[3.22] Tukohama Relic Blaster Guardian - [WIP]

Relic detonation is triggered through a combination of Necromantic Aegis along with the unique Tukohama's Fortress (or replica) along with Minion Instability. Why Tukohama's Fortress? Blood magic. Because elemental relics cast 50% auras, giving them blood magic will make them reserve health instead of mana. The relics spawn with 50% reserved health, which is low enough to instantly trigger Minion Instability explosions with zero delay.

Relics spawn at a 25% rate either on enemy kill or on rare/unique hit. Another main concept we're going to build around in order to utilize that is high attacks/second combined between me and my minions. Since we need to do this for damage output to make the build work, we're also going to use that as a foundational component of our defense.

This is a hybrid melee/minion build. The majority of our clear speed is coming from our Sentinel of Radiance (convocation mandatory) from the ascendancy. However since we're using Cyclone for the high APS, we also have a Holy Relic to synergize with the fast attacks (health regen buff also helps with petrified blood). We also have a typical minion loadout with 8 zombies, 3 spectres, AG, Commandment of Grave, 10 phantasms, and 4 sentinels of purity.

To optimize damage, try to focus cyclone hits on Rares and Uniques.
https://youtu.be/HZCYdmz1IAU?si=PQre4uR0lYvDLb9-

Both of our main damage sources (Ele Relics and Sentinel of Radiance) scale heavily with both minion damage and minion max life. The idea is to juice life/damage as much as we can through various means, and then hit as fast as we can to try and trigger relic detonations as close to their cooldown as we can. At a base CDR of 0.3sec for relic spawns, but limited by 25% chance to proc, our goal is to get APS above 12 (12 hits per second with 25% proc chance should average out to 3 explosions per second).

Can we trigger faster? Certainly. Global cooldown recovery rate will affect Relic spawns, with breakpoints at 15% and 30% (and higher, but the next is somewhere around 52% and that's a LOT of global CDR). Anecdotally, damage feels good with no CDR, with noticeable improvements at each of the first two CDR breakpoints. Attack speed also feels much better at 18aps than 12aps, with the added benefit that we're scaling defenses based on APS as well, so more is always better. Note that with the notable "Increases to minion attack speed also affect you", we can double dip on minion attack speed since it will both help cyclone aps and minion aps.

Defensive layers are based around the foundational concept of "hit a lot of stuff really really fast". Gemini claw gives us life and mana on hit (mana is probably overkill), which we increase with Life Gain on Hit link on cyclone, and Watcher's Eye vitality mod for around 120 HP/hit. With 10% of hits redirected to Sentinel, 10% of hits redirected to Spectres (Jinxed Juju amulet), and 45% of hits converted to damage over time (Anomalous Petrified Blood), we're already only taking 35% damage from hits, provided we can heal back the DOT from petrified blood. We also get free block from our ascendancy, that we amplify with glancing blows and Rumi's. Taking more smaller hits is okay because of our recovery; we want to avoid individual big hits.

Purity of Elements gives us ailment immunity (important), fills out res so we can use damage mods in jewelry, and gives extra fire res (and therefore max life) to our minions. Currently working on a way to fit Grace into the build as well, but somewhat limited on availability of gear due to playing in a small private league.

Stun Immunity is extremely important, because if we're not hitting something we die quite fast. Started out with Unwavering Stance, but then switched to using Tattoos/abyss jewel.

Spell Suppression is in the mid 80s right now on my current build. Should be able to cap it with optimal gear thanks to Green Nightmare jewel + cold res tattoos.

NOTE: Degens are really bad. We have a low life pool thanks to Petrified Blood and Supreme Ostentation (Elegant Hubris). Our hit damage has significant mitigation, but DoT does not, other than res and life on hit. If you can squeeze in bleed immunity it will feel better, but always gotta keep an eye out for damage over time.

The best part of running AG on this build, is that with the mastery "minions heal 5% of max hp on minion death" and the fact that we blow up 3-4 minions every second, it's going to be really tough for our AG/spectres to die. Standard AG setups are all fine here, with less need for hp regen. I'm running Garb of the Ephemeral for the crit protection, and I would love to run a Kingmaker if I can find the parts. Legacy of Fury boots for scorch. If you can get +1 curse in order to run flammability along with ele weakness, then Eye of Malice helm would be great on AG here.

Current support spectres I'm running are Carnage Chieftain for frenzy charges, Pale Seraphim for increased damage taken debuff, and Xoph's Loyal for applying Ash to enemies. Because our ele relics explode instantly, they won't get the benefit from anything that occasionally buffs your minions, hence the double debuff setup.

We like the sustain from the implicit, and the high attack speed and minion stats. The crit is nice to activate our amulet anoint in order to generate endurance charges, but otherwise unimportant. Hits can't be evaded is important. Alternatives are to take resolute technique and use a different ami anoint, or to scale accuracy with gear in order to use the "Minions accuracy is equal to yours" mastery. Remember any investment in optimizing proc rate of relics is power that can't be put into increased minion damage or life.

All these stats only apply to minions via Necro Aegis, of which they only use the max life and blood magic. Note that replica is easier to farm in SSF since you can run blueprints, but otherwise no difference from the regular version.

Upgraded Xoph helm gives us something like 150% increased minion max life.

Lot of options for body armor. I opted for a rare in order to get spell suppression. Can also go hunter +1 curse (flammability) for more damage, or one of the phys taken as ele influence mods to help with our phys mitigation.

Enchantment is really nice for this build. 6 extra minions that can trigger relic spawns.

CDR on boots is nice, but only necessary if it gets you past a CDR breakpoint mentioned above. I'm sitting at 32% CDR so using the implicit here. Brittle ground is to help with endurance charges on amulet anoint, but will switch to sapped ground if I can get another source of end charge generation. Note that we get scorch from our AG's boots.

More CDR, again only important if it gets you past 15% or 30% breakpoint. Certainly not mandatory for the build, so would be pretty easy to adapt for a higher investment belt. Note that abyss jewel has cold damage to attacks in order to activate elemental equilibrium for that juicy -25 fire exposure.


We really like the 2 main mods on this ami for aura effect, and essentially 10% less damage taken. Anoint is for endurance charge generation (10% chance on melee crit), but could certainly adjust that depending on what you feel like the build needs. Whispers of Doom to run flammability, charisma to fit in grace or another aura. Changing the anoint means you can get rid of any crit investment (doesn't need a ton due to the high APS).

Minion fire res essentially counts as "increased max minion life", so we get a ton of power for this build from our rings. Currently crafting a new ring with Aspect of the Crab to replace herald of purity. Herald I'm running to optimize health pool for petrified blood, but doesn't add much more than 4 extra minions.

Both jewels are optional for the build. Here is where I chose to socket them.The Green Nightmare is giving me an extra 33% spell suppression with the use of a few tattoos.

Elegant Hubris gives us Supreme Ostentation, which essentially activates tattoos in general for the build. Our claw has a relatively high dex requirement, and our shield has a relatively high str requirement. We already only receive small value from str due to petrified blood, and half value for dex since we use the "hits can't be evaded" mod on weapon.

This is definitely the part of the build that makes me want to make this build on trade league. Elegant Hubris replaces notables on the passive tree from specific list of mods. Some of those mods include "Minions have 80% increased max life"(!) and "Minions have 80% increased damage" (!) This location on the tree is pretty nice if you can find a jewel with those mods replacing the Expertise and Ancestral Knowledge nodes. Note that's 2 passive points for 160% in damage....

I don't have any separate pob trees for leveling, but the good news is that there's nothing crazy needed. Sentinel of Radiance feels really good on it's own, so I just start with SRS and pathed up to minion instability as soon as I could, with the goal of taking Necromantic Aegis at 72 when you can equip Tukohama's Fortress. Take minion life and damage nodes and just resummon your sentinel on enemies until you can use convocation. I used SRS with cwc on cyclone from that point and it felt good until I tried out holy relic and liked it a little better since it saved me some gem slots.