[3.11] Hitchhiker Kai SMASH Tank. Build Plans - update into league

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cbasz wrote:
Noticed you didn't try to grab Tribal Fury (or annoint it). Is it too far away? I feel like it would give so much QoL that its too important to pass off. Also, how come onslaught ascendancy over frenzy charge ascendancy?


i don't believe tribal fury is worth the points at all, or the anoint. though you could anoint it if you felt like it.
ancestral cry is up 100% of the time. if you feel like you need another you can grab it. with the aoe from the threshold jewel it doesn't feel necessary but i also haven't done much with the build yet.

and onslaught ascendancy is the best ascendancy in the game. it gives +30% evade chance which is absolutely bonkers insane and allows raider to pretty easily hit evade cap (95%).

so just to explain, you have an evade chance and an evasion rating. both show in your character defense screen.
for instance you could have 20,000 evasion rating. this could give you, say, 60% evade chance.
to gain 30% more evasion RATING would only boost you to 26,000 evasion rating, which might only be....like 62 or 64% evade chance. but avatar of the chase gives you 30% more evade CHANCE which means you gain 60+30%=78% evade chance.
keep in mind that blind is an automatic 50% chance to evade (65% with raider/onslaught)

the frenzy route is pretty lackluster as well. doesn't really boost damage significantly, and kind of dictates that you spent points and gear gathering more max frenzy charges.
if anything you could drop avatar of the veil for it, but i chose to go the tanky route, so missing out on 10% attack and spell dodge + phasing + immunity to ailments + minus accuracy to nearby enemies isn't worth it either.
Last edited by xMustard on Jun 25, 2020, 10:08:19 PM
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i tried leveling it from lvl 2 with GH and it was....painful. lol
i had to do a CA trickster just to feel myself again, but im really really looking forward to crafting gear for this dude.

i tried other slam skills too, ice crash, sunder, tectonic, etc and they all felt like garbo compared to glacial hammer.

one thing that does SUCK about GH though, that i came to find out from playing the build, is that the 33% freeze cull does NOT work on bosses (i think all unique names), which is very unfortunate


but its awesome to see you're still kickin around man! thanks for commenting


I feel you man, that was the saddest Merveil encounter I ever had, but stuck to it, did a slow start and could pick up some stuff from the guild stash to help me through. But yes, a great starter build it is not
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xMustard wrote:
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cbasz wrote:
Noticed you didn't try to grab Tribal Fury (or annoint it). Is it too far away? I feel like it would give so much QoL that its too important to pass off. Also, how come onslaught ascendancy over frenzy charge ascendancy?


i don't believe tribal fury is worth the points at all, or the anoint. though you could anoint it if you felt like it.
ancestral cry is up 100% of the time. if you feel like you need another you can grab it. with the aoe from the threshold jewel it doesn't feel necessary but i also haven't done much with the build yet.

and onslaught ascendancy is the best ascendancy in the game. it gives +30% evade chance which is absolutely bonkers insane and allows raider to pretty easily hit evade cap (95%).

so just to explain, you have an evade chance and an evasion rating. both show in your character defense screen.
for instance you could have 20,000 evasion rating. this could give you, say, 60% evade chance.
to gain 30% more evasion RATING would only boost you to 26,000 evasion rating, which might only be....like 62 or 64% evade chance. but avatar of the chase gives you 30% more evade CHANCE which means you gain 60+30%=78% evade chance.
keep in mind that blind is an automatic 50% chance to evade (65% with raider/onslaught)

the frenzy route is pretty lackluster as well. doesn't really boost damage significantly, and kind of dictates that you spent points and gear gathering more max frenzy charges.
if anything you could drop avatar of the veil for it, but i chose to go the tanky route, so missing out on 10% attack and spell dodge + phasing + immunity to ailments + minus accuracy to nearby enemies isn't worth it either.


Thanks for the feedback, you make excellent points and have me convinced :) Frenzy does have the more damage multiplier but ultimately requires investment into the charges, so it might better on a non-crit build where you can afford the points.

Where do you stand on maces vs staves? I tried adapting the tree to take 2h maces (I find they have cooler mtx than staves) but the damage ended up lower than staves, mostly due to the lower base crit, as well as losing out on the extra defensive layer of spell block + glancing blows... Which is surprising since I would have assumed we'd be trading defenses for more damage by taking maces.
ya i tried maces as well. i don't think losing the block would matter too much, but staves just have such amazing passives, even if you're NOT going crit but especially if you will.

the only other viable option i can think of is to use earthquake with axes and go bleed. you can get some serious bleed damage. about 1.5m dps when something isn't moving, about 5m dps when it does move.

same thing though gotta throw out the block option.

when i craft up some gear i may end up leveling as the bleed EQ and respec into glacial hammer staves. again, things will be going super slow for me this league so it'll probably be awhile before i actually get this character up and running and guide updated with any further information.

sorry about that to anyone looking to follow along, but feel free to drop your loadouts and ideas as well.
Well, it's going... okay I guess?

Am dying a lot, because so much of the high evasion is tied to the blind effect on the Pandemonius, which is not an easy to obtain (or cheap) item.


Have stuck a blind on hit support on the Glacial Hammer to try and compensate, but it's not the same (and reduces my damage). UPDATE: I tried taking Arrow Dancing and that has helped a lot with the 'death by mob of ranged monsters' problem.

Ice Bite is working well in replace of Fortify which I put on Leap Slam (with Frostbite curse on hit). Lots of freeze, and grants frenzy charges.

Am also currently running with Hegemony's End, which grants power charges.

Am only running with 5-links atm, but damage-wise, it's fine for the low-mid level maps I am currently up to (I'm not the fastest player).
Last edited by Tylorva on Jul 5, 2020, 3:54:18 PM
How'd this build turn out?

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