[3.21] Vatinas' Spiders + HoP Guardian - CI, 70K armour, 1400 ES on block, millions of DPS

I apologize if this was covered in the guide and I missed it. How hard is it to cap your resistances when your using almost all unique's in every slot (granted some of them give some resistances). I tend to have a hard time with that when guides suggest using many unique's in their builds. Thank you again for such a detailed guide
Guys regarding using spectres.
I tried to get them to work and was happy with slotting them into my chest, dropping Deathmark. I concentrated on spectre types "Scale of Esh" and "Redemption sentry".
Definite damage improvement but the killer is it is a huge pain in the ass trying to summon spiders while 4 spectres are busily killing your worms.
In a fight when the spectres are busy elsewhere it was possible to spawn the spiders but otherwise forget it.

Another thanks to VATINAS for a very nice build and i hope the changes don't hurt this build too much.

See you all in "Heist"
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krut0n wrote:
I apologize if this was covered in the guide and I missed it. How hard is it to cap your resistances when your using almost all unique's in every slot (granted some of them give some resistances). I tend to have a hard time with that when guides suggest using many unique's in their builds. Thank you again for such a detailed guide


It's a good question. It is mentioned in the start post but easy to miss. I understood that you need to get the resistances from the jewels and particularly the ones you put in the belt. There's also 20% all res from the ascendancy which helps. I don't think it's easy to run around with 120 all res but capping should be quite doable.
You don’t stop playing because you grow old, you grow old because you stop playing.
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JohnnyV76 wrote:
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krut0n wrote:
I apologize if this was covered in the guide and I missed it. How hard is it to cap your resistances when your using almost all unique's in every slot (granted some of them give some resistances). I tend to have a hard time with that when guides suggest using many unique's in their builds. Thank you again for such a detailed guide


It's a good question. It is mentioned in the start post but easy to miss. I understood that you need to get the resistances from the jewels and particularly the ones you put in the belt. There's also 20% all res from the ascendancy which helps. I don't think it's easy to run around with 120 all res but capping should be quite doable.



Exactly, the hard to cap resistance is fire and I got only 79 total. Doable, but need to look for good rolls. But even in maps of less maximum resistance, with elemental weekness, extra dmg as element didn't die 😄
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Tooks64 wrote:
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Vatinas wrote:
* Punishment

- Now causes cursed enemies to take 50% increased damage while on Low Life at gem level 1, up to 88% increased damage at gem level 20.
- Now causes cursed enemies you hit to be Debilitated for 2 seconds.
- Now causes 10% of Overkill damage from killing blows against cursed enemies to be reflected to other enemies as physical damage.


That's another curse that looks really interesting. Corpse explosion for faster and more satisfying clear, debilitated enemies (they deal less damage), and a lot more damage against low life enemies; which, on top of increasing our average DPS, will be really strong versus end game bosses, who tend to become more powerful near their end or in their last phase (e.g. Sirus, Uber Elder, Izaro), by allowing us to quickly burst their most dangerous phase.

The issue is, we need to find a way to apply the curse. It can't be obtained like Vulnerability, on gloves, so we would need to find another way. Curse on hit on something? Cyclone, but we would need to give up two sockets? a minion, somehow? A spectre that casts it?... Feel free to share your ideas, I'm always open to them :)

Personally I don't see much use for punishment considering what we would have to lose to practically use it. I cannot find any unique or corruption to apply it, and no spectres cast it, therefore the only option is to use curse on hit support, which means we are losing fortify and maim, assuming culling strike is needed, to get a curse which is probably not much better than vulnerability from glove corruption, as the damage increase only applies at low life, and bleed has to be gained from somewhere else, or bloodlust would have to be dropped, causing an overall dps loss. As well, I am not sure how culling strike would work with it, as if it works like herald of ash, the culling strike from cyclone will not cause explosions. Some of these problems could be solved using gloves with culling strike and/or chance to bleed support, freeing up support gems, or an awakened curse on hit could be used to apply both vulnerability and punishment, but I think these do not make sense, as they increase the cost for a potential clearspeed increase, which may not be great because of culling strike and many small hits from spiders.

However, with whispers of doom being moved next to Chaos innoculation, if we could get 3 free skill points punishment could be used as a self cast curse in addition to vulnerability on hit from gloves to increase dps against the final phases of bosses. This would probably only be a good choice on a tree close to 100, as punishment does nothing before the boss reaches 35%, and we cull at 10%, making it only relevant for 25% of a boss, as well as self casting during clear would probably slow the build down.

That is just my view on the curse, there are definitely other ways to try to solve the problem, an idea that may have merit is an arcanist brand setup, if anyone else wants to look into it :)

EDIT: After thinking about it more, I have realised that using an instant cast spell such as vortex or frostblink could be a good solution to apply punishment, as they can be cast while not interrupting cyclone. This will require a 3 link setup, but it may be worth it if the explosions from punishment deal a good amount of damage. This could make whispers of doom a good pickup so we can use both vulnerability and punishment. I may try a setup like this in league before I get a vuln on hit Shaper's touch


The benefits of Punishment are less obvious, but seem to be superior to Vulnerability's. Look at it this way: Punishment's damage increase applies when the enemy is below 35% life, so around one third of the time, and amounts to around 100% increased damage taken at gem level 20 and 20% quality. That means an average 33% more damage, compared to 21% for Vulnerability (assuming gem levels 20 and 20%, and no boss enemy).

So in terms of pure, average damage, Punishment is better than Vulnerability, even at same level. On top of that, the Vulnerability from gloves can only be level 12 max, while a Punishment coming from a gem could be 20/20%. On top of that, Punishment has the added benefits of 1) allowing the burst of low life bosses, 2) debilitating for even more defence, and 3) explosions while clearing.

I've been thinking about it since yesterday, and the best way to apply it so far seems, to me, to be Cyclone - Fortify - Curse on hit - Punishment. If I decide to try it out, I will need to see how easily spiders resummon themselves during clear (remember that a kill from their poison counts as ours). But using this setup would amount to a net damage increase, even if it means removing Maim and Culling Strike, on top of defence and quality of life.

It's kind of my role to try stuff out, so I think I'll try this setup and see how it goes. But thank you for your input. :)
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krut0n wrote:
I apologize if this was covered in the guide and I missed it. How hard is it to cap your resistances when your using almost all unique's in every slot (granted some of them give some resistances). I tend to have a hard time with that when guides suggest using many unique's in their builds. Thank you again for such a detailed guide


It's true that I haven't really focused on that in the guide; we get a lot of innate resistances (Radiant Crusade, Sanctuary, Holy Dominion, Faith and Steel, Anointed Flesh), as well as unique items which grant some resists (Rainbowstride, Aegis Aurora, Memory Vault). That, alone, should get you around 50% all resists (approximately); in order to reach 76/81/76, you can use the belt jewels, the cluster jewel suffixes, and you can also use a rare jewel in the jewel socket below the Templar start to cap your resists if you need it, but you should be okay. Another source of resists, which might be less obvious and require a bit more patience, is the synthesised implicits of your rings; I got a decent amount of resists on them in Harvest (character WaningFaith). :)
Been reading the alternate quality gems, and there's a few that look interesting:

Rallying Cry AQ2 seems obvious over default.

I assume the Carrion golem minion +% damage impacts the spiders/heralds? If not and it's just the additional physical damage, then Carrion AQ 1 would appeal

Feeding frenzy AQ2 probabl;y worth it (assuming whatever auto-caster of it we end up with is buffing often enough)

Melee splash I can see the appeal of all 3 variations, but probably AQ2 for area clear and swap to a single target gem for tougher bosses.
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Dobarn wrote:
Been reading the alternate quality gems, and there's a few that look interesting:

Rallying Cry AQ2 seems obvious over default.

I assume the Carrion golem minion +% damage impacts the spiders/heralds? If not and it's just the additional physical damage, then Carrion AQ 1 would appeal

Feeding frenzy AQ2 probabl;y worth it (assuming whatever auto-caster of it we end up with is buffing often enough)

Melee splash I can see the appeal of all 3 variations, but probably AQ2 for area clear and swap to a single target gem for tougher bosses.


What struck me the most was Withering Touch with Skill effect duration (20% longer spiders, pog), and HoP with cooldown reduction, personally :)
I have been looking at some of the reworked skills, and I feel that vitality may be worth running if there is a free slot for a gem, because at level 20, it woud give us an additional ~250 regen per second, which you noted is the build's biggest weakness. It could be run by changing the anoint to champion of the cause for the reduced reservation, or by running an enlighten with discipline and determination. This could help push our regen up to better combat degens, and I think the 2nd alternate quality gives some damage on full life, which I think may work with the minions.

I am considering this if arena masters don't require a 2nd support gem, as I would have 1 socket free. I am wondering if the additional regen is worth the increased cost of losing the current anoint, and using a more expensive one, or if it is not significant enough to matter, or if there are better options.
Super excited to try this build out for Heist. Love how detailed it is, how fast you updated with 3.12 and how much communication you've had with people discussing it. Can't wait!

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