All seasonal challenges now complete except Monster Mash and killing T4 Lilith. I’m 2k short of the former and see no reason to bother with the latter, since it would probably require grinding paragon node levels (mine are at level 50, which is plenty for the rest of T4).
For the Rogue build I ended up going with:
- Skills
- Rank 1 Fundamental Heartseeker, Subverting Concealment, Countering Dark Shroud, Mixed Cold Imbuement
- Rank 5 Supreme Rain of Arrows
- Rank 1 Rapid Gambits, Shadow Crash, Deadly Venom, Precision
- Rank 3 Sturdy, Weapon Mastery, Unstable Elixers, Trick Attacks, Balestra, Agile, Evasive, Exploit, Malice, Alchemical Advantage, Debilitating Toxin, Frigid Finesse, Deadeye, Alchemist’s Fortune, Impetus, Unto Dawn
- Power: Inner Sight
- Companions: Raheir + Varyana
- Paragon: Efficacy, Exploit Weakness/Canny, Eldritch Bounty/Versatility, Danse Macabre/Ranger, No Witnesses/Devious
- Equipment
- Harlequin Crest Head (YulVex), Shroud of False Death Chest (Emerald), Grasp of Shadow Hands, Flickerstep Feet, Orphan Maker Crossbow (NeoQax), Word of Hakan Necklace (Skull)
- Ancestral Legs (Emerald & Crowded Sage), Swords (Emerald, Vehement Brawler & True Sight)
- Ancestral Rings (Diamond, Arrow Storms & Vengeful)
Much more fun than my previous Druid build. Just a constant Rain of Arrows every which way. And I got pretty lucky with ideal boot and necklace drops, although I had terrible luck with the crossbow. Took a half hour to burn through a little over 600 bloods in T4 and only got two ancestral versions (both with the same lackluster stats, *Exploit and only 260% Reload). Incredibly annoying.
Before clearing Pit level 75 to wrap up the season though I got sidetracked by wanting to make a Druid build to grab the Vulnerable Lightning Kills achievement. So I headed over to see what Maxroll Lightning Storm build was available and was promptly disappointed. The build itself is oddly busy and the ratings certainly didn’t inspire confidence.
It did have a number of elements I liked enough to modify it a bit though:
- Skills
- Rank 1 Earth Spike, Innate Blood Howl, Wolves, Poison Creeper
- Rank 5 Raging Lightning Storm, Cyclone Armor, Supreme Grizzly Rage
- Rank 1 Heart of the Wild, Neurotoxin, Circle of Life, Perfect Storm
- Rank 3 Wild Impulses, Backlash, Ancestral Fortitude, Vigilance, Feral Aptitude, Clarity, Nature’s Reach, Envenom, Toxic Claws, Quickshift, Catastrophe, Defiance, Natural Disaster, Resonance
- Spirits: Stag 2, Eagle 2 & 4, Wolf 4, Snake 4
- Companions: Raheir + Varyana
- Paragon: Fang&Claw, Constricting Tendrils/Werewolf, Lust for Carnage/Dominate, Thunderstruck/Earth&Sky, Heightened Malice/Spirit
- Equipment
- Ring of Starless Skies (Diamond), Tempest Roar Head (NaguXal), Mad Wolf’s Glee Chest (Sapphire), Unsung Ascetic’s Wraps Hands, Tibault’s Will Legs (Sapphire), Hunter’s Zenith Ring (Diamond)
- Ancestral Boots (Dire Wolf), Polearm (LithKry, Rampaging Werebeast), Amulet (Skull, Rabid Beast)
Earth Spike is ignored once you become self-sufficient with resource usage, while Wolves and Creeper are mainly just there to ramp Quickshift and trigger the NaguXal runeword. Playstyle is to simply blast Lightning Storm 24/7, Howl whenever its effects are about to run out, and use Rage & Creeper on cooldown.
Just blazes through T4 in general and the Pit level 75 specifically (at 240 paragon with level 50 nodes) with the only issues being a relatively low health pool and not much in the way of evasion to handle the massive amount of bullshit ‘on death’ AOEs this season seems to have added. Infernal Hordes in particular is a land of extremes; either stand in the middle of the arena and everything on-screen instantly dies without issue, or you have to constantly run from 10+ homing AOEs.
Plans for next season are a poison-based Spiritborn that makes use of Andariel’s Visage and Shattered Vow and… some kind of Sorcerer. No ideas just yet since I don’t want to do the standard Hydra or Crackling Energy thing. Will have to play around with the character builder.
