Instead of a wall of text, please take a hard look at these two items:
So practically we get the same exact thing occupying the same slot. But wait a minute, Tome of Nar’Adin also has +1 to Occultist and chaos → acid conversion? As well as DEE mod if you want to throw that into mix as well? And longer poison duration?
All the while Groble MI provides is crit damage (which is of course nice for acid builds, but nothing to write home about). One can argue that a double rare MI might be much better, which is true, although that may vary depending on the case. But it’s acid Pox we’re talking about, I mean, c’mon. Besides, why farm 10 years for a double rare - for an acid Pox build of all things - if you can just get that legendary off-hand either through world drop or blueprint.
This MI needs moar. And I was thinking “how about life leech mod”, like the one on Venomblade set. This way at least you could tell the difference between the two items - far as Pox mod goes, anyway.
Does every MI have to be a viable end game BiS? You get build-enabling item at early levels that will carry you all the way through the campaign and more - some builds don’t have that luxury.
Also, correct me if I’m wrong but Vile Effigy adds poison damage while Wretched Tome adds acid damage - aren’t those for different builds? Similar, because of the nature of the skill (DoT) but I think regular Pox build and poison stacking build with Pox are two different things.
So depending on situation, either of those items can be better than the other.
This sounds like “let’s make another MI flat-out better than a legendary item with similar effect”.
Buffing Vile Effigy would make it pretty much mandatory while right now, if your build can use either of them, you can use any Vile Effigy until level 94, the use it for farm Wretched Tome (there’s no guarantee that you will ever drop it) and then use the Tome until you (eventually) get that juicy double/triple-rare with correct affixes. This sounds great to me and how it supposed to be - you have two BiS items and you use whatever you got with better stats. Solid build progression.
When you buff Vile Effigy with something powerful like life leech, you remove that portion of progression where you can use legendary item. You wouldn’t even look at the Tome, unless you are also using DEE.
pretty sure not all MIs are currently
here it just looks to me like one of the instances of redundant MI
unsure if Xandes request is specifically to buff the MI to compete or replace Tome, but without “something” it’s definitely pretty redundant either way
^where as most of the other “useless” MIs are it because the mods just doesn’t jive well, not purely because they exist 1:1 in slightly buffed endgame form
worth to note it also would’t be the first time MIs get asked to be buffed or changed in some fashion to add inclusivity in general use, couple rounds ago there was a huge thread dedicated to MI requests, despite most of them not being utilized endgame, probably still aren’t used that much
Leveling phase is the whole different story. Obviously you won’t have access to legendaries up till lvl 94. And yet there’re better options available - and even earlier in the game than said Groble Effigy (the DEE off-hand and medal that both boost the crap out of it).
Depends on what you mean by endgame. I pretty much doubt “acid pox” and “endgame viable” can be put in the same sentence. In fact, I am yet to see a pox-centric build that is not Dark One. And even completely maxed Pox deals rather unimpressive damage - which is fine of course seeing how skill’s emphasis is on weaking the monsters. Keeping that in mind, something like 10% life leech won’t suddenly blow shit outta water - it doesn’t on Venomblade where you have autoattacks going on to keep you on your toes.
Which leads us to another “problem”: being a “true” caster. I take it you didn’t have the opportunity to play one yourself, so I’ll elaborate. True caster, at least in my vision, is the one that doesn’t use spam skills with weapon damage and thus has 0% global leech. Instead it relies on health regen, healing skills/procs and life leech directly from skills when applicable (like Sigil of Consumption). So practically a caster that casts and moves, casts and moves… not the stuff we usually see where all casters facetank Ravager. Unless of course it’s a channeling spell or spamy one, like PRM, DEE, etc.
Somehow Zantai doesn’t like health regen because it’s “active all the time”. Although using Bat on every single caster to keep oneself alive looks like a crutch to me, and oftentimes it’s purely antithematic. Out of 36 characters I have I’m only using it on one.
I would much rather have more options of sustain that are different from “stand still and keep spamming Chain Lightning”, because it doesn’t feel like playing a caster, but that’s just me.
And buffing the Effigy won’t make it mandatory or outright outclass anything. The Tome still has +1 to Occ and conversion, you know, which might be worth a lot more than some tiny bit of extra sustain from Pox.
LL could be interesting. It would work with the base skill, but just thinking the bonus poison doesn’t help this (only works for flat, I think).
Or perhaps increase +2 to +3 and add some %DA offset bonus to Fevered Rage for extra fun? Something different that may tempt some build and make it unique. Although…not sure if this can be done with skill modifier.