„I wanna be tanky, too!!!“ DD CI Witch

INTRODUCTION

I just wanted to share my latest build with you folks for the following reasons:

1) It's fun to play (not too complicated a set of spells, not right click only like many melee builds)

2) The core build is quite cheap while still having awesome DEEPS

3) With enough currency you can still make this an over the top build (CI and its scaling....)

4) While it's not really a build not represented in the current meta, done like in this guide IS a build that feels different to others.

5) Corpse Explosion was most stylish skill in Diablo2, and I love Detonate Dead just as much :)



To start off, why take Detonate Dead over other skills like Flameblast etc?

a) It scales off monster HP so once you're set your DPS scales with monster level and you onehit whole screens regardless of the area you are in

b) You don't have to go for crit, which makes ele reflect just a nuissance instead of a real problem

c) Your gear doesn't need as many sought-after stats, making it quite cheap.



„But you said we wanna be tanky as a Witch; Why and how are we supposed to do that? Why don't we start as Templar?“

In the first place we want to be tanky because I found out my Witch was standing/casting in melee range where actually I didn’t want her to be, so the hit and run approach CI normally is (when you got no leech) wasn’t fitting at all, but how to get tanky?

A character is considered tanky if he/she has a high base value of HP/ES to not get one-shot and enough sustain, be it regeneration or leech, to live through „whittling down“ hits from trashmobs.

For us, tankiness is achieved by -) having a big pool of ES
-) not being able to be stunned or frozen
-) 300+ ES regeneration per second even while hit

The fist two points are obvious AND being point out in GreatOne's Comprehensive CI-Guide found here:
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/872374

The massive ES reg will be achieved through Zealot's Oath, a few „life regen %“ nodes and use of the Vitality aura.

„Why would you use that?“ you may ask; the answer is, next to Discipline, there are very few auras of interest to a DD build, and nice choices like Purity of Elements are not necessary because as CI we cap them easily. On top of that, this witch can facetank high level map mobs in party play for a few seconds before she's in danger, sounds awesome, right?

Vitality also is a 40% aura, making it quite easy to sustain next to Discipline; it even leaves enough room in your mana pool to run a Clarity, which opens up the mana regeneration to spam everything (our mana costs are nearly non-existent with enough regen) and to run Arctic Armour aswell. More details to why I use skills and from what point on they work in the skills section.

Finally, Vitality is a % regen and whereas your HP without a Kaom’s Heart will not go much higher than 6k, a total of 10k ES can „easily“ be reached, making this aura so much better with ES than compared to HP.


You can also start off as a Templar, it will be the exact same build (except for skilling a different 40% mana regen node), but as far as I am concerned: if I got no pair of pants, I at least want to be female ;)



To be fair, the next-to-last point of this introduction will be the downsides of this build:

-) you will need quite a few stats on your gear or in your tree
-) if you do not like this build re-speccing and getting gear for a different CI-build will be quite expensive
-) single target damage is not that great because your Desecrate will run out of its three uses against bosses without ads sometimes
-) very speedy mobs will sometimes make you go crazy just because they wont stay on top of a corpse
-) in a party where multiple characters use the ressource corpses (Offerings, etc.) you can’t unfold your full potential
-) lower level areas need more time because you deal damage based on mob level
-) all of your friends will hate you because your build is funnier than theirs ;-D


Lastly, this build is a work in progress and I consider myself as an experienced, yet not an expert player in this game. Therefore, pointing out any flaws, be they massive because I’m dumb or just minor tweaks to min-max, is not only tolerated but thankingly welcome 



LEVELING up with this build:

Like every CI build, we have to start using HP and later transition into CI, the problem though is that our main spell is useless in the beginning aswell :(

Luckily we can use Fireball and Flameblast until we get Searing Bond, and everyone knows Searing Bond is Leveling Bond when you have enough fire and burn damage nodes skilled, which we want to do anyway.

We also kill all three Bandits on every difficulty (although you can help Alira in normal so your mana pool isn’t as tight).

Depending on the league you're playing and the equipment you get, the transition from HP/Searing to CI/DD will typically be possible between levels 65 and 75; later if you play a harcore league, earlier if you have a 5L armour waiting for you.


Skilltree before transition (lvl70):

http://goo.gl/ESH00U


Skilltree after transition (lvl70):

http://goo.gl/1z1nM5




THE BUILD ITSELF (currently lvl88)


SKILL TREE

http://goo.gl/MtKu5F

At lvl90 I will have skilled both remaining 0.4% HPreg nodes next to Shaper


Obvious choices:

CI + ES nodes, Elemental, Fire and Burining Damage nodes, Increased Area of Effect Area and Damage nodes


Notable Mentions:

Zealot’s Oath makes our build what it wants to be: an ES reg-ing monster
Shaper, the 0.4% reg nodes next to it and the 1% reg Templar node to complement it

Cast Speed and Movement Speed nodes:
Besides the obvious benefits of this nodes aka more utility, there is an additional boon:
We can not be frozen, yet still be chilled; and as a CI character that happens quite often. Still being able to act despite being slowed can make the difference between life or death…

Aura Nodes: these five are enough to enable us to sustain our Auras and buff them aswell.

Blaze: 5% Chance to Ignite and the stats on those five points are well invested.


Be your own judge on the following details:

Your gear/tree can interact in a way you need to skill more or less STR and DEX nodes, and you are forced to get quite a bit of both: 151 STR for lvl20 Vitality and 92 DEX for lvl19 Desecrate (where the lvl 100 corpses are). Decide what way hurts you less, although you could leave out a bit of STR as Vitality’s level progression isn’t that great.

Normally you only want enough damage to one-shot an identical mob with 84% Fire Penetration (Flammability and Support Gem on 20), most mobs will be in the negative values. With 18% Max HP base damage on Detonate Dead, +200% increased damage will net 56% damage per cast at 0% Fire Resistance, excluding the burn damage, which will kill it. At that point your damage will one-shot everything in theory ;)
More than that will mostly go into comfort, start skilling more ES/ESreg instead. I’m running ~250%
From tree and gear at the moment and can’t unskill any damage without losing a nice side effect, so please forgive me violating against my own rule by not having skilled the last HPreg nodes (they will be lvl90).


GEAR

My current setup (FAR from perfect, it’s actually quite bad tbh ^^):

Leaving me at ~9.5k ES, 470ES/sec



Your main focus is ES of course, try to get each and every one of your gear pieces with as high values as possible. Additional INT gives you ES (and mana) aswell, so take it when you can.

Maximum Resistances at 77% should not have to be explained any further aswell.

Good additional stats are Elemental and Fire Damage, cast speed, mana regen, stats as explained before and, especially as long as your total ES isn’t that high, HPreg.


A 5L Armour is VERY essential to this build, whereas the 6L isn’t so much. Luckily 5Ls are quite cheap as long as you don’t „want“/can’t afford a high ES roll on it. In lategame though an expensive high ES 5L ist he only costly slot you have to buy to shape this build from nice to awesome.

The Supreme Truth is more or less optimal for this build, as you’re not interested into anything that has Spell Damage on it. 40% Elemental Damage, 5% increased XP gain and +1 to something is very decent fort he 10-15c it costs.

Dream Fragments is mandatory for CI builds, so it is for this one. Something you will have to safe for a bit but not that expensive for 1-1.5ex.

Eye of Chayula. You need „can’t be stunned“ when you’re melee sometimes, but at least it’s got nice allstats and a bit IIR aswell. Can also be used for crazy lategame + corruption stuff.

The 2nd ring slot will contain bad yet fitting rings most oft he time: when your gear (and the Resistances on it) changes, your Resistances will be akward until you buy a strange Resistance ring for 2-3c.



SKILLS

The following is what I am using at the moment and will be subject to change.


Detonate Dead – Fire Penetration – Chance to Ignite – Elemental Proliferation – Concentrated Effect – Increased Area of Effect

As other DD builds I can’t stress this enough: tob e effective, you NEED a 20%Q DD and a 5L, before that, your main skill will be lackluster.


Flammability – Desecrate – Faster Casting

Our two support spells only need a Faster Casting tob e awesome.


Lightning Warp – Reduced Duration – Faster Casting

Obvious INT mobility spell.


Discipline – Clarity – Vitality – Reduced Mana

Our Aura setup.


Searing Bond – Increased Burning Damage – Minion and Totem Elemental Resistance

To help a bit on single targets AND to have some flat damage for lower areas as you deal the same amount of damage everywhere.



I’m still wondering what kind of CwDT – combo I will run as I don’t really need more survivability at the moment; tips appreciated 



Thanks a lot for digging through this wall of text, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
As stated above, I’m open to ANY constructive criticism.

"

XaroX wrote:

I’m still wondering what kind of CwDT – combo I will run as I don’t really need more survivability at the moment; tips appreciated

If you don't need don't use it. Otherwise CWDT lvl 1 - enduring cry lvl 5 - temporal chains lvl 5 (it'll cast over your flammability but gives you the opportunity to reposition yourself without being followed as the attacker is slowed down). Version 2 : CwDT max lvl - decoy totem max lvl (quality helps a lot in improving the totems life pool) - molten shell maxed.
Instead of CwDT you might consider Vaal molten shell - increased duration - concentrated effect. I'm using it and the damage it deals when in the middle of a mob is outstanding. Instead of you being overwhelmed the mob is dead after you received a few hits.

Hey.

Cool guide, i'm trying it out on invation.

Just two question, how do u deal with reflect and physical damage?

And how high AA can u run?

Hello, I like your guide. but I have one question concerning the gear part. Do you think doryani's catalyst would work with this build?