[3.14] VolaBomber | CwC - Volatile Dead Necromancer | All Content
INTRODUCTION
Hello boys and girls! This build is Necromancer variant of my Volatile Dead Chieftain character. I wanted to try same idea with Necro because of reworked ascendancy. This build turned up really well. I like this variation even more than original Chieftain. My Chieftain build posted here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2626591 OVERVIEW Pros: + Great single target + Great mapper + Great delver + All content doable + Fun to play Cons: - Might be hard to setup - Need some item swaps for elemental reflect - FPS drops VIDEOS Simulacrum waves 16-20 | PoE 3.10 Delirium Max Block 50% MoM in T16 Map | PoE 3.10 Delirium T15 Drox Full Run | PoE 3.10 Delirium Budget setup lvl 70 | PoE 3.10 Delirium
Videos from 3.9 Metamorph
Videos from 3.8 Blight
| T16 Arcade (crafted rare Staff) | PoE 3.8 Blight | Uber Atziri Full Run | PoE 3.8 Blight | Full Shaper Run | PoE 3.8 Blight | 7 Lane Blight Corrupted T16 | PoE 3.8 Blight | T16 City Square using Detonate Dead | PoE 3.8 Blight | Inpulsa Action in Delve 200+ (monster lvl 83) | PoE 3.8 Blight | 9k EHP + MoM + Fortify in flask setup demo | PoE 3.8 Blight | Soulwrest + Indigon 40% MoM inside corrupted T16 map | PoE 3.8 Blight
Leveling as Necromancer in 3.8
Chieftain videos from 3.7
BUILD IDEA / MECHANIC The idea is to cast Volatile Dead without any headache that comes with this skill. I mean we don't want to create corpses manually and we don't want to stand still while casting. So I choose Cyclone + Cast While Channeling combination to trigger Volatile Dead. Next step is to give our character some kind of passive skill that creates corpses infinitely. We want to cast Volatile Dead in any situation (even in hideout). I decided to use CWDT setups to trigger Unearth and Desecrate. Last thing to do is to find the way to deal damage ourself constantly. I found few effective solutions. Note! I put my old "Solutions" at the end of the guide. They are eather outdated or nerfed. So use them only at your own risk.
3.11+ Update
My thoughts about 3.11: 1. Throw away militant faith. We don't need it anymore, because "The Agnostic" now always available on passive tree. So it saves us a lot of time and money early in the league. 2. Doedre's Malevolence is dead item for us now. Looks like we should use Voidbringer gloves now. It's fine because Doedre's always been quite expensive early in the league. Voidbringer should be more common item (maybe not). 3. New Infernal Cry gem looks fantastic. I can't wait to see how it works with my build. 4. New "Undertaker" passive skill point is A-WE-SO-ME. 30% increased damage, 2% life regen and 2 additional corpses spawned for both desecrate and unearth. 5. Cyclone is nerfed and now we CAN be stunned while spinning. That's bad news but we will find some kind of solution. (Or maybe it's fine idk) 6. "Corpse Pact" ascendancy point is changed a bit. Now attack and cast speed buff is capped at 200%. I think it's good for us. If we wanted to use corpse pact pre 3.11 it was almost like balancing on top of the knife. Looks like now it should be fine. But prefer Commander of Darkness instead of Corpse Pact anyway. So looks like we are safe. Let's go!
Solution #2.5: Scold's Bridle
1. This helm and gloves make manacost of Cyclone extreamly high. 2. We are dealing phys damage to ourself and triggering CWDT. 3. We can use any weapon. I prefer Disintegrator or Martyr of Innocence. Ideally for endgame we need rare Shaper's Eclipse Staff with "supported by Cast While Channeling" mode. For this setup we need a lot of mana and life regen. Necromancer's Essence Glutton Acnedancy point gives us huge mana regen because we are consuming corpses all the time. Mistress of Sacrifice ascendancy skill point allows us to use Offerings to buff our character. For additional life regen we can use The Agnostic skill point. The Agnostic gives us interesting skill: - While not on Full Life, Sacrifice 20% of Mana per Second to Recover that much Life With Enduring Mana Flask and The Agnostic we can maintain almost full life and mana all the time while spinning. Here are some items that helping us to sustain mana even better: If you dying too fast you can scale a bit of phys damage reduction on tree and items
Fortify in flask Idea
I've been testing new funny setup. Basicly I annointed Hardened Scars point which gives me Fortify during effect of life flask. For that point I crafted Foreboding Hybrid Flask which works even if we on full life. That means we can have fortify buff whenever we want by the press of the button.
Here is video demonstration: https://youtu.be/JnPpUccg9aA
Solution #4: 50% MoM 20% Dodge Max Block Tank
We are still using The Agnostic keystone. For weapon I used Duskdawn mostly because of 30% block chance and additional crit multi which scales with block chance. We can have up to 75% block chance so it's +75% to crit multy. For this setup we need Wathcher's Eye which gives us 10% of Damage taken from Mana before Life while affected by Clarity. This modifier plus Cloak of Defiance = 50% MoM. If you don't want to use Cloak of Defiance then simply use whatever chest you want. Rare chest with "increased effect of offerings" modifier great too. I allow us to have even more block chance if you using high level CWDT with Bone Offering Because we are scaling mana anyway, we can use Omeyocan boots as additional defence layer. With 5k mana we are going to have 20% Spell and Attack dodge chance. For amulet I choose Atziri's Foible because it greatly enhances mana pool and simplifies mana sustain
My Gear in Metamorph
3.11+ Update: Use Voidbringer instead of Doedre's gloves. This character can have: - 5k+ mana - 50% of damage taken from mana before life - up to 75% block chance - up to 60% spell block chance (up to 75% with Stone of Lazhwar) - 20% chance to dodge spell and attack damage - Up to 2k life regen per second while spinning - Possible to use Righteous Fire (30% more spell damage) Pastebin code: https://pastebin.com/FJcS5HvG
Solution #5: Low Life version
This is the setup I designed for Heist league. Key items: Pros: - It's easier to sustain ES - Easier to sustain mana - More DPS - More EHP - Stun immunity If you want to use life flask while playing LL ES character then you just need this two items: Pastebin code: https://pastebin.com/jVX4X7VC SKILL TREE PoB Pastebin Code for 3.11: https://pastebin.com/s3WgujfH My character for 3.12 (Low Life version): https://pastebin.com/jVX4X7VC Make sure to use the latest update of LocalIdentity's Fork for PoB. It's simply improved version of Path of Building: https://github.com/PathOfBuildingCommunity/PathOfBuilding/wiki/Installing-this-Fork
Outdated skill trees and PoB codes
Bandits: Kill All Pantheon: - Major: Arakaali (Stun Immune) or Brine King (DoT mitigation) - Minor: Shakari (DoT mitigation) or Yugul (Elemental reflect immune setup). Ascendancy: Essence Glutton -> Plaguebringer -> Commander of Darknes -> Mistress of Sacrifice / Corpse Pact. For leveling I'm taking Commander of Darknes first because Necro is my league starter and I need additional resists. When I have all mandatory items and can sustain life and mana I swap Commander of Darknes for Corpse Pact. You can drop Mistress of Sacrifice if you want. Choose whatever you need for your character. GEAR
My gear in Delirium
My gear in Metamorph
My gear in Blight
My final in Legion (Chieftain)
GEMS AND LINKS Main damage setup: 1. Cyclone / Incinerate 2. Cast while Channelling / Awakened CwC 3. Volatile Dead 4. Spell Cascade / Awakened Spell Cascade 5. Concentrated Effect 6. Elemental Focus / Energy leech / Fire Penetration / Combustion CWDT #1: 1. Cast when Damage Taken | lvl 1 2. Unearth | lvl 8 3. Greater Multiple Projectiles 4. Greater Volley CWDT #2: 1. Cast when Damage Taken | lvl 1 2. Assassin's Mark | lvl 5 3. Desecrate | lvl 7 4. Spell Cascade CWDT #3: 1. Cast when Damage Taken | lvl 20 2. Wave of Conviction | lvl 20 3. Bone Offering | lvl 20 Mobility: 1. Frostblink 2. Arcane Surge | lvl {7 - 12} Auras: 1. Zealotry / Anger 2. Herald of Ash 3. Clarity 4. Precision Optional Gems: 1. Summon Ice Golem / Summon Stone Golem 2. Vaal Righteous Fire DPS CALCULATIONS Note! This calculations is from 3.7 build version. PoB says that with Disintegrator 1 ball deals ~ 522 000 damage. We have 6 balls per 1 Volatile Dead cast. We cast Volatile Dead each 0,35 seconds (2,86 casts per second). 522 000 * 6 * 2.86 = 8 957 520 dps Cyclone itself deals 127 389 dps So in total we are dealing around 9 million dps against mobs and 5.5 million dps against Shaper. The damage is actually INSANE. Most of the time we will have a lot more balls before boss spawned, which means we can deal huge burst damage and almost oneshoot every boss in the game. And I still have a lot of things to improve. Crafted Shaper's Staff with CwC mod on it can boost ball damage up to 800k and total dps gonna be around 14 mill.
Q&A
About Sustaining mana
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About budget gear to start with
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About Necro over Chieftain
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About MoM
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About items slot by slot
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About crafted rare CwC staff
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About movement speed
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About weapon alternatives after 3.9 patch
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About Gryph's build variant
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About new Thread of Hope jewels
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Outdated and nerfed Solutions
Solution #1: Soulwrest (Outdated. Don't try it if not sure)
1. We are consuming corpses by casting Volatile Dead. 2. Soulwrest keeps summoning phantasms until we have maximum amount of them. 3. After that on each new cast we will kill old phantasm and resummon new one. 4. Heartbound Loop will deal us 350 physical damage for each killed phantasm. It is more then enough to constantly trigger CWDT. But you need a lot of armour and at least 6k+ HP. 6l Soulwrest cost me around 50c in 3.7 so I used this combination from start of the Legion league until late endgame. I even killed Shaper and red Elder using Soulwrest. But damage output was not as great as I wanted it to be so I switched to "Solution #2".
Solution #2: Scold's Bridle + Spirit Offering (nerfed)
1. This helm and gloves make manacost of Cyclone extreamly high. 2. We are dealing phys damage to ourself and triggering CWDT. 3. We can use any weapon now, but I prefer Disintegrator because it deals damage to us aswell and it boosts our damage like no other weapon.
Note about main weapon
You can use any weapon with spell damage mods on it. After 3.9 patch Disintegrator is expensive and rare. As alternative we can use Martyr of Innocence staff or two rare spell Daggers or whatever you want. Ideally for endgame we need rare shaper Eclipse Staff with "supported by Cast While Channeling" mode. For this setup we need a lot of mana regen. New Necromancer's Essence Glutton Acnedancy point gives us huge mana regen because we are consuming corpses all the time. Mistress of Sacrifice ascendancy skill point allows us to use Offerings to buff our character. Spirit offering should mitigate all damage from Scold's Bridle because it instantly gives us up to 30% of our HP as extra ES. We just need enough HP (around 4-4,5k to start) because Spirit offering gives us amount of ES based on our maximum life. If you want to use MoM here some items that helping us to sustain mana even better: *Avoid all armour on tree and items to make this setup work effectively.
Fortify in flask Idea for Blight
I've been testing new funny setup. It's caled "Fortify in a flask 9k EHP MoM volatile dead Necro tank" lul. Basicly I annointed Hardened Scars point which gives me Fortify during effect of life flask. For that point I crafted Foreboding Hybrid Flask which works even if we on full life. That means we can have fortify buff whenever we want by the press of the button.
Here is video demonstration: https://youtu.be/JnPpUccg9aA
Solution #3: Soulwrest Indigon 40% MoM (Outdated)
Items + Gems
Basically this is combination of both my standart variants, but this one should be a bit tankier. I saw main mechanic in the Akane's video. Take a look at his demonstration of The Agnostic + Indigon + Enduring Mana Flask setup: https://youtu.be/2hoqHFR93iw Basically we are using Militant Faith unique jewel wich gives us The Agnostic skill point. The Agnostic gives us interesting skill: - While not on Full Life, Sacrifice 20% of Mana per Second to Recover that much Life With Enduring Mana Flask, Indigon and Cloak of Defiance we can maintain almost full life and mana all the time while spinning. Level 95 passive tree I'm not using Spirit Offering in this setup because it kills my character so I changed Mistress of Sacrifice for Commander of Darkness ascendancy point. Updates: [3.8] Buffed - YAY! Desecrate now have no cooldown. More corpses = more damage. [3.8.1] Fix - Fixed a bug introduced in 3.8.0 where Volatile Dead's targeting was very indecisive. [3.9] Nerf/Buff - YAY! We are safe. Volatile Dead now has a limit of 60 Orbs which is fair change. Introduced Awakened versions of Spell Cascade and Cast While Channeling support gems. [3.10] Nerf - Spirit offering nerfed so it can't give us extra ES to mitigate damage from Scold's Bridle anymore so now we should use another way to regenerate life. [3.11] Nerf/Buff
thoughts about 3.11
1. Throw away militant faith. We don't need it anymore, because "The Agnostic" now always available on passive tree. So it saves us a lot of time and money early in the league. 2. Doedre's Malevolence is dead item for us now. Looks like we should use Voidbringer gloves now. It's fine because Doedre's always been quite expensive early in the league. Voidbringer should be more common item (maybe not). 3. New Infernal Cry gem looks fantastic. I can't wait to see how it works with my build. 4. New "Undertaker" passive skill point is A-WE-SO-ME. 30% increased damage, 2% life regen and 2 additional corpses spawned for both desecrate and unearth. 5. Cyclone is nerfed and now we CAN be stunned while spinning. That's bad news but we will find some kind of solution. (Or maybe it's fine idk) 6. "Corpse Pact" ascendancy point is changed a bit. Now attack and cast speed buff is capped at 200%. I think it's good for us. If we wanted to use corpse pact pre 3.11 it was almost like balancing on top of the knife. Looks like now it should be fine. But prefer Commander of Darkness instead of Corpse Pact anyway. So looks like we are safe. Let's go! Last edited by SiCH13#4211 on Apr 16, 2021, 11:51:11 AM Last bumped on Aug 8, 2021, 1:07:35 PM
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Ah, this harkens back to zerphi pp vd a bit. HAd so much fun with that because VD is just such a fun skill to watch IMO. I may try VD later in league once i get my standard necro-ing out of the way.
Any thoughts on if its worth trying PPs again with the buffs this league? Last edited by Aevaris#1012 on Sep 17, 2019, 8:08:00 PM
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I didn't try new PP. They just reduced CD a bit as I remember. But it's still nerfed to the ground imo.
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This looks really fun. Im planning on trying this with a Trickster. It might be harder to get the same damage output, but it would probably be a bit more tanky with high Evasion+ES and the ghost shroud mechanic. Solution #2 wouldnt work obviously with Weave of Arcane. CI could be an option too, since its way easier to get ES than life in that area of the passive tree.
e: http://poeurl.com/cz9s this is what i first came up with as a tree. you could run discipline+anger+HoA with enlighten lvl 3. Last edited by jan_zippo#5575 on Sep 18, 2019, 7:54:29 AM
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Yeah, dude. CI version is what I want to try at some point. Trickster may be a great choice.
Last edited by SiCH13#4211 on Sep 18, 2019, 10:26:39 AM
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Playing around in PoB with some shaper CwC staves.
Basicly none is an upgrade over Disintegrator so am I missing something or is there nothing besides a mirror tier godly rolled rare, that might be an upgrade weapon wise? Currently trying to figure out where we might squeeze out more dmg besides better watchers eye. |
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@AisaHimegami
I'm also didn't find rare weapon that can be better then Disintegrator or Martyr of Innocence. There might be some kind of upgrade on the market but it's not budget at all. I think that jewels, rings and amulet can be upgraded because mine is basically trash. Belt is not great too. Helmet can be enchanted. Boots can be enchanted. So there are a lot of things to do. |
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I currently run this build with a 7l shaper staff with CwC and 20% Double Damage:
While it's damage isn't really any better than Disintegrator, it does have a couple major benefits. 1) You don't have to deal with the self-dot of Disintegrator. 2) You can drop down to literally just having 1 Fevered Mind Jewel and no other mana increasing effects - increased attack speed becomes a good thing because you need to get enough self-damage to consistently proc desecrate, and make enough corpses to allow Corpse Pact to take over and buff your attack speed to the moon. 3) You don't do phys damage anymore, so phys reflect maps become viable. While a typical 7l Shaper staff doesn't do MORE damage than Disintegrator, it doesn't do less either, and the other benefits are enough to make it super worthwhile once you can afford it. Last edited by JermStudDog#5455 on Sep 18, 2019, 3:09:01 PM
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Updated videos section. Added Uber Atziri full run. Using elemental reflect immune gear.
UPD: [3.8.1] Fix - Fixed a bug introduced in 3.8.0 where Volatile Dead's targeting was very indecisive. Last edited by SiCH13#4211 on Sep 18, 2019, 6:46:35 PM
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Ok Trickster might have been a bad choice xD. Im lvl 70 with 1,6k hp and 5,6k ES and just oneshotting myself from the 350phys dmg per minion since i have no armor what so ever. Or am i missing something? You are using Gluttony but dont die from the phys dmg?
e: ok ive found you can easily trigger your cwdt with Eye of Innocence https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Eye_of_Innocence aswell. You want to run combustion with it until your crit chance is high enough to rely on crit ignites alone Last edited by jan_zippo#5575 on Sep 19, 2019, 7:05:49 PM
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