Building a Better Spectral Throw

Hello and welcome to... another Spectral Throw build?.... Yes, another Spectral Throw build. Quite frankly, I love the skill, it's great. Now, I know there is a lot of hype about the skill and everyone is making "their build" and all, but the one thing I didn't see reading through the forums was anyone who actually drew inspiration from the introduction video. If you pay close attention, you'll see that my build draws a lot of influence from the build given in said video while also staking it's own claim to greatness. One thing is to be sure though, with Spectral Throw and the right build you can really do wonders even with low end gear.

Full Build:


Early Levels


I currently only utilize Spectral Throw+Added Fire Damage+Lesser Multiple Projectiles which leaves a lot of space to grow. For leveling purposes, at the very least, I am trying to add in life and mana leach. This is a cheap way to compensate for a lack of gear without sacrificing much in terms of offense since there are few passives that drastically effect it's offensive potential. (you can replace it with Faster Attack Speed if you run into one) The only other skill I currently run is Clarity which helps keep my defenses and offenses going during long fights. (usually tougher boss fights)

I plan to run Enduring Cry+Immortal Call+Increased Duration+Cast When Damage Taken. (I have everything together except the trigger and the slots to hold the whole thing) In theory, this should cause enduring Cry and Immortal call to trigger at the same time after every couple of hits I take. I anticipate that this will cause me to get endurance charges the first time it happens and trigger Immortal Call should I already have charges prepped. With a large enough group, plenty of elemental resistances, and Increased Duration this should allow for a really significant amount of up time for Immortal Call. If this does not end up working, then the two abilities can be separated for an even better effect but at the cost of 1-2 more slots, depending on whether or not you want to manually control Immortal Call. (1. Enduring Cry+Increased Duration+Cast When Damage Taken 2. Immortal Call+Increased Duration+[optional]Cast When Damage Taken)

One thing to keep in mind as you are leveling is that you are going to want lots of red and green skill slots, as much armor as you can get, and a significant amount of energy shield. This may sound restrictive, but it's actually quite manageable with a few Chromatics and basic templar gear. Try for rares as much as possible, but at the very least attempt to keep gear relatively current as you will be taking damage in the later acts regardless of how careful you play.

I am currently a level 37 Scion that has been duo leveling with a friend and has done literally no trading whatsoever and started from scratch. I am decked out in the best of whatever happened to drop off the things I killed and that's pretty much it and I was surprised to find how far I have made it into the game. The build, at this stage, appears to perform WAY above average with the only truly significant gear being your weapon. That is not to say that there are no negatives though, so here is a detailed list of all the positives and negatives I have experienced utilizing a lot of the new mechanics/skills:

Pros:
-Eldritch Battery, Mind Over Matter, and several energy shield/mana regen nodes allow you to have plenty of mana for sponging up damage and allow for you to effectively take 70% damage as long as your offenses hold. (we'll get to that later)

-Iron Grip, Unwavering Stance, Resolute Technique, and a massive 2 hander allow for sustained offenses that can only be halted by huge bursts of damage forcing you to flee or getting frozen. (you can gear away getting frozen but the build works fine with extreme budget gear so I won't get in to it)

-Health nodes, life regen nodes, life steal, and elemental resistance nodes allow you to keep yourself in good shape in and out of combat. The elemental resistance nodes help to compensate for the lack of shield and inability to dodge. (due to Unwavering Stance)

-Attack speed nodes allow for better mobility, (less time spent without direct control over your character) higher dps, and more healing due to life steal.

Cons:
-This build DOES NOT have room for every health node which means that without proper management of your mana, you are significantly squishier than other, similar builds.

Solution: I currently use a few items that have health and mana leach that help me to mitigate any strain on the mana pool as well as keeping Clarity up all the time. Because of this I only ever have problems with mana management on large swarms of ranged units and bosses, however, typically these situations are handled by staying aware of ranged enemies and reacting accordingly, or even just backing off a bit to let your natural regen kick in a bit so you can get back in the fight. This mostly only applies to the early level though since I can't imagine having any mana problems once I pick up Eldritch Battery.

-Single hard hitting enemies can wear down your mana, once your mana is gone your offense stops and your mana shield stops buffering your health. Since your offenses have stopped as well, you stop stealing health and mana and from there everything falls apart pretty rapidly. (sometimes catching you off guard after tanking a group for 10 seconds at full health only to suddenly start dropping like a bomb)

Solution: This problem occurs mostly during the harder boss fights and can be managed through proper kiting, awareness, and some passable pots you can get by simply enchanting whatever you find. In addition, I am hoping that once I get the triggers in place, the Enduring Cry+Immortal Call combo should drastically reduce the strain on your mana.

I hope this guide is helpful for those of you who want to try out Scion or are just looking for a Spectral Throw build with a bit more explanation than most. Please feel free to provide feedback, (I'd love to know whether or not my combo is going to work as I expect or not so I can plan accordingly) leave a comment, or tell me how terrible I am at this game and how I should go jump off a bridge. :P

[Edit] Picked up Berserking :)

This looks really good.
I'm gonna try this one, I'll let you know how it works out

FYI: I'm quite new at this game, this will be my 2nd scion since I messed up my first one

Edit: I don't have good gear, so it will almost be a fresh start