[3.24] SRS Bomber aka Popcorn SRS | League Start to Endgame | All Content

I like them popping faster, yeah, but I agree that with a better Tavukai and Catalysts I could almost equal that speed. I didn’t know about anomalous Unleash! That means I can’t use Awakened Unleash for an extra seal, but that’s okay - 20% more cast speed is huge. Yeah, this means I can replace both.

Okay, that makes sense. Indomitable army is an excellent source of MLife, and can totally be used with Tavukai.

I’ve got the mana regeneration right now to be able to cast forever and I don’t really know why. I guess mental rapidity helps, but I could do that before I got it.

I partially went through Discipline and Training because it was cheap (letting me save one connecting Strength point on the left), and partially because I want to see if I can get Physical Damage Reduction working. That’s an ongoing experiment though, and I don’t expect to get past 60% reduction. (at least, I assume Phys Damage reduction was dropped, since I don’t see it in Defense Layers. I haven’t carefully checked the full guide since the start of Expidition)

Increased AOE is awesome. Those three points are a full 60% increased AOE, more than a full Level 20 Divergent Increased Area of Effect gem.

Yeah, I’m not really sure another seal is worth it, tbh. 4 seals is enough that you never get there while mapping, though it adds up to 3 to 10% more damage against map bosses. I’m seeing if I want to reset it.

Alright, on to cluster jewels I go!
I’m aware that AG is good, I don’t like the concept of putting money into something that can vanish. I know that it’s pretty well invincible, and just won’t die - even my zombies almost never die. Maybe I’ll try it out and see how long it lives - I know that the benefits will outweigh the costs even if it dies after only ten maps.
I didn’t like shield charge, but I may reconsider. It feels clunky and slow, even with Faster Attacks. I’ll try it out though. I’ve been partially convinced by seeing a friend zooming around with Whirling Blades.

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TechnetiumColossus wrote:

I’ve got the mana regeneration right now to be able to cast forever and I don’t really know why. I guess mental rapidity helps, but I could do that before I got it.

Your mana Cost to cast Raging Spirit is currently at 47 per cast, with the Endgame Helmet I had the last seasons (3 Supports and +3 Levels) you'll be at 66 mana per cast, which makes it quite a bit harder to sustain.

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TechnetiumColossus wrote:

I partially went through Discipline and Training because it was cheap (letting me save one connecting Strength point on the left), and partially because I want to see if I can get Physical Damage Reduction working. That’s an ongoing experiment though, and I don’t expect to get past 60% reduction. (at least, I assume Phys Damage reduction was dropped, since I don’t see it in Defense Layers. I haven’t carefully checked the full guide since the start of Expidition)

I removed the physical damage reduction part, since it heavily depends on the Bases of your gear and they changed Fortify... :-/

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TechnetiumColossus wrote:

Increased AOE is awesome. Those three points are a full 60% increased AOE, more than a full Level 20 Divergent Increased Area of Effect gem.

I will give it a try ;-)

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TechnetiumColossus wrote:

Alright, on to cluster jewels I go!
I’m aware that AG is good, I don’t like the concept of putting money into something that can vanish. I know that it’s pretty well invincible, and just won’t die - even my zombies almost never die. Maybe I’ll try it out and see how long it lives - I know that the benefits will outweigh the costs even if it dies after only ten maps.
I didn’t like shield charge, but I may reconsider. It feels clunky and slow, even with Faster Attacks. I’ll try it out though. I’ve been partially convinced by seeing a friend zooming around with Whirling Blades.

The AG is extremly tanky.
I did Maven, Sirus etc. with him, its HP didn't move a bit.
If you are using the Dying Breath Staff the Gear costs 5-7C (With the Kingmaker you are at about 35-40C) ;-)

Hmm, yeah, 66 would be tough. I feel that we should just get a bunch of mana regen instead of the 10% mastery, but that's because I dislike any amount of randomness.

I am now melting everything; with upgraded-Tavukai it still feels 15% slower than I would like, but that's ok.

What is Arcane Adept even for on the cluster jewel? Do we have a channeling skill I forgot about? Does casting without stopping count as channeling? Or is it because of gem shape, and those are the only two that work for it?

Yeah, I'm going to try AG. I know PDR is dependent on gear type, but it's doable with just a good body armour and one or two items with armor/ES or armor/evasion.

Physical Damage Reduction can work! POE says 89% PDR for me when everything is up. I've calculated based on 1000 damage hits here, but I haven't yet figured out how to explain my math without a long ramble:

2000 Armor from gear is simple; either a tower shield or a body armour with the right mods can get 1000-1500. Then we get 1500 from Rumi's, 20% More from a Basalt flask, and 85% increased from a small cluster jewel and the Pangolin flask mod. That's 3500*1.85*1.2=7700 - I have 9000 when everything's up, but I'm trying to assume mid-quality armor. 7700 is more than the 5000 needed for 50% PDR on 1000 damage hits. Let's assume it adds up to 56% PDR. Now we have Bone Barrier for 10 more and 5 from a Level 22 Chaos Golem (6 from Anomalous version). That's 71%! I have 5% PDR on my body armour, but I had to give up other good mods to get it, so I won't count it. Lastly, we run the Enduring Composure notable on the Small Cluster Jewel - that's 3 endurance charges during combat, so we start at 71% and go up to 80% over three seconds (then stay there for at least 10 seconds, even if we aren't hit.)

Now 1000 damage hits deal 200 damage every 4 hits (block), restore 15% of life from 3 blocks for every hit (450), and we prevent a lot of damage, restoring 12% of that as energy shield over 4 seconds from Divine Shield (456 per hit if I did my math right, but idk if I did). Net gain of +700 hp every time we're hit by a 1000 damage hit.

Let's look at 3000 damage hits. We only have 3/5 PDR against a 3000 damage hit, because of how Armor works. So we take 1200 every 4 hits (block), restore 15% of life from 3 blocks for every hit (450), and we prevent a lot of damage, restoring 12% of that as energy shield over 4 seconds from Divine Shield (1296 if I did my math right, but idk if I did). Net average health gain from repeated 3000 damage hits: 546. Obviously it'll continue until a few lucky hits get in and squash us - we can only tank 3-4 unblocked hits - but the theory is sound? Or something? Besides, I don't have enough ES to actually handle that much regen rn.

My math assumed, for Divine Shield that we prevent 1800 damage when a 3000 damage attack hits, and 3000 damage when we block. If it only counts as preventing 1200 when we block, the energy shield regen goes down to 648 over 4 seconds.

I have playtested this, and it is pretty invincible as long as it has flask charges. Do you think it's plausible that Physical Damage Reduction could be re-added to the build?

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TechnetiumColossus wrote:

What is Arcane Adept even for on the cluster jewel? Do we have a channeling skill I forgot about? Does casting without stopping count as channeling? Or is it because of gem shape, and those are the only two that work for it?

If you are talking about the notables on the spell Damage Cluster: all the Notables besides the Smealmender are just for the position of the Sealmender notable on the jewel.

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TechnetiumColossus wrote:

I have playtested this, and it is pretty invincible as long as it has flask charges. Do you think it's plausible that Physical Damage Reduction could be re-added to the build?

I maybe will add it back as an option to heavily invest in, in the endgame.
I had it in since you did get quite a good amount with much effort. But with the changes in Fortify, Endurance Cry etc. I decided to take it out.

It's not a huge amount of investment, it's just something where you have to spend time buying the right kind of stuff. I've spent an ex or two on the build so far, and maybe 20-40c of that was the armor stuff. It's not really a big cost, it's just an option that costs slightly more.
The biggest costs to the build are: about 500-700 energy shield if you got a good set of gear (but that's an equal or greater money cost), 2 flask slots (I do wish I had a second health flask sometimes), the small cluster, and the stone golem. Other than that, I can't think of a cost. Either it's somehow easier to build PDR than it was in Ultimatum, or I've learned more about the options.

Yeah, I've been converted to the side of Animate Guardian. The movespeed alone is awesome, and it only takes a single socket, but it also makes me deal 10% more and take 10% less damage.

Is accuracy relevant for this? does double damage work?
thinking about adding Gravepact.

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ertage wrote:

Is accuracy relevant for this? does double damage work?
thinking about adding Gravepact.

Accuracy shouldn't be relevant. At least not as far as I know.

Gravepact should be on the 118 Points tree anyway.

Double damage does work.

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Weo_ wrote:

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ertage wrote:

Is accuracy relevant for this? does double damage work?
thinking about adding Gravepact.

Accuracy shouldn't be relevant. At least not as far as I know.

Gravepact should be on the 118 Points tree anyway.

Double damage does work.

Oh yea, sry. I am still quite new to the game, just installed pob to have a better look.

I would love to hear your opinion on few things.

Would dual wielding wand/scepter with glancing blow + recoup life be viable or is that too squishy compared to shield?

I am mainly wondering because I thought about using
Mon'tregul's Grasp + Replica Earendel's Embrace + Aukuna's Will
in addition to SRS for double bombing with zombies, assuming ash on hit would even work like that.

Also what are your thoughts on using skeletal mages (with Earendel's Embrace perhaps) instead of spectres. This way we would also have vaal skeletons to burst bosses.

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ertage wrote:

Oh yea, sry. I am still quite new to the game, just installed pob to have a better look.

I would love to hear your opinion on few things.

Would dual wielding wand/scepter with glancing blow + recoup life be viable or is that too squishy compared to shield?

We used Glancing Blows in earlier Versions of the Build.
Since they nerfed it (damage increased from 50% to 65%) I wouldn't use it with this build, since we only get a bigger life pool later in the game. Therfore the Blocked Hits do hurt quite a bit.

But if you wanna go glascannon, you can surely drop the Shield for a Wand.

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ertage wrote:

I am mainly wondering because I thought about using
Mon'tregul's Grasp + Replica Earendel's Embrace + Aukuna's Will
in addition to SRS for double bombing with zombies, assuming ash on hit would even work like that.

Interessting idea.
I haven't tried using Zombies as Bombs.
I'd assume that they will deal quite a bit more damage since their base life is higher then the Raging Spirits.

I always have the feeling that raising Zombies and the zombies it self are a bit clunky. Maybe you could fix this wiht a bit of minion Movement Speed and a bit aof cast speed.

The other Problem I see is, that you are giving up 3 Gear Slots for Unique Items to make it work. Both offhand and Gloves hurt our defences. If you can up with a way to not get too squishy, this could verywell work.

But I'd see this as a new Build rather then a variant of the SRS Bomber.
The SRS Bomber Build is designed to be a league starter and therefore shouldn't require as few as possible unique items to get going.
To get the Zombie Bomber going you would at least need three unique items.

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ertage wrote:

Also what are your thoughts on using skeletal mages (with Earendel's Embrace perhaps) instead of spectres. This way we would also have vaal skeletons to burst bosses.

There are dedicated Skeleton Bomber Builds out there, might want to check them out ;-)

I don't think that dropping the wand for Earendel's to enable Skeleton pops is worth the damage loss (+1 Spell gems, +1 Minion Gems, inc Minion Damage, inc minion life) and loosing the Triggered Spells.

I created a ruff draft of zombie Bomber (no Idea it would actually work) to see how much more Damage we would get.

https://pastebin.com/qvYs43AR

I get about 2.5 Mil total DPS per Explosion where as I get 1.99 Mil DPS per Explosion with SRS.

Eventhough the DPS is higher I expect the Build to be far less tanky since I struggle to get ailment immunity and max Block.

Feel free to experiment though ;-)

If you get it to work let me know.