5 months ago

Ascendancy ThumbnailLevel 96 MoM Crit Lightning Tendrils Guardian3.23

Life: 2,238127%
ES: 1,668
Mana: 208%
eHP:
551,884
Resistances: 78%/78%/78%/61%
Evade: 66%
Block: 64%
Spell Block: 75%
Armour: 27,891
Evasion: 6,135
DPS: 62,454,440
Speed: 20.57
Hit Chance: 100%
Crit Chance: 100.00%
Crit Multi: 707%
Config: Pinnacle, Frenzy
Bandit: Kill All
Pantheon: Soul of Lunaris, Soul of Gruthkul

Gear

Imbued WandLacewood Spirit ShieldEternal BurgonetGarb of the EphemeralVixen's EntrapmentTitan GreavesMarylene's FallacyAnathemaAmethyst Ring(Disabled) Bound Fate
Divine Life FlaskSulphur FlaskSilver FlaskAmethyst FlaskGranite Flask
Large Cluster JewelForbidden FleshBloodnotchForbidden FlameImmutable ForceThat Which Was TakenWatcher's EyeElegant HubrisCorvine CharmUrsine CharmUrsine Charm

Gems

Lightning Tendrils
Infused Channelling
Awakened Controlled Destruction
Awakened Added Lightning Damage
Increased Critical Damage
Awakened Elemental Focus
Shield Charge
Faster Attacks
Enfeeble
Haste
Divine Blessing
Increased Duration
Punishment
Flame Dash
Conductivity
Elemental Weakness
Tempest Shield
Arrogance
Molten Shell
Cast when Damage Taken
Vaal Grace
Determination
Enlighten
Petrified Blood
Summon Sentinel of Radiance
EnemyExplode
Summon Elemental Relic

Tree Preview

Might of the BearMight of the Bear
Divine ShieldDivine Shield
Eldritch BatteryEldritch Battery
Eternal YouthEternal Youth
Lethe ShadeLethe Shade
Mind Over MatterMind Over Matter
Pain AttunementPain Attunement
SolipsismSolipsism
Armour and Energy Shield MasteryArmour and Energy Shield Mastery
  • 10% of Armour also applies to Chaos Damage taken from Hits
Block MasteryBlock Mastery
  • 20 Life gained when you Block
  • 20 Mana gained when you Block
Caster MasteryCaster Mastery
  • 25% more Spell Damage if you've been Stunned while Casting Recently
Curse MasteryCurse Mastery
  • Your Curses have 20% increased Effect if 50% of Curse Duration expired
Energy Shield MasteryEnergy Shield Mastery
  • 30% of Chaos Damage taken does not bypass Energy Shield
  • Stun Threshold is based on 60% of your Energy Shield instead of Life
Life MasteryLife Mastery
  • 15% increased maximum Life if there are no Life Modifiers on Equipped Body Armour
  • You count as on Low Life while at 55% of maximum Life or below
Protection MasteryProtection Mastery
  • Corrupted Blood cannot be inflicted on you
Reservation MasteryReservation Mastery
  • 20% increased Life Reservation Efficiency of Skills
Stun MasteryStun Mastery
  • Hits against you Cannot be Critical Strikes if you've been Stunned Recently

Notes

About
Main idea of this build is to stack multiple Pendulum* effects. It is widely accepted that effects of this type are bad due to unreliability - so I decided to get as many as possible and make a build that can go crazy when all of them align. 
Those effects include:
 - Positive [Bound Fate] procs.
 - Fanaticism" buff from [Instruments of Zeal].
 - Divinity" buff from [Garb of the Ephemeral].
 - [Lightning Tendrils] - "Releases a Stronger Pulse every 3 Pulses, Stronger Pulses always Critically Strike".
 - [Curse Mastery] - "Your Curses have 20% increased Effect if 50% of Curse Duration expired".

Since [Instruments of Zeal] can be allocated through Forbidden Jewels I'm going Guardian as Ascendancy.

*"Pendulum effect" refers to effects that are active only some of the time or switch between different "modes" on a set timer. Name comes from the first effect of this type - Pendulum of Destruction. 

Dealing damage
To best take advantage of those powerful Pendulum effects I'm using [Lightning Tendrils] - it is a perfect skill for this setup for the following reasons:

 - LT guarantees a critical strike on every 3'rd pulse - I'm taking advantage of that and using [Controlled Destruction] and [Marylene's Fallacy] to boost that 3'rd pulse. This by itself is already a strong setup to scale LT damage. But since [Bound Fate] has a "Your Hits are always Critical Strikes" proc - I can occasionally deal full damage on every pulse rather than on 3'rd.
 - LT is a lightning skill, meaning that it benefits a lot from [Bound Fate]'s "Your Damage with Hits is Lucky" proc. (due to high variance in Lightning damage rolls)
 - It obviously benefits from "Divinity" buff (50% More Elemental Damage) and "Fanaticism" buff (75% more Cast Speed, 75% Reduced Cost, 75% increased Area of Effect)
 - I'm using Shield Charge to maintain "Fanaticism" - since LT is a channelled skill it's much easier to weave SC attacks while channelling. Channelled skills are not going to cause animation-locking. 
 - LT hits fast (and VERY fast when Fanaticism is active) - this allows me to maintain summons from [Unwavering Crusade] pretty much permanently.

I'm using [Anathema] and [Vixen's Entrapment] to apply Conductivity, Elemental Weakness, Enfeeble and Punishment. Curse Effectiveness scaling is very powerful right now.
Also, this is a [Bloodnotch] build - so I'm going to get stunned a lot. This allows me to use [Caster Mastery] - "25% more Spell Damage if you've been Stunned while Casting Recently".

Defences
This build is insanely tanky. Only DoT damage can cause some issues - which is standard for Petrified Blood build.

Block
Since [Instruments of Zeal] already causes me to both attack and cast spells, I can also maintain [Bastion of Hope]'s buffs 100% of the time. 
This combined with using a shield and [Tempest Shield] puts me at ~50% Block and Spell Block. 
From there capping both types of Block is possible. In fact, I can cap Spell Blocks just from the passive tree.

Recovery
 - I'm using the standard [Bloodnotch] + [Immutable Force] + [Petrified Blood] combo to get big recovery. This is further enhanced by getting [Trial of the Faith] notable and Life Recoup on a ring. 
 - For life leech I'm using Doryani's Lesson, and thanks to Petrified Blood I can overleech. 
 - ES leech is also important since I'm using [Eldritch Battery] + [Mind Over Matter]. Lucky [Vixen's Entrapment] provides that. 

Ailments
 - Elemental Ailments - this build is fully immune to shock (from [Tempest Shield]) and reduces duration of every other ele ailments by over 100% with [Solipsism] (this is equal to being immune unless you are standing on a ground effect). 
   Since I must use [Supreme Ostentation] to wear [Garb of The Ephemeral] I can pick [Solipsism] for free. And since I'm reducing Ailment Duration by over 100%, I can also get [Lethe Shade] for free. 
   I'm also running [Time of Need] - just in case.
 - Bleed - I'm running a Bleed Immunity Life Flask and a charm with "Unaffected by Bleeding While Leeching".
 - Corrupted Blood - "Corrupted Blood cannot be inflicted on you" from [Protection Mastery]
 - Poison - "Cannot be Poisoned" ring corruption.

Other
There are also 2 Pendulum effects that will occasionally boost defences even further: 
 - [Bound Fate]'s "Attacks cannot Hit you".
 - [Divinity]'s "20% less elemental damage taken".

[Radiant Crusade] is also worth mentioning - If you can pre-cast it before a big damage spike, it's a free 20% damage reduction. 
This can be the difference between dying or surviving Uber 1-shorts. 

Dealing with [Bound Fate]'s downsides
 - Hits against you are always Critical Strikes" - this can be countered by getting [Stun Mastery] "Hits against you Cannot be Critical Strikes if you've been Stunned Recently". Another option would be getting 100% reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes - this can be achieved through tree passives and a Shield mod. Note: [Garb of the Ephemeral]'s "Nearby Enemies cannot deal Critical Strikes" will not work.
 - Attacks against you always Hit" - I simply don't rely on Evasion for defences. I still run Grace however - it seems worth it.
 - Damage of Hits against you is Lucky" - this could be countered by using [Lori's Lantern]. This is a very good ring for this build anyway. 
   And since it's cheap, it's easy to get good corruption on it. 
   In the end I decided against using it however, since "Lucky Damage" downside does not seem to actually be that bad. It would probably be a bigger problem If I was not crit-immune.