Level 93 LL Vaal Haste Ascendant^3.21

Notes

NOTES NOT UPDATED FOR 3.21 (YET)
NOTES NOT UPDATED FOR 3.21 (YET)
NOTES NOT UPDATED FOR 3.21 (YET)

Hello! Welcome to our aurabot guide for 3.20

If you're looking for someone to group with or just want a bunch of people to talk about the build with then you should check out our Discord server. 
It's a friendly and helpful place and is a great place to ask questions.   https://discord.gg/gcZKtz7

(PoB colors may make links buggy, remove any extraneous characters it might try to add)

We'll also be streaming on league start, so if you want to see these builds in action come say hi!      https://twitch.tv/haloplasm	https://www.twitch.tv/seikelp

There are detailed video guides explaining how these builds work in detail if you want more information.
Carry guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq1c2lI4hrE
Aurabot 101: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSZ05E6qe4U
3.20 Aurabot update/guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSZ05E6qe4U
Third party member mini-guide: https://youtu.be/ONZfgjkZ6Gc

--Leveling--
(This will be focused on gem/item acquisition/progression and tips on how to play the aurabot. Generic duo leveling and zone-by-zone pathing guides can be found in the Useful Resources channel of the Discord server.
-Act 1-
Considerations:
Whenever you enter town, check Nessa and Tarkleigh for links (and movespeed boots) using the following paste: -[rgb]-.-|b-b-g|b-g-b|g-b-b|nne|rint|sce

To squeeze out more damage against bosses, be sure to place down Orb of Storms before throwing your Stormblast Mines, and stack as many mines as you can get away with before detonating, as each undetonated mine applies inc. damage taken.
(Bonus points for making sure you have arcane surge up while they detonate.)	
Kill any essence monsters you find, as you'll need them for the spell damage crafts in act 2.
Since we're using sceptres to leap slam, you'll want to try and pick up 2 Driftwood Sceptres as they have the best base AS.
Try and pick up a jade amulet and heavy belt. These two items will fulfill any attribute requirements over the next 2 acts.
Throughout the Campaign you may want to use a mechanic referred to as boss snapshotting. Unique monsters get 100% more hp per party member in the area; the game will check for party members when the boss first becomes targetable (when the healtbar appears).
By having one player leave the zone (the entire zone, not just the room or arena) as the boss becomes vulnerable, the game will not apply the party HP bonus and the boss will have half the hp it otherwise would for the rest of the fight.
The absent player can reenter the zone the moment the boss spawns. In act 2, the bandits "snapshot" their HP when a player first talks to them. For more info, google "boss snapshotting poe"

Gem Acquisition:
Level 2:
Stormblast Mine, Nessa, 1 wisdom
Pierce support, Nessa, 1 wisdom (for the sparky carry)
Arcane Surge support, Nessa, quest reward (tidal island)
Flame Wall, Nessa, 1 wisdom			(This is only to buff the damage of a spark carry, and to roast marshmallows The Coast) 
level 4:
Frostblink + Frost Bomb Tarkleigh, quest reward
Orb of Storms, Nessa, 1 wisdom
Level 8:
Added Lightning Damage, Nessa, quest reward
Level 10:
Leap slam, Tarkleigh, quest reward

~While your OoS and Stormblast Mines are initially linked to the same Added Lightning support, you'll eventually want to buy another, to get your OoS its own link so that it can replace Frost Bomb for generating onslaught.

-Act 2-
Considerations:
Act 2 is where you'll do your added spell damage crafts on your sceptres. The recipe is as follows:
Magic weapon + magic resist ring or rare resist ring + 1 alteration. 
Using a magic ring will result in an item with a 14 level requirement, whereas a rare ring will give the weapon a level requirement of 20 and a higher tier of added damage to spells.
I recommend doing your first craft with a magic ring as soon as you're level 14, and then doing a rare ring craft later on. 
Because we have such pathetic damage nodes on the tree, waiting until level 20 to get double rare ring crafts is a luxury you don't have.
When fighting the act 2 boss, and early act 3 unique enemies such as piety, you may have to turn off your herald of thunder to get enough open mana to comfortably reserve both stormblast mine and Skitterbots.

Gem Acquisition:
Level 16:
Herald of Thunder, Greust, quest reward
Level 18:
Concentrated effect, Silk, quest reward
Faster Attacks support, Yeena, 1 alt
Summon Skitterbots, Yeena, 1 alt

-Act 3-
Considerations:
Once you're level 24, vendors have the potential to offer a 4-link, so always check your vendors.
The best bases to chrome are Str/Dex, or Str/Int for the act 4 transition to full aurabot, but if something like a 3b1g or 4b shows up, you can of course grab it and throw another support gem on your current setup.
Also be on the lookout for your duo's ideal 4-link (for spark this is 2b1g1r, or any 4-linked base with an Int requirement.
Be sure to farm docks instances while your duo progresses onward if you're even slightly in need of the extra xp.
If you need extra chance orbs to buy gems from Siosa, you can trade 1 fusing for a chance orb at Clarissa.
If you happen to have 3 augs at this point, you can craft 10-14% increased movement speed on any boots you find with life/res and an open prefix.

Gem Acquisition:
Level 24:
Wrath, Maramoa, quest reward      note: stick with HoT + Skitterbots until you have enough reservation to replace HoT with wrath.
Conductivity, Clarissa, 1 alt
Level 28:
Lightning Penetration or Ice Bite support, Siosa, quest reward	(for carry)

-Act 4-
Considerations:
If you're strong enough, you should run Kaom's while your duo does Daresso. 
If your damage has fallen off at this point, you can stop at the waypoint at the start of the second Kaom zone and farm the dried lake while your duo completes Daresso.
Again, remember to keep looking for those 4 links!

--THE GREAT AURABOT SWAP--
This is where you swap to being a full aurabot with no damage capabilities. It's important not to undertake this swap until you've collected all the requisite pieces; it's totally fine to delay this swap until act 5 or even 6.

Gems needed:
Smite, Nessa, 1 wisdom
Vitality, Nessa, 1 wisdom
Faster Attacks support, Yeena, 1 alt
Generosity support, Clarissa, 1 chance
Discipline, Clarissa, 1 alt
LEVEL 1 Stormblast Mine, Siosa, 1 wisdom 		(level 1 stormblast mine has lower rerservation than the level ~12 that you had previously; discard your higher level one. Act 3 Siosa and act 6 Lilly offer all gems at level 1)

Items needed:
1) 4L: you'll want a 2r1b1g, though if you haven't managed to find a 4 link, a 2b1r works, dropping Faster Attacks.
2) A melee weapon, preferably a cutlass, which you should be looking for from the act 4 vendor throughout the act. (Cutlass grants accuracy for smite and has 1.55 base attack speed.)
3) sufficient properly colored sockets to socket everything else, though the only other link is between Leap Slam and Faster Attacks.

Drop Summon Skitterbots, throw in Vitality and Discipline.
Take the Discipline reservation mastery (You'll respec it in an act or two, then re-allocate it again later on).
Feel free to unbind your detonate mines button, since you'll always be leaving the mines undetonated on the ground for their offensive aura.
From here on out, your order of priority for damage buffs skills is Smite > Conductivity> Stormblast Mines

End GREAT AURABOT SWAP
--

Gem Acquisition:
Level 34:
Soul Link, Oyun, quest reward		(Just level this gem, you won't be using it before mid tier maps; you're typically much squishier than your duo and pressing soul link only exacerbates that).
Level 38:
Minefield support, Petarus & Vanja, 1 alch

-Act 5-
Considerations:
Take a granite flask as a reward from Lani; despite the fact that we run grace far earlier than determination, an early granite flask is too good to pass up.
If you missed a cutlass from the act 4 vendor, they can still be found from the act 5 weapons vendor early on.
Chamber of Innocence is a great zone to run 2 or 3 times for experience and loot, along with the potential for a delirium mirror.

From this point onward, the only gems you'll be picking up are ones you skipped earlier, e.g. Grace, so most of these acts won't have a Gem Acuisition section.

-Act 6-
Considerations:
The moment you get into act 6, open the character sheet to check your ele res; you'll want to craft transmute tier resists on each piece of grear until you've reached around +40%. 
If you can't get this much Ele res, just craft what you can and carry on.
This is one of your squisihest points relative to monster damage. While, as an aurabot, you'll typically want to stay directly on your carry, for few acts here you can try to position a bit behind them to avoid getting blown up by monsters.
When you've attained both the Vitality and Grace reservation masteries, you'll replace Discipline with Grace. Feel free to respec the discipline mastery for a free skill point; you won't be reallocating it for a while.
From here until attaining Pathfinder ascendancy, you might have to tell your carry to slow down slightly so that you stay within xp and flask range, though Leap Slam can help mitigate this issue.
There are several rewards in act 6 through 10 that give 4-linked pieces of rare gear. Be sure to pick the item base with attribute requirements that allow you to easily recolor them according to your current needs.

-Act 7-
Considerations:
Check the first zone for the silver locket for Weylam's quest; flasks are very valuable since you're going to acquire your Pathfinder ascendancy before the end of the act. Take a jade flask.
Don't take Greust's necklace from Helena; the quest takes some time and is useless. Also, as a quest item, you can't delete it in town and have to drop it on the ground somewhere.
Here you can look to pick up a Vaal Haste off trade if it's less than 2 chaos and your carry already has their cheap leveling uniques. 
While you normally only use the vaal aura, if you notice your carry has enough damage to oneshot everything, you can turn off Wrath and run Haste in its stead until you feel the need for more damage.

-Act 8-
Considerations:
As you're accquiring your reservation nodes through the later acts, you'll probably want to add auras in the order of Defiance Banner -> Discipline -> Clarity. Remember, the carry should be running clarity until that point.
Reallocate the Discipline mastery to allow you to run the aura.

Gem Acquisition:
Defiance Banner, Act 2, Yeena, 1 alt
Arrogance support, Act 6, Lilly, 1 chance (not used until late maps but you might as well start leveling it)
Clarity, Act 1, Nessa, 1 transmute (start leveling it and equip it after attaining the clarity mastery in act 9 or 10)
Determination, act 3, 1 alt (again, just leveling the gem)

-Act 9-
Considerations:
The Trial of Ascendancy in The Tunnels is always the first left off the main path
Though you now have a large chunk of ES from Discipline, continue to prioritize res > life > strength on gear, don't worry about ES on gear.
At this point you can start aiming to overcap your resists to 105% so that you can get straight into mapping after being cursed by a10 kitava.

-Act 10-
Considerations:
I typically like to take a silver flask from Lani for the quest reward, as the speed is always appreciated, and you should have already acquired the 2 best defensive flasks, jade and granite.
Don't expect to get any fortify from your champion ascendancy node, since your smite will be hitting for miniscule damage amounts. You take this node for that juicy 15% aura effect.
Kill Kitava.


--Mapping progression and item priority--

Immediately upon finishing campaign:
Type /passives to check that you acquired all skillpoints available from quests (24 passive points).
Look to cap your elemental resistances
Make sure to run the first map from Kirac in Oriath Shores for both players, so that you both have access to Kirac's map inventory and both receieve atlas missions by completing maps.
Pick up a Vaal Haste from trade if you haven't already.
Swap in an Additional Accuracy Support (buy from act 1 Nessa so that it's mostly leveled) in your smite links in place of Faster Attacks Support
Start allocating passive points to the attack speed nodes on scion start. Once you have 4 regret orbs available, respec the spell damage nodes; the attack speed is superior to spell damage and will make your smite less cumbersome.
Buy a Cast when Damage Taken support and Molten Shell from lilly and set these up in a 2 link. You should leave the CWDT at level 1 as to proc as quickly as possible, which means that you need to keep your Molten Shell at level 10 or below.
(if you accidentally level molten shell up to 11 you can de-level it down to level 10 by vendoring it along with one scouring orb to a vendor. This recipe works with any gem, and is useful for manipulating the levels of your clarity and precision when need be.

Initial gear priority:
#0 priority is crafting or buying some cheap 2-3c wands/weapons for your carry
#1 priority is getting your Sign of the Sin Eater, the item pushes your damage to ludicrous levels, the moment you equip it you probably have enough damage for red maps. Make sure to socket your generosity and additional accuracy supports in it, they'll support its granted smite.
#2 priority is getting ghostwrite, it gives you an absurd amount of EHP for cheap, and doesn't even leave you weaker to chaos damage thanks to its 50% chaos res.
#3 priority is getting Coruscating Elixir. The moment you get this flask, take the life reservation mastery and activate Determination reserved on your life via Arrogance support. This will make you and your carry massively tankier, don't worry about setting up the other auras until you have your aura gear.
At this point you will likely want to start spreading out your currency between the characters, getting whichever upgrade is most efficient between them, At this point this likely means getting a tabula or corrupted 6-link for your carry.

Advancing through maps:
When you get your two uberlab points, be sure to allocate the 3 passive points on Champion, Rather than Pathfinder. If you ever respec Pathfinder for Necro, this will save you 10 regret orbs.
Before switching switching to the late mapping version, be sure to have the triple ele flasks up and ready to go, as they're absolutely crucial to capping your res in that version. You'll also want "reused at the end of flask effect" on your Coruscating Elixir.
When upgrading to the next level of investment, you generally want acquire all the items before transitioning, but if you want to upgrade in a piecemeal fashion (not recommended if you're new) be sure to prioritize any reservation items before ES and finally aura effect ones.
If Energy From Within ends up being inordinately expensive (more than 15-20c) you can easily replace it by dropping the Melding wheel and one other node, reallocating the vitality reservation mastery over on Purity of Flesh, and then allocating Unnatural Calm along the top of the tree. Use a Cobalt jewel with ES in its place.
In very scary content where Vaal Discipline will be your lifeline, you should make sure that it's the only vaal skill you're running, so that other skills don't steal any souls from it and it maintains as high uptime as possible (even with vaal caress).
A Discipline effect String of Servitude is a fun option that you can pick up to boost your carries tankiness if you're already feeling secure yourself.
While level 20 elemental purities grant you an additional 1% maximum ele res per 25% increased aura effect, level 23 purities grant 1% additional max ele res per 20% increased aura effect.
Because two of these purities are socketed in your +2 prism guardian, you can buy level 21 gems at any time for an additional 2% max ele res of that element.
Specifically, you'll probably want to prioritize Purity of Fire, as maximum fire res is quite important for allowing your carry to comfortably run Righteous Fire
Because of these important breakpoints, you'll want to be sure you have all the aura effect that you should! This includes making sure you've bought a maximum aura effect roll on either Jinxed Juju or Victario's Influence.
We've added the optimal socket colors to all items in the "late mapping" version and above; just over over the item in the items section to see. Recoloring aurabot uniques can eat up a surprising amount of currency in chromes, and the socket colors have been optimized to use as few as possible.

A few endgame considerations:
When purchasing a Militant Faith be sure to check it in PoB by copying it from the website and adding it as an item. Since it can rarely replace notables with special Militant Faith exclusive ones, you'll be checking that none of the notables you take are being replaced.
While updgrading to/making changes to the 2000c version, be sure that you're maintaining 200 devotion/20 aura effect from the Millitant Faith, as allocating even one too few points can cause your carry or party to lose 1% max ele res.
You'll need Divergent inspirattion support to be able to swap your mana cost flask from enkindling to instilling, on top of needing to have allocated 3 points in the dreamer wheel. Even then you will need to be on full ES to cast the blessing but that's almost never a problem  with how much sustain the buidl has.
Finally, you may eventually want to drop the Pathfinder ascendancy for necromancer, due to the huge attack and cast speed boost it provides. This is entirely optional, and I only recommend doing it if you're comfortable with having to kill things to maintain uptime on coruscating elixir.
After dropping pathfinder, you'll want to keep the Essence Extraction wheel, which should give you almost a minute of coruscating uptime (from full charges) before you need to kill anything. In one test, over 6 feared rotations with 40% PoB flask uptime, coruscating turned off only one time. If this isn't sufficient, you should try to get a high tier flask suffix on your belt, or revert to Pathfinder.