Killing Uber Bosses with an Act I Wand and Headhunter | KBoF Sniper's Mark Shotgunning Assassin

pob: https://pobb.in/HE_bBlVze24s

vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wItpQYyIHdY

(pob with act 1 wand equipped: https://pobb.in/gD7BkvJQA1GQ)

The main shotgunning mechanic

In 3.29, Assassin was buffed to get 10% mark effect per power charge. By scaling curse effect with Sniper’s Mark, you’re scaling not only the increased damage taken from projectiles modifier, but also the number of splits at +1 split increase per 50% curse effect.

Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation, with the line “Multiple of these projectiles can hit the same target,” is devoid of the usual anti-shotgunning limitations.

By adding a source of Returning Projectiles and standing on top of your target, they now take x * y instances of damage, where x is your number of projectiles and y is your splits from Sniper’s Mark.

My build

I said this in the video as well, but I’m positive there is a stronger way to build this than what I’ve done. Still, I’m pretty happy with this build. I leaguestarted it (played Power Siphon and KB in the acts) and just went with what felt good.

Offense

The main damage comes from shotgunning. We have 350% mark effect which gives us a total of 7 splits, and (with Dying Sun) 7 base projectiles for a total of 49. Our mark effect comes from 9 power charges and Deathmarked, the Oshabi bloodline and Elusive, eldritch implicits on body armour and gloves, and a lot of dex tattoos. I’m sure this could be pushed farther and I’d love to hear any thoughts for how to go about it!

So since we’re hitting 50+ times per KBoF hit, I went with the damage engine of double Esh’s mods and a Headhunter. This meant that during maps I’d have enough damage to kill pretty much anything. Other than that, I also have crit, a flat ele dmg wand, and 4 flat damage abyss jewels.

I decided on Headhunter basically just so I could justify using a ton of unique flasks. A Mageblood build could absolutely be better, especially given I never made the swap to a phys wand.

Instead of using Mark on Hit, I’m using Spellslinger and Enhance with Sniper’s Mark to avoid the hit on curse effect. The Assassin node Deathmarked makes marks cost no mana, which is pretty nice here too.

In my Cast on Focus helmet, I have a Wall of Force, Tornado, and Sigil of Power.

Defense

I’m leaning heavily on the double instant leech from Assassin and doing a hybrid build with Corrupted Soul. Originally I was also leaning into block, but I had to take a step away from that to make my PoB number go up.

Why use KBoF instead of another shotgunning skill

KBoF isn’t the only skill that can shotgun this way. Shrapnel Ballista also has the same line on it that allows shotgunning, and Jungroan did a build on it in 3.23 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZH7IZ_3CPo (I wish I had found this before I did my build!) If you’re just aiming to be a bosser, this is vastly superior to KBoF. However, KBoF has really good mapping too, especially with Greater Fork and the split shot notable on the tree. In addition, I farmed a lot of Legion this league and you can do 5 ways as well as they can be done by just swapping KBoF for good ol’ Kinetic Blast. Also KB is just better clear pretty much all the time, but there isn’t anything to be done about that. You can’t beat KB’s clear (I tried).

KBoF also has a line giving you another projectile every time you "fork" (which for KBoF means swapping directions). I’m pretty confident that this stacks with the 60% chance for an extra projectile while forking from Greater Fork and the 50% from split shot. We have 2 forks from Greater Fork, and they can proc off the Tornado and Wall of Force, so it ends up being a lot of extra damage. Still, in my testing, PCoC was more single target damage than Greater Fork. But I couldn’t find any info on the subject and I would be really grateful if anyone knows anything about it.

Build considerations

This playstyle kind of requires you to stand directly on top of enemies for max DPS, so you can't really be a full glass cannon. It is possible to kite scary mobs from the edge of the screen, but it's significantly worse than other ranged builds. Also, there is a downside (or an upside if you're a freak) that your FPS will drop to single digits every time all the projectiles are hitting the same enemy. There is a reason most skills can't shotgun a million times.

Conclusion

This character was really fun and the new Deathmarked node was a delight to build around. If you have any ideas whatsoever on how I could improve my build, or a new Sniper’s Mark abusing build, I’d love to hear them. I appreciate you reading all the way to the end! If you have any questions, ask away!

Also, I’ll include some progression PoBs from this league:

• End of acts: https://pobb.in/DqMxwMchxnnE
• Day 3: https://pobb.in/-CAh_XRvgy1F
• Day 5: https://pobb.in/kY4adRkBGPwj
• Week 1: https://pobb.in/dxEodrHZKUZ-

Had to move and take a break but then I came back and here are a few more PoBs!

• 8/27: https://pobb.in/keXJl7kIiMFi
• 9/6: https://pobb.in/CnnfmM_exCdM