[3.16 - RETIRING BUILD] VD Brands: S-Tier Bosser, A-Tier Map! -- MURDERED BY GGG_INTERN SOMEWHERE--

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Rinaea wrote:

I see, that makes a lot of sense. Thank you!

I'm trying to put together a homebrew hipster tanky lowlife version of this build, but due to a lack good offensive auras for VD I'm running into some damage problems on Scourge bosses in T15-T16 maps, so I'm trying to look into ways of increasing my damage. I should mention I'm only on a 5-Link right now and not a 6-Link yet, but the last link won't exactly triple my damage either, to put it that way, so there is work to be done.

Thus far I'm running defensive auras, namely Purity of Elements, Determination, Grace, Defiance Banner, Discipline and Vitality. Once I annoint my amulet with Charisma I'll be able to add another 50% aura to that mix, I'm thinking Haste for the increased cast- and movement speed. Ideally I'd want an aura that gives a lot of raw power, but as far as I understand the only real other option would be Anger, and that doesn't affect the corpse explosion part of VD unless it's used in tandem with an Anger Watcher's Eye with Fire Penetration or something along those lines.

I really enjoy the build though, it feels so darn tanky. Even 200 stacks of Scourge in T16 maps is very relaxing and non-threatening, it's just the damage that's a bit bad due to no Leadership's Price.

One idea I'm toying with is running Leadership's Price alongside something which mitigates the dangers of stuns, a Valyrium for example. Of course it won't be as good as the life version as that has the advantage of taking highly efficient staff nodes for some crit scaling to make Leadership's Price pop off.

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Rinaea wrote:

I don't remember which map it was, I don't mean to imply that hitting 200 stacks is the norm, it's not. I merely used it as an example of a situation where you'd expect incoming damage to he excessively high, but for this version of the build it still felt safe.

Awakened Spell Cascade was one of the first things I bought for this build. It may not make a ton of economic sense when compared to things like getting a 6-Link, but I just love how it fills the entire screen with VD balls, it warms my heart to see so I grabbed it for the funs.

If or when I swap to Leadership's Price, I have to find a way of dealing with stuns as Presence of Chayula was my solution to that problem. Do you think taking the Energy Shield mastery "Stun Threshold is based on 50% of your Energy Shield instead of Life" is enough? It'd be just over 3000. I don't know how often I'd get stunned with a threshold like that. Using Valyrium would make it a non-issue, but that in itself create other problems such as meeting attribute requirements as currently that ring slot is held by a ring with Strength and Flammability on hit.

I also took a quick look at the Life version, and by swapping around a few points and dropping Herald of Ash, it can pick up Determination + Defiance Banner for nearly 10k armour before flasks or other changes to gear, alongside 75/67 real block, which can be upped further with a spell block roll on a piece of rare gear. I don't know if that's something which has been suggested before, I merely saw someone struggle with physical damage and thought this could be a potential step towards solving that. This is a level 92 version of said tree, so there's still space for some more points.

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primaeva wrote:

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Rinaea wrote:

I don't remember which map it was, I don't mean to imply that hitting 200 stacks is the norm, it's not. I merely used it as an example of a situation where you'd expect incoming damage to he excessively high, but for this version of the build it still felt safe.

Awakened Spell Cascade was one of the first things I bought for this build. It may not make a ton of economic sense when compared to things like getting a 6-Link, but I just love how it fills the entire screen with VD balls, it warms my heart to see so I grabbed it for the funs.

If or when I swap to Leadership's Price, I have to find a way of dealing with stuns as Presence of Chayula was my solution to that problem. Do you think taking the Energy Shield mastery "Stun Threshold is based on 50% of your Energy Shield instead of Life" is enough? It'd be just over 3000. I don't know how often I'd get stunned with a threshold like that. Using Valyrium would make it a non-issue, but that in itself create other problems such as meeting attribute requirements as currently that ring slot is held by a ring with Strength and Flammability on hit.

I also took a quick look at the Life version, and by swapping around a few points and dropping Herald of Ash, it can pick up Determination + Defiance Banner for nearly 10k armour before flasks or other changes to gear, alongside 75/67 real block, which can be upped further with a spell block roll on a piece of rare gear. I don't know if that's something which has been suggested before, I merely saw someone struggle with physical damage and thought this could be a potential step towards solving that. This is a level 92 version of said tree, so there's still space for some more points.

Haha good on you. Spell cascade was 2.5ex if you got it early - then it suddenly spiked to 5+ and never came back down. Last league it shot to 9+ because of Double CoC (which is suffering a little in heavy Scourge if I can trust reports).

Hmm, I have never been stunned in recent memory. I think Brine King + Block combination takes care of most of it - then I ALWAYS have ES due to ES on hit, so that's 50% stun avoidance. Not to mention I have multiple ways to Blind.

Currently I'm on 5 - 5.1k Life (and 4.5k ES) so that probably mitigates a lot of stuns also. My recent experiment in mana has allowed me to drop a mana flask entirely and I now run Taste of Hate, which is outright 12% permanent phys reduction - more if you get a Leadership with 3% Cold Max Res (12.6% or something).

I'm reaaaallly not very sure about Armor, hmm. 10k doesn't seem like a lot endgame right? The char sheet only shows the reduction vs tiny hits? Unless they reworked the armor formula substantially, which I think I saw somewhere in the pipeline but not sure if it's in yet.

Haha yeah, I'm glad the build is holding its own in 150+ Scourge where most people are getting blown up. The top-end got even higher. The only thing I'm sad about is - masteries are soooo damn good, min-maxing passive expenditure has never been more agonizing. xD

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Malanon wrote:

How on earth did you drop a mana flask. I have almost every thing setup for mana reduction, except the divergent inspiration, and I'm dropping mana in huge amounts.

Also, thoughts on determination + divine shield as a defensive bonus? It's in range of our thread of hope and I thought it might be useful. With fortify, we should be mitigating a bit.

Also, if you take the spell block nodes on the tree, you can drop Rumi's entirely which is another free flask slot.

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Rinaea wrote:

I'm not sure how accurate PoB is, but according to that, going from 800 armor to using both Determination + Defiance Banner bumps the maximum physical hit taken from 14k to 31k, more than double. Adding a Basalt Flask of Iron Skin-type on top of that increases it to 40k. Adding Taste of Hate on top of that brings us to over 50k. Quite the increase from the 9k we started at. Both Armour and Evasion was reworked this patch so at least Armour should be more potent in low amounts.

And I agree, the passive tree is stretched thin, it feels like a few extra points would do us a world of good, particularly for builds like these that want a multitude of different stats in order to function properly.

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Rinaea wrote:

Having a bit of armour through Determination and Defiance Banner also unlocks Molten Shell, which I think is a great guard skill. In addition to that, it's possible to put Defiance Banner on a CWDT link in order to place it on the ground when hit, resulting in an even bigger armour buff for potential subsequent hits. It does not, however, help with single big hits.