Carry builds for hunters and mages 10.1
Carry hunter builds have been static, generally stacking items has been a core item for years. A choice between power or sustain. What if players moved away from stacking items?
This Reddit post has inspired me, to consider what builds could look like. In the past builds like this never really took hold. Given how most players like to trade and box, stacking items just slow you down. End result is worth it but most players misunderstand how the power curve works.
For starters, I prefer going with death’s toll or a leather cowl.
Example builds and order
Asi
Dev Gloves |
Demon blade
Dominance Executioner Griffonwing |
Executioner
Qins Qins Executioner/Dominance |
Qins
Griffonwing/Atalanta/Silver Griffonwing/Atalanta/Silver Atalanta/Silver/Dominance Crusher |
Atalanta/Silver
Dominance Griffonwing Crusher O Bow |
Atalanta/Silver
Deathbringer Griffonwing Crusher O Bow |
Upgrade starter or sell |
Got to use some judgement here, consider what happening that informs your build order. I tried to follow a power curve that makes sense here. A good example is selling your starter, if you can afford a new item outright before the game ends worth it.
Not played much this season but the numbers on paper look good. Demon blade with Deathbringer is on paper the best choice.
The normal build formula looks like this (power+attack speed+peneration=damage)
Let’s talk about the options and when to use them.
- Asi 2450 or Dev gloves 2400 – Asi gives you 50 power, 20% attack speed, and 20% life steal vs 30 (65) power, 15% life steal. Asi passive is far stronger in 1 vs 1s. Dev gloves offer more power but are much slower to come online. The difference here comes down to playstyle.
- Dominance 2500 gold – Replacement for transcendence 2600 gold. Dom is 55 power, 15% attack speed. Trans is 44, 200 mana with 10MP5 and 10 cooldown. Decent power some attack speed and penetration early on. Asi beats this item in straight-up boxing dual but has some benefits.
- Demond blade 2400 gold – gives you access to early critical strikes and gives you a little bit of everything. If your boxing or want to fight early makes sense to build it 2nd or 3rd.
- Executioner 2200 gold or dominance 2500 gold – 40 power with 20% attack speed. Both offer % penetration, the trade-off is more now or less now more later.
- Griffonwing Earrings 2200 – 45 or 80 power, 30% attack speed and 15MP5. A good spread of numbers and passive can boost your overall damage. Need to be hitting autos to do damage.
- Qin’s Sais 2600 gold – 40 power 20% attack speed with a passive that counters health-heavy builds. Screw tank items for hunters or mages building tons of health.
Luxury and final pieces for any build
- Odysseus’ Bow 2100 gold – Buying this for the 30% attack speed and group DPS.
- Atalanta/Silver 2400, 2550- 40/35 power, 25/30 attack speed and 10% penetration. Atalanta works for everybody, silver has a unique passive higher your attack speed more power you can get. Stims can reach the attack speed cap and give you that bonus power.
- Crusher 2700 gold – 55 power, 15% attack speed and 10% penetration. Passive is bonus damage on abilities with scaling. Makes your abilities hit a bit harder boosting your overall damage output.
- Deathbringer 2900 gold – 50 power, 30% critical strike and bonus critical damage. Rounds out a critical strike build, boosting your DPS.
When to build crit?
Crit offers higher burst against none tanky targets, however, it still packs a punch against tanks. Auras that provide protection are super popular at the moment. Spectral armour reduces that DPS, a team with more than one is a problem. Worth picking up one crit item, at the very least most of the time. Got to make the choice is it worth it or not.
Carrying with mages
Standard mages that play similarly to hunters are Chronos, Freya, Sol and Olorun.
Conduit is used on Freya to improve farming. Gilded arrow once upgraded to diamond arrow trades cooldown for basic attack damage. Sands of time are mainly picked up for cooldown with bonus minor damage. Unlike hunters that starter is important.
Chronos and Sol are both super safe, Freya can be safe and Olorun is the least safe. Each one has a different style of build.
Freya – Many rings queen
The bulk of Freya’s damage comes from her stim-based attacks, more attack speed more damage overall.
Gem of focus | Hastened ring | Berserker shield | Telkhine ring | Spear of magus | Cyclopean |
Spear of magus | Telkhine ring | Demonic ring |
Now we Chronos, Sol, Olorun
Pendulum of Ages | Book of thoth | Berserker shield | Soul gem | Obsidian Shard | Rod of tahuti |
Polynomicon | |||||
Divine ruin | |||||
Diamond arrow | Telkhine | Berserker | Nimble Bancroft | Obsidian | Rod of tahuti |
Bunch of variety when comes to builds for mages at the moment.
Hunters can’t counter berserker which makes them rather good.
I plan on updating this with each major big change. Work in progress is the mage section.