[3.3] HeiroFat: the Pen Is Mightier (HC, All Content, Perm IC, Boss Killer)

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slowmath wrote:

Just a quick gear check. Currently level 85 and doing up to Tier 13 pretty easily. Very budget gear to the point where the most expensive part was the chest and it was less than 40c. Took out essence wurm because I feel I didnt need the anger damage at this point yet.

How should I rank upgrades in terms of priority?

1. Helm +1 enchant
2. Abyss Belt
3. CDR Boots / Deaths Door / Bubonic?
4. Xoph/Indigon?
5. That flask that costs like 19ex...
6. Actually using other skills in my gear besides just VD/UE/BS/Frenzy

Helm enchant is probably the only main thing I'd say you should work towards getting as it's probably the biggest damage boost you'll get from your items. they're expensive depending on what helm you get it on (or you could try running lab yourself, I ran it about 30 times with Twice Enchanted prophecies before I just bought my helmet outright though). Devoto's usually go for about 2/3 ex with them on although it's not the best helmet, if you've got the cash I'd go for a Lightpoacher or a Stark.

After that you're free to go after whatever you'd like. I'd pick up an Experimenter's Stibnite flask of Warding for Curse maps if you haven't got one already. Running down your list though.

1. Already mentioned this
2. Headhunter is probably the end-game belt goal, a CDR belt gives you higher DPS, an Abyss Belt would give you more HP via the Jewel slot.
3. Out of the three options it depends on what you want for your build.

CDR Boots are likely the highest DPS boots, Maxed out you're looking at 35% CDR (perfect rolls) which is about a 5.4 APS cap (more likely a 5.2 APS cap realistically). that's an extra cast per second, that being said the cost of a CDR belt alone with useless other stats is currently 1 ex.

Deaths Door's are decent defensive boots, while they do give you bleed immunity the main reason you'd pick these up would be the +1 endurance charges which lets you drop the entire bottom half of your passive tree near Marauder (21 points). What you'd do with those 21 points I can't say yet as I haven't played about with it, but you could for example do this http://poeurl.com/bRxW which nets you two extra jewel slots, some more Res from the tree and an additional Curse to play with, but I'm sure there are a lot of other things you could do. Also note that you can do this with a Belt if you corrupt it for the +1 Max Endurance charge, can't do it with an abyss belt but a corrupted CDR belt would let you do what these boots do for you (gonna be expensive as hell though).

Bubonic Boots are probably the most defence-orientated boots for the build, as +2 Abyss jewels give you more life/mana to play with, IMO i'd go with these if you're on Hardcore every time.

4. Xoph's is a decent damage boost to the build, I don't know if VD procs the Ash on hit but your frenzy will regardless, Indigon doesn't really fit in the with current build as we're using MoM for survivability, so dumping our entire mana pool with Indigon is going to hurt us survivability-wise, if you were going to go with Indigon I'd probably swap to Juggernaut or possibly inquisitor/elementalist, haven't though too much about it though.

5. Expensive flasks are always going to boost up a build, but I'd argue they're not as important as say the Helm enchant.

6. IMO I've only used utility skills outside of the main VD/UE/BS/Frenzy and some other Frenzy support setups, I tried out a Cremation 5L in my chest and Didn't really care for it after trying it, the damage was nice but I didn't like stopping to place down Cremation halfway through a fight and re-casting if they moved out the area. Detonate Dead is also nice when you're running Atziri so you don't die to her Reflect clone.

Utility wise Portal, Flame dash + Faster Casting is nice to have. CWDT + Golem + Curse is nice to have and you can even tack on Blood rage if you're not hitting the APS threshold. Curse-wise Flammability for Damage/Enfeeble for surviving.

Decoy Totem for Uber Elder was a suggestion from OP but I personally prefer Frostwall + Increased Duration works far better in my experience as you can entirely block off Shaper from damage, where-as the Decoy totem doesn't seem to do that much work for me in the fight.

For Frenzy you've got a decent amount of support options, Frenzy + Faster Attacks + Culling are the main three you'll always want. 4L wise You can go a number of ways although none are really insane, GMP helps when mapping if you're struggling to keep Frenzy Charges up, Blind Support can work (although I don't see much point when you're using IC), Fortify is also a nice pick-up for the times when you're IC doesn't proc properly (like at the start of a fight etc) but not needed, Life Gain on Hit nets you some life back per frenzy hit, it's not much but it's something. Finally Innvervate may be something to think about but I'm not sure how the 20% chance to shock and the effect of the shock actually works as I dont know all that much about Shock.

If you're running it in your Loreweave a Curse on Hit + Curse + GMP setup is probably the best bet for consistent cursing.

Your replies are excellent, thanks so much. Will definitely help me out, and a lot of other people as well I hope.

for this build it's better Xoph's Blood, or Xoph's Heart ? Because pob shows that blood gives 0 dmg add to vd but heart gives somewhere 1k, and i checked avatar of fire gives -900 dmg dunno why

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pkownzs wrote:

for this build it's better Xoph's Blood, or Xoph's Heart ? Because pob shows that blood gives 0 dmg add to vd but heart gives somewhere 1k, and i checked avatar of fire gives -900 dmg dunno why

Are you looking at Volatile Dead damage here? I'm currently running an Atziri's Foible, but swapping to Xoph's Heart gives me an extra 500 damage, Xoph's blood gives me an extra 1000 damage, that's not counting the Ash on hit either, purely down the to 10% fire pen.

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slowmath wrote:

Your replies are excellent, thanks so much. Will definitely help me out, and a lot of other people as well I hope.

No problem dude, Happy to help out.

Also side note, I just got my first Shaper kill with this build, Used all portals and boy was it a hectic fight, but i did it.

Is Abyssus still bad to use if we are physical immune? The +1 enchant for those helms are the cheapest.

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slowmath wrote:

Is Abyssus still bad to use if we are physical immune? The +1 enchant for those helms are the cheapest.

Abyssus doesn't give you much, but you can use it. You're phys immune in combat, but not 100% of the time between packs, so the downside is something to think about. If I were in SC, I'd consider it to save some currency, but in HC I'd shy away.

what is the best damage mods for jewels, cant seem to figure it out, usually i want to go for the abyss jewels since i can get mana and hp & fire dmg to spells dont buff the dmg to much tho, only like 200 per hit

like how would you discribe a perfect jewel?

If i am running anger aura like sugestted in guide, which version of Watcher's Eye would be better?
Penetration or life leech? I got first one for 40c, but guess that life leech would be more safe if i can got those, right?

Any reason that you're not using this?

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Lunatyk wrote:

If i am running anger aura like sugestted in guide, which version of Watcher's Eye would be better?
Penetration or life leech? I got first one for 40c, but guess that life leech would be more safe if i can got those, right?

Any reason that you're not using this?

You have .5% spell leech from your ascendency, so the leech is nice but not critical. I'd prefer the penetration personally. I don't use them because they're expensive in HC.

Yes im looking at VD and heart gives 800 dps but blood gives 0 dmg and the avatar of fire gives -950 dmg dunno why, that's broken pob calc or what? bercause im realy currious now. Oh and pob is up to date