[3.24] 💥💫 The (Arch)Blade Blast Unloader 🗡️🔪🔫 - Screenwide 30m-55m Pinnacle DPS? Say yes to FUN!

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primaeva wrote:

BUT with the deeply unpopular Automation gem addition, and us being Saboteurs, ironically, there's been a substantial QoL buff to the build -- you only need 2-3 brands out at one time to get a full 10 stacks.

This is because Automation is a trigger, and we double those.

2 Brands being Recalled --> 4 Arcanist Brand activations --> 8 stacks of BV (good enough for mapping).
3 Brands being Recalled --> 6 Arcanist Brand activations --> 12 stacks of BV (capped at 10.)

This means substantially less downtime and almost half the keypresses per map.

Ironically, the increased mana cost doesn't really matter since we get a free doublecast for 100% increased mana cost - so it breaks even for 2 Brands and goes slighly over on 3 (for Uber bosses).

I'll be playtesting a fresh character with regular items soon (no PC stacking stuff). Stay tuned! I'll cover levelling trees and entry-level gear.

Here's hoping the BBoU gem itself stays as it is. The visuals are beautiful.

Hey I was looking at the Automation gem, and isn't it possible to use Automation to cast BV directly for us and thus forego Arcanist Brand? It has a cd of only about 0.6 seconds at level 20. Which we can lower further with cooldown recovery rate. Of which we can get an easy 30% from saboteur, and getting up to 50% total shouldn't be hard that way either. Thus reducing the CD to 0.4 seconds, making it cast 2.5 times per second.

Triggerbots should cause Automation to trigger twice per cast as well. Thus giving us 5 bv casts per second. I know we need more, but we can simply add another Automation + Blade Vortex link can we not? And I mean have two seperate Automation + BV links. Adding a third such link might work as well in case there's not enough CDR. Assassin especially might need to do so. But without the links for Arcanist Brand and Brand Recall there should be enough space for that.

If this works it would free up skill points as well as make upkeep of BV for BBoU even easier. Do you think this could work? After all we could link Automation support to Brand Recall, but it'd still depend on Brand Recall's CD.

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Cyander wrote:

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primaeva wrote:

BUT with the deeply unpopular Automation gem addition, and us being Saboteurs, ironically, there's been a substantial QoL buff to the build -- you only need 2-3 brands out at one time to get a full 10 stacks.

This is because Automation is a trigger, and we double those.

2 Brands being Recalled --> 4 Arcanist Brand activations --> 8 stacks of BV (good enough for mapping).
3 Brands being Recalled --> 6 Arcanist Brand activations --> 12 stacks of BV (capped at 10.)

This means substantially less downtime and almost half the keypresses per map.

Ironically, the increased mana cost doesn't really matter since we get a free doublecast for 100% increased mana cost - so it breaks even for 2 Brands and goes slighly over on 3 (for Uber bosses).

I'll be playtesting a fresh character with regular items soon (no PC stacking stuff). Stay tuned! I'll cover levelling trees and entry-level gear.

Here's hoping the BBoU gem itself stays as it is. The visuals are beautiful.

Hey I was looking at the Automation gem, and isn't it possible to use Automation to cast BV directly for us and thus forego Arcanist Brand? It has a cd of only about 0.6 seconds at level 20. Which we can lower further with cooldown recovery rate. Of which we can get an easy 30% from saboteur, and getting up to 50% total shouldn't be hard that way either. Thus reducing the CD to 0.4 seconds, making it cast 2.5 times per second.

Triggerbots should cause Automation to trigger twice per cast as well. Thus giving us 5 bv casts per second. I know we need more, but we can simply add another Automation + Blade Vortex link can we not? And I mean have two seperate Automation + BV links. Adding a third such link might work as well in case there's not enough CDR. Assassin especially might need to do so. But without the links for Arcanist Brand and Brand Recall there should be enough space for that.

If this works it would free up skill points as well as make upkeep of BV for BBoU even easier. Do you think this could work? After all we could link Automation support to Brand Recall, but it'd still depend on Brand Recall's CD.

Haha yeah, that was my first thought, but nope. Only Instant spells work with Automation. That's a very small list of spells and Brand Recall is among them. Automation being usable on everything would indeed create a massive interesting / chaotic spell meta, but for now, it's mostly Brand Recallers that got buffed.

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primaeva wrote:

Haha yeah, that was my first thought, but nope. Only Instant spells work with Automation. That's a very small list of spells and Brand Recall is among them. Automation being usable on everything would indeed create a massive interesting / chaotic spell meta, but for now, it's mostly Brand Recallers that got buffed.

Damn! I knew I overlooked something. Guess it was too good to be true. Ah well at least it'll still be useful.

I maybe want to leaguestart this.

possible or nah?

Looking for leaguestart viability too. It looks fun for not that big price.

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DnLx3 wrote:

I maybe want to leaguestart this.

possible or nah?

I'm currently playtesting a Arma Brand Recaller leaguestart into 75 transition.

We'll likely build it Archmage to solve the new costs from Automation. 250% Damage Effectiveness * 11 hits = 2750% Effectiveness while DISCARDING BV stacks from Activations.

The high end will very likely still be PC stacking but I want to move the build away from that, give it SSF legs.

So yes, it is definitely leaguestart viable in that the Arma Brand recaller tree shares massive similarities with this one - and that's what's going to propel the build into early reds while the market produces its first Blade Blasts of Unloading. The swap will simply then be to switch from Fire to Lightning nodes.

You can track this thread, I will have an answer in a day or two once I've gotten the char to maps (weekends are busy for me).

Worst case, you get a super-juiced Arma Brand recaller which got giga buffed this league.


UPDATE SO FAR:
Arma Brand Recaller is a much smoother mapping / campaign experience, but at level 47 or so expect a MASSIVE flip in Single Target damage as BBoU's massive 250% added effectiveness takes over, combined with you unlocking Runebinder, which is not much of a boost for Arma Brand, but insanely strong for Saboteur + BV Brand (charging up your BBoU much faster).

If Archmage was working, the difference would be even more pronounced. HOWEVER: We are comparing a transfigured gem to a non-transfigured gem. Arma of Recalling would take the cake by a mile this early on as well.

I sincerely will still recommend sticking Arma Brand of Recall until you really get the parts to make BBoU feel more fluid. As for lategame - 100% BBoU will overtake Recaller. This is because BBoU can literally spread damage over multiple screens smoothly, whereas Recaller - even with Automation - only has small patches of big burst. It also feels incredibly bad if your Arma Brands miss -- and this forces you to play melee + predict movement whereas BBoU lets you space the target nicely.

Is a CI Trickster (with FF jewels) viable for this build? I assume we'd lose some DPS but we'd get better EHP I'd imagine?

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King_Haart wrote:

Is a CI Trickster (with FF jewels) viable for this build? I assume we'd lose some DPS but we'd get better EHP I'd imagine?

Yeah, it is definitely. It's a better Saboteur than Saboteur really, Saboteur is the poor man's ascendancy. I only stuck to Saboteur to prove the build at heart could do Ubers. (It smashed Ubers without pulling the Mageblood card... just not Uber Sirus lol. There are players who did Uber Sirus with it though, see page 1).

I assume you have another way to scale damage as CI though? While the damage is ludicrous (4k base damage at gem level 29-30), multiplied by 11 hits - 15 hits per second... Nothing quite made it as busted as the PC stacking items last league, given that 11-14 Frenzies gave it a ton of cast and attack speed too.

Found this forum on reddit. Was looking for a build to do blade vortex with bb of unloading maybe through Kitava Thirst and i think it is the closest thing i found so far. Will follow the thread for build updates.

I am planning to start Archmage Blade Blast based on your guide. I am looking forward your update :)