I am new to the forum and new to the game. Though I have 100+ hours I have not even gotten through veteran because interesting build ideas keep occurring to me and I keep starting new things. I was leveling an occultist+nightblade and completely by chance found that when I was using curse of frailty I had items that proc with percentage chance of attack. I started to think more about it and ended up with an elemental seal proc item and another sigil and it was just wrecking everything. With a view to end game is there a viable build that takes advantage of these kinds of items? As you can imagine with 8 characters I’ve geared myself pretty well with these items for veteran but will this idea work in end game? I’m not sure nightblade is the best secondary choice though? I am using evil eye as my attack skill and my idea was to use veil of shadow/night’s chill and curse to slow everyone to a crawl. I picked up some interesting night’s chill boosting gear but the damages are so different one is cold the other is poison. Are thesee two mutually exclusive? The other reason I like the proc items is that I have some mental issues and they make coordination of pressing multiple buttons very difficult. With the proc items I don’t have to press fifty buttons to have stuff happen.
I have more questions but I will leave this here for now. Also if this is in the wrong section then please feel free to move it where it needs to be.
A) I’m 100% the same, I am constantly thinking of new build ideas. I’ve managed to divert that drive into scribbling them down, rather than immediately making them. Now that Grimtools has their own Calc up, I’ve got an entire bookmarked folder of ideas that are either waiting for gear, or waiting for me to finish my current build.
B) For proc builds, the answer is technically yes… In practice, it’s hard to make them. Not because of damage, defense, viability…But the GEAR. Generally if you want procs that match, you want the same proc, or a proc with the same damage type(s). The only proc I know of offhand that is on multiple blues and purples is Elemental Seal… And Elemental is hard to gear for anyways. If you want a proc build, you’re generally going to need greens. And that means a long, long time farming for a green with the exact proc suffix you want, and a usable prefix…In all the pertinent slots. As an example, I am STILL gathering gear for a Chaos proc build focusing on Doom Bolt and Chaos Bolt procs. There are some blues and purples with those procs, but not enough to center the build around… So I have to get greens. I’ve been farming for a few months now, I think, and I have exactly… zero.
C) Your class choice for a proc build is up to you. There are on crit, on attack, on being hit, on health % procs… You can generally, with enough time into the game, find a proc that fits every class and combination in some fashion. Pick what you want, and go from there.
D) The reason Curse is proccing so well is because it counts, in an odd way, as a DOT sort of thing, mechanically. DOTs are the best for proccing gear procs specifically, so focusing on a DOT and procs around a DOT will make your life easier if you choose to make a proc build.
I just want to clarify something.
DoTs only count as one hit (so, poison damage is a DoT for example).
The reason Curse of Frailty is good at proccing isn’t because it’s acting like a DoT, it’s because it applies every second.
I don’t want you to get confused about it, that’s all. Something like Blade Arc or Dreeg’s Evil Eye will only proc once per hit, the DoT doesn’t do anything for it. But something like Curse of Frailty, Veil of Shadow, Devouring Swarm, Olexra’s Flash Freeze, or Rend (on the Huntress constellation) will proc once per second on each target hit.
So it’s not DoTs that are good at proccing, it’s reapplication.
Also, @woofknight, take a look at grimtools or graceful dusk, they have item databases. Specifically, look at Francis’ Gun, Olman’s Axe, Hevill’s Greatsword, and Slithtongue. The reason I mention these is because they are the only items (<- as far as I know) that have a proc skill but can still have affixes. For example, you could have a Frostborn Olman’s Axe for double procs on one item. Just a fun idea.
To further elucidate… Dragged the Bolt Proc build I mentioned out of that bookmark folder. I really need to keep those better organized. http://www.grimtools.com/calc/aZqBb4Nd
The “dream” version of the build needs… An MI that only drops in a hidden area, and another MI that does the same, in a DIFFERENT hidden area. An MI that only drops from one Nemesis boss. Another two MIs that only drop from Cultists. And ALL at the top level, IE in Ultimate, AND with the exact right prefix and suffix. The blues and purples are actually the easy part of getting the gear for this build. The Rhowari Girdle is actually just a faction one though. If I can get it together, the build will be amazing…But right now, that gear is so far off, it’s a pipe’s pipe dream.
Chance on proc builds can work great IF (and that’s a VEEERRRRY big IF) you can find the gear for them. Several of my hybrid summoners are chance on attack proc elemental casters, and as effective (and wonderfully spammy) those builds are the fact is that it took me months to even complete a single set for just one of them.
Note that these affixes scale with item level - you’ll have to find separate item sets for your level 30s, 50s, 80s, etc.
Crafters seem to especially hate generating chance on proc attack affixes. I’ve honestly had better luck finding stuff in the crucible.
Poison and cold are rarely supported together, I’m afraid. Maybe when the Necromancer is introduced, you’ll have better luck with such a build.
There are a variety of MIs and I think a few non MI Bases, but generally, unless you use a database or just KNOW what the prefix/suffix that the item rolled with do… You generally can’t tell if the proc is from the item base, the prefix, or the suffix. So just seeing a piece of gear with a proc isn’t always terribly helpful.
Yes, you can focus on both cold and poison damages. Even though you have resistance reductions to both, most items, skills and constellations provide bonuses to either poison/acid, or cold/frostburn damage types. So one of them may have ~2000% damage increase, while other - only ~400%, meaning 4 times the difference in damage dealt (and at that point, the “second” damage type becames redundant.
But you can convert up to 36% of your not-so-useful cold/frostburn damage into useful acid/poison with Cowl of Venomblade.
And actually, if you focus on Poison/acid damage, you’ll have to press only 3 buttons - LMB Amarasta’s Blade Burst, RMB Shadow Strike and 1 more button for Curse of Frailty. And once every 5-10 seconds rolling a mouse wheel to get healed/renew buffs (Pneumatic Burst+Blood or Dreeg). That’s not so much buttons, actually.
Thanks so much for the great replies guys. I wasn’t aware I could set buffs to the mouse wheel, that is really excellent. I assume when you say I can set buffs to the mouse wheel you mean one buff on mouse wheel up and one on mouse wheel down right? My friend suggested I roll a two handed ranged commando and so far I am having a lot of fun with it. It isn’t button intensive and it has a lot of health regen type stuff which seems to be working well. He is rolling through elite at the moment and says it is very viable. It helps that the game threw a bunch of items at me for my build and I had a bunch in my stash. When I got to the swarming hive the one shot chest dropped a brimstone repeater for me so all I need is one more piece for the set.
Like I said I tried a nightblade build but got to a point in veteran where every boss above my level was like banging my head against a wall and it just ended up not being fun. The commando however just rolls through and blows the stuffing out of everything especially when the quick draw gloves proc and the damage jumps about 800 dps. The crit thing is irritating me though, it fluctuates so wildly and I still can’t work out why? The other great thing about the commando is with a few pieces of kit he is extremely fast at moving around the map.
I’m still interested in making a proc based build but I can now use my commando to farm gear for other characters. Little bit worried about his viability for ultimate but the character is only at level 32 at the moment so I am sure it will be fine.
