[3.6] Champion HoA MathMusings for Synthesis

An argument for a HoA starter build for 3.6 with some 'Impale' musings. Seeing as we get no numbers on PoB and the wiki is sparse with info on this mechanic, I am making some assumptions which I will indicate when they appear.

First things first.

Pastebin: https://pastebin.com/UGeT3AH9

Why does it work? Almost everything is realistically craftable without much investment. The hardest craft is gonna be your weapon: +1 socketed gems, +2 socketed support gems as 'Herald of Agony' scales heavily off of support gems thus empower and increased levels are highly impactful. But given that those two attributes are the only 2 you need for the build to function, it is hardly a problem

Main Attack: Rain of Arrows.

Why?

Because it potentially has the highest and most consistent possible Impale stacks as well as being a very efficient tool with which to stack up and maintain virulence in both single target and group environments.

Some Maths:

the mean number of arrows fired by 'Rain of Arrows' is 19

we have 40% chance to Impale (Master of Metal + Dread Banner)

19 * 0.4 = 7.6 'Impales' per attack
(Let's round down to account for variance so, 7 Impales per attack)

Multiplied by 7 (as Impale stacks overwrite after 5 activations, +2 from
'Master of Metal')

Total approximate stacks is:

7 * 7 = 49

so we can assume we will have an average of 49 Impale stacks.

Here we arrive at our first point of contention. All the above assumes that each 'Rain of Arrows' attack is treated like a single entity and the individual arrows themselves do not trigger the Impale effect.

Let's continue assuming this is the case.

Master of Metal states: "You and nearby Allies deal 4 to 8 added Physical
Damage for each Impale on Enemy."

So [4(49)..8(49)] = [196..392]

so our agony crawler deals [196..392] added physical dmg.

multiplied by the mean % increase in physical damage per stack of virulence (14.5 %) and assuming we have 40 stacks

196(14.5*40) = 113 680
392(14.5*40) = 227 360

So total increased damage for the agony crawler from the Impale mechanic is [113680..227360] in addition to the DPS stated in PoB.

Here we encounter our second point of contention. While I feel confident that given the wording, the increased physical damage scaling per virulence stack in 'Herald of Agony' will apply, the truth is we do not know.

Bye for now and see you in Synthesis!