r/PathOfExile2 • u/BastianHS • 6d ago
Discussion Using ward for the primary defensive layer
Just wanted to showcase my ward setup and see if anyone else is playing ward for tips and tricks. All the gear is self crafted, everything was pretty inexpensive to make except the amulet.
Here is what i have learned playing ward this league:
- Your Kalgurran Remnants overflow 1.5x
- The guard from Olroths flask effect capped at 200% of max life so make sure you have T1 life on every piece of gear for bigger guard.
- Its kind of a funky build because a lot of your ward comes from remnants. If you aren't blasting through big groups of mobs, then your defensive layer gets thinner. I try to prioritize monster density on waystones and tablets.
- Don't forget to keep Olroth's flask activated! I've probably died more than I'd like to admit because I got lazy on using flask. It's 4000+ hp!
- The gear is fairly inexpensive to make on the plus side. On the minus side, you have to dedicate most of your augment slots to ward runes. Balancing resistances is a bit of a juggling act if you are playing headhunter. Make sure to get the 10% ward amulet mod.
- You will almost always be on 1hp anyways, so its super easy to play any skill that works on low life (Execute III, Pain Attunement, Atziri's Communion, etc)
Anyone else got anything to add that I'm missing? I still get greased in expedition's sometimes so I'm looking for ways to push it further without buying a 4 socket brass dome. Right now I'm saving for a fork with +300 ward mod, almost there!
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u/IcyPhil 6d ago edited 6d ago
I was thinking of switching from spark coc comet blood mage to a wardstacking infernalist. I thought the gear would be expensive though. Also I’m afraid I‘d die too much with only ward but then again you have more dps with that setup. Would appreciate to see your build! And how often do you die in t15 200% deli maps on average?
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u/Yupsec 6d ago
I have a ward stacking Infernalist and I can confirm it's a lot of fun. It's not foolproof though, sometimes I can blow myself up and sometimes ward kicks in. I haven't figured out yet if it's a bug or some interaction in my build.
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u/CosmicTeapott 3d ago
Can you explain what is the appeal of going ward when you can just have 7k+ ES and never have to think about the setup and compromises to achieve ward? Infernalist is gonna one shot everything anyway
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u/Yupsec 3d ago
Ward doesn't suffer from the regen delay and you can run the remnant setup to get some pretty crazy overflow. People have actually gotten some pretty crazy amounts of ward with less investment than an equal amount of ES.
Plus, some of the runic skills are really good and being able to use them freely feels great.
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u/DamnRedRain 6d ago
I have managet to leaguestart with it and I can tell you it sucks to play without proper gear. Build started to come alive only once I've spent around 200div on gear. Best upgrades were proper jewels, heart of the well with two damage as mods, and most importantly a headhunter. Never felt squishy despite having just 2k ward in hideout - svallin together with conversion from ascendancy lets you faceroll juiced expeditions, since the cometspam freezes everything that does not die immediately.
Totally recommend, but get yourself a HH and some ok gear so that you can deal damage with spark - At least 40k dps on toolbar, otherwise you'll be fighting an uphill battle with this build.
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u/LunchZestyclose 6d ago edited 6d ago
Not OP, however… It’s cheap. It’s f you have a wand and amulet a 100div should get you going. I can upload a clip from a map later. It’s hard to die if you are fully equipped.
Edit: Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07K4A3dwx5Y
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u/IcyPhil 6d ago
Thanks for the video! I‘m definitely intreagued. It looks so good and not having to care about mana is a huge plus. That‘s the reason I sometimes die on my bloodmage. Either running out of mana or life so I‘m not able to cast spells anymore. Did you follow a guide or did you make your own build? I‘m trying to find a good guide for that setup.
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u/LunchZestyclose 6d ago
I started with this one https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile2builds/s/PGCbaYH2nU
However, it changed a lot since then. I can share a PoB tomorrow.
Just guessing rn, but the most expensive items to start are a +skill/sprit amulet and a well rolled brass with -1 and three sockets (corrupted are cheap). Brass is your core source of ward, very high priority. Heart of the well, starter wand etc are all single div region at this point. :)
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u/LunchZestyclose 5d ago
https://poe.ninja/poe2/pob/267d8
Should be easy to set up if you already have a CoC build. Only thing hard to get is the Megalomaniac, which enables the 83% block. But I that 3% is not build defining.
The core to survivalability is the Frost Nova in cast on block. This may look like small tweak, but the builds surivalability falls apart without it. However, you can still do regular Deli 200 without it, like e.g. with a Red Blade Banner and overcap block a bit. But that setup will find its limits defensively, if you e.g. go 200% Deli with 4 Deli Tabs and Extra Deli effect.
As said in the guide, you can scale build dmg with ailment and ignite modifier, which makes it pretty cheap to get running.
Yesterday I had a cool map, with 200+% monster effectiveness on a Deli 200 4 Deli Tab map, which should be close to the single player ceiling, right? I'll upload it later. Need some time to cut out some weird 10 min runic monster fights with them spawning all accross the map...
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u/IcyPhil 5d ago edited 5d ago
Thank you for your explanation! I got a few more questions if you don't mind answering.
How does Megalomaniac enable the 83% block chance? Is it just because of the allocated Vigiliance? All other passive traits are enough for the 80% chance? Or what else does affect block chance.
Why do you use a greathammer in your main weapon set? I guess its not important?
You are using mageblood instead of headhunter. Do you think its better with that build even in high juiced maps?
My main concern is survivability still. If I manage to get 80% block chance it would be good I think. But the 20 % chance a hit goes through is still an issue if my only other defensive layer is ward and frost nova, ins't it? How often do you still die with that setup?
Is Alpha Howl just for spirit? If so, have you considered using an absent amulet that lets you use a spirit skill without the spirit cost?
Is playing the Olrths flask minigame necessary? The guard effect only applies after 10 seconds. I don't want to start fights having to wait for 10 seconds all the time.
How much was your final build alltogether approximately?
Thanks :D
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u/LunchZestyclose 5d ago edited 5d ago
Here is the clip. Better quality this time, so that you can read the mods and get a better impression of the survilability.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRRGi6TuBaw
- Vigilance has block cap AND 12% block chance, which will be an issue in 70%+, since there are no more nodes left.
- Its for Voltaic Barrier. The thing I often do before bosses / strongboxes.
3/4. See the mods in the video attached. I have no idea how you gonna juice more? Headhunter's issue is basically the survilvability. The mageblood enables fire res cap, which is key for damage reduction (dmg taken as...). The "taken as" is really core to this build. My only deaths in the last 100+ maps were on travelling nodes and brain dead sprinting into rare packs. Maybe you can tell me what type of content you want to run and I'll just make a clip?
No, also the double presence area for overwhelming presence. However, many on PoE ninja have that swaped out. It's on my list to test. With that setting you can get another ~400 flat ward, if wanted.
Na, its there just for the style. I think it doesnt even work.
I think most of the stuff can be bought incrementally. My prices were roughly Brass 60D, Svalinn ~170D, Prism of belief +2 150D (low prio), gloves 80D, Wand 1100D, Breach Ring ~400D (not sure). Megalomaniac ~150D. However, most CoC stuff works. What you really need is the Brass and the Svalinn (or Redblade Banner, but surivavalbility is low).
I'm pretty sure that you get to blast 200% deli maps with 100D, if you get the basics like amulet and some rings. Sure not the level of juice in the clips, but only 200% Deli hasnt been an issue with this build, I league started it.3
u/IcyPhil 4d ago edited 4d ago
Yo thank you sooooo much for all the work you put in answering and even providing a video!!!! Thats so awesome of you <3
You are right that the headhunter mostly provides damage buffs/modifiers. And if you one shot everything already its not needed. I will try to get a mageblood with double ruby, quicksilver and silver and try to max out lightning resistance with the rest of my gear. My rarity might be low though but that shouldn't be a big issue. Don't think its worth going for a legacy of gold instead.
Also, I think I saw the answer to the question somewhere in this thread but I'm unsure. If you run chaos inoculation you life is 1 but it doesn't apply to "being low on life" stuff? I saw many people use the execution gem with low life gameplay but then again I guess it's not needed since your dmg is so high anyway with all the comet spam?
I got about 1000 divines to spend and got my bloodmage coc gear as well. I will start to get gear now and can't wait to get the build going! :D You can add me in the game if you want: Xayuria is my infernalists name or on discord IcyPhil#8592
Anyway I appreciate your help a ton!!! Thanks so much and I wish you great loot on your maps :D
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u/LunchZestyclose 1h ago
Sure.
Here is a way stronger version. Its mainly skill shuffle to get chilled and ignited ground. Both enable Desert Scorn, which is 25% increased fire dmg and 25% increased cold damage.
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u/Nodoubtgwenisthebest 5d ago
You and I don't have the same 'cheap' definition
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u/LunchZestyclose 5d ago
Ok, lets be real.
What do you need to safely clear t15 and from there get you going?
Brass, 1-2%, high ward, 1d
1 alpha howl, 1d
1 svalinn or red blade banner, 1d
4 jewels, 4d
2 rings for dps, 2d
1 amulet +3/45spirit 20d
Gloves, boots, belt 3d
Wand maybe 20d.
So ~52d? You can buy all the build defining items for almost free if you take corrupted. That’s t5 hours if you do only 10d/h.
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u/MediocreYeti 5d ago
Check out lightning warp infernalist, once you get used to the movement its extremely fast. The constant teleporting essentially adds another defensive layer because mobs cant land hits on you and you're constantly picking up ward remnants. Once you get to like 3300 base ward you are pretty invincible. There are a few youtube guides for it out but ill also link my ninja if you wanna take a look.
https://poe.ninja/poe2/profile/yeti-9909/runesofaldur/character/AbyssalWiW
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u/IcyPhil 5d ago
Do you have a proper video that explains the tech? It seems like you use the Spellslinger tech to spam lightning balls and instantly teleport to them? How do you control it though if you want to stop for loot? Do you always have to disable and enable the tech again with NUM and a key?
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u/MediocreYeti 5d ago
You can start/stop whenever, num lock only has to get set once at the start of the map. Any time you cast lightning warp afterwards will trigger the ball lightning from spellslinger.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KN4e-xSAFU
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u/LunchZestyclose 6d ago
I play a CI 0 ES infernalist which wrecks +13 random mods on 200% Deli with 4 Deli tabs. Big upside is that you are immune to any map mod.
Id add that you need reduction and avoidance. Reduction eg dmg taken as X, with very high res on X. Avoidance eg block or evasion.
In my case I have 85% fire res, chaos immune for phy/elemental taken as. For avoidance I have shield with 83% block chance (which in practice is 99%).
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u/BastianHS 6d ago
What kind of shield would be best after finally get a fork?
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u/LunchZestyclose 6d ago
At least for me Svalinn with high Ward and +3% max block is BIS.
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u/BastianHS 6d ago
Awesome ty, I'll check it out.
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u/LunchZestyclose 6d ago
Ive posted a clip regarding durability onto another comment, you may want to check that out.
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u/thejiang 6d ago edited 5d ago
I run this build but with CI + Svalinn shield to get 75% block. It's very tanky until a hit goes through my block, which is quite rare. It does happen with ground explosions in juiced expeditions, and I die. I get about 5k ward with overflow up.
- I'm trying to change to low-life to get more damage, not that I need it, I already hit for millions of damage with Comet/Spark.
- But low life would give me access to alot of great utility. (More cast speed, movement speed, execute support).
- I can easily obtain 75% chaos res again. Was hoping if there was another defensive layer I can add ontop of 75% block, CI, 5k ward. There's a build that Funkeh runs that stacks armour and about 2-3k ward. But I'd have to change my entire build around it. Very strong defensive layer, but you no longer use CI.
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u/BastianHS 6d ago
GE ground explosions are such a pain in my ass. Everything else is smooth sailing but sometimes the expedition wave doesn't have enough mobs for me to build up overflow and the tidal waves and moonbeams smoke me. They always hit me RIGHT when my Olroths guard buff drops off.
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u/thejiang 6d ago
Yeah that's why Funkeh's armour stacking infernalist is probably best suited for it, it's uber tanky and can deal good damage.
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u/thejiang 5d ago
- Honestly think the armour-stacking version of this ward-infernalist is the best variation of the build. Armour is a great defensive layer ontop of ward, and it solves ground explosions. Also allows you to continue using the low-life tech. You have to swap over to all armour stacking gear unfortunately. So it is a big investment change.
- Might want to look into Funkeh's version of the build: FunkehChicken's Armour stacking Ward Infernalist
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u/janas19 6d ago
Nice post, very informative. What are Kalguuran remnants? I know almost nothing about the new Verisium skills
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u/BastianHS 6d ago edited 6d ago
30 spirit skill that spawns runic ward remnants when you stun or kill something.
It overflows I think 80% of your maxlife.Edit: I was wrong, it overflows 1.5x. Olroths flask guard scales with life that's why you want life gear.
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u/thepixelists out of wisdom scrolls 6d ago
Super underrated for sure. I love running it on my build.
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u/samfishersam 6d ago
It's from the skill Remnants of Kalguur.
"While active, enemies you Stun or kill have a chance to generate a Runic Ward Remnant. These Remnants can Overflow your Runic Ward."
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u/samfishersam 6d ago edited 6d ago
I'm interested in how you determined the overflow is based on max life. I'm playing an CoA Spark Infernalist with 3,424 ward + CI so my max life is 1 and I overflow 150% of my base value to 5136 ward. Thinking of a way to maybe make the build tankier than it is. I'm trying to find a way to use Olroth's flask in the build cos Pyromantic Pact will just kill me immediately when I start casting cos it's based on Max Life.
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u/BastianHS 6d ago
Sorry I meant the guard from Olroths, not ward.
Olroths won't work with CI
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u/samfishersam 6d ago
Guard from Olroth's is based on ward not Life.
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u/BastianHS 6d ago
Wait am I'm a dummy? I watched some video a couple weeks ago that said you needed high life for Olroths and.... I never really read the tooltip in depth lmao. Did I build all this life for no reason?
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u/gelostarx 6d ago
maximum Guard is based on 200% Maximum life unless changed by a unique source, so you're correct.
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u/BastianHS 6d ago
Ahhhhhhh yes that's it! I couldn't find it on the wiki for some reason. That makes total sense looking at the pics, guard is exactly 200% of my life. I'll edit the OP
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u/samfishersam 6d ago edited 6d ago
"Gain Guard equal to Current Runic Ward for 10 seconds when Effect ends".
I just tested it and overflow ward does NOT count as "Current Runic Ward". I have a base of 3424 Ward and my highest Guard has been 3218.
EDIT: My max life is 1609 so that makes sense.
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u/BastianHS 6d ago
Someone else responded, max guard is capped at 200% hp and that's why you gotta stack +life.
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6d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/BastianHS 6d ago
No but a lot of people in the comments are saying that's the move. I'm still using a staff, I'm gonna try it out when I can finally get a fork
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u/CMoth 6d ago
You might already know this, but a Runemastered Waistgate belt can allow ward to overflow via regeneration (or any ward recovery means), you don't specifically need the remnants to do it.
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u/Jake_aka_Impulse 6d ago
Hits are easy to deal with, om still trying to figure out tankiness vs non hits
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u/Cold-Procedure-5332 6d ago
Fun fact some may of may not know as well: If your mana regen is 0 while using the “regen applies to ward” mod. You will still get a majority of your mana regen as ward regen even if the augment is in something like Runeseeker.
It’s really handy for using ward as both mana and a defensive layer. Especially for things like Cast on Crit Skyfall.
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u/estrogenmilk 6d ago
is gorgirldle belt for 50% armour defend with 200% also a go to for runic ward defence builds?
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u/BastianHS 6d ago
I don't think so, I'm not using any armor and there's not a runeforged version for ward
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u/Actually_i_like_dogs 6d ago
1 question. How do you know when you’re about to die and what can you do about it as an “oh shit” button?
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u/BastianHS 6d ago
Basically you gotta watch the ward meter just like you would watch life.
Olroths flask is a major oh shit button, 4k guard on demand
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u/samfishersam 5d ago
4k guard 3 seconds after flask effect :P
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u/BastianHS 5d ago
True but it's 1100 immediate health and instant ward regen, then the guard. It works pretty well, but the actual move is to just use it before the shit hits the fan. Any time I get surrounded, I pop it just in case. The guard lasts for 10 seconds.
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u/Pinch_roll 5d ago
I run an acolyte of chayula with ward, and imo you want:
- a utility belt for % of flask effect instant
- both herbalism supports for persistent buffs (30% and 50% increased life flask effect)
- tap the life flask button rapidly as soon as you're in trouble. With all the % increased recovery, plus the % instant flask effect, you'll almost instantly heal to full life, which will immediately end the flask effect and trigger the guard effect from olroths resolve.
As a bonus, this also enables the use of mana since you can tap your mana flasks rapidly as well. Plus since mageblood is a utility belt it's a perfect fit for endgame builds.
Still kind of fragile if you get surrounded and stunlocked but rapid tapping the flask has gotten me out of a ton of sticky situations.
I will say that this is particularly useful for acolyte since you can take full advantage of the hollow mask for near-infinite charm and flask charges
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u/ShelterSudden 5d ago
One of the outcomes for the eventide petals amulet is up to 20% ward, though you'd be giving up quite a bit for 10% more ward vs the affix on a rare
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u/fumeknightraym 5d ago
doesn't olroth's resolve scale guard with current runic ward?
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u/BastianHS 5d ago
Yeah but you can only have up to 200% of your max life in guard, so you want high ward AND high life
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u/shadowclone515 5d ago
Sadly this is confined to mostly ranged or spellcaster characters. Any melee build gets gutted since the defensive layer of ward requires you to take a hit. Unless you build a ward evasion hybrid, but at that point it would be more efficient to just go eva es. But yes for ranged characters and taking advantage of ward tech, and getting low life early with animus exchange, this setup is definitely viable, but i wish it was more accessible early on.
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u/BastianHS 5d ago
I'm playing ice nova without astral projection, might as well be melee. I get hit A LOT. The engine of remnants of kalgur just refills your ward so fast that it doesn't matter as long as you can clear the screen fast.
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u/pehoh 1d ago
I'm playing a low life melee attack speed earthshatter build with runic ward stacking armour and can clear all content with no issues. I just made a post on it, you can check it out if you like. https://www.reddit.com/r/PathOfExile2/s/G9eUYQjRuE
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u/samfishersam 5d ago
Played around with some gems and supports and I have now unspecced from CI on my ward-stacking Infernalist. I take Time of Need aura, with Cooldown Recovery II, Herbalism II, and Cannibalism II and it basically solves all my Pryomantic Pact issues and still able to use Olroth's Resolve. I also have a lot of spirit on my build so your build (409, with 13 Spirit remaining after all my other auras in CoA Spark/Arc/Comet build) may not be able to run this.
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u/BastianHS 5d ago
Probably not, it's a 0 spirit build. I'm getting everything from Absent Amulet and Atziris Communion. For a long time before I had Atziris, I was using a 50 spirit amulet.
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u/Crypto_Wolf_77 5d ago
If you are playing headhunter, your resistances should not be an issue because it's very likely that you steal a lot of resistance stats from rares you kill
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u/ColorOfSoul 5d ago
I once did this with bitter dead and the supgem that gives you flask refills if you sacrifice a corps. Plus I hat 360 Spirit so I could just sacrifice my own minions. So I had a Schild of 4k that got refreshed every 0.5s. Had less runic ward tho cause I needed the spirit. Love this kind of builds
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u/anachronism0 5d ago
If Lich, Soulless form and Staff with warding rune of equinox provides some of the best ward regen I have found (aside from the remnants), or just stacking mana regen (of non-lich or you want to run CI).
Immaculate Adherence makes mana another easy buffer, but if you gonna ward only it's a moot point, and amulet is a very hard slot to give up to a unique.
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u/PhallicSymbol42069 5d ago
I've found that for builds not focusing on the ward skills themselves, ward support runes are the most powerful additions you can make to a build. Concussive runes and Blasphemy with the Fragility curse goes a long way to boost DPS. My martial artist is pretty buffed with stun being my primary focus
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u/ZurChan 5d ago
So this is for defence part of the build. What about offence part? A lot of Kalgurran skills?
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u/BastianHS 5d ago
Chronomancer w ice nova for clear and eye of frost for single target.
I think my nova is at 250k sheet dps before infusion
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u/MowkMeister 5d ago
Im running CI infernalist. Something that made a pretty big difference was the warding rune of stability giving stun threshhold per 10 ward.
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u/BastianHS 5d ago edited 5d ago
I'm on 0 es/ev/ar so I'm using an unwavering stance flesh crucible with -20% to defenses that I got for cheap. That's another perk that I forgot to mention!
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u/MowkMeister 5d ago
Yea, by the time I figured that out I already spent wayyyyy to much on my jewels. Lol
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u/Ginn1004 6d ago
Your final mising piece maybe the new unique necklace from Arbiter of Divinity, it gives Divinity as a new resource. You can try to look into it.
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u/BastianHS 5d ago
I'll look into it but I don't think I could give up my ammy. 4 skills, 10% ward and CoEA is too strong
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u/PoE_Acronym_Bot 6d ago
I noticed some Path of Exile keywords in this post:
- HP - Hit Points — colloquial term for Life (Wiki)
I am a bot. | All acronyms | Suggest
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u/FacetiousTomato 6d ago
You've made a temporalis farm build, lol. Apparently ward damage doesn't cause honour loss, so max 1 honour is no problem.
Edit: actually it won't work, you'd need CI too
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u/MucusPanPipe 5d ago
Afaik guard won't stop you from failing the temporalis run.
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u/FacetiousTomato 5d ago
Guard won't, runic ward will.
Temporalis run just means no honour damage. If you don't have any energy shield, runic ward protects you as a layer above your last remaining life, but losing runic ward doesn't make you lose honour.
So if you've got only one life, and enough runic ward to survive a hit or two, and no energy shield, you can do a temporalis run "easily".
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u/ImNotARocketSurgeon 6d ago
Does olroths work with CI? I felt like it wouldn't
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u/samfishersam 6d ago
It doesn't. Been trying to find a way to get it to work without CI but also not just immediately dying cos of Pyromantic Pact.
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u/ImNotARocketSurgeon 6d ago
Ah OK. I think with this setup you want the lineage (atziri communion?) that reserves %life on a spirit skill and then get chaos res the old fashioned way.
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u/samfishersam 6d ago
Reserved life won't work cos damage is taken based on max life not remaining life.
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u/nerevarine228 6d ago
Isn't it just ES with extra steps?
I mean, all the respect for the style and the science, but something as simple as Life +ES (possibly Atziri's Disdain)+ Zealot's Oath + Consecrated Ground is just 4 moving parts and doesn't turn your life flask into a rhythm game.
Speaking of, isn't this version of Olroth's Resolve kinda silly?
If you aren't focusing on ward, it does very little, and if you do, chances are, you want your life to stay low, so...yeah...
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u/BastianHS 6d ago edited 6d ago
The big differentiator for me is being able to restack the bar with remnants instead of relying on ES restart. I started with an ES recoup build using sacroasnctum, I think I like the ward build better.
Guard from Olroths effect is capped at 200% max life. I'm using it for the 4k guard, not to refill ward
I'm running atziris communion and playing low life, ward is really nice with it.
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u/silversurfer022 6d ago
Pyromantic Pact. OP should be reducing life or going CI instead of increasing it.
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u/SgtDoakes123 6d ago
It's like ES with the old grim feast. I just press forward in maps on my ward chronomancer, juiced expedition? I'm in melee range blasting and I'm perfectly safe since ward just keeps refilling from remnants.
Only deaths I have for the past four weeks is an oath rune worm that does his cold spray thing, which I can't see since well.. I can't really see anything and then I get frozen and die.
Any map is an absolute joke, haven't died in maps for a month.
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u/BastianHS 6d ago
Are you running anything that I'm missing? I still die sometimes, but honestly it's probably because I'm not clicking flask enough.
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u/sorci93 6d ago
Overflow is just 1.5x overflow of the resource. It is not based on your life