So, this (altered) build can kill the Avatar of Mogdorgan…it’s just dicey AF and I’m no pro at fighting/building for him.
I dropped points in the main Ravenous Earth skill and put them in MoE for lowest cd possible there, changed devotions for more DA which dropped my OA to about 2600, swapped my offhand to the hook thing that gives Defy Death skill, swapped my relic for Eternity (like Vallenhael suggested). Also changed pants to Tranquil Mind for time warp.
I didn’t have the AoE damage to really deal with the adds very well, so I put points into Ill Omen and between that and the Screams of the Aether ring I could fear them repeatedly.
Not a comfy experience at all there, much buttclench, very nerves. I probably just got obscenely lucky all things considered.
Only complex thing is the gear really, usage is mind numbingly simple.
All the dps is due to cast speed and Drain Essence proccing both the skill’s 30% AoE component and the devotion/gear skills like there’s no tomorrow. The AoE portion of the skill is going off almost constantly. Also, all of the flat damage added to Drain Essence via the gear gets modified by +%aether and vitality damage and winds up being a huge boost. Edit: to put it in perspective, my highest damage dealt in my stat screen is only like 40k, it just ticks small numbers really fast.
It fairly effortlessly clears everything basically by doing nothing but holding down a single button for Drain Essence. Downside is that it’s painfully mediocre without the right gear. Ravenous Earth is just for the debuffs more than damage.
Have you tried the expansion on ultimate yet with this build? With that dps the vanilla content shouldn’t be a big problem, but I wonder if this skill would have the same problems as AAR, with the stuns interrupting the cast plus the low damage making it very slow to kill all the big mobs. Sustain shouldn’t be as hard of course, given all the lifesteal innate to the skills.
Yeah, anything that relies on channeling skills has it rough in AoM. Damage hasn’t been an issue so far, about 80% if they way through AoM…but then again I’m comparing it to my first run at release with a lightning/cold TSS Druid.
My elemental Tactitian is good but not scratching the itch…revamping my poison Warlock might be next on deck.
So with the right gear at 94lvl it destroys content effortlessly, correct?
Considering this is correct i would like to invest the time and go for it.
What about until that level? Whats the best way to level up until there? I dont like pets, and i was thinking maybe PRM or CT as main skill. What would you suggest (not summoner/pets).
Well if pets/skelletons are SO much more easier to lvl than the rest solutions then ok i guess i have to go that way.
Pretty much, all the damage you do is healing you as well. Other builds will clear faster, other vitality builds are more tanky, but this is about as easy and safe as it gets. It’s weakness is that it’s only super tanky while casting Drain Essence, if MoE is on cd and you can’t cast DE for some reason (like keep getting stunned) it’s time to gtfo. I could also see it being boring to play for some folks.
You could 100% roll a PRM build to level with, or a melee bone harvest/soul siphon melee. I was mostly playing a necro for the sake of newness, I got the Uroboruuk piece drop before I thought of making this build.
When you say other builds clear faster, i understand it i have played many fast builds in the past (blademasters/spellbreakers/etc) but they all clear fast while sacrificing survivability, you have to be focused all the time.
When you say there are other vitality builds that are tankier, i do not understand it, DE build with full optimal gear is as tanky as a build can get, from the moment that you outheal any dmg thats coming as long as you are casting. Afaik, i dont know of any other vitality build facetanking anything.
Thanks for the leveling advice, i will check a melee bone harvester/siphon soul!
The tankier vitality build would be the vitality conjurer, with sigil of consumption and wendigo totem for very very good and reliable healing (can’t be stopped by stuns like drain essence, since there’s no channel). Plus it gets very good vitality resist reduction, possibly the best in the game in a single skill, hp from heart of the wild in the shaman tree, a heal with a physical resist buff (blood of dreeg) and damage absorption from possession. To top it off, it’s not as gear dependent as drain essence.
On drain essence’s side, it’s still new and so a bit untested, and there’s a general consensus that it feels weak, for now, so we’ll see, it might receive a buff.
For Siphon Souls, it doesn’t add anything really. I’d a solid skill on its own imo. Nothing wrong with taking it though, even if only to use as another debuff.
Aethereach is worse. It gives cast speed which I max out without it and buffs skills I don’t use. Riftwaped Grasp buffing DE damage alone makes it better, not counting +~100 OA and +2 DE. Riftwarped gives me about 940 vitality damage to DE.
No syphon souls probably for a lack of points to spend, since the resist reduction on ravenous earth is too good to pass, and so is mark of torment. The stuff on the arcanist side is even more important.
I have to say I found conjurer vitality caster underwhelming. In terms of ultimate dungeon and surv. The reason why DE is ridiculous is that the full gear quintuples the dmg und the healing even more so. You cant heal yourself through mog or ravager as conj; with this you just might. There is btw nothing stopping you from switching Arc to shaman in this build if you want wendigo totem, but I also find mirror to be invaluable , If you play good you can just dodge most of anything with mirror, which has like 16 seconds cd to 3 sec invul
Uhm, I don’t think shaman would fit a DE build much. I mean, I’d have to test it, but I think that what arcanist provides, in terms of spirit, energy regen, cast speed and utility in general is just too good to take away, and that’s even without counting the defenses that MSoP and MoE provide.
As for the comparison between DE spellbinder and vitality conjurer, it still stands that the spellbinder has stricter requirements for gear, since as you said the gear provides that much extra damage and healing, which pretty much means that before you get that gear you could actually turn out fairly weak.
I did not, looks legit though. How is energy management with Inspiration devotion and Devastation? Not that it matters terribly much for most of the game.
Actually, with a total modifier for vitality over 1000% and an aether one above 1800%, not having the extra 150ish% means losing at most a 10% damage increase for vitality and even less for aether, not that big of a loss to be honest. It’s probably a bigger loss not capping cast speed, but it’s still pretty good at 177%. On the other side, the cdr for MoT and MoE means an easier time staying alive, which is the precondition to deal damage. Also DE is a channel skill, having supporting skills that allow you to stay still and facetank is extremely important.
If I really had to make a change, maybe I’d leave devastation as a one pointer and get OFF to 12/12 for the extra aoe clear vs trash mobs (which would honestly be worse in the expansion areas, but probably better for vanilla content, where the crowd control is still relevant). In alternative for aoe you could also use those points for siphon souls, but you can’t max that for lack of +skills. It would however give even more sustain and deal higher damage, though on a smaller radius than OFF.
Energy regen could be an issue with this setup, or not, depending on how well inspiration works, how often and reliably it procs.