[2.2] SOUL FOOD Chuggernaut -- Soul Eater Max AOE Giant Ball of Icy Death (Vids up!)

3:00 T9 Gorge map, ez mods

T11 Springs map, ez mods

T10 Plateau map, enfeeble+EE

Chateau map, how NOT to approach a boss-fight also I recharge ES through corrupting blood, so that's kind of interesting

14 second base
50% increased duration from saturated (applies directly to flask, acts as more multiplier)
21% reduced duration from Soulthirst
20% increased duration from Druidic Rite passive
40% slower expiration of flask, with -40% curse effect from gem, +30% from passives and gem to give a net -10% curse effect

14*1.5*(1-.21+.2)/(1-.4*(1-.1))=32.5

32.5 seconds of soul eater.

This vid by Kartikdon shows the offensive and defensive effects of Soul Eater. Much props to Kartikdon!
The tl;dw: +5% Attack and Cast speed
+5% Physical reduction, up to the 90% cap (that only takes 18 souls!!! :OOO)
+5% Elemental resists, up to the 75% cap
+5% (??) Character size

Also note, Soul Eater EATS SOULS. That's VAAL SOULS. So your Vaal Skills won't charge as normal. However, we can still use Vaal Skills, I'll explain later.

Yes. This build uses 5 unique pieces of gear and 3 unique jewels.

• Soulthirst belt is obviously necessary. No Soulthirst, no Soul Eater! The only stat that really matters here is reduced flask effect duration--you want the least reduced flask effect duration. Least reduced, got it? You want less less, and more MORE!
• Shackles of the Wretched is also mandatory, to curse ourself with Temp Chains. The rolls make 0 difference.
• Soul Taker is our offhand, I guess try to get one with high cold res?
• Abyssus isn't necessary per se, but it does quadruple your damage with no downside, so... Alright, technically not NO downside, but when you have 90% phys mitigation all the time, taking 40% more phys is LITERALLY a joke. Abyssus also helps us get enough Int (✿◕‿◕)
• Carcass Jack. Not strictly necessary, but are you really going to turn down 20% increased AoE? It's even got decent life and resists, and evasion is probably the best defensive stat for this build (armour=phys mitigation=pointless). IF, and I'm saying IF, you wanted to play this build Hardcore, I'd probably go for a high-armour chest or hybrid Armour/Eva--this would shore up our vulnerability when unensouled.
• In addition, this build uses two Fevered Mind jewels, to help spend our mana faster, and one Chill of Corruption jewel. Why Chill of Corruption? Well, it turns out that souls gained from shattering enemies are not affected by Soul Eater. So, we can run a Vaal Skill or two because even though we don't get any souls on kill, we still get Vaal souls on shatter.
• As for rares, the highest priorities are high %increased phys damage and %attack speed rolls on the sword, and flat phys and life on jewelry. It's not too hard to cap resists using 4 pieces of rare gear. My ammy is really bad.

The only flask that really matters is the mana flask, the rest is up to you. The mana flask must have the "Saturated" prefix, so that it lasts 50% longer, and then whatever utility suffix you'd like. I chose move speed, but other good choices would be Of Grounding, Of Staunching, or even Of Reflexes. Also note that quality on the mana flask is actually a detriment, since you never want to reach full mana when using the flask. But, it doesn't make a difference really, and I didn't want to spend the alt orbs. Then I have 3 Seething flasks for emergencies and one Quicksilver in case I need to get across the map and don't have any souls to speed up Leap Slam. Probably a Rumi's and/or Taste of Hate should replace two non-mana flasks. Using these while souls are up is a bad idea, but when souls are down, they would greatly increase phys resilience, not to mention they'd last ~1.5x as long as normal (self-temp chains strikes again!). Flask suffixes to avoid include Of Heat which is actually useless because we can't be slowed by either chill or freeze, lastly make sure that you avoid the curse immunity mod--it kills the Temp Chains!

I'm gonna start with the Temporal Chains setup because it's the most important.
This build really, really wants 20% quality on Curse on Hit. Temporal Chains has an innate 40% reduced effect against players, and you want to negate that as much as possible. Herald of Thunder is great for proccing Temp Chains, since it constantly re-applies it every .25 seconds or so. Also note that the 6-second duration of Herald of Thunder is increased by Temp Chains, that's some next-level synergy right there. The Temp Chains CoH MUST go in GLOVES, it's the whole reason we're using Shackles.
This is how we deal damage. Ice Crash was chosen for its large AOE and lack of targetting requirements, and it also freezes for Chill of Corruption. Increased AOE makes the Ice Crash as big as possible. Increased Crit Strikes because it's an imba imba gem nowadays (seriously, it's like 30% More crit strike chance). Phys to Lightning because it's a blue gem that adds damage, it also helps shock to proc Herald. Melee Phys could be Life Leech instead but I wanted dat damages. Sixth link would probably be Life Leech, if you can roll 3R on a Carcass Jack.
This is how we get around. Leap Slam is a tragically clunky movement skill, but with enough attack speed it's better than Whirling Blades imo since it can go over obstacles and aiming is hard =( . You could use Whirling Blades if you wanted. Since we're leaping all the time when we're not Ice Crashing, might as well make Leap Slam give us Fortify (duration increased by Temp Chains) and Power Charges (duration increased by Temp Chains), right?
Vaal Double Strike is our single-target setup. Our clone is affected by all our Soul Eater buffs except for character size, GGG PLZ
Vaal Grace is our other Vaal skill. Pop it right before Soul Eater resets because without Soul Eater stacks we have 0% PHYS MITIGATION AND WE'RE WEARING AN ABYSSUS. Is that clear? I can say it again if you want. That's 0% PHYS MITIG--okay you get the idea. The nice thing is that Vaal Grace basically has an instant cast time with any amount of souls up. The other nice thing is that it lasts for about 15 seconds with Inc Duration and Temp Chains.
Did I mention that without Soul Eater stacks we have 0% phys mitigation and are wearing an Abyssus? Yes? Okay.
Herald of Ash adds damage, and more importantly, flashy skill effects. The other gems are okay, you can slot them wherever you have room. I don't really use'em because I'm lazy, but theoretically extra crit from Ice golem, and attack speed and Frenzy charges from Blood Rage are good to have. Actually, I'll probably replace Blood Rage with Ancestral Protector for that extra bonkatomic punch.

That's the gems! If I get a +1 curse ammy I'll try out HoT CoH Assassin's Mark, sounds kinda dangerous though. There are a lot of other gems that could be changed, especially if you got 3 or 4 red sockets on Carcass Jack. Other skills I'd think about testing: Sunder, Reave, Cleave, Dominating Blow, offensive Leap Slam, Wild Strike, Ancestral Protector.

This is my passive tree at level 89. I respecced an old EA character, so my bandits aren't all right, I should have one more passive point. I don't have a levelling guide because I respecced, so I don't know how levelling goes! I grabbed Cloth and Chain just so that I wouldn't have to get as many resists on gear, but if I weren't such a lazy millennial I guess I'd use those points to get more life and/or damage. There are still nodes on the life quadrangle to grab, and Aspect of the Panther would be the next damage nodes I'd pick up.

For Ascendancy points we want:
Unstoppable - this is necessary for the build. It's also a great node! Move speed and ignore chill/freeze/temp chains? Yes please!
Undeniable - This node makes going Marauder Crit easy and painless. This + Eagle Eye give us about 93% chance to hit. Also, attack speed is good for stacking Soul Eater souls faster.
Unbreakable - Stun immunity? Why not! Unflinching or Unyielding would also have some merit, but I think stun immunity is better than either of those. Remember how we can take a lot of damage on 0 souls? Don't want to get stunlocked!

For bandits, get Oak - kill - Alira.

Offense
37k dps with power charges and 0 souls
144k dps with power charges and 100 souls (~1k dps added per soul)
65% crit chance, with 93% accuracy that's 60% real crit chance
80% increased AOE (6% from belt)

Defense
4.8k Life
2k Armour with 0 souls
90% physical mitigation with 18+ souls
2.3k Evasion (21% tooltip chance to evade)
Can't be stunned
17% block
43% Move Speed

1) You gotta keep an eye on your potion timer. The "of Adrenaline" suffix, or any similar suffix, gives a buff to indicate the duration, so try to position yourself near a bunch of mobs when that buff is about to expire. Then, pop Vaal Grace and get ready to reset Soul Eater.

2) 18 is the magic number of Soul Eater stacks. 18*5=90, so 18 stacks will cap your phys mitigation (at 90%). Try to have at least this many before you take on anything too tough. Also, Soul Eater does not increase your max resists, so be mindful of elemental damage.

3) On a similar note, you really want to time bossfights so that you have at least 10 seconds left on Soul Eater, and as many soul eater stacks as you can manage, no less than 18. Clear the adds, drop your Vaal clone, and the boss should go down in seconds. One more note, be careful how you engage ele reflect packs, you don't have regen and you don't want to use pots so make sure you're hitting some non-reflect packs at the same time.

4) From some testing around, I've started using some unique keybinds. I have Leap Slam on right click and Ice Crash on D (I use QWERTY for pots, with E being my mana pot). Then I hold down Shift and right click so that I leap everywhere, and when I want to Ice Crash I tap D while still holding down right click. That way, as soon as I release D, I go back to leaping. My other keybinds are F to drop the Vaal clone, and middle-clicking to use Vaal Grace.

5) This is really a build where you don't want to stop and pick up items very much.

666) The synergy of using items called Soulthirst, Soul Taker, and Carcass Jack is undeniable. We drink souls! We eat souls! We jack carcasses! This build may be unsuitable for children and pregnant women.