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

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Manadrained wrote:

In league start starting non crit with ele overload is fine and still kills pretty much everything (i did a8 sirus and some maven invitations for my uncharted realms passives as non crit) until you can get the amulet.

ManaD, I was actually relooking the endgame state of the build. I really want to ditch Essence Glutton and I did some comparison with Bottled Faith up and all the final debuffs up.

I turned back to inspiration - from a 67 mana cost on VD, and Sigil of Power as Soul suggested, we can actually drop the mana cost to TWENTY (7L) after rings. Probably lower if I forced it.

Definitely that's covered by just base mana regen and the reduced cost passives I feel.

Commander isn't just 30% generic damage (so explosions, corpse explosions) and 6% cast speed - it frees up at least 2 resist suffixes which can be tuned for damage.

Gloves:
(Temple Hybrid) (30–50)% increased Damage with Hits against Chilled Enemies
You have Onslaught during Soul Gain Prevention
(51–60)% increased Damage with Non-Vaal Skills during Soul Gain Prevention
(45–50)% increased Attack and Cast Speed while Focused

Rings:

+(17–20)% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier (Elder/Warlord)
(25–30)% increased Elemental Damage
+1 to Minimum Power Charges (3–4)% chance to gain a Power Charge on Kill
+1 to Minimum Endurance Charges (3–4)% chance to gain an Endurance Charge on Kill

Boots:

(71–80)% increased Damage with Non-Vaal Skills during Soul Gain Prevention
(33–40)% increased Effect of Non-Damaging Ailments

Belt:

(11–15)% increased Flask Effect Duration,
(8–14)% increased Cast Speed during any Flask Effect,
(10–20)% reduced Flask Charges used,
(10–20)% increased Flask Effect Duration,
(6–10)% increased Movement Speed during any Flask Effect,
Damage Penetrates 5% Elemental Resistances during any Flask Effect

And of course, a 55-60 Str or Dex roll which would probably free up passive points somewhere.

this is all very exciting, and definitely makes up for the small damage mult of Inspiration v Awakened Fire Pen, especially on the first hit when Brittle isn't up (so trash mobs).

The main drawback is: Woke Fire Pen DOES make ele resist maps that much easier since we don't necessarily Flammability on mobs before fighting them. Hmmmm. Gem swap for Ele Resist maps? XD

Use Divergent Inspiration for another -10% Mana Cost, bringing it to -44% at level 20. Before factoring in Resistance, it's about a 10% loss in damage. I always hated the resetting part of Inspiration as well, but meh, its not actually that bad. In this case it's probably worth it because it single-handedly solves our mana issues.

(Misc: It is possible to, through inspiration, the passive tree and sigil, get a -85% total reduction in mana costs. Enhance attached to Sigil of Power can make that 97%. This is almost definitely not worth it.)

The question becomes, can we reliably punch through resistances such that we don't need more penetration?

Scorch is -30%
Cluster Jewel gives another -10%
Passive Tree can easily give us another -8%
Flammability is -45% (or -30% vs bosses and -15% vs Sirius)

That gives us -93%, or -78% vs Bosses and -63% vs Sirius

You can definitely afford to do it. You'll almost definitely need to swap out Punishment (admittedly, this only matters for me). Flammability on Hit may be better from a usability standpoint than Flammability via CwC.

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Once you get easy access to Frenzy Charges (chest or Blood Rage) just use Rotgut. It'll functionally never run out of charges and keep you in Onslaught and movespeed forever.

https://pastebin.com/Eehvq40H

My build currently. It needs some work still. Just came in to about 6 Ex, need to decide how to spend it.

Sadly, Unnatural Instinct is 7 Ex and any Watcher's Eye with ES on hit runs about 11 Ex, but those would be my biggest upgrades.

So 6L isn't needed at all? Better to get helmet to use as pseudo 6 link?

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Miggaletoe wrote:

So 6L isn't needed at all? Better to get helmet to use as pseudo 6 link?

Almost always. Super early on you can Tabula if you have one, but once you get a Helmet with 30% More Elemental Damage and Concentrated Effect it is usually good.

Awesome hit conc + ele + burning damage (idk if this helps) on third essence

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Miggaletoe wrote:

Awesome hit conc + ele + burning damage (idk if this helps) on third essence

Actually burning damage is no bueno since it adds mana cost without scaling your damage, but with Inspiration it should be fine and a usable helm.

Try to sell it for a lot in between your break sessions - it's a 7L RF helmet and worth a bit!

Dangit good bad thing I guess, need to buy another base / craft while I try to sell it. Thanks!

Does anyone have a spare awakened Spell Cascade :p i can't believe how much it increased in price. I guess I'll never able to afford it.

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SoulGambit wrote:

Use Divergent Inspiration for another -10% Mana Cost, bringing it to -44% at level 20. Before factoring in Resistance, it's about a 10% loss in damage. I always hated the resetting part of Inspiration as well, but meh, its not actually that bad. In this case it's probably worth it because it single-handedly solves our mana issues.

(Misc: It is possible to, through inspiration, the passive tree and sigil, get a -85% total reduction in mana costs. Enhance attached to Sigil of Power can make that 97%. This is almost definitely not worth it.)

The question becomes, can we reliably punch through resistances such that we don't need more penetration?

Scorch is -30%
Cluster Jewel gives another -10%
Passive Tree can easily give us another -8%
Flammability is -45% (or -30% vs bosses and -15% vs Sirius)

That gives us -93%, or -78% vs Bosses and -63% vs Sirius

You can definitely afford to do it. You'll almost definitely need to swap out Punishment (admittedly, this only matters for me). Flammability on Hit may be better from a usability standpoint than Flammability via CwC.

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Once you get easy access to Frenzy Charges (chest or Blood Rage) just use Rotgut. It'll functionally never run out of charges and keep you in Onslaught and movespeed forever.

Ahhhh so that's why everyone's running Rotgut! What enchants did they dump on it?

Also, awesome, thanks for pumping the math! I'll respec soon and post the results, about to do Feared/Maven just for the boss captures.

Phantasmal Desecrate, could be placebo but it feels like it's helping a LOT. I need to run tests on exactly how much above the usual corpse health are its corpses.