[1.0.6.1] Loki: God of Mischief - 10 minutes 150-170 Cruc. Glad. vitality Trickster [g4][c+][vid]

(credit for the picture goes to Littlecrow on Devianart)

Foreword (forrrrrrrworrrrrrrd)

This build was a sudden blip of inspiration, I never really intended on playing a trickster, since all good trickster builds rely on Korba set and have already been discovered in one way or another. But I always wanted to make use of Wildblood set. And then I saw that the weapon has huge casting speed bonus. I also remembered how everyone on forum was making a PB reaper or Witch Hunter based on godly Demonslayer set and how I thought that I would not play around this skill and this set since it’s so overused. Well, at least I avoided Demonslayer set, I thought, making a draft for the build in Grimtools. I made a Phantasmal Blades build that I am pretty sure noone has made before (or at least posted here).

Build Concept

Massive AoE and fast clearing times

Due to the piercing nature of build’s core skill - Phantasmal Blades, build is capable of clearing huge crowds of monsters very fast. It also covers pretty huge areas with steroided Grasping Vines that deal with white trash monsters swiftly. And the best mobility skill from Nightblade tree.

Insane life leeching ability

I don’t like playing builds that are squishy, and because my playing skill level is below average, I try to make builds that are really hard to kill. It’s a bit tricky with this mastery combo (pun intended) but with huge life leeching synergy from Phantasmal Blades, Will of Rattosh constellation and life leech debuff from Devouring Swarm (granted by Wildblood set) we are leeching unprecened amounts of health from any kind of opponent.

Crowd Control buffed by Wildblood set

Grasping Vines are more than 1 pointer cheap CC proc machine. They actually do some damage, at least enough to clear white trash mobs. They also leech life and energy, which is in theme with the build. And Devouring Swam debuffs mob’s life leech resistance, which is pretty huge.

The build

1.1.2.0 Update (provided by user Volek)

<<<<<GRIMTOOLS>>>>> (Crucible spec, to be used with Ulzuin’s Pact blessing)

<<<<GRIMTOOLS>>>>> (Main Campaign spec)

Gear

Wildblood set is the core of the build although it doesn’t provide any buffs to Phantasmal Blades, it does offer huge vitality damage and up to 30% casting speed on a weapon. It’s also a very common and affordable legendary set. For helmet I chose Ravager’s Dreadgaze, not easy to get or farm, but we need +1 to all skills on it to take Phantasmal Blades to 24/16 (where 6th projectile is added). Good alternative would be Clayrvoiant Hat. Chest was a tough choice to make. I tested a lot with Dread Armor of Azragor, but energy problems were making build much less fun to play, so I decided to use caster’s armor and Dark One’s chest suits our need perfectly, even converting some Chaos from Nether Edge to Vitality. Tranquil Mind Pants are just perfect for this build, I wouldn’t use any other item in this slot, every stat on them (except movement speed) is what this build needs (spirit helps us to equip our chest and adds some damage, slow resist is insanely valuable for max attack speed caster). Jewellery pieces buff our main skills, amulet is just gorgeous for our particular build (up to 11% health and 105 OA on it). Boots slot is flexible, boots I got (provided by my friend Seemann) are bis or close to bis. But all we really need is “of Featherstep” affix or just any affix combination that has stun resist and gives some kind of additional resist(s) that is Vitality/Aether/Bleeding or Pierce. Try and craft Mogdrogen’s Ardor relic with %da bonus, second best option would be stun resist.

Skills and Devotions

It’s all obvious with skill choices, except we distribute skills differently for Crucible and for Campaign. For Crucible we use Primal Bond, because we need to be able to stand our ground against multiple Nemeses and we don’t need additional points in Mogdrogen’s Pact because we don’t have energy problems with Ulzuin’s Pact. For Campaign we drop few points into Mogdrogen’s Pact for better energy regeneration (we also use a ring with Soul Shard instead of Runebound Topaz) and we use Stormcaller’s Pact because nothing can really kill us in Main Campaign.

Leveling and Attribute points distribution

Level as Shaman with Devouring Swarm untill you reach level 15-20, then respec into transmuted Primal Strike. At level 50, equip dual Crescent Moon axes, respec into Shadow Strike (with Night’s Chill and Raging Tempest), that should be good untill you reach level 94.

Put enough points into Spirit to equip our chest piece, put around 25-30 points into Cunning and rest into Physique.

The Showdown

How to Play

Straightforward in Main Campaign, except you want to manage that Energy. I suggest using Royal Jelly extract (it’s very cheap to make) and not spamming every trash mob frantically with PB, usually dropping Vines and debuffing with Swarm is enough to kill any crowd of white mobs. Of course in some cases you have to remember that you are a caster and reposition a bit (like versus Grava’Thul nullifying projectiles or versus Kraval’s big blizzard bursts or don’t stand in Kuba’s leeching pools). Also you have quite a bit of range since you don’t have to be within Night’s Chill radius (of course for maximum burst melee range is prefered, but few targets require maximum burst).

In Crucible positioning is the key, as you can see in the video below. Try to position in a way that your Phantasmal Blades pierce as much mobs as possible, always drop Wendigo Totem near you and cover ground with Grasping Vines. Always leave Kubacabra for last. Sometimes you need to backpedal and reposition, but don’t just kite, run and take short bursty stands near your totems, as soon as 3 or more Nemeses surround you or you are being chased by Mad Queen and there are still a lot of hero packs on the maps, move backwards and choose new position. Avoid mobs with Skill Disruption (Grava’Thul can be nasty). Reaper is pretty harmless to us (25% damage reduction from Beasts).
Don’t play Crucible of Sands, of Grove or of Void, terrain there eats up half of our damage output.

Stats:

Crucible Spec, all permanent buffs + Pneumatic Burst


Crucible Spec, Magical (with Wendigo Totem and Hungering Void)

Phantasmal Blades tooltip (with Wendigo Totem and Hungering Void)

Builds Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Huge Damage, both AOE and single Target
  • Close to being unkillable in the right hands
  • Very quick: 200% casting speed with Hungering void and up to 60% slow resist
  • Up to -147% resist reduction with all debuffs active
  • Fun to play

Cons:

  • Need to manage Energy while playing in Main Campaign
  • Vitality damage is one of the weaker types of damage, despite all the resist reduction some mobs are still very very resistant to it
  • Requires some piloting skill to play
  • Certain terrain or obstacles prevent us from doing damage
  • no 3800 DA or Forcewave inside of overcapped Inquisitor’s Seal

Videos

1.0.7 150-170 test run
10 seconds Mad Queen kill NEW!
150-170 4 buffs/no banners 9:34 minutes run (this time 100% leveled) NEW!
150-170 4 buffs/no banners 11 minutes run (only half leveled Manticore devotion and 14/15 level Will of Ratosh and missing a skill point from final quest. Will post a better run once I finish Main Campaign)
Trial of Corruption
Gargabol fight (I think I missed some damage by not getting point blank to the tree guy)

In Conclusion

Honestly build turned out to be much stronger than I expected. Although min-maxing and choosing the right gear/devotions was a bit of a painful process, but it all started clicking in the end. I want to thank my friend Seemann for leveling with me and for providing me with a pair of those beautiful boots.

Round of Imaginary Q&A

  • But mad_lee, didn’t you know that RR from same rings doesn’t stack? Why not use an epic vitality ring or voidheart as a second ring?

  • Because we need skillpoints to cap PB at 24/16 and Blood Pact at 20/12. Besides, those are 20% chance on critical attack single target procs with 2 seconds cooldown, having two of them means that more targets gets debuffed

  • What about Demonslayer set without the weapon?

  • Nope, not enough skill points to get PB to 24/16, not enough mana regeneration for 2h caster build, all wrong stats actually

  • But not even a single yellow Stalwart of Readiness ring? How can you even tank and be reasonably powerful?

  • I know, I also should probably reskill it to Warder and spam Forcewave instead

Been thinking of doing a wildblood build myself but never thought of including PB in it. Nicely done!

This doesn’t qualify as a “Reasonably Powerful Build” tho. Needs more stalwart rings.

I love that confidence :smiley:

That edit tho :smiley:

Thanks!

Where :slight_smile:

Nice build !

I want to thank my friend Seemann for leveling with me and for providing me with a pair of those beautiful boots.

I couldn’t let you fail so close to the end :smiley:

Yeah, I almost deleted a character and started leveling a pure soldier build with two shields and 4500 DA, but you saved me, mate.

Jokes aside, made some rounds in Ancient Grove, nothing can really challenge that build there, the leech back is too much.
Added couple of videos from the run too, including Gargabol fight (which I played way too safe, because I didn’t know what to expect, but should’ve just yolo’d the whole fight point blank to him apparently), second stage took 10-11 seconds, which is an okay performance in my book, probably can reduce it to 9 seconds if I time my Hungering Void better and stand point blank to him.

Hey, i watched your Youtube Vids cause i subscribed there and got a notification. I wanna try this build and i guess have almost all the items. Which legendary alternative do you suggest for boots?

Mythical Stormtitan Treads, try finding a pair with maximum stun resist and poison resist.

Although I would recommend crafting any pair of stoneplate greaves with of featherestep affix, we kinda need that physical resist (plus trap resist is pretty handy).

All right, uploaded a video of run while fully leveled, 9:34 minutes run. Judging from few solo runs I made with this character it can do under 10 minutes runs pretty consistently, and it’s close to being unkillable if you play it right (which is not hard to do).

Also made a slight change to Main Campaign setup, Ectoplasm in a ring is better than Soul Shard, coupled with Royal Jelly extract it makes energy problems (almost) go away.

Uploaded a 10 second Mad Queen kill. That’s an okay single target damage, imo. But this build is strong not because its single target damage anyway.

A shameless bump (since Valinov can do it, why can’t I :))

Somehow everybody slept on this build.

Heh. Builds forum has been a bit on the slow side lately so it can’t hurt

This build got a bit stronger in 1.0.7 with Wildblood’s Crusher buff. Now it has 12/12 Wendigo Totem, 16k hp and hardcapped Blood Pact as well as two full mastery bars. Crucible times are more or less same, ~9:30 with 4 blessings no banner and ~9 minutes or 8:30 with good computer with 3 blessings 1 Vanguard banner (gotta take Ulzuin’s pact instead of Ulo and consume aether res potion to get a decent overcap tho).

Here is the video of a run.

So after the recent 1.1.2.0 patch I wanted to see the new FX for PB & RE so I dusted off a build which I used to level up some time ago. Was a weird mix of Demonslayer and Wildblood sets, damage was still OK for campaign but PB energy consumption at ultimate ranks was just horrendous, dunno how I managed to play it :rolleyes:
So I looked around and came across this build right here, and it is so much better in every regard, kudos to mad_lee :slight_smile:

Crate changed a few things since this build was last updated so I decided to give it a try and update this build with recent changes in mind. Here’s what I got:

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/a2drAl5Z

Main differences:

  • Revenant instead of Manticore. Skellies apply RR now, also some energy regen and even more lifesteal.
  • Dark One’s Grasp instead of Riftwarped Grasp. Chaos to Vitality conversion was removed from Riftwarped Grasp so might as well get a little bit more OA and armor from set bonus. Bonescavenger’s Deathgrips are pretty nice as well, those 3 extra pets alongside the skellies can block some bigger bosses but they need a steady supply of trash mobs to work reliably.
  • Mythical Greaves of Ill Omens instead of those quite hard to get Stoneplate Greaves. Guess I should use Stormtitan Treads instead, but more stun res is nice and I like thematically coherent builds :stuck_out_tongue:
  • Rune of Displacement instead of Shadowstrike. Could use both but there’s already so many buttons to push so I’d rather use only blink.
  • Sanctified Bone in helmet for bonus racial damage and some resists, could be replaced if needed.
  • I don’t have Ravager of Minds helmet yet so I’m using the next best option available to me, which is Ravager of Flesh helmet. Clairvoyant hat is unfortunately no longer an option due to recent set redesign.

Still gotta unlock the last 2 skill points, I’m gonna put them into Blade Barrier and probably Mogdrogen’s Pact for a bit more energy regen. Or Shadow Strike and see how it plays.

I’m considering Mythical Heart of Yugol instead of Dark One’s Raiment but I don’t know if it’s possible to reliably compensate the energy drain from the buff.

Btw if you see only 70% Aether resistance in the linked build it’s probably because Grimtools hasn’t updated yet, or maybe I got very lucky rolls. In-game I got 83% +10% overcap. Here’s a screenshot with all buffs on

I didn’t have much time to play this particular setup in the Shattered Realm yet, I only played 35 to 40 but that was a piece of cake for the most part (died once from nullify:furious:).
I think I might be able to push it past 50 but I’m not the best pilot so I’ll probably fail at some odd boss shard :eek:
Energy can still be an issue at times but if PB is mostly used on bigger enemies it’ll do.
I guess in campaign there shouldn’t be much of a difference compared to the old version. I don’t play Crucible so no idea if this setup will work there.

So yeah this my take on this build, it’s fun to play if you don’t mind using energy pots once in a while :slight_smile:

Thanks for reviving this build of mine, mate! Nice devotions and items update too, I will add your version to the guide, since I stopped playing this one myself (unfortunately regular demonslayer setup is just better).

you’re welcome :slight_smile: nice guide btw!

I was thinking about going full Demonslayer but nah too obvious :stuck_out_tongue:

Oh and btw everytime I get stuck with one of my builds and look up some info about devotions and stuff, I swear almost every single time it’s one of your builds or guides that ends up helping me, just like this time. Probably just coincidence but gotta say thanks, well done mate