[1.1.4.0] Skorkh, Railrocketshotgunner - 2H Ranged Fire Vortex Justicar Purifier (no greens, Gladiator)

My aim was to combine Vortex of Souls’ railgun potential with Fire Strike’s explosive modifiers and WPS which could most benefit from the both. Hundreds of Ugdenbloom wasted (you can see it in the inventory in the video), 5 masteries were tested, 200 trial subjects died so that I could finally find this formula.

[2H Ranged[1.1.4.0] (g3) (c+) Skorkh, Railrocketshotgunner - 2H Ranged Fire Vortex Justicar Purifier; greenless; Crucible - 4 blessings 12 min (Sotnik)
Damage: Fire, Aether.
Active Skills: Fire Strike, Thermite Mine, Flashbang, Inquisitor Seal, Word of Renewal, Nadaan’s Strike.
Passive Skills: Aura of Conviction, Flame Touched, Vindictive Flame, Flame of Gar’dal.
WPS: Storm Spread, Bursting Round, Chilling Rounds, Lucky Shot*2, Blazing Fury.
Devotion procs: Elemental Storm, Eldritch Fire, Phoenix Fire, Hyrian’s Glare.
Other procs: Burning Justice, Battlecry, Magma Orb, Elemental Bane.
Core Gear: Mythical Vortex of Souls, Justicar Guard set, Mythical Jaxxon’s Lucky Bullet *2, Mythical Tainted Ruby of Gar’dal, Mythical Pyroclasm Mark, Bane.

Grim Tools:
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/D2p8MAL2
The build is focused on Fire Strike autoattacks with 96% WPS. Vortex of Souls allows the bullets to penetrate targets and Fire Strike’s explosive modifiers trigger at every collision. Some WPS contain their own blasts (triggered at every collision as well) while the others work as volleys or shotgun rounds, therefore multiplying the number of Fire Strike explosions. For example, on paper, Lucky Shot adds +124% Weapon damage from Explosive Strike. The thing is that there are actually even more bullets than the WPS tooltip implies - I don’t know the reason. And if you are shooting at a group of enemies, multiply for every one. Therefore, positioning is crucial: you need to find spots to shoot as much targets at once as possible. +42% damage to Aetherials is another fact to be taken into consideration.

Vortex of Souls is an Aether weapon, but I failed to create a strong Aether Purifier - and Purifier is the most suitable class for the idea of this build. I also wanted the char to facetank and survive because you have to facetank if you are carrying a shotgun. And I went for Fire damage and the Justicar Set. As a result, almost 3200 armour, 43% Physical resistance and 2800 DA - without Solemn Watcher.

1/3 of the damage is still Aether, but without much support from resistance reduction. Lightning, Physical, Pierce, Chaos and Cold are also present - and with buffs to all damage from Inquisitor Seal and procs, their portion becomes significant too. The only conversion is 58% Pierce-to-Fire as the conversion slots are occupied with items critical for the build.

The other skills are either buffs or debuffs - and Nadaan’s Strike is for closing with the enemy and repositioning.

Crucible with 4 blessings and no banner is accomplished within 12 minutes - and as you can see, it could be much better :slight_smile:.

2 Likes

The name, is it in Klingon?

Korvan Highlander tongue - isn’t it obvious? :wink:

It is interesting to see a variety/mix of damage types for a change.

Something like this was too squishy and doesn’t fit the face-tanking concept, I imagine? Aether focus with chaos conversion

I have not tried this specific option, but if I wanted, I would go for 100% chaos and fire conversion and 50%+ elemental conversion. One small problem: I am obsessed with Lucky Bullets :). Such a shame there is no interaction between Aether and Pierce.
Actually, with correct constellations it might be possible to create a respective pure aether purifier, but I will allow someone else to be the pioneer )

BTW, the best damage was from Lightning Elementalist.

I still have one question to the Vortex: will anything interesting happen if an attack has a double penetration? With Smite or Cadence, for example.

Does this mean the Ugdenbog arcaneweaver has the same property? Or does the “chance to pass through enemies” only apply to the initial shot on this weapon?

https://www.grimtools.com/db/items/8737

According to the wording, the effect should be the same. I have not tested it, however.

Ok, I’ve tested it without any other change. Much stronger. And will be more with a correct adjustment.

1 Like

Why not The Desolator?

100% Chance to pass through Enemies (Hidden)
Pure fire damage.
Much, much higher attack speed.
+2 to all skills in Demolitionist
skill modifiers…

Gonna try it out on weekends.

Desolator is just different build…

But it was buffed recently and is definitely premium ranged build!

1 Like

The idea to combine “100% Chance to pass through Enemies” with Fire Strike and WPS is awesome.
It’s really fun to play cuz the more enemies you have - the faster you kill them.
I feel happy every time some boss summons a bunch of minions and immediately loses a chunk of hp because of that :slight_smile:
Clearing a tight corridor with a single shot also feels quite nice :slight_smile:

Tested it with The Desolator and some minor (for now) changes to the build: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/pZrOP0jN

I had a very significant reason for not using the Desolator: I did not know about it :). I tried so hard to make the Vortex work and never had an idea to search for other similar weapons in Grimtools. And they exist. And builds with Desolator are present here - for example: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/nZo6xMdV
Why is this stat hidden on weapons? Ehh… mockery.

(…a few hours later) [1.1.4.2] Skorkh, Railrocketshotgun Pistoliero - DW Ranged Fire&Lightning Dagallon Justicar Purifier (no greens, Gladiator) https://www.grimtools.com/calc/D2p653KZ
Now it takes <9 minutes with 4 blessings :slight_smile:
https://youtu.be/-WSMsLYcBp8
With 3 blessings and 1 banner it took 8 minutes. But I am not used to banners, so the result might be non-representative.

1 Like

I eventually went for Dagallon as well :slight_smile: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/r2BnqlJ2

Yeah, these pistols manage WPS with maximum fun :slight_smile:
I am still not sure about the amulet and medal.

Hey guys! Nice thread! But why are you using Conviction on elemental builds? Fashion statement?

1 Like

Hi!
I use it because I have conversion, I like the stats and Censure’s effect is partially compensated by the amulet. If I manage to replace the amulet with something more relevant, I will probably change the aura too. Any suggestions?
This is a more up-to-date version of the concept: [1.1.4.2] Skorkh, Railrocketshotgun Pistoliero - DW Ranged Fire&Lightning Dagallon Justicar Purifier (no greens, Gladiator)

Yes, actually :slight_smile:

Use desolator gun (it has penetration now too!)

and use either epic beronath ammy for flat damage and attack speed, or ulzuin ammy for defence.

AoC is a must

Consider also using non-m. blood sigil for the medal. 18% racial against humans is huge against maiden who has massive fire res

Yes, sir! :slight_smile:
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/O2GL3aqV
Your propaganda found its way to my heart and here it is! My new personal high score: 8:30 with 4 blessings and no banner (it was the 1st attempt and I did not try afterwards). Hopefully, it is not bad; I don’t know because everyone plays with a banner and I don’t :).

1 Like

It’s certainly not a bad time, and it certainly lets you farm crucible. So great job on the build, and I’m glad my advice could help!

TBH, I play with no buffs/banners :stuck_out_tongue:

Not that the timing matters at all because this is a single player game, and you should just have fun with it…but to give you some idea:

  1. Any build which can reliably farm 150-170 fast enough to upkeep 100 tributes at the end of the farming session is, IMO, a great build. So it sounds like you’re able to do just that.

  2. Builds at the very tippy top of the tippy top can typically do 4 buffs, no banners in ~6:30, with the fastest being ~5:30.

1 Like

Hmhmhm. I have never seen these builds(. Now I will try to pay attention to them; thanks!

Well, I needed a purpose after retiring from Hardcore :).

I used to do the same. Now I can afford a buff :stuck_out_tongue:

Thank you (and everyone) for the useful advices!