Gas Grenade Gemling Legionnaire Guide

Detonators

• Explosive Grenade is the primary detonator due to its coverage and similar AoE Damage.
  • Explosive Grenade is also linked to Payload for a 65% total chance for Grenades to activate a second time, Magnified Effect to create more overlapping explosions, Fast Forward to detonate the Explosive Grenade quicker, and damage scaling supports such as Elemental Focus or Fire Infusion. Scattershot is not linked, to avoid the 20% less Attack Speed modifier while Mapping.
• Explosive Shot is the secondary detonator. Use it when you need a quick explosion or to explode Gas Grenade clouds at the edge of the screen.
  • Explosive Shot is linked to quality of life supports such as: Nimble Reload for 60% increased Crossbow Reload Speed, Martial Tempo for 25% more Attack Speed & Soul Thief to assist with Mana Sustain.

Debuffs & Utillity

• Oil Grenade's primary function is to apply Fire Exposure to enemies and secondarily to slow enemies down.
  • Linked to Oil Grenade is Strip Away, scaling the Fire Exposure to -26% Fire Resistance, Encumbrance to scale the 30% slowing effect by an additional 15%, Maim to apply another 30% slow and to reduce the monsters Evasion Rating by 15%. Lastly, Despoiler is linked for 50% increased duration of all the previously mentioned effects, to maximise damage uptime on Boss fights.
• Flash Grenade is used to Blind and Stun enemies.
  • Linked to Flash Grenade is Overpower for 50% more Stun Buildup, Discombobulate to apply Daze, for another 50% more Stun Buildup modifier and Second Wind to have twice as many cooldown uses. Optionally, or with more links, players can link Ruthless, causing every fifth attack to have 500% more Stun Buildup.
• Artillery Ballista is used to provide additional character scaling buffs.
  • Artillery Ballista is linked to Font of Rage for 2 Rage Regeneration per second for 30% More Attack Damage (or higher with with Maximum Rage on the Passive Tree), Font of Mana for 40% increased Mana Regeneration Rate, Font of Blood for 2% Life Regeneration.
  • However it’s worth noting that Artillery Ballista can die easily; link it to Overabundance for an additional ballista and Ironwood for 40% Totem Elemental Resistance.
  • It’s also worth stating that any Fonts Created by Artillery Ballista require close proximity and a direct line of sight to receive their effects. Thus, it may be optimal to forgo using Artillery Ballista or linking it to crowd control effects, such as Discombobulate, Pin or Lockdown support.

Persistent Buffs

• Wind Dancer scales your Evasion Rating by 68% at 4 stages.
  • Linked to Wind Dancer is Clarity for 30% increased Mana Regeneration, Cannibalism for 4% of Life Recovered on Kill & Precision for 30% increased Accuracy Rating. With extra links and spirit from gear, or by forgoing a second aura, players can link additional supports, such as Vitality for 1% Life Regen or Herbalism for 30% increased Recovery from Life Flasks.
• Depending on how much unreserved spirit is still available: Herald of Ash, Attrition or Ghost Dance are valid options.
  • Herald of Ash creates an explosion and ignites enemies for 20% of Overkill Damage, potentially increasing clear speed.
  • Attrition provides Culling Strike against Rare and Unique enemies that have been in your presence for at least 34 seconds and provides 1% more Hit Damage to Rare and Unique Enemies, for every 2 seconds they have ever been in your Presence, up to 53%. Due to its time scaling nature, Attrition is only used in lengthy boss fights.
  • Ghost Dance provides the player with 3 Ghost Shrouds, that when hit, recover 5% of your Evasion rating as Energy Shield. This can be useful for rapid burst damage while mapping or versus bosses. To receive the maximum benefit from the Ghost Shroud mechanic, players should have an Energy Shield amount, equal to at least 5% of their Evasion Rating. For example, if players have 4000 Evasion Rating, aim for 200+ Energy Shield.

Skill Rotation

• Fire as many Gas Grenades as necessary towards the target to create Poison Clouds.
• Then detonate the Poison Clouds with either Explosive Grenade or Explosive Shot. For more damage, use Explosive Grenade, for a quick explosion or to target edge of screen Poison Clouds, use Explosive Shot.
• When surrounded or to pre-emptively stun and blind enemies, use Flash Grenade. In boss fights, use Flash Grenade to stagger and interrupt dangerous abilities.

There are many valuable nodes on the passive tree; but the most important stats to acquire are:

• Cooldown Recovery Rate & Increased Area of Effect (Volatile Catalyst, Authority)
• Grenadier
• Cluster Bombs
• Repeating Explosives
• Volatile Grenades

It's worth noting that nodes such as Sturdy Metal, Leather Bound Gauntlets, or Insulated Treads: encourage equipping armour or armour evasion gear. Check the Gearing section for more information.

Lastly, the passive tree has been broken down into two general versions: Non-Crit & Crit. Crit is a late game option at level 80+ and requires a Crossbow with +% to Critical Hit Chance to be effective; this tree is also experimental.

Weapon

• The most important item is to acquire a High Physical Damage Crossbow, ideally on an Advanced Bombard Crossbow or Expert Bombard Crossbow for Grenade Skills Fire an additional Projectile. That said, if you acquire a High Physical Damage Crossbow on another base, that can totally work if the damage is high enough.
• Other desirable modifiers are +% to Critical Hit Chance, Attack Speed, + Level to All Projectile Skills and increased Critical Damage Bonus.

Helmets, Boots & Body Armour

• In the Helmet, Boots & Body Armour Slots search for hybrid Armour Evasion bases with Life & Resistances to cap your resistances to at least 75%.
  • Specific Bases: Expert Shielded Helm, Expert Stacked Sabatons, Expert Rogue Armour.

Gloves

• In the Gloves Slot search for a high Armour base, because with Leather Bound Gauntlets allocated on the passive tree, we receive +1 to Evasion Rating per 1 Armour on Equipped Gloves. Gloves can also roll with increased Critical Damage Bonus to improve your damage. Other desirable stats are once again Life & Resists.
  • Specific Bases: Expert Moulded Mitts.

Jewellery

• Amulets can provide another source of Critical Damage Bonus or + Level to All Projectile Skills to scale damage. Spirit may also be desirable if you’re looking to link extra supports with your persistent buffs. Amulets can also provide % of Damage Taken Recouped as Life or Mana to improve either Life or Mana sustain.
• Rings can provide a meaningful source of Flat Damage to Attacks or % Increased Damage, in addition to desirable stats such as Life or Resists.
• Belts can provide another source of Flat Armour and are the only source of extra Charm Slots.
  • Specific Item Levels: Item Level 23 for +1 Charm Slot, Item Level 64 for +2 Charm Slots.

Use Jewellery to help fix resists and solve any small pain points, such as Mana or Spirit Requirements.

Other Modifiers to Consider

• Specific reduced duration or effect of ailments, such as Reduced Freeze Duration on your Boots may be desirable.
• Mana and Mana Regeneration Rate is useful since Grenades are very mana hungry.
• Rarity is desirable to improve loot drops while mapping.

Runes, Soul Cores & Sockets

• During early item progression, most gear is socketed with Resist Runes (Desert Rune, Glacial Rune or Storm Rune).
• Once elemental resists have been capped and elemental resist runes are no longer necessary, players can opt to increase their Maximum Life with Body Runes or consider socketing Soul Cores. The Soul Core of Jiquani for 2% increased maximum life or the Soul Core of Tacati for 7% to Chaos Resistance are of particular interest.

General Note: During the early stages of a character, it’s worth it to equip items on the proper base without Life. This means prioritising 75% Elemental Resistance or more and as much Chaos Resistance as possible.

• Generally aim for mechanics that spawn lots of grouped up monsters, such as Expedition or Ritual.
• Gas Grenades have strong single target damage so farming Boss Maps or Essences is also welcome.
• Clearing Breaches may be slightly difficult during early progression, due to their swarming nature.

I’m dying more than I would like, what can I do?

Make sure your Elemental Resists are at 75% (or higher with Thaumaturgical Infusion) and acquire an adequate amount of chaos resistance. Furthermore, make sure you have the appropriate bases equipped, as having an adequate amount of Armour and Evasion noticeably improves survivability.

How do I solve Mana?

Grenades are incredibly mana hungry. Solving Mana requires: either an adequate amount of % Mana Regeneration Rate on gear or investment into Mana Flask nodes such as Arcane Alchemy.

Other solutions involve

• % of Damage Taken Recouped Mana modifier found on Amulets
• % of Skill Mana Costs Converted to Life Costs on the Passive Tree or Jewels
• Soul Thief support linked to Physical Damage Skills such as Flash Grenade
• or in extreme situations: Inspiration support.

Have you considered dropping Armour altogether for pure Evasion or hybrid Evasion Energy Shield bases?

I have! And it may be a reasonable alternative to hybrid armour evasion gear, as we learn more about monster damage types and monster AI in late game.

What future iterations to the build are you considering?

Right now I’m testing Armour Break on Gas Grenades with Corrosion to Break Armour & Armour Explosion for an additional 100% Attack Damage explosion, triggered when an enemy's armour Fully Breaks. So far in testing, it’s proved to be lower damage then Payload support and other traditional damage scaling options, such as Elemental Focus and Fire Infusion. More testing is required with other supports, such as Demolisher, Comorbidity or Deadly Poison. Furthermore, consistently Armour Breaking enemies may allow us to use High Velocity Rounds for a consistent 872% Attack Damage shot.

Manipulating the number of Grenade Projectiles & Area of Effect Breakpoints are also a further consideration to min-max support gems and the number of Area of Effect passives allocated on the passive tree.

What rewards did you take from Servi for completing the Slithering Dead quest?

• Act 3 Normal: 30% increased Elemental Ailment Threshold.
• Act 3 Cruel: 10% to Chaos Resistance.

What rewards did you choose from the Ancient Vows quest?

• Act 2 Normal: 15% increased Mana Recovery from Flasks
• Act 2 Cruel: 15% increased Life Recovery from Flasks

Note: Both options may be swapped for 30% increased Charm Charges gained after acquiring more Charm Slots.

• Detonator Skills, such as Explosive Shot or Explosive Grenade are used to detonate Gas Grenade poisonous clouds into fiery explosions.
• Oil Grenade applies Fire Exposure and slows down quick-moving enemies.
• Flash Grenade Blinds, Stuns, and Knocks Back swarming enemies.
• Wind Dancer provides a 68% More Evasion Rating buff at 4 Gale Force stages.
• Players can then choose to run Herald of Ash for Clear, Attrition for more damage against Rares or Uniques, or Ghost Dance with Energy Shield gear for additional defence versus hits.

Credits

Written by: havoc616
Reviewed by: ZiggyD, CoffeeBns
Language Reviewed by: Tenkiei