[2.3] King's "Close Stalker" - Blast Rain + Puncture Trap + 50/25 Block [HC and Atziri deathless]



Hi! I'd like to share a build I'm playing in Talisman league. It is a great and very cheap build for HC since it has a combination of some very nice defense and a nice clear speed! It is insanely tanky and perfect choice for less experienced HC players!

My IGN is Close_Stalker

It's built around Chin Sol bow and some new gems - Blast Rain and Blasphemy.

The idea is to make a very strong 'melee' bower that can survive and tank everything. There are several mechanics that should make that possible.

Defense-wise: around 200% increased max life, 200% increased Armour (85+% phys reduction!), 50+% block + 20+% spell block, 3+ endurance charges, permanent Fortify, 5% life regen, Knockbacks from Chin Sol, Enfeeble curse, at least 2% life leech and 40% inc life leech per sec, Immortal call, Iron Reflexes, Puncture trap (very safe for boss killing), Blast Rain is OP with Chin Sol - Since Chin Sol knockbacks, very fast Blast Rain projectiles keep all the melee targets away from you!

Offense-wise: Chin Sol (common and very nice bow), Point blank (50% more dmg at close range), 100% more dmg at close range (Chin Sol), Shock (50% more damage), Iron Grip (around 80% increased bow dmg), Onslaught, 5 frenzy charges, 200% increased Bow damage from Lioneye's Fall jewel, RT...

As you can see, there are several layers of defense and several strong ways of multiplying damage.

You can play with Chin Sol and Daresso's Defiance or Kaom's Heart. I would personally choose kaoms heart. It will give you some extra damage and you'll have 7000 life around lvl 85.

This build can be played in several different ways:
1. Using Lioneye's Fall jewels playing Duelist Champion / Slayer
2. Using Lioneye's Fall jewels playing Marauder Chieftan
3. Going crit Duelist Champion / Slayer or Marauder Juggernaut if you need accuracy (I didn't test this)


I'd suggest option 1!

VERY IMPORTANT - You MUST have 2 Lioneye's Fall jewels which make melee damage modifiers work as bow modifiers! For example - "20% increased damage with STAVES" becomes "20% increased damage with BOWS" and so on

Ascendancy classes


Duelist - Champion
Probably my favorite class. Permanent buffed Fortify!? Damn! This makes us almost immortal! This would be enough for me, but there's more - you get First to strike, last to fall and Inspirational.

Duelist - Slayer
Good option for more damage and leeching. Take Headsman and Brutal Fervour.

Marauder - Chieftan
Great option for offense-defense balancing! 100% fire conversion. Use Vaal Burning Arrow instead of Puncture for single target and take Avatar of Fire





Skill tree variations


This is a normal skill tree I currently use:

Duelist skill tree

Marauder skill tree is the same as duelist, just different starting node.

Duelist skill tree - CRIT VERSION




Leveling guide


1. Grab Shrapnel shot and any bow you find. You can do a weapon recipe (normal white bow + magic/rare rustic sash belt + 1 blacksmith's whetstone). Do this for crude bow and then long bow once you can equip it.

20 pts skill tree

2. Once you hit level 18, you can equip Roth's Reach unique bow. Change Shrapnel shot for Lightning arrow and use Lightning arrow + Physical projectile damage + Weapon Elemental damage + Added fire damage

40 pts skill tree

3. Death's Harp unique bow is next solid option. You can still use lightning arrow or swap to Blast Rain.

60 pts skill tree

4. Once you hit lvl 62, start using Chin Sol. Use Blast Rain. This is when the magic starts to happen.

80 pts skill tree

5. Take remaining nodes, Daresso's Defiance / Kaom's Heart and start grinding maps

100 pts skill tree





Gear


Bow: Chin Sol
Chest: Belly of the beast / Daresso's Defiance / Rare / Kaom's Heart
Ring: Doedre's Damning
Quiver: Rearguard
Flask: Rumi's

Everything else - rare items

Default Duelist Gear
[
]


2nd version




Gems


4L (6L) -> Blast Rain + Faster Attacks + Physical projectile damage + Weapon Elemental Damage (+ Fire penetration + Concentrated effect)

4L (6L) -> Puncture + Physical Projectile Damage + Trap + Trap and Mine Damage (+ Slower Projectiles + Rapid Decay)

4L -> Blasphemy + Flammability + Herald of Ash + Arctic Armour

4L -> Blink Arrow + Faster Attacks + CWDT lvl1 + Enfeeble (lvl5)

4L -> Blood Rage + CWDT (lvl4) + Immortal Call (lvl6) + Increased Duration



Defense stats




Bandits

Normal: Oak
Cruel: Oak / Kraityn
Merciless: Kraityn


Jewels

Lioneye's Fall - put it in the jewel socket under Duelist start and left from Marauder start so you can take melee nodes for extra 178% inc dmg. It makes melee nodes increase bow damage instead. If you, let's say, take 12% increased damage with Swords node, it will work as 12% increased damage with Bows etc


Atziri viable - guide


Should have been deathless, but I noobishly died to double flame blast after hitting the wrong key (chaos golem instead of Blink Arrow). I used Blast Rain and Puncture trap. If you played Atziri before, you'll have no problems.

1. Dual Vaal - use Puncture Traps and Blast Rain and lower health on both Vaals under 10%, then kill em both (it's crucial to lower HP on BOTH Vaals before you kill either of them because if you kill on of them, the other enrages and it's 'gl hf')

2. Trio - Kill woman in the middle first (A'alai) using puncture trap. Just run around and avoid red degen mist on the floor. Next, use puncture traps to kill double striker (avoid black mist) and lastly kill the cyclone guy, also using traps. Beware of BLEEDING, equip at least 2 remove bleeding flasks.

3. Atziri - Just run around, throw traps at her and her split phases and try and avoid everything. Easiest fight of em all. Use Blast Rain while she's in her healing phase.





Last edited by kralj87 on Jun 14, 2016, 3:52:43 AM
Last bumped on Jun 26, 2016, 9:34:23 PM
Hi there,

Your build looks reaaally interesting so far,
was planning to build something like this too,
but your tree looks far more better than anything i've made yet.
ima test this one out, see if i can optimise it.

do you think the cone of schrapnel shot will have different behaviour with gmp?

See you at 2.1!

Hi! Thanks, glad you find it useful. I was thinking about LMP / GMP but i have a feeling that it's not the right way to support shrapnel shot. I somehow think that inc AoE was something ggg had in Mind. The thing is, projectiles might overlap and, in that case, inc AoE should be way better.
Just out of curiosity, why not go lioneye's fall jewel? Your damage seems pretty lacking with only 268% in total (bow nodes, iron grip conversion, proj dmg and phys dmg). You should usually have around 300-350 if not more. Just find it odd that you would go duelist without using lioneye's fall.
Siege ballista always pierces it can't chain.
"
LethalNarwhal wrote:
Just out of curiosity, why not go lioneye's fall jewel? Your damage seems pretty lacking with only 268% in total (bow nodes, iron grip conversion, proj dmg and phys dmg). You should usually have around 300-350 if not more. Just find it odd that you would go duelist without using lioneye's fall.


Yep, I completely forgot about lioneye's fall :) I'll redo Passive Tree when i get back from work. I did this with Hc league in Mind, so I favored defense over ofense. With all those crazy multipliers, dmg should be fine, but i'll test it when the league starts. Thanks for the tip!
"
link1313 wrote:
Siege ballista always pierces it can't chain.


Oh, right :) LMP then!
Either there's something wrong with the skill tree link/PoE Builder on my end, but it looks like you're picking up Dervish (a dual-wield node)...

Edit: Also, two-handed melee nodes (Destroyer).

Edit 2: Another thing: you only have 122% increased armour. The evasion/armour % nodes only apply once, even to evasion that's converted to armour. You don't get to "double-dip" on those nodes.
IGN Domination: Blindsight_Marauder, Blindsight_MF
Last edited by Blindsight on Dec 10, 2015, 11:25:59 AM
Those nodes are there because of Lioneye's Fall unique jewel. I modified tree a bit so that's why armour amount is a bit off. I'll fix that asap :)
"
kralj87 wrote:
Those nodes are there because of Lioneye's Fall unique jewel. I modified tree a bit so that's why armour amount is a bit off. I'll fix that asap :)


Oh, that makes sense... except I don't think that jewel works with dual-wield nodes. According to this thread (albeit from closed beta):

https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/37zges/cb_spoilers_does_the_unique_jewel_lioneyes_fall/crr413b

"Can confirm that dual wield nodes are NOT affected by Lioneye's Fall."

Edit: Yeah, looking at your tree, I think it would be better to use a standard dps/attack speed/life/resistance jewel instead, and use the two points to get another jewel socket. A three-mod jewel should be reasonably priced.

Edit 2: Another improvement, if you really need resists from your tree, then pick up Cloth and Chain instead of Sentinel. You'll gain 5% all res and 12% armour/evasion at the cost of 10 strength. I'd drop both, though... resists are easy to get from gear, or even jewels. Right now, I'm thinking of using this, but I want to find 3 more points to pare off, since I'm probably only going to get to level 90. I'm debating between Heavy Draw and Berserking as the marginal nodes to drop, but I haven't put it into a spreadsheet yet with assumed gear values.

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwQAmy25HRXsivDpRsSCsKu-p3XLZU23tupivTaNfkd-QzGE2drBTP_DMwHcdO0uU9ZYWhp34wUt4J8shalueu8FZm8nIWBYr8AaeWiaanTxNuh4DW87wQQY2ymlAee18l8_FHUUTacwcmw1khQg9kikwnfX_Eufy2xG_o_Yve8OjM9W-ryfMglN4_4KUEc9_H8rGJE6UqZX8kVYYzB8Mn4OPDrhMZ6NfVFHFHEj9j7PN9SVBdl8-OtNkr3m7T_ZxgiJggfqGPPdMpSa8fJB9zJ2rGhlfwJdaHzZz36m4MqprY0=

Thanks for putting together this build, btw! I need to level a Duelist for 2.2 Ascendancy classes, and I wanted to do a Chin Sol shrapnel shot build this league.

Edit 3: How important do you think Unwavering Stance is, to this build? With knockback at close range and 202% life from tree and high armour, I'd think stuns wouldn't be a big problem... That's another option to shave 2 points off the build.

Edit 4: Here's the build I'm looking at, now. Using Lioneye's Fall to its fullest in Duelist, ditching the whole Ranger area of the tree, and losing a bit of life, but getting enough int for level 1 blasphemy, and a pile more damage, a bit more attack speed, but 20% reduced life. Not sure if it's worth it, though. Losing 2 damage/as/life jewels probably aren't worth losing all the ranger nodes.

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwQAmy25HRXsivDpRsSCsKu-p3XLZU3qYr02R36E2amUh2p4eqknhO_awWEhQzF07S5TrlAaVUz_wzMFLdNve3Q26NZYWhp672WnAedYr-CfQKAUTacwqW4FZm8nIWBeE_xLn8vAGnlommp08SFVvJ94DW87wQQY2yml3D0YkTpStfJfPxR1B3Uyfg48cmw1khQg9kikwsCmFHFsRv6P2L3vDozP2Xz46zIJTeP-ClBHPfyCB-oY892mV_JFWGPyQfcydqxoZTrhMZ582c9-rY1GaW5p1fiPYA==
IGN Domination: Blindsight_Marauder, Blindsight_MF
Last edited by Blindsight on Dec 10, 2015, 4:58:04 PM

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