Intro
This build kills Callagadra in 30 minutes while you are AFK or alt-tabbed doing something else. Also works with Ravager and likely other super bosses, although untested. This is absolutely a meme build and should not be used for crucible or SRs as it has very minimal damage output.
The idea for this build came when I was doing some theorycrafting and asked myself how high I could get my max resistances. From there I filled out everything else with other sources of defense and then built it in game to see how long I could survive against Ravager - the answer ended up being forever. At that point I realized that with this heavy focus on defense, I could survive and even kill Ravager (and eventually Callagadra), but it took too long to be practical. This lead to the build-inspiring question of “can I kill Callagadra by starting the fight and walking away from my computer?” The answer ended up being yes and it led me to this build.
The Build
Ingame build screenshot:
Video build guide as well as footage of the AFK Callagadra kill can be found here.
Grimtools link can be found here.
Equipment
Weapons
Main hand
Judgment of the Three provides retaliation bonuses as well as acid conversion to Counter Strike. Paired with two other pieces of Sentinel of the Three we also get more acid retaliation and physical resistance. Seal of Might grants resistances, in particular contributing to difficult-to-attain physical resistance. Essence of Ch’thon provides chaos resistance as well as the build’s source of flat percentage resistance reduction to provide some additional damage.
Off hand
Mythical Siegebreaker provides the highest available max ressitance increase on a shield with 5% pierce. It also gives a significant amount of physical resistance (18% on my roll in game, 13%-19% is the possible range). Mark of the Myrmidon mainly provides shield recovery time with some other small relevant buffs. The active is strong but not used in this AFK build. This can be swapped for a second Seal of Might if desired for increased physical resistance as well as freeing up headroom to increase resistance overcaps for the lower resistances in the build. Outcast’s Bastion provides aether and chaos resistances which are relatively lacking in the build.
Jewelry
Amulet
Mythical Avenger of Cairn provides the best max resist increases available to an amulet with 4% to all and an additional 4% to aether. It also has synergy with the retaliation aspect of the build. Seal of Ancestry provides extra aether/chaos protection which are our weakest resistances. Osyr’s Fortitude provides block and retaliation bonuses as well as extra health.
Rings
Mythical Ring of the Black Matriarch and Mythical Menhirian both provide max vitality resistance at the highest amount available on rings. Black Matriarch provides some retaliation damage and physical resist reduction while Menhirian helps round out resistances and defensive stats. Runebound Topaz provides excellent defensive stats all around. Osyr’s Fortitude remains the jewelry augment of choice for the built, same as on the amulet.
Medal
Mythical Sanctus Crest provides the best combination of max resistances available on a medal as well as resistances and shield bonuses. Component is not that important - I’m using a Blazing Ruby for some health and retaliation, but Tainted Heart for resistances or Attuned Lodestone for reduced target’s damage are also good choices. Augment here doesn’t matter for the AFK build, so just choose your favorite movement ability for getting to where you need to go.
Relic
Menhir’s Bastion offers the best physical resistance on a relic, as well as defensive bonuses and skill points. The active is also strong but again, we aren’t using it for this build.
Armor
Armor augments are interchangeable and should be used to round out resistances, with a focus on damage types relevant to a specific fight.
Helm
Mythical Dawnguard Helm provides the best physical resistance on a helm as well as small retaliation bonuses. Elite Legion Headguard is actually a great replacement if you need to round out aether/chaos resistances, and it’s a faction item you can easily find 6% physical resistance on. Prismatic Diamond provides an extra defensive proc to keep us alive at low health.
Chest
Armor of the Three helps with retaliation and resistances as well as contributing to the Sentinel of the Three 3 piece bonus. Hallowed Ground provides health regen and DA to get to the 3000 needed to prevent crits from Callagadra.
Shoulders
Shoulderguard of the Three rounds out the 3 piece Sentinel of the Three bonus as well as providing retaliation and resistances. Sacred Plating helps with two of our lower resistances.
Gloves/Pants/Boots
Emberguard Gauntlets, Rimeguard Chausses, and Stoneplate Greaves are our 3 craftable armor pieces that provide physical resistance with the option to get more from the Formidable prefix. The Of Blades suffix here gives us a small boost to retaliation but is less important. I used GDStash to get these, but if you have lots of money, scrap, and time, you can craft a decent pair. Ugdenbog Leather rounds out our resistances with bonus DA and Mark of Mogdrogen on the boots isn’t necessary but provides some health and health regen.
Belt
Mythical Tinker’s Ingenuity provides the best max resistance increases available on a belt, as well as some good health regeneration, resistances, and a helpful healing proc at low health. Mythical White Lotus is a good alternative but provides significantly less poison and bleeding resistance, so you’d need to make up for that with more Ugdenbog Leather or through another source.
Attributes
Very simple, get to the minimum spirit you need for equipment, then dump the rest into physique.
Skills
Soldier
Soldier is the primary class of choice due to its strong passives. We take the following skills in order of priority:
- Menhir’s Bulwark provides significant damage absorption which we don’t get elsewhere, as well as a large chunk of health regeneration and some extra retaliation. Get this as high as you can.
- Menhir’s Will is our last line of defense, bringing us from 33% HP to near full and then providing huge amounts of health regeneration for its duration, as well as some physical retaliation. Points here scale the recharge time, so you want to make sure you end at a breakpoint. 19/16 is ideal as it results in a full heal and 14 seconds recharge time. 16/16 also works with a 15 second recharge. Pretty much the entirety of this build is built around mitigating enough damage such that the time to drop from full health to 33% is longer than the cooldown of Menhir’s will, resulting in a cycle of slowly dropping to 33% and instantly healing to full.
- Veterancy provides both base and percentage health regeneration, which is our main form of healing. Get it as high as you can.
- Shield Training helps block more often which mitigates damage to bridge the gap between Menhir’s Will cooldowns
- Military Conditioning buffs our physique and health, indirectly giving us more DA as well.
- Counter Strike helps improve our meager damage. The equipment also gives many bonuses to the skill, especially if you get the Of Blades suffixes, so it’s a low investment to max it.
- Field Command gives armor and DA - make sure to hit a good breakpoint in the armor buff, I like 12/12.
- Scars of Battle mostly gives bleeding resist versus Callagadra, although the stun and freeze resistances can help with other fights like Moosilauke. This is a good place to put extra points.
- Decorated Soldier doesn’t do much because we don’t need the elemental resistance, but worth a point if you want some slow resistance.
Oathkeeper
Oathkeeper fits in with our retaliation focus and resilience serves as a strong defensive proc to bolster our resistances even further. We take the following skills in order of priority:
- Resilience provides max all resistances which greatly reduces the damage we take during its duration. The physical resistance and DA also mitigate significant damage, and combined with Menhir’s Will from soldier, this is almost always off cooldown when we first dip below 66% health each cycle through our defensive procs.
- Haven gives us health, healing, and shield buffs, which all help us survive
- Celestial Presence combined with Scion of Dreeg gives us resistance reduction for acid, our primary damage type. We only need the single point in Summon Guardian of Empyrion in order to unlock these.
- Presence of Virtue and Rebuke give us some small improvements to our retaliation damage.
- Safeguard gives armor, so it’s really just a last place to dump extra points.
Devotions
There enough devotions with max resistance increases that you cannot reach them all, and we need to focus on maximizing physical resistance in our devotions, so we abandon the original idea of maximizing resistance here slightly. Here are the devotions chosen, starting from the inside:
- Chaos (red) and Primordial (blue) Crossroads in order to meet affinity requirements.
- Sailor’s Guide for 3% physical resistance and affinities.
- Lion for 2% physical resistance and affinities.
- Scarab for retaliation, shield buffs, bleeding resistance, and affinities.
- Jackal for 2% physical resistance and affinities.
- Rat for retaliation and affinities.
- Stag for 3% physical resistance and affinities.
- Lotus for 3% physical resistance and affinities.
- Wendigo, partially complete, for 4% physical resistance.
- Manticore for 4% physical resistance and flat resistance reduction. Bind this to Summon Guardian of Empyrion as it’s our only attack trigger.
- Boar for 4% physical resistance and some retaliation and defensive bonuses. Bind this to any passive, e.g. Presence of Virtue.
- Shieldmaiden for retaliation and shield bonuses, in particular one of the few sources of shield recovery time.
- Obelisk of Menhir for 3% max pierce resistance, allowing us to reach 100% with resilience triggered. Stone form is also a very strong defensive proc making us almost invulnerable. Bind it to any passive, e.g. Menhir’s Bulwark (for the flavor win). We skip the two right-hand nodes here because we don’t have the points for them.
