[Guide] <<< Meripor's Acrobatics Wander Guide >>> 1.2 (budget and endgame sections)

One of the best things about this build is its versatility and ability to run any map. Because you sustain life and mana by killing things your ability to complete a map is limited only by your ability to kill things.

The most challenging mods for this build are elemental reflect when coupled with -max resists or ele weakness; once your damage gets too high. However this can be countered by swapping hatred for grace and running an extra jade flask. I've never found it to be a problem with a single rare reflect mob and only seem to have difficulty when the map rolls elemental reflect. Make sure you don't use Vaal Power Siphon in an Elemental Reflect map!!!

Physical reflect is a complete non-issue due to a cwdt + immortal call setup. The only time it is an issue is for bosses where there are no adds to kill but you should be able to leech enough life that along with your flasks its not a problem. Even using vaal power siphon is fine since it triggers on the first mob hit.

Blood magic maps are easy they are just a bit slow due to having to turn your auras off.

No-regen maps are possible as long as you have some mana leech on gear or take the 2% mana leech node near the shadow. Its also possible without any mana leech if you have a large unreserved mana pool (400+) and take a hybrid life/mana flask.

The one thing this build struggles with at early levels is certain bosses which have high unavoidable burst damage (i.e. weaver boss in the 72 jungle valley map). I would just avoid these bosses til you get better gear. Once you reach a certain gear threshold they become very easy since you can shock/freeze alot of bosses and you have 46% spell dodge / 40% dodge / projectile immunity / cwdt immortal call.

I haven't run this build much in a party situation but when I have it has performed extremely well. You should still sustain mana just fine with clarity and culling the odd mobs. The only difficulty I could see is if you are in a very slow party where you aren't killing mobs then maybe you would run out of mana if your regen is poor. Or if the party runs a reflect map and you aren't culling mobs then you might struggle to sustain your life. Also, if your party has an mfer... hes gonna be mad :)

This build requires only two main items to function:

Atziri's Splendour Unique chest



A % Evasion and Energy shield + life version is preferred although you could make do with any life version. Even a non-life version would work but losing ~95 life on gear is not ideal.

A physical Wand

e.g.

or

Obviously the better your wand the more damage you will do. I would aim for a 200 pdps with 10 crit and 1.5 aps to start with. I'll add a guide to crafting a budget wand at the end of this guide.


Other than that your gear can be tailored to your own preferences. As a wander your damage will scale incredibly well with gear improvements so keep in mind your build only has room to grow as you acquire better items. The next section will go over what to aim for in more detail.

With the rest of your gear you want to aim for a balance of damage and survivability. The main goals of the rest of your gear are in this order of importance:

- life
- capped resists (75% in merciless)
- getting over 2k tooltip accuracy (requires 2-3 items with 200+ accuracy)
- a 4L with four red sockets (sometimes hard to get when our goal is evasion/es gear)
- damage mods (attack speed and flat physical damage are best)
- as much evasion and energy shield as we can get
- movement speed (for clear speed and survivability

optional:

If you want to run Arctic armour you will need mana regen on gear. Before you take acrobatics you wont need much to run a decent level AA. After you take acrobatics you will need mana regen on almost every possible slot to sustain it. I Have 3 slots with 50%+ mana regen to sustain a level 18 arctic armour.

Ignore gems and socket colours here they are wrong. This is just some old gear mixed with my current gear. I used to run 4L auras in boots, 4L single target in helm, 4L cwdt in gloves, 3L vaal power siphon in shield, 2L lightning warp and assassins mark in wand.

note currently my resists are around 5% short of being capped because im planning to use some rings I have in standard when the league ends in 3 days.

Gems here are somewhat incorrect as I moved some of the gear onto different characters.

helm:



For helmet I believe rats nest is the absolute best in slot. it gives crit, attack speed and high evasion as well as movement speed which is excellent for clearing faster and dodging enemy abilities.

Alternatives include crown of eyes or a good rare. I believe a good rare is suitable to start with but for the price of rats nest I believe you should upgrade to that asap. Crown of eyes is too expensive for what it gives and the leech isnt really necessary for this build.

Gloves



For pure dps these are you best options. I choose thunderfist mainly because I had them drop for me and thought it would be cool to use them. The attack speed and lightning damage is nice and the shock duration helps with shocking bosses. The added lighting gem also gives me a second 5L for my single target. Maligaro's or Shadows and Dust will probably give you a higher tooltip dps.

A pair of rare gloves is also suitable to start with. Aim for life + resists and some damage mods (attack speed, accuracy or flat phys). You could also get some mana leech here if you wanted to run noregen maps.

DO NOT USE THESE GLOVES



Yes these gloves would be best in slot. BUT... if you have these gloves why are you playing this build? They make it pointless to use atziri's splendour when they give instant life and mana leech. They also cost 100x more than the rest of this build combined. If you have these gloves go play a lowlife best in slot mirrored everything easymode snoozefest build.

Shield



You basically want a rare with life and a large amount of energy shield so you get more mana from EB. I choose a pure es shield so I could get mana regen for running arctic armour. An Evasion/ES shield would be equally useful as this build is difficult to get large amounts of evasion on.

Boots



Best in slot is a pair of +1 frenzy charges Atziri's Step boots. These give spell dodge, high life, max movespeed and high evasion. The downside of these is it may be difficult to cap your resists. Alternatively you can use a pair of rare boots. Aim for high movespeed and life. You can use this slot to get some more energy shield or cap the resists you're missing. You can also get some Strength that you might need on gear.

Belt



Just get a rare rustic sash with life and resists. WED is a bonus. You can also get Str here if needed.

The alternative to this would be a headhunter belt for the lolz. Unfortunately I cant afford one atm. Im planning to chance a ton of belts in the zana map mod at the end of rampage so wish me luck xd

Jewlery



These will be the most difficult pieces to get and probably the pieces with the most potential for improvement. The addition of master crafting makes it much easier to get a decent piece in these slots. What you want to aim for is:

-life
-resists
-accuracy
-flat damage (phys prefered)
-crit chance / multiplier

optional:
- mana regen for running arctic armour
- mana leech for running no regen maps

Main Power Siphon Setup

I would advise a 5L chest for your main Power Siphon setup, although you can make do with a 4L if your wand is decent. Links in order of priority:

Power Siphon / GMP / Chain / Phys Proj / Crit damage

I only have a 5L and it is perfectly adequate. A 6L would just be a luxury that you dont really need. you could potentially use WED, Additional Accuracy, Crit strikes or life leech.

I feel with WED ele reflect would become a problem in -max maps. additional accuracy would be nice to give you more room for other stats on gear, eg gettig mor mana regen. life leech you dont really need but could be useful if you want more survivability.

Single Target

Here you have options, you can use Barrage, Frenzy or a second Power Siphon. I personally use barrage because it seems to do most damage and doesn't have to be aimed as well, you can just hold down shift.

Barrage / Crit Damage / Phys Proj / Faster attacks

If you have a fast wand or use frenzy you could replace faster attacks with WED, additional accuracy or added fire.

Auras

You basically can run Clarity, one 60% aura and one herald with my setup. Its possible to alter the build to get the ranger + shadow aura reservation nodes and along with alpha's howl you could run two 60% auras. However I dont feel this is worth it.

I currently run Hatred, Clarity and herald of thunder, all linked to reduced mana. I swap hatred for grace on some difficult elemental reflect maps.

I use Herald of thunder in a 4L with curse on hit and poacher's mark, this lets me generate frenzy charges.

If you use frenzy then you have the option to swap herald of thunder to herald of ice for more chance of freezing bosses.

CWDT

I'd say a cast when damage taken setup is mandatory for this build. I use:

CWDT / Enduring cry / Increased Duration / Immortal call

This gives you effective immunity to physical damage. I get a 2-3 second immortal call from this which gives me enough time to kill the pack and replenish my life from the Atziri's Splendour life on kill. You can also use your pots if it doesn't quite fill your life. I'd advise not attacking a pack without full life if immortal call is down to prevent oneshotting yourself.

Utility

Here is where your options come in. You can run whatever you like in your spare gem slots. I'd advise running:

-Arctic Armour - if you have the regen to sustain it
-lightning warp + reduced duration
-Assassin's Mark - you wont use this much of you're using curse on hit with herald of thunder

optional
-Vaal Power Siphon
This is more of a bonus to help you clear faster if you have a spare slot. If you dont use herald of thunder with curse on hit you should have a spare 3L which lets you run:

Vaal power siphon / crit damage / phys projectile

This 3L should oneshot everything on the screen if it crits, just be careful not to use this in an ele reflect map!

I think Ranger is hands down the best choice for an Acrobatics wander. Particularly because we are using Atziri's Spelndour and don't rely that heavily on mana regen, which is the main reason we are not starting witch.

Ranger offers you extremely good accuracy nodes as well as attack speed and very efficient life/evasion nodes. This gives us much more flexibility in gear choices because we will have less accuracy to get on gear and its difficult for use to get much %evasion on the tree without sacrificing damage. Being in the ranger area also gives us lots of dexterity which is very useful as it gives us free evasion and accuracy. Getting high dex is also normally a point of difficulty for most wanders.

Ranger is also much easier to level with as Spectral throw and requires less of a respec to change to wander than if we leveled as a caster witch. This is especially important because we must level to 75 to use Atziri's Splendour.

One of the most annoying things about this build is that Atziri's Spendour has a required level of 75. Due to the fact we are planning to not stack mana regen and to rely on the chest for survivability it means you cannot level as a wander. Although its not recommended to level as a wander on other builds either so its not a huge issue.

I simply leveled as 2H Spectral Throw until I hit 75 then I did the respec quests and used them to change my character into a wander. This leveling is incredibly easy as long as you have decent 2H weapons to level with. I don't recommend this for a new league but later on this should be extremely easy to do. You also won't have Atziri's Splendour in a new league anyway.

My tree was something similar to the one below, towards the end I was just getting int nodes for 10 or so levels. I prioritised getting damage nodes as it was a softcore league and I had twink gear so it allowed me to level faster.

Ill add some later showing dps and defences, might wait until the league merges with standard so I can put on my best gear :P

If people are interested I might try to get some videos recorded. However my computer is quite slow when running POE so it might not be the best quality or even possible.

Ill probably write this later if people want some advise on crafting a cheap wand