Hi, Rudy here back with another Delve build. This time abusing one of the cheapest ways to get damage: Explodey Totems.

POB: https://pobb.in/3wScFg1_qEP6

Character profile: Rudy_Popcorn

Why I chose Sabo

Pathfinder poison is out because 35m dot cap is terrible for delve. Jugg/Chieftain armour chars can get higher mitigation, but IMO it feels very shitty to play without Chain Reaction or atleast 156% increased trigger AoE. Also I've been playing mitigation heavy marauders for too long and really wanted to play a hybrid mit-avoidance tank with 95% evade. That leaves it to (Sabo + Polymath) vs (Trickster + Chain Reaction). And I think Sabo is far superior. If you're using a Skin, Escape Artist is useless. Sabo has 3 good defensive nodes: 1 outstanding, 1 great and 1 mediocre. And it has 32% AoE on small nodes which the build desperately needs. And finally I've been asked why not Soul Drinker jewels with instant leech. Just no, Polymath is both recovery and a humongous 27% more dmg.

Offence

Current DPS: 163m

Scale totem life. Scale phys to cold conversion with Hatred. Scale cold pen as much as you can, for those pesky 105%+ res rares.

Slavedrivers is mostly bait. Your DPS increases linearly with throw speed yes, until you hit cap and throw traps too fast and your dps drops to zero. IMO if you're running 3.0+ throw speed with 25 trap limit, or 3.5+ throw speed with 30 trap limit, you're trolling yourself.

Alternatives to get MUCH more dps:

• Dual wield Redblades for double dmg (but I need shield).
• Heatshiver for 130% cold as extra fire (but I dont freeze delve rares/bosses).
• Double curse lv 21 frostbite and ele weakness (but I'm not doing that in delve where hexes get obliterated).

Mitigation

• 7.8k hybrid pool with life + ES (EB/MoM)
• 90 ele maxres with melding, and 75 chaos res
• 50k armour
• 48% of phys as ele/chaos
• 90% chance to suppress spell damage
• 15% reduced dmg taken from Sabo
• Can swap in one elemental mageblood flask in specific scenarios for 39% less dmg taken.
• Totem taunt mastery inflicting -10% dmg towards me (I think).

Avoidance

• 50k evasion
• Sabo blind + flat 8% evade from Watchers Eye, giving actual 95% evade chance.
• 20% chance to take 50% less AoE dmg from Sabo
• Totem taunt mastery redirecting a lot of attacks.

You really want to hit the 95% evade cap. Difference between 95 and 90 is taking double the dmg. Theres also an option to go Wind Dancer on Skin and skip +8 on watchers.

Recovery

• Polymath giving 9% life + 9% ES on kill. This is more recovery than you need for 90% of scenarios.
• Sabo giving 10% life regen.
• ES recharge, which should be mostly up in situations where Polymath is not (single targets).
• Ghost Dance on Skin giving 1500 ES when hit. This is an optional luxury upgrade but feels really good.
• If all the above fails and you're out of ES, Vaal Discipline is an emergency button.

Budget

Mageblood is not a prerequisite for this build. Instead of Melding, you'd go a +4 maxres shield, with Imbalanced Guard Escape for another +3, and anoint Ironwood instead. Which is what I was running in the past. You'll just have lower armor/evasion without MB, but you lose nothing build-enabling (like resist cap, or 48% reduced mana cost).

I'd estimate a decent starter version would cost about 70 div (no mageblood), with the biggest investment being the weapon, and do well at 600-800 delve. Prices may go up, so no guarantees. My current character is maybe a Mageblood + 300 divs by todays prices, but was cheaper when I started.

Final Thoughts

The build in its current form is NOT 6k viable. You could maybe get to 4.5-5k if you force it enough. But I think its a great cheap-ish build to delve sideways at 1.5k-2k to farm for currency. And its guaranteed to not exist next league :)

If you actually want to hit 6k comfortably, the answer is as always: Armour Stacker. If anyone from GGG is reading this, please for the love of god, nerf that fucking build. Its been a top 3 build for like 8 leagues in a row now, often being top 1. And this league it got massively buffed with Vengeant cascade molten strike, and phys taken as chaos mastery. 3mil+ armour should not be a thing. And even if it was, you should not be able to scale phys mitigation, ele mitigation (jugg/transcendence), damage (replica dreamfeather), and recovery (aegis aurora) by scaling a single stat. The existence of this concept just heavily stifles build creation at the top end, and IMHO is not healthy for the game. Rant over.