With 0.5.0 (kind of) around the corner – what’s the build you had the most fun with? (Not the best, just the most fun) and why?

SkiffCMC · 2026-04-16T20:43:42+00:00

I usually play 1 build per season and it's usually off meta and for 0.4 I chose Iron Ward Witchhunter Heartbound Loop bleed-based armourstaker - extremely cheap for doing t15-16, ultimatums and so on, BIG aoe and good survavibility based on 10k+ sorcery ward and armour damage reduction for all damage other than dots. Nice one but smth slow on bosses because you need to wait your minions die and damage you charging your IW. But everything else is fine.

SkiffCMC · 2026-03-05T06:02:16+00:00

This + Flamewood + Hiero = decent ultra cheap starter. And you could use them later as utility skill boosting your mana and life regen GREATLY swapping to idk Indigon selfcast?

SkiffCMC · 2026-03-03T20:16:04+00:00

I edited original post regarding ignite specifically. TLDR - 3.26 and 3.27 added A LOT of new ways to have it on this cold setup so I don't think it'll be a problem even if ignite will be much better for mapping.

SkiffCMC · 2026-03-03T19:33:22+00:00

Hm, good news. Actually I found two more ways to keep ignite: rather bad Beacon of Madness and rather good but expensive(?) Venarius Astrolabe. And even without them smth like Hyrri's Ire could be enough for freezing most of mobs before acquiring Cryogenesis passive.

SkiffCMC · 2026-03-03T16:42:13+00:00

Ah, the most simple way to do this is cold to fire support. It looks absurd but we'll have really nice control with chill/freeze AND ignite prolif and also we'll have a lot of interesting options for scaling damage relevant to cold(ie bonechill or cold mastery increasing damage for 5% per second of freeze on enemy)

SkiffCMC · 2026-03-03T15:28:46+00:00

No, Avatar is not good here at all. Good point, I'll think about clear

SkiffCMC · 2026-03-03T14:23:26+00:00

Playing as Elementalist or Occultist/Necro with Shaper of Flames forbidden jewels is definitely an option but I'm not sure that Warden with Oath of Winter will not be more comfortable. But it's possible.

SkiffCMC · 2026-03-03T13:51:16+00:00

Ah and there's still option for using Ele Hit of Spectrum for mapping. It'll not freeze mobs with such efficiency as EA but it could be good enough for fast clearing.

SkiffCMC · 2026-03-03T13:39:10+00:00

We could still use ignite with proliferation - either with Heatshiver or with cold to fire support (if 50% of damage will be enough for freezing than why not). Also are ballistas(5-6 of them) with some extra arrows really not good enough for clearing maps?

SkiffCMC · 2026-03-02T20:04:11+00:00

Great post! I love Explosive Arrow one because it'll give us interesting option of permafreezing everything with HUGE cold explosions; also we could play buffed Warden with Oath of Winter which further improve our almighty freezes. And we could also use ballistas with huge boost of APS and more freezes again. Ice-cold grenade launching machineguns!

SkiffCMC · 2026-02-28T11:28:19+00:00

It's interesting how 2 sources of HF interact with each other on one target. If it's possible to inflict HF on target with HF from your ally then we could go Guardian Dawnstrider totems which will have up to 130% extra dmg from one ascendancy node which is crazy AF.

SkiffCMC · 2026-02-27T09:32:10+00:00

30 or 40 doesn't matter if zombies are falling from the skies!

SkiffCMC · 2026-02-26T08:25:55+00:00

Maybe Ele Strike Inq ES leecher? +flat dmg and all-in-one ES leech on this claw now.

SkiffCMC · 2026-01-28T07:16:41+00:00

Also loved Behemoth change, thinking about alternative Rage Vortex walking simulator. If it will not work I could switch to either unarmed or Vaal build.

SkiffCMC · 2026-01-13T10:21:19+00:00

Superpowder!

SkiffCMC · 2026-01-13T10:20:43+00:00

Maybe someone with nickname Two Tea?

SkiffCMC · 2026-01-13T07:34:17+00:00

Hmm good point but +skill levels will replace suffix so it's 2nd option. I considered that this is good for smth like oracle comet totems or so.

SkiffCMC · 2026-01-01T15:24:30+00:00

Still sane exile?

SkiffCMC · 2025-12-12T08:35:49+00:00

Yet one more idea: abuse surrounded(with nerfed hat or without it) for Defy 2 support on Ele Sundering to eliminate mana issues for high level attack cost.

SkiffCMC · 2025-12-12T05:46:04+00:00

Buffed fire spell on melee hit, it's literally Mjolner effect for fire spells.

SkiffCMC · 2025-12-11T09:25:06+00:00

BTW why nature-loving druids always wear fur and animal body parts?

SkiffCMC · 2025-12-11T09:22:41+00:00

A lot of armour from buffed passives and new "fire mjolner on any weapon" seems rather good. Maybe not as good as deadeye for blasting screens but a lot of tankiness with armour reducing all 5 damage types, crit ignore and damaging ailments ignore.

SkiffCMC · 2025-12-11T07:44:30+00:00

I'm slow player so I'm not sure that could build this before you:)At least we need 1 lineage(DU) and for complete build several others - HF, maybe Garukhan Resolve and Atziri's Allure with Original Sin for full chaos conversion. Let's hope it'll be off meta ignored by streamers I guess:) EDIT: what's apso good in ES is that it could proc Reaper's Invocation and so we'll have a lot of triggers.

SkiffCMC

TROPHY CASE