The True Lord of Birds - Storm Crow Beastmaster Build Guide

Massive damage even on a very low investment

Off-meta so gear is (somewhat) cheap(er)

Fast and proactive, you won't fall asleep at the keyboard

Significantly more birds than Falconer

Spammy and plate-spinning gameplay (this could be a pro if it's something you like)

Very apm intensive and losing time means losing a lot of damage

Not the tankiest build until massive gear investment

Tankyness is reliant on timing invulnerability windows with Warcry and using potions; you can't facetank

Minions will sometimes die, forcing downtime

Falconer has a bigger bird

Basic rotation

1. Fury Leap or roll in melee range.
2. Use Tempest Strike once or twice.
3. Warcry.
4. Swipe and keep using Tempest Strike while you wait for the Crowstorm to fall and delete the pack.
5. Roll into the next pack and begin again. Try to keep going from pack to pack to pack, as losing your Gladiator of Lagon 4/4 stacks is a huge dps loss.
6. Once you've used your Warcry and a couple of Tempest Strike, you can also directly cast Crowstorm on far away packs to pick off mobs that might have escaped you.

Further optimization

1. Once you have collected Exsanguinous, drink 1 potion every 4 seconds to keep its buff active. This should sync with your Warcry's cooldown, so simply use both at the same time.
2. If you drop more potions than you need, burn through them, as that will give you more stacks of Apogee of Frozen Light, resulting in more damage and defense.
3. Once you can reliably trigger Apogee of Frozen Light's passive you should avoid hitting lone monsters that have survived, as that will waste the freeze stacks; leave them to your birds instead.

Now let's go over the build.

Damage breakdown

The biggest synergy that this build offers (which I suspect is an unfixed bug) comes from our Storm Crow scaling. The crows themselves scale with strength, however they don't attack.

Instead they constantly cast a Lightning Blast spell that scales with intelligence. Meaning that if we can find a way to scale both strength and intelligence, they will doubly benefit from it.

"But how are we gonna do that? That's impossible," you say.

Well fear not my fellow bird enthusiasts, since we're using a Cleaver Solution our intelligence automatically becomes equal to our strength. This makes strength an insane affix for us, giving us both damage, ward and damage reduction.

After getting massive scaling from strength, we also get 100% crit chance from our passives with zero investment on our gear, allowing us to focus on crit multiplier instead.

To reach 100% crit chance we start from a base 5% for our Storm Crow.

• We then get an additional 24% from reaching three stacks of Observe and Learn 2/5, leaving us at 29%.
• Since we've got a massive base, we now simply double it with Warcry's Battle Cry 4/4.
• We get another 120% from our Cry of the Lynx 4/8.
• We get an extra 20% increased crit chance from Shatterbolt 2/5.

This results in 29 x 3.4 = 98.6% crit chance.

Buffs

1. When we attack enemies with Tempest Strike we will gain stacks of Gladiator of Lagon 4/4, which will be doubled by Scheme of the Architect 1/1 on our crows, giving them on average 60+ spell damage.
2. We will also trigger Observe and Learn 2/5 and Huntsman 4/4, allowing us to reach 100% crit chance and gain a massive 180% more damage bonus.
3. Using Swipe will also give us stacks of Aspect of the Panther 5/5, for another +25% global more damage. Additionally Warcry will give us Frost Claw 5/5 for another chunky 250% increased damage.
4. From our gear we will try to maximize Exsanguinous by drinking one potion every 4 seconds. This timing is going to be hard to internalize until you reduce your Warcry's cooldown, after which they will be perfectly synced and you will just drink every time you use it.
5. Since we're running PrefixExperimental Volatile Zombie on Potion Use on our belt, we will have a constant stream of minions dying. This will trigger Apogee of Frozen Light passive, granting Frenzy and a massive 24% more damage to chilled foes to our crows.
6. This is also why we're running Frigid Breath, very often granting us another 15% more damage.

Defenses

This build is not the tankiest, however we do have some defensive layers.

1. Since we're running a low health setup with our Exsanguinous and Last Steps of the Living we're always going to have Cornered Beast active, for a massive 20% less damage taken.
2. This buff is so significant that we're running PrefixPotion Health Converted to Ward on our idols, keeping us at low life and at the same time converting our potions into a massive ward shield we can activate by burning through them.
3. We also aim to reach 100% uptime on Porcine Constitution 4/5 for another 27% combined reduced damage.
4. Since we will be proccing Apogee of Frozen Light on every pack, we will also freeze every pack on impact, granting us time to be safe and dps it down.
5. Once we get our desired 25% cdr, Warcry is going to be on a 4 seconds cooldown, giving us Purging Shout 1/1 and Juggernaut 1/1, that will clean us of debuffs and make us invulnerable 25% of the time. This invulnerability window can be further extended by running the Fury Leap alternative.
6. Since we're stacking strength we're also naturally going to have high armor and take little damage.

Can you level with this build?

Yes you absolutely can.

Should you level with this build?

Are you a coward?

(you) No I'm not!

Ok so here's how we go about doing it:

1. Start with your Summon Wolf and Gathering Storm.
2. Switch to Swipe as your main skill as soon as you get it and specialize in it, adding a companion skill or Fury Leap as your second specialization.
3. Fury Leap does crazy damage at low levels and will almost one-shot packs, so it's my go-to recommendation.
4. While you level up Swipe grab the points on the left of the tree, get to Primal Resonance but don't take it.
5. Once you unlock your third specialization, slot in Tempest Strike. but don't use it yet. Take all the nodes that reduce mana cost first. Once the cost is down to 4-2 mana, grab Primal Resonance, and switch to Tempest Strike as your main skill.
6. Add Summon Storm Crows on the skill bar and specialize in it, saying bye bye to Fury Leap, and you can now play as if you were doing your late game rotation.

That being said, is it worth it?

While that's subjective, I'd say that after level 30ish this setup is 80% as good as the best levelling build, and it avoids the pain of having to respec later on, so judge for yourself.

Passives order:

You can pretty much fill every tree from left to right in any order you prefer, there isn't any one individual point we absolutely have to get.

I personally go:

1. Primalist
2. Druid
3. Beastmaster

because I find it funny to be a level 50 Beastmaster with 0 points in beastmastery, but it's entirely up to you.

That being said I believe the optimal order is:

1. Primalist
2. Beastmaster
3. Druid

because you want to grab both your Nature's Embrace for a massive power spike and your Cry of the Lynx 4/8 to reach 100% crit chance, but even if you go Beastmaster last you'll reach them before empowered monoliths, so it truly doesn't matter.

You can delay getting Harmony of Blades 1/1 as long as you'd like if you drop a nice shield while levelling, it doesn't matter much until you can get your Apogee of Frozen Light.

1. In the late game try to prioritize your strength and getting levels of Summon Storm Crows.
2. This skill loves extra levels, and you can never have enough. With every single level you get damage boosts of up to 30%.
3. Fix your cdr and your experimental affixes, and after that try to gather a bit of armor - with the massive multiplier we get from strength stacking, it goes a long way!
4. Before you find your final relic, you can run a Dedication of an Erased Primalist. If the rng gods bless you with strength on it you've got yourself pretty much a best in slot item, but otherwise it's still a great piece.

I advise against playing with a specific loot filter for this build, as it's unique intensive and better played with the merchant guild.

Therefore a loot filter to make money would be better instead.

However if you're playing with the circle of fortune guild, you can make an effective filter by looking for these affixes:

• strength
• minion damage & health
• armor
• health
• minion crit multiplier
• cdr on belt and gloves
• + levels of crow
• potion health % converted to ward
• zombies spawned on potion use
• minion spell damage (DON'T get melee or bow damage as they're totally useless)

Let's now discuss the individual modifications I've made to this build and why I've made them.

Why are you running dual wielding instead of a shield?

The answer is simple, Apogee of Frozen Light.

By dual wielding we get an insane +3 levels on our Summon Storm Crows. This item single-handedly more than doubles our damage.

Much like with the Fury Leap variant, do anything else only if you're constantly dying.

If Apogee is so good why aren't we running two of them?

Because we don't have three hands (yet).

Okay being serious: another Apogee of Frozen Light would be a dps upgrade, yes (at least until we've properly stacked strength), but it would require to drop Cleaver Solution.

We simply cannot afford this, as doing so would then require switching to a life setup instead of ward.

All our life generating options are mediocre and they don't scale; also nothing in our tree really allows us to sustain life (unlike for instance the squirrel build, where you can heal with talents like Lamprey Teeth).

So in order to push more corruption, ward is the only realistic option, and so we need Cleaver Solution.

Why don't you put 10 points in Viper Fangs?

This is something I'm still somewhat conflicted on myself, but I think my choice is superior. Here's my reasoning:

• Against packs, you can still get 3 stacks without the extra attack speed, as you have time before casting Crowstorm and in the delay while you wait for the Crowstorm to fall to stack. The extra 5 points are wasted there.
• Against bosses we're already massively outpacing the 3 stacks per second that we're allowed to get.
• The only reason to run more attack speed would be to proc our passives easier, but once again I feel like I have 100% uptime already.
• There's more opportunity-cost. In my variant of the build we have 6 crows instead of 5, and the crows individually do way more damage than in the Kripp's version. This means that giving away the extra attack speed on the crows is a much bigger dps loss.
• One of the worst feelings you get while playing this build is when one of your crows die, and the extra points allows us to ress them faster.
• Since we have to spend 3 more points on Natural Fortitude, this allows us to get Porcine Constitution 4/5 to 4 out of 5, instead of the 3 we would have by maxing out Viper Fangs 10/10.

Help! My crows keep dying, what can I do?

Go play Falconer.

Okay i'm kidding, but there isn't much to do here: they're birds and they love bright colors, especially the on-the-ground-puddle variety. The only piece of advice I can give you is that you can press A to move them around when they're standing in an aoe.

A nicely rolled Omnis is crazy expensive, what can I get instead?

First of all bear in mind that we don't need to have a high roll on every resistance! Keep an eye on what we already have maxxed and focus on the rest.

If it's still too expensive for you, build some more resistances elsewhere and get Frozen Eyes of Formosus: a nice amulet that's usually super cheap.

Why aren't we running Phantom Grip?

Phantom Grip is a nice option if your rings are bad and you've got no +level of Summon Storm Crows from somewhere else, however we don't benefit from any other line of text on it except for that.

A regular ring will outpace it most likely until you get a high lp variant.

Why aren't we running Raven's Rise?

Ravens' Rise is actually a very good item, and you should run it if you can.

That being said, in order to be able to do so, you absolutely need to:

• have reached your cdr cap with just the belt affix SuffixIncreased Cooldown Recovery Speed (so it must be tier 6/7).
• have a legendary one with PrefixExperimental Ward per Missing Health inherited from your exalted gloves.

Which is why I have opted to leave it out of the gear planner. But yes, if you're looking for optimal gear do run it.

And if you do and you're looking for suggestions on where you should spend your points:

• to maximise dps you can spend them in Thundering Strike, Pincers or in Storm Breath.
• you could put points into Expansive Pulse for greater quality of life and aoe clearing.
• you could put one point into Sky Passage for greater mobility (also freeing you from PrefixExperimental Minions Transported with Traversal Skills).

Why don't you get aspect of the shark on your minions/health on crit on your minions? It seems insane.

You have to be very careful here. If you see something that seems insane on the tree that I haven't taken, it's because it refers to melee damage or melee attack speed.

Storm Crows do 0 of either of those.

They don't attack, they cast spells. It sucks for us as if they did they would be omega broken, but they don't.

Half of the time the enemies are dead before I can proc crowstorm, or they die in the delay between casting it and having it land, am I doing anything wrong?

Since we're a ramp-up build that delivers massive, singular blows, this is bound to happen. Especially at lower corruption you'll rarely see your true damage potential. But think about it: this is a good problem to have - it means we don't even need our full potential to have enough damage.

Can't you take out two points from Blessed Springs and put them into Chitinous Platings?

You can and it's probably the correct choice, especially early-on, but I'm greedy and I like when the big numbers are big.

I'm not playing with the merchant guild and I can't get the uniques for the low-health version going, what can I do?

First of all you've got plenty of time to find them. If you have some life affixes on your gear you can keep going into empowered monoliths for a while before they're truly required.

If by that point you still can't find them there's not much to do, unfortunately. We need the ward stacking to be decently tanky since we've got a bunch of intelligence.

If you've dropped Herald of the Scurry, you could consider switching to squirrels instead of crows as that build goes health instead of ward and has most of the gear in common with us.

(I will be following this guide closely, so if you have any more questions let me know in the comments and I will be adding them here)