[3.21] Voltaxic Rift Autobomber, Poison Herald of Thunder Pathfinder

Hello,

I love HoT builds, and as i saw this build i knew i had to try it. I like it so far, of course there are still things I don't have. (whispers of doom, progenesis), there are things that could be developed (clusters/jewels)
I am quite a casual player and my budget is very limited. I would like advice on what should be my next two investments to improve my survival? One would be whispers of doom, what about the other?

https://pobb.in/wgAC3ov-vy1_

regards.

The next thing I would consider is making the switch from master surgeon to nature's boon. it will cost you 10 regrets and a couple hundred chaos depending on flask rolls. Nature's boon with 3-4 magic utility flasks is a powerhouse defensively. It caps our resistances, gives less ele damage taken, and adds 10k evasion rating. There is a lot to consider when making the switch, and it can feel bad without enough life sustain. Once it all clicks, it it very worth.

To start I would drop the life flask, atziri's, and vessel of vinktar. Pick up a magic topaz and jade flask for sure. For your third flask, an amethyst flask will give more chaos res, but quicksilver, stibnite, and sulphur are all good options. Nature's boon will buff all of these for more evasion, more resists, and less ele damage taken. Which means less self-harm from storm secret. More resistances will free up suffixes on your gear for future upgrades. As far as suffixes to look for on the new flasks, I would go with health regen, poison immunity, and increased evasion rating.

To replace the sustain from the life flask you will want crafted life regen on one of your new flasks as mentioned above. Life regen anywhere you can get it is helpful, even on clusters. You will also want chaos leech on your gloves, which leads us to eldritch implicits. I would start using eldritch currency on all of your gear for small upgrades here and there. Chaos leech on gloves, phys taken as/enfeeble curse effect on on helmet, as well as movespeed on boots are all helpful defensively. You can also get a lot more DPS from other mods.

You have done a good job at getting a lot of defensive layers that make the build work, but there is room to improve on the rolls of those defenses. For example, I have about 300 more base life from gear. Our main weakness is 1 shots, so getting more max life really helps. I would look for it on your belt/quiver/amulet as you upgrade those items. Another example would be a higher phys taken as roll on your taste of hate. That extra 3-4% really does make a difference. You might want to look at a higher level enfeeble. I prefer lvl 7 with a lvl 3 CWDT as it has good uptime, but higher level combos will give more damage mitigation.

Some final thoughts are that I really relied on Evasion rating until Progenisis. Stack it where you can. Another is pantheon. Brine King bricks bloodnotch, so do not use it. Filling out solaris/lunaris is more defense than a lot of people realize. Last, be sure to grab some extra dex to hit the 300 threshold on dendrobate for some DPS. Good Luck!

Thank you very much for the tips. I already thought about changing the flasks, but I didn't dare to do it, because I didn't know how I could maintain my life. However, the 3% hp regen helped a lot and I managed to roll the 0.2% chaos damage as life onto the gloves, and the 300 dex is also reached.
Another reason why I died many times on Atlastree was on "Dance of Destruction". No wonder I got random bitch slaps. I'm slowly starting to improve the gear. But I already feel much more stable

Does this build get any good before Progenesis? I've spent quite a chunk of money on it already and its nowhere near to comfortable mapping as many builds do within this price range. And by mapping I mean T16 alch and go and without boss.

The main thing I noticed after a quick look at your profile is spell suppression and ailment immunity. Capping spell suppression is the 2nd biggest defense we have after bloodnotch. I would path to Entrench and quickstep on the tree to cap spell suppress as a quick fix. You can drop them once you get suppress on your boots/helmet.

Suppression will also help with ailment immunity through ancestral vision. With 100% suppress and the thick skin wheel on the tree, you will need to find 30% ailment avoid in order to get to 100%. I got this from boots and overcapping suppression. Spamming essence of loathing/zeal may be cheaper than buying boots with suppress and ailment immunity. Could also get ailment avoid from eldritch implicits on the boots. Fill in missing movespeed/life at your bench. Another option is replacing your stibnite flask with a quartz flask.

Once you have suppress and ailment immunity, things will feel a lot more comfortable. A higher rolled bloodnotch will feel better as well. If your health is still dropping, I would consider Master surgeon and a life flask until you get enough life sustain elsewhere.

If you give me a POB, I can take a closer look at things. I suspect that suppression and ailments are your main issue though. Good Luck!

Thank you for having a look into my character and feedback!

My spell suppression is at 96% so I dont think that few percent do so much of difference. My ailments avoidance is at 68% at all times and feeze and chill is way beyond 100% during mapping thanks to Taste of Hate. Can definitely work on that.

I've just recently switch to Natures Boon from Surgeons + Life Flask but doesnt feel comfortable just yet. Can deffo try a Stibnite Flask though.

The problem is, its not just the defences but damage doesnt feel great either. Sure trash and magic mobs get killed easily but rares need a bit of time. Also chaos res map mods are pain. Can forget about doing expedition and delirium mobs. Not sure if third large cluster jewel would pump more damage? Higher movement speed feels useless at this point if you have to wait and keep zapping a mob to actually kill it.

I think its the big physical hits that usually KO me.

https://pobb.in/dZuEOwWL4C4I

Spell suppression is an all or nothing stat. You get hit by hundreds of spells a map. The 4/100 spells that get through can 1 shot you. It is worth an extra point on the tree to hit 100%. There are physical spells, so it helps our phys mitigation as well. Note that when you hit 100%, POB adds about 30% max hit for every damage type.

The numbers on your Bloodnotch/petrified blood could be better. It works best with a 58% bloodnotch and a 21/20 PB. Lower numbers will mean that you do not recoup all damage you take. The bloodnotch is expensive, but I would try and get the strength for the higher level PB.

Your main weakness without ailment immunity will be shock. A damage taken multiplier is going to get you one-shot. It isnt as common as other dangers, but that is why I have it in the build. Sap/ignite/scorch all have their own ways of being annoying as well.

With Master Surgeon, the idea is to tap your life flask every few seconds. Its effect does not stop when you reach full life, so you always have a lot of regen. If you feel OK without tapping the flask, it is probably worth to go with a utility flask and nature's boon.

As far as DPS, the first thing I would do is replace your rare "soul spark" jewel with a jewel that has 5% chance to poison. Chance to poison is kind of the same concept as spell suppression. At 95%, your HoT has a 5% chance to do no damage. Could get a jewel with other poison mods or chaos dot multi for even more DPS. After that you can get the 3rd cluster and fill it in with % life and chaos dot multi jewels for even more dps.

Once you have done those, your dps should be in a good spot. Other ways to increase DPS is to get more + gem levels on your amulet or corrupted chest implicits. Another is to add a crucible tree to your voltaxic. It can be a pain getting the mods on a unique, but some of them add a lot of damage. Could aslo replace the amethyst flask with a Sulphur for a lil more damage.

Final thought is that you are pretty invested for only level 90. I understand wanting to level yourself, but I would consider purchasing a 5 way rota for the experience. I didnt switch to this build until my char was mid 90's. People will post them in global 820 if you are not into the 3rd party discord thing. It will get you to 95 really quick and give you more base stats on top of the extra passive points.

Hey I was wondering, have you considered using Cospri's will? And why not use "Cast when stunned" instead of cwdt?

Thanks for the fun build ^^

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Hapseleg wrote:

Hey I was wondering, have you considered using Cospri's will? And why not use "Cast when stunned" instead of cwdt?

Thanks for the fun build ^^

I have experimented with Cospri's will and a witchfire brew flask. It works pretty well, but once you have the stats and poison chance, the DPS is better with Dendrobate. I also didn't like it using up a flask slot, and I could not find a good sweet spot on mana cost with a higher level despair and cwdt. On top of that, Dendrobate gives us enough ES for eldritch battery to solve all of our mana issues.

I did not experiment with cast when stunned for a few reasons. I dont know how you would reliably proc the stun. It is either you only cast when a monster hits you, or you have so little energy shield that storm secret stuns you. The first is inconsistent and leaves you vulnerable to the initial hit. The second has huge mana cost issues. If you can solve those issues, cast when stunned would let you get level 21 enfeeble(and despair if you have cospri's). That would feel nice. In the end I went with cwdt and lower level enfeeble for consistency and lower mana cost.

There may be a way to make it all work. Unfortunately, I have moved on from this build for the league. So I will not be able to try these theories out. If you can get lvl 21 curses to proc with cast when stunned consistently, I think it would be worth the switch.

hello friend
What would you recommend for leveling in league start????
I would really like to make your build but I don't know very well how to proceed in the first maps and at the end of the acts....
until you get the first DIVINES it's always complicated
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