So this is how the character ended up by the end of veteran for those interested in pure caster types. Half of the gear I am using is exactly the same gear i was using at level 35. The Miasma set, Soiled Trousers, Blade of NeraVal, and Plagueblood Carver/Malformed Effigy in slot two.
Noxious poison Bomb from the ammo. It is practically designed to work in tandem with the Soiled Trousers. Confusion, Slow, Resist Reduction.
Non-Transuted DEE has Wendigo Mark, Bloody Pox has Acid Splash from Manticore devotion. The other devotions are Jackal, Spider, Sailors Guide.
I picked a few Vitality rare pieces to give Bloody Pox some extra stank, along with other resists pieces. The amulet is the Plaguemancer amulet for a poison aura, and the ring is Ring of Vile Intent.
So at this point he just walks out into the mob and everything dies instantly, just like you would expect from a plaguemancer. This guy melted the Octopus in about 45 seconds, the guardian in about 20, and took very little damage in the run up to the boss lair. The poop bomb from trousers is doing about the same damage as the base retaliation on the legendary Dreeg set. All these items are made to work like this I think, and evolve into the Dreeg set. All about focus, 2 damage types, 2 skills, support skills boost those skills, bump defense, save a little item room for resists.
I have no doubt it will grow just fine into Elite/Ultimate. The poison Leech at the end took a little longer to kill. Need to spread out a little, but not much, with some Chaos.
As in the 2500/2 poison from Noxious Poison Bomb, or the 3000/5 from Throw Feces, or the 1200/2 from Acid Splash spreading through the mob on Bloody Pox, the 4000/3 from Dreegs Gaze, or the 1000/1 on DEE coming from the base, blood burst and main hand at about 2 eyes per second? Plus additional acid/vitality.
Even if it wasn’t for the fact I think many miss the forest for the trees by narrowly focusing on some meta, I am still not sure I get the idea that transmuted=poison and nontransmuted=acid. It has to be transmuted to be most useful to a primarily melee type, that is all.
It mostly has to do with the fact that spamming the untransmuted version doesn’t get you bonus damage via Poison, so you just scale the Acid to scale with your cast speed. There’s no reason to not go transmuted if you’re planning on a poison build, and it’s largely considered to be a more streamlined process to use it while leveling.
On a single target or small tight group perhaps not, but when you can hit every enemy in the mob in about 3 seconds you don’t have to spam it. I spam it cause i like the colors and flashes, but really Blood followed a few poxes, one or two DEE’s, a couple of poops and noxbombs, and the rest is mostly stand back, dodge, run around with Plaguemancer aura, and watch.
I’m not sure how transmuted = poison either…considering the weapon damage part of this skill line comes on blood burst not the transmuter…yes transmuter adds some percent bonuses…but that’s it…so all the flat poison damage you get from gear and devotions will still work with DEE if you have at least 1 point into blood burst.
If you are going for a poison build, transmuted DEE is a huge source of poison damage. My DEE Witchblade has it at level 21 and it deals 26k poison damage over 5 seconds.
Not a poison build. A DEE/BloodyPox pure caster build. I have 6 Damage types on two primary skills from the tree that i can leverage pretty much equally without diluting or sacrificing the others, due to copious modifiers all those types(Chaos/Bleeding, not leveraged yet). It just so happens that the skill selection most heavily leverages the poison/acid damage at the moment, but i plan to branch out some. I know, I know, I said don’t hedge, but im not hedging, I am using what I have anyway from investing in poision/vitatlity.
So I can invest all those points into DEE, transmute it, and get one big burst of poison every 4 seconds. Or I can spread them around, invest in modifiers that boost all those types from all sources, take a fun selection of skills and end up with character that at end of vet that out classes many Elite builds, on track with a clear path for growth to be as good as any Ultimate super legendary theory build.
Like I said, transmuted is there for melee types who are primarily doing damage with their weapon. You can’t swing a weapon and cast a spell both as your primary attack, so the cooldown allows a melee to have a burst, like with Cadence, and continue melee attacking. Just because it is good on those types does not mean that it is the best for every type.
Not to mention its a caster, like a real magey mage, energy blast primary attack caster, which is what people are asking for when they say where are the casters besides Panettis, or when they say is non-transmuted DEE viable. They are asking for a playstyle, like the one shown in the video, but the meta invariably guides them toward a melee stacked build.
Transmuted DEE is not for melee in the slightest, not sure where you get that from. Just because it has weapon damage, it doesn’t mean it’s for melee.
A poison build is stacking high amounts of poison from different sources, transmuted DEE being one of them. Then use Dreeg Infinite Gaze, a skill with Tainted Eruption from Abomination attached to it and couple of other skills.
Your build is not poison in the slightest. It’s an Acid/Vitality build.
OK, I don’t think I ever said it was a “poison build”, not to mention the first line of the last post you replied to said specifically, “no, its not a poison build.”
Transmuted DEE is for melee. We can go back and forth, its not a right or wrong issue, is a matter of perception and how you want to play your character.
My poison caster is probably my best character of them all and the most fun to play. I have no trouble running through any area and melting everything in sight with stacked poison skills.
That being said, I am fairly squishy and can die easily if I get cornered, but it’s still a blast to play.
Yes squishy, but isn’t that how a caster should be? Getting through the gauntlet with a little more finesse instead of tanking everything? Being forced to stay on your toes, move, dodge, lay traps, avoid pinch points. That is exactly what I like about them. Just moments after I recorded that rather beautiful video if I do say so myself, I entered the Bastion and foolishly allowed myself to get stuck in a V part of the path with enemies coming from all sides and a shard flinging chaos bolts every where. Dead. It can turn so quickly if you are not alert or if too over confident. Take all that out of the equation by becoming un-killable and it’s just not fun for me anymore.