Aether Sky Shard - Seeking Critique

Hey guys!

I’ve theorycrafted a build here: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/w266BxA2

3700 OA and decent crit damage on it, with about 107/109% lightning/aether resistance reductions to the build.

Are there any gaping, flawed, obvious problems with the build, or ways that might help to make it functional before trying it out?

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/pZrJQK6Z

I made a bunch of changes that should lead to better results, just pick and choose the things you like. I left Eye of Korvaak for flavour, but DG might be better. It’s a rough first draft and by no means completely optimal so feel free to experiment.

A few things:

  1. Component choices are pretty streamlined. Helmet is almost always sanctified bone or prismatic diamond. Chest is usually bone or living armor/sacred plating. Sometimes hallowed ground and chains of oleron are best, but usually for builds starved of OA/DA. Legs are usually scaled hide for armor absorption.

  2. Skill choices. I don’t think Aura of Censure with that mod is worth it over just adding more power to TSS. I don’t think Censure is doing enough compared to just more damage with reckless power. Always max Sphere of Protection. Always at least 1 point Nullification and Fabric of Reality. Frozen Core isn’t going to do much because frostburn can’t be converted to aether. Always take Inner Focus to the highest even number you can. Usually leave Word of Renewal on an odd number and softcap Steel Resolve.

  3. Gear choices. I already mentioned the amulet, but I made a few other changes. The second ring isn’t necessary because you can still hardcap Shattered Star without it. I opted to use the slot to allow you to hardcap TSS itself which should help a bit. Arcane Harmony are incredibly powerful and I use them on most builds because I’m boring. Still, I think they should be stronger for you. +1 all skills on the belt should be a lot stronger than just a few points that aren’t really needed. If you don’t like chains of anguish you can use arcanoweave cord for the same skill bonuses. I’m not 100% on the medal but I think anathema should be better with censure gone.

  4. Devotions. Spear is just way too good on your build, and Revenant is better than Manticore even on poison builds so it’s probably not worth it. Ghoul gets a ton of mileage on builds with such high CDR and will boost your survivability a ton.

Anyway, I hope some of that is useful and helps your build succeed!

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This is incredible advice, thank you for taking the time to prepare such a detailed response. I hope you don’t mind, it’s left me with some follow up questions!

I entirely forgot about Starfury Emerald. This is obviously going to boost the power significantly! However, do you feel that losing 15/20% resistance reduction and the 10% damage reduction to nearby enemies will be severly felt? The pairing of damage reduction to enemies and damage absorption from Maivens is always nice…

Chains of Anguish with that armor debuff is making me a little nervous :smiley:

Do you think the build will otherwise be lacking in hp recovery/healing?
The extra cast speed, DA and lifesteal will be very welcome, do you think the lifesteal will provide sustain?

Why is Sanctified Bone such a common choice? Is it for the resistances or for the bonus damage?

I think the damage you gain from starfury emerald + reckless power will outweigh the loss of the RR. Ghoul in devotions and over 3k DA should be enough survivability. Physical resist is low though, so it’s possible your original pants may have been better.

They’re currently not reducing as much armor as expected. Try them, they’re incredibly powerful.

Ghoul will put in a lot of work in that regard, all the extra leech gained from devotions should work wonders. With high CDR and eternity reducing the cooldown of ghoul/mirror you can have very high uptime of nigh immortality. One thing I didn’t change in my version is the points in mirror. It should be 7/12 or 12/12 depending on how the build plays.

Both. The resists are very handy of course, but racial damage is also one of the most powerful stats in the game.

Here’s a link to my TSS Druid, it’s a different damage type and a different class, but a lot of the same concepts still apply.

The moment 1.1.6.0 drops anguish is going to be fixed, if you want a short burst of fun by all means use it, but it will be fixed.