Aerial Assault: A Weapon Throw/BT "Guide"

JOB 41:8

“Lay your hands on him;
remember the battle—you will not do it again!”

Special thanks to Rage for allowing me to mirror his H90 guide

Juggernaut (Main Build)

THE GEAR

6 Pieces IK set
2 Pieces of Endless Walk set (Compass Rose (ring) and Traveler’s Pledge (amulet)
Fury of the Ancients
Stone of Jordan
Oathkeeper
Arreat’s
Depth Diggers (cubed)
BoM (cubed)

https://maxroll.gg/d3planner/855465054

CUBE:

300th
Depth Diggers
BoM

DESIRED STATS ON GEAR

Helm: Str/CHC/Vit or LoH/BT%/Amethyst
Chest: Vit/Str/Life%/ Sec: Phy/Range
Gloves: CHC/CHD/LoH/AD
Skular’s bracers: Fire%/CHC/Str/Vit Sec: Phy/Knock%
Boots: Vit/Str/BT% Sec: Immobilize/Phy or Arc
Pants: : Str/Wep Throw/Vit Sec: Slow/Phy or Arc
Belt: /Str/Wep Throw/LpFs Sec: Phy or Arc/ Life per Kill
Fury Shoulder: Str/Life%/Vit/AD Sec: Chill
Doombringer: Str /AD/LoH or 10% Dmg (or Sankis if DB is not available)
Oath: STR or AD/LpFS/LoH/SO (unlike H90 7-8 frames rate, Weapon Throw can only achieve 20 frame rates, so sustain is desperately needs) Sec: Freeze/Stun/Slow/Immobilize/Chill/

*Phy/Arc secondary wherever you can.

Rings:

SoJ: Fire%/CHC or CHD/30% Elite/OS Sec: Phy or Arc/Life on Kill if you don’t want 8 Fury

[SoJ is greater than CoE in this build because of its 100% up time in damage. SoJ gives Weapon Throw a 20% increase in Fire% plus 30% to Elites, CoE gives 50% Fire damage (to be generous) if timed correctly. SoJ gives BT an 60% increase in Phy% damage.]

Compass: AD/Str/CHC/CHD/OS Sec: Phy or Arc/Life on Kill

Amulet:

Traveler’s: Fire%/CHD/CHC/OS Sec: Phy or Arc/Blind/Life on Kill

SKILLS:

CotA: TAO
WotB: Insanity
FC: Merciless
BR: Bloodshed (low paragon StP)
L Mouse - Wep Throw: Ricochet (best source of damage)
R Mouse - Ancient Spear: BT

PASSIVES:

Relentless
Ruthless
Rampage
No Escape

GEMS:

Bane of the Stricken
Bane of the Trapped
Simplicity’s Strength

Armor & Gems: Diamonds, Helm Amethyst

A FEW STAT PRIORITIES TO KEEP IN MIND

1- CDR: is NOT a requirement for this build since WotB cool down is based on Fury spent, BT will take care of this. Nor is it necessary for FC even versus single target (10% CDR from paragon and the 1 sec cool down from FC: Merciless Assualt per enemy hit with give you the perfect cool down for FC, if you want a little more wiggle room in this area then I recommend 1 roll of CDR of any amount from 1st shoulders: Str/Vit/Life%/CDR or 2nd gloves: CHC/CHD/AD/CDR)

2- AS: has very little benefit with Weapon Throw. The invest in IAS% produces a dismal return in break points, so I wouldn’t recommend it on gear/weapons stats rolls, having said that, IAS through Frenzy stacks on EF is a different animal. You get 15% IAS per stack for a total of 75%. The desired stats on an EF are as follows: 10% dmg/AD/IAS (both 5% or 7% will keep you at 14 frame with Oathkeeper that how little gear/weapon impact Weapon Throw. The reason you’ll keep IAS on your EF is because you can make up the STR through paragon so it best re-roll stat for something else that you can’t otherwise aquire. This is a good alternative.

3- AD: does have a tremendous impact with Weapon Throw (the more, the better).

4- CHC + CHD: You want as much as possible. Do not trade either stat for other rolls.

5- CC ON GEAR: has a chance to proc Bane of the Trapped on enemies beyond 15 yards.

Soft CC: Slow/Immobilize/Chill- Movement-slowing abilities can be constantly re-applied on monsters without duration penalties

Hard CC: Knock/Freeze/Stun/Fear/Blind/Charm- When a monster’s resistance increases to the point that it lowers Hard CC duration below a specific threshold Hard CC will no longer have any effect. When a monster is no longer under the effects of Hard CC and free to use abilities, its Hard CC resistance will drop by 5% per second until it reaches 0% or encounters another Hard CC effect.

*https://us.diablo3.com/en-gb/game/guide/gameplay/game-difficulty#monster-resistances*

6- Vitality/Life: Because Simplicity’s Strength heals a % of your maximum life, you want at least the typical 800k life. Unlike H90, you do benefit greatly from LpFS so you’ll want this stat on your IK belt.

Low vs High paragon

The best way I can gage this is as follows:

  1. If you are dying too often then you’ll want to switch out Bane of the Trapped for Esoteric.

  2. If you have medium range paragon and are not struggling with dying often then Bane of the Trapded is for you.

  3. If you have high paragon then you’ll want to drop BoM for CoE (cubed Items).

GAMEPLAY: Ricohet will be focused on mobs for the most part. As much as possible focus Boulder Toss on Elites. Every time Oculus generates, you quickly move to its location via FC. Load up Fury using Ricochet. Ricochet shou If the damage is too much, simply FC away from the threat and attack from a ranged position. On a side note, Boulder Toss will break down the walls that Wallers generates, so you will NOT have too skip Wallers. :slightly_smiling_face: Video:

GR 95 clear (12 augments)

FOLLOWERS

TEMPLAR (better defensively and work with with CDR%)

Heal- Heals you and the Templar for 193,093 Life based on the Templar’s Strength.

Intimidate- Enemies that hit or are hit by the Templar are slowed by 80% for 3.00 seconds based on the Templar’s Strength.

Charge- Charges a target, dealing 280% weapon damage and stunning all enemies within 8 yards for 3.00 seconds based on the Templar’s Strength (better cooldown).

Guardian- When you take fatal damage, the Templar rushes to your aid, knocking back enemies within 15 yards, healing you for 15.00% Life based on the Templar’s Strength, and shielding you from all damage for 5 seconds (this skill over Inspire, simply because you’ll have plenty of Fury generation without it).

OR

SCOUNDREL (better offensively):

Crippling Shot or Powered Shot your preference (if you lack Soft CC choose Crippling Shot, if you lack Hard CC choose Powered Shot)

Anatomy- Increases Critical Hit Chance by 1.80% for you and the Scoundrel based on the Scoundrel’s Dexterity.

Piercing Shot- Ranged attack that pierces that deals 500% weapon damage and increases damage done to enemies by 10% for 3.00 seconds based on the Scoundrel’s Dexterity.

Night’s Veil (attack in the direction of the of the cloud) or Vanish (cheat death) your preference

Make sure your Follower has Homing Pads, Oculus and Krede’s Flame equipped (Stone Gauntlets for its 20% Immobilize which synergizes with Bane of the Trapped).

P.S. I’m sure this guide is lacking in many respects, so if anyone has any questions, feel free to post and I’ll do my best to answer them to the best of my ability.

Solo Variant

Squirt’s/S&B/CoE/SoJ

https://maxroll.gg/d3planner/713446464

6 Likes

Nice one fella.

I like weapon throw too. Hope a buff on items comes soon.

Bracers… Mortics?

2 Likes

Hey DH, nice job! Also, fun clear in the video.

Question: are you sure about this:

?

Do you have video of that happening? I looked for wallers in your clear vid and didn’t see any.

Edit: just checked. Weapon Throw does not break waller walls… but Boulder Toss does!

I had never noticed that before, interesting!

Video:

4 Likes

Thx for the correction bro! I’ve posted a 16 sec video as well of gameplay showing that it’s BT bringing down walls and not Weapon Throw.

I too wish this build could use Mortick’s. You would need to use RoRG to sqeeze Mortick’s in, which means you’d have too drop BoM (make us too squishy) or SoJ (damage gimp).

Another thing that’s interesting is that Dune Dervishes don’t reflect the Ricochet axes back at you. It would be such a headache if they did.

1 Like

Wow, it’s consistent too and not like the janky potion! Blizz, pls gib 7th skill slot! :sunglasses:

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I got lost in this exchange. Is this an inside joke or did I really miss something here? :laughing:

EF keeps coming up in the same sentence with highest clears. One stack of EF outperforms Sankis. I’m going to have too revisit EF w/ Wep Throw.

Sankis DPS: 473
Flat Damage:157
Frames: 20

EF DPS:
0 stacks: 452
1 stacks: 489
2 stacks: 532
3 stacks: 566
4 stacks: 603
5 stacks: 646
Flat Damage: 150
Frames: 14

And here’s the kicker, rolling off IAS from EF only changes the frame by .5 or 14 frames to 14.5 frame. So 7% IAS could be rolled off for something more beneficial like AD (EF STR/10% Dmg/AD%). :thinking:

Seras is still traumatized by getting blown up by Molten when his Kulle Aid potion didn’t work. As compared to Boulder Toss, which seems to break the walls pretty reliably.

Yeah, I would imagine EF will outperform Sankis in this build most of the time.

BTW, in “the gear”, you don’t list the shoulder piece (you do then list it under desired rolls, but, might want to add that in).

1 Like

That’s funny!

Then it’s settled, I’m changing the main build and updating the guide.
I have a Primal EF, can’t wait.

Will do.

I ran 6 GRs (95’s, same as Sankis) with Echo Fury, 5 of the clears were to close for comfort. One of the clears was 0 minutes/ 1 second left. I switched back to Sankis and the difference was noticeable. Losing 20% to both Weapon Throw and BT seemed a bit much. Clearing multiple Elites took longer when mob were gone especially with Power/Conduit. EF also doesn’t work well with BT for obvious reasons. There were moments when EF shined, but they weren’t enough for me to make a change. I’ll leave this one up to the players preference, for me it’s Sankis.

2 Likes

GR clear 97 (Sankis)

2 Likes

I almost abandoned the rift because of the first map, but I decided to test the waters and I’m glad I did.

GR clear 98:

Also made an alteration to Oathkeeper stats as follows: AD/LpFS/LoH/SO. (unlike H90 7-8 frames rate, Weapon Throw can only achieve 20 frame rates, so sustain is desperately needs)

2 Likes

Nice guide, DH.

I hope BT gets a buff so this build can plow 130+!

2 Likes

Thx brother, mean a lot.

Hey Rage, I just just came up with this variant during a 12 hr road trip, so it’s untested. On paper, it seems as though it will outperform the main build. Would you share your thoughts?

Solo Variant

Squirt’s/S&B/CoE/SoJ

https://maxroll.gg/d3planner/713446464

Main:

https://maxroll.gg/d3planner/213830073

My guess is that you’ll be better off sticking with the “Main” setup. There, you get a pretty consistent +100% damage from EW. With the variant, you get, essentially, +50% from CoE and, averaged out over time, about +13% from Squirt’s, when you get a rift that has a Shield pylon.

Of course, some segments of time are more valuable than others: sometimes you’re fighting in good density, while other times you’re just running around looking for the next good fight. And so, Squirt’s can sometime outperform that “base” +13% value.

But, just to equal EW, you need to get an overall value of +33% damage from Squirt’s (1.5x CoE * 1.33x Squirt’s = 2.0x) which would be pretty tough to do. It means you need to find your Shield pylon in a spot that is 2-3 times more valuable than the “average” spot in a rift. And even that is just the break-even point. To see real gains, you’d need an even better pylon placement.

Bottom line, I think the variant would work fine, but will be certainly no better than the Main setup, and definitely more frustrating to play.

1 Like

That’s a good breakdown. I had to do some mid-range fishing to clear 98 with main. When I get back from this trip I’m on (in about 10 days), I’ll run 10 or so rifts at GR 98 to get a good feel for this variant.

I heard through the grapevine that there was video to be seen round these parts.

1 Like

:laughing:, TY

GR 99 clear w/ 1:26 remaining:

Sorry for the game pause, my twins had to go to the potty.

I dropped Sankis for Doombringer since the Elemental damage comes to the same, but DB gives an extra stat (I chose LoH) which I feel is better than Sankis DR.

2 Likes

You ever thought about using a different Weapon Throw rune? I know you like Ricochet, but I feel like a lot of your aoe damage actually comes from Bloodshed rather than the bouncing weapon, and Ricochet has a proc coefficient of only 33%, compared to the 100% that the other runes have.

That means that the damage you get from Bloodshed via Ricochet is only equal to what you’d get if using Throwing Hammer, Stupefy, or Balanced Weapon, and only about 70% of what you’d get if using Mighty Throw. Also, if using Balanced Weapon, you’d build up your fury a bit quicker, getting you more full-bubble Boulder Tosses.

Just wondered if you’d ever tried any of the other runes.

Nice job on the clear. What a great Festering!

1 Like

What a trip this video is. xD Awesome work chucking those rocks and weapons at your enemies! >:D BARBARIAN RAWR

2 Likes