

INTRODUCTION

Hello, my name is



via Doctor cards (5+6+7+7+7+7+7+7=53 exalts within the first week of HSC)



While this build is not entirely beginner friendly, this build is extremely budget friendly. I started farming lab on day 2 with a 5L and uniques that will certainly not cost more than a chaos EVEN if this build takes off.



If you’re looking a Necromancer version of this build (which I'll be playing in 3.1) you can find my guide



This guide is broken into sections:

Videos - Watch the build in action

Build Breakdown - What's this build all about

Links / Pantheon / Bandits - What I picked

Gearing this build - What type of rares to get here

Leveling - how I leveled the character

Starting Uber Lab - where I was skill and gear wise when I started the lab

Endgame Gear - what to get to make this build really shine



3.1 Changes

Yes, Vaal Pact has changed and it does impact this build; however, this should still be a solid league starter for Uber lab. I plan to test this out without Vaal Pact at first, also forgoing Cloaked in Savagery for War Bringer. With ability to restore a large chunk of health and mana on demand (not to mention obtain regen now) I believe this build should be nearly as strong as it was in 3.0. If you want to see it in action i will be streaming live at www.twitch.tv/donthecrown with a focus on lab farming in the first week. I will update the guide as I discover the best course of action to take.



Videos

Spoiler

Day 2 of HSC

2nd Atziri Trio of HSC

2nd Atziri of HSC, deathless!

First Uber Izaro of League 4k life 1k mana

HH on Thursday of HSC week 1



Build Breakdown

Spoiler

This build is designed to be a boss farmer that has both a large amount of damage and a large effective health pool that can face tank a lot of content with little gear. This build also scales well with gear so the survivability and boss killing speed gets better over time. This build is designed mostly around farming Uber lab.



When you think about Uber lab you really have two separate specialties: killing Izaro / Argus with a low chance of failure and moving through the lab as fast as you can. We use two weapon sets to achieve these goals

Killing



Moving

+ Leap Slam-Faster Attacks - Fortify to navigate the lab. In order to deal with traps and trash we have a 3 link Blade Vortex in our Brightbeak which does a fine enough job.



How I landed on this build

3.0 and Harbinger League brought a lot of substantial changes to the meta and CI / Poison / Double Dip builds were all greatly nerfed by these changes. As someone who had started the last two leagues (Breach / Legacy) with Assassin CI Blade Vortex Poison builds, to remarkable success, I was worried. Since 3.0 also shook up the shaped strand meta, I wasn't confident that I would be able to accurately predict and adapt to the new meta in a profitable way the first week. (The first week of a league is the best time to make money) Because of these factors I wanted a build that I would be comfortable bossing with right off the bat. Atziri is generally always profitable the first week and is a reliable source of character experience. Uber lab likewise is generally always profitable, although it can have some really bad days. Lastly, farming shaper can be a great option early on. To this end I went Berserker (crazy leech) Blade Vortex (crazy damage) Mind Over Matter (crazy effective life, especially with pledge of hands)

This build is designed to be a boss farmer that has both a large amount of damage and a large effective health pool that can face tank a lot of content with little gear. This build also scales well with gear so the survivability and boss killing speed gets better over time. This build is designed mostly around farming Uber lab.When you think about Uber lab you really have two separate specialties: killing Izaro / Argus with a low chance of failure and moving through the lab as fast as you can. We use two weapon sets to achieve these goals+ Leap Slam-Faster Attacks - Fortify to navigate the lab. In order to deal with traps and trash we have a 3 link Blade Vortex in our Brightbeak which does a fine enough job.3.0 and Harbinger League brought a lot of substantial changes to the meta and CI / Poison / Double Dip builds were all greatly nerfed by these changes. As someone who had started the last two leagues (Breach / Legacy) with Assassin CI Blade Vortex Poison builds, to remarkable success, I was worried. Since 3.0 also shook up the shaped strand meta, I wasn't confident that I would be able to accurately predict and adapt to the new meta in a profitable way the first week. (The first week of a league is the best time to make money) Because of these factors I wanted a build that I would be comfortable bossing with right off the bat. Atziri is generally always profitable the first week and is a reliable source of character experience. Uber lab likewise is generally always profitable, although it can have some really bad days. Lastly, farming shaper can be a great option early on. To this end I went Berserker (crazy leech) Blade Vortex (crazy damage) Mind Over Matter (crazy effective life, especially with pledge of hands)

Links / Pantheon / Bandits

Spoiler

Links

Spoiler

Main Damage

Before Pledge

Blade Vortex - Spell Echo - Controlled Destruction - Increased Critical Strikes - Concentrated Effect ~ Increased Critical Damage Added Fire (in that order of importance)

After Pledge

Blade Vortex - Controlled Destruction - Increased Critical Strikes - Concentrated Effect ~ Increased Critical Damage Added Fire (in that order of importance, put this in Pledge of hands!)

Movement

Leap Slam - Faster Attacks - Fortify - Maim (jump on things to make them take more damage)

Aura

Hatred (This must go inside Essence Worm ring)

Totem

Decoy Totem (level up as much as possible and put wherever there is space)

CWDT 1

Cast when damage taken (10) - Firestorm (14) (this provides lots of leech hp back)

CWDT 2

Cast when damage taken (1) - Temporal Chains (1) - Immortal Call (1) ~ Vortex (1) (these keep you alive, not everyone likes Vortex)

Power Charges

Power Charge on Crit - Orb of Storms ~ Increased Critical Strikes(if space allows)



Pantheon

Spoiler

For lab I always used:

Soul of Solaris to help smooth out any slippery big hits from Izaro

Soul of Ryslatha for free flasks back, if you’re using Vaal Pact this is a MUST.



Bandits

Spoiler

I helped Kraitlyn for the movement / attack speed. Alira would also be good for the crit damage and budget assisting all res.



LinksPantheonBandits

Gearing this build

Spoiler

As a Mind over Matter user we want to make sure that we have at least 43% of our max life as unreserved mana. (

In order to maximize our survivability without breaking the bank we are going to use SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than rares with high Life and high resists, let alone ones with Life/Mana and high res.



Stat Priority on Rares

1 - Maximum Life

2 - A single elemental resist (any resist you're not capped on)

3 - Maximum Mana

4 - Chaos resist (we don't need a ton in the lab)

5 - Extra resist



oh by the way you need a good amount of Dex (151/155/159) for level 19/20/21 Blade Vortex.



Please note that only Energy shield bases will have Mana on them. Armour and Evasion are generally worthless for this build, don't bother stacking them on your gear. Until you have pledge of hands you will likely not have enough mana to cover the Life * .43 ratio. IF you're way over on mana without Pledge then you're likely low on life.



Side note: Amulet / Ring

You can score a LOT of resists on a single piece here. I would generally start with a medium life, HIGH res ring and amulet. Then eventually move towards an amulet with more damage mods, you can get the following on amulets:

Global Crit Multi / Global Crit / Spell Damage / Cast Speed



As a Mind over Matter user we want to make sure that we have at least 43% of our max life as unreserved mana. ( Supporting math found on wiki In order to maximize our survivability without breaking the bank we are going to use Aurumvorax at first. This will give you 40-60% all res (don't break the bank going for 60%) which is a big deal! In order to be resist cap you need 135% in each of the 3 elemental resists, so 405% resists. Since Aurumvorax is going to provide 120-180% of this (~42%) then you're free to buy rares with higher Life/Mana but crappy resists. These items will becheaper than rares with high Life and high resists, let alone ones with Life/Mana and high res.1 - Maximum Life2 - A single elemental resist (any resist you're not capped on)3 - Maximum Mana4 - Chaos resist (we don't need a ton in the lab)5 - Extra resistoh by the way you need a good amount of Dex (151/155/159) for level 19/20/21 Blade Vortex.Please note that only Energy shield bases will have Mana on them. Armour and Evasion are generally worthless for this build, don't bother stacking them on your gear. Until you have pledge of hands you will likely not have enough mana to cover the Life * .43 ratio. IF you're way over on mana without Pledge then you're likely low on life.Side note: Amulet / RingYou can score a LOT of resists on a single piece here. I would generally start with a medium life, HIGH res ring and amulet. Then eventually move towards an amulet with more damage mods, you can get the following on amulets:Global Crit Multi / Global Crit / Spell Damage / Cast Speed

Leveling

Spoiler

Leveling as a spell casting marauder is really odd at first. You'll likely need gear that has both DEX and INT on it in order to level your gems smoothly, although taking nearby +30 DEX/INT nodes is okay. If this is your first character of a league you may need friends / the market in order to obtain skill gems. Otherwise, if you have completed the gem vendor quest in Act 6 you should purchase the following:

Required Gems

Spoiler

- Blade Vortex (quality is nice here)

- Faster Casting

- Added Fire (Marauders get this too)

- Controlled Destruction

- Concentrated effect

- Increased Critical strikes

- Increased Critical Damage

- Spell Echo

- Firestorm

- Cast When Damage Taken x 2



Passives

Spoiler



50 points

115 pts



First 25 points Don't take the 30 DEX/INT nodes if you don't need them for gems

Ascendancy Order

Spoiler

I started with the leech from Pain Reaver and then went directly towards Aspect of Carnage. Although this build will eventually greatly rely on the 100% life leech from Cloaked in Savagery to face tank bosses, it doesn't help you kill your first Uber Izaro as much as the 40% more damage provided by Aspect of Carnage



Fancy Leveling Gear

Spoiler

None of this is required; however, these will add to your leveling ease if you have a base of wealth.

[[[TABULA RASA]]] - easy links are always nice

[[[GOLDRIM]]] - solid resist hat

[[[REVERB WAND]]] - an early BV - controlled destruction - concentrated affect does wonders in this

[[[AURUMVORAX]]] - often underrated, this sword is amazing at fixing your resists when you are broke. I started farming the Uber lab with one of these in each weapon setup to fix my resists for both combat and travel.



Leveling as a spell casting marauder is really odd at first. You'll likely need gear that has both DEX and INT on it in order to level your gems smoothly, although taking nearby +30 DEX/INT nodes is okay. If this is your first character of a league you may need friends / the market in order to obtain skill gems. Otherwise, if you have completed the gem vendor quest in Act 6 you should purchase the following:

Starting Uber Lab

Spoiler

When you start Uber lab I would recommend at least being level 70 and having a 5L Blade vortex (Level 19). Decoy totem and a spell totem linked to Culling Strike Support is also EXTREMLY helpful at this phase. Make sure the rest of your gear has life and mana with a bit of resists. Aurumvorax can carry a lot of the resists (especially if you buy a good roll) so you should be able to buy higher life + mana items than normal since the resists will be middling. Generally, before I do my first Uber I'll do a test Atziri run or two to check the damage and survivability. This league was the smoothest day 1/2 Atziris that I've had yet.







Flasks

Spoiler

Insta Hp Flask - Helps a lot on traps

Mana Flask - it pains me to use this BUT mana is also life and being out of mana is the WORST

Diamond Flask - Lots more Crits

Atziri's Flask - Some more damage

Stibnite Flask - This is great, blinds anything in the 'cloud' that is created when you use it. This makes Izaro have a 50% chance to miss on top of any other defenses you may have.







I would highly recommend ignoring Argus and skipping/bypassing extremely rippy Izaro mods (Charges|Conduits|Essences|Gargoyles are generally more dangerous). I would also EXTREMELY recommend hitting as many Darkshrines (that are somewhat reasonably easy to get) since they are always positive now and can give you permanent shrine mods that can make the lab a cakewalk. (e.g. 100% crit, take no damage)



[/spoiler]

Endgame Gear

Spoiler



As I farmed Uber lab I slowly upgraded some of my rares until I could drop Aurumvorax and then started using another cheap weapon:



This weapon is underestimated in a big way. For our build, we'll get mana for MoM, spell damage, and Culling Strike on spells. This will free up a slot from dropping Culling Strike Support. Eventually I 5 linked a:



and bought a

(3ex on day 3ish)

and switched to these items. This gave me about 2,000 effective life because of the big bumps in both life and mana. Also, you can drop Spell Echo Support and add Increased Critical Damage since Pledge automatically grants you a Spell Echo(lvl 30) for anything in the staff.



At this point you should be able to comfortably defeat any Uber Izaro combination with little to no movement necessary. If you want to keep improving your gear, in case you want to go farm harder bosses, you can get better rare items, maybe even ((((Atziri's Acquities)))

My Final Rares





Final Tree (You could drop Diamond Skin for Purity of Flesh)As I farmed Uber lab I slowly upgraded some of my rares until I could drop Aurumvorax and then started using another cheap weapon:This weapon is underestimated in a big way. For our build, we'll get mana for MoM, spell damage, and Culling Strike on spells. This will free up a slot from dropping Culling Strike Support. Eventually I 5 linked a:and bought a(3ex on day 3ish)and switched to these items. This gave me about 2,000 effective life because of the big bumps in both life and mana. Also, you can drop Spell Echo Support and add Increased Critical Damage since Pledge automatically grants you a Spell Echo(lvl 30) for anything in the staff.At this point you should be able to comfortably defeat any Uber Izaro combination with little to no movement necessary. If you want to keep improving your gear, in case you want to go farm harder bosses, you can get better rare items, maybe even ((((Atziri's Acquities)))





Thanks for reading my guide! This is my first full length guide so feedback is appreciated! If you want to catch me live you can find me at:







Hello, my name is DonTheCrown and in this guide I would like to share with you the build that I used to farm Uber lab from the 2nd day of the Harbinger Softcore league. During the first week of the league I was able to use this build to kill primarily Uber Lab, with a bit of normal Atziri, efficiently enough to be able to afford avia Doctor cards (5+6+7+7+7+7+7+7=53 exalts within the first week of HSC)While this build is not entirely beginner friendly, this build is extremely budget friendly. I started farming lab on day 2 with a 5L and uniques that will certainly not cost more than a chaos EVEN if this build takes off.If you’re looking a Necromancer version of this build (which I'll be playing in 3.1) you can find my guide here. This guide is broken into sections:Videos - Watch the build in actionBuild Breakdown - What's this build all aboutLinks / Pantheon / Bandits - What I pickedGearing this build - What type of rares to get hereLeveling - how I leveled the characterStarting Uber Lab - where I was skill and gear wise when I started the labEndgame Gear - what to get to make this build really shineYes, Vaal Pact has changed and it does impact this build; however, this should still be a solid league starter for Uber lab. I plan to test this out without Vaal Pact at first, also forgoing Cloaked in Savagery for War Bringer. With ability to restore a large chunk of health and mana on demand (not to mention obtain regen now) I believe this build should be nearly as strong as it was in 3.0. If you want to see it in action i will be streaming live at www.twitch.tv/donthecrown with a focus on lab farming in the first week. I will update the guide as I discover the best course of action to take.I would highly recommend ignoring Argus and skipping/bypassing extremely rippy Izaro mods (Charges|Conduits|Essences|Gargoyles are generally more dangerous). I would also EXTREMELY recommend hitting as many Darkshrines (that are somewhat reasonably easy to get) since they are always positive now and can give you permanent shrine mods that can make the lab a cakewalk. (e.g. 100% crit, take no damage)[/spoiler]Thanks for reading my guide! This is my first full length guide so feedback is appreciated! If you want to catch me live you can find me at: www.twitch.tv/donthecrown Last edited by DonTheCrown on Dec 8, 2017, 8:31:25 PM Last bumped on Feb 12, 2018, 6:14:40 PM