[2.1] Lowlife vaal spark

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destrega85 wrote:

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The Pierce support gem now grants 10% more damage at gem level 1, up to 29% at gem level 20. It also grants 50% chance to pierce at all gem levels.

that's a 19% dmg increase,

although pierce chance is down by 19%

the nerfs were very heavy handed, I wonder if the build is well and truly dead?

It would be good if someone who played this build could choose Scion Ascendancy, take Deadeye (and maybe Berserker for the Leech, to free a gem slot) and test it again (using non-legacy gear including jewels).

Unfortunately this build is a rather large investment and I don't want to do that this early in the league (sacrificial harvest jewels etc.), currently I am playing a very similar build to do ES based Storm Call in SC Perandus. (just left out all the Increased Duration nodes including the jewel on the left side of the tree, added Area/Damage nodes at Witch start for Storm Call).

I did not try to go Vaal Spark yet as Spark alone does not feel very good to play (switched to Storm Call very early, as Spark was pretty random and slow even with Orb of Storms), had no Deadeye Ascendancy from Scion that early though.

What kept me from trying to go Vaal Spark at the moment is the duration reduction of the spiral (the time how long those sparks are coming out of the character).
Paired with the immense need of souls needs a HUGE investment and you probably are still not able to keep it up for farming now. (but as I said, someone would have to test it in at least dried lake with the gear and the new pierce gem as well as Scion Ascendancy Deadeye class!)

I don't mind the damage/crit nerf, as Increased Critical Strikes is extremely potent (and you can spare that gem slot as you don't need life leech anymore with Berserker Ascendancy) and Pierce also gives damage now - with the Deadeye Ascendant it is exactly 100% pierce chance.
So damage will not be a problem, more likely that the duration (which unfortunately cannot be affected by increased duration gem or nodes - at least if it didn't changed) killed the build.

I speced out of Scion Pathfinder Ascendancy into Deadeye Ascendancy and went Vaal Spark.
Unfortunately I did not want to afford several Sacrificial Harvest Jewels as they are 1 Ex or more per piece - which makes it really expensive.

So currently I only have 1 Sacrificial Harvest (29%) and 1 Chill of Corruption, so I don't have Vaal Spark all the time.

This is my current tree:
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAABAADBBUIHHghnDXwOSA_EEFgQYhEPES8RUBGWFvMYVhmKGo8bJR1PHYMgbiY8J6kqCyo4KwosnC0fLagvnTBbNbk7fEGWRnFJUUmxSshLrkyzUDBca1yKXfJfal-wbRlvnnBSdhF3B3tue8N713_GguSDCYRIhFOExYcHhxOJ04qvjDaP-pARkyeTOpUglS6Vh5chm7WcpKEvoqOnK6yXrJius7GQtAy31rjKuZO9J76Avoq-vMF8wfPDCcM6w23KSsrT0B_Q0ND118_ZW9tZ217pAuq66_XviO_r7_3w1fId9tr31_k3-wk=?accountName=daish0&characterName=IP_Whaitiri

I just removed all the unnecessary Increased Duration nodes, as they provide literally nothing to the build (in my oppinion). Although I made it purely to farm Dried Lake, so I am not going into higher maps at the moment (and in Dried Lake, Vaal Spark kills everything including Voll so fast that he do not even get to smash or whatever).

Here is my current gear:


Rest of my jewels are just adding Energy Shield, resistances and stats (my resistances are currently not fully capped due to Call of the Brotherhood and Eye of Chayula, Also my ES is currently pretty low - but in Dried Lake it doesn't really matter.



I am pretty sure if I had 2-3 more Sacrificial Harvest jewels I could keep Vaal Spark up all the time. The biggest pain for it are small rocks or other obstacles that prevent whirling blades from happening, thus wasting time.

But imho Vaal Spark is far from dead imho.