Vitality Decay is notorious for being the only DoT that requires high amounts of conversion to work properly or requires hybridization with Vitality builds. This is a classical DoT build i.e a build that doesn’t rely on conversion and is purely (well mostly) Vitality Decay.
The exact same concept was used for making a Bleed Caster Death Knight using this set.
Grimtools -
Cabalist - https://www.grimtools.com/calc/p25KQ90Z
Screenshot with Blood of Dreeg, Soul Harvest and Hungering Void.
FAQ -
Why such heavy investment in Bone Harvest?
Well the idea of the build is based on the concept of attempting to make a skill with high weapon damage to deal a type of damage that is not supported by that skill inherently or through skill mods. This is done by stacking high amounts of flat damage of the damage type in question.
Bone Harvest has good amounts of %Weapon Damage and therefore is the perfect candidate for this. Unfortunately for us the sources of flat Vitality Decay are either scarce or “unreachable”.
Is Hollowed Fang really needed here?
I am kinda reaching it for any source for Vitality Decay at this point, look at my weapon choice. If I could muster up better DA then I’d be using Kiliran’s Shattered Soul for the Vitality Decay proc.
How is it compared to Blood Orb builds?
Blood Orb conversion gives you access to more sources of DoTs through conversion thereby making it better.
Why use Time Dilation?
To give us 2x Bone Harvest nuke and to help us keep Mark of Torment on a short cooldown.
Why not go with Affliction and Wendigo?
You loose out on some other valuable devotions such as Aeon’s Hourglass by picking them. Another issue is offensive ability which isn’t too stellar so I had to pick some devotions that gave me good OA.
Is Hungering Void helpful?
Hungering Void’s Crit bonus sure goes a long way but isn’t too reliable. You can choose not to to go for it but using it makes your life easier.
Why use Mythical Corpse Desecrator?
As hard to believe as it maybe but it is one of the few items with a decent flat vitality decay bonus atm. Since Bone Harvest only takes main hand’s damage into account, using a second Corpse Desecrator is useless and therefor the 40% Weapon Damage mod on Soulbearer is much more useful.
In Closing -
This is not a build that is particularly well supported by the game and Vitality Decay as an independent damage type could still use some looking into hopefully Forgotten Gods solves this issue.
I had fun playing with this build a lot of it has to do with the fact that the Blood Knight Set is very fun to tinker with. Hope you guys enjoy it as well.
Some more Decay support on Dying God’s nodes and Hungering Void would finally put non conversion Decay in a much better place - http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72715
