I have several questions related to this build:
(1)Since you are going to use the Eldritch shield and doom shield (and also demon pact) simultaneously, how did you manage to keep the equilibrium?
(2)This build has huge damage while its mobility of seems to be a problem. Is it possible to get enough resistance penetration from equipment so we can skip the storm necessary? I may want to include one of step up, lightning speed, rampage or something else to allow an easy move.
Snarvid wrote:
Here's what I've learned, after dying on a roguelike run due to nothing be able to hurt me for 20+ levels followed by getting cocky in the final fight and trying to keep the Paladin alive instead of Rocket Booting around closing portals as is my usual wont (hubris is my most reliable downfall):
I couldn't test Arcane Drone, never having played on Insane Roguelike particularly far before, and thus didn't qualify for the unlock (the lore area of the fortress always hangs my game). ICCTW worked great with Hardened Core and PES. Flexible combat might have been fun for more procs, but I don't know if it triggers off Shards and it doesn't trigger off Beyond the Flesh.
Corrosive Cone and Mana Coil both hit pretty hard from your proc bonus, with Cone providing more reliable high damage due to Lightning's spikiness. Note that like all seeds and tinkers, you can swap them in and out as a 0-turn action that will put any activated abilities on the items on cooldown, so the choice isn't either/or but "when is it worth the trouble of swapping?"
Cone triggers off melee crits, fires a nice wide 4 range cone, and dissolves walls, which is normally fine but once in a while really, really bad. Particularly good uses seem to me to be:
- Using in conjunction with an Uruivellas shield seed, which triggers Battle Call, and then following up with Eldritch Slam. Enemies will be nicely clustered around you and you're likely to trigger one or more cones spreading out in radial fashion through the crowd.
- Swapping in during fights with mage hunters who disrupt your mana and turn off Arcane Combat, in order to provide you with solid damage without use of sustains or resources.
- As a go-to between getting significant melee crit and durability and getting Thunderstorm up and running with mana-on-crit items.
- I did have to treat Eldritch Stone to the "auto-use when no enemies are visible" treatment, similar to Sun Paladin and Barrier, in order to manage my EQ, as it seems to rack up your EQ due to being a Demonologist skill even though it consumes no vim
Mana Coil's Lightning strikes trigger off any spell hits and can proc your Tempest/Hurricane combo, so they:
- work exceptionally nicely with Thunderstorm (you can easily have a 100 damage Thunderstorm strike proc a 2k Lightning Bolt, and that's two chances to stick Hurricane on any survivors as well) as well as with Arcane Combat. I stuck with Thunderstorm 3 as a nice balance of manageable costs and multiple bolts/round, and found a pick and lamp with +mana on hit to let it be a net source of mana rather than a drain. With Suffuse Life, also a steady flow of incoming life even when you aren't in melee range.
- also benefit greatly from other items that have a chance to launch spells on spell hit (Void Orb, Black Ring, etc)
- The large range is a significant benefit, especially in hallway fights.
Other notes:
- As compared to Dado's version, Lightning Catcher is especially good on this build (as it provides +lightning damage as well as stat boosts and stun resistance), as is the Black Crown (as it increases your Demonic Pact to the point where you can unlock Forge Giant and Champion of Urh’Rok seeds, which include the bonkers Armored Leviathan skill which was a +60 boost to Strength and Magic for 7 or 8 turns endgame, the always sexy Flash Block, and the quality-of-life boosting +1 Vim/turn in case you, like me, keep forgetting to turn off Blood Shield).
- Starting with Fire Imp seed lets you delay putting more than 1 apiece in Lightning and Arcane Combat until around level 20, so you can focus on defenses and seed-building early.
- Suffuse Life is a big commitment, but I think it's worth it. Your damage output is already fantastic with Arcane Combat + Cone or Coil + proc bonus, but so much of your competence is tied up in sustains and it seems like the late game contains a very high number of Dreads and Mage Hunters who are happy to shred those. As long as you've got the ability to do damage, Suffuse Life will keep you standing.
Build (Hell's Stormwarden):
Starting skills: Air, Eldritch Shield, Magical Combat, Augmented Mobility, Earthen Power, Demonic Pact, Doom Shield
10: Demonic Strength
20: Tinkers
36: Storm
Wyrm: Inscription (or Fate Weaving if you want to squeeze points a little)
Stats: Magic > Strength > Cunning > Will. You might need to change the order of the first two around to get PES on time, I did not.
Earthen Power 1/1/1/1
Eldritch Strike 1/1/1/4
Doom Shield 3/5
Air 5/1/1/3
Storm 1/1/5/5
Demonic Pact 5/5/1/5
Magical Combat 5/5/2/1
Dwarf 1/2/1/1
Harmony 1
Physics 2/2/2
Chemistry 5/1/1
Augmented Mobility 1/5
Massive armor 5
Accuracy 5
Thick Skin 5
Demonic Strength 1/3/4/5
Fate Weaving version is 1/1/1/5, with all 6 available points pulled from chemistry and 2 from massive armor. I do like Unstoppable Force with Osmotic Shield and Suffuse Life, though, and having more status clears is never bad (I died from being pinned, of all things), and running Mental Stimulator instead of Headlamp and White Light Emitter is, I think, a slight net loss of power and a notable net loss of utility (in the form of a huge light radius).
Note: I'm happy to edit out the build and drop it in its own thread, can't really figure out the etiquette of whether it's too close to this build to warrant its own thread or too different from it and constitutes a threadjacking. I certainly never would have known the appropriate breakpoints for Stone Warden skills, or figured out what skills the shield proc damage worked on leading to me confidently taking Augmented Mobility over FEM, without this thread as a starting point.