You better start running
‘Cause there’s a hurricane comin’
Valerie d’Esteve on her everyday work of pursuing heretics
special thanks to @Stupid_Dragon for bringing up the very idea of the build, @nofika4u for making crucible runs and @Dmt for some gear suggestions.
Introduction
I haven’t posted or updated a build for a long time but now I finally have sth new to share. The original idea of the build belongs to Val, after his words I decided to test an endgame spec and see how lightning RoK performs with best gear possible. I genuinely don’t like runes in general because of the arm-time that requires precise positioning and I don’t like RoK in particular as it has high fragments spread and initially low number of them, so small targets get rather low damage (Octavius says hello). With this combination of items, though, RoK gets its fragments number increased by 75% which results in way better shotgun and AoE. Long story short, this build for now is one of the strongest rune and lightning builds in the game (watch the vids). It’s quite simple and fun to play, not super-tanky (in deep SR) but has great offensive potential.
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Gear explanation
- Shield - one of the core items, as it gives +2 projectiles to RoK. Highly desirable to roll Supercharged/Chronomancer prefix on it to get %CDR. Suffix can be w/e, it’s not very important. In this build, tho, I use one particular suffix “of the Sage”, that gives +3 to RoK. if it’s not rolled on the shield, just take 2 points out of Deadly Aim and 1 from Seal’s node and invest them in RoK.
- Helmet - another core item as it gives needed conversion and flat to RoK. Highly desirable to roll Celestial prefix on it, suffix isn’t significant - stats/% damage/health etc would suit equally well.
- Medal - third core item, completes conversion and adds +1 projectile.
- Shoulders - for +3 to RoK, phys res and some extra stats.
- Relic - went for Ignaffar for extra damage, Bane could be used aswell for better sustain.
Pros and cons of the build
Pros
- Great both AoE- and solo-damage; build has insane burst potential which lets him one-shot some bosses even in SR and deal heavy damage to others;
- High RR (up to -140% + Viper);
- Pretty smooth and fun gameplay.
Cons
- Build requires specific green items that are hard to get in legit game;
- Some enemies (IM/Fabius/Valdaran) take longer time to kill because of small models, IM and Fabius could be dangerous.
- The damage scales better than tankiness. I mean, damage is good even at SR90 but you’ll die a lot getting through it.
Crucible
UPDATE: after the removal of +1 projectile from the shield build lost some fire power, though still goes pretty well. Average timer is like 4:40, with some unlucky runs up to almost 5 mins. Build is somewhat dependant on spawns and muts.
Superbosses
Avatar of Mogdrogen - absolutely safe but quite boring fight.
Crate of Entertainment - rather dangerous fight but if you manage to kite it and lure on runes, it’ll be okay.
Summary and thoughts
Is the build strong? Definitely yes. it has great AoE-damage and due to shotgun mechanic can deal devastating damage to big targets, it also deals quite well with all nems and bosses. Valdaran is the only problem because of his small model and gross lightning res, though he’s not dangerous at all. Otherwise build performs very well in 150-170 Crucible and 75-76SR.
Actually, it has very nice damage potential but tankiness is not very good in certain situations.
Is the build OP? Definitely not. It requires 3 specific green items, 2 of them with certain affixes with % CDR and the shield ideally should be with these very affixes, so it would be very hard to drop it in legit game. Also the gameplay forces you to stay at place and cast runes, which you won’t be able to do against superbosses. This is also a problem in deep SR, as facetanking some bosses becomes dangerous.
So feel free to download the build, play it and write your impressions. Hope you will get as much fun as i did playing it.
Or share your thoughts about RoK as a skill itself, have you tried other variations and how they performed etc.
in paaradise !