[3.14] HoWA CI Jugg – Resurrected, Again. Wild Strike Edition. (Maven & All Maven Battles)

THIS BUILD IS OUTDATED AFTER 3.14. IT STILL WORKS AT ITS CORE. HOWEVER, IT WAS ALREADY A BUILD THAT WAS STRUGGLING A LITTLE WITH ITS DPS EVEN IN 3.14, AND AFTER THE ACROSS THE BOARD DPS NERFS IN 3.15, I FEEL LIKE THE DPS JUST BECAME TOO LOW FOR ME TO WANT TO RECOMMEND THIS ANYMORE.

Before I start, this is not "my" build. This is an old build that has gone through many iterations thanks to balance changes. I am simply the one to bring you the current version this time. Feel free to help me flesh this guide out and correct any misinformation.



Tanky





The HoWA CI Jugg is back. Again. (Or at least it was in 3.14. Everything is outdated here so try at your own risk now.)

Pros

+ Tanky
+ Virtually Status Immune
+ Capable of clearing (basically) all content (Sirus A9, Maven, All Uncharted Realms Battles, 100% delirious T16s etc.) with gear
+ Good mapping speed for a melee build
+ Scales well with gear, like other Int stackers
+ Flexible build: you can choose between defense and DPS
+ Good movement


Cons

- Expensive. You don't need a Headhunter to Clear T16 100% Delirium maps but you should be ready to farm 50+ ex of gear to make the build actually feel strong.
- Lacking boss/single target DPS. You can kill bosses because you're tanky but it isn't fast. The more ex you throw at this build the faster your bossing gets!
- Mapping speed is A tier, not S tier
- NOT a league starter
- Cannot do Elemental Reflect maps without build changes
- ^ Uber Atziri also requires some changes because of this
- No Regen maps are painful
- For things like Delving and HoGM, just look at specialized builds instead





My old build stats with good endgame gear but without crazy cluster jewels etc. I was at 13+k ES and higher DPS with expensive gear later.

Unflasked defenses
- 10357 ES
- 6882 Armour (18867 flasked)
- 9017 Evasion
- 4 (or more) Endurance Charges
- Stun Immunity
- Curse Immunity
- Freeze Immunity (and chill only does so much to a Jugg too)
- Ignite Immunity
- Shock Immunity
- Corrupted Blood Immunity

This is without flasks. You are virtually immune to everything. You can even become Bleed Immune if you opt for Death's Door in exchange for some DPS.

DPS
- 8,8 million realistic mapping DPS on Wild Strike Lightning hit (4,1 million on its Bolt)
- 2,7 million realistic Sirus DPS (5 million with flasks on)

And these numbers are with me prioritizing defense over DPS, although with somewhat expensive gear. You can see the settings in the PoB under "3 Skill Trees" -> "Endgame Skill Tree" section.



Table of Contents

The rest of the guide is split into spoiler sections for clarity.

1 Introduction and Explanation (Beginner Friendly)
2 Leveling & Early Maps
3 Skill Trees
4 Gem Links
5 Budget Gear & Getting Started
6 Midgame and (Realistic) Endgame Gear Upgrades
7 My Ritual Gear
8 What About Molten Strike (and Other Attack Skills)?
9 How Viable is this Build?
10 Video Content
11 Patch Notes / Changelog

1 Introduction and Explanation (Beginner Friendly)

Newer players might be asking what is a HoWA at this point, while other, more experienced players might be interested in hearing a brief explanation about what this build is. You can really skip this section if you're familiar with HoWA builds and believe that Juggernaut is a reasonable choice for one.

Core Mechanics (Summary)
This is an Int stacking build that uses HoWA. We use the typical trio of CI, GR, and Zealoth’s Oath to make ES our life and get a large amount of ES just from having so much intelligence. This lets us use more points on DPS in the tree while retaining a large ES pool.

The main attack skill is Wild Strike. With the unique jewels, we eliminate the Cold and Fire portions and only use the Lightning Hit. We anoint Tribal Fury for +1 Hit on multiple targets, and the Helm Enchant gives us +6 chain for the Beam. With this setup, every hit hits twice and sends 13x2 beams, basically obliterating packs of trash mobs in one hit. This build also works with Molten Strike and I briefly talk about it at the end.

Initially, this is an Elemental Overload build. However, once you get your gear going, you will change into a Crit build.


But why the Juggernaut?

The Juggernaut is one of the tankiest ascendancies. While huge amounts of flat ES might look nice and give you the illusion of being tanky, you are not actually tanky without layered defenses. And Juggernaut sure helps you with that.

Being a Juggernaut, we get…
Undeniable. Aside from giving us flat accuracy, this gives us 1% attack speed per 150 Accuracy. Long story short, I have 13000 Accuracy currently.
Unstoppable. Stun immunity, freeze immunity, and it also nullifies chill to a large extent.
Unbreakable. Life regen, lots of it. Reduced damage taken. It also doubles the armour received from Body Armour. We use an ES/Armour hybrid chest, so this gives us a fair deal of armour, which is rare for softcore ES builds.
Unflinching. We are basically always at full endurance charges. We burn these with CWDT IC on cooldown.

In the past, I have seen occultists run this build with Molten Strike as well. However, this guide is only for the Jugg version, even if other alternatives exist.


Noob Friendly Explanation
This is an Intelligence stacking build that revolves around the Hand of Wisdom and Action Unique Claw that gives you 1 to 10 Lightning Damage to your attacks with that weapon per 10 intelligence. Stacking intelligence, we can go up as high as 2000+ intelligence, which means we are getting 200 to 2000 Lightning Damage on the weapon. We then stack all kinds of % increases to lightning and other attack damage to make this go through the roof.

Intelligence also gives us +1% Energy Shield per 5 Intelligence, synergizing with the idea of using Energy Shield (ES) over Life here. Moreover, ES generally provides a larger flat life pool as “Blue Life,” which we can then make even more impressive by adding on layers of defense on top of the flat “life.” While 6-7k life is already a lot of life, we can go well past 10k ES with good gear.

We use CI (Chaos Inoculation) to become Chaos Immune, while reducing our Maximum Life to 1. While Marauder and the Juggernaut are typically associated with life builds perhaps more than any other character, we use ES (Energy Shield) as our main line of Defense with our 1 Life. The Juggernaut as an ascendancy is all about being tanky, but none of its passives are exclusive to Life builds. Any life regeneration becomes ES regen with Zealot’s Oath taken. Similarly, any Life Leech we have is converted into ES Leech with the Ghost Reaver passive. This effectively makes ES our Life without any big drawbacks.


Build History
As I said at the very start of this post, this is not my build at all. This is an old build. We’ve been killed many times and we have risen from the dead just as many times. We have survived the Immortal Call nerf and Molten Strike nerfs, which killed the first version of the build. And we have survived the Split Personality nerfs, which killed the most recent version of the build.

The Original (afaik anyway): https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2184746
The Split Personality version: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2807156



2 Leveling & Early Maps

THIS IS NOT A LEAGUE STARTER BUILD. This is a build you respec into when you have some currency, having used some other Jugg/Marauder starter, or one that you level as your second character in a league.

As with any CI build, you will not level as CI. I personally like simply rerolling into this character, or leveling and early mapping as e.g. Earthshatter. If you do not want to level another character, pick a Jugg build so you waste less regrets changing into this once you have the basics. Look into other guides that specify “League Starter” for ideas!

When you can change into this build really depends on a number of factors. You will need both of your Wild Strike jewels, preferably a head enchant, and a decent amount of ES before you can even consider changing – and of course your HoWA. Realistically, you will need some 2-4 ex early on in a league and the regret orbs. Please read through the Budget Gear & Getting Started section and check the prices for every piece of equipment before you switch, so as to make sure you can afford the essentials. Have something ready for every item slot.


3 Skill Trees

For Bandits, kill all or side with Alira. The crit multiplier will benefit you later and the resistances can make gearing easier.
Early Skill Tree

This is an early build base for when you are working with BUDGET GEAR. If you already have decent gear, you can start with crit (see Endgame Tree). You can PoB this yourself with your gear: will EO be better than going crit for you?

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.13.1/AAAABAEBAAbGEQ8TBBSwFf0WuxhdGdcdFB8YJScpTyy_MFsw-DH7MtE7DTwtPO88_kVHRwZMLVH7UilTDlXgVkhYWlnzXUlfamZUZp5nm2hYaPJsCG9Xcg9yqXfleBl7jH1zf8aCHoKbg1-IQonYjHaNgY9Gj_qTJ5Rvm1iboZ48oS-nCKyYrKqtCa0zrfGuPrTFtzG-isABwGbBoMHFxBXE9sauyx7NFtDQ0jjWB9eW2CTb5-RR6-7sGO_r8Yry5ve598H31_rS

If you use this and do not go crit yet, you can invest in more defenses or more DPS. You can get Written in Blood or Unnatural Calm or Max Endurance Charges for more defense. You can path to Divine Judgement and/or Heart of Thunder for more DPS (without crit). Try to also include the 8 passive Large Cluster Jewel from the gearing section.


Endgame Skill Tree

With proper gear, we switch to a crit build whereas EO might work better on a small budget. This comes as a Path of Building (PoB) link. If you do not have it, I highly recommend you get it, as it is a very useful tool for planning out your build.

My current lvl 99 ritual build (DPS settings are for unflasked Sirus DPS): https://pastebin.com/M72JypLy

This build is flexible. This is not an optimal solution. In my build, I opted to get more defense at the cost of DPS. For more DPS you can drop Thread of Hope. Additionally, my % int ring screws me over as it has 60 Dex on it. I wanted my Str to be higher than my Dex for the ignite immunity from the belt so I wasted 2 passive points to achieve this with the ring. Lesson learned: sell the base/ring to an int wander and start over if you roll T1 dex.

More DPS, less defense at lvl 96 (DPS settings are for unflasked Sirus DPS): https://pastebin.com/XRJxv3NZ



Pantheons

In the past, Arakaali synergized with IC, but after the IC nerf, this is no longer the case. None of the pantheons currently offer you anything gamebreaking.

You can go for either Solaris or Lunaris, depending on which bonuses you prefer. As for the minor pantheon, Soul of Tukohama gives you some nice bonuses for standing still, while Gruthkul is another alternative for mapping.



4 Gem Links


Main DPS 6-link
Wild Strike - Damage on Full Life - (Awakened) Elemental Focus - Inspiration - (Awakened) Multistrike - (Awakened) Elemental Damage with Attack Skills

Awakened gems are an endgame luxury upgrade, of course.

Movement Skill
Whirling Blades - Fortify - Faster Attacks

You have so much attack speed from your accuracy Jugg AS bonus that Whirling Blades is a pleasure to move around with.

Ancestral Warchief
Ancestral Warchief - Elemental Damage with Attacks Skills - Damage on Full Life - Concentrated Effect

Some extra DPS. Feel free to use Awakened Gems here if budget is not in your vocabulary, or just replace this with something else if you feel like you cannot be bothered to use it.

Main Aura Setup
Wrath - Precision - Discipline - Enlighten (3)

You will also use clarity but it does not need the boost from Enlighten so it is not in this link. If you use Aspect of the Spider (see gearing for boots), you will need Enlighten 4 (and some additional investment in mana reduction e.g. in one of the aura nodes).

Cast when Damage Taken Setup
CWDT - Immortal Call - Wave of Conviction - Conductivity

I set mine up to be a DPS setup for bossing, aside from the IC. Because we are so tanky, we can simply tank a Sirus "Die." beam on purpose to slap Conductivity and Wave of Conviction on him. This works wonders.

Alternatively, get Conductivity from an influenced ring and use something else here. If you do, you can use Ice Golem or some defensive skill.

Leftovers
Summon Ice Golem - Some extra DPS if you summon it before a boss and resummon it during boss phase changes etc.
Portal - You could just use this in a weapon switch if you weren't lazy like me.
Clarity - You need this one, if only at level 1, if you want to use the Clarity Watcher's Eye later.
Blood Rage - One way to gain Frenzy charges while mapping.
Flame Dash - Mobility. Lets you teleport up and down ledges etc.

Whatever you want to use here. These are some usual picks.


5 Budget Gear & Getting Started

This section is for starting out on a minimal budget. If you already have some currency to throw around (a few ex+), check the next section too. This section also includes some crafting advice where applicable.
Weapon


Hand of Wisdom and Action. Preferably one with 12% int. Should be cheap nowadays given how easy breach items are to get. This is a MUST HAVE as it is the item that makes this build a thing.


Helm

Rare ES Helm with +# Wild Strike Beam Chain lab enchant. Look for Int and ES.

Chances are you will have to craft this yourself. Buy a base helm with the enchant (Hubris Circlet is a bonus, can be a worse base too at this stage) for hopefully only a few chaos.

If you are really poor:
1. Use Shrieking/Deafening Essence of Woe
2. Craft % ES on it (or reroll if you got a low tier % ES on it)
3. Done. You have ~200 ES on it.

If you have some chaos to spare:
1. Use Shrieking/Deafening Essence of Spite until you roll T3-T1 flat ES as a Prefix
2. Craft % ES on it
3. Done. Now you also have the int on it on top of the ~200 ES.

The enchant for Wild Strike is really good for mapping. I highly recommend you do this over just buying a random 250+ ES rare with int but no enchant. It will be better for you even with worse stats.


Body Armour


This is realistically your endgame armor too. Why?

This chest has many things you want on this build:
+ A source of life leech
+ Armour. Your ascendancy passive gives you double armour from your Body Armour.
+ Some 300 ES
+ 15-20% more damage as chaos damage
+ 25% of elemental damage from hits taken as chaos damage TO WHICH YOU ARE IMMUNE!

You can start with a 5link, but 6links are not expensive either after the new Atlas changes. This armor will never cost you more than a few chaos, so a 6-link will cost you only as much as the prophecy. The 5-link prophecy (The Jeweller's Touch) is less than 10 chaos lately.


Shield

Rare ES Shield with some 30-50 Int. Aim for 250 or more ES. Use this to get resists too if possible/needed.


Belt



At first, just get one with 14-15% attributes and no implicit. These quickly drop in price after league start.

Aside from % attributes, this belt makes you elemental ailment immune. As a Jugg, you are already Freeze immune, so as long as your Int>Str>Dex, you will be immune to Shock and Ignite as well.


Gloves



These are your endgame gloves too. Get one without an implicit initially and upgrade later when you switch to crit.

This can be a wall initially as these are expensive in the first few days of most leagues. The price comes down fast, though, and will eventually reach 1 chaos per pair, so grab these only when you are ready to start otherwise. These are a huge boost to this build and I do not recommend trying to play without them early on.


Boots


Rares are surprisingly expensive early on in a league, so these are more budget friendly. These two give you ES and some stats. Rainbow Stride can help you fix your resistances if they’re ****ed. Otherwise take Sin Treks.


Amulet


Lots of flat stats.

Anoint Tribal Fury. It makes your Wild Strike hits hit an additional target, resulting in another chaining beam.

Alternatively, you can look for a rare amulet with lots of flat stats. You might find one with an int or int + x base with T1 int and T1-2 all stats and some other desirable rolls (ES, crit, crit multi, resistances). Don’t pay too much for one, though, as it’s not an endgame item.


Rings

Rares. Look for these stats:

Suffixes
- Intelligence (at least 35-40 per ring)
- All stats (more int)
- Empty suffix slot (you can craft int+dex/str here)
- Any resistances you might need

Prefixes
- Maximum Energy Shield
- # to # Lightning Damage to Attacks
- Increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills

A good starter ring might have 50 int, 40 ES, and 60% resistances on top of the ring’s implicit ones. Then you craft something to finish it up. These are not expensive.

If you find a ring with e.g. 50 int, 15 all stats and an empty suffix slot that you can craft int+dex on, you can get quite a lot of stats from it with Intrinsic Catalysts (+20% attribute modifier quality)

Random examples:



Cluster Jewels

You will want one Large one. Anything more is very much optional.



If this particular combination is expensive (1 ex when I bought it in Ritual), look for other ones with 2 of the 3 notables on it. Look for a random third one that gives you something beneficial. Veteran Defender, in my opinion, is the most important one. You can also choose to waste 1-2 passives initially and get one with more passives on it (e.g., one with 10-12 passives should be cheaper).

If you're on a tight budget, you can craft these yourself (or something similar). Roll these jewels with Harvest "Attack" chaos crafts. You will often hit 3 notables, although the combinations might be wack.


You can also use small ones for some more ES if you find your ES low early on.


Jewels


Brute Force Solution. Look for one with 22-24 flat intelligence on it. Socket this into the socket between Marauder and Templar starts.


Combat Focus (Cobalt). MUST HAVE. You will need this so that your Wild Strike does not choose Fire. Socket e.g. below Faith and Steel.


Combat Focus (Crimson). MUST HAVE. You will need this so that your Wild Strike does not choose Cold. Socket this e.g. near Discord Artisan.

Additionally, rare filler ones for the other sockets that you might want to take already:
Intelligence
% Increased Maximum Energy Shield
Resistances (if you need more)
Lightning damage / one-handed weapon damage or attack speed mods etc.
Critical mods if you are going crit already

You can also pick expensive unique ones but check the endgame gear section for those.


Flasks



Make sure your Lightning Resistance is the highest uncapped to make use of Wise Oak. Pay attention to this while gearing. You can get Lightning res from jewels etc. as a bandaid fix too.

For the last slot, pick whatever you prefer. We ultimately use Bottled Faith but that is not a budget option.

Some budget options:
Vinktar for DPS (with high flat lightning)
Normal Sulphur Flask for the Consecrated Ground. You can roll curse immunity on it since you do not have it with budget gear.

You do not need a quicksilver since you will use whirling blades to move, not run speed.



6 Midgame and (Realistic) Endgame Gear Upgrades

After starting out, replace your starter gear with better pieces as listed here. Or if you already have currency, feel free to start here. If something is too expensive, look at the budget section for cheap alternatives.

Weapon



Still HoWA. Look for a crit implicit corruption with 12% int and other high rolls. Anything else (like +range quality) is a bonus.

Alternatively, you can look for a freaky rare claw with the # to # lightning damage per 10 intelligence influence mod. It will be tough to beat HoWA, but you can beat it. The easiest way to make one is to look for a Synthesised Claw with it as an implicit. It would look something like this without influence mods:
Prefix 1 - # to # Lightning Damage (T1-2)
Prefix 2 - Elemental Damage with Attack Skills
Suffix 1 - Crit Multiplier
Suffix 2 - Attack Speed
Suffix 3 - Crit Chance/Crit+Quality/Whatever


Helm



This time with % intelligence influence mod. This is a pretty basic helm with the added influence mod. This is enough, and anything past this is definitely a luxury. Other things to look out for are the conflux mod, for example.

THIS CRAFTING MINIGUIDE MIGHT BE OUTDATED AFTER THE HARVEST NERFS! I'm not 100% clear on what they did with R/A Influence, but I assume it's gone. If you can no longer R/A Influence, you will have to e.g. simply Essence spam after Hunter Orbing. Just settle for lower int and use lower tier Essences if you do that.
Seeing as you are probably unable to find a helm like this with the right enchant, you will have to craft one yourself. This is one way to do it:
1. Get a non-influenced base with the Enchant, ilvl 82+
2. Spam Essence of Spites until you get a good ES prefix set. Ideally T1 Flat with a minor ES with Life/Mana/Stun Resist so that you can craft % ES and call it a day. Trying to hit two T1s spamming Essences will cost you a pretty penny. If you do hit T1 Flat, you can craft % ES and slam defense with Harvest (after e.g. removing pure Life if possible) and hope for a decent tertiary ES roll.
3. Make sure there are no empty prefixes and 1 or more empty suffixes
4. Use Hunter Orb
5. Hope it hits % Intelligence
6. Add/Remove Influence Mod until it does if it did not

That is expensive, however. You could just roll Shrieking Essence of Spites until you also get the % Intelligence, which might be cheaper but might take forever.


Body Armour



Same thing. See explanation in the budget section.

Alternatively, you can opt for an influenced rare ES chest with flat intelligence and % intelligence. You can also get a splodey chest with the explode mod if you have currency to burn and nothing else to buy. I do not like pure ES bases personally as having some armour does wonders for small mob hits. You’re also losing other things by dropping your Incandescent Heart, but with good enough a rare chest you can also net some other benefits.


Shield


This is the most straightforward option, and the more expensive one. This shield has everything we want: ES, Evasion (you heard right), intelligence, all resistances, and the amazing curse immunity. Do not underestimate how nice curse immunity is when it comes to avoiding random deaths and simply ignoring any map curse modifiers.

This shield has 900 evasion. This seems like nothing, but the Shaper’s Touch gives us 2% evasion per 10 intelligence. With 1500 intelligence, this is already 300%. This shield alone will give you a reasonable amount of evasion, which serves to make you that much tankier.

Alternatively, with changes to the build...

A Rare Shield with % ES on Block
300+ ES
40-50 Intelligence
Recover 5% ES on Block

This is a shield that can add another layer of defense to your build. However, you will have to sacrifice DPS for this tankiness, as you will need to take block nodes on the tree for this shield to matter. If you go down this route, also pick up a Rumi’s flask. I do not have a PoB for this alternative, but you would take Glancing Blows and the nodes leading up to it, as well as other block nodes e.g. near the Soul Raker claw node. Additionally, you will have to get a Warding Flask if you wish to be Curse Immune with this shield.


Belt


Cyclopean Coil, still. This time you’ll just want 14-15% attributes and 4-6% intelligence from the corruption implicit, coupled with 20% quality for attribute modifiers. This belt can go up to 18+7% increased intelligence!

If you wish to get your elemental ailment immunity with other items (helm + gloves suffix and e.g., cluster notables), you can also opt for a rare belt. In this case, look for a synthesized belt with 18% intelligence as implicit and craft from there. You know the drill by now: int, ES, % elemental damage with attacks etc.


Gloves


We have so much stats and we get bonuses from our Juggernaut ascendancy from having a lot of accuracy that these gloves continue to be great in the endgame. Just get the % crit corruption.


Boots

Rares. You have two options here. Also get the elemental damage penetrates % resistances if you haven't killed recently labyrinth enchant on whatever boots you decide to stick with (I forgot to do it).

1) Sorcerer Boots with ~180-200 ES, ~50 Intelligence, ~30% MS. You can also use Aspect of the Spider. You will have to get some more mana reduction from one of the Aura clusters, however, and may have to adjust the level of your Precision gem as well, depending on how much you invest into which node. This is the cheaper option.



2) The more expensive option is to get those Tailwind (+ Elusive if you have the currency) boots with Intelligence and ES. You are a crit build so these will work for you just like they work for wanders. As Tailwind no longer has a crit tag, crafting these is a pain if you want the int on them specifically.




Perhaps only relevant for Ritual league, but given how much accuracy this build sports, Stormrider Boots from Ritual are a great base if you wish to prioritize DPS. They provide 1 to 6 Added Lightning Damage per 200 Accuracy, at the cost of 25% Less Accuracy. If these boots make it into the game past Ritual, it is definitely something to keep an eye out for.

However, chances are you will be crafting your own pair since they are not a popular base. Int and Tailwind.





You can also look at Death's Door. These boots give you some ES, all resistance, and some strength, and Bleed Immunity. You lose a lot of other things, though, including flat int.



Amulet



This is where things get really expensive if you want the best. You will want those rare double influenced necks the Wanders also use.

You will want some combination of the following influenced mods (or ideally all of them):
% Increased Intelligence
% Increased Attributes
1% Increased Damage per 15 Intelligence
Damage Penetrates % Elemental Resistance

On top of these, or in place of these, look for flat int, global crit multiplier, or flat and % ES. Above is my example neck from Ritual. When looking to buy one, make sure to check how much of an upgrade it is over Astramentis for your setup. Astramentis can be surprisingly good compared to budget versions of necks like this. At very least, you will need intelligence AND attributes or either one with the damage per int mod for it to be notably better.

You can initially buy one with just int and stats or int and damage per int. This can cost you something like 5-10 ex. You will most likely be able to get your money back if int builds continue to be popular in the next league. I bought my placeholder amulet for 10 ex and sold it for 11 when I swapped to the one above.

If you want to craft one yourself, you would be using an Awakener’s Orb on a shaper T1 % int and a Crusader T1 % stats and then harvest crafting the rest. It is really expensive if you keep failing to hit the damage per int roll and I really do not recommend trying to craft an endgame one yourself unless you have currency to burn on bad luck streaks. After the Harvest nerfs, R/A Influence with suffixes cannot be changed is no longer an option, probably, so you're left with rerolling prefixes while keeping suffixes after getting stats% and int% in the suffixes.

Anoint Tribal Fury. It makes your Wild Strike hits hit an additional target, resulting in another chaining beam.


Rings


Synthesised or Influenced rares. You have three main options:
(1) Synthesised ring with % Intelligence implicit
(2) Synthesised ring with Onslaught on Hit implicit
(3) Influenced ring with a Conductivity on Hit mod

The conductivity ring can guarantee Conductivity uptime and saves you a gem slot from your CWDT setup. I opted for the synth rings myself. You can craft those yourself with Harvest crafting.

How I made mine in 3.13. After the Harvest nerfs, this will no longer applicable. You can still use this for ideas, though, since reroll prefixes is still possible afaik.
(1) Essence of Spite until you get 1 other decent Suffix.
(2) Craft a random suffix to fill up suffixes (temporarily). Reroll prefixes while keeping suffixes until you hit T1-T2 ES, Lightning, or Elemental Damage with Attack Skills.
(3) Start Adding or Add/Removing Prefixes (Defense or Lightning) while blocking Lightning Resistance from appearing if you are doing Lightning. I.e. making sure your crafted temporary suffix isn't a lightning one.
(4) Craft Elemental Damage with Attack Skills prefix.
(5) Add the last suffix. Add a resistance you need with Add Fire/Light/Cold. Keep on using Remove/Add Fire/Light/Cold if you want a better roll.
(6) Change the resistance into another resistance if you want to adjust your gear later. Harvest lets you do this too with the resistance swap crafts.


Jewels

You will still want the basic stuff discussed in the budget section:


Combat Focus (Cobalt) + Combat Focus (Crimson) to make your Wild Strike only use the Lightning Hit.


Brute Force Solution to transform Str into Int between Marauder and Templar starts.

However, look for nice corrupted implicits on these. Get corrupted blood immunity. Get some lightning penetration.

In addition to these...


Watcher's Eye. 1, 2, or 3 mods depending on your budget. You will want (1) the Clarity Mana -> ES Mod, (2) Wrath Lightning Pene, and (3) Wrath Crit or Wrath Lightning Damage. You can also consider Precision mods such as Crit Multi or Flask Charges on Critical, but prioritize the Wrath Lightning Pene as your second one (if you start with Clarity).


Split Personality. This is still good, even after the nerf. It is no longer a build enabler but more of a nicety. As we go all the way from the Marauder start point to the Soul Raker node, this gives us quite a few passives to boost Split Personality off. Thus, you can put an Intelligence + Maximum Energy Shield split personality into the Shadow Jewel Socket near the Soul Raker node. It gives you +42 Int and +42 Energy Shield when placed there. You can also include a second one if you path further down to Ranger for some reason.


Thread of Hope. I like this one. I personally like tankiness. Socketing this near the Shadow start gets you a fair deal of ES and some other nice minor bonuses, at the cost of some DPS. Aside from ES, you get movement speed, some damage, and the Overcharged notable. You can see how this is done in my PoB in the skill tree section.

Overcharged makes it so you can have Power and Frenzy charges full virtually at all times while mapping, without any additional investment, as long as you keep clearing fast enough. It does nothing for bossing, though.


Rares. Look for intelligence and DPS or % Maximum Energy Shield, or even all resistances if you need help capping them. Crit multi mods should be the most DPS alongside int. I really just used these to fix my resistances and forgot to upgrade them further.

Nature's Patience. If you want to become tankier and do not mind the inconvenience, this jewel can boost your standing still tankiness.


Cluster Jewels


You will mostly still just want the Large Cluster Jewel. I personally also opted to include an Energy From Naught small cluster for that flat ES. This is not optimal DPS-wise as you do sacrifice quite a bit of DPS for some 600 more ES.

Here things can get really expensive if you want to go further than that. You would look into those expensive stat Cluster Jewels with the max amount of passives for the size:

These are ridiculously good even with just 25% increased effect. You can also get Evasion instead of Energy Shield because of how much % Evasion the gloves give us from int.

These are pure luxury and they are just something you can buy after your build is otherwise finished. If you want to keep going, you can basically replace most of your tree with these, as silly as it is. These cost an arm and a leg though so it's mostly just something you can do if you're still playing late into a league (or are just that rich early).


Flasks



Just add Bottled Faith when you have the currency. And keep making sure your Lightning Res is the highest uncapped so your Wise Oak works.




7 My Ritual Gear

This is more of a TL;DR gear show for those who just want a quick look at what the build looks like gear-wise. My gear by the time I got bored of grinding for more in Ritual.








8 What About Molten Strike (and Other Attack Skills)?

Molten Strike
Molten Strike was the staple HoWA Jugg skill in the past. This is an option that still works and is definitely your second best (or best if you ask someone else) option. I find Molten Strike a chore to map with personally, after playing two builds using it in the past. The boss DPS will likely be higher, though.

You will need to adjust the build quite a lot. You would path down to Duelist for Point Blank, and you may as well get Iron Reflexes while at it for that extra Armour from Evasion. If you go all the way down there, absolutely include a second Split Personality as it will get huge bonuses from the pathing.

In terms of gear, you would change the skill jewels (Combat Focus) to the Molten Strike ones, and swap your helm enchant to the Molten Strike one.

Other Options
You can play around with other Attack skills as well. Spectral Throw, Reave, and Lightning Strike among others are gems you can use with Claws. I’ve also played a HoWA build with Charged Dash in the past. These are outside the scope of this guide, though, and based on my past experiments with other things, I warmly recommend Wild Strike anyway.


9 How Viable is this Build?

I have cleared all of the following with this build:

✓ Maven
✓ A9 Sirus
✓ The Feared
✓ The Formed
✓ The Forgotten
✓ The Twisted
✓ The Hidden
✓ Uber Elder (with Maven active because why not)
✓ Heart of the Grove
✓ Shaper (with Maven active)
✓ Elder (with Maven active), with Shaper kept alive
✓ The Cortex
✓ All Shaper Guardians (with Maven active)
✓ All Elder Guardians (with Maven active)
✓ All Elderslayers/Conquerors
✓ Simulacrum
✓ T16 Delirium Maps


✓✗ Uber Atziri. This is doable but you will have to deal with the reflect somehow. Your Wild Strike chains will delete you. Either pick ele reflect reduction nodes or take the reflect ring etc.
? HoGM. I did not try.
? Deep Delving. No experience as I do not care much for delving.



10 Video Content

This is Work-in-Progress but here's something to get you started. Ask if you want to see specific content that's not here already. These are all deathless clears.

1. Uber Elder, witnessed by Maven: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GoI-1XJlCM

This video is a pretty good example of this build, I think. You are not unkillable, but you are really tanky. At 1:26 in that video you can see a situation where you'd just log out if you wanted to be safe. I decided to tank it and almost die but my huge defenses save me anyway.



2. A9 Sirus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9ocpEV-i44

I did not try to tank one of the maze meteors, but 4:22 shows me facetanking a last phase "Die." beam with relative ease.



3. 100% Delirious T16 Map (Beach) with Scarabs and Sextants and whatnot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3PKICPjzPo

This basically showcases the weak point of the build too: we are not good at tanking big packs of mobs for lengthened periods of time. Because we don't have high block or dodge, against big, hard-hitting packs of mobs, it's better to keep moving if they don't die fast. You can probably tank them standing still, but you might die. As such, with budget gear this build will not shine in 100% Delirious maps, even if with endgame gear they are a cakewalk like in the video.



4. Maven's Invitation: The Formed: https://youtu.be/qXn8dbfCE7I

These invitations get incredibly easy with gear. With budget gear, the Breachlord one can be threatening because you don't have the block to tank Tul's barrage, and of course the Feared is not a budget gear friendly encounter either.



5. Atoll & Caldera T16 :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4crfE1DRkcs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzwaKR96tkU

Mapping clear-speed showcases. Sextanted and with Einhar. Rituals done. No looting.



6. Shaper (couldn't call in Maven here): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHePifNsxAA

Tankiness showcase at 1:55. You need your endurange charges to safely tank the beam from start to finish. No endurance charges at 2:27 and it gets a bit risky. Slams are a non-issue with high ES.


11 Patch Notes / Changelog

3.14 - Build unchanged. Wave of Conviction nerfed. No changes to the build as a result but you will feel a slight bossing DPS nerf because it will lower boss lightning res a little less for you. Harvestcrafting being nerfed will make some high-end gear less obtainable but still possible. This build did not heavily rely on any items made exclusively with old Harvestcrafting in Ritual.

3.13 - Initial version.
Last edited by kriell on Oct 18, 2021, 6:25:31 PM
Last bumped on Dec 1, 2021, 6:32:39 AM
Reserved just in case.
I've been looking for a tanky build for a while now, I'm gearing a character to try your build as it looks very promising. Thanks for a detailed guide!

Would really love to see a showcase video with gameplay example. If it's not much of a burden - could you record it? Or, if you stream, maybe I can come and watch?
A) it would help others looking into your build
B) I'll have a general idea of what am I doing right or wrong while progressing with the build :)

Thanks in advance!
"
d1sasterMan wrote:
I've been looking for a tanky build for a while now, I'm gearing a character to try your build as it looks very promising. Thanks for a detailed guide!

Would really love to see a showcase video with gameplay example. If it's not much of a burden - could you record it? Or, if you stream, maybe I can come and watch?
A) it would help others looking into your build
B) I'll have a general idea of what am I doing right or wrong while progressing with the build :)

Thanks in advance!

Thanks!

I don't stream but I can record me running some things later today. Maybe an A9 Sirus and/or UElder kill for bossing footage, and a random map so Wild Strike gets to shine. For a melee skill, it's very fun to map with.

Edit: was too busy with work to do that today but I'll get those uploaded in the next day or two. Recorded a Shaper kill and a deathless Uber Elder with Maven witnessing it just for good measure. Gonna get a Sirus and Maven kill tomorrow and something with mapping and mobs.

Edit 2: Uploaded a little something already after all. More later!
Last edited by kriell on Feb 25, 2021, 10:39:43 PM
Reserved!
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Uploaded some clear videos now (section 10 at the very end of the guide). Deathless kills of Uber Elder, A9 Sirus, and Shaper for now. Shaper video shows me deleting some mobs too but for now it's just bossing.

I'll add more soon.
Last edited by kriell on Feb 25, 2021, 10:41:06 PM
I make this build sir, is really very tank, i want use Aspect insted of Tailwind, how i can use aspect, no have mana for this, i have Enlight 4 and aspect in boots (my profile is public if you want to take a look to answer), thanks anticipated ♥
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░▐█▀▄▀▄▄▄▄▀▀▀▀▌░░░░░▐█▄░░ We Miss U Le Toucan
Last edited by Gooddes on Feb 26, 2021, 7:48:05 PM
"
Adellum wrote:
I make this build sir, is really very tank, i want use Aspect insted of Tailwind, how i can use aspect, no have mana for this, i have Enlight 4 and aspect in boots (my profile is public if you want to take a look to answer), thanks anticipated ♥

You have to compensate a little by putting 2 or more points into one of the Aura Clusters. Use either the one near CI (Influence) or the one near Zealoth's Oath (Sovereignty). You may also have to adjust your Precision gem's level depending on how many points you put into which Aura cluster.

Two points into either is enough if you use a low level precision. You can also get "Influence" with one extra point if you wish. If you go all the way in the Sovereignty node, you can keep using a high level Precision.

It's a bit of a trade-off with the Aspect. Doing so gives you some damage by boosting your auras and some more ES from discipline, at least.
Last edited by kriell on Feb 26, 2021, 8:23:15 PM
"
kriell wrote:
"
Adellum wrote:
I make this build sir, is really very tank, i want use Aspect insted of Tailwind, how i can use aspect, no have mana for this, i have Enlight 4 and aspect in boots (my profile is public if you want to take a look to answer), thanks anticipated ♥

You have to compensate a little by putting 2 or more points into one of the Aura Clusters. Use either the one near CI (Influence) or the one near Zealoth's Oath (Sovereignty). You may also have to adjust your Precision gem's level depending on how many points you put into which Aura cluster.

Two points into either is enough if you use a low level precision. You can also get "Influence" with one extra point if you wish. If you go all the way in the Sovereignty node, you can keep using a high level Precision.

It's a bit of a trade-off with the Aspect. Doing so gives you some damage by boosting your auras and some more ES from discipline, at least.



---Thank you very much for your attention. It is a very resistant construction, everything works :)
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░▐█▀▄▀▄▄▄▄▀▀▀▀▌░░░░░▐█▄░░ We Miss U Le Toucan
Last edited by Gooddes on Feb 27, 2021, 12:03:21 PM
Thanks for the videos! Now I know what to expect :)

I've been thinking about it a bit, have you considered using Stormrider Boots(new Ritual base)? I know it's an evasion base, but they do grant lightning damage per accuracy which we happen to get "for free". I took your two-toned boots in PoB, replaced base with the Stormrider Boots, and it seemed like a damage boost. I know it's small, but I wanted to hear your opinion.

P.S. I'm playing on a private league with friends(practically SSF with 2-4 players on it), thus it's not that easy to get some stuff done. Level 89 now, with a 5-link and garbage-tier crafted items, clearing low-medium red tier maps relatively easy. T15 beachhead is ez too. Even with a bad gear like that I can already feel tankiness, and mapping becomes comfortable. Once again, thanks for the build! I hope I'll have enough patience and resources to make it Maven-viable.
Last edited by d1sasterMan on Feb 27, 2021, 6:15:17 PM

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