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There's two distinct ways to approach deep delving. The first is to invest all your resources into damage, and rely on not getting hit at all. These builds are commonly known as zhp (Zero-HP) builds since they usually have 1 life (from CI) and less than 200 energy shield.

These builds have super high DPS and although they die often, they can delve extremely deep, to the 6k delve limit and beyond. For a demonstration of how these builds feel at super high depths check out this excellent video from Tuna: from a couple leagues ago.The second approach is to build a very tanky character that relies on damage mitigation, but may also have varying amounts of damage avoidance. Up till 3.8, the best way to do this was to stack 'reduced damage taken' effects, since they stack additively to each other. The best build with this approach was an Unshattered Will Juggernaut build that could delve to around 2000-2500 depth.

The second best build was a Nebuloch Juggernaut build that could delve to around 1400-1800 depth. Most other tank builds capped out in the 1000-1600 depth range.In 3.9, there were massive nerfs to both Fortify and Unshattered Will, making the two builds mentioned above much weaker, as well as nerfing most other tank builds.

The build described in this guide is a novel approach to delving to the 1500+ depth range with a tank build.CONCEPTS - OFFENCE. This is a Facebreaker build so it uses no weapon, and instead relies on stacking flat added physical damage. There are a couple of reasons why Facebreaker is a good choice for a tank build.1. It allows us to use a shield, and pick up shield nodes on the tree which are often a very good mixture of offence and defence.2. It does not need to invest into crit (we go Resolute Technique) to get decent dps, which frees up a lot of skill points to use for defence instead.The way this build stacks added phys damage is to have a high level Herald of Purity (lvl 27 with optimal gear), and then multiplying that by 3x, by equipping two Circle of Guilt rings, each with the 'Herald of Purity has #% increased Buff Effect' mod, which goes upto 100% with perfect divining.We go impale on this build. The Champion ascendancy node 'Master of Metal' is absolutely bonkers, not just because it gives +2 impale stacks, but it gives upto +63 added phys damage which Facebreaker is crazy for.

Not to mention the free 1000 armor on that node. That ascendancy node is the one of the primary reasons why we opt to go Champion instead of Juggernaut or Gladiator on this build.CONCEPTS - DEFENCE. We rely on both avoiding, and mitigating damage.Defence layer 1: Cyclone. Since we are always moving, we get hit by significantly less attacks and spells than if we were stationary while attacking.Defence layer 2: VMS. With 50k armor we have a 30k Vaal Molten Shell buffer, and with Soul Ripper and supports to extend VMS duration to 20sec, we have 100% uptime on VMS as long as we are killing mobs fast enough to get vaal souls and flask charges for soul ripper. If not using Soul Ripper, we still get 10k Molten Shell buffers with a 60% uptime.Defence layer 3: Life.

We have a good 7k life on this build.Defence layer 4: Evasion. Our ascendancy gives us a flat 1000 evasion, and 60% increased evasion. A jade flask (if we can fit it in) gives a huge chunk of flat evasion. Optionally, there are a few ways to apply Blind to enemies; conqueror mods that say 'Nearby enemies are blinded', or Flesh and stone if you can find the mana. I prefer to socket Blind Support on our Herald of Purity, which is great for blinding single targets (specifically, bosses like Aul). Note however that I stopped using Jade flask around 1100 depth when I switched it for a Soul Ripper.Defence layer 5: Attack block. We invest heavily into capping our attack block chance at 75%.

This is great against bosses that rely almost completely on attacks (specifically Aul, but also Chimera, Minotaur, Drox etc). This is also great for general delving, but not as much because there is indeed a lot of spell based mobs in delve.

Unfortunately we have zero spell block on this build. Worth noting however, if we are going to a fight that specifically has only spells (eg. Sirus, Eradicator), it is easy to respec our shield to a Saffell's Frame, and our Red Nightmare jewel to a Blue Nightmare, and get 31% spell block (and higher overall max resists).Defence layer 6: Spell dodge. While we don't go for Phase Acrobatics, we have upto 37% spell dodge (if hit recently) from gear and pantheonsDefence layer 7: Max resists.

The standard version of the build has 85/89/84 maximum Fire/Cold/Lightning resists. We achieve this by running triple Purity of Fire/Cold/Lightning auras at level 23 (+5% max), with exactly 60% increased aura effect (another +3% max), and an Aegis Aurora (+5% cold). The focus on cold res is to help in Aul fights and mitigate weta degens, but if needed it is easy enough to switch our Shield to a different one, eg. Rise of the Phoenix (+5% to fire), Saffell's Frame (+4% to all, but only blocks spells) or Lioneye's Remorse (high life roll).Defence layer 8: Physical damage from hits taken as elemental.

Currently my gear has 44% of physical damage taken as elemental (15% from chest, 10% from helmet, 19% from purity watchers eye). This is not only great with high max resists, but it makes our armor more effective since the remaining physical hit is smaller.Defence layer 9: Armor. We have a ton of%increased armor on our tree, a flat +2000 armor from ascendancy, and some armor on several pieces of our gear. With a Lion's Roar pop we should be able to reach 50k armor.

This gives us consistent 10k molten shells, and 30k vaal molten shells.Defence layer 10: Other Physical dmg reduction. We have +4% PDR from each of our two Circle of Guilts, +%5 PDR from Soul of Steel, +15% from Basalt Flask, +16% from our Endurance charges. We can generate endurance charges reliably on kill (40% chance), but cannot generate in solo Boss encounters (eg. Aul, Sirus).Defence layer 11: Fortify. While the combination of fortify and other RDT effects was nerfed, fortify on its own is still perfectly good.

We get 41% less damage taken by taking all fortify nodes on tree, and fortify effect on helmet, and 30% from a Lethal Pride jewel.DPS AND DMG TAKEN NUMBERS. This is the most flexible slot in out gear. I prefer the Aegis Aurora for the cold res (Aul kills, unstable weta degens), the big natural block chance (32%), the big chunk of armor (1000+). The ES on block is cute against rapid barrage style attacks (eg. Poorjoys Asylum, Chimera, Vaal Temple boss, Abyss mobs in certain delve nodes), but not very useful elsewhere, both because of our low ES cap, and because we lose the gained ES rapidly from our Blood Rage.If going Aegis Aurora these are our choices:Cheapest: Aegis Aurora with as high roll on armor/es as possible. Estimate: 5-50cUpgrade1 (recommended): Corrupted Aegis Aurora (with good armor roll).

Best corruptions are, in rough order: chance to block, phys taken as cold, max life, rdt from projectile, rdt from area hits, spell block. Lots of viable options but chance to block is best since that takes us from 71% to 75% atk block, which is roughly 16% ehp increase against attacks. Estimate: 1-8exUpgrade2: Double corrupted. Follow above list for good corruptions. Estimate: 10-50exIf not going for Aegis Aurora, the options are:Saffell's Frame: Best in slot when the encounter we are going to has no attacks (eg. Gives +4 all maxres and some spell block.Rare shield with Tacatl's chaos res mod, with as much block chance, max life and armor as you can get. Highly recommended for HC players.

This is the one I was using for chaos based encounters. All crafting should be done on a 6-linked ilvl86 uninfluenced astral plate. DO NOT fall into the trap of crafting on an elder/hunter base for the%life roll, since that dilutes the fossil mod pool too much on the suffixes.The base plate should be available for reasonably cheap even early on in the league since you can just beastsplit it to get more copies. Estimate for base: 3exCheapest: -15 mana cost (serrated) and high life roll (pristine) with empty prefix to benchcraft spell dodge. Estimate to craft: 1-2exUpgrade1 (recommended): -15 mana cost (serrated), high life roll (pristine) and aura effect (bound), with empty prefix. The aura effect is crucial to achieve high max res, without it we get 2% less all maxres.

The aura effect roll also needs to be divined to exactly 25% or else we lose 1% all maxres. Estimate to craft: 3-10exUpgrade2: Same as above but with 2 empty prefixes. The goal here is to conqueror slam and hopefully hit a good mod. Best slams are, in rough order:explodey (crusader, ultra low odds)phys taken as cold (redeemer, 2/9 + 2/9 for t1, t2)phys taken as fire (warlord, 2/7 + 2/7 for t1, t2)phys taken as lightning (crusader, 1/4 + 1/4 for t1, t2)% max life (hunter, 1/5 + 1/5 for t1, t2)nearby enemies are blinded (redeemer, 2/9)Redeemer and warlord are safest bets, note that phys taken as cold is better if using aegis aurora.estimate to craft: 20-50ex4.

The above helmet is the most expensive piece of gear in this setup. This was crafted before the ninja nerf to crafting the fortify mod (read more here: ). Post-nerf, that helmet is basically mirror tier. The info below assumes that the nerf is not reverted in future patches.A 'good enchant' for our helmet refers to these uberlab enchantments, in rough order: cyclone 15% atk speed, blood rage 12% atk speed, blood and sand 40% buff effect, cyclone 40% dmg, followed by the corresponding merciless lab enchants.cheapest: Abyssus. Terrible defences.

ONLY recommended in lower tier maps for pre-90 levelling. This is another somewhat flex slot. The following stats are desirable: 30%+ movespeed, 70+ maxlife, high spell dodge, high intelligence (we need 159 int for lvl21 purity of lightning, which is hard to get on this build), onslaught chance on kill, chaos res, high strength.The boots above focuses on the spell dodge roll, relying on 6% dodge from Matatl temple boots combined with an 8% dodge roll from a redeemer slam.

The 'cannot be frozen' craft is also highly recommended for deep delve and/or Aul kills. For HC players, chaos res on boots and a hybrid chaos + other res craft is the safer option.cheapest: 30+ movespeed, high life, high intelligence, either strength or chaos res, empty suffix to craft more attributes or hybrid chaos res. Circle of Guilts is the other cornerpiece of our build. Of the two variable explicit mods, 'herald of purity has% increased effect' is mandatory. For the 2nd variable mod there are two options. The defensive option (which I prefer) is 4% physical dmg reduction, and the offensive option is 40-60% increased physical dmg. These rings drop with 1-3 random synthesis implicits.cheapest: buff effect + 4% pdr, estimate: 50-100cupgrade1: same as above, but with one or more of the following implicit mods:% max life, physical dmg, generic damage, life gain on hit, intelligence, chaos res.

Estimate: 1-10exupgrade2: look for these two godlike mods: vuln on hit, onslaught on hit. Prices may vary a lot since supply is extremely limited.

Estimate: 10-80 exMake sure to divine the rings so that the buff effect roll is as close to 100% as possible. Use attribute catalysts if you're short on intelligence, otherwise use defence catalysts.Alternatives: If you're having trouble fitting all your auras in, one ring could have 'HoP has% reduced mana reservation' as the 2nd explicit mod. Also if you obtain a really good steel ring with vuln on hit, and other great mods (life, physical dmg to attacks, attack speed, attributes, armor), that may be better that a plain Guilt ring with useless implicits.7. Aul's Uprising is really the only amulet choice here. The standard version can use any of the three Aul amulets with either 'Purity of Fire/Ice/Lightning reserves no mana'. Fortunately all three of those are very cheap compared to some other Aul amulets, estimate 50-100cThe Purity of Fire version is my preferred choice because the build likes strength and armor.The Purity of Ice version gives increased flask charges, which is really good for faster refilling of Soul Ripper (usually VMS souls charge faster than Soul Ripper).

If you frequently find your VMS either running out or getting depleted before your Soul Ripper is full, this may be the better choice for you.The Purity of Lightning version gives us upto +30 intelligence which may be invaluable if you're having trouble getting to the 159 int requirement.Use attribute catalysts on the amulet if you are short on intelligence, otherwise go for life catalysts.Alternatively, you could choose to not run one of the purity auras, and instead run Pride with Aul's pride amulet. This is a valid choice in an Aul fight which has no extra fire/lightning zone mods. This is another flexible slot. We want some good life rolls but the rest is up for grabs.cheapest: meginord's girdle, or belt of the deceiver. Both of those can also be cheaply corrupted to get upto 8% maximum life. Might of the Meek in the Scion/Duelist/Marauder spot:Gives us a good amount of life and armor, and +5 intelligence. Also easiest to get Corrupted Blood immunity on this jewel.Red Nightmare in the Marauder spot:Gives us upto 13% block chance, and upto 45% chance to gain Endurance charge on killWatcher's Eye in the Templar Spot:Ideally we want at least two 'phys taken as ele' purity mods.

Optionally, immunity to ignite / freeze / shock are also valuable. Its feasible to have multiple different watchers eye jewels for different situations (usually double purity mod jewels are quite cheap). Also note that if the +20 intelligence from the nodes leading up to the jewel isnt needed, we can switch to either the Marauder/Templar spot (more armor) or Marauder/Duelist spot (more damage).Lethal Pride in the Duelist spot:Theres a lot of valuable mod combinations here. Note that we do not use any Keystone so the name on the jewel (Kaom/Rakiata/Kiloava) is irrelevant. The small passives give us +2/+4 str each which adds upto around +50 strength for our build. For the mods on the notables, the priority list is:Tier1: 10% increased effect of FortifyTier2: 5% chance to deal Double damageTier3: 4% max life, 5% phys taken as fire, 20% melee dmg, 20% phys dmgTier4: 1% life regen, 5% strength, +20 to strengthWays to obtain a good Lethal Pride:1.

Divine any Lethal Pride jewel until you hit a good one.2. Divine any Lethal Pride in standard until you hit a good one, and then search for that exact number on trade and hope theres one for sale.3. Search reddit/forums/discords to find some good advertised fortify/double-dmg jewels for that spot, and then search trade for that exact number.4.

Search on trade, sort by most expensive first, and look at any extra notes that the seller has put on it. Contact the seller for more details if his notes say something relevant (fortify / DD / duelist etc.)GEM LINKS. Best deep delve tank build today! The zero HP build requires too much mechanical skills to play in my opinion. I tried deadeye and decided it is not for me, so I will most likely try your build instead.Curious how the best of Juggernaut cyclone builds stack up now.

I see a guy at 1500.Also all the physical reduction you have makes it easy to switch to Abyssus / Pride for mapping and still have a super tanky character no? Unshattered Will or even Whaka shield (+3 to Herald of Purity) for more damage.Curious what a T16 set up looks like when you are not delving. Love berserker's numbers but it is too fragile for me. Can you do something like 10 million shaper damage with a couple of gear swaps?

I will play around in POB. Ya curious to see what his budget/medium choices look like b/c I copied his exact build off poe.ninja a few weeks back and got absolutely steam rolled in all facets of content.I had about 25ex into it, but couldnt get anything close to his gear, I spent well over 12ex alone on dense and jagged fossils rolling crusader helmet to try to get a good fortify helmet, got nothing.Without that 40% something physical taken as cold and no chaos resistance I gave up on it and sold all the parts off to recoup my losses. Ya curious to see what his budget/medium choices look like b/c I copied his exact build off poe.ninja a few weeks back and got absolutely steam rolled in all facets of content.I had about 25ex into it, but couldnt get anything close to his gear, I spent well over 12ex alone on dense and jagged fossils rolling crusader helmet to try to get a good fortify helmet, got nothing.Without that 40% something physical taken as cold and no chaos resistance I gave up on it and sold all the parts off to recoup my losses. Ya curious to see what his budget/medium choices look like b/c I copied his exact build off poe.ninja a few weeks back and got absolutely steam rolled in all facets of content.I had about 25ex into it, but couldnt get anything close to his gear, I spent well over 12ex alone on dense and jagged fossils rolling crusader helmet to try to get a good fortify helmet, got nothing.Without that 40% something physical taken as cold and no chaos resistance I gave up on it and sold all the parts off to recoup my losses. I am curious about your experience too. Metamorphs with any 'caustic' mod on it, and fungal caverns zombie degen will absolutely decimate this character as is, true. But all other normal content: juiced t16s, sirus, guardians etc.

Should be a breeze even with a very minimal budget.Also, that helmet is by far the most expensive piece of gear in my setup. When I crafted it the estimated cost to get it was around 100ex. But since then crafting the fortify mod has been ninja nerfed by a lot:. So unfortunately that exact helmet is now almost mirror tier.