Casual RF Shaper attempt: What not to do

Level 82 Low Life RF Guardian attempt

I had a blast going into the Shaper fight mostly blind. I don't play in Standard much anymore, but I heard the talk on the Lioneye's Watch podcast about whether or not RF builds would be able to handle Shaper and wanted to give it a shot since I had a very strong mapper/uber lab farmer from 2 months ago that I felt might be able to handle Shaper.

This build was not optimize specifically for Shaper - it was a character I played early on in the Prophecy league. I had no experience with the fight other than a few clips of it. I had some extra currency to blow in Standard, so I made some minor adjustments to get a bit more ES, and I bought myself a high ES shield capable of crafting the level 3 Leo mod "(10 to 20)% reduced Damage taken from Damage Over Time." Scour-crafted to get 20% on it and jumped into the fray with no further adjustments.

What I learned:
-The build can pretty easily tank most of the Shaper's damage if you're careful, including his slam (not that I would advise doing so).
-Shaper is immune to shock. Vinktar didn't do me much good in there.
-For the first phase, there isn't any way to charge up your vaal skills (2x Vaal Discipline in my case).
-The Vortex degen spots don't go away until you complete the phase. I thought they were duration based, so I ignored them until it was too late. Additionally, it seems like the damage from the stacks when they overlap. Took me a bit to catch onto that, as you'll see.

I know this isn't a really noteworthy attempt for a lot of you folks out there, but I am posting it because I believe RF is capable of handling that content. Not saying it's great or quick, but it should definitely be possible with a few tweaks and a better understanding of the fight. If anyone out there is feeling ambitious, I'd urge you to give it a shot! :)

I'll put the gear below for those curious

That fight woulda took forever and with all the degen stuff would be all over the place most likely laggin the game lol

Like I said, not the fastest. Definitely doable as RF though, which is the point. I experienced 0 lag recording it, but I tend not to get many FPS issues overall.

The single target setup I had (again, not optimized for shaper) was shock through Vinktar and Vaal Discipline to bump me to ~16k ES (increases degen by a TON and makes ya pretty much unkillable). Shaper being shock immune and first phase not having any way to charge Vaal skills kinda killed the single target plans.

The build's got ele overload and ele weakness applied through those CWDT blade vortex stacks. Determination is definitely not worth it either (final armor was only ~9k) - would rather Blasphemy Enfeeble or a damage curse. Additionally, the weapon could be swapped to something more offensive like Doryani's Catalyst or Redbeak. Lot of the gems are level 18/non quality as well. Also no helm enchant. Still a lot of room to grow the build offensively if you wanted to.

Passive tree?

*smiles

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Enzari wrote:

Passive tree?

Passive tree.

enjoyed the watch, thanks for taking the time to show that poe is mostly about positioning and strategic play :-)

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vio wrote:

enjoyed the watch, thanks for taking the time to show that poe is mostly about positioning and strategic play :-)

Or in my case, lack thereof. Hah

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MonopolyLegend wrote:

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vio wrote:

enjoyed the watch, thanks for taking the time to show that poe is mostly about positioning and strategic play :-)

Or in my case, lack thereof. Hah

that made it even more enjoyable.
taking on the most difficult content with that gear, gem /char level/setup made my day, thanks again.

Those vortex dots are a real killer. If it wasn't for those I could do it. Need more deeps I guess.