[3.6] Whizzy's Bow Blade Vortex Chieftain [9k+ HP & 10mil+ Shaper DPS]

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which zealotry watchers eye would be most benefical for this build?

I would not recommend any zealotry watcher's eye. If you have a lot of excess currency, anger with penetration and gained as extra will beat out any zealotry eye.

Really interesting version for BV. Could you upload some game-play videos. Would also appreciate leveling section or tips for painless progress/transition to this.

Definitely looks like a very nice build but the levelling section doesn't really make much sense to me.

Switching to BV so early seems like a bad idea as it's range is very small (and basically unusable with conc effect in my opinion like the levelling section recommends), cast time is slow and duration is also a bit low until getting the duration nodes so you have to be constantly casting it. Also the actual damage itself is pretty low as well compared to most other damage skills unless you stand and channel it up to 10 stacks for like 5 seconds. A 3 or 4 link can clear a lot better and something like heavy strike can do much less awkward single target. I did try out the 6l BV at the level you recommended and it just didn't feel good at all to me unless it was at 10 stacks. Definitely not doubting the build at all as the endgame PoB looks pretty impressive.

I will most likely be leveling as Infernal Blow or something like that with Heavy Strike for single target until getting an appropriate amount of passives to use BV. The whole Hatred Malachai's Artifice Herald of Purity -50% fire res thing is very nice though.

Sorry the leveling section is a work in progress. This is where I'm at now in SSF. Definitely could be faster leveling with something else but once you hit lvl 31 and sub in intensify, the aoe is pretty good. Only using the shield because of the jewels I had lying around. I'm using an abyss jewel with minions deal added cold damage to trigger EE. Trying unleash and its pretty solid for leveling.

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themathwhiz wrote:

Sorry the leveling section is a work in progress. This is where I'm at now in SSF. Definitely could be faster leveling with something else but once you hit lvl 31 and sub in intensify, the aoe is pretty good. Only using the shield because of the jewels I had lying around. I'm using an abyss jewel with minions deal added cold damage to trigger EE. Trying unleash and its pretty solid for leveling.

Spoiler

Yeah, makes sense. Sorry if I seemed a bit hostile. What kind of time would you say is good to remove the Avatar of Fire/Malachai's Artifice setup? When you get to mapping? Or is it ever really worth removing it as it is quite a large damage boost. Making up for the lost damage with a ring would be rather hard. As far as I know its basically like around an 80% more damage modifier on bosses or something. The only real issue is that it has no life on the ring.

Also does it only work for herald of purity if you have extra minion damage? I've heard most other people using golems for it but purity definitely seems like a better idea.

Edit: Ah, right. Hatred applies the cold to minions. Only need the jewel if you can't use Hatred. The jewel is probably a better idea as it doesn't take up 50% reserve but the Hatred damage boost is generally better than Ash and Purity alone I found. (but also takes 75% instead of 50%)

Edit 2: I do really want to level as BV and keep trying but it just feels very clunky to me for some reason. I've played BV at endgame before on an elementalist and it was very nice but never tried levelling as it until now. I think the duration is my main concern.

Double post but whatever.

When I got to the end of Act 4 and got Spell Echo support is when BV finally started feeling comfortable to level with for me. Also got 2 Dark Seers for some nice damage. After that 2 Heartseekers should take you into mapping until you can get something more BV oriented (only very slightly better damage than the Dark Seers but culling is very nice. Might actually be better to go Heartbreaker + Dark Seer as the blind and cull together could be good).

My current personally preferred gem links at 41 in a Tabula are:
BV - Intensify - Added Fire - Cont. Dest. - Arcane Surge - Spell Echo

It feels relatively smooth, will change Spell Echo when I get more cast speed/duration on BV.

Clearspeed is bonkers with phase run/ smoke mine and explosion bow. Did uber elder. Good build but can get a little expensive late game. But it's definitely worth it!!

Another thing I noticed is that you can switch to a Xoph's Inception bow and Blackgleam (and later upgrade to Signal Fire) while leveling for easy 100% fire conversion and nice damage.

They are both low level and Xoph's Inception fits extremely well into the build. Will probably carry you to mapping easily. It's only level 23 and is the best unique bow in terms of DPS. Only costs 1 alch for one if you dont care about slots (which you shouldn't while leveling).



At around level 50 with those items my preferred BV links were:

BV - Immolate - Ele. Focus - Intensify - Cont. Dest. - Fire Pen
and then as the main guide says, Arma Brand + Combustion + Arcane Surge to trigger the combustion buff and arcane surge. I'm not a fan of Conc Effect but you can change it in for bosses if you need extra damage.

I've got around 100k DPS with 10 BV stacks at only level 55 which is a bit silly really. No flask or charge cheesing in PoB, only thing is "enemy is always ignited". Obviously not Shaper DPS because that's not relevant while leveling.

Okay, so I've now come to realise what a massive issue mana sustain is for BV. I'm at level 61 with a 6L BV that has 55 mana cost that casts 3 times a second for 165 mana cost per second and my current mana regen is only 28.

I'm really not sure how I'm meant to get even remotely close to that. Surely the boot enchant can't help that massively? And it would do nothing on bosses with no other enemies to kill. My Zealotry is even in an Essence Worm and I can only cast BV around 7 times before I'm out of mana.

It was nowhere near as big an issue before on my Triple Herald BV Elementalist but don't remember why. I know a mana flask is pretty much required but even that's not really enough, and minimising the usage of one would be nice.

EDIT: I just noticed you used Blood Magic in your leveling gear. Might just have to do that and lose some DPS for now cus it's a bit insane really. The DPS is stupidly high for the gear/level anyway so it's not too massive an issue, but I would like any possible tips for future.

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Another thing I noticed is that you can switch to a Xoph's Inception bow and Blackgleam (and later upgrade to Signal Fire) while leveling for easy 100% fire conversion and nice damage.

They are both low level and Xoph's Inception fits extremely well into the build. Will probably carry you to mapping easily. It's only level 23 and is the best unique bow in terms of DPS. Only costs 1 alch for one if you dont care about slots (which you shouldn't while leveling).

At around level 50 with those items my preferred BV links were:

BV - Immolate - Ele. Focus - Intensify - Cont. Dest. - Fire Pen
and then as the main guide says, Arma Brand + Combustion + Arcane Surge to trigger the combustion buff and arcane surge. I'm not a fan of Conc Effect but you can change it in for bosses if you need extra damage.

I've got around 100k DPS with 10 BV stacks at only level 55 which is a bit silly really. No flask or charge cheesing in PoB, only thing is "enemy is always ignited". Obviously not Shaper DPS because that's not relevant while leveling.

Yes, Xoph's is great for lvling!

If you didn't have access to synthesis implicits and were using the 6L from the porcupine, you can actually craft pristine, aetheric, scorched and use it from lvl 5 since those mods have no lvl requirements*. You cannot exalt +1 all gems until lvl 40 since that mod raises the item requirements.

*its possible your other mod(s) have requirements as well but if you're going for +1. 20% more, 20% pen, you can craft prefix cannot be changed and scour when you just have the two 20% mods and that's guaranteed to be usable at lvl 5. Again, exalting on +1 at lvl 40+ (using "cannot roll attack mods").