[3.28] Pushing Wardstack to the limit - CI Bonemeld Umbral Army Kinetic Blast Wardstack Showcase

tl;dr: Wardstack very broken, big nerf incoming.

Uber bossing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vLoJhmWz9M

Valdo mapping: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C6qSywDM4A

**PoB: **

mapping pob: https://pobb.in/mWZBEtP8i5Pu (246 million DPS per KB explosion)

bossing pob: https://pobb.in/xn8ETzS1S-Jo (273 million DPS per KB explosion, 3.71 billion DPS for full shotgun)

Hey guys, Invy here.

Wardstack in 3.28 is one of the premiere builds. There many versions of Wardstack. However I feel like this is the version that pushes wardstack the furthest so far. Overall I think wardstack kinetic blast (KB) is one of the strongest allrounder builds of the league. I would definitely recommend trying it at its full glory before its inevitable (and deserved) nerf.

Offence:

246 million single KB explosion when mapping, 3.71 billion bossing DPS. Here are the key mechanics that let us scale this much damage:

• Bonemeld enables us getting almost 50,000 ward. With celestial mathematics keystone that's ~12,500 flat cold to attacks. This is an absurd amount of flat damage.
• Umbral army with minion spam gives everything else you need. Umbral army gives tons of % increased attack damage, % increased spell damage (which gets converted to attack damage at 2x effect), attack speed, and global defences (for more ward). All are premium stats to multiply off of the flat damage from celestial mathematics.
• Corpse pact to solve attack speed.
• 2x 12 passive large cluster gives further % increased damage, and some attack speed, while helping to fix resistance and stat requirements.
• 11L wand + squire for tons of more damage multipliers. Mirror tier 12L wand is another 40% more damage on top if you want to spend.
• Modest investment into crit to achieve crit cap and 450% crit multi.
• KB + Nimis to enable absurd shotgunning with tornado and wall of force. See section below on shotgunning.
• 10/10 clear with kinetic blast + greater fork + nimis. One click gives omni-directional off-screen clear.

On shotgunning and wall of force:

This skill was released in 3.27 and was immediately recognized as being broken when used alongside kinetic blast. The wall could be hit up to 17 times by KB, each creating explosions that can shotgun on a boss. The only balancing factor is its 9.00 second cooldown. In 3.28 we got cast on wardbreak support, which has the line "supported spells have 5% increased cooldown recovery rate per 100 ward". At my current 49.9k ward, wall of force's cooldown gets reduced down to 0.36 seconds, or 2.75 casts per second. This means that from wall of force alone, we are getting 2.75 x 18 = 49.5 overlapping explosions per second with nimis, all of which can shotgun on the boss. Add in tornado and greater fork, we have insane shotgun potential.

To find out the accurate number of hits per attack, I tested every viable gem configuration in the table below. Here is a summary of the results:

Result of shotgun testing

My tests concluded that the optimal setup is nimis + tornado + wall of force, for an optimal ~18 hits per attack. Sniper's mark seems to slightly decrease the number of hits. However sniper's mark also gives a lot of damage and also helps with clear, so I still included it. Wall of force has a 20% less damage multiplier at level 20. Assuming that all projectiles collide with the wall first, this means the functional shotgun value for nimis + tornado + wall of force + sniper's mark combo is 17 * 0.8 = 13.6 hits per attack.

Full spreadsheet of data for shotgun testing

Defence:

• ~50,000 unbreakable ward means any single hit of less than ward value will not deal any damage to life or ES. This means uber shaper slams, sirus meteors, maven memory game, maven brain blast can all the tanked with the correct setup. You are also hit immune for general mapping purposes.
• 7k ES since bonemeld + umbral army gives so much generic "increased global defences", which increases ward AND ES. Thus with a small amount of flat ES (582 from helmet, 30 from ring), we can scale ES to very respectable numbers compared to life wardstacker counterparts for very high pool against dots.
• In combat dot mitigation: ghost reaver + 5% instant leech + 30 ES on hit watchers eye means lots of instant recovery per hit. KB hit roughly 191 times per second per boss. This means great in combat recovery against the only weakness of the build, damage over time. Can tank the damage over time effects from 100% delirious, 3-4x ghosted feared.
• Immortal call with 91% uptime.
• Lethe shade for 50% less damage over time taken.

Utility:

• All skills have no mana cost from soul catcher + lavianga's spirit combo.
• Movement is shield charge at 300% increased attack speed to zoom across map.
• Ailment immunity through purity of elements
• Can get stun immunity through 1 passive point ("Perfectionist") and 1x diamond flask suffix for 53% or higher stun avoidance.
• Non-animate guardian minions are invulnerable through "Blessed rebirth" cluster jewel notable ("minions created recently cannot be damaged")
• Very good animate guardian sustain through "Life from death" cluster jewel notable ("minions recover 4% of life on minion death"), and every attack sacrificing 7 minions. This means every time we attack or get hit, animate guardian recovers 28% life instantly.
• Permanent flask uptime (yes even dying sun) through precision watchers eye mod for flask charges gained on crit

Cons:

Build is not without weaknesses, and here are a few key ones to consider before trying the build out:

• 0/10 Visual clarity: I get 1-2 FPS using GTX 4070 doing 100% deli breach (aka unplayable). You NEED a good PC and graphics card else you're gonna have a bad time. Some would consider this a pro.
• Complex: Wardstack is new build this league, so not many guides out there. This version has many overlapping mechanics on top. Easy to make mistakes.
• Not all map mods viable: "Reduced flask charges gained" map mod and eater alter mod will brick the build. You must avoid it. All other mods are fine to run.
• Not true immortality: Defence has 1 weakness, that is damage over time when you have nothing to attack. Therefore you can be vulnerable during boss immunity phases (eg. sirus storms). Given that you kill bosses very quickly, most of boss fights will be spent in immunity phases.
• (potential con) Very active playstyle: You need to constantly be attacking to summon minions. Not a build for someone who likes to AFK.

Still room for improvement:

• Getting bleed immunity
• Mirror tier items

First time doing a writeup like this so any feedback is appreciated. If there is enough interest I can make a video guide to go over every item choice in detail and reasons for picking them.

Want to give a big shoutouts to Qwerty for helping to troubleshoot the build, and to FO for funding / crafting for the build.