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My personal opinion after last experiments and some more thread research on previous attempts to asses and/or utilize HA/DA to gain supreme single target damage advantage (there are so many attempts and threads going way back to vanilla);

-Although Buriza may help the cause (even in its crippled current state), it is in fact a different variable, and it won't add up to HA/DA pierces but will rather have its separate internal CD bound rythm and both override eachother. The pierce from Buriza is directly related to the skill proc coefficiency (0.65 for DA). This is why it probably messes up things at certain AS tresholds.

-While Buriza pierces are likely to hitch the higher above the observed AS cap (~1.16), HA/DA seems to be affected in a positive way by the increase.

-Dropping off Buriza from the equation and going crazy on AS witin an UE setup might drastically improve HA/DA performance..

I had some time to kill on PTR today.

Right after I read post #13, I checked what I have in stash, and came up with an apparently working cold LON variation. Although I had all the necessary ancient pieces per slot, they were far from decent in terms of stats/rolls nor did they have any augments or proper enchants. I also had to substitute Simplicity's strength to BotP since I didn't have a levelled one.. Anyway, against all the odds, the build turned out insanely tough with decent damage output. The toughness level was so ridicilous that I barely needed to move in the middle of chaos only when too many stuff overlapped, so instead of using vault or SS, I only equipped an Illusory Boots, which worked like a charm. I also was able to stack around 75-80 AD on gear and this also worked great in crowds. The hardest thing was to keep the AS below 2.00. I was able to maintain around 1.6 AS with unridable AS on 1-2 slots.

Under these conditions I had struggled to complete a gr65 but I believe with everything optimized, it definitely has potential to clear tier 70, maybe even a few more..

I might add a video capture just to show the gameplay but don't expect much since I won't bother optimization on PTR ^^

Least of all I formed up a sketch build. Here it is for those who might want to play around. A few things might be shifted for more dps..

You need zombie rifts and some form of efficient slow/chill to make most out of the damage bonus from EW with UE setups

The main problem about Buriza with UE builds is; you can't roll max disc on it.

If you believe HA has enough damage boost to carry on to higher levels then the native secondary "7.5–10.0% Chance to Freeze on Hit" is also great addition along with higher base damage compared to Dawn.

The gameplay seems to have similarities with SM6. I believe it's worth trying impale as a spender to utilize F&R and equip Chain of Shadows to cope with the inferior AoE and skip trash with free vaults (which will also indirectly contribute to your dps via disc management) Not to mention impale has 100% proc coef. and works with Buriza as well. Nemesis Bracers would also be quite handy to spawn more elites. The extra attack speed from the Hunter's Wrath or a Lacuni Prowlers would complicate the Buriza internal cooldown issue anyway.

Apparently so, but this time the issue is that, there are more/better damage multipliers in priority list while picking up gems and offset/cube items.

BotT, Zei are best gems, while there's a competition between BotS, BotP for the third slot. Enforcer might be a candidate only if you have cubed Garwulf Cloak.

T&T will require RorG in cube which would only be meaningful if you are using EW+CoE+RoRG instead of HF+F&R+cubed CoE

This was one of the first things I tested in PTR but the shift in gear and gems did not seem to produce any significant results. F&R still seems to be the better choice for MR6 setups after all.

Sadly it is underwhelming compared to shooting stars in practice..

While comparing Endless Walk with any other option, please keep in mind that the set bonus is not the only plus; Compass Rose has +1 primary affix. In my case I was able to find one with dex+chd+chc+AS+socket, which I believe closes the gap, might even pass the F+R with a few digits. What you really need to consider is if you can manage to increase uptime of EW damage bonus, because UE requires a lot of dodging/moving due to fact that it hasn't got a pet+sentry army like Marauder or damage/toughness trade off tolerance like Shadow set. Besides the fifth passive is more essential in achieving higher output than it is for the other sets. UE is also the least punished set for utilizing a generator which all favor using F+R over EW "for" UE builds.

Collect craft items rewarded from bounties and use them to reforge the regular set pieces with a chance of getting an ancient version in the cube is the only option besides keep playing and accumulate loot.

Added a video;

https://youtu.be/5zdDV_VGpV4

This is the vault edition of "The Endless Walker" Build

Differences are:

-Belt is replaced for acquiring infinite vault capability; Make sure you have Vengeance up all the time, hold your right mouse button (impale) and navigate moving your cursor and spam 1 for vaulting (not any more than as much and fast as needed.. )

-Vault replaces FoK/BA skill;

The toughness gained from perma-FoK/BA shield is no more. This removes need for CDR gem and Zodiac ring. And the armor bonus is replaced by the 50-60% DR from Elusive ring, which is a more powerful feature considering infinite vault capability.

-Gogok's Swiftness gem is replaced by BoTP because;

The time spent searching for elites is lessened, You hit and run, therefore you don't really stand iddle long enough to build up/follow any sort of stacks.

-Thrill of the Hunt is replaced by Tactical Advantage;

This boosts movement speed bonus from having infinite vault even further. You have stuns from vault rune instead of ToTH slow.

-Elusive Ring replaces Zodiac Ring because;

-It synergizes with vault, - CDR bonus is not that critical with removal of FoK/BA rune.

-Illusory Boot remains essential to this build because it is even more crucial to fluently move across targets and "not" be tangled or cornered due to sometimes unpredictive behaviour of vault and the addition of extra movement speed bonusses.

Dear Natalya,

If you are reading this, most probably I haven't made it from the 77th level of The Fortress by the end of fall..

I'm leaving you this letter, in hopes of passing the knowledge and experience I had during my recent expeditions.

I know nobody approved it, when I embraced the full power of shadows to gain the focused firepower required to kill the strongest of foes. For one has to give up on ranged weapon capabilities and hone skills in using the bladed weapons instead.

Although I have invented other means of spreading damage, I also realized that it is better to elude lesser minions at all costs. Because time is not your ally, and you might be overrun. I made some necessary additions and small changes which made it possible to walk ethereally among swarms and reach my main targets faster. After all what matters the most is downing the greater ones and summoning the guardian..

This unusual yet effective "hit and run" strategy requires everything you can utilize to raise your survivability. Shadows shall whisper in your ear, the secrets to deliver unimaginably powerful blows to your enemies. You must never look back once you have started the path.

Always forward, always gaining something in return..

Karlei

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

https://youtu.be/2BPJySgicZ0

-This is a Shadow's Mantle build variation optimized for solo tier 60-65 difficulty grifting based upon my own experience and knowledge accumulated since the start of 2.4 PTR.

-This difficulty range is great for gem upgrading, decent amount of paragon xp accumulation and loot within the capabilities. Putting a limit to difficulty range allows us to exaggerate toughness stats and features to be able to soak up a lot of damage instead of vaulting and dodging yet still we will be able to clear within a reasonable time bracket.

-The idea of the build is to focus efforts on killing elites/progress monsters, skipping worthless trash and less dense areas. For this purpose I made several shifts in skills, non-set/cube items, etc which can be summarized as follows:

-Nemesis Bracers is an obvious choice for the task. Since you will be scouting/skimming a wider area than you would normally do in a typical pushing run, you are more likely to find pylons-> elites-> progress globes..

-Endless Walk Set's toughness/damage trade off mechanism works great with huge damage tolerance of the Shadow set. Also, we can totally abandon generator due to absence of Wraps of Clarity, F+R, and presence of huge resource regen from KP dagger and perma-vengeance.

-The empty slot from generator is filled by MfD/grim reaper to drastically improve AoE. I find it critical to assign mfd/gr to left mb to make a better habbit of applying it before impales. Packs literally explode from the 6pc impale bonus+MfD overload once you get used to the rythm and master landing impales on your intended target. The virtual projectile beam of an impale shot is tiny. You need to improve your mouse skills, hence achieving a succesful hit rate will not be as tolerant and easy as it is with any other build. As you can see on the video, killing a specific target (champion) requires 3-4 succesful direct hits, while this may not be possible every time, because of swarming trash around and lack of an efficient AoE method. This is where Illusory Boots and all that extra toughness comes in handy. You walk through the main target soaking up attacks, blow it up with as few shots as possible, collect the progress globes and move out ignoring the rest. While a yellow champion (not the whole pack) spawns 4 globes, blue packs spawn 3 and you need to kill the whole pack.

-CoE is the second ring option which is one of the few and great damage multipliers you can add. You will want to equip this ring, since it will have some guaranteed and better stats on it over the other option. Elusive Ring can't be utilized efficiently due to lack of related skills therefore it is excluded in this build.

-Zodiac Ring is required to increase uptime of FoK/BA and Wolf Companion and close the gap for having less than 36% cdr required for perma-vengeance due to shift in stats from CDR to vitality in offhand and gloves.

-FoK/BA is preferred over PPA rune because of;

- A more frequent Armor bonus+damage is more beneficial than a too long CD bigger blast. Which is justified further by the absence of FoK dagger.

- Shorter CD coupled with ZodiacRing and Gogok's Swiftness gem makes it possible to keep the shield up almost permanently. Don't fry your brain over CoE elemental shifts, just use it every CD and try to make sure you have smt to damage close by.

-Illusory Boots; This is one of the most controversial item shift I made in this build. The reasons;

As you might have noticed at first look this build does not utilize vault. In its stead you have the ability to pass through anything except map obstacles. This item is so underrated against vault belt or any other mobility item. I can't begin to tell how much fun and useful is being able to permanently run through stuff coming or thrown at you / covered areas with shit pools/fields/etc, swarms of white trash with no progress value at all. It could be coupled with TA and HP passives for T10 speed boost but in greater rifts you can't afford to drop any of the above 4 passives. Since there are enough survivability features, 50DR from Visage of Gunes is expendable for the target diffculty range.

-Yes there's no Vault, so we can equip more damage/toughness oriented TGV belt which can roll both AR+Liightning Resist and +15% lightning skill damage. String of Ears might be also fine but every aspect of TGV belt is a welcome addition for this build.

-Nothing much to say about Dawn in cube.. It is fixed, especially with no possibility to equip in main or off hand. Essential for perma-vengeance..

-I chose to use HPS as offhand over its 6 primary opponents (DML,Bombsac,Sinseeker) for a little bit of edge to damage, but since it is particularly hard to find a sensible HPS, the other options will be fine as well. If so, Gogok's existence becomes less necessary, since you can have some more cdr, in that case feel free to swap with BoTP/Taeguk/BoTS/etc...

I used to spill cologne on the floor and light it up, then run my matcboxes through the little pond of flames when I was a little kid. Just because the burning trail looked cool..

Then I realized the tires have melted and deformed, on that point I stopped doing it

Roll AS to 10% damage

Cubed Cindercoat does not have elemental damage increase, only rcr