[1.1.4.2] Sigil Of Doom - Black Scorch Warlock [g4] [sr+]

[Volek]

Thanks!

One pointing mental alacrity even on a cdr caster is just too good imo

Care to eloborate why? +3% cast speed doesn’t seem to make any difference with the animation speed.

Also I can’t help myself but think that this build might be better as a Pyromancer or Deceiver

I do have a Deceiver at level 100 which is kinda meh so I was about to re-work him anyway, might try this on him when I get another M. Vestment of Severed Faith, so far only one of those dropped for me.

I use OBS nowadays. Used to use FRAPS but also hit performance issues, plus the output videos were too large in filesize to manage well. OBS doesn’t take a huge performance hit and produces decent quality videos that don’t take up much space.

Thanks for recommendation, I installed OBS and just recorded an SR run.
I’ll add the video to the OP. Sorry for the low quality, still trying to figure out what the best settings are, upload is really slow on my end so I went for smaller filesize.

[sir_spanksalot]

Some suggestions: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/qNYOL6XV

I think you’ve gone a tad too overboard with the defences here.

I honestly don’t see how giant’s blood is going to benefit you more than bat.

And you might as well do something between sigil/DB casts, so I opted for stormfire.

nice build though!

+3% cast speed doesn’t seem to make any difference with the animation speed.

Energy reduction. -8% for one point is near twice the value of seal of annihilation

[Volek]

Some suggestions: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/qNYOL6XV

Thanks! I already thought about bat instead of giant, the proc comes in handy against scattered trash as well so I’ll definitely try that out.

Energy reduction

The build got more than enough, I haven’t used many energy potions during leveling up and only one so far during endgame. It was in fact during the SR run that I recorded, I lost half my energy during a fight vs Ishtal the Mindreaper (he probably leeched it?) but only noticed it 2 minutes later while fighting Aleksander

[sir_spanksalot]

Ok. Then scrap it (unless you decide to use stormfire)

Regardless, I really think fiend + bat will up your DPS considerably, especially with you conversion values.

1 point in solael’s flame + second rite also offers huge amounts of flat, and relevant %chaos damage. Nothing to sneeze at, for sure.

Symbol of solael is probably better than riftstone, and IMO sanctified bone is a must.

Aether/chaos builds lacking RR often have trouble with reaper, so the +12% damage to undead will be very handy.

Quick question - how do you find dryad in this build? Is it any good?

I feel like you could even drop dryad for imp, since you have aether and fire conversion.

[Volek]

Aether/chaos builds lacking RR often have trouble with reaper

Yea killing him takes a while.

Quick question - how do you find dryad in this build? Is it any good?

I can’t really tell to be honest. There’s so much healing going on everywhere, I have to try it isolated.

[sir_spanksalot]

General rule of thumb - if a devotion isn’t noticeable in a build, it probably isn’t pulling its weight.

I’d suggest going for something else like ghoul if you need more defence (pairs very nicely with storm fire)

Or another offensive devotion - e.g. imp.

[Volek]

General rule of thumb - if a devotion isn’t noticeable in a build, it probably isn’t pulling its weight.

Sure, I just don’t know if Dryad or Giant isn’t noticable Or maybe both? I’ll try tomorrow, thanks again for those ideas!

[sir_spanksalot]

My guess is that sigil of consumption is responsible for the vast majority of your sustain. Going for increased healing effects (e.g. lotus) will probably be better.

[Volek]

I just don’t know if Dryad or Giant isn’t noticable

Dryad. As far as I’ve tested it, without Giant I’m pretty much dead every few minutes, without Dryad I didn’t see too much of a difference. I tried a few devotion path/skill setup variants while climbing the SR in one run (it had no player mutators), after a few failures early on I managed to not die between SR78-80 with an even more offensive setup https://www.grimtools.com/calc/wV1m1MLV

That went pretty well, especially with the camera trick for easy 1vs1 boss fights
Stormfire is some nice extra damage but for me it’s a bit harder to pilot. Sometimes DB or SoC won’t cast while I’m holding LMB.
Didn’t take Solael’s flame, just too many buttons for me personally Even got rid of Mirror and Nullification for that reason. Running like hell has proven to be more effective

[sir_spanksalot]

DB or SoC won’t cast while I’m holding LMB

This is where casting speed comes in. Mental alacrity 10/10 would shine here

[Volek]

This is where casting speed comes in. Mental alacrity 10/10 would shine here

Wait a minute, I thought its a bug or an engine limitation? Like when you get low fps and animation speed can’t keep up or something… So wether a keypress results in an action or not is determined by cast speed, and probably… RNG (its not happening all the time, only sometimes)? If that mechanic is intended, it kinda sucks. It feels so clunky

[sir_spanksalot]

low fps and animation speed

Casting speed quickens animation speed.

E.g. This is a vit DB spammer I’ve been working on/off for a month now.
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/lNk6plvZ

CD on DB is 0.6s, but at 100% CS, there’s ~0.2 - 0.3s cast animation before DB actually casts. So the effective downtime between each DB cast is 0.8s.

Any skill used during DB’s animation will also not be casted.

Increasing casting speed (i.e. dying god + bloodfury spaulders + components) reduces the cast animation by ~0.1s which basically means the downtime between each DB cast becomes 0.7s.

This may not sound like much, but it’s ~15% damage increase on DB since I’ll be casting it ~15% more frequently.

Also reduces the risk of skills being “cast-blocked”

EDIT: In other words, casting speed matters if your skill rotation involves a large number of spells (i.e. piano specs)

[Volek]

Alright! I knew that cast speed affects animation speed but not about cast blocking. It makes sense now. I even asked about this issue half a year ago but didn’t get an answer. Thanks for clearing that up.

[sir_spanksalot]

You can actually replicate this in game.

Remove all gear, and use no buffs. Try to cast a skill with a long cast animation (e.g. doom bolt), and then quickly try to cast another skill right after.

Chances are, you’ll get cast-blocked.

Then compare that to 200% casting speed.

For me, nother hugely important thing about casting speed is how it affects mobility augments, because I rely heavily on positioning.

Getting disrupted in the middle of your rune’s cast animation not only cancels the skill, but also resets its CD.

Very deadly.

EDIT: Looking at your GT, I strongly recommend you try using ghoul over giant’s blood.

[Volek]

I strongly recommend you try using ghoul over giant’s blood.

Will give it a try, still experimenting

[Nery]

I strongly recommend you try using ghoul over giant’s blood.

Will give it a try, still experimenting

Giant blood is nice proc , but Ghoul is providing lots of safety.

For disruption recently players are using Arcane harmony legs but here don’t see the benefits.

For cast speed, I personally wouldn’t do anything different than just one point in mental alacrity. DB animation is affected by CS, but past 120-130% any investment will have diminished effect.

[sir_spanksalot]

Depends on how much use he wants to eke out of stormfire as well, imo

[Nery]

Depends on how much use he wants to eke out of stormfire as well, imo

Stormfire scales with CS but I wouldn’t focused on CS on it. For lot of casters I played, it’s more of a sustain/proc skill than significant damage dealer.

[sir_spanksalot]

Depends on how much use he wants to eke out of stormfire as well, imo

Stormfire scales with CS but I wouldn’t focused on CS on it. For lot of casters I played, it’s more of a sustain/proc skill than significant damage dealer.

The deceiver speaks! Burn the witch!

EDIT: JK. That’s a good point