[3.10] Gryph's Volatile Dead Necromancer || Fun, Medium Budget, Tanky, Millions of DPS
"
Camaron wrote:
Sorry if this has been asked before, but couldnt find an answer
For HC which is better for this build? Necro or Chieftain?
Thinking chieftain would have more survability ( life leech and end charges ) anyone tried both?
Just died on my char and wanna start a new build and this seems like a good simulacron farming build, but thorn between necro or chieftain
Ty
I haven't really touched the chieftain, but we also get endurance charges via Charging Offensive. I will say Necromancer gains access to Bone Offering for some sweet sweet block chance and recovery on block. Chieftain is going to have more raw damage output as long as you get your attack speed high enough to trigger CWDT reliably. Right now that's a 2-edged sword with Necromancer as Corpse Pact ascendancy can quickly kill the unprepared.
That said I would honestly look at my Necro Slinger build for a HC simulacrum farmer (or a similar life-based version if you prefer). I do not remember the last time I died while farming the Sim. That includes dual bosses on wave 20 on multiple occasions and face-tanking Kosis always. You can check that out if you'd like to:
What do you think the average budget would be to get one of these characters up and running?
I looked up a couple pieces and it seems really expensive.
I did most of the regular POE content on about 5ex worth of gear at the start of this league. You DO start to hit a brick wall with the budget as some of the major upgrades get very pricey quickly (ES on hit watcher's eye, Bottle Faith, Awakened Spell Cascade as examples).
If you just want to run maps (T16's of course) and farm simulacrum splinters that way, 10ex or less will get you what you need.
Last edited by Gryphenprey#0653 on Apr 16, 2020, 10:08:39 PM
thanks for these tips. will try that as well. i will look at the passives. though Unnatural Instinct gives all the effects of the small unallocated passives within its radius. Am only missing the Golem Commander notable.
though might be hard to swap out the dps in the chest...and expensive! hmmmm choices.
will try that cyclone lvl 1 now.....update: didnt work
Will look for a chest with the increased offering effect AND crit chance.
For the cyclone I'm not really sure if the fact that the CWC on the staff also applies the mana multiplier (140%) on the socketed cyclone.
Cyclone should cost you around 55 mana in a 6L setup, times 4 (scold) that should result in a 220 dmg per attack that you take (without counting in charging offensive and phys dmg reduc)
According to your POB your cyclone has 0.15s of attack time, that's 6.66 APS
Add you boots enchant that increases AS this will in theory result in a mass dmg intake from Scold.
Check me on my math if I'm wrong here, it's not my forte xD.
For the chest from my experience it's cheaper to craft yourself, you only really need those 2 lines, every other mod is just bonuses.
Last edited by Allbroke#5709 on Apr 17, 2020, 2:40:42 AM
Spellslinger is available after the Tolman quest. Congrats you've entered easy mode for leveling.
POB PSA
I don't really do POBs as a form of guide. There's too many variables to just "copy n paste" for this. If you want a POB to look at check out the videos. I link the pastebin for the Path of Building for my character in its current iteration in each video's description. You are far better off stalking my profile page and asking questions here.
This character has been one of the most fun builds I have ever played. As well as being able to destroy the endgame; she works on a reasonable budget, her ceiling is the sky, and I am forever evolving her to be the best that she can be.
Important
Due to a rising number of people asking me for build help and the solutions to their problems being outlined clearly in the guide...I am implementing a password that you must know before I help you. I do this because I find it funny and because I don't have the time to answer the same questions with the same answers over and over again. Please read the guide and figure out the password before asking me questions in game.
Welcome to my guide and thanks for looking Exile!
Introduction
This build is aiming to abuse the new Necromancer Corpse oriented Ascendancies in conjunction with Cast When Damage Taken (CWDT from now on) setups and Scold's Bridle
I began this journey by self-casting Volatile Dead to trigger all of my spells on CWDT (desecrate, Wave of Conviction, etc...). I deleted all content with this method and played most of Blight this way. I started having some issues when trying to carry Aul groups due to a lack of mobility. And so like any reasonable person would do, I changed to CWC+Cyclone, dropped to about 1/3 my previous DPS and well...I was still at over 10 million DPS.
CWC+Cyclone
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
3.10 Update
Discussions for 3.10 start on Page 156. I encourage you to peruse that while I continue to make updates to this written guide. Welp, GGG killed it....or DID THEY?!?
"
Spirit Offering Repeated, rapid casting of Spirit Offering was far too efficient as a means of protecting and recovering Minion Life (and player Life through Mistress of Sacrifice). This still provides valuable protection for minions without it being significantly better than almost every other tool available.
No longer grants a portion of the minion's maximum life as Energy Shield.
Now grants +20% to Chaos Resistance at gem level 1, up to +30% at gem level 20.
Not gonna beat around the bush here...this is HUGE nerf to the defensive capabilities of the build. But, BUT!!! It is not the end of the build.
“Improvise, Adapt and Overcome!”
― Clint Eastwood
Gonna give a TL:DR version here and work on updating the guide over the next couple days to eliminate Spirit Offering from the setup.
Sustaining Scold's
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.
Sustaining on a Budget
If you cannot afford the Glorious Vanity (early league woes) take Mind Over Matter and run Commander of Darkness ascendancy instead of Corpse Pact ascendancy. With some mana regen on gear as well you should be able to sustain on your life pool.
Do not worry if you cannot sustain ES at this stage. It won't happen.
3.9 Update
So a lot of little nerfs coming our way, but ultimately, this will not result in any major changes for us.
The Block of Text from the Patch Notes and My Thoughts in Blue
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)
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.
My Impressions
Overall there are several nerfs that I consider very minor overall. I will continue to innovate and find new ways to craft and build this character as even if I were to lose 50% of my DPS I'd have millions leftover. This build is still one of the highest DPS outputs available that combines itself with insane defensive possibilities on top of that. It really kinda feels like cheating.
Volatile Dead as a League Starter
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Can I league start as this?
Why, I'm glad you asked! .......
The short answer is, yes, you certainly can. It is not the easiest build to get started in the beginning of a league and you should probably consider making it your second character, but it's definitely very possible as Scold's tends to be relatively inexpensive after a couple days into the league. Until you get one, I recommend playing what I would consider to be the "Classical" VD style.
AKA: Cast Desecrate -> Cast VD -> repeat. It has a similar feel as ED+Contagion as a two-button skill and works plenty well enough for most content as is.
Some tips for league start with VD
By popular demand and because I'm going to be answering this question a lot if I don't put it here...What are some things to know for leveling in a FRESH league with VD?
First and foremost: expect to play without Scold's for some amount of time. It's a league specific unique so the drop rate is fairly low as it only drops from the various old league mechanics. It will take a couple days for these to enter the market in abundance. So with that in mind, if you are willing to play the self-cast VD style, you'll be fine. If you can't imagine playing without the required uniques...perhaps make this your second character.
Now, with that out of the way, here are some general tips that will help you get through the campaign:
Early leveling can be done in whatever method you prefer. I personally like using stormblast mine or freeze pulse from level 1 and adding in frost bomb at 4.
Summon Raging Spirits is also pretty smooth early on. SRS - Minion Damage - Melee Splash will go quite a ways. Do what you prefer to get through act 1.
Note: get 2 BBG 3L Wands from act 1 as soon as you can. With these, you will use a vendor recipe that gives Flat Added Fire damage to spells on them. VD has a good added damage effectiveness so this will give a VERY nice bonus to your damage. These should last you through the whole campaign if you fail to find better.
The Recipe
1 Magic Wand
1 Ruby Ring
1 Orb of Alteration
NOTE: If you have a rare ring you will have a higher tier roll with a level 20 requirement. If you find a random essence I would use it on the ring to get this higher tier roll for the extra damage. Just keep in mind that this will make your wand a level 20 requirement. Otherwise, use at least a MAGIC ring.
You will want to pick up rares to vendor to get some orbs of alteration for these recipes.
When to start VD-ing:
I would say level 16-18 is the earliest you would want to start. At level 16 you get access you Desecrate and level 18 you get Conc Effect and Faster Casting.
Your skills don't HAVE to be in the wands, so as you find 4L's in Act 3 and beyond you can add the 4th links.
A Parting Gift:
-Use Wave of Conviction to apply exposure on tougher enemies.
-Herald of Ash is your friend (acquired at level 16)
-Snag a jade amulet and a heavy belt for str and dex requirements early on.
-Kite. A lot. You are Squish. Don't let the Squish get squished.
-Flame Dash to get away from things. I will often: Cast Desecrate -> VDx2 -> flame Dash away from the monsters coming to devour my squish.
-VD has a delay before it actually goes to kill stuff. Again, don't stand still for too long.
-Complete your NORMAL lab as soon as possible for the Essence Glutton ascendancy to fulfill all of your mana needs. Prepare to spam your mana flask a lot before this. Roughly done around level 30-35.
-Help Alira
-Should you feel like too much of a Squish, you may take Mind Over Matter for 2 passive points AFTER you've completed normal lab. Essence Glutton is OP.
-Save your Silver until maps. Then use them to try for The Malevolent Witch and Jeweller's Touch prophecies.
-Be your own Squish! I am not the be-all-end-all answer to all of your early leveling needs. Research, practice, and discover what works best for you.
Pros / Cons
PROS:
- Fun as Hell to play
- Clears all content with ease
- Huge eHP pool, 10k+ achievable
- Uses interesting game mechanics to make you feel like a god
- Scales from Tabula budget to infinity and beyond so you always feel like you can do more to improve her
- CWC Cyclone is extremely mobile
- Did I mention it's fun? :)
- Can achieve about 75%/50% Attack/Spell Block
CONS:
- Your PC will hate you, but it's worth it.
- This build can lag you out when there's too much going on.
- Need to get lots of chaos res as it is a pure hybrid build.
- She can be hard to get going and requires a bit of knowledge about the mechanics to smooth her out.
Videos
This build was featured and constructed into a video guide by Path of Exile Builds.
First build to receive a 5/5/5 score!
A note about the videos:
Please refer to the trees and links in the guide not the ones in the videos that I show. I do this to portray the evolution of the build as it develops and to give a reference point as to which variant I am on currently. For example, most of the 3.8 videos are from the self-cast version of the build from before my swap to CWC. Furthermore going into 3.10 Spirit Offering is no longer a part of the build due to its nerf.
There are many ways to build this and plenty of tree variations that work. If you look at this tree, then look at my tree, and find yourself wondering why there are differences...I'm constantly experimenting and trying new things. I also put a lot of thought into how to maximize my points with the gear I have etc... Cast While Channeling+Cyclone CWC Tree
Please Refer to the leveling section below for progression.
Leveling
Level from 1-24 with whatever method you prefer.
Spellslinger is available after the Tolman quest (level 24). Congrats you've entered easy mode for leveling.
Spellslinger - Arc - Combustion
You will need the Sovereignty cluster to run this as well.
Follow the tree by filling out all the life nodes. Left side of the tree first. Pick up Sovereignty if you want the 3rd Spellsinger setup. Take Elemental Overload until you're tree has been mostly filled out and you are ready to start taking the crit clusters.
Leveling Tree POB
https://pastebin.com/9D3f9nti
Gear
Required Items
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.
Weapon
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
Crafting the staff
With the release of 3.9 crafting an end game staff gets a little harder...Of course you can just buy one, but if you want to craft one for yourself you have 2 methods:
Alt spam for CWC and Spell Crit+Chance to gain a Power Charge on Crit.
When you hit it as blue, purchase the Craicic Chimeral to beast craft imprint the magic item. then regal. If you hit a good mod, multimod. If not, use the imprint and try again. You can also just accept that you might end up with a wasted mod and just multimod anyways. This will highly depend on your budget.
I highly recommend analyzing your character in POB before crafting a staff as beating out a Martyr of Innocence can be difficult and not cost effective. It's good to know how good of a staff you need.
Otherwise, use 1 socket resonators with Aetheric Fossils. This opens up the option of getting 20% more spell damage prefix. Can also roll with Scorched Fossils as well to boost chances of +Fire Gems
Make sure your Staff is SHAPED and at least item level 80. I personally prefer block bases (with 1.3 APS) but Eclipse staves are a lot easier to sell when you hit something good, but not for you.
Note: DO NOT CRAFT ON A WARSTAFF BASE!!!
Apparently warstaves cannot roll mods with caster tags even if it's a shaper mod unless it rolls the mod as a world drop. I have blown several exalts thinking I could get Cast While Channeling on a warstaff. Learn from my mistakes, craft on a regular staff base.
Chest
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:
How to use Awakener Orb for chest craft
A direct quote from page 100 rant:
"
Gryphenprey wrote:
Step 1:
Buy an i84+ Shaped Vaal Regalia
Step 1b:
Optional: use perfect fossils to make it 30% quality. use a Gilded Fossil for memes.
Step 2:
Roll alts for T1 Spell Crit and set it aside. Spell Crit has to be the only shaper mod.
Step 3:
Buy any Hunter Influenced Chest piece with T1 Offering effect as the *only* hunter mod.
Step 4:
Buy awakener orb. +/- 2ex
Step 5:
Click Orb, Click Hunter chest (destroys it), and then click regalia.
Step 6:
Get lucky! But congratualations! You've rolled a chest with those exact two suffixes. All other mods are randomized though...
Step 7:
If you are unhappy with the result and have an open prefix and an open suffix you can wipe prefixes for 2ex with the 'Suffixes cannot be changed' bench craft and scour!
Step 7b:
If you got unlucky and have no open slots and the mods are all horrific, try annuling or just selling the piece as is and go back to step 1
Step 8:
Follow this up with an Exalt (or Leo) slam for a prefix (make sure to block the open suffix) and multimod.
Step 9:
Double Corrupt :D
Steps 1->6 will cost you about 3-4ex per attempt and the prefix wiping, Slamming, and multimodding process is minimum 5ex. +3ex per prefix wipe n slam if you're picky. But that's a A LOT cheaper than trying to hit those two affixes with fossils and a lot more satisfying as you can actually SEE the mods! :D
The only real downside to this is that you CAN get both mods on a hunter base and means that you lose out on some potentially fun combos with other influence types...But totally worth it.
Hope this wasn't too hard to follow.
Unique Options
The following uniques are also very reasonable options: Loreweave: An excellent all-rounder for defense and damage. its eHP is a bit lacking, but it's a solid choice for sure.
Carcass Jack: This is pretty basic. Comes with some ES, life, res, AOE, and Damage. The evasion can be nice as well if you stack some more of it.
Fenumus' Shroud: Only good if you are able to fit Aspect of the Spider. But the extra -10% all res and 10% reduced damage taken is a nice combo.
Boots
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:
Belt
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.
Amulet
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.
Anointing Your Amulet
Charging Offensive -> Silver + Violet + Teal This is the BiS enchant for the free endurance and frenzy charges. We hit ourselves while channeling so this is 100% uptime on those bonuses.
Battle Rouse -> Azure + Verdant + Sepia Great on a budget and helps a lot with mana.
Weathered Hunter -> Teal + Amber + Sepia Another budget option that provides us 10% All Res and 20 Dex
Nothing Else worth mentioning really. Charging Offensive is BIS and the other two are great budget options.
Rings
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.
Jewels/Watcher's Eye
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.
Watcher's Eye Mods
I highly recommend the ES gained on Hit while effected by Discipline. This mod combined with all of our CWDT taken spells (particularly Ball Lightning) makes us almost unkillable in most scenarios.
Other mods to try and pair with it:
Clarity %Damage taken gained as mana over 4 seconds when hit This should be enough to cover your mana needs.
Zealotry "Consecrated Ground you create while affected by Zealotry causes enemies to take #% increased Damage" Zealotry "Critical Strikes Penetrate #% of Enemy Elemental Resistances while affected by Zealotry" Zealotry "#% increased Critical Strike Chance against Enemies on Consecrated Ground while affected by Zealotry"
The consecrated ground oriented zealotry mods are especially strong if you have Purifying Flame on CWDT. This will cover every inch of your screen in Consecrated ground. Gain a Flask Charge when you deal a Critical Strike while affected by Precision #% to Critical Strike Multiplier while affected by Precision Anger Fire pen/%Increased Fire Damage Both good for obvious reasons Anger Fire Damage leeched as Life, this can be used as the singular source of Fire leeched to life. Replaces amulet mod. Clarity %Mana Gained as extra maximum Energy Shield. This should be good for at least 1k Energy Shield. Very strong.
Flasks
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.
Corruptions, Enchants, and Aspects
Scold's
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:
Helm Enchants
Discipline has 20% reduced Mana Reservation Anger has 15% reduced Mana Reservation Herald of Ash has 30% reduced Mana Reservation
40% increased Volatile Dead Damage Volatile Dead Consumes up to 1 additional corpse Wave of Conviction's Exposure applies -6% Elemental Resistance
Consecrated Ground from Purifying Flame applies 9% increased Damage taken to Enemies
These are all useful enchants to keep and 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
Gloves/Doedre's Malevolence
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
Boot Enchantments
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
Gem Links
Gem links for Volatile Dead: Cast While Channeling (from staff) - Cyclone - Volatile Dead - Concentrated Effect - (Awakened) Spell Cascade - (Awakened) Elemental Focus - (Awakened) Fire Penetration
Use Energy Leech if you are not yet using a source of ES on hit (and your ES stays less than full)
CWDT Setups
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 GolemorSummon 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.
Auras
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.
Ascendancy/Bandits/Pantheon
In this order:
Essence Glutton -> Mistress of Sacrifice -> Plaguebringer -> Corpse Pact
Bandits: Help Alira (recommended) or Kill All
For Minor Pantheons, Soul of Gruthkul will give you 5% Phys mitigation all the time.
Soul of Shakari for extra defense against chaos damage and poison immunity
Upgraded Soul of Yugul is good vs Uber Elder and Aul for 5% reduced cold damage taken.
Major Pantheons:
Soul of Lunaris fully upgraded is a good all-purpose choice. Especially if you are using an Animate Guardian and/or utility specters
Soul of Arakaali for additional defense vs chaos dots
Managing Mana Sustain
If you have the socket space for a level 1 Clarity, this watcher's eye modifier will take care of your mana needs. Alternatively (or in addition to) the bench craft "X% Damage taken gained as mana over 4 seconds" can be stacked on both rings and amulet slot for the same effect. If you can only put it on 2 items you will need some extra mana regen from gear and/or tree to compensate. The boot enchant is a good spot to get some regen if you can commit to casting flame dash every 4 seconds:
Alternatively, you can use one of the new Enduring mana flasks. These things are truly great because you can spam the flask charges and each instance of mana recovery enters a queue. This means that your mana recovery can last for several minutes. When I enter a map I empty the flask as I approach the first pack on monsters and then just keep it going from there. You will have a hard time with phased bosses with this but for mapping and everything else it's totally fine. Note: they are getting nerfed in 3.10 and will be less effective.
Lastly, here's a calculator to help you find your ideal attack rate with Cyclone. The idea is to balance physical damage mitigation with attack rate to know how fast you should be going and how much mitigation you can afford.
Thanks to xHavoCx for creating this tool
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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.
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.
Thank you for looking, I will continue to update this throughout 3.9 Metamorph League Please check the FAQ section below before asking any questions. It's possible that I've answered it there.
thanks for these tips. will try that as well. i will look at the passives. though Unnatural Instinct gives all the effects of the small unallocated passives within its radius. Am only missing the Golem Commander notable.
though might be hard to swap out the dps in the chest...and expensive! hmmmm choices.
will try that cyclone lvl 1 now.....update: didnt work
Will look for a chest with the increased offering effect AND crit chance.
For the cyclone I'm not really sure if the fact that the CWC on the staff also applies the mana multiplier (140%) on the socketed cyclone.
Cyclone should cost you around 55 mana in a 6L setup, times 4 (scold) that should result in a 220 dmg per attack that you take (without counting in charging offensive and phys dmg reduc)
According to your POB your cyclone has 0.15s of attack time, that's 6.66 APS
Add you boots enchant that increases AS this will in theory result in a mass dmg intake from Scold.
Check me on my math if I'm wrong here, it's not my forte xD.
For the chest from my experience it's cheaper to craft yourself, you only really need those 2 lines, every other mod is just bonuses.
Increases and reduction to Cyclone mana cost are inconsequential in general as the mana cost base is incredibly low. Cyclone Gem level also has no bearing on mana cost (same at all levels).
The main culprit to difficulty with mana and life sustain in this build comes from Corpse Pact Ascendancy. The attack speed ramp up is a two edged sword that allows faster CWDT procs (more corpse generation and therefore more VD balls per second) but that also means we consume mana and deal damage to ourselves at an exponential rate.
And yeah, crafting a chest is typically cheaper than trying to buy one.
Sorry if this has been asked before, but couldnt find an answer
For HC which is better for this build? Necro or Chieftain?
Thinking chieftain would have more survability ( life leech and end charges ) anyone tried both?
Just died on my char and wanna start a new build and this seems like a good simulacron farming build, but thorn between necro or chieftain
Ty
I haven't really touched the chieftain, but we also get endurance charges via Charging Offensive. I will say Necromancer gains access to Bone Offering for some sweet sweet block chance and recovery on block. Chieftain is going to have more raw damage output as long as you get your attack speed high enough to trigger CWDT reliably. Right now that's a 2-edged sword with Necromancer as Corpse Pact ascendancy can quickly kill the unprepared.
That said I would honestly look at my Necro Slinger build for a HC simulacrum farmer (or a similar life-based version if you prefer). I do not remember the last time I died while farming the Sim. That includes dual bosses on wave 20 on multiple occasions and face-tanking Kosis always. You can check that out if you'd like to:
What do you think the average budget would be to get one of these characters up and running?
I looked up a couple pieces and it seems really expensive.
I did most of the regular POE content on about 5ex worth of gear at the start of this league. You DO start to hit a brick wall with the budget as some of the major upgrades get very pricey quickly (ES on hit watcher's eye, Bottle Faith, Awakened Spell Cascade as examples).
If you just want to run maps (T16's of course) and farm simulacrum splinters that way, 10ex or less will get you what you need.
