Quick Port Valbury run:
I saw Ceno’s crit-based vitality caster guide and wanted to try it for myself, and I ended up deviating a whole lot from his build over time, to what I think is a more optimal spec. Even with 3000+ OA, I doubt you’ll see even a 40% crit chance against the tougher bosses in the game, so while going with Stormcaller’s Pact seems like a neat focus, I don’t think it ultimately does as much as it looks like, whereas with all the +1 occultist pieces you’re getting, Possession ends up being rather heavily overleveled. So while my version still grabs a good amount of OA and crit, it’s second to pure vitality damage in priority. To put it in numbers, once you get to around 2500 OA and +1700% vit damage, +2 OA is roughly equivalent to +1% vit damage.
For the math of SP vs Poss, if we assume 40% crit chance, 1.6 crit damage, and +1700% vit damage, a 14/12 SP (probably need +2 all skills somewhere to get that), and an 18/12 Poss (roughly what mine is at), SP gives (0.42 + 0.61) / (0.41.6 + 0.61) = 13% more damage, while Poss gives 1980/1800 = 10% more. A little less, but I’d take the 14% damage absorption over the extra 3% more.
Which brings me to my second focus: mitigation. I originally used Giant’s Blood and Wayward Soul, but since vitality casters already have such a sheer amount of life gained, it’s almost impossible for these 15-20s CD procs to go off at a time you’d really need them (most likely in the space of a fraction of a second, when your damage taken suddenly shoots above your regen and kills you from max life before you can react). The DA from Wayward Soul and regen from Giant’s Blood are nice, but unreliable and can be found elsewhere. Instead, my focus is on grabbing additional mitigation wherever I can get it and keying in on some more consistent procs.
Last, while toying with Riftstone for a movement skill, I found out that, between Solael’s Witchfire, Second Rite, Blood of Dreeg, and Possession, you actually hit quite hard. Even at a 21/12 SoC and 11/12 Destruction, my autoattacks were dealing about 75% the damage at twice the speed, so if I attack while waiting on cooldowns (as simple as holding LMB while pianoing your spells), it’s like having another sigil and a half up, plus the big Riftstone hits every few seconds!
So with all that said, this is what my build ended up being!
Skills + Devotions http://grimcalc.com/build/1007-RH5BJc
with skill bonuses http://grimcalc.com/build/1007-NcIAMR
For Devotions, the goal was to get Hungering Void, Wendigo, and Scales, putting the remaining points into some extra defense. They can go anywhere you’d like, but I think I found a nice set of constellations on the right side, using 8 points between Targo, Obelisk, and Ulo for a total of +10% health, +300 health, +5% DA, +90 DA, +7% armor, +150 armor, and +10% ele res. Note that Tip the Scales completely solves your energy issues for everything but one-on-one boss fights. Those are mostly covered by energy absorption from materials, and you’ll only need to use energy potions for drawn-out non-spellcasting bosses.
As for skills, the notable ones aside from the standard build are as such: Blood of Dreeg is maxed for OA and health regen to counteract Hungering Void, Aspect of the Guardian is maxed for physical resist, Oak Skin is pumped up a little for armor and pierce resist, Curse of Frailty is pumped up until you’re comfortable with the area and duration, and Solael’s Witchfire and Second Rite an also be added to if you desire a more beefy autoattack.
Next up, gear! Keep in mind that mine have high rolls across the board, since I generated a few of each and picked which ones I liked to see how good this character could get. You’ll almost certainly see lower stats, but not by a whole lot.
Fang of Ch’thon - Great stats, +1 occultist, +1 possession, great debuff
Riftstone - Handy movement skill + damaging attack
Black Flame focus, helmet, shoulders - All are good pieces in their own right, but they really shine with the 3p set bonus granting +70% vit damage, +300 life, +40% bleed res, and another +10% cooldown reduction to round us off at 30% in total, giving Hungering Void only 1 second of downtime
Purified Sale - Capping aether res
Leathery Hide - Reduced stun dur, %health
Silk Swatch - Helps cap bleed/stun res
Justicar chest, hands - While I’m not using one of the best OA legendaries in the game, I am using one of the best DA ones! Bonus points for having high armor on the most-hit area, and it has some nice resistances to boot. I was originally using a different piece for the hand slot, but after switching to the Justice chest, I noticed that the 2p bonus with the hands was really quite nice, giving extra armor and armor absorption. The health, OA, attack/cast speed, and pierce res are all highly valuable too, of course.
Chains of Oleron - OA
Spellwoven Threads - OA, casting speed
Legwraps of the Tranquil Mind - This originally stuck out to me due to its high OA and spirit, but the proc is what really makes me love it after having played with it for a bit. It’ll even help trigger your offensive procs, which I’ll go into shortly. Still, this one’s up to your own choosing! You can substitute many relevant legendaries here and won’t see much of a difference.
Silk Swatch - Helps cap bleed/stun res
Voidwalker Footpads - Obvious choice, but again, you can change these to suit your preference. I wanted the vitality damage along with bonus points to SoC and Destruction since they aren’t capped.
Mark of the Traveler - Movement speed
Girdle of Stolen Dreams - Speaks for itself; almost certainly BiS!
Dense Fur - Global armor! Can be swapped out for any of the other ones if you need a different elemental res
The Peerless Eye of Beronath - Incredible OA and +1 all skills, along with crit damage and ele res. I don’t use the granted skill, but it seems great without it!
Arcane Spark - Energy regen, great OA
2x Signet of the Damned - Great stats and great procs, though you can swap one out for Signet of the Fallen for an extra vitality resistance debuff.
Soul Shard - Energy absorption, great for spellcasting bosses!
Mark of Divinity - The lifesaver itself! This is what makes me truly feel safe in giant packs. The only way for me to die with this on is to take a big chunk of damage before any of my damage-gained-as-life sources kick in, with a 4500+ damage hit landing just before I get to 30% life. Hasn’t happened yet, and if I see it go off in the buff bar (which is rather infrequently unless I’m doing something silly), I can back out of combat and play it safe until it comes back up.
Arcane Spark - Energy regen, great OA
Solael’s Decimation - A low-CD proc to proc your other procs!
And with this talk of procs, I wanted to point out that we get 4 major offensive procs from our weapon, focus, and rings. A neat little tidbit about stacking all these procs is that they’ll trigger each other even if they don’t deal damage, and Legwraps of the Tranquil Mind is especially powerful for this reason. Every 5 seconds, it’ll give you retaliation slow circle that can proc your 4 damage dealers, each of them having the potential to cause more chain reactions as the others go off cooldown. It’s not to be relied on as a sole defensive mechanic, but it’s a nice addition to everything else you’re doing.
Aaaand that seems to be just about it! I might get to the materials and augments along with adding links, but I’ve burned myself out on writing for now. Aside from that, feel free to suggest anything I may have missed!
