Velyna's Herald of Agony Champion (PoE Trial of the Ancestors 3.22)
Introduction
An absolute beast for endgame bossing, this Herald of Agony build synergizes with Storm Rain to hit high levels of damage and survivability. Storm Rain’s hit rate stacks Virulence with ease and gives massive sustain through Life Gain on Hit, while still allowing mobility. Not the fastest mapper but clears near anything, I have personally completed wave 30 simulacrum with him.
Below is a video guide I made for Youtube. This is a good place to start and goes over gearing as well as Pros/Cons. The PoB’s and guide may be more current so make sure to check!
Overview
Pros
✔️ Insanely Durable – Don’t worry about taking a hit. Fortify, spell suppression, tons of ailment avoid and near-instant life recovery will keep you healthy. Just make sure Storm Rain is hitting things for Life Gain!
✔️ Highly Automated – Nearly everything we use is triggered. Storm Rain, Convocation, and Flame Dash are the only buttons besides flasks.
Cons
❌ Leaguestart Transition – The finished build cannot be played without uniques, so I have provided a PoB to leaguestart as Poisonous Concoction. It farms smoothly and the transition is not hard.
❌ The Agony of Herald – There are a few situations where HoAG can be annoying, it may not always attack what you want it to and can get blocked by terrain. It is ultimately a minion build although it barely feels like one.
How Does it Play?
Just dodge and shoot arrows while things die around you! All you have to do is keep Storm Rain centered on mobs and the build handles the rest. As you hit and stack the Virulence buff, your minion will increase in power until it mows down multiple packs with one AoE.
Damage and Defensive Scaling
The best way to scale damage is by raising your Virulence cap, or increasing the level of the Herald of Agony gem. Medium cluster jewels with Pure Agony each raise the virulence cap by 5. Minion damage and minion attack speed also add damage
Defense layers include Fortify and stun immunity from ascend, insane life gain on hit, spell suppression and elemental ailment avoidance. If you have storm rain fully stacked it is possible to tank some serious damage.
Help
For help with this build, the best places to ask are:
My stream https://www.twitch.tv/velyna
Autarkis stream https://www.twitch.tv/autarki
PoE Vault Discord https://discord.gg/q2P5Q9g
PoB Imports
The current PoB’s for this build are always available here:
Gear
The gear page has premade item searches and info about each item in the late-game PoBs.
Leaguestart
Use the skill setup below, not the one in leaguestart PoB, until finishing acts 1-10.
All of my Leaguestart PoBs contain step-by-step pathing, and you can scroll down on this page to see what skills to use in acts 1-10.
Act 1
Level 1-12
Level 12+
Act 2
Act 3
Vitality
Withering Step
Decoy Totem
Steelskin (I put this on my movement button)
Despair
Act 4-10
Poisonous Concoction-
Volley Support-
Chance to Poison Support-
Void Manipulation Support-
Cruelty Support
Sniper's Mark-
Mark On Hit Support (Can also use
Alchemist's Mark)
Vitality
Withering Step
Steelskin
Cast when Damage Taken Support-
Lifetap Support-
Summon Stone Golem
Need Help?
I try to give all the information needed to enjoy the build and succeed, but questions do come up. If you need any help with my builds the best place to go is either My Stream or My Discord
This site also has guides for game mechanics, trading, crafting, and just about anything else, all collected here:
GL out there, Exile!