[3.14] Gryph's Thirsty Archmage Cremation Necromancer

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FirewalkerPuncher wrote:

Hey, this is one of the most fun builds I've ever played, but I'm running into some issues now. I just tried the Sirus fight and don't seem to have the DPS to take him down, plus it took forever - probably 15+ minutes to get him to about 1/4 health but then those last few beams started killing me.

Any tips on upgrades to my gear or skill tree?

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FirewalkerPuncher wrote:

Hey, this is one of the most fun builds I've ever played, but I'm running into some issues now. I just tried the Sirus fight and don't seem to have the DPS to take him down, plus it took forever - probably 15+ minutes to get him to about 1/4 health but then those last few beams started killing me.

Any tips on upgrades to my gear or skill tree?

Thanks - I appreciate it.

"

Gryphenprey wrote:

Hi Everyone! I'd like to introduce my league starter from 3.11

The Thirsty Cremation Archmage Necromancer!!!

Spoiler

3.13 Update

Took a relatively small hit to damage and mana. Nothing backbreaking in the least and should be an excellent league starter for 3.13 as the nature of cremation will be amazing for rituals and the new atlas boss fighting mechanics.

Gameplay Videos

Uber Elder Deathless. Easy Mode
Minotaur Run. Build Game Play Demo
A game play video of Minotaur but with the end game setup.

Awakener Level 8 Sirus
Died once because I didn't have corrupted blood immunity on a jewel yet. (lol whoops)

Shaper Run

T10 Redeemer. Low tier gear.

POBS

3.13 ready:
https://pastebin.com/AU5artqm

old pobs

This is the min-maxed end game "pretty close to the best you can expect" POB original theorycraft:
https://pastebin.com/bbV03kqa

This is the "I'm still level 88 on league starter gear" POB:
https://pastebin.com/xCxnCFwY

This is the "I'm 94 and I've got good gear but still not min-maxed" POB
https://pastebin.com/geTUeSiE

This is the "I've done basically all of the end game" level 95 POB
https://pastebin.com/b2CfYNQr
Min-maxing still happening.

Mechanical Mumbo Jumbo (WITH PICTURES!)

Below are some of the mechanics/keystones/interactions that we'll be taking advantage of. I don't feel like explaining it too much at the moment (I will as I evolve the guide) but BASICALLY:

This+Massive Mana Regen=massive life sustain. Like almost 2k per second life recovery. Makes Lab Traps pretty trivial. Also allows for sustaining Righteous Fire.

Big mana? Make it work FOR YOU! MoM is not hard to explain.

8% over 2 seconds amounts to 4% per second. This counts as REGENERATION. For mana regen, 4% is HUGE. Cloak of Defiance gives 1%. Let that sink in. This is just one way the Necro outperforms Mr. Heiro.

+

A really nice boost. We get to take advantage of our massive mana pool for offense AND defense here AND we get the added benefit of recovering 20% of our max mana after we consume most of it to Cloak. Excellent synergy.

How She Works

The simple explanation is that we use Desecrate to spawn corpses and to trigger our helmet. We cast Cremation on a corpse, let it kill everything in sight and move on. It feels a lot like Vortex/Coldsnap in a lot of ways.

I like to use this helmet to spam debuffing spells.

In particular:
Wave of Conviction
Blade Blast (Unnerves)
Elemental Weakness
Increased Critical Strikes Support (for consistent Elemental Overload up-time)

To proc the helmet reliably we want to get Desecrate to at least 100 mana cost.

This requires at least a level 18 gem and a 5L:
Desecrate - Spell Cascade - Arcane Surge (Level 20, NOT 21*) - Increased Duration - Faster Casting (from Shaper Gloves)

*Level 20 Arcane Surge Requires 400 Mana to proc, level 21 needs 461 mana. This means 1 more cast to trigger Arcane Surge buff at no extra benefit.

Additionally we need to place

In the Templar's Jewel Socket:


This gives an additional 20% Increased Mana cost, bringing our 5L Desecrate to over 100 mana and providing a MASSIVE boost to Cremation's damage.

Gear

Required Gear

These items aren't REQUIRED but are more or less BIS outside of disgusting rares.

The Helmet

As noted above:

This is core to the build. If for some reason you don't want to use this piece, the next best option would be:

Helmet Enchant

"Cremation can have up to 1 additional geyser" is the best possible helmet enchant we can get. It is however somewhat difficult to get these on unique helmets. So if there are none on the market one option you have is to get it on a plain Zealot Helmet (buy or enchanted fossil spam) and then chance it into Kitava's.

Gloves

Gloves are the best place to get a good chunk of Dexterity that we need.

Rares with Life+Mana+Dex+Res.

Boots

As it turns out, the best boot option IMO are Skyforth's.

Brine King Pantheon is not enough stun resistance for me. If you don't have these you will get stunned every 2 seconds from blocking/taking hits and your casts will routinely get interrupted...so...Yeah get these if you can.

Otherwise a rare will suffice. If you go this route I would highly suggest spending 5 points for Unwavering stance or getting other means of stun immunity

Spoiler

Life+Mana+Movement Speed+Resists

Enchant: 70% increased mana regeneration rate if you've cast a spell recently.

Rings

Life+Mana+Mana Regeneration Rate+Resists. Cerulean or Unset bases are best.

Belt

Something similar to this. Life, Mana, Mana Recovery Rate, and resists.

Bonus: You can make a belt with Mana Recovery Rate and Life recovery rate (multiplies The Agnostic recovery). Stygian bases will be best but obviously very expensive. Leather belts work otherwise.

Weapon

You guessed it...MANA, MANA REGEN, and some damage mods if you can get them. Mana is damage so get as much as possible. Open Suffix for Trigger craft also highly recommended.

Shield

Life+Mana and then fill out what you need from there. Spell Block is next highest priority, but this is also a great place to get some resists if you need them.

For you fancy folks, you can do something like the Chimeric Watch one above. Can also go for the defensive shield with minimum endurance charges instead of frenzy charges.

Jewels

Spoiler

This jewel gives 14% mana recovery rate when placed in this spot. If you upgrade it to Transcendent Mind you'll get 19% mana recovery rate (obviously better). The int node in red is worth 5% mana recovery rate with Transcendent Mind if you want to spend the 2 points on it but probably not worth.

Use this if you feel your mana regen is not enough or you don't have a Watcher's Eye. Eventually you'll drop it but for the 1c price tag it's a pretty nice boost.

Spoiler

Unnatural Instinct is best here, giving us the surrounding mana, AOE, cast speed, and duration nodes. If you cannot afford it yet, Might of the Meek is also quite good:

It uses 2 more points for the mana nodes. Also loses access to Ash, Frost, and Storm and Shaper notables in its radius. Still great for the life+mana.

Use in one of your small cluster jewel slots. This is important because is passively maintains Essence Glutton Ascendancy bonuses. We tend to lapse in consumption otherwise (particularly with bosses where you want to walk/dodge and not always cast a cremation every 2 seconds). The extra life+mana recovery are also quite nice.

Use this if you do not have a Clarity Watcher's Eye yet.
For a Watcher's Eye you want:

This adds a TON of eHP to the build.
For example, if you have 4,000 Life with Cloak of Defiance, you're eHP with 40% of damage taken from mana before life is 6,666. If you add another 10% with the watcher's eye mom you go up to 8,000 eHP. That's 1,334 more effective health. That's *massive*

Spoiler

Put Healthy Mind here:

You may want to wait on this until you've got some decent life gear as you will miss out on a big chunk of life. That said, if you want more damage+mana this is definitely the way to do it. This was a 23% more damage upgrade for me at the cost of 600 life. Ultimately you will want this for a min-maxed character

Gems and Links

6L in chest:

4 triggered gems in helmet:

Chaos Golem is the flex slot. You can use whatever you like there

3L Trigger Weapon:

Void Sphere is very strong with cremation and looks especially good in Ritual League to suck in all the enemies onto our Cremation Geysers.

4L

4L Movement:

2L Desecrate

Random Sockets, good for Unsets or empty slots.

Also if you do not have a Clarity Watcher's Eye, it's not even needed as it doesn't provide a substantial amount of regen.

Leveling

Leveling with this build is fairly simple.

Leveling 1-28:
DO WHAT YOU WANT :D

Stormblast Mines+Orb of Storms is pretty good.

At level 28 you can start using Cremation. This skill is powerful enough in its own right to carry you the rest of the way. Start using archmage after normal lab (Essence Glutton) and it should be pretty smooth sailing from there.

You may also choose to use Uleash+Archmage+Detonate Dead+Spell Cascade 4L to help with clearing faster. Up to you though.

Bandits, Pantheon, Ascendancies

Bandits:
Kill All.

Pantheon:
Soul of the Brine King to help with stuns if you do not have Skyforth's yet.

Soul of Arakaali for extra resistance to dots/chaos and reduced effect of shock

For small pantheon, I use Shakari for chaos/poison mitigation.

Ascendancies:
Essence Glutton -> Plaguebringer -> Corpse Pact -> Mistress of Sacrifice

In that order.

Map Mods

There are a few map mods to avoid or be careful about. The obvious ones to avoid are: No Life/Mana Regen and Elemental Reflect.

The less obvious ones that you want to pay attention to are:

Physical Reflect. We cast leveled Wave of Conviction and Blade Blast that do decent damage. You can definitely one-shot yourself with this. Easy fix is to swap it for a level 1 gem for these maps.

Reduced Block Chance. Mostly just a bit of a nuisance as it guts one of our primary defense mechanics. You can still run them of course, just try not to tank mobs while doing so. :P

This is a work in progress but I think I've ironed out the theorycraft pretty well so far. Will put more work into the guide as I have time.

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Lastobeliskx wrote:

Hey this build looks fantastic! I am really struggling with pastebin, anyway you can send it to me a different way please?