Level 99 Reap Ascendant^3.24

Notes

Crafting upgrades in order of importance:

Life + Resists on gear
 - Early on just get your resists capped (including chaos) and enough life to survive

Regen and Physical Damage Reduction (PDR) / Physical damage taken as elemental on gear
 - Once you get resists settled focus on fitting in as much regen as you can to sustain Reap comfortably and eventually Righteous Fire
 - Physical damage is our biggest weakness so be sure to get as much PDR and Physical damage taken as elemental as you can

Eldritch Implicits
 - Use Eldritch Chaos + Exalts + Annuls to craft good gear before getting good implicits, makes crafting much easier
 - The + maximum resists on eldritch influence is incredibly strong and a very big priority
 - Physical damage leeched as life implicit on gloves is a good survivability boost and enables our end game amulet annoint
 - If you're low on Ichors and Embers dont roll over usable implicits just to get BiS early, regen, resists, physical DoT, and spell suppression can be very helpful for giving you the small boost in power to farm more
 
+1 Wand
 - Use the vendor recipe (I recommend a Pagan Wand if you're struggling with Intelligence otherwise BIS is Profane Wand):
     - Normal rarity wand with 2 or more quality gems with a combined total of 40% quality & the Physical tag gives +1 physical skills and you can then just benchcraft physical damage over time multiplier or cast speed

Vulnerability on hit ring
 - Buy from trade or self craft with reforge caster on item level 80+ Warlord influence base 
 - Can also be found in delve or as a glove corruption implicit (leech eldritch implicit is probably better until much higher investment levels)

+2 Amulet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNJrnV3bGyY
 - Use whatever base you need attributes for, dont forget to catalyst first. Only annoint Hematophagy if you have the glove leech implicit otherwise do something cheap and useful like attributes or whatever you need at the time

+2 Wand
 - Crafting section is at end of my guide 
https://youtu.be/HR7AQt03Bu4?t=1255



FAQ:

What order for my ascendancy?
 - Raider first for huge quality of life and cast speed from frenzy charges

What order should I take passive points while leveling?
 - Path towards Relentless, Vanquisher, and Tireless first, from there head down to Bannerman, go all the way up the tree to Purity of Flesh. Get Pain Attunement last since you wont be low life until later
 - Take jewel sockets last unless you find a very strong jewel early on

Body armour benchcraft
 - "Physical damage taken as elemental" is Gravicious unveiled prefix I personally spam reforge phys on a decent 6 link base until I hit a usable tier of PDR then finish the rest off with eldritch currency + beforementioned benchcraft

Helmet benchcraft
 - "Physical damage taken as elemental" is Korell unveiled prefix

Cast speed feels bad
 - Make sure you have Arcane Surge linked to Flame Dash and Vulnerability and are casting either often enough to keep the buff up
 - Frenzy charges are a ton of cast speed since they also grant onslaught at max charges, if they are falling off take the charge duration mastery
 - Can link Faster Casting until you get enough cast speed on rings, jewels or amulet

When do I make the swap to low life?
 - Get some kind of bleed immunity and mitigate ignites atleast a little bit (ruby flask is okay)
 - Personally I wait until I have atleast 1k life regen per second in hardcore but in softcore do whatever you like

What are some other options for mitigating ailments?
 - Taking a shield wheel (I recommend Sanctuary since its on our path already) and the "20% Chance to avoid elemental ailments" mastery plus some extra chance on gear can be a fantastic way to get ailment immune
 - Pantheons are the low cost easy choice since they are always on and are simple to change
 - Darkness Enthroned  with some abyss jewels that give ailment mitigation is a nice tech
 - Getting 100% of physical damage taken as elemental lets you drop Determination and swap it for Purity of Elements (combos well with Watchers Eye mods that give physical damage taken as elemental)

Why do you take Conduit?
 - We are using a Lethal Pride to get the keystone Strength of Blood for extra PDR, Conduit does nothing for us until we have Lethal Pride and you shouldn't spec it without it

Hardcore tips?
 - Swap Pride and War Banner for Grace and Defiance Banner
 - Drop Herald of Purity for Tempest Shield, consider a Dawnbreaker for physical mitigation (can get physical damage taken as elemental as a corruption implicit as well)
 - Gladiater ascendancy with a shield + Glancing Blows keystone is quite powerful with a recover life on block setup
 - Take Diamond Skin early on if you need resistances
 - Capping spell suppression is a good idea for late game, too much suffix pressure early on
 - Consider Lightning Coil for phys mitigation (also an easy target for double corrupting)
 - Swap flasks and pantheon around bosses

Should I use Awakened Spell Cascade?
 - With 3.23 Reap lost the AoE from gem quality and since the build doesnt run much AoE it might be difficult to get overlaps, if you find its worth using go for it but I prefer just sticking with Swift Affliction until the ultra lategame crit swap

Does this build want a cluster setup?
 - Eventually yes a large physical cluster with Force Mulitplier + Furious Assault + Master the Fundamentals is BiS but any 2 of those + a random third that gives something useful is just fine
 - A small armour cluster with Enduring Composure allows easy endurance charge generation which helps with PDR
 - Can get a good amount of Intelligence or Dexterity from cluster jewels if you need it

How do I min max?
 - In the ultra end game you have several options, the easiest would be scaling hit based with power charge stacking crit impale, usually this involves Entropic Devastation, dual Void Batterys, and Diallas Malefaction 
(the example I show is a more tanky version designed for hardcore)
 - A secondary option is going for life stacking with Rathpit Globe and scaling crit without impale
 - A third but viable option is going all in on physical damage over time multi on gear and using a Mageblood to make up for the otherwise lost stats



Bases worth crafting on:

Helmet
 - Pig-faced Bascinet
 - Fluted Bascinet
 - Nightmare Bascinet
 
Gloves
 - Dragonscale Gauntlets
 - Hydrascale Gauntlets
 - Wyrmscale Gauntlets

Body Armour
 - Full Dragonscale
 - General's Brigandine
 - Desert Brigandine

Boots
 - Two-Toned Boots
 - Dragonscale Boots
 - Hydrascale Boots

Wand
 - Profane Wand
 - Pagan Wand 

Shield
 - Cardinal Round Shield
 - Crimson Round Shield
 - Spiny Round Shield



Spell suppression ilvl breakpoints:

Helmets, Gloves, and Boots
 - 68 76 85

Body armours, and Shields
 - 67 77 86



Current league video guide: https://youtu.be/HR7AQt03Bu4

You can @tfwStarving in-game for any questions or if im live twitch.tv/tfwStarving be sure to check the video guide before asking me questions :)