[3.1] Poet's Pen Volatile Dead - all content - HC/SC

Videos:

Shaper kill (pretty bad gear at this point, was like day 3 of league): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta-4h82IVIs

Chayula kill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWqoEUm_p3w

---

This is a build that shines on bosses but also has pretty smooth mapping.

DPS: 1 - 2 million with good gear, depending on buffs

Life: Up to 8k with kaoms, 7k easily achievable

---




The build works by using Poet's Pen wand. The wand casts any spells socketed in it every time you attack.

So we trigger the spells by using a frenzy curse on hit setup.

One wand casts unearth which creates corpses. The other wand casts volatile dead on those corpses.

---

Build can be played as Scion, Inquisitor, Pathfinder, Raider

I recommend Scion it's the best all round and also best for hardcore in my opinion.

The reason is Slayer life leech effects are not removed on full life which I think is one of the strongest defenses in the game when combined with vaal pact.

Slayer leech basically gives you permanent 20% life regen if you deal enough damage. 40% with Vaal Pact and 60% with the CWDT + Blood Rage + Immortal Call + Soul of Arakaali upgraded pantheon (50% increased Recovery of Life and Energy Shield if you've stopped taking Damage Over Time Recently).

The build already has very good damage so getting extra damage from inquis is not as important as having 40-60% life regen which is up almost all the time.

Don't bother with life gain on hit from spells, it does not heal enough to make a difference.

The elemental penetration from inquis is nice but it's much easier to get elemental penetration now. Wise Oak + Abyssal Jewels + Shaper Amulet is enough.

---

Tree and Gear

Path of Building Inquisitor: https://pastebin.com/ehefuxrN
Skilltree: https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.1.1/AAAABAABABzcEFhBh6hyjxr56O98hXvQ9bQ4wGY64SaVguRmVLiTuZPyHb687-upSASzDkhVS4w2rrMFQklRlS69J0WdGjiCmwQHl5fA46i7ES0y0ZBVS1dwUpM6i4ymMjwFb56HZQhnXfJSU6ZXTePyRevu7DjtPGpDFr81kvDVVcakDLc-LJyCx7FbPC2DCYnTCap3B76AfIP53di9TLNBltLonKSP-uv1_gqXlXvDt9bbWaIA8B862Cj6aPKDX7zqkBFg3mHiBx4DBIcTsZARlhhW8bMnL4PMRXwqC5_f-_VTUtAfAl-a4Bg8PV8I9EVH2fzlGTpY1aaD28MJmjvAmv6PLag=

Path of Building Scion with Acuity: https://pastebin.com/YWDPWgK1
Skilltree: https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.1.1/AAAABAABABzcEFhBh6hyjxr56O98hXvQ9bQ4wGY64SaVguRmVLiTuZPyHb687-upSASzPV9VS4w2rrMFQprgRXy9J0Wdf8YaOBhWBAeXl2DeqLsRLTLRkFVLV3BSYeKLjKYyUXRvnodlCGdd8lJTplco-qaZ6-7sOO08akMWvzWS8NVVxqQMtz4snILH8B88LYMJidPVpr6AfIMYPNi9TLNo8tLoCPSP-uv1_o8HHsCamjvDCZeVe8OD2zpY8kW4yrFbkBFN4zwFg19BlhqBkzqio_4KD8Q7fKIAEZbA47fWgpvbWTrYlS686vv1U1LQHwJfSVH53Q5IAwRFR9n85RmxkAmq8bMnL4PMKguf3y2o

Path of Building Scion (no Acuity): https://pastebin.com/N0bpysR6
Skilltree: https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.1.1/AAAABAABABzcEFhBh6hyjxr56O98XznQ9ZsttDjAZjrhTiq4k7mT8h2K8O_rBLMOSFVLjDauswVCSVG-p5UuvSdFnX_GGbSCmwQHl5dg3qi7Kjgy0XBSkzqLjEQlpjJRdIdlCGdd8lJTpldN48Hzppnr7mVNwJrtPGpDogA1kv6PVcakDA_ELJy9NoLHsVuVIIMJidPVpr6AfIP53di9LR9Ms0GW0uiaO4_66_W31gceapMWv_DVl5VFRwmqg9vyRbjK8B8o-kd-AwRFfDwFsZD-CmjyYeKwq8SCEZb3fREtCPS86qKjGFZM__v1O3zQHwJfJpWa4CoLn9_bWdn85RlTUhg8PV8agbc-wwk6WC2o

Important! One of my pens have modified damage values for easier damage calculations. Look at average damage of volatile dead, not DPS

3.2 scion tree, swapped to inquisitor instead of assassin
No real changes other than that. Eye of Innocence might to work correctly with Scion as Inquisitor since it grants ailment immunity. Not ignited = not leeching. So go Scion Elementalist if you plan on using that item.
https://pastebin.com/MyKcDf3f

Bandits:

Kraityn for slightly faster clearspeed
Alira for slightly higher damage and ease of gearing

Ascendancy order:

Scion: Assassin-> Slayer
Inquisitor: Instruments -> Inevitable -> Augary

Current Inquis gear:



The raise spectre in the boots is supposed to be Assassin's Mark, sorry about that.

I'm using the Watcher's Eye that gives 1.5% life leech while affected by anger. If you can't afford it there are other options for leech.

Budget:

Curse on Hit Warlords Mark instead of Assassins mark + Atziri's Promise

Medium:

Eye of innocence + Mokou's Embrace
This might to work correctly with Scion as Inquisitor since it grants ailment immunity. Not ignited = not leeching.

or

Berek's Grip as Scion Elementalist, gives 1% leech if the enemy is shocked, which is guaranteed from Elementalist.

or

Watcher's Eye with leech while affected by Vitality

High:

Watcher's Eye fire leech Anger

---

Cooldown Gear:



Default Cooldown of Poet's Pen is 250ms or 4 per second. With cooldown gear (shaper exclusive mod) you can get as low as 200ms or 5 per second.

Therefore it's important to never have more attacks per second than the cooldown. If you attack while the spell is on cooldown nothing happens and you lose DPS. You can check cooldown by hovering the triggered spell in the hotbar.

So fully buffed with no cooldown gear you want to have 3.9 attacks or .26 attack time.

With cooldown gear 4.9 attacks or .21 attack time.

---

Pantheon:

Arakaali with the life recovery rate upgrade. Only works if you run blood rage and cwdt + ic

Rest is up to you, immune to poison can be nice

---

Atziri:

Atziri has reflect so you will instantly kill yourself unless you get Yugul Pantheon + Sybil's Lament + Shaper reduced reflect chest.

---


FAQ:

Q: Why not scale only elemental damage to scale the corpse explosion damage
A: We have no data on unearth corpse life so it's hard to know how effective this is. Besides, the strongest part about Volatile Dead is the ability to precast for 5 seconds before a fight and shotgun the boss. Corpse scaling wouldn't help with this

Q: What do I need to start?
A: All you really need are two poet's pen. If you can't afford them you can have the same passive tree just play self cast Volatile Dead and Desecrate until you can farm the poet's.

Q: What items do I get first?
A: Poets > +1 Helm enchant > Kaoms > Cooldown Gear > Acuities > Essence crafted Opals or Shaper Rings with spell damage

Q: What ascendancy do you prefer?
A: Scion best overall imo

Q: Why not use bodyswap?
A: It makes me feel a bit sick, don't like the playstyle

Q: How is the build after the nerf to helm enchant?
A: Still very strong, the enchant was way too powerful, it's still likely the best enchant in the game.

Q: Why not Elemental Equilibrium?
A: Will only give bonus damage to the first ball then the others will deal less damage, so lower damage in total

"

Dylan2341 wrote:

in terms of leveling. and ascendancy, what do we full out first on tree?

for scion/enquis

In general, and this applies to most builds, you wanna grab the same amount of damage nodes as life/defense nodes while you're leveling. Although in softcore you can skimp the defenses a bit to go faster. Leave crit nodes for lvl 60+ and same for jewel sockets unless you got some good ones laying around.

That being said, your tree at level 40 should look something like this:
http://poeurl.com/bPRn

MoM is nice for leveling but it isn't needed later on.

Hey love your build but the more I look around the more it feels like Berserker might be the best budget option for bossing just because it's the only class that provides leech since warlord's mark won't be effective on bosses so should I just map till I make enough currency to get watcher's eye then start bossing if I go with scion? or what about linking life leech support with unearth?

Also could I go with full abyss unique set(shroud of lightless. lightpoacher and etc)

Finally, is 25~ pen from shaper amulet and wise oak really enough?

can i ask what is the order for the ascendancy?

What about Bandits?? Alira?

Hi!

Started this build yesterday and have questions:

1. I cannot increase my AS to 2.0 (I have some cd reduction) and see no ways to do it. Maybe some jewels, but it doesnt look sufficient. And i use faster attacks gem. How the fuck is it achievable in 4l setup?

2. Damage seems pretty good atm, but still very low in comparison to yours inquisitor, even if i remove all your items in PoB, leaving only flasks, wands and helm, i have 2 times less damage, lol. I can't figure what's wrong.

My gear:

"

undelorth wrote:

Hi!

Started this build yesterday and have questions:

1. I cannot increase my AS to 2.0 (I have some cd reduction) and see no ways to do it. Maybe some jewels, but it doesnt look sufficient. And i use faster attacks gem. How the fuck is it achievable in 4l setup?

2. Damage seems pretty good atm, but still very low in comparison to yours inquisitor, even if i remove all your items in PoB, leaving only flasks, wands and helm, i have 2 times less damage, lol. I can't figure what's wrong.

My gear:

Spoiler

Don't you have 4.19 AS with frenzy charges up?

"

ArkanePanda wrote:

Don't you have 4.19 AS with frenzy charges up?

I do, but I need 4.9 AS to proc 5 volatiles per second.

"

undelorth wrote:

"

ArkanePanda wrote:

Don't you have 4.19 AS with frenzy charges up?

I do, but I need 4.9 AS to proc 5 volatiles per second.

Ahh I'm sorry for misunderstanding but according to OP's inquis pob he only seems to have 3.9 AS. Maybe more AS from Starkonja, abyssal/normal jewels, AS on rings? I'm sorry if i'm wrong.

"

ArkanePanda wrote:

"

undelorth wrote:

"

ArkanePanda wrote:

Don't you have 4.19 AS with frenzy charges up?

I do, but I need 4.9 AS to proc 5 volatiles per second.

Ahh I'm sorry for misunderstanding but according to OP's inquis pob he only seems to have 3.9 AS. Maybe more AS from Starkonja, abyssal/normal jewels, AS on rings? I'm sorry if i'm wrong.

Yeah, and that's weird. He has CD reduction items but only 3.9 AS.

Sorry I'm on holiday have not updated the PoB link. When I made it there was no support for abyssal jewels so it's missing some attack speed. Specifically the 8% atk speed if you've crit recently. I also have two attack speed mods on normal jewels.

I'll update PoB and link in thread in 1-2 days.

As for damage my Poet's Pen in PoB has 290% more and 500% more to account for the cooldown and shotgunning from old enchant. I will update this too.

If you want to see you dps in PoB edit one item and add "290% more damage" if your atks per second is 3.9, and "300% more damage" if you have the enchant, otherwise just add "200% more damage". Then you look at average damage of volatile dead to see your true dps.