Shadow - [2.4] Detonate Dead CI Assassin, Detonate Dead isn't dead - Forum

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Neydu wrote:

I choose this as a league starter and I never played a hybrid (life/es) character before.
All this together with Breach League (no free essences etc) makes the leveling experience painful. I'm at level 61 now and only cold res is capped (yes my gear sucks).
The damage however is promising. And the few times I managed to Vaal Detonate Dead whole breaches keep me opening them.

As you're writing in your "Cons", this build requires good defensive flask usage and I definitely have to step up my flask-game.

But I'll keep pushing.
I wanted to blow bodies in this league and all the other ways (shattering, infernal blow, profane bloom, abyssal cry etc.) seemed less fun/effective after watching your gameplay videos.
So thanks for recording them and writing this guide!

Maybe I'll post my experiences when I'm at Level 85+.

Yes, it's quite gear-dependent and with the Facebreakers nerf I'm not so sure it's worth using anymore. I wouldn't say this build is great for the first build of the league. I've also been playing this build this league. I leveled using Flameblast until something like 75.
I'm going to have to make updates to the build guide soon.

I'm not using Marylene's this time around and no Doryani's but instead sceptres with high ele/fire dmg and high crit multi. I highly recommend using a helmet with the Essence of Horror used on it which will give 30% more dmg which also double dips on the burn. On a 4-link I'm using DD - Increased AoA - Ele Prolif - Crit Damage.
If you have a 5 or 6-link instead you should use Marylene's Fallacy and use the Increased Critical strikes gem and Fire Penetration.

My character only started doing well with the DD a few levels ago and I'm currently 83. Getting good es-gear is very important and I've not yet made the swap to CI because I don't have enough ES yet.