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A variant of my last lifesteal tank video (https://youtu.be/qmRmw6ZJomI), this version ditches Devoured Loop in favour of Sapphire Dreamstone, still offering back-to-back Stoneskin whilst opening your weapon choices up to slower-firing weapons too.

As in our last build, we're rocking high EHP (1303 with shield, 651 without) and uninterrupted stagger resist, as well as good damage and lifesteal through Gunslinger's firerate bonuses and Bulletstorm.

So many of my builds are reliant on Devloop, that it's nice to find ways to get back-to-back skills even without it - the heavier investment in Skill Cooldown required though does mean we lose some slots for survivability.

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Archetypes:

- Alchemist Prime so we can stack concoctions for tankiness. Stone Mist is key to this build, not just for the +25% DR, but even more for the stagger reduction. The fact that it begins its cooldown once the cloud finishes, but the Stoneskin effect lasts beyond that, is how we're able to get back-to-back Stoneskin with enough skill cooldown and duration.

- NB: Stoneskin only reduces your stagger level by 1, meaning things that would knock you over will still stagger you back, though you can use Confidence Booster to reduce stagger further.

- Gunslinger is our pick for all its bonuses to firerate and reload - the important thing about lifesteal is that it scales off Base Damage, i.e. ignoring weakspots, crits, gearscore, etc. This means that the usual crit stacking meta doesn't actually buff your lifesteal at all. Firerate however will, whilst buffing our DPS too. We won't be able to get Bulletstorm back-to-back with this setup, but all our skill cooldowns will keep the downtime relatively low.

Weapons & Mods:

- Since we're not relying on Devloop, our weapon choices are much more open now, meaning we can pick slow-firing but high damage guns like shotguns. I've gone with the Bulldog with Momentum and Overflow instead of Corrosive Shot as the firerate buff is more useful for lifesteal.

- For my sidearm, I've gone with the MP60 with Corrosive Shot, but really you have free pickings. Song of Eafir for example would work well for reducing enemy damage further.

Trinkets:

- Nightmare Spiral is our main source of lifesteal - 10% of base Ranged damage is huge, though we will have to work around the healing nerf.

- Sapphire Dreamstone is one of the best skill cooldown rings out there - while you do need a decent crit rate for this to work, it is nowhere near as demanding on your firerate and crit rate as Devoured Loop, without the -10% DR penalty either.

- We're padding out the rest of our skill cooldowns with Burden of the Rebel and Black Pawn Stamp, while Stone of Continuance extends our Skill Durations and buys us enough time to end our cooldown before Stoneskin wears off.

Traits:

- Fortify, Vigor, Barkskin for tankiness
- Expertise is crucial this time round.
- Siphoner for the lifesteal.
- Spirit for mod uptime.
- Glutton for faster relic use when we're expecting a tough attack phase.

Consumables:

- Mudtooth Tonic and Bark Extract for survivability
- Shaedskin for mod gen.
- Xenoplasm for that crucial skill cooldown.
- Confidence Booster for extra stagger resist - particularly important vs Skullcracker bosses.

Relic:

- Nightmare Spiral tanks our healing effectiveness, but Shielded Heart is unaffected. The full shield is huge for tanking tough attacks or in emergencies.

- For our frags, we want Ranged Crit Chance and Firerate (for Sapphire procs and DPS), and Skill Cooldown.

Armour:

- No reason not to go Ultra Heavy since we don't need to dodge.

Playstyle:

- The important thing about lifesteal is that offence is defence, so keep up the damage as much as possible. Damage downtime is when we're at our most vulnerable, so use the ammo Mods and Gunslinger's Relic perk for free reloads when possible.

- Pop your skills, then go ham. We're going to want to either stay in the Stone Mist or at least dip back in just before it runs out, to enjoy Stoneskin for as long as possible. Stone Mist should come off cooldown just before it runs out.

- For particularly dangerous phases, pop your Shielded Heart, and try to avoid any attacks that will still stagger you even with Stoneskin, or pop some Confidence Booster beforehand.

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00:00 Intro
00:05 The Huntress
02:00 Build