[3.11] VoliDead/DD LL MB Spellslinger - IcarusTheMox - Moxelli (All content, league starter)

[3.11] Volatile Dead + Detonate Dead Spellslinger - LL and Max Block Necromancer

Hello everyone!

This is my first guide, so please bear with me for some of this, I am still learning the ropes of writing a guide.

PoB links are for PoB Fork!!!

Updates for build 2.0 are below! See comprehensive guide for ideal end-game gear.

--- Life Guide Updated ---
Spoiler
For the life version of this build, we are running into a sever price spike on the cluster jewels. Because of that, I have included a PoE Planner link with no cluster jewels in the tree. Your best bet is to use this build for maximum DPS. This should get you to T16 maps. You might die a little bit along the way, but your DPS should be there.



This build focuses on getting to 95. For your last 5 levels, pick up all the remaining jewel sockets available that are withing 1-2 on your tree. You should get another 3. Simply add Life + Fire Damage Abyssal Jewels, or add Life % + Fire Damage Plain Jewels.

On the tree as well, we picked up a +1 Endurance Charge passive for the benefit of using our Enduring Cry. This skill is incredibly broken now, use it while we have it. It provides us more survivability and a burst heal that we can use in a pinch. It is a must run on every build now IMO (even ES due to Zealot's Oath).


The other common issue I have seen with people is they struggle with getting enough mana reserved available for my final Spellslinger loops listed below. This can be done by getting a Conqueror's Efficiency Jewel and an Alpha Howl Helm. They are required for the Life Version to run my layout of Gems. If you remove Fire Penetration for Hypothermia, you can get rid of Conqueror's Efficiency Jewel. Additionally if you take Champion the Cause as your anointment on your amulet, you can remove the top left -4% Mana Reserved passive for another Jewel Socket.


Gear:

Your end-game gear for the life version on budget is going to be rather similar your final DPS life version listed below. The only difference is that I have found a few pieces of gear that are very budget, but that help a LOT with survivability.

Spoiler
First off, as stated above, Conqueror's Efficiency and Alpha's Howl are a must. The benefit of the -% Mana Reservation are required. The Cannot Be Frozen is a nice benefit as well.


Next, try to find a set of rings that have the modifier +X LIFE GAINED FOR EACH ENEMY HIT BY YOUR SPELLS. This passive regen is going to be one of your best bets for gaining life back quickly. Getting it on both rings as high as possible with + Maximum Life is worth it.


Additionally, focus on getting % Fire Damage Leeched as Life on an Elder Amulet as soon as possible. Find as much life as possible on the amulet as well.

Next, try to get % Cooldown on a belt that will fit your needs. It doesn't need to be perfect stats, but make sure it is a max 20% roll. Without your helm Enchantment this will help give you the biggest non-sheet DPS boost in your build. Find the same modifier at 15% on your boots.


For gems, as stated below, only use Barrage w/ Faster Attacks Support. Don't use Frenzy unless you can roll gloves with Supported by Level 18-20 Faster Attacks. You can get rid of this setup once you get an Awakened Curse on Hit Support and can go double curse.

Lastly, focus on at least getting your Rumi's and Wise Oak. Get as high of a roll set as you can afford. These will help with your DPS and help you make an noticeable impact with your Max Block setup.




This last league for 3.10 I had the joy of starting league with playing Spellslinger. I messed around with a variety of options for it, and ended up seeing a few people running VoliDead. I always wanted to try it, and gave it a go... I haven't looked back since!

A lot of the players and guides I saw were not very finished at the time, and none of them were for LL, so the end goal for me in designing this build was to go a good sustain build that had high damage, high survivability, and good damage from Pain Attunement.


The entire premise of this build that differs from other VDSS builds is the ability for us to stack extra damage off of the corpse explosions from both VD and DD. Although we don't focus on stacking for pure critical damage on VD, we do still obtain a high amount of DPS. Not including the corpse explosions, we look to do almost 7mil Shaper DPS with just out VD orbs. This build can do a LOT of damage.

Videos:

Spoiler


I apologize for the poor video quality, some of them lost frames on the filming. The Vulcan rendering still has some issues with my recording software. I will try to upload better quality videos as I get them!

Conquerors:

Baran: https://streamable.com/lpn9y5
Drox: https://streamable.com/3g36f0
Veritania: https://streamable.com/ry2oel
Al-Hez: https://streamable.com/1zj9uc

Uber/Elder/Shaper:

Uber: https://streamable.com/yyi9r3
Elder: https://streamable.com/11j98e
Shaper: https://streamable.com/1vmwm7

A8 Sirus:
2nd phase: https://streamable.com/en1h9y

Again, sorry for poor video quality, I will work on better recordings!


Pros:
Solid league start.
Fast farming.
Boss killer.
Good survivability.
Looks really really cool.

Cons:
Can be tough to balance some holes in your gear.
No extra gem sockets. (Can use Unset rings to add a portal gem if needed.)
Elemental Reflect on maps.
High strength/dex requirements.
Cannot run Atziri in HC. (In SC you usually die 2-3 times, but she will die.)
Might melt your GFX card. New Vulcan render makes it a lot better, but it is still a tax on even the CPU.



The Build:

POB:
Spoiler


Leveling Tree:
Spoiler

Level 35:

Bandits: Kill
Ascend: Plaguebringer - Corpse Pact

Pick your own skill to level with until you hit 35. From this point on, swap to getting a link combination going of at least these two setups + Herald of Ash:




Level 60:

Ascend: Mistress of Sacrifice

From this point on, your goal is going to be trying to get your Cluster Jewels sorted and bought as quickly as possible. The priority in your jewels is to get Sadist, Prismatic Heart as your Large Jewels, with any additional mod; and then get a Medium that has Cooked Alive and Master of Fire. The Small Jewels can be stacked for ES using Energy From Naught, or for Maximum Life/Resistances.



Leveling Final Life:

Note that the 28 unallocated points are for your Cluster Jewels.

Ascend: Commander of Darkness

Pantheon: Soul of Solaris, Soul of Shakari


Gems:
Spoiler

VoliDead:

The reason I go with the Fire Penetration over other runes, is that the elemental resistance penetration is what helps this build stack on so much damage. We do mainly all fire damage, so the more we can lower the enemies resistance, the more we will scale FAR more damage than if we stacked spell damage.

Desecrate/Detonate Dead:

This is where my build starts to change from other builds that people run. I focus on passive damage from our corpse explosions from both VD and DD to stack extra damage. If you notice our PoB damage for even a normal base mob at level 80 with no extra maximum life scaling, we are still triggering a corpse explosion of 150k+ every time we have VD/DD trigger. That is a MASSIVE amount of extra damage if you multiply that by the 48+ (potentially 60) VD triggers we have per a second. We will be spawning a minimum of 48+ corpses a second with max CD on our boots/belt.

Gloves:

With the change to Corpse Pact capping at 200% IAS, we need to have access to Supported by Faster Attacks and IAS on our gloves. For this reason, Barrage loop with double curse is a required slot and gem setup.
Another HUGE requirement is Barrage. The reason is because Barrage fires projectiles in a sequence allowing Spellslinger to be tricked. It tricks it by acting as a "channeling" and allowing Spellslinger to finish, and then repeat itself multiple times in the time Barrage is chaining is sequenced projectiles. DO NOT GO FRENZY, it will have a small lapse in casting the sequence from Spellslinger, and you won't get the full rotation of all Spellslinger spells withing the cooldown period.


Wand

With the Trigger a Socketed Spell on our wand, we again, must run these gems in that slot. The reason is that we mainly just want the -% Fire Resistance from Combustion + WoC to trigger at least every 4 seconds. It is closer to 3 seconds once we have all of our CD, meaning they will have permanent debuffs.

Max Block with Bone Offering is another mandatory gem. Keeping this up constantly from the trigger passive will help a lot with not having to remember to keep it up. Our Max Block is what gives us so much of our survivability to this build.

The rest of the links:





Gear:
Spoiler

Required Gear LL:
Spoiler


As with most LL builds the common Shavs + Presence are a required BiS for this build. Your other required piece of gear for BiS is Crown of the Inward Eye.


The biggest requirement for gear though, is the "Spellslinger has % Cooldown Recovery". There is no contest here. You will do more damage if your spells trigger faster, than you will by stacking more auras from open mana with reduced Spellslinger reservation. DO NOT FALL FOR THE RESERVATION TRAP.


The final piece of required gear is your Wand. In reality you only have 1 open suffix on this Wand if it rolls correctly. Your other required pieces are at least 1 suffix open for "Trigger a Socketed Spell", along with this order of stats:
Added Fire Damage to Attacks
Added Fire (Or another element) Damage to Spells (Ideal is w/ Crusader Fire Penetration as well.)
Increased Physical Damage / Added Physical Damage to Attacks
+1 to All Fire Spell Skill Gems

For leveling or during mapping feel free to use a well rolled Obliteration.


You will want to try to craft one, so use Essences to craft it!



Ideal End-game Gear:
Spoiler
The name of the game for our End-game Gear for both LL and Life is going to be stacking Resistance, Stats, and Cooldown where we can. If you can afford to get these covered on your boots, gloves, and belt, then your focus for your rings is to stack as much damage as possible by Added Fire Damage to Spells.


Again, stack CD were possible, it is BiS mod for both these spots. If you are LL look for a Crystal Belt with % ES and as high ES as possible. For the boots, get Elusive on Crit and CD as well. Stack speed, and then ES/Life and Resistances.


For LL this is going to be a HUGE survivability boost to get a shield like this over Prism Guardian. Prism Guardian is good for pumping out as much DPS as possible (I have a pure DPS version at the bottom of the post), but it makes you lose too much ES and forfeit the ES on block.


Supported by Faster Attacks + Culling Strike will be your BiS for gloves. Get the highest ES you can on a Fingerless Silk Glove base. Stack Stats or Resistances where possible too.


This is another option for the build if you want to get Ailment Immunity. We get Cannot be Frozen on our boots, so we can cover the other two with this belt. Although we forfeit some ES, we don't have to stack stats as high in other slots, and we can forfeit our burning immunity on flasks. Again, not BiS, but a good option for being more tanky.


If you can fit a Circle Ring with both these Herald of Ash mods into your build, do it. It can offer you a rather large DPS boost. This is BiS for at least one of your rings. If you can find the gear and rolls to allow you to do so, use two copies.

Flasks:

For LL use these 5. For Life, swap out Cinderswallow or Quicksliver.

Jewels:


These mods are going to be your BiS for your Clusters and your LL jewels. Two of the most important mods are the Corrupted Blood Immunity (for Sirus) and the +ES on Spell Hit while effected by Discipline. More Discipline mods for survivability, or Damage Penetrates/More Fire Damage from Anger for more DPS.

As for the Cluster Jewels, these mods give you both much needed Resistances and a substantial DPS boost. Sadist is unique with this build, and one of our aces. With the Necromancer Ascendency we always chill and shock when we spawn a corpse. Our Vaal Detonate Dead and WoC+Combustion ignite. We will always have a +60% Elemental Damage increase per a Jewel for a total of 120% constantly.

Thunderstruck is in a weird place right now. This is something that might change. As per the patch notes, Thunderstruck was not functioning properly last season. This might not trigger as often as I thought it should due to our lower chance to crit. BUT we may attack so often and so fast, our ~12% chance might be enough to trigger it. This will need to be tested during league.


Life Gear Version:
Spoiler
Life Gear is built upon only three primary pieces of gear for BiS, along with a few mods from other slots that are ideal. The rest is up to the freedom of you the player to decide what is needed. I would recommend to passively stack Evasion with your Max Block. Ideal stats for your shield as well being either a solid life shield or a % Life Recovered when you Block.


These will still be your BiS regardless of Life or LL. Don't get the reduced mana reservation for Spellslinger Enchantment... it is a trap! Another option for a solid helm is Alpha Howl, due to the Reduced Mana Reservation and the Cannot be Frozen. Cold Resistance and high Evasion make it a solid tie for BiS.



For boots and belt, get CD as your primary goal, with Elusive as a secondary mod on boots. For gloves, get Support by Faster Attacks. Otherwise, stack life on each piece as well. For your belt base, look for a solid Stygian Vise, and for your boots look for a solid pair of Two-tone evasion boots.



Alternate DPS PoB:
Spoiler

This alternate build version is shown without a Circle of Anguish Ring. That will be BiS for this build version as well. Try to get one if possible!



When you make your eventual switch to LL from your Life/Leveling version, be sure you have your gear set. This build is not forgiving for only roughly transitioning in pieces. GET ALL YOUR GEAR SET, then swap over. They don't need to be perfect rolls, but make sure you at least have your LL set with Shavs+Presence, and the preferred helm enchantment.

Additionally, people have PMd me that their damage is very low compared to mine. Most of the time the issue has been the wand. Do NOT skimp on your Wand, get the good rolls or craft on yourself. Trying to do this build with a sub-par Wand is not worth it. What makes this build so effective is because Spellslinger likes to double dip off of Wand attack damage and add it to your spells. You can get a LOT more damage off of Fire to Attacks than you can on spells!

If you have questions about the build, PM me anytime in game, or on Discord at: IcarusTheMox#3672


Videos of future kills of Sirus A8 will be posted, as well as new league content! Thank you all for reading through my guide, I hope it helped and gave you a good foundation for starting out with your VDSS/DD character. Best of luck this next league, happy farming!

I will be doing a SSFHC version of this on Twitch starting on Sunday! Come by and say hello and ask questions. (I know, a few days late to league start, but duty calls! I have a Fire Shift!)


-IcarusTheMox
Last edited by frisbeeicarus23#4990 on Jun 25, 2020, 6:49:41 PM
Last bumped on Aug 19, 2020, 11:01:14 AM
Thx for guide! Trying spellslinger start atm. GGG just killed all my other options by patchnotes and gem reveal :D
Tree on poe site or poeplanner always feels better for leveling trees (especially when provider blocks pastebin, lol). Poeplanner tree already updated to 3.11.
And good luck with ssfhc league start :)
Thanks for the suggestion, I will see if I can get that swapped over!
Videos are now uploaded, enjoy!
well written guide thanks!
Please update pob link, its not working on the new version of pob
Will do, I am away from my computer for the day, I will post and updated PoB as soon as possible!

Try PoBFork, that is what this was made in.
Last edited by frisbeeicarus23#4990 on Jun 19, 2020, 2:07:33 PM
Wouldnt be Essence Glutton a good idea? Instead of killing all bandits, help Alira to counter the ele res loss.
"
skenar wrote:
Please update pob link, its not working on the new version of pob


Are you using the community fork? It's working fine for me.

Giving this build a shot for league start.
POB Planner Skill Tree links are up!

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