[3.7] Rake's Tectonic Slam Equipment Guide - from League Start to Endgame

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clarkseal wrote:

I just finished Uber Elder for the first time today using this build as a guide and I'd like to share some of my thoughts on it.

First of all, I almost rerolled this character 5 times. Starting out with Ahn's and 80% of my mana reserved was just miserable. My friends were all running multistrike builds and this build just felt stuck in quicksand by comparison. I stuck it out, though, and boy am I glad I did, the end-game feel of this build is incredibly fun. Here are some changes I made with my build that made things feel better:

#1 Ditch Hatred - After doing a lot of messing around in PoB I found it almost just as much DPS to use a combination of:

Herald of Ash + Herald of Purity + low level Precision (to get 100% chance to hit) + Blood and Sand

Gave me 35% free mana and around 7-8 attacks before running out of mana, as opposed to many of the suggested builds which include a Herald + Hatred resulting in around 20% mana available and only 2-3 attacks before running out of mana. This was incredibly critical when fighting single-target, as with a Hatred setup I'd out-swing my mana regen almost constantly without multiple targets available.

#2 Attack Speed is King - While using Ahn's when I was first starting out gave me enough power to clear up through mid-tier maps, it made the entire process feel like a slog. I had a love/hate relationship for a long time with Multistrike, as it undermines a lot of what is needed in this build with Endurance Charges, but I felt that using it made the build so much smoother. Ultimately, the DPS/tankiness loss from using Multistrike is just not worth it. Instead, I prioritized switching to foils with at least 1.8-1.9 APS, taking a lower value on crit or pDPS to make the foils affordable. Additionally, I added Blood Rush which was maybe the biggest quality of life buff this build could ask for. The degen is negligible with your passive regen and the attack speed base + frenzy charges are completely priceless to making this build actually feel good. I can't tell you how many times I died in Legion content simply because I couldn't leap slam or move away from a slow attack I was waiting to complete. Of course, this also meant ditching Pulverize since the attack speed hit is killer.

Truthfully this build truly starts to come alive with a Tectonic Slam attack rate of > 3.5 without Multistrike. I kept Ancestral Protector and used it for an even bigger burst of attack speed for bosses, but isn't necessary for clearing.

#3 BabyRage - Honestly I started using Rage out of curiosity early in the league and enjoyed it's stacking progression and use of Berserk for mowing down big enemies, but over time it's use is just too inconsistent. I can get more consistent damage using Ruthless and make up the attack speed with my gear.

#4 Embrace the Blue Socket - I ran extensive testing on my sixth link between Concentrated Effect/Increased AoE, and Elemental Focus. They each have their own benefits: Concentrated Effect is the highest DPS but the AoE hit feels bad even in Sand; Increased AoE is god-tier for sweeping low-level maps and farming Legion content off-screen (particularly good for using Lion's Roar with your increased range and killing the projectile Legion mobs before they can even get in range to attack); and Elemental Focus which I came to use as my standard. With only <10% less DPS than Concentrated Effect, Elemental Focus provides significant damage without any penalty to AoE and was my favorite choice for endgame content.

#5 Choose Hinekora over Valako - I ultimately gave up on trying to maintain max endurance charges. With a 20% chance for a charged slam enchant, I could consistently keep some amount of Endurance Charges up, but never enough to keep up 5-6 to further take advantage of Valako. I absolutely am not going to use 3 stupid skill points in the stupid staff nodes that everyone asks on every page of this thread just to get the %chance for endurance charge on hit, just not worth it at all. Instead, I turned down to Hinekora for a huge bit of life leach, health bump from the increased Strength, and significant DPS buff against bosses with Covered in Ash.

Here's my final build in PoB, keep in mind I only got the mastercrafted foils in the last two days, I was using 1.9 APS/ 6% crit / 325ish pDPS foils for almost all endgame content. Hopefully this helps some of you struggling to get this build the way you want it!

https://pastebin.com/04sVpVEs

"

clarkseal wrote:

I just finished Uber Elder for the first time today using this build as a guide and I'd like to share some of my thoughts on it.

First of all, I almost rerolled this character 5 times. Starting out with Ahn's and 80% of my mana reserved was just miserable. My friends were all running multistrike builds and this build just felt stuck in quicksand by comparison. I stuck it out, though, and boy am I glad I did, the end-game feel of this build is incredibly fun. Here are some changes I made with my build that made things feel better:

#1 Ditch Hatred - After doing a lot of messing around in PoB I found it almost just as much DPS to use a combination of:

Herald of Ash + Herald of Purity + low level Precision (to get 100% chance to hit) + Blood and Sand

Gave me 35% free mana and around 7-8 attacks before running out of mana, as opposed to many of the suggested builds which include a Herald + Hatred resulting in around 20% mana available and only 2-3 attacks before running out of mana. This was incredibly critical when fighting single-target, as with a Hatred setup I'd out-swing my mana regen almost constantly without multiple targets available.

#2 Attack Speed is King - While using Ahn's when I was first starting out gave me enough power to clear up through mid-tier maps, it made the entire process feel like a slog. I had a love/hate relationship for a long time with Multistrike, as it undermines a lot of what is needed in this build with Endurance Charges, but I felt that using it made the build so much smoother. Ultimately, the DPS/tankiness loss from using Multistrike is just not worth it. Instead, I prioritized switching to foils with at least 1.8-1.9 APS, taking a lower value on crit or pDPS to make the foils affordable. Additionally, I added Blood Rush which was maybe the biggest quality of life buff this build could ask for. The degen is negligible with your passive regen and the attack speed base + frenzy charges are completely priceless to making this build actually feel good. I can't tell you how many times I died in Legion content simply because I couldn't leap slam or move away from a slow attack I was waiting to complete. Of course, this also meant ditching Pulverize since the attack speed hit is killer.

Truthfully this build truly starts to come alive with a Tectonic Slam attack rate of > 3.5 without Multistrike. I kept Ancestral Protector and used it for an even bigger burst of attack speed for bosses, but isn't necessary for clearing.

#3 BabyRage - Honestly I started using Rage out of curiosity early in the league and enjoyed it's stacking progression and use of Berserk for mowing down big enemies, but over time it's use is just too inconsistent. I can get more consistent damage using Ruthless and make up the attack speed with my gear.

#4 Embrace the Blue Socket - I ran extensive testing on my sixth link between Concentrated Effect/Increased AoE, and Elemental Focus. They each have their own benefits: Concentrated Effect is the highest DPS but the AoE hit feels bad even in Sand; Increased AoE is god-tier for sweeping low-level maps and farming Legion content off-screen (particularly good for using Lion's Roar with your increased range and killing the projectile Legion mobs before they can even get in range to attack); and Elemental Focus which I came to use as my standard. With only <10% less DPS than Concentrated Effect, Elemental Focus provides significant damage without any penalty to AoE and was my favorite choice for endgame content.

#5 Choose Hinekora over Valako - I ultimately gave up on trying to maintain max endurance charges. With a 20% chance for a charged slam enchant, I could consistently keep some amount of Endurance Charges up, but never enough to keep up 5-6 to further take advantage of Valako. I absolutely am not going to use 3 stupid skill points in the stupid staff nodes that everyone asks on every page of this thread just to get the %chance for endurance charge on hit, just not worth it at all. Instead, I turned down to Hinekora for a huge bit of life leach, health bump from the increased Strength, and significant DPS buff against bosses with Covered in Ash.

Here's my final build in PoB, keep in mind I only got the mastercrafted foils in the last two days, I was using 1.9 APS/ 6% crit / 325ish pDPS foils for almost all endgame content. Hopefully this helps some of you struggling to get this build the way you want it!

https://pastebin.com/04sVpVEs

"

Apaste wrote:

Hello, I have double checked the tree, ascendancy, items and jewels and I just cant seem to find where the mana leech is coming from. I am lvl 60 and having to depend on a mana flask is dreadful. I am only using Purity and Blood/Sand, it still eats up all my mana pretty quickly. Can someone please enlighten me as to where it is coming from, seeing as I still do not have any leech. Thanks in advance.

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leolo wrote:

I was just considering to abandon build but you saved it. I don't have the economy to get foils yet but still, it feels way much better.

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SpaceMemur wrote:

I followed your advices and the performance of the build just jumped like tenfold. I was having hard time above t12-13, after making those changes I killed my first red elder easily without dying. Thank you.

"

clarkseal wrote:

I just finished Uber Elder for the first time today using this build as a guide and I'd like to share some of my thoughts on it.

First of all, I almost rerolled this character 5 times. Starting out with Ahn's and 80% of my mana reserved was just miserable. My friends were all running multistrike builds and this build just felt stuck in quicksand by comparison. I stuck it out, though, and boy am I glad I did, the end-game feel of this build is incredibly fun. Here are some changes I made with my build that made things feel better:

#1 Ditch Hatred - After doing a lot of messing around in PoB I found it almost just as much DPS to use a combination of:

Herald of Ash + Herald of Purity + low level Precision (to get 100% chance to hit) + Blood and Sand

Gave me 35% free mana and around 7-8 attacks before running out of mana, as opposed to many of the suggested builds which include a Herald + Hatred resulting in around 20% mana available and only 2-3 attacks before running out of mana. This was incredibly critical when fighting single-target, as with a Hatred setup I'd out-swing my mana regen almost constantly without multiple targets available.

#2 Attack Speed is King - While using Ahn's when I was first starting out gave me enough power to clear up through mid-tier maps, it made the entire process feel like a slog. I had a love/hate relationship for a long time with Multistrike, as it undermines a lot of what is needed in this build with Endurance Charges, but I felt that using it made the build so much smoother. Ultimately, the DPS/tankiness loss from using Multistrike is just not worth it. Instead, I prioritized switching to foils with at least 1.8-1.9 APS, taking a lower value on crit or pDPS to make the foils affordable. Additionally, I added Blood Rush which was maybe the biggest quality of life buff this build could ask for. The degen is negligible with your passive regen and the attack speed base + frenzy charges are completely priceless to making this build actually feel good. I can't tell you how many times I died in Legion content simply because I couldn't leap slam or move away from a slow attack I was waiting to complete. Of course, this also meant ditching Pulverize since the attack speed hit is killer.

Truthfully this build truly starts to come alive with a Tectonic Slam attack rate of > 3.5 without Multistrike. I kept Ancestral Protector and used it for an even bigger burst of attack speed for bosses, but isn't necessary for clearing.

#3 BabyRage - Honestly I started using Rage out of curiosity early in the league and enjoyed it's stacking progression and use of Berserk for mowing down big enemies, but over time it's use is just too inconsistent. I can get more consistent damage using Ruthless and make up the attack speed with my gear.

#4 Embrace the Blue Socket - I ran extensive testing on my sixth link between Concentrated Effect/Increased AoE, and Elemental Focus. They each have their own benefits: Concentrated Effect is the highest DPS but the AoE hit feels bad even in Sand; Increased AoE is god-tier for sweeping low-level maps and farming Legion content off-screen (particularly good for using Lion's Roar with your increased range and killing the projectile Legion mobs before they can even get in range to attack); and Elemental Focus which I came to use as my standard. With only <10% less DPS than Concentrated Effect, Elemental Focus provides significant damage without any penalty to AoE and was my favorite choice for endgame content.

#5 Choose Hinekora over Valako - I ultimately gave up on trying to maintain max endurance charges. With a 20% chance for a charged slam enchant, I could consistently keep some amount of Endurance Charges up, but never enough to keep up 5-6 to further take advantage of Valako. I absolutely am not going to use 3 stupid skill points in the stupid staff nodes that everyone asks on every page of this thread just to get the %chance for endurance charge on hit, just not worth it at all. Instead, I turned down to Hinekora for a huge bit of life leach, health bump from the increased Strength, and significant DPS buff against bosses with Covered in Ash.

Here's my final build in PoB, keep in mind I only got the mastercrafted foils in the last two days, I was using 1.9 APS/ 6% crit / 325ish pDPS foils for almost all endgame content. Hopefully this helps some of you struggling to get this build the way you want it!

https://pastebin.com/04sVpVEs

"

streamtOtO wrote:

Hi, thank you for this information. What can you tell about Molten Shell? Swap Immortal Call to Molten Shell ?

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wong007 wrote:

Does it make a huge difference to use foils instead of corsair, eternal swords or dragoon?

As long as attack speed is higher (1.7 and above)

Right now foils are super high in price

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Barnabijones wrote:

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wong007 wrote:

Does it make a huge difference to use foils instead of corsair, eternal swords or dragoon?

As long as attack speed is higher (1.7 and above)

Right now foils are super high in price

First, thanks clarkseal for posting your update. I was considering respeccing into cyclone for faster clear but now I'm confident about sticking with tec slam and enjoying the playstyle.

Second, what are your thoughts on the question above? I'm looking for my first well-priced sword upgrade from Ahn's but I also have a lot of other needs for my currency such as getting a rare 6L to replace my Tabula and upgrading from my leveling flasks. Since I'm not yet going for endgame stats will any sword base work other than foil as long as it meets the other criteria for attack speed, crit, and pDPS? I assume the extra range of a foil is not critical at this stage.