1. Cold Iron Point vs Arakaali's Fang.
CIP a pretty viable alternative at some point, being budget and gameplay friendly.
When it is best to use CIP:
Spoiler
Mid-budget.
There is a huge damage breakpoint of Herald of Agony at lvl 31, with CIP it can be achieved for a lot cheaper:
- The skin of the Lords (+2)
- Empower lvl 3 (+4) or Awakened minion damage lvl 3 (+1) + Empower lvl 2 (+3)
- Chaos Mastery on the passive tree (+1)
- HoAg lvl 21 (lvl 20 is doable if u have both Empower lvl 3 and Aw minion damage lvl 3)
- CIP (+3)
At this point, when you can get hoag lvl 31 with CIP and cannot with AF, the damage gap between CIP and Arakaali's Fang is the lowest with just ~10%.
Pros and cons of CIP vs AF:
+ No spiders gameplay (This is insanely big QoL for those who can't get used to spiders summoning).
+ Free flask slot. Many options here.
- Damage is still lower
- Wither + spell totem + multiple totems is a must-have for bosses, but it dies fast.
- Chain (Awakened) or fork (Awakened) support is required instead of the pierce - more mana problems. I elaborate on this below.
- No onslaught.
When it is best to use Arakaali's Fang:
Spoiler
Low budget and High budget.
On a low budget, just 3-link spiders will do more damage than your entire 6-link HoAg (no skin of the lords, no empower, no awakened gems, no chaos mastery, etc). So, it must be a chase item early.
On a high budget, when you can get lvl 31 hoag using AF, it overshadows CIP by a very huge margin (~20%) again.
Pros and cons of AF vs CIP:
+ More damage anyway.
+ Pierce is fine, spiders finish damaged monsters.
+ Reliable Wither (spiders don't die), and apply it all time.
+ Onslaught
- Clunky. I elaborate on how to deal with it below.
- More expensive. 4ex week 1? 1ex week 3? CIP price got down for 10 times already.
Well, the most clunky part of this build. No need to deny it, bc it's obvious. Even I felt really bad with the default self-casting setup at first, so I had to find alternatives last league.
Spoiler
To summon spiders there are 2 conditions required:
1. Corpses nearby.
2. Kill.
You won't summon spiders if you just press flask and kill worms w/o corpses around. You won't summon any spiders if enemies or allies kill worms first.
The normal way to summon spiders is:
I. Desecrate, twice (or in the middle of the dead pack).
II. Kill worms.
But, in normal circumstances this feels clunky af, bc u had to stop ur mapping to summon worms pretty often, right?
Or are you getting pissed by failing to summon for whatever reason? No corpses, no kills, enemies and crawler around hunting YOUR worms, etc.
I know how it feels, bro.
And here are BEST ways to deal with it:
Spoiler
1. Cold Iron Point. No spiders - no problem, right? Most obvious solution. Trading a bit of damage for QoL. It's reasonable, doable, why not.
2. Gravebind. Budget mapping option, very good. Literally, a lifesaver on early mapping.
Why:
Spoiler
With them, HoAg will summon spiders, spiders will summon spiders, your party will summon spiders, etc.
The downside is - bossing damage of HoAg will be low, bc gravebind is bad for virulence uptime.
Well, early spiders will do more damage than HoAg anyway, and with the Gravebind, your spiders' uptime is 100%. If not - press some flask from time to time.
3. Culling strike. This was the best solution prior to 3.16, before gravebind was introduced.
Explanation:
Spoiler
Culling strike helps you to get kills for summoning spiders.
Also, it can be either the cheapest solution with just culling strike support skill gem, or the most expensive one with double influenced gloves, which allows 1 button gameplay:
There was an entire page with the discussion of culling strike/cyclone gloves with some videos of virulence uptime with the different skill gems at the end of the page:
4. Unbound Ailments instead of Minion Damage in Arakaali's Fang. Chromino, please.
How it works:
Spoiler
UA support increases the Poison damage of the spiders, as a result - more enemies die by poison applied by spiders - and it counts as you get the kill in this case, which fulfills the second condition of summoning.
Also, Unbound Ailments is 15% stronger than minion damage support for spiders. In all cases, even if enemies have strong chaos resistance. Again, Chromino, please.
Bonus: Corpsewalker boots.
They automate desecrate (creating corpses out of the air), but in short - not worth it. Boots slot is too precious to waste it on corpsewalkers.
I use desecrate only on bosses, never used it mapping.
Flask after killing 1st pack, and got bunch of spiders. Pop flask while spamming Balls randomly on map - respawns more spiders.
Problem is when we have 20 spiders that spawned at the same time - it looks like they have no way to refresh themselves - they spawn fresh ones only when <20, so its best to spawn ~10 at first, then it goes auto.
Last edited by Kenavru on Nov 8, 2021, 11:44:43 AM
1. Cold Iron Point vs Arakaali's Fang.
CIP a pretty viable alternative at some point, being budget and gameplay friendly.
When it is best to use CIP:
Spoiler
Mid-budget.
There is a huge damage breakpoint of Herald of Agony at lvl 31, with CIP it can be achieved for a lot cheaper:
- The skin of the Lords (+2)
- Empower lvl 3 (+4) or Awakened minion damage lvl 3 (+1) + Empower lvl 2 (+3)
- Chaos Mastery on the passive tree (+1)
- HoAg lvl 21 (lvl 20 is doable if u have both Empower lvl 3 and Aw minion damage lvl 3)
- CIP (+3)
At this point, when you can get hoag lvl 31 with CIP and cannot with AF, the damage gap between CIP and Arakaali's Fang is the lowest with just ~10%.
Pros and cons of CIP vs AF:
+ No spiders gameplay (This is insanely big QoL for those who can't get used to spiders summoning).
+ Free flask slot. Many options here.
- Damage is still lower
- Wither + spell totem + multiple totems is a must-have for bosses, but it dies fast.
- Chain (Awakened) or fork (Awakened) support is required instead of the pierce - more mana problems. I elaborate on this below.
- No onslaught.
When it is best to use Arakaali's Fang:
Spoiler
Low budget and High budget.
On a low budget, just 3-link spiders will do more damage than your entire 6-link HoAg (no skin of the lords, no empower, no awakened gems, no chaos mastery, etc). So, it must be a chase item early.
On a high budget, when you can get lvl 31 hoag using AF, it overshadows CIP by a very huge margin (~20%) again.
Pros and cons of AF vs CIP:
+ More damage anyway.
+ Pierce is fine, spiders finish damaged monsters.
+ Reliable Wither (spiders don't die), and apply it all time.
+ Onslaught
- Clunky. I elaborate on how to deal with it below.
- More expensive. 4ex week 1? 1ex week 3? CIP price got down for 10 times already.
Well, the most clunky part of this build. No need to deny it, bc it's obvious. Even I felt really bad with the default self-casting setup at first, so I had to find alternatives last league.
Spoiler
To summon spiders there are 2 conditions required:
1. Corpses nearby.
2. Kill.
You won't summon spiders if you just press flask and kill worms w/o corpses around. You won't summon any spiders if enemies or allies kill worms first.
The normal way to summon spiders is:
I. Desecrate, twice (or in the middle of the dead pack).
II. Kill worms.
But, in normal circumstances this feels clunky af, bc u had to stop ur mapping to summon worms pretty often, right?
Or are you getting pissed by failing to summon for whatever reason? No corpses, no kills, enemies and crawler around hunting YOUR worms, etc.
I know how it feels, bro.
And here are BEST ways to deal with it:
Spoiler
1. Cold Iron Point. No spiders - no problem, right? Most obvious solution. Trading a bit of damage for QoL. It's reasonable, doable, why not.
2. Gravebind. Budget mapping option, very good. Literally, a lifesaver on early mapping.
Why:
Spoiler
With them, HoAg will summon spiders, spiders will summon spiders, your party will summon spiders, etc.
The downside is - bossing damage of HoAg will be low, bc gravebind is bad for virulence uptime.
Well, early spiders will do more damage than HoAg anyway, and with the Gravebind, your spiders' uptime is 100%. If not - press some flask from time to time.
3. Culling strike. This was the best solution prior to 3.16, before gravebind was introduced.
Explanation:
Spoiler
Culling strike helps you to get kills for summoning spiders.
Also, it can be either the cheapest solution with just culling strike support skill gem, or the most expensive one with double influenced gloves, which allows 1 button gameplay:
There was an entire page with the discussion of culling strike/cyclone gloves with some videos of virulence uptime with the different skill gems at the end of the page:
4. Unbound Ailments instead of Minion Damage in Arakaali's Fang. Chromino, please.
How it works:
Spoiler
UA support increases the Poison damage of the spiders, as a result - more enemies die by poison applied by spiders - and it counts as you get the kill in this case, which fulfills the second condition of summoning.
Also, Unbound Ailments is 15% stronger than minion damage support for spiders. In all cases, even if enemies have strong chaos resistance. Again, Chromino, please.
Bonus: Corpsewalker boots.
They automate desecrate (creating corpses out of the air), but in short - not worth it. Boots slot is too precious to waste it on corpsewalkers.
Why is AF more damage even with high gear? +3 gem levels is still a lot. I just swap to CIP for bossing ( with totem inside ) and it seems much better than AF and also less hassle to sometimes cast totems as opposed to pain with flask for spiders.
Clear: AF + culling spell echo BL
Bossing: CIP + same BL
I usually bother to swap only for conquerors or Sirus. Admittedly not yet level 31 in AF setup but I do not see where the eg 40% more modifier comes from it for bossing ( as opposed to 30% CIP gives ).
Hi guys - I need help in figuring out immediate next steps regarding gear/progression. Just compelted Act 10 & died 20 times at Kitava :(
I dont think I can progress to maps with current damage/survivibility. My profile is public and below is POB as well
https://pastebin.com/UtxEj1X7
I dont have much currency (maybe 2-3c) so please keep that in mind.
buy hoa lv 20. (on lv8 it wont even smash thru defences of mobs ;p) Then uniques. And u have to farm more currency after for Arakali fang - and then it should go.
Its not a very cheap build, u need few exalts and some time spend for sniping items from live trades to make it feel good.
How good is Divine Shield on Skins of the Lords? I'm looking to upgrade my brothers character from Skin of the Loyal, but dont have the currency to drop the money for Iron Reflexes right now. How noticeable is DS over just a normal Skin of the Loyal? He is almost ready to switch to CI btw
Greetings, first of all, read the guide, and alot of the comments. Kudo's to all the work you've put into the guide. Going to be making a new char for this build soon. Buying items atm. Dont have ALOT of money, 2-3x and was wondering after Arakaki's fang, you suggest getting memory vault next, is the enchant mandatory or QoL? trying to decide if the helm is worth the 2x atm
Greetings, first of all, read the guide, and alot of the comments. Kudo's to all the work you've put into the guide. Going to be making a new char for this build soon. Buying items atm. Dont have ALOT of money, 2-3x and was wondering after Arakaki's fang, you suggest getting memory vault next, is the enchant mandatory or QoL? trying to decide if the helm is worth the 2x atm
you can buy enchant on some ES based helmet, for few chaos.
Dagger is the best investment.
