Cheers folks, after receiving many requests on stream as well as seeing many people coming up with fairly good iterations of Albrecht’s Aether Ray (AAR)builds, I decided to release mine in form of a quick-guide as well.
This build will be the first in a part of a series in which I’ll throw quick-guides that are, not only overly theorycrafted and tested, but also most often very expensive and rely on good rolls. This build is an SR Pusher and will use Greens, if you don’t like greens (damn racists! ;p) you can check the post below for a more budget-friendly guide.
Credits go out to Xervous and Heapheaus for feedback and good collaboration on so many (yet to come) builds.
Introducing:
Lightning AAR SR+ Mage Hunter
Please note that Devotions can sustain themself through their own constellation bonus.
Quick hightlights:
Adjustable Resistance via Augments (Swap 30 DA Augments for Res Augments if needed)
~40 till up to 51% Physical resistance
100%Aether, Fire Damage Converted to Lightning to AAR
3k DA
2,5k OA with up to 3k+ OA and 88% Crit Damage deadly aim
290 Flat Damage Absorption from Inquisitor Seal
26% Damage Absorption from Maiven’s Sphere
21% Reduced target’s Damage for 1 Second from Aura of Censure
80% Stun res
6% Attack Damage Converted to HP to Albrecht’s Aether Ray
Up to 1,3 million single target dps
Chance of Impaired aim, Disrupt spells
Low cooldown Mirror of Ereotces and Nullification due to Aeon’s Hourglass
Eye of Korvaak for OA/DA Shred
Resistance Reduction Calculation including Ravagers Dreadgaze
Gameplay:
Buff up.
Keep Steel Resolve up.
Place down and sit in Inquisitor’s seal.
Apply Storm box Elgoloth with Elemental Storm Devotion to the tankiest enemy available.
Cast Word of Pain to trigger Arcane Mark Devotion and Chance of Impaired Aim.
Cast Albrecht’s Aether Ray to vaporize enemies.
Sip Energy potions!
Optional:
Use Ravager’s Dreadgaze for additional Resistance Reduction on priority targets and or proccing Aeon’s to reset cooldowns.
Use Mirror of Ereoctes and Nullification on demand.
Use Rune of Displacement into recasting a new Inquisitor Seal for reposition.
Notes:
Due to Inquistiors’ superior defense its the go-to pick over Shaman whilst providing the same Res-shred without Wind Devil recasts.
Armor is completly ignored due to the Order of Defense in Grim dawn. Physical resistance is applied after armor which makes armor an insignificant contributor for damage reduction build’s that rely on (Phys)Resistance and Percantage + Flat Absorption (Which also cover all damage types unlike armor). I hope we see some changes to this in the future.
If you’ve any questions of feedback regarding the guide please let me know.
I’m planning to do more of these guides and look forward to improve them.
Nice try and all, but this spec is not very good in my opinion and here is why:
Green items are totally unrealistic. There is no way one (or even five) player can get all this in one lifetime. Statistically almost impossible. So that claim about “up to 50% physical resist” is kind of… Well, you know. Also, +5 BoM.
Even if we forget about green items for a second (maybe it’s the build made for GDstashers, who knows), devotions are just not optimal. Is there any reason at all to skip Spear of Heavens and miss out on 180% Lightning damage and 10% crit damage plus an insane proc that heals?
Skill distribution is not optimal either. 2-10 Nullification. Uncapped casting speed on a chanelling spell and as you say some mana problems, yet you don’t softcap mental alacrity?
Itemization. Two “of kings” suffixes do not stack. Iskandra’s Balance relic would most certainly be bis. All that physical resist does not mean much when you get debuffed and someone like Grava or Reaper smacks you through your 1600 armor and 70 armor absorption. Not taking restless remains in gloves on a chanelling build with 181% casting speed as well as not taking Seal of Corruption (which skills provides additional RR and acts as a great proc machine, so you can save points on Word of Pain) are considered war crimes in most countries
Don’t take it personally, it’s just your build that is really really poorly constructed. But I am sure you can improve it tho.
-Spear’s actual proc isn’t that great TBH. Skipping spear because it’s usually better to run other things. By usually, I mean always. Spear hasn’t been run for a long time.
-Casting is capped in combat / with decent rolls.
-Seal of corruption isn’t needed
-When you actually test this and play it you’ll understand why it works. That being said, the greens arn’t needed. It’s just reakd trying to stack as much phys res as possible to deal with SR’s stupidity.
AAR is becoming the new favorite skill for many players!I will dabble myself too.It’s nice build no doubt.But I am going restless,when I see no restless remains for caster and uncapped cast speed.And with CS mutator,the shortcomings will be visible.Spear proc is superb for casters,especially.
i just have 1 question, how aar feels with 0 disruption resist? can you get away with nasty disrupt situations easily ?
should i skip disruption resist on my aar build aswell ?
Thanks for your feedback, I’d not take it personally i appreciate feedback even if it comes around condescending (which I suppose you didn’t mean to be) or maybe undifferentiated in terms of what the build is supposed (endgear min-max with highrolls) to be vs. what the person that gives feedback wants it to be.
On your feedback:
For the most part I’ll agree on what Heapheaus wrote.
The builds works very well outside of optimal rolls Grimtools show’s what the player should be approaching - this just showcases optimal setup and will still work with less good rolls. It’s not one of those “6 legendary farm over builds”
[li]Spear of light is 20 Primordial and underperforming for what it does, I rather pick up Eye of Korvaak and utilize the OA|DA shred which is effectively better Offense and Defense at the same time. I’d agree on you if i had only 3 points left or was having issues with % Light damage You don’t i n this build. - however, this will be covered in detail in Post we are working on rn.[/li]In short; It’s a chance on being hit. The only things that hit you are bosses, it’s damage is negligible and eye of korvaak on seal ultimately does way more for your survival.
Nullification is up often enough (Aeon’s + CDR), the damage reduction doesn’t stack with Aura of Censure, if you feel like you need more Cleanse, than once every ~16 seconds, drop more points into it.
Speed is capped outside of average rolls - and again this builds provides amazing flexibility to compensate using points in Mental Alacrity (or toss a Restless Remains on Gloves)
Of Kings is soley taken for it’s HP and DA + Stunres, It’s not required at all and can be substituted by flesh hulk or more points into Maiven’s Spheres’ Conversion Passive to bolster Stunres.
If you’ve red my post, i cleared that shard having Grava on it, been doing SR 75 yesterday with a reaper in it and facetanked him.
Word of Pain is used for Impaired Aim + Devotion Proccs - Corruption instead or on top of this is not needed nor worth keeping up soley for damage due to the no-cooldown & high hit frequency that AAR provides and will be a damage and quality of life loss (More buttons to press for near to no gain).
Compensating bad gear rolls with skill points is what makes this build so amazing, you have a goal to work towards but can always compensate “bad rolls” with Skillpoints which will shift your weaknesses/make them adjustable. It’s not ment for GD Stashers only and the core of the build works very well around just the MIs.
If you are looking for a starter build, copy my Devotions and apply them to the “Aether Man” which was very beginner friendly written and really lovely done.
The Average ticks vary due to nature of a lightning build and it also depends on how many debuffs/buffs are rolling at a time (not even counting SR shrines).
Generally spoken AAR will hit for 100-200k Average per tick.
The highest hit I’ve had was ~367000 using SR shrines.
It’s playable, you just need to know how to play around it.
I’d advice sticking to resist for beginners, but in 40 SR runs i’ve died 1 times to Skilldisruption.
Surely I have tested Spear setups a lot and Spear of Heavens is always overperforming as a proc, especially on casters with decent CDR. It does great damage and it heals. Nods are great as well.
I am not going to test it, because I am sure it will work - it’s a lightning Inquisitor, of course it will work (especially with those unrealstic items). I am saying that setup is far from optimal.
Did you actually field test Korvaak vs. Spear on this build? Like made timed Crucible runs/MQ kills whatever?
Points in Nullification is not just for shorter CD (which scales very well untill 6/10) but also for larger area. It makes a huge difference when nullifying packs of heroes or moving Nemesis.
Again, how do you not take Seal of Corruption on a lightning caster is just beyond me. It’s just bad. Impaired Aim from WoP doesn’t do much if anything, I have tested it on my PRM Mage Hunter, had to drop the skill completely eventually.
You keep calling this fairly underoptimized build “amazing”, showing some videos would speak better than words.
I edited my first reply (which you were responding to whilst i edited it) for a fairer approach.
I didn’t bring this to Crucible as the crucible standard for survivability is fairly lower and thus besides the point of what the build is trying to do (SR).
If you really love SoC on this build go for it, from my testings it’s a slight gain for fairly more hustle
The damage and healing of SoL is nice, but in this high SR you want to mitigate damage, not heal it. Besides, we do 100-300k each AAR tick with 6% lifesteal on it. This build doesn’t need any more healing. Korvaak’s OA DA Shred helps survivability much more.
If you want to see gameplay you can always feel free to join my stream
If you want Crucible to be more challenging you can play without buffs and banner.I feel it’s gonna be interesting to see that kind of a video.Waves 168-170 especially,when you don’t have the exta safety buffers.Also SR 75 and naked Crucible have some common grounds.
There goes the last bit of credibility you’ve had with me. Spear hasn’t preformed over Korv or previously dying god in a LONG time. I understand you’re still angry because I insulted your dervish. My build was uploaded and zantai looked at it, said it was about what he expected and nothing unusual. Few hints for your derv; Flame Torrent > Eye of the guardian. Run an MQC and an MI(You can buy good MIs from other players, there’s even a trading section on the forums!) the venomblade weapons are trash and you can get more overall from MQC+an MI than the VB weps + set bonuses.
Now on the topic of this build being “unoptimized.” Reakd and I have more hours in this game than most players do, or ever will have. Most people quit before they reach our point. That being said we can get away with running lower defenses or running without certain resists because we understand targeting priority, positioning, and we have acquired through play and trade the green items you despise so much to back up our playstyle.
" I do real builds that I test for days before posting and that are often tested by other builders too." And assuming we don’t test our builds it’s hilariously stupid. I understand that I don’t have 4 digits worth of forum posts under my name, if you’d like I can teach some random noobs, maybe you, how to pilot their characters better so they can play better.
Don’t confuse your forum count or perceived popularity as the absolute truth. I was a very prominent theorycrafter on the GD discord, more than just Reakd or Xervous can back my expertise up. I find your builds disappointing. They’re nice for beginners, or people who need a crutch, but they’ll never be optimal.
edit: you can watch Reakd’s stream to see him play this and many other nice builds at Twitch.tv/reakd , I don’t stream anymore.
shitstorm under a build cause it has too many MIs :’(
this was my first guide and its targeted to people who wanna aim for more than just 6 ugdenbloom per piece, as mentioned, theres plenty “low variants” of AAR available - whats with the hatred for expensive builds?
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