[3.0] The Azure Knight (Flurry/Frost Blades/Multi-class/Budget/Crit/Life/Conversion) Shaper/Uber

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Bristoling wrote:

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i have enjoyed this build, seriously. its just this issue that's wrecking things. even tried chimera at 79 and was a breeze, basically all things are easy, just reflects =/

I'm glad you liked it anyway. Tackling Chimera at level 79 sounds ballsy, most people are usually suspicious if they ask on /820 for help with Shaper/Guardians and see my 87-90 lvl characters coming to help :D

I had a little look around in my videos, can't really tell for sure in some of them if the rares reflect elemental or physical, as I don't usually namelock them. However, there is one example I found:
https://youtu.be/0Ti5zA_xRrI?t=2m28s
That was before I learned how to restrict myself and click on them instead of holding for half a second or so. Granted, that wasn't with fully leveled 20/20 gems or a rare claw, but it shouldn't make that much of a difference.

I really don't know why our experiences are so different, but I never have much problems with random reflect rares, unless I'm careless and release full 6th stage flurry on them or something :p

yeah well its defo not suggested to do it at 79 but i got an extra map so hey i did it XD


cant understand why either, been watching your vids most esp the chayula run and ive seen you hit them elemental reflect rares and i barely saw you in danger because of those.

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Bristoling wrote:

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i have enjoyed this build, seriously. its just this issue that's wrecking things. even tried chimera at 79 and was a breeze, basically all things are easy, just reflects =/

I'm glad you liked it anyway. Tackling Chimera at level 79 sounds ballsy, most people are usually suspicious if they ask on /820 for help with Shaper/Guardians and see my 87-90 lvl characters coming to help :D

I had a little look around in my videos, can't really tell for sure in some of them if the rares reflect elemental or physical, as I don't usually namelock them. However, there is one example I found:
https://youtu.be/0Ti5zA_xRrI?t=2m28s
That was before I learned how to restrict myself and click on them instead of holding for half a second or so. Granted, that wasn't with fully leveled 20/20 gems or a rare claw, but it shouldn't make that much of a difference.

I really don't know why our experiences are so different, but I never have much problems with random reflect rares, unless I'm careless and release full 6th stage flurry on them or something :p

yeah well its defo not suggested to do it at 79 but i got an extra map so hey i did it XD


cant understand why either, been watching your vids most esp the chayula run and ive seen you hit them elemental reflect rares and i barely saw you in danger because of those. is it prolly dodge?

i happen to have a 90+ pathfinder so i respecced that into the tree this build is using, to be fair, reflects were a lil bit less dangerous for some reason. same goes for raider. im a bit curious as how will berserker handle this issue since i have an unused 90+ zerker toon too, but i checked your pob for zerker its not too convincing. atleast for me.

EDIT: pathfinder seems to have the most dps based on pob, sadly power charge generation is quite stale, unless i get a blue dream i guess.

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jgundlach wrote:

Inc. Critical Strike chance with Claws. Do the above one have something in common. Or only applicable to claws.

Critical builds always bamboozle me. To many Critical.....something's and meaning different things.

Hope I explained myself. I just need numbers. Don't bother on calculations.

Tnx in advance.

Critical Strike Chance - it is good to have around 50%+ with Power charges, and 30%+ without Power charges for Witch version. It might differ for other ascendancies.
If you are shopping for Touch of Anquish or a rare claw, it is quite important to go for one with "Critical Strike Chance" above 8% (or higher), after all bonuses from equipment/passives you should hit 30% chance without and 50% with charges.

Critical Strike chance with Claws or Multiplier mean that it only works if you are using claws, which we do in this build.

Don't worry about Critical Strike Multiplier too much, we get enough from gear/passives to roll end game content. But if you want a point of reference, my character in Legacy has a total of 571% Critical Strike Multiplier. On a smaller budget (without rare claw and with weaker jewels) you should still get 450-500% quite easily, which is more then enough to do end game.

Unless you are asking about something else, sorry if I misunderstood.

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exraven0829 wrote:

i happen to have a 90+ pathfinder so i respecced that into the tree this build is using, to be fair, reflects were a lil bit less dangerous for some reason. same goes for raider. im a bit curious as how will berserker handle this issue since i have an unused 90+ zerker toon too, but i checked your pob for zerker its not too convincing. atleast for me.

EDIT: pathfinder seems to have the most dps based on pob, sadly power charge generation is quite stale, unless i get a blue dream i guess.

Hmm possibly in case of Raider that "more evasion when you kill recently" must have helped against it. Not sure about Pathfinder, the 8% elemental damage reduction should barerly be noticeable against reflect, but coupled with more max resist (ToH) it might have played a big role.

I believe Berserker will have the hardest time against reflect, due to 10% increased damage taken, and no innate defensive mechanics. As in, you will most likely get one shot by reflect if you aren't careful. On the other hand, if you are, that 100% leech will definately keep you alive.

Is this more or less your Pathfinder setup? Something I made really quickly: https://pastebin.com/390NtYUW
Not sure if the treck to Alchemist is worth it (I think it's overrated), so I didn't path to the Witch start.
Normally, I'd leave both Frenzy and Power charges unchecked, since they are hard to come by against bosses (not much time to be throwing traps around, Blood Rage proc also might be insufficient), but yeah, if you do have the time, Pathfinder will get a lot more dps. I realized that I must have built my previous Pathfinder "test" wrong, since it beats Raider dps, and is almost on par with Berserker, while matching life at the same time (meaning Pathfinder will be tankier against one shots). Damage difference is small, but Berserker still comes up ahead. Amount of leech as Berserker is also broken as hell - its basically being on full life, at all times. Still, true one shots will be more likely.

I might need to update Raider thread to include both ascendancy versions, however there was an announcement recently about possible changes to unique flasks - so a lot can still change.

When 3.0 rolls out with all the patch notes, that's when I'm going to make bigger updates.

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exraven0829 wrote:

cant understand why either, been watching your vids most esp the chayula run and ive seen you hit them elemental reflect rares and i barely saw you in danger because of those. is it prolly dodge?

I believe some of them must have been just physical, hard to tell without reading the mods. If my life doesn't start going up and down rapidly against such a rare, its probably not elemental. Also in Chayula's domain, I run Sibyl's for extra protection - I remember you tried it as well, with less success. I'd love to hear some extra opinion about the issue.

The only thing I "think" that might be the cause, is how we leveled our characters. For me, I was experimenting with the build/gear and optimizing damage until I hit level 85-87 or so, meaning that when I finished my build, I already had a decent life pool of over 5.5k.
If you got your gear (which is v. good btw) and put it on a lower level character (75 for example), you might have had too much dps compared to your life pool. From what I understand, first you take reflected damage, before you can leech it back. So for example, if you had 4k out of your maximum 4.5k hp, and 4k was reflected back to you, you'd be instantly killed. If you had full life, you would be left with 500hp + whatever you leeched back, meaning that the next hit, even a small one, could easily kill you.

Great build, played the occultist version to 90 in the turmoil event. Depending on the changes might do a necro version of it again when 3.0 hits.

Adapted it a bit for magic find with biscos and had a gg ventors. For leveling and general mapping i would not use abyssus because you take too much damage which might be a bit easier in 3.0 with the flask pantheon.

Played bf last when it was first released and wasn't motivated after the aoe changes, so i specced blast radius in the beginning, which isn't needed, life/evasion nodes are fitting better.

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pifpep wrote:

Great build, played the occultist version to 90 in the turmoil event. Depending on the changes might do a necro version of it again when 3.0 hits.

Adapted it a bit for magic find with biscos and had a gg ventors. For leveling and general mapping i would not use abyssus because you take too much damage which might be a bit easier in 3.0 with the flask pantheon.

Played bf last when it was first released and wasn't motivated after the aoe changes, so i specced blast radius in the beginning, which isn't needed, life/evasion nodes are fitting better.

Glad you enjoy the build :) Necro is going to be a fine choice for added survivability, that spellblock on top of Phase Acrobatics will help a lot.

Blast Radius isn't that noticeable, but it sure helps if you aren't sure if you can tackle timebased content, like Oba's or Chayula Domain. But personally I prefer more life as well :>

For Pantheon, my picks would be Lunaris/Gruthkul, to add physical damage reduction and some more chance to avoid certain attacks/spells. Possibly Yugul for everyone who has problems with reflect.


Added final Beta video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRcG8zj6ea0
Arakaali - second attempt, second try as first one I died a couple of times to lag and freezes.
Solaris & Lunaris - deathless.
Jungle Valley - blue double damage map done at level 59, with 59%/75%/53%/-60% resists, one death on a Strongbox.
All without doing any Lab or trading.

I'm split between Berserker for the damage leech or Raider for fast clear. I have a raider tree planned, but I'm wonder how I'd roll my berserker tree with 3.0 coming up soon

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ray040613 wrote:

I'm split between Berserker for the damage leech or Raider for fast clear. I have a raider tree planned, but I'm wonder how I'd roll my berserker tree with 3.0 coming up soon

Hi, on page 2 I've posted a pastebin of a Marauder build, you can use the tree from it for any calculations or reference, right now I'm putting all updates on hold until all patch notes are released as a lot can change. As this is still a crit build (even though crit chance isn't capped) there are a few nerfs incoming on the horizon and I'll have to adjust the build for them.

Hopefully GGG will change their mind as I really wanted to test Hypothermia and conditional bonuses such as from Pandemonius amulet in this build, but so far it looks like chill and freeze are only going to be worse then they are now.

How much is this build going to be affected by the 3.0 changes? I rly want to start the league with it.

No build breaking nerfs so far, apart from Abyssus and Lightning trap, and as you can see that in most of my videos I forget to use it anyway and Abyssus nerf means around 20% overall dps nerf if you are using it, but some people prefer starkonja anyway for added survivability, which still has top tier dps with this build.

Power charges nerfs were minor, and possibly we could use hypothermia instead of elemental focus and get benefits of chill/freeze/shock, we have yet to test it :)

I might split frost blades into a separate thread as it was only an afterthought and I don't think many people who read this thread are playing it, but I might be wrong here.

great guide, well written

i think that the build wont exactly be budget anymore, touch of anguish prices and rare claws will explode