[3.15] Gryph's Burning Vengeance! Cast on Crit Bladefall + Blade Blast!
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Now Streaming! Come chat with me, I stream every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday 3pm-5pm and 10pm-1am USEastern Time.
*Note: due to life circumstances (I'm moving :D) I will not be streaming at my normal times for the month of June. https://www.twitch.tv/gryphenprey
3.15 Updates
I know people are going to ask so I'm going to put my initial thoughts here regarding the triggered spell mana costs.
IT'S FINE I PROMISE! HERE! A 3.15 Video showcase before they buffed mana: https://youtu.be/oafBgnbTsq0 So here's a short version: Swap Helmet to Devouring Diadem for Eldritch Battery for easy mana sustain... OR stack some reduced mana cost of skills (tireless wheel+Inspiration support) and get -mana cost of non-channeling skills to help compensate the mana shortage. OKAY! So I redid my character in the updated POB and she went from about 60 Million DPS to...about 24M if I also account for the loss of Blade Blast AOE. Sadge. So while it's not as explosive with DPS as it once was I'd say it's pretty realistic to still get to around 20M DPS with good investments. Here are two POBs, one has a low-mid gear setup with 1 or no clusters and with and without Diadem. The other is my 3.14 character in 3.15. Budget-ish https://pastebin.com/UwTfhWkD From 60M to 22-sih M DPS. https://pastebin.com/Y4KaMg4P Hey everybody! I've been tinkering with this build for a week or so now and I think it's time to write up a guide for the Ascendant's... Burning Vengeance!
Videos
Will be making more showcase videos soon!
Minotaur Mapping Showcase w/ Phoenix Visitor, Trialmaster guest appearance, and completely gutted DPS Zana Phoenix. Sirus 8 100% Delirious Cemetery Map. Recorded while streaming.
Path of Building
*PSA! my POBs are not meant to be used as guides for the build, but rather reference points to review, compare, dissect...etc. https://pastebin.com/xsadLDLF This is my character as she is now. There is still room for improvement.
Pros/Cons
PROS: -Very good DPS -Trivialize the Trialmaster. Make him WEEP! -Excellent Clear Speed -Tanky with insane recovery mechanics, mitigations, and huge block(no Glancing Blows nonsense!) -Fun. #Spin2win -Flexible! There are a lot of ways to configure this to your style and budget! -Scaling Budget. Works with low budget, shines with investment! -Overall an awesome "Do everything" build. CONS: -Very little passive life/ES recovery. Most of our recovery is reliant on being in combat. -Cast on Crit with Cyclone requires being in melee range. -Cannot be completely immune to Elemental Ailments as we must be able to BE ignited. -Susceptible to big ignites for reason above. Although a Seething Life Flask of Dousing can be safely used if you're concerned and won't noticeably interrupt your own self ignites.
The Concept
The basic idea is very simple actually. We look to automate and abuse the very powerful interaction between Bladefall and Blade Blast. Bladefall leaves blades in the ground when cast. Blade Blast can then detonate those blades for MASSIVE bursts of overlapping AOE damage. We will accomplish this by using Cyclone with Cast on Critical Strike to trigger Bladefall to deal DPS and also lay blades in the ground to be detonated by a Blade Blast that is being triggered by Cast on Critical Strike automatically by a triggered attack skill. This idea is not unique itself, however the methods we will be using in this build are. Put very simply, we utilize the Vengeance skill to auto trigger CoC Blade Blast on a 1.2 second cooldown (this can be reasonably brought down to 0.69s with CDR gear)
Spoiler
 Now, the only thing left to do is to hit ourselves consistently enough to trigger Vengeance on cooldown. There are two ways to do this: Scold's Bridle and Eye of Innocence. We will be making use of Eye of Innocence and abusing its ability to ALSO ignite us.
Rundown of Self Ignite
When we ignite enemies, we take 100 fire damage from Eye of Innocence (reduced by fire resistance and other damage reducing modifiers). This allows not only the ability to hit ourselves for Vengeance, consistent self damage for Cast When Damage Taken procs (more on this later), but also when combined with a source of "+X% Chance to Be Ignited" we are able to self ignite! For our purposes we will use Replica Reckless Defense for chance to be ignited. Okay, so we have successfully set ourselves ablaze...now what? What good is that? The obvious is the 70% increased damage and 2% Fire Damage leeched as life from Eye of Innocence. Additionally there are bonuses that we can take advantage of from other sources as well:  Attack Speed+Movement Speed+Freeze and Chill Immunity+Covering Enemies in Ash+Life Leech That's a lot of bonuses for setting ourselves on fire! The best part? These items are ALSO additionally synergistic and/or best in slot as well! Martyr of Innocence is a 7L for Vengeance, Eye of Innocence is vital to the build for self damage, and even Replica Reckless Defense gives additional Block+Spell Block! When everything's put together you end up with a very smooth well-oiled machine! Tons of synergy and packed with power!
Defenses
 Block is a huge one for sure. We easily reach 75% Attack and 60%+ Spell Block. We also have Life Recovery on Block thanks to Bone Offering and Necromancer Asendancy! Just this alone lets us trivialize Ultimatums! In addition to this we have insane recovery mechanics in the forms of Life Leech, Life on Hit, ES Leech, and ES on hit! So when we DO take big hits we recovery almost instantly! :D  BUT. WAIT. THERE'S MORE! We also have: -Permanent uptime on 3-4 Endurance Charges -We utilize Immortal Call very effectively since we generate endurance charges very quickly (they're back to full almost immediately after casting!) Immortal Call can be held down or used strategically. It even has more than 50% uptime thanks to our CDR investments for Cast on Crit:  -We also give ourselves permanent uptime on FORTIFY for another 20% less damage taken from hits. This is gotten from the Overlord Cluster Notable:  -Blind. I like to use Smoke Mine for the movement speed and attack speed boost (Divergent version). But it also leaves smoke clouds around that blind enemies in them. Combine that with the Smoking Remains Cluster Notable and you are blinding most things. -And lastly, we round all these layers out with a nice hefty life and energy shield pool that can easily reach anywhere from 7k to 8k total. 
Gear
Required Items/Uniques
These are the only items that are REQUIRED for the build to work. The amulet deals us fire damage and the jewel enables Self Ignite.
Substitutes for Jewel
Worth noting there are two other item options for self ignition:
 These can function as substitutes for Replica Reckless Defense in an early league/SSF scenario where the jewel is limited in availability.
Helmet
The helmet slot has some pretty basic requirements. Life, Res, and Accuracy are all good. You can get Nearby Enemies have -9-12% Fire Res, Crit Multiplier, Spell Block, Fortify Effect, or any number of other fancy influence mods as well. Whatever floats your boat. Blizzard Crown is the best base as we convert 50% of the added cold damage to fire damage thanks to Avatar of Fire. HOWEVER You MUST get the 30% Vengeance Cooldown Recovery Rate enchant if at all possible. This is BiS Enchant.
Gloves
We get a LOT out of gloves. As we are trying to convert 100% of our physical damage to fire damage, the glove slot comes in to make this possible. We can use Synthesized Gloves like the ones above and the Bench Craft for fire conversion to get 100% OR we can use any rare gloves and 3 passive points from the tree to get there:  
Boots
We want Cooldown Recovery here. Elevated if possible as our goal for CDR is 74%. Can Awaken together with Tailwind for some zoom zoom or just get some res/dex. Life+Movement speed are highly recommended :P
Body Armour
First, I like astral plate base for the ele res implicit. However we need 3 Green and 3 Blue for colors so that might be pretty hard to to do on a Strength Base. Keep that in mind when you're shopping/crafting one. What we want here is Offering Effect and Attack Crit. This can be gotten on a pure Hunter base or by using an awakener orb to mash em together. For the third suffix we take what we can get. Spell Crit would be ideal but any resists/useful mods will suffice. Additional Curse can be forced onto a chest by locking suffixes with the "Suffixes Cannot be Changed" Bench Metacraft (2ex) and then using a Harvest Reforge a Rare with CASTER modifier. Pray/slam for life if you have 2 open prefixes and craft 9-10% of max life as extra max Energy Shield to finish it off.
Rings
GET UNSET BASES! You know, do your best with that. We are starved for sockets and this helps. You want one with Flammability on hit (if you have 2nd curse from chest) The other can be an Unset rare with Life+Resists. You can use the Ngamahu's Sign ring for insane Life Recovery if you do not have the Watcher's Eye or Life gain on hit for spells. Though in general you should be okay without it.
Belt
Stygian Vise is ideal. Get one with Cooldown Recovery Rate. Reduced Flask Charges used is also fantastic.  This is also an option for extra zoom zoom mapping.
Jewels
Clusters
Scion Jewels
Abyssal Jewels
Everything Else
Flasks
Gems and Links
For Visual Learners/Gear with links/Example
6L Blade Blast -Blade Blast -Cast on Critical Strike -(Awakened) Increased Area of Effect Not a large damage multiplier on paper but more AOE=more overlap=more DPS. -(Awakened) Elemental Focus -(Awakened) Fire Penetration -(Awakened) Added Fire Damage *If you get enough mana reservation (gear dependent) to use Skitterbots, then you can use Hypothermia instead of Added Fire Damage *Use Increased Critical Strikes if on a budget/crit chance in POB is low. 6L Cyclone+Bladefall -(Divergent) Cyclone Divergent for more movement speed -(Awakened) Cast on Critical Strike -Bladefall leave at 0% quality. we want as small aoe on this as possible -(Awakened) Spell Cascade -(Anomalous) Concentrated Effect This is mostly for single target as the reduction in AOE on Bladefall drastically improves the overlap of Blade Blast blades for a huge DPS multiplier. Consider Infused Channeling or Increased Area of Effect for mapping. -Combustion *Use Increased Critical Strikes if on a budget/crit chance in POB is low. 4L in Helmet. Auras -Discipline -Zealotry -Enlighten -Herald of Ash *If you can manage the mana reserve, you can move Herald of Ash to a ring and instead use Skitterbots on the Enlighten. This requires a mana reservation helmet, spending 6 points for Charisma in the tree, and 1-2 of the small 4% mana reserve nodes we have access to on our Thread of Hope. This investment does give us the ability to use Hypothermia as a better damage multiplier support as well as giving a source of shock to the build. 4L in Gloves or Boots - Movement+Guard You have two options for this based on budget and other factors:
Option 1, high budget
This is an end game setup that assumes you have a source of Fire Exposure elsewhere on gear or tree and thus do not need a CWDT+Wave of Conviction 2L(see next spoiler for that) Immortal Call *We have insane charge generation from Charging Offensive anointment and self hitting mechanics. Combined with our cooldown recovery rate on gear and Immortal Call has a 50% uptime. It's also an instant skill and thus does not interrupt Cyclone. Self Cast. (Divergent) Smoke Mine Smoke Mine gives movement speed and smoke cloud for strategic blinding. Divergent is even better as it also grants Attack speed. If you don't like smoke mine, then use your preferred movement skill. IE: Flame Dash, Frostblink, or Dash. Enhance Particularly useful if you're using Divergent Smoke Mine as it gives a hefty bonus to attack speed. Also increases duration of Immortal Call. Flexible Slot. IE: Don't have 2x Unset Rings Arcane Surge (Level 8-9) When linked to Immortal Call, Arcane Surge gains MASSIVE increased Duration from IC's increased duration per endurance charge. Make sure level of gem is low enough to always proc off of Immortal Call (around 8 or 9)
Normal/Budget Setup
Fire Exposure can be difficult/expensive/rare to obtain on gear or cluster jewels and so this setup is intended for those who do not have that. With this setup you will need an Unset ring for your movement skill. 2L CWDT Cast When Damage Taken (Level 1) Wave of Conviction (Level 7) 2L Arcane Surge+Guard Skill Immortal Call Arcane Surge (Level 8-9) If you're extremely socket starved (no unsets for example) then you can drop Arcane Surge. DO NOT drop Immortal Call. It's an insane defensive boost--even if you just hold the button down on left click or something. 4L Cast When Damage Taken Setup This is a leveled CWDT setup, therefore level all these gems to 20. If your CWDT is 21, then you can get level 21 gems as well. Cast When Damage Taken Assassin's Mark (20% quality) You can get this on a ring instead, but it gets hard to cover resists and quality on Assassin's Mark give power charge generation on single target. Desecrate (Divergent)Bone Offering This is THE reason we go for Necromancer Ascendancy. This skill provides a massive amount of block+spell block as well as Life Gained on Block--a stat not normally accessible to staves. Loose Gems/Unsets Vitality (level 1) If you're using a Vitality Watcher's Eye, then put a level 1 Vitality in a ring. Depending on other setups you can use rings for your movement skills, Herald, etc...
Ascendancies/Pantheon/Bandits
Bandits
Help Alira for Damage+Resists or Kill All for +2 passives. I almost always start by helping Alira and spec out of her when I go to minmax my tree with clusters, etc...
Pantheon
Major: Lunaris for most things. Arakaali if you chaos res is suspect. Minor: I like Gruthkul for 5% phys mitigation. It's always up since we hit ourselves. Shakari can be used for chaos mitigation as well. Aberrath for burning ground if that's a problem for you (situational).
Ascendancies
One of the coolest aspects of playing Scion is just how FLEXIBLE she is with her Ascendancies. This gives us a lot of options, but here are my top picks: First off:
Primary Ascendancy - Witch
Necromancer
 This is our primary node. This enables Bone Offering as a Source of Block and Life on block. Automated with CWDT setup. Now, there are situations where the block is not as relevant and you might need Elemental Reflect Immunity (Uber Atziri fight for example). To this end, we can spend 10 total refund points to temporarily swap to Elementalist for specific content and then swap back: 
Secondary Ascendancy Options
I am currently utilizing Pathfinder for my second ascendancy for the Flask sustain. Traveling through dex node and access to Ranger start makes getting the required dexterity for the build a cinch as well.  There are other great options as well. Notably:  Overleech, Culling Strike, and AOE (for mapping) make this a very strong option.  Free Fortify (can choose different Cluster jewel), Aura Effect, and a good damage boost from the Taunt effect make this the most appealing League Start option to me.  Assassin is great for power charge sustain, free Elusive, and some extra crit chance. I could see league starting as a "ChampSin" Ascendant and transitioning later.
Do NOT touch this Ascendancy
Normally Inquisitor is a fantastic option for elemental Crit builds. However, we cannot actually allow ourselved to be Elemental Ailment Immune - specifically Ignite - as it would break the build. 
F.A.Q
Q: Does Awakened Cast on Critical Strike's Cooldown Recovery work on Vengeance's Cooldown? A: Nope. Wish it did, but it doesn't. SADGE! Last edited by Gryphenprey on Aug 17, 2021, 11:29:24 AM Last bumped on Oct 3, 2021, 4:46:59 AM
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Updated. Added the gems and links section in written detail.
Pending a section for Self hitting/CWDT mechanics and Cooldown Recovery Rate for Vengeance breakpoints, etc... Last edited by Gryphenprey on May 29, 2021, 1:37:50 PM
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How is the flask up-time with Pathfinder node?
I think I'm also missing where the endurance generation is from? The DPS is looks certainly high enough to instant-phase or almost instant-phase A9 Sirus. |
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" It's pretty good. Good enough to have all my flasks except maybe Cinderswallow(lots of charges) up at all times or with very little downtime. The damage is now enough to instant phase Sirus incidentally, I made a few tweaks since that video and got myself about 43% more DPS+Culling Strike. Hehe. We gain Endurance Charges from Charging Offensive Anointment. We channel Cyclone and as we're hitting enemies and igniting we're dealing damage to ourselves (hits) which provides Frenzy+Endurance Charges. |
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Looking at your current PoB, you seem to have more than enough res, would it be easier to use a Vaal Regalia chest base for getting the right colours? The extra ES would also be nice.
On trade, the same mods also seems a bit cheaper on the ES chest. Last edited by CrackAndCat on May 30, 2021, 6:30:18 PM
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" Keep in mind a lot of the res from POB is from Wise Oak. I'm actually undercapped prior to Endurance Charges. But yes, if you can cover the resists use any base you like. I just happen to like Astrals and I craft my own gear for the most part. |
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Where is all the block % coming from? I'm nowhere near what you show and the only skill I know I'm missing currently is Whirling Barrier.
I'm sure the answer is obvious but I'm just not seeing it. I'm about 40% short on attack block and 60% short on spell block. The only significant things I'm missing right now are Unnatural Instinct and the perfect Watcher's Eye. Thanks for the help. | |
" Perfect Rumi's + Cluster Jewels, Whirling Barrier, and a T1 offering Roll on your armour will max out both block chances. I'm currently sitting at 73/60 with everything activated. Total cost of build so far: 171 exalts. | |
" Soo, how will this build perform as a league starter? How far it can go with only 2-3 ex budget? |
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