AoZ Penetrating Shot

This build revolves around using the interesting interactions between Tibault's Will, Condemnation and Penetrating Shot to create an absolutely devastating build that can clear the entire screen in the blink of an eye.

1. Cast Poison Imbuement
2. Cast Smoke Grenade on Elites
3. Cast 3:1 Puncture -> Penetrating Shot
4. Shadow Step in to activate Tibault's Will and Close Quarter Combat.
5. Refresh Poison Imbuement.
6. Cast a 3:1 Puncture -> Penetrating Shot rotation until everything is dead.
7. Cast Dash for mobility

This build makes full use of the fact that Tibault's Will's maximum resource affix currently also increases your maximum Combo Points. Penetrating Shot gains 10% Lucky Hit Chance for every Combo Point past 3. The Legendary Node Cunning Stratagem then seems to multiply this value by 33% every 3CP; this means you can get up over 900% Lucky Hit Chance on your Penetrating Shot. Furthermore, by combining this with Condemnation, which fills all your Combo Points, we can proc everything we want on every single shot!

We combine that with powerful procs such as Frostburn to freeze the entire screen, X'Fal's Corroded Signet for massive AoE damage and Doombringer for incredible survivability.

Build Requirements and Replacements

Unique Items

• X'Fal's Corrupted Signet, Frostburn, Tibault's Will and Condemnation are not replaceable.
• Harlequin's Crest can be replaced with Aspect of Might. If you do, swap one point in Malice with one point in Dash.
• Doombringer can be replaced with Aspect of Corruption.

Aspects

• Bursting Venoms is mandatory. The rest can be replaced momentarily.

Items

• Amulet: You can replace Ranks of Imbuement Skills* with a *Damage Reduction affix.
• Chest/Legs: You can replace Damage Reduction with Maximum Life.
• Rings: You can replace Lucky Hit with Vulnerable Damage.
• Boots: You can use Lightning Resistance instead of Cold Resistance.

Gemming

• On your Jewelry use a Topaz if you have Cold Resistance on your Boots or a Sapphire if you have Lightning Resistance. On the other two sockets use a Diamond and an Amethyst.

Item Considerations

• Use Daggers and a Crossbow.
• Use a Ring with Fire Resistance to combine with X'Fal's Corroded Signet.

Paragon Board Stat Requirements

• Str: 520
• Int: 440
• Dex: 880

Poison Imbuement Mechanics

Poison Imbuement has some hidden interactions that make it even stronger than it already is.

• Core Skill and Cutthroat Damage contribute to their own damage bucket, which is why we prioritize these stats on our Gear and Paragon Board. This got stealth nerfed in season 2, Core and Cutthroat do absolutely nothing for Poison Imbuement now.
• Although Bladedancer's blades do reduced damage they are considered a normal Twisting Blade for Poison Imbuement and therefore apply the full poison damage amount.
• All Damage, or how it's shown on the Paragon Board, Damage, gets double the normal value, which means 12.5% Damage is really worth 25%.
• Combo Points increase Poison Imbuement damage.
• Expectant, Condemnation and Tricks of the Trade do not increase Poison Imbuement damage.
• Critical Strike Damage does not increase Poison Imbuement damage.
• Damage Formula for Stats as of Season 2: (1 + 2 x Damage + All Additives + Vuln) x (1 + 0.4 x Damage to CC) * (1 + 0.1% * Dex)

Skill Choices and Explanations

Basic Skills

We use Puncture because it's the strongest and fastest Basic Skill to enable Combo Points.

Core Skills

We use Penetrating Shot in this build for various reasons for it's incredible Lucky Hit capabilities when combined with Tibault's Will.

X:1 Rotation means we use X Basic Skills for every 1 Core Skill.
For example, 1:1 Puncture -> TB means we alternate bewteen using Puncture and Twisting Blades.

Agility Skills

In this build, and most other Rogue builds, we use Dash and Shadow Step.

Dash is overall a very strong mobility ability that lets you dash across the length of your screen.

Shadow Step is our only way to get Unstoppable which enables Tibault's Will. It's also our only reliable way to have a Cutthroat Skill for Close Quarter Combat.

Subterfuge Skills

We use Smoke Grenade and Dark Shroud indirectly in some version of this build.

Smoke Grenade is a very strong skill that allows us to daze enemies and get a [x]25% damage buff against any enemy dazed by it.

Dark Shroud is a mediocre skill by its own because of the very long cooldown but Umbrous allows us to cast it for free when using Marksman Skills. This allows us to get up to 40% DR and 20% MS for free. For this reason, we DO NOT place Dark Shroud on our cast bar.

In this case we use Puncture and Penetrating Shot as our Marksman Skills.

Imbuement Skills

As detailed in other parts of the guide, Poison Imbuement is our build's most important skill and what we base every Aspect, Skill and Gearing choice on.

Ultimate Skills

We do not use an Ultimate Skill in this build.

Armor and Resistances

Armor

The monster level for T100 is 154. The monster level for AoZ T1 is 155 and 1 every 5 tiers for a maximum level of 160.

Lvl 154 Armor cap = 13350
Lvl 160 Armor cap = 13750

Resistances

Same as outside of Abbatoire of Zir.

3 Elite Ending

In order to kill the three Elites spawned at the end consider the following item swap:

Doombringer to a Dagger with:

• Aspect of Corruption
• +% Damage to CCed Enemies
• + All Stats
• + *Dexterity
• +% Damage to Vulnerable/Close Enemies

Vampiric Powers

Vampiric Powers are the Season 2 mechanic.

• Accursed Touch applies Vampiric Curse to monsters.
• Flowing Veins is a straightforward [x]60% buff to our damage on cursed enemies.
• Prey on the Weak massively increases our damage by making all Cursed enemies Vulnerable and giving us [x]16% damage against them.
• Ravenous because all Rogue builds regularly are at the Movement Speed cap or very close to it this power is essentially 40% Attack Speed.
• Undying provides very good healing.

Variations