[Standard] MoM afk tank Scion Build Showcase (Updated)
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Introduction
Showcase of an afk tank build focusing on using Mind over Matter (MoM) and mana. This build was a challenge I set myself: to make a viable MoM afk tank build. In the process, I've discovered some interesting mechanics and interactions which I will highlight in this post.  (Wave 25 Simulacrum) Mana has always been my favorite archetype and I'm always looking for interesting, or meme, mana builds. I've been working on this build for the past couple years, iirc I started the build around 3.0 league. I got the idea after seeing a few content creators' afk tanks and I wanted to try making one centered around MoM and mana. In the post I will showcase the gear I use on the character in Standard, including legacy gear, as well as non-legacy gear for those interesting in replicating the build, or parts of the build, in league. Build highlights: The main highlight of the build is using Petrified Blood and Recoup for life recovery. Combined with MoM, it becomes a very powerful source of life recovery. However, this is only works against hits. Additionally, PB and well managed life reservation enables permanent leech (e.g. Immortal Ambition), and combined with the flask mod 'damage taken from hits leeched as life' is another powerful source of life recovery.
Tldr;
Main information about my character: Stats: Ehp: 13 300 Life: 1 500 (3 000 total) Life Recouped: 81% Mana: 11 300 (regen: 10 500 mana/s) Mana Recouped: 132% MoM: 78% Res: 77/77/75/81 Defenses: 41/54 block, 31% suppress, 16% phys dmg reduction, Divine Flesh, Petrified Blood. Required items: Mindspiral, Prism Guardian, Atziri's Foible, Voices, Megalomaniacs (mana regen), Watcher's Eye (Clarity), Transcendent Mind, Healthy Mind, Ivory Tower or rare MoM chest, Glorious Vanity (Xibaqua).
PoBB link
Build History
The build started as a Templar with 50% MoM and as much regen as I could get (around 3k life/mana regen each). There was nothing special about the build and it wasn't tanky. A couple leagues later (3.9 iirc), I switched to a Scion for the Gladiator nodes with a life and mana recovery on block shield. During Delirium league, I started using Agnostic for life recovery and Ivory Tower with Divine Flesh for additional MoM, allowing me to invest a bit more in mana and drop all life regen. To get enough mana regen to sustain life and mana, I decided to stack Megalomaniacs with Rot-Resistant (0.3% of mana/s) and Mindfulness (80% mana regen while stationary) using 2 Voices. I've been buying them in league ever since (there are several dozen every league) but I've missed out on some really insane ones (eg +1 ele res, +1 chaos res). During Sentinel league, thanks to recombinators, I was able to craft a 20% MoM body armour, eldritch mod + subterranean mod (legacy mods), and decided to completely commit to MoM and mana/mana regen, achieving 78% MoM and over 10k mana/s regen (8.5k with agnostic). Finally, also during Sentinel league, I discovered a great synergy between recoup, MoM and Petrified Blood. As MoM and PB reduce the amount of damage taken from life but recoup is still calculated based on the total damage taken, recoup becomes very effective for life recovery against hits and Agnostic is no longer necessary for hits. PB also enables reserving life for more auras but requires Prism Guardian; I decided to use Arctic Armour and Tempest Shield, in addition to PB and Clarity. I was also able to craft my dream ring with the 15% maximum mana delve mod. This league, I tried to recraft the body armour to also have the legacy spell suppress mod but have failed so far. I also crafted another ring with %mana (delve mod), life reservation (delve mod) and mana recoup (veiled mod). The future upgrades are finishing the body armour and getting Kalandra's Touch to copy the better ring. I could also find better Megalomaniacs and get 1p Voices. I haven't bothered with the glove enchantments and the belt enchantment doesn't really matter. Finally, if one ever appears on the market, Mindspiral with the MoM corruption.
Mechanics
Mind Over Matter
This mechanic increases the ehp of the character by including mana as health. The downsides are reserving mana, and getting mana and mana regen. The keystone was changed to now be 40% of damage taken from mana before life (MoM), which was a huge upgrade for this build. The build gets MoM from the keystone (40%), the Ascendant (Hierophant 8%), a Watcher's Eye (10%), and a rare body armour (20%) for a total of 78% MoM. There ia also a 5% MoM helmet corruption for a total of 83% MoM. Getting 100% MoM is one of my dream project but it might not actually be much of an advantage. Certainly you could start using Chaos Inoculation, but you still can't reserve any auras and that's a major downside. As for Eldritch Battery, I find Divine Flesh to be excellent to mitigate elemental resistance penetration (50% less pen) as there are very few ways to reduce chaos resistances, which makes EB only work for spell cost. Otherwise, using EB and Mindspiral gives a lot of ehp but there remains the problem of investing in ES recovery. I also don't believe the investment to go from 90% MoM to 100% MoM to be worth it (basically getting at least 15 Power Charges). There are too few advantages of having 100% MoM, whereas with 90% MoM (and even 75%+), any investment to life becomes very minimal and mana can really be the focus. The two major differences after 75% MoM are the investments in maximum life and life recovery, which will be explained in the life recovery section. The 90% MoM mark isn't complicated to achieve with a legacy 20% MoM body armour: 40% keystone, 10% Hierophant, 10% Watcher's Eye, 5% helmet corruption and 5 Power Charges with Aylardex). Though, I have found, so far, that Mindspiral is tankier as it gives a lot of mana recovery.
Ivory Tower and Divine Flesh
Ivory Tower gives 100% chaos damage taken from mana before life (100% chaos MoM) and Divine Flesh converts 50% of elemental damage taken as chaos. Since the incoming damage conversion is done before MoM, this combination essentially gives 100% chaos MoM and at least 70% elemental MoM (with 50% MoM, explanation under). Also the downside of Divine Flesh, bypassing ES, is ignored while using Agnostic.
Elemental MoM calculation
Scenario: 50% MoM, 75% ele res, 80% chaos res ele dmg taken: 50% (DF ele) * 25% ele dmg taken (ele res) = 12.5% chaos dmg taken: 50% (DF chaos) * 20% (chaos res) = 10% effective damage taken from ele dmg: 22.5% effective MoM from ele dmg: (12.25% * 50% (MoM)) / 22.25% = 27.8% MoM effective MoM from converted chaos dmg: 10% / 22.25% = 44.4% MoM total effective ele MoM: 72.2% ele MoM Since the mitigations (resistances and phys dmg reduction) are applied before MoM but after the conversion (see how the calculations are done), the effective elemental MoM will vary based on the max resistances. For example, with 75% ele/chaos res, the effective ele MoM is 75% (25% for ele and 50% from chaos), but with 80% ele res and 75% chaos res, the effective ele MoM is 77.8% (22.2% from ele and 55.6% from chaos). And with 60% MoM, the effective ele MoM is 77.8% (33.3% from ele and 44.4% from chaos). Another advantage of Divine Flesh is reducing the effectiveness of elemental penetration as 50% of elemental damage is converted.
Mana recovery
As one of the weaknesses of the mana archetype, mana is difficult to sustain especially with high amounts of MoM and while using Agnostic. The available mechanics are mana recovered on block shield, mana regeneration, mana on hit, and mana recoup. Mana on block isn't possible because the build uses Prism Guardian (and no staff), and mana on hit isn't viable enough. In the latest iteration of the build, I've decided to invest more in mana recouped.
Mana Recoup
While there are not few sources of mana recoup, it is complicated to get high amounts because it is requires very specific gear. The straightforward sources are on the tree (Battle Rouse and the mana mastery), a Clarity Watcher's Eye, and Mindspiral. There is also a Veiled mod for rings and amulets, a delve mod for gloves, helmets and boots, and an abyss jewel mod (and a legacy jewel implicit). Mana recoup is also increased by mana recovery rate.
Breakdown
Mana recoup: total 73% - Tree: 20% - Watcher's Eye: 20% - Minspiral: 20% - Ring: 9% - Abyss jewel: 4% After applying mana recovery rate, it goes up to 132%. Additionally, the effectiveness of mana recoup is increased through MoM since it is based on the total incoming damage and not the damage taken from mana (same principle as for life recouped, see the life recovery section). As such, it is interesting to look at how much of the damage taken from mana is recouped. For this build it is 169% of damage taken from mana recouped as mana, ie mana lossed, or 43%/s.
Effective mana recouped calculation
Scenario: 50% MoM, 100% mana recoup Effective mana recoup: 100% / 50% = 200% of damage taken from mana recouped as mana
Mana regeneration
The main scaling for mana regen on the build is stacking Megalomaniac with Rot-Resistant (x6) and Mindfulness (x4) for a total of 1.8% mana regenerated and 320% increased mana regen while stationary. This represents almost half of the base mana regen and around a third of the increased mana regeneration rate. Clarity gives flat base mana regen (52 with a lvl20, empower and divine blessing) which is around 1000 mana regenerated after regeneration and recovery rate. As such, flat mana regen is as powerful as %mana regen but there are fewer sources (and with low values). There is also %inc mana regeneration rate on as many pieces of gear as possible (currently only rings and scepter, and obviously Aztiri's Foible) and on the tree for a total of 740% (without Minfulness). There is a delve mod for gloves, helmets and boots, as well as a crusader mod for helmets. And there is the boots enchantment, of which the build uses the legacy uber version (70%), and the Arcane Surge support which can be scaled. Finally, the build uses mana recovery rate (81% total) to further increase the mana regenerated.
Breakdown
Base mana regen: total 507 - natural: 1.8% - Clarity: 52 - Arcane Will: 5 - Warlord scepter: 0.4% - Rot-resistant: 1.8% Increased mana regeneration rate: total 1067% - Tree: 174% - Gear: 459% - Arcane Surge: 114% - Mindfulness: 320% Mana recovery rate: total 81% - Belt: 24% - Transcendent Mind: 57% Other available sources of mana regen: Pure Talent (0.5%), Aylardex with the min Power Charge cluster (18% regeneration rate per PC).
Life recovery
With how much investment goes into mana regeneration, there are very few solutions to getting high life recovery. At first, Agnostic was the only solution, it costs few points, it's very powerful, and the life/mana ratio makes it very effective. But it also counters the investment in mana recovery by sacrificing mana to recover life and discourages reserving life as it would make Agnostic always sacrifice 20% of mana (worsening the former problem). The previous iteration of the build used agnostic and reserved mana (around 20%), but I found a better way using MoM, life recouped and Petrified Blood.
Life recoup
These MoM, life recouped and Petrified Blood have great synergy for powerful life recovery against hits. The principal is to increasing the effectiveness of life recoup by reducing the damage taken from life. This works because life recoup is based on the total damage taken before MoM and includes the damage prevented by Petrified Blood. The build has 564% of damage taken from life recouped as life, i.e. life lossed, or 141%/s.
Life recoup calculation
Scenario: 50% MoM, lvl21/20 Petrified Blood, 100% life recoup damage taken from life: 50% (MoM) * 60% (PB) = 30% decoup from PB: 50% (MoM) * 40% (PB) * 75% (PB) = 15% total life recoup: 100% - 15% = 85% effective life recovery: 85% / 30% = 283% of life lossed recouped (71%/s) The effectiveness increases expenentially with MoM. E.g. with 90% MoM and 40% life recoup, it's 617% effective life recouped (154%/s). The builds gets life recoup on the tree (top cluster - 30%) and on both rings (36%), and recoup is affected by life recovery rate (24% on belt). The second life recoup cluster is also very accessible on the tree. The last life recovery mechanic used on the build is life leech, specifically the crafted flask mod 'damage taken leeched as life'. The build had automated flasks as soon as the enchantments came out and I had initially just put it on as bonus recovery. But after the discovering the previous interaction, I realized the same effectiveness increase occurred.
Life leech flask mod
The build uses a Bismouth flask with the Flagellant mod to have a maximum uptime against hits.This gives the build 114% of damage taken from life leeched as life.
Life leeched calculation
Scenario: 50% MoM, lvl21/20 Petrified Blood, 15% of damage taken leeched as life damage taken from life: 50% (MoM) * 60% (PB) = 30% effective life recovery: 15% / 30% = 50% of life lossed leeched Note: I'm not going to go in the details of leeching, such as the actual recovery this represents. This also increases exponentially with MoM. E.g. with 90% MoM, it's 250% of life lossed leeched. Additionally, with Petrified Blood, if your recoverable life is lower than your max life, the build will essentially have Immortal Ambition (leech doesn't stop because max unreserved life is never reached). So with some careful life reservation management (<50%), this becomes even more powerful for life recovery. These 2 layers of life recovery are enough manage almost any hit that doesn't oneshot (extreme hits/s can outpace the recovery). For DoT, the only life recovery effective is regeneration which is limited to Agnostic. The current version of the build doesn't use Agnostic but can get Lethe Shade for some mitigation.
Auras
Mana and MoM builds are usually limited to a couple auras because of limited reservation space. Petrified Blood enables the build to reserve more auras by reserving life. This build uses Clarity, Petrified Blood, Tempest Shield and Arctic Armour. I chose these defensive auras for the spell block and less physical damage taken as the build has no armour (Determination reserves too much). Unfortunately, only Clarity is an aura so Divine Blessing cannot be used with the other three (mana reserving spells). The difficult part with not reserving mana is getting enough life reservation efficiency, there are few sources of life and generic reservation efficiency. The build gets generic and life reservation efficiency to reserve 49% of life with 3 auras (normally 85%). It uses the Champion of the Cause cluster, the aura mastery, Prism Guardian, 2 corrupted jewels, and the delve mod for life reservation efficiency.
Breakdown
Life reservation efficiency: total 74% - Prism Guardian: 30% - Tree: 28% - Jewels: 4% - Ring: 12%
Physical damage mitigation
Physical damage is one of the major weaknesses to the build. Since armour is not very available, the build uses physical damage reduction with Arctic Armour (22% less physical damage taken) and Immortal Call (34% less physical damage taken). As well as physical damage conversion with a shield corruption (7% physical as cold) and a bench crafted mod (6%/6% physical as fire/lightning). For physical damage reduction, the build uses endurance charges (0-12%) with charges on block, and a chaos golem (4%).
Other
Resistances: - doubled chaos resistances (Cleansed Thoughts) - +5% max chaos res (Divine Flesh), +1% max chaos res (Glorious Vanity node) - +2% max fire/cold res (eldritch mods on gloves and boots) Flasks: Topaz, sapphire and ruby flasks (20% less ele dmg taken) with the Flagellant mod and immunity to ignite/burning, poison and bleeding/corrupted blood. Block: 51%/60% Spell suppression: 31%
Gear
Helmet
Either rare with high mana and mana regen (elder/crusader/warlord), a MoM corruption, or a well rolled Mindspiral. Enchantments: Chaos Golem effect is currently the best for the build, Arcane Cloak life regeneration is good life recovery, Arctic Armour reservation if reserving mana.
Gloves
Rare with mana and resistances. The build uses boots with the legacy mana temple, max cold res implicit, legacy spell suppression implicit mod and lots of res. Mana regeneration delve mod is also really good.
Boots
Rare with mana and resistances. The build uses boots with the legacy hybrid life delve mod, legacy mana regeneration rate enchantment, max fire res implicit, and lots of res. Enchantment: mana regeneration rate
Body armour
Either Ivory Tower or a rare with the legacy MoM delve mod and the legacy MoM eldritch mod. The build uses a rare with suppress. Enchantment: mana per quality, 10%+ mana effect
Belt
Rare with mana and mana recovery rate. The build uses a stygian belt with legacy mana and life recovery rate, and chaos resistance (and a legacy life/mana abyss jewel).
Rings
Mana, mana regeneration rate and life recoup. The build uses a cerulean ring with the mana delve mod.
Amulet
Atziri's Foible or Aylardex. Anoint: Cleansed Thoughts
Weapon
Mana, mana regeneration rate, and mana regenerated. The build uses a scepter with the Arcane Surge sentinel mod. Enchantment: elemental damage per quality
Shield
Prism Guardian. The build uses a corrupted one with level to socketed gems and physical damage taken as cold.
Jewels
Voices Megalomaniacs: Rot-resistant and/or Mindfulness, the build also uses Enduring Ward (endurance charge generation). Rot-resistant is more important. Transcendent Mind: (rmr corruption missing) Watcher's Eye: Clarity MoM and mana recoup Glorious Vanity: Divine Flesh (Xibaqua), the build uses one with rmr corruption and +1% chaos res node Healthy Mind: the build uses one with rmr corruption
Flasks
All flasks have the charges gained when hit mod and the reuse when full enchantment Ruby, sapphire and topaz flasks with the immunity to poison/ignite/bleeding mod Bismouth flask with the life leech crafted mod Amethyst flask with something else (I put the reduced mana cost crafted mod)
Gem links
Most of the skill gems used are utilities, for defences. The offensive skills don't matter too much, I switch them around a lot. Currently the build's main skills are Frostbolt and Ball Lightning to take advantage of the green socket on the body armour. The important gem links are: - PB, Divergent AA, and Divergent TS in Prism Guardian - Divergent CWS with Desecrate and Divergent Bone Offering - Divergent CWS with Summon Chaos Golem - Divergent CWS with Enfeeble - Divergent CWS with spell skill gems and Anomoulous Arcane Surge - Divergent CWS with Bodyswap and Lighning Warp for style The build also uses Void Sphere, Frost Bomb, and Immortal Call. Last edited by Zebest78 on Apr 5, 2023, 7:29:36 AM Last bumped on Mar 21, 2023, 9:44:44 PM
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