Something I’ve been wondering for a while is whether or not a build using a non-transmuted DEE would be viable, or rather, how ‘viable’ is it? I’m asking because I haven’t really seen a spammy DEE build here on the forums in a long time, I think. Or maybe I’ve just missed it. I’ve mostly seen Witch Hunter builds with more of a cooldown based playstyle.
I remember having a lot of fun playing that kind of character a few years back. It was super satisfying, spamming those DEE’s all over the place.
So my question is, what would a character like that look like, gear-wise, skills-wise, devotion-wise, etc.? Could you reliably farm things like nemesis? I don’t play Crucible much, but I’m interested in hearing about that too if anyone has tried with such a build. Oh, and what would be a good class combination? Warlock? Witchhunter? Witchblade, perhaps?
Any ideas or opinions are welcome Thank you in advance!
Anyway the basic rule of spammable DEE is that you don’t really want/have to put too much (or even more than 1) point in the base skill and max Vile Eruption as it’s dealing a LOT more damage.
It’s viable in a sense that you could complete the game with it, but not often played or recommended for various reasons. In short, it’s focus is acid/vitality. There isn’t that much of an acid/vitality gear besides the Dreeg set, and well, good luck farming that. Acid/vitality isn’t exactly a good combo when it comes to devotions too. Also no spells to complement it. Also facetanking nature of the build, which emphasizes importance of defense.
Basically, JoV did well making it work at the higher end, but it’s still a build that relies on having Dreeg set.
There is plenty of poison/acid/vitality gear. The Miasma Epics are made just for this, and a many loose epics, and Blighted and of Blight and of Plagues, etc for rare gear, and Dreegs Gaze, and you cant go wrong with a Malformed Effigy in you are doing a P/A caster. A few pieces of “of Blight” gear will proc often with DEE’s fast attack speed. There are also Poison Novas and turds from Soiled Trousers. Poision Weapons, and Dreegs Infinite Gaze go well here too, and Guardians Gaze for devotion. A Blight shard Amulet gives you a Rift Scourge Summon that will take the heat off of you while you lay down a blanket of acid and poison that will melt the field.
I would not recommend building any hero around a Lengendary item set. But most epics are farmable and obtainable reasonably quickly. I just finished Vet at level 55 with a few level 20ish storm caller pieces. She melted every boss and hero, in fact the hardest to kill were high level storm Skeletons with a Priest nearby. The idea that you must play with legendary gear or even the best highest level gear in mind is nonsense. That is a good exercise in making frustrating that which should be fun.
For the caster it is all about getting the multiplier as high as possible and laying down as much as you can, ideally killing everything before you take a hit. Owen the occultist here does that pretty well at level 35. I haven’t played him in a while and he needs some tweaking. No idea what to do for the second mastery though.
This is a dangerous misconception. Noone guarantees that you’ll get the epic piece you want with reasonable time investment. You are as likely to end up with a few dozens of legendary items before you get a couple of Empowered Rings of Eternal Rot.
This is certainly true, there is no guarantee of any particular item, but its far more likely than banking on a particular legendary set. Still, there is enough poison acid-vitality-variety to sustain the character, and often enough you are far better off with the rares in terms of survivability, especially if you can get a two affix rare with a P/A/V suffix.
I have on more than one occasion forgone stronger overall rares just to keep the stormcaller gear on the Druid, but even by level 55, changing the stormcaller gear is more of a lateral move than an upward one. It makes little difference in the long run as long as you keep the rest of your gear current.
I also don’t mean to imply that you bank on those particular items, just that you can get an idea of what might work and grow by looking at the items available. Spamcast DEE is very doable, and even insanely powerful at times. You just need to look outside the skills tree for support spells.
Not necessarily. Any Legendary can be obtained at any time after level 50. Once you pass a level range for a particular Epic item, however, you have no hope of dropping it again on that character. In that sense, getting one’s desired low-level Epics may as well be like getting Legendaries.
I do not think this is correct. Loot scales to the area level, not the player level. So any area with level 14 mobs can drop level 14 epics. So doing Devil’ Crossing faction stuff or just going around an killing bosses and opening chests on the east side will provide opportunities to get the low level epics, at least on veteran. I don’t think the epic chance ever drops to zero. I am still finding lower level stuff on DE bounty runs at least.
Pictured below is a result of just 5 minutes in Burwitch Outskirts with my level 55 druid. Killed the two main-quest Fleshwarped bosses from chapter one. Level 20 Hermits Legguards.
While true, the point is that you have fewer areas to farm to acquire loot of that level, whereas searching for Legendaries can be done anywhere in Elite/Ultimate, meaning more chances for them to drop.
Eh, its nothing to close the game and start a new session. The area is smaller for sure, but that does not stop continuous farming and boutyhunting.
Here is that same run just 20 mins in. The lower level stuff can be farmed pretty easily is all im saying. It goes quick because you slice through everything like butter. The gameworld is surprisingly small and travel is quick when you aren’t slowed by the mobs.
OK i did some tweaking and a few discoveries. If you can manage the Miasma set, with blade of Nera’Val and put Malformed Effigy and Plagueblood carver on secondary weapon slots, you can have a setup with primary(tome of plagues/neraval) DEE having a boost to blood burst and wasting with increased attack speed, then switching to plagueblood/malformed effigy gives a boost to regen at the cost of the DEE and attack speed bonus. The plus is that the skill boost distribution between the four items means you will never loose the +1 overall bonus to occult skills and the +2 to bloody pox, giving you an attack speed overdive setting and and mana regen boost setting, essentially.
But, its moot once you put manticore sting devotion on bloody pox, as a tight mob destroys itself quickly as BP spreads through the mob procing the acid splash periodically. More often the wave is dead before you can get off more than a few stink eyes.
Some similar synergy with Stormcaller gear and Skyshard/Storm Scion.
Sorry for replying so late to my own topic! I totally forgot about it again, but I wanted to say that I very much appreciate all the replies and info you peeps provided. It’s super helpful.
I don’t think I’ll be making a char like this anytime soon, but glad to hear that it’s possible and can be viable for future reference.
Thank you in advance!