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

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It is definitely one of the highest DPS potential builds post 3.15 nerfs but I would't honestly recommend it to you. It's got a lot of buttons to press and requires timing. It also doesn't clear as fast as an aurastacker build used to, and isn't near as tanky. True Aurastackers were a one-off thing - and they weren't clickbait either, just massively expensive to pull off and even worse in Standard of all places.

This hit harder than the nerf itself.

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Spacecom wrote:

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It is definitely one of the highest DPS potential builds post 3.15 nerfs but I would't honestly recommend it to you. It's got a lot of buttons to press and requires timing. It also doesn't clear as fast as an aurastacker build used to, and isn't near as tanky. True Aurastackers were a one-off thing - and they weren't clickbait either, just massively expensive to pull off and even worse in Standard of all places.

This hit harder than the nerf itself.

Ah, once in a while the moons align and GGG doesn't realise what a monster they've allowed to create. If you happen to have a good league or be a wealth-pusher (as I used to be) - you get to experience these crazy builds. My hobby has since just been maintaining this one build though, since RL + Work really doesn't allow for too much.

Suffice to say, glad that the build held out 3.15 nerfs, but if they target Leadership's Price, it's a huge kick in the nuts. Leadership's Price is 50% of this build's damage and we work so well with it because we get to very big maximum hits for very little investment (literally a level 72 facing shaper with 21 Desecrate will land a max damage corpse explosion if he has all the damage passives).

So once Price is hit, this build scuttles in terms of attractiveness. Or rather, it's more in line with every other build, and we will find other ways to scale it.

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Forcepath wrote:

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primaeva wrote:

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Forcepath wrote:

Excited to give this build a shot but never played arma brand before. is it just going to be standard to go the ignite arma route until transition? i'm a little out of my comfort zone doing a switch like this but you only learn by doing (and asking!)

Haha to walk the talk, I actually levelled as Arma brand and DIDN'T Ascend all the way to 70 and maps to show how strong Arma Brand was (5h~ run to maps with meal breaks etc.)

Arma Brand is just in a really good place. Only thing you may dislike is the number of buttons to press to get cremation DPS going for bosses but it's a bit of fun (Desecrate -> Cremate x 3 (or Unleash why not) -> Flame Wall).

Oh yeah, i've read all about the transition and will adhere to the suggestions! I'm mostly just worried about leveling as arma brand, never played it before so I'm a bit lost on how to optimize playing it until i get to 85 - i've been just kinda eyeballing it from your skill tree you posted but links and desecrate > cremate are things that I'm too nub to know as well as more experienced players. this is my league where i'm trying to learn way more :) I'm super excited to try it though and thanks for all the tips :)

OH!!!

Easy!

Check the Youtube Link to Imexiles run.

In the description he has a Gyazo link telling you EXACTLY what to do :) What links to buy, what to set up at what level.

It's massively useful because, for levelling ALMOST ANY CHARACTER - that setup would work. Of course only for second chars and non-league starts - league starts you want to be Templar or Witch for access to those gems, etc.

Well, that was easy. Thanks! Super excited to dive into this build, it seems like my cup of tea :D

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Forcepath wrote:

Well, that was easy. Thanks! Super excited to dive into this build, it seems like my cup of tea :D

Haha I hope so! Some people fall in love, because they're bored of one-button builds. Some people absolutely loathe it! The irony is, the better you get at the build, the fewer times you actually have to press a button. It is after all a brand build - drop brands, run around, that's the name of the game.

Final warning - MAKE SURE YOUR CPU IS READY FOR IT. This build stresses my computer out more than CP77 on full settings and Planet Zoo at 20,000 visitors or whatever.

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Forcepath wrote:

Excited to give this build a shot but never played arma brand before. is it just going to be standard to go the ignite arma route until transition? i'm a little out of my comfort zone doing a switch like this but you only learn by doing (and asking!)

Regular Arma, not ignite. After losing the ignite multiplier, you're really better off just going plain castspeed and fire damage. And really, the only change between regular arma and VD playstyle is using 2 brands instead of 1, and keeping track of brands (to prevent the same brands being attached to a boss) Generally you should only use the second set if there's two separate groups or if the first set is about to expire, rather than arma's spam brand until you're sure the group will be nuked (1 brand sufficient for whites, though more if there're magic or rare mob in the group). Because of mechanics it also inherently means you can only take on 2 groups at a time rather than up to 5 (assuming you got 2 extra brands), leading to a slightly slower, more methodical playstyle.

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Psaakyrn wrote:

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Forcepath wrote:

Excited to give this build a shot but never played arma brand before. is it just going to be standard to go the ignite arma route until transition? i'm a little out of my comfort zone doing a switch like this but you only learn by doing (and asking!)

Regular Arma, not ignite. After losing the ignite multiplier, you're really better off just going plain castspeed and fire damage. And really, the only change between regular arma and VD playstyle is using 2 brands instead of 1, and keeping track of brands (to prevent the same brands being attached to a boss) Generally you should only use the second set if there's two separate groups or if the first set is about to expire, rather than arma's spam brand until you're sure the group will be nuked (1 brand sufficient for whites, though more if there're magic or rare mob in the group). Because of mechanics it also inherently means you can only take on 2 groups at a time rather than up to 5 (assuming you got 2 extra brands), leading to a slightly slower, more methodical playstyle.

Yeah. I realise a huge power trough for most newcomers is the stage where they face maps with raised elemental resistance and all of a sudden the build slows to a crawl, because there is no inbuilt Fire Pen.

Shroud of the Lightless is actually a good pseudo 6L filler in this respect. Fire Pen / Awakened Fire Pen makes map clearing MUCH smoother, because so much of our resist shred is conditional until Leadership's Price somewhat - but even that needs a secondary hit to get work done.

This is likely a horribly stupid question, but I figure it's better to ask and understand rather than not ask and not understand.

Hypothetically speaking, if one decided to run with Arcanist Brand in a 6-Link chest, would it be better to put both Desecrate and VD in said chest for, effectively, a double 5-Link, or would it still be more DPS to run with a 4-Link dedicated to Desecrate and the 6-Link dedicated to VD?

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Rinaea wrote:

This is likely a horribly stupid question, but I figure it's better to ask and understand rather than not ask and not understand.

Hypothetically speaking, if one decided to run with Arcanist Brand in a 6-Link chest, would it be better to put both Desecrate and VD in said chest for, effectively, a double 5-Link, or would it still be more DPS to run with a 4-Link dedicated to Desecrate and the 6-Link dedicated to VD?

It's a great question and commonly asked! It will work for clear, but on bossing it will fall off. The damage loss is far more than losing 1-link worth of damage - because of the Desecrate corpse cap, the "single brand" x 2 will ALWAYS function like this:

Desecrate - Desecrate (wasted corpses) - VD - VD (no corpses to use)

Resulting in not just one effective brand attached to the enemy, but a much slower ramping of Corpse Pact since you are only blowing up half the corpses in the same amount of time.

So it may work for mapping fast with all the corpses around from killing - absolutely spec that if you're speed farming.

If you're into bossing or don't mind slowwww boss kills (actually, once you hit endgame and aren't fighting Sirus/Maven/Shaper and the Ubers, the gimped brand is more than enough to nuke down regular T16 map bosses really.) - do the single-brand thing.

I see, that makes a lot of sense. Thank you!

I'm trying to put together a homebrew hipster tanky lowlife version of this build, but due to a lack good offensive auras for VD I'm running into some damage problems on Scourge bosses in T15-T16 maps, so I'm trying to look into ways of increasing my damage. I should mention I'm only on a 5-Link right now and not a 6-Link yet, but the last link won't exactly triple my damage either, to put it that way, so there is work to be done.

Thus far I'm running defensive auras, namely Purity of Elements, Determination, Grace, Defiance Banner, Discipline and Vitality. Once I annoint my amulet with Charisma I'll be able to add another 50% aura to that mix, I'm thinking Haste for the increased cast- and movement speed. Ideally I'd want an aura that gives a lot of raw power, but as far as I understand the only real other option would be Anger, and that doesn't affect the corpse explosion part of VD unless it's used in tandem with an Anger Watcher's Eye with Fire Penetration or something along those lines.

I really enjoy the build though, it feels so darn tanky. Even 200 stacks of Scourge in T16 maps is very relaxing and non-threatening, it's just the damage that's a bit bad due to no Leadership's Price.

One idea I'm toying with is running Leadership's Price alongside something which mitigates the dangers of stuns, a Valyrium for example. Of course it won't be as good as the life version as that has the advantage of taking highly efficient staff nodes for some crit scaling to make Leadership's Price pop off.