Halcyon's Ascent alternative for LoN WoL

Monk
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Been testing out different LoN WoL amulet options and found that Halcyon’s Ascent is a solid alternative to Hellfire amulet. After grouping, pop Epiphany which gives 8 secs of Crowd Control(CC) Jumping where trash/blues/yellows are not attacking you and taking the full Boon of the Trapped gem damage.

Combined with some stacked Increased Attack Speed, the Seize The Initiative passive, and an Oculus ring circle (from follower), enemies will die a little more easier and faster.

CC immunity changes do effect certain types over time, however, repeated CC’ing is possible to buy more killing time. If the mob refuses to be CC’d, move on to the next. The Rift Guardian is immune, however, it sometimes works on spawns.

Tested it and completed GR 108. It definitely extended survive-ability as well.

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Any well rolled ancient is a solid alternative, hellfire amulets (Specially when trying to roll something so specific, you need crit damage & chance because it will always roll mainstat (Dex, Str, Int) which then would be rerolled into %fire damage) are much more difficult to get with correct rolls.

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True, however, not all well rolled ancients have a solid legendary dmg affix that also doubles to help you defensively. Going with defensive only affixes (e.g., immunity) will only help on only one side of the coin: survive-ablilty. This particular choice has two sides … when combined with a high leveled BotT, you gain a sweet dmg bonus on top of the CC survive-ability.

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You don’t need to proc BotT with anything other than WoL itself thanks to your Pinto’s Pride bracers.

Halcyon’s is not the best choice imho, unless of course you have nothing better.

You are better off with immunity amulets (particularly fire/poison) or something like Eye of Etlich if the HF ammy RNG is getting overly obnoxious.

I’ve been rediculously happy with my Mara’s ammy this season, to the point I’ve given up on slapping ubers around.

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Hey Jay … Agree with the immunity and Etlich alternatives … my HF RNG hasn’t been kind ;-D

My point with using Halcyons is the additional CC jumping buys you an extra 8 secs of enemies not attacking you in-between Cyclone Striking and the start of a WoL burst when Air Ally may be on cool-down. This extra CC will also prevent Elite ground attacks from spawning and proc additional BotT burst on stationary targets in addition to WoL, CS slows … enabling more CC safety net coverage. Slowed enemies can still attack while mesmerized enemies won’t, which does help when GR pushing.

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Yes, but it also stacks the mobs cc resistance, which for LoN/Inna WoL variants, is not great to do in long fights.

It can make cyclone strikes not proc the Bindings of the Lesser Gods, meaning you drop a 200% damage multiplyer more often.

Having said all that, I’m running LoN this season and have a usable Halcyon’s somewhere (wanted to see how it went in my zdps build). So I might try it before I decide its not for me.

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True on the CC resistances … however, my seasonal LoN WoL also has stacked Attk Speed and the Seize the Initiative passive (opposite idea of RCR … LOL) that works wonders on any CC’d mobs when jumping into Ocullus circles … so they are usually dead before they become resistant in 2x cycles if I hit them at the right time.

Was using a HF with dmg reduction Resolve and opted for more more dmg with Halcyon … got me up to GR108 solo at the moment. Give it a test try (it may surprise U).

If only I had your rolls on my Mara’s (Jelly).

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OK, so after trying this…

  • T16 - Meh, we are too powerful for it to be meaningful.

  • GR105 - Awesome! Though at times, I felt some non-juggernaut elites were not being pulled with CS for the Lesser Gods buff. Either way, it felt great using it, especially with a CDR pylon :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

  • GR110 - Not bad at all for killing trash, which is our strength. Elites (yellow’s particularly) start to give me more trouble than usual, and seem to take a fair bit longer to kill. Also, starting to use Epiphany more strategically now to benefit from Halcyon’s. Resulted in me dying a couple of times, but that’s just a l2p issue I think.

My conclusion:

It’s no where near as pointless as I thought. I think it has its place in the GR100-GR115 range. It’s as good if not better than anything other than a godly HF ammy for those levels, at least, at our paragon/gear level.

:face_with_monocle:

I can see why you are using it. Your buffed APS means your Epiphany will cooldown quicker too… and of course… your Halcyon’s rolls are like the ones on my Mara’s. Why wouldn’t you use it!

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Thanks for inputs and testing Jay ! … always welcomed from a seasoned vet :smiley:

I was experiencing the same in GR 100+ with Trash and Blues. Yellows I usually skip unless they are dragged into the Blue battles in favor of Trash density.

Haven’t played a monk in a ages … Loving this LoN buff and the build is much better than the old standard Sunwuko WoL … so much so that my DH Impale & Multishot (which I started the season with) is taking a long break from farming/pushing.

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No worries, happy to help out and test stuff when I have time. This definitely looked interesting, and I was turned around on it.

Who knows, might find a new fun build to play. Will never know without trying stuff out! :+1:

Our play-styles are varied a little, even though we are playing the same build. I tend to drag elites into trash piles with me (I have lots of area damage, instead of attack speed, and wearing Unity instead of ORotZ ). Also why I need CS to be working when I need it.

This season has been awesome for this reason, I honestly wish they would make this buff permanent and re-work the LoN rings to do something else. Going to miss having at least some options.

Particularly for farming builds. This season has made it feel like this is the way the game should have always been. :disappointed_relieved:

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Yeah … In another thread, I suggested that they should have added new Legendary Gem recipe for augments that act like a On/Off switch to give RoRG or LoN buff to the build as a seasonal reward for completing Guardian … like a permanent cosmetic reward.

I tend to drag elites into trash piles too … there is a timing involved with CS grouping/dmg reduction before epiphany … there is nothing like the feeling of swiping WoL across the screen and DOT’ing the entire room. What’s interesting is that Halcyons’ effect usually CC’s stuff missed by slow CC’s … outside of the BotT radius and areas where WoL hasn’t hit yet.

I actually have a Primal Unity ring and have tested it in place of ORotZ (cubed) and the lack of IAS was definitely noticeable in the dmg output department when using Halcyons.

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Would be nice if they implemented it one way or another, however, perhaps it might be better to not be a seasonal reward…

Just so our non-season brethren don’t miss out on this awesomeness. :v:

Yes, I was actually quite impressed with the distance at which Halcyon’s effect reached. The tooltip says “nearby enemies” which led me to believe it was something like the aura on BotT/Bul-Kathos Wedding Band. Nice to see I was wrong.

Yep, the worn Unity benefits more so in an area damage setup when it comes to dealing with blues/yellows particularly. I guess I use it to soften the builds weakness a little.

Still, the extra 15% multiplier in those situations, along with my area damage, can nuke blues down incredibly fast in a pack of trash. Yellows… well… you take them as they come, sometimes it is definitely better to just skip them if you’re pushing a personal best. :laughing:

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Agree … Still farming for an AD pair of Magefists to use with my Unity … for the time being, my IAS Gloves are working fine with Unity in cube … but, as you have said, I’m losing the Unity 15% elite dmg which will limit me at higher GR pushing.

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If its working, its working I say.

Yep, I got very lucky and dropped the Magefist my Monk is wearing. Im fact, it was the very first ancient item I received this season. Had to stash them until I could make this beast of a build. Some of the rolls could have been higher, but I’m not complaining.

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