Level 97 Hybrid Shield Charge Saboteur^3.26

Notes

* eater implicits + scarab farm


* farm for awakened fire pen/unbound and watchers eye
* farm elder/shaper/kirac for watchers eyes (meh)
* breach tree (xp + splinters for feared)
* get fire cluster + roll for cremator (and combo with cinderswallow)
* ore/dust farm + recomb weapon & other shit

* merc gloves
* heist for the admiral? (combo w/doryani's)
* best bases in all slots (shield, helm, boots)
* farm forbidden tomes + sanctum for sandstorm or fix crit (shield, amulet, shaper ring, jewels, weapon)

* aspect of the crab?

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UPDATES AFTER 3.26 LEAGUE LAUNCH

DAY 1 UPDATES

MERCENARIES THAT LOOK PROMISING
	-Mercenaries seem VERY good for this build heres a couple skills to keep in mind
	-Absolution Templar Mercenary adds a lot of damage through Zealotry + Battlemagecry, this Mercenary also has minions to tank for you!
	-Molten Strike Mercenary adds damage through Anger, Punishment, and Infernal Cry, this adds potentially even more damage, but less minion meat shields.
	-Fortify / Endurance Charge Mercenary can be very nice defensively.

CONSIDER REDUCED PROJECTILE SPEED NODES FOR BOSSES	
	-If your gear isn't amazing when you reach Eater/Exarch, considering temporarily speccing into Adjacent Animosity and the Chain Damage Mastery
	-This will help single target but reduce clear speed, I would recommend it for the Voidstone bosses

DAY 2 UPDATES

MERCENARY GEAR
	-Perquil's Toe for lucky hits
	-Flammability ring from delve + Doedre's ring for +1 Curse (this allows your merc to curse and you also to still use sniper's mark)
	-Pyroshock Clasp Belt OR Kaom's Binding belt (enemy phys convert to elemental)
	-Crown of the Tyrant (off Aul)
	-Matua Tupuna aura effect shield (for Zealotry)
	-Singularity for slow aura
	-Cloak of Tawm'r for minions blind / Garb of Ephermal for expensive option
	-Breathstealer gloves (you can anoint these with aura related anoint) / Surgebinder? (stealcharges / could use Ambu's with this maybe) or Vixen's with Ele weakness corruption

HOW TO CRAFT CLUSTERS	
	-Medium clusters are easy to roll, just use Reforge Critical from harvest
	-Large Cluster, these are annoying, just getting 3 passives is the priority here, the actual passives matter a little less. 
	-Fossils seem to be the best, alt spamming + regal / exalt + anul could be an option here too... or just Reforge Fire from harvest

DAY 3-4 UPDATES

PRIORITIES IF YOU'RE STRUGGLING EARLY
	-Main priority to fix damage early in your characters progress, is first to acquire a 5-Link ASAP
	-After that you are looking to upgrade your weapon and start crafting Cluster Jewels, these are massive!
	-Defensively, as soon as you can; look to upgrade into a high EV/ES Necrotic Armor as well as a high EV/ES Supreme Spiked Shield - these give massive avoidance as well as make "Ghost Dance" insanely good

CRAFTING WAND TIPS
	-Fractured +1 fire or +1 spell is generally the easiest way combined with harvest reforging or essences.
	-+1 fire and t1 damage to spells is pretty close to +2, so if you want to craft without a fracture, go for this instead along with spell damage.
	-An easy way to recombine is to vendor a white wand base with a combined total of 40% quality fire gems (this is the +1 fire recipe)
	-After you get +1 fire you can alt spam t1 fire to spells and then recombine (use the old method, it's better)
	-With prefixes "finished" you can do prefix cannot be changed reforge crit (this can't fill prefixes because no crit prefix) - this will give spell crit, crit, or crit multi, and it can potentially fill suffixes
	-After that, it depends on how the suffixes rolled, but from there you can craft Spell Damage from bench or finish it with a combination of meta crafting and veiled orbs (this can get expensive, I only recommend you do this if you're experienced with crafting)

MANA PROBLEMS STILL?
	-As you get more and more Mine Throwing speed, and a 6-link mana becomes more and more of an issue
	-A few things you can do about this, first off, you can run a low level clarity and take "Cold Hearted Calculation" node on the tree for some extra mana regen
	-You can run "Shaper's Seed" unique amulet on your mercenary for 80% mana regeneration rate
	-The Life Mastery "15% of Mana cost as Life instead" can help quite a bit too!
	-And don't forget to craft -mana crafts on amulet/rings!
	-You can also run a -mana clarity "Watcher's Eye"
	-If you do not yet have "Sandstorm Visage" there is an infamous helmet modifier (from dex/int trap/mine Mercenary) that causes Mines to reserve Life instead of Mana, this will also help a lot

 ARKHON'S TOOLS & IT'S DOWNSIDES
	-This belt is ABSURDLY good for damage and mana
	-It grants massive boosts to your Summon Skitterbots through increased effect of ailments, and also causes them to apply Scorch as well! (this reduces enemy resists, make sure you replace Elemental Mastery from Invert Resists to 18% Exposure instead)
	-If that wasn't enough it also has Mine Throwing Speed AND Mana Reservation Efficiency - increasing both your damage and relieving some mana issues (this also allows you to link "Unbound Ailments" to Summon Skitterbots for even more benefit!
	-THE DOWNSIDES! It does also make the Summon Skitterbots apply their debuffs to you. This does sound bad, but it's actually pretty easy to mitigate or even turn it into a good thing!
	-With "Pyromaniac" you are already immune to Shock, so that just leaves Chill and Scorch.	
	-Scorch can be dealt with by overcapping your resists, effectively it is just a permament Elemental Weakness, this can be done pretty easily through gear + Alira. (jewels can help a lot for capping your resists!)
	-Chill is also very easy to deal with, and can even be used as an upside!
	-There is a prefix boot craft that grants both movement speed and 100% chance to avoid chill - this can be used to negate the downside, but there is also another option.
	-With the "Winterweave" unique ring you can reverse the chill on you into a buff instead! This is effectively the "Action Speed" modifier, and it's a multiplier to all of your actions; including Mine Throwing Speed and Movement Speed.

ENDGAME OPTIONS
	-Emnity's Embrace ring is a monster, but it requires massive gear investment. Likely not worth it without a Mageblood or at least Tides of Time with perma Ruby Flask uptime & Purity of Fire.
	-+4 Gem Level Cloak of Flames or +4 Gem Level Lightning Coil are also options, these are worse defensively than the EV/ES but are much more damage
	-Offensively the best option will be to go for Emnity's Embrace combined with +4 Cloak of Flames, but this will likely be a bit of a glass cannon
	-Defensively the best option will be to go for Max Resists through Melding, The Traitor, or Mageblood and combine it with a Lightning Coil
	-Overall Necrotic Armor EV/ES will be the most solid still for mapping, but there is a lot of different endgame paths you can take!


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IDEA BEHIND THE BUILD AND WHY IT SHOULD WORK WELL:
	-Rolling Magma skill changes how chains work by turning them into "bounces". It also have up to +6 chain or bounces built into the gem. 
	-From a single cast, each bounce has a chance to deal damage, however, normally Rolling Magma travels in a straight line, making it unlikely to hit more than a few times even on big targets.
	-In 3.26 Saboteur Ascendancy will be gaining the modifier "Projectiles are fired in random directions" - which before was only found on Nimis unique ring, a very expensive endgame chase item.
	-This causes Rolling Magma to overlap much better on single target and clear, because instead of a straight line, it bounces back and forth and it can hit every bounce.

REGEX LEVELING: (\w\W){5}|(-\w){5}|g-g-g|b-b-|-b-b|b-.-b|nne|Flam

ACT 1-3 SELF CAST ROLLING MAGMA WITH ELE PROLIF + COMBUSTION
	-Make sure you go for double crafted Fire to Spells off Solaris 2 recipe. (4 transmutes per craft - total 8 transmutes)
	-With Dark Arts make sure you use two different weapon types, you can whirling blades with a claw/dagger or sword/dagger.
	-Can weapon swap wands early for damage on single target before Dark Arts.
	-You can mule a Templar for Ele prolif / Rolling Magma to ease gem pressure early. (fresh start shadow needs a lot of wisdoms/transmutes)

NORMAL LAB WILL BE THE NEW NODE "Shrapnel Specialist" 
	-This is basically Nimis ring for Rolling Magma.
	-All we really care about is the projectiles go in random directions. (the Return Projectile is basically +1 chain, which is alright but mostly about the other part)
	-You can opt to go for "BORN IN SHADOWS" for HC if you want, it's one of the best defensive nodes in the game, personally I will take it from Cruel Lab though.

THE MINE SWAP 31+
	-At 31, and after you grab Normal Lab you can swap to Mines, ideally you want a 4-link, either 3B1G or 4B
	-The most important links are High Impact and Charged Mines. The 4th link can be Volley until level 38, then you switch to Minefield when you can.
	-Make sure you grab Automation and Detonate Mines from Library as well.

DROPPING DARK ARTS
	-Whenever you find a good shield and better weapon, consider dropping Dark Arts and going Shield Charge instead. (likely around Act 6+)

IF YOU EVER HAVE ISSUES WITH MANA YOU CAN TAKE ELDRITCH BATTERY (MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ES ON GEAR SOMEWHERE)
	-Ideally endgame you run two -mana cost rings, that combined with some reduced mana cost should be enough to drop EB
	-Likely will have to use a MANA FLASK throughout the campaign, once you get Dreamer, should be enough to drop.

CRUEL LAB WILL BE BORN IN SHADOWS (or Shrapnel Specialist if you took it first)

MERC LAB CAN BE EITHER BOMB SPECIALIST OR DEMOLITION SPECIALIST - UBER LAB SHOULD BE PYROMANIAC BUT BOMB SPECIALIST IS BETTER EARLY

PREPARING FOR MAPS
	-You'll want to start getting Suppression nodes and more %HP
	-If you are playing on SC you can start looking into going for the Crit nodes
	-Dexterity might be an issue, keep an eye out for dex gear, possibly take the +30 dex node.
	-Can add in Arctic Armor if mana allows
	-MAKE SURE YOU GET 2% CDR ON A JEWEL FOR SERVER TICK RATE ON DETONATE MINES (also 20/20 Automation and 1/20 Detonate Mines are important)
	-There is a 2nd breakpoint at 22% cdr (this requires 20% cdr belt or a combination of belt/jewel/boot implicit)
	-GOOD ANOINTS ARE FRENZY CHARGE, DISCIPLE OF UNYIELDING, ADJACENT ANIMOSITY / Might need Suppression annoint with cluster set-up

**KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR ESSENCE OF ZEAL TO THROW ON BELTS** (this gives Mine Throw speed which is super important for both QoL and damage)

UNIQUES TO KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR
	-Elevore for early suppression / sustain
	-Lightning Coil or Cloak of Flames are good for Physical Mitigation
	-Kongmings shield is good for Spell damage Mitigation
	-Gloomfang is a good DPS option early on
	-Dying Sun could be OK flask option, though bad uptime
	-Sandstorm Visage / Prophecy Wand could be endgame set-up for cap crit
	-Anathema with multi curse could also be very strong option
	-Enmity's Embrace is super OP new ring (likely really rare chase item)
	-Replica Dragonflight with +3 to Rolling Magma will be hard to beat for Amulet, Ashes could be interesting as well, or +level multi rare amulet
	
**KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR +2 CHAIN GLOVE MOD FROM MERCENARIES**
	-Might be rare/high level maps/unknown

SLOW PROJECTILES / LESS PROJECTILE SPEED IS GOOD FOR OVERLAPPING SINGLE TARGET, BUT BAD FOR CLEAR (you can swap in Faster Projectiles or Trap and Mine if you'd like instead, or just use Fire Pen for both)