Havoc question

[Naktl]

Next ANB is BH for me.

Does the 4 piece Havoc bonus (Damage of all traps, explosives, and missiles is increased by 45%) effect Sticky Bombs from the Demo set or the bomb belt? Anyone know? How does it work with Assassins Belt? Does it effect Molten Belt damage? I think I already read that it buffs the explosion part of Explosive Shot. Etc.

You get what I am asking. Does the Havoc 4 piece match well with other things?

[Ozymandius]

Aside from the dominant Stalker build, I have seen BH played with a 4 Demolitionist and 2 Havoc (helmet and gloves which have bonus damage effects); that is what I played in the Silver ANB. I made it to trial 112, but could have gone further [had the damage and toughness but did not get much play time on the weekend, so the event ended before I even played 6 hours]. You get the Sticky Bombs from the Demolitionist set pieces and the extra damage bonuses from Havoc helmet and gloves. As far as I can tell, there is no advantage to using the full 6 piece Demolitionist set, since the bonus from the full 6 piece Demo is not too exciting and there was a bug that awarded that bonus even if you didn't equip a full set. Once you get the timing down on the Sticky Bombs you can set off chain reactions that wipe out very large mobs in one huge explosion. It is totally fun, even though you cannot compete against the Stalker BH due to the DOT from Snipe being so overpowered.

I have also played my full 6 piece Havoc BH with an Assassin's Belt. You keep all of the Havoc gear bonuses, and you pick up the Sticky Bombs from the Assassin's belt. However, even with a level 77 Assassin's Belt, you do not get as many sticky bomb hits compared to the 4 pc Demo build, so the explosions aren't as spectacular and you typically need a couple of traps to kill mobs compared to a single trap with the 4 piece Demo build. I am currently stalled out around TL120 with Havoc BH because it takes too long to bring down mobs [at least compared to Stalker].

I have tried a number of different options with my Havoc BH including using BoMs for heatseekers, explosive shot, rapid fire, and magnetic trap as well as every fire damage trinket. Like most everyone else, I am just using ToS and VoWS for trinkets and whichever BoM that I am in the mood to try that day. It just doesn't seem like BoMs are really all that necessary for BH since many at top of leaderboard are still using medium bracers. they do change the distribution of damage ever so slightly, but overall damage doesn't seem to be that affected by BoM. I had some fun with the Trapper Belt early on before I got my first Molten Belt, but since magnetic traps do not have a measurable impact on boss fights the clear advantage goes to Molten Belt. I got a level 70 Ordnance Belt in the most recent ANB that I haven't tried yet, but it only gives a 50% boost to Heatseekers so I am not expecting too much. Right now, I'm not sure how any belt could compete with increasing damage that stacks indefinitely; given enough time on the clock you can beat just about anything.

I will probably try to push my Stalker BHs to see if I can get a medal before the season ends, but for ANB I will probably stick with the 4 Demo 2 Havoc build since it is more fun to play than Stalker.

[Naktl]

Thank you so much for such a thoughtful and useful response. Really helpful.

My first ANB was the previous Gold and I ran a Demolitionist 6pc. The 6pc bonus is not bad, particularly if you are disciplined about switching attacks, use Qol or the Belt, etc. I was wondering about 4 Havoc, 2 Demo. That’s why I was asking if the 4pc Havoc buffs Sticky Bombs, since those are explosive?

[Ozymandius]

p.s. - I feel like if you are going to use Sticky Bombs as a major part of your strategy, then you really want the 4pc Demo set which causes sticky bombs to spread to an entire mob when one goes off nearby. It gives you enough sticky bombs to start massive chain reaction explosions.

[chessmaster58]

At what level does skipping trials cease to be a thing, and one is stuck 1 level at a time?

[Ozymandius]

That is totally a timing thing. Completing a trial under a certain time point is what allows you to skip ahead to harder trials. Once you get to the point where it takes 6:40 or more to complete a trial, you will only be able to advance one trial at a time. There is a more detailed thread with a chart that shows what times are needed to skip multiple trial levels somewhere in the forum.

[chessmaster58]

Ozy - I understand this - was just trying to get a feel for when the average BH hits that point
Thanks for responding!

[Ozymandius]

It really depends on how long you run lower trials for XP. Most BHs would run trials that they can complete in under 3 minutes while farming XP, so they would not start pushing higher trials until they finish farming XP. At that point (over 1000 CL points) they would either reforge XP off their existing gear/jewelry or craft new damage gear set and jewelry for pushing. How far you can go at that point depends on how many CL points you have earned and the quality of your weapons, ability levels, jewelry/trinkets, and finally gear in that order. Even with a moderately decent BH build (level 75 weapon set), I tend to farm XP somewhere between trial 90-100 (start farming around TL80 and end somewhere around TL100), so the push to the second CT at TL110 can be fairly easy, especially if you save the ephemeral jewelry for pushing. On a Demo or Havoc BH, progress starts slowing down pretty quickly after that, but Stalker BH seems to be able to push farther before progress stalls.