Carmilla: Bleed and Vitality Conjurer
Build with what I consider BiS greens, this build is assumed in the item discussion below-
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/RZRnEX0Z
Fairly obtainable end game build, this has the core legendary items but has more easily obtainable green items-
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/qNYenGlN
Old build- I am going to keep this one here as it is effective through 150 Challenger and for the campaign, and uses pretty easy to obtain items. Seeing a guide where everything equipped is a rare legendary or MI can be daunting when starting, and this build is still quite effective.
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/q2MEdQW2
Pros:
-Gladiator 170.
-165 Bleed -res, 148 Vit -res
-215 DA shred, 495 OA shred
-15% reduced target’s damage
-Great for party play with extensive buffs and debuffs.
-4 on attack skills with 5 player scaled summons
-Modularity, there is a lot of room to customize skills and items.
-Large AoE damage with mastery skills and item procs
-Very long range attack capability
-Strong CC
-Very high sustain
-Large health pool
-Low cooldown build
-Not many buttons to press! (these last two are personal favorites)
Cons:
-Very energy hungry! (this can be mitigated however)
-No circuit breaker type skills.
This character began as a bleed build, but after seeing all of the vitality overlap and wanting to incorporate some of the skills I had enjoyed on my vit Conjurer I decided to use both damage types. You could get higher vit or bleed damage by using a single element but I don’t think it’s worth it. The combination of the two offers a lot of advantages. The focus is on large debuffs and using the Conjurer’s great proc skills to cover the screen in high damage item procs. High enemy resistances hardly matter with the resistance shred of this build, easier to dam the Whiteflow than to stop all of the bleed and vitality damage! This is important as resistance shred is one of the best damage buffs in the game. Also, keep in mind that item procs can trigger other item procs. I can hit the dummy once and my character can continue to attack it for minutes afterwards as the item procs chain together. This build is a lot of fun and effective to boot.
Disclaimer: Any resemblance between this character and an anagram named ancient member of your family is purely coincidental.
Gameplay Tips
In any fight I lead with CoF and Grasping Vines. This debuffs, procs Wendigo and Rend, and also heavily slows and ensnares enemies. Another reason to lead with these two skills is that they can be cast at the edge of the screen and with their radius can hit enemies who are still off screen. It’s also nice because I can usually strike before getting aggro and can outrange Aetherial Crystals. In closed areas I like to cast at doorways and other chokepoints. When there is a passage intersecting the one I am in, I cast at the door and Grasping Vines will extend partway down that passage and hit enemies that are still trying to get line of site on me. If the the mobs I am attacking are stronger or I know they have high resists, I shoot a Devouring Swarm or two into them. After that I approach and Bloody Pox anything still standing (usually this step is not needed) and maybe put down a totem or sigil if I am using them at the time and it is a large crowd of strong enemies.
Skills
Occultist Mastery: I did not take 50 here as I elected to use Primal Bond as my exclusive skill. Possession is also a solid choice, and you could elect to only do 40 in Shaman instead. I had pointed into Shaman mastery to 50 before deciding to incorporate vitality damage, so the choice was easy for me. As of 1.0.6.0 Primal Bond also gives flat bleeding damage which will help Grasping Vines because of the Wildheart set bonus. Possession does give a good amount of Chaos resistance, which can often be hard to come by.
Curse of Frailty: Very strong res and DA debuff. Curse also ticks and is very good at proccing. I tie Wendigo to it to get my sustain deployed quickly, and because Wendigo is a great damage source.
Blood of Dreeg: OA, Resistance, and Vitality damage for you and your allies. I keep this up all the time for the buffs and don’t use it as a heal.
Bloody Pox: Decent damage, but more useful as a debuff. Dark One’s Grasp makes this skill reduce enemy damage by 15% which is an enormous help. I take Wasting for the debuff to OA and extra vitality damage. I don’t recommend Black Death as the damage per point seems rather low. Fevered Rage can be tempting, but the enemy buffs it gives will make high end enemies extremely dangerous, and this build isn’t tanky enough to be giving Nemsis heroes a 25% OA buff. I usually only use Pox on hero monsters, as it is not needed for trash mobs. I tie Rattosh to it to further debuff hero monsters.
Solael’s Witchfire: A new addition in 1.0.6.0, one point in Solael’s and then max Second Rite for a big addition of flat vitality and decay which will work on Grasping Vines because of the % weapon damage mod on Wildheart Vanguard. The vitality res is a nice bonus too.
Optional Skills: After the main skills above there are a few things you could use leftover points in. Sigil is good and does strong damage and adds sustain. You could put a point in Doom Bolt for the occasional burst damage.
Shaman Mastery:
Grasping Vines: This does great damage and is one of the best skills in the game for procing items and devotions. It also provides great CC. I use this as my main attack. I recommend leveling Entangling Vines as well, as you get a solid damage return per point invested and further CC. The Wildblood Set gives this skill a large damage buff, and gives it ADCTH which is very helpful. I tie Rend to it and with just that and CoF you can kill most mobs very quickly.
Devouring Swarm: Health sustain, damage, and a big debuff for our two main damage types. The Wildblood set also adds a lot of damage to this skill. I tie Acid Spray to it as it procs it often.
Mogdrogen’s Pact: In my darkest hours I have considered leveling the initial node for the energy regen but have not sunk that low yet! Heart of the Wild is an obvious choice for the health, and Oak Skin can help shore up low resistances if need be.
Primal Bond: The bleeding damage and defensive stats are what we’re after.
Wendigo Totem: With this build’s high health pool, Wendigo Totem offers a lot of sustain and some decent damage.
Brute Force: This adds lots of health. You could allocate this elsewhere, but an extra 1000+ of health is hard to pass up.
Optional Skills: Storm Totem is a good choice. You don’t really need the damage, but it’s a good return on points invested, and I figure it might be useful when being swarmed in Crucible. I deploy it against bosses and large hero groups for an extra kick.
Item Discussion
Set: The set bonuses on Wildheart Vanguard offer +skills for two of our most important skills, OA, and % bleeding damage. Most importantly the set bonuses and the weapon add a large amount of damage to Grasping Vines and Devouring Swarm. In game, with my defensive set up, the tooltips indicate that over 10,000 bleeding and vitality damage are added to Grasping Vines and 2,500 to Devouring Swarm. This is not counting the % damage the set adds, just the flat damage to those skills. When paired with enemy resistances that will be reduced to at least -58% (if the enemy naturally has 100% resistance) and the large AoE of Grasping Vines this is a lot of damage. In addition, the ADCTH added to the skill from Wildblood Crusher will be more effective because of the extra vitality damage. I particularly enjoy this as Vines is my favorite attack with this build.
Head: There are great mods on this helm including the bleed damage and +1 Occultist skills plus the always welcome aether resist. The proc has a very low cool down, does respectable damage, and offers a powerful debuff. The only other option I would consider is Valguur’s Gems as it gives +1 to both of our masteries and buffs both bleed and vitality damage significantly.
Weapon: This weapon greatly increases Grasping Vines’ damage by converting the physical damage to vitality damage and also adds flat vitality damage to Grasping Vines and Devouring Swarm. This ended up being an increase of several thousand damage for my character. In addition, it then adds ADCTH to Grasping Vines making it a major source of sustain. Topping that off with a high % of bleeding and vitality damage just makes this weapon all the better.
Amulet: This amulet is an instant favorite of mine. Good bonuses to the build’s main damage types and Call Upon the Bloodbathed adds a lot of damage. The summons act just like Necromancer mages but with blood colored spells. They do very high AoE damage, almost always have 4 summons up, and I have found as an added bonus in Crucible they block enemies rather well.
Rings: Deathlord’s offers a great proc and vitality and bleeding % buffs. The Cronley’s I have listed would be hard to find, but is pretty tough to beat. Besides a Cronley’s Signet you could stack another Deathlord’s for extra procs or Signet of The Fallen is a solid choice for its proc.
Shoulders: Part of the set, and they would be a strong choice for this build even if I wasn’t using the entire set.
Gloves: I have finally made the switch to Dark One’s Grasp. I really do like Valguur’s Touch, but the 15% reduction to enemy damage on Dark One’s Grasp is just too strong.
Boots: There are several options here and I would pick the ones that fit your resistance needs most. Eventually crafting or trading for a pair of Stoneplate greaves can free up a lot of resistance requirements.
Medal: Mythical Mark of the Forbidden is a recent addition and a strong one. The item itself offers great resistances, vitality damage, damage reflection, + skills to relevant skills, and it adds quite a bit of flat damage to Bloody Pox and Wendigo Totem. The proc is nice for a little bit of extra damage, but the main draw is the fumble/impaired aim chance. Those are both very useful. Mark of Lethal Intents is also very good and can be crafted from a faction recipe.
Belt: Part of the set, and perfect for the build in general.
Relic: I like either Deathstalker or Eldritch Pact here. Deathstalker offers great stats including some very useful stun duration reduction. The pet you get can proc devotions and while its damage is probably less than Eldritch Pact, it stills does quite a bit and the 10% bleed debuff is worth a lot of damage. In tight quarters the pet can also body block for you which is nice. Eldritch Pact does a lot of damage as it procs pretty much constantly because of the large number of damage sources from this build. The item bonuses are also very nice including a very useful +1 to Occultist skills.
Pants Wendigomane or Flesheater Legwraps are good options. MI pants are very strong though, and likely preferable if you can find a good pair.
Armor Previously I used Valguur’s Raiment but since dropping Valguur’s Touch Blood Knight’s Armor is a better choice. It offers strong stats and a great two piece set bonus.
Augments/Components
Most of this is pretty standard. Buffing DA/OA and shoring up resists. If you’re not farming Crucible Ravager’s Harvest is also a good choice for the weapon as it fits perfectly with the build. Basilisk’s Bite on the jewelry also works as it buffs both of our damage types and adds a big chunk of stun resist and health if you want to pass on the OA and DA from Survivor’s Ingenuity. I did forgo Runebound Topaz on the amulet as Seal of Annihilation offers needed lowered energy cost for skills and the granted ability on the amulet is also very helpful.
Devotions
I went high offense on my devotions but picked up some standard defensive ones too like Throne. I start with bat, as with it, some in crossroads, and Throne, you will be able to get Rend quickly. I would grab Rend as soon as possible. After that I went for Wendigo, Manticore, Rattosh, Harp and Kraken. I had to use Eel and Jackal to get Kraken as it supports itself. When you need to do that, Rattosh is the devotion to borrow from as it doesn’t offer any affinity. Kraken is a 1.0.5.0 addition and the damage is great. These will give you a lot of damage, sustain, even more resistance debuffs, and OA debuffs. Harp came at Tora’s suggestion (much appreciated!) and it makes it to where you won’t be using energy potions regularly. It also offers good DA and OA with considerable up time and other good boosts.
Leveling Guide
This is pretty easy! This build gets good damage quickly. Conjurers have several skills that make leveling a breeze. I would recommend getting to level 3 or 4 in the normal campaign without getting any devotion shrines so that you can use The Crucible to get your first ten devotion points. I find this makes the game much smoother sailing later as you can get strong devotions much earlier. I recommend leveling Grasping Vines first as it does a lot of damage over a large area and has two damage types. This is good just in case you don’t have your res debuffs rolling before Arkovia, where the skeletons are naturally immune to bleed. After Vines I went for Curse of Frailty to get the bleed and movement debuffs. These are also your two best skills for proccing devotions. It also wouldn’t hurt to put at least a point into Hellhound and Briarthorn as they will absorb a lot of damage for you. Maxing Briarthorn isn’t a bad idea for the early game as it will be able to solo most content in A1 and into A2 by itself. Similarly, I also suggest getting the Hysteria relic as it can be used at low levels and you don’t have great options otherwise. It will be another tank for you and will do respectable damage for most of Normal/Veteran. Next I would max Devouring Swarm for more damage and the resistance debuff. After that I would focus on filling out your mastery bars and picking up the skills you will need later. You don’t really need to level Bloody Pox right away, and I would actually max Wasting first for the debuff. You won’t really need the damage from Pox until late elite. Besides all of that I would go for what suits your playstyle and felt needs best.
I am interested to hear feedback. So far I have really enjoyed this build and have breezed through all the content I have taken on. Before this I mained pet builds and I am actually liking this build better and finding it more effective.
always wanted to play with devouring swarm. (i usally stop mid 50s playing a char, lets hope that ill play him a little bit longer ;))