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Build Guide

Slick setup. Vyr Archon. Main damage comes from MH and supporting multipliers. Ranged playstyle. Use the beam to deal damage. I find aiming at the monster's feet helpful for finding their hitbox. You can also edge the cursor in until you hit their hitbox, and proc paralysis and MH on them.

Keep archon blast on autocast - use either numlock or scripting. Archon's blast attack is key to getting higher stack counts, since this counts as a separate attack, and helps stack your archon stacks faster via the Vyr6 bonus. If you can, stand near enemies to get more stacks. Standing away from enemies is also acceptable, but usually only when you are trying to deal heavy damage to your targets (if buffed up via Spellsteal and OID for example).

Ancient Parthans help you survive when in density, and also allow you to get higher Vyr6 stack count by standing near enemies. There used to be a bug where the blast would not freeze. In 2.6.1, Archon's blast attack now freezes, allowing you to proc the APD bonus. This still leaves you vulnerable outside of archon, so be careful there.

Attack Speed is placed via a few choices here. We slot a dagger, which gives us a 1.5 AS base weapon speed. Paragon, weapon, and an optional ring roll (if using zodiac) also supply AS. The dagger is the best option here, for several reasons:

• It lowers the required stack count to hit the 5 APS / 15 Ticks / s cap. You'll proc Paralysis and MH more often.
• The higher base attack speed allows your archon beam to stack Vyr6 faster when at a lower ICD (more on this below).
• Higher attack speed also helps proc your zodiac bonus faster (assuming you're not capped on AS already), which is great for reducing time spent outside of archon. Remember, the more time we're in archon, the more archon stacks we gain, which raises our damage all that much more. It's very important.

Once you gain enough archon stacks, your AS will hit the 5 APS / 15 Ticks / s cap, which should help proc paralysis and MH more readily. With only weapon and paragon AS rolls, you will hit this breakpoint at 140 archon stacks. With Zodiac worn, you'll only need 133 stacks to hit the breakpoint. This is great because it means on a good rift, you'll be at cap even at single stack swami. These seem like low requirements, but check out the below values as well.

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While the 15 ticks / s cap can be hit by dynamically being above 4 APS on sheet, beam tick rate ICD breakpoints work differently, requiring 5 APS on sheet at the time archon is cast.

To be clear: Vyr6 beam stack rate is snapshot when entering archon. The Beam stacks faster after having been snapshot at the 12 Frame ICD.

With this in mind, the adjusted stack count values required per rotation adjust to:

• 152 stacks without AS roll on gear. 145 stacks with the AS roll on gear to hit 12 Frame ICD. Note that these values assume you are wearing a 50 stack fazula.

See below the testing and quote from TinneOnnMuin, where he accounts for the slower stack rate from the beam that we get when snapshotting at lower attack speeds.

It took me a while to figure it out, but I came up with something that fits all my data: for the beam, there is an ICD for the Vyr6 on-hit stacks where ICD=ceiling(60/APS) and it is snapshot when you first enter Archon (includes both Swami stacks + new stacks from Fazula). And you can only gain a stack on a tick from the beam. So you get some desync from the ICD to the beam tick rate.

To read up more on this, see Tinne's Post here.

Seeing as there aren't any other weapon options that give this much flexibility AND damage, pig sticker is a big win here. It allows you to run without an extra roll on gear, and still benefit from much more consistently high stack rates with your beam, which overall will increase your damage.

IMO if you can find a good MH, there is really no downside to equipping it over zodiac on this build, because of our dagger.

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Speaking of our dagger, Pig Sticker is the best dagger here for the extra affix roll, and also the damage to humans and beasts, which comes in really handy when pushing those higher GRs.

Rotation when outside of archon: I usually cast EB manually once, so as to gain the defense from 3 OID stacks as quick as possible, then wait until right before archon reset to cast Spellsteal, then EB again if I can manage it, to get that last stack for OID, and also refresh the stacks for a longer buff duration when inside archon.

Having OID and Spellsteal means that your damage curve isn't so cyclical. You have a big spike at the beginning of the archon phase while these buffs are up, but you have lower stack count at that point. Middle of your archon is the weakest, because these buffs are down, and you're still stacking up. Later, near the end of archon also has higher damage as well due to the highest possible stack count within your archon rotation.

Stand in your follower's oculus spawns when possible. Note that if the oculus is right up close next to the enemy, it may not be worth going for.

Try not to move around too much if you can help it, use Safe Passage for more DR when out of archon, and also to preserve your EW damage bonus.

I have to say I like the defense on Vyr6 that was added in on PTR.

I typically hunt for maps with lots of high progression, lots of smaller sized mobs mixed in with medium to large mobs, or elites. These get you more on kill stacks.

Static Discharge is chosen for it's proc rate to restore arcane power through APoC. Static Discharge is also the spell we use to proc zodiac.

Watch your stack count, as it is also an indicator of your defense. If you drop to single stack swami and you only have 100 archon stacks, you'll be more vulnerable.

Also be aware of your Templar's positioning when kiting elites. You may have to port back and then forward again to make sure he is ahead of you. Templar should wear the Thunderfury, Ess of Johan, Oculus Ring, and Bul-Kathos' Wedding band. While I was not wearing the band in the video, rest assured it does a nice bit of life drain, especially on the RG. Place AS and CDR on follower items.

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On the RG you can consider spend a few archon cycles punching, this will stack stricken faster. After about 2-3 cycles, I start beaming. You want to be close up to the RG as much as possible, though you can opt to pop out to range to try and proc MH for the last few seconds of double stack swami, where your stacks will be the highest in the rotation. Note that this is really only allowed because we have the pig sticker, lets us get by with slightly lower stack amounts on the RG. Be sure to pop back in close to continue stacking after that though.

The exception is if it's an RG with adds. If you have adds. you can go farther out at range, or stand in oculus, but make sure you have adds near you at all times, as stacking via the blast attack is very important for the RG fight. As seen from this engagement, The Binder is a very good RG to get.

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Multipliers:

• EW
• Trapped
• Zei
• Power Hungry
• Starfire
• Vyr6 (stacks are additive with other stacks)
• Archon

Defense:

• Vyr6
• OID
• Safe Passage
• EW

Considering I finished 2m 13s ahead of time, and don't even have a trifecta MH that I could wear, or a primal weapon, I'll rate this build GR108+. That's with about 1300 paragon, 18k INT, high level augments, better gear, etc.