[3.28] The dirty Scorpion-Tail|Herald of Agony Cyclone-Necro|Arachnophobia Allstars|240m to 7000m
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First of all, a big thank you to Chromino for making such an amazing guide for Herald of Agony!
So - as we've talked - The summarized version of the build! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Build Features + Insane DPS Scaling + Insane Survivability Scaling + One of the highest DPS builds in the game + Optimized to the max ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ PoBs Summarized Necro PoB (user friendly, many builds, check updated notes): https://pobb.in/p_T7IeH2Z17b DD Ultra-Crit-Necro, 1800M, 360k ehp, for group-play as DD, or for Burst-crits and Ubers-oneshotting, but a bit less tankyness and qol, u-high budget: https://pobb.in/3ZbX5FCw Bloodmagic Uber-Crit-HoA, 3500M, i.e. as DD in group-play or as ubers-oneshotter-glascannon, u-high budget: https://pobb.in/vcKyKitt Bloodmagic Soul-Eater-HoA, 7000M, DD for groupplay, u-high budget: https://pobb.in/6mYVGAjp ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ How does it work? > 6-Link Herald of Agony (HoA) kills everything > Use Cyclone to apply as many Virulences as possible (more Virulence --> more HoA damage) > Use Curses / Offerings / Withering Step to boost the damage > Spectres provide most of your auras, you have only few > Animate Guardian and Golems boost your survivability and damage > Swap Skill/Support gems according to: Mapping VS Bossing ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Leveling guide
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IMPORTANT: Ask somebody to buy you Poisonous Concoction or prepare it beforehand. Act 1 Life flasks are very important, try to have 2/3 of them and strongest versions at all times. We will need them for poisonous concoction damage! Look for 3-linked all green socket items (3G). > Rolling Magma + Arcane Surge (lvl2 max) Complete the Breaking some eggs quest and the Mercy Mission. (Keep looking for 3G items, you will need one later) > Rolling Magma + Arcane Surge (lvl2) + Elemental Proliferation > Holy Flame totem > Flame wall > Dash After Killing Brutus pick up Precision, Flame Dash Added Cold and Lightning. > Rolling Magma + Added Cold + Added Lightning > Holy Flame totem + Added Lightning > Flame wall > Flame Dash > Precision When you reach Merveil's Caverns, head to town. DROP ALL OF THIS: Rolling Magma and Holy Flame totem and your Weapon. You must have NO weapon equipped and buy a Shield. Use the Poisonous Concoction that you prepared beforehand. Poisonous Concoction depends A LOT on Life flasks. Get passive nodes that give life flask charges and make sure your flask has a big number on "amount recovered". Carry 2-3 Life flasks so you never run out of charges. > Poisonous Concoction + Volley + Multiple Projectiles > Flame Dash + Withering Step (applies wither for more chaos dmg) > Flame Wall > Precision Act 2 Bandits: Kill all or Help Alira (both are very good) > Poisonous Concoction + Volley + Multiple Projectiles > Flame Dash + Withering Step > Flame Wall > Precision, Herald of Agony, Tempest Shield > Poacher's Mark Act 3 You can drop Flame wall at this point but it's good to have as it buffs all projectiles that pass through it. > Poisonous Concoction + Volley + Multiple Projectiles + Void Manipulation > Flame Dash + Culling Strike (lvl1) + Withering Step > Precision, Herald of Agony, Tempest Shield > Despair > Steelskin + Automation Act 4 As soon as you start getting aura efficiency you can start putting supports into your herald of agony. It works well with Poisonous concoction but if you do this, use Chance to Poison instead of Void Manipulation! > Poisonous Concoction + Greater Volley + Greater Multiple Projectiles + Void Manipulation > Flame Dash + Culling Strike (lvl1) + Withering Step > Precision, Herald of Agony, Tempest Shield > Despair > Steelskin + Automation Act 4+: Use this setup until you swap to Herald of Agony supports: > Poisonous Concoction + Greater Volley + Greater Multiple Projectiles + Void Manipulation + Chance to Poison ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ascendancy Commander of Darkness - your first ascendancy as it buffs you and your poisonous concoction damage during leveling. Also gives A LOT of resistances. Mindless Agression - you can start putting supports into your Herald of Agony at this point and even taking some minion nodes on the tree Unnatural Strength - So Herald of Agony gets the pure chaos damage For last you need to pick: Bitter Heresy - creates Profane Ground instead of Consecrated ground, best in slot for DPS but requires a source of Consecrated Ground, such as Holy Flame Totem -----OR----- Bone Barrier- A lot of passive survivability in the form of phys damage reduction and free life leech ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Pantheon Start with: Soul of the Brine King for easy atlas completion, upgrade to help against Freeze and Chill. When you reach 90-100% slow/ailment-immunity with your AG`s bodyarmour Garb of the Ephemeral, Merc, ghastly jewels, eldritch boots, cluster elegant form etc. Then switch to Arakaali. Soul of Arakaali - Big help against dots, upgrade it. Soul of Aberath - Upgrade it for unaffected by burning ground ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gear / Skills (click this link): https://pobb.in/p_T7IeH2Z17b ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Gem Imbues (20/20 coin corruptions)
Spoiler
Herald of Agony - Point Blank (for bossing) - Fresh Meat (for bossing) - lvl21/23 gem is still Excellent because it doesn't apply mana multipliers and gives +1 level Cyclone - Infused Channeling (you take 12% less damage) - Excommunicate (enemies cannot deal Chaos damage) Ball Lightning of Orbiting - Increased Area of Effect - Unleash - Chance to Poison (any of these will increase the virulence count) Tornado of Elemental Turbulence - Unleash Flame Dash - Second Wind - Hextouch Shield Charge - Excommunicate Withering Step - More Duration Void Sphere / Storm Brand - Cast when stunned Spirit Offering - Cast when stunned Assassin's Mark / Sniper's Mark - Cast when stunned Frost Shield - Cast when stunned Holy Flame Totem - Increased Area of Effect Any curse Skill - Hextouch AG / Raise Spectre / Chaos Golem of the Maelstrom - Meat shield - Feeding Frenzy ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Annointment Always annoint "Death Attunement" for an extra spectre. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Important Stats ■ get 100% Chance to Poison (for HoA Virulences) Whenever you poison with your hits, you generate Herald of Agony virulences. With more and faster virulences your Herald will hit faster and harder. Sources of Chance to poison: - 20% HoA-buff - 40% chance to poison support gem / or integrated in rare gloves - 25% 2 passives serpentine spellslinger - 25% 2 passives fatal toxins - 15% 3 passives toxic strikes - 40-80% 8-16 Tattoos of the Tawhoa Shaman (b.i.s. in endgame) ■ Chaos or Physical damage component Your damage with elemental skills needs to have either Chaos or Poison damage so it can poison. How to get: - the Circle of Nostalgia ring - Exarch implicit on helmet - Chance to Poison support gem ■ The Golden Rule Jewel This jewel DOUBLES our Virulence stacking! Counter it with the prefix "unaffected by poison" on the leveling helmet "maw of the conquest" and later rare boots. ■ Fast Hitting Spells Choose the fastest hitting spells with lowest mana costs: - Ball lightning of Orbiting or - Ball lightning of Static ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ And that's all! If anything needs to be added I'll add it ASAP "Let your smile change the world, but don't let the world change your smile." -unknown "The Emperor beckons and the world attends." -Izaro "Shine boldly so that all may find you when the night falls." -Izaro Last edited by devon752#5895 on Apr 2, 2026, 9:01:15 AM
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" Very comprehensive for the relaxed starting with the HoA! Awesome done, full informative and well written! Thank you a lot devon! Last edited by Chromino#4813 on Mar 30, 2026, 12:26:18 PM
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" In late game, how do you go about mana stealing/regen if you switch to double circle of nostalgia rings? If I get rid of my shaper ring, Ihave to have a mana flask... But running a 4flask mageblood, I'm seemingly much better off with a health pot? I had to switch back to my shaper ring. |
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" The Shaper ring for mana on spellhit (and -3 mana-costs of channelling skills) is the best. Alternative an Enduring mana flask can be used instead in the no/reduced-mana-reg-mods. Or reroll these mods. Edited: And with Transfusion-suppoort the mana-costs are transformed into life-costs, which are regenerated eg with the Vitality-spectre. Last edited by Chromino#4813 on Mar 31, 2026, 11:13:18 PM
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If you get a sec, check this and let me know your thoughts. Upgraded helm/boots, started going towards ES. Got out of my res/suppress gloves, to get curse gloves on. Build seems super solid. I'm running into a bit of an issue trying to do T16.5 40%+ juiced maps though. I have spirit offering supported with cast when stunned, and Cyclone supported by excommunicate. Seem to be okay, just not sure if that effective?
https://pobb.in/bt2Cor6qoltj Switched over to CI. Having some survivability issues at 16.5 maps.Still running spectres as I'm getting a higher level discipline and determination from them... Still need one more grand spectrum. Last edited by Blacryan#1317 on Mar 31, 2026, 2:29:51 AM
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" Hey Blaycran, looks very, very good. You are at fine 130M dps, and tanky against most damage in infinitive ehp with CI & Aegis Aurora. Your Dps is more than enough in maps and all content. I would recommend to change in for more tankyness: ■ Bone Barrier instead Commander of darkness ■ 100% Bleeding immunities, i.e. on quartz-flask-suffix instead leech ■ Your physical-max hit taken is a tiny bit (10%, 2k) too low in juiced content when molten shell/immortal call are on cd. Eg you use in the moment 2 granite-flasks, switch one to a basalt-flask. ■ Get a third mod on the watcher`s eye. ■ Use more poison on hit tattoos, switch out 1 passive fatal toxins. ■ Then use this 1 passive in the suppression-mastery 8% while phasing and 1x 2% suppression-tattoo. ■ As CI Circle of ambition is better as Circle of nostalgia. But get then the +chaos-damage to spells on exarch-eldritch-implicit on your awesome helmet for the mandatory chaos-component to poison. ■ You can already throw 2 curses with the ashes of stars` additional curse-implicit and temporal chains is not effective in your high gear-level, so you can switch your vixn`s gloves instead to rare gloves with spell suppression, eg also to push out the megalomaniac for 1 jewel slot for the 3rd grand spectrum or tanky variations, and +max cold-resis on implicit. Then further and beyond there are 4 tanky possibilities to balance in, each one is valuable: ■ Probably best: Get a bit more mana-efficiency eg on 2 passives Influence and with fertile catalysts on the circle of nostalgia/ambition or a cluster or jewel, use tanky flesh and stone. I.e. push out instead "survivalist". But in maps Greater Fork is so much speed, probably you will need one more small cluster (or amulet-anoint charisma). ■ Supreme Decadence for es-recharge of a life-flask, there you could also get 12% efficiency on a transformed mana-mastery. ■ Use an es-mastery with increased es of your very strong helmet, 3 passives. ■ Runegraft of the Fortress and Runegraft of the warp are both top tanky. Not least: ■ I did not tested it until now, but probably pob is displaying correct and you can exchange eg vile toxins to scornful herald-support, then use +2 es / +2 mana Dark seer instead Maata`s for tankyness and a bit mana. Or also Severed in Sleep or United in Dreams with the foulborn-mods are extreme valuable... With more HoA-crits or with Greater Fork Vile toxins or Predator + Maata`s turn stronger again as Scornful Herald. The best HoA-supports are since 3.28 often changing while scaling up HoA-crits. Full optimizing them for each new step of HoA-crits is like a new complex minigame. For qol you can get eg more imbued djinn-supports: ■ Chaos golem - cast when stunned ■ the cwc -setup imbued with: cwc frostshield / infused channeling / etc., but excommunicate is tanky for the companions - again a tough choice, hehehe. I still test a lot, to me it seems also that the companions are most often dying to chaos-damage, so excommunicate-support added to cyclone or to minions is a wise choice. CI or Hybrid remains always a tough choice, in the last leagues I always went for hybrid. CI is of course better when there are chaos-mods included. Sorry for the wall of text! Your set-up looks already very, very good. Last edited by Chromino#4813 on Apr 3, 2026, 5:06:24 PM
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