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

"

TsuDhoNim wrote:

"

primaeva wrote:

Well I'm 700+ depth now, and finally hit a 6-Link just in time for the harder content!

Hahaha... 700 on a 5 link and inside the top 50 is nutty. I'd expect to see the guide seeing a lot more traffic in 3.17!

Amazing work.

"

wastestime wrote:

So i've finally been able to acquire woke spell cascade and I found cane of kulemak in my syndicate and got an okay roll with no cast speed.
I'm working on a rare one right now but it doesnt have +1 all spells.
current pob:
https://pastebin.com/8Rm8rmeG

It seems like I lose DPS if i swap to the rare.

rare maven invitation with 10 bosses feels a little rough without the life gained on spell hit which I'm working on right now to fix things up, but I can do all maps with really nice solo target dps on unique bosses.

Still think my fps dying during key moments are primary reasons for my deaths.

I hop on my totem build for boss content that I cant handle comfortably.

"

primaeva wrote:

"

wastestime wrote:

So i've finally been able to acquire woke spell cascade and I found cane of kulemak in my syndicate and got an okay roll with no cast speed.
I'm working on a rare one right now but it doesnt have +1 all spells.
current pob:
https://pastebin.com/8Rm8rmeG

It seems like I lose DPS if i swap to the rare.

rare maven invitation with 10 bosses feels a little rough without the life gained on spell hit which I'm working on right now to fix things up, but I can do all maps with really nice solo target dps on unique bosses.

Still think my fps dying during key moments are primary reasons for my deaths.

I hop on my totem build for boss content that I cant handle comfortably.

Haha glad to hear it's working for ya!

Haha the rare only has 23% cast speed over it. It's good news though - if you feel like you are losing DPS, it means you are already very good at keeping up the cast speed high from going fast, so the effect of 23% cast speed is almost negligible for you and is hitting DR.

The 60% diff in crit mult is no small matter!!

On FPS issues - try DD out for a few maps!! I actually used DD to clear Nem3 maps because it was roasting even my computer (RTX 2070 and a high-end i7.. jeez GGG.)

On normal gameplay I actually have to disable sound (production_config.ini -> soundeffects2=false) and that also massively helps framerates. Sad but TRUE :(

"

primaeva wrote:

"

TsuDhoNim wrote:

"

primaeva wrote:

Imma see how far this build can go in the SSF environment.

Endless Delving? Nice.

I've a tab set up for it already and dropping in any potential items. If I ever get to the point I think the mana sustain wouldn't be a big bottleneck it'll be an instant reroll for me.

For now, with pride/bets on the line, I had to go a bit less gear dependent. Keep us up to date how it's going. I've assumed it'd hit a bottleneck somewhere between 70 and 100 when POBing, but could be miles off.

About to hit 400 depth! Just went pretty much full tank and let the mobility of Arcanist + Base damage of Corpse Pact + DD do the carrying. In an enforced SSF environment it certainly is one of the less gear dependent builds since a lot of the core damage is baked in. (Plus Delve doesn't need super high DPS, it's mostly just killing trash.)

Gear - Nothing amazing yet. I guess the belt's pretty good but I'm super res-overcapped. Took the opportunity to toy around with a 'mana-flaskless' variant again - it really costs in passives but it allows me to run Sapphire Flask which is half of Delve won.

"

zoinkjr wrote:

"

primaeva wrote:

"

TsuDhoNim wrote:

Endless Delving? Nice.

I've a tab set up for it already and dropping in any potential items. If I ever get to the point I think the mana sustain wouldn't be a big bottleneck it'll be an instant reroll for me.

For now, with pride/bets on the line, I had to go a bit less gear dependent. Keep us up to date how it's going. I've assumed it'd hit a bottleneck somewhere between 70 and 100 when POBing, but could be miles off.

About to hit 400 depth! Just went pretty much full tank and let the mobility of Arcanist + Base damage of Corpse Pact + DD do the carrying. In an enforced SSF environment it certainly is one of the less gear dependent builds since a lot of the core damage is baked in. (Plus Delve doesn't need super high DPS, it's mostly just killing trash.)

Gear - Nothing amazing yet. I guess the belt's pretty good but I'm super res-overcapped. Took the opportunity to toy around with a 'mana-flaskless' variant again - it really costs in passives but it allows me to run Sapphire Flask which is half of Delve won.

I was thinking about trying this build for endless delve, but I figured the mana costs would be hard to work around without the crafting bench.

Are you doing EO since you don't have a source for brittle? I feel like the crit chance is otherwise kinda low. I did find a praxis and a purity of elements Aul's necklace, so I was thinking of of maybe rolling another char just to play a bit more since I probably suck too much to get anywhere in gauntlet.

"

primaeva wrote:

You were right on Mana costs being a huge pain, but it got solved and the base damage and uptime of the build has carried it to 800 depth. :D For a brief shining moment I was #3... but sadly RL happened and will continue to happen for me so I may be out of the running for a Demi :(

I will do a detailed writeup on my notes but here's the answer to your questions:

1) Yes, definitely EO. In a point-starved situation like SSF Delve, crit takes too many passives to pop off. Furthermore you're suicidal if you don't use a solid shield at later depths, so the staff nodes are too expensive also. Plus Cane-tier staves and Leadership's are what make crit overtake EO handily.

EO, for one point, is still the best Elemental keystone to use until mid- to high-investment levels. It's the king of SSF!

2) Mana - Praxis is huge, and allows you to drop a ton of passives and also a mana flask (that's right! no mana flask needed).

Hopefully you got a -8?

You still need the Tireless wheel and a mana mastery to make it manageable however, and definitely run DD instead of VD in Delve. The monsters are packed so tightly that you can scale up cast speed to max with 3-4 DD brands hopping around - ramp speed was why VD was better than DD but that's invalidated with how tight mobs are packed. The DD also acts as a natural 'cleave'/prolif.

The ladder is dominated by manual VDD/Prolif builds right now but they really are made or broken by how often they get VDD off. With Brands, we have 12 DDs going off ALL THE TIME and may have a half-damage ignite, but what is a half-damage ignite over 4 seconds vs getting off hundreds more DD hits while being able to run around?

"

zoinkjr wrote:

Damn, 800 is pretty deep, glad to see it can push that far; sucks about not being able to push more the demi though.

I decided to go ahead to play around with the tree, then level the build up today. Ended up working out better than I expected. Praxis definitely is a big help, and yeah it's -8. Got the mana sorted out, and yah I still took the two mana reduction clusters. I initially had one of the mana masteries as well, but just so happened around level 65 I dropped these:

Since endurance charges are up so often with this shield, I could spec outa the mana wheel and get the added bonus of rampage. It's insane in delve. Mana uptime isn't 100% reliable, but it's probably 90%...and for the rest of this league I'd rather just enjoy the rampage :).

I can't imagine specing out of the starting shield or weapon, which is pretty crazy. The shield is just insane, have 67/75 block right now. Onslaught corrupt on wep, perma frenzies, and aoe...will be hard to find an upgrade for that too.

I've had unusually good rng for this SSF league, so grateful I was able to try this build in another environment.

Here's what I'm running right now, with those gloves:

Maybe I'll come across a better curse ring, but right now I'm at depth ~120 at lvl 82 and hadn't had a blip of trouble. I guess you set your profile to private for the league, but I'd be curious to see any differences you went for in your tree vs. mine.