Rating
+65

2.1.2 Cold Cluster Solo GR45+ Capable

by last updated Jan 27, 2015 ( Patch 2.1.2 )
Regular
Hybrid
BBCode Link
Edit

Skills

  • Evasive Fire Focus
  • Sentry Polar Station
  • Cluster Arrow Maelstrom
  • Smoke Screen Lingering Fog
  • Companion Wolf Companion
  • Preparation Punishment
  • Awareness
  • Cull the Weak
  • Custom Engineering
  • Ballistics

Items

More Details

  • Legendary Gems

    • Bane of the Powerful
    • Bane of the Trapped
    • Zei's Stone of Vengeance
Stats are debatable, but I would like to share with you my key points in why am I choosing these stats.
First of all, this build is based in 2 things. DPH, resource cost reduction and sustained damage over time.
Lets get to the basics.

DPH (Damage per hit)

The reason why you want to use a crossbow is because of its average damage per hit. Using this sort of weapon will deliver much more damage once you have depleted your hatred rather than a standard bow or 1-hand crossbow. The etrayu is the sole exception as the 20% cold damage compensates for this. Keep in mind that if you achieve 60% cold damage, the additional 20% turns out as 12.5% effective damage.

Attack speed will only help you regenerate hatred faster, but it does not translate into more damage necessarily. If we want to get technical, your APS in combination with your hatred regeneration and RCR will determine how many times will you need to use evasive before firing your cluster again.

Resource Cost Reduction

RCR is key, as it grants you the ability to shoot more cluster arrows before running low on resource AND the ability of using more smokescreen in combat. RCR is important up to 50% more or less. You shouldn't aim for RCR in your weapon and quiver since RCR is not additive in your gear and you would need several pieces with RCR if you would like to fire 1 more cluster arrow. Therefore, for these items I suggest Elite Damage. 50% of RCR should be enough to end up firing 1 evasive fire and 1 cluster arrow by the time you run out of hatred.

Cooldown Reduction

Very valuable but personally, not my preference. That means, I would stack CDR from your paragon, your gem in your helmet, your shoulders and that's it. CDR helps you plant sentries faster and spam companion and punishment more often. You would expect these to translate into more damage over time. Nonetheless, this is very hard and poorly accurate to measure.

Sustained Damage over time

In the long run, 40% of the time you will be fighting elites, champion packs of the Rift Guardian. This is the reason why you want Elite damage and Elite damage reduction on your gear. Now, let's get to a very technical aspect. Once you have your 5 sentries planted and your Pride's Fall bonus on. The way to maximize DPS will be trying to squeeze cluster arrows and evasive fire as much as possible and absolutely avoiding "normals" (when you fire that weak transparent arrow...). Let me give you a pro tip here, if you want to fire evasive and cluster while maintaining your hatred flat, then you want exactly 1.397 APS (assuming 20% off hand and 7% RORG), 50% RCR (43% true RCR), and 6 hatred per second (you need the templar). This will allow you to fire 2 evasives and 1 cluster permanently once you have run out of hatred. Understanding this is key, as you could improve your RG kill times by several seconds if you don't miss a single arrow, firing a standard "attack" could cost you 1 or 2 seconds in your run.

Optional Items

You want to use BotP but a lvl 50 Taeguk is equally strong. Do not use Enforcer as 45% of your damage comes from your sentries. I would recommend using a hellfire with an SOJ, your fifth passive should be Steady Aim. The Endless Walk set is equally comparable to the aforementioned combination.

A blackthorne combo is also decent if you can't roll a decent WH.

As for %skill in gear, go for sentries in Shoulders and Chest, Cluster in boots, helmet and quiver.

Paragon Priorities

Core

Movement Speed
Maximum Resource
Primary Stat
Vitality

Offense

Cooldown Reduction
Critical Hit Damage
Critical Hit Chance
Attack Speed

Defense

Resist All
Life
Armor
Life Regeneration

Utility

Resource Cost Reduction
Area Damage
Life on Hit
Gold Find
As for core, you want to start with 15% movement speed so that you can add it up with the M6 bonus and get the 25%. I would recommend allocating MS in your paragon since AR will help you out in the mid tier rifts (35-40). Next, go for hatred, as this will bump 1 more cluster when achieving enough cost reduction.

Offense is a no brainer, just go for what gives you the most DPS and never add attack speed since it is pointless. Just do it once you have reached P600.

Defense should be AR, Life and Armor as this combination gives you the most EHP in time (in that order).

Utility, you want to go for RCR first then Area Damage. LOH is kinda pointless along with gold find, but still, this should be the order.

Build Guide

Very simple build for greater rifts. You want to start every map by planting as many sentries as possible (3 in this case). This will instantly give you 300% additional damage of your skills at any point in the map, even if the sentries are yards away.

You want to use cold instead of physical for 2 reasons. The first one is the health regeneration for the cold missiles, and the second one is because 60% of you time will be spent killing trash mobs. Cold has better AOE, but physical has better single target damage. In the end, it's all within how long you spend killing stuff that determines which build should be more effective.

Ramp up

Anyhow, let's get back to this build. You plant your 5 sentries at half screen from monsters so that you maximize your Zei bonus. You will aim at stronger mobs always and shoot to packs instead of single targets in order take advantage of the explosion of your cluster arrow. (55% of your damage comes for you instead of your sentries).

Combat

Once you've got your sentries planted I would recommend kiting and pulling your pets in front of the line of fire so that they work as meat shield against ranged enemies.

First, fire a couple of clusters (3 rounds), then use companion, deplete your hatred, then use punishment, then enter low resource mode (2 evasive, 1 cluster). Wait for cooldowns, rinse and repeat.

Time your companion and punishment since the latter has a 10 second gap. It's best that you use both together since spaming companion only gives you 50 hatred and not timing it with punishment will result in a waste of "wolf companion".

if you get hit you lose 30% cost reduction for 5 seconds. Best way to time it is by firing evasive 7 times. Do not spam abilities if you don't have Pride's Fall buff.

Against instant damage



You can play it safe by hiding in corners and shooting close to the elite (you can't shoot it directly because that would mean you are in his line of fire too). Let your missiles hit the elite rather than the cluster arrow itself.

If you want to play it riskier, maintain 1 screen distance for jailers, frozen and thunderstorm. Time your Smokescreens, elites usually take like 5 to 10 seconds to use their abilities so you could do some guessing.

Champion packs are very dangerous because each one can 1 shoot you. You will have to play cat and mouse with them...