Rustys 2h Vaal Earthquake

Hi there,

Firstly thanks for helping me enjoy a game I've been away from for over a year which I left because I'd become frustrated with. The build is great fun and your guide is easy to follow and well laid out. I'm happy with how my gear is progressing (a few bits still need some harvest adjustments) and I do keep a close eye on your own to aid my decisions! I've killed Sirus on awakener 4 and finished my Atlas. Starting to spread into other content now but I do have some questions...

Firstly auras. I read earlier in the thread that you swap and choose which to run depending on what you're doing. Can you give a bit of a breakdown of what you run and when, i.e what you run when you're cruising through maps, and what you run when you're fighting Sirus for example. I'm finding it easy to manage a small mana pool with recent changes to my gear but confused what I should be running when. Also your current gem setup on the live server differs from your guide (Herald of Purity I think). Can you explain this choice?

Secondly the higher tier gems. Specifically the Anomalous Earthquake gem. I'm running a 21/23 Vaal EQ at the moment, but what is the benefit in this build of swapping over to the anomalous version? The anomalous gem doesn't seem to be popular in other bleed eq builds (not question the choice just trying to understand why).

Thought I had something else to ask but I'm sat at work and not at home playing, maybe it'll come to me later! Thanks again, look forward to future content!
"
Macca84 wrote:
Hi there,

Firstly thanks for helping me enjoy a game I've been away from for over a year which I left because I'd become frustrated with. The build is great fun and your guide is easy to follow and well laid out. I'm happy with how my gear is progressing (a few bits still need some harvest adjustments) and I do keep a close eye on your own to aid my decisions! I've killed Sirus on awakener 4 and finished my Atlas. Starting to spread into other content now but I do have some questions...

Firstly auras. I read earlier in the thread that you swap and choose which to run depending on what you're doing. Can you give a bit of a breakdown of what you run and when, i.e what you run when you're cruising through maps, and what you run when you're fighting Sirus for example. I'm finding it easy to manage a small mana pool with recent changes to my gear but confused what I should be running when. Also your current gem setup on the live server differs from your guide (Herald of Purity I think). Can you explain this choice?

Secondly the higher tier gems. Specifically the Anomalous Earthquake gem. I'm running a 21/23 Vaal EQ at the moment, but what is the benefit in this build of swapping over to the anomalous version? The anomalous gem doesn't seem to be popular in other bleed eq builds (not question the choice just trying to understand why).

Thought I had something else to ask but I'm sat at work and not at home playing, maybe it'll come to me later! Thanks again, look forward to future content!

Hey Macca glad to hear your back enjoying Path of Exile! This expansion is one of the best times to get back into PoE due to the end game atlas passive tree system. I actually had a few friends who didnt play poe tell me what was wrong it the layout and when they no longer said too much text I was glad cause there is always so much you can add.

Congrats on killing Sirus I know the fight is still rather buggy for some and it brings me great joy that many players who have done never it trump it with my build or via the video guides I provide.
Onto the build itself; When the expansion hit and the nerf happened I looked at my mid max character and saw minus 3 mil dot and thought yo thats fine! no problem boy was I wrong. The early game scaling was ruined I had a lot of people following the unbound ailment, thread of hope version that I had run for 2 leagues having major dps issues 2-5mil dot at around 90 with around 2-5ex where in the past same set up I was already on 5-8 mil dot.

At this time I was running the Cluster jewel version as I had theory crafted a much better early game start that actually scaled extremely. I felt really bad that my previous version was not living up to the standards It previously could a few people I spoke with were able to make 100c changes and ended up following the cluster version and found no issues afterwards.


With the return of Harvest I knew that crafting all the Cluster Jewels that I had theory crafted would become extremely easy and much cheaper now because of how harvest crafting works saving people alot of currency by buying the base and not the well rolled item.
Aura's with the combation of the cluster jewels and the Hezmana's unique axe I was able to reserve and run many auras,stances, and buffs at the same time. Which while I was leveling through the acts ended up working far better than expected. level 7 vitality. Maxing on War banner, Flesh&stone + Maim, Blood&sand.


When I was at around A6 and my damage was feeling crap I decided to craft a 60% more weapon and after like 15 tries I was salty and just went with a High Pdps weapon instead, I was suprised at how well it worked out and decided to see how far I could take the weapon, I've killed Sirus 8 many times, influenced shaper/Synthesis bosses most 4ways however It came with draw backs of course, loss of an aura I knew I wanted to keep war banner so I dropped Blood&sand the lack of area was so noticeable that I decided to play around with -mana cost ring crafts which then allowed me to pick up it once again. The Rings I am still in the progress of crafting will both have - mana cost + the chest so you end up with 0 mana attacks just like from the Hezmana's and using an enlighten is helpful.

Generally now with my base damage of around 6mil and 17mil (single target) on war cry. I run Vitality + herald of purity all the time as it provides a layer of defence that is I feel is needed which now a lot of monsters were given a damage/hp buff not including the sirus dominated rares and allows me to run the some of the dirtiest map mods while feeling fine.

Pride still has its uses and generally its great for doing high amounts of burst damage as you'll always hit 4 seconds while standing next to a boss for the 40% more physical damage and it helps with phasing for sirus and 4 ways. You will want a 60% more bleeding weapon for 4 ways and Maven as it will be really rough without.

I honestly don't think most people know what Anamlous Earthquake does and why its so good, It provides +60% increased damage up from 20 and 20% increased skill effect duration which directly buffs bleed duration, Its a Heist gem drop and you need a t3 gem corruption room from Alva to turn it into a Vaal version. It's alot easier for people to just buy the dirt cheap 21/23 versions as almost no one sells them however its a 1mil dot buff.

Last edited by GrimExcuse on Feb 10, 2021, 11:01:19 PM
Maybe i missed it but what is the breakpoint for attack speed ?

With 20/20 less duration
"
reeld wrote:
Maybe i missed it but what is the breakpoint for attack speed ?

With 20/20 less duration


That doesn't sound like a question more why I am not using that gem over awakened swift affliction right that has superior bonuses.
Having lots of fun with this build. Started slow untill damage ramped up but now i think i'm at arround 8-9 mil pob bleed dps and it works great. Reached a survailibity plateau a while back so i don't have hopes of becoming tanky. Did uber elder(i think it's my first non minion uberelder kill), elder, shaper, guardians, conquerors, heart of the grove, and an a5 or a4 sirus a while back. I think a8 sirus is doable for me but gettting him to take all that bleed damage in the last phase is a bit difficult.Was a bit unlucky with simulacrum wave 20 but that should be doable as well. Had a go at maven but i don;t think i can do it unless i get more damage and probably considerably more.

Mapping wise a great qol was getting an abyss jewel with onslaught on kill and phasing on kill. You can really feel that onslaught on kill proc, it seems slugish without.

Did a bit of valdo's t14-16 harbi farming and vaal earthquake makes it so smooth. Doing 20% delirium glenarch cairns with legion scarabs right now and it's fine as long as i leave the legion for last since generals can get pretty nasty with delirium.

did my calculation and i can get 36 chalenges with this build if i buy(or do) maven so that's a plus.

Last edited by kilitwithfire on Feb 24, 2021, 2:45:57 PM
.
Last edited by GrimExcuse on Feb 25, 2021, 4:21:03 PM
"
kilitwithfire wrote:
Having lots of fun with this build. Started slow untill damage ramped up but now i think i'm at arround 8-9 mil pob bleed dps and it works great. Reached a survailibity plateau a while back so i don't have hopes of becoming tanky. Did uber elder(i think it's my first non minion uberelder kill), elder, shaper, guardians, conquerors, heart of the grove, and an a5 or a4 sirus a while back. I think a8 sirus is doable for me but gettting him to take all that bleed damage in the last phase is a bit difficult.Was a bit unlucky with simulacrum wave 20 but that should be doable as well. Had a go at maven but i don;t think i can do it unless i get more damage and probably considerably more.

Mapping wise a great qol was getting an abyss jewel with onslaught on kill and phasing on kill. You can really feel that onslaught on kill proc, it seems slugish without.

Did a bit of valdo's t14-16 harbi farming and vaal earthquake makes it so smooth. Doing 20% delirium glenarch cairns with legion scarabs right now and it's fine as long as i leave the legion for last since generals can get pretty nasty with delirium.

did my calculation and i can get 36 chalenges with this build if i buy(or do) maven so that's a plus.


Hey Killitwithfire

Glad to hear you are having a lot of fun with the build!

Your damage is much higher than you think 10mil unbuffed, 13 with frenzy, 17mil with war cry which is more than enough to tackle all content. It comes down to a play style you have to adapt to while bossing.

For me once I got used to the rhythm of boss, the movement and what kind of damage to expect it was much easier to learn then it would be now with Maven watching some of the fights. You do have the option to turn this off.

The Maven fight is quite unique while I havent brut force my way through it just yet I find the damage is overtuned compared to the other bosses, the memory phase and orb positioning is something im not yet mastered.

I would tell my friends to learn on A6 many times first as Sirus has a pretty good life pool to learn on while his damage is similar to A7/8. After a Meteor maze I usually have 3-4 seconds to leap slam prep a rank 1 or 2 Seismic cry to be ready for either a Multi clone into spinning beams or straight into a spinning beams where I have to position myself judge when to attack then ensnare arrow for 1-3 seconds before I weapon swap back getting ready to dodge the beams this takes a while to get used to the flow of the fight.

The only map mods I felt this league that would hinder my overall leveling this process was Crit/Multi and -maximum resistances this combo with any roll on Tier 14-16 I'd get 1 shot. When I stopped rolling map mods like this and ran Vitality with Herald of purity I noticed leveling was fine, if you really just want levels the best tier is 14 on Glennach Cairns with a double xp set up.

While this build has amazing damage and can reach a point where you feel tanky Valdo's rest Harbinger blows this out of the park and makes it a huge pain with the amount of proximity shields forcing you into undesirable map positions like doorways, tight indoor maps, if you aren't doing large open zones then this becomes very noticeable and for me it would literally tank my fps down and cause me to die.

Delirium is generally a whole different kettle of fish, while it can be done up to around 60% smooth. 80-100% solo just doesn't feel comfortable a lot of the time this build isn't the best for that style of content. Its not uncommon to make a boss killer then a really good mapper I'd done this in past leagues myself. I would say its perfectly reasonable to reach 36 whether or not you pay for challenges that is your choice.
End of league update(my end of league i mean)

Got to 36 chalenges, ended up buying the maven chalenge but i'm sure even i could have done it with some more practice. Did an a8 sirus eventually. simulacrum wave 20 was hard and i needed some luck with mods to get it done. Killed uber atziri in a temple but i failed the one try i did in the alluring abyss, and since i didn;t have any more full sets and was on track to be done with 36 chalenges i dind't try it anymore but defo doable.

Was great fun and one of the better builds i played eventually. Guide is compressive and it adresess all relevant aspects.

It's the only build i played this league and the only thing i would differently is that i wouldn;t start with this build since it's rough when you hit maps untill you get all the defences and then stack some damage on top.

Best of luck in the future!
Tried Lacerate this league and fell in love with Bleed Gladiators. Wanted to try this build as my starter next league. How likely will this get nerfed?
freedom is a myth. it is impossible for any one entity to be completely free from all other entities.
"
kilitwithfire wrote:
End of league update(my end of league i mean)

Got to 36 chalenges, ended up buying the maven chalenge but i'm sure even i could have done it with some more practice. Did an a8 sirus eventually. simulacrum wave 20 was hard and i needed some luck with mods to get it done. Killed uber atziri in a temple but i failed the one try i did in the alluring abyss, and since i didn;t have any more full sets and was on track to be done with 36 chalenges i dind't try it anymore but defo doable.

Was great fun and one of the better builds i played eventually. Guide is compressive and it adresess all relevant aspects.

It's the only build i played this league and the only thing i would differently is that i wouldn;t start with this build since it's rough when you hit maps untill you get all the defences and then stack some damage on top.

Best of luck in the future!


Hey kilitwithfire

It's always great people are able to get the same effect from this build as I do as for Atziri if you balance your resistances run the Sibyl's Lament and get yourself another 20% reflect immune via jewels then you can just phase her images and her mirrors in seconds you roll over that fight so fast.

I Imagine you went from a block heavy build to this one so defences will feel like total ass I understand I've been there.
As for a league start it still performs extremely well it just depends what your goals are as I structured the build towards being able to do sirus 4, heists, atziri, elder, shaper on a budget for a lot of beginners that's enough.

Report Forum Post

Report Account:

Report Type

Additional Info