Summon Your Own Dark Souls Bosses! Vaal Domination Guardian League Starter Guide [PoE 3.21]

VIDEO GUIDE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpCApMobduY 3.19 GUIDE UPDATE VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rduqJXV8Ojw 3.20 GUIDE UPDATE VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1hZ2G682UY 3.20 LEVELING COMPANION VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCt2r14vkz0 3.21 GUIDE UPDATE VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w37iI8o-D9k CONTENTS ========= 1. How to Level 2. How to play Dominating Blow 3. Gear and Gems 4. Key changes in 3.21 **NEW** 5. Boss Progression Report 6. Q&A 7. Endgame Crafting Guides 8. Animate Guardian 9. Quick Leveling Guide 10. Changelog 1. How to level: ============ After killing Hillock, buy a Raise Zombie gem from Nessa, take Smite as your reward for killing Hillock, and buy a shield or a second Driftwood Sceptre from Tarkleigh. In the past I would have recommended using a Driftwood Maul, but Act 1 is so dangerous now that it is better to get some block chance. After opening the Submerged Passage in Act 1 and returning to town you can take either Summon Holy Relic or Holy Flame Totem as one of your rewards. Take one and buy the other from Nessa (costs a Scroll of Wisdom). Also buy a Summon Phantasm Support gem (or 2) from Nessa, this also costs a Scroll of Wisdom. Remember you can vendor Armourer's Scraps and Blacksmith's Whetstones for 2x and 4x Scroll of Wisdom respectively if you are running low. Add gems from the various act sections in the Items tab of PoB as you go. After reaching the Cavern of Wrath waypoint near the end of Act 1 go back to town and take Absolution as your quest reward. Absolution is going to be your main skill until switching to Dominating Blow. Prioritize summoning your Absolution minions, and supplement them by attacking with Smite (which gives you a temporary aura that makes your minions do extra lightning damage and triggers the nova spell from your Holy Relic). Pick up and use any gear upgrades along the way, then start looking for a usable Staff starting around Act 7 as this is about when we will start putting passive points into Staff passives. Be sure to buy any relevant gems (or take them as quest rewards) along the way, I am only mentioning the most important gems in this section but every gem adds a lot to this build. Stats to prioritize on gear while leveling (in rough order): Life, resistances, armour, mana leech/mana on attack hit, attack speed, minion damage/+minion gem levels, intelligence and dexterity (just enough to use gems), life regen, mana regen In Act 2 go to the right/East path first, and at the crossroads go North-West to the Chamber of Sins. Once you rescue Helena you can take Herald of Purity as a quest reward from Greust. This is your biggest power spike until switching to Dominating Blow later and you should feel very strong at this point. You can switch to Dominating Blow as soon as you get it in Act 3, but it might start out a bit weak (especially noticeable against Dominus) so I recommend sticking to Absolution for now. Make sure you grab the Dominating Blow gem right away after killing Gravicius so you can start leveling it. It should be fine to switch to Dominating Blow right at the start of Act 4, but you may choose to wait until Act 6 when you have access to all of the gems for the build. I usually switch right after getting Multistrike in Act 4. In Act 7 before you reach the Ashen Fields you should make sure you have a Raise Spectre gem ready, as raising a Carnage Chieftain spectre here will add a very noticeable amount of damage to your build and help you clear the game faster. While leveling you will not have enough Mana reservation available for all of the auras listed in the skill section. Just use whichever ones you have the gem slots for. This build clears story content very easily, but may struggle against Dominus as that is right when we can switch over to Dominating Blow but before the build is really online. I recommend prioritizing Vitality aura early on as not only will it keep you alive but your Zombies and Holy Relics as well, and re-summoning them gets annoying quickly. I also recommend waiting until after Dominus to switch to Dominating Blow; just use Absolution until then and you can switch as soon as you enter The Aqueduct in Act 4 (but I usually wait to get Multistrike first). Tukohama in Act 6 is also very annoying for Dominating Blow, but everything after that is easy so that is the latest you should wait before swapping. A quick note on passive tree pathing: you can skip the staff nodes until you get a usable staff, and you can take the Spiritual Aid wheel before Resolute Technique if you plan on waiting until later to switch off of Absolution. When ascending take your ascendancy nodes in this order: Radiant Crusade > Unwavering Crusade > Bastion of Hope > Time of Need. In Hardcore you may choose to save Unwavering Crusade for last so you can take the defensive nodes earlier. We do not take Harmony of Purpose because minions do not count as party members so we cannot share Charges with them. The order for Bastion of Hope and Time of Need can be swapped, but I prefer getting the stun immunity from Bastion of Hope before worrying about the curse near-immunity from Time of Need. Combining Time of Need with a single 20% "Reduced Effect of Curses on you" gear craft (or the 50% reduced curse effectiveness from Consecrated Ground) gives us 100% reduced effect of curses on us, meaning we never need to worry about things like Elemental Weakness maps. I am not sure how curse effect reduction interacts with Silence, but Silence only stops us from casting utility skills like Convocation, Desecrate, Flesh Offering, and Rallying Cry, so it doesn't really matter. Be wary that enemies with increased curse effect can still curse you, but it is so minimized that it's barely noticable. Try to grab a Convocation gem as early as you can while leveling (Act 3 from Clarissa after returning Tolman's Bracelet) as it will improve the feel of the build dramatically. You can bind Convocation to your left-click and it will cast automatically as you move around whenever it is off cooldown. Also grab Dread Banner as early as you can (and if you can get your hands on Impale Support early that's even better). For some reason Impale adds an insane amount of damage to minions while leveling. I don't know the math behind it, but in my testing it out-performs any other support gem during the story acts by a lot. Note though that Impale only works with physical damage, so it isn't useful until you switch to Dominating Blow (Absolution deals lightning damage). 2. How to play Dominating Blow: ========================= Dominating Blow summons minions if an enemy that was hit by Dominating Blow recently dies, and has a chance to summon a minion on hit against bosses. Even with a relatively weak weapon you should have no trouble killing normal enemies to spawn your initial set of minions, and from there it just plays like most other minion builds except you will need to attack to refresh your minions. If you find a lone rare monster with no fodder for you to spawn minions nearby and you have no minions spawned already then you may struggle with it and should just keep moving until you find some normal monsters to use. This build runs a number of utility skills that do not need to be linked to anything, but you will not have enough room to run them all without Unset Rings, and you will need very good Unset Rings to justify using them. Until you have such Unset Rings, prioritize the utility skills in this order: Dread Banner > Convocation > Desecrate + Flesh Offering (don't use one of these two without the other) > Rallying Cry. I recommend keeping the following gems in your inventory just to swap when needed: Desecrate, Frost Bomb, Brutality Support/Melee Splash Support. Desecrate is used to spawn corpses to re-summon your Spectres, you will need to do this once in a while when your Spectres inevitably die. Swap out the Faster Attacks gem from your Leap Slam setup when needed to use this. Patch 3.17 added an amazing quality of life change in that Desecrate will remember your Spectres and sometimes spawn them as corpses automatically. This means you no longer need to create a separate "Spectre bank" character or track down your Spectre monsters whenever your Spectres die. Frost Bomb is used to deal with enemies that have insane levels of life regen such as Maven witnessed endgame bosses. Swap out your Convocation gem for this when needed. Frost Bomb should be kept at gem level 1 and can be left in your inventory/stash when not in use. Brutality/Melee Splash is simply a choice between damage or clear speed. Use Melee Splash Support normally, and swap it out for Brutality Support when dealing with endgame bosses. Against bosses is the only time we will use Desecrate and Flesh Offering (other than using Desecrate to summon Spectres). Focus on summoning your minions first by attacking with Dominating Blow, then once your army is summoned cast Desecrate once then Flesh Offering once. We run a lot of buffs so it may be difficult to track the buff timer on Flesh Offering, but it will normally last about 9 seconds (unless there were a lot of extra corpses nearby). Your main focus should be keeping your army maintained, and just stop to cast Desecrate and Flesh Offering when needed to refresh the buff. Also until you have a ring (or corrupted gloves) with Vulnerability on hit, you should be running a self-cast Vulnerability (just replace Rallying Cry for now). It doesn't need to be linked to anything, and you will only need to cast it on bosses and tanky rare monsters. 3. Gear and Gems: =============== The gear in the "Very Early Mapping Sample Gear" is gear that you should be easily able to purchase at League Start for 5 Chaos or less per piece. A 5 or 6-link will cost a bit more, but you can get a 5-link staff from the common "The Flora's Gift" Divination Card, so you can just buy 4-links on your other gear pieces until later. This is good enough gear to cap your resistances and should give you enough damage and defenses to clear all the way into red maps. The gear in the "Mirror tier" item set is theory-crafted nearly perfect gear that is completely unrealistic to ever obtain, but gives an idea of what modifiers you should be looking for on gear and what the potential top end stats of the build are. The gear in the "Realistic Gear (Scourge)" item set is my actual gear from Scourge league. This was my secondary character in Scourge league and I did not invest a lot of currency so it should be possible to get at least this level of gear or better. (Note that jewels do not update when changing item sets in PoB, so look at the Unused "Gale Song" jewel in the item list for an example of what I used on budget gear. The theorycrafted abyss jewels add a ton of damage though and you should aim for something similar to them.) The gear in the "Realistic Gear (Archnemesis Week 2)" item set was my actual current gear at the time I wrote this guide. This was my league starter for this league and I have all of this gear at the end of the second week of the league. I do play a lot, but I have a full-time job outside of this game, so this level of gear progression should be very manageable even for more casual players over the course of a league. The gear in the "Aspirational Gear (3.19 LoK endgame)" item set is my actual gear in Lake of Kalandra league. This was my only endgame build in this league so I focused on maxing it out. This gear is the level that I would consider the build "done" (minus a Mageblood). This build uses a LOT of alternate quality gems, and most of them add something significant to the build. They may be expensive early on, but aim to purchase them as quickly as you can. This should be the main focus of your spare currency until later in the league since it will be difficult to purchase our gear early on (unless Dominating Blow somehow becomes meta suddenly). If you know how to craft, it is normally significantly easier and cheaper to craft most of the gear for this build rather than purchasing it (mainly using Essences, Fossils, and Harvest crafts). This build will be a little bit starved for Dex and Int without gear. Either use the +30 nodes on the tree (Expertise and Ancestral Knowledge) or use the jewels which convert nearby Strength nodes into other attributes (Brute Force Solution and Fluid Motion) until you have high end gear. You may want to consider using a higher DPS weapon and sacrificing some of the defensive/utility mods on the example staff. Higher DPS will make it easier to spawn your first set of minions and will increase the effectiveness of Rallying Cry. In very high end content (juiced Delirious Maps) you may need to use a Writhing Jar to spawn your initial set of minions. You may need to unsummon your Carrion Golem first as it tends to kill the summoned worms very fast. UPDATE: I have tested and cleared a 100% delirious tier 16 map without using Writhing Jar and without making any significant changes to the build. It is almost certainly possible to craft a better rare body armour than Sporeguard, but Sporeguard is just a convenient package that gives a lot of things we want (and an extra Anoint) You may want to consider using Elemental Army to give your Animated Guardian and Spectres some extra resistances, but you will lose a considerable amount of damage if removing Maim or Feeding Frenzy (and I believe Minion Life gives more total survivability than Elemental Army). UPDATE: There is enough minion resistance bonuses between the passive tree and Bone Ring modifiers that you shouldn't need this gem for resistances anymore. Early on in mapping you can substitute in Purity of Elements instead of a damage aura until you have a Blessed Rebirth Cluster Jewel. The Death Attunement anointment is only really taken for +1 Spectre, so until you can get a Demon Harpy spectre from someone you could consider anointing something else. (Decay Ward and Indomitable Army are good options). You may also consider using Arena Master spectres from Drox maps as your third spectre, they have a powerful AoE attack speed buff. Having 3 Spectres, a Golem, and an Animated Guardian gives us 5 permanent minions which ensures we always have Onslaught. This isn't necessary but it is nice quality of life. I was able to pick up my Forbidden Flesh and Forbidden Flame jewels for a total of 60 Chaos in the 2nd week of Archnemesis league. Technically there are better jewels than this, but not for anywhere near this low of an investment. We are stationary while attacking so we get the Consecrated Ground from Sanctuary, and this gives us all of: Regenerate 5% of life per second for us and our minions (HUGE for Animate Guardian), Enemies take 15% increased damage (this is similar to a "More damage" multiplier), and 50% reduced effect of curses on us while stationary. 3.21 UPDATE: The "20% Reduced Effect of Curses" Mastery has been removed, so we want at least one other source of this on top of the 80% we get from our Ascendancy. In endgame pick up an Awakened Brutality Gem, you won't need it normally but for Pinnacle Bosses you can swap out Melee Splash Support for it. Awakened Brutality is usually cheap and is one of the only sources of Crush in the game. For Labyrinth Helmet Enchantments there are several viable options, though I actually don't recommend any of the Dominating Blow enchants as they don't really affect bosses. Some of the better viable options in rough order of power are: Dread Banner Aura Effect Pride Reservation Efficiency Determination Reservation Efficiency Summon Skitterbots Reservation Efficiency Flesh Offering Attack Speed (only if you have enough gem slots to use Flesh Offering + Desecrate) Carrion Golem Buff Effect Vulnerability Curse Effect Flesh Offering Duration (only if you have enough gem slots to use Flesh Offering + Desecrate) Animate Guardian Elemental Resistances Raise Spectre Elemental Resistances Dominating Blow Sentinel of Dominance Duration Convocation Cooldown Recovery Molten Shell Buff Effect Molten Shell Duration Convocation Buff Effect Leap Slam Attack Speed (you would be surprised how much better the game feels with a faster Leap Slam) Rallying Cry Buff Effect *3.19 UPDATE: The Mana reservation efficiency modifiers are your best option now because of the removal of the Reservation Mastery and well-rolled Ashes of the Stars becoming more difficult to obtain* *3.19 UPDATE 2: If you can get enough mana reservation without needing an enchant, then Dread Banner Aura Effect is your best enchant now. *3.21 UPDATE: Changes to the tree have made Mana Reservation Efficiency slightly harder to get. You may need to spec a few points into Mana for the new Mana Mastery, or get one of the Reservation Efficiency enchantments. On the bright side this means when you run the Labyrinth there are a lot of potentially usable enchantments you could land on. 4. Key Changes in 3.21 =================== -The Mana Reservation Masteries for Grace and Determination have been removed from the tree. --To fix this, take the "Arcane Capacitor" passive wheel for the Mana Mastery that gives "12% Increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills" --Alternatively, drop Aspect of the Spider until you have more optimized gear for reservation efficiency (Aspect of the Spider is a late-game optimization anyway) -The Resistance Mastery for "20% Reduced Effect of Curses on You" has been removed from the tree. --To fix this, get at least "20% Reduced Effect of Curses on You" on one of your gear pieces. This is easiest on a Jewel. -The Life Mastery that gave 10% increased Maximum Life / 10% Reduced Life Recovery Rate is gone, not a big deal. -There is a new Armour Mastery that gives +1 all Maximum Elemental Resistances if your Armour/Helm/Gloves/Boots all have Armour; this is an easy take for us. -There is a new Armour and Energy Shield Mastery that doubles Armour and ES from your body armour if your Gloves/Helmet/Boots all have Energy Shield and Armour --This is pretty strong if you meet the condition for it, but you will need to take either the "Faith and Steel" or "Sanctum of Thought" wheel to access it, costing 3-4 passive points (they are good passives though too). -Molten Shell has been nerfed, but it's still our best Guard Skill. Overall Result of Changes: -We have higher Maximum Elemental Resistances than before -We have slightly less life than before, but more regen -We need to get 20% Reduced Effect of Curses from gear to be curse immune like before (still have 80% from Guardian Ascendancy, so you won't really feel most curses either way) 5. Boss Progression Report (all done during 3.19): ======================================== Bosses/Content cleared WITHOUT Mageblood, using gear from 3.19 Aspirational Gear set (or earlier), and how difficult they were (all Maven-Witnessed where possible): -Black Star - easy -Infinite Hunger - laughably easy -Shaper - moderate -Elder - easy -Atziri - easy -Sirus - moderate (do NOT bring Animate Guardian into this fight) -The Trialmaster - very easy -Oshabi - first time I did this fight and it was so easy I thought there was another phase (there wasn't) -Cortex - easy -All Abyss Liches (very easy) -All invitations except The Feared - easy to moderate depending on invitation (Breachlords is hardest, Elder Guardians is easiest) -Uber Elder - hard -All Pure Breachstones - easy -Uber Atziri - very hard (do NOT bring Animate Guardian into this fight) -Wave 30 Simulacrum - very easy until wave 20, hard after wave 22 -Aul, the Crystal King - moderate -All other Delve bosses - very easy (can become more difficult depending on mods) -Eater of Worlds - very easy -Searing Exarch - easy -5-way Legion - moderate -Maven - hard -Uber Eater of Worlds - moderate -Tier 16 100% Delirious map (I don't normally farm these, I just tested one to make sure it was doable and it was pretty easy) -Tier 16 Blight-Ravaged map - moderate (doesn't really depend on character build, more about your knowledge of tower building) -Delve Depth achieved: 350+ (could have easily gone deeper, started using Mageblood after this) Additional Bosses/Content cleared using Mageblood: -The Feared - hard (easier with the correct Flask and Aura setup. Swap Determination for Purity of Fire to survive Atziri Flameblasts; this might make this fight possible without Mageblood, but I didn't think of it before then) -Uber Cortex - moderate -Uber Shaper - very hard -Uber Searing Exarch - moderate-hard (only took a few attempts, but used a very targeted setup with a Ruby Flask and swapped Purity of Fire instead of Determination) -Chayula's Flawless Breachstone - hard (moves very fast and difficult to keep up with the timer) -Delve Depth achieved: 565 (have not attempted to go deeper, should be easily possible to keep going) Bosses cleared using Mageblood and a Slayer alt character swap just for 20% cull: -Uber Uber Elder -Uber Sirus -Uber Maven (consider using Purity of Fire) Have not attempted: -Uber Legion 6. Q&A: ====== Why is there a Warning about not having enough Mana? You can ignore it. It is referring to spells that we don't cast during maps like Raise Spectre/Animate Guardian; you can just turn off an Aura in Hideout/Menagerie when you need to cast these. Why so much attack speed when it doesn't scale our damage? Dominating Blow feels kind of awful on bosses without a lot of attack speed. The faster you attack the faster you spawn minions on bosses, and you may need to replace your minions frequently on some bosses. What is this build good at? Most content except for pinnacle bosses with lots of ground degens (Sirus, Maven, and their uber versions), but most other bosses are very easy. This build doesn't use Headhunter very well either so may fall off in high end juiced farming like 100% Delirious maps and 5-way Legions. Consider unsummoning your Animated Guardian before fighting Sirus, Shaper, Al-Hezmin, Eradicator, Uber Atziri, Multi-projectile Baran, or high level Harvest encounters as all of these can be dangerous to your investment in the Animated Guardian's gear. What does this build suck at? Veritania. Until GGG fixes her sitting inside the storm (probably never), but if you have enough DPS she is still manageable. The new Elderslayers invitation is very difficult but I cleared it on the 2nd weekend of Archnemesis League. Shaper and Uber Elder when Maven-witnessed can also cause problems if Maven decides to duplicate them but again they are manageable. In any fight where you are having trouble keeping your minions up, consider swapping out Impale Support for Faster Attacks Support. On paper this is a DPS loss, but in practice you do a lot more damage when you actually have minions alive to deal damage, and the faster you attack the more chances to spawn a minion you get against bosses. UPDATE: Veritania's AI is kind of fixed, the fight isn't too bad now. 3.19 Update: Now that we are using a Cluster Jewel with Blessed Rebirth these fights should not be as troublesome. 3.19 Update 2: We can easily get enough damage now that we melt Veritania before she becomes an issue. The hardest bosses now are ones that can create degen effects right under them (Maven, Uber Elder, Uber Cortex, Uber Shaper, etc.) Why Granite Flask over Basalt when Basalt gives more armour? Because Basalt taunts. Our minions taunting is a significant defensive layer and isn't worth undoing for a tiny amount of extra armour. Worth noting however that Rallying Cry also taunts, so if you are able to run Rallying Cry, then consider running a Basalt Flask instead of Granite. Why 14x Dominating Blow in calculations? Because we summon 14 normal minions (9 from the base gem, +2 from Phantasmal quality +3 more from the extra 30% quality from Ashes of the Stars). The "14x Dominating Blow/Sentinel of Dominance" line is our minion damage and what should actually be looked at for DPS calculations. The "14x Dominating Blow/Default Attack" line is incorrectly multiplying our own attack by 14 and should just be ignored (this is why there is a "93% less damage" custom modifier in the Configuration tab). I only count the normal minions because those are the only ones that will be available against most bosses. Why not Dialla's Mallefaction? While it looks like a lot of extra damage getting even more quality from Dialla's to summon more minions, these minions are melee range. You can't actually fit all of them in range to attack a single target at once. Even with 14 sometimes I see 1 or 2 of them standing outside of attack range doing nothing. Why no Watcher's Eye? We are already kind of starved for Jewel slots, and there aren't very many good Watcher's Eye mods for us without changing Auras. Determination mods are good but mostly unnecessary. What about other variants like Claw+Shield or Cold or Poison? I actually level with Claw+Shield (or any decent 1-h weapon) until I find a decent staff. Sometimes this means waiting until I have 5 "The Flora's Gift" cards before switching. Claw+Shield is also very strong, but you won't have access to a double 6-link setup, so you will need to switch around some gems. Some options for this setup are to use The Scourge or United In Dream (not a claw, and only used for poison version) + either The Surrender or Aegis Aurora (or a similar crafted rare shield with recovery on block). All of these are strong options on paper, but I have no in-game experience with Cold or Poison versions of the build. The other variants are all viable but this is the version I am comfortable with. Why not use Awakened Empower in the main 6-link endgame setup? Isn't it more damage than Awakened Brutality? Awakened Brutality is one of the only sources of "Crush" in the game. If you untick "Is the enemy Crushed?" when comparing gems you will see that Awakened Brutality actually provides more damage. Awakened Empower level 5 also usually costs about half a Mirror. Where do all of the checked mods in the Configuration tab come from? -Is the enemy Crushed? - Awakened Brutality (see above) -Is the enemy Intimidated? - Unwavering Crusade (Guardian Ascendancy Passive) -Is the enemy on Consecrated Ground? - Sanctuary (Inquisitor Ascendancy Passive Provided by Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh, only active while stationary) -Is the enemy on Fungal Ground? - Sporeguard (only active while stationary) -Is the enemy marked with Signal Prey? - Predator Support (must be manually cast on target, but is instant cast with no cost and can be cast during other actions) -Is Feeding Frenzy active? - Feeding Frenzy Support (passively applied by any minion it is linked to, affects all of your minions regardless of links) -Is the enemy near you? - We are a melee build, so yes -Pride aura effect - Safer to assume Initial effect since it resets if the enemy leaves the range (though the range is quite large, at 20/20 with 30% extra quality from Ashes of the Stars it is 104 units which is larger than a full screen on 1080p) -Raise Spectre > Enable buffs (disabled) - This assumes 100% uptime on spectre buffs, so instead of this I've included the buffs from spectres in custom modifiers with averaged out numbers based on their uptime. -Do you use Endurance Charges? - Inexorable passive on passive tree. (Somewhat unreliable on bosses, very reliable in maps) -Do your minions use Frenzy Charges? - Carnage Chieftain spectre -Do you have Lifetap? - Activated every time Cast When Damage Taken setup happens, which is normally the same time you will use a Life Flask, which is the only relevant thing this affects -Do you have Onslaught? - Radiant Crusade (Guardian Ascendancy Passive, active whenever you have at least 5 total minions) -Do your minions have Onslaught? - Radiant Crusade (Guardian Ascendancy Passive, active whenever you have at least 5 total minions) -Do you have a Flask active? - You should generally always be able to have at least 1 Flask Active, but in the items tab they have not been individually activated since they may not have 100% uptime. This affects Chaos Resistance from the Essence belt mod. -Are you on Fungal Ground? - Sporeguard (only active while stationary) -Have you blocked recently? - We have high block chance, so this should almost always be true -Is Bastion of Hope active? (Disabled) - Bastion of Hope's timed buff only has 40% uptime, so I leave it disabled by default. You can enable it to see the differences while it is active. -Have you attacked recently? - Our main skill and our movement skill are attack skills -Have you cast a spell recently? - Convocation and Signal Prey are both spells with instant cast and less than 4 second cooldown ("recently" always means within the last 4 seconds). -Have you used a minion skill recently? - Our main skill is a minion skill (along with most of our other active skills). -# of Spider's Web Stacks - Aspect of the Spider crafted on a rare piece of gear, this is on the Gale Hold rare gloves in the Aspirational Gear sample item set Is this build HCSSF viable? I have played this build to endgame in Gauntlet twice and HCSSF Mayhem, so yes. As always, be wary of ground degen effects. Also watch out for "obelisks" (the purple lightning spires that explode) spawned by "Heralds of the Obelisk" and "Lightning Totem Minions" enemies. 7. Endgame Crafting Guides: ======================= For all mention of Essences, use only Deafening Essences, it is very easy to get a lot of Essences now (you can use Screaming Essences at league start for beginner mapping gear). Weapon: Start with an item level 83 (or higher, but preferably exactly 83) Shaper-Influenced Maelstrom Staff (or Judgement Staff if you would prefer to have more Spell Block than Attack Block, which can be better because of Bastion of Hope). Get the weapon to 30% or higher quality using either Perfect Fossils or the Betrayal reward for Hillock in Transportation (do NOT use the Beastcraft for 30 quality, that will corrupt it). 6-socket the weapon using either Jeweller's Orbs or the Crafting Bench (Orbs will almost always be more efficient at 30% quality, but take a lot more time and clicking) 6-link the weapon using either Orbs of Fusing or the Crafting Bench (same idea as socketing, manually fusing is more efficient normally) From here you can either use Essences or Fossils. Essences are more reliable and much cheaper on average, Fossils have a VERY low chance for a much higher payoff. I very highly recommend using the Essence method unless you are uber rich. Essence Method (reliable, can be cheap to expensive depending how picky you are): -Use Deafening Essences of Fear until you roll the mod "+2 to Level of Socketed Melee Gems" -Other mods that are good in order of importance: --"Socketed skills deal 20% more attack damage" > Increased Attack Speed -(Getting both +2 Melee gems and socketed skills deal 20% more attack damage is incredibly rare, don't worry if you don't roll it) -If you didn't roll attack speed, you can Annul mods until you have "+2 to level of Socketed Melee Gems", "Minions deal X% increased damage" plus 3 empty suffixes, then craft: --"Can have multiple crafted modifiers" (costs 2 divine, be careful with this) --"Minions have Increased Attack Speed" from the crafting bench --Increased attack speed -If you got lucky and rolled the +2 mod, minion damage, and attack speed all together, just craft the minion attack speed mod and you are done (if you also have the 20% more damage mod, that is basically mirror tier). Fossil Method (very expensive): -Use Prime Chaotic Resonators (4 sockets) with the following fossils: Sanctified Fossil, Faceted Fossil, Serrated Fossil, Shuddering Fossil (This costs about 150C per attempt at 3.19 prices; this is big boy crafting) -Look for the following mods listed in order of importance: --"+2 to Level of Socketed Melee Gems" > "Socketed Skills deal 20% more Attack damage" > Increased Attack Speed (or the hybrid Attack Speed/Chance for Double Damage Shaper mod) -With those 3 mods secured, you now need 1 open Prefix and 2 open Suffixes, so use Orbs of Annulment to remove unwanted mods until this is true (chance of ruining your item and needing to start over, this is why this method is expensive) -With the 3 main mods secured plus 1 open Prefix and 2 open Suffixes craft the following: --"Can have multiple crafted modifiers" (costs 2 divine, be careful with this) --"Minions deal 67-81% increased Damage" --"Minions have 25-28% increased Attack Speed" -The finished 6 mod staff should look like this if you got very lucky and made a perfect item: --+2 to Level of Socketed Melee Gems" --Socketed Gems deal 20% more Attack Damage --Minions deal X% increased Damage --Can Have multiple Crafted Modifiers --Minions have Y% increased Attack Speed --Z% Increased Attack Speed At any point in this crafting process you can use the Harvest Horticrafting Bench to enchant "Quality does not increase its Physical Damage, Weapon has +1 Weapon Range per 10% Quality". I have never managed to craft all of these mods together, but I haven't put much currency into trying. The "Doom Spell" staff from my 3.19 gear set is the closest I have come to this, and that was enough to solo almost all content in the game. Other items will not have as detailed crafting guides, I will just suggest good starter items, which stats to look for, and which Essences or other currency (usually Essences) to use: Boots: Start with item level 84+ uninfluenced Armour or Armour/Energy Shield base. Look for the mods below in order, in trade league try to buy a base with at least one of the mods below Fractured on the item first: +30% (or higher) Movement Speed or +20% (or higher) Movement Speed and Cannot be Chilled +70 (or higher) Life (may be split between multiple mods because of hybrid mods) +35% (or higher) any elemental resistance +25% (or higher) any other elemental resistance +25% (or higher) Chaos Resistance Use Essences to guarantee one of the above mods (in order of importance): Zeal for Movement Speed, Greed for Life, Envy for Chaos Resistance, Hatred/Anger/Wrath for Elemental Resistance, OR use Veiled Chaos Orbs (more info below). Reroll with essences until you get at least 3 of the above mods (preferably 4-5 mods). Use the crafting bench to craft one of the following mods that you didn't roll already in order of importance: +70 Life +20% Fire/Cold/Lightning and Chaos Resistance (unlocked by unveiling armour items, very common unveil) +20% Movement Speed and Cannot be Chilled +30 Dexterity (if you need more Dexterity) +30 Intelligence (if you need more Intelligence) +25 Dexterity and Intelligence (if you need both) Cannot be Frozen Note: If you can get boots with both "Cannot be Chilled" and "Cannot be Frozen" (only possible by naturally unveiling one of these mods and crafting the other, so you would use Veiled Chaos Orbs instead of Essences for this) then you can switch off of Soul of the Brine King and use Soul of Arakaali or Soul of Solaris instead. In that case you would also skip the Chill reduction passives on the passive tree. Use Eldritch Currency to get the following mods. You can generally just use Tier 1 (Lesser) Eldritch Currencies as the higher tiers are generally not worth the increased cost (unless you are pushing for mirror tier gear). You can only get 1 of each type of Eldritch mod (2 total), so get whichever is most important to you. Eater of Worlds/Ichor Mods: 7-12% increased Life Regeneration Rate Searing Exarch/Ember Mods: Drops Brittle Ground while moving, lasting 2-3 seconds (you can also get this on the boots that you craft for your Animate Guardian) Drops Sapped Ground while moving, lasting 2-3 seconds (you can also get this on the boots that you craft for your Animate Guardian) +1-2% to Maximum Fire Resistance While a Pinnacle Boss is in your Presence, +3% to Maximum Fire Resistance While a Pinnacle Boss is in your Presence, 61-63% increased Effect of the Buff granted by your Carrion Golem +6-17% Chaos Resistance +10% Movement Speed While a Pinnacle Boss is in your Presence, Flesh Offering has 27% increased Effect. Helmet: Same idea as the Boots, use an uninfluenced Fractured base, use Essences or Veiled Chaos Orbs to look for these mods in order of importance, try to roll at least 3 of these mods before crafting another mod: +2 to Level of All Minion Skill Gems (very rare, +1 is also fine, but +2 is a big upgrade) +70 (or higher) Life +2 to Level of Socketed AoE Gems (veiled mod, you can also get this on Gloves so it is not mandatory here, socket your Auras into whichever item has this mod)** +35% (or higher) any elemental resistance* +25% (or higher) any other elemental resistance* +25% (or higher) Chaos Resistance* *You have probably noticed this resistance pattern, obviously spread out your resistances so you don't overcap only one resist. Just make sure your resistances are capped. Because of our curse immunity you generally don't need to overcap. (you may want to overcap by 10% just to be safe from the Scorch debuff) Use the Crafting Bench to craft one of the below mods that you didn't already roll: +70 Life +1 to level of Socketed AoE Gems (see the note on this mod above)** +20% Fire/Cold/Lightning and Chaos Resistance (unlocked by unveiling armour items, very common unveil) +30 Dexterity (if you need more Dexterity) +30 Intelligence (if you need more Intelligence) +25 Dexterity and Intelligence (if you need both) 7-8% of Physical Damage taken as Fire Damage (only use this if you have Ignite Immunity on at least one of your Flasks) Use Eldritch Currency to get the following mods. You can generally just use Tier 1 (Lesser) Eldritch Currencies as the higher tiers are generally not worth the increased cost (unless you are pushing for mirror tier gear). You can only get 1 of each type of Eldritch mod (2 total), so get whichever is most important to you. Eater of Worlds/Ichor Mods: 7-12% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills Searing Exarch/Ember Mods: +1-2% to Maximum Lightning Resistance While a Pinnacle Boss is in your Presence, +3% to Maximum Lightning Resistance 7-18% of Physical Damage taken Recouped as Life While a Pinnacle Boss is in your Presence, 23-30% of Physical Damage taken Recouped as Life Minions have 14-29% increased maximum Life While a Pinnacle Boss is in your Presence, Minions have 32-41% increased maximum Life 19-36% Increased Vulnerability Curse Effect While a Pinnacle Boss is in your Presence, 34-48% Increased Vulnerability Curse Effect Gloves: Same idea as the Boots and Helmet, use an uninfluenced Fractured base, use Essences or Veiled Chaos Orbs to look for these mods in order of importance, try to roll at least 3 of these mods before crafting another mod: +70 (or higher) Life +2 to Level of Socketed AoE Gems (veiled mod, you can also get this on Helmet so it is not mandatory here, socket your Auras into whichever item has this mod)** +35% (or higher) any elemental resistance +25% (or higher) any other elemental resistance +25% (or higher) Chaos Resistance X% of Physical Attack Damage Leeched as Mana (you can also get this on Rings, but you want at least 1 of this mod somewhere on your gear) Use the Crafting Bench to craft one of the below mods that you didn't already roll: +70 Life +1 to level of Socketed AoE Gems (see the note on this mod above)** +20% Fire/Cold/Lightning and Chaos Resistance (unlocked by unveiling armour items, very common unveil) Minions Recover 100% of their life when you Focus (completely optional, but this is a fantastic way to save your Animated Guardian in an emergency) Minions deal 20% increased Damage +30 Dexterity (if you need more Dexterity) +30 Intelligence (if you need more Intelligence) +25 Dexterity and Intelligence (if you need both) +12% Increased Attack Speed +6% Chance to Suppress Spell Damage Use Eldritch Currency to get the following mods. You can generally just use Tier 1 (Lesser) Eldritch Currencies as the higher tiers are generally not worth the increased cost (unless you are pushing for mirror tier gear). You can only get 1 of each type of Eldritch mod (2 total), so get whichever is most important to you. Eater of Worlds/Ichor Mods: +7-10% Chance to Suppress Spell Damage While a Pinnacle Boss is in your Presence, +14% Chance to Suppress Spell Damage Searing Exarch/Ember Mods: Strike Skills target 1-2 Additional Nearby Enemies (This is by far the most important of all Eldritch mods for this build. In my opinion even for bosses, as it lets you attack from much farther away.) +1-2% to Maximum Cold Resistance While a Pinnacle Boss is in your Presence, +2% to Maximum Cold Resistance While a Pinnacle Boss is in your Presence, 21% increased Attack Speed While a Pinnacle Boss is in your Presence, 90% chance to Extinguish Enemies on Hit Belt: The best belt for this build is Mageblood, but it is not needed for anything below Uber Pinnacle Bosses (and not even needed for some of them still). Since getting Mageblood is a big achievement, use the below Stygian Vise crafting until then. Start with an uninfluenced item level 84+ Stygian Vise. Scour it so it is Normal rarity and use 4 Prismatic Catalysts on (so it has 20% quality on Resistance Modifiers). Use Essences of Delirium to guarantee the mod "+50% to Chaos Resistance during any Flask Effect" (this becomes +60 because of the Quality modifer). Reroll until you have at least 3 of the following mods (this can be expensive, use cheaper essences early in the league): +80 (or higher) life +35% (or higher) any elemental resistance +25% (or higher) any other elemental resistance +25% (or higher) Chaos Resistance Regenerate 100 (or higher) life per second Flasks applied to you have X% increased Effect Use the Crafting Bench to craft one of the below mods that you didn't already roll: +20% Fire/Cold/Lightning and Chaos Resistance +30 Dexterity (if you need more Dexterity) +30 Intelligence (if you need more Intelligence) +25 Dexterity and Intelligence (if you need both) Regenerate 150 Energy Shield per second while a Rare or Unique Enemy is Nearby (Note: do not craft life on a belt, the natural life mods are almost double the magnitude of the crafted life mods on belts, and they are common, make sure you roll one) If you still have an open mod, you can use a Conqueror's Exalted Orb to get one of the following mods: 3-10% Increased Maximum Life (Prefix, Hunter's Exalted Orb) 10-18% to All Elemental Resistances (Suffix, Warlord's Exalted Orb) 8-14% Increased Attack Speed during Any Flask Effect (Suffix, Redeemer's Exalted Orb) 6-10% Increased Movement Speed During Any Flask Effect (Suffix, Hunter's Exalted Orb) 7-15% Increased Armour (Prefix, Warlord's Exalted Orb) 7-12% Increased Life Recovery Rate (Suffix, Warlord's Exalted Orb) Remove Ignite and Burning when you use a Flask (Suffix, Warlord's Exalted Orb) 6-10% Chance for Flasks you use to not consume Charges (Prefix, Hunter's Exalted Orb) Rings: These are generally much easier to buy in Trade league, but if you must craft them then: Start with item level 84+ Bone Ring, Two-Stone Ring, or Amethyst Ring (depending what resists you need, use a Bone Ring if you are already resist capped without your Ring) On at least one ring you want the mod "Curse Enemies with Vulnerability on hit". The possible sources of this are from a naturally dropped Ring from Delve (may also be Fractured), or a Warlord-influenced Suffix. To get the influenced version, you can either start with a Warlord-Influenced ring and use "Reforge including a Caster mod" from the Harvest Horticrafting Bench and keep rolling until you get the mod plus other desirable mods, OR you can craft a decent uninfluenced ring first, make sure it has an open Suffix, and use a Warlord's Exalted Orb to gamble hoping for the Vulnerability on hit mod (about 1/9.5 chance). I recommend using the Warlord's Exalted method first, and if you don't get it then use the Harvest method on the resulting ring. Veiled Chaos Orbs are a good crafting method for rings because the Elemental + Chaos resistance craft is quite common. +1 Minimum Endurance Charge is also decent. Otherwise you can use Essences of Sorrow/Spite to guarantee Dex/Int, or you can just Harvest craft. Other good mods to look for: +60 (or higher) Life X% of Physical Attack Damage Leeched as Mana (you can also get this on Gloves, but you want at least 1 of this mod somewhere on your gear) +35% (or higher) any elemental resistance +10% (or higher) to all Elemental Resistances +25% (or higher) any other elemental resistance +25% (or higher) Chaos Resistance Minions have X% Increased Attack and Cast Speed (Bone Ring only mod) Minions deal X% Increased Damage (Bone Ring only mod) 10% (or higher) Damage taken Recouped as Life +5% (or higher) Increased Attack Speed +40 (or higher) Dexterity (if you need more Dexterity, Essence of Sorrow) +40 (or higher) Intelligence (if you need more Intelligence, Essence of Spite) Minions have X% Increased Life (Bone Ring only mod) +15 (or higher) to all Atrributes Regenerate 40 (or higher) Life per second (Essence of Greed) Gain 2 Life per Enemy Hit with Attacks For your ring that doesn't have Vulnerability on hit, if it has an open Prefix, no influence, and no open suffixes (important) you can use a Redeemer's Exalted Orb to try to get Minions Deal 15-25% increased damage (about 1 in 4.3 chance). For all of your rare items, if you have an open Suffix you can Beastcraft "Grants level 20 Aspect of the Spider" skill. Aspect of the Spider is a huge DPS increase, but you will need to find a way to fit it into your aura reservations. To get this craft you will need to defeat Fenumus, First of the Night, for which you will need a Fenumal Hybrid Arachnid to open a portal to the boss fight. 8. Animate Guardian: ================= Animate Guardian is a minion skill that allows you to create a minion that wears gear (Boots, Helmet, Body Armour, Gloves, and Weapon/Shield) by sacrificing that gear to it. The gear cannot be retrieved once attached to the Animated Guardian, and if the Animated Guardian dies the gear is lost forever. Despite this drawback, it is still very much worth using because the buffs we can get from an extra set of gear on a nearby ally are massive. When creating the Animated Guardian, first make sure you are in an area where there are no unwanted items on the ground (The Menagerie is useful for this). Drop the item you want to attach to the Animated Guardian on the ground, and cast Animate Guardian on it; repeat this for each item you want it to use. If you cast Animate Guardian on an item that it already has something for that slot, the new item will replace it, so be careful. This is why you want to do this where there are no other items on the ground. Also remove the Animate Guardian skill from your skill bar after you have created it so you don't accidentally re-cast it on an unwanted item and potentially lose your expensive gear. If the Animated Guardian dies, the gear is lost forever and if you want to continue using the skill you will need to start the process of attaching items again from scratch with new items. If you accidentally unsummon the Animated Guardian for instance by removing the gem or removing gear that provides the attribute requirements, don't worry it isn't dead; just cast the skill on empty space with no items (your Hideout is ideal for this) and it will come back with all of its gear intact. Below are ideal item sets for a low budget and a high-end Animate Guardian setup. The low budget one will probably die once you start encountering powerful degen effects (so normally in T14+ Maps with Searing Exarch influence). I recommend waiting until the gem is at least level 19 before ever using the skill (level 20+ for the high-end setup), and only create one low-budget Guardian per league; after that it probably isn't worth your time unless creating a higher budget version, assuming you have made it to red maps. Low-Budget: Body Armour: Ashrend (Ignite Immunity and high Fire resistance), or Ghostwrithe (high Chaos resistance, converts a ton of Life to ES, which can be good or bad), or Belly of the Beast (lots of Life and resistances) Gloves: Southbound (Gives a lot of increased life and Cold resistance) Boots: Windscream (Generic defensive boots with all resists, also allows an additional Curse if you can get Southbound corrupted with "Curse enemies with [Curse] on Hit". [Curse] options are Vulnerability, Enfeeble, Temporal Chains). Weapon: Dying Breath (2-handed staff that gives some block chance and an aura that increases Damage and Curse Effect by 18% each) Helmet: Leer Cast (very powerful AoE aura that gives allies including minions 50% increased Damage) You may wish to use the higher-budget Body Armour Gruthkul's Pelt or Doppelganger Guise; either will increase the cost of this setup significantly, but will do a lot to keep it alive for as long as possible High-Budget: Body Armour: Gruthkul's Pelt or Doppelganger Guise (nearly unkillable amounts of Life Regeneration on both of these) Gloves: Southbound (with 16% increased Maximum Life, and corrupted implicit 4-6% increased Maximum Life) Boots: Crafted Rare Boots with Chaos Resistance, Lightning Resistance, Fire Resistance, Cannot be Chilled or Cannot be Frozen, then Eldritch crafted with X% Increased Life Regeneration Rate and "Drops Brittle Ground while Moving" Helmet: Leer Cast (with corrupted implicit 4-6% increased Maximum Life and/or Regenerate 1.6-2% of Life per second). Weapon: Kingmaker (extremely powerful aura that gives +50% Critical Strike Multiplier, Culling Strike, +10 Fortification, and 30% increased Item Rarity) Note there is a vendor recipe to create Kingmaker by selling a Heartbreaker + Soul Taker + Orb of Fusing (the Heartbreaker and Soul Taker must be identified and not corrupted). This is often much cheaper than buying Kingmaker. 3.20 UPDATE: Kingmaker is much more expensive now because of rarity changes. Just use Dying Breath until you can afford Kingmaker, but it's still a worthwhile investment. Make absolutely sure you have a properly tanky Animate Guardian setup before investing a Kingmaker into it. Another option is to combo Ghostwrithe with Mask of the Stitched Demon. This cuts the Guardian's health in half, converting it to Energy Shield, but gives it a completely absurd amount of health regen, and very few things can ever burst kill an Animated Guardian (Sirus Meteor is the most notable threat). If I used this combo on my current Animate Guardian setup it would regenerate roughly 14,779 Life per second, just from Mask of the Stitched Demon alone, before applying other effects. The big drawback to this setup is you miss out on the Leer Cast aura. 9. QUICK LEVELING GUIDE ====================== Act 1 Rush to Hillock and kill him, skip all other mobs on the way If you find any Blacksmith's Whetstones or Armourer's Scraps while leveling, sell them for Scrolls of Wisdom which you can use to buy early skill gems Talk to Tarkleigh, take Smite, discard/sell the starter gems you were given (Glacial Hammer and Elemental Proliferation), start using Smite as main skill From Nessa buy Raise Zombie (start leveling gem but don't bother using it until you have auras after Brutus) From Tarkleigh buy any shield (or a second Driftwood Sceptre and dual-wield them) Also check if Tarkleigh has any boots with Increased Movement Speed and buy them Run through The Coast and Mud Flats until the Submerged Passage waypoint, take the waypoint back to The Coast Go to Tidal Island and kill Hailrake Return to town (log out or portal), take Quicksilver Flask reward from Nessa From Tarkleigh take Frostblink From Nessa buy Holy Flame Totem and Summon Phantasm Support. Link them if possible. Start using Holy Flame Totem as main skill, but keep Smite for now as well Waypoint to Submerged Passage Place a portal (if you have one) before crossing the long bridge in Submerged Passage Keep running through zones all the way until the Lower Prison waypoint Waypoint back to town and take your portal to Submerged Passage Go down into Flooded Depths (it is always before the long bridge) and kill The Dweller of The Deep Return to town and collect a skill point from Tarkleigh Waypoint to Lower Prison, complete the Lab Trial in Lower Prison Kill Brutus in the Upper Prison, next waypoint activates automatically on killing Brutus so log out/portal after killing Brutus to return to town From Nessa take Clarity, this will keep your mana sustained while leveling If you have Orbs of Transmutation, from Nessa buy Vitality, Added Fire Damage, and Leap Slam. Link Holy Flame Totem - Summon Phantasm - Added Fire if possible From now on all gem links will be listed in order of importance, link them if possible, if not keep moving Waypoint to Prisoner's Gate and run to The Ship Graveyard, get The Ship Graveyard waypoint Find The Ship Graveyard Cave, collect The Allflame from it Exit the cave and keep moving forward to find The Cavern of Wrath. Activate the waypoint at the start of the cavern. Waypoint back to The Ship Graveyard, talk to Fairgraves and defeat him. Return to town, collect a skill point from Bestel From Nessa take Absolution. Link Absolution - Summon Phantasm - Added Fire Damage, start using Absolution as your main skill. You can discard/sell Holy Flame Totem. TIP: After creating 3 minions from Absolution, use Smite once to give them a temporary damage buff. Rotate 4-5 casts of Absolution between each Smite Waypoint to The Cavern of Wrath, keep moving forward through The Cavern of Anger and kill the boss Merveil Act 2 Run straight through the first zone to town Take the right/East exit out of town Run straight through The Old Fields, but create a portal before exiting to The Crossroads Get the Crossroads waypoint, waypoint back to town and take your portal Find The Den and kill The Great White Beast, then return to town From Yeena take the Quicksilver Flask Waypoint to The Crossroads Go Northwest to Chamber of Sins Complete the Lab Trial in Chamber of Sins Level 2 Kill Fidelitas, click on the machine and pick up The Baleful Gem, then return to town From Greust take Herald of Purity Waypoint to The Crossroads, go Northeast to The Broken Bridge Kill Kraityn then return to town Waypoint to The Crossroads, go Southeast to The Fellshrine Ruins Go to The Crypt, complete the Lab Trial in The Crypt Level 1 then return to town Take the left/West exit out of town, follow the road until The Riverways waypoint (use Frostblink to cross gaps) From the waypoint go Northwest to The Wetlands Kill Oak and get The Wetlands waypoint, waypoint back to The Riverways (if you are having trouble killing Oak, skip him for now and kill him after The Weaver and Alira) Keep following the road west until The Western Forest waypoint, note which side of the road the waypoint is on Keep following the road until the end and kill the Blackguards and Captain Arteri, pick up the quest item and activate the seal to the left Start working your way back up, but instead of following the road, hug the wall on the same side of the road as the waypoint until you find Alira Kill Alira and return to town, collect 2 skill points from Eramir Waypoint to The Western Forest Run across the road directly opposite from the waypoint (run left if the waypoint is on the right side of the road) to find The Weaver's Chambers Kill The Weaver and return to town From Silk take Herald of Purity From Yeena buy Desecrate, keep this gem at level 1, no need to equip it for now Also buy Culling Strike, link it to any skill that does damage, use it to kill bosses below 10% hp Also buy Minion Life Support and link it to your Raise Zombie and/or Summon Holy Relic Waypoint to the Act 1 town From Bestel collect a skill point From Nessa buy any of the gems you couldn't before (Vitality, Added Fire, Leap Slam) plus Minion Damage Support Waypoint to Act 2 The Wetlands, click on the roots to remove them then enter the Vaal Ruins. The rest of Act 2 is a lot of walking, keep going all the way to the Act 2 boss Vaal Oversoul (skip The Dread Thicket entirely) Act 3 Rescue Clarissa from the Blackguards and MAKE SURE YOU TALK TO HER before entering town Once entering town, head straight for The Slums exit (do not go down to the NPC's yet) Enter the Crematorium and complete the Lab Trial in The Crematorium Find Piety and fight her, then click on the machine and take Tolman's Bracelet, return to town Talk to Clarissa to get Sewer Keys From Clarissa buy Dread Banner, Convocation, Determination, Pride, and optionally Purity of Elements (if you have enough currency for these) (You won't have enough mana for all of these auras yet, just use Vitality, Clarity, Dread Banner, and Herald of Purity for now) TIP: Bind Convocation to Left-Click and enable "Always cast without moving"; it will cast automatically while you walk around now From Maramoa take Vulnerability or Punishment (Vulnerability is better for Dominating Blow later, but useless for Absolution. Punishment is useful for both). Walk back out to The Slums, find the Sewer Grate and open it to enter The Sewers Collect the 3 Platinum Busts in the sewers and keep moving forward Next to The Marketplace waypoint enter The Catacombs and complete the Lab Trial in The Catacombs Return to town and waypoint to The Marketplace Find The Battlefront Waypoint and pick up the Ribbon Spool to the left of the waypoint Head northwest into The Docks Kill every blue (magic) pack of monsters in The Docks, it's a ton of experience, find the waypoint and the Thaumetic Sulphite Return (walk or waypoint) to The Battlefront, head Northeast to Solaris Temple Level 1 Find Dialla on level 2 and talk to her, take the Jade Amulet reward and the quest item, waypoint back to The Sewers and burn the blockage Kill General Gravicius in The Ebony Barracks, portal to town From Maramoa take Dominating Blow (don't start using it yet, but socket it so it starts gaining experience) From Hargan collect a skill point From Clarissa buy Raise Spectre and Animate Guardian, socket them so they start leveling (preferably in your weapon swap) but you don't need to use them yet Take portal back to The Ebony Barracks, run through Lunaris Temple level 1 and 2 and kill Piety Return to town, collect a skill point from Grigor Waypoint to The Ebony Barracks, head East to The Imperial Gardens Complete the Lab Trial in The Imperial Gardens, skip The Library Run through the rest of the act and kill Dominus Act 4 Run to town and exit left to the Dried Lake Kill Voll, pick up Deshret's Banner, and return to town Go into the Mines, find Deshret in The Mines Level 2 before moving forward From the Crystal Veins waypoint, go left into Kaom's Dream Stop when you reach Kaom's Stronghold waypoint Waypoint back to Act 3 town and enter the Labyrinth TIP: Izaro does a lot of physical damage, turn off one or more of your auras (Herald of Purity) to make room for Determination until you complete the Labyrinth Ascend as Guardian and take Radiant Crusade Waypoint back to Act 4 Crystal Veins, go right into Daresso's Dream After killing Daresso, return to town and waypoint back to Kaom's Fortress to kill Kaom Return to town and waypoint to the Crystal Veins, talk to Dialla Descend through the Belly of the Beast to kill the Act 4 boss Malachai Return to town, talk to Tasuni for a skill point Before leaving Act 4, talk to Oyun and Diall to receive Summon Carrion Golem and Multistrike You can now switch to Dominating Blow as your main skill whenever you like (assuming you have taken Resolute Technique on the passive tree by now) Link Dominating Blow - Multistrike - Melee Splash - Faster Attacks (take the Faster Attacks gem off Herald of Purity, replace with Culling Strike or leave empty) Act 5 Run to town, receive a Two-Stone Ring from Lani (check your resists first, take whichever resists you need most) Pick up the Miasmeter in the northwest corner of The Control Blocks before proceeding forward Keep going straight through the zones until you find and kill Innocence After Innocence, head back to the Ruined Square, enter The Ossuary and pick up the Sign of Purity In the Ruined Square head towards the Cathedral but do not go up yet, leave a portal on the stairs, then head down towards The Reliquary Loop around the Reliquary picking up the 3 quest items, then waypoint back to town Talk to Vilenta and Lani to receive 2 skill points Take your portal back to The Ruined Square, go up to the Cathedral Rooftop and defeat Kitava You now have a permanent -30% penalty to all resists, check your resistances before proceeding, especially on Hardcore Act 6 Go left out of town into The Twilight Strand and kill all of the enemies here (including Essences if there are any) Return to town and talk to Lilly for 2 respec points and to unlock her as a gem vendor who sells all basic gems Buy all of the gems that you might have missed up until now, plus Faster Attacks, Impale, Feeding Frenzy, Maim, Predator, Meat Shield, Minion Life, Cast when Damage Taken, Molten Shell, Lifetap, Summon Skitterbots Check the Act 6 skills tab to see how these should be linked. The big upgrades here are Impale, Feeding Frenzy, and Maim Link Dominating Blow - Melee Splash - Multistrike - Impale Link Leap Slam with Faster Attacks Link Feeding Frenzy and Maim to any of your secondary minion skills (Holy Relic, Zombie, Herald of Purity, or Spectre), they will significantly buff your Dominating Blow regardless of which minion uses them Link Cast when Damage Taken - Molten Shell - Lifetap - Summon Carrion Golem If you are using any permanent minions (Spectres, Zombies, Holy Relic) you can link them with Minion Life and/or Meat Shield to make them a lot more durable. Elemental Army is also an option. Start working your way through Act 6 Check your Fire resistance before entering The Mud Flats, there is a huge difficulty spike here. Tukohama is the last annoying boss in the campaign for this build. If you haven't already switched to Dom Blow you can safely switch after him. Complete the Lab Trial in The Lower Prison In Hardcore check your Lightning resist before fighting Shavronne at the top of the tower In Prisoner's Gate, skip Abberath if you don't have near max (75%) Fire resistance When you get to The Riverways waypoint, go left to The Wetlands to kill Ryslatha (skip in Hardcore if you have negative Chaos resist) Return to town for 3 skill points (1 each for Tukohama, Abberath, and Ryslatha) Waypoint back to The Riverways, and keep going all the way to the Act 6 boss Tsoagoth the Brine King (Cold resist check before entering The Brine King's Reef, another difficulty spike) Act 7 Press Y (default) or talk to Sin to open the Pantheon menu, enable Soul of the Brine King and any of the minor souls (they are all decent for now) Head out of town and hug left until you find The Crossroads From the Crossroads waypoint go Southeast to The Fellshrine Ruins and enter The Crypt Complete the Lab Trial in The Crypt (upper level), then find Maligaro's Map in the lower level Return to town and waypoint back to The Crossroads, head Northwest to The Chamber of Sins Find Silk and activate Maligaro's Map in the Map Device, kill Maligaro, take the Black Venom, portal out and talk to Silk again The waypoint always points in the direction of the stairs to level 2, so go that way Complete the Lab Trial in The Chamber of Sins Level 2 Keep going until you emerge in The Ashen Fields In the Ashen Fields, make sure your Raise Spectre gem is socketed in your gear (not weapon swap), find a Carnage Chieftain, kill it, and revive it with Raise Spectre -Don't kill it with Dominating Blow because that will remove its corpse. You can target specific corpses by holding A (default) while a corpse skill is on your skill bar Kill Greust and enter The Northern Forest Hug the left side of the zone to eventually find The Dread Thicket and enter it Loop around The Dread Thicket collecting all of the Fireflies on your way, and stop to kill Gruthkul along the way. Walk back out of The Dread Thicket the way you came in and keep heading north in the Northern Forest to find The Causeway Pick up Kishara's Star at the end of The Causeway Once you find The Vaal City waypoint, return to town for 3 skill points (1 each for Greust, Gruthkul, and Kishara's Star) Waypoint back to The Vaal City and descend the temple to kill the Act 7 boss Arakaali (Chaos Resist check) Act 8 Run to town, then head straight into The Labyrinth from town Complete the Lab and take Unwavering Crusade as your next Ascendancy (save this for last in Hardcore and take one of the others instead) Enter the Toxic Conduits, kill Doedre, and head East to The Quay Hug the bottom of The Quay to find the Ankh of Eternity At some point the Quay splits in 2 directions, it can be hard to tell where the split is, leave a portal at the split and head North to The Grain Gate Waypoint from The Grain Gate to town, take your portal back to The Quay, head South(ish) to find Clarissa and defeat Tolman Return to town, receive a skill point from Clarissa, waypoint to The Grain Gate The Grain Gate is a huge maze, but the correct door always has a dead Blackguard slumped against the wall Kill the Gemling Legionnaires before leaving The Grain Gate to The Imperial Fields Head Northwest into The Solaris Temple, find the level 1 waypoint, then head north to Solaris Temple Level 2 Kill Dawn and pick up the quest item he drops Return to town and receive a skill point from Maramoa, then waypoint back to Solaris Temple Level 1 Head West to The Solaris Concourse, keep going West until you reach The Lunaris Concourse Waypoint From the Lunaris Concourse Waypoint, go West to The Bath House Complete the Lab Trial in The Bath House Continue Northwest to The High Gardens to kill Yugul (skip on Hardcore or if you have low Cold resistance) Return to town and receive a skill point from Hargan Waypoint to The Lunaris Concourse, head into The Lunaris Temple, kill Dusk and pick up her quest item Return to town, waypoint to either Concourse, head back across The Harbour Bridge to kill the Act 8 boss Solaris & Lunaris Act 9 Head straight through town into The Vastiri Desert Find the Waypoint and The Storm Blade, then try to head North and find the storm blocking you Return to town, talk to Sin, then talk to Petarus & Vanja twice to get the Bottled Storm Take your portal back to the desert, enter The Oasis and kill Shakari Return to town and collect a skill point from Irasha Waypoint back to The Vastiri Desert, head Northwest into The Foothills Head East from The Foothills to The Boiled Lake and kill The Basilisk, pick up the Basilisk Acid and return to town Waypoint back to The Foothills and head Northwest into The Tunnel (if you find Boulderback along the way kill him for a Book of Regrets) Complete the Lab Trial in The Tunnel Keep going until The Quarry Waypoint From the Quarry hug the right side of the zone to find the Refinery and/or Garukhan Kill Garukhan and enter the Refinery to kill General Adus and pick up the Trarthan Powder (in either order) Return to town, collect a skill point from Irasha, then waypoint back to The Quarry Talk to Sin and proceed to the Act 9 boss The Depraved Trinity Act 10 Head up to the Cathedral Rooftop and kill Plaguewing (you don't need to talk to Bannon) then head down to The Ravaged Square Go left in the Ravaged Square towards The Control Blocks (don't worry about The Ravaged Square waypoint yet) Get the Control Blocks Waypoint then kill Vilenta Return to town for a skill point from Lani Waypoint to the Control Blocks, head back out to The Ravaged Square Go into the Ossuary beside The Ravaged Square waypoint Find the Elixir of Allure and complete the Lab trial in The Ossuary Return to town for a Book of Regrets from Weylam Waypoint back to The Ravaged Square and head through The Torched Courts and The Desecrated Chambers to kill Avarius Reassembled and pick up the Staff of Purity Before finishing Act 10, kill any of the minor Pantheon gods that you skipped (Abberath, Ryslatha, Yugul), then do the 3rd Labyrinth (all of these will get harder after killing Kitava) Take Bastion of Hope as your third Ascendancy, the stun immunity will be very nice to have in maps Waypoint back to The Ravaged Square, Talk to Innocence, go kill Kitava and you are done (collect 2 skill points from Lani) Early Endgame/Mapping goals Don't use Animate Guardian yet, keep using either Raise Zombie or Summon Holy Relic instead until you have a gear set for Animate Guardian. Farm any forest tileset map for "The Flora's Gift" Divination Card for an easy 5-link staff. Targeting Essence farming early will help you craft your initial gear. Save your currency for the following purchases in order (you can craft the rest of your gear): Enlighten Support -> 6-link generic body Armour -> Ashes of the Stars -> Alternate quality gems (Phantasmal Dominating Blow first) -> 6-link Sporeguard -> Cluster Jewels and Forbidden Flame/Flesh Start trying to buy a gear set for Animate Guardian: -Sample budget set: Dying Breath, Southbound, Ashrend, Windscream, Leer Cast -Sample high-investment set: Kingmaker, Southbound (corrupted with Maximum Life), Gruthkul's Pelt, Rare Crafted Boots with Resistances and "Drops Brittle Ground while moving" Eldritch implicit, Leer Cast (corrupted with % Life Regen) 10. CHANGELOG: ============= 3.19 -Separated leveling skills into individual skill sets, added relevant notes for each act -Added Holy Flame Totem as a leveling option in Act 1 -Added a Cluster Jewel with "Blessed Rebirth" to the default endgame tree. Cleaned up passive tree pathing to be more efficient to fit this jewel. -Now recommend switching to Dominating Blow after killing Malachai and getting Multistrike instead of after killing Dominus. Or you could wait until after Tukohama, because Tukohama is very annoying for this build. -Now recommend using a labyrinth enchantment with increased mana reservation efficiency for either Pride, Determination, or Summon Skitterbots -Now recommend possibly using Aul's Uprising with "Pride has no Reservation" or "Determination has no Reservation" as a possible alternative to Ashes of the Stars; Ashes is still the best if you can get it. -Animate Guardian gear has received several changes: --No longer use Victario's Flight. Use rare crafted boots with the eldritch modifier "Drops Brittle Ground while moving" instead. --No longer use Mask of the Stitched Demon or rare crafted chest with life as extra ES --Use either Leer Cast (heavily buffed in 3.19) or rare crafted Elder helmet with "Nearby enemies take 9% increased Physical Damage" (update: Leer Cast is better, but limits defensive crafting options) --No longer use Ambu's Charge --Use either Gruthkul's Pelt or Doppelganger's Guise (update: Gruthkul's Pelt is more reliable, there are a lot of degen effects in the game now that don't hit. Both items are similarly priced) --Gloves and Weapons have not changed, use Southbound, and use Dying Breath until you have Kingmaker -Added example Passive Tree with high-end Cluster Jewels. -Flask automation has been nerfed, but may still be possible with the highest tier mod. Turned off flasks by default in item configuration to reflect this. (update: it is still possible as long as you get the mod that gives at least 2 flask charges when hit) Pre 3.20 -Added boss progression report for my actual character progress in 3.19 -Updated some of the uncertain 3.19 notes with results of changes -Added Mageblood and sample flasks for Mageblood to item list. Not used in any actual item set in guide, only included for convenience of comparing stats with Mageblood active (if you can get one) -Re-ordered helm Enchantment ranking. I now believe Dread Banner aura effect (especially with Anomalous Dread Banner) to be the best enchantment available, as long as you have enough Mana Reservation available. -Added crafting guides for all item slots that use Rare items. -Added a Table of Contents to the Notes tab because it was getting huge -Corrected some typos, expanded some explanations -Added dedicated Animate Guardian section -Expanded and updated the Q&A section based on comments from the Youtube guides, including a section describing where all checked modifiers in the Configuration tab come from. -Removed references to Rotting Legion as it is now a Standard-only legacy item (Whyyyy GGG?) -Added quick levelling guide detailing which paths to take plus where and when to get each gem -Updated for 3.20 patch notes -Fixed some minor mistakes in Notes tab -Fixed a mistake in leveling passive trees; these were still recommending the 100% Minion Crit Mastery which doesn't exist anymore (and defaults to the 30% AoE Mastery which we don't need) Pre 3.21 -Fully update Passive Trees -Removed references in Notes and Tree to Masteries that have been removed. -Minor change to Quick Leveling Guide in Notes Tab (Faster Attacks Support no longer available to Templar in Act 2). -Added a new Notes section "Key Changes in 3.21" -Added Early Endgame/Mapping goals to the Quick Leveling Guide in Notes tab. -Created a variant passive tree that focuses more on Life Regen. Use Soul of Arakaali with this tree. Get ailment immunity from Flasks and Boots (Chill/Freeze Immunity on Boots).