Tomorrow, we will be getting the Heist Flashback league. While I long since had quit Heist, I am looking forward to this particular league compared to the other two special leagues that came out this month. There’s a few features that have given me a great deal of interest and I am going to discuss them while talking about my starter build: Guardian Dominating Blow.
We haven’t seen a flashback league in quite a while and this one feels quite loaded. The idea of the flashback league is that there will be three additional league modifiers in each zone that changes each hour. So a combination could be a Monolith, Harbingers or Rogues. The additional modifiers increases the danger magnitude in each zone but for leveling purposes make the process much quicker from what I’ve heard. Also, we’ll see a lot more loot potentially.
The big thing that is making a comeback that hasn’t been mentioned in the actual notes for the event is Harvest mechanics. Now, this has been confirmed by Bex, the community manager, but without much detail beyond “it will return in a modified form.” Right now, it’s really difficult to say how that form will look considering that there were two issues with it originally.
First, will Harvest still have the stupid plot setup requirement? Although once one managed to get their farm setup the issue would disappear, the dumbest part about Harvest was just the initial configuration. I have a bad feeling this aspect won’t go away as I imagine the developers probably didn’t have time to do a second close look on providing a better user experience. It’s something that I hope will be fixed nonetheless.
The second major issue with Harvest was Quarry farming. With the league modifiers in place, I don’t know how this will play a part or if it will influence Harvest at all. Nonetheless, knowing how cheap and stingy Chris Wilson is, I doubt that Quarry farming will continue. Personally, I hope that if the farm configuration comes into play again, then Quarry farming still will be a thing. But I’m not getting my hopes up at this stage since most of the focus will still make Heist the main method to gear, regardless of map modifiers.
A minor issue that might be present is whether deterministic crafting will still be in place. While Bex did acknowledge that the developers “heard loud and clear” the plea for deterministic crafting in the game, it’s impossible to say that between Heist and Harvest if the powerful crafts from Harvest will be carried over. For myself, I found that Harvest worked best as a leveling tool where one could craft the sockets, links, colors and resistances as they leveled through the acts. I would be happy if that aspect remained at the very least.
Given these parameters, I decided to put my bet on a Dominating Blow Guardian build. Although I have done Dominating Blow Guardian builds in the past, I never did one as a fresh leveling experience. I feel that for a three week league, the Dominating Blow Guardian might prove to be a great, all around build that can later transition into an Aura Stacker if the right currency, items, etc. presented themselves.
While Dominating Blow as a skill doesn’t show up until level 28, the basic build will start off with minions using Zombies combined with Smite for the first act, adding Holy Relic and possibly switching to Summon Raging Spirits, depending on how the last boss feels (since Smite isn’t great as a single target DPS skill in my experience).
Act 2 will add Herald of Purity and Summon Skitterbots and possibly keep Vitality around. Movement will start with Shield Charge and Flame Dash while we employ a claw and shield as our weapons. The Skitterbots themselves aren’t meant to be that great until we receive our first Ascendancy, which will be Radiant Crusade (discussed later).
Act 3 we will pick up Raise Specters, Dominating Blow and possibly Animate Guardian. Dominating Blow will probably be linked to Melee Splash, Multistrike and Brutality early on until we can get more links. Also, we will try to link Herald of Purity but this might not be a huge priority for a while.
Raise Specters are good early on for the Carnage Chieftain, which provides Frenzy charges. I think Death Attunement would be a good passive to take just for the extra specter until we can get +level minion gloves. Also, I might add in Blood Magic to keep up those early Frenzy charges. Holy Relic might be shared in this link setup since I want Minion Life as well but we’ll have to see.
And until I can start reducing mana reservation cost with the climbing Herald of Purity cost, I’m probably going to keep Raise Zombies for a while, probably using them as a better damage source than Herald of Purity since I won’t have to constantly resummon them. In addition, with the right links, I could add Feeding Frenzy.
I feel the biggest first barrier will come at Act 4 with Piety. My biggest concern is whether I can kill her in time before she turns her spinning death ray on. This is the primary reason in sticking with Raise Zombies early on because I’m uncertain whether Herald or my Dominating Blow minions will have enough uptime.
But Act 4 will also push me to get Radiant Crusade which sounds incredible as an early mechanism for resistance capping and avoiding the first major resistance penalty going into Act 6. Again, I’m hoping with the Harvest mechanic being reintroduced, I will be able to have a few four links along with gear that has enough resistance going into Act 6.
In Act 5, Innocence will be the main pain in the ass as a melee that depends upon summoned minions. Again, I think Zombies will fair a little better here early on. By this point, I plan to get Resolute Technique which should make Dominating Blow a lot more stable. Without Impale and other minion support gems, I don’t know how good they will be by this stage.
Early on though, I will pick up Carrion Golem. By this point, I should have.a pretty nice army of minions that can carry me, even if my Dominating Blow skill won’t prove as reliable. Either way, I should be able to maintain the bonuses from Radiant Crusade.
If I can make it to Act 7 (not playing HC btw), the big thing will be the 2nd Ascendancy. Here, I want to pick up Unwavering Crusade, which is going to be a massive damage boost. By this point, I think my basic skills will start to cement themselves, although I still am not sure when I will transition to more links with Herald of Purity just because of the mana reservation cost.
Now, the big thing is getting to Act 9. This is where I hope Harvest truly kicks off in a returning mechanic since I plan to farm Quarry. If Harvest remains in a similar condition to the original league mechanic with regards for Quarry farming, then I can avoid farming Blood Aqueducts for a Tabula Rasa and go straight into farming Quarry for a 5 link upgrade and fix all my resistances. This is what I’m really hoping for with the Flashback league.
For my 3rd Ascendancy, there’s two choices: Time of Need and Bastion of Hope. Time of Need looks more appealing going into maps just for the curse/ailment near immunity along with the extra life regeneration. The block chance from Bastion of Hope sounds better later on, especially if I decide to take Glancing Blows. But if I go that route, it’ll definitely be once I’m ready for the 4th ascendancy.
By having a 5 link by Act 9 and basic gear with enough resistances, I think getting into maps should be reasonably easy. The remaining gear that I want to aim for are two Circles of Guilt with mana reservation cost reduction and possibly Herald sentry damage boosts, a Scourge and a helmet with minion damage support and minion level to socketed gems. The latter item will be the real hard one to obtain and require quite a bit of delving or making enough currency to purchase the equivalent.
Everything else should be just the cherry on the cake. Also, from the profiles I’ve examined, there is only a single divergent gem worth picking up in Dominating Blow itself.
Now, the question is how effective will this build be in Heists? The issue with Heists are waiting on doors so I’m worried about my minions disappearing as my followers slowly pick locks, etc. Also, the other concerning issue is the one shot blast waiting behind doors.
That said, I think one strategy I have in mind early on for Heists is to avoid lockdown but just aim for loot. I’m hoping that I can pick up some low level contracts early on and just grab loot to gear myself up during the early stages. That was my biggest mistake during the actual league since I was too gear starved early on. I’m hoping to grab a few uniques and solid rares for leveling if the re-introduced Harvest mechanic proves lame.
Now, the real hope is that I can make good currency early on. If all goes well, I would like to transition this character into an Aura Stacker instead. Of course, the cost of an Aura Stacker is going to be exceptionally high but with the added 3 modifiers, one could hope that the Delirium fog will lend itself to better cluster jewel drops.
In addition, having the Harvest mechanic might help drop the price for Shavronne’s Wrappings as a 5 link. Then with more breaches, we may see an increase in the Presence of Chayaula. That would leave just a Prism Guardian shield and Sin Trek as items for building up another character (such as a Carrion Golem necromancer summoner) or converting this one into another type of Aura stacker.
At any rate, I’m hoping for the best for this upcoming league. I’m hoping that GGG is a bit more generous especially with Christmas coming up and not stingy or trollish in how they handle the rollout of this league.