[3.11] CoC Ball Lightning Assassin - 20M+ Shaper DPS/10k ES/fortify - League Starter Guide Included

Lol trying something for funsies.

With exposure on hit on my sceptre, running an experiment called...Bob!

Replacing CWDT-wave of conviction-blade blast-tempest shield with...

Animated Guardian - minion life - meat shield - empower.

Bob has 33k life, 3% life regen/sec and through ~60c items grants:
- 15% dmg aura
- 10% move speed aura
- Nearby enemies are blinded
- Elemental weakness on hit (allowing me to replace mine with proj weakness)

Let's see if he lasts through a full simulacrum without dying...! Or can Bob survive Sirus 8? Stay tuned!

Tips on build? https://pastebin.com/eaCghsA9


Just read that the 40% AoE is important. Is that due to the spacing between the bosses and myself?

Unsure on what I should prioritize replacing or doing first at this point. Any tips would be appreciated!

"

N0esy wrote:

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InsaineMad wrote:

Sorry if this has been asked but when do you switch over to the Cyclone gem set up? the guide leaves you at level 28 manually casting ball lightning.

thanks!

In the leveling part of the guide, I recommended using self-cast ball lignting until you finish the storyline. The reasons are:
1) Cast on crit requires at least level 38.
2) Cast on crit isn't very good when your crit chance is low. You need good gear/more passive points to use it.

Thanks for the reply. I’ve gotten to only 70 so far looking through all the passive nodes it looks like all the crit chance is based on spells. Aside from the cluster jewel what is it that gives us such a high crit chance? I’m sitting with only 18% for cyclone.

Thanks again!

"

kentishtown wrote:

Lol trying something for funsies.

With exposure on hit on my sceptre, running an experiment called...Bob!

Replacing CWDT-wave of conviction-blade blast-tempest shield with...

Animated Guardian - minion life - meat shield - empower.

Bob has 33k life, 3% life regen/sec and through ~60c items grants:
- 15% dmg aura
- 10% move speed aura
- Nearby enemies are blinded
- Elemental weakness on hit (allowing me to replace mine with proj weakness)

Let's see if he lasts through a full simulacrum without dying...! Or can Bob survive Sirus 8? Stay tuned!

Because Bob has only 1 curse limit, your curses are gone every time he inflicts elemental weakness. This is how curses work as far as I understand.

Even summoners see their animate guardians dying in endgame contents, I have little hope... But let's see what you find out.

"

Juststraightthuggin wrote:

Tips on build? https://pastebin.com/eaCghsA9


Just read that the 40% AoE is important. Is that due to the spacing between the bosses and myself?

Unsure on what I should prioritize replacing or doing first at this point. Any tips would be appreciated!

Your pastebin doesn't work for some reason.
The spacing between bosses and you (AoE of cyclone) is a part of the reason. Another reason is that ball lightning AoE also increases your DPS. I drew a picture to explain it. You can find it in the Important Notes section.

"

InsaineMad wrote:

Thanks for the reply. I’ve gotten to only 70 so far looking through all the passive nodes it looks like all the crit chance is based on spells. Aside from the cluster jewel what is it that gives us such a high crit chance? I’m sitting with only 18% for cyclone.

Thanks again!

Power charges and a high crit chance on your weapon are main sources of crit chance for cyclone.

"

Because Bob has only 1 curse limit, your curses are gone every time he inflicts elemental weakness. This is how curses work as far as I understand.

Even summoners see their animate guardians dying in endgame contents, I have little hope... But let's see what you find out.

You are right regarding curse! Replaced with a normal Southbound gloves.


Some results:
- Fully juiced, Beyond T14 Burial Chambers -- fine
- Fully juiced, Beyond T16 Colonnade -- fine
- Simulacrum -- fine
- Shaper -- fine. Shaper Slam does nothing. Shaper beam is survivable easily.

- Ground degen / Burning ground -- avoid this map mod as it weakens Bob's regen (from the Oak).

- T19 fully juiced, Beyond + 100% Delirium -- dead as a doorknob in 5 seconds :)

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My early take is that Bob is viable if you are mapping and not doing crazy stuff. I'd turn him off for Atziri, Acid Caverns, HoGM, 100% delirium.

Items for 10% MS, nearby enemies blinded, 15% increased dmg, and minion life regen are about 30 chaos total.

If feeling high-budget for (his and your) survivability, Garb of the Ephemeral (nearby enemies can't crit strike) may be even better than blind. (Edit: Noesy reminded me that our ascendancy takes care of crit strike protection)

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TLDR:
- IMO a viable option if you're mapping for XP (and can benefit from blind to mitigate deaths and MS). Even if he dies, the gear (Victario's Flight, Leer Cast, The Oak, Blind rare chest) is fairly cheap. You give up considerable but conditional DPS from the CWDT setup.
- Consider Bob while mapping if you are playing HC. Blind or crit protection is probably better than conditional extra damage and 3% block.
- Annoying to gem swap and recolor boots if you want to be flexible with Bob vs. CWDT
- Bob will probably die at some point, so depends on how annoying you find it to be to buy 3-4 items for 30c when that happens. Don't buy expensive Kingmaker, Mask of the Stitched Demon as it's not worth it. Already have Fortify and life regen can come from The Oak.

Looks tempting. What are your thoughts on Coward's Legacy + Atziris Reflection and actual Pain Attunement? Should be a strong damage boost, but is it not worth it because we lose cool down recovery?

Interesting. We have crit protection from Assassin ascendancy, so you should choose blind.

I believe a rare crystal belt with CDR is better in terms of both offense and defense, assuming that you have 52% CDR.
If you take pain attunement (30% more spell damage), you'll give up Inner Conviction (21% more spell damage). So, the benefit of being low life is small.

"

N0esy wrote:

Interesting. We have crit protection from Assassin ascendancy, so you should choose blind.

I believe a rare crystal belt with CDR is better in terms of both offense and defense, assuming that you have 52% CDR.
If you take pain attunement (30% more spell damage), you'll give up Inner Conviction (21% more spell damage). So, the benefit of being low life is small.

It's not really giving it up. You free that jewel socket for Energy from Within, get effective immunity to curses at all times, additional movement speed, and more damage than Inner Conviction provides.

Can also move Inner Conviction to another place on the tree, though you'd have to decide if it's worth the point investment.

"

Gryphenprey wrote:

"

N0esy wrote:

Interesting. We have crit protection from Assassin ascendancy, so you should choose blind.

I believe a rare crystal belt with CDR is better in terms of both offense and defense, assuming that you have 52% CDR.
If you take pain attunement (30% more spell damage), you'll give up Inner Conviction (21% more spell damage). So, the benefit of being low life is small.

It's not really giving it up. You free that jewel socket for Energy from Within, get effective immunity to curses at all times, additional movement speed, and more damage than Inner Conviction provides.

Can also move Inner Conviction to another place on the tree, though you'd have to decide if it's worth the point investment.

Because you can use Atziri's reflection with a crystal belt as well, let's focus on the difference between two belts, a rare crystal belt and coward's legacy.

You can take both pain attunement and inner conviction with coward's legacy. To do so, you'll need 4 passive points (3 for a jewel socket, 1 for the keystone). Because 21/4 = 5.25% more damage per point is pretty good, I assume you take inner conviction as well.

Lets summarize pros and cons of coward's legacy.
Pros
1) 30% more damage (pain attunement)
2) 10% movement speed

Cons
1) You have to spend 4 additional passive points for inner conviction. Because this build scales at least 3% more damage per passive point, you lose 12% more damage by doing this.
2) 300 less ES including energy from within (this is for me).
3) No CDR. The difference between 7.56 aps and 10.1 aps is 34% (10.1/7.56 = 1.34). Of course, you have to invest in AS to get 10.1 aps, but the investment is not that big.

As I said, a rare crystal belt is better for both damage and ES. The only benefit I find is 10% increased movement speed.