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

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Starbuckz42 wrote:

Ah, thanks. Corrosive Elements completely slipped my mind.
The rest is and remains conditional though, especially vs end game bosses which is when all of these effects actually matter, not a huge fan of turning stuff like that on.

I've played your build in several leagues now and never liked to just facetank bosses, even though recovery should be good enough. Purity of Elements also offers some nice additional defensive Watcher's Eye option. A change in play style and purposefully getting hit more often might be beneficial.

That duration mastery is looking mighty juicy as well, requires a lot of points though...

Haha that's your prerogative on whether to turn them on or not. If I didn't turn on Onslaught/Ash you may not even realise that it's up until you played the game or an option! War Banner / Adrenaline, though, I will admit is an extremely annoying button to press and is up for AT BEST 4sec on certain bosses (we went over this in earlier comments, too) and I would gladly drop it if it turns out we can't stack Fortify effectively (otherwise the accuracy scaling is actually important).

Onslaught from Rotgut though I find EXTREMELY reliable. Just rewatched the showcase and it's only off because I am very free with my QS usage - but for example it was on for the entire 45-50 seconds of The Feared fight. I would promote it out of the 'conditionals' box and strongly suggest you run one (especially since any other source of Onslaught is hard to get on boss-only fights).

Do note: The HUGE unspoken issue with this rough/pre-game PoB is - it paths through SO MUCH INTELLECT it needs a jewel slot for Brawn in there to enable Leadership's Price, probably, or 3-4 more passives to tweak Strength within range of Intel, or at least 2 suffixes to close the gap.

Yea I will try Rotgut, I never liked using flasks much though it got a lot better with 3.15.
I realized I came on a bit too strong, didn't mean to criticize.

It's a cool and creative build that can be quite clunky at times, especially early. Which is why I think any additional buffs that need to be actively managed make it so much worse on top.

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Starbuckz42 wrote:

Yea I will try Rotgut, I never liked using flasks much though it got a lot better with 3.15.
I realized I came on a bit too strong, didn't mean to criticize.

It's a cool and creative build that can be quite clunky at times, especially early. Which is why I think any additional buffs that need to be actively managed make it so much worse on top.

Haha no mate criticism makes the build stronger!!

Yeah I 100% agree with the clunkiness being the main trip-up. I shouldn't actually have used the Adrenaline PoB anyway, that was a 'personal' one but last modified and I jumped into PoB too excited and adapted it simply because it was at the top. I should have used the publically released ones!

That said, very happy for feedback on how to smooth out the early experience. These Brand Masteries are HUGE, and I would advocate rushing as much cast speed on the tree as possible (Mental Rapidity, Nimbleness.. I am SO SAD the Caster Masteries didn't give any direct cast speed boons! >:() until Cane comes into the picture. Enigmatic Reach losing 4% cast speed SUCKS, too.

I even considered spending the 'new' anoint on the old Claws of The Pride (it gave 15% attack/cast speed if you'd used a movement skill recently - which would be SO GOOD for Leap Slam spam) - BUT IT'S GONE!!!!!!!!

Taking a quick peek on my lunch break, had another thought while I was working. Elemental Mastery has "40% increased effect on non-damaging ailments." Wondering if this wouldn't be better, as it would also scale the chill and shock from skitterbots, at the cost of 10% on brittle/scorch/sap.

Nevermind, apparently you can't scale chill or shock from skitterbots unless the scaling is directly linked to skitterbots.

Anyone know how to reset brands if you have two of the same brand attached? The guide refers to a tutorial video but I can't see one. First time trying this build. Cheers.

Fire leech removed from tree, corrosive + doryani's large cluster manditory now? any idea how to fit in ES leech with that 4k pool? Idk if es on block is enough to sustain

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waggypants wrote:

Fire leech removed from tree, corrosive + doryani's large cluster manditory now? any idea how to fit in ES leech with that 4k pool? Idk if es on block is enough to sustain

ES on hit watchers eye provides massive amounts of es sustain.

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Justiis wrote:

Taking a quick peek on my lunch break, had another thought while I was working. Elemental Mastery has "40% increased effect on non-damaging ailments." Wondering if this wouldn't be better, as it would also scale the chill and shock from skitterbots, at the cost of 10% on brittle/scorch/sap.

Actually early game I would still recommend the 50% - WAIT THEY NERFED IT OVERNIGHT DIDN'T THEY - 40% increased effect of Ailments - this is because prior to a 6L / 7L you may be fighting the pinnacle bosses (Catarina/A9 Conqs/Sirus/Maven) with a 5L, so you won't be able to reach full Brittle/Shock/Sapped easily during a fight. 40% goes a long way and definitely is worth more than the Exposure buff.

Once you scale into 7L+ territory however, you get ailment capped anyway, so you can move that Mastery back into the Exposure buff.

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waggypants wrote:

Fire leech removed from tree, corrosive + doryani's large cluster manditory now? any idea how to fit in ES leech with that 4k pool? Idk if es on block is enough to sustain

Yups, Justils is right. We moved to dual on-hit, which, in conjunction with Corrupted Soul, is a lot of a faster return of our HP/ES pools than Leech.

Leech used to be GREAT because we used Shimmerons + Immortal Ambition so it was always ticking, and Atziri's Acuity scaled it easily. Without Acuity and Immortal Ambition, starting leech instances from scratch without investment on tree feels bad - same with ES Leech. You can pop in an ES leech gem in helmet instead of Inspiration if you want early coverage - but it's not very meaningful.

We are a hybrid build with ~4.5k and 4k ES - this is around HALF of what pure life or pure ES builds work with so our leech rate is dismal at best. On-Hit recovery works a treat however. Check this out, one of my favourite references to how strong on-hit is (T16 100%+ quant btw):

https://streamable.com/aegb8x

Do note I am also considering running Recoup on certain variants of the build. And mark my words, there are going to be LOTS of variants. As if there weren't already - now we can 'plug and play' a ton of Mastery stuff.

EDIT: Just noticed corpse life node on Undertaker area nerfed to 20% instead of old 30%, so a minor damage dip there!