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

Final post 3.16 pre-League Start with all current available info:

LEVELLING - TRANSITIONING

The Arma Brand Elementalist run from Imexile looks like a VERY efficient way to build into early red maps while amassing wealth and Uniques to pivot into our build.

Watch the 3:39 run here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19-THLhhGR4

If you absolutely hate respeccing, you can run Necro right away, but you will lose a fair bit of offensive power that early Elementalist brings (not to mention very nice AoE from Convergence).

I highly recommend pivoting to Necro VD brands ONLY when you have a 5L helm (Essence of Horror), level 19 Desecrate, and any old Inpulsa.


What's the masteries look like? And other issues.

https://pastebin.com/WjidLukz is the 'flex' version of the build with 47% mana unreserved so you can pick a 50% aura of your choice. The last 5 points can go towards solving any of these pain points.

0) I NEED MORE PASSIVE POINTS

In all honesty, the build can afford to drop down to 4k/3.5k Life/ES and still faceroll content so you can get about 4-8 points back to shove into cast speed if you just want to go mapping faster.

You will only want to push 5k/4k ES when you enter Uber content, by which time you'll be able to afford much better gear than I had (I'm a bargain bin buyer).

A) I'm ooming too fast!!

Nimbleness Cluster + Caster Mastery (5th cast returns mana when you Pay it - this should follow Nexus Gloves return effect and be an overall 20% mana cost reduction).

Manually pathing down to Glancing Blows + Tireless is also a very decent early league choice.

B) Build feels soooo slow to start!

Nimbleness, Mental Rapidity, Enigmatic Reach - early yellow to red maps, pre-Cane of Kulemak (when you're on Duskdawn) - take all of these nodes and the build is just going to feel much better.

Abyss Jewels with "Cast Speed if you have Crit Recently" is also another cheap source. Run a Silver Flask 100% if you haven't got Frenzy Charge chest yet to pair with Rotgut. Perma Onslaught is too good to pass up since we are also a Leap Slam heavy build.

C) Build feels squishy

What?! Make sure you have CWDT - Ball Lightning and either LGOH rings x 2 and Fenumus' Spinnerets (early game) OR Watcher's Eye Discipline ES Gain on Hit (late game). Fenumus' Spinnerets are criminally underrated and Aspect of the Spider is just a brilliant use of mana. Pity it destroys your CPU and GPU...

I will assess whether Fortify makes it to the final build. My gut instinct is yes - paired with Sap it was JUST TOO STRONG and allowed the build to facetank almost every mechanic in the game (Cortex Slam, Shaper Slam, Sirus A9 Die beam..) The problem is there may be a ramp-up time now so we may even have to put in Additional Accuracy in the links. Extra Curse+Enfeeble may be a better idea.

D) I'M DOING NO DAMAGE SOMETIMES WHAT THE

See the FAQ! It's a simple matter of scuffing brand order. Dropping Tutorial vid tomorrow PRE LEAGUE for sure which will solve a lot of these issues for you because there are tips and tricks to rectify it!

E) I want a tankier HC viable variant.

The build definitely has enough flexibility to run in HC, simply because Leadership's Price being such a RIDICULOUS damage modifier that we can shed 40% of the build damage and still have a reliable boss killer.

A lot of people would lean towards a shield with % life % ES gained on block. I would say that huge gap has been addressed by Staff Masteries somewhat. We can now get 30% increased Defenses while wielding a Staff (which is about 400+ ES endgame) and also 2% of Life/ES gained on Attack/SpellBlock. It's not shield tier, but access to a Cane or Duskdawn just takes so much damage pressure off that you can just use other damage passives to beef up the build tankiness. For example, it is easy to naturally cap Block/Spellblock without using Glancing Blows. You can make a run for more Life nodes, or Enfeeble, or drop Crit Mastery to reduced Crit Damage taken.

The build also has a ton of flex gem slots since the only damage link we really need is in the helm.

I don't think I'll have the bandwidth to play HC this league, but I've got some decent HC experience (Demigod + a bunch of 95+s in HCSSF) to say that this build definitely has the chops to do it. The main downside is - there is a lot of room for error and if you scuff getting the right brands out, you have defense and recovery downtime. You know what I mean.

Compiled List of Nerfs

Corpse Pact cluster --> 30% Max Corpse Life => 20% Max Corpse Life (Old: 217k, New: 206k in PoB settings)

Enigmatic Reach Cluster --> Attack/Cast speed 14% => 10%, Max AoE 37% => 33%.

FORTIFY --> Now a stacking mechanic which, actually, we could still be eligible to use since we have high APS and innate tankiness + duration modifier. But it's definitely not as solid as before.

Buffs

So many damn buffs the nerfs don't matter!

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primaeva wrote:

Final post 3.16 pre-League Start with all current available info:

Amazing work on the updates primaeva. Cheers for all the hard work.

Was already nudging towards trying to recreate this, poorly, in a SSF run based on the 3.15 setup. All the tweaks have made it a certainty now.

If anyone has any guides or tips on self item crafting targeted at this setup, even if it's the cheap and cheerful early stuff rather than endgame gg, please do feel free to share 'em. I'd be throwing them into a spreadsheet for sure.

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TsuDhoNim wrote:

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primaeva wrote:

Final post 3.16 pre-League Start with all current available info:

Amazing work on the updates primaeva. Cheers for all the hard work.

Was already nudging towards trying to recreate this, poorly, in a SSF run based on the 3.15 setup. All the tweaks have made it a certainty now.

If anyone has any guides or tips on self item crafting targeted at this setup, even if it's the cheap and cheerful early stuff rather than endgame gg, please do feel free to share 'em. I'd be throwing them into a spreadsheet for sure.

Hehe, pseudonym. Oh gosh! I hope you have a good run in SSF! On my end I think I have this advice.

1. Cast speed, cast speed, cast speed. I was only awoken to how important fat cast speed is in the last couple of leagues. Dropping almost every other damage node for cast speed nodes is almost always going to feel better, especially in SSF where there is no guarantee you'll ever find Awakened Spell Cascade.

2. See above. Cram as much cast speed on weapons as possible, and I would even go so far as to say take Sword Mastery for Frenzy on Uniques. Yep. It's that good!!! If you want to be less crazy, just socket Frenzy GMP and use it for 2x wand setup to get Frenzy gen on maps / bosses.

3. For SSF reasons you may not get Duskdawn either. So the Dark Arts and Mysticism become options for you, because, you guessed it - Cast speed! Definitely go for Retribution and Precision as well.

4. Target farming Bestiary for a shot at Fenumus' Spinnerets and Aspect of the Spider craft will pay off HUGE for your entire SSF league on almost any character - on-hit gains are rare otherwise. And almost every character makes good use of Aspect of the Spider.

Isn't this now a lot more suitable for league-starting thanks to no longer needing clusters?

EDIT: There's Elemental damage leeched as ES on elemental mastery.

Build is looking very nice, looking forward to seeing more variants come out as the league progresses. Only thing I'd point out with the tree is the start of the witch pathing - if you come out from the left rather than the right you save yourself from having to find 20 points of strength to balance Leadership, while also increasing the probability of hitting some useful Vaal nodes. Very minor, but could make stat balancing a bit easier.

I'm also a bit curious about the Brand Mastery that gives "Recover 10% of Mana when a Brand expires while Attached." I can't really find anything about expiration online, so I'm not sure if that mastery would trigger when you replace a brand by casting another, but if it did it could be fairly useful.

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Psaakyrn wrote:

Isn't this now a lot more suitable for league-starting thanks to no longer needing clusters?

EDIT: There's Elemental damage leeched as ES on elemental mastery.

It really is! In additional delve auto-delving to 80+ is also insane since you can start sniffing around for the right spectres (Primeval Fortress node) much early and by yourself.


I doubt you'd be satisfied prior to hitting 80 though - it is after a crit build, and those pop off only after you amass enough passives. Inpulsa also helps clear a LOT - and you really want high cast speed for it to not feel like ass.

Good to see the build is still alive and thriving. I won’t be playing this league because my GPU just can’t handle it, but I’ll be thinking about the build and if I come up with some clever improvement I’ll post in here.

Remember guys and gals, DO NOT LEAGUE START THIS SKILL! Start arms brand and swap into it at level 90

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IceColdPorkSoda wrote:

Good to see the build is still alive and thriving. I won’t be playing this league because my GPU just can’t handle it, but I’ll be thinking about the build and if I come up with some clever improvement I’ll post in here.

Remember guys and gals, DO NOT LEAGUE START THIS SKILL! Start arms brand and swap into it at level 90

Alternatively to this, slinger VD is also probably doable, and synergises better with the whole consuming corpses thing.

I'm going storm brand inquisitor. I've always wanted to play a storm brand character and inquisitor is looking stonks

UPDATE DAY 1: To test whether the build can be played Necro to maps - I entered maps as an Unascended Witch using Arma Brand.

The Armageddon Brand setup absolutely pumps. It's insanely fast. A practiced racer can probably hit 3h30 with how good Arma Brand is now.

The clear is insane and you never have to look back. You don't even have to pop secondary skills on the boss if you want to. Just slap on WoC - Hextouch - Flammability and the Brands burn him to hell.

Here's the screenshot as well as the passive tree I used. I filled the left nodes, rushing EO and then the Brand Clusters (Brands Attach to New Enemy -> 40% Brand Attachment Range as masteries). Then the north nodes just for recall QoL. Then finally the right side of tree.

https://imgur.com/a/3W0crNQ

All gear was SSF and no traded items were used (but I sold items I found of course.)

So if your question is - can I level as Necro - the answer is absolutely yes. Since you pop Cremation on fights, the Corpse Pact and Corpse nodes come into play, and Commander of Darkness is just free and 30% damage.

Gotta head out for the day now, enjoy Arma-branding!