[3.20] 💥 Velyna's Explosive Concoction 💥 Leaguestart | Smooth Clear and Bossing | Deathless Feared

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ZaszJäger wrote:

I've been playing this build lately, but i'm struggling really hard on maps, i quite don't understand how survibility works on this build since, as was stated upper in this post, that 0.25 stop to cast concotion is enough for mobs to one shot u. Anyone else having this issue? or what should i be focusing on first as i'm in mapping?

Man heist is nightmare for me, so much time wasted on it by dying on the last mechanic lol.

This build isn't optimized at all imo. I'm playing the same build but made some modifications that made it feel a lot better to play and I'm absolutely blasting through t16s. Most AN rares die in less than 2-3 seconds and I can facetank them with ease since nothing can damage me through vaal molten shell and berserk. The build is still in development and I'm experimenting a lot but you can import my character in your pob and see for yourself what I've changed. My ring will change today to make my EC cost 0 mana (costs 7 mana atm) and I'll add aspect of the spider to my amulet by adding enlighten and conqueror's efficiency to the build instead of pure talent. Later upgrades will be empower 5, unnatural instinct, alternate quality 21/20 gems, onslaught implicit ring and maybe temporal rift with enlighten 5 (or shaper shield?)

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auspexa wrote:

This build isn't optimized at all imo.

I find your comment interesting. Could you elaborate a little bit about your choices? Is the Taming better than the Cicle of Anguish or is it an economic question?

I see you have opted for more projectiles so I assume there is some mechanic there with causing ailments for more damage? Or is it due to shotgunning splash damage?

I have been out of the game for a few leagues so Explosive Concoction is new to me and so far I'm doing fine with Velyna's version but I do die on a regular basis to AN rares and have to constantly move about and not facetanking much.

I'm thinking about respeccing to your version but there are some investments to be made so I want to learn a bit more if you are willing to share.

Thank you!

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Bizze79 wrote:

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auspexa wrote:

This build isn't optimized at all imo.

I find your comment interesting. Could you elaborate a little bit about your choices? Is the Taming better than the Cicle of Anguish or is it an economic question?

I see you have opted for more projectiles so I assume there is some mechanic there with causing ailments for more damage? Or is it due to shotgunning splash damage?

I have been out of the game for a few leagues so Explosive Concoction is new to me and so far I'm doing fine with Velyna's version but I do die on a regular basis to AN rares and have to constantly move about and not facetanking much.

I'm thinking about respeccing to your version but there are some investments to be made so I want to learn a bit more if you are willing to share.

Thank you!

GMP and GV are the best support gems for both concoction skills due to shotgunning. If you look up PC on poe.ninja, you'll see that pretty much everyone uses both support gems to be able to stack as much poison as possible. While this wouldn't be true for ignite, since we can only inflict one ignite at a time, it's the same thing for us because we're utilizing hit damage and not using ruby flask.

There's an aoe breakpoint for the overlap to occur, which is 37% (referring to https://www.reddit.com/r/PathOfExileBuilds/comments/qydlqn/poisonous_concoction_and_increased_aoe/). That's why my replica conqueror's efficiency has aoe implicit, without it you can only get to 34 with lab enchant and 20 quality.

Since we have so much aoe and projectiles already, I find herald of ash kind of pointless, as the only thing it does is proliferating the overkill damage for this build, especially this league where you're supposed to run multiple defensive layers or else you'll constantly get one shot by rares. That's also why I've invested heavily in mana cost reduction (my EC costs 0 mana right now) and reservation efficiency, my setup allows me to run grace, determination, flesh and stone (extra value with the notable I took with impossible escape + I don't run precision so it lets me hit 100% hit chance while serving as a defensive layer at the same time), defiance banner, aspect of the spider (don't have my reservation shield for it yet) and temporal rift. This basically makes me unkillable in most situations with 100% spell supression, a huge vaal molten shell and berserk. Discipline with ghost shroud is also a defensive option but I didn't feel like it's worth it. When you compare effective life pools, you'll see that mine is much higher than her's. Her build probably worked last league but it wouldn't survive high tier maps in this league I think.

Taming is just a temporary option, it gives a lot of damage and a lot of resists so I bought one. I don't need another mana cost craft so I'll probably stick with it for a while unless I find a ring with onslaught implicit.

On a side note, I think this is a very bad starter build. I've also started the league with this build but I was just dying all the time and things took forever to kill. EC scales with attack speed and gem level like elemental hit so I would expect most EC players to hit a wall around t11-t12 maps. We can't go for crit, we can't scale from weapon wheels on the tree so at some point you'll hit a brick. However, if you go for too much attack speed, the build quickly runs out of mana, even with inspiration. So that's another reason why I went for 0 mana cost on it. You can see my current mana pool below.



In my opinion the build only works when you have skin of the lords and empower, because pathing to EO manually prevents you from using cluster jewels, wherein we get most of our damage from medium cluster jewel nodes, i.e. repeater and eye to eye. So don't worry too much about dying until like level 85, I have 130 deaths so far, though I haven't died in a while

Thanks a lot for your detailed explanation!

I will give your version a try. I'm still running Skin of the Loyal and as I mentioned I'm doing ok with Velyna's version of the build despite having to path to EO, but I'm lvl 92 and have managed to path into my clusters so it's still ok, but a bit more survivability at comparable damage would be nice.

So, with your version that means we skip the Forbidden Flash/Flame jewels as well? I guess I can just sell them but since I have them already I'm just wondering if your version could have a use for the overleech and cull?

I already have culling strike from the mark wheel, which is one of the best wheels for this build. I suppose slayer would still be ok for overleech though. You can use herald of ash over flesh and stone as well, I've tested it again and overkill proliferation seems to help clearing. Personally I like to play with a more defensive style. If I wanted overleech I'd probably just equip soul tether and use inquisitor or elementalist (op with corrosive elements) forbidden flesh/flame instead. That would probably make ghost shroud an option as well, since immortal ambition doesnt prevent it from working

I'm looking to switch to your setup because defenses seem extremely better. What would you say the cost you've put into your build would be roughly?

Testing out some of the ideas here with my character in league.

Since cull isnt needed from slayer, I think Raider is a good forbidden jewel option.

Sticking with herald of ash and a circle of anguish allows -3 to mana cost easily as implicit.

When I tried stacking GMP and GV together it didn't feel good to me but will test again.

Pathing changes are really nice.

I will probably keep overleech from a glorious vanity below scion life wheel.


Current PoB (With GMP/GV) - https://pastebin.com/rkeCF3nG

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Vexsanity wrote:

I'm looking to switch to your setup because defenses seem extremely better. What would you say the cost you've put into your build would be roughly?

probably less than 10 divs so far, the most expensive item is skin of the lords. I got lucky with some of the items, as I found really good rolls with a low number of essences and I sniped some of the items like my shield for a really low price. some of the aspects of the build will drastically change as I progress through the league but I'm quite happy with it

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Velyna wrote:

Testing out some of the ideas here with my character in league.

Since cull isnt needed from slayer, I think Raider is a good forbidden jewel option.

Sticking with herald of ash and a circle of anguish allows -3 to mana cost easily as implicit.

When I tried stacking GMP and GV together it didn't feel good to me but will test again.

Pathing changes are really nice.

I will probably keep overleech from a glorious vanity below scion life wheel.


Current PoB (With GMP/GV) - https://pastebin.com/rkeCF3nG

I like it, looks like you stole some ideas :P replenishing remedies and aspect of the lynx are also within the radius of wind dancer but I don't know how good replenishing remedies is

In addition, I'll drop fortify because apparently they changed fortify and it has its own threshold so it's really hard to get stacks on high tier content since our shield charge doesnt do any damage. I wasn't aware of this change as I haven't played in a long time, such a stupid change tbh

In light of all the changes people are looking into, someone think they can take a look at my build/tree and tell me what my best bet for modifications/upgrades is? I'm not super rich, so, I can't get any of the big ticket items like the FF Jewels currently.

I can do red maps to varying degrees of success, though it can be dicey in spots for sure.

Edit:
https://pastebin.com/L9qQFgAR

Just realised people probably don't wanna have to trawl through the public build character stuff.