[S27] Psionic Storm Assa and Pala

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Vanarchy
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[Update from April the 24th]



This is my last video this season, enjoy :D
The first and possibly the last of his kind: fully minmaxed Psionic Pala. Will probably be selling him in a few days, I've done everything I wanted)


[Update from April the 1st]




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[Update from 15.03]

I've spent last week testing Psionic Storm relics on other characters, there were 3 worthy canditates and now that I've tested them all, I can share my impressions.

1. Necro
+ Has access to Hounfor Oskill from a crafted Necro shield (Hounfor is a buffing circle on the ground that noteably grants 300% mana regen and 150% cast speed while you're standing on it. Lasts 10 seconds, sadly doesn't scale with buff/debuff duration)
+ Enjoys much higher manapool since he gets more mana per level and per point of energy than all alternatives
+ Gets over 100% mana regen and Max Life from Embalming
+ Has a passive to make Manatide totems beefier
+ Has built-in access to Sacrifices and optional reanimates
2. Barb
+ Has ~440% Manaregen from supermaxed Eagle Stance, making it much easier to reach Psistorm sustainability without Manatide totems
+ Has highest constant HP with Titan's Fortitude up
+ Gets ~100% to all attributes from Mountain King, allowing him to reach very respectable 22-25k mana and very high damage
+ Gets free 75% MS from G.Dominance
+ Can dual-wield Fire Hydras and looks badass doing so, nuff said :3
- Caps at 7 frames per cast, which is pretty much the only bad thing about him
3. Pala
+ Highest life and damage of them all with Demiurge up
- Worst mana sustain of them all with Demiurge down
+ Free overcapped PDR
+ Access to Mind Flay for the -15% enemy magic res debuff, freeing 1 socket (+ can get extra beams by dumping some points into Slayer)
+ Almost 400 AA from Stormlord
+ 5 frames cast rate, together with his damage resulting in ability to melt anything in seconds

Adding an Uldy kill video, will add more info and answer questions when I have time.



Paladin link : https://median-xl.com/char/VA-Palpatine
Gear snapshot from the video

I want to thank:
+ Mortimer for helping me a lot with theorycrafting, bouncing ideas, providing his Necro and Barb for testing and overall being a good friend :)
+ Hugoice for helping me in my Uldyssian record attempts (was trying to beat the 11 second record of the Supertotemancer)
+ Developers for the Goblin season, it's been a blast!
+ Vladimir Putin, just in case
+ and Ben, it's never wrong to thank Ben :P




Showcasing Samael kill on a near-maxed Psisin, as well as overlooked Mind Flay debuff that only lasts 2 seconds, but that's good enough for a character that can spend pretty much all her mana in that time. It wasn't my fastest or cleanest kill, but with my laptop's cooler currently broken I can't afford to record too many takes - already risking burning down my video card :)

Had to fiddle with OBS settings for a few hours since it's my first time using it to record a video, found a balance between capture quality and ingame fps - my 10-years-old laptop doesn't handle the process very well.

Here's the link to my baby assa: Notarmory snapshot

FAQ:


1. Yes, Psionic Storm relics stack. And yes, maybe they shouldn't. Although a reliable source (*cough*, Ben- *cough*) told me that orange modifiers don't nessesary have to be "unique". Plus, as of now, this is arguably the most expensive character on the whole ladder, result of 2 months of testing different setups and constant improving. The amount of effort put into making my Assa possible is immense and if something like that shouldn't be powerful, I don't know what should :) If goblins go away and we go back to the stone ages of 1 relic per month of hardcore playing, nothing of this kind will be realistically doable again anyway.

2. Without totems, Psisin life is one of drinking and heavy alcoholism. Totems are a taboo in Samael fight because if your pack of totems dies, they obviously heal Sam to full. However, it is not impossible to do the fight with one singular totem existing there, near-infinite mana would result in a much faster kill. I did some attempts at it, basically you'd need to play "Save private Totem", repositioning it with blinks out of the harms way. Eventually, it would be inevitable to get lucky and get one of those "pacifist Samael" runs where he's not very aggressive and relatively chill.

3. Hounfor Necro support. Yes, it is possible to do the fight on P2 with a tanky Necro support (who, ideally, also knows how not to die there)) with crafted Necroshield with Hounfor, which is basically the same as having temporary manatide totem in a form of a buffing circle on the ground. Necro could also apply "slow target by" via some setup and swap to Despondence for -10% enemy magic resistance inbetween Hounfor spam. Same is true for the Deimoss fight.

4. Music used is "Also Spach Zarathustra" by Strauss, which reoccurs multiple times in Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey " - one of my favourite movies of all time.

LFAQ:


mortimer_85 wrote:4: How forgiving are errors in the gameplay in Red Labs when some enemies slip through (13+) (I guess besides 1 shoting evrything and heal on cast she is squishy nonetheless - not counting TB + Eagle relic here although you might have them)


I have 3 main gear setups:
- Max damage output (wearing ~90% of it in the video, there are still things I could do to go higher)
- Multiple defensive setup variations. Wearing only for 14 and 15 labs, fire res at 90 with Merc alive (hellfire aura, ~87-89% with Merc dead), overcapped cold, lightning ~86-88. 19-21k hp with Merc (Khazra aura), depending on the setup.
- Quick MF switch setup - getting +650% MF in 3 item switches. I've grown so bold and accustomed to what my Assa can handle lately that I keep wearing my full MF Nagapearled Natalya even in labs 13, at least when labbing solo. I went into one particular lab 12 not so long ago wearing Nata, there were 3 Phobosses in that lab. I won.

My Assa is not a tank, not at all. But as all Pinnacle assas are, she's VERY mobile. After hundreds of hours spent playing one character, you learn your limits. You can't go full Rambo mode in lab 14-15 - you will die. But if you move and reposition your totems properly, you will take the exact amount of punches your current pacing allows.

The only real threat to you in labs (besides your own stupidity) is T14-15 Phoboss. And he actually used to be less of a problem, but 2 weeks ago I had an "unfortunate accident" when I threw away my anti-Phoboss swap gloves while kiting him... Now I know you can still throw items on the ground from your inventory even when you're dead :/.. Was one coldres+2 relic short of overcapping cold by 6% without any Onyxes.

mortimer_85 wrote:3: How much Mana regen is needed to be able to spam below 10% max Mana to have constant full heal on cast?

According to Ben, mana regen formula in Median is Vanilla*6. Formula for mana regen per second in the original D2 is approximately

MaxMana * (100 + Regen%Bonuses) / 12000
- which in Median becomes
MaxMana * (100 + Regen%Bonuses) / 2000

I'm at around 27-35k mana (varies on the setup), let's take 30k as a baseline. Psionic Storm costs 500 mana flat for me (rounded up very slightly) + 10% of max mana (3k) = 3.5k mana per cast.
At max fcr breakpoint (6 frames) I cast ~4.17 times per second, resulting in mana consumption of 3500 * 4.17 = 14595 per second. Thus we have:
30000 * (100 + X) / 2000 = 14600
15 * (100 + X) = 14600
X = 873 additional manaregen% required to sustain our mana consumption. That's your approximate answer.

I'm at +730% with Manatide totems up. With a mana flask added on top of that, Psionic becomes sustainable. Without a flask, I still slowly run out of mana if I stand completely still while melting one of the Minis in the lab. But I constantly make small steps dodging stuff and teleporting totems, so that's not really noticeable. Getting 140% extra manaregen on top of my current one is quite doable if I were to aim for that.

mortimer_85 wrote:2: Is the char suited for Deimoss 100% when changing/optimizing the gear?

My FPS drops to 2-3 every time Deimosses Fire Rings go off :/
I can kill him, but I'm still too inexperienced with the fight to try doing it on 100%, especially with that level of lag. On the bright side, my Shadow Refuge lasts for over 40 seconds due to my choice of Solitudes over Auriels everywhere, making it easier to survive the adds he spawns.
mortimer_85 wrote:1: Have you tried stacking relics on another class that might have better mana regen and is tankier - especially in places where Avoid is heavily reduced and Doom does not work but therefore you had to give up the Heal effect (pretty op, imo - relic stacking aside)

You're asking very good questions ;) Let's just say, I have something planned, but I'm a little burned out on leveling and farming for now. If I find strength in me later on closer to the season end, I will do something that I had theorycrafted originally. My Assa is already a focking force of nature though and I'm very proud of how she turned out.
Edited by Vanarchy 2 years.
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huangyunshy
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nice, amazing damage
Your build should kill Uldyssian super fast, right?
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NSFAQ:
1: Have you tried stacking relics on another class that might have better mana regen and is tankier - especially in places where Avoid is heavily reduced and Doom does not work but therefore you had to give up the Heal effect (pretty op, imo - relic stacking aside)
2: Is the char suited for Deimoss 100% when changing/optimizing the gear?
3: How much Mana regen is needed to be able to spam below 10% max Mana to have constant full heal on cast?
4: How forgiving are errors in the gameplay in Red Labs when some enemies slip through (13+) (I guess besides 1 shoting evrything and heal on cast she is squishy nonetheless - not counting TB + Eagle relic here although you might have them)
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huangyunshy wrote:nice, amazing damage
Your build should kill Uldyssian super fast, right?

Of course, for Uldy I can use an even more offensive setup than the one I use in this video

P.S. Also added a LFAQ answering Mortimer's questions in detail
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Cool, but so many relics would make pal deal atleast double dmg of this video , you have 1 extra fpa + lvl 150 storm , since psi storm relics provide only + 3 on sin + extra stats from stormlord , and more survivlbility ,
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morphed wrote:Cool, but so many relics would make pal deal atleast double dmg of this video , you have 1 extra fpa + lvl 150 storm , since psi storm relics provide only + 3 on sin + extra stats from stormlord , and more survivlbility ,



Have you actually tested it in SP or are this just assumptions?
1: is the ene to damage conversion ratio growing linearly with slvl? Cause if not higher slvl would only have a slight advantage.
2: at slvl 150 the fix mana cost starts to become more important and with the bad mana scaling on Pal, Psi might be spammable much less (in an amount that matters) So that the 5 frames are not a real advantage anymore.
3. with SR uptime of 40 sec and noticeable amount of TCD ( I know that ppinnacle cuts that in half) from TB relic the difference in tankiness is not that much bigger on Pal unless you give up ene for vit for noticeable larger HP pool.

(I'd much rather go with Psistorm Barb - even if he only has 7 frames and even worse mana/ene scaling)
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mortimer_85 wrote:
morphed wrote:Cool, but so many relics would make pal deal atleast double dmg of this video , you have 1 extra fpa + lvl 150 storm , since psi storm relics provide only + 3 on sin + extra stats from stormlord , and more survivlbility ,



Have you actually tested it in SP or are this just assumptions?
1: is the ene to damage conversion ratio growing linearly with slvl? Cause if not higher slvl would only have a slight advantage.
2: at slvl 150 the fix mana cost starts to become more important and with the bad mana scaling on Pal, Psi might be spammable much less (in an amount that matters) So that the 5 frames are not a real advantage anymore.
3. with SR uptime of 40 sec and noticeable amount of TCD ( I know that ppinnacle cuts that in half) from TB relic the difference in tankiness is not that much bigger on Pal unless you give up ene for vit for noticeable larger HP pool.

(I'd much rather go with Psistorm Barb - even if he only has 7 frames and even worse mana/ene scaling)

I’m not talking if im not sure of what i’m saying like most people do , mana is not a problem if you know what to do and how to balance things , i actually tested this before goblin patch , dont forget you also have demiurge which is huge boost for 50% of the time , 1100 flat energy would be 50% more dmg for the duration and 25% more dmg overall just from this and 6-7k hp , so overall its atleast double dmg with no mana problems even on 5fpa, realistically this can do sam in 30 sec , i even recorded like 3 months ago but for testing purposes. It can also do lab easily coz of blessed life .
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morphed wrote:
mortimer_85 wrote:
morphed wrote:Cool, but so many relics would make pal deal atleast double dmg of this video , you have 1 extra fpa + lvl 150 storm , since psi storm relics provide only + 3 on sin + extra stats from stormlord , and more survivlbility ,



Have you actually tested it in SP or are this just assumptions?
1: is the ene to damage conversion ratio growing linearly with slvl? Cause if not higher slvl would only have a slight advantage.
2: at slvl 150 the fix mana cost starts to become more important and with the bad mana scaling on Pal, Psi might be spammable much less (in an amount that matters) So that the 5 frames are not a real advantage anymore.
3. with SR uptime of 40 sec and noticeable amount of TCD ( I know that ppinnacle cuts that in half) from TB relic the difference in tankiness is not that much bigger on Pal unless you give up ene for vit for noticeable larger HP pool.

(I'd much rather go with Psistorm Barb - even if he only has 7 frames and even worse mana/ene scaling)

I’m not talking if im not sure of what i’m saying like most people do ...


ty, I appreciate your answer, but there is no reason to offend other people.
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mortimer_85 wrote:
morphed wrote:
mortimer_85 wrote:
morphed wrote:Cool, but so many relics would make pal deal atleast double dmg of this video , you have 1 extra fpa + lvl 150 storm , since psi storm relics provide only + 3 on sin + extra stats from stormlord , and more survivlbility ,



Have you actually tested it in SP or are this just assumptions?
1: is the ene to damage conversion ratio growing linearly with slvl? Cause if not higher slvl would only have a slight advantage.
2: at slvl 150 the fix mana cost starts to become more important and with the bad mana scaling on Pal, Psi might be spammable much less (in an amount that matters) So that the 5 frames are not a real advantage anymore.
3. with SR uptime of 40 sec and noticeable amount of TCD ( I know that ppinnacle cuts that in half) from TB relic the difference in tankiness is not that much bigger on Pal unless you give up ene for vit for noticeable larger HP pool.

(I'd much rather go with Psistorm Barb - even if he only has 7 frames and even worse mana/ene scaling)

I’m not talking if im not sure of what i’m saying like most people do ...


ty, I appreciate your answer, but there is no reason to offend other people.

Well i haven’t named anyone , if anyone gets offended that would only be bcz it’s true .