a summary of my ~dozen builds in 3.23

not sure who cares besides other alt-o-holics or people particularly interested in these build archtypes but here 'ya go!

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league starter:

eph edge blade trap trickster - lvl 95

started as a sabo then switched to trickster

a bit slow of a league starter overall but it worked in my favor that the overall idea of eph edge and es stacking wasn't super popular until capt lance started doing it - if that had been more popular earlier I probably wouldn't have been able to get some of the nicer helm/boots and gloves that really helped me get some pretty decent atlas progression within the first couple days of the league. overall fantastic build if you like prioritizing only using one skill, ignoring map mods, and tankiness over pure clearspeed/dps. excellent at being pushed super far as well (it became one of the more popular valdos farmers)

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my next build was a mana-stacking heiro that I wanted to build around whispering ice. Since int gear isn't awesome to level with I just went with hydrosphere and storm burst with hand of the fervent and black cane. With the meta of ralakesh's boots (which were like 20c when I first bought them), malachai's loop, and badge of the brotherhood this became a surprisingly strong combo. I added an indigon to boost my spend and the zero-curse tech to get instant mana recovery with ball lightning on cast while channeling with storm burst. Overall this is a pretty sleeper combination for huge dps and even decent tankiness just due to the insane recovery of zero-curse instant life+mana recovery on a heiro. I also had some instant es leech which helps even more. This character eventually become my currency dump as well, which I'll talk about later. Before that transition I got this guy to 93 and cleared most content. It just wasn't good against one-shots so I wanted something tankier next.

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next up was an attempt to copy uber dan's poison cremation trickster. I got this to lvl 92 before re-specing. The idea is to use vulkuurs to let your fire dmg poison, and replica badge + frenzy stacking + olesyas to get insane scaling of poisons from all your frenzies. Honestly, this build was a huge dissapointment. I'm going to chalk it up to the fact that I'm not uber dan. I don't think the build has any downsides, really - it's a well-designed build on paper but I couldn't quite get it there.

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I made a toxic rain ballista pathfinder to hear the new ranger voicelines. She used wilma's and darkscorn and it was strong and good but I wasn't feeling pushing it much further. Got it to 92.

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Next up was a variant of the ephemeral edge mana stacking melee totem build that's honestly very underrated. Instead of conc path totems I used ancestral protector with a tincture for melee splash. This dude was a BEAST. It can clear everything, and tank almost anything with aegis, CI, incandescent heart, dmg taken as chaos, etc. It also doesn't care about map mods being a totem build that naturally uses a mana flask. Highly recommended second char (you need a few key uniques like mind of the council and a 6L incandesent heart for this to really work). The guardian forbidden jewels are pretty expensive too and very powerful for the build.

PoB: https://pobb.in/4t_tk4yyiO8t

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I wanted a clear beast next so I hopped on the kinetic bolt of fragmentation wagon and did it as a deadeye. Tincture for curse on hit and doedre's helm and anathema ring for huge single target and maximum frame rate destruction. Got her to lvl 90 and loved using it for essence farming but was too squish for anything else really.

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next up was my penance brand trickster which was so broken I don't even know what to say. All uniques with the standard powercharge stacking gear, and I snagged a +1 max power charge indigon for cheap as well which honestly is fantastic for the build. Stuck with absorption charge belt the whole time. I went with restless ward for a bit more zoom too and loved it. Got this guy to 96 and cleared everything easily.

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then I tried the self-cast dark-pact pathfinder posted here and honestly it was super fun. To get the same kinda dmg he had I would've had to dump way more currency than I wanted so I basically stopped playing her at lvl 91 but at that point it was already very capable and a load of fun to play. Too bad it won't exist again unless we get the warlock back somehow.

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Next I started dumping more money into my mana stacking indigon heiro and pivoted him into just focusing on the mana, int, str, and es stacking. In crafting some battery staffs, I hit a lucky roll and sold the staff I made for ~300 divs so I got a mageblood and then made another staff, lol. I got this guy to lvl 96 and honestly felt like I was just getting started. At 13k es and 13k mana this build is basically 'just coming online' but it already felt stronger than basically anything else I've ever played. I dumpstered regular content and had a blast doing it. I can see why connorconverse is so fixated on this archtype, lol.

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Next thing I tried was taking the trickster that had been built for poison cremation and respeccing him to use ephemeral edge (notice a theme? lol) for melee skills like flicker and frenzy. Since I had a mageblood now this quickly became a great character but he wasn't any better at anything than the other characters I already had so I stopped investing in him further past lvl 93.

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I made a pretty basic-bitch mf chieftain with cast when stunned dd and got him to lvl 87 but really wasn't feeling it. I totally understood why it was so popular though.

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With my nimis already in hand I also decided to try a splitting steel perseverance champion and quickly and effortlessly got him to lvl 90. This build seriously cranks hard and I'm considering it for a starter for next league since even the nimis wasn't all that necessary for it to kick ass. Only reason I didn't play it more was because I wanted to try....

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another iron commander dex-stacking heiro. I already had some crazy strong chars but I hadn't played this build in a few leagues and I got an insanely nice dex-stacking chest for super cheap, so I quickly leveled yet another heiro and had a blast doing it. This build has been around for quite some time but honestly it seems like it just keeps getting better and better with the various forms of borrowed power out there. With charms this dude got crit-capped easier than ever befoer and I took him to lvl 95 pretty easily and stomped on ubers with over 200mil dps - and that was only with like, 60 div invested. Seriously considering making another for next league simply because having that much damage is ridiculously fun. I also loved putting focussed ballistas on them and shooting self-cast lightning arrows with mirage archer for a bit of extra shock to trigger the 15+ totems to attack wherever I fired. It felt awesome, lol.

Happy to answer any questions or provide PoBs if interested.