With the introduction of Death’s Waystones, diving deep into SR became much more interesting to me.
After some experimentation I realized that Ghol Ritualists had all of the ingredients to make it very far. Enough AoE to handle Zantarin/Reaper summons, rapidly replacable pets, and the capacity to have extremely good defenses.
Build
Note: The MI pants are not necessary to play the build, but the pet resistances can make a difference at extreme depths.
This builds offensive capacity isn’t amazing but it is sufficient, and any improvements come at more significant costs to survivability which is the main focus here.
Performance
SR 115
SR 75-76 9:38, no agro abuse
Crucible times are 7:00-8:00. Not particularly fast, but pretty reliable.
SR Deep Dive Strategy
Agro
Pets holding agro is important at high shards. Things that generate extra threat are helpful. Taunt is even more so. Ishtak provides taunt for your pets, and Blight Fiends get extra threat from Rotting Fumes, Blight Burst, and Ghol’s Mark. Ground Slam also gains taunt at 17/12, and if you prefer you can use that instead of overcap Emboldening Presence as I did.
Agro abuse always becomes necessary at sufficiently high shards. When bosses have 30 million health and some of them can 1-shot you, you really need to fight them one-on-one. Some require bosses kiting (Aleks, Kaisan, Grava), so try to fight them last. Learning to manage agro takes some practice, and the finer details are beyond the scope of this thread.
Mutators
Some mutators are very helpful, some are very harmful, most are somewhere in between, and many have no effect whatsoever (ex: Aetherwarped). If you’re just farming 75-76, mutators aren’t a big deal on this build. If you’re looking to go as deep as possible, it’s worth resetting until you get a favorable set.
Best Mutators
- Cruel - 5% reduced monster OA
- Regenerating - 8% reduced monster poison resistance
- Swift - 15% reduced monster Taunt resistance (nemeses have 45% base)
Worst Mutators
- Poisonous - 15% extra monster poison resistance.
- Brutal - 5% extra monster OA
- Unstoppable - 25% extra monster Taunt resistance (nemeses have 45% base)