[1.1.8.1] Heretic - 2H melee aether Bone Harvest Apostate, easy SR 80+

[Duchy]

INTRODUCTION

The reason behind this build is to create a two handed melee aether Apostate using the Bonemonger set and the Scion of the Screaming Veil. As a main damage skill I use Bone Harvest with cooldown reduction from Ghol’s gloves. When not using BH you just autoattack or use other skills - Will of the Fallen Kings (Vire like skill from rune), Siphon Souls and Ravenous Earth. These skills have all nice AoE and their cooldowns are OK for rotating them all the time. Use Bone Harvest on left mouse as an autoattack basically. For life sustain the build has nice lifesteal, Scales and Siphon Souls. The build fully converts vitality damage to aether using the Scion and Bonemonger set. It has great aether RR of up to -150 %. It can do SR 80 easily.

I have other aether melee builds here. All my builds are here.

GRIMTOOLS https://www.grimtools.com/calc/w26mQyxN

Build uses two monster infrequent items - Lunal’Valgoth’s Waistguard and Basilisk Crest. You want affixes for OA and aether damage. I have chosen the best so that they are not double rare. Crafting bonus on helm is to slow resistance.

Stats of the build

OFFENSE

high base weapon damage

OK critical damage 30 %

OK OA - around 3000 OA (around 3450 with Deadly Aim)

nice aether resistance reduction from Spectral Wrath, Arcane Bomb, Word of Pain, Siphon Souls, Inquisitor Seal and Ravenous Earth (Scales) - up to -150 %

damage from devotions - Spear of the Heavens, Arcane Bomb, Scales

DEFENSE

good life over 14000 HP

OK DA - around 2900 DA

up to 209 OA reduction to enemies from Siphon Souls and Arcane Bomb

nice lifesteal 27 %

lifesteal from Siphon Souls

healing from Scales

flat damage absorption from Inquisitor Seal

% damage reduction to enemies from Ravenous Earth

OK CC resistances with crafting bonuses

reasonable overcap of resistances

lower armor - above 1800

good physical resistance 30 %

healing on demand from Word of Renewal

Mark of Torment

Ghoul

Prismatic Rage

image from the game with passive buffs + Word of Renewal

image from the game with passive buffs + Word of Renewal, Soul Harvest, Inquisitor Seal and Deadly Aim

SR, CRUCIBLE

I play SR with camera pointed away from enemies and I try my builds only in SR 65-66 and SR 80. I play around 10 SR runs per character.

This build can do SR 80 easily. No nemesis is a problem. But fight Gargabol and Mad Queen only with Mark of Torment up.

I don’t play Crucible so I don’t have a time number for it.

Images from SR 80

[Ulvar1]

interesting.
are you just smacking mobs with normal white attack between bone harvesting casts?

[Duchy]

Yes pretty much. I had reaping arc there as well from relic but too many buttons so I dropped it. I have BH on left mouse. BH can also be used with transmuter but I like the AoE version more.

[Osutin_Heizu]

What do you mean when you say that you point the camera away from mobs in SR?

[Ulvar1]

in boss room, monsters spawn north. Because of isometric perspective, you get further distance to them so it is easier to isolate them one by one.

[Duchy]

I have made some changes to this build. I have added Ravenous Earth for more and better flat RR. Build’s performance in SR 80 has improved.

[tqFan]

I have added Ravenous Earth for more and better flat RR. Builds performance in SR 80 has improved.

Do you mean that flat RE RR improved your trash clearing speed or also single target which is most important in SR? Is this a bait?

[Duchy]

Clears are faster. Previously it was only on Scales. So that is a big difference. Also the damage reduction on it seems to be better than Ill Omen. I had Gargabol in boss room and he went down easily when playing it safe. He was very problematic before.

[tqFan]

I mean to me it sounded like you don’t know RE RR doesn’t work on a single target.
By the way I recommend you to rebind Arcane Bomb from WoP to RE. It’s an infinitely better proccer. Amongst the best in the game.

[Duchy]

I spam more of them and they are not necessarily below the single target but I did not know that.

[tqFan]

From what I know Four Eruption only works when trash explodes from it / while under its effect and then affects everything around it. It’s even in the description sort of. That’s why all Necro builds always have additional Reduced Target’s Resistances sources. Because on a single boss you got 0 gains from it. I still max it sometimes for Crucible though if I have lots of points.

[Duchy]

I played a different aether build today also (will post it soon). Had problems with squishiness using Ill Omen. Switching to RE changed things a lot. Tried it here. The same happened.

[tqFan]

The main benefit of RE imo if you use it defensively is how an amazing proccer it is. Bat bound to RE is a classic.

I’m don’t know why Omen made your character squishier If it was because some defensive / leeching Devo was bound to it then sure but that was not the case in your example.

Btw you could try testing Bat + RE instead of Scales since it’s also a great healing option. +Revenant. 6 skeleton with vit converted to aether deal a lot of damage I think. or Wendigo. I don’t think going for Scales is optimal since you have to invest so much into yellow and have full Vit to Aether and can basically have same sick devo setups like Vitality Casters. And you don’t even need Yellow.

[Ymiraku]

would be nice if they made reaping arc into a proc, i always find taking it in melee builds makes them too piano and doesn’t really add enough to justify it.

[Duchy]

Maybe If I have time I will look into it but I use Scales a lot and they work.

[tqFan]

That would be my best devo without Scales to test:

Devo

• Oblivion to RE mandatory
• Arcane Bomb to Storm Box?
• Revenant to Word of Pain or BH if it has 100% chance
  (doesn’t matter really due to skellies long duration)

[Duchy]

Maybe the difference is that you have to click on target with Ill Omen and with Ravenous Earth you just click on the ground. And when playing hectically (piano build) and misclicking then RE is better.

[tqFan]

Yes, I thought about the same thing but didn’t write since I didn’t remember if it needs a target or not.

[Duchy]

I have changed this build - it got more life, damage reduction and OA. I dropped Stormbox and went for life and damage reduction instead. I switched gloves to Ghol’s for nice cooldown reduction to Bone Harvest. Build is now basically aether Bone Harvest Apostate. Build went up both offensively and defensively.

[char1]

Hello, how is this build in 1.1.9.5.?