Arcane Currents elem PRM build: MQ 7.2 sec, Crucible 5:57

[Aersdri]

INTRO

To be honest, I never thought of PRM as a good or even decent skill. I tried builds with it multiple times, both elem and aether based and never was satisfied fully: okay-ish AoE, but so damn horrible single target dps.
So I usually played my beloved Magehunter as classic AAR/Devastation with occasional mood swings towards cold/light TSS.

Recent patch changed a LOT. My AAR build became virtually unplayable, as many other Magehunter based AAR builds. (already leveling the allmighty binder, lol).
And Iskandra set rework came out.
Not many people liked it, apparently. But I did. Even posted my build (first ever) for Iskandra’s Trozan magehunter.

So I thought, why not take the best out it and try to make something different? Like PRM? By “the best” I, obviously, mean the Aether-to-Elem conversion.
Considering, that Mad_Lee managed to do quite an epic job on PRM a while ago, even without flashy items and conversions, I though, why not give PRM another chance.

So, here it is:
GRIMTOOLS

Feel free to remove 30 points from spirit and put them into physique. The build doesn’t have any mana problems whatsoever - I just love spirit and put it into all my builds.

VIDEOS

1. 5:57 Crucible run. I fucked up massively at 163, where one of the Valbury dickheads got healed to full HP. Which easily lost me 10 seconds. Also, I’m relatively new to solo Crucible, so I’m quite positive, that an experienced player could run it sub 5:30.
2. 7.2 sec Rashalga kill.

PROS

• Massive AoE damage from PRM, Seekers and almost full elem Arcane Currents.
• Contrary to the most PRM builds, this one is not too shabby in single target department, featuring solid sub 8 seconds MQ and 14s dummy times.
• 18/12 Inq Seal overcap, OP Aura of Censure, Maiven and Spellgaze provide somewhat decent passive survivability.
• Cheap-ish gear setup. Alex pants (which were taken mostly in order to help with Steel Resolve softcap) could be easily replaced with Fateweaver’s Leggins without much loss in survivability and damage.

CONS

• Despite all the goodness of the Inquisitor Seal and Censure, is still a quite squishy build. Though, most of the times you should be safe, be prepared to use those lightning fast reflexes of yours and press that god-damned Mirror.
• Since almost a half of your dps comes from Seekers and Arcane Currents - proccing them is absolutely essential.. And it’s not a super easy thing to do. And since you start the fight with 0 seekers and 0 currents, the build needs some time (around 4-5s) to “charge up”. Which is a serious disadvantage in short skirmishes.
• Which leads to the next problem: Unlike to what one can usually expect from PRM magehunter, the build is relatively hard to pilot. See NOTES section for more details.

NOTES (on Seekers and Currents)
As I multiple times mentioned above, the good chunk of the dps in this build comes from super-offensive combo of Seekers and Arcane Currents.
In short, your effectiveness with this build almost entirely defined by how fast and reliable you can trigger these procs.

I tested multiple combinations of proc triggers and found out, that these skills have the following proc rates (in a descending order):

1. Storm Box - is an absolute king of procs/sec, featuring average rate of 0.8 seconds per rune.
2. Word of Pain - is okay. Triggers one rune at stable rate of ~1/sec.
3. PRM - is horrible in terms of procs/sec. The rate of 1.3-1.4s per rune is not acceptable.

Therefore, constellations are bound in order of their importance. Currents - to box, Seekers to word, EleStorm - to PRM.
Now the oly thing left for you to do: force yourself to fucking MASH those buttons like crazy, refreshing box and word dots every monster pack. However, try not to spam them TOO MUCH, since being stuck in cast animation of dots will result in significant dps loss.

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CONCLUSIONS

• As one can see, no wheel re-inventing here. Just a few tweaks to the standard elemental PRM build. Invoker’s set, Spellgaze and Panetti Scepter are a cornerstone of any respectful PRM build, so – not much wiggle room here. Yet, the most of the build’s strength comes from the new Iskandra’s 2 pieces and a powerful aether-to-elem conversion, which they offer.
• Build has a huge aoe damage, quite decent single-target damage, but it all comes at the price of somewhat complex piloting (since you need to constnatly refresh devotion-triggering spells, like Stormbox and WoP.
• Overall, it feels very fun to play and quite rewarding if you do it right.

Thanks for reading!

[mad_lee]

Hi!

Nice PRM build! Solid results!

Couple of suggestions:

1. From the previous thread, you gotta find a way to cap those PRM nods! too much damage there. I have tested it quite a bit and difference between two nods being at 21/22 and at 22/22 is quite big.

2. Your Ancient armor actually gives you less armor than scaled hide (not that I think armor matters on prm mage hunter, but still)

3. You could improve your results by quit a bit by getting that slow resist. You have a spam build, and Crucible got a lot of slow debuffs that can diminish your DPS by quite a bit. Not only that, but having slow resist means worse survivability.

[hammyhamster1]

Interesting.

Have you considered trying an +1 arcanist belt, maybe Phantom thread…which with some shuffling could allow for a complete overcap of PRM? I think Supercharged was buffed in last few patches so it would double? the skill %elemental boost and Dot from those extra points.

It’s possible the extra defense from seal helps, but the scrounger in me wants to go all the way if possible in PRM.

Also, Aether Corruption is a decent proc machine, as it spreads like pox - maybe proc for something like seeker. This might allow a few less minimum investment proc skills.

[ya1]

Arcanoweave belt, brother.

[hammyhamster1]

^yeah, that’s a better belt. I forgot that Inquis has all those extra +1’s on most everything else too :rolleyes:

[Aersdri]

Hi!

Nice PRM build! Solid results!

Couple of suggestions:

1. From the previous thread, you gotta find a way to cap those PRM nods! too much damage there. I have tested it quite a bit and difference between two nods being at 21/22 and at 22/22 is quite big.

2. Your Ancient armor actually gives you less armor than scaled hide (not that I think armor matters on prm mage hunter, but still)

3. You could improve your results by quit a bit by getting that slow resist. You have a spam build, and Crucible got a lot of slow debuffs that can diminish your DPS by quite a bit. Not only that, but having slow resist means worse survivability.

Well, it’s hard to argue, that increasing levels of your main damaging skill would imprrove the damage. However, I lose 3 levels in Seal, which is a lot.
I tried it and the defense loss is actually noticeable.

Though, I definitely I’ll give it a closer look. That, and a Slow Resist. Never thought of it as of factor of much importance, but that sounds logical.

Thanks again!

[Aersdri]

Also, Aether Corruption is a decent proc machine, as it spreads like pox - maybe proc for something like seeker. This might allow a few less minimum investment proc skills.

Hey, thanks for the feedback!
Yeah, I juggled with proccing spells a lot. Corruption is very decent, but I don’t personally like, that has so short cast range.
Though, it definitely has the benifit of spreading.

Not sure abot Seekers, but it’s probably worth considering swithching EleStorm from panetti to this skill.

[ya1]

Well, it’s hard to argue, that increasing levels of your main damaging skill would imprrove the damage. However, I lose 3 levels in Seal, which is a lot.
I tried it and the defense loss is actually noticeable.

Though, I definitely I’ll give it a closer look. That, and a Slow Resist. Never thought of it as of factor of much importance, but that sounds logical.

nah… arcanoweave. you get WAY more defense from +1 to arcanist than 2 ranks in the seal, FACT! arcane will, more null, more maiven, more everything. you save points that can you put in WoR nodes or get more Mirror. arcanoweave all the way.

[Aersdri]

nah… arcanoweave. you get WAY more defense from +1 to arcanist than 2 ranks in the seal, FACT! arcane will, more null, more maiven, more everything. you save points that can you put in WoR nodes or get more Mirror. arcanoweave all the way.

Hm… I never actually even considered Arcanoweave on any of my Mage Hunter builds. Probably my mistake. Thanks, man, will try it!

[Pareto]

Lovely. PRM with Seekers + Arcane Currents was my very first build in AoM, and it’s nice to see it work so well now that elemental conversion is more readily available.

Incidentally, as you say, you can play this devotion setup in many ways with full elemental conversion, and you will get consistently good results in Crucible. Here is another example you might like. (You will notice that both PRM and Bonemonger are stronger and safer than Iskandra, which is part of the reason why I feel the set could be better.)

Hey, thanks for the feedback!
Yeah, I juggled with proccing spells a lot. Corruption is very decent, but I don’t personally like, that has so short cast range.
Though, it definitely has the benifit of spreading.

Not sure abot Seekers, but it’s probably worth considering swithching EleStorm from panetti to this skill.

Corruption is an excellent fit for Seekers: cast it a few times a wave, and you’re set. You don’t have very many things to trigger here, though, so PRM would also work just fine: with Panetti’s wand, you can bind Elemental Storm to Inquisitor Seal and it will trigger non-stop in Crucible.

If you’re not too attached to the +1 Inquisitor from the belt, you might also want to consider juggling a few things around to take Phantom-Thread Girdle and Behemoth instead of Chariot. I’ve done this to good effect in recent tests for Iskandra with Seekers + Currents.