[3.17] strTrader Max Block Bleed Lacerate Gladiator -- League Start & End Game v3.17.03.17.22

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Cutlaz wrote:

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I dont get how can pride be active without reservation ?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you would need to drop Herald of Purity and even potentially War Banner if you wanted to run Pride with the current passive tree setup (w/ perhaps an enlighten)

Before the next patch, you can link Pride to Blessing and it will reserve no mana. This is getting patched, so I do not recommend using it.

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strTrader wrote:

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Cutlaz wrote:

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I dont get how can pride be active without reservation ?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you would need to drop Herald of Purity and even potentially War Banner if you wanted to run Pride with the current passive tree setup (w/ perhaps an enlighten)

Before the next patch, you can link Pride to Blessing and it will reserve no mana. This is getting patched, so I do not recommend using it.

Yeah, understood. Just curious how you would run a setup without the bug consisting of:

War Banner
Herald of Purity
Pride
Tempest Shield
Flesh and Stone

plus Determination?

With the 3 mana reservation passives, I don't see a way to do this.

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Cutlaz wrote:

Yeah, understood. Just curious how you would run a setup without the bug consisting of:

War Banner
Herald of Purity
Pride
Tempest Shield
Flesh and Stone

plus Determination?

With the 3 mana reservation passives, I don't see a way to do this.

Something like this:
Determination/Malevolence + Herald of Purity + Tempest Shield + Enlighten
Pride + Blessing
Flesh and Stone
War Banner

Losing determination isn't a huge nerf for us in terms of tankiness ?

Hello guys, following the guide for the second time, and I love it, it feels great to sustain on blocks :3, 73 attack block and 50 spell block, feels fine.

Maps are simple, you don't want reflect phys and less block, that's all

I hope we get some update about your build, IE why not swift affliction and what to do with eternal blessing after patch .

TY !

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strTrader wrote:

I think there were many other questions since you wrote 4-5 giant paragraphs. Feel free to reconnect.

Hi, thanks for answering. One of my questions was related to the order of gear upgrades, e.g. whether it made sense to buy a Rumi's when I was still relatively poor (it was 20c at the time, now seems to be down to ~4) or how important The Surrender was. I ended up getting a couple of lucky random exalts so I did buy the latter fairly quickly so I could have the "final setup".

Another question was about when do you switch out of Versatile Combattant. I noticed that when you did it you were still at like 37% spell block so it's more complex than just "when you can have at least 50% spell block without it".

And lastly, at one point you had Flesh and Stone + Maim and then you switched to Blood and Sand instead. I suspect this is due to getting an Enlighten to enable Pride or Determination instead? The whole everchanging aura setup was a bit difficult to grasp as someone who literally hadn't played a melee build since I think Harbinger League (a Blade Flurry Inquisitor). Banners and stances and whatnot didn't exist back then. :D

Oh also, how important are the Pulverize + Brutality supports in the Surrender? Isn't LGoH the main one? So I ended up going Hextouch + Vulnerabilty in my two other gem slots instead, which means I don't need to have an affix for it on rings.

But tbh I'm likely done with the league since Warhammer III is releasing tomorrow (and then Elden Ring next week) so I'm just asking out of curiosity by now and in case I play this again in the future.

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Wendek wrote:

Hi, thanks for answering. One of my questions was related to the order of gear upgrades, e.g. whether it made sense to buy a Rumi's when I was still relatively poor (it was 20c at the time, now seems to be down to ~4) or how important The Surrender was. I ended up getting a couple of lucky random exalts so I did buy the latter fairly quickly so I could have the "final setup".

There are definitely things you want to wait and things you want to snatch. The top 3 offensive items are Curse on Hit Gloves/Rings, Ryslatha's Coil and helmet Enchant. They gradually decrease in price but may help you push to end content faster. Similarly the shield also drops in price over time and you can wait on it if you are still progressing in the atlas.

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Wendek wrote:

Another question was about when do you switch out of Versatile Combattant. I noticed that when you did it you were still at like 37% spell block so it's more complex than just "when you can have at least 50% spell block without it".

This is a difficult question to answer since this is the second league we had it. In 3.16 Scourge, it was extremely necessary to have high spell block because of the more damage taken debuff. In 3.17, I did not have too much issue with just 50% spell block. This is also extremely easy to obtain with Tempest Shield, Blue Nightmare, chest implicit/craft, amulet annoint and Rumi's Concoction. I basically decided to switch out as soon as I realized I needed more attack block.

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Wendek wrote:

And lastly, at one point you had Flesh and Stone + Maim and then you switched to Blood and Sand instead. I suspect this is due to getting an Enlighten to enable Pride or Determination instead? The whole everchanging aura setup was a bit difficult to grasp as someone who literally hadn't played a melee build since I think Harbinger League (a Blade Flurry Inquisitor). Banners and stances and whatnot didn't exist back then. :D

I think the problem comes down to mana leech and reservation efficiency. Let's just assume we have mana leech on ring/amulet or cluster jewel and only worry about reservation efficiency. In terms of damage per mana reserved, each skill is about the same, so as long as we can maximize the amount of mana we reserve we are in a good shape.

The default auras are Tempest Shield and Herald of Purity because of their "defensive" attribute. You can then fit in Pride and Blood & Sand using just the skill tree passives.

After getting L3 Enlighten, we can switch Blood & Sand to Flesh & Stone. Most people probably won't get a second Enlighten since it's price is skyrocketing this league, but if you do, you can link Maim to Flesh & Stone.

At any point if you have extra mana, you can use Banner. Defiance or War Banner.

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Wendek wrote:

Oh also, how important are the Pulverize + Brutality supports in the Surrender? Isn't LGoH the main one? So I ended up going Hextouch + Vulnerabilty in my two other gem slots instead, which means I don't need to have an affix for it on rings.

Hextouch is a good substitute (but it's not reliable) before curse on hit. At one point, I was using this set up (before upgrading my gloves). Pulverize increases the AoE so it helps LGoH. L30 Reckoning is a good source for DPS so Brutality is useful.

Ultimately, there is no best set up for any build. It all comes down to personal preference. This guide is a consolidation of many players' suggestion and feedback. Many aspects are my personal opinions and are not tested by players of different time commitment and experience. Majority of the time, it's difficult to address all of those in a single write up.

Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed this league and have fun with Warhammer III and Elden Ring.

Regarding what you write in the pros & cons section I wanted to ask about Simulacrum - do you still consider this build "no problem" even for the 30 wave version?

In one of the previous posts I've mentioned that I more or less comfortably reach waves 20-22 and that's true. Yet, at the same time I have never, ever completed all 30 waves. My record is reaching wave 29.

I know Simulacrum is not very profitable nowadays, but I still consider it an interesting benchmark for the build.

Also: any thoughts on Forbidden Flesh and Forbidden Flame? What ascendancy passives would be worth "stealing" from Champion and Slayer?

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John_Michael_Kane wrote:

Regarding what you write in the pros & cons section I wanted to ask about Simulacrum - do you still consider this build "no problem" even for the 30 wave version?

No, that chart was pre-3.16 when Simulacrum was still 20 waves. In 3.16, I reached ~25 waves. I don't think this build can farm 25-30 waves.

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John_Michael_Kane wrote:

Also: any thoughts on Forbidden Flesh and Forbidden Flame? What ascendancy passives would be worth "stealing" from Champion and Slayer?

I haven't given much thought. Whichever passives that benefit us will also benefit other builds so prices are likely to be too high compare to rare jewels. It's like Stranglegasp and Uul-Netol's Vow. Yes they may be BiS amulets, but the cost is too much the justify the benefit. Therefore I tend to ignore those in my builds since I couldn't reliably obtain them every league (...actually ever).

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strTrader wrote:

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John_Michael_Kane wrote:

Regarding what you write in the pros & cons section I wanted to ask about Simulacrum - do you still consider this build "no problem" even for the 30 wave version?

No, that chart was pre-3.16 when Simulacrum was still 20 waves. In 3.16, I reached ~25 waves. I don't think this build can farm 25-30 waves.

Understood. Good to know because I thought I might be doing something wrong.

A quick tip who anyone who'd still like to try - delirium 90+ kills our life leech big time (in my case from 1000+ to less than 200 per hit) so it's worth respecing to Vaal Pact and leech nodes close to it if you'd like to attempt Simu.

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strTrader wrote:

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John_Michael_Kane wrote:

Also: any thoughts on Forbidden Flesh and Forbidden Flame? What ascendancy passives would be worth "stealing" from Champion and Slayer?

I haven't given much thought. Whichever passives that benefit us will also benefit other builds so prices are likely to be too high compare to rare jewels. It's like Stranglegasp and Uul-Netol's Vow. Yes they may be BiS amulets, but the cost is too much the justify the benefit. Therefore I tend to ignore those in my builds since I couldn't reliably obtain them every league (...actually ever).

:-) Yep. I fully understand your approach when considering cost/benefit ratio. Still... I feel tempted to do some testing using PoB - maybe some less popular passive obtainable for like 5 ex for one jewel would synergise nicely? Will let know if I discover something interesting.