After much searching, I couldn’t find any recent builds based around non-transmuted Dreeg’s Evil Eye (DEE), and the old ones are laughably outdated and are extremely underwhelming (I’m looking at you, DEE Warlocks). A couple of builds use transmuted DEE to apply damage-over-time, but these builds play very differently from non-transmuted DEE. Accordingly, I spent some time theorycrafting and developed a remarkably effective, safe, and fun DEE build which doesn’t have absurd equipment requirements. In fact, I’ve included a beginner/intermediate version of this build which is totally playable with MIs that only have magic affixes!
Playstyle:
This build revolves around converting DEE’s acid damage to vitality using a Conduit of Eldritch Whispers, and accordingly, you’ll be gearing around vitality damage instead of the usual acid damage. Why vitality damage, you might be wondering? There are plenty of great vitality devotions which allow you to heal more effectively, and casters often have difficulty finding ways to consistently heal. You’ll be using DEE for most of your damage with Ravenous Earth (RE) to supplement your damage, and it provides a great 25% damage reduction to your enemies. Bloody Pox (Wasting, specifically) is skilled for some nice bonus AoE damage alongside its fantastic debuffs. Twin Fangs on Bloody Pox and Wendigo’s Mark on RE means it’s almost impossible to die, especially against groups of enemies that are all Marked. In fact, the more enemies there are on-screen, the harder it is for you to die due to there being more bodies to leech from.
original build Grimtools: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/qNYDQqlZ
these greens might take a while to obtain, but not impossible (no double-rare MI’s)
easier greens Grimtools: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/nZoDj0vN
This is what the build looks like with greens that should be very easy to obtain.
Pros:
- easy to play
- easy to gear
- consistent Gladiator 170 clearer
- Lots of healing (3 consistent, constant heals, 1 proc heal, and 1 activated heal)
- Very survivable for a caster (about 3,000 effective OA and DA, 20% damage absorption, and 12k HP)
- absurd resist reduction (130%) and bonus damage to Ch’thonics and undead (who normally resist vitality) means very consistent damage
Cons:
- when outside of the crucible, you may have to drink an energy potion every once in a blue moon
- build requires a specific legendary Conduit of Eldritch Whispers roll to function as-intended.
Levelling Guide:
Start as Necromancer and focus both on the Mastery Bar and on Ravenous Earth. Invest 40 points in the Necromancer mastery bar at most for now. At level 10, start levelling Occultist mastery and have maxed Vulnerability by level 20-ish. Everything should be melting. Get the Bat devotion proc as soon as possible, then Sailor’s Guide -->Jackal -->Wendigo. You can also choose to invest in DEE (transmuted) for some nice damage-over-time ticks.
By level 30-ish, focus on Spectral Binding and Spectral Wrath. After, get Possession. Finally, level Blood of Dreeg and Aspect of the Guardian. Once you get the Dark One set, you can start investing in Wasting. Once you get the Conduit you need, you can start investing in DEE. You’ll need at least 331 cunning and 724 spirit to wear all of your required equipment, so you may need to invest more or less points in these attributes depending on which affixes you end up finding on your greens.
Devotions:
Bat, Wendigo, and Rattosh for Vitality damage and heals. Manticore for Resist Reduction on the proc. Jackal, Sailor’s Guide, Hawk, and Lion for affinity and good nodes. Wolverine for great DA and it reduces the Cunning required to wear our weapon to 331. Affliction is taken for fantastic offensive bonuses and crit damage, and Oklaine’s Lantern is all-around great for casters. The devotion path is relatively simple; you’ll only need to invest in a single green filler constellation (Scholar’s Light probably) to access Oklaine, and then you can refund the points from the filler constellation once you complete Oklaine.
Itemization:
Dark One’s set because of the vitality damage and fantastic 3 and 4 piece set completion bonuses. the 15% damage reduction bonuses on the gloves doesn’t stack with the damage reduction from Decay, but Decay’s duration is only 1 second, so it’s nice to have a long-lasting backup source of damage reduction which covers a gigantic area. Conduit of Eldritch Whispers for reasons already mentioned above. Groble Toxic Effigy for weapon damage to DEE, which allows us to lifesteal more effectively from DEE (we have a nice 14% lifesteal to work with). Pandemic gives us great vitality skill mods (I have no idea why this item has a skill bonus to Nightblade). Signet of the Fallen for great cast speed and vit resist reduction, and Deathguard Sigil for cast speed, decent resists, decent proc, and flat acid damage (which is converted to vitality using DEE’s weapon damage). Pants and boots are resist fillers. You can use Blood Orb of Ch’thon as an offhand if you can’t find a decent Groble Toxic Effigy, but you’ll lose about 15% of your DEE dps, and less weapon damage on DEE means less lifesteal on DEE as well. The tradeoff is you’ll have a bit more Ravenous Earth damage, but not by a significant margin.
Thanks for reading, and let me know if you have any questions or comments!
