[2.5] CI/LL Blight CwC Poison Vortex over 2M DPS Trivialize all content [Tri-Curse/HC Viable]

The Build
I am an avid lover of Vortex, having played about 5 different iterations the past two leagues. I was looking at ways to use Cast While Channeling, and I also wanted to be a special snowflake and use Blight. Thus came the build. I was already aware of the crazy double dipping potential of Vortex, but I knew Ignite was not going to be optimal with the way CwC works. So, I turned it into a Poison build and hoped it would work in the end game. Turns out, it worked better than I anticipated.

[Patch 2.6] brought a heavy-handed nerf to this build that really hurts the damage and clearspeed of the build. The Pyre nerfs effectively make it impossible to convert 100% of fire damage and require sacrificing either both ring slots (80% conversion, loss of a ring slot) or a gem slot (90% conversion, loss of a double dip gem). The AoE changes also heavily nerf the max AoE you could get from the build since it tried to stack every possible source of AoE as Vortex's base radius is not very large. The damage was already absurd, so the damage loss isn't that bad and hardly noticeable outside of Guardians and Shaper. The AoE nerfs definitely hurt the clearspeed of the build, however. Reports from people playing this in 2.6 say the build still works fine, but it's not as insane as it was before. I'm sure it still works, but it may struggle more with Guardians/Shaper if you are lacking gear.

Videos


Why should I play this build?


Pros
+ Good clearspeed. Almost everything on screen dies in one cast (~.5 seconds). Speed then becomes a matter of how fast you can WB/run between packs
+ Highly defensive and quite tanky. This is a great HC build utilizing many different defensive mechanics. Blight slow + Vortex chill + Temporal Chains is great CC that pairs wonderfully with Wicked Ward as the slows allow the recharge to kick in before the next attack. The use of Arctic Armour, endurance charges, Fortify and a Basalt Flask make us highly resilient to physical damage. An open flask slot allows an elemental flask to easily swap in when the map calls for it. And then of course the wonderful CI GR VP leech combo.
+ Budget to start, with high upgrade potential. Required uniques will cost ~20c a few days into the league, even for higher rolls. Recommended uniques will cost a little over an ex for it all. You really don't need much more than a 5L to clear red maps/uber lab comfortably. The only real difference between a 6L + money and a 5L is boss speed.
+ Great scaling. Double dipping is amazing to scale. The fact that we can use spell damage to double dip makes it even easier. There are also a number of chase items for those with money that will greatly enhance the build. Can go Low-Life for a 7th link if you have lots of money.
+ Good single target. Poison stacking is one of the best boss killers. This is no exception. I topped out over 3m dps on bosses.
+ 'Alch and Go' build. Can run any map mod. Nothing is hard to run. No combination of mods is hard to run. Easy to adjust for no regen maps due to the low mana cost. Reflect is non-issue.
+ Can clear all content. Easily runs Uber lab. Wicked Ward is great on traps. Can facetank Argus and fully empowered Izaro. Easy Atziri Killer with a Vaal Discipline swap. Can kill Guardians. Easy Shaper killer. All Breachlords completed without hassle.
+ Only uses 2 unique flasks which allows flexibility and potential immunity to every status ailment.
+ Access to Culling Strike which is nice for bosses.
+ Can kill Dyness in Hall of the Grandmasters. I swapped out the Consuming Darks for random white wands and did it.

Cons
- Slow to pick up. The damage starts off pretty low if you try to transition to CwC too early. It requires at least a 5L and enough levels to start hitting the Chaos damage wheels before it starts to ramp up the damage.
- Struggles vs poison immunity (Hydra and Chimera). They are still doable, though, just as ignite builds can still do phoenix. It'll just take a bit longer if you don't want to switch up the gear.
- Cannot facetank everything in the game (namely Shaper, Guardians and high damage T14/15 bosses) when the playstyle will make you think you can (because it can facetank everything else).
- Can struggle with lower ES values if gear is not good enough due to no shield, the loss of the amulet and a ring slot, and a unique chest that cannot exceed 600. This build is looking at around 8.5k ES properly geared, with the high potential of ~10k.
- Can cause framerate lag if using the Vortex MTX, as stacking multiple Vortex at a high rate can cause issues combined with other effects from party members/bosses.

Gear


Gem Links


Curses


Skill Tree


Ascendency


Bandits


FAQ

could you record an atziri run? good base line fight to gage. im currently playing a cwc poison firestorm, but your build seems like it may clear faster and synergize more the double dipping spell damage plus blight.

Hi dragonsroc,
I'm running a cwc-firestorm CD build, but I hate the fire/icestorm mechanics that the damage is dependent on random hit in the area and you have a delay between the cast and actual hit.
But I wonder if vortexes area damage overlap? If i spam vortex in one area, do the mobs get damage from one or all the vortexes? If it overlaps, I immediately dump firestorm

I am running a cwc firestorm build as well, but have been switching it out with vortex for awhile since it does clear faster during mapping. Ive been using wither though instead of blight. Will need to test some more to see which feels better.

Yeah, i'm wither cwc too, this is a "ranged" version, combined with firestorm.
Vortex on the other hand is a "melee" version with vortex being around caster, so blight is an option too.

"

But I wonder if vortexes area damage overlap? If i spam vortex in one area, do the mobs get damage from one or all the vortexes? If it overlaps, I immediately dump firestorm

it overlaps.

"

wenlock wrote:

could you record an atziri run? good base line fight to gage. im currently playing a cwc poison firestorm, but your build seems like it may clear faster and synergize more the double dipping spell damage plus blight.

Sure I can. She's probably even easier than Xoph so I didn't bother with a regular Atziri, and I don't have the frags for Uber and have never run it before.

As for the Vortex overlapping, I've never done any testing so I have no idea. My gut says no, but I really have no idea. The point of spamming Vortex is for poison stacking, though the cold DoT does a pretty large amount of damage as well.

cool. ive move some points around to gather more aoe and spell damage already.
can already tell this is for sure faster clear speed than cwc+firestorm. slighty slower on bosses but also
better at sustainability with life leech due to getting vortexes out faster. a pretty damn good trade off.

It is likely that void manipulation is a bad pick. Because you are reducing your base elemental damage with it before you are converting to chaos, the double dipping more chaos damage modifier is nearly negated.

Here is some math for a general case, assuming you have 100 base elemental damage from your initial hit with vortex and that you have atziri's promise active.

[100*.75*0.4+100*(.75)*(1+x)*.75*1.38*(1+.16*1.38*(1+z)*(1+y))]/[100*0.4+100*(.75)*(1+x)*(1+.16*(1+z)*(1+y))]=effective more multiplier from void manipulation if poison runs its full duration

where
x=total spell,area,chaos,elemental dmg
y=total poison,DOT,area,chaos dmg
z=total modifier to skill effect duration

so for a base case with no increased damage and skill effect duration, you are actually getting a more modifier of 0.982.
For a case with .45 increased SED and 300 increased damage, its 1.2x.

Hypothermia would probably be the best choice if you don't want to reduce your AOE; concentrated effect will certainly increase DPS the most. However Hypothermia wouldn't effect Blight of course.

Of course this doesn't take into account the effect of blight's DoT being buffed.

I'd suggest you prioritize getting Potency of Will into your tree for extra boss DPS; it is an effective more multiplier for your poison damage. Skittering Runes is nearby and would be a good choice given you are running tri-curse.

I'm running wither cwc bladefall with 2x ming's heart, https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1798824.

"

SasquatchBrah wrote:

It is likely that void manipulation is a bad pick. Because you are reducing your base elemental damage with it before you are converting to chaos, the double dipping more chaos damage modifier is nearly negated.

Here is some math for a general case, assuming you have 100 base elemental damage from your initial hit with vortex and that you have atziri's promise active.

[100*.75*0.4+100*(.75)*(1+x)*.75*1.38*(1+.16*1.38*(1+z)*(1+y))]/[100*0.4+100*(.75)*(1+x)*(1+.16*(1+z)*(1+y))]=effective more multiplier from void manipulation if poison runs its full duration

where
x=total spell,area,chaos,elemental dmg
y=total poison,DOT,area,chaos dmg
z=total modifier to skill effect duration

so for a base case with no increased damage and skill effect duration, you are actually getting a more modifier of 0.982.
For a case with .45 increased SED and 300 increased damage, its 1.2x.

Hypothermia would probably be the best choice if you don't want to reduce your AOE; concentrated effect will certainly increase DPS the most. However Hypothermia wouldn't effect Blight of course.

Of course this doesn't take into account the effect of blight's DoT being buffed.

I'd suggest you prioritize getting Potency of Will into your tree for extra boss DPS; it is an effective more multiplier for your poison damage. Skittering Runes is nearby and would be a good choice given you are running tri-curse.

I'm running wither cwc bladefall with 2x ming's heart, https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1798824.

It is reduced elemental damage, not less. Unless it works uniquely, that reduced should be additive with all the increased elemental/spell/area/etc damage. Also, it is the only other double dipping more multiplier support. Hypothermia cannot double dip, Added Chaos/Empower do not double dip, and Rapid Decay is only the DoT. Someone else ran my numbers through Path of Building, comparing Void Manip, Ele Focus and Empower. They were all about the same damage increase on the initial hit, but Void double dips so it will be better.

edit: nvm you did account for it. It's possible it's not the best I didn't really test very much. I'd also love to take more skill duration, but I'm tight on points as is. As for curse effect, it's really not that useful even though I'm tri-curse. You can't increase Vulnerability since it's from the flask, so curse effect only helps WM and Temp Chains. Neither will really benefit that much in getting more curse effect.