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

Can confirm this is an amazing league starter, the only expensive items you'll need to buy are a Carcass jack (10c max) hidden potential (5~c depending on how early you buy) and a carnage heart (15~ c when I got mine)

Handles Delve amazingly well, you sprint from point to point making it stupidly fast, you're pretty tanky even with a low life pool, I'm at 5k right now and I've died once since hitting maps.

I'm running the BV variant posted above and it works amazing for map bosses and makes Izaro pretty brainless once you explode a pack of his adds. The only downside to the BV variant is getting Dex is slightly annoying, but a little bit of different pathing made it pretty easy to manage.

I am a bit confused about scion version. Will you be able to get enough leech pool without overkill leech?

So, I've read the recent pages and it looks pretty confusing right now. So many different opinions, test builds and theorycrafting. I really like this build so I must ask, are we getting a clear 3.4 update anytime soon? Thanks in advance Mr. Lucksickle.

Hi, sorry I've been away on the forums. I was considering to stop updating the guide, but I think I'll do that soon.

What I will do immediately though, is remove the scion variants.
DO NOT PLAY SCION, IT DOESN'T WORK

I leveled up a scion and tested this build as one (I planned to play that character as a different build luckily). As it turns out, most of the sustain comes from overkill leech rather than up-front explosion leech. Overkill has 20% leech which is a very large amount, which results in such long-lasting stacks. Getting such a high leech % off the up-front explosion would be rather troublesome, I believe a user mentioned some pages behind about using vinktars + some corrupted jewel or something? In any case, it's waaay too convoluted, and a fringe scenario with a heavy investment that is straight-out not worth it, so I'll just go ahead and say Scion does not work. I apologize to the users who ran Scion and were disappointed with their builds not working.

Now the implications this has on Vaal Pact vs Regen are rather interesting. The main difference here is that regardless of which variation you run, you will never achieve a strong enough hit when bossing to produce a long-lasting stack with the low %leech available, so fast small-hitting spells become just as strong as slow-heavy ones (if not better). This also means that warlord's mark isn't exactly required. It does enable Carnage Heart and Brutal Fervour's "% increased damage while leeching", but as long as you can sustain your mana cost somehow else, it isn't absolutely necessary. Having said that, turning RF off for solo bosses like Izaro and Shaper is the right way to go about it, since you won't be sustaining off your single target spell alone. As such, life-regen becomes more valuable as a source of recovery for bossing (and map variety), but Vaal Pact ends up with a higher total regen and has an easier time sorting its passives out. On that note, I'd say Vaal Pact is the best variant for the sake of Delving specifically.

As far as spell viability, there's two things to mention: firstly, that Herald of Ash is amazing at extending your chain reactions (and also one of the prettiest visual effects coupled with obliterations), so you should see about fitting that into your build where possible. I haven't tested Incinerate extensively, but from what little I gathered in 3.3, it felt quite good an option. Blade Vortex, on the other hand, is currently what I believe to be the strongest option for this build. The only issue with it is finding a way to meet the dexterity requirements. How you go about sorting your damage is another topic. Going full ele conversion with ele overload and ele pen is possibly the strongest choice, but you end up having to use some combination of Hrimsorrow, Phys to Lightning support, and stretching out to Winter Spirit by the ranger side of the tree. Another choice is playing with Blade Vortex as a physical spell with some added elemental damage. Although it may yield less damage, it offers a little more mapping flexibility with reflect maps as Slayer already gives us immunity to reflected physical damage. It also serves better for a lazier playstyle where you don't need to weaponswap.

Gear-wise, using magical items and Hidden Potential is absolutely the way to start out, and very possibly the way to end the build as well. I experimented during 3.3 with Cyclopean Coil and stacking some all-attributes gear, which is mediocre but comparable. I am currently testing 3.4 under that same method, but incorporating the minion nodes, a Bone Helmet, and Catarina minion damage on gloves.

Finally, on the topic of chest pieces, Loreweave is the best in slot for variations in which you require dropping Purity of Fire (Blade Vortex in favour of Hatred for instance), but Carcass Jack, Top-End blue chests, and a handful of other niche body armours are all very viable choices too.

Hi Lucksickle.

I really want to try out this build. However When I see the skill tree, I only see lvl 56 recommendation and the lvl 100 full skill tree.
Can you tell me the pathing from lvl 57 to 100? I mean by priority order. Everything seem important to me :/

Thanks for your dedication through all these leagues

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bastimars wrote:

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Hi, if you choose to start off at level 56~57, try to get to Blood Aqueducts in Act 9, or The Harbour Bridge in Act 8 at least. You will have to farm your levels in those zones to complete the rest of the questline. (Blood Aqueducts Act 9 is best since you can farm tabulas there).

Starting off early is easier as Vaal Pact, for that variation, just snatch Vaal Pact, sort your resists out (with the nodes in the tree if necessary), and from that point forth just put passives into life while you try to buy jewels with at least 2 mods out of the following: Life, Area Damage, Damage. As you get these jewels, give priority to getting sockets for them, and then just get more life while you buy more jewels.

For the Regen Tree, you have to sort your resists first (with nodes in the tree if necessary), then branch into all the Life Regen nodes, and then do the same as Vaal Pact: Jewels Sockets when you need them, otherwise just grab life.

You should get a general feel of when you need more life and when you need more damage as you play, so it shouldn't be hard if you want to alternate.

With BV, Carnage Heart and an Atziri's Promise I can just about leech more than RF's Degen against bosses with Vaal Pact.

Getting Warlord's Mark on hit on a shaper ring isn't impossibly hard, and it will allow you to run HoA and Hatred with BV giving you a good amount of damage boost.

Carnage Heart and Caracass jack both help a lot on this build while mapping, Delves are a complete joke since you deal damage based on monster life which only keeps going up in delve. I'd 100% recommend the BV variant since it gets you some pretty good single target even early in the league/on a 5 link.

Some slight pathing changes such as grabbing the jewel socket from below next Golem's Blood, and either grabbing Art of the Gladiator or a 30 dex bubble makes reaching the dex requirements easy, the latter of the two isn't required at all if you do wear a carnage heart.

Personally I'm running a half Phys Half Ele damage version, but whenever I feel like messing with my resists I'll probably switch over to a pair of corrupted Hrimsorrow/Hrimburns. A weapon swap to something like the Princess is easy, cheap and a good 20-30% total dps boost and can help against bigger bosses like Izaro/Shaper. Wise Oak is also amazing since Pen is hard to come by due to not being able to use EE. I also grabbed the two AOE clusters on the tree to let me map with Conc effect in RF and BV without any issue.

The last thing I'd mention is that with skill duration and blood rage for frenzies on the tree, Phase Run is more or less a 100% uptime Quicksilver, I hit about 160-180% movement speed with Phase run and my alchemist quicksilver of adrenaline, and with how instantly you explode packs sustaining flask charges is a dream.

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Reaven1911 wrote:

With BV, Carnage Heart and an Atziri's Promise I can just about leech more than RF's Degen against bosses with Vaal Pact.

But is this true if you enter the boss fight without any leech stacks, hitting the boss, walking away to dodge, and then coming back in? Because in my experience (even with BV Vaal Pact), the Leech Drops off. It might sustain RF if you were hypothetically hitting the boss 100% of the time, but it didn't work for me during major boss fights like izaro, guardians, shaper, and elder where you spend large amounts of time dodging attacks.

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lucksickle wrote:

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I only tried it on Uber Izaro at which point I just went in on him to get keys, I'd pop RF with Immolate and get to 10 bv stack asap and as long as I had sulphur/aztiri's promise up I was able to not degen. I also didn't have BR active which against bosses is useless anyways.

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Reaven1911 wrote:

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lucksickle wrote:

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I only tried it on Uber Izaro at which point I just went in on him to get keys, I'd pop RF with Immolate and get to 10 bv stack asap and as long as I had sulphur/aztiri's promise up I was able to not degen. I also didn't have BR active which against bosses is useless anyways.

Just a few questions:
1. Can you subtain RF about 10min without killing enemies like before 3.2?
2. How to increase damage this league when we use blue gear only, and mobs will become insane later?
3, what do you think about new unique boot with purity of fire?
thank you so much!