[3.26] Ice Dancing God - Icestorm/Cyclone/CI - Viable For Everything

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lacnee#2250 wrote:

Can i use Mageblood on this build effectively?

1. It's an int stacking build. You're losing 18% int and ~66 int from the belt.
2. We already use automatic flask triggering.
3. Sure you can use it but it's not as good as a rare belt.

That said, back in Settlers when I’d Recombinated myself up all-T1 body, gloves, and hat and Kalandra’d myself a Helical, I had so much extra INT, ES, and resistance that I would swap in a Headhunter for giggles when running super-juiced T17s.

Speaking of super tankiness, does anyone else feel a bit squishy this league? I forgot to swap to Yugul with curse effect reduction for a while, and so I was getting one-shot/degened often. But after correcting that, I still feel a little squishier than normal. Maybe the Settlers Recomb gear spoiled me?

Q: How much damage does this amulet on your merc give you?
A: It gives you about 5.6% MORE damage.

Details:

Build update

- Added a section for the Mercs.

What other interesting merc items have you heard about?

There is The Eternal Struggle, but that's hardly worth it. There are HUNDREDS of them for sale, and you'll go crazy if you try to figure the mod tiers on your own. Pretty much all of the cheap ones are not Exarch dominant. You can just start searching from 2+ div price if you want one. But paying 2 div for culling strike is a bit too much. Pretty sure you can just 6L your chest for less.

You can buy a bunch of Polaric Invitations and kill that mini-boss yourself too. But the amulet is not a common drop.

Eventually you will have culling on Ambush & Assassinate. And MORE damage from Perquil's Toe.

What else is good on the merc that's not a weapon or gloves?

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Kelvynn#6607 wrote:

What other interesting merc items have you heard about?

There is The Eternal Struggle, but that's hardly worth it. There are HUNDREDS of them for sale, and you'll go crazy if you try to figure the mod tiers on your own. Pretty much all of the cheap ones are not Exarch dominant. You can just start searching from 2+ div price if you want one. But paying 2 div for culling strike is a bit too much. Pretty sure you can just 6L your chest for less.

You can buy a bunch of Polaric Invitations and kill that mini-boss yourself too. But the amulet is not a common drop.

Eventually you will have culling on Ambush & Assassinate. And MORE damage from Perquil's Toe.

What else is good on the merc that's not a weapon or gloves?

https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Mercenaries/vgO8evWFE

There's a trade search for Exarch Dominant.

They're a bit on the expensive side, but you can find them a bit cheaper. I nabbed one to use for now since I still just have an eruptor (I haven't found a kineticist or sanguimancer in red maps yet) and I don't have culling strike in my body armor yet.

Cheapest atm is 50c. I got one for I think 25c, I've seen them for cheaper too, if you sit on live search.

With Perquil's being so useful though, I think once you get Gravebind and Oblits online on a Kineticist or Sanguimancer, you're better off.

Question if anyone knows, does Whispers of Doom allow +1 total curse between you and the merc? Because then Asenath's becomes a possible option.

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Kelvynn#6607 wrote:

What else is good on the merc that's not a weapon or gloves?

Stampede could be useful on them, to grant them another Annoint.

Leer cast is great while leveling and gearing up for the +50% Increased damage to allies.

I'm currently running Kaom's Binding belt. Since the Sanguimancer jumps so aggressively into packs, it's an extremely reliable 25% Phys taken as Fire.

I also gave them +1 curse and a Frostbite on hit synth ring, though I'll likely swap this out eventually to Frostbite myself once I give it an Anathema and have dual curse myself so I can give it a synth ring with a less important curse to have at a high level.

Yfelban's Trickery is an interesting helmet I haven't tested yet, but if you kill things too quickly for it stacking curses to really matter then it would lose a lot of value, could be relatively nice on bosses though. The Gull is another interesting helmet idea to pair with Gravebind gloves to make it spawn lesser shrines.

Amulet anoints also work, you can give it Last Rites if it's cursing to give things 50% reduced life regen, or a large curse effectiveness notable to make up for the low level of a curse on hit ring.

I'm sure there's a lot more but I haven't gotten around to testing much yet.

Crown of the Tyrant is -10% to nearby enemy resists, plus added cold damage to nearby allies per green socket. It's also priced accordingly.

Garb of the Ephemeral prevents nearby enemies from critting, and mercs don't appear to be subject to its insane stat requirements. Also expensive.

On to the cheap stuff... (which I totally haven’t verified which mercs can use)

At the cost of giving up one wand and thus half of the 'plosions, Victario's Charity and its Replica grant Frenzy Charges to allies at 10% chance per kill, and there's a +1 max Frenzy Charge node right below the rightmost Fertile Mind socket. Is losing half of the explosions and stealing a passive point from elsewhere worth +20% more damage?

Blood Price reserves 8% of nearby enemy life. But that nullifies Ambush & Assassinate's bonuses against full-life enemies.

Legacy of Fury Scorches all nearby (3m radius) enemies, lowering all elemental resists by 13-15%, and applies a Fire DoT to enemies surrounding any killed Scorched enemies. Cheap knockoff of Crown of the Tyrant?

Untouched Soul grants 18% all elemental resist for each empty white socket on other gear. Since mercs don't care about sockets, and don't suffer the Kitava resist penalties, it could be an easy way to fix up their resists with a just few white sockets.

Mercs can't take advantage of skills triggered from equipment, so Sporeguard is out for guaranteed Chaos explosions from Fungal Ground. But I'm not sure about effects, so I am curious about a Zahndethus' Cassock with a Worship the Blightheart anoint somewhere. The Cassock appears to create the Consecrated Ground itself on block, and WoB converts it to Fungal Ground. Boom 'splodey without any wands at all? It's only 10% life as Chaos, compared to 25%, though.