vaal molten shells.

Defence layer 10: Other Physical dmg reduction. We have +4% PDR from each of our two Circle of Guilts, +%5 PDR from Soul of Steel, +15% from Basalt Flask, +16% from our Endurance charges. We can generate endurance charges reliably on kill (40% chance), but cannot generate in solo Boss encounters (eg. Aul, Sirus).

Defence layer 11: Fortify. While the combination of fortify and other RDT effects was nerfed, fortify on its own is still perfectly good. We get 41% less damage taken by taking all fortify nodes on tree, and fortify effect on helmet, and 30% from a Lethal Pride jewel.


DPS AND DMG TAKEN NUMBERS
Spoiler

These are the DPS numbers for my gear.

Fully buffed: 3.96m shaper dps

Fully buffed, but in Sand Stance (recommended stance for general delving and mapping): 3.16m shaper dps

Sustained boss DPS (Blood stance, but no flasks, no frenzy charges, no consec ground): 2.26m shaper dps


These are the damage taken numbers, while fully buffed:

Damage taken from a 20000 physical hit: 2083
Damage taken from a 60000 fire hit: 5310
Damage taken from a 60000 cold hit: 3894
Damage taken from a 60000 lightning hit: 5664

As a baseline, a build with no defences other than 75% resistances would take 20k from the physical hit and 15k from the elemental hits.

Chance to avoid damage from attacks (evade, dodge, block): 83%
Chance to avoid damage from spells (spell dodge, spell block): 40%


GEAR CHOICES

1. Gloves
Spoiler


Facebreaker is the centerpiece of our build. We need a +2 to either Aura or AoE gems corruption so that our purity auras can be level 23

Cheapest: Facebreaker, either +2 to aura/aoe gems corruption, atleast 770% phys dmg roll. estimate: < 20c

Upgrade1: Same as above, but with 798%+ roll. estimate: 1.5ex

Upgrade2: Double corrupted, best choices for 2nd corruption are, in rough order: vuln on hit, +1 frenzy, atk speed, max life, temp chains on hit, enfeeble on hit. estimate: 5-50ex


2. Shield
Spoiler


This is the most flexible slot in out gear. I prefer the Aegis Aurora for the cold res (Aul kills, unstable weta degens), the big natural block chance (32%), the big chunk of armor (1000+). The ES on block is cute against rapid barrage style attacks (eg. Poorjoys Asylum, Chimera, Vaal Temple boss, Abyss mobs in certain delve nodes), but not very useful elsewhere, both because of our low ES cap, and because we lose the gained ES rapidly from our Blood Rage.

If going Aegis Aurora these are our choices:

Cheapest: Aegis Aurora with as high roll on armor/es as possible. estimate: 5-50c

Upgrade1 (recommended): Corrupted Aegis Aurora (with good armor roll). Best corruptions are, in rough order: chance to block, phys taken as cold, max life, rdt from projectile, rdt from area hits, spell block. Lots of viable options but chance to block is best since that takes us from 71% to 75% atk block, which is roughly 16% ehp increase against attacks. estimate: 1-8ex

Upgrade2: Double corrupted. Follow above list for good corruptions. estimate: 10-50ex

If not going for Aegis Aurora, the options are:

Saffell's Frame: Best in slot when the encounter we are going to has no attacks (eg. Sirus). Gives +4 all maxres and some spell block.

Rare shield with Tacatl's chaos res mod, with as much block chance, max life and armor as you can get. Highly recommended for HC players. This is the one I was using for chaos based encounters:


Lioneye's Remorse: Very high life and armor, decent block chance.

Rise of the Phoenix: Maybe for some very specific fire based encounters, but not recommended otherwise.


3. Body Armour
Spoiler


All crafting should be done on a 6-linked ilvl86 uninfluenced astral plate. DO NOT fall into the trap of crafting on an elder/hunter base for the %life roll, since that dilutes the fossil mod pool too much on the suffixes.

The base plate should be available for reasonably cheap even early on in the league since you can just beastsplit it to get more copies. estimate for base: 3ex

Cheapest: -15 mana cost (serrated) and high life roll (pristine) with empty prefix to benchcraft spell dodge. estimate to craft: 1-2ex

Upgrade1 (recommended): -15 mana cost (serrated), high life roll (pristine) and aura effect (bound), with empty prefix. The aura effect is crucial to achieve high max res, without it we get 2% less all maxres. The aura effect roll also needs to be divined to exactly 25% or else we lose 1% all maxres. estimate to craft: 3-10ex

Upgrade2: Same as above but with 2 empty prefixes. The goal here is to conqueror slam and hopefully hit a good mod. Best slams are, in rough order:
explodey (crusader, ultra low odds)
phys taken as cold (redeemer, 2/9 + 2/9 for t1, t2)
phys taken as fire (warlord, 2/7 + 2/7 for t1, t2)
phys taken as lightning (crusader, ~1/4 + ~1/4 for t1, t2)
% max life (hunter, 1/5 + 1/5 for t1, t2)
nearby enemies are blinded (redeemer, 2/9)
Redeemer and warlord are safest bets, note that phys taken as cold is better if using aegis aurora.
estimate to craft: 20-50ex


4. Helmet
Spoiler


The above helmet is the most expensive piece of gear in this setup. This was crafted before the ninja nerf to crafting the fortify mod (read more here: https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/f5ujnk/i_heard_you_like_data_this_is_the_tale_of_fortify). Post-nerf, that helmet is basically mirror tier. The info below assumes that the nerf is not reverted in future patches.

A "good enchant" for our helmet refers to these uberlab enchantments, in rough order: cyclone 15% atk speed, blood rage 12% atk speed, blood and sand 40% buff effect, cyclone 40% dmg, followed by the corresponding merciless lab enchants.

cheapest: Abyssus. Terrible defences. ONLY recommended in lower tier maps for pre-90 levelling. estimate: < 10c

upgrade1: Abyssus but with a good enchant. Same caveats as above. estimate: 1-2ex

upgrade2 (recommended): Base: ilvl 65+ str helmet with good enchant. Dont use too high ilvl because that introduces a lot of unwanted suffixes. Craft for high life roll (pristine) + nearby enemies take incr phys (jagged), with empty prefix for phys taken as fire craft. estimate: 3-4ex

upgrade3: Same as above, but additionally craft for +2 to socketed minion gems (bound + jagged + pristine) for our herald of purity. estimate: 4-8ex

upgrade4: Same as above, but additionally craft for 5% reduced mana reserved (bound + jagged + pristine). This allows us to link Blood&Sand to Empower support. Hitting 4 wanted affixes + empty prefix may be hard. estimate: 10-20ex

upgrade5: Same as above, but on an ilvl 86+ helmet, for +3 to socketed minion gems (bound + jagged + pristine). Base may be expensive, and suffix pool is also more diluted. Hitting 4 wanted affixes + empty prefix may be very hard. estimate: 20-40ex

upgrade6: on an ilvl 86+ helmet, craft for +2/+3 to minion gems, nearby enemies take incr phys, and fortify effect (bound + jagged + dense). May be very hard to hit since fortify mod is super rare. Benchcraft life. If it still has an empty prefix, slam it with redeemer and hope to hit phys taken as cold (2/7 + 2/7 odds for t1,t2). estimate: 20-100ex

upgrade7: ilvl 86+ str base helmet. Craft for 3 suffixes, nearby enemies take incr phys, reduced mana reserved, and fortify effect (jagged + bound + dense). May be very hard because fortify mod is super rare. After that, lock suffixes, scour, block %armour, and proceed to metacraft until you hit +3 to minion gems. Slam with redeemer, and hope to hit phys taken as cold (2/7 + 2/7 odds for t1, t2). estimate: 200-400ex

Note that the above is not an exhaustive list of combinations, since there are so many valuable mods. Feel free to experiment with different fossil combinations.


5. Boots
Spoiler


This is another somewhat flex slot. The following stats are desirable: 30%+ movespeed, 70+ maxlife, high spell dodge, high intelligence (we need 159 int for lvl21 purity of lightning, which is hard to get on this build), onslaught chance on kill, chaos res, high strength.

The boots above focuses on the spell dodge roll, relying on 6% dodge from Matatl temple boots combined with an 8% dodge roll from a redeemer slam. The 'cannot be frozen' craft is also highly recommended for deep delve and/or Aul kills. For HC players, chaos res on boots and a hybrid chaos + other res craft is the safer option.

cheapest: 30+ movespeed, high life, high intelligence, either strength or chaos res, empty suffix to craft more attributes or hybrid chaos res. estimate: < 20c

upgrade1 (recommended): matatl roll (30 movespeed + spell dodge), high life, high intelligence, either empty suffix like above, or empty prefix for cannot be frozen craft. estimate: 1-2ex

upgrade2: same as above, but with one empty prefix and one empty suffix. slam with redeemer to hit either t1 or t2 spell dodge (1/10 + 1/10, t3 roll sucks), or onslaught chance on kill (1/10 + 1/10). craft prefix. estimate: 5-20ex

Highly recommended that you finish the boots with a good uberlab enchantment, either the 8% chance to dodge spells, or 16% atk speed.


6. Rings
Spoiler


Circle of Guilts is the other cornerpiece of our build. Of the two variable explicit mods, 'herald of purity has % increased effect' is mandatory. For the 2nd variable mod there are two options. The defensive option (which I prefer) is 4% physical dmg reduction, and the offensive option is 40-60% increased physical dmg. These rings drop with 1-3 random synthesis implicits.

cheapest: buff effect + 4% pdr, estimate: 50-100c

upgrade1: same as above, but with one or more of the following implicit mods: % max life, physical dmg, generic damage, life gain on hit, intelligence, chaos res. estimate: 1-10ex

upgrade2: look for these two godlike mods: vuln on hit, onslaught on hit. Prices may vary a lot since supply is extremely limited. estimate: 10-80 ex

Make sure to divine the rings so that the buff effect roll is as close to 100% as possible. Use attribute catalysts if you're short on intelligence, otherwise use defence catalysts.

Alternatives: If you're having trouble fitting all your auras in, one ring could have 'HoP has % reduced mana reservation' as the 2nd explicit mod. Also if you obtain a really good steel ring with vuln on hit, and other great mods (life, physical dmg to attacks, attack speed, attributes, armor), that may be better that a plain Guilt ring with useless implicits.


7. Amulet
Spoiler


Aul's Uprising is really the only amulet choice here. The standard version can use any of the three Aul amulets with either 'Purity of Fire/Ice/Lightning reserves no mana'. Fortunately all three of those are very cheap compared to some other Aul amulets, estimate 50-100c

The Purity of Fire version is my preferred choice because the build likes strength and armor.

The Purity of Ice version gives increased flask charges, which is really good for faster refilling of Soul Ripper (usually VMS souls charge faster than Soul Ripper). If you frequently find your VMS either running out or getting depleted before your Soul Ripper is full, this may be the better choice for you.

The Purity of Lightning version gives us upto +30 intelligence which may be invaluable if you're having trouble getting to the 159 int requirement.

Use attribute catalysts on the amulet if you are short on intelligence, otherwise go for life catalysts.

Alternatively, you could choose to not run one of the purity auras, and instead run Pride with Aul's pride amulet. This is a valid choice in an Aul fight which has no extra fire/lightning zone mods. Beware of the add phase though since you'll likely be not res capped.

There are a lot of valid amulet anointments to go for:

Tenacity: a bit of life and a lot of damage, overall best choice for deep delving
Discipline and Training: best life roll, recommended if you're delving without a Soul Ripper
Purity of Flesh: life and a bit of chaos res, recommended for HC and levelling in maps
Master of Force: cheap offensive anointment
Command of Steel: good if you can't otherwise cap your attack block chance to 75%
Singular Focus: nice dmg and flat phys dmg reduction
Survivalist: if you really really want that 90% cold resistance


8. Belt
Spoiler


This is another flexible slot. We want some good life rolls but the rest is up for grabs.

cheapest: meginord's girdle, or belt of the deceiver. Both of those can also be cheaply corrupted to get upto 8% maximum life. estimate: < 50c

upgrade1: ryslatha's coil. Very good damage especially if well divined. estimate: 2-3ex

upgrade2: rare belt, either a stygian vise or a leather belt, with t1 max life and t1 % max life and a good strength roll. Stygian vise is better if you have a very good abyss jewel (life, armor, phys dmg, onslaught on kill), otherwise leather belt is better with life catalysts. Look to craft hybrid chaos res, or hybrid attributes if short on intelligence. estimate: 3-10ex

upgrade3: same as above but look for other good mods: incr life recovery rate (also affected by life catalysts), chaos res, incr attack speed during flask effect, armor (hard to get because pristine fossil = no armor), or flask charge mods (helps with Soul Ripper). Note that 'incr flask duration' on the belt above is a bit counter-productive because it increases the duration of Soul Ripper which is undesirable. estimate: 10-50ex

Use life catalysts to finish up (except for ryslatha's, use attack catalyst for those).


9. Jewels
Spoiler


Might of the Meek in the Scion/Duelist/Marauder spot:
Gives us a good amount of life and armor, and +5 intelligence. Also easiest to get Corrupted Blood immunity on this jewel.

Red Nightmare in the Marauder spot:
Gives us upto 13% block chance, and upto 45% chance to gain Endurance charge on kill

Watcher's Eye in the Templar Spot:
Ideally we want at least two "phys taken as ele" purity mods. Optionally, immunity to ignite / freeze / shock are also valuable. Its feasible to have multiple different watchers eye jewels for different situations (usually double purity mod jewels are quite cheap). Also note that if the +20 intelligence from the nodes leading up to the jewel isnt needed, we can switch to either the Marauder/Templar spot (more armor) or Marauder/Duelist spot (more damage).

Lethal Pride in the Duelist spot:
Theres a lot of valuable mod combinations here. Note that we do not use any Keystone so the name on the jewel (Kaom/Rakiata/Kiloava) is irrelevant. The small passives give us +2/+4 str each which adds upto around +50 strength for our build. For the mods on the notables, the priority list is:
Tier1: 10% increased effect of Fortify
Tier2: 5% chance to deal Double damage
Tier3: 4% max life, 5% phys taken as fire, 20% melee dmg, 20% phys dmg
Tier4: 1% life regen, 5% strength, +20 to strength

Ways to obtain a good Lethal Pride:
1. Divine any Lethal Pride jewel until you hit a good one.
2. Divine any Lethal Pride in standard until you hit a good one, and then search for that exact number on trade and hope theres one for sale.
3. Search reddit/forums/discords to find some good advertised fortify/double-dmg jewels for that spot, and then search trade for that exact number.
4. Search on trade, sort by most expensive first, and look at any extra notes that the seller has put on it. Contact the seller for more details if his notes say something relevant (fortify / DD / duelist etc.)


10. Flasks
Spoiler

Flask setup varies by situation and personal preferences. A few suggested setups:

cheap: Life + Quicksilver + Basalt + Jade + Lion's Roar
endgame mapping: Life + Quicksilver + Basalt + Lion's Roar + Bottled Faith
deep delving: Quicksilver + Basalt + Lion's Roar + Bottled Faith + Soul Ripper

Suffixes on non-unique flasks, depends a lot on other immunity you already have through tree and gear:

Chill/Freeze immunity: Highly recommended.

Movement speed suffix: highly recommended if not running out of slots for other affixes below. Note that in deep delve, movement speed is a valuable layer of defense, not just a quality of life.

Curse immunity: Highly recommended in maps, but not as useful in delves, outside of specific encounters like Haunted Remains.

Bleed immunity: Nice to have, but not a must if you have corrupted blood immunity.

Shock/Ignite immunity: Only in delve biomes with shocking ground/always ignites modifiers.

Poison immunity: Only in magma fissure biome that also has poison on hit modifier, because it needs Soul of Abberath blocking us from Soul of Shakari.

It's feasible to have multiple quicksilver/basalt flasks with different suffixes and switch them out depending on the encounter.




GEM LINKS
Spoiler

Chest:
cheapest: Cyclone - Brutality - Melee Phys Dmg - Impale - Infused Channelling - Pulverise
upgrade1 (recommended): Cyclone to 21/20, gives us one extra cyclone stage
upgrade2 (recommended): Melee Phys Dmg -> Awakened Melee Phys Dmg , gives us Intimidate
upgrade3: Brutality -> Awakened Brutality,
upgrade4: upgrade other gems to corrupted versions

final:
Cyclone (21/20) - Awakened Brutality (6/20) - Awakened Melee Phys Dmg (6/20) - Impale (21/20) - Infused Channelling (21/20) - Pulverise (21/20)


Gloves:
Enlighten (4/0) - Purity of Fire (21/0) - Purity of Ice (21/0) - Purity of Lightning (21/0)

Getting lvl 21 purities is vital, so that with our +2 glove corruption we have lvl 23 purities which give us +5 max res instead of +4. Enlighten (4) can be replaced with Enlighten (3) but then one of the two Guilt Rings needs to be switched to "Herald of Purity has #% reduced mana reservation" instead of 4% PDR.


Helmet:
Herald of Purity (21/0) - Empower (4/0) - Blood Rage(10-15/20) - Blood & Sand (7/20)

Herald of Purity can be (20/0) and Empower can be (3/0) for the cheaper version, but we lose roughly 2.5% of our dmg for each missing level on our HoP. Blood Rage should be the highest level that our Dexterity allows. Blood&Sand is fine to be at (6/20). For Aul fights, recommended to replace Blood Rage with Blind support instead.



If your Helmet does not have "5% reduced mana reserved", switch the positions of the Blood&Sand gem with the Purity of Fire gem (or whichever purity amulet you're using). This way we lose the empower bonus on Blood&Sand, but it reserves less mana. Purity of Fire on Helmet gains empower bonus so its level 24, but it still costs zero mana because of our amulet.


Boots:
Vaal Molten Shell (21/23) - Dread Banner (21/20) - Increased Duration (21/23) - Enhance (4/0)

All of the gem corruptions in above setup are optional, a lot of those are improvements to the duration of our VMS. Enhance (4/0) is a flex slot (increases VMS duration), and can be replaced by Blood Magic (20/20) if we have too little unreserved mana to cast our Molten Shell.


Shield:
Flame Dash (21/23) - Blood Magic (20/20) - Culling Strike (1/20)

Gem corruptions optional, provides more cooldown reduction. The Culling Strike is a flex spot (but highly recommended for bosses). Can be replaced by Faster Casting (usually not needed because the first cast out of cyclone is instant), or Enhance (if you need even more cooldown reduction for some reason)



PANTHEONS
Spoiler

Pantheons are flexible, and should be changed depending on the specific encounter. Here are some possible setups:

Lunaris + Shakari: general mapping

Lunaris + Abberath: general delving (especially in Magma Fissure biomes which have burning ground mobs)

Arakaali + Shakari: hunter maps (or even general mapping), low-medium depth Fungal Caverns biome, and biomes with 'poison on hit' modifiers

Solaris + Ryslatha: general bossing


Last edited by RudyBaby on May 6, 2020, 10:02:46 AM
Last bumped on Sep 7, 2020, 12:05:26 PM
Best deep delve tank build today! The zero HP build requires too much mechanical skills to play in my opinion. I tried deadeye and decided it is not for me, so I will most likely try your build instead.

Curious how the best of Juggernaut cyclone builds stack up now. I see a guy at 1500.

Also all the physical reduction you have makes it easy to switch to Abyssus / Pride for mapping and still have a super tanky character no? Unshattered Will or even Whaka shield (+3 to Herald of Purity) for more damage.

Curious what a T16 set up looks like when you are not delving. Love berserker's numbers but it is too fragile for me. Can you do something like 10 million shaper damage with a couple of gear swaps? I will play around in POB.
Last edited by hitmantb on Feb 24, 2020, 4:37:37 PM
Ya curious to see what his budget/medium choices look like b/c I copied his exact build off poe.ninja a few weeks back and got absolutely steam rolled in all facets of content.

I had about 25ex into it, but couldnt get anything close to his gear, I spent well over 12ex alone on dense and jagged fossils rolling crusader helmet to try to get a good fortify helmet, got nothing.

Without that 40% something physical taken as cold and no chaos resistance I gave up on it and sold all the parts off to recoup my losses.
Last edited by JCOH35 on Feb 24, 2020, 5:23:55 PM
"
JCOH35 wrote:
Ya curious to see what his budget/medium choices look like b/c I copied his exact build off poe.ninja a few weeks back and got absolutely steam rolled in all facets of content.

I had about 25ex into it, but couldnt get anything close to his gear, I spent well over 12ex alone on dense and jagged fossils rolling crusader helmet to try to get a good fortify helmet, got nothing.

Without that 40% something physical taken as cold and no chaos resistance I gave up on it and sold all the parts off to recoup my losses.


Really? Wow I am surprised to hear that. 15EX is supposed to get you to delve 800+ which is not a soft build. Were you popping molten shell's and what not?
"
JCOH35 wrote:
Ya curious to see what his budget/medium choices look like b/c I copied his exact build off poe.ninja a few weeks back and got absolutely steam rolled in all facets of content.

I had about 25ex into it, but couldnt get anything close to his gear, I spent well over 12ex alone on dense and jagged fossils rolling crusader helmet to try to get a good fortify helmet, got nothing.

Without that 40% something physical taken as cold and no chaos resistance I gave up on it and sold all the parts off to recoup my losses.


I am curious about your experience too. Metamorphs with any "caustic" mod on it, and fungal caverns zombie degen will absolutely decimate this character as is, true. But all other normal content: juiced t16s, sirus, guardians etc. should be a breeze even with a very minimal budget.

Also, that helmet is by far the most expensive piece of gear in my setup. When I crafted it the estimated cost to get it was around 100ex. But since then crafting the fortify mod has been ninja nerfed by a lot: https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/f5ujnk/i_heard_you_like_data_this_is_the_tale_of_fortify . So unfortunately that exact helmet is now almost mirror tier.
"
hitmantb wrote:
Curious how the best of Juggernaut cyclone builds stack up now. I see a guy at 1500.


Juggernaut builds needs to go either pride with +2 impale watchers eye, or crit, or both, to have comparable DPS. DPS is kinda important in deeper delve, not just because "kill fast = get hit less", but to be able to keep up Soul Ripper/VMS consistently. Problem is, both of those are a big opportunity cost (mana reservation for pride, lots of passive points for crit), meaning we have less resources available for defences.

"
Also all the physical reduction you have makes it easy to switch to Abyssus / Pride for mapping and still have a super tanky character no? Unshattered Will or even Whaka shield (+3 to Herald of Purity) for more damage.


Abyssus is actually only about 4% more dps than my helmet in my setup. Unshattered Will is a good 8% more.

"
Curious what a T16 set up looks like when you are not delving. Love berserker's numbers but it is too fragile for me. Can you do something like 10 million shaper damage with a couple of gear swaps? I will play around in POB.


I've been mapping with the same exact setup because 3-4m dps is good enough for juiced t16s (maybe not for t19s). T16 metamorphs take maybe 15 seconds. The limiting factor to clearspeed is our modest AoE which is not very easy to increase. I guess an explodey chest could help.
Last edited by RudyBaby on Feb 25, 2020, 5:00:44 AM
"
RudyBaby wrote:
"
hitmantb wrote:
Curious how the best of Juggernaut cyclone builds stack up now. I see a guy at 1500.


Juggernaut builds needs to go either pride with +2 impale watchers eye, or crit, or both, to have comparable DPS. DPS is kinda important in deeper delve, not just because "kill fast = get hit less", but to be able to keep up Soul Ripper/VMS consistently. Problem is, both of those are a big opportunity cost (mana reservation for pride, lots of passive points for crit), meaning we have less resources available for defences.

"
Also all the physical reduction you have makes it easy to switch to Abyssus / Pride for mapping and still have a super tanky character no? Unshattered Will or even Whaka shield (+3 to Herald of Purity) for more damage.


Abyssus is actually only about 4% more dps than my helmet in my setup. Unshattered Will is a good 8% more.

"
Curious what a T16 set up looks like when you are not delving. Love berserker's numbers but it is too fragile for me. Can you do something like 10 million shaper damage with a couple of gear swaps? I will play around in POB.


I've been mapping with the same exact setup because 3-4m dps is good enough for juiced t16s (maybe not for t19s). T16 metamorphs take maybe 15 seconds. The limiting factor to clearspeed is our modest AoE which is not very easy to increase. I guess an explodey chest could help.


I noticed your helmet after I plugged it into POB haha. Wow! What does a budget / 80% version look like?

Is there a way to swap in some chaos resistance for everyday play?

Also your POB shows as 2.5 million damage for me with LocalIdentity with flask. Am I missing something?
"
hitmantb wrote:

Is there a way to swap in some chaos resistance for everyday play?

Also your POB shows as 2.5 million damage for me with LocalIdentity with flask. Am I missing something?


This is what I see on importing it to a new PoB: https://i.imgur.com/nDTwBOE.png. I'm not sure what you're seeing different.

As for chaos res, I do use gear swaps: shield, belt, boots, and amulet anointment; will add this info to the guide eventually. FWIW I lvled my character using this setup from 98 -> 99 in rare t16s including metamorphs. The only things I avoided were: ele pen and +2 proj map mods, and caustic body parts in metamorph.
"
RudyBaby wrote:
"
hitmantb wrote:

Is there a way to swap in some chaos resistance for everyday play?

Also your POB shows as 2.5 million damage for me with LocalIdentity with flask. Am I missing something?


This is what I see on importing it to a new PoB: https://i.imgur.com/nDTwBOE.png. I'm not sure what you're seeing different.

As for chaos res, I do use gear swaps: shield, belt, boots, and amulet anointment; will add this info to the guide eventually. FWIW I lvled my character using this setup from 98 -> 99 in rare t16s including metamorphs. The only things I avoided were: ele pen and +2 proj map mods, and caustic body parts in metamorph.


Apologies, I was looking at the POENinja to POB, I loaded your POB and got same number. You got mirror level Circle of Guilt's. Onslaught on hit and curse on hit for these rings, wow! This is more than enough damage for day to day play.

Where are you getting intimidation from? Not that 10% matters, I just can't find it.

Either way, will see what the patch notes look like.
Last edited by hitmantb on Feb 25, 2020, 9:09:50 PM
Intimidate comes from the Awakened Melee Physical Damage Support gem.

The Guilt rings are expensive, but not mirror tier. They were around 40-60 ex each when I bought them.

Report Forum Post

Report Account:

Report Type

Additional Info