[1.3] Aj's Shatter Blast - Kinetic Blast Cast on Crit

So it seems some people are starting to catch on to how OP this spec is currently but I figured I'd might as well release my version of it since I've basically finished it besides perfect gear etc.

This build is straight forward but the synergy that Frost Wall & Kinetic Blast have has seemingly caused people to overlook linking two spells instead and steamrolling maps.

This build can be made super cheap and frankly goes to show how broken CoC is currently but nevertheless I've had fun abusing it this league.

ANYWAYS; This is a straight deviation from Killmour's and Terror's Shatter Chuck Lite.

Concept

The Concept of the build is Kinetic Blast's interaction with Pierce and the Cast on Critical Strike gem. Kinetic Blast can pierce, but even if it pierces it still creates "Bubbles" on hit and continues on. If it hits another target it can pierce again or stop, causing another set of bubbles. Factor all of this in with Greater Multiple Projectiles and we get many potential chances for Cast on Crit to proc (to a maximum of 20/second based on the 1.3 nerf to the gem) against a dense pack, but normally it doesn't last that long. A good way to test this is against double Dry Peninsula boss. (Allies cannot die aura.)

All i've done is change the Gems and some Passives but to devastating effect. The Barrage Shatter Chuck Lite build focuses on single target to kill Atziri and Uber Atziri but I've adapted Kinetic Blast for insane Clear Speed.

Skill Tree: Shatter Blast

Bandits:
Normal: Help Oak (+40 Hp)
Cruel: Kill All (+1 Skill Point)
Merciless: Help Alira (+1 Maximum Power Charge)

Pros & Cons

Pros:
Cheap. This can be done on effectively on a 5 Link Voll's protector.
Huge Dps. Can carry 6 man 78's pretty easily.
Surgeons Flasks. Due to the high crit chance, you'll always have flasks up.
Shatter All Corpses. Due to our high global crit chance combined with Herald of Ice and Ice Spear's crazy crit chance effect we nearly always freeze the screen, and coincidentally shatter their corpses.
Room for Progression. With enough currency you can eventually gear up to Tom94's Shatter Chuck or Rizz's Ka-Boom Blast

Cons:
Poor Single Target. I've circumvented this with a pair of Cast on Crit Maligaro's but that's fairly expensive. Pulling mobs into a wall is generally the best option.
Limited Defensively. Kill them before they kill you is the motto of this build.
Not Hardcore Viable. You could make it work with a 6 Link and careful play but I wouldn't suggest it personally.
Laggy. Some players won't want you in their party due to the high amounts of spell effects.
Not Beginner Friendly. This build has a lot of moving parts that might confuse a newer player.

Current Gear



Flasks


I switch the Resist flasks based on the situation. The shitty Hybrid flask is just rolled with Surgeons to do No Regen map mods.

Damage & Defense Sheets

Kinetic Blast no Power Charges




Kinetic Blast with Power Charges




Defense Sheet




Gem Information

So the absolute most important gem setup that needs to be stressed is if you only have a 5 Link Voll's. If this is the case YOU NEED TO LINK WARLORDS MARK TO CAST ON DAMAGE TAKEN. This is because Warlords Mark gives you life leech which with Vaal Pact allows you to kill reflect packs. I do not recommend you ever do reflect map mods though.

If you don't, or, if your WARLORDS MARK GETS OVERCURSED you will instadie to reflect.

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Now that has been addressed, Why Clarity?

Kinetic Blast costs a fuck ton of mana even at low levels. And to add on top of that, I'll go as far as to say you're always going to have mana problems.

It's a balancing act that you'll have to figure out based on your gear, but I'll say taking EB or the Mana gained on kill nodes make life a lot easier.

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As for Spells to link to your Kinetic Blast/Barrage,

Kinetic Blast:
The real beauty of this is that you can use whatever you want. I personally like 20 Quality Ice Spear and Arc as they hit near instantly and work together nicely for clear speed + freezing the screen but you're free to use any spell you prefer.

Barrage:
You want to use projectile spells that can "Shotgun" so you benefit from GMP, Fireball/Arctic Breath/Ice Spear/Freezing Pulse are all solid choices.

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Auras:
Herald of Thunder: Adds Lightning damage to your attacks and spells, allowing them to shock a target increasing damage taken by 50% MORE. This is huge and I'd never replace this.

Herald of Ice: Adds Cold damage to your attacks and spells, allowing them to freeze the target. This is so OP, but the best is yet to come. This only really applies for soloing, but when you clear packs this fast Herald of Ice's Death Effect will destroy the pack from front to back in a chain-reaction which is super satisfying to watch.

Clarity: Until you find another means to sustain your mana, this is pretty much necessary. It sucks and the mana could be much better used for purity auras but until then this is king.

Gear Information

I'll save you a lot of time and let you know the 2 biggest problems you'll have gearing this character.

Number 1: Resists. You need 139% Fire/Lightning/Cold Resist across a few slots of gear. This is difficult when you also need accuracy/crit chance/crit multi on your jewelry. Because we use Rats Nest + Voll's Protector + Maligaro's we have 3 slots with ZERO resist. Saffels Frame gives very little as well.

Number 2: Mana Problems. The easy guaranteed way is ES on gear for Eldritch Battery or Pure Mana and Mana Regen % on Gear. Remember you don't need to be able to hold down your attack, just enough to kill the pack and move on. It's a balancing act dependent strictly on your own gear, don't be afraid to test it yourself.
Experimental

+2 Mana Gained on Hit corruption on a ring. This is hard as hell to pull off but it's the best way. It allows you to skip on Clarity and run Purity Auras so it's very worthwhile. Don't think it's perfect though, this requires a different skilltree, different gear, different links, and you lose out on mana for lightning warp and a gem slot for portal, etc. It turns the build into something else and isn't an easy fix by any means! That being said, it still is probably the best option if you want to pursue that route assuming your other gear is good enough "95%" crit still is very important! I'm testing this and will update with further information when I feel confident doing so. Please don't feel this is necessary, but I wanted the option to be known.


Other than that, let's talk why I chose certain uniques.

Saffel's Frame
I'm taking this purely for the Overcap Resists, Spell Block, and Spell Damage. Cannot Block Attacks is pretty brutal but this build relies on killing things before they hit you.

Rat's Nest
Attack Speed and Global Crit chance, simple as that. The Movespeed/Rarity are cherries on top.

Maligaro's Virtuosity
Global Crit Chance and Crit Multi and some Attack Speed. Mine are corrupted to house barrage in a pseudo-5Link.

Voll's Protector
Effective 7 Link at the cost of a Chest Slot (dropping power charge on crit). It allows you to run 2 spells and Life Leech in a 6 Link and that's in my opinion a good defense through offense. You can always try and run some sort of Curse on Hit with Assassins Mark (Herald of Thunder, etc.) or even link it in your chest but for immune to curse maps you'll be wishing you had a Voll's. It also slows you down to the point I feel it's simply better to use Voll's anyways.

Let's talk Wands.

Now, stats on the wand itself. The best base is Imbued, but almost any wand base is good due to the base crit scaling and attack speed hurting our mana problems. The most important is the local crit chance roll. Ideally you want the mod Of Incision which is the highest tier Crit Chance roll 35-38%. This affects different wand bases because their base Crit Chance differs. I'd accept any wand with 10.5% or more Crit Chance.

So once you find a wand with Crit Chance, next you want High Spell Damage, to make your spells do increased damage. 50+ Spell Damage is what I'd consider good.

Honestly that's all you need, other good stats to look for is Attack Speed/Accuracy/Crit Multi

FAQ

I foresee questions abound of a few decisions. This will be the FAQ before the FAQ.

Why Acrobatis?

Because I'm not running Eldritch Battery I don't care about my Energy Shield. I've managed my mana through separate means. Since I'm running Saffels Frame I can't block attacks, only spells. Acrobatics takes me from about 19% chance to block spells to 12%. Because I have Life Leech and Vaal pact reflect is a non-issue, so I'd rather have 30% chance to dodge incoming attacks than ~7% chance to block spells. (You can spell block reflected spell damage.)

Why no Frost Wall?

Defensively it's a nice way to play especially with 100% Pierce (Gem + Tree nodes) But I prefer the option to kill the pack before it can react, which also makes party play much smoother.

Do I NEED Cast on Crit Corrupted Gloves/Helmet?

No, it just really smooths out solo play. Barrage with 1 spell is pretty low dps but it works good enough.

Can I use Righteous Fire?

Yes, a Surgeons Ruby flask and a Surgeons Eternal Life Flask allow you to juggle your HP, but it's pretty overkill unless you want to be flashy. It's even unnecessary for normal Atziri.

Do I have to have a 5 Link?

No, but it's fairly cheap to buy a 5 Link Voll's and it opens you up to 2 spells, which boosts your DPS by a lot. Just make sure you're running Cast when Damage Taken + Warlords Mark if you're not running life leech in your 5 Link.

Why Unwavering Stance?

This is pure personal preference. With such a low HP Pool, getting stun-locked is fairly easy. I feel if i'm able to attack back I can leech my HP back and avoid getting killed that way. This might be worse without a 6 link and life leech, so take this if it suits your playstyle.


Videos

Video #1: Gorge

Video #2: Shipyard

Last edited by AjBamf on Jan 24, 2015, 12:31:28 PM
res
"
AjBamf wrote:


This build is straight forward but the synergy that Frost Wall & Kinetic Blast have has seemingly caused people to overlook linking two spells instead and steamrolling maps.




I am using a similar build. Just wonder where the frost wall part is in your guide?
"
PD_Fae wrote:
"
AjBamf wrote:


This build is straight forward but the synergy that Frost Wall & Kinetic Blast have has seemingly caused people to overlook linking two spells instead and steamrolling maps.




I am using a similar build. Just wonder where the frost wall part is in your guide?


I've opted to not use Frost Wall at all, instead using 2 spells to increase DPS. While the interaction with Kinetic Blast + Frost Wall + Pierce is nice, I've found outright damage to be my preference.
I don't see kinetic blast being even remotely usable for this so correct me if im wrong.

barrage is used as trigger with 8 hits that individually can trigger CoC skills 8 times multiplied by GMP making you fire 5 projectiles meaning potentially have 40 spell projectiles per spell. If one barrage crits they all crit and triggers the spells 8 times. - this gives you awesome shotgun abilities.

Kinetic blast has one roll since it only fires one initial projectile for it to proc off. This means you will only fire the socketed spells once for each crit. at least from what I can see on the already tested CoC videos.

I am sort of assuming I must be wrong since you based a build off this so please if you know what amount procs or the actual calculations being used please let me know - since i'm curious.

When comparing 1 crit attack from a barrage on videos to one attack from kinetic blast it seems you just don't get the steady stream of spells being cast and shot gunning everything that barrage gives.

Anyway feel free to enlighten me in my ignorant ways. hehe I wont take offense and is purely curious.
Im not gay, but I still do shit.
IGN: GrrisRanger
"
goat4dinner wrote:
I don't see kinetic blast being even remotely usable for this so correct me if im wrong.

barrage is used as trigger with 8 hits that individually can trigger CoC skills 8 times multiplied by GMP making you fire 5 projectiles meaning potentially have 40 spell projectiles per spell. If one barrage crits they all crit and triggers the spells 8 times. - this gives you awesome shotgun abilities.

Kinetic blast has one roll since it only fires one initial projectile for it to proc off. This means you will only fire the socketed spells once for each crit. at least from what I can see on the already tested CoC videos.

I am sort of assuming I must be wrong since you based a build off this so please if you know what amount procs or the actual calculations being used please let me know - since i'm curious.

When comparing 1 crit attack from a barrage on videos to one attack from kinetic blast it seems you just don't get the steady stream of spells being cast and shot gunning everything that barrage gives.

Anyway feel free to enlighten me in my ignorant ways. hehe I wont take offense and is purely curious.


I've tested it compared to Power Siphon. I'm sure the bubbles are able to proc Cast on Crit, and along with Pierce triggering the bubbles potentially more than once per projectile we can get the initial 5 projectiles plus 4 bubbles each, with a 40% chance to pierce. In a large pack of 15 mobs we're talking 30-40+ possible triggers for Cast on Crit per attack. Obviously we're capped as of the 1.3 changes to 20/sec and usually packs don't last that long. (A good way to test is double boss Dry Peninsula where I can crash my friends games.)
Looks nice. Seems to have potential!
Yeah found out thanks. just tested on stream with rizzeldazz. Thanks for clearing up my ignorance though. hehe..

im sure it will be the best clearing for sure then. - awesome. will prolly play around with it then.

looking forward to a dps spreadsheet of some sort tht will take pierce into account - possibly based of tom94's dps spreadsheet for shatter chuck.

Although for atziri and uber i still believe barrage to be better due to it's inherent single target nature.
"
goat4dinner wrote:
Yeah found out thanks. just tested on stream with rizzeldazz. Thanks for clearing up my ignorance though. hehe..

im sure it will be the best clearing for sure then. - awesome. will prolly play around with it then.

looking forward to a dps spreadsheet of some sort tht will take pierce into account - possibly based of tom94's dps spreadsheet for shatter chuck.

Although for atziri and uber i still believe barrage to be better due to it's inherent single target nature.


Definitely, my opinion exactly.

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