[3.10] Captain Wraeclast reloaded - pure phys Impale SST - Uber Elder/Sirus 8

Hey Guys!

After playing Spectral Shield Throw (SST) for the last leagues, I decided to give you folks a small build guide. Nothing fancy, just the essentials and some explanations.

Index:

1. Skilltree, Bandits, Pantheon
2. Gems & Links
3. Gear & Annointments
4. Cluster Jewels
5. PoB
6. Videos


1. Skilltree

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click me

Bandits: Kill all

Pantheon: Soul of Shakari & Soul of Arakaali


2. Gems & Links

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The core of the build is Sepctral Shield Throw (short: SST). The setup for the main skill I recomend is (in Body Armor):

SST - Brutality - Viscious Projectiles - Impale - Slower Projectiles - Maim

Importent Comment:
Spoiler
Lategame I would change Slower Projectiles for Awakened Chain. Chains boost our single target damage by a huge amount, especially when we setup our cluster jewels correctly.
The regular Chain support is not recomended though!


4 Link-Setups:

Ancestral Protector - Faster Attacks - Culling Strike - Block Chance Reduction

Comment:
Spoiler
Block Chance Reduction is an exotic choice, but it makes total sense here. Our Totem is a support for single Target fights, giving us Attack Speed and the opportunity to cull Bosses. Further we don't need bleed and apply Maim with our main-skill, so no need for those supports. Block chance reduction helps to reliably cull enemies and if an enemie blocks a Totem Attack, it gets the overpowered debuff, reducing its block chance by 5%, even for our Attacks!


Flesh and Stone - Dread Banner - Herald pf Purity/Pride - Enlighten

Comment:
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Flesh and Stone provides us with a better Maim on Point Blank targets. Use Herald of Purity until you have a level 4 Enlighten, than switch to Pride.


Vaal Haste - Molten Shell - Blood Rage - Increased Duration

Comment:
Spoiler
Pop Blood Rage at the beginning of the Map for Frenzy charge generation and some Attack Speed and Lifeleech. Keep the buff up all the time.
Vaal Haste is only used for the buff, not the Aura! Pop it on hard targets/Bosses.
Keep Molten Shell up as needed, it's a huge layer of defense, because we heavyly focus on Armor.


3- Links on Weapon & Shield:

Shield Charge - Faster Attacks - Fortify

Dash - Second Wind // Presicion

Comment:
Spoiler
We don't really need that setup, but we have 3 spare green sockets, so why not use them? Dash with Second Wind provides us a movementskill outside of Shield Charge and can be used to quickly dodge out of hairy situations or traverse gaps.
Use a lowlevel Precision if you need more Accurucy, just don't level it to much, because of mana reservation. We need that for more potent skills!




3. Gear

Essential Uniques:

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Divide and Conquer

Without this Jewel, the build pretty much doesn't work. It provides +4 chains to SST, boosting both our single target and clear. It's dirt cheap. Pick it up as soon as possible to transition into SST.


Highly recommended Uniques:

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Because SST scales off of our shield, our weapon is pretty much just a statstick. Prismatic Eclipse gives us 12% global Attack Speed per green gemslot on it, making it 36% AS. There is no weapon in the game, that yields better results for the build. Get it early, it's cheap.


Free pierce support for our SST. Decent Life. Good Armor. Manaleech. Everything we want for the build. Rather cheap, get it early.

The Nomad
Resists, Dex, Strength, global physical damage, projectile damage and better flask charge gain. Really good belt if you can handle the missing life.


Shield:

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This is the most important part of the entire build!
Spectral Shield Throw provides us with 2 to 3 Added Physical Damage per 15 Armour or Evasion Rating on Shield. The idea is, to get a Shield with as much Armor/Evasion as possible, to scale our Damage just like the way we would on a weapon attack build with physical damage.

Because Armorbased Shields can get way higher amounts of Armor, than Evasion bases can get Evasion, it is recommended to use a Colossal Tower Shield with an item level of at least 84, better 86!
Those are the item levels, where the highest Armor affixes can roll.

Get a cheap base item, scour it, quality to 20%, if you want use Blessed Orbs to get the implicit Life to +20 and than craft it with Dense Fossils. Nothing else needed! If you hit 2500+ Armor, you're done.
The maximum with additional quality rolls can get to ~3200, but that's pretty much unrealisitc. Aim for at least 2500 Armor and you're fine.
Other mods on the Shield don't matter much. If you have a spare free suffix, add Chance to deal double damage craft on it or quality it up a bit more.


Other Gear:

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Get Life, max your resists and try to get flat physical damage to attacks on Gloves/Rings/Amulett.
Attack Speed is also nice.


Advanced Gearing:

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If you want to spend more currency on your gear and really dive in deep, there are at least 4 options I recommend:

Warlord influence ilvl 80 Ring for "Vulnerbility in Hit". Alt-Spam until you hit it and go from there. Regal/Multicraft.

An Elder based Helmet with an ilvl of at least 85 (Lion Pelt or Eternal Burgonet). Craft it either with Fossils (Jagged & Pristine) to get Life and the Elder-exclusive "Nearby Enemies take % increased physical Damage"-mod or smack some Life-Essences on it and hope to get lucky for the phys-mod.

A pair of Warlord based Gripped Gloves with an ilvl of at least 73. They have the implicit mod "increased Projectile Attack Damage" and the Warlord-influence can roll the same mod again as a regular prefix. If you can hit flat physical Damage, Life, the Projectile mod and some resists, you're set. Use Jagged & Serrated & Pristine Fossils on it.

Hunter Amulet with ilvl at least 82. You can roll a "+1 Gemlevel for Dexterity Skills" on it. An extra Level of SST gives us a decent Bonus to damage. It's also a prefix and besides of flat physical damage and Life, there are not much prefixes we would want on an amulet.


Flasks:

Spoiler


Instant Lifeflask of Staunching
Silver Flask
Basalt Flask
Sulphur Flask
Ruumis or Quicksilver for last slot.

Get Curse, Freeze immunity. Other viable options are increased Attackspeed or increased Armor during Flask


Annoinments:

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Plenty of options:

Cheap
Aggressive Bastion/Command of Steel (offensive)
Deflection/Sanctuary (defensive)

Expansive
Heart of Warrior/Discipline and Training (defensive)


4. Cluster Jewels

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With the addition of cluster Jewels with the Delirium league, we have a potent tool to customize our build.
Some of the notables provide INSANE DPS-gain and I can only advice you to (ab)use them!

Ranking of notables (my opinion).

Spoiler
1. Follow Through (Projectiles deal 15% increased Damage for each remaining Chain)
2. Gladiatorial Combat (2% increased Attack Damage per 75 Armour or Evasion Rating on Shield)
3. Eye to Eye (25% increased Projectile Damage & 35% increased Projectile Damage with Hits against Nearby Enemies)


Where do I find what and how does it work?

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The skilltree allready uses an outer Jewel slot on the tree, where we can chuck in a Large Cluster Jewel. Large Cluster Jewels generally provide bonuses to damage and we can find the notable "Gladiatorial Combat" on it. For that, we need a Jewel with an ilvl of at least 75 (for the possibility to roll 2 Jewel sockets instead of 1) and the implicit enchant "Added small passive Skills grant: 12% increased Attack Damage while holding a Shield" (adds Shield-related notables to the possible outcomes of pre-/suffixes) on it.
The base is cheap (~2-5c) and can be crafted to get the notable and 2 Jewel slots.

For the 2 medium Jewels we want to have the implicit "10% increased Projectile Damage". Buy them with both "Follow Through" and "Eye to Eye" alongside another Jewel node or craft them yourself (Alteration until you hit 2 of the 3 desired mods+Regal until you have 2 Jewels with the 3 desired affixes.)

Small Jewels provide some defense and you should aim for one with "Increased Life" and get the Notable "Fettle" on it.


General Advice regarding Cluster Jewels:

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We only really care for the Notables on the Clusters. The small passives provide us a usable Bonus, but it's nothing crazy and skillpoints are rare. Therefor it is a good strategy to get Jewels with less passive nodes. As an example: Medium Cluster can roll with 4-6 passives. We want 2 notables and a Jewel socket on them, making it 3 worthwhile notes. A Jewel with only 4 nodes total will leave us with 1 skillpoint spent for "10% increased Projectile Damag" opposed to 3 skillpoints "wasted" on a 6-node Jewel.
That's even bigger on the Large cluster, so choose your Base-Jewel to craft whisely!



5. PoB

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https://pastebin.com/nuUpn9MY

Current crap Gear, 1,2 Mil Shaper DPS on a 20/20 6l setup.


6. Videos

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T15 channel Map: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q70RR46gXjU
T16 Colonade Map, Baran influenced, 20% delirious including Delirium-Boss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhZGtZ4K28E
Awakener Level 4 Baran fight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxDfLWCd83s

Last edited by Arandur on Mar 22, 2020, 11:28:19 AM
Last bumped on Sep 18, 2020, 6:47:39 PM
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I tried a cold SST a while back, forgot what league it was, whichever league added that unique jewel for it. I loved the gameplay but i could not bring Uber Elder down with it, I even crafted myself a 3k+ armor shield at the time but single target just felt too low even then.

I might give this a shot again now that impale is a thing. I already got a pretty nice cluster jewel that may work well too.





Did you level as SST? I assume just using a bow skill of choice and rushing the first jewel node then you're home free? were act bosses hard to kill?

Also, why lioneye vision? Doesn't piece and chain not work well together? I thought pierce over-rode chain which would kill your clear speed
Last edited by DotsandDashes on Mar 16, 2020, 7:36:14 AM
First, I recommend you reroll that Jewel. I explained in detail, how the Cluster Jewels benefit the build. Just chucking in something won't help much.

For your other questions:

Yeah, I rushed the first Jewel, got a Divide and Conquer and startet with SST.
I got a cheap leveling Shield with ~700 Armor until I could use my current one, felt really smooth.

Actbosses were ok for the most part.
Other builds certeinly kill them faster, but once you set up your cluster Jewel, the build goes through the roof.

My 4 Link setup currently is dealing ~300k single target DPS without Impale (PoB can't calculate that).
Bosses melt, even the Delirium uniques are pushovers so far.

Pierce and Chain work together with SST. The mainprojectile cannot pierce and only forks/chains. That's why we want chains on it. Deadeye Ascendancy and Divide and Conquer add chains to the mainprojectile. The Ascendancy and Follow Through notable from clusters add a ton of damage to the first enemeies hit. That's where our single target damage comes from.
Only the small Shards from the shield-explosions can pierce, so Lioneyes Vision helps for clear (because the Shards pierce).
"
Arandur wrote:


Pierce and Chain work together with SST. The mainprojectile cannot pierce and only forks/chains. That's why we want chains on it. Deadeye Ascendancy and Divide and Conquer add chains to the mainprojectile. The Ascendancy and Follow Through notable from clusters add a ton of damage to the first enemeies hit. That's where our single target damage comes from.
Only the small Shards from the shield-explosions can pierce, so Lioneyes Vision helps for clear (because the Shards pierce).


ahhh ok, that makes sense. You should throw up a clip of random mapping gameplay if you can. I'd be interested in seeing it. I'm not sure I'm ready to bail on my current build because it's showing promise but this is a contended for my next character for sure.
Sure, I will get something up if I can. Glad you're intersted. SST is such a nice skill most people completely ignore. Shame.
Update: Fixed some typos, added some short clarifications in the Cluster Jewel section, added Flasks to Gearing section and added Bandit and Pantheon choices to No1 of the list.
Last edited by Arandur on Mar 16, 2020, 11:22:01 AM
Update: Added PoB with my current Cluster Jewel and example Gear from my last seasons Character (not optimal).
Hey there! nice to see the guide up and running!
Well done there!
Perfect usage of those cluster jewels!

let me ask you...
1- why use the 'pierce' large jewel cluster and not the 'point blank' one?

and within that same question..

2- why going to 'master of force' ? just damage and some life on the way?

3- that chest is a PAIN in the sore as* to color ... ='( was thinking on using an Aerodynamics notable from cluster jewel.. but idk.. maybe i will just use Slower <> Pierce

"
Arandur wrote:
Update: Added PoB with my current Cluster Jewel and example Gear from my last seasons Character (not optimal).

it's still not working on my forked PoB =/



Last edited by DarqKiller on Mar 16, 2020, 5:11:00 PM
Build looks amazing and Im gonna reroll into it today. The cluster jewels finally gave me reason to give this a shot.

A few questions for you.

1. PoB does not work on Forked version. Not sure if you are aware.

2. You take unwavering stance with only 4700 life and 26% block. This feels more like a downside than up, could you explain how it doesnt just get you killed more often?

3. 80% impale chance is good enough or are you going to go for 100% by 90 and grab the other nodes? (Sorry if this is obvious but I cant use your PoB to see potential tree, just going off your current character)

4. What is the best annoint for this build?

I'm happy you kept up with the other guys build guide and took it over. This skill is highly underrated/represented and its awesome that you are showing that it does work well and has good potential.

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