Guardian Saico -- Mosaic Sin Craziness

[ffs]

This is my D2R Guardian #9 (others reported here, mostly) -- and oh boy, what a build this is. Honestly haven't felt such a power level since making my first Infinity and taking a Javazon to the cow level many moons ago. In fact, this Assassin feels even more OP, since apart from the crazy damage she is also insanely tanky and has literally no issue with any single monster in the game due to her mix of damage types.

Playthrough was straight-forward, I'll keep it brief: After twinking her with the usual route (envy jewel stuff, WoF), we leveled at NM Eldritch and then Pindle to get to level 65 to use Enigma and Infinity Merc. After getting to lvl 75 from NM Baal, she switched to the Mosaic build. That was even stronger then anticipated so I decided to take her P8 all the way through Hell, first time I had a playthrough to Guardian like this. There was barely any flinching through P8 Hell either.

Here's a P8 Baal run with her Guardian setup, which is by no means optimized at all. Basically just what I equipped after switching to the Mosaic build.

Guardian gear, also shown in the vid:

• 2/20/19@ circlet
• Enigma
• 2/15 MA craft amulet
• Mosaic Runic +2 Phoenix Strike, +1 Dragon Flight
• Mosaic Suwayyah +3 Phoenix Strike, +2 Shadow Master
• Raven
• FCR ring
• Verdungo
• War Traveler
• Magefist

Inventory: Anni, torch, 4x skiller (one with 39 life), some life/res SCs

Build: 20 Fade, 20 PS, 20 BoI, 20 CoT, 9 FoF, 4 Claw block. Dex for Runic, rest Vit.

Key stats: at lvl 87

• 2.9k life, 400 mana
• 38k max dmg with PS charge 2
• max DR%
• 53% claw block
• 58-75 max res

IMO this could really be the top 1 area running build in the game. It is also super fun, Mosaics are pretty cheap to make, and it's HC viable (which was my biggest question mark). Sounds about right.

Also lots of room for customization. Up to this point I went for a safe HC route with max DR, high claw block, non-max FoF ... not sure that's all needed to that extent. Both gear and build are due for some min-maxing as well. First, I gotta reroll the Mosaics, as mine are below average. I'll do that after RFL. THen I'll probably pile up some MF on her and go with things like Shako, Arach, perhaps Chancies or Bloodfist with circlet setups, other boots etc. Also might play around with sundered charms fpr specific targets.

In terms of future plans, I plan to play her through the both RFL rounds. Targets like Cows, Arcane Sanctuary, Chaos, Pit etc are all very suitable for her (longer runs so charging up is no biggie, and lots of monsters, basically).

Obvious final note being obvious: If you haven't made this build yet, do it!

 

[snickersnack]

Nice write up!

Also lots of room for customization. Up to this point I went for a safe HC route with max DR, high claw block, non-max FoF ... not sure that's all needed to that extent. Both gear and build are due for some min-maxing as well. First, I gotta reroll the Mosaics, as mine are below average. I'll do that after RFL. THen I'll probably pile up some MF on her and go with things like Shako, Arach, perhaps Chancies or Bloodfist with circlet setups, other boots etc. Also might play around with sundered charms fpr specific targets.

Since I don't have many skillers in D2R, sunder charms were the clearest way to maximize my mosaicsin's damage output. I run with a -75 cold charm and a -72 lightning charm. Lightning resist is at 75 (slightly overstacked) and cold is at -5 (I think), but the cold absorb from ravenfrost is enough to stay alive. I just recently got a perfect -70 fire charm, so I might try to work that in as well. I might want to also use a physical charm just so that nothing is immune, but that's more about trying something out than getting more DPS. On the other hand, I might ditch the cold sunder charm and just focus on maxing out lightning damage.

The only issue I've run into is mana burn packs slow me down a bit. I put on a 1.07 MPK ring (replacing a BK ring) and that seems to completely solve all mana issues (and obviates the need for Cobra Strike), but it's at the cost of +1 all skills, so it hurts DPS a bit.

I didn't start a new assassin for the mosaicsin, as I had a kicker parked in Act 5 Hell at level 86, as I recall. I've levelled from 86 to 94 in TZs and had only one death due to carelessness, so I'll agree that the build is pretty tanky. I might still call the build a bit of a glass cannon only because the damage output is a bit excessive whereas the tankiness is pretty standard as far as assassin builds go. I think that BoI is probably the biggest defensive measure since it more-or-less prevents melee attacks altogether.

Here's what I run with:

helm: griffon, ptopaz
weps: mosaic suwwayah +3PS, mosaic feral claws +3PS +1WoF
switch: CtA, Spirit
chest: enigma
gloves: +2MA, +str, cold/light res, GF
belt: arachnid mesh
boots: upped Gores (I just found WT yesterday tho)
rings: BK, raven (with MPK ring in stash)
charms: 2 MA skillers, light sunder, cold sunder, gheeds, various res, life, mf, fhr

My build is similar to yours except that I got to 7 kicks with dTalon. I might respec into more fire damage at some point, though.

Do you typically run with FoF charges? Do you find that you don't need to leech at all?

 

[Jpy]

Been thinking about this one for a while, might try it next. Grats on your guardian!

 

[Bizurker]

I've always wanted to make a MA Sin work for me back in the day, but I never put enough time in to get it working. Now with D2R and Mosaic, I really really want to make me one. The videos make it more than I ever dreamed it could be... gonna need to invest in some gaming sunglasses, though.

 

[snickersnack]

I've always wanted to make a MA Sin work for me back in the day, but I never put enough time in to get it working. Now with D2R and Mosaic, I really really want to make me one. The videos make it more than I ever dreamed it could be... gonna need to invest in some gaming sunglasses, though.

I just turned the brightness down. It's actually pretty good that way too, where you can't see things on the edge of the screen very well but things in the center are all lit up.

 

[BBS_Agonistes]

Thank you for this... was curious how some of you SPFers would have tackled the Dual Mosaic build! The funny thing is that I made one of these too, and the skill points and gear are quite a bit different from yours and she plays basically the same from the look of your video. I also tried adding MF gear (not a ton--a little over 300 without adding any MF charms aside from Gheed's) and she... still played about the same. Very fun a well-rounded OP build.

 

[ffs]

Re sunder charms, I'm pretty sure I'll only use them when focusing on a particular area to address whatever immunities I need to address to optimize for such a target. For general purposes / all round farming in various areas it seems not worth it to me, having to counter the -res, lose skill levels and dmg against various non-immunes etc...

Do you typically run with FoF charges? Do you find that you don't need to leech at all?

I am running with FoF charges, yes. I try to keep FoF at ~30 in whatever setup I run with, leaving ~10% non-converted physical damage for leech, this works very well with CS and TS (similar amount is used in the vid used above). I don’t time travel (pre 1.14) so the MPK approach isn’t that appealing in my case.

It's a bit lower fire damage but IMO it's well worth getting the easy life/mana upkeep from leeching. The PS Meteor charge is irrelevant in my book -- yes it's a great act boss killer but those guys all melt within seconds even with my AoE focused stack of charges, I never use the meteor charge unless I screwed up and face a boss having lost all charges.

Same for kicking actually. Being HC I'd rather not use boots with high str requirements anyway, but generally don't think optimizing for physical damage is worth it given it's only a small (and single target) portion of the damage output.

I might still call the build a bit of a glass cannon only because the damage output is a bit excessive whereas the tankiness is pretty standard as far as assassin builds go. I think that BoI is probably the biggest defensive measure since it more-or-less prevents melee attacks altogether.

Agreed that BoI is a big factor, which is why IMO the tankiness is greater than most other Sin builds, coupled with max DR and claw block on top of it.

And yeah, damage is indeed great anyway and I feel it's not even needed to go at great length to push it higher. Having tried setups between 34k and 44k max dmg with 2nd PS charge, it didn't seem to make much of a difference. Even more room to make her even tankier go for higher MF.

I will start RFL with a balanced setup: 39k max dmg, 50% DR, ~260 MF. Will try other setups along the way, but seems good for now.



Gear:

Spoiler

• Shako (PTopaz)
• Enigma
• 2/15 MA amulet
• Mosaic Feral +3 PS (she found this yesterday evening, fitting )
• Mosaic Suwayyah + 3 PS, +2 SM
• Magefist
• WT
• Arach
• Ravenfroat
• FCR/life/res ring

+6 BO CtA/Lidless switch

 

[maxicek]

Congratulations @ffs
I'm untwinked, so no Infinity / skillers / torch / anni yet. Level 30 PS / FoF etc. She kills just fine a P7 in A1 to A3, I normally go for P5 in A4 & A5.
I find charging up can be dangerous. The timer makes you play agressively too, and I have teleported in to a pack to find the charges drop at the point I land.
For me this isn't an assassin build though. It plays more like a hammerdin.

 

[ffs]

To me charging up is only a downside for quick runs, mainly not even because of the time (doing it with BoS also helps and making it qiuck) but mostly because it’s just weirdly annoying.

However, it essentially becomes a non-factor when settling for routine runs (which are ideally bit longer). For RFL round 1, as long as there is no good TZ going on, my typical run will be AS -> Trav -> CS (Vizier). It's easy to keep charges up throughout the run despite switching areas twice. The timer is 14 seconds I think so it’s really mostly about refreshing it before switching areas/load screens. Otherwise there are no gaps between monster groups that long when doing this kind of farming runs, constantly killing things.

For me this isn't an assassin build though. It plays more like a hammerdin.

Interesting, that fits as well. I rather thought she felt like a Nova Sorc gameplay-wise. Higher dmg output and sturdier, at the cost of tele speed, but the whole "blowing things up with explosive close-range spells" aspect. But I guess all of that applies to Hdin too. I'm a big Nova Sorc fan, perhaps the most criminally underrated build in D2, but in HC it's a bit scary... I do plan to make one, but only once I find a good Obsession base (and then likely losing it due to RIP anyway ). Kinda hoping RFL will deliver a decent base staff.

 

[Excalibur]

Woah, what can someone say! Almost looks like a hacked character.
How does that build compare to a Javazon in cows? Have you tried it?

 

[ffs]

Yes I ran cows with her and she destroys them, looks about the same as for Baal runs. Generally top tier for sure in the same category as Necro, Java, Trapper. I can't compare in detail though since I don’t have a good D2R/HC cow Java yet, and this being HC all of my cow runners are somewhat limited with extra safety precautions. Using DR% gear, HF Merc, lower FCR breakpoints, also no Griffon's yet for light chars in HC/D2R.

 

[Excalibur]

Nothing that I tried seems to perform better than a Javazon at Cows so if this build is actually better I would be amused!

 

[ffs]

Necro and FB/DS Trapper are equally strong based on many hours of testing. Also that was with my highly optimized Java, 99 FCR and so on. I haven’t seen similar Javas around here. Admittedly I also have some uncommon gear for Nec/Sin, but overall a good setup for them is easier to come by. For most players I’d say Necro and Trapper may even be slightly ahead of Java for cow efficiency. (IMO Nova and FB Sorcs are tier 2 behind the above, followed by Blizzard, Fire Druid, Hdin.)

At least that was the case in LoD, although I don’t see D2R changing much for cow running builds and how they compare, except Mosaic being another top build.

For me being HC in D2R, Assassin (and probably indeed Mosaic) is certainly top choice because both Java and Necro can die when going for their optimal (=high FCR) setups. In SC they can be made even stronger.

 

[Jpy]

Part of me could see it catching a nerf next patch and part of me thinks they don’t care enough to go after it lmao.

 

[ffs]

Part of me could see it catching a nerf next patch and part of me thinks they don’t care enough to go after it lmao.

Same here although honestly pretty sure the latter is the case. But would seem reasonable to bring it down a notch e.g. require more commitment to offensive gearing to get that kind of damage output.

 

[maxicek]

But then they are making -ELR work with traps too. I think the only balance going on is to make everything more powerful.

 

[Jpy]

@maxicek IIRC they made SW busted then nerfed it, did they let it live a whole patch? I wasn’t really fucking with D2R at the time

 

[little birdy]

Shock Wave was a thing for all of patch 2.5 IIRC, maybe even before. I can’t remember exactly when that build started making the rounds on YouTube. Too bad they ‘fixed’ it in 2.6. I had planned to quest a Shock Wave Druid eventually… :-/

 

[ffs]

IIRC they sometimes nerfed things between the beta version and the final live version of a patch, but after a patch went live I don't think so. Not 100% sure though.

 

[bill_n_opus]

Congrats!

hardcore mode .... i'm too much of a chicken.

I play d2r like a mindless dummy sometimes working the night shift. Blam! You've died!

maybe someday...