[3.24] Rakim's 75 Virulence S-Tier Herald of Agony Champion

Endgame Showcase
https://youtu.be/xmCqT82eq2c

This is the follow-up guide for my 3.20 Herald of Agony Champion, which was extremely potent built for a comparatively low budget. You can find the original post here:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3338110
Usually, I don’t play the same built twice, but since I have played “Captain Lance Immortal Trickster” in Affliction League – which misled me to a lazy and careless playstyle – I needed something on a similar power level.
So, I decided to revamp my HoAG Champ and it did not disappoint me. It might not be as immortal as Captain Lance, but it comes with a significant lower price tag.

POE-Ninja:
https://poe.ninja/builds/necropolis/character/rakim0815/Rakhoag?i=0&search=class%3DChampion%26skills%3DHerald%2Bof%2BAgony


Overview:
The revamped 3.24 version offers the following benefits:
- Up to 15 million Shaper-DPS
- facetank any Standard-Content, can take on T17 & Ubers
- can deal with all Map Mods and League Mechanics, Alc&Go
- Immune to Elemental Ailments, Stun, Corrupted Blood
- 100% Spell Suppression
- 80% Physical Damage Reduction
- 83% Max-Res
- 82% Attack Block
- 50% Spell Block
- 50% Evasion
- 10% Reduced Damage taken from taunted Enemies (= always)
- Permanent Fortify
- Permanent Onslaught
- 90% Movement Speed
- 64 Life on Hit ~ 40 Hits per second
- Automated, permanent Flasks
- No expensive mandatory items
- Easy to play


The Basics:
If you are not familiar with Herald of Agony, this is how it works:
The Agony-Crawler is an immortal minion, that deals damage based on number of virulence, which is granted by poisoning emeries.

- A Lv.21 Gem deals 51-94 flat Phy-Dmg +9% Inc. Dmg. +5% ATS per virulence.
That’s 2040-3760 flat Phy-Dmg + 60% Inc. Dmg + 200% ATS at default 40 virulence

- A Lv.34 Gem deals 168-312 flat Phy-Dmg +12% Inc. Dmg. +6% ATS per virulence.
That’s 12600-23400 flat Phy-Dmg +900% Inc. Dmg + 450% ATS at 75 virulence.


If you know a little about damage-scaling in Path of Exile, you will recognize how crazy this numbers are. In comparison to most other potent scaling methods (charge stacking, attribute-stacking,..), scaling Herald of Agony is cheap and simple. All you need is:

1. + Gem Level (Helm, Body, Amu, Empower)
2. + Maximum virulence (Medium Cluster)
3. A skill, which generates the most possible hits = virulence per second

That’s really all you need. Anything else you can completely invest into defences and QoL.

Important Note:
Please be aware that your average level of virulence directly relates to your actual damage output, therefore things like attack speed and poison chance are essential!


Major Changes since 3.20:
+ Gem Quality now provides +5 Maximum Virulence
+ Replaced Quill-Rain/Malony for Widowhail/Rearguard
+ Added Manaforged Arrows + Ensnaring Arrow and Blink Arrow + Frenzy to replace Malony
+ Added the Traitor for an automated flask setup.
+ The additional resistance from the flasks makes gearing significantly easier/cheaper.
+ Needed to add Automation Support + Convocation, now that Leftklick is gone.
+ Replaced Vicious Projectiles with Returning Projectiles in high density scenarios.


Further Damage Scaling:
- Snipers Mark (Mark on Hit)
- Vulnerablility (Ring)
- Ensnaring Arrow (Manaforged)
- Intimitate (Gloves)
- Feeding Frenzy (Blink Arrow)
- Flesh Offering (CODT)
- Withering Touch Support (Storm Rain)


Gearing Up:
Since I don’t have time for multiple characters, this was my league starter, leveling with
Poisonous Concoction. This was working out fine, but I wondered if Splitting Steel would have been an even better option.
Anyway, I used a Replica Alpha’s Howl and a 4-Link Quill Rain until Red-Tier Maps. The Point is: you don’t need perfect Cluster Jewels or amazing gear to get going. All you need is Gem Level, Virulence and Attack Speed. You can start with a 9-10 Passive Minion Cluster with random stats and medium clusters with just Pure Agony.

The only really issue you might notice is mana. Since you want to force a high hit rate, you burn mana like crazy and your support Skills like Snipers Mark, Blink Arrow and Flesh Offering cost even more.
You can address this with the Life Mastery or Lifetab, until mana cost reduction crafts are available to you. A +2mana on hit jewel also helps a lot.


Options:
Besides the basics that make this built work, you have some options to customize it to your liking.

- I might drop some damage nodes to pick up the mark mastery for culling strike and Crit Immunity
- You can opt in for a reservation cluster and fit in Tempest Shield for 75% Spell Block and some Shock value. Be aware that Returning Projectiles won’t be an option anymore due to the high mana multiplayer.
- I did use Arctic Armour for quite some time.
- You can easily fit in Aspect of the Spider for even more damage.
- Call can drop Flesh Offering for Call to Arms + Enduring Cry. This is a better option for bossing, since there are no corpses to consume.
- Instead of Vulnerability you can go the chaos route and use Depair, plus Withering Touch and awakened added chaos on the crawler.
- If you have more time and currency than I have, a Mageblood is always an option 😉
- Progenesis would be amazing.

Hi,
Can i use lone messenger? :)

in fact you should, it is a key item

What is the mtx you using for the agony crawler please.

Stygian Herald Effect

build looks cool with decent defences but PLEASE stop leaving guard skills activated and even worse vaal arctic armour, super dishonest

can another skill be swapped in to replace storm rain? or is the hits per second too good?

"

shikuhi wrote:

build looks cool with decent defences but PLEASE stop leaving guard skills activated and even worse vaal arctic armour, super dishonest

I did not activate it in my linked PoB. Is there a way to prevent poeninja of doing so?

"

XvXReaperXvX wrote:

can another skill be swapped in to replace storm rain? or is the hits per second too good?

In my experience it is the best option. In addition to the hit-rate, you can pre-fire for bossing and he arrows linger for a few seconds and therefore create virulence even while you move. With a little knockback chance, you can even create a defensive barrier.

i gave this a try since i like minion builds but this is very different to what i'm used to. the constant right clicking was killing my hands. i had to click storm rain 100 times in every map. is that how you're supposed to play the build or is there a easier way to keep applying the poison?

for bossing the build is great but for general mapping i prefer something a little less click intensive

How bad are we thinking the loss of the forbidden jewels will be?
Since it doesn't give easy 10% max attack block