[3.8] A CI/LL Tri-Curse Herald of Agony Occultist [Deathless Uber Elder, League Starter]

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Echador escreveu:

Got a lvl 21 HoA after selling my Presence of Chayula and the difference is amazing, supports are still 19, but the damage feels like it almost doubled.

Did some progress today aswell, managed to kill all the shaper guardians and the Shaper himself at level 83, and after that, did 2 Auhatotli's, which were depth 255-256 (2 bosses spawned in the same city biome) also after 2 failed attempts, since I didn't know the mechanics, also easy, did the second one deathless.

Tomorrow gonna try to push for another red elder and get my last memory fragment, then I'll try to go for uber elder. Let's see how that goes :)

@ Echador : I don't know your exact setup but according PoB, going from just a lvl 20 Herald of Agony to a lvl 21 one almost doubles the DPS, so yeah, you should definitely feel it !
Good luck for you next targets !

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Amanoon escreveu:

Hey been absolutely LOVING the build, but im wondering what we have resolute technique for? Im still very new, but im guessing its just for more hits/attack -> virulence/sec? mainly on bosses right?

would the 45% inc skill duration near shaper in the skill tree accomplish the same thing by making virulence stacks last longer? and it'd cost fewer points (3vs5, or 4vs5 if you take physique to make up for loss of 40 str). and it'd help some other skills too like phase run. and we'd see less dps drop while kiting.

im sure im missing something tho, like shaper has crazy evasion rating or something, idk.

EDIT: effect duration should help immortal call too, which seems pretty nice. also, why don't we spend the one point on zealot's oath?

@ Amanoon :
Resolute technique is to make sure that every arrow from rain of arrows actually hits (and therefore poison, generating Virulence stack). Without it, the accuracy of the build is very low as we do not take Accuracy nodes in tree and very low Accuracy in equipment.
So it's not just for bosses, it is for the good function of the build !

For Increased Skill duration, I have not tested it myself but I am quite sure that Virulence Stacks behave like Endurance/Frenzy/Power charges and are not increased by skill effect duration because they are not...a skill !
Moreover, even if we were able to extend their duration, the mechanic of Virulence is the more stacks you have, the quicker they disappear so even a longer duration would probably not be significant.
The only way to make Virulence Stacks last longer is to go Pathfinder Ascendancy and take "Master Toxicist". But it would then be a different build :-)

Finally, we don't spend the one point on "Zealot's Oath" because there is nearly no life regeneration in passive tree and equipment (the only one I see is the "Shaper" node close to Scion start).
If you happen to have a lot of life regeneration in your equipment, then by all means take "Zealot's Oath". If you take it, you can even slot the "Stone Golem" instead of the Chaos one to further increase the ES regeneration then.

Hope it helps, have fun with the build !

i haven't been having any issues hitting 40 w/o resolute yet, course i've only just started mapping with it. i mentioned bosses cause they're the only occasional exception, on stuff like "25% chance to avoid poison" maps. I'm sure im gonna regret not having it once i get passed white maps.
(side note: who signed off on the 'tormented temptress' boss? that shit drove me up the wall)

So i just double-checked and you're totally correct, virulence isn't effected by skill duration. thought it might cause its the product of a skill, but apparently its a separate buff. mark from ggg confirmed this is a no-no though. good to know.

righteous army also gives us %life/s. then there's the stone golem like you mentioned (maybe im just not understanding it, but 4% phys reduction doesn't excite me). plus im a pretty big fan of holy relic + animate guardian, the holy relic gives us more regen. might not be worth it though like you're saying. but i DO recommend the animate guardian + dying breath, exactly the sorta thing we want in here. (maybe it's too fragile in high-tier maps/deep delves? belly of the beast has been keepin him healthy so far tho)

EDIT: wait i just re-read your reply, resolute doesn't just eliminate the target's ability to evade? it makes us 100% accurate too? well shit that's pretty sweet.

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Amanoon escreveu:

i haven't been having any issues hitting 40 w/o resolute yet, course i've only just started mapping with it. i mentioned bosses cause they're the only occasional exception, on stuff like "25% chance to avoid poison" maps. I'm sure im gonna regret not having it once i get passed white maps.
(side note: who signed off on the 'tormented temptress' boss? that shit drove me up the wall)

So i just double-checked and you're totally correct, virulence isn't effected by skill duration. thought it might cause its the product of a skill, but apparently its a separate buff. mark from ggg confirmed this is a no-no though. good to know.

righteous army also gives us %life/s. then there's the stone golem like you mentioned (maybe im just not understanding it, but 4% phys reduction doesn't excite me). plus im a pretty big fan of holy relic + animate guardian, the holy relic gives us more regen. might not be worth it though like you're saying. but i DO recommend the animate guardian + dying breath, exactly the sorta thing we want in here. (maybe it's too fragile in high-tier maps/deep delves? belly of the beast has been keepin him healthy so far tho)

EDIT: wait i just re-read your reply, resolute doesn't just eliminate the target's ability to evade? it makes us 100% accurate too? well shit that's pretty sweet.

I understand that you would like to save points in the passive tree and not take Resolute Technique, but I really think it is needed for a smooth operation of the build. All non-Ranger (Rangers have usually much more accuracy in their passives) Herald of Agony builds playing with Quill Rain take it.
It's true that I haven't played the build myself, but Vatinas and others could probably confirm definitely this.

"Righteous army" passive is not taken in Vatinas build (I checked again the PoB), that's why I was not refering to it. But as I said before, if you have a personal setup where you have quite a bunch of life regeneration, then feel free to take Zealot's Oath, it will be good !

Still, do not underestimate the 4% physical reduction of Chaos Golem. It is really helpful against physical damage, and as we do not have a lot of layered defenses in this build apart from "a lot of Energy Shield/faster Energy Shield recharge and curses", it is equivalent to a nice armor piece of equipment and even stacks with it if you have some.

For your Animate Guardian + Dying Breath, I understand that it is a really nice setup. I just would like to draw your attention to the fact that only the line "Nearby Enemies have 18% increased Effect of Curses on them" will be of help in this build. Indeed, at 40 virulence stacks, the Herald of Agony Crawler level 20 has already (19x40)=760% increased damage, so "Nearby allies gain 18% increased Damage" will only increase the damage of the Crawler of 2.3% in reality...

Finally, for Resolute Technique, eliminating the target's ability to evade and making us 100% accurate is in fact the same thing !
In PoE, when you try to hit a monster with a weapon, the game makes a roll of your accuracy against the evasion of the monster. So either you hit, or you miss/the monster evades (same thing in fact).
With Resolute Technique, you hit 100% of the time, even if you have no accuracy at all and even if the monster has a huge evasion.

Best of luck for your build and please give us your feedback !

yeah I'm definitely making a b-line for resolute now, didn't realize that's how it works!

sorry i just assumed you guys had taken righteous army, could've sworn it was in the PoB (had to double-check myself)

yeah i realize the +%dmg from dying breath probably isn't doing anything crazy for me, but it's just icing. i just can't pass up +18% curse power in a tri-curse build :^)

the math i really don't get though is the chais golem phys reduction, my understanding was that it's the final few percentage points that are the most valuable when it comes to damage reduction. that said it'd definitely still be my pick if i hadn't taken zealot's oath.

Thanks again for the build! it's honestly been the most fun i've had in this game so far!

if u use aul amy with discipline no reserved u could use all 3 purity and get 80/80/81 res and be way more tanky ;)

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CeLLTeKK escreveu:

if u use aul amy with discipline no reserved u could use all 3 purity and get 80/80/81 res and be way more tanky ;)

I know it's probably a joke, but I can't see how you manage to fit 3 auras of 35% mana reservation with a Herald of Agony 6L...

Even with the full Leadership and Charisma clusters on top of what is already taken in the build, it seems impossible.

Which means it would need probably other specific uniques on top of "Aul's uprising with Discipline reserve no mana" (minimum 6 Exalted on poe.trade btw)...

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Amanoon escreveu:

yeah I'm definitely making a b-line for resolute now, didn't realize that's how it works!

sorry i just assumed you guys had taken righteous army, could've sworn it was in the PoB (had to double-check myself)

yeah i realize the +%dmg from dying breath probably isn't doing anything crazy for me, but it's just icing. i just can't pass up +18% curse power in a tri-curse build :^)

the math i really don't get though is the chais golem phys reduction, my understanding was that it's the final few percentage points that are the most valuable when it comes to damage reduction. that said it'd definitely still be my pick if i hadn't taken zealot's oath.

Thanks again for the build! it's honestly been the most fun i've had in this game so far!

Hey, sorry for not answering before!

I understand it's quite frustrating to spend so many points to take Resolute Technique, but it's just life changing. If I recall, without RT, you have around 58% chance to hit, which means RT makes your Virulence stacking about twice as efficient. Plus, you need strength to use a lvl 20 Damage on full life, so going down to RT isn't completely wasted.

Concerning Zealot's Oath, you could indeed grab Righteous Army and Zealot's Oath, but it's not worth it in my opinion. Your ES recharge is more than enough, and you already have up to 30% of ES regenerated per second while clearing, so I doubt you'd even notice it. Plus, the stone golem grants flat regen, which can be noticeable when you have 5K HP, but not when you have 12K ES.

Speaking of the golem, 4% phys damage reduction is huge. Since we have no armour, it acts like "4% less physical damage taken"; to get an idea of how effective that it, "4% less elemental damage taken" is equivalent to "+1% to all maximum resistances", which is a very valuable amulet corruption. Not to be underestimated!

I'm glad to hear you're having fun with the build! :)

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CeLLTeKK escreveu:

if u use aul amy with discipline no reserved u could use all 3 purity and get 80/80/81 res and be way more tanky ;)

Like Pakito said, I can't see how you reserve 3 purities on top of a 6L HoA... I don't think this is worth doing for the same reason I didn't mention the Coming Calamity in my build, it frees up some mana, but not enough to do something significant with it.

If I misunderstood something, feel free to explain more, and I'll further think about it :)

Hi Vatinas!

Still playing your build and having a lot of fun (currently lvl62 with 4k ES CI).

I just wanted to ask, what could be some replacements for Phase Run in your opinion? I just find it a bit lackluster, as when it triggers I almost always am attacking, so the phase buff is lost immediately.

Btw, you were right, I bought the green rain of arrows effect and it's quite nice. Fits well with the minion as well. :D

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littlezoe escreveu:

Hi Vatinas!

Still playing your build and having a lot of fun (currently lvl62 with 4k ES CI).

I just wanted to ask, what could be some replacements for Phase Run in your opinion? I just find it a bit lackluster, as when it triggers I almost always am attacking, so the phase buff is lost immediately.

Btw, you were right, I bought the green rain of arrows effect and it's quite nice. Fits well with the minion as well. :D

You can throw in a second Convocation (lvl 1) into your CwDT setup, to make sure your Crawler is here to help you when it's needed the most; another option is Cold Snap or Vortex, to chill nearby enemies.

About the green Rain of Arrows, it does fit will with the Crawler! :D Glad to hear you're liking it!

Looks great, going to try this build next league