[3.2] Indigon Poet's Pen VD

Hello,

This is a semi-high budget build for Indigon Poet's pen.
It comes close to 10ex for everything probably. It can be done with about 60-70% of the effectiveness just with approximately 3-4ex.

If you want basics of the build explained more thorougly, you're welcome to go to the Inspiration & Credits build and read the guide that inspired me to try this out.

TL;DR mechanics:
Spoiler

Use Poet's Pen

to cast spells eliminating the need for mana for spells.
Spend lots of mana through spamming your Kinetic Blast to gain lots of spell damage through:

Then spammed free-of-charge spells reach about 50k'ish damage per VD ball with fire resist penetration from flasks and ascendancy.
To scale mana cost use Fevered Minds and high-manamultiplier supports.


VIDEOS:
Spoiler

T16 phoenix run:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Yg-oYW1fJU
Shaper run, facetanking the slams:
https://youtu.be/wMbmXxkcUiQ


Path of Building pastebin:
Spoiler

Warning: has a value added to the helmet which matches approximately how much damage is gained from Indigon while clearing or bossing.

Updated 28.03.2018:
https://pastebin.com/wSDWdNM1
Old:


Path of Building link contains the passive tree.
If you don't know how to use Path of Building, you should absolutely learn to.
I recommend Engineering Eternity's Guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLpKZVNTOo8

Passive tree can also be viewed in my profile in here:
http://poe-profile.info/profile/conflargate/Smarter_Retard
or on the original PoE site.

The tree is subject to change as i level up and rethink certain pathing decisions etc., so don't get married to it.
General idea of the tree is: get lots of life, get lots of mana, use shortest pathing possible. Ignore spell damage and other forms of damage entirely.

Why no damage nodes in the tree?
Spoiler

If you spend 5 passives getting spell damage nodes, you're gonna have 58% spell damage.
Great! Now you have 3058% spell damage instead of 3000%.
Your damage just rose by less than 1% with just 5 passives.



Who is this build for? Who shouldn't play it?:
* Definitely not people with epilepsy
* It is not HC viable. Too spammy and thus can be a bit too little controlled
* It is not a leaguestarter build
* It is for people who enjoy speedfarming maps and easy boss killing
* It is for people who enjoy universality
* It is for people who do not mind using a chaos orb to reroll reflect on the map

Mechanics that this build uses:
* Slayer (over)leech + culling strike, from ascendancy
* Juggernaut - "Unstoppable" ascendancy node, almost, from Kaom's Roots - this gives immunity or partial immunity to freeze, chill, temporal chains, slows, tar, etc.
* 3 flask charges gained every 3 seconds from Pathfinder, for basically infinite flask sustain
* Elemental Overload which is an excellent gap-closer in terms of damage output for noncrit builds
* Bodyswap teleporting - one of the fastest ways to move around / move out from dangerous areas. Requires getting used to it, might seem chaotic at start.
* Volatile dead - works like homing missiles, basically. No need to target stuff, it will die anyway.

Inspiration & Credits:
Spoiler


Spoiler


UPDATE: After messaging Márkusz, he decided to respec to this version of the build, and had succcess doing so.

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2118987
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2101181



This build was made because I saw the build(s) posted by Márkusz. Damage seemed insane, but the author mentions that it is hard to survive certain mechanics. I figured skipping some of the recovery from trickster part of the Ascendant (and not using legacy items, like shaped stygian vise with mana% recovery) would probably be still good enough.
I originally tried with Juggernaut, because of the endurance charges. It wasn't as tanky as this though. Scion has extra passives and the infinite flask generation paired with the slayer leech which was the most powerful mechanic in 3.1 and still remains strong in 3.2 is perfect.
I would rather not die and do less damage, than be a glass cannon. This is the main difference between my build and Márkusz's.
Márkusz also mentions that on his Indigon build you reach full mana so often, that using a Zerphi's Last Breath or a Divination distillate is impossible. My build spends and regains mana much slower, but also in a more controllable fashion, which allows to use both flasks. One gives +5% all max resistances for just one flask slot (which virtually translates to 20% less elemental damage taken), and 22% quantity bonus for your map and currency drops.

Zerphi's is usable in this build, which makes it kindof like making something inbetween of two mentioned builds.

Since Poet's Pen builds need almost no links / gem sockets, I am using 2x Kaom items in the build.
Originally author uses Cloak of Defiance and you can do that too, but when you're out of mana, the advertised 48% damage taken from mana doesn't really work. That's why I like to describe mine as a 7K+ hp build plus a 0-30% mind over matter effect, depending on when you would get the hit.


If you want to utilize the MoM effect badly, use the Clarity jewel with mana regained from hits.
(10-20% of Damage taken gained as Mana over 4 seconds when Hit while affected by Clarity)



Bandits & Pantheon:
Spoiler

Bandits: ALIRA for easier res% cap.

Pantheon: Arakaali / Shakari , fully upgraded
This build takes advantage over the Arakaali + Blood Rage + Immortal Call interaction, if you choose to run it.
Shakari gives poison immunity, freeing up a flask slot.


I have problems with bodyswap movement!:
Spoiler
Make sure your bodyswap is the first gem in the right hand, like in this picture:



Gem links:
Spoiler

Pen #1: Volatile Dead + Concentrated Effect + MANA LEECH
Old, instead of Mana Leech:Fire Penetration or Concentrated Effect

Mana leech seems to work best for bosses. Clearspeed is not crippled at all by using this.
Mana leech increases the rate of leech and thus the rate of %inc. spell damage you do gain.
Also, one important thing about bosses: Warlord's mark only works at 20% of original effectiveness, so even though the curse normally makes you leech 2% of damage as life and mana, on bosses you only leech 0.4% of damage as life and mana.

Basically, in some builds, Iron Will comes close as a possible support; this has the same reasoning in terms of damage.


Pen #2: Unearth + Greater Multiple Projectiles + Bodyswap
I haven't figured what to do yet on the weapon swap, but you probably can repeat the same setup in the pens and get rid of bodyswap in favor of Cremation, if you want to have a non-teleportation setup
Gloves: Kinetic Blast + Chain + Greater Multiple Projectiles + Life Gain on Hit (plus Faster Attacks support from Elder Gloves property)
Helmet: Cast When Damage Taken + Arctic Armor + Immortal Call | Clarity

Green socket in the helmet can be either Arctic Armor or Blood Rage.
I don't think having full unreserved mana is that important, and Arctic Armor helps to fill the gap of no fortify for physical damage. You never get more than 50% mana anyway, even if you do not have your mana reserved.

Blood rage is there for the Arakaali Pantheon.
If you like 50% faster life leech - go blood rage
If you like 13% less phys dmg taken while stationary - go arctic armor.






Gear:
Must have:
Spoiler

Indigon, the base of this build

Weapons, you need two


1x Fevered Mind

3x Grand Spectrum with mana:

A Warlords' Mark curse on hit ring:


Probably best to have, and acquirable easily (2-50c per item):
Spoiler

Cheap unique flasks


Another Fevered Mind


A Clarity Watcher's Eye

Now you can use the Mana% recovery one, which is basically a "more" multiplier to all your recieved mana and thus basically a "more" multiplier to the additional damage gained from the helmet. But I found that for example the "20% damage taken as mana when hit when affected by clarity" is a very good way for tanking consecutive hits.
The one that gives chance to regain mana when using the skills (like the Trickster node) is also OK to have. It would probably partially invalidate the controlledness of the build, and possibly make Divination Distillate unusable.

Might of the Meek

It is an option, I use it in the scion-starting northwest socket for additional %mana and %life. It is nowhere near required though and is very close to a 7% life 7% mana jewel.
If you have trouble capping res, do not get a Might of the Meek. Instead, get a life/mana/res jewel.
I do not think Might of the Meek is cost efficent.

Kaom's Roots (with 2% regen enchant preferably)



Amulet with Fire% damage Leeched as life, like these:


Amulet with Trickster/Essence of Insanity property:

Best with life / manaregen / mana.

Elder pseudo-5L gloves. Faster attacks support + the best mana and life and resists you can get.

If they're pseudo-6L they increase the cost by an additional support, so this might be nice aswell.

Having 6L gloves possibly eliminates the need for another Fevered Mind - try yourself if you're good with 6L gloves and just one jewel.


Rest of the items:
Spoiler

Just resist items, and a Kaom's Heart if you can afford it and your items are good enough to wear


You can use a rare non-stygian vise with mana% recovery. It is optional.
It is probably the way to go if you do not use a Kaom's - because the lack of res from abyssal jewel in the belt could be covered by the chestpiece.

You can use Loreweave with 80% resists and drop the Divination Distillate flask, if you want.
Belly of the Beast with no sockets / links is a budget option too.
(if you can't afford a Kaom's, and manage to get a chest with sockets, do come up with a creative 4-5L CWDT setup, or maybe alternative movement skill to the bodyswap)

Fire damage roll is not important. 20% will be fine.




VERY nice to have but expensive:
Spoiler

Zerphi's Last Breath. For insane healing. - 20-40ex currently on BSC with limited supply
Double or triple clarity Watcher's Eye. - 20-50ex depending on the power of jewel and which clarity aura combinations are there
A Yoke of Suffering / Atziri's Foible / Warped Timepiece with 0.2% fire leech - if you make these yourself, you might get it after like ten of tries. If you manage to buy it at a low price, you're a lucky man. Supply is low, so the price might be high, but low demand often makes it cheap.





My gear at the point of writing this guide:
Spoiler



Swapping the amulets between:


Last edited by conflargate on Mar 28, 2018, 7:19:18 AM
Last bumped on Jan 11, 2019, 8:57:18 AM
Nice build bro, even better that it is specifically for the league!
Only thing lacking are gem links, but i belive it is only for a time because of lack of time.
Added the video of BSC Shaper deathless, where I facetank the Shaper slams.
Nice. Gonna try this out!
Thoughts on elementalist over pathfinder?
extra pen and reflect immune seems pretty good.
I like the infinite non-monster reliant flasks from pathfinder, and the leech from slayer. Elementalist seems nice, but if I were wanting to be immune to reflect, I would skip Slayer for Elementalist.
i like the look of this, except the use of mana leech in the poets pen, thats alot of dps loss. Is there not another way?
"
MrGuardian wrote:
i like the look of this, except the use of mana leech in the poets pen, thats alot of dps loss. Is there not another way?


I don't think it matters in the 3000% inc spell dmg scenario if it supports the ability to spam, and thus, gain more damage.
Last edited by anone on Apr 3, 2018, 10:01:15 AM
thanks for the guide, absolutely destroying the game with this build

haven't tried you flask setup yet but just using random utility flasks has been enough to kill t15s.


just for fun tried to see what my max dps was with atziri's promise and vd-manaleech-conc effect links. so with ele focus instead of mana leech that would have been like 130k maybe less cause i will run out of mana sooner?

on average i'm getting about 2900% spell damage (75k VD tooltip dmg) from indigon and at very max im getting 3600% (101k tooltip) still low level so once i get more mana from the ranger nodes i'll have to see how high it can go.


going from 0 to 1 fevered mind was huge, how helpful is a second?
I did some testing on pob, and i hit 600 mana regen with minor changes, comapred to what OP pob mana regen was. so once i make the toon, ill see if that lets us sustain mana without mana leech gem. We can hit 3k mana regen with more tweaks really.


I farmed all day doing 100 lab runs trying to get VD enchant, I am worried its not worth playing without the VD enchant, because ive always played WITH it. And my previous VD build had 56k dps in hideout with 4 VD balls.

So far i enchanted.



Ill prob use the cremation one i guess.
Last edited by MrGuardian on Apr 3, 2018, 10:18:45 PM

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