Hey guys, been theorycrafting a Trickster Low-life reap build since seeing the skill in action + the changes to low-life and the addition of petrified blood, and I wanted to see what others thought/get suggestions etc.

PoB: https://pastebin.com/9Z9GKL6x

Substitutes used:

• Soulrend in place of Reap, which I believe will have similar damage scaling from 1-20 considering their base damage at level 1 are nearly identical.
• Chaos damage multi in place of phys damage multi when I cannot get generic multi.
• Void Manip at level 40 to simulate what Brutality will do for Reap. Missing ~10% more damage from a level 5 awakened brutality, accounted for in vigilant strike jewel.
• There are a few instances, such as from the Large cluster jewels, where my passives add physical damage, and so I have increased Chaos damage accordingly within the Vigil jewel.
• Summon Skitterbots to simulate the mana reservation cost of Petrified blood. I will also use Skitterbots in the main build.

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Offensively, this build focuses on scaling the DoT portion of Reap to reach pretty good levels of DPS. No conversion or ailments being applied, purely scaling the physical damage. This results in a somewhat low cap on the DPS, but decent DPS won't be too hard to achieve.

Offensive Overview:

• 1.36m DPS before taking into account the blood charges
• The Dot portion is 1.23M (1.84M with charges), while the flat damage is 133k
• 2.04m with 5 blood charges total DPS. Realistically, the DoT will be the main way of dealing damage + the initial hit of the first cast, so will be ~1.9M DPS. As the damage is physical, I have not checked Sirius in config as physical dots are not reduced by bosses (afaik). The initial hit will be reduced however, so DPS will more likely be in the 1.8M range.

Not terrible, but not amazing either, at least when compared to some of the top tier builds currently. However, I do think the majority of those builds will be nerfed significantly, and 2M dps will be respectable again. Regardless, that kind of DPS is still enough to deal with any boss, especially considering it's a DoT. The dps will still pale in comparison to bleed though, unless bleed receives big nerfs.

Corrupting fever may be worth tossing in without links, though the life costs may prove too much when combined with the already high cost of Reap while the damage might be weak. We do scale its damage though, so definitely worth trying out.

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Defensively, the build stacks damage reduction from multiple sources as well as gets a large amount of dodge and a decent life pool and regen, while also using petrified blood to make low-life viable without a ton of ES.

Defensive Overview:

• 185% life from the tree (including clusters), with potential to get more if needed.
• Total life-pool of 5.8k, reserved life pool of 2.9k
• Total Damage reduction: Fortify (~20%) + Flesh & Stone (11%) + enfeeble (~5% on endgame bosses) + Shrouds (~6% as it is reduced instead of less) + Wind Dancer (20% if haven't been hit recently) + Kintsugi (20% if haven't been hit recently) for a total of 42% DR that is almost always up, and 82% DR that is up if you haven't been hit recently
• 490 base life regen, 835 if on consecrated ground (likely when using bottled faith). If an enemy has died from your dot, these values go to 820-1420 respectively. Life leech = 260
• Base 40% dodge, 40% attack dodge, and 40% spell dodge. Blind can be frequently applied with ball lightning or if an enemy is near, increasing dodge to 70%. These values are further increased using Jade and Quartz flasks, as well as Vaal grace. As well, if you get hit, your dodge increases by quite a bit thanks to kintsugi and wind dancer.
• Petrified Blood takes at least 60% of a hit and turns it into a DoT (though not actually considered as a DoT, so not reduced by any DR). I think at level 20 it will likely be a 50/50 split, so we take 50% dmg up front then take the rest over 4 seconds. This will allow us to remain at half hp (low-life) and tank massive hits without dying outright. Calculation examples are shown below.
• ~970 ES which can make a big difference when determining whether we survive a massive hit or not.

This build could be really good defensively, or really shit. It's kind of hard to tell until it's tested in-game. By the numbers it looks good, but some situations such as getting shotgunned or hit by big attacks in quick succession will likely mean a total rip. DoTs will also be really deadly as well; you will really want a jewel that prevents corrupted blood. Probably not hardcore viable, will definitely be running it Softcore first.

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Calculation example from Petrified blood (assuming 50/50 at lvl 20):

Tanking a 25k hit:

Direct Damage Taken: 25,000 * 0.18 = 4500, 4500 * 0.5 = 2,250, 2,250 - 970 = 1280. Less than half our hp, so we can theoretically tank >50k.

DoT: 2,250 / 4 = 562.5, 562.5 - 490 = 72.5dps over 4 seconds. Life Leech should cover this easily.

Of course, this is assuming (mostly) the best case scenario (haven't been hit recently, have full ES, not nearby the damage source, fortify/enfeeble is active), and that I didn't mess up any calculations/misunderstand any mechanics.

Also, DR makes a huge difference, and if even one DR source is missing it can mean the difference between life and death.

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Final thoughts:

I think overall this build shows promise, and I'm pretty confident it will perform well enough to clear endgame.

I think as a league starter it could be rough, and you may need to run ED/Contagion until you have at least a 5l Kintsugi and maybe a level 3 enlighten.

The cluster jewels are pretty much non-negotiable as well, though these have been easier to get with the atlas changes.

Cold Iron Points are probably gonna be pricey, but using +1 phys wands w/ spell damage should be good enough even in reds.

Not sure how rough the life costs will be to handle for Reap. If the cost scales similarly to Soulrend, then we're looking at ~250 hp per cast at max charges. When we're also taking a big DoT from PB, spamming Reap could end up PKing ourselves. Thankfully that's the power of DoT, you won't need to spam Reap, just need to maintain max charges on bosses.

I have a feeling the vigilant strike->40sec fortifiy combo will be nerfed. If so, hardened scars anoint could also be used to maintain fortify, and this way may even be more favourable as there's no need to weapon swap and smack a bitch every 40 seconds. Main issue, however, is that you'll likely want to use an enduring hybrid flask so that fortify is actually up for the big hits, and relying on flasks like that in a boss fight is no bueno. Ultimately I think vigilant strike combo getting nerfed would really suck for this build, as fortify is really important defensively.

I also theory-crafted some more budget gear/more realistic early ladder setup in the PoB if anybody is curious. DPS is roughly 450k, life ~2.7k, should still have all the DR sources as it assumes a 5L kintsugi.

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Huge post I know, but for some reason I'm really excited about this build and I want to see what others are thinking. Maybe this is a bit too early as we haven't gotten skill gem numbers yet, nor even patch notes/manifesto, but meh, I typed it up already so many as well hit submit.