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Season 4 Heartseeker Planner Links

• Standard build: https://maxroll.gg/d4/plannenn1lp0wi#1
• High-end Pit build: https://maxroll.gg/d4/plannenn1lp0wi#2

How it works

• Basic skill’s lack of damage has been solved by using Moonrise and Adaptability aspects (on a 2-hander and amulet) which together boost basic attack damage by 5.6x as well as providing attack speed and movement speed benefits
• Victimise will be a very strong key passive going into season 4. Not only will Victimise provide a decent damage boost for Heartseeker that can’t otherwise benefit from Precision, Victimise makes the Heartseeker build viable by giving the build AoE damage
• As of season 4, you can now get Heartseeker ranks from your pants slot (up to +8)

• Good consistent damage that doesn’t need an elaborate attack rotation to do reliable damage
• Easy to play by spamming a single attack without worrying about conditional damage combinations and energy usage
• Safely fight from a distance, taking the heat off you and reduces the chances of long drawn out fights from needing to dodge around
• No resource issues so no need to build around energy sustainability in your build, saving skill points, aspect slots, affix slots on gear and less reliant on Inner Sight

• Crowd control effects (CC) are not the easiest to apply with attacks since Heartseeker only hits 1 or 2 targets per cast
• Damage takes a little time to ramp up - Heartseeker, Moonrise, Exploit Weakness, Chip all have buffs or debuffs that ramp up based on how many times you hit targets. This takes about 3-4 seconds for all damage bonuses to be fully online
• Not a build that you can start levelling with from a brand new character until you collect the key ingredients
• Despite having AoE in the build, builds like Penetrating shot and Scoundrel’s Kiss Rapid fire are still unmet when it comes to AoE potential

• Caltrops - as long as the target is standing in Caltrops while hit with Heartseeker and Victimise
• Exploit - as long as the target is health or injured when hit with Heartseeker and Victimise
• Subverting Poison Trap - as long as the target is standing in Poison Trap, but not applicable to us since we don’t deal poison damage
• Control glyph - as long as the target is CC’ed when hit with Heartseeker and Victimise
• Pride glyph - as long as the target is health when hit with Heartseeker and Victimise
• Chip glyph - as long as the target is hit 10 times with physical attacks prior to when hit with Heartseeker and Victimise for maximum effect
• Canny glyph - as long as the target is hit 10 times with non-physical attacks prior to when hit, but not applicable to us since we don’t deal non-physical damage
• Deadly Ambush - as long as the target is standing in any of our traps (Caltrops) while hit with Heartseeker and Victimise
• Exploit Weakness - as long as the target is hit 25 times while vulnerable prior to when hit with Heartseeker and Victimise for maximum effect

The Build

• Heartseeker - The main “core” skill for this build. Get Primary Heartseeker for ricochet Heartseeker arrows that deal 75% of the original damage. These arrows can loop back around and hit the same target twice, as long as it doesn’t hit a wall or obstacle
• Dash - For general mobility and disengagement. Get Enhanced Dash for 15% critical strike damage for bosses or tightly packed enemies
• Shadow Step - For general mobility and a CC break. Get Enhanced Shadow Step for 8% critical strike chance mainly for bosses, and Disciplined Shadow Step to help refresh Shadow Step’s cooldown. Alternatively you can get Methodical Shadow Step for better stagger application, but using Shadow Step in this way risks being caught in CC and potentially dying
• Concealment - For general mobility, disengagement, and a CC break. Get Subverting Concealment for applying vulnerable while in the levelling stages
• Smoke Grenade - For disabling groups by dazing them, disabling suppressor barriers and for activating both Cheap Shot, Control and Concussive Strikes. Get Enhanced Smoke Grenade for an extra 25% damage bonus versus groups of enemies (this doesn’t work on bosses). Get Countering Smoke Grenade for quickly refreshing Smoke Grenade’s cooldown vs groups of enemies (this doesn’t work on bosses). Alternatively, get Subverting Smoke Grenade to increase the stagger effectiveness of Smoke Grenade on bosses
• Caltrops - Apply slow in an area. Get Enhanced Caltrops for up to 45% extra damage bonus (depending on how long enemies stay in Caltrops), and get Disciplined Caltrops for 10% critical strike chance vs enemies standing in Caltrops

• Weapon Mastery - If using a bow, gives you more damage vs vulnerable enemies, if using a crossbow, gives 15% critical strike damage
• Exploit - Increases damage to healthy and injured enemies. This passive also double dips with Victimise
• Malice - Increases damage to vulnerable enemies. What’s less commonly known is Malice also increases the base damage of Victimise
• Frigid Finesse - Increases damage to chilled and frozen enemies. This build freezes enemies and staggers bosses so this passive is quite powerful
• Sturdy - Reduces damage taken from close enemies
• Siphoning Strikes - Healing when you critically strike close enemies. Although we can fight at a distance, we can still fight up close and get some healing while doing so
• Stutter Step - Increases movement speed temporarily while we critically strike. Useful during fights for mobility
• Trick Attacks - Knocks down enemies for a short period when you critical strike them while they are dazed
• Concussive - When you knock down an enemy, gain up to 12% critical strike chance. This should work during the first few seconds of a boss getting staggered also (but to be confirmed)
• Agile - Increases your dodge chance after using a cooldown (in this case: Dash, Shadow Step, Concealment, Smoke Grenade, Caltrops)
• Haste - Increases movement speed. This passive does improve attack speed when below 50% energy, but this never happens
• Trap Mastery - Gain 12% critical strike chance when your Death Trap activates (for the High-end Pit variant only)
• Dark Shroud - Reduces damage taken from enemies. Although this is an active skill, we gain Dark Shroud shadows passively through Umbrous aspect, making this a more passive effect

• Impetus - Doesn't work with basic skills. Given that we attack very fast, this passive won’t be useful anyway
• Imbuements - Basic skills aren't imbueable
• Precision Imbuement - Basic skills aren't imbueable
• Shadow Crash - This build doesn’t deal shadow damage
• Consuming Shadows - This build doesn’t deal shadow damage or need energy recovery
• Deadly Venom - This build doesn’t deal poisoning damage
• Debilitating Toxins - This build doesn’t poison enemies
• Alchemical Advantage - This build doesn’t poison enemies
• Chilling Weight - This build doesn’t chill enemies, only (instantly) freezes enemies
• Innervation - This build doesn’t consume energy so not needed
• Second Wind - This build doesn’t consume energy so no benefit
• Alchemist's Fortune - This build does not used any non-physical attacks
• Rugged - We have high mobility with this build and we can heal our way through damage over time effects that stick on us
• Reactive Defense - We have Shadow Step to quickly get us out of CC effects
• Mending Obscurities - We can use potions while in concealment
• Aftermath - This build doesn’t consume energy so not needed
• Shadow Clone - Not only is Shadow Clone severely undertuned to do very little damage (after accounting for all of your aspects and paragon), Shadow Clone doesn’t proc Victimise which is there most of our damage comes from

• Moonrise - Increases attack speed, increases movement speed and significantly increases damage when 5 stacks of Moonrise are accumulated. Use in your 2-hander weapon for higher damage bonus
• Adaptability - Significantly increases damage when at or above 50% energy. Because we’re always at 100% energy, this is an unconditional damage bonus for Heartseeker. Use in your amulet slot
• Crowded Sage - Increases dodge chance and heals you whenever you dodge. Use in one of your defensive slots. Alternatively, use Assimilation aspect for Fortify accumulation instead of the healing effect
• Umbrous - Gain Dark Shroud shadows when you critically strike enemies with Heartseeker. Use in one of your defensive slots
• Edgemaster's - Increase damage by up to 20% based on your available energy levels. Because we’re always at 100% energy, this is an unconditional damage bonus. Use in one of your offensive slots
• Elements - Increases damage to a set of 3 damage types for 7 seconds at a time. This is basically a 30% damage increase that is active for 7 seconds, inactive for 7 seconds, etc. Use in one of your offensive slots
• Retribution - Increase damage against stunned or knocked-down enemies (and staggered bosses). Use in one of your offensive slots
• Rapid - Increases attack speed for Heartseeker. Use in one of your offensive slots
• Frostbitten - Increases critical strike damage against frozen or stunned enemies and when hitting enemies with smoke grenades, instantly freezes them. Use in either your boots or chest slots
• Concussive Strikes - Dazes enemies and increases damage against dazed enemies. Use in either your boots or chest slots
• Inner Calm - Increased damage, with the bonus tripled after standing still for 3 seconds. Useful against staggered bosses or when feeling safe against dazed groups. Use in one of your offensive slots

• Exploit Weakness - Ramps up your damage against enemies (per target) the more that you hit them while they are vulnerable. Double dips with Victimise
• Cheap Shot - Increase your damage while there are 1 or more enemies nearby that are CC’ed, up to a 25% damage bonus for 5 or more enemies
• Deadly Ambush - Increase your damage against enemies that are affected by your traps (Caltrops in this case). Double dips with Victimise
• Control glyph on starter board - Increases your damage against CC’ed enemies. The glyph core bonus double dips with Victimise
• Chip glyph on Cheap Shot - Ramps up your damage against enemies (per target) the more that you hit them with any of your (physical) attacks. The glyph core bonus double dips with Victimise
• Pride glyph on Leyrana's Instinct - Increases your physical damage against healthy enemies. Using this glyph on Leyrana’s Instinct also allows us to max out our resistances. Double dips with Victimise
• Exploit glyph on Deadly Ambush - Increases your vulnerable damage (important for Victimise) and makes enemies hit by your attacks vulnerable (once every 20 seconds). Deadly Ambush board is used for Exploit for the high number of strength nodes around the glyph
• Combat glyph on Exploit Weakness - Increases your critical strike damage. Exploit Weakness board is used for Combat for the high number of intelligence nodes around the glyph
• Ranger glyph on Tricks of the Trade - Reduces your damage taken while you are holding onto a bow or crossbow (ie, after casting Heartseeker)
• Diminish glyph on No Witnesses - This glyph is used just to boost the surrounding rare +life node. We don’t care about the glyph core bonus for now as it's awfully niche (from physical attacks from vulnerable enemies)

Stats/Gear Priorities

• Vulnerable damage - stacked as high as possible for higher additive damage and for scaling Victimise’s base damage. Aim for 900+% vulnerable damage from gear and paragon
• Other additive damage bonuses - to further increase your overall damage output. Get 650+% of this from Marksman critical strike damage tempers and other smaller ones from gear and paragon
• Attack speed - to cast Heartseeker quicker. Aim for 85+% from gear and 30% from Rapid aspect
• Chance to cast Heartseeker twice - scales up your damage output as you’re casting more Heartseekers per attack. Aim for 95+% from 2 tempers on weapons
• Heartseeker - is used as the main skill for delivering damage and Victimise procs. Aim for 11+ ranks in total between your native skill points and your pants
• Lucky hit chance - to proc Victimise and other effects (CC, Umbrous, vulnerable) more often. Aim for 50+% from gear. You can use an elixir to boost this up further
• Critical strike chance - to increase how often you critically strike and gain a damage bonus from Weapon Mastery, Frostbitten, Deadly Ambush and your critical strike damage additive and core bonuses. Aim for 80+% from intelligence, gear and paragon, including Marksman critical strike chance bonuses
• Dexterity - to increase your baseline damage and increase your dodge chance. Aim for 1500+ from gear and paragon
• Life - is needed for survival. Aim for 40,000+ in total
• Dark Shroud - is needed for your main source of heavy damage reduction. Aim for 12+ ranks in total between your native skill points and your chest piece
• Dodge - reduces the chance of direct attacks damaging you, which also protects your Dark Shroud shadow stacks. Aim for 50-70% from dexterity, gear and the Agile passive
• Armour cap - 9,230 for 85% damage reduction from physical attacks
• Resistances - 70% to all resistances
• Crowd control effects - to disable enemies and build up stagger on bosses. Get 4-5 affixes that apply CC effects on enemies, including Concussive Strikes. After that, get crowd control duration
• Movement speed - to improve mobility in combat and general mobility. Get 70+% from gear and skills, including from Moonrise

• Weapons - for vulnerable damage, attack speed, dexterity. Tempering: marksman critical strike damage, chance to cast Heartseeker twice (on your 2-hander + one of your swords), caltrops duration (on one of your swords)
  • Vulnerable damage - High priority stat to help stack Victimise damage
  • Attack speed - Enough to get 100% attack speed from weapons alone
  • Chance to cast twice - To ensure 100% chance to cast Heartseeker twice per cast to multiply effective damage output by 2
  • Caltrops - Caltrops duration is preferred over Caltrops size since the extra duration will work at the highest damage bonus benefit and will extend the benefit before needing to move (break our Inner Calm bonus) to reapply Caltrops
  • Marksman critical strike damage - Some extra additive damage
• Rings - for vulnerable damage, life, lucky hit chance (on one of your rings), lucky hit chance to apply vulnerable (on one of your rings). Tempering: marksman critical strike damage, agility cooldown reduction
  • Vulnerable damage - High priority stat to help stack Victimise damage
  • Life - Needed for survival
  • Lucky hit chance to apply vulnerable - An important stat that helps apply and maintain vulnerable on enemies
  • Lucky hit chance - Stacking lucky hit chance is important to increase Victimise proc rate and for applying CC more often
  • Agility skill cooldown reduction - This helps mobility by increasing the uptime on mobility skills that get you from point A to B faster
  • Marksman critical strike damage - Some extra additive damage
• Amulet - for Exploit, Malice, Frigid Finesse. If you can’t get a 3x passive amulet, you can also aim for lucky hit chance. Tempering: marksman critical strike chance, dodge chance
  • Exploit - Important for the double dip effect for Victimise
  • Malice - Important for increasing damage versus vulnerable enemies and increasing the base damage of Victimise
  • Frigid Finesse - Increases the damage of enemies frozen by attacks and for increasing damage during boss stagger window
  • Marksman critical strike chance - Helps the build reach very high levels of critical strike chance
  • Dodge chance - Needed for survival
• Helm - for life, armour, lucky hit chance. Tempering: dodge chance, lucky hit chance to X (see below “CC effects”)
  • Life - Needed for survival
  • Lucky hit chance - Stacking lucky hit chance is important to increase Victimise proc rate and for applying CC more often
  • Armour - 2 armour rolls across all gear is needed to reach the armour cap. Juggernaut’s can be used instead, but having 2 armour rolls frees up an aspect slot
  • Dodge chance - Needed for survival
  • Lucky hit chance to X - Needed for applying CC effects against enemies
• Chest - for Dark Shroud ranks (important), life, armour. Tempering: single resistance (see below “Resistances”), lucky hit chance to X (see below “CC effects”)
  • Dark Shroud ranks - Important for survival, going from 11 ranks to 15 ranks of Dark Shroud is a 25% effective damage reduction bonus
  • Life - Needed for survival
  • Armour - 2 armour rolls across all gear is needed to reach the armour cap. Juggernaut’s can be used instead, but having 2 armour rolls frees up an aspect slot
  • Single resistance - Needed to complete capping resistances across all elements
  • Lucky hit chance to X - Needed for applying CC effects against enemies
• Gloves - for vulnerable damage, critical strike chance, lucky hit chance. Tempering: marksman critical strike chance, lucky hit chance to X (see below “CC effects”)
  • Vulnerable damage - High priority stat to help stack Victimise damage
  • Critical strike chance - Improves overall damage output and Umrbous aspect proc rate
  • Lucky hit chance - Stacking lucky hit chance is important to increase Victimise proc rate and for applying CC more often
  • Marksman critical strike damage - Some extra additive damage
  • Lucky hit chance to X - Needed for applying CC effects against enemies
• Pants - for Heartseeker ranks (important), life, dodge chance. Tempering: dodge chance, lucky hit chance to X (see below “CC effects”)
  • Heartseeker ranks - Important for stacking Heartseeker damage
  • Life - Needed for survival
  • Dodge chance - Needed for survival (stacked twice from item stats and tempering affix)
  • Lucky hit chance to X - Needed for applying CC effects against enemies
• Boots - for movement speed, dexterity, life. Tempering: movement speed, crowd control duration (see below “CC effects”)
  • Movement speed - Important for general mobility and to speed up gameplay and avoidability of dangerous attacks (stacked twice from item stats and tempering affix)
  • Dexterity - For adding in extra damage and dodge chance
  • Life - Needed for survival
  • Crowd control duration - Linearly scale up the amount of stagger that can be delivered on the boss

• Lucky Hit: Up to a +[21.0 - 30.0]% Chance to Slow for 2 Seconds
• Lucky Hit: Up to a +[13.5 - 22.5]% Chance to Immobilize for 2 Seconds
• Lucky Hit: Up to a +[13.0 - 17.5]% Chance to Stun for 2 Seconds
• Lucky Hit: Up to a +[13.0 - 17.5]% Chance to Freeze for 2 Seconds
• Lucky Hit: Up to a +[13.0 - 17.5]% Chance to Daze for 2 Seconds

• We want to have one of each type of effect across our gear set to diversify our stagger application. It’s important to have this diversification because applying the same type of stagger effect twice or more times in quick succession reduces the effectiveness of that type of stagger effect (for how long is not currently known)
• In our build, we already have daze from Smoke Grenade and Concussive Strikes, and we already have slow from Caltrops, so we will need to pick up:
  • 1x Freezing effect
  • 1x Stun effect
  • 1x Immobilise effect
• 4th CC effect: You can either pick up another 1x Freezing effect to freeze enemies more often and trigger Frigid Finesse and Frostbitten bonuses more often, or pick up 1x Slow effect for better stagger diversification and damage reduction from slowed enemies from the Cheap Shot board
• We also pick up 1x crowd control duration rather than getting a 5th CC effect on our last piece to help boost the effectiveness of each of the following and to reduce the chance of diminishing stagger effect (by applying too many individual CC effects):
  • All tempering lucky hit chance to CC effects
  • Concussive strikes
  • Smoke Grenade
• We should end up with 4x lucky hit CC effects and 1x crowd control duration across Boots, Pants, Gloves, Chest and Head gear pieces
• The above needs more testing, but that’s the current idea

• Crossbows come with vulnerable damage, which boosts your Victimise base damage. However, this damage increase from vulnerable damage in the scheme of things is not major. This damage increase is pretty much unconditional however
• Bows have extra damage to distant enemies, which can be nice sometimes but it can be hard to keep your distance from enemies at times especially if you’re trying to optimise damage your output with Dash and Caltrops, which require you to get close
• Bows shoot faster and can apply CC effects quicker this way. This in theory staggers bosses quicker. However, bows have been found to not quite shoot 22% faster than crossbows in some circumstances, and applying CC effects quickly have some diminishing returns even if true.
• Furthermore, you can apply stagger on bosses using cooldowns such as Shadow Step and Smoke Grenade which aren’t affected by how much faster you can shoot with a bow
• Crossbows also gain us a higher Weapon Mastery passive bonus than what bows can do, though only by 3% at rank 3 of Weapon Mastery. Although Weapon Mastery with a bow increases your damage to vulnerable enemies, it does not contribute to your Victimise base damage in the same way that the Malice passive does
• Bows look cooler because of transmogs and because you’re shooting faster

• Dark Shroud with Umbrous aspect - Dark Shroud with up to 15 ranks gives up to 68% damage reduction when 5 shadows are active. Umbrous aspect allows you to gain shadows when you hit enemies with Heartseeker. Since you lose shadows every time you take direct damage, being able to get them back quickly is important
• Dodge - Dodge allows you to avoid taking damage from hits altogether. Apart from the obvious benefit of avoiding damage, not taking damage also helps preserve your Dark Shroud shadows. Beware however that dodge doesn’t reduce the damage you take when you do take damage, and dodge doesn’t avoid certain ground effects or damage from damage over time sources, so don’t rely on dodge too much. Somewhere between 50% to 70% dodge should be enough without stretching you too much
• Life - The more life you have, the more punishment you can take. Try and aim for around 40,000 life or a little bit more to ensure you can take most hits without dying
• Damage reduction - Pick up damage reduction where you can. The following paragon nodes should be secured to help you survive:
  • Damage reduction from vulnerable enemies on Exploit Weakness
  • Damage reduction from elite enemies on Cheap Shot
  • Damage reduction from trapped enemies on Deadly Ambush
  • Ranger glyph
  • Damage reduction from slowed enemies on Cheap Shot if you have 1x Slow effect from tempering. Note that this form of damage reduction is less important since it doesn’t work on bosses
• Resistances - Resistances can be maxed out without any gear rolling resistance affixes by
  • Tempering Fire, Lightning, Poison or Shadow resistance on the Chest piece
  • Getting the Leyrana’s board with a maxed out Pride glyph
  • Getting the cold resistance cluster of nodes from on Exploit Weakness (30 out of 35% worth)
  • Making sure that your rings natively roll cold resistance on them on their inherent affix. If you can only get 1 ideal ring with cold resistance on it, then pick up the remaining 5% cold resistance node on Exploit Weakness as well to top up your cold resistance
• Crowded Sage vs Assimilation - Both aspects have 8% extra dodge on them. Crowded Sage will be better against lots of smaller attacks, where as Assimilation will be better for less frequent but harder hitting attacks, so take your pick
• More defensive - If necessary, swap Elements aspect for Might aspect or Assimilation/Crowded Sage aspect (requires some aspect shuffling) to further improve survivability. You can also gain the full glyph bonus on No Witnesses by swapping to Diminish (damage reduction) and adding more surrounding strength nodes

Levelling

• Mid to high roll Moonrise aspect, ready to put on your ranged weapon slot
• Mid to high roll Adaptability aspect, ready to put on an amulet slot
• Rapid aspect, ready to put on any offensive slot
• Victimise (see below) since Precision doesn’t work with Heartseeker
• Ideal: Ranks to Heartseeker on pants, chance to cast Heartseeker twice, etc

• Either Accursed Touch aspect or Lucky hit chance to make targets vulnerable on one of your rings. Note that you will drop Accursed Touch long term but it can be handy to use while levelling
• Exploit glyph
• Some lucky hit chance affixes (20+). Gloves are the best spot to get this early
• High amount of vulnerable damage bonuses (200+)
• Ideal: At least 2 double dipping interactions from your paragon

High-end Pit

• Swap Concealment for Death Trap + Prime Death Trap, Death Trap will be used to tightly group enemies together and to activate Trap Mastery
• Swap Stutter Step for Trap Mastery, since we will not be speed farming but trying to maximise damage output when we activate Death Trap
• Swap Inner Sight for Preparation, while we can’t lower Death Trap’s cooldown with Preparation, we will use it to lower other cooldowns with Death Trap. Given that Inner Sight will likely perform badly in higher levels of Pit, this swap becomes sensible
• Swap Agility cooldown reduction for Trap cooldown reduction to help maximise the uptime for Death Trap
• Swap Combat glyph for Ambush glyph, Combat glyph makes sense in a more agile build, but we will become more heavily reliant on Caltrops and Death Trap for damage output, so Ambush will give us a small damage boost over Combat
• If necessary, swap Elements aspect for Hectic aspect (requires some aspect shuffling) to further improve the cooldown refresh for Death Trap

Boss Attack Rotation

• Spam Heartseeker to ramp up all of your damage modifiers - Heartseeker, Moonrise, Exploit Weakness, Chip - and to apply constant CC effects on the boss until they are close to being staggered. Save your Smoke Grenade for now
• Once staggered, quickly Shadow Step them, throw down Caltrops and Dash through them
• Spam Heartseeker into them while standing still
• Once the boss comes out of stagger, throw your Smoke Grenade then spam Heartseeker to apply constant CC effects on the boss until they are close to being staggered again
• Once staggered, quickly Shadow Step them, throw down Caltrops and Dash through them
• Spam Heartseeker into them while standing still
• Repeat this process until the boss is dead

• Use Dash or Concealment to disengage when you feel in danger. Remember to not disengage for too long otherwise you will lose your ramp up damage modifiers - Heartseeker, Moonrise, Exploit Weakness, Chip
• Use Shadow Step when you get CC’ed, making sure that it’s safe to do so first
• Use Caltrops but sparingly (at the start of stagger window) since Caltrops takes time to cast when you want to be shooting with Heartseeker instead to apply CC and keep damage modifiers online. This will also help ensure that you have Caltrops ready during the stagger window
• Use Death Trap to refresh cooldowns, preferably on the boss to also activate Trap Mastery and brief moments of Deadly Ambush, Ambush, etc
• Use Smoke Grenade when it comes off cooldown but avoid using it during the stagger window