Intro
I wanted to make some more acid/poison builds, came across the Radaggan set, and saw it had (sort of) recently been revamped. It doesn’t seem like this is a popular Drain Essence variant, so I decided to give it a go.
Boy oh boy, was I not prepared for how strong this build is!
The Build
(with Inquisitor Seal and Deadly Aim, but no Wayward Soul/Inspiration)
x GRIMTOOLS x
_Croilar.zip (711.9 KB)
(see below for explanation of gear, skills and devotions)
Concept
OFFENSE
Drain Essence already has a high crit multiplier - 75% with Hungering Reach. That begs for OA stacking for big juicy crits. From our base of 12% crit damage, we also add 17% from Deadly Aim, 17% from the Inquisitor Seal, and 16% from Call of the Grave. Another 12% on the amulet means we’re getting a minimum of 99% crit damage, or up to 149% with all three buffs up!
We can get up to over 4k OA with our buffs, but on top of that we’re shredding 130 OA with our huge Aura of Censure and another 140 from Drain Essence itself thanks to item bonuses. This brings our effective OA to about 4.3k. Not bad! DE is fully converted to Acid/Poison so any flat Vitality or Aether we add to it increases the damage like on other good DE builds.
On top of the nastiness of Drain Essence, we get a huge direct damage/DoT nuke with Rune of Kalastor. We get full acid/poison conversion, extra projectiles, and extra flat poison damage. While the crit multi isn’t as huge as Drain Essence, thanks to Artifact Handling it’s still a respectable 34 - 84% depending on buffs. Also, the DA shred from Aura of Censure and Drain Essence also applies to make Rune of Kalastor even crittier (that’s a word). This shotguns the crap out of meatier single targets and blows up packs with lots of knockdown, and has a decent 1.9 sec cooldown for continuous use.
DEFENSE
We’re sitting on about 22k HP with the necessary overcaps on resists. CC resists are at or near cap. Phys resist is low, but we do have 99% armor absorb with 2.5k armor with Wayward Soul up.
Hard capped Drain Essence and Hungering Reach, plus 8% more ADCtH on gloves, gives us a whopping 35% leech. If you can succ, you can live.
DA sits at about 2.7k with procs, but importantly, Aura of Censure shreds 130 OA and Drain Essence itself a whopping 324 OA from enemies, making effective DA about 2.9k or almost 3.2k with procs.
We get some damage absorbtion via Seal*, fumble via boot proc, less enemy damage via Aura of Censure. For a tankier setup vs. bosses, you can drop Aura down to one point and keep the RR, OA and DA shred from items, and instead max Ill Omen as it has 10% more reduced enemy damage at that investment. It’s one more button to press and has less consistent application, so we don’t bother with Ill Omen for most content.
*Normally I don’t like using the Seal, but it’s not so bad at all when you have to stand still to succ anyway.
The Gear
Weapon
Mythical Basilisk Claw is perfect for this build. Huge Acid and Poison %, lots of poison duration which really helps Rune of Kalastor shine, huge racial damage multipliers, cast speed, lots of skill points, bonuses to Drain Essence, RR and OA/DA shred to Aura of Censure, and a really strong proc with a short cooldown that adds more damage and gives a lot of CC.
Off-hand
Mythical Wretched Tome of Nar’Adin has acid/poison % damage and more poison duration, much needed energy regen, gigantic reduction in poison duration (on you), cooldown for our Rune and buffs, more damage to DE, and vital Hungering Reach points.
Helmet
You need Radaggan’s Mask. Try to craft for Slow Res.
Body Armor
Pants
Pants might be one of the tougher items to farm on this build. You really want Aleksander’s Legguards for the Hungering Reach points, and ideally with the Tormented Souls suffix to get +5 as this greatly helps in capping Hungering Reach without needing to get a sub-par ring. Hard capping Hungering Reach is really important as going from 20 to 22 points adds 3% leech, and an extra target to Drain Essence.
Belt
This also takes some time to farm, especially with a good %OA roll, but Mythical String of Maggots is great. Acid/poison % damage, health, %OA, crit damage, some resists, and +1 Necromancer skills.
Shoulders
Gloves
There’s a lot not so pretty about them, but Mythical Riftwarped Grasp are a solid choice. Wrong damage type, but still loads of health, OA, Drain Essence line points, and more damage and leech to DE. Hard to pass up.
Boots
Boots are flexible. Venomspine Greaves don’t give us any useful skill points, but the resistances (especially slow res) are much needed and they give the build a source of the fumble debuff.
Amulet
Rings
Shuroth rings have some good stats and a great damage proc, but take forever to farm. I think this build does very well with the humble Vine Ring. They’re super easy to farm, come with the right damage type, and points to help us max Rune of Kalastor. Mix and match to get resists, cast speed, and OA.
Relic
Deathstalker is good in this build. It has important CC resists, speed, health, lots of damage %, and the summon gives RR and is a useful devotion proccer (I bind it to Abom so it procs the big poison nova on the monsters instead of around me). Try to craft for OA or DA%.
Medal
You want an Ilgorr’s Eternal Vigil. It might take a while to get a good one since Ilgorr is deep in Steps of Torment and drops the other medal half the time. Aggressive of Tormented Souls gives us OA and Drain Essence points on top of the Health, Decomposition points, and extra damage and targets on Drain Essence.
Components and augments are pretty straightforward. I needed a Frozen Heart in one ring for the CC resists. Use 1x Basilisk Gaze to get armor absorption near cap.
Skills
Inquisitor
Max Word of Renewal and Vigor for all the numerous buffs they give you. This is also a useful emergency heal if you find yourself unable to succ. One point in Steel Resolve for the racial damage and resists.
Max Aura of Censure for the radius, skill disruption, and reduced enemy damage. Items add ADCtH to the aura damage, acid/poison RR, and OA/DA shred.
Max both Seal and Arcane Empowerment. We have to stand still while we channel Drain Essence, so why not get the damage absorption, extra elemental resist overcap, regen, % all damage, and crit damage.
Normally, Deadly Aim is a one-pointer noob trap, but we’ve got the points to play with and more OA, crit damage, and all damage is awesome. You really feel it when it’s up with that many points.
Hard cap Rune of Kalastor and max out Ignition and Artifact Handling. With the Radaggan set, this becomes a big acid/poison shotgunning nuke that obliterates packs and bosses alike.
Necromancer
Hard cap every skill in the Drain Essence line. This is our main damage and sustain. Capping everything increases not only damage but also the number of targets, area, leech, crit damage, and OA shred.
Max out Spectral Binding for the health and OA, and Spectral Wrath for the RR and attack speed debuff.
One point is good enough in Mark of Torment for the damage absorption/transfer, and we get extra absorption from items. While this can be used defensively to reduce incoming damage, the damage transfer makes it a force multiplier against priority targets, so use it offensively to kill things faster.
Call of the Grave is a solid damage and crit damage buff, so put all of your spare points here.
We don’t normally use Ill Omen, but you can transfer all but one point out of Aura of Censure (you still get full benefit of the OA/DA shred and RR from items) and put them here instead for fighting bosses as it has better scaling for the reduced enemy damage.
Devotions:
Viper for OA and affinity; Rat for poison stuff and affinity; Owl for skill cost reduction, stats and damage/poison duration; Spider for lots of stats, OA, speed, etc.
Bard’s Harp is really important for energy sustain on this build, as well as slow resist on the proc to get us to slow resist cap. Lots of other useful stats as well.
Chariot of the Dead has good slow res, OA, and a great defensive proc.
Oklaine’s Lantern has all kinds of caster goodies - crit damage, cast speed, damage, energy regen.
Abomination has lots of damage, health, and OA with an awesome poison nova proc that does good damage and confuses huge crowds. Bind to Deathstalker so he sets it off in the crowds of enemies.
Murmur has lots of good acid/poison stats and the Rumor proc is our main RR devotion. Bind it to Drain Essence to make sure it’s up on every enemy.
Manticore has more great acid/poison stats. Bind Acid Spray to Rune of Kalastor - with all those shotgunning projectiles, you’re sure to land the RR debuff on just about everything.
Gameplay
My computer is a potato so I can’t record. Feel free to download the .zip - I’ll be happy to include any of your gameplay videos in this post for others to see.
The build is very strong in both SR and Crucible. Big physical hits can take chunks out of you with the low phys res, but you should be able your succ your way back to full health in no time. The crits are just plain massive, and combined with Rune of Kalastor everything just completely melts. The only thing really holding it back is that low phys resist, the nature of playing with Seal and having to stand still to channel, and no movement skill.
It can facetank a lot of stuff but I don’t recommend trying to facetank through sunders on celestials, especially the ones with big physical hits. Rune of Kalastor allows you some breathing room to kite, but you will need to learn to time your succing to do damage and keep sustain up.
Leveling
I leveled this build with Ravenous Earth. Grab a Leafmane Horn to convert to acid/poison. You can also add a Bonespike and Basilisk Crest to the mix to reduce the cooldown and energy cost. I also used Poison Bomb/Noxious Poison Bomb from Mutagenic Ichor and Venom-Tipped Ammo components as a filler alongside Ravenous Earth. This way, you can grab all the same acid/poison devotions and not have to re-level devotions later.
Conclusion
I’m no professional, but this is absolutely one of the strongest builds, if not THE strongest, that I have ever put together fully on my own. With all the love that Cold, Vitality, and Aether Drain Essence got in the recent Top 20 build thread, I think that Acid has a place at the table with the Radaggan set. Cabalist is the obvious choice, but I couldn’t help but be intrigued by the OA and crit scaling potential that came with Inquisitor.
Alternative Cabalist versions (could be optimized with better rings):
Tankier with Possession: Absorb, more Phys Res, more % reduced damage via Ill Omen, and extra leech from fully converted Sigil. Lower OA, no Rune of Kalastor nuke: Cabalist, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
Crit version with Master of Death: high OA and DA, no absorb, lower base acid %: Cabalist, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
All feedback is welcome!
and get another 75+ oa for MOAR crits.