Important Note
As of v1.1.9.2, this build no longer works.
This is due to the Elemental->Pierce conversion on Mythical Pack of Treacherous Means being moved to ranged only disabling the use of Trozan’s Starkeeper for the extra projectile and Cold damage to Trozan’s Sky Shard. While we could just sub in a ranged weapon instead like Oathbearer like the no affixes version does below, it’s still a big hit to damage on an already average-at-best character. So technically - the idea still exists, it’s just significantly weaker now.
Am I angry or mad at this? Not really no, Pierce Sky Shard + Obliteration was a weird and bizarre idea to begin with that I wanted to see how far it could be pushed, but I wasn’t terribly attached to it.
Stats shown with passives, Word of Renewal and Inquisitor Seal active. Sheet DPS is Obliteration.
Grimtools
No Affixes Setup
For anyone that doesn’t want to go after Kaisan Eyes or Callagadra either, this is an untested, completely purple/blue version using the SR set that looks to be weaker offensively but stronger defensively.
Setup I use
Gear crafted for Stun resistance.
Probably BiS Setup
Gear can be crafted for anything wanted e.g. stun resistance/% armour for more defense, % crit damage for more offense.
Introduction
Exposition. Feel free to skip.
For a good chunk of the month, I have been pondering on and trying to find a way to make a build out of this particular Conduit as the FX really stands out to me and a green cd bomber sounds like fun. I have since tried coming up with GT build links using different item/set configurations with 2-piece Allagast, 2-piece or full set Eastern, 4-piece Dreeg, full Dark One, various pieces from Trozan/Iskandra and so on. I’m still trying to piece a build together that would work with realistic greens as opposed to crazy double rares (sort of done already) but that seems like an impossibility.
Early on into theorycrafting though, it got me to start looking into itemisation for TSS and I noticed a few gear pieces with % Cold damage and TSS bonuses also happened to have % Pierce damage and it got me thinking if something is doable there. Initially, i threw the SR set variant together for a quick prototype meme and on the surface it didn’t look special to me but after spending a few days polishing it, it came out pretty decent for something with 1-2 non-set pieces for it’s only support and not too hard to farm for.
It’s fairly unique so I figured I’d share it with the community.
Build Concept
- The main focal point to the character is around Trozan’s Sky Shard and converting it entirely to Pierce damage with Obliteration as filler, also converted to Pierce damage. Sounds crazy right?
- Arcanist works as an amazing support providing tons of OA to proc Assassin’s Mark, Blades of Wrath and Living Shadows often. Inquisitor also provides Deadly Aim for another boost as well.
- Similarly, we also boast 60% passive crit damage on top of Obliteration and TSS having innate 60% crit damage each as well. Important for Obliteration as despite looking weak it is a potent source of filler and clears crowds pretty well.
- Defense comes from Seal for flat damage absorption, Gandarr for reduced target damage in an AoE, Maiven’s Sphere for % damage absorption, Mirror for emergencies and Serenity as a circuit breaker.
- Sustain comes from Twin Fangs bound to Obliteration allowing us to heal off of our main skill, Living Shadows and Word of Renewal for chunks as well.
Abilities
Obliteration (Twin Fangs): One of our main damage skills for AoE and to keep damage up.
Trozan’s Sky Shard (Assassin’s Mark): Our other damage dealer used for nuking crowds and bosses.
Mirror of Ereoctes: Temporary invincibility can save your life or give you an opportunity for free damage.
Nullification: Removes buffs on enemies.
Word of Pain (Shifting Sands): Additional crowd clear and Pierce RR.
Horn of Gandarr (Living Shadows): Reduces incoming damage taken and provides some CC with the Confuse.
Word of Renewal: Several nice defensive stats and an on-demand heal.
Inquisitor’s Seal (Blades of Wrath): Additional layer of defense with the flat damage absorption.
Iskandra’s Elemental Exchange: Aether resistance, OA and crit damage in big amounts. Great all around.
Maiven’s Sphere of Protection: Another layer of defense in % damage absorption.
Aura of Conviction: Damage and solves our physical resistance making us extra tanky.
Whirling Blades: Pierce resistance and armour are both good. The ADCtH also helps on adding a little extra to Shifting Sands and Blades of Wrath life steal capability.
Resist Reduction
Obliteration: Anything hit by the ray takes 35 reduced target’s resistance.
Death Sentence: Applies -29% Pierce resistance in an AoE.
Assassin’s Mark: Applies -32% Pierce resistance to anything crit by TSS.
Bladetwister: Applies -10% Pierce resistance.
In total, that leaves us at -106% Pierce resistance.
Attributes
As many points in Spirit to equip our off-hand, rest in Physique. More points can optionally go into Cunning for more damage at the cost of DA.
Playstyle
Debuff with Word of Pain and Horn of Gandarr and set a Seal down. Use TSS to devastate crowds or single Bosses and Obliteration to clean up or as an in-between to keep up on sustain on Twin Fangs. Use Mirror in emergency situations or as an offensive tool for the 3 seconds of free damage and Nullification to strip off buffs.
Don’t be afraid to use Seal offensively as well. Placed beneath a Boss, it’ll proc Blades of Wrath often shotgunning anything ontop of the Seal nicely and frequently. Placing a Seal ontop of crowds shreds them like paper.
Achievements
Afterword on Gear Support
I want to take a minute below to talk about gear support, mainly in the form of skill bonuses on gear and for exotic/bizarre concepts as I feel some of them could do with some help:
Summary
Skill bonuses like “+x to y skill” are often related to the damage type of the equipment they are on which are related to the damage type of the skill they support. For example, the majority of equipment that supports Trozan’s Sky Shard is found on equipment that also has +% Cold or +% Lightning damage because the skill deals Cold and Lightning damage - easy to understand.
However, every now and then, there will be gear pieces built for multiple damage types which by crossing over skill bonuses/damage types with conversion can invite more interesting ideas. Some examples to explain what I mean:
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The Mage Hunter presented above uses Galewind Treads which supports Pierce and Cold damage. It supports TSS because of the Cold part of it but like I have done, you can convert TSS to Pierce and use the boots to keep the Pierce damage bonus and +2 bonus to help on hardcapping.
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The Chaos Sentinel I posted sometime ago. Seal of Basti supports Chaos and Vitality damage and Guardians of Empyrion supports Vitality damage hence the skill’s inclusion. However, it’s possible to convert the Guardians to Chaos damage and still use the rings for the Chaos damage bonus and skill bonuses.
While small, bonuses like this are tremendously helpful for smaller niche ideas and really help bring them to life while still supporting the builds they are intended for - Galewind Treads can still be used for Cold TSS and Seal of Basti can still be used for Vitality Guardians (though won’t see a lot of use due to better options existing but lets skip over that). There’s already quite a lot of bonuses like these and I’m grateful for their inclusion but it’d like to see a handful more for some of the concepts that truly have nothing and have to scrape gear from other damage types to function. I don’t expect them to go on important items but sneaking them into more of the Epics and more rarely into non-set Legendaries isn’t a bad idea. For example, some ways to give a little to the Acid/Vitality TSS Conduit would be:
Mythical Band of Black Ice. Replacing the +2 to Flashbang with +2 to Trozan’s Sky Shard or Shattered Star would be great while still working for Cold TSS.
Hallanx’s Head. Adding +1 to Arcanist seems fitting considering the Aether damage converted to Vitality. Arcanist is by far the biggest natural user of Aether damage and it helps weirder Vitality/Acid users like Warlock or Templar.
