[3.16] The Tanky Stormbind. All invitations downed, high damage + defences

3.16 PoB here with updated tree and adjustments. We lost 900 ES and 15% damage but in return ~5k more armour and gain divine shield. Need to wait for final patch notes.

Temporal Rift is potentially very strong for Indigon + Arcane Cloak shenanigans and we can fit it in

3.16 PoB
https://pastebin.com/xezjFMhf
Blood and Sand was a placeholder, use Temporal Rift.


Welcome all potential masochists.

I am happy to present the results of trying to take this meme skill to the end game. Pleasingly it went quite well culminating in taking down a 90 IIQ The Feared on an overall budget of ~19ex. Read below if you are interested in trying out this very unique skill and clearing the end game on a reasonable investment.



FOREWORD

Before we start I would NOT recommend this for a new player. This build is an ES/LL build coupled with mana management shenanigans thanks to Indigon. Also you will require a rough knowledge on how most bosses work and their attack/movement patterns. There is a rough 2-3 second lead time between starting to place your runes and detonation so if you want to get maximum damage off being able to predict when bosses will be stationary + knowing when deadly hits are coming is mandatory given you can't just run in a circle constantly like most other playstyles.

Pros/Cons

+ moderate investment for what it can do
+ satisfying to detonate 20m damage minefields
+ tanky with 75/52 block, 35k armor pre flasks, and 700 ES on block.
+ snowflake points for playing stormbind

- very janky that puts many people off
- need to level with something else. Do not even attempt stormbind without either Indigon or Voidbringer.
- unique heavy. You will need to eek out the dex requirements and potentially some resistances through clusters.


Videos

A9 Sirus - https://youtu.be/7XEk7pMRA8E, Sirus is a very easy fight once you know the rhythm. He always teleports to where he is facing so follow him and sit under his ass. He is a good fight to practice your timing windows and dodging, think of him as a good training fight for things like Feared.

The Feared (90 IIQ) - https://youtu.be/7VWNG6oI5j4, I died 4 times but it's a crazy fight especially for this sit and channel skill.

The Hidden - https://youtu.be/WuV4XABo6S8, just watch out for Esh and his lightning. Tul is generally regarded as quite lethal but in this build he kind of healed me instead.

Chimera map with Phoenix crashing the party - https://youtu.be/1m99V7YsfJU


Leveling

Level with something like an Enki's. Switch over once you have Indigon + Ivory Tower + Aegis Aurora.

Gear OUTDATED - USE POB



The first mandatory piece of the holy trinity. Indigon allows us to convert our substantial mana pool into damage. Try to grab one with the enchant for Wrath to have reduced mana reservation. I managed to grab one for 1ex however if it's impossible to find then a alternate quality Arrogance and a jewel corrupted with reduced mana reservation will do the trick (can be quite expensive). If you can't find or afford the above options then just hold off using Defiance Banner in the meantime.



The second piece of the trinity allows us to go Low Life for that sweet damage as well as actually using auras without getting wrecked by chaos damage. Don't use a Shavronne's Wrappings as we lose out on ES and mana. With our mana regen and as long as you have >0% chaos res I find us very tanky to chaos damage. During Feared fights I never have much trouble with Chayula.



Rounds off the holy trinity. BIS shield with no other replacement. Good amounts of armor and ES + reduces the amount of cold damage we take by 20% + allows us to replenish 500-700 ES on block.



Mana, mana regen, and allows us to not invest in strength on our gear and reduces the dex requirement for the banner. Anoint with Charisma to fit in our auras.



Use Dream Fragments for the mana and mana regen, also allows us to ignore cold ailments which is a massive QOL. We should use the other rings to cap our resists as well as having a decent amount of ES and mana. Chaos resist is a plus.




Gloves and belts follow the same formula. Mana, ES, and resists with chaos resist being a plus. You could probably craft better ones but the above were cheapish and worked enough for me.



Skyforth helps us with our mana reservation and practically makes us immune to stuns. I toyed around with a well crafted boots or Rainbowstride but the reduced mana reservation mod was too hard to make up for.



We just want mana and anything that makes our spells hit harder (ex crit). +1 to spells is a good mod however I was too poor to afford it.


Jewels OUTDATED - USE POB



For the large clusters aim for ones with Scintillating Ideas, Storm Drinker, and at least one Supercharge. Get a Widespread Destruction if it helps you get your AOE to at least 36. Disorientating Display is really good but it might be too expensive to fit in with the above.



Mandatory to allow us to fit in our auras. The mana regeneration is nice but its all about the reservations.



The MVPs of the show. With all 4 we can get our armor up to 35k. I find small clusters a good place to round off any missing attributes or resistances.



The Watcher's Eye with double clarity mods costed me 3ex but a sole mana as extra ES mod is quite cheap. Blue Nightmare is mandatory to get our spell block up to passable levels and Healthy Mind just gives a ton of mana. Pure Talent gives us ~400 mana regen and a chunk of elemental penetration - it's also a cheap jewel for corrupting blood immunity. Check POB to see where to place them.

Gems OUTDATED - USE POB


Stormbind - Awakened Elemental Focus - Awakened Added Lightning Damage - Awakened Increased Area of Effect - Awakened Controlled Destruction - Infused Channeling

Main damage setup. Not too much to say other than we need the additional AOE.

Stormbind - Faster Casting - Cast while Channeling - Wave of Conviction

Our Runeblast setup. The CWC and Faster Casting allows us to boost Runeblasts mana cost and also apply lightning exposure

Arcane Cloak - Sigil of Power - Arcane Surge

Arcane cloak is mandatory and allows us to get Indigon's power up and running reliably. I would opt for a alternate quality version as we don't really want high duration. I prefer being able to use it more often to keep mana usage up.
Sigil adds a ton of damage and a bit of survivability as well.

Storm Brand - Hextouch - Conductivity

This helps proc Elemental Overload and allows us to 'precast' our curses if we drop it where the boss is about to spawn.

Flame Dash Clarity

Mobility and Mana Regen. Clarity is also important for your Watcher's Eye.

Defiance Banner - Arrogance

This will be your last aura. You will need either the reduced mana reservation enchant on the helmet OR a reduced mana corrupted jewel plus an alternate quality Arrogance for the below setup.

Determination - Arrogance - Vaal Discipline - Wrath

With our cluster jewels we should be comfortable enough to support this. Use an alternate quality Arrogance if we don't have the helmet enchant.


Some mechanics

A few things to call out here.

The first is mana management. How we want to approach it is to press Arcane Cloak to get our spell damage and mana costs up. This is important because otherwise your runes take forever to empower rather than near instantaneous. Also our damage has a massive variance depending on how much mana we used in the last 4 seconds. It ranges between barely killing white mobs to one shotting most map bosses - this takes a while to get used to. We regenerate ~2100 mana per second so we can afford to be a bit loose with our casting. That said though be sensible, if Chayula is cycloning right on you then you probably don't want to dump your whole mana bar.

The second is getting your AOE to 36. In POB make sure your AOE is 36 - this is very important. Our damage can be calculated as ~17 x Average Hit. Your runes shotgun and you want as many as you want to hit the target. u/turtle_figurine did the math and identified the key breakpoints for AOE which are 26, 32, 36, and 41. Incremental shotguns are marginal but jumps up substantially when you hit these thresholds. He was kind enough to do a graph - https://imgur.com/a/FV3dkmz.

Lastly is the 2nd Stormbind setup. Runeblast which is the skill attached to the gem isn't really supported by any gems apart from a few. Stormbind is a weird skill in that the Runeblast from our secondary setup can charge the runes from the primary setup. We use a CwC - Wave of Conviction setup to boost our mana costs of the secondary setup's Runeblast as well as applying the lightning exposure. Be warned though if you roll maps that reflect physical damage then this interaction can be lethal. I have killed myself before my charging up my mana usage and then my WOC just oneshot me when it rolled over a pack of mobs.


You can experiment though and tailor this to your style. There is a crit variation of this build as well but it's a lot more expensive and we may have to sacrifice some defensive layers for it.
Last edited by HamsterTrainer on Jan 27, 2022, 6:53:50 PM
Last bumped on Feb 27, 2023, 12:11:31 PM
Great work I like it.
It is gonna work again. Pog
Last edited by arthurbenjamin on Oct 22, 2021, 2:18:23 PM
"
I was gonna play this in scourge. Until i saw it no longer works. All stormbind builds are dead ;-;


Doing a bit of tweaking but it looks like we can still play it with 1k less ES and ~15% less damage. Still doable but tweaking the numbers.
Last edited by HamsterTrainer on Oct 18, 2021, 6:11:15 PM
3.17 looks promising.

Massive damage boost for free. Defences all in was somewhat buffed in 3.16 so overall 3.17 looks to be a sizeable buff over 3.15.
Hello, fellow masochist checking in. Currently running this as my 3rd build of 3.17. Current PoB: https://pastebin.com/TH5tXyfd I've spent about 12ex on this, most of that on the 6L armor and awakened gems. Still working on mana, mana and more mana. Maybe stacking more int is the way to go.

I'm going heavy on tanking with determination in a prism guardian, also purity of elements for now - might drop that when I have my gear in order but immunity to shock and ignite is very handy. I'm not sure how I could play this without reserving any mana, because I also went with tempest shield for extra block and I can't run that on arrogance.

Overall it's definitely viable though often frustrating, and it's fun if you like a more mechanical playstyle (which I do!)
Updated: https://pastebin.com/aV3SnYtN

Changed up to Determination/Tempest Shield/Discipline on the shield, plus Defiance Banner and Clarity on Arrogance, plus an eternal blessing Wrath aura.

Due to lack of gem slots, going for an unusual channeling setup for the Rune Blast: combo ice nova for chills to get more damage on hit from gloves, and conductivity for the curse.



CWDT Cold Snap gives some helpful frenzy charges.



Still not quite one shotting bosses as much as I'd like but I did kill Sirus, Shaper deathless and the synthesis invitation with one death.

I think I'm going to run some 5 ways to level to 98 or so and then think about my final jewel choices.
Last edited by alphazeta33 on Apr 6, 2022, 7:38:15 PM
I'm running this build in 3.17, and have some change.

https://pastebin.com/NfvgAKxw

I use Forbidden Flesh & Flame to get Bastion of Hope, for block and stun immune. and spend some resources in ES regeneration and recharge.
But have no idea to avoid be killed by chaos damage when on low mana...

Last edited by earth363874543 on Apr 9, 2022, 8:51:41 AM
Coruscating Elixir
👀
"
I'm running this build in 3.17, and have some change.

https://pastebin.com/NfvgAKxw

I use Forbidden Flesh & Flame to get Bastion of Hope, for block and stun immune. and spend some resources in ES regeneration and recharge.
But have no idea to avoid be killed by chaos damage when on low mana...



I really like your Thread of Hope positioning to get two mana nodes! Making a note to try that.

Besides Coruscating Elixir you just have to play conservative around chaos damage mobs and not go below ~1000 mana, it doesn't matter how much chaos res you have, if you drop to zero around chaos you'll die eventually. I'm at around 30% res myself and still running Atziri's Promise.

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