Early yesterday, I managed to finish the story mode and begin mapping. My initial goal was to take out the first Conqueror and then figure out my mapping strategy along with doing some Heists in an effort to gear up. While I have yet to really hit any deaths, I am starting to see small problems with my current Guardian Dominating Blow build.
For a few maps, I saw that my minions were dying namely Stone Golem and Zombies. The Stone Golem dying is understandable just because he’s set at level 12. The Zombies though is where I’m starting to grow concerned just because they are a reasonable part of my DPS. The bulk of my DPS still centers around Herald of Purity and Dominating Blow but that part involves constantly re-summoning my army in killing things.
Where the concern comes up is periods where I need to kite enemies. Zombies help with allowing me to run around a bit and striking when I’m ready. However, as maps grow more intense, I feel that this setup will be modified shortly.
Probably, what I’ll end up doing is changing the zombies into using Meat Shield and moving my Animate Guardian gem into that socket. Then I can add Minion Life support to ensure that my Zombies and Animate Guardian remain tanky.
So that leaves the issue of the Stone Golem. The Stone Golem’s original intent wasn’t to be used for DPS purposes. It was a cheap life regeneration bonus from using a Clayshaper. Since The Scourge remains at 4ex, it might be a while before I replace the Clayshaper.
One idea I’m toying with is putting back Vitality into the slot where the Animate Guardian gem was. Another is to use War Banner just for more damage. I think Vitality might be good once I start finding Trials and prepare for Uber Lab. In the meantime, War Banner might be the way to go.
I think another thing that I might have to do soon is change weapons. The biggest benefit of The Scourge is the bonuses to minion damage as well as minion damage affecting you. But a secondary bonus is the life leech on the claw. I think what I could do here is go for a Gemini Claw weapon and use a Victario’s Charity. The bonuses from Victario’s Charity is good for minions and has some decent defensive bonuses like a small bit of chaos resistance (which I need badly).
My current shield has mana gained on block so a Gemini Claw would help ensure that I won’t need mana on top of life leech. This combo should help me face tank bosses and mobs while I work towards procuring a Scourge. Also, I won’t have to worry about my Stone Golem dying.
Alternatively, for the shield, I could go for a Lioneye’s Remorse. It’s just a solid shield with a ton of armor and life. Right now, it’s only 4c or so which makes it a decent bargain for the defensive stats. That along with a solid 6 link base are what I feel my priorities on gear are.
The real difficulty besides survival is prioritizing content. I’m pretty split doing Heists and pushing early mapping. I still feel the best way to make money is doing Heists just because of how much loot one can get. However, the difficulty level is amped up quite a bit even on low level heists.
Unfortunately, doing Heists means I’m missing out on stuff like Trials, which I absolutely hate, but missing out on that 4th ascendancy is pretty big. And that last ascendancy will end up being Bastion of Hope, which means I’m missing a huge section of defense that will add up in going against Heists.
Either way, I’m trying to be more focused than in previous leagues for progressing the map. I’ve never really understood how the reworked atlas behaved so I’m going slower without trying to do every single map I find. What I don’t like about this strategy is that I feel like I’m being forced into doing content that I really hate such as conquerors. But there really isn’t any way around this until the next league is announced.