INTRODUCTION
I wanted to make aether AAR spellbinder in order to attempt Crate. On paper everything was fine, but leveling with AAR is almost impossible. As I wanted to stick with the arcanist aether theme, I decided to go with Panneti’s Replicating Missiles (PRM) due to their nice clear. While leveling I started to experiment a little, and actually PRM turned out better than expected. Crate will have to wait…
Stats above are shown for SSF version
GRIMTOOLS
Solo-Self-Found (realistic gear)
GDStashed version (for min-maxers)
PROS
- The packs go boom PoE-style
- Can facetank most of the bosses in SR (Grava is a joke)
- Can go deep in SR
CONS
- Piano-ish style
- Needs constant attention
MECHANICS
Offence:
The core concept is to convert as much damage as possible to aether, for which we have 128% resistance reduction. The conversion is achieved via the medal, scepter and ring. As many of the procced skills also contain fire component we use belt with fire to aether to boost the damage even further. This is also why, there is a few points in devastation. However, if you feel that there are already too many buttons to press, feel free to skip devastation.
Defence:
Leech seems to be the way of GD except a very few fights, so we try to take as much leech as possible. This is done via Vendigo constellation, medal and helmet. Additionally, Haunt lowers the leech resistance, so it acts as leech multiplier. All together is enough to facetank most of the bosses in SR. For the very few that can’t be facetanked the strategy is to cast Mark of Torment, Devastation, and after Mark is gone - Mirror of Ereoctes, then kite until you can cast Mark of Torment again. We also have high damage reduction and absorption through Maiven Sphere of Protection and Ill Omen. Additionally, whenever possible, I was choosing gear with physical resistance, so despite very low armor, the build takes very little damage.
GEAR CHOICES
I know that there is a lot of rare gear, but all greens I have were self-found as you can see from their strange affixes. The good thing is that most of them can be easily farmed and there are unique/legendary alternatives.
- The most important rare is Slathasarr’s Crest, which you can farm in Ancient Grove. Unfortunately, there is no good alternative. However, I was leveling without it until level 94 and it is perfectly fine in campaign to use Arcanum Sigil.
- The Valdaran’s Mantle seems to drop in abundance in SR, but you can also farm Valdaran as you go for aether crystals in Warden’s lab. A good alternative while levelling might be Shoulderguard of the Paragon (for DPS) or Loghorrean’s Corruption (for survivability).
- Groble Stone Effigy is the most annoying one. It can be easily farmed in Pine Barrens and Tyrant’s Hold, but it drops from regular monsters. Thus, I have never seen a rare affix on these while farming them. The nice thing is that each run gives you 2-5 effigies, so you can choose. Nevertheless, it took almost two hours to farm the one I have, and I think, I was still lucky. However, a very good alternative is Aldanar’s Vanity, which does miracles for the cooldowns. This is almost on par with Groble Stone Effigy in terms of DPS, but it lacks the pierce resist and crit multi.
- Since 1.1.7.0 Conduit of Arcane Whispers converts PRM damage to vitality, so we have to use Heart of Malmouth instead. Other alternative is Vanquisher’s Gem for its max. poison resist that will help Kaisan and Rashlaga. A very solid defensive option is still Conduit of Arcane Whispers, but with neutral prefix.
- Instead of Cord of Violent Decay you can use Chains of Ygraad for even more leech. However, I personally hate running Port Valbury, so I avoided it. SR75-76 is enough for me.
SSF vs GDStashed
Offensively there is not such a big difference, but GDStashed version is just tankier:
- The biggest difference is in physical resistance, which for SSF is 32% and for GDStashed is 43%. Both are very solid IMHO.
- GDStashed version also has capped slow resist while for the SSF version you can reach 55% and for the rest you may use blazing ruby on medal/amulet if needed.
- DPS for both versions is quite similar, but GDStashed has more OA, which means more crits.
- GDStashed has less life.
SR PERFORMANCE
Both versions, SSF and GDStashed, can go to SR 75-76 on ultimate, but of course the SSF one is more squishy (also fun and satisfying). Actually, besides Rashlaga there is nothing to fear, if you take bosses one by one. To illustrate how absurd is the GDStashed version, I was able to facetank two bosses at once in the boss room most of the time. However, even with the normal SSF gear I killed Grava and Mad Queen at the same time (no facetanking of course). So I think it is safe to assume that you can farm SR65-66 with this build no matter which version you choose and which affixes you have on your gear.
SR80 completed (timer stopped due to stupid mistake of trigerring Kaisan and Iron Maiden at the same time). The build should be able to go deeper, but this is already enough for me.
CRUCIBLE PERFORMANCE
I am not a big fan of crucible, but due to very fast clear speed of this build, the time may not be bad. Any testing is very welcome and I will definitely post the results here.
CHANGELOG
- 1.1.7.0 - Change of amulet and devotions. Slightly less life and max. resists, but this is overcompensated by more leech. Also higher damage, OA, DA and phys resist. Overall, good to be shaken once in a while.
THANKS
- I took the idea of using Wendigo instead of Bat from @MergosWetNurse and his/her aether stun jacks sorceress.
CLOSING REMARKS
I am very new to GD and this is my third build I make on my own, and first to publish. All remarks and criticism are very welcome.
(speaking for the min/max version)
