BOTW [0.5] Pounce Tactician, or "Dog check everyone in Wraeclast" (they're all dogs)
" Yes, I am in the process of running it, I just got to maps and I'm sorting gear. At a glance, I'm looking at Expansive Alloy, and its ability to give +2 temp minions for boots. It's a suffix modifier, it removes a modifier from your boots and gives you 1-2 temp minions. Rune of Renown is an augment for gloves that gives 50% glory generation, which I'm also looking at. With that augment alone I can use new banners as soon as they expire (but only after they expire). The jewels don't seem to make much of a difference in adding more glory generation, but I need to fiddle with it more. As a league start, I think it's better to rush straight to Lord of the Wilds with a +1 sceptre, and hopefully +2 minions/melee elsewhere on gear before starting. Maybe more. Act 3 is okay, mid-act 2 is finicky. It's a little clunky without warcry speed at the beginning, and you can't really use banners until third ascendancy. Supporting Fire carries immensely well through the early game though and it felt well enough to play still. It's worth buying a level 5 support as soon as you hit act 4 to get Bidding 3 for it, just to make the cooldown shorter. I think the bonus temporary minions will make up for some of the nerf to our attack speed with berserk. Attack speed bonus theoretically should drop from 141% to around 57% (I'm ballparking). It may be better to use the minion % damage implicit for talismans instead of rage, but both should be very pricey now. EDIT: Old screenshots from the Second Wind league I had, were showing Pounce while fully buffed, 100k per wolf at least for dps, but more specifically it was 3 attacks per second. I have about 1.9 per second now. So it's a question of getting the last extra bit of rage on gear and if the +2 minions will help the build for DPS. So at a glance, with no other changes that should be a 33% nerf to the build, but right off the bat we're gaining 20% back from having 2 extra minions. So if there's any other additions this league to boost our damage it's going to even out. And even then, I have a kill on uber arbiter without him using his invulnerability phases, so I think the build should function well enough still Last edited by Lexxure#4610 on May 30, 2026, 7:22:48 PM
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So I noticed gem levels are nerfed, talismans go to +5. That's fine, Prism of Belief is dirt cheap, I bought a +2 Pounce for 18 exalts.
To regain some damage, you'll want to get the modifier for boots from the Expedition rune stuff, it removes an affix on boots to give you +2 temp minions. It is a suffix. You'll also want to get the new runes for your talisman, you want Armature and Annihilation. They give you Runic Ward based on weapon damage, and then you use Runic Ward to gain attack damage. You combine that with the new one for Sceptres, Bodyguards, which gives allies in presence Onslaught while you are low Runic Ward. Simply weapon swapping to banners then to your damage setup (provided your banner setup DOES NOT HAVE RUNIC WARD, and no other runic ward from gear), you will start Runic Ward at 0, which gives you on demand Onslaught. Old wolves had 3 attacks per second, with 10. New wolves have 2.2 attacks per second, but you have 12. It's overall not a considerable nerf, and I'm sure there's more to discover. |
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yeah im running the build ive checked poe ninja looks like its only us running it im pepega_Barny_walker its feels ok supporting fire does a loot of heavy lifting in maps against packs but boss damage feels good wolves feel squishy trying to get some more minion life in there 4 them but im not running the banners yet till 4 lab but fun build c how far it goes
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Sounds like a solid off-meta build. Wolves being squishy is always the struggle – minion life and elemental resistances on jewels help a lot. Also, try running an offering (like Bone Offering) if you're not already. That extra block for minions makes a big difference. Glad the boss damage feels good though. For more build ideas and community resources, check out https://picardclub-belge.be/
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" To make up the difference from the nerfs, get Prism of Belief, get the alloy that replaces a suffix on boots for +2 temp minions, and get augment on weapon (damage setup) for max runic ward with the augment on sceptre (again damage setup) for onslaught on low runic ward. Even with the banners, yes I'm noticing the dogs are a bit squishier but even when they had 20000 life they do sometimes struggle with the toughest content. Triple banners gives them capped resists (and overcapped with Dread banner), they still give 25% resists for each banner. Why would you not run banners yet? I have not extensively tested the node for damage for minions based on your main hand weapon, but in the past this node was worthless for our damage and gave very little. It's tricky to snapshot a before and after for damage, but you still need +5 on your talisman WHILE having a strong phys damage talisman if you were doing that. Deflection is only good with armour (which would send your damage through the roof with maxed refraction III if you have it). I don't know what else there is in the ascendancy. |
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love this build, i'm doing my own spin on this with shaman because of the cool new bonded modifiers and infinite rage, going for a bunch of life regen too. just crafted this ring
Rapture Finger Amethyst Ring -------- Item Level: 79 -------- +13(7-13)% to Chaos Resistance -------- Minions have 21(19-22)% increased maximum Life Minions deal 20(15-25)% increased Damage if you've Hit Recently +117(100-119) to maximum Life Minions have +22(20-22)% to all Elemental Resistances Minions have 6(5-6)% increased Attack and Cast Speed Temporary Minion Skills have +1 to Limit of Minions summoned would this be absolutely perfect for this build? |
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" Sadly no, but ONLY because it MUST be two unset rings for this build to function. The only way around this would be to drop cross slash and manually put it on over berserk in emergencies, but this is extremely dangerous to do in the middle of a map or boss fight. I would prefer minion damage over attack speed or resistances though since we already get an astronomical amount of resists from banners. Life does not benefit this build all that much, mana is strangely more preferred since we hit that mana flask all the time just to deal with the mana cost of skills. Personally I want Evasion, minion life, minion damage, temp minions, one resist and either another resist or an attribute. The struggle is we're starved for skill slots, two unsets or you miss out on Charge Regulation and around 1000 free ES, and the bonus armour it grants lets us get 80% exposure on the banners much easier. That being said, I'm also considering variants of this build. I've discovered that we seem to be able to snapshot the levels of the minions, so the second talisman could be Hysseg's, the Runemastered variant, corrupted to give 10% damage per minion, and we could hybridize with our own attacks this way. We'd get nearly 30 dogs combined doing this using the hyenas (9) and wolfpack (I think 7), with 14 pounce dogs. Living Lightning and the new rune thingie that reserves spirit and functions in the same manner should theoretically give more minions. It would be very easy to get the node that grants 80% attack damage based on the number of minions you have. Spells do not work in shapeshift form so all minion spells that were added won't work here. I won't be able to test this for awhile though so someone else can take the jump for me, you'd just drop cross slash at super end game for something like Lunar Assault and get a much more reliable Vengeance from our arctic howl for the added cold damage Last edited by Lexxure#4610 on Jun 7, 2026, 10:13:13 PM
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Could you go into detail about the leveling? What gear to use when you hit act 3. And post a build passive guide showing what to choose and when to switch to dogs?
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