[Mage Hunter] Aetherstorm Lord, Aether/Lightning AAR [HC V1.0.3.0]

Gameplay Video(s)
AETHERSTORM VS BOSSES/NEMESES

Concept of the Build

This build focus on damage on AAR to lightning damage, by using Aetherbolt Pendant to converts fire damage on AAR to lightning and Mythical Temporal Tempest/Mythical Invoker’s Shocking Touch to convert aether damage to even more lightning, these turned AAR into mainly lightning ability with aether damage as secondary damage. How does this any better than just using no conversion?

The reason to turn aether to lightning is because it make gearing much easier, AAR have good lightning support from Spellshock Tome, on top of + lightning damage on AAR from Aetherbolt Pendant. With these items, we’ll have 83 lighting damage to AAR and 45% of aether damage converted to lightning. Since lightning us our dominant damage type, chosing Ultos constellation really enhanced AAR damage effectively both in single target and AoE capability.
Aether/Lightning also has Arcane Bomb to cover both damage types in one constellation. Using lightning damage as a main damage type also goes nicely with Storm Box of Elgoloth as it got -10% lightning/aether from Aetherbolt Pendant.

For survivability, the build use slow as a primary CC with Inquisitor Seal to absorp some DoTs/low damage hits. We can stack a lot of slow with -30% on Word of Pain from Mythical Temporal Tempest, 60% from Mythical Legwraps of the Tranquil Mind and -25% Seal of Corruption, with total of -115% attack speed/casting speed and -90% movement speed.

Mirror of Ereotes is still best escape skill for Arcanist. For healing, we have Word of Renewal to refill our health bar. Word of Renewal and Mirror of Ereoctes will be recharged faster with relic Eternity.

I chose Aura of Conviction as my exclusive skill because this build really need physical resistance to survive hard hitting melee mobs and bosses, Inquisitor Seal wont safe you from these physical damage. I tried Star Pact, it’s also a good pick, but IMO Aura of Conviction is just better for all-round offensive/defensive buff(OA/physical resistance).

P.S. As you can see I have Ravager’s Dreadgaze as a transmog, I killed Ravager of Mind in 1.0.2.1 by facetanked with Mirror of Ereoctes and kited around for about 20 minutes, the reason I don’t use this helm is because I don’t need its resistances, don’t want to press another button for debuff, it also has lower cooldown reduction than Clairvoyant’s Hat.

My current setup

Grimtools : http://www.grimtools.com/calc/62azdx3V


Equipments/Gears

Head Slot : Mythical Clairvoyant’s Hat is one of the BiS, it gives a lot of energy regeneration and +1 to all skills, you can also use Ravager’s Dreadgaze but to get the most of it you’ll have to cast another skill for resistance reduction. I prefer Mythical Clairvoyant’s Hat so I don’t have to cast another ability.

Chest Slot : Fateweaver’s Raiment BiS, you can’t go wrong with this one. High physical resistance is essential for our survivability.

Leg Slot : Mythical Legwraps of the Tranquil Mind is my number one choice because of high OA, spirit, resistances and on top of that a 60% AoE slow. Aleksander’s Legguards is also a good choice if you have a good roll on it like Stonehide of Vitality/Attack. You can use Aleksander’s pants with Albrecht’s Duality to reach 22 in Disintegration.

Shoulders Slot : Valdaran’s Shoulderguard with of Vitality/of King/Menhir’s Wall suffix to increase our health. This shoulder piece is needed to reach level 26 in AAR.

Gloves Slot : Mythical Aethereach unarguably the BiS for any AAR builds.

Feet Slot : Stoneplate Greaves with good resistance and HP prefix/suffix like of Vitality/of King/of Nature’s Bounty/of Menhir’s Wall/Survivalist’s/Stonehide. Alternatively you can use Mythical Runeguard Greaves if you can’t craft a good boots.

Main Hand Weapon : Mythical Temporal Tempest for -30% total speed on Word of Pain and aether damage converted to lightning damage.

Off-Hand : Spellshock Tome for more lightning damage on AAR, best suffix is Of Celestial Wrath, another chain Aether Lightning that goes nicely with Hand of Ultos. For prefix anything pretty much work but idealy aim for Sandstorm for physical resistance, so Sandstorm of Spellshock Tome of Celestial Wrath would be BiS for this build.

Amulet Slot : Aetherbolt Pendant core item of this build.

Rings Slot : Mythical Invoker’s Shocking Touch, Allagast’s Stormgem, Mythical Albrecht’s Duality or good MI ring with +Health/OA/Resistances/Energy Regen

Medal Slot : Mythical Gildam Arcanum Commendation for more slow to Word of Pain or Watcher Crest with +Health/OA/Resistance/Energy Regen/Resistances

Belt Slot : Mythical Phantom-Thread Girdle or Mythical Arcanoweave Cord

Relics Slot : Eternity this got energy cost reduction, DA, reduce cooldown on crit. Best all-round relice. Iskandra’s Balance is also good alternative for +%30 crit proc.

Devotion Path (Progress as correlate to leveling)

[spoiler]1 Point in Primordial Crossroad

Complete Sailor’s Guide

1 Point in Eldritch Crossroad

Complete Spider

Complete Widow Arcane Bomb assigned to AAR (change to Storm Box of Elgoloth later on)

1 Point in Ascendant Crossroad

Complete Owl

Complete Chariot of the Dead

Remove point in Primordial Crossroad

Complete Lizard

Complete Solemn Watcher

Remove all points in Lizard

Complete Bard’s Harp

Complete Harvestman’s Scythe

Remove all points in Sailor’s Guide

Complete Hawk

Complete Quil

Remove all points in Owl

Remove all points in Spider

Remove point in Ascendant Crossroad

1 point in Chaos Crossroad

Complete Jackal Crossroad

5 points in Ultos, Hand of Ultos assigned to Albrecht’s Aether Ray

3 points in Rhowan’s Crown, Elemental Storm assigned to Aether Corruption from Seal of Corruption. If you don’t have the seal yet assigned it to Inquisitor Seal.

3 points in Behemoth to Giant’s Blood

1 Point in Empty Throne for Stun reduction[/spoiler]

Ashes of Malmounth Nemeses Strategy

General Rule : Try to stay in Inquisitor Seal as much as possible, Word of Renewal should be your first line of healing and sustain incoming damage, otherwise use Mirror of Ereoctes as secure facetank, especially during Deadly Aim and other constellation procs are up, these are ours nice time to facetank and melting bosses.

Kubacabra
Facetank him when you have Mirror of Ereoctes on or you have a potion ready to use, try to kite him as much as possible, the most damaging thing he does is his breath, don’t get caught in it move immediately when you see he start to use this attack. Also avoid blood pool which can heal him up pretty fast if you let him cast them in the same spot. Other than that he is not much of a threat like in 1.0.2.1 anymore.

Grava’Thul
Stay close to him but not too close or too far, use Nullification every time it’s off cooldown, keep kitting around him, avoid his melee hit as much as possible.

Aleksander
The only thing you should avoid is his meteor attack, it hits really hard, time your Mirror of Ereoctes to escape this attack or run away, if you got hit pop your potion immediately. Becareful to not get hit if your HP is below 12K you can get hit for 10K+ nearly one-shot, you can cheat him by standing under construction like under doorway or column.

Leveling Guide

Early Difficulties
We’ll be leveling as regular fire/aether AAR build because we have to wait for level 90 to use our core items Aetherbolt Pendant
Pick Arcanist right away from level 2, put 1 point in Panetti’s Replicating Missile(PRM) and Iskandra’s Elemental Exchange(IEE), use PRM to clear pack of mobs, when energy runs low use your melee weapon to hit monster, while waiting for energy regenerate back, ours melee will help refill energy from energy leech of IEE. When you can complete Searing Ember put it on your weapon or off-hand, this component will grants you Fireblast skill, a large AoE fire spell, use this as your main spell, switch to PRM when you fight high fire resistance enemies like fire zombies. For attribute just put it in physique only… all the way to level 100.

If you have crucible DLC I recommended you to do Aspirant from wave 1-10 > collect your items then repeat this 5 times, you’ll get 15 Tributes, use them to get 5 devotion points from NPC Torralia.
Example of Level 20 (total of 58 points spended 57 from level +1 from quest)

For early items looks for affixes like flat energy regeneration, casting speed, offensive ability and spirit these can mostly be found on jewelry and medal. Try to equip caster items with most energy regen you can get possible. Pioritize movement speed on boots, it will help a lot with mobility, likewise pioritize casting speed with gloves. For relic Equilibrium is probably the best now that it gives movement speed.

Once you get to level 20+ or act 2, you can get to use AAR, remove points in PRM and put some in AAR about 3-4 points a lot more will start to cost you energy problem, max out Mental Alacrity for skill energy cost, put your points in Inquisitor side for Word of Renewal and Inquisitor Seal.
Example of level 25 (from PRM to AAR) If you find issue in energy management, [Bone Talisman](Bone Talisman) is a good solution relic, you can get it by lieing with Rovers quest in act 2 where you have to find the lost elder near Staunton Mine.

At level 35, you can purchase faction items that helps with leveling such as Chosen Arcanespark, Rhowari Greaves, Rhowari Handguards.
Haunt relic is absolutely the best one for leveling aether build try to craft one as soon as possible, you can use it even until you can use Eternity. Use Ectoplasm on rings and medal, Focusing Prism on amulet
Example of level 35, this will greatly increase your channeling time of AAR.

After kill Loghorrean is killed, I recommend to continue doing AoM content now to get access to AoM factions and extra devotion points from devotion shrine in AoM, so when you get to fill these factions early on.
Side with Barrowholm so you can use Wendigo Lifescent Powder for extra health when you can cap your resistances without using augments later on.
Level 60 is about where we finish AoM content and move on to Elite. You.
Example of level 60 (include extra point from hidden part quest)

Example of Level 80

Crafting Yellow Items(Off-Hands/Boots/Medals) for End Game, Which one should be focused first?

Only craft with character level 90+, anything lower you will have a chance to get level 82 affixes. I reccommend crafting with Gaius Ember, blacksmith in Malmount Outskirts, he grants %crit/energy regeneration and poison resistance which are helpful to the build.

In case you have all the blueprints (which should comes easily because they are yellow blueprint), getting the Off-Hands with Of Celestial Wrath is highly recommended, the Aether Lightning proc is too much fun, next should be slot you lack good resistances of, if you got one of these Mythical Runeguard Greaves, Mythical Golemborn Greaves, Mythical Timewarped Walkers, crafting good medal should be your piority, then come back to craft a good boots, vice versa if you got Mythical Gildam Arcanum Commendation, crafting good boots first.

At level 90 you can use Aetherbolt Pendant which you can purchase blueprint from Coven of Ugdenbog faction vendor.

Crafting End Game Components, Which one should be first?

From first to last…

  1. Ugdenbog Leather : easy to craft, most helpful to cap bleed/poison resistance, extra DA is good too.
  2. Seal of Corruption : for proccing Elemental Storm and debuffs
  3. Seal of Resonance/Titan Plating : craft which any you need resistances the most
  4. Runebound Topaz : good defensive component to increase survivability
  5. Seal of Annihilation : reason the craft this last is because Focusing Prism is already a good component, no need to rush crafting the component
    Helpful leveling epic/legenary items in Elite/Ultimate
    Helm : Empowered Nether Crown, Empowered Maiven’s Hood, Dread-Mask of Gurgoth, Clairvoyant’s Hat
    Chest : Elite Legion Vestments, Callidor’s Vestments, Clairvoyant’s Robe
    Legs : Empowered Legplates of Valor, Spellweave Legwraps, Fateweaver’s Leggings, Arcane Harmony Leggings, Wraithborne Legwraps, Legwraps of the Tranquil Mind
    Shoulders : Divinesteel Shoulderguard, Clairvoyant’s Mantle, Fateweaver’s Mantle, Iskandra’s Pauldrons
    Gloves : Elite Rhowari Handguards, Doomtouch, Voidsteel Gauntlets, Aethereach
    Belt : Arcanoweave Cord, Equilibrium Sash, Soulbinder’s Chains, Tinker’s Ingenuity, Phantom-Thread Girdle
    Main-hand Weapons : Elite Chosen Arcanespark, Empowered Blackwood Wand, Wrath of the Ascendant, Clairvoyant’s Wand, Spelldrinker, Spellweaver,Temporal Tempest, Warpfire
    Off-Hands : Empowered Maiven’s Tome, Codex of Malligosta, Codex of Lies, Tome of Names, Tome of the Arcane Wastes
    Boots : Elite Rhowari Greaves, Golemborn Greaves, Timewarped Walkers, Runeguard Greaves
    Amulet : Empowered Maiven’s Lens, Arcane Eclipse, Empowered Essence of Beronath, Avatar of Mercy, Essence of the Grim Dawn, The Peerless Eye of Beronath, Wraithstalker Band, Empowered Aetherlord’s Signet, Band of the Eternal Haunt, Invoker’s Shocking Touch, Albrecht’s Duality
    Medals : Illusionist’s Mark, Gildam Arcanum Commendation, Mark of Anathema, Mark of Divinity

In Closing

AAR be great again :cool:

Nice job man. Just got 1 year playing GD by following your build since starting until having a little bit knowledge about this game to start creating my own build when you were absent :wink: All of your build inspired me a lot. Thank man!

Always love your builds another great one.

Nice build, always like to see Arcanist casters up here.
I especially like how you were able to beat Ravager with such a build and it’s not using 2-3 double rare MIs with the best affix combos.

Agree with Weyu +1

Awesome Build Zars :cool:
I think it’s so tedious to gather all that Nemesiss :smiley:
Thanks for your hard work :wink:

An aetherbolt build, pretty cool

Great build Zars!

Nice work, so happy to see casters on the rise!

Welcome Zars!

Anyone can recommend some items for leveling? (blues ) Weapon + Offhand and some energy regen since Ill jump right away with AAR

Thanks everyone, I’ve been wanting to post this build since 1.0.2.1 but was waiting for the new patch. It feels really great to use now, the skill energy reduction allowed me to switch ectopalsm to runebound topaz which increase my DA to 2800 unbuffed. My AAR sheet damage was about 150K before the patch, I think if I cap Disintegration, my sheet DPS could reach 220K+.

I just realize I didn’t write a leveling guide. :rolleyes: I will find some time to include leveling guide.

For short answer, I leveled him early on with PRM/Fireblast untill level 20+ I switched to AAR and max out Mental Alarcrity immediately, put at least 7 points in IEE also help a bit and put ectopalsm on rings/helm/medal. When leveling, energy regen/casting speed/OA should be piority affixes to looks for.
Also rush Inquisitor Seal once you can sustain your AAR to increase survivability, the seal is very good on lower difficulties and don’t forget to put some points in Deadly Aim and Inner Focus.

Leveling Guide is a work in progress.
Some of leveling guide is up now, you’ll have to wait a bit for a complete leveling guide. :wink:

Have you considered using this?

http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56243

Imo it saves posters like us a lot of time and if someone has questions even after that thread they can always ask some stuff

Nice guide thanks for the input, I’ll still complete leveling guide as it provides more specific things relate to the build.

Nice Zars!

It’s great to see AAR builds again that actually do AAR things, specifically, forward facing high damage.

It’s all thanks to your AAR complaining thread. :cool:

I’m glad my bitching got somewhere finally at least. :smiley:

Did you spend any spirit points to setup your equipments?

Registred to say thanks for the build. Really like it, its fun and fast. Thank u very much!:slight_smile:

Pardon the question as I hope this forum isn’t dead.

I enjoy the build, just looking for a little help where to find the Mythical Temporal Tempest and even the Spell Shock Tomb,

Clicking on them in the post doesn’t give me an idea where the blue prints are for the Spell Shock Tomb or where (if there is any) to farm for the Mythical Temporal Tempest?

Any help from anyone would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Like most other items, they drop entirely randomly and can drop from anywhere.