I was running Allstars Herald of Agony since 3.15. After I tried it for the first time, I immediately fell in love with the build concept.
The only thing I wasn't able to deal with - self-casting gameplay. So, with some cyclone-lovers (Dreadmoore and Kujabuja) we went through some things and ended up with some nice gloves which helped us a lot.
During 3.16, Allstars went through massive changes and amazing buffs, making it one of the best builds out of the jungle in the endgame.
We made it tankier, while doing more damage. We improved some mechanics and implemented better changes. It was a great league for us. And, for me personally.
From the league start, I decided to follow Chromino's Glancing Blows version, and during the league, I was working hard to develop and improve not only my own build, but the Allstars in general. As a result, we made it big:
1. Full Chaos conversion. Finally, we got easy access to scaling damage. It was a long discussion between me and Chromino =) However, the desicion to include it in the build was made.
Paired with Chromino's suggestion about a new BiS helmet - Eber's Unification, full chaos conversion offered almost 40% more damage.
2. Virulence on 4-link for full chaos conversion. I started to research the ways to get it even before I got my triad grips.
As a part of my cyclone-style gameplay, white socketed gloves suited really well, so I decided to make a gem-swap setup. Cyclone for mapping, Storm Burst for 60 virulence on bosses.
Chromino did his research too and managed to get 70 virulence on 4-link with Ball lightning - Storm Brand setup. Really great job.
3. Improvement for Cyclone setup.Dapake was the one who suggested me to use the Stampede boots. As a result, my build became a lot smoother, and at the end of the league, they became irreplaceable for me, and played a huge role in the highest end-game farming.
As a result of all the above, I was able to push through my variation of Chromino's Glancing Blows version to the highest and hardest content in the game without broken items like Mageblood, HH, and Squire:
✔️Simulacrum 30/30 farming.
✔️Nemesis maximum juiced farming.
✔️All bosses in the game, including the Feared Simultaneously.
✔️Flawless Breachstones.
Spoiler
So, in this post, I want to share not only my build but also a lot of tips about the hardest endgame and top-tier farming.
Strike skills: Strike skills that strike additional nearby targets, such as those supported by Ancestral Call Support, can choose the hydrosphere as a nearby target. When combined with skills that deal area of effect damage, such as Molten Strike or skills supported by Melee Splash Support, these extra strikes can cause an area of effect overlap back onto the primary target that may increase single target DPS.
tl;dr: When the hydrosphere is near the target, spiders do more damage with the extra attack. With the Divergent Melee Splash 20/20, they do 99% more damage, which is more than Awakened Multistrike can offer.
As a result, we noticed a huge increase in clear speed and slightly more damage on a single target overall. I also noticed higher rewards in simulacrum. I started to get more 6 orbed rewards, and less 4 orbed rewards. Latter became quite rare.
The downside of such change is - we have to swap cyclone for storm burst more often, since cyclone alone can sustain just 30-35 virulence, and hydrosphere doesn't help.
Storm Burst is perfectly fine here, having no problem sustaining 60 virulence on a single target.
2. Purity of Elements
Spoiler
When I tried Simulacrum for the first time, I got crushed by alternative elemental ailments, such as Brittle and Scorch, so I decided to get all elemental ailment immunity no matter what.
As a result, I had to invest more in mana reservation, but it was a perfect decision to cover the lack of resistances bc of the quantity of uniques in my build.
Another good point of that decision - a better choice of flasks, since i don't need to get flasks against ailments.
3. Cyclone and Stampede boots.
Spoiler
Stampede boots allow us to get rid of a quicksilver flask because they fixate movement speed, as a result, we are using 1 more, flexible, utility flask.
With Stampedes, cyclone gameplay becomes a lot smoother. Since in Simulacrum we don't require high movement speed, this setup is just perfect.
Another thing here is - more mobile cycloning offers better survivability bc of we just dodge more attacks and spells.
4. Awakened chain instead of the pierce for clearing.
Eber's Unification is not suited well for channeling skills. It triggers only on a single cast, not while channeling.
So while Eber's is the BiS for the self-casting and offers the highest single target dps,
For Cyclone-style clearing, it doesn't offer any help.
So, for Nemesis and Simulacrum farming a rare hubris with "Nearby Enemies have -9(-12)% to Chaos Resistance" is better than Eber's mechanically.
My current helmet (screwed crafting):
There is also room to get a double-influenced elevated helmet with 14% increased mana reservation efficiency, so we can get rid of Charisma and anoint smth else, like Gravepact.
5. Ghost Dance and how most of our defensive layers work (i didn't include Aegis Aurora):
Spoiler
Ghost Dance is triggered only when you take a full hit, which was not evaded or blocked. Hits taken with Glancing Blows are also considered as blocked.
Ghost Shroud is the final layer of defense against hits when everything else failed.
Ghost Dance is a preferred choice for Glancing Blows, BiS skill in the Skin of the Lords. No alternatives.
High evasion, required for Ghost Dance, prevents taking damage from hits a lot. While with Iron Reflexes and Glancing Blows you are just a sandbag for beating, without any damage prevention.
6. Pantheon: Aberrath/Solaris.
Spoiler
Burning ground is dangerous in simulacrum, so it's good to have it. Solaris offers a bit more defense against crits and big hits.
✔️ Stun immunity/interruption avoidance: Awakened Cast While Channeling lvl 5.
✔️ All elemental ailment immunity/avoidance/reduced duration: Purity of Elements.
✔️ Ghost Dance with at least 34k evasion flasked.
✔️ At least 10m dps. If below - it is still doable, but not farmable.
✔️ Flasks according to added extra damage on the wave (i.e. ruby flask if monsters deal 90% extra physical as fire). Priority: Fire > Lightning > Cold.
✔️ 100% curse reduction. Achieved by a passive tree (time of need + armour and energy shield mastery)
✔️ Burning ground immunity - Abberath pantheon.
✔️ Crit reduction - Solaris pantheon.
Other tips:
Spoiler
- Gem swapping is required past wave 24.
- All elemental ailments immunity is a must-have. Shocks/ignites/freezes can be avoided by flasks, but scorch and brittle can not. They are very dangerous.
- As I mentioned before, we are running cyclone with stampede boots. Cyclone allows to evade much of incoming damage, and stampede allows to use 4th utility flask instead of quicksilver, which can be swapped for ruby/topaz/sapphire flasks against extra elemental damage mods. In my case, I swap the Basalt flask.
- Kosis can be overwhelming during your 1st runs, but, mechanically it's quite easy boss fight. Facetank auto-attacks - frostblink from projectile barrage and beam behind him and avoid giga-slam (kosis jumps on the big ball). Most annoying mod: +50-60% to Chaos Resistance.
- There is another cancer mod - reducing flask charges with attacks. As result, we fight Kosis w/o spiders. There are 2 options to deal with it:
Spoiler
1. Cold iron point with wither totems
2. Standard minion trigger wand with Summon Skeletons-Withering Touch - Multistrike Didn't test it yet.
- Ompniphobia... is just a sandbag. Able to facetank it even with critical nodes.
- General strategy for waves 25-30 - split bosses > clear shit > kill fat ass > duel Kosis. I usually swap gems while engaged in a fight with Omniphobia.
I started to farm simulacrum full clears with this (11m dps): https://pastebin.com/KyejHZ5E
Nemesis farming is a totally busted farming method, which holds one of the highest profit per hour and ROI in 3.16.
I was avoiding it during past leagues and for 5 weeks of 3.16. The main reason - I was always thinking this method suited only with t1 clearing builds with headhunter, and I thought that HH is a must-have for this kind of farming.
Because I never had a good HH build before I didn't want to look into it.
I decided to try nem3 for the first time a week ago just to challenge myself and... It was easy. I cannot say how much I was surprised with both low difficulty for my build and crazy currency drops there.
I experimented with juicing, from a super low budget setup with 0 related passives and watchstones to the highest investment possible, including 100% delirious maps, elevated sextants, and winged scarabs. Everything was doable, and I profited really hard.
That is why I decided to include a small guide to it here.
So, What is Nemesis farming?
Spoiler
It is farming of properly juiced maps with mods:
xx% More rare Monsters
Rare Monsters each have a Nemesis Mod
Roll it with alch/scour.
Example:
Spoiler
With a specific sextant mod on watchstone:
Nemesis Monsters drop x additional Basic Currency Items
Example:
Spoiler
The process of juicing a map includes other sextant modifiers, scarabs, map device mods, prophecies, and master's missions aimed at increasing monsters count.
Just one properly juiced map can have more monsters than several alch and go maps. And currency drops can outperform loot from dozens of alch and go maps.
Dropping a few raw exalts per 1 map is a normal thing here.
How to setup:
Spoiler
There were different setups in different leagues. I won't bother with the history of changes here, I will adjust it for the current league.
So, for 3.16:
Atlas:
Spoiler
Region: Glennach Cairns.
Passives:
Beyond nodes are mandatory to start. Abyss is just very good.
As for Uncharted Realm, mandatory passives are highlighted:
Watchstones.
Spoiler
List of useful watchstones:
- Platinum Watchstones with:
a) Demonic: Beyond Portals in Areas have (5–6)% chance to spawn an additional Beyond Demon
b) Fraught: Slaying Enemies close together in Areas has a 1% chance to attract monsters from Beyond
- Chromium Watchstones with:
Rare Monsters in Areas have (8–10)% chance to drop an additional Basic Currency Item
- Unique Watchstones:
a) Booming Populace (packsize)
b) War Among The Stars (few more packs of elder/shaper monsters)
Strategy:
1. Be sure to buy magic watchstones for the required region. In 3.16 it is Glennach Cairns.
2. You don't need to buy all of the listed above. Use any combination of those:
I'm using 4 Demonic.
Streamers love Fraught.
A couple of my guildmates run 2 Demonic and 2 Chromiums.
Unique watchstones can be bought with required sextants.
War Among The Stars adds elder/shaper monsters and can be used instead of scarabs.
In other words, experiment by yourself. Start with the cheaper ones.
Sextants.
Spoiler
Required to roll mods on watchstones. We are using either Awakened or Elevated sextants, depending on the budget. You cannot use 2 watchstones with the same sextants.
Mandatory mods (in brackets are elevated mods):
- Nemesis Monsters drop 3(4) additional Basic Currency Items
- Slaying Enemies close together in Areas has a 6%(8%) chance to attract monsters from Beyond
Beyond Portals in Areas have 33% chance to spawn an additional Beyond Demon
Spoiler
Really good for Glennach Cairns:
- Areas contain 2(3) additional Abysses
Areas can contain Abysses
Spoiler
For the last watchstone roll one of those:
- Unique Monsters drop Corrupted Items
- Areas can contain Breaches
- Areas contain an additional Legion Encounter
- Areas contain hunted traitors
- Areas contain a Blight Encounter
- Magic Maps contain 5 additional packs of Magic Monsters
Normal Maps contain 5 additional packs of Normal Monsters
Rare Maps contain 5 additional Rare Monster packs
I oppose rolling "Areas contain a mirror of Delirium" here, it is awesome with dedicated Headhunter mapping builds. We are using delirium orbs instead.
How to roll sextant mods properly (Sextant blocking, not my video and tut):
Very short tutorial: put in 3 watchstones with sextant mods you don't want, put in your watchstone where you want to roll the good stuff, and go. This way the "bad" mods can't roll and you throw them out of the pool.
We use scarabs for further increasing of monsters count. The tier of scarabs depends on budget, I'll elaborate on this below.
Scarabs you really want to run:
- Abyss with Glennach Cairns abyss passives is the best.
- Harbinger
Other useful scarabs:
Blight > Breach > Legion/Elder > Ambush.
Always pick blight scarab unless you rolled it with a sextant.
I prefer elder over legion too.
Other juice.
Spoiler
Any delirium orb of your choice. The cheapest works well.
Prophecy - The twins. It duplicates rare monsters.
Investment:
Spoiler
Low:
Spoiler
- No magic/unique watchstones.
- Beyond passives in Glennach Cairns.
- 1 mandatory passive in Uncharted Realms for 1 additional use of sextant.
- Rusted scarabs.
- No delirium orbs/prophecy.
Yes. It works. Trust me. I tested it for you.
Medium.
Spoiler
- Magic watchstones (combinations of demonic, fraught, and/or chromium)
- All passives in Glennach Cairns, as mentioned.
- 2 mandatory passives in Uncharted Realms.
- Gilded Abyss, Gilded Breach, Polished Harbinger, Polished Blight scarabs.
- 1 Delirium orb/prophecy.
High.
Spoiler
- Elevated sextants.
- Winged scarabs.
- 80-100% delirious maps (4-5 orbs with good rewards).
A super-quick 1-2-3 tutorial on how to start a f*cking nemesis map:
3. Put a map and scarabs.
2. Trigger Alva mission.
1. Choose Beyond in the list of crafts. Click Activate.
This is just cancer for this build to run. My 1st experience was awful.
Although I indeed managed to complete this crap, I felt there is so much to improve here. It was a bit stressful.
I consider this section as WIP, have some stuff to test.
Current to-do list:
Spoiler
1. Instead of Molten Shell and Frost Shield in cws setup, go with Carrion Golem + Feeding Frenzy. You have to get as much dps as possible for it.
2. Convocation instead of mark or frost blink. Mechanically, herald of agony is not suited for breachstones at all, bc it deals the damage stationary and can shoot from offscreen, missing projectiles just like that. So convocation is a must here and has to be used on cd.
3. You want a rare helmet for here instead of Eber's. It would be even better if chaos res reduction is elevated.
4. Pierce must be changed for either Awakened Chain or Fork (completed with a fork).
1. Glennarch Cairns: Alva Temple or Nemesis 3. Temple is easy and reliable, nem3 is expensive but profitable af.
2. Haewark Hamlet: Harvest farming. Too much tft tho, and some investment in bases. Not that reliable even with Zana.
3. Lira Arthain: expedition farming (I'm up to try it, bc got tired from simu atm).
4. Valdo's Rest delirious junk (60% any tier, any orbs). Always doing it early. All blight passives, 1 in deli, 1 in harbinger. 1 blight scarab per map and alva/beyond for juicing, if you can handle it. Farming simulacrum splinters just like that.
Buy deli junk maps: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Scourge/2PJDYR5Uk
Video example of deli junk run (no blight, no valdo, profit in description): https://youtu.be/cNIkJz0K_qs
Chromino: the author of the main guide: The Arachnophobia Allstars, insane work done by him and all those people who helped him. dapake: suggested using Stampede with cyclone. erigol07: suggested using Unbound Ailments instead of Minion Damage for spiders. Valsacar: one of the pioneers of this build, helps with testing and suggesting new staff.
Thank you a very, very lot Monik390 for this great guide and tipps to avery strong variation to clean simulacrums, nemesis and also the feared simultanously!
Arachnophilia!!
Last edited by Chromino on Dec 14, 2021, 1:36:54 PM
Not op, but decent ES and now able to use awakened chain. I have to agree with Monik. Much nicer for general mapping. Single target is a bit lower than pierce, but not really noticeable and can be swapped for vile toxins for Sirus and co.
"Fixing the endgame was hard - No matter how hard we buffed red maps, people would keep spamming Gorges.
So we turned Gorge into a red map"
Not op, but decent ES and now able to use awakened chain. I have to agree with Monik. Much nicer for general mapping. Single target is a bit lower than pierce, but not really noticeable and can be swapped for vile toxins for Sirus and co.
What were your crafting steps to get 2 elevated awakened mods? Interested in making a pair, but not sure how you did it.
EDIT: After trying to research it a bit, I found you can transfer them via awakener orb after you've elevated them with a maven orb. So I'm assuming you attempt the 50/50 till you get both mods elevated on two items then slam them with a awakeners orb? That's crazy expensive per attempt if it fails the 50/50 lol.
Not op, but decent ES and now able to use awakened chain. I have to agree with Monik. Much nicer for general mapping. Single target is a bit lower than pierce, but not really noticeable and can be swapped for vile toxins for Sirus and co.
What were your crafting steps to get 2 elevated awakened mods? Interested in making a pair, but not sure how you did it.
EDIT: After trying to research it a bit, I found you can transfer them via awakener orb after you've elevated them with a maven orb. So I'm assuming you attempt the 50/50 till you get both mods elevated on two items then slam them with a awakeners orb? That's crazy expensive per attempt if it fails the 50/50 lol.
Yes, it's essentially an expensive gamble...
Spoiler
1) Get base, craft 30% quality with fossils (could be done with hillock after, but fossils are cheaper)
2) slam with influence exalted either hunter or redeemer
3) chaos spam (or alt-regal) until you hit exactly 2 influence mods, one of them the desired mana or chaos one
4) maven orb and pray it elevates the one you want. otherwise repeat step 3
5) second helment (base doesn't matter) with the other infuence
6) repeat step 3 and 4 on the second helmet (alternatively buy one that is already crafted as the base and other mods are irrelevant you can probably get a cheap one)
7) use awakened orb to combine the two
8) harvet reforge prefixes and hope to get lucky again
"Fixing the endgame was hard - No matter how hard we buffed red maps, people would keep spamming Gorges.
So we turned Gorge into a red map"
Not op, but decent ES and now able to use awakened chain. I have to agree with Monik. Much nicer for general mapping. Single target is a bit lower than pierce, but not really noticeable and can be swapped for vile toxins for Sirus and co.
What were your crafting steps to get 2 elevated awakened mods? Interested in making a pair, but not sure how you did it.
EDIT: After trying to research it a bit, I found you can transfer them via awakener orb after you've elevated them with a maven orb. So I'm assuming you attempt the 50/50 till you get both mods elevated on two items then slam them with a awakeners orb? That's crazy expensive per attempt if it fails the 50/50 lol.
Yes, it's essentially an expensive gamble...
Spoiler
1) Get base, craft 30% quality with fossils (could be done with hillock after, but fossils are cheaper)
2) slam with influence exalted either hunter or redeemer
3) chaos spam (or alt-regal) until you hit exactly 2 influence mods, one of them the desired mana or chaos one
4) maven orb and pray it elevates the one you want. otherwise repeat step 3
5) second helment (base doesn't matter) with the other infuence
6) repeat step 3 and 4 on the second helmet (alternatively buy one that is already crafted as the base and other mods are irrelevant you can probably get a cheap one)
7) use awakened orb to combine the two
8) harvet reforge prefixes and hope to get lucky again
Appreciate you taking the time to write that out, thank you. Once I finish my gloves, I'll set that as my next crafting goal. Thanks again :)!
No worries. Before you waste lots of maven orbs, put everything into POB and see if you actually need the elevated reservation mod. Might get away with the T1 depending on other gear.
"Fixing the endgame was hard - No matter how hard we buffed red maps, people would keep spamming Gorges.
So we turned Gorge into a red map"
