[3.10] Gryph's Volatile Dead Necromancer || Fun, Medium Budget, Tanky, Millions of DPS

This is inevitably where I have decided to take the build. Compared to self-cast, CWC has higher mobility and smoother gameplay overall at the cost of damage output.

PROS:
-Feels faster and smoother
-Cyclone Mobility is also great for defenses
-Able to utilize more Physical damage mitigation as CWDT is not gated behind a single cast of VD
-Charging Offensive Noteable on Amulet for free Frenzy and Endurance Charges
-Spin2Win

CONS:
-Spin2Win is not for everyone ...?
-Damage is much lower and needs more investment for the damage to really feel good.
-Lose glove slot to Doedre's Malevolence
-Harder to league start with this

Since we lost Spirit Offering ES, we might as well abuse Bone Offering.

Simply put this in a 3L Cast When Damage Taken(Level 21) - Bone Offering - Summon Stone Golem

We can effectively use Spell Cascade in VD links now that Spirit Offering isn't popping off multiple times per second. This is a nice DPS increase and QoL clearing boost.

For Life+ES Sustain I would now use:


Bone Offering, the life regen we get in the tree, Stone Golem, consecrated ground (CWDT+Purifying Flame), and the new Disciple of Kitava Keystone (found on Kitava's Teaching Unique jewel) is enough to cover our life recovery. Add on some source of Fire Damage leech or Life Gained on Hit from Spells and you won't even see your life drop.

For Energy Shield Recovery, Ghost Reaver and the Light Eater Cluster for ES leech works reasonably well.


A Watcher's Eye with ES on Hit is by far the best way to sustain energy shield.

with Aspect of the Spider makes a great budget option for ES on hit.

Volatile Dead
Now has a limit of 60 Orbs.

This only will effect those supporting VD with Spell Cascade...which I advocate against for performance reasons anyways. Well, now it's nerfed so just don't do it. Little to no effect on us.

Inspiration Support
Supported skills now deal 5% more Damage per Inspiration Charge at gem level 1 (same as previously), up to 7% at gem level 20 (from 8%).
Supported skills now have 6% increased Critical Strike Chance per Inspiration Charge at gem level 1 (from 7%), up to 8% at gem level 20 (from 10%).

This is a minor nerf that just makes this particular support a lot less appealing over other options (Such as Empower 4 with +2 supports staff) or Hypothermia.


The 'of Crafting' crafted suffix which previously allowed you to craft any number of additional mods on the item now allows you to craft up to three mods on the item. This affects existing items (items with the mod will now be limited to 2 additional crafts), however any items with more than the allowed number of crafted mods will keep those mods.

Ahhh...This one makes me kind of sad. Alas, great items are still craftable, it will just take more effort/luck. Will probably recommend fossil crafting. Also we will have to see how the new influence modifiers will affect the build.

The Shaper and Elder Attack Speed and Double Damage modifiers on two-handed weapons now grant to (4 to 6)% chance to deal double damage (from 20%).

A damage nerf that makes this mod a lot less appealing. Only those going for extreme high end gear are effected, and if you're at this point...you're probably fine for damage anyways.

Hybrid Physical Damage and Support/Spell Damage and Support modifiers can no longer roll on two-handed weapons.

Can still roll Cast While Channeling Support. Lose the option for Power Charge on Critical Strike Support. Goal for Alt spam crafts will be:

Prefix: CWC Support
Suffix: Crit for spells+10% Chance to gain a Power Charge on crit
Imprint -> Regal for good third mod -> Repeat as needed -> Multimod

Many bosses with lengthy introductions (such as the Brine King) now take reduced damage for a short period immediately after becoming targetable.

Depending on how much the reduction to damage is...again it's a nerf to our damage--in this case the VD Ball build up before shaper-style fights where we instant kill/phase them is being being rightfully nerfed.

Monster resistances throughout the game have been reviewed and made more consistent. In many cases this has resulted in more resistances on monsters. (50% from 40% on Shaper, for example)

Damage nerfs effecting everyone except inquisitors basically.

The default Shock magnitude for effects that apply Shock without damage (such as Skitterbots) is now 15% (from 20%).

Small DPS nerf #Unconcerned

Raise Spectre
Additional Maximum Spectres are now unlocked at gem levels 13 and 25 (from 11 and 21).

All this does is reduce our utility specters by 1...if you even use them to begin with. Not a big deal.

Awakener Level 8 Deathless Sirus Fight by dhan619
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwPNSi272L8&feature=youtu.be

3.9 T16 Redeemer Fight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1nkqPmIOCU&feature=youtu.be

Fresh 3.9 Gameplay on about a 3ex Budget. T11 Colonnade
https://youtu.be/zE4O5LPKhUI

3.9 T14 Crusader+Map
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AER0SYHqRMY

3.9 T16 Summit with Ele Reflect, Monster Speed, -Max Res, Monster Crit...phat map. Still on a 5L btw:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=impfPCssgNE&feature=youtu.be


3.8 Deathless Uber Elder Run. 2 map HP with CWC Setup and Animate Guardian
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuLtaa0CG78&t=2s

3.8 Deathless Shaper Run on a 50c Budget. Instant phasing on 5L damage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urvpHuEKSqg&feature=youtu.be

T16 juiced up Elder Burial Chambers with 56/42 Block chance and no FPS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URapCjzMQ0M

Easy Mode Hall of Grandmasters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tGnbU-TSmI&feature=youtu.be

Shaper at 94 as I progress further down the DPS rabbit hole. Instant phases. Instant death.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cORDn71oFfU&feature=youtu.be

Uber Elder Kill. 2 deaths to carelessness. Pretty smooth otherwise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbyKAVrH6eI&feature=youtu.be

Proof of Concept, only level 67 this is day one of league and I only have done Normal and Cruel Lab.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaqBgeixM7U&feature=youtu.be

Better proof of concept! Decided to record half way through the first map after I finished Uber lab. Day 2, Check it out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6uxr1ZJScA&feature=youtu.be

Solo T2 Blighted Map
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1YyPIoWVwQ&feature=youtu.be

Solo T12 Blighted Map Post 3.8.1 Patch rework!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8yXHsSlBtE&feature=youtu.be

Level 80 Mastermind Fight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjEW0zHXFFE&feature=youtu.be

T16 Phoenix with CWDT frostwall gimmick test:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h03r9_nevJY&feature=youtu.be

T14 Red Elder Deletion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaQNt2cw8e4&feature=youtu.be

First Shaper Run of the league. There was spot where I was distracted for a few seconds. You'll figure it out :P
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EnDPhRsd-4&feature=youtu.be

https://pastebin.com/9D3f9nti

These are the two core pieces required for the build to operate. With the changes to Spirit Offering I am adding a a couple more items here:


This is to make recovery for life fairly simple in early maps when you're making the transition to Scold's. Especially since we are going to want to take Ghost Reaver to boost ES leech. Can be replaced with a Rare ring with Life gained on hit for spells:




Glorious Vanity - Doryani for the Corrupted Soul keystone.


This gives a massive boost to ES and splits the damage we take between life and ES. This let's us utilize all of our recovery systems to max effect to mitigate Scold's. Place in the jewel socket near Pain Attunement.

Martyr of Innocence is the best option until you are able to get a good rare staff. And by good, I mean it takes a *very* good staff to beat out Martyr in most cases.

For the next step a staff with Cast While Channeling Support + 2 additional modifier is ideal:

75–82% increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells + 10% chance to gain a Power Charge on Critical Strike
Socketed Spells deal 20% more damage
+2-3 to all Fire spell skills

This is great if you're going Crit:

This is me flexing my self made creations!


And as of 3.9 a Hunter's Influenced Chest is BIS for the
25% Increased Effect of Offerings mod.

Additionally these chests can roll "Spell have X% to Critical Strike Chance" as Shaper Chests.

-> 21-25% Increased Effect of Offerings
-> 1.1-1.5% Spell Crit

You can use the following method to force these two modifiers onto one chest piece:

Any boots with Life/ES Movement speed and resists will work.




These are an option if you want fast cyclone without using a quicksilver flask of adrenaline. No resists or life, but can anoint them. Solid choice.


Tailwind+Elusive boots are BIS for clearspeed. Nothing comes anywhere close. These will outspeed Stampedes substantially. Also the elusive buff is great for defense by adding some dodge/spell dodge.

If you are having a hard time getting an ES on Hit Watcher's Eye (if you are on a budget), you can implement Aspect of the Spider into the build instead of Herald of Ash and use:

Life+ES+Resists Can get a ton of chaos res in this slot.

If you're taking the Elementalist route Soul Tether is great for sustain. Can also be used if you have life leech as a necro, but not as good as Stone Golem regen on Elementalist is bonkers.

This is a good spot to get some Fire damage leeched as life. Can be gotten as an Elder mod, Temple mod, or a corruption.
Life, ES%, Attributes, resists. Get what you can.


For super Endgame, Aul's for Anger or Zealotry is going to be BiS for damage.
Zealotry is better as the modifiers on the amulet for blue skills are much stronger for us.

Presence of Chayula is also an option as an easy way to obtain your chaos res.

I highly suggest going for unset rings as sockets are incredibly starved.
Shaped rings Life gained for each enemy hit by your spells are quite nice. I recommend having at least 1 of the rings with this mod.



This is an option for the absolutely...INCREDIBLY late game. I seriously do not suggest using this as a general rule. Sockets are THAT important. I use it because it ALSO has Arcane Surge on it, which is essentially saving me a socket. It's great for damage, it can save a couple passive points, but don't feel like you HAVE to have it.

Rare Jewels are easy:
%Life, %ES, Crit Multi, Resists as needed.

Intuitive Leap in the Witch area jewel to the Power Charge, Mystic Bulwark, Prodigal perfection, and Enigmatic Defense noteables.
Alternatively you could place Unnatural Instinct in this spot and spend those points elsewhere.



Glorious Vanity - Doryani for the Corrupted Soul keystone.


This splits the damage from Scold's (and all sources) between our life and energy shield allowing us to make use of ALL of our recovery mechanics at all times. It's also a HUGE boost to eHP. Make sure to keep ES the same or lower than life as any amount higher will not help vs 1-shot mechanics.
Place in the jewel socket near Pain Attunement.

There are some really powerful flasks for this build, some of which make a huge difference in quality of life for clearing and DPS.



Everyone NOT using The Stampede boots will want a Quicksilver Flask.

Cinderswallow is almost mandatory for comfortable mapping. Try to get high rolls on ES on kill. Also a good DPS flask.

Bottled Faith is a MASSIVE boost to DPS. Luxury item, but definitely worth it.

Wise Oak is what it is. Some Fire Pen and good defensively if you perfectly balance your resists.

Life Flask for some insurance. Helpful if you have too much downtime between packs or phased bosses.

Diamond Flask is also a huge boost to DPS. Good spot to get freeze immunity.

Enduring Mana Flasks are great for no regen maps.

Scold's is not the most popular item for people to enchant so it can be hard to find good enchantments and when we do, they're expensive. Therefore let's looks at this list of useful enchantments to keep an eye out for:



IF you want to run Aspect of the Spider, you will need this corruption:

With a Level 4 Enlighten and either another 4% Mana Reserve node or a


Is it worth it? Sure is! Is it needed? Not at all!

Other good corruptions:
+1 Maximum Power Charge
1.6-2% Life Regen
.5% of Fire Damage leeched as life
25-30% Increased Effect of Shock (translates to 5-6% increased damage taken)
%Life or %Energy shield
+2 To level of Socketed Aura or AOE Gems

I highly recommend getting some kind of curse on hit here.

Enfeeble
Temporal Chains
Elemental Weakness

Other good options:

+1 maximum Frenzy Charge
+0.5%-0.8% Spell Crit
%Max Life or %Max ES

For this build I really like these ones:
.6% of Damage leeched as life if you've killed recently
2% of life regenerated per second if you're been hit recently
Damage Penetrates 10% of Enemies Resistances if you haven't killed recently

This one is a little complicated as there are many ways to do it. We'll start with the must have 3L CWDT that you will ALWAYS need:

CWDT - Desecrate - Spell Cascade

This 3L is what makes the whole build tick. I have exactly 1 6L leftover to use. In this setup we will have all the skills linked to Combustion to apply its debuff. Consider the following spells to use on CWDT and find what you like best:

Wave of Conviction
Wave is always going to be slotted for the Fire Exposure debuff
Purifying Flame
This is used to provide yourself and your minions a constant 6% life regen per second. And since it ALSO covers every inch of the screen with Consecrated ground you get a reliable 100% increased crit chance with it as well
Ball Lightning
This spell is deceptively powerful. I love how it interacts with ES and Life gain on hit effects such as those found on shaper/crusader rings and Discipline ES on hit watcher's eye. By far the best spell for bursts of recovery.
Unearth
If you are using Awakened Spell Cascade in your main links you may find this helpful. Use as such:
Unearth + Greater Multiple Projectiles + CWDT in another set of links to give you more bodies on da floor.
Blade Blast
If you can fit it, Blade Blast Unnervesw Enemies for 4 seconds on hit.

CWDT Spell Supports
If you can squeeze these in, they're a nice DPS boost.
Culling Strike Support
Enemies that take damage that would put them to 10% or less life are killed instead. 10% more damage across the board.
Power Charge on Critical Support
You can get this effect on a Shaper Staff or Crusader Chest Suffix, but if you don't have those things it makes maintaining Power Charges in all situations a cinch.

The following 3-4L is for our offering and Golem(s). Level this setup as high as possible (ideally level 21)
CWDT - Bone Offering - Summon Stone Golem - Summon Ice Golem or Summon Chaos Golem


Honorable Mentions:
Frostwall
It's a little bit clunky if you don't have phasing, but is great for blocking out projectiles and pushing melee monsters away

Cold Snap
This is nice if you don't have Charging offensive anointed to generate frenzy charge yet (costs a Silver) otherwise not worth using.
Curse of Choice
can be used if you don't have Curse corruption on gloves or a ring with a curse on hit (assassin's mark on shaper ring, Flammability on Delve/Warlord ring). Enfeeble or Temp Chains for defense, Assassin's Mark if you need power charges and crit, or Flammability for raw damage. Socket this curse with your Desecrate lniks to get the spell cascade support.

Use the Following Auras:
Discipline
Zealotry
Herald of Ash
Anger

Unless you are wearing an Aul's you must choose between Anger and Zealotry
I would default to Zealotry for the crit. Anger adds a lot of damage to your CWDT skills. If you don't have another global source of flat fire damage to spells (from staff or Hypnotic Jewel for instance) then you need it so that ball lightning can ignite for the combustion debuff.

Of course, use whichever one you want. If you have a watcher's eye with Zealotry mods, use zealotry, if you have one with anger mods, use anger.

If you don't care about the damage boost, you can also choose to use Flesh and Stone instead of Herald of Ash or one of the 50% Auras if you're having trouble making them all fit.

"

xHavoCx wrote:

Here is a calculator that helps you figure out your ideal attack per second range based on your mana cost and physical damage mitigation.

Put this together because I got tired of doing the calculations by hand for every little adjustment... add a few hundred armor and it can blow up your carefully balanced machine.

For min-maxers mostly. Enjoy.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cmmxBbwYPm4RXDyUJAm4r4a5WVn9dKQQ63_BMQgnpYw/edit?usp=sharing

How to use:

Spoiler

If not familiar with google sheet calculators.. Copy the sheet to your own google drive and then you can edit your own copy. This one is not editable except by me.

Google drive is free with your free google account.

There's a mechanical reason behind this: CWDT has a cooldown of 250ms and does not count damage you take towards its next proc in this time.

basically you need to recover enough ES on your Spirit Offering Proc to make up for the 528 damage required to proc CWDT and the damage you take in the 250ms downtime. And since we attack quite quickly with Cyclone a lot of damage can be dealt in 1/4 of a second.

Things that help:
First and foremost. Increased Effect of offerings on your chest will boost your recovery by 350-450 ES per trigger. This alone is probably good enough.

Physical Damage Mitigation.
IF you can get some amount of mitigation, this will make the CWDT proccing smoother. IF you're cyclone costs 59 mana, you'll be taking 236 damage per attack. This requires 3 spins to trigger CWDT and you end up taking 708 damage--180 more than you need to--to trigger CWDT. This also means that the subsequent damage taken during cooldown is quite high.

Now let's say you are Anointing your amulet with Charging Offensive and thus have 3 Endurance Charges at all times. You have now 12% reduced damage taken from Scold's.

Now instead of taking 236 per hit, you take 207 per hit. Still takes 3 spins to trigger CWDT. But now you take 621 damage instead.

You can get up to roughly 25% physical damage reduction before it starts negatively impacting your CWDT triggers (at 59 mana cost) and any that you do have will boost your effective recovery.

"I'm a derp and use Leash of Oblation without an Offering Effect chest."
This is the last and most common reason. Read the gear section of the guide before putting on the belt. :)

You don't have enough of that mod "X% of damage taken gained as mana over 4 seconds when hit." Aim for a minimum of 15%. Clarity Watcher's Eye can roll 15-20%.

or Use an Enduring mana Flask.

In the words of a fellow exile that I know:

"

Experimentation is the key to sexual release.

Okay seriously, I make little changes constantly because I am forever trying new things and making little tiny min-maxes to my character. Please refer to the guide, or ask me if you have a question.

Learn fight mechanics. For more on this, I shall refer you to page 128 where I go into some depth on this. You'll also want to look there for the w o r d(s) to have your questions answered.

This is going to be just me listing off things you may have overlooked and that will give noticeable boosts to your damage output:

Culling Strike in CWDT links - 10% more damage
Level 10 Arcane Surge on Flame Dash - 15% more spell damage
Diamond Flask - please...just...use it.
Vaal Righteous Fire - good to have if you need burst damage for metamorphs

Level 21 VD - gem levels matter
Awakened Fire Penetration cheap and better than regular fire pen. Boosted monster resists make this very appealing
You have a 6L...right??? - obvious reasons are obvious.
Circle of Anguish Buff Effect + Fire Damage is a massive DPS boost. Cheaper alternative to Aul's amulet. Prioritize Herald of Ash buff effect.

Character levels and therefore all the crit+crit multi clusters on the tree...
Anointed Amulet - Charging Offensive gives 3 Frenzy Charges at all time. 12% more damage.
Combustion Support make sure it's on your CWDT links.

Bottled Faith - Expensive but massive DPS boost.
Spell Crit on chest - Good DPS booster.

If you're still having damage problems, we can talk. See page 128 for the password.

Level 98 VolatileDeceased:
https://pastebin.com/qJhJdWkP

Added some text to Intuitive Leap to represent buffs that are always up, but not calculated by PoB

My Character, Stupidity, at level 98:
https://pastebin.com/DmKEh9bE


I have put the buffs that PoB doesn't calculate/see onto a custom made jewel labeled as Brutal Restraint.

Self Cast Tree
My character with this setup at level 93
https://pastebin.com/6Q7FfnCE
Budget version as seen here and here
https://pastebin.com/jFNVQpJn

This is my "classic" take on the build. It is much easier to scale damage but the lack of mobility If you don't like CWC with Cyclone you can go this route, though at this point I don't recommend

Let's more or less assume that the AG is never gonna die due to the aforementioned reasons.
We run Animate Guardian because he requires no investment from the tree to keep alive and the buffs we can get off of him are more powerful than what can be used in those sockets instead. Fortify, Culling Strike, Movement Speed, Enemies Can't Crit you, Action speed cannot be reduced below base speed, various boosts to damage....OP Minion is OP.

Kingmaker - Culling Strike, Fortify, and 50% Crit Multiplier make this an insane damage and defensive boost.

Victario's Flight - for 10% Movement Speed buff. Encahnted with Life Regen when hit.

Rare Gloves - T1 Chaos Res, Chaos Res+Ele Res bench craft, and some amount of the other res to cap him. With so much recovery on ES I wanted to make sure his chaos resistance is very high. Currently has 68% Chaos Res.

Rare helmet - fossil crafted for -9% to nearby enemy Fire res. Can be pristine+scorched for life regen if you want to invest into that as well. (mine does)

Garb of the Ephemeral - If you feel like dumping another 6-7ex on your AG then this is BiS. Nearby Enemies Can't Crit and Nearby Allies cannot have their action speed reduced below base speed. Congratulation, now you're a juggerboi. :)

You can use whatever specters (or none) that you want. I would use:
1x Heretical Guardians from Act 10 Desecrated Chambers for the Proximity Shield. at a base they have an 8 Second duration and 18 second cooldown (shields down for 10 seconds). I frankly couldn't tell you how much damage they actually prevent, but hey, with Convocation on CWDT they stay pretty close to me.

1x Ruins hellion from Act 8 The Quay. This little pup casts Rallying Cry that boosts damage, mana regen, and most importantly, taunts enemies further protecting me and my Animate Guardian. Puppy boi is also the only minion that ever dies....ever. And only in Uber Elder and Aul fights.