[3.23] The Burden of Shadows! Asianskater2004's Endgame Budget MF Chaos PBOD Build Guide

[3.23] The Burden of Shadows! Asianskater2004's Endgame Budget MF Chaos PBOD Build Guide

Character Name: SheWithHalfLife

You know your Scion Ascendant is working hard branding enemies of freedom when you hear her shout, "HA" "HEI" and "HOOAH" as you right click and obliterate Wraeclast's hordes.

Summary:
Spoiler

I was super excited when I saw the new Unique staff, The Burden of Shadows, and immediately began working on this build. This build was created with Penance Brand of Dissipation (PBOD) in Softcore, but could also have moderate success with Dark Pact, Reap, Hexblast, and other spells, preferably with cast-speed/high effectiveness of added damage. It was designed for Tier 7 Ultra-juiced Abyss farming, but can be further customized/optimized to do almost any content (I didn't try any Guardian/Pinnacle bosses with it). It plays similarly to a Relic of the Pact/Blood Sacrament build, but without the need to stand in place for as long. It has plenty of room for MF in the build if you so desire (+47%IIQ in juiced Tier 7 w/o aurabot), or you can choose to forgo MF and build more damage and defensive layers. I spent an estimated 20-40 divs making this build, so it was unbelievably cheap at the time I made it. (Disclaimer: this cost does not include pieces that I fully made myself, but it's definitely under 100 divs total) As you will see, this build will definitely scale further than I have taken it so far. I will update the guide as able.

Strengths:
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Unbelievably High Life Pool
Farming Juiced Tier 7 Abyss Maps
No worrisome map modifiers if you use "no reflect" compasses
Easily halt damage by switching to backbar
Allows MF
Budget
No life/mana flasks
Low number of bound skills
Customizability
Low dexterity requirement
6-Link is optional

Weaknesses:
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Less than 2 seconds of not taking damage (this includes damage over time)
Adding more gems to this build (other than the ones described in this guide) costs you life, resistances, defences, and/or movement speed

Path of Building (POB, a separate program):
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Use the Community version of PoB.
These POBs are customizable and best viewed in the program itself (vice the webpage, which does not show everything), but keep in mind that you want at least 75% of all resistances, at least 20000 maximum life, and 50% physical damage reduction (preferably more). Chaos resistance is more important with abyss content, so if you don't plan to run abysses, chaos resistance is less important.
Note that there are passive skills allocated from the Shadow starting point. Start allocating them after you allocate Path of the Shadow ascendancy node.

POBs:
Low MF, but highest offense/defense (for higher tier maps, non-budget version):
https://pobb.in/FVL_wYCiE_6Y
Low MF, but higher offense/defense (for higher tier maps, budget version, RECOMMENDED):
https://pobb.in/-Z_wwCvo-jSI
Moderate MF, and moderate offense/defense (for solo tier 7 maps):
https://pobb.in/9ESM5m31-1DQ
Higher MF, Abyss, lower offense/defense (REQUIRES aurabot and lower tier maps):
https://pobb.in/h7EZ_Wtl7l-e
Highest MF, Non-Abyss, lowest offense/defense (REQUIRES aurabot and lower tier maps, WARNING: Low chaos resistance):
https://pobb.in/9LjNRZPhEudM

League Start:
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If you desire to league start this build, that would probably be pretty rough, so I recommend this build as your second build of the league. I may add a levelling guide in the future.

Key mechanics:
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Life stacking (6 life masteries), Blood Magic, block, armour, Arcane Surge, Iron Will, Runebinder, Pain Attunement/Petrified Blood, Eternal Youth/Dissolution of the Flesh, and Oath of the Maji (or Crimson Power).

The build is immune to ignite, poison, bleeding, and corrupted blood (all optional but improve quality and speed of play greatly).

Ascendancies:
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Scion's Saboteur and Hierophant are what I chose, but there are unexplored possibilities with Chieftain/Pathfinder/Necromancer
Order:
1. Grab the Two double-attribute ascendancy passives that give Intelligence
2. Saboteur
3. Hierophant
4. Path of the Shadow

Wildwood Ascendancy:
Spoiler

This section refers to league content in patch 3.23 so if you are not in that league and try to make this character, you must make up for the lost life/resistances/movement speed/armour that the Warden Wildwood Ascendancy holds.
Any of the 3 wildwood ascendancies are viable, but I chose tinctures (yellow Warden).
Order:
1. Grab Oath of the Maji
2. Either grab Detect Evil (more damage) or 2 wisp nodes (more MF)
3. Coated Blade and a wisp node
4. Grab 2 more wisp nodes

(If you have an aurabot always available, you can choose Warlock instead of Warden, but you must build energy shield items instead of armour, and make sure to take the Crimson Power node to turn that energy shield into life.
If you choose Primalist instead of Warden, your charms must be strong enough to create flexibility in other areas of the build, such as spell suppression, wither, chance to block, or more offenses/defenses, to make up for the loss of Oath of the Maji.)

How to play the build:
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You must place the brands with your right-click in front of your character so that they attach to the tankiest enemies. You may need to move around and use Withering Step while the brands do their damage. When your brands are attached to a tanky enemy, use Focus if you have it from your gloves. The damage will soon escalate into killer values. If the brands expire, rinse and repeat. You have a maximum of 3, 5, or 7 brands out at once, depending on your passive skill tree. If you need to stop damaging enemies e.g. a 50% life Stygian Spire, simply switch to your backbar as long as the backbar does not have PBOD, and then switch back. You do not want to take constant damage, so if your life reservation creeps down to your half-life, make sure to get 2 seconds away from damage so that your reservation can reset, especially if you use Divination Distillate. If you get surrounded or trapped by enemies, use your Withering Step (or Flame Dash) to reposition yourself. For faster map clearing, swap in Storm Brand of Indecision for your PBOD.

Bandits
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Kill them all

Pantheon
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Major: Brine King (fully upgraded)
Minor: Abberath (upgraded)

Gear
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This is a Life-stacking build. Do not neglect Life on your items.
Staff
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Drops from the King of the Mists.
The crafting bench can force 6 sockets on any staff for 350 jewellers if you or a friend have the recipe.
Spam Chromatic Orbs until you get 5 blue and 1 green on either end.
Mine is 6-linked, but yours doesn't need to be:
Only Withering Step is not linked with the other gems, so you must link together at least the 5 blue sockets. The green socket can be green or blue or white. You may replace Withering Step with Flame Dash for additional mobility but less damage. Flame Dash is blue.

A setup for the backbar could be these two items for when you really need more life and a quick escape (optional).

Armour Items
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Unless you have an aurabot, the armour items should be an armour base, and armour modifiers are very important. These items should have eldritch implicits from ichors and embers as shown. These items should have about 4 white sockets amongst them to get some elemental resistances from the amulet. The other sockets should be red to get some life from the amulet.

Rare Body armour should have a Guatelitzi's life modifier and chaos resistance. Alternatively, you can use a defensive Lightning Coil in combination with a topaz flask. The links don't matter.

Helmet should have as much life as you can manage and chaos resistance. The links don't matter.

Gloves should have as much life as you can manage and chaos resistance. Increased cast speed as an explicit modifier is a bonus. The links don't matter.

Boots should have as much life as you can manage and chaos resistance. Add movement speed as well. The links don't matter.

Jewellery
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Amulet drops from King of the Mists. It gives you benefits based on how many empty sockets you have and their colours. We like red and white sockets in this build. Anoint with Teal, Opalescent, and Silver Oils. Alternatively, use Violet, Silver, and Silver Oils.

Ring 1 contains Petrified Blood (red).

Ring 2 contains Determination (red). An alternative for more damage in a party could be a rare Unset Ring with Despair on Hit modifier and Withering Step or Flame Dash in the socket.

Belt will be an Elder or Hunter influence Stygian Vise or Leather Belt with two good life prefixes. You can make one by using Chaos Orbs on an ilvl 84+ Stygian Vise or Leather Belt until you get tier 1 life in the prefix as well as an open prefix and an open suffix. Then, fill suffixes temporarily on the Crafting Bench and use a Hunter's Exalted Orb to get a chance at getting the second life prefix. Once you get that, lock prefixes on the Crafting Bench and reroll on the Horticrafting Bench to include a Chaos modifier, hoping to get Chaos resistance. Finish it on the Crafting Bench with additional Chaos Resistance mixed with the elemental resistance of your choice from a Betrayal recipe.

Jewels
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Dissolution of the Flesh drops from Searing Exarch and is key to raising your life pool. You want a 29% or 30% roll.

Rare jewel should have 7% increased maximum life and either resistances or strength. I chose to have knockback instead, useful for when your life reservation needs breathing room. Alternatively, you could use a Watcher's Eye depending on auras you are affected by.

Flasks
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Prefix modifiers on the flasks should improve the uptime of the flask. Suffix modifiers on the flasks are somewhat interchangeable. You want any mods that include "less duration" to be on your flasks with the most uptime, such as a Bismuth Flask. This build especially hates damage over time (DOTs), so 3 flask suffixes make you immune to 4 types of DOTs. Reduced effect of curses and increased armour are also good suffixes.

Quartz Flask is used for those moments when you get surrounded or have no escape route. It gives you phasing and a little defense.

Amethyst Flask is for chaos resistance. An alternative is a more expensive Progenesis.

Bismuth Flask may be optional depending on if your elemental resistances are capped or not. An alternative could be a Granite Flask. If you went with the Lightning Coil chest, use a Topaz Flask.

Quicksilver Flask increases your movement speed, which helps you not get hit.

Silver Flask increases your movement speed as well as cast speed, which improves damage.

Last edited by asianskater2004 on Mar 12, 2024, 5:59:37 PM
Last bumped on Mar 20, 2024, 5:58:27 PM
very nice cheap build also
Just wanted to say I saw this last week and immediately rolled a new scion and it's proving to be great fun so far.

Please add any ideas you have for juicing the build even if they're not totally worked out yet!
"
very nice cheap build also

Thank you!
"
Hyosho wrote:
Just wanted to say I saw this last week and immediately rolled a new scion and it's proving to be great fun so far.

Please add any ideas you have for juicing the build even if they're not totally worked out yet!

OK your wish has been granted! I added a new non-budget version to the POB section which has the highest offense and defense for juicing so far. All feedback helps! Thank you!

Edit: I should mention that this new non-budget version utilizes the Flame Dash backbar shenanigans mentioned under the Staff section of the Gear section.
Last edited by asianskater2004 on Mar 12, 2024, 3:18:03 PM
PBOD's probably getting nerfed. I'm working on a new version for 3.24. Check in the Scion forums today or tomorrow.

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