So, it sort of just hit me - you don’t ever want to reduce damage you take if you want to make a Reflect-based build, or else you reflect less damage. I thought “If I want to just take damage over and over but not die, how could I do that?” It was either Leech or Ward. So, my first of likely two experimental builds is …
Low-Life Reflect Ignite Spellblade !
Wow, that’s a lot of stuff going on. How am I going to support that? Answer: Legendary Gear
So, due to the limitations of the Build Planner at the moment, I made two planner builds:
Now, I have no idea how viable it will be to make those Legendaries. But I gotta have goals, right?
Premise of the build:
Low-Life with massive ward generation means I am trying to stay alive by gaining ward to counteract the damage I’m taking.
Helm “Damage Dealt to Mana” should help as well, and not lower reflected damage since it isn’t really mitigation (i.e. not reduction). Cooldown Reduction is for more frequent Flame Ward + Surge.
Idols are my only source of Lightning Aegis (w/ good rolls it should be 30-40% chance when hit) and also account for the lion’s share of damage reflection.
Armor + Shield reflected damage are key to merge into the Exsanguinous and Moenia Mentis.
Humming Bee to deliver tons of Ignites and keep me bathed in Fire Aura at all times for more Fire DOT. Ignites are going to be important DPS for bosses since they “hit” me way less than packs do.
Firebrand to apply super-effective Ignites, and generate even more ward.
All in all, this is a “Dream” build and I look forward to attempting to achieve it!
Stay tuned for the high-life Leech build coming soon!
Hi, very interesting idea. I was wondering why you are working with damage reflection in your first build. I think there are other stats that are more effective such as attributes (int/vit) on chest and block chance and block effectiveness on the shield.
Oddly, if you reduce the damage you take (Block chance + effectiveness) that reduces the amount of %Damage Reflected. So, while I want some block on the builds just to be sure I don’t outright die to damage, I don’t want to overdo it and reduce DPS too much.
I didn’t really totally optimize the stats on the Rare gear to be “merged” into the uniques, so I’m sure there might be slightly more optimal layouts.
p.s. I used rare gear because it kinda didn’t matter too much which affix was exalted.
You’re not going to try any of the new reflect themed uniques ? Thornshell and the wand ? I guess sorcerer and attunement + high ward don’t really go together…
They can drop as legendary & they aren’t in the build planner yet. Plus the shield won’t be as useful for a Spellblade (int-based) as a Primalist or Sentinel caster.
It figures that, as I come up with some Reflect builds, they decide to include a whole new Reflect Shield in the patch that makes me have to rethink the builds… lol
That actually what was implied in my sentence. I guess i expressed myself poorly. I was just curious as why he didn’t try to theorycraft with the new uniques / legendaries.
And yep i just wanted to know if he tried with primalist or sentinel, or if a attunement sorcerer was still something possible. (especially with the new number of affixes possible on gear.)
I used a proxy shield with roughly same stats as new Unique since its not in the planner yet.
I decided to spec into Focus to deal continuous AoE lightning damage as well.
