[3.5-3.12 + 3,18 HC] Pure Herald of Agony Jugg. All content. Videos+Link to 3.14 & 3.15 Updates
Considering just tower defense, there are definitely builds out there that make it easier. It is not impossible with just HOA, but definitely challenging.
-O
Last edited by Orion72 on Oct 12, 2019, 3:00:12 AM
Hats off to Orion for making a solid build guide for a league starter that can definitely clear endgame. That being said, I have been making small tweaks here and there since the start of Blight (SC) and I think I am finally done with my version of the build.
I have gotten to around 670 delve depth with ease and have been farming Uber Elder for the challenge completion.
Here is my current gear set up:
POB link: https://pastebin.com/aq2ByTGj
Offence:
POB shows the crawler tail spike at around 1.09M shaper dps. We are able to achieve a level 31 HOAG through the CIP (+3), crafted minion helm (+3), LVL 4 Empower (+3), and the new +1 global modifier on the shield.
We use Hatred+Generosity and Grip of the Council for that extra damage to the crawler. Proj. Weakness+Curse on Hit in our chest.
To proc virulence for HOAG, we use storm brand linked with poison/lesser poison, faster casting. Faster casting helps stack the virulence up faster. Must spec into Runebinder for additional brand attach. With storm brand we get the benefit of range defense, just click on the target a few times then focus on dodging.
Defense:
Since we are not using any attacks to get virulence, we do not benefit from fortify or LGOH. Therefore, I invested heavily into life regen which for Jugg's is relatively easy. As another layer of defense, I went for a 2nd curse with Temp Chains on hit on the gloves. For deep delve Vaal MS is a lifesaver.
The circle of nostalgia synthesis rings allow for us to reduce the HOAG reservation to around 18% reserved mana, letting us run Vitality for even more regen. I am using a cyclopean coil purely for the frozen and ignite avoidance in delve, but ideally you would want a elder leather belt with life, res and life recovery rate. The watchers eye jewel should also have Life recovery rate while affected by Vitality.
That's about all i have to say for now. I am thoroughly enjoying the build and it deals well with the league mechanic!
How much mana do you sit at ? With your setup i got 6/628 mana, with -8 channel on neck, and it cost 4 to cast storm brand. I also got 2 rings of yours, one with 39% reduced mana res and one with 37%.
Sorry for the novels, I just can't help myself. This is sort of awkward since I didn't follow this build guide, but ever since I found the Cold Iron Point dagger I wanted to make a build exploiting it so figured I'd post it here since it's very similar I'm sure. An obvious choice was a poison Blade Vortex assassin, but others were doing it and I already made poison builds in the league. This led me down some bizarre paths, such as a Shockwave Totem chieftain which was pretty good, then a Herald of Agony/Herald of Purity Necromancer with Zombies and Spectres and all sorts of shit going on, again, really good just not what I wanted.
So then I came crawling back to the good ol' trusty jugg. I wanted a character that could faceroll all content, finish my atlas, and farm Shaper/Uber Elder. I knew I'd EASILY have enough damage, I just wanted to be able to stand in crap and not die. Well this character is a massive success, so much so it feels like cheating...
I guess my small twist on this build is that this character is a DUAL Herald (Agony/Purity) jugg using Blade Flurry to stack agony for its range, safety, and utility with being able to link Life Gain on Hit, Infused Channeling, Fortify, etc. Let me say, you can get a LOT more out of this build, for instance I could get Minion Damage on my helm (although it'd make mana reservation challenging with using both Heralds). The primary reason I'm including Purity is because of the Circle of Guilt I found, so obviously this build could ALSO work in a Circle of Nostalgia which could free up mana reservation for HoA to allow the 5-link helm. It just...hasn't been necessary to pursue to this point.
Uber elder down (for the 2nd time ever), T15 blighted map completely easily, many Shapers, only ever fell short on a corrupted Forge of the Phoenix guardian with multiple insane damage boosts and AoE.
Couple final notes: I use Coralito's Signature to get 100% poison chance, but even without it up in mapping I'm at 40 virulence most of the time, and around 35 on single target boss. I use Doedre's flask for Frenzy/Power charges. I use Asenath's Gentle touch for the temp chains and satisfying explosions which also serve to keep my 4 purity sentinels up in mapping. If you opt out of this I'd suggest simply using Culling Strike in your Blade Flurry links.
Agony crawler does ~1 million Shaper DPS, Purity sentinels do around 200k each, so it adds up to about 2 million DPS that could EASILY go MUCH higher by doing the things I mentioned.
POB: https://pastebin.com/qUrgjFec
This character specs into the obvious minion nodes, and also specs a reasonable amount of life regen (note the dual Cold Iron Points provide +6 to Herald of Agony, Herald of Purity, AND Summon Stone Golem).
Could you upgrade the level of the gems, especially the cwdt setup?
@Orion72
thanks for your effort, this is my first HoA build and I am realy happy following your guide.
I have a noob question I am not sure about:
when I connect withering touch to my attack skill (cyclone/barrage) should I see than any symbol that I have inflicted the withered debuff? I dont see any symbol or amount of stacks so I am not sure if I realy inflict withered debuff correctly.
@Orion72
thanks for your effort, this is my first HoA build and I am realy happy following your guide.
I have a noob question I am not sure about:
when I connect withering touch to my attack skill (cyclone/barrage) should I see than any symbol that I have inflicted the withered debuff? I dont see any symbol or amount of stacks so I am not sure if I realy inflict withered debuff correctly.
Best regards
Lhaar (char name in blight)
Most welcome. Look closely and you will see tiny, subtle purple dots around your enemies. That's the sign that wither is working. Good luck!
Great build, you get so used to just stand there and face tank everything most of the time. It really takes some unfortunate combos to actually die.
But this league it's hard to clear multi-lane blights, and you cant solo blight maps. The crawler is pretty stupid and sometimes doesnt attack your target.
That time i duo-ed a blight map with a geared necrodancer i wanted to just delete this char, the necro absolutely obliterated the whole map. His gear is worth 40+ exalts though, while the only thing thats expensive about my build is the helm with lvl20 minion damage, +25% minion damage and +3 to sockets.
I play the ranged variant, with the quill rain, i picked some minion damage nodes instead of life, but still the clear speed is comparatively slow.
Any suggestions how i can take the dps to another level, if there is another level?
Last edited by alexlucas on Nov 17, 2019, 5:38:07 AM
One answer is that there are things you can do (particularly in SC) to improve the dps of the build some at the expense of survivability. (6L coming calamity w/ hatred for example, or use the cold iron point version). Some people have added in skeletons this league at the sacrifice of one of the sets of utility links and reported that this is good for blights. You can also take more minion nodes at the expense of life.
But
The truth is that if you judge a fish by how well it can run, you will be disappointed.
This build was not made for fast map clear-speed. There's a disclaimer in the opening paragraph to that effect. It's not made to be the fastest boss killer either. There are many other builds that can do both of those things much better. (Like your friend's Necro).
This build was made primarily to not die in an hc environment, while maintaining enough dps to clear all the content. Eventually. But not quickly. For leagues like Blight or legion in particular, this style of build is not well suited to making those encounters easy.
But when you are duoing a new high end boss in the next league with your friend and you finish the fight while his Necro gets one or two shot, he will be the jealous one.
Sorry if that isn't my most helpful answer ever. If you come up with any improvements for the build, I'm always happy to see them shared in this thread.
Thank you so much for your reply. Will play this build next league, since it's so cheap and effective. Will try to switch things up a bit.
And thank you for your effort!
