3.7 Rusty Poisonous Steel (Lancing Steel Pathfinder Poison build) 2.6 M shaper dps
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Maximizing damage from mods/stats of equipments:
So, I have been making small updates from time to time, discussing ways to maximize damage. Here in this post we explored most available support gems, and optimized them for Max damage. Then here we went to deeper details about level 21 and quality 20 gems, squeezing even more damage from them. And through the constant posts, we improved our skill tree several times. On top of that, We applied some tweaks to items to get the best of the build. But what we didn't explore in full details yet is exact modifiers to look for. It's typically a hard topic to tackle, so it took some time experimenting with wiser range of equipments, and messing with Path of Building. before we start, here's my current PoB link, with biggest number of item options to choose from and try see exact impact on the build: https://pastebin.com/dQCs9UZf Best Jewels affixes:
Spoiler
We need one unique jewel onl (Spreading Rot). The rest of jewels we need are rares, with certain affixes:
Of Venom(Suffix): (16–20)% increased Damage with Poison It's simply the biggest 'increased damage' mod for us on normal jewels, going up to 20%. I wouldn't bother with any other mod of the same category (projectile damage, chaos damage, global phy damage, damage over time .. etc). As they all are much lower value. In my current setup, this mod alone can give around 2% total shaper damage. Harmonic(Prefix): (4–6)% increased Attack Speed while Dual Wielding Bandit's(Prefix): (4–6)% increased Attack Speed with One Handed Melee Weapons Again, either is the highest value among attack speed mods, and best offensive Prefix tailored for our playstyle. ** Having 'Of Venom' + 'Harmonic' + Maximum life (prefix) should be cheap. Also enough to make trading 2 passive points for additional jewel socket a fair trade. 3 points could be fair as well, if you don't compromise mandatory nodes, or you have 4th worthy mod on jewel. of Berserking(Suffix): (3–5)% increased Attack Speed Now this would be a top Tier option, if paired with "Harmonic" Prefix. It would also be super expensive, due to rarity and global value to wide varaity of build. You can also use it instead of "Harmonic", if you content with 3 mods jewels. Corroded Fossil(Suffix): (15–20)% increased Damage with Ailments This mod have chance to appear on jewels only when you use Corroded Fossil. It need careful delve crafting, but could be very string if paired with other poison suffix. of Poisoning(Suffix): (6-8)% increased Poison Duration / (3-5)% chance to Poison on Hit That's another great option, as duration allow us to stack more poisons on same target. And having chance to poison on couple jewels allow us to remove a passive points invested in chance to poison (Making the jewel socket less costy/more worthy). ** Please note that Crit affixes on jewels have low damage value, and not worth going for it. Best crit mod "Piercing: (15–18)% to Critical Strike Multiplier with One Handed Melee Weapons" is worth only (1-1.2)% total damage. Though it could pass as a 4th mod, if it's not expensive. ** I personally prefer having some resistances or attributes (str/int) as 4th mod on jewel, as it make optimizing other items easier. To be continued .... |
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Update: level 92 - Killed all Elder Guardians, and Elder on Red maps deathless.
This was easy fight, where I could ignore most mechanics, except the big explosion where you have to stand in specific area to avoid RIP. I have Syndicate Mastermind fight open and ready to be done, just waiting good morning session in weekend to have good ping. Fenumus' Weave version Current PoB Link: https://pastebin.com/p7fsPx5E This setup gives me easy 821k shaper dps with 3 stacks of spider's web (needs 3 seconds of buildup). Aspect of the spider adds 30-42 flat chaos damage, 60% increased damage, and monsters takes 15% increased damage which stacks with Wither and despair. It's a huge jump on dps, (100k more compared to usual Embalmer). The price we pay is losing almost the same dps from Crawler (Herald of Agony minion) as it drop from 5L to 2L to free enough mana reserved for 'Aspect of the Spider' Numbers might be similar, but in reality, You have many advantages: -- With 'Dying Sun' , Lancing Steel have more projectiles. -- You control the spread of projectiles and are able to shotgun. -- You don't rely on AI of your minion. -- You free up 2 links which can add utility for your Crawler (Like Culling Strike + Item Rarity) without costing you any additional Mana. It's all well and good, if not for one huge disadvantage! -- You gets me to crash instances, A LOT! I mean, since using this buff, I can't do 3 maps without crashing to login screen. And yes, It's the kind of crash where all your portals disappear like you never opened them in first place ...Just poof.. I'm not sure if I should risk doing shaper or Mastermind with this setup, because it would be too costly if it crash .. But the dps is too tempting, and also the permanent Hinder ... I don't even know why it overload the server, what's so complicated about processing this aura? |
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So, I was really interested in this build idea and have started my own version. But I'm still trying to decide if I want to use Lancing Steel or Shattering Steel. Right now it seems to come down to how easily can you shotgun with LS.
Roughly how many hits do you get on a single use of LS? |
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" With 7 projectiles fired, mouse not aimed at edge of screen, at least 3 projectiles will hit single target, 99% of the time. Number goes up to 5 if you play it effectively, and you either keep target close so projectiles hits them before spreading, or aim further away to close all the spread. To make all 7 hit, you need targets with huge hit area, or ranged targets that doesn't move a lot so you can stand still and get the perfect distance and aim, but that's rare. So you keep going between 3 and 5 most of the time. |
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" Thanks for the reply. From my own testing I've also found that I prefer the extra effective range with LS, just for the additional safety. (Too many things in this league that can one-shot you) |
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So 3.6 is almost here, and they are nerfing Blight:
Spoiler
To further our effort to improve Chaos Skills, we've also changed the Blight threshold jewel. Previously, the Spreading Rot jewel caused enemies affected by Blight's Hinder to take 50% increased Chaos Damage. This damage bonus was significant enough that we had to balance chaos skills around using Blight and Spreading Rot. We've changed this threshold jewel to instead cause each pulse of Blight to also apply Wither for 2 seconds per jewel.
They didn't mention Vaal Blight, but I assume it's the same thing, which make Vaal Blight and Spreading Rot completely useless for our build. This, we lose about 17% of our dps within the small burst duration we have on bosses. It was a nice bonus to have, but we can adjust without it. The alternative jewel could be: * Rare jewel for modest increase in damage and life. * Using "Unnatural Instincts" on the jewel socket next to ranger starting area, If we can ever afford it! Last edited by givemelight on Feb 26, 2019, 3:03:23 PM
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" Yeah, with LS it's easier to stay out of harm's way. Shattering Steel + fork might be more effective single target, but it require staying in melee with Point Blank and having to tank everything. that's hard with current setup, and need to sacrifice huge damage for life and regeneration/leech/defenses. I'd prefer Scion Ascendant (Slayer/Pathfinder) with physical setup for shattering steel rather than poison pathfinder. Maybe tri heralds (HoA + HoF + HoP) |
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So, With the upcoming "Malevolence" aura, it seems we will be able to scale our dps even better.
Got to see if it's significant enough to drop all links from HoA in favor of it, or would it benefit Crawler even more so we have to invest in mana reserved reduction to keep things at top power level! Beside, the problem with nerfing "spreading rot" starting to fell less significant tbh.. I mean, if we keep using it in the new form, a Vaal Blight totem on bosses will apply both Vaal blight and wither, letting us free the wither totem from our sockets and from the bar. It should be more smooth and consistent. And this:
Spoiler
 And this:
Spoiler
 I'm looking forward all the new changes in 3.6 so I can decide how much this build needs tweaking.. Also, the new skill "soul rend" is actually worth checking, it might have similar play style to Steel skills, but with chaos as damage , and projectile pierce all targets and apply chaos damage over time. I'l probably start new league with an occultist version of it for the sweet Energy shield leech it offer. Though it could also work with Pathfinder, depends on whether it can shotgun with GMP or even fork or not. Edit: Other points of interest in Dev manifesto: * Onslaught Support now have effects on hitting Rare and Unique Enemies. [Now Viable for leveling until we get to endgame?] * We've now lowered this curse effect reduction (From Shaper/Elder/Guardians/Bosses) to let damage curses provide more worthwhile bonuses against bosses. [Blight buff - Temporal Chain unchanged?] * Energy Shield Leech/Trickster/Shadow Starting Passives [A possible trickster version of the build with some investment?] Last edited by givemelight on Mar 5, 2019, 6:19:16 PM
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" They didn't mention the "Other effects on Cursed enemies expire 40% slower" .. If that means they didn't nerf it, alongside the buff of reducing "Shaper curse reduced effectiveness" , that would be really huge buff to poison builds overall! (more poison duration) |
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I figured out a new skill tree for 3.6 with better defenses:
- 84% chance to evade attacks (69% from evasion + Blind) - 24% block chance - 30% dodge chance - 30% spell dodge chance - 5.6k life @ lvl 90 This sums up to 92% chance to avoid attacks altogether, which is huge. We can also drop "acrobatic" and take "Iron Reflexes" for easy 69% physical damage reduction and we still evade some attacks thanks to blind.... Here's the PoB link with 580k shaper dps: https://pastebin.com/MS93vdup But please keep in mind it's more expensive version "The perfect Form" used on chest slot, and it's just a theory I didn't put to test yet. |
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