Hi everyone
I couldn’t decide what new mastery to play with the expansion so I decided to just play them both. I had no idea what I was going to build this class, so I looked for what synergies this class had going for it and the new mythical gear that was released. I came up with this:
…I actually can’t post URLs yet so add this:
O2GWRpJ2
to the end of the grim tools calc
Two-Handed Ranged Aether Apostate, which converts all its elemental damage to aether and stacks a ton of Aether resist reduction (over -100% if you get all the skills and devotions to proc). It’s a work in progress and I’m about to enter Ultimate mode on my character. If you have any suggestions to make this more viable please post them.
The way to play is cast inquisitor’s seal at the ground and then cast your abilities on the enemies, and then shoot! It has strong lifesteal and does more damage the closer enemies get. It is working really well for me so far. It is a bit squishy leveling up as your main defense is going to be the flat damage absorbed on Inquisitor’s Seal and later Phoenix constellation.
Devotions and Attributes
I need some help here, as it is a bit hard to keep skeletons out from Revenant. I tried playing with Attak Seru and arcane currents, but I felt they were weak compared to Spear of Heaven which also has a weapon damage component, as well as the support constellations being better DPS focused. Phoenix Fire makes your pretty tanky while in the inquisitor’s seal, but you still need to watch out for huge hits that would do 1000s of HP. Arcane Bomb on your auto-attack replacer of choice to get them fired as often as possible. Behemoth for cheap devotion Healing.
Unfortunately you will have to spread some attribute points out to be able to hit the equip requirements. You will need 605 Spirit and 551 Cunning (Plus as much Physique as you can squeeze out) to equip everything so that one point in Aeon’s Hourglass helps quite a bit.
Items
Since I’m not at endgame yet I don’t have any of this stuff yet. But for weapons you have 3 top contenders: Vortex of Souls, Runebinder’s Spell Thrower, or Dread Scorcher. Vortex of Souls has pure aether damage, no physical and +2 to Necro so it would be pretty strong for those unique properties. Being all Aether makes it so the converts physical to vitality fron Necro and the convert physical to elemental from Beronath’s Fury doesn’t effect it much. Runebinder’s should also have all its elemental damage converted to Aether and you get a free auto attack replacer that is better than Beronath’s Fury, but grimcalc is showing some weird stuff with the damage break down when using it compared to other weapons. Dreadscorcher is also another good choice (though it would be better with fire strike builds!) as it has a high physical damage converted to aether, which will boost some of the damage from WPS skills that add physical damage and high attack speed bonus. I was thinking about dual wield pistols with Arcanum Sigilis and dropping Kraken Devotion for something like Viper, but leveling up I found 2h weapons to be better damage (thanks early Kraken).
Also of note is that it takes a looooong time before you can get the full power of the build because the convert elemental to aether only shows up on level 94 gear. Shoulders probably should be something that gives a lot of poison/acid resist to help cap your resistances, but that seemed like a nice item to show off there.
Also if you roll 30% on the converts elemental to aether gear you could probably drop one ring for a total of 90% converted, but get the wailing host ring for another -10% aether resist :rolleyes:
Skills
It is mostly Inquisitor heavy, but the main skills are in necromancer. Spectral Binding is super strong for any aether right click builds, HP, OA, Aether% and flat damage all in one. And it scales pretty well into high ranks. Spectral Wrath is one of your main applications of -% Aether Resistance, but is close range. Reaping strike is your most valuable WPS for single target damage. Ravenous Earth with Foul Eruption makes enemies that die explode for aether damage and resist reduction to surrounding monsters. Ill Omen is a very strong debuff and helps with surviving and kiting. Harbinger of Souls is what I believe would be the best exclusive skill for the %Aether damage and life steal. The conversion damage to vitality is kind of a bummer though. You could go Aura of Censure instead and use the medal that gives -10% aether resist to it, then drop Storm Box of Elgoloth which is really just for the resist reduction. It is a bit annoying to cast successfully when you have a bunch of other spells to throw out. Inquisitor’s Seal and Word of Renewal are going to be your bread and butter buffs. They are great skills overall and the devotions I picked try to synergize with their strengths. Word of Pain should be put on whatever you are shooting for the -% Resists, though the range is a bit crummy. Biting Cold on the Rune of Hagarrad gives a lot of effective OA by debuffing a whopping 250+ DA off enemies hit, but takes some time to arm and practice aiming because you’ll probably be throwing it out along with 2 other spells in rapid succession. Deadly Aim is amazing for DPS increase and Ranged Expertise to max rank for the 15% attack speed. Finally the WPS skills to round off your default attacks with a little more damage and AOE.
Please let me know if there are any suggestions to help steer this build into a stronger direction.
