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

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primaeva wrote:

1) it's 2-button build

Strong performance in Delve and going meta for Atlas Invasion brought it to the public attention but I'd expect the afk'ing Feared and Hidden vids on a variety of CWDT builds had it on the balance teams radar even before that. None of the other CWDT setups (the ice focused Bullet Hell one seemed the most popular) seemed to push close to the top end damage DD could do. Especially when a few of those were prior to the bug fix too, so potential for doing it on even less gear now.

Though I had expected fixing the Endless Ward loops might have kept them happy on that front, but seeing DD blow up since pushes it into the "ruh ohh" zone of balancing.

Interesting one to see how they go about trying to balance it. Lots of ways to leave slightly different setups still super strong (desecrate vs unearth or hit vs ignite) while only addressing a singular build. The fear is always the potential for them to full scorch earth either DD directly (while not ideal, fine for this build) or else all corpse builds if they come at it aggressively. Looking forward to Ctrl+fing the manifesto and patch notes in a few weeks time.

Knowing how GGG balances things, number of corpses desecrate can spawn will take a hit alongside overall corpse life. Probably change up fire damage increases to no longer affect DD/VD corpse explosion damage, brand recall has a 1 minute cooldown, Elreon's ring craft getting nerfed or removed and maybe Lithomancers/Stoneskin Flayers can't be spectre'd anymore.

Anyone got a viable good PoB link or tree for me?

Hi I'm planning on possibly switching to this build for the atlas invasion event, are there any required setups that I need, such as the duskdawn? Cus duskdawn is kind of difficult to acquire.

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DetectiveRhino wrote:

Hi I'm planning on possibly switching to this build for the atlas invasion event, are there any required setups that I need, such as the duskdawn? Cus duskdawn is kind of difficult to acquire.

You can just follow the dual wield build and it'll still work with the mastery changes, duskdawn isn't required now

A few questions:

1. Is it important to have one lithomancer and one flayer, rather than two of one of those? Shouldn't desecrate spawn 50% specter corpses either way?

2. Wouldn't phantasmal desecrate actually lower our DPS by replacing some of our 800% life corpses with 300% life corpses? Or does it only have a chance to replace the map-based corpses?

Thanks!

Finally got leaderships up and running any comments on where I should head next in terms of upgrades?

https://pastebin.com/kPuBRPmE

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A few questions:

1. Is it important to have one lithomancer and one flayer, rather than two of one of those? Shouldn't desecrate spawn 50% specter corpses either way?

2. Wouldn't phantasmal desecrate actually lower our DPS by replacing some of our 800% life corpses with 300% life corpses? Or does it only have a chance to replace the map-based corpses?

Thanks!

I just run both lithos since they're ranged they die less

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Minmaxximus wrote:

1. Is it important to have one lithomancer and one flayer, rather than two of one of those? Shouldn't desecrate spawn 50% specter corpses either way?

Yes.

Bringing in 5 of the same spectre would still only add a single 800%hp corpse to your desecrate pool. Having 2 (or more) high HP spectres greatly increases your chances of spawning one and is a huge damage boost.

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Minmaxximus wrote:

2. Wouldn't phantasmal desecrate actually lower our DPS by replacing some of our 800% life corpses with 300% life corpses? Or does it only have a chance to replace the map-based corpses?

It replaces anything spawned, but unless you're in a zone with a very small number of entries in the desecrate pool it's still a net gain in 99% of the game.

The exact figures change depending on your spectres and on your %chance for Phantasmal, but going with the standard high number (48%? something like that) and the 800% Litho and Stoneskin it was a slight DPS loss in anything with less than 7 entries in the desecrate pool and a damage gain in everything else (based on the default numbers gathered by Badger on spawn rates - potentially not perfect).

So you'd remove it for Cortex. Potentially remove it for other synthesis maps and in everything else you should be getting anything from a small gain to a very large gain (in stuff like Shaper it's a gamechanger).

The one potential downside is slightly slower application of high ailments by halving your chances of hitting a 800% hp corpse early on, so slower sap, but the flipside of that is you get a guaranteed 300% ailment much faster and the additional damage should have most stuff dead before it gets a chance to hit you... so swings and roundabouts. The brands burn through corpses so fast it's not a major issue.

All in all having the more consistent damage in the places where the damage hurts (like Shaper) is worth more than a small dip in places where we'd be doing ridiculous damage and where you'd still be inta melting the bosses/rares.

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Minmaxximus wrote:

1. Is it important to have one lithomancer and one flayer, rather than two of one of those? Shouldn't desecrate spawn 50% specter corpses either way?

Yes, it's important to have different spectres.

Bringing in 5 of the same spectre would still only add a single high hp corpse to your desecrate pool. Having 2 (or more) high HP spectres greatly increases your chances of spawning one and is a huge damage boost.

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Minmaxximus wrote:

2. Wouldn't phantasmal desecrate actually lower our DPS by replacing some of our 800% life corpses with 300% life corpses? Or does it only have a chance to replace the map-based corpses?

It replaces anything spawned, but unless you're in a zone with a very small number of entries in the desecrate pool it's still a net gain in 99% of the game.

The exact figures change depending on your spectres and on your %chance for Phantasmal, but going with the standard high number (48%? something like that) and the 800% Litho and Stoneskin it was a slight DPS loss in anything with less than 7 entries in the desecrate pool and a damage gain in everything else (based on the default numbers gathered by Badger on spawn rates - potentially not perfect).

So you'd remove it for Cortex. Potentially remove it for other synthesis maps and in everything else you should be getting anything from a small gain to a very large gain (in stuff like Shaper it's a gamechanger).

The one potential downside is slightly slower application of high ailments by halving your chances of hitting a 800% hp corpse early on, so slower sap, but the flipside of that is you get a guaranteed 300% ailment much faster and the additional damage should have most stuff dead before it gets a chance to hit you... so swings and roundabouts. The brands burn through corpses so fast it's not a major issue.

All in all having the more consistent damage in the places where the damage hurts (like Shaper) is worth more than a small dip in places where we'd be doing ridiculous damage and where you'd still be inta melting the bosses/rares.

Hope everyone has had a good league. I haven’t had time to play this league because I bought and renovated a house. I’m working working on a leadership’s price VDSS trickster and it’s looking pretty good. I’ll share the preliminary PoB here when it’s done. I know this is a completely different build but it is VD leaderships price and some people may enjoy SS more than arcanist brand.