Updated for Patch 3.17
The Best Crafty Guides by Odealo
Guide notes |
March 25, 2022 -Build created |
Build overview | |||
Tags: [TRIGGER] [ELEMENTAL] [LIFE] | |||
Budget: Defenses: |
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Boss DPS: AoE: |
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It's a very unique Autobomber build with presumably the highest possible DPS for this type of build. It's based on infinite Cast when Damage Taken loop based on summoning Skeletons with greatly reduced duration, that die expire/die nearly instantly. You then take damage from Heartbound Loop and trigger Summon Skeletons again, a process that will be repeated for as long as you keep your Olroth's Resolve Flask up. In order for it all to work you need a very specific set of Equipment and Gems, and on top of that you need to do some math before setting up your character which makes it quite challenging for a casual PoE player, but at the same time, very intriguing and rewarding. The primary stats you need to take into consideration are:
To start the rotation, you need two Essence-crafted weapons with Spectral Spirits. You are going to use Olroth's Flask and then use weapon swap twice to have those Minions summoned and killed instantly. This will trigger the loop. You can stay in your hideout to try out if it will actually work with you given equipemnt, as you will not die.
You should be able to constantly take enough Damage to feed the maximum level Cast when Damage Taken Gem at its highest Cast rate without taking any real damage. Your Body Armour and two-handed weapon will be a nest for the actual DPS setups, where you can socket any Spells you want. Go for the Annihilating Light Unique Staff - it triples your Elemental Damage. Combine it with Crystallised Omniscience, which transforms your Attributes into Omniscience making you Penetrate Elemental Resistances. It also grants you a lot of Elemental Resistances. Use Divergent Ice Spears (or at least Aerodynamics on a Medium Cluster Jewel) Freezing Pulse to deal Cold Damage. Your 3k of Maximum Life and permanent Ward are not only able to sustain the damage you deal to yourself, but any damage really - it's a very tanky build that's only vulnerable to one-shots. Without any Armour and Choas Resistance, you're obviously more prone to getting instantly killed. The Recoup mechanics is the one you should make use of - you're constantly taking a lot of damage that will be replenished back to you over 4 seconds. Have the Damage you take be Recouped as Mana for rapid Mana Regeneration, and Life so that you will instantly regenerate missing health. The build is expensive and requires some very specific items, some of which you can make yourself - like the Gems, and some of which have to have a lot of Attributes and Ward making the very pricey and hard to obtain.
You can also check our other Path of Exile builds right over here Odealo's Crafty Guides - Full List
It's an Autobomber build so you don't really have to do anything, except pop your Flask and start the Loop by using weapon swap twice. Your only active Skills are Flame Dash, Phase Run, and Vaal Righteous Fire. All your Cold Spells will be triggered automatically by level 20/21 Cast when Damage Taken Setups and are great at dealing with any kind of opponent. This build however can be technically used with any Spells you like, but the ones listed are simply the optimal/best choice. You don't have any free sockets for any more active Skills making it's very easy to play as a reward for the painfully complex process of gearing up.
The only thing you must consider when playing this character is getting Flask Charges quickly enough. Usually, this means you will have to progress fast on high-density Areas and teleport back to town quickly after Boss. You could also remove your 4th (or even 3rd) Flask to boost the effect of The Traitor Passive, but I wouldn't personally recommend it - just accept the fact that you will die quite often without proper practice.
Full gameplay video:
This video was recorded on a level 96 Ascendant with level 21 Ice Spear, level 20 Freezing Pulse, and the 0.231s "breakpoint". You could quickly boost the damage by simply swapping Quicksilver Flask with Bottled Faith, but we preferred to have more mobility for the videos (the DPS is more than fine regardless) |
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PROS |
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CONS |
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There is no way to play it as it is intended until level 90 (more or lless) it requires a lot of Ward, Specific Uniques, and Attributes. The best way to level up quickly is to pick the fastest way and respec points later. We recommend using a Projectile Attack - Splitting Steel to deal Physical Damage and make use of the Impale and Bleed Mechanics. Splitting Still can be used since level 1. Pick the Deadeye Ascendancy first for more Projectile Damage and permanent Tailwind. Switch to the Automomber only after acquiring all the necessary build components.
Suggested leveling Gem setups:
Summon Skeletons setup | |
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Splitting Steel - an Attack that Fires Projectiles that Splits and Explodes dealing AoE damage |
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Chance to Bleed Support - Attack have added, increased Damage, and a chance to cause Bleed on Hit |
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Brutality Support - you're dealing more Physical Damage, but no other type of damage |
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Faster Attacks Support - allows you to Attack much faster |
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Impale Support - You have an increased chance to Impale and increased Impale effectiveness |
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Vicious Projectiles Support - more Physical Projectile Damage, but less Projectile Attack Speed |
Auras | |
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Dread Banner - It's the Imaple Banner for more Impale Chance and Imaple Effectiveness, nearby enemies have reduced Accuracy Rating |
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Pride - increases the Physical Damage nearby enemies are receiving |
Totem setup | |
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Ancestral Protector - use this Totem for a Buff - more Attack Speed |
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Maim Support - Totem Maims on Hit, reducing movement Speed and making Maimed enemies take more Physical Damage |
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Culling Strike Support - your Totems will be able to instantly kill enemies below 10% Life |
Utility Gems | |
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Vulnerability - Cursed enemies receive more Physical Damage and have an increased Chance to Bleed when Hit |
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Summon Lightning Golem - grants you increased Attack Speed |
Bandits:
Kill all three Bandits for two additional Skill Points
Leveling Skill Trees:
31 Points Skill Tree
Pick Constitution for Maximum Life and go for the Impale and Bleeding Clusters with Crimson Dance
76 Points Skill Tree
As you notice the decrease in your Accuracy Rating, go for the Resolute Technique. Pick Defiance, Master of the Arena, Art of the Gladiator, and Fury Bolts. Then allocate more Maximum Life and Sword Clusters for a massive DPS boost.
Recommended leveling items:
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Item has no level requirement and Energy Shield (Hidden) Item has 6 White Sockets and is fully linked (Hidden) |
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+(30-50) to Evasion Rating 10% increased Rarity of Items found +(30-40)% to all Elemental Resistances Reflects 4 Physical Damage to Melee Attackers |
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+5 to Dexterity +(10-20) to maximum Energy Shield (20-40)% increased Mana Regeneration Rate 20% increased Movement Speed Cannot be Frozen |
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+(20-30) to Dexterity +(20-30) to Strength +100 to Accuracy Rating 30% increased Projectile Speed 10% increased Movement Speed 30% increased Projectile Damage |
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40% increased Global Accuracy Rating 100% increased Damage when on Low Life 50% increased Physical Damage Adds 2 to 6 Physical Damage 10% increased Attack Speed +(20-30) to maximum Life +2 Life gained for each Enemy hit by Attacks |
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+(10-20) to maximum Life +(120-160) to Armour +(30-40) to maximum Life Your hits can't be Evaded +(3-5)% Chance to Block Adds 250 to 300 Cold Damage to Counterattacks |
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Impale Damage dealt to Enemies Impaled by you Overwhelms 10% Physical Damage Reduction Call of Steel has (80-100)% increased Use Speed Call of Steel causes (20-25)% increased Reflected Damage |
Final Skill Tree:
109 Points Final Skill Tree (doesn't include Cluster Jewels)
124 Points Path of Building (PoB) link
Ascendancy points:
Preferably in that order:
Pantheon:
Major God: Soul of Lunaris: 1% additional Physical Damage Reduction for each nearby Enemy, up to 8%; 1% increased Movement Speed for each nearby Enemy, up to 8%
Minor God: Soul of Yugul: 50% chance to Reflect Hexes; You and your Minions take 50% reduced Reflected Damage
[DPS] CwDT Spells | |
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Ice Spear - one of the deadliest Spell in the game, which deals simply massive DPS via multiple projectiles fired. You should use Anomalous version or at least Aerodynamics Passive for Pierce |
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Empower Support - increases the Level of Active Skill Gems, it's great when socketed in Skin of the Lords as it also affects the level of your Empower Gem |
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Greater Multiple Projectiles Support - linked Spells fire more Projectiles which is one of th best ways to scalle Ice Spear DPS |
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Elemental Focus Support - linked Ice Spear won't Chill, but it grows considerably in damage |
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Increased Critical Damage Support - increases Critical Strike Damage, but if your Chance to deal Critical Strikes is low, use ![]() |
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Cast when Damage Taken - keep it at level 18-19, with the bonus +2 from Skin of the Lords it should match the level of your base Ice Spear Gem |
[DPS] CwDT Spells | |
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Freezing Pulse - fires a Projectile that is stronger at the start, it has a high chance to Freeze and pierces all enemies |
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Bonechill Support - increases the Chill effect, and makes you deal more Cold Damage to enemies affectd by that Chilll |
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Added Cold Damage Support - adds Cold Damage to your Spells resulting in a huge DPS increase |
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Increased Critical Damage Support |
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Arcane Surge Support - Arcane Surge is a buff that grants you more Spell Damage and increases Mana Regeneration Rate |
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Cast when Damage Taken - again, use a Gem matching the base level of your Freezing Pulse (presumably 20 or 21) |
[UTILITY] Skeletons setup | |
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Anomalous Summon Skeletons - Skeletons die at the end of their Duration. Anomalous Quality of Summon Skeletons Gem makes the Minions immune to any damage shortly after being summoned so that they won't randomly die during the first 0.2 seconds breaking the rotation. We used a level 16 Gem here for 3 Skeletons summoned |
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Anomalous Minion Speed Support - reduces the Minion Duration by 40% at 20% of Anomalous Quality which is necessary for the entire build to work |
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Cast when Damage Taken - you need to calculatee the damage taken from your Skeletons dying and Forbidden Rite as explained in the first section, then match this Gem's level to have a lower damage threshold than that. Our Gem was level 17 |
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Less Duration Support - we used a level 2 and Quality 20 Gem here to lower the duration of Skeletons to match the CwDT cooldown |
[UTILITY] Forbidden Rite setup | |
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Forbidden Rite - takes 40% of your maximum Life as Chaos Damage per Cast. With 2800 of Maximum Life and -60% Chaos Resistance that's 1792 damage which should be included in your calculations as decribed at the beginning |
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Cast When Damage Taken - we used a level 9 Gem here |
[UTILITY] Sniper's Mark | |
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Sniper's Mark - If you're using Projectiles, then this is the best Mark to use as it makes them deal more damage |
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Cast When Damage Taken - we used a level 20 here so that it can be used with a max level Mark |
[MOBILITY] Flame Dash | |
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Flame Dash - a movement Spell you can use to move faster and dodge attacks |
[UTILITY] Vaal Righteous Fire | |
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Vaal Righteous Fire - for a brief moment it increases your Spell Damage, use during boss fights. Do not link it to any CwDT that would trigger it. |
[MOBILITY] Phase Run | |
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Phase Run - increases your Movement Speed, grants you Stealth, and Phasing. Just allocate it under your left mouse button so you don't even feel like you are casting it while progressing faster |
[UTILITY] Aura setup | |
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Hatred - grants you more Cold Damage, it can be exchanged for ![]() |
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Eternal Blessing Support - Hatred Reserves no Mana, but you can't have any other Aura or Blessing at the same time, which is fine since you need all your Mana Pool to be unreserved |
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The most important aspect of the build is to have enough Ward as to not take any significant Damage from your Forbidden Rite and Heartbound Loop. Ideally, that would be 1900, but given the fact that your life is rapidly recouping, it can be as low as 1400. You should equip Rare Runic base types as your Helmet, Gloves, and Boots. These grants you Ward, so be sure to have them with a lot of Quality. You need to have at least 2800 Maximum Life, preferably no more than -50% Chaos Resistance, and 0 Physical Damage mitigation to properly activate your Cast when Damage Taken Gems. With Crystallised Omniscience you should stack a lot of Attributes - Strenght, Dexterity, and Intelligence. Your Mana Source is any item with an Affix "Damage Recouped as Mana", and Mana Mastery with the same effect. Be sure that your Olroth's Resolve Flask stays up at all times - without it, your character dies instantly as you take 18k Damage every second. The 0.25 seconds Cooldown of CwDT can be slightly reduced by "increased Cooldown Recovery Rate" affixes and eldritch Implicits, but it can't be lower than around 0.2s - that's a 20% increased Cooldown Recovery Rate in total. It's very important to have this 20% increased Cooldown Recovery Rate. Keep your Gem Levels at bay - with a too high level they might not be triggered when you take damage. Cast when Damage Taken requires you to take 3580 Damage (at Gem Level 21) to activate, with this setup you should take this amount of damage every 0.2 seconds. It's hard and expensive to gear up the character, remember to test the setup in the Hideout and make sure that all the parts of it are in order.
Our recommended items will:
Stat priorities on items:
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Min. requirements: +70 to Ward 80% increased Ward Optional affixes: Attributes Elemental Resistances Maximum Life |
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Helmet enchantments: Freezing Pulse or Ice Spear enchantments |
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+18% Chance to Block Attack Damage while wielding a Staff (60-70)% reduced Elemental Resistances Elemental Skills deal Triple Damage |
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Item has no level requirement and Energy Shield (Hidden) Sockets cannot be modified +2 to Level of Socketed Gems 100% increased Global Defences You can only Socket Corrupted Gems in this item Item has 6 Sockets and is fully linked (Hidden) <Random Keystone> |
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Min. requirements: +70 to Ward 80% increased Ward 20% increased Movement Speed 5 to 10% increased Cooldown Recovery Rate (Eldritch Implicit) Optional affixes: Attributes Elemental Resistances Maximum Life |
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Min. requirements: +70 to Ward 80% increased Ward Optional affixes: Attributes Elemental Resistances Maximum Life |
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Min. requirements: 17% reduced Flask Charges used 30% increased Flask Effect Duration 80 Maximum Life Attributees Optional affixes: Increased Cooldown Recovery Rate increased Flask Charges gained Elemental Resistances |
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+(10-16) to all Attributes Modifiers to Attributes instead apply to Omniscience +1% to all Elemental Resistances per 10 Omniscience Penetrate 1% Elemental Resistances per 10 Omniscience Attribute Requirements can be satisfied by (15-25)% of Omniscience |
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Recommended Anointments: Counterweight |
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+(15-25) to maximum Energy Shield Regenerate (10-15) Life per second (20-40)% increased Mana Regeneration Rate Minions have 15% increased maximum Life Minions have 10% increased Area of Effect 350 Physical Damage taken on Minion Death |
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Min. requirements: 150 Attributes 6% of Damage taken Recouped as Mana (crafted) Optional affixes: Elemental Resistances Damage taken Recouped as Life Maximum Life |
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Min. requirements: increased Maximum Life increased Projectile Damage Elemental Resistances Attributes Critical Strike Multiplier |
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(20-10)% reduced Skeleton Duration Minions deal (8-12)% increased Damage (7-10)% increased Skeleton Attack Speed (7-10)% increased Skeleton Cast Speed (3-5)% increased Skeleton Movement Speed |
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Denoted service of (500-8000) dekhara in the akhara of Balbala Passives in radius are Conquered by the Maraketh Historic |
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(20-30)% increased Mana Regeneration Rate (40-60)% increased Spell Damage while no Mana is Reserved |
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Allocated Small Passive Skills in Radius grant nothing Grants all bonuses of Unallocated Small Passive Skills in Radius |
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Flasks applied to you have 20% reduced Effect Flasks gain 3 Charges every 3 seconds while they are inactive Survival |
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While your Passive Skill Tree connects to the Marauder's starting location, you gain: 1% of Life Regenerated per second While your Passive Skill Tree connects to the Duelist's starting location, you gain: +2 to Melee Strike Range While your Passive Skill Tree connects to the Ranger's starting location, you gain: 20% increased Flask Charges gained While your Passive Skill Tree connects to the Shadow's starting location, you gain: 12% increased Attack and Cast Speed While your Passive Skill Tree connects to the Witch's starting location, you gain: 20% increased Skill Effect Duration While your Passive Skill Tree connects to the Templar's starting location, you gain: +4% Chance to Block Attack and Spell Damage While your Passive Skill Tree connects to the Scion's starting location, you gain: 30% increased Damage |
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(4-6)% increased maximum Energy Shield (4-6)% increased maximum Life (4-6)% increased maximum Mana <Two or Three random aura modifiers> |
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Recommended affixes: 1 Added Passive Skill is Sadist 1 Added Passive Skill is Widespread Destruction 1 Added Passive Skill is Stormrider 1 Added Passive Skill is Corrosive Elements 1 Added Passive Skill is Disorienting Display 1 Added Passive Skill is Prismatic Heart |
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Recommended affixes: 1 Added Passive Skill is Distilled Perfection (Flask Effect Duration) 1 Added Passive Skill is Fasting (Flask Charges Gained) 1 Added Passive Skill is Aerodynamics (Pierce) |
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Consumes (56-60) of 60 Charges on use +200 to Ward Restores Ward on use (40–50)% increased Charges used Ward does not Break during Flask effect 70% less Ward during Flask Effect |
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+50% to Fire Resistance 20% less Fire Damage taken (125-150)% increased Charges per use (60-40)% less Duration (10-20)% increased Area of Effect during Flask Effect Skills fire 2 additional Projectiles during Flask Effect |
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40% increased Damage Creates Consecrated Ground on Use (30-15)% reduced Duration Consecrated Ground created by this Flask has Tripled Radius Consecrated Ground created during Effect applies (7-10)% increased Damage taken to Enemies (100-150)% increased Critical Strike Chance against Enemies on Consecrated Ground during Flask effect |
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Onslaught Immune to Freeze, Chill, Curses and Stuns during Flask Effect (80-60)% reduced Duration |
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Other suggested Flasks:
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If you have any other build requests please leave that in the comments below. We are always open to suggestions and constructive feedback.
Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Grinding Gear Games.