[1.2.1.0] The Pianomancer: 4:05 Crucible Gladiator 150-170, Ravager, SR90 tanky Chaos caster Pyromancer (+bonus build: Chaos CT Sorceress)

[mad_lee]

*Chaos magic and pyromancy as seen by DeepAI

Foreword

Well, how many times can one man come back from retirement? The question is rhetorical of course. My passion for creating and min-maxing builds (plus a forum ban lift) is reeling me back in yet again. The appeal of Chaos damage is pretty strong: together with Physical damage it’s the damage type that feels like it can work really well on single resist reduction class combos or even on class combos without chaos resist reduction. It devours monsters no matter the weather.
However Pyromancer rarely features in top-tier builds discussions. Besides quite a few synergies there are only two really top-tier Pyromancer builds worth mentioning (that is a Darkblaze gunner of course and to lesser extent Harbinger). There was never a caster Pyromancer that could be considered really great though (I even tried making one long ago). During the most recent playtest I decided to give it another go and here is what came out of it.

The Build

1.2.0.2 Update

Moved few skill points and components around. Gloves now have physical resistance so we can drop Seal of Might for more damage and OA by slotting in Silvercore Bolts. Also Health Regeneration is really strong nowadays so maxed out it sources in masteries.
1.1.9.8 grimtools are still here for anyone who decided to stay on that version.

<<<< GRIMTOOLS >>>>*

old GRIMTOOLS (patch 1.1.9.8)
*Craft for Slow resistance and Freeze resistance
**Try to get at least one “of Vitality” suffix as getting high HP is really important on this build
***Beasts damage crafting bonus on Oblivion is nice to have but not essential

For the bonus build scroll down to the bottom of the post

Chaotic incinerating questions

There is no way the build is playable with this DA. Are you serious??

Unfortunately getting DA on Occultist builds is notoriously hard and even with the maximum Physique dump it will still be underwhelming. That’s why I focused on other defensive mechanics such damage absorption/reduction, decent physical resist and overcaps as well as good diversified sustain and some strong fail safes.

Are all those spells really needed here? Seems like an unnecessary big piano

Yes, every spell is vital to build’s performance, I tested a lot of combinations and this is the one that makes the build special. It is a “piano” but once you get a hang of it the results are very satisfying

Mark of Illusions in the ring and Arcane Spark in the medal? Are you using those just for energy regeneration?

Exactly. It was really hard bringing this build’s energy consumption to the point where you don’t need to chug Energy potion on cooldown. The Occultists and energy regeneration has long been a meme

Gear/Skills and Devotions/Leveling

Build: has few essential gear pieces: Bloodsworn Repeater with the “of Abyss” suffix, Conduit, helmet, gloves, off-hand and relic. All those items enable the build. Solael pants fit great because we need to buff our adtch for that Oblivion spam and then Freeze resistance is heavensent there. When it comes to all other slots there is a bit of leeway but those items are preferred.

In terms of devotions I emphasized healing and leeching (Ghoul’s proc boosts leeching from Flame Torrent and Guardian’s Gaze pretty well) and of course damage.

Skill distribution it’s pretty standard however I maxed out Blast Shield at 13 and despite 13/12 not being a breakpoint it’s still important to have Blast Shield as high as possible.

For leveling please check beginner guide (link to one at the bottom!), this is an endgame build

Gameplay

In Crucible

Everything can be facetanked in buffed Crucible. Remember that build has a lot of range with its spellls and use it.

In Shattered Realm

SR 75-76 is pretty easy but be mindful of Arcane heroes and watch your Blast Shield cooldowns. Again, everything is facetankable but if you have bad mutators and your blast shield/ghoul are down maybe it’s not a good idea to stand on Gargabol volcanoes or aggro too many dangerous monsters at once.

In SR90 use range as much as possible and you will be all right.

Celestial fights

Ravager is doable but requires a careful rotation of fail saves. Plus all the pharma you can get and an Aether cluster at the ready. Success rate would be around 80%.

Callagadra fight is doable with a lot of kiting while only facetanking here when you have Blast Shield or Cluster.

Crate is fairly doable as well.

Watch the videos to learn how to play the build.

Stats

General

Defense

Videos

1.2.1.0 Chaos caster Pyromancer vs. SR 90 3:58 run

1.2.0.2 Chaos caster Pyromancer vs. Ravager 1:14 kill

1.2.0.2 Chaos caster Pyromancer vs. SR 75-76 4:59 run

1.2.0.2 Chaos caster Pyromancer vs. SR 90

1.1.9.8 Chaos caster Pyromancer vs. Ravager 1:03 facetank kill

1.1.9.8 Chaos caster Pyromancer vs. SR 75-76 (6:59 run, no short rooms)

1.1.9.8 Chaos caster Pyromancer vs. Crucible 150-170 (lucky 3:59 run)

1.1.9.8 Chaos caster Pyromancer vs. SR 90 (one death)

1.1.9.8 Chaos caster Pyromancer vs. Crucible 150-170 “naked” ex 5:26 run (no buffs/banners)

1.1.9.8 Chaos caster Pyromancer vs. Crate of Entertainment (29 seconds kill)

1.1.9.8 Chaos caster Pyromancer vs. SR 75-76 4:35 run (fixed layouts, no gi pickup)

In Conclusion

As great as this build turned out to be I think that Pyromancers could use a bit of more support in items (as you can see the only “intersection” those gear pieces have is support of both Hellfire Mines and Doom Bolt and then good old BWC bonus on Entropic Coil Voidheart). Plus the energy regeneration is really lacking despite all the energy leech and additional measures. And of course Petrify resist is nowhere to be found (in case Zantai is reading this).

BONUS

A leveling guide by @Evil_Baka !

[1.1.7.1] [Pyromancer] Ruinous Apostle

[charwindow] Stats shown with passives and Blood of Dreeg active. Grimtools Affixless Setup I will go into detail on the skills selected here, attributes, devotion route taken, gearing selected and where to find the pieces in the levelling section further down so don’t worry if you’re a new player and none of it makes sense to you for now. Setup I use Nothing special, I intentionally did not spend a lot of time looking for affixes or crafting and rolled with what I found as quickly as I c…

_______________________________________________________

BONUS BUILD: Chaos Callidor’s Tempest Sorceress

<<<< GRIMTOOLS >>>>*

*Craft for slow and freeze resistance

This a very solid CT caster overall with a pretty exotic flavor in terms of itemization and class choice. Very fast in Crucible, facetanks Ravager, can farm SR 75-76 reliably. A bit clunky due to Mines and the way Chaos devotions’ activation works but not the Pianomancer. It’s essential to get “of Abyss” suffix on the weapon for it to work.

Here are some videos with build’s performance

1.1.9.8 Chaos CT Sorceress vs. Ravager 1:16 kill (Fleshwarped Core version)

1.1.9.8 Chaos CT Sorceress vs. Crucible 150-170 4:05 run

1.1.9.8 Chaos CT Sorceress vs. Ravager 1:22 kill

See you in the realm of Solael.

[Monceaux]

Nice, I expected sigils and not chaos canister, of all things

Good news for anyone willing to level this, the perfect exist there :

[1.1.7.1] [Pyromancer] Ruinous Apostle

[charwindow] Stats shown with passives and Blood of Dreeg active. Grimtools Affixless Setup I will go into detail on the skills selected here, attributes, devotion route taken, gearing selected and where to find the pieces in the levelling section further down so don’t worry if you’re a new player and none of it makes sense to you for now. Setup I use Nothing special, I intentionally did not spend a lot of time looking for affixes or crafting and rolled with what I found as quickly as I co…

[Dioarchet]

11/12 BWC gets you a better proc chance for GG. But maybe you know this already and prefer the benefits from the two points?

[mad_lee]

@Dioarchet

11/12 BWC gets you a better proc chance for GG. But maybe you know this already and prefer the benefits from the two points?

What the hell, I had zero idea. For me 13 is just a small breakpoint, that’s why I always take it there. But I had no idea that 11/12 is better for proccing wow. Might use it at some point, but here however it’s more about coverage/uptime/OA debuff/damage, it procs well enough to keep this little pyro alive. Would of course prefer like storm box or something but there is no such skill in this one.

[mad_lee]

I will try and add some noteworthy top-tier specs (but that are not interesting enough for me to post as separate guides) that I min-maxed at some point as “Bonus Builds” additions to my existing guides. Here is one for this guide.

BONUS BUILD: Chaos Callidor’s Tempest Sorceress

check Grimtools in the op

This a very solid CT caster overall with a pretty exotic flavor in terms of itemization and class choice. Very fast in Crucible, facetanks Ravager, can farm SR 75-76 reliable. A bit clunky due to Mines and the way Chaos devotions’ activation works but not the Pianomancer. It’s essential to get “of Abyss” suffix on the weapon for it to work.

Here are some videos with build’s performance

1.1.9.8 Chaos CT Sorceress vs. Crucible 150-170 4:05 run

1.1.9.8 Chaos CT Sorceress vs. Ravager 1:22 kill

[romanN1]

Great build, very good damage output and versatile, but you better bring in that piano game with you xD. Gg.

[zane300]

This build is extremely fun and demolishes SR 75. 76, also much easier to play than it might look. You don’t need all those shiny greens and the right affixes to get into it by the way. When I started the build, I had some disgusting place holders, and it still crushed content. I highly recommend it.

[mad_lee]

Little update for the Chaos CT Sorcereress:

So @banana_peel had a good idea to actually use Fleshwarped Core with of Abyss suffix. It should be possible to vendor farm it after a while. Overall better performance across the board. Find new grimtools in the op. Here is the video with the Ravager kill:

Chaos CT Sorc vs. Ravager 1:16 kill (Fleshwarped Core spec)

[mad_lee]

1.2.0.2 Update

Moved few skill points and components around. Gloves now have physical resistance so we can drop Seal of Might for more damage and OA by slotting in Silvercore Bolts. Also Health Regeneration is really strong nowadays so maxed out it sources in masteries. Find the updated gt in the op.
1.1.9.8 grimtools are still here for anyone who decided to stay on that version.

Here are some videos with build’s performance in 1.2:

Chaos caster Pyromancer vs. SR 75-76 4:59 run

Chaos caster Pyromancer vs. SR 90

[boboka]

I am trying to copy your build. May I ask tips on where to farm those green items? I know they must be pretty rare.

[Gnomish_Inquisition]

if you look up an item in grim tools it will tell you where it drops and can even show it on the map

*to get the specific affixes you’d need likely have to refarm the item many many tiems, specially if you want a specific combo of both prefix and suffix at the same time

[mad_lee]

@Gnomish_Inquisition

if you look up an item in grim tools it will tell you where it drops and can even show it on the map

Isn’t pistol sold at Bastion’s vendor? Or am I confusing it with something else

[MergosWetNurse]

bastion vendor farmable & bolvar in blood grove ALWAYS drops two!

[Gnomish_Inquisition]

it is, but Bolvar is dope farm now

[mad_lee]

Ravager is a bit more difficult in this patch, but possible. Gotta dodge his Sunder swipe and piano the potions. Here is the video with its kill:

Chaos caster Pyromancer vs. Ravager 1:14 kill

[mad_lee]

1.2.1.0 Update

Build is doing pretty well in a current patch, no changes needed. Here is a video with its performance:

Chaos caster Pyromancer vs. SR 90

[AngmarDT]

How does it compare with Chaos Warlock from AlkamosHater setup?

[1.1.9.0] Chaos Doom Bolt Warlock -> CR 4:28/ 170ex 6:20/ SR110/ Callagadra 3:23 + Ravager 1:26 + Crate 55 sec + Mogdrogen 3:07

Hello, because we don’t have many Warlocks there I want to present you one with very good results. It’s chaos caster utilizting Doom Bolt + Sigils + Oblivion. Build is very tanky and able to do all content. Build https://www.grimtools.com/calc/d2jRXYq2 If you wish to stay more safe just do physique dump, damage drop is not that significant, I was able to do sub5 min in Crucible with full physique. More gear choices and explanation below. Itemization Weapon - rare gun is most expensive thing…

Was thinking of a chaos Doom Bolt build and not sure now which way to go.

[mad_lee]

@AngmarDT

How does it compare with Chaos Warlock from AlkamosHater setup?

Warlock should be tankier but AlkamosHater’s setup is really outdated. In terms of damage Pyro is the king and it’s not close.

For Softcore I would definitely go for Pyro as you can see from the videos it has plenty of tankiness and can even kill Ravager. For Hardcore I would just go different build altogether

[Matheus_Carvalho]

Really good build. Took your Avenger Archon to SR 90 and struggle a lot getting oneshotted. This one seems pretty tanky, kinda crazy bc of low DA/armor, but you managed to get it solid.

[mad_lee]

@Matheus_Carvalho

Took your Avenger Archon to SR 90 and struggle a lot getting oneshotted.

Which version did you try? Latest version feels pretty solid to me in terms of tank (with Solemn Watcher). Also if you can feedback it in the build’s thread with grimtools (ideally the video of the run but I understand that few record their GD’s gameplay) I can help you or maybe you will help me and I can workshop my build a bit to make it better.

@Matheus_Carvalho

This one seems pretty tanky, kinda crazy bc of low DA/armor, but you managed to get it solid.

Thanks! I would say it is tanky enough to take shots while not always facetanking (because it really doesn’t need to be in point blank or even mid range to fully realise its dps) and then really stellar firepower makes problems go away before they become bigger problems. I am also surprised that it doesn’t get punished for low DA or lack of armor (and I stress tested it a lot) unless you start grouping up bosses too greedily.