[DECEASED] Leech-based RF+Obliteration Slayer <ExtremelyCheap> All Content and HC viable.

I've been wanting to do a RF slayer for so long now and this gave me some really good ideas so thank you a whole bunch for this. :)

I've tried leveling this build a couple of times now, the first time I used sunder until level 60-ish and it was a total slog but the second time I used Raiz's RF leveling guide and switched to RF/flame surge at around level 30 and it's so much fun. I'm going to transition to the dual obliteration eventually but I'll probably keep flame surge as single target at least at first, because the character where I switched to obliterations at level 60 had a lot of problems with dark pact and just single target clear in general.

So I am planning to run this in turmoil, but I have my doubts that it will work.

Checking PoB the damage is quite low for RF and DP without the helmet, 9 jewels, and maxed out skill gems. I just plan on getting to 90 so hopefully it will let me push maps at least, and only try for 1 boss kill for completion.

I also remember hidden potential being a bit expensive, and in a 10 day race I am really suspicious that I will be able to pull everything together.

At least ill hit lvl 35 with sunder, so I guess its no big deal.

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SquallGBlade wrote:

So I am planning to run this in turmoil, but I have my doubts that it will work.

Checking PoB the damage is quite low for RF and DP without the helmet, 9 jewels, and maxed out skill gems. I just plan on getting to 90 so hopefully it will let me push maps at least, and only try for 1 boss kill for completion.

I also remember hidden potential being a bit expensive, and in a 10 day race I am really suspicious that I will be able to pull everything together.

At least ill hit lvl 35 with sunder, so I guess its no big deal.

I'm a little concerned about gear prices too, so I'm going to run this for mayhem instead of turmoil since I imagine gear will be a bit more available in mayhem.

edit: Regarding the damage, keep in mind that the vast majority of your trash clear damage is going to come from the Obliteration explosions, which isn't something that shows up in PoB since it's enemy life based.

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Xirce wrote:

Why do you need EE? You kill bosses with DP, RF is just a bonus and cant even be used on every boss since it needs overleech in the first place. For mapping the most damage comes from obliteration explosions which scale with monster life. Using EE means for every little pack you need to cast Orb of Storms first or RF will do less damage than before. The whole point of fast and easy mapping with RF would be gone.

Let me be clear : your build is really good as you posted it : you kill minautor with blue items and that's is something very good, since most of players will not push the game more.

For clearing Obliterations, Slayer's culling and RF have to be enough I agree with you. And it is.

I don't want to criticize, I'm just looking for variations since I'm really not confortable with DP and no VP versus bosses.
My whole point is against bosses : As u show in your video : heal is already maxed during the whole fight so more damage will not improve your defenses.
That's why I was asking for :
1. Any way to improves your defenses (better armor/eva/str with rares)
2. A way to change DP for another boss killing spells (and to be able to use EE to compensate the lost of DPS from DP removal was just another lead, not mandatory)

but again, this is already an original and strong build as it is.

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BaKouneT wrote:

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Xirce wrote:

Why do you need EE? You kill bosses with DP, RF is just a bonus and cant even be used on every boss since it needs overleech in the first place. For mapping the most damage comes from obliteration explosions which scale with monster life. Using EE means for every little pack you need to cast Orb of Storms first or RF will do less damage than before. The whole point of fast and easy mapping with RF would be gone.

Let me be clear : your build is really good as you posted it : you kill minautor with blue items and that's is something very good, since most of players will not push the game more.

For clearing Obliterations, Slayer's culling and RF have to be enough I agree with you. And it is.

I don't want to criticize, I'm just looking for variations since I'm really not confortable with DP and no VP versus bosses.
My whole point is against bosses : As u show in your video : heal is already maxed during the whole fight so more damage will not improve your defenses.
That's why I was asking for :
1. Any way to improves your defenses (better armor/eva/str with rares)
2. A way to change DP for another boss killing spells (and to be able to use EE to compensate the lost of DPS from DP removal was just another lead, not mandatory)

but again, this is already an original and strong build as it is.

Pls dont be confused, i am not the creator of this build. I just have some experience with the game in general and this build.

True, you can kill hard bosses with blue items mostly, but since they are expensive as their rare counterparts, its a moot point whether this is an achievement or not.

You are missing VP but that isnt needed here. Just have a look at Endless Hunger. Leeching doesent stop at full life and 20% of overkill is leeched on top of it. This all stacks and works like an insane life regen on top of the leeching. So when you loose life and your leech starts a bit later because you dont have VP, you still have all the "regen" from overleeching. This is the reason why you can run around with RF for so long.
Slayer even improves your rate of leeching. All in all this is better than VP as long as your overleech is going.

Ofc there are exceptions, like boss fights where you start without any overleeching (Izaro). Here VP would be the better choice.

Probably the best alternative to DP could be Firestorm, but then you have the reflect issue.
FreezardB mentioned Flame Surge, but then you would need to use RF or a Scorching Ray totem since Flame Surge needs a burning target for extra damage.

Hello - what do you think the viability of using Scorching Ray for single target as opposed to using Dark Pact?

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SquallGBlade wrote:

So I am planning to run this in turmoil, but I have my doubts that it will work.

Checking PoB the damage is quite low for RF and DP without the helmet, 9 jewels, and maxed out skill gems. I just plan on getting to 90 so hopefully it will let me push maps at least, and only try for 1 boss kill for completion.

I also remember hidden potential being a bit expensive, and in a 10 day race I am really suspicious that I will be able to pull everything together.

At least ill hit lvl 35 with sunder, so I guess its no big deal.

Hello! Best of luck with the 10 day event. I'm no expert, but as you expect, Hidden Potential tends to be quite pricy at the start of each league, and I'd suspect the same for a 10 day event. They should go for around 20c if I'm not mistaken. I'd suggest you swap into this build once you start mapping. Aim for 2-line jewels with increased life% and either area damage% or generic damage%. Grab the jewel nodes only as you find more jewels obviously. Regarding the blue items, just equip the ones with the highest HP you come across, craft resistances through masters when possible, and use Purity of Elements and the resistance nodes I highlighted on the passive tree to make up for your resists. Best of luck, have fun!~

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BaKouneT wrote:

I don't want to criticize, I'm just looking for variations since I'm really not confortable with DP and no VP versus bosses.
My whole point is against bosses : As u show in your video : heal is already maxed during the whole fight so more damage will not improve your defenses.
That's why I was asking for :
1. Any way to improves your defenses (better armor/eva/str with rares)
2. A way to change DP for another boss killing spells (and to be able to use EE to compensate the lost of DPS from DP removal was just another lead, not mandatory)

Hey there, I get what you mean with DP, I have roughly 4 casts per second, so DP alone is a degeneration of almost 25% per second if I squeeze right click.
1) You definitely want to use Carcass Jack over a blue chest for higher defenses. Dropping a blue item for a rare would mean trading 25% increased damage for a bit more armour (if using an evasion/armour item). I'd advise against this, and while I personally think phys defenses are fine as is, all I can suggest is dropping the 2nd curse and using Grace aura in its place. Warlord's Mark is obligatory, so just run that with grace instead of enfeeble if you feel you need the added phys reduct.
2) I ran Dark Pact mostly because it's immune to reflect (and was a new spell I wanted to try out). I'm not sure if other spells would yield higher total DPS, so you'll have to test that yourself. I suggested a couple options a page or two behind - (ice) vortex with decay, blade vortex, bladefall, firestorm, essence drain. You'd have to pick the one that resonates the most with you - just be weary of the drawbacks that come with each: Reflect, Thorns, EE triggering on itself. I personally wouldn't suggest EE since that only buffs your RF, which you use to trigger explosions while clearing. There are some bossfights where you can't even use RF, so well, that's that. Feel free to use what you see fit though!

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Slavefar wrote:

Hello - what do you think the viability of using Scorching Ray for single target as opposed to using Dark Pact?

Hi! As I said above, there are various skills you can resort to. While scorching ray would be nice, it's not one I'd suggest since it's a channeled degeneration spell. This means that the spell does not cause 'hits'. Since you don't 'hit', you can't leech from it, and no leech would mean your RF would drop off sooner than expected. That said, you could try using Scorching ray to enable Cast while Channeling and then use a 2nd hard-hitting spell. So maybe Scorching Ray - CWC - Firestorm? Bladefall? Feel free to tinker around with that. Good luck!

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Xirce wrote:

True, you can kill hard bosses with blue items mostly, but since they are expensive as their rare counterparts, its a moot point whether this is an achievement or not.

I have to insist that this isn't true. 30-40c for double T1 blues is not the same as a rare item worth multiple exalts. The build works perfectly fine with high life blues and crafted resistances or resistances from tree/jewels, so I still feel it's unfair to judge the cost of the build this way.

Sorry, lucksickle, you are right. I usually dont look for items costing more than 1 exalt. Yes, rare items can cost alot more than blue ones.

I am not a fan of the self-induced damage of DP, its like hitting with a big hammer on the monster and with a smaller one on your head.

Despite the reflect issue i think Firestorm could be a good alternative. Scorch CwC Firestorm would work similar and even improve cast time. Unfortunatly that would leave you with limited gem options.
By using a 6 link selfcast Firestorm you could change Fire Penetration for Life Leech depending on situation. The life leech gem does way more than warlord mark since we all know how bad curses work on bosses.
Firestorm - Spell Echo - Conc Eff - Contr Destr - Ele Focus - Fire Pen / Life Leech

Unlike DP you can stack Firestorms, the life leech would be insane.
An investment in Potency of Will and/or Exceptional Performance would be great to get more stacks of Firestorms.

I have tested Blade Vortex and here you need the same investment or you cant keep 20 stacks constantly. Since it completely changes the playstyle on boss fights i do not like it.

Vortex, Decay and all the dot based spells dont provide enough leech since i am quite sure that you cant leech the dot damage, only the small hit.

I wish i could test the Firestorm setup but unfortunatly i dont have a 6 link or a corrupted one with the colors needed.
I forgot to mention that 2 Doryani's Catalyst are much better than Apep wands when using Firestorm.

I was so curious to test the alternative options to DP that i bought a cheap 6 link, 2 Doryanis Catalist and high level gems.

For Firestorm, Flame Surge etc. you cant use Apep wands since they drain your mana in less than 1 sec. Even a mana flask isnt much of a help.
Therefore i went for 2 Doryanis since they provide much better dps anyway.

Unlike DP which does ok damage even with 2 Obliteration wands, Firestorm, Flame Surge etc. feels quite weak.

To make Firestorm work you heavily have to invest in cast time and skill effect duration, else you cant stack it fast enough. And youll need alot of stacks to get a similar damage output to DP. There is quite a ramp up time to it.

Flame Surge doesent need that much attention but damage doesent seem that high either and you basically have to face tank bosses, face to face, just standing near them isnt enough.

Finally i tried Ball lightning just to make sure i tried all the spells i could think of.
Well, that didnt went well either. It probably was the weakest of the three.

All in all the Tree would need quite a few changes to make things work here and in the end you would play a different build with a reflect issue.

The hidden potential started dropping yesterday so I started leveling a slayer. I'm level 40 and just got my hidden potential. I'll have to spend points to get resists I think. And I switched to RF+flasks or DP+flask as sunder wasn't fun. It's still pretty rippy, but I got my ascendancy, so we'll see how it goes now. Can't wait to get level 56!

EDIT: with the ascendancy and the hidden potential jewel, I must say, it doesn't feel rippy at all. Just killed kitava (act 5) deathless.

EDIT2: Got the horns! This is such a blast!