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

It’s actually really clunky for mapping IMO, and is best used as a pure bosser. Others may disagree.

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wtsmith wrote:

Maybe its just been too long since I played brands, which was before the duration and recall changes, but I am struggling a bit understanding the play style for mapping... I could swear that I have everything setup right it just feels a bit clunky having to stop to cast both brands, wait a tick for the balls to get up and moving. Then, when it kills stuff, is recalling the best bet or just recasting it on the next pack since the duration seems to be pretty low?

I am betting most of this is just not playing with the build long enough but figured I would ask, how do you guys play this? Is it alot of brand recalls or alot of just recasting both brands on each pack?

Hey, the huge mindset switch is that you do NOT wait for the balls to tick. Jump BEHIND a pack, drop two brands (or Recall), and move on to BEHIND the next pack.

Try to outrace the balls to the next pack - the balls will catch up to you. Think of it more as setting a C4 charge on the packs rather than shooting stuff dead. The build's so damn tanky, charging headlong into shit is NOT going to EVER kill you (and I say this without any minmaxed gear AT ALL, and against T16 140% Sirus-Dominated mobs.)

I recorded a quickie here. You can probably go much faster, especially in a more open layout (Canyon, etc = S-Tier since you just run diagonally and the balls wipe everything.


https://streamable.com/2fqop2

Not only is not waiting for the balls necessary - by not waiting, you actually retain a much higher cast speed and Leap Slam attack speed throughout the entire map.

I bet I could do a 1 min 15s Minotaur even!! That's plenty fast for a 'bossing-focussed' character with ample amounts of tankiness and <20ex budget. (of course, excluding League content, or leagues like Ultimatum would skew the run timings.)

What primaeva described is NOT how I played the build while mapping and probably the reason it feels so clunky to me.

question, being as im in standard and the staff itself is expensive as can be, let alone none of the ones im finding are even remotely close to the one you have in the 15ex pob, is that staff mandatory or is anything similar to it ok to use? i mainly ask because i have a spell damage bow laying around from a previous build that while doesnt have as much for fire dmg, it does make up for it with +levels. thanks for the help in advance and this is the bow that i have that i was tempted to use

Ah that's my bad dude. You and others have long been constructive and reflected the issues, and I've long promised a 'tutorial' video to play it smoothly, but I never delivered :( I will endeavour to push one out next week.

I'm currently trying to do a 3.15 hype video by tomorrow before my next round of treatment puts me out of commision for a bit. Then I'll do the tutorial. But anyway, you'd probably instantly get what I'm doing from the video above, so try that out!

(However the caveat is, if you need to pick up small currency still (alts/transmutes/augs etc), the build naturally slows down as ramps fall off, so it won't look as slick. But the core principle stays - let stuff blow up behind you. Arcanist Brand has a hidden 0.5 delay when first summoned, that's why it feels bad if you play the classic front-back fight.

It's also why indoor areas feel horrendous for this build - we need the space to get behind mobs and LoS is required for brands to tick. So annoying. D:

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sedateisland wrote:

question, being as im in standard and the staff itself is expensive as can be, let alone none of the ones im finding are even remotely close to the one you have in the 15ex pob, is that staff mandatory or is anything similar to it ok to use? i mainly ask because i have a spell damage bow laying around from a previous build that while doesnt have as much for fire dmg, it does make up for it with +levels. thanks for the help in advance and this is the bow that i have that i was tempted to use

Hey there! We mainly use staves for the insane global crit and crit mult supplied, which beefs up the corpse explosions as well as chest explodey mod damage.

I'd highly recommend not using a bow - first of all, VD scales very poorly with spell levels and spell damage. Or should I say, the CORPSE EXPLOSION half of VD doesn't scale AT ALL with spell levels or spell damage.

Now this is usually no big deal for builds like VDSS etc, but Arcanist Brand does so much boss damage because it "autoaims" the corpse explosion at the boss's feet, giving very high consistent damage potential. A lot of VDSS players don't actually aim directly at the right spot to make use of this corpse explosion damage - so only the VD balls are hitting the kill target.

(Check out https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DG38nur_Yw9yDygdiV-Wg6heSodhQJjGKPMUkPafB0g - 65% of my damage comes from Corpse Explosions!)

There is an EXCELLENT alternative right now - Duskdawn. It was the build guide go-to because it was cheap... Before IceCold revealed to us how strong Canes of Kulemak could be.

Combined with Leadership's Price and Duskdawn, you should be able to murder bosses still (especially since you have probably a Bottled Faith and a sick helm to make up for any difference between Duskdawn and Cane).

However, huge word of advice - if you do Duskdawn, definite grab cast speed nodes like Mental Rapidity, Enigmatic Reach and Nimbleness. These will feel WAY better for the build than even a 100% crit multiplier cluster. Once you have about 60-80% cast speed (Frenzy Charge on Hit chest would be bonkers), mapping feels entirely different and your boss damage enjoys a way faster ramp-up as well.

Duskdawn should hold you over until more Canes come in.

thanks for the fast reply. yea i didnt think about the explosion aspect of VD and tbh i shouldve lol. but it is very nice to know that duskdawn is a workeable sub for the cane cause the only thing ive found close so far is around 250ex lol. will give that a try then and go ahead and gear this up and see how it goes. thanks again :)

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primaeva wrote:

Ah that's my bad dude. You and others have long been constructive and reflected the issues, and I've long promised a 'tutorial' video to play it smoothly, but I never delivered :( I will endeavour to push one out next week.

I'm currently trying to do a 3.15 hype video by tomorrow before my next round of treatment puts me out of commision for a bit. Then I'll do the tutorial. But anyway, you'd probably instantly get what I'm doing from the video above, so try that out!

(However the caveat is, if you need to pick up small currency still (alts/transmutes/augs etc), the build naturally slows down as ramps fall off, so it won't look as slick. But the core principle stays - let stuff blow up behind you. Arcanist Brand has a hidden 0.5 delay when first summoned, that's why it feels bad if you play the classic front-back fight.

It's also why indoor areas feel horrendous for this build - we need the space to get behind mobs and LoS is required for brands to tick. So annoying. D:

It’s all good I probably should have figured it out myself. Updated guide would be good for all the new people. I’m just happy to have helped with some ideas to keep my favorite off meta build that my computer can’t even process alive.

Dude when this league is over and my character hits standard I’ll give you my cane of kulemak, which is pretty much perfect for the build.

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IceColdPorkSoda wrote:

Dude when this league is over and my character hits standard I’ll give you my cane of kulemak, which is pretty much perfect for the build.

Pog, Woke Spell Cascade went from 120c to 6.5 ex thanks to the Martyr build ahahaha, stonks. I'm selling the spares I hoarded / used for Desecrate xD