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

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primaeva wrote:

It's not terrible, it's about 20% more crit at full Brittle, but at high levels I do believe the build actually hits max crit WITHOUT Diamond Flask, so it's dropped.

At that point Bottled Faith is the better DPS flask, or you can get defenses from a ToH e.g., or these new cool flasks everyone seems to be running!

What cool new flasks do you mean?

Got lucky enough to hit lvl18 Conc on my 2nd Horror and got me thinking more that I don't have a good grasp of the aoe mechanics on the corpse explosions.

Any specific thresholds related to either desecrate or VD area scaling we should be watching for?

The random things running through my head:

I'm guessing we want Desecrate AOE tight to maximise Single Target overlaps (so 0 quality Cascade)?

Does scaling VD aoe increase the size of the corpse explosions or just the area the spell is cast over to catch the corpses? In which case it's nice having increases where it's not costing us anything and a 23% quality cascade would be preferable.

Or is the difference in AOE so small there that pushing desecrate out to max would do a little more to help clearing scourge without actually hurting bossing?

Or is it more a case of the differences being so tiny that it really doesn't matter and I'm totally overthinking this?

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TsuDhoNim wrote:

Got lucky enough to hit lvl18 Conc on my 2nd Horror and got me thinking more that I don't have a good grasp of the aoe mechanics on the corpse explosions.

Any specific thresholds related to either desecrate or VD area scaling we should be watching for?

The random things running through my head:

I'm guessing we want Desecrate AOE tight to maximise Single Target overlaps (so 0 quality Cascade)?

Does scaling VD aoe increase the size of the corpse explosions or just the area the spell is cast over to catch the corpses? In which case it's nice having increases where it's not costing us anything and a 23% quality cascade would be preferable.

Or is the difference in AOE so small there that pushing desecrate out to max would do a little more to help clearing scourge without actually hurting bossing?

Or is it more a case of the differences being so tiny that it really doesn't matter and I'm totally overthinking this?

You lucky SoB lol. I'm like 3 ex worth of Horrors in on my helm. Haven't got squat.

As to the AOE thing. I have no idea. I just wanted to call you a lucky SoB lol

Hello guys, im kind of new to the game, just played a couple of leagues here.
I really like the build mechanist and its really fun, just starting btw.
Just got a 2 ex to invest right now to the build, wondering what can i do to be a little bit more tanky, because im dying quite a lot, i know that im under lvl to really perform with the build yet...
Wondering if u can give me some advice, thank you!!

Great build btw :)

here is my pob https://pastebin.com/tX2KqgWg

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Sitoandre wrote:

Wondering if u can give me some advice, thank you!!

The gem setup is a little off there.

You want your links (say gloves) to be Red Red Green Blue with CWDT - Immortal Call - Ball Lightning - Blind. You'd want your CWDT connected to your ball lightning for it to automatically trigger and apply the blinds (and eventually to help heal you with life gain).

Eventually you'll want to upgrade those gloves to a pair of Shaper global Blind on Hit gloves, VD does a better job blinding than BL would here, and swap the Blind gem for a blue Frost Shield gem which helps more with defense.

Your other setup (say boots) would be BBRG with Arcanist Brand - Spell Cascade - Inspiration - Desecrate.

Having the Spell Cascade with the Desecrate is vital to have enough corpses for your spell cascaded VD to detonate. This will provide more damage rather than direct defense but when the enemies are dead they can't hurt you so it totally counts in my book.

Glancing at your profile (I don't have PoB available at the minute) you don't appear to be using any of the new 'masteries' available. There's some big gains to be made there switching around some of your current points on the tree.

To kick it up another level and a big reason you're finding it tough is you'd like to pick up some Life Gain on Spell Hit shaper rings.

You can buy any decent ilvl (haven't checked the levels required) shaped base and self craft those using "caster" rolls in Harvest. To start with you want the prefix life gain on spell hit and a prefix free for minus mana cost, but eventually you might like to upgrade those to rings with reduce effect of curse mods too. A little tougher to do given the more you demand from your ring slots the less room you have for life/res/cast speed/damage that needs to be filled elsewhere, but they'll save your life often.

You already have Fenn's boots, a big part of getting solid ES sustain with ES on your hits, but you'll need to add an "Aspect of the Spider" mod to one of your items in order to get those benefits. For that you'll need an open sufix on one of your items to craft it onto. One of the folks playing trade might be kind enough to offer help with the craft if you need it. Getting the aspect up and running also slows down enemies a lot so you'll avoid a lot more of the incoming damage.


- So use a few chromes to switch some gems around.

- Swap a couple of passive points around (I'd probably drop the 3 points to Blast Radius just now and grab 10% life from a life mastery wheel, brands reattach to another enemy on a brand wheel and 5th skill refund from a mana wheel or increased effect of offering if you're not hitting mana challenges)

- Then look into gear upgrades of an Aspect craft, blind on hit shaper gloves, life gain on spell hit shaper rings and then follow Prima's normal upgrade advice from there.

Guess who just vendored this staff by accident :(((((((((((((



It was so insane for clearing. Sigh.

Anyone can help me on what should I upgrade next . Cause right now I am struggling with tier16 bosses . not dying . Damage is low . idk if something is wrong with my gem setup or I have something missing that's crucial.

Any Advice would be appreciated .

Pob (https://pastebin.com/sSH4JMGw)

thanks.

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Rukurio wrote:

Anyone can help me on what should I upgrade next . Cause right now I am struggling with tier16 bosses . not dying . Damage is low . idk if something is wrong with my gem setup or I have something missing that's crucial.

Any Advice would be appreciated .

Pob (https://pastebin.com/sSH4JMGw)

thanks.

Everything looks in order and you should be dumpstering bosses. Of course, you should buy a Desecrate L20 ASAP. Finally, please send a vid of you struggling with a boss or two. Use streamable.com to host a quick one!

If anyone still cares, I have done several ravaged blighted maps and Maven's deathless (memory game death's don't count, right?) and that was only with a 30% ele dmg/hypothermia helmet, so still far away from max potential.
Build is in a very good spot, I will stop playing it soon though, been long enough.

At the risk of sounding lazy/stupid.
How do we become more tanky? Im currently close to the initial 5 day 3.16 (as listed on page 1) build/setup.

What does the vanity jewel do? From my understanding it depends on the number and where its allocated, how do i get the right one? (besides they are expensive)

What would be my first big upgrade that i should focus on?

Thanks a lot in advance!