Chaos Inoculation Problems

I really enjoy the concept of CI, but there are some problems with the Keystone that I think need to be addressed. I joined in Open Beta, but I understand that it used to grant a significant bonus to Energy Shield in addition to its current mechanics. I'm not so much concerned about that as I am with some other functionality.

I was fighting Merciless Merveil last night, and I have to say after taking CI, this fight was a complete nightmare for me. I know that for some builds, the fight isn't a real challenge, but because I was running CI, I found myself consistently being chain frozen and chilled for upwards of 4 seconds.

If I understand how freezing and chilling work, the duration is determined by the % of damage that you take when struck with the cold damage in question. Now, it may be possible that I was being frozen for 4 seconds or more simply because my Energy Shield wasn't high enough to warrant a CI build, but if that is the case, an unrealistic amount of Energy Shield is needed for this encounter. I was sitting at ~2000 Energy Shield (self found gear) and I have had no issues progressing until this encounter. If, like this assumption states, freezing and chilling debuffs calculate your Energy Shield total to determine duration, I believe that there does need to be a small buff to the amount of Energy Shield you receive when selecting CI. Perhaps not 50%, but maybe something like 10-15%.

Now, that may not be the case, as I actually suspect freezing and chilling durations do not even include your Energy Shield in calculating the duration of the debuff. I am nearly convinced that it must only calculate your health, as a 4 second freeze seems like it may be the cap (especially considering that a 4 second freeze on Merveil means certain death unless you can unfreeze with a flask). Since CI reduces your health to 1, you become even more susceptible to status ailment durations (stun, burn, shock, and freeze). It seems to me that becoming immune to Chaos damage is simply not worth the drawback of dropping your HP to 1, bearing in mind these formulas.

So, as a proposed suggestion, and thank you for reading this far, I suggest that CI either grant a small bonus to Energy Shield or convert your status ailment resistance from total HP to your total Energy Shield. I think this will make the Keystone a lot more attractive than it currently stands, but will not in any way make it a mainstay in Energy Shield builds. It should be a choice, but currently it just seems stupid to make this choice. I have stuck with it because I like the concept and I really want to make it work, but playing solo and not using a minion/totem build seems to be next to impossible with CI in its current state.

As a sidenote, I was able to get passed Merveil (Merciless) using Molten Shell and Granite Flasks, but I didn't use any of my core abilities other than a few freezing pulses in between being chilled and frozen and about 20 deaths (made sure it was right after I leveled so as to not lose XP). I think if this method was necessary to beat the Act 1 boss, while Act 2 is giving me no trouble whatsoever, a change needs to be made.

Thanks,
Animus

Merviel is going to be changed in the future: her encounter isn't optimal. Most if not all specs can play most of act 2 better then a single fight with Merviel.

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Flickerflare wrote:

Merviel is going to be changed in the future: her encounter isn't optimal. Most if not all specs can play most of act 2 better then a single fight with Merviel.

Be that as it may, I still feel like the issue of status ailment calculations is more pressing. Merveil's difficulty is fine in my opinion, maybe she is a bit on the difficult end for some people, but this is a difficult game.

Due to the nature of the aforementioned mechanics, her chain freezing makes the fight impossible to complete for builds not specifically tailored to it. I think that is more of an issue than her difficulty, which is actually surmountable.

at current state of CI.
it is almost a must to have the uniqe items Eye of chyule and Dreamfragments

Theis will grant immunity to Stun and freezing.

Currently on my CI shadow i use
Rings:Dream Fragments (cannot be froze) + a tri resis ring

ammy:Eye of chayula (cannot be stunned)

Boots:Sin trek Stealth Boots (Enemies cannot leach from you)

PS: a side note most CI builds (if not all) weigh Heavily on your gear.

Also, the freezing and chilled duration are each calculated from the life you would have without CI (and never looking for your ES), which makes it really crappy against high damage mobs like Merveil.

Stunned duration also, but ES gives you a 50% chance to not be stunned (which still isn't much against some mobs).

But you are not more susceptible to ailments through CI itself, you are because you don't go for life when you choose CI.

CI is a very fragile build, which in return can become very offensive in ways other builds cannot, because they have to account for life (most of the time), to counter Chaos damage.


- Cazy

should be easier with these

Does this mean that those of who do not get the benefit of Chaos damage impunity should also get some adjustments to our chaos vulnerability?

You made your choice. Your life force sux.

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Fhedaykin wrote:

should be easier with these

those would work too. but for my build i need the 30% speed buff from my

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xxceoxx wrote:

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Fhedaykin wrote:

should be easier with these

those would work too. but for my build i need the 30% speed buff from my

also i love when people say "you only have 3700dps at lv 63?" but they fail to remember that at current my build sits on
2500+Shield
4Aura's going at once grace+Haste+dicipline+Wrath grace/dicipline for survivablity wrath for +200 more ele dmg. and haste for faster moving + faster attacks
Cannot be stunned
Cannot be leached from
Cannot be Frozen
39% chance to evade.
43.7% chance to crit
586% Crit Multiplier.

pretty shure most classes dont have that kind of crit multiplier

now i want to note my build isnt anywhere near being done.

another 8levels i'll get somewhere around a 30% buff to all of my aura's 5levels after that my lifeleech+mana leech will be instant.
another note to point out is. my gear is nowhere near where i want it. still need the chest/helm/shield.

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Masiquer wrote:

Does this mean that those of who do not get the benefit of Chaos damage impunity should also get some adjustments to our chaos vulnerability?

You made your choice. Your life force sux.

I think you have misunderstood the point. Those who choose to take Chaos Inoculation have done so under the premise that their Energy Shield now essentially represents their health pool. That comes with quite a few drawbacks to only counter one thing. If you were to map out the pros and cons of taking CI, they would look like this:

Pros
1. Immune to Chaos Damage

Cons
1. No HP beyond your ES
2. No HP flasks
3. No in combat regeneration without the use of 1 or 2 other Keystones which spread you thin on the passive tree
4. Status ailments (stun, shock, burn, freeze, and chill) are reliant on your unmodified HP, which is garbage because you took no HP nodes
5. Extreme gear dependency, almost requiring perfect rolls

So when you say, "you made your choice," you are absolutely correct, and that is my point. It is a choice people have to make, but in order to build a truly efficient build, it isn't much of a choice at this point. If you take CI right now, you are hindering yourself more than helping. If someone can prove that wrong I'd be happy to see it.