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

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IceColdPorkSoda wrote:

Max block so easy to get this league. You can even reach glancing blows with a large thread of hope instead of pathing to it

Yessss and 20% Effect of Offering = free 12% block/spellblock!

And no need to spend on Unnatural any more! (Anoint = Spiritual Aid though, so that's gonna cos 1ex~)

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Justiis wrote:

So I took the tree and gear from my build last league and have been tweaking it with the new tree. Not well versed in PoB, and definitely not an expert on this build, but managed to get fairly close. I invested pretty heavily in the build, but still a ways off from min-max. Here's the new PoB I came up with: https://pastebin.com/DuW0rnKb

I managed to get the following masteries in:

25% to crit multi vs uniques
20% increased effect of offerings
10% reduced mana cost of skills
Brands attach to a new enemy every time they activate
Recover 2% of ES/Life when you block Spell/Attack damage
50% increased effect of non-damaging ailments on crit
20% chance to cover enemies in ash when they hit you
+50 to maximum life
10% increased life/10% reduced life recovery

I should probably start off with the disclaimer that this is a level 98 tree, vs the level 96 tree that I had last league. Overall I lost ~7.5% damage on the corpse explosion, gained 2% on the spell, and gained 14% spell block. Mana costs are also slightly higher (1-2 mana across the board), and unreserved mana pool went from 272 to 166, which might be problematic as the build was fairly mana hungry as I recall. EHP is roughly the same, 300 life lost and 300 ES gained. Haven't really messed with the skills much, just dropped the banner and Fortify, threw in Purity of Elements.

Looking forward to playing this build again, and seeing what others come up with for the tree. I'm sure if I can get it this close to the original, then others can definitely improve it beyond last leagues numbers.

Try this one! Dropped one cluster for abovementioned changes. I really like this. It could even be possible to drop ALL Clusters, it will be slightly less efficient but much more budget-friendly and some Masteries have REALLY interesting Defensive Effects (poisoned enemies cannot crit, etc). https://pastebin.com/7Vj6D15a

This build look very exiting! Never played a brand build before but still considering this for my league start (or start arma brand and switch to this in maps). Bookmarked the page and will def. check it out when you update the build!

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Sandman297 wrote:

This build look very exiting! Never played a brand build before but still considering this for my league start (or start arma brand and switch to this in maps). Bookmarked the page and will def. check it out when you update the build!

Haha at your service!

I would roll with: https://pastebin.com/HCEpVQ6p

SUPER digging this combination right now. It's gained 400k average hit up from 986,000 last league - that's like a 40% damage buff, INSANE! (Of course part of this is the very conditional "Covered in Ash" debuff on the boss, but even without.. INSANE.)

This is without Bottled Faith too!!

I think "chance to cover enemies in ash when they hit you" is a wasted point, it will never happen. The tree is point starved enough as it is.
Also, and that just might be an oversight, holy conquest on that medium cluster in your second PoB should be replaced by grand design.

I can't see how you inflict exposure, neither can I see a way to gain adrenaline or onslaught?

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primaeva wrote:

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Justiis wrote:

So I took the tree and gear from my build last league and have been tweaking it with the new tree. Not well versed in PoB, and definitely not an expert on this build, but managed to get fairly close. I invested pretty heavily in the build, but still a ways off from min-max. Here's the new PoB I came up with: https://pastebin.com/DuW0rnKb

I managed to get the following masteries in:

25% to crit multi vs uniques
20% increased effect of offerings
10% reduced mana cost of skills
Brands attach to a new enemy every time they activate
Recover 2% of ES/Life when you block Spell/Attack damage
50% increased effect of non-damaging ailments on crit
20% chance to cover enemies in ash when they hit you
+50 to maximum life
10% increased life/10% reduced life recovery

I should probably start off with the disclaimer that this is a level 98 tree, vs the level 96 tree that I had last league. Overall I lost ~7.5% damage on the corpse explosion, gained 2% on the spell, and gained 14% spell block. Mana costs are also slightly higher (1-2 mana across the board), and unreserved mana pool went from 272 to 166, which might be problematic as the build was fairly mana hungry as I recall. EHP is roughly the same, 300 life lost and 300 ES gained. Haven't really messed with the skills much, just dropped the banner and Fortify, threw in Purity of Elements.

Looking forward to playing this build again, and seeing what others come up with for the tree. I'm sure if I can get it this close to the original, then others can definitely improve it beyond last leagues numbers.

Try this one! Dropped one cluster for abovementioned changes. I really like this. It could even be possible to drop ALL Clusters, it will be slightly less efficient but much more budget-friendly and some Masteries have REALLY interesting Defensive Effects (poisoned enemies cannot crit, etc). https://pastebin.com/7Vj6D15a

Won't be able to look for another 7 hours (though I might get a chance to peak during lunch), but really excited to see this tree.

Was just glancing through the guide again on my break, and it got me thinking. The main reason for Cyclone was Fortify, right? So without Fortify the Incinerate setup is basically the default best setup, or am I forgetting something? Also, I cant recall, what does the banner provide for the build? I remember glancing at the gem before taking it out of the build, and all I recall offhand was it giving accuracy and some other effect, but I'm assuming it somehow increased dps.

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Starbuckz42 wrote:

I think "chance to cover enemies in ash when they hit you" is a wasted point, it will never happen. The tree is point starved enough as it is.

That's a bit of an exaggeration. You may want to watch the showcase vids vs endgame content - the build absolutely loves being hit by bosses that MATTER - and it's going to come on for bosses that matter. I do caveat that it's still a conditional, however.

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Also, and that just might be an oversight, holy conquest on that medium cluster in your second PoB should be replaced by grand design.

That's one way of doing it, just a leftover from previous league PoB. I am actually very keen on trying the new Holy Conquest - I will do a variant stacking 4 of them + the 30% AoE mastery on tree to see if 130% AoE results in any significant increase Corpse Explosion overlaps that suddenly springboard the damage. Stay tuned!

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I can't see how you inflict exposure, neither can I see a way to gain adrenaline or onslaught?

Adrenaline = War Banner.

Onslaught = Rotgut, it will permanently be up in the endgame when you run Frenzy on Hit chest.

Exposure is from Corrosive Elements on the Cluster!! Don't ever give this one up.

All these answers and more in the pages of discussion!

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Justiis wrote:

Won't be able to look for another 7 hours (though I might get a chance to peak during lunch), but really excited to see this tree.

Was just glancing through the guide again on my break, and it got me thinking. The main reason for Cyclone was Fortify, right? So without Fortify the Incinerate setup is basically the default best setup, or am I forgetting something? Also, I cant recall, what does the banner provide for the build? I remember glancing at the gem before taking it out of the build, and all I recall offhand was it giving accuracy and some other effect, but I'm assuming it somehow increased dps.

Yup. Incinerate is for absolute BiS damage since Incinerate itself, even poorly supported, does over a million DPS, plus it inflicts Combustion, triggers Infusion, gives fire damage reduction, gives you tons of ES and Life on Hit... We dropped it for Cyclone because Ultimatum mechanics forced you to relocate quite often. It remains the highest damage option (until I can think of something else anyway..)

There is a shred of hope that Fortify will still work for us, albeit less effectively than before. We have, on a proper boss fight:

14 attacks per second Cyclone (with 65% Accuracy though).
Inbuilt 50% duration modifier.

If the MINIMUM Fortification stacks gained per hit is 1, that is, it cannot be 'discarded' if the damage is below a threshold, then this build, of all caster builds, stands the best chance of reaching the old 20% Fortify effect simply because we have 200% attack speed and actually can use Cyclone without losing too much DPS, since Brands tick no matter what the hell we are doing.

I am very happy with this possibility since that was the whole point of us building an Arcanist Brand build - being able to run around / afk / Cyclone while Brands tear stuff up is the absolute dream and makes suffering the 2-button clunkiness worth it!

If it turns out that Fortify doesn't stack to at least 10% for us reliably, definitely it's back into the Incinerate box for us. (Although Storm Burst scales pretty well too with AoE + Cast Speed + On-Hit gains, and grants Phys damage reduction.)

Oh! Finally, War Banner is only really useful for regular map bosses. We have inbuilt 50% duration so dropping a fully-charged War Banner (I used Divergent in the PoB I hope - it's 20% on top or something) will give a 4-second minor burst of damage. Elsewise, it's a ~10% Phys explosion modifier when clearing.

I ended up not using it much actively because it falls off hard in Arena bossing (Maven/Sirus there aren't stacks to clear). It's still great for Conquerors and stuff, but I kept forgetting to turn it on again for mapping, so I ended up just leaving it on all the time! But good call on the accuracy, now with Fortify scaling we may actually NEED the accuracy effect. In any case, drop it if you want more free mana in the early stages of the league since getting mana return/reductions is expensive early.

Does hydrosphere count as a valid target for attaching brand ? If so, is it then viable to attach one vd des brand pair to boss and hydrosphere each for x2 dmg ?

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primaeva wrote:

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Starbuckz42 wrote:

I think "chance to cover enemies in ash when they hit you" is a wasted point, it will never happen. The tree is point starved enough as it is.

That's a bit of an exaggeration. You may want to watch the showcase vids vs endgame content - the build absolutely loves being hit by bosses that MATTER - and it's going to come on for bosses that matter. I do caveat that it's still a conditional, however.

"

Also, and that just might be an oversight, holy conquest on that medium cluster in your second PoB should be replaced by grand design.

That's one way of doing it, just a leftover from previous league PoB. I am actually very keen on trying the new Holy Conquest - I will do a variant stacking 4 of them + the 30% AoE mastery on tree to see if 130% AoE results in any significant increase Corpse Explosion overlaps that suddenly springboard the damage. Stay tuned!

"

I can't see how you inflict exposure, neither can I see a way to gain adrenaline or onslaught?

Adrenaline = War Banner.

Onslaught = Rotgut, it will permanently be up in the endgame when you run Frenzy on Hit chest.

Exposure is from Corrosive Elements on the Cluster!! Don't ever give this one up.

All these answers and more in the pages of discussion!

Ah, thanks. Corrosive Elements completely slipped my mind.
The rest is and remains conditional though, especially vs end game bosses which is when all of these effects actually matter, not a huge fan of turning stuff like that on.

I've played your build in several leagues now and never liked to just facetank bosses, even though recovery should be good enough. Purity of Elements also offers some nice additional defensive Watcher's Eye option. A change in play style and purposefully getting hit more often might be beneficial.

That duration mastery is looking mighty juicy as well, requires a lot of points though...