[3.26] (WE ARE BACK, BABY!) Poor Man's Ward Loop - Level 1 Spells CWDT Triggerbot Saboteur

(1) Flasks I previously used had the Surgeon's prefix (% chance to gain a Flask Charge on crit). Use this if you don't have the belt mod (I crafted this belt myself and got lucky).

(2) Wise Oak should only be used if you can balance your uncapped resists to be equal!

Classic Ward Loop has skeletons despawn every X milliseconds and you take damage, creating a self-contained loop. My build is using a feedback loop instead, where you only take damage when you ignite enemies, and that in turn triggers spells that ignite again, feeding back into the loop and the cycle repeats.

Classic Ward Loop needs very specific things to work and is super sensitive when it comes to timings. You also need to calculate everything very precisely. There is little to no room for error and it's prone to gettting desynced.

In contrast, my build is really simple to set up and doesn't completely break with % less CDR mods (just gets lower DPS). When this build was originally released, it also cost a fraction of the price to make. Hence the name of the build. On the flipside, my build probably isn't as tanky due to the lack of Ward, and it potentially causes more lag. But to each their own.

Cast When Damage Taken Support has a Cost & Reservation Multiplier of 250%. It also applies a global 250ms cooldown to any spell linked to it and applies a Less Damage modifier to triggered spells.

Multiple copies of the same spell will not work if the cooldowns overlap. You only ever want to use 1 copy of a spell. Unless you cast them yourself; i.e. Ball Lightning + CWDT and self-cast Ball Lightning will work independently from each other.

Trigger skills also have various breakpoints where their trigger cooldowns overlap with the server's "tick rate". To avoid this, we must adjust the cooldown thresholds accordingly.

To overcome all of these downsides, we need to stack 52% increased Cooldown Recovery Rate, use spells with high Added Damage Effectiveness (i.e. Fireball has 370% = added flat damage gets multiplied by x3.70), reduce the Mana Cost and increase the self-hit rate as much as possible.

Another strategy that needs to be considered is staggered CWDT setups, mainly because the spells will not track damage while they are on cooldown.

This way we can use a lower level CWDT setup to trigger the next higher one, rather than raise the thresholds for everything. Meaning that some setups have lower damage taken required, which triggers linked spells when the thresholds are met, then those spells damage us when we ignite, which then triggers the next tier of CWDT and so on. This is essentially what enables the "loop" mechanic, as each spell cast contributes to it in sequence.

To start the loop, we self-cast Forbidden Rite. You might have to cast it more than once, depending on a few factors. The spell deals Chaos damage to you based on a percentage of Life/Energy Shield.

Quick sidenote: No need to do extra math; the game tells you how much damage you take when you hover over the skill gem in your hotbar. Take that number and reduce it by your Chaos resistance (i.e. 75% -> x0.25).

(From 3.23, leaving it in due to relevancy) For my lvl 99 character with over 4800 HP and 700 ES and 75% Chaos resistance, each cast deals ~526 Chaos damage to me. This then triggers all my gem lvl 2 (lvl 40) CWDT setups and below, as I'm using 23% quality gems (11% reduced damage taken required -> damage threshold of 583 * 0.89 = 519, rounded up).

Using some simple math, let's take the highest CWDT in our setup, which is level 4 with 23% quality. Each cast requires 646 (rounded up) damage taken in order to trigger. Our max possible trigger rate with 52% CDR is 6 casts per second, so we need to multiply that number by 6, which is 3876 damage taken.

Important to note that CWDT only tracks damage taken after mitigation, so this would be (in the case of my 3.26 PoB as of writing), 28 self-hit damage (with Pantheon) per hit. Now, use that to divide the total, which works out to 139 (rounded up) hits per second to reach this threshold. Keep in mind that this is the highest threshold we need to meet.

Triggerbots are absolutely crucial in this case, as the second trigger ignores cooldowns and thus doubles our effective trigger rate. This makes it incredibly easier to sustain the loop on single targets and is the reason why the character has to be a Saboteur.

Keeping all of this in mind, let's travel down each CWDT setup and count the spells, accounting for Triggerbots. As for the 3.26 version, this looks as follows:

Unearth + Rolling Magma = 4 hits (no return)
Ice Spear + Frostbolt + Blazing Salvo = ~18 hits (with return)

If we add these together, we get: 28 * ~22 hits = 616 damage taken, easily enough to trigger the lvl 3 23% CWDT (589 threshold) before the next series of hits connect.

Now the level 3 CWDT triggers, adding new spells and thus more hits to the loop:

Eye of Winter + Spark of the Nova + Volatile Dead = ~20 (-ish), which works out to another 560 damage taken added to the next tier of CWDT setup.

Now the lvl 4 CWDT feeds back into the loop and adds to its own threshold as well as the earlier ones in the loop, adding up to:

Fireball + Soulrend of Reaping + Essence Drain of Wickedness = 168 damage taken.

By that time, the first set will be ready to trigger again and so on.

If you watch my videos and take a closer look when I start the loop, you can sort of see this happening in real time once the returning projectiles start to connect.

The key item of the build is Eye of Innocence. Every time we ignite an enemy, we take a flat amount of Fire damage. With Turbulent Catalysts, we can increase the self-inflicted Fire damage to 120 per hit, which works out to 30 Fire damage taken after default capped resistances. With the 6% reduced damage taken from the Pantheon, this number is now 28.

Triggerbots are essential here, as they double our total trigger rate, meaning that our potential hits per second are also doubled. This ensures that we can get the full 6 casts per second even on solo targets. That was the main drawback for different versions of the build I have made in the past. The build will cease to function if Triggerbots get removed.

Cast When Damage Taken Support has damage thresholds. When spells are used in a way that respects these thresholds, we can work out that the spells we want to use operate in the level range of 38-44. Which is perfect for low level CWDT setups, as the gem can only trigger spells that are equal to or below the stated level.

Increasing the thresholds makes it harder to maintain the full DPS on solo enemies. Counterintuitively, adding too much damage reduction (i.e. making the build more tanky) will actively hurt the build as you will no longer take enough damage per second to get the full casts off, effectively "wasting DPS".

In order to benefit from the Chill/Freeze immunity from the staff and damage bonus/Leech from the amulet, we use a Replica Reckless Defence jewel to make the self-inflicted Fire damage ignite us. Beware that this item gives enemies a base chance to inflict certain elemental ailments, even when they normally don't have any. The jewel provides a +10% base chance (against the player) to any damage that can inflict said ailments. This includes (to my knowledge) other non-monster things such as strongboxes. Keep that in mind.

Ngamahu's Sign counteracts the self-inflicted Fire damage. I highly recommend a roll of at least 30 Life recovered. If you cannot obtain a 30 roll, you have the option to only use as many Catalysts on your amulet to match it (i.e. 27 roll -> 8% quality amulet), or simply don't use any Catalysts at all. The minimum with a default amulet is a 25 roll (100 * 0.25 = 25). However, lowering the damage taken can negatively affect the overall performance of the build.

Recoup effects are used to recover Life beyond said self-damage, and it also helps with Mana sustain. This mechanic is affected by Recovery modifiers, so beware of such mods in maps if you cannot fully sustain the build yet.

Power Charges are essential to the build. They provide us with more damage, increased Critical Strike Chance and take care of Shock when used with the mastery. Inner Conviction allows us to "fake" the damage bonus gained from Frenzy Charges, while not having to invest into them, as Power Charges normally do not grant % more Spell damage. The Militant Faith Timeless Jewel also comes with very handy resistances and Mana Cost reduction. You can also find the keystone on Voll's Protector, which is another useful transitional unique item for this build.

Returning Projectiles Support is later used to make projectiles return to the caster's location. Since Triggerbots are proxies and still count as you casting the spells, they will return to your location. This is what allows the character to "sweep" the map as you can see in the gameplay videos. The projectiles can also hit enemies again if they collide with them while returning, but only once per cast (barrage-type skills such as Ice Spear can hit multiple times per cast).

Sniper's Mark is superior to Assassin's Mark once you have enough crit chance. It makes projectiles split, which adds another projectile to the mix. If you are struggling to pick up crit chance, just stick with Assassin's Mark until you get high enough crit chance. It will do just fine for the time being.

Pierce is required for Return to work on targets, as the projectiles will only always pierce when returning (unless otherwise specified, i.e. Frostbolt has 100% Pierce chance). For example, Fireball's projectile will be destroyed on impact and thus cannot return, unless it pierces the enemy. Piercing projectiles also help with clearing, and in some cases aids the skill, i.e. Spark's projectiles can collide with an enemy one more time before being destroyed.

Spells (or skills in general) can have a damage multiplier called Added Damage Effectiveness, which dictates how much a skill benefits from flat damage added directly to it (gain X as extra Y is not scaled by this). Any such sources will contribute to a global damage pool that is added to the skill's base damage and will be scaled. If a skill has no stated Added Damage Effectiveness, it does not have one and flat damage applies as normal at 100% of its value. The reverse is also true, i.e. if a spell has a 60% damage multiplier, any added damage will only be 60% as effective.

(3.23) Martyr of Innocence grants a large amount of flat damage, which can be used to overcome most of what was lost through damage penalties. The Battlemage unique modifier adds its base damage to any spells we use.

(3.26) The Burden of Shadows does the same thing by adding flat Chaos Damage as we stack more Life. This added damage has no variance, meaning the minimum and maximum rolls are equal, keeping damage consistent.

It's crucial to use lower level spells in this build. CWDT has a massive Cost multiplier, and since spells increase their Cost with levels, this can become a huge downside. Which is why we only increase the levels of spells where we actually benefit from it, i.e. Spark of the Nova and Blazing Salvo for extra projectiles, and Rolling Magma for the additional Chain.

The Explosives Expert Ascendancy passive's bonus Elemental Penetration works only against chilled enemies. To guarantee this, we use Vortex to spawn Chilled Ground, which causes enemies standing in it to become chilled.

Ice Nova of Frostbolts and Vortex of Projection can be used in conjunction, despite their anti-synergistic behaviors, but only when we add additional projectiles to our Frostbolt. Otherwise, Vortex would destroy the projectiles that Ice Nova needs to trigger from for the damage bonus and overlap.

Knockback has another advantage against enemies that can be knocked back: Certain skills can "shotgun" enemies when they are pushed up against a wall or terrain. I.e. Fireball's explosions can overlap with enough AoE. Its main use, however, is that Knockback effectively allows you to forcefully change an enemy's position.

Critical Strikes are what makes this build work much better than any non-crit versions I have played in the past. And Triggerbots take care of the otherwise horrendous single target damage.

Critical strikes with Fire damage also inherently ignite. Any extra chance to ignite (i.e. from ring and amulet) just adds to your average chance to ignite. You do not need to invest into extra sources outside of those. I recommend at least 90% effective crit chance for a smooth loop.

Phasing (i.e. from a Quartz flask) is very useful for mechanical reasons. It allows you to ignore object collision, which enables you to "clip" inside an enemy. Doing that nets you the highest potential from returning projectiles and it helps with (manually) avoiding damage from enemies. You also cannot get stuck between enemies or objects this way, you can simply walk through. In my opinion a rather underestimated mechanic.

I overcap my Elemental resistances to account for Exposure, Curses (when not on Consecrated Ground), Altar downsides, debuffs from enemies and the like. It never hurts to have headroom for resistances.

Shock immunity is highly recommended because the Power Charge mastery "Cannot be Shocked while at maximum Power Charges" does not remove existing Shocks that have already been applied (Shocked Ground excluded, it has no duration). This includes non-damaging ailments reflected back to you through something like the Eater of Worlds altars.

Hinder and Knockback are quite handy for survival. The movement slow hard counters any off-screen charging Rhoas when combined with Chill, and the Knockback keeps deadly enemies at a distance. They are very useful for crowd control in Blight, Delve or other tight areas.

I have Convocation socketed in the weapon swap slot because Triggerbots are Minions and they tend to get stuck on certain terrain/ledges. It's why I hate running maps like Colosseum that have a lot of ledges. On the flipside, because they are Minions, they will also respond to any spells you (manually) cast and follow your cursor when you do. Use this for strategy. Technically, it would be easier for them to keep up with you if you were to invest into Minion Movement Speed affixes, but it's a suffix just like resistances/attributes, which imo are more important overall. Also, in rare instances they can get stuck outside of a boss arena or similar encounter, getting you killed. This is a remedy for that.