*going full “thematical” be like
Foreword
Another Vitality beast that unexpectedly turned out to be quite strong in the 1.2.1.6 test patch. A concept that I have probably tried before at some point but of course this patch Nightbringer is a mighty tool that makes a lot of interesting specs more than playable (like this cool banana_peel’s Archon).
Thematically it is just all around beautiful: two different armies of skeletons (from Revenant devotion and from BK set), a big ghost and a bunch of portals plus five spooky skull swirling Wind Devils. My initial idea was to stack some dot damage with a lot of aoe and have (also freshly buffed) Bone Harvest deal with single target damage problems, and Oblivion relic skill felt like a perfect filler for that. (honestly the “thematical” pseudo-pet aspect was just a nice side effect, I was not thinking about it at all when conceiving the build)
<<<< GRIMTOOLS >>>>*
*Craft for Freeze resistance
**Medal can be any affix combo with OA and good resists
Army of questions
So how can you call a Demonslayer Reaper with 12% phys res “HC friendly” but not this Callagadra facetanking 41% phys res Ritualist
Because that is how I feel about those two builds and I am just a feel-based builder after all
No, but seriously, is this not “HC friendly”?
I think it’s more than okay to play on HC but you have to play it more cowardly and maybe even take Ill Omen or something
Is Oblivion really better than Reaping Arc here?
Yes, it has great range and great defensive utilty, while with Reaping Arc you are just a melee with very mediocre swing damage and attack speed that takes more punishment
Gear/skills/devotions/levelling
All gear is pretty much set in stone. I think you can get away with Grava or even Solael leggings as more defensive options. Boots are not mandatory but they feel like optimal here.
I decided to invest into Shaman’s mastery bar as opposed to having an extra button like Ill Omen (we already have dr from weapon’s proc) or Wendigo Totem (build has tons of healing already), but either one could be an option if you want to trade qol/damage for an extra defensive/sustain layer.
Devotions are sort of “new Vitality tech” that we developed in our top20 Discord (but probably more common than I think) when we were doing Vitality builds this test patch. Charriot is just a great crutch nowadays and converted Fiend on five Wind Devils is a thing of beauty.
This is the endgame build. It works as advertised once you equip required gear at character level 100 and repeat my grimtools as close as possible. For levelling/beginner guides look at this forum.
Gameplay
In Crucible and SR 30-31 everything is facetankable. In SR a lot of boss combos can be pulled together but you will need to do quite a bit of repositioning sometimes. If you want to maximize your damage you have to try and group up as many mobs/bosses as you can but that comes with a risk. Build still has great single target damage to melt bosses one by one. Use pet attack frequently and don’t forget that Mark of Torment is also a single target damage boost.
For Ravager of Flesh use one Soul Shard instead of Frozen Heart and overcap Bleed res with augments by 30%. Use a couple of Wraith’s Scream augments for this fight if you want it to go faster. Try to walk out of his energy leech pools.
Callagadra needs careful repositioning and sharp Sunder dodging.
Stats
General (with Charriot up):
Bone Harvest’s damage (with all buffs up):
Videos
1.2.1.6 Ravager 44 seconds kill with OA augments
1.2.1.6 Callagadra 54 seconds kill
1.2.1.6 Crucible Gladiator 150-170 “naked” extra spawn 4:24 run
1.2.1.6 SR 36 3:24 run
In Conclusion
So this counts as me doing a pet build, right?