[3.22] Gryph's Immortal Cremation - Boss Killer+Simulacrum+Blight Ravaged Farmer
 Have questions about my builds? Did I forget to update the forum guide again? Come ask in my Discord: Gryph's Aerie Welcome to my Phantas-tic Cremation Guide! This build was incepted in 3.17 Archnemesis league with the introduction of The Eater of Worlds and The Searing Exarch, enabled by the Eater of Worlds drop, Ashes of the Stars. If you're looking for a build that can farm Simulacrums, Blight Ravaged Maps, Delve, or basically anything you want really...and if you like seeing your efforts and incremental investments show fruit, you're in the right place. Alternatively, if you're a potato with mechanics, you can just ignore them! (mostly)
Videos
Simulacrum Wave 29+30 and 3x Teal'd Blight Ravaged Map Uber Boss Compilation from 3.20 with Original Sin Phantasmal Cremation Configurations for POB This is a detailed explanation on how to properly configure your POB for Phantasmal Cremation to get an accurate DPS number. More up to date videos will be on the way, you can check my channel for some older showcases. The one above is still relevant though.
Path of Building
Phantasmal Cremation, 3.22:
https://pobb.in/Y1_bghzDjyfu This is a POB for 600+ divine budget: https://pobb.in/j_oPRxkXN9vC
3.21 or earlier POBs
Have been asked several times for POBs pre 3.22 that didn't have tattoos so here're a couple (updated to reflect current state of skills and masteries): POB from 3.21, no Original Sin https://pobb.in/p6dpFMQEIwpF POB from 3.20 with OS and Mageblood https://pobb.in/gyymZlgdnC3c
Pros/Cons
PROS: - Tanky. Very, veeeeery tanky. - Max block with ES on block recovery(No Glancing Blows nonsense) - Chaos Inoculation (Immune to chaos damage) - Excellent damage scaling (can reach the DOT cap against Uber Pinnacle bosses) - EZ Modes Simulacrums and Blight Ravaged maps - Basically playing on God Mode /power overwhelming CONS: - Buttons. Unearth+Cremation, then there's curses if you use The Balance of Terror. Withering Step if you don't. Molten Shell (on left click for me) and your movement skill(s) - Takes some getting used to with the play style. There is a rhythm so to speak with casting Unearth+Cremationx3 so that you can spam Unearth more. - Degens can be problematic if you do not have sufficient ES regen or mitigation against ground dots, bleed, etc... - Build is inherently expensive and while there are ways to slowly transition into it from DD Ignite, it is not a painless process and still costs dozens of divines to get to a comfortable point on the build. You've been warned.
The Concept READ ME!!!
First and foremost, in order for the build to FUNCTION, we need the Alternate Quality version of our primary skill: Phantasmal Cremation.
Quality on this skill gem grants: "2% chance to explode a nearby corpse when firing projectiles." What that actually means: When a Cremation Geyser fires a projectile, it has an X% chance to detonate a corpse in its vicinity. The goal is to get that % chance as close to 100% as possible. The best and most efficient way to do this is with the Eater of World's unique drop amulet, Ashes of the Stars: The most important line on this item is the "+20-30% to quality of all skill gems" With a 30% quality Ashes, we will have a 100% chance to detonate a nearby corpse when Cremation fires a projectile. AWESOME...what does that look like exactly? Well, here's a brief rundown: We can place up to 3 Cremation Geysers at one time. Each geyser fires a base of 4 projectile per second. Adding additional projectiles will increase the frequency of projectiles fired per second by 1 per projectile. TLDR: Cremation supported by Greater Multiple Projectiles will fire 8 projectiles per second per geyser=24 projectiles per second at a baseline (we can add more projectiles in varying ways with investment) What this translates to is detonating 24 corpses per second. What do we do with this? Spam the ever-living hell outta this skill on the thing that needs dead-ing. When we cast Unearth, it drops corpses at the targeted location. Add some extra projectiles and you're dropping 5+ per cast and they get instantly detonated by the Cremation geysers AT THE TARGETED LOCATION! AKA: 24+ overlapping explosions per second.
BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!
This little gem is also a Phantasmal alternate quality. This provides "Corpses Spawned have +1% increased corpse life" per 1% quality. And that's where our base damage comes from. We want to scale the gem *level* and the gem's *quality* Conveniently, we already get +30% from our Ashes of the Stars amulet, along with +1 to skills. The baseline goal is to reach a level 30 Unearth. after which it takes 2 additional levels to gain 1 corpse level. Best/easiest way to do that these days is to use Viridi's Veil enchanted with "Unearth Spawns Corpses with +5 level" You can even get one corrupted with +2 to AOE or Projectile gems for a further boost. Viridi's gives +2 to socketed gems (make sure to get +2 and not +1) which gives a massive boost to Unearth, Enhance (more corpse life), and Empower (more levels obviously). This lets us reach around 197k+ corpse life. Cremation explodes corpses for 5.1% of that at gem level 23. That's upwards of 10k base fire damage per corpse... If you've made it this far, here's the current rundown: We're utilizing a series of synergistic mechanics to hit our enemies with massive fiery explosions 24x+ per second. Now, for damage scaling, we CANNOT use typical spell damage modifiers as our damage is a corpse explosion, not a spell. This means it's very hard to scale the damage by traditional means. How do we get around this? POISON For this we have 2 options: or Original Sin is the best methods and is literally more than double the dps output, however, it's like 100 div or something at any given point in time. Volkuur's, however, is a simple and clean solution on the lower end of budget and can be corrupted for Temporal Chains on hit. It also provides 20% chance to poison.
Poison Chance
Well, now that our fire damage can poison (or is converted to chaos, which can poison) we just need to get 100% chance to poison. We will lean on our friendly neighborhood Ashes of the Stars once again to take advantage of Alternate Quality Divergent Herald of Agony:
Herald of Agony grants 20% chance to poison on hit on its own (and also 10% more poison damage) Divergent Herald of Agony grants and additional 1% chance to poison per 1% quality. In total, we get up to 70% chance to poison from just this gem. With 70% from the gem, 20% from the gloves (Eater of World's implicit on rare gloves 15% is sufficient) and 15% chance on the tree, we reach the desired 100% chance to poison.
How does poison help our damage exactly?
The long and short of it is this:
It is difficult to scale hit based Phantasmal Cremation since our options are pretty limited. We cannot make use of auras and heralds like Zealotry, herald of Ash, Anger, etc or spell damage, spell crit, "more spell" damage modifiers and the like because it's not a spell. By going poison we gain access to additional scaling options in the forms of Malevolence Aura, Herald of Agony (10% more), Damage over time multiplier, and Wither stacks. And remember, we have upwards of 10,000 BASE damage PER EXPLOSION. That is massive for poison scaling.
TL:DR
Baaasically: We basically take this hodgepodge of things and smash em together to create a well oiled machine for farming the hardest content in the game; Simulacrums, Blight Ravaged Maps, 1k+ Delve, Uber Bosses, Invitations, etc...there is nothing we cannot handle.
Defenses
Let me just say this:
The defensive layers we have are extensive. Let's just list it out. These are pretty self-explanatory:  With this Keystone we become fully immune to chaos damage and we will scale Energy Shield for our health pool. Turns out, if we're immune to chaos damage and we take 25% of Elemental Damage as chaos damage, we just mitigated 25% of all incoming elemental damage. Additionally, this chest gives a large chunk of armour and decent Energy shield. And as the cherry on top, we get 10-20% of Elemental damage as extra chaos damage which is just THAT much more BASE damage for poison scaling making this our BiS chest piece. Speaking of Energy Shield and armour scaling, this monstrosity gives a lot of both and lets us scale armour to recover ES when we block. One of the most OP items in the game. So...how do we get the most block possible?  This ascendancy lets us use Bone Offering for our own benefit, use Divergent for extra block chance: We also get some block chance and spell block chance in the tree to fill out the rest. The Discipline Energy Shield on hit modifier on a Watcher's Eye will give is insane recovery given how many times we hit per second. Stormshroud paired with 100% chance to avoid being shocked will get us elemental ailment immunity. Note: does not work with Tempest Shield as the wording on TS is "immunity" not "Avoidance" Melding of the Flesh paired with Aegis' +5% max cold res, Purity of Ice, and other sources of +Max Cold res can help us reach 90% maximum elemental resistances for even more tank. With Incandescent heart also shaving off 25% of elemental damage, we basically have 92.5% max res.  This ascendancy also gives an additional 10% reduced damage taken. Woo! For Physical Damage mitigation we take the following Armour/ES mastery:  This is a flat 10% off the top. We also end up with roughly 40-50k armour. There are options for Physical Damage taken as cold damage while affected by Purity of Ice on a Watcher's Eye. Corrupting Aegis Auroras can get physical damage taken as Fire/Cold/Lightning and/or Chaos damage for further mitigation options. 8% Physical damage reduction while affected by Determination is another option on a Watcher's Eye. Using the Small Cluster notable "Enduring Composure" and +1 Endurance Charge on the tree will give us endurance charges for another 16% reduction. 20% if you also use the +1 max endurance charge tattoo (see tattoo section later in). Be sure to get Enduring Composure on a decent Megalomaniac or as a 2 passive Small Cluster Jewel. So yeah, Max block, huge mitigation, Recovery on hit, recovery on block, and some decent regen makes for an almost unkillable killing machine. Side note:  This mastery stacks on itself. Standing in a Simulacrum I have seen my ES regen exceed 6k per second. It's quite strong.
Gear
Required Uniques
These are the items that make the build. Get them. Original Sin and Volkuur's are mutually exclusive. You only need one of them. OS Ring is by far the superior option. Temp Chain on hit corruption is very nice for the Volkuur's gloves, but not *necessary*
Helmet
By far the highest damage option (also cheap compared to other options) +5 Unearth Enchant is mandatory. Be sure to get one with +2 socketed gems and NOT +1. As for the corruption, it's obviously good, but don't sweat it if you're strapped for cash.+2 AOE and/or +2 Proj gems are great corruptions to boost Unearth.
Amulet
There is no other option. Get one with as close to 30% quality as possible. 15%+ reservation is typically what I plan for when building. The anoint should be Champion of the Cause or Charisma *depending* on your tree. For 3.22 Ancestor league, we will anoint Champion of the Cause as we are speccing into Charisma on the tree already because of some tattoo tech (see tattoo section)
Rings
You will need a TON of resistances on your rings if you're using Melding of the Flesh. If you have Original Sin, you can get res+dex on your gloves. If you have Mageblood, you'll be using Elemental Flasks to cover resistances. Focus on getting Strength+Dex+Int where you can so you can cover attribute requirements and use more tattoos on the tree. Stat reqs are: 159 Int (Level 21 Int gems) 159 Str (Level 21 Str gems) 114 Dex (Level 1 Awakened GMP, further levels useless)
Weapon
Something like those is ideal. You can cut corners on cost here, the important thing to remember is that %spell damage modifiers do nothing for us. Fire damage%, chaos dot multiplier (veiled mod), generic dot multiplier, +1 all spells, +1 physical spells, and an open suffix for the "Trigger a Socketed Spell when you use a skill" craft are the mods you're looking for. Strength and Intelligence make solid second suffixes too. For a guide on how to craft these, see page 63 in the guide or refer to this image:  For budget options, Allocating Spiritual Aid on the tree and using some Essences of Fear on a sceptre with a good fractured mod is a good option. (+1 spells/phys spells or dot multi fractures basically)
Gloves
if you don't have Original Sin (exeeeensive), then these are mandatory. Corruption for Temporal Chains on hit is ideal. If you have OS Ring and you are using Viridi's Veil for Unearth, you can try your hand at something like this:  If you start with a fractured DEXTERITY base, you can easily get +1 Socketed Int gems (for enlighten) with Faceted Fossils. If enough people ask, I can make a video guide for making these.
Boots
Boots are a great place to get Shock avoidance for Stormshroud. Either craft on a fractured one or use Deafening Essences of Torment on a different fractured base to get a good amount. Searing Exarch Grand Eldritch Embers can be used to get the remaining shock avoidance if you don't have the rest elsewhere. Otherwise, get Bone Offering Effect with the embers. For endgame Mageblood/OS users, more faceted fossils for +1 to enlighten.
Body Armour
Best in slot. No contest. Important to get a really well rolled one. I try to get 18%+ on the Elemental Damage as extra Chaos Damage along with high AR/ES% roll. You can get some useful corruptions of course. +2 AOE will get you a little AOE radius and a small amount of damage. Increased Damage, +1% Max Res, Reduced Extra damage from crits...etc. Lots of decent ones to look for.
Flasks
I like this setup quite a lot. There are also some unique flasks to consider: I really like Oriath's End as the explosions really help with clear in Simulacrums, maps, Blights, etc... For Mageblood users, I trust you can get a good setup, but here's an example of my Original Sin version from 3.20: I really like to use the 3 elemental flasks for the resistances and 39% less damage taken from their respective elements. Shock avoidance on a flask (52%+) will nullify the need for it on gear.
Belt
Obviously, if you can get a Mageblood, it's BIS. Now for the rest of us, a Stygian Vise will suffice. ES, Strength, Res, etc... These can be crafted to have Shock Avoidance as well (to stack with boots). If you have an extra open prefix, a Crusader Exalt can give you some %ES. Flat Armour is also good. For the abyssal jewel, it's a good place to get Corrupted Blood immunity or a little reservation efficiency in addition to some ES, stats, and/or damage over time.
Jewels
We use quite a few of these, so let's take 'em one at a time:
You gotta be able to gear appropriately and reservation can be tricky when adding Purity of Ice. I currently have to drop Tempest Shield. Still worth. Get 100% shock avoidance (Tempest Shield does NOT count) and you have elemental ailment immunity. You can rely on upgraded Brine King pantheon for freeze immunity until you get it. Gives a nice chunk of damage and helps get enough attack block. Place in the Templar side jewel socket to get some block chance. Can use the 8% fire resistance tattoos on the strength nodes for extra block chance as needed.  the main modifier we want on the Watcher's Eye is the "Gain 20-30 Energy Shield per Enemy Hit while affected by Discipline"
trade link with other good mods
This one goes in the jewel socket by Charisma. More details on this in the "Tattoos" section.
Cluster Jewels
We typically play with 1 Large Elemental, Fire, or Chaos Cluster to get the extra jewel socket. It's not mandatory and the mods you pick don't make a huge difference in the end. Just make sure it's an 8 passive. A Megalomaniac or Small Cluster jewel with Enduring Composure will give us Endurance charges.
Gems and Links
6L Chest: Phantasmal Cremation Anomalous or Awakened Greater Multiple Projectiles Mageblood gives us a lot of reduced mana cost and allows the use of Awakened GMP for the extra Projectile. Otherwise, use Anomalous for the 20% reduced cost. (Awakened) Unbound Ailments Basically the best support gem you can use. Damage+Duration=BIS (after GMP) (Awakened) Elemental Focus Big damage, extra level on awakened is decent, but not huge. Remember, poison is not an "elemental" ailment. The last two links can vary depending on your needs: Cruelty or Inspiration If you have mana problems, use Inspiration. Just make sure your mana cost is not *zero* otherwise Cruelty will net more damage. Hypothermia, (Awakened) Deadly Ailments, or (Awakened) Void Manipulation Void Manipluation will brick the build unless you are using Original Sin. The choice between Hypothermia and Deadly ailments is up to you. Hypothermia scales both the hit damage and also the poison damage. I like to have the hit damage a little more than some extra DOT dps personally. 4L Helmet - Viridi's Veil: Phantasmal Unearth Ultimately, you want to reach gem level 30 on this. After which, it takes 2 levels to gain 1 corpse level. So gem levels 30, 32, 34, and 36 are your inevitable breakpoints. Enhance More quality=more corpse life=more damage=more better. Get as high as you can afford, capping out at Awakened level 5 Enhance Empower Gets extra boosts from Viridi's to give a really nice level boost to Unearth. Get what level you can afford, capping out on level 5 Awakened. Anomalous Greater Multiple Projectiles Need the extra projectiles to keep up with Cremation. Reduces mana cost with Anomalous version. 4L Gloves - Big Auras: Anomalous Determination Anomalous Determination gives some chance to avoid being stunned. When used in conjunction with tattoos will help us reach 100% avoidance. Worth it. (Divergent) Malevolence Damage aura. The one and only! Divergent gives a little bit of extra damage. Discipline Can use Vaal Discipline if you like having a panick button for DOTs Enlighten Gonna really want to invest into a level 4. otherwise you'll need to use more reservation tattoos. Go for Awakened level 5 if you're giga rich. 4L - Other Auras: Tempest Shield Divergent Tempest Shield gives extra spell block, you may find you don't need it though. If you are pre-mageblood, but using Melding, you may need to drop it entirely. Purity of Ice, level 21 so the +1 from Ashes and +1 from Sceptre boosts it to level 23 for the +5% max cold res breakpoint. Used for Melding of the Flesh. Don't bother with it otherwise. Divergent Herald of Agony Divergent Herald of Agony is mandatory for poison chance. Enlighten If you're in the late game setup with Mageblood, you can fit Tempest Shield into the build with a level 4 enlighten in a +1 int gems pair of boots...or a level 5 enlighten. Extra reservation tattoos can also solve this. Probably. Movement Skills, can go in shield and/or unset ring: Shield Charge or Leap Slam Depend on how socket starved you are, you can use Phantasmal Leap Slam instead of Shield Charge. You do you. Link either to Faster Attacks if you can, otherwise just rely on Corpse Pact Ascendancy to carry your attack speed. Flame Dash is the instant movement skill of choice. Again, droppable with Leap Slam if you really want to or are socket starved. (Rich people problems tbh) Anomalous Withering Step Use this to apply a bunch of Withered Stacks to boost damage on tanky mobs/bosses. Don't need to use this if you have a Despair Balance of Terror Jewel (you would use a Despair on self cast instead) Only needed if you are using Original Sin and therefore cannot have it on gloves. Self cast if you have Balance of Terror. This is the DPS curse of choice for Original Sin users as Despair is otherwise mostly useless. Trigger Weapon Options: (Divergent) Bone Offering This one is the only *mandatory* gem for the trigger weapon. You can "technically" self cast it but...ewwww...Get Divergent for more block chance. (Anomalous) Frost Shield This one is nice for an extra defensive layer. It has a huge mana cost though so you'll probably beed to be Mageblooding it up with the extra flask effect on the reduced mana cost to use it. Anomalous gives extra mitigation from enemies within the dome. Anomalous Despair Again, if you're not using Original Sin, use this. Can have it on trigger in the weapon if you're lazy. Optionally can be supported with either Cursed Ground or Hexbloom Support depending your needs/desires. If you have the balance of terror jewel for wither on hit, Despair *cannot* be in the weapon.
Tattoos
With 3.22 Ancestor league came a new type of passive tree customization--TATTOOS!
And we are going to take advantage of that! First, a couple of rules: We need to have a certain amount of stats: 159 Int 159 Str 114 Dex So there needs to be enough leftover from gear and tree after applying tattoos to use our stuff! And generally speaking, tattoos are there to fill in your needs. Can fill out resists, reservation efficiency, extra defenses, attributes, etc...So use what you need to balance your build.
Useful Non-Essentials
 This can replace any attribute small passive. Specifically, if we replace int nodes, we will have a net gain of +1% ES and +3% Armour per tattoo. Use these to fill out as many as you can afford to. They're pretty cheap too, which is nice.  This tattoo can be used on small strength nodes in the radius of your Red Nightmare jewel to help cap attack block!  This can be used on any small attribute node. Will be used to make sure you can fit all your auras, particularly if you can't afford level 4 Enlighten(s). Use as many as you need to. They are a little pricey though, so keep that in mind.  This one is useful if you need a few more %'s to get spell block capped. Again, use as needed!  Useful for balancing attributes.
The BIG KAHUNA TAT STRATS
Tattoo List for this segment
     This area is going to give us 90% chance to avoid stuns (rest comes from Anomalous Determination) Up to 8% Maximum Cold Resistance. 3 Additional Projectiles Some doubling on optional small node tattoos, like reservation efficiency. the +1 projectile tattoo requires there be 7 adjacent nodes allocated to be in effect. One will go here:  If you can interpret my paint skills, you'll see we can use two of the adjacent dex nodes for the +1 Max Cold Res tattoos. The 30 Str node can be used for +1 Endurance Charge if you want to.  Another attempt to show some tattoos! xD What's important to note in this one is the use of Warrior's Tale to double up the effects of the tattoos. This makes the tattoos in its radius give: +2 Projectiles 60% Stun Avoidance 2-4% Max Cold Res 4% Reservation Efficiency Also, we are taking 3 "useless" nodes to activate the +2 projectile passive. To make it easier to see, I'll repost a pob here as well to make it easier to see: https://pobb.in/j_oPRxkXN9vC
F.A.Q
Ask away and we'll add some!
How do I check my corpse life on Unearth?
In POB:
 Then to make it work in your POB do this with your corpse life number: 
Why does your POB have Reduced Cremation Cast Speed in the custom configuration box?
That is a great question! The way Cremation+Unearth combo scales is based on the number of projectiles (and therefore corpses detonated) per second. This is a fixed rate that is unaffected by cast speed. However, POB will take into consideration cremation's cast speed in its DPS calculations which leads to wildly inaccurate numbers. So the easiest way to get accurate numbers is to adjust Cremation's cast time to be exactly 1 cast per second--thus the "Cremation has XX% reduced cast speed" line. Once that's done, we set the full dps to the number of projectiles fired per second in total.
Can I use curse of hit or triggered curses for Balance of Terror?
No. Curses must be self cast for the benefits of Balance of Terror to work.
Last edited by Gryphenprey on Sep 18, 2023, 9:57:20 PM Last bumped on Aug 4, 2024, 9:01:29 AM
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Hello,
Good build, the crafting part is very helpfull for the gloves. Any gem swap for better clear speed? Thx. | |
" About the only thing to do for better clear would be to find the rhythm of the build. IE: drop and go. Leave a geyser in a pack and shield charge away. This will help maintain Corpse Pact speed which will feel quite good overall. Or swap in an obliteration wand? |
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I love this build, I took Gryphs POB and went with that, if you have a chance can you explain the difference possibly between the two POB?
https://pastebin.com/KYp3A2qU - Was the one I started with |
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THIS IS TOO BROKEN!
Trust your mind and strengthen your abilities!
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Reserved for 3.18, let's see if this survives it. If yes this will be my go to bosskiller for 3.18, dps + tankiness looks insane, can't wait to slap invitations with this left amd right
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" That was my like, day 5-6 of the league character. I was on a 5L and hadn't started minmaxing damage+using Melding of the Flesh yet. This one is a great place to start. " Yeah even without the Phantasmal Unearth the damage is pretty decent on a 5L (see Hydra at end of compilation video). Actually insane for invitations. Hardest part is getting the Cremation in the first few days. |
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" My main issue is I bought the two gems already for well, alot. haha, Im assuming the Melding gems from that build to this one would make a big difference? |
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" The melding setup is honestly overkill. If I were to do it again, I would either skip it entirely or just skip trying to fit in Purity of Ice. 82% max res with Incandescent Heart is still insanely tanky (+5% from Aegis, +2% from Gloves). it's effectively 86.5% max res (vs hits) compared to 92.5% if you were to have 90% max resists. Bottom line, I was plenty tanky enough to do Simulacrums etc...without Melding. Just invest into more ES than 5.7k xD (my earlier build have over 7k). Can still go for DPS without the melding too. Once you've got the gems, the rest of the immediate gear is relatively easy to acquire and you can make incremental upgrades later if you want to. |
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