Greetings all,
As someone who would rather make his own way through Cairn, I don’t follow guides or stay up to date on the latest build tech. When I find something that works, I usually come here to discover that my “brilliant idea” was discovered and perfected many years ago. This does not seem to be the case with my “meme traps build” (explanation to follow), though it is true that some key skills have spawned many builds in the past. However, those builds had a different focus or used different gear or had different support skills. There is one that is “close” ([1.1.9.1] Tactical Demolitions: Tanky DPS : Powerful Rune of Kalastor, Mortars - SR76+, Naked Cr 160) where almost the only similarity is the choice of principle skills. While clearly inferior to that build, mine is different yet still good enough that a casual player like myself can reach the typical build benchmarks (undoped SR 75/6 and 170 Crucible).
Second image standing next to target dummy with active buffs up and after proc of Shield Wall (no “when hit” procs).
12:11 SR 75-76
8:54 Naked Crucible 150-170
(I’m no speedrunner and the build’s not breaking any records, but it works!)
As inspiration, I wanted to revive an old “5 Mortar Trap” build (from a “play occasionally with irl friends” game) but using the Purifier class instead because I had a specific goal in mind: design around 6 Mortar Traps (because I realised it was possible) and other “skills placed on the ground” (Runes, Mines, Inquistor Seal). Banned actions were attacking with a weapon, “throwing skills” (Grenado, Flashbang) or targeted skills (Storm Box, Fire Strike). Heals (Word of Renewal) and buffs/debuffs (Aura of Censure) were allowed, even if they did provide some source of damage seemingly as an afterthought.
I also wanted the gear to be as easily accessible as possible, hence the use of several Epic items, some that have blueprints (6 in total with the relic and use of the Inventor), and several key MIs that could be target farmed (most notably those that make Rune of Kalastor a lightning powerhouse before being replaced at level 94) or shopped at Vinelton along the way while levelling. The stats on the final MIs were very much less important that the skill buffs granted (those on the Grimtools are the ones I shopped with some patience and while decent are hardly groundbreaking).
In the end, I did deviate slightly from my design by using Horn of Gandarr, mainly because a) I’d never used it before, b) a -DA debuff would be added to it by one of the items critical to my final build (thereby technically satisfying its use as a “debuff” rather than a damaging skill), and c) it was my only way of proc’ing Shield Wall without breaking the other “rules”. So why not try it out?
As a “just for funzies” build, I had no expectations for it other than to (hopefully) finish all the content [all 3 DLCs on Ultimate, all dungeons, all quests including SR50]. Playing softcore, I managed to get killed early on by RektbyProtoss in Veteran, which wasn’t a good sign for how easy the build would be to play. However, the character didn’t die again until facing Lokarr after the full content clear of Ultimate! It also ran straight through to SR 75 while hardly ever triggering Blast Shield, despite facetanking absolutely everything.
When I started up the Crucible, I stood in the middle of the map from Aspirant 1 to Gladiator 50 before I needed to either move or use any skill other than Inquisitor Seal and Mortar Trap (had to activate Word of Renewal for the first time at the very end of Gladiator wave 50). It was only later that I realised the build was capable of frequently having nearly 4500 armour without any “when hit” Celestial Power procs (Grimtools claims close to 5500 in perfect conditions), which even now seems impossible for a “fun caster build” with a group of “lower tier” items and no shield.
This kind of performance wasn’t planned; it just kinda happened.
Thanks for reading!