New and Improved Havoc BH

[Ozymandius]

First off, hats off the Devs for shaking things up with the new Havoc BH gear! And thanks for creating some balance without nerfing our beloved Stalker build.

I just played Gold ANB event trying out the new and improved Havoc BH. The style of play is very similar to a Demolitionist: round up a large mob, lock it down with Magnetic Trap, and hit it with Heatseekers. By equipping a BoM with Heatseekers bonus damage, fire damage on trinkets, belt, and bracer, and Belt of Ordnance, I was able to one-shot even large mobs with heatseeker attack through TL130. After that I found that I didn't have enough damage to kill the boss, so I switched over to Molten Belt instead. You lose the one-shot capability with mobs in exchange for a fighting chance against higher level bosses. I am hoping to learn how other players made out with their Havoc BH?



Scanning the leaderboards today, I am seeing that the more competitive build is a 4 Havoc:2 Demolitionist hybrid build. You only need 2 Demo pieces to get the Sticky Bombs, so that may be the next build to try since it deals out insane looking damage stats. Looks like this build uses the Molten Belt and Heatseeker BoM, but instead of Magnetic Trap, the players used 3 Maggies for Vortex and added SmokeScreen for the extra damage and dodge bonuses. Another interesting twist is that the hybrids were using Osmosis on helmet instead of the lesser 50% damage against Elites enchantment, so maybe that was why I was struggling to kill bosses at higher trials.

[Teebs]

While I don't play BH really, just looking at the updates - I guessed that 4H/2D would be a pretty strong contender for an XP farming META (kind of like the mixed Warrior META's). Was that the build for the top of the LB as well? Or more mixed?

[CarnivorousDeathParrot.2]

Here's my take at TL 155 just beat.
Attack speed 7.9 and +10% fire dmg instead of Osmosis.
I still have to try/do some tweaks.

[CarnivorousDeathParrot.2]

Main, of course.

[Ozymandius]

I should have know from the high CLs. I just want to look at your stats on the leaderboard.

[TheExorcist]

Many thanks for the hero's attribute sir

[TheExorcist]

Ozymandius and other knowledgeable BH I just craft few time at our bronze anb hoping for heatseekers Bom ( still no luck). But I obtain this thing: can it replace heatseekers? If yes. Should I CT it? ( Could use for later normal playing also)

[Ozymandius]

LodWig Thanks for clarifying that the effect is limited. Sounds like the Snipe BoM where only the initial bullet gets boosted. Probably explains why a lot of players stopped rolling the dice on a BoM for BH.

[CarnivorousDeathParrot.2]

Noted on the ES BoM limited to the physical part.
For some TLs back then it seemed like the better option but now switching back to Heatseakers BoM I have moved up a few places.

[Ozymandius]

CarnivorousDeathParrot.2 Thanks! I was running with ES BoM early in the original alpha tests, but once I crafted a Heatseeker BoM, I never looked back.

[TheExorcist]

Ozy and Lodwig thanks for the suggestion etc. I hv one more question if I may:

In normal playing you can hv many gears with vit (77 CTS). In anb normally just one 77. In anb better to put other status such as haste/power instead of many vit.

I hv 2 Question if I may:

1. I'm not good yet ( esp in how to play heatseekers BH proper & how to dodge? ). To minimize dying ( less anb gears with vit stats) a bit is it wise to:

"Replace Pathfinder with Nimble fighter?" (Used NF instead of PathF)

2. Based on normal LB top 20. Some used 2 slayer for weapon some choose a slayer and bombardment for another. Which one should i used for ANB's?

Many thanks

[Ozymandius]

For me Vitality comes in handy for the final push, but a lot of BH players focus mostly on Power and Haste as additions to their critical damage builds. The NF instead of PF is a way to boost your Dodge rating, which may have more of a payoff than straight Vitality. I have seen some players with high amounts of Dodge. In general, the watchword for a BH is don't get hit. Basically you cannot stand in one place and survive the way you can with a Warrior. The good news is that the timing of counter attacks is fairly predictable, so you can shoot a few sticky bombs then move before the mob counter attacks. Using Magnetic Trap/Smokescreen and healer Vortex can also buy you some time in mob phase. You also get really good at noticing which mobs have ranged attackers, such as archers and Lich. A large group of ghosts can latch on and rob you of your number one defense, which is movement speed.

[TheExorcist]

Ozymandius many thanks