Tainted Flame is the skill transmuter node on Flames of Ignaffar. It converts Fire to Chaos and Lightning to Vitality, and boosts overall damage by 15%. This is not a very good tradeoff. The main reason is that Chaos has no DoT damage type, so the heavy Burn damage component on FoI is unconverted. It’s such a big damage contributor that the 15% boost doesn’t make up for it (and of course the other problem with transmuters like this is that the Lightning → Vitality component makes it so that you can’t re-convert that damage to a single type, and are stuck with a skill with a split damage type).
But it’s actually even worse than that. Flames of Ignaffar is a channeled skill with a fairly short range and smallish AoE. My own Chaos FoI Deceiver build shows that you can make a build with decent single-target damage using the transmuter – but the build is still quite clunky to play, for multiple reasons. One of those is that the way you want to use FoI in packs is to pivot in place, hitting the enemies as they surround you and letting the DoT component tick as you do. But without a Chaos DoT, you have to actively channel directly on target to kill anything. So you pivot, but the stuff you pivot away from doesn’t take any damage, and you have to go back to it. You can’t just spin once and move on to kill a pack of trash, like you might do with Fire FoI.
I don’t have a super great idea about how to fix this. Personally, I’d love it if we just removed the Lightning → Vitality bit (truly top-tier single target would help make up for lack of AoE), but I bet that’s a non-starter. As is somehow pumping up the DoT component for a primarily Chaos damage build. I wonder if we could increase the range or cone of FoI to help? Either as part of Tainted Flame itself, or maybe on a related Chaos FoI item like Solael’s Devourer or Voidsteel Gauntlets.
Or maybe you have a better idea. But I’d love to find a way to make Chaos FoI a little less clunky to play.
cone got increased not long ago, and people seemed to appreciate it for aether etc variants
Maybe additional “girth” can be baked into the transmuter if it’s that big of a deal breaker
also, kinda curious with that general theme where chaos build = vit conversion loss, it’s “everywhere” , - AAR transmuter, Aegis/voidsoul
That is the way. It should absolutely have huge single target to compensate for the loss of dots. Those Chaos/Vitality transmuters are artefacts of the past where game was completely different. Chaos/Vitality hybridization it’s not happening.
my guess is that it’s from really long ago before Vitality even had Rattosh devotion, like from vanilla days
The main reason hybridiztion is not working is lack of items supporting some intended splits, lack of all dmg options in gear.
In case of vitality+chaos, actually a good option for hybrid because of big enemy res profile, it doesn’t work because of the worst relic of the past in devos: mandatory abomination and dying god to make chaos have competitive amount of dmg. Devos are the biggest customization puzzle in this game and this puzzle basically doesnt exist for chaos and it’s sad. Chaos needs all regular devos buffed, eldritch fire buffed to -42% for chaos and two t3 procs reworked to not be mandatory for chaos, ideally same treatment for these devos should receive vitality.
To the topic. FoI suffers from the enemy aggro. Period. Nothing else. FoI, ranged AA, AAR - all skills are inherently gimped in the current game because the tactic of lining the enemies up doesn’t work. There is literally no other reason. The only way to make FoI work properly in the current game is to buff the starting width of the cone so much that it always clips enemies on your flanks.
Couple of FoI builds (Mageslayer and custom fire Paladin) kinda work only because of heavy dot and proc support.
This is a good point that I was contemplating making separately. Another issue with my Deceiver build is that I absolutely cannot choose any devotions for defense (build really needs a circuit-breaker or two) or energy regen (build requires chugging energy potions) or even AoE damage procs other than Fiend, without also nerfing single-target damage to unacceptable levels.
Voidsoul is a bit better than custom because the set is absolutely stacked. The way you get aoe on this build is conduit with WoP conversion. You have to chug the loss of single target which itself is an ok tradeoff.
I did not find Voidsoul to have good enough single target on my Deceiver. One issue is way, way less OA. Perhaps a different class would make better use of it.
I played voidsoul deceiver in 1.2 test and it had 1:17 ravager, calla tank which sounds good for single target. But the enemy aggro flushed it out of both top20 contentions.
Alright, I tried Voidsoul again, using your spec. The two builds play similarly to me, especially with % weapon damage conduit on both (which your save had). Voidsoul is a little tankier, Devourer has better single target, or at least that’s how it felt to me. Both have meh AoE and suffer from the general problems described in this thread. Otherwise, they’re both good builds, IMO.
I tried WoP conduit and didn’t feel like it made the Voidsoul version better (I’ve tried it on my build too, to the same result).
I guess I like glassier builds in general, so I still slightly prefer mine. I’m probably biased.
, - AAR transmuter, Aegis/voidsoul