The Raven Trickster - Explosive Grenade Gemling Legionnaire [PoE2 Beta 0.5]

So, I didn't really know what to start for 0.5 and just chose Merc cause I thought there might be a few good builds for it. Turns out there aren't really a lot of good builds and build diversity isn't really there yet. Also, Gemling looked interesting and I haven't really played merc before. I leveled with grenades through campaign, then transitioned into Tactician buff stacker, later changed to Permafrost Bolts but wasn't really happy with those builds (pretty slow, hard to aim on console, combo-gameplay, many buttons etc.) Build is still in progress, there sure is a lot of stuff to improve. I didn't min-max the tree or spirit usage with different weapon sets, keeping it simple. Im sure this can be taken to absurd numbers with a giga DPS weapon and stuff like Prism of Belief. Note: Spirit and DPS values are currently not shown correctly in PoB. For Spirit read more below! Pros: - Armour/Eva gear makes gearing cheaper than raw evasion (Deadeye meta) - relatively fast - straight forward, not much button pressing (1 button if you want) - deals good damage, even on no high end gear - can do all content in the game Cons: - requires you to be in melee range - grenades can be eye cancer Concept is pretty easy: Invest a lot in cooldown and reduced detonation time and make grenades go off almost intantly. Explosive Grenade has a very high damage effectivness, s a high DPS weapon is essential! Cooldown works for our mirage archer and its cluster grenades too! This combined with Herald of Thunder helps a lot with clear. Tree is mostly just basic grenade, cooldown and surrounded stuff. Valako's Vice (gloves) is used to convert fire to lightning so wen can inflict shocks and use Herald of Thunder. This also gives us more damage scaling and tree pathing options. It doesnt necessarily need to be fire to lightning. This also works with Blueflame Bracers or Painters Servant. Tho, you would need to change some stuff like Herald and tree nodes. Playstyle: get in enemy range and throw grenades, that's it. I prefer dodge rolling instead of walking around. To me this just feels so much better defensively. Combining 'Tactical Retreat' and a dodge roll rune in your boots, your dodge roll range gets increased heavily. Also, dodge rolling triggers our Mirage Archer for extra clear. At bosses, throw an oil grenade for exposure. Ascendancy: Gemling has Advanced Thaumaturgy which gives quality an additional effect. For explosive grenades, this is additional projectiles (currently bugged at the time of writing, only fires 1 extra) Points order: first 4 points -> advaned thaumaturgy after that you either go Bolstering Implants for damage or Gem Studded for QoL. Tip: Gem Studded: you can get all 3 bonuses, just make sure all 3 types of supports are equal amount Virtous Barrier: either use hybrid str/dex for life+def or raw str gems for double life Gearing/Budget: Gear is nothing really crazy. Constricting Command (unique helmet) with 4 fewer enemies is absolutely required to make this build work! The unique gloves are very common und cheap even with 2 sockets. Lavianga's Spirits (flask) isn't necessarily needed. If you run a normal mana flask, make sure you respec 'Crystal Elixir'. You need to make sure, you have enough Spirit and Attributes (see below). The most expensive will be a good ammy with +2 proj and high spirit and a high DPS weapon. I paid around 11 div for my ammy and 5 div for the weapon (at the time of writing). Don't forget to anoint your ammy. (you need to unlock this first by following the Delirium quest line until you've killed the 5 delirious map bosses) For your weapon: look for highest total DPS with phys dmg, fire dmg, lightning dmg and +projectile skills (note: +attack skills don't work -> grenades don't have that tag!) Bonus stats: anything grenade-related (like extra projectile, CDR or additional activation) and/or lightning pen Attack speed isnt really needed. If you attack too fast you won't have any grenades available. Also consider that when checking the DPS. Attack speed would actually distort the raw damage! Requirements: Attributes: we get 4% reduced attribute requirements from ascendancy, take that into account when buying your gear. in total you need: 110 STR (for weapon and eternal rage) 35 INT (for supports gems) 151 DEX (for herald of thunder lv 20) these values already include the 4% reduction! Spirit: - eternal rage gets reservation efficiency from extra quality, so it costs 84 spirit at 26% quality -> this also counts for the supports connected to it! with cannibalism II you need 109 instead of 130 - mirage archer also gets reservation effi and needs 39 spirit at 26% quality - herald of thunder needs 30 spirit - TOTAL minimum required: 178 (with 26% quality* on gems) I have a total of 212 Spirit, so I'm additionally using Attrition, but this is not needed! quality coming from: 6% from gemling, 20% from gem Cooldown: most of it coming from the tree, but also get additional CDR from: - pillar bounty in Interludes - anointment - helmet rune - max roll (5%) on your rare jewels - heart of the well (unique jewel) can roll up to 18% Tips: - when starting out and your weapon isn't super good yet, you can use Short Fuse I for now - Defy II gives the ability to attack with no mana. So we can socket one rune for 'damage taken from mana before life' in our body armour. This also combines really well with Gem Studded's less cost for skills. - cannibalism (support) is a huge survivabilty boost for mapping, especially on juiced endgame maps! You can also get/craft life on kill on a jewel (with liquid disgust used on an Emerald). This would reduce the required spirit to 153 (so you can skip Spirit on the Amulet). - depending on your level/progress/gear etc., make changes to the tree and take some MS nodes out and grab raw damage or defence nodes instead (like Tempered Defences or Escape Strategy/Careful Consideration) - map mods: I dont read them tbh. The only mod I really notice is if you your cooldown ratio is increased - if you're running t15 6mod and you want to go a little more safe, you can grab 'Stitch the Flesh' (from Doryani atlas mastery)