[1.1.4.0] Master Exploder - 3 piece Ulzuin Shieldbreaker/The art of blowing $hit up

FOREWORD

As a big fan of Demolitionist mastery I always wanted to give a grenade based build a try. The revamped Ulzuin’s set jump-started the idea behind the build, even though I always found Canister Bomb to be slow and clunky. Eventually, I grew liking it as the support for the skill turned it into a formidable nuke. This is also my first attempt at a non spammable skill, 0% lifesteal based character and my way of leaving my safety zone :slight_smile:

ABOUT THE BUILD

Even before the 1.1.4.0. Ulzuin nerfs I kinda went for the 3 piece set bonus because I like to mix and match stuff + there are plenty of fire related gear options. First thing I had to do is converting everything on CB to fire, naturally. Secondly, we needed health sustain mechanism since we had no WD% component other than some procs for lifesteal, by investing heavily into regeneration. Lastly, we had to make sure we had enough RR since we only deal fire damage. Take note that the build is more of a DoT caster rather than direct damage dealer.

GRIMTOOLS LINK
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/8NK7G5xN

GAMEPLAY

As a DoT caster, we will rotate several CD skills that are a strong source of burn damage to ramp up our DoTs. This playstyle fits perfectly with health regeneration mechanic since most of the time you will pop your cooldowns and prance around while things melt, thus giving yourself time to heal safely. We also have a decent amount of damage absorb via Ascension and Phoenix constellation, while 7,7 sec CD Blast Shield can even enable you to facetank long enough to apply DoTs and get the most out of your Thermite Mines. Flashbangs and BWC will serve as a huge AoE debuffs, both offensive and defensive. Use teleportation runes to stay slippery.

BUILD HIGHLIGHTS

You can stack 200k DoT damage quickly on most mobs, even more if you make them stand in the mine field. Here are our unmodified sources of burn damage listed in no particular order:

Canister Bomb + modifiers - 3000ish converted burn damage per sec, without item modifiers
Sun Spot via offhand - 1200 burn damage per sec
Fire Breath via helmet - 1900 burn damage per sec
Blazing Eruption via relic - 500 burn damage per sec
BWC - 300ish burn damage per sec
GoE and TM combined add another 200ish burn damage per sec

We get 1800 regeneration per sec just by popping our auras, which is nice. This amount goes up to 4500+ per sec with both Giant’s Blood and Healing Rain active. Naturally, we had to go for full defensive devotion setup and miss out on those sweet Ulzuin’s Torch bonuses, but damage wise we are still solid as the dummy kill time for this build is 24 secs on average, more or less depending on CB cooldown resets.

Resist shredding sources are listed below;

Guardian of Empyrion - 30% fire RR
Solael’s Witchblade - 23% fire RR
BWC - 29 flat fire RR
Thermite Mines - 24% fire RR
Viper - 20% resist reduction, albeit minor

Total RR = 106 (excluding Viper)

ITEMIZATION

Most of these items became even more viable after the recent Ulzuin set nerf;

Mythical Mask of Infernal Truth - gives you much needed conversion for your Canister Bomb + substantial damage bonuses. Grants Fire Breath ability + it looks really sexy

Cindercore - Grants much needed skill bonuses but more importantly adds additional burn damage on top of already impressive amount on our main nuke.

Judgment of Empyrion - +1 to all skills, essentially. Also has a great skill attached to it and makes sure you never run out of energy

Judicator Signets - we sacrifice some fire damage for resists, bonus regeneration and great proc which works wonders in Crucible/SR

Mythical Mark of Divinity - lots of skills, regeneration and an inbuilt circuit breaker (It’s not crucial, but why not?)

Monster Infrequents - 2 things; patching up resists and War Cry, feel free to mix and match

…AND A COUPLE OF SCREENSHOTS

https://imge.to/i/deYl6 - Dummy DoT test
https://imge.to/i/deat4 - Stats with Sealed Fate + Ascension up
https://imge.to/i/dGvnT - Regeneration with both related procs

TAKEDOWNS

Avatar of Mogdrogen - cca 8 minutes (1 Stormshroud Ointment duration)
https://ibb.co/27d6849 Mogdrogen 1
https://ibb.co/R3psBwj Mogdrogen 2

Hope you like the build. Tips are always welcome :smirk:

Edit: spelling

2 Likes

Is real to see video on Cruci or SR?

I’ll do a couple of runs as soon as I finish Ultimate campaign and make some tweaks, will try to upload a video or at least post a picture of SR level. I barely have time for anything right now because of work :roll_eyes:

Would this be possible as a Purifier? Inquisitor instead of Oathkeepr?

I think it’s perfectly doable since Inquisitor has plenty of fire support + awesome exclusive skill. The only problem I see is you’d have to stand still to make the most of your Inquisitor Seal, which is difficult if you plan on kiting. Also, I picked Oathkeeper because the gear I had in mind offers more support for it.

Few tips:

  • Viper’s RR can only be applied with weapon damage
  • Arcane Spark’s Energy Leech can only be applied with weapon damage, for better Energy management Seal of Annihiliation is superior
  • Sylvaria’s Essence in Jewellery is losing quite a bit of elemental/burn damage. You can use 50% elemental/3% OA/15% vita/bleed res augments instead
  • build would benefit a lot from skull in helmet, you have enough pierce overcap it seems.

Other than that, I like that hp regen stack, looks juicy. Would love to see it in action.

2 Likes

First of all, ty for great tips, I made some corrections right away;

  • Viper is mostly for affinity and OA, which this build lacks atm, but I didn’t know about WD being mandatory for proc, thx for that piece of info.
  • Ditto for Spark, this build is OA starved and, while I don’t even need extra energy regen, it serves as a filler until Cindercore OA buff kicks in, I’ll swap it for SoA or another heart then :slight_smile:
  • F*ck, this I feel really embarrassed about, thx for pointing that out. Made changes immediately.
  • Plating is here only to free up augment slots for extra DA, but I’ll craft another helm and jam a skull in it to test it out, as per your advice :sunglasses:
1 Like