Wanted to share new Lifestack Hexblast Miner archetype that uses the least played wildwood ascendency, the Warlock. I did not think of this build, a player by the IGN: HexblastmemommyUwU inspired this, I simply wanted to share it.
Scaling from mid budget gear to high budget gear I was able to go from 10M - 30M damage, clear sanctums is 12 minutes (one phase lycia) and with enough investment I was also able to one phase Uber Bosses. This build is also a good mapper with high hexblast AOE, good defense and is quick due to shield charge.
https://pobb.in/PadeL7jl7LOf
Why ascendant? Every single passive point gets used. Allows for way better pathing which means more DPS, and elementalist's bonus exposure + berserker's 15% dmg are nice adds that scale the damage very well. Ascendant allows us to access two sides of the tree and all the jewels sockets included which are very important for this build.
By utilizing the mechanics of Rathpith Globe and Dissolution of the Flesh we can achieve insane amounts of spell crit and damage without the downsides of Rathpith.
The new ascendency Warlock:
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Sanguimancy node gives a free 50% life reservation of skills. The removal of mana and the cost of life instead is void because of Rathpith & Dissolution mechanics combined with the fact that we take Blood Magic anyways. This 50% life reservation allows us to ignore mine reservation costs as it becomes very little because we stack so much HP. Also it allows us to fit in 2 more auras, in this case, instead of only using zealotry before, we can also utilize Anger for additional penetration, and skitterbots for chill and shock.
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Crimson Power node lets us stack insane amounts of life without using items such as Blunderbore and heavy strength stacking. By converting ES to life, items such as The Covenant can lead to a 1.5k+ life increase. This is further amplified because Rathpith and Sandstorm Visage give ES. We also stack lots of ES through gloves and boots; combined with your %life on tree and other sources and flat life on items like your rings or gloves make for a 10k+ life outcome giving us over 500% spell and crit chance from Rathpith.
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The rest of the nodes on the Warlock ascendency are negligible and don't really contribute anything to the build
Gearing
- Sandstorm Visage combined with a wand with Crit Chance mod to achieve insane amounts of crit. The wand is a basic hexblast wand with %spell damage, +1 chaos gems, +1 spell gems, crit chance, crit mult, and mine throwing speed. I would recommend lolcohol's vid or captainlance's vid to learn more.
- The Covenant gives us a flat 10% life, upwards of 390 ES, and Added Chaos Damage support for no cost. This armor alone gives us 1.5k+ life. It is recommended to get a +2 corruption for your hexblast. I got mine for 2D, and linked and colored myself totaling to a little under 4D.
- Marylene's Fallacy allows us to use our extremely overcapped critical strike chance and converts it to Crit Multiplier scaling the build an insane amount. Either anoint it with Whispers of Doom, or get an additional curse corruption and then annoint Fervour, frenzy charges are very powerful for this build. When approaching min-max stages of this build use tainted catalyst for inc. critical modifiers. Make sure you always have 100% crit chance with a bottled faith up or else do not do this, This amulet alone can give you 250+ crit multi and culling strike making it a BIS.
- Rings. For one ring use a basic Coral Ring with Life, Strength, and Crit multi. I would recommend starting with T1 Life implicit and using Essence of Scorn. ES scaling on life does not apply to rings, if you have an open prefix craft %damage. For the second ring, us a ring with Curse with Elemental Weakness on hit as a mod or synthesis. I would recommend getting a synth ring and then spamming with Scorn essences til you hit desired combo.
- Gloves. ES base, max ES mod, life, %dmg to chilled enemies (we chill with skitterbots) and for eldritch implicits get fire exposure and mine throw speed, gloves are a large chunk of damage and life, implicits especially are very important.
- Boots, by far the most expensive piece of gear. Use a 4 fossil resonator with Glyphic, Hollow, Dense, and Shuddering fossils. This is for GG boots however any base with high ES and life will do. Also if you do Sanctum, Ralakesh's are a nice and comfortable unique. If you map, the immunity to poison is very important.
- Belt: I use Mageblood as the build feels best with mageblood however The Magnate with %crit mult during flask effect is a solid option.
- Flasks: 70% inc effect Bottled Faith (only for single target), if you use mageblood, get % shock immunity, combined with stormshroud gives 100% ailment immunity. Quicksilver + %movement speed during effect. Diamond Flask + %crit chance during effect. Amethyst Flask + %ele res. Silver Flask.
Jewels
- Stormshroud, combined with a 95% effect flask with 54% immunity to shock, we can achieve 100% ailment avoidance.
- Dissolution of the Flesh, mandatory, build cannot function without. Aim for a high %life roll.
- Ghost Reaver Impossible Escape gives us access to 60% crit multiplier, 10% elemental penetration, and 60% inc crit chance for spells. For 1 Jewel Socket and 5 points this is a pretty cheap and powerful option.
- Balance of Terror, not mandatory but with Wither on Despair mod, if stacked is massive damage. (for my POB is upwards of 50m dmg)
- Watchers Eye. Few options here, Anger is used for the Pen + Crit Multi Mod, you can also use Zealotry elemental penetration mod. Lots of damage.
- Kaom's Lethal Pride. Use POB to find the right combo. Prioritize 10% double damage first (a lot of damage) then strength and life nodes.
- For the last 4 Jewels use 8% mine throwing speed jewels with %life. Mine throwing speed is very important to make the build feel smooth, max life to scale our life, and if you can afford it, I also get crit multi on mine. Buy fractured mine throw speed COBALT jewels, and reforge life on harvest bench.
- Large cluster is a simple chaos cluster with Touch of Cruelty, Unholy Grace, and Wicked Pall. Use 2 Medium Clusters with Surprise Sabotage, and Guerilla Tactics. This is a lot of mine throw speed and damage.
Gems
- Main 6L. Hexblast scales very well with levels, get a 21 hexblast. Use a 5/20 Awakened Void Manipulation for more chaos dmg + 1 level. Charged mines gives us a lot of mine throw speed and allow us to gain frenzy and power charges, Minefield lets us have a much wider field of damage and quicker arming time. High impact mine is the reason hexblast is a mine and trap and mine damage support is a LOT of damage.
- Damaging aura setup. Flammability on awakened blasphemy with eternal bless and AOE support allow us to curse for our hexblast. Instead of using something like profane proxy, we can scale our damage through flammability levels and curse from very far ranges.
- Main Aura Setup. Zealotry, Summon Skitterbots, Anger, Enlighten. Enlighten mainly just helps with a less reserved life pool. Important thing to note. If you take more damage than you have unreserved life, it will unreserve and aura to fill that damage.
- Shield Charge + Despair. Shield Charge and Faster Attacks on a 2L and Despair.
- Enhance Setup (important). Detonate Mines, Enhance, Bear Trap. Having lots of quality on your detonate mines is very important because it allows you activate mines faster increasing your burst. If you use a normal detonate mines you will not be able to burst down enemies very fast.
- Flame Dash, Steelskin setup. Steelskin for a little defense and a classic flamedash.
This is my first "guide" hope it was helpful to someone potentially trying the build. AFAIK no one has really touched on Warlock especially a hexblast version and by no means am I a theory crafter, or expert build maker, but I think the build has huge potential and is capable of tackling all content in the game.