NobleHelium posts Hearthstone screenshots & lurkers get annoyed. Earlier: sound, fury

[BRickAstley]

I like the new title Gaspar. Post some Path of Exile reports! :Kappa:

[Gaspar]

I like the new title Gaspar. Post some Path of Exile reports! :Kappa:

Well, just at the end of the Perandus league I did bumble into probably my best ever non-carbon copy build - a Varunastra Reave Gladiator, though I don't think I'll have enough time to really play it into high maps. I could post about that if people are interested.

[Miguelito]

Totally, yeah. A dual wielding Gladiator is second or third on my list of characters I want to truth some day. I tried allocating skills the other day, but found the duelist start somewhat dire, so it's interesting how you did that

[Ichabod]

Noble just saw I (do I use "I" or "me" here? english fail) embarassing myself and killing my own cards while playing arena. Rest in peace, murloc slime, you shall be missed - killed by his own brethren (or I thought it was his brethren, but it wasn't).

[BRickAstley]

And more posting here will confuse the other players so that's always fun.

[Tyrmith]

Noble just saw I (do I use "I" or "me" here? english fail) embarassing myself and killing my own cards while playing arena. Rest in peace, murloc slime, you shall be missed - killed by his own brethren (or I thought it was his brethren, but it wasn't).

I couldn't possibly tell you the reason, but anything other then "me" doesn't sound right, so I think me is the right answer.

Best part of Hearthstone for me right now is the massive Yogg Sarons killing the person who puts them down. Hilarious.

[DaveV]

Noble just saw I (do I use "I" or "me" here? english fail) embarassing myself and killing my own cards while playing arena. Rest in peace, murloc slime, you shall be missed - killed by his own brethren (or I thought it was his brethren, but it wasn't).

I couldn't possibly tell you the reason, but anything other then "me" doesn't sound right, so I think me is the right answer.

You use "I" when you're the person doing something (subject): I saw, I stayed, You and I are allies, etc. You use "me" when someone else is doing something to you (object): Noble saw me, Give me the money, Look at me.

[Gaspar]

Totally, yeah. A dual wielding Gladiator is second or third on my list of characters I want to truth some day. I tried allocating skills the other day, but found the duelist start somewhat dire, so it's interesting how you did that

Ok sure.

Characters Link

I can't get the tree to link via the site for anything, so that links to my characters tab. The character in question is "SureWhileStuffIsCheap." For anyone less than familiar, reading along with that open in another tab will make things a lot more understandable.

Basically the inspiration for the build was wanting to use Varunastra before it went away (Its a Perandus League specific unique.) I was able to get that one with decent rolls for something like 20c. I normally trawl the builds section for something I like and base it off that but I wanted to try something myself, particularly since most of the Varunastra builds out there use Earthquake and I had already run Earthquake this league. I decided on Gladiator because I felt with Varunastra doing the heavy lifting on damage I could run a shield rather than dual wielding and keep damage high (I've previous run a dual wield Reave character, based off ZiggyD's Southpaw Reave Ranger and it was one of my favorite characters, but it was a super glass cannon and I died a lot, even if the clear speed was fantastic.) Gladiator appealed to me as a shield character because of the Versatile Combatant node which gives you spell block equal to your regular block. Its too hard to get block capped and keep damage high on the current version of the tree but my setup has 55% normally and I picked up a Rumi's Concoction for next to nothing which allows me to block cap whenever the going gets tough.




For those less than initiated, Varunastra's main benefit is the "counts as all one-handed weapon types" line. This allows you to grab a ton of damage from things like the Deadly Dilletante cluster between Duelist and Ranger as well as the By the Blade cluster at Marauder. I also have picked up the Mace cluster by Marauder and well as chipping away at the Axe cluster below that. I'm at 75 now, but I'll probably pick off the rest of that Axe cluster and then move to pick up as much life as possible through the 80s, were I to finish the character, probably by heading north towards the Scion life cluster, particularly Constitution. I'm sitting at 4k life right now which is ok given the rest of the characters defenses, but probably would lead to one-shots once I got to higher tier maps.

Gearwise, I mostly just snagged life and resists on the rest of my gear. I was able to get a 6-link Astral Plate for a song and that combined with a Lioneye's Remorse shield that dropped on one of my other characters I'm over 10k armor. If I were richer and aiming to "finish" the character, I'd probably aim to get one of those gg 1800+ armor shields, sacrificing the extra block chance from Lioneye's. I've been running Meginord's as a belt but probably be better off with a strong rare Leather Belt or Rustic Sash and then maybe picking up Abyssus for the head slot. There's also a distinct possibility that the best "endgame" setup would be to spec out of Resolute Technique, pick up a few of the accuracy nodes and go crit with something like Shadows and Dust and a couple of gg Diamond Rings, though since the league is almost over that's certainly not going to happen. (I often think about playing these characters into Standard but I almost never do since the economy there is such a cesspool and there's always some exciting new league mod I want to try. I'm also an obsessive altoholic as you can see from the character tab where I have exactly one toon above 90.

The gemlinks are probably suboptimal. I think the 6-link on Reave is probably max pure dps for an RT character with Reave-Faster Attacks - Multistrike - Added Fire Damage - Melee Physical Damage - Weapon Elemental Damage though running Physical to Lightning over WED might be optimal since it covers me in Elemental Equilibrium maps and helps with higher defense bosses and rares, but WED is definitely more "pure" dps. I like running both Leap Slam and Whirling Blades as movement skills linked to Faster Attacks and Fortify. Whirling Blades because there's nothing faster and Leap Slam for jumping over ledges and the like. I'm not sure about the Reckoning-Riposte endurance charge generation setup. It was very good for me while leveling, so much so that I took the extra Endurance Charge from Oak in Merciless but in maps I rarely keep very many charges up. It might just be that its not a good combo with a Cast When Damage Taken - Immortal Call setup but that's too often a lifesaver to pass on I think. For Auras like every other Melee Character ever I'm running Hatred - Herald of Ash. Using Flame Golem because I think I can afford to push offense but I think going with a Chaos or Stone golem wouldn't hurt the attack much while adding another small layer of defense. They die so often in maps anyway, I'm not positive any of them are really worth it. Vaal Reave would almost certainly be better replaced by Vaal Haste since I don't have any room to buff the Reave and Ancestral Protector was great at low levels but I almost never use it now, though it was very helpful for boss fights while leveling. I started running Blood Rage in maps and like it enough that I picked up the extra Frenzy charge by the Duelist area and if I were optimizing would probably swap helping Oak in Merciless for helping Kraityn and the additional charge. Frenzy just goes so well with Reave.

Here's a shot of character stats with no charges up - the DPS goes about 25% at full Frenzy charges.







Anyway, nothing ground breaking but its a very tanky and efficient character. I've only died once and that was to lag on a strongbox while levelling. Since getting the my 5th and 6th Ascendancy points and putting on Lioneye's I've never even felt under any real threat and the Rumi's + Atziri + Basalt flask combo is fantastic for facetanking almost every boss. I suspect I'd hit a wall around T10 maps without making one or more of the changes that I suggested above but I've cleared through T6 on this guy even at this low level without any real challenge. Its a super fun character, I really enjoy the Reave playstyle, I think its my favorite melee skill that I've tried.

EDIT: Should mention I was able to get a mediocre helm with the 25% Reave Damage enchant for a song since Reave isn't a "meta" skill this league. That was a huge increase in dps, obviously.

[Ichabod]

What the hell is this children's game? Where is hearthstone?

Thanks for the grammar help, guys.

[NobleHelium]

I hear the people want more Hearthstone!

Gaspar and I (not me ) just played a ridiculous arena game: http://www.zerotoheroes.com/r/hearthston...859-280516

Gaspar, those character names...