Hi everyone, i’ve been a lurker for a while, but frustration out of trying to make allagast mage hunter work has finally brought me to post here. So i came here asking for help.
After weeks of theorycrafting and in-game testing i feel defeated. At first i took it as a personal challenge so i could post the build here but now i get why it hasn’t been done before by more active members of this community. I’ll list my observations now, but will make a disclaimer beforehand: i feel like all the points bellow are a problem only on high branch ultimate SR and Gladiator Crucible, as ultimate MC is too easy with enough game knowledge.
My points are:
Trozan skyshard wants CDR, but won’t work well with starpact thanks to it’s damage conversion portion, and falls behind other Trozan specialized sets (Trozan and Iskandra).
Stormbox doesn’t care for CDR at all, given that it already sits at 0.4 secs CD, and it’s true potential relies on lightning rr stacking, better accomplished by vindicators.
Outside of “oh shit” buttons (WoR and MoE), the class offers no option for sustained healing and is extremely squishy due to lower health pool and poor armor rating on the set. ADctH (from Bat, Ultos and Speaf of Heavens) works great with Ghoul, but, once again, is more of a circuit breaker, as it does not garantee satisfatory health regain against life leech resistant enemies (nemesis and bosses).
Life gain through devotions could be passable if the class (masteries + allagast set) wasn’t too glassy (i.e. bad armor values, low health pool), as it dies too easily to bursts of physical damage (low armor, no physical resistance bonuses in set pieces). I also feel like mage hunter allagast set would gain from the same treatment given to pyran set: flat and percentage bonus to health regeneration, that would synergize well with inquisitor seal, mark of the voracious one and behemoth constellation.
Statwise, it feels mediocre. Trozan warlock get’s more flat offensive ability and critical hits are essential for the skyshard damage. I’ve been pairing allagast with mythical eastern set (hands and legs), so i get enough % offensive ability, but with so low flat offensive ability bonuses, it is not a stat that will define the build by itself (3200-3400 oa with deadly aim proc and prioritizing OA items like Mark of the Shadow Queen and Mythical Glyph of the Storm Witch). (i know it is not a low amount by any means, but we compromise too much to be able to hit those numbers, while warlocks can do it without relying on procs or giving up on sustain).
Also, depending on how we chose to tackle the build lack of defenses, we end up compromising constellations that give nice OA bonuses. I get the feeling that the set was designed with “kiting” in mind, but it is impossible to reliably kite in gladiator crucible and small SR arenas, where every enemy is capable os 2-3 hitting you, and we don’t want any more aggroing on these occasions.
I’m set on the idea that lightning allagast mage hunter is a trap, and the way to go is aether focused as it would allow me to gain the benefits from picking Aura of Conviction, which adresses some of the points made above (more physical resistance and flat OA that goes well with all those % OA bonuses).
Though new problems arises as there are poor options for lightning to aether conversion (ring, helm and offhand slots); outside of allagast set, items that suport trozan will not support aether damage; and the lost of damaging procs granted by ultos and storm witch glyph (ring) greatly reduces the build’s power.
Surprisingly (or not), Wendingo Mark goes well with the build when converted to the proper damage type (lightning of, preferably aether) (bind to storm box) on Crucible, as there are lots of enemies to leech life from. Not so well on SR boss levels though, due to life leech resistance and higher burst damage.
Here are some of the Ideas i had:
*The Offhand is self found and i will defenitily swap it for a Thunderstruck affix
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/RZROrexN
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/qNYOoYlV
I also theorycrafted a life regen focused version, with mark of the voracious one, corpse dusts, inquisitor seal, lizard and behemoth constellations. We can get to nice health regen values. Pair it with Healing Rain and the defense problems are passable. But the damage portion of the build suffers alot from this aproach.
So any suggestions on how to work around those points i mentioned? Are there any changes planned by the developers regarding the allagast set mage hunter weaknesses?