KB Deadeye (10 ex invested) - super fast dedicated mapper, budget hh experience

Pob: https://pastebin.com/ZGtSx9kq

#Intro Wanted to share my current mapping character; I haven't really seen any posts on KB in this subreddit. This is the first time I've played KB (also first time I've played any wander at all), and it has been really fun! This specific setup cost me ~10 ex.

##Pros

• Really really fast mapper

• Flashy with herald MTX/lightpoacher spamming projectiles

• uses 2x inspired learning very well, giving you that budget headhunter experience

• can get started on ~10 ex, and there are a lot of upgrades to chase after (see bottom)

##Cons

• literally can't do anything except for map (need another char for bossing)

• cant kill boss unbuffed

• depending on gear/level of investment, you will most likely have to do some backtracking for loot (so you don't lose buffs while looting)

• can be hard to control character, and you can't really see anything once you are buffed up

To add on to this, you will die before you get used to the playstyle. Your main defensive layer, even more than the hh buffs is simply killing things off screen before they can kill you.

#Budget/Gear

KB has a bunch of different ways to build it. I think if your budget is <20 ex though, it will be hard to beat the esh's mirror + inpulsas setup. The main required uniques here are 6l Inpulsas (3 ex) and 2x inspired learning (1 ex x 2). Other than that, most other gear is pretty cheap.

A 3x cluster setup with stuff like sadist and snowstorm is definitely the best, but I didn't really want to pay for good clusters and abyss jewels, so I just picked up more points on the tree.

For wand, I just picked something up with high crit and as roll for 20c and crafted on t2 ele pen. For my setup (and I think really any setup), this beats a perfect rolled ele pen corrupt piscators, and it is cheaper as well.

The rings and amulet slot are where you fill out your res, get some life, and get some damage. The taming is a good option for res + damage. I was super low on multi since I bought dirt cheap abyss jewels that don't have any, so I went with a high multi talisman. These things are dirt cheap; I picked mine up for 5c and there were many listed similarly priced. You will have to use a tainted oil to anoint wandslinger though (so final cost was 60c).

The build scales really well with flat added damage, so lightpoacher is really good. Bubonic trail is also nice to provide more abyss sockets. Both of these uniques are also quite cheap (can pick up well rolled for 10-20c).

##Enchants

I played for a bit without the KB enchant and it felt fine, but ideally you would get it (cost 1 ex). Snipers mark curse effect can also be an option, but i think it is not really worth it since you already get 75% effect from deadeye.

##Skill gems

culling/faster proj in lightpoacher actually gives surprisingly good qol. Spellslinger + snipers mark automates cursing. If you have an actually good wand with high pdps, then you can grab winter spirit and then run trinity. Before then, awakened added lightning damage is really good (especially since I'm not running that many abyss jewels and am low on flat added). I think you could also do awakened added cold + trinity, but you're probably better off just getting a better wand.

#Skill Tree

The main pathing is getting 2x inspired learning slots and then grabbing some multi/life on the way up to the wand nodes at top of skill tree.

As mentioned earlier, you really should run 3x large clusters if you have the budget. I went without and it is okay though. I actually ended up dropping acro/phase acro and picking up written in blood for some more life. The dodge from acro is nice, but it messes with your ehp from inspired learning buffs.

##Ascendancy

You can go a number of different things. I chose deadeye since I had a ranger leveled and I haven't tried deadeye since rework. The chaining + extra projectiles is really good qol, and focal point snipers mark can help you with single target.

#Upgrades

So so many options for upgrades. I would probably go about it in this order:

1. large clusters with snowstorm + sadist

2. Boots with elusive, drop no witnesses

3. better abyss jewels. high flat added + multi

4. wand that also has high pdps. switch over to trinity setup

5. switch focal point + snipers mark to farshot and get ele weakness imp on gloves. Can add in one aura (probably herald of ash or purity)

6. awakened gmp (and the other awakened gems too)

7. slap on a headhunter. at this point you probably also drop esh's mirror for something else.