I’m looking for help with a build centered around cold damage. I have read that apostate (inquiz + necro) is not a very good class combination, but upon seeing that both have options for cold skills, and being eager to try out the new classes, I’ve decided to give it a shot.
Yes, I realize this may not be an optimized build… but I’m hoping that with community help, it can still be effective. Plus, I find the challenge and the “fun” to be worth it, even if it’s not “ZOMG, UR BILD IS OP”. And while I’m hoping that you won’t tell me that it’s completely foolish, I guess that would also be helpful to know upfront
Is this class combo and cold damage really doomed? (and not just “yes, you’re an idiot”, but explanation why)
Is there a better devotion setup? I mainly went for the cold skills/constellations, and then a bit of resistances/support (mainly to reach the higher ups).
I don’t have a “circuit breaker” type skill. Is that a must? Will having life steal from Drain Essence cover that slot?
I’d like a lot of insight into skills. As you can see, I have my main attacks mostly chosen… the passives/support are lacking, though. I still have a few theoretical points left that can be spread around. Also, I’m not good at knowing where the “break points” are, and what to over level. My current choices are not necessarily final allocations – moreso in the spirit that if I put a lot into it, I think it has more to offer. Fine tuning of a skill tree would be greatly appreciated
I feel pretty comfortable after ~ 5 previous characters to go through Ultimate on how to address gear/resistances… but, part of my desire for a cold build came from 2 “vanilla” items: Bane of the Winter King (http://www.grimtools.com/db/items/2613), and Heart of the Mountain (http://www.grimtools.com/db/items/918). Are these items worth it, even though the skills/classes are totally off for Apostate? They still seem pretty awesome… but am I foolish for basically ignoring (and losing) the + skills slots?
On a similar note, the Heart of the Mountain skill for summoning a Yeti: SOUNDS AWESOME!!! Is it just novelty? Will my build suffer from trying to use it? Paired with Reap Spirit, I was hoping to gain some survivability and extra damage from having pets. But, is this stupid without fully focusing on pets?
Ok, I think that’s about it. As I said, I know this won’t be the best build ever… but I’m enjoying the theorycraft, having a blast with the new classes, and hoping it can at least carry me to see the new content on all difficulties.
I appreciate the constructive feedback/critique/suggestions
Crud – just realized that I didn’t click the skill for Drain Essence’s modifier for cold. That was part of my plan, but also just realized that I’d lose 10% ADCTH, making it less effective as my support. Now I wonder if cold damage with lower steal, or normal damage with higher steal will be more effective.
As far as my experience in theory craft with reaper and purifier builds + browse most item in expansion. I’d say I see many support legendary for apostate than others. Or they’re just having more intersection in inquisitor and necromancer than others.
I believe devs worried about apostate so they give many skill modifier and many dmg conversion too. Currently, I think no one finds out which combination is good for the class yet.
@InkOsk132 thanks for the reply. I appreciate the input. I didn’t fully understand mark of torment, but after you mentioned of it went back and looked closer. I think that will be a nice addition. Doesn’t look like it’s scales too well with higher investment, though. But could be good for just a few points
Also, if anyone out there has ideas… Any suggestions for BIS gear?
Early and mid game, 1 or few points is fine. But at late game where you’ll encounter with strong boss and nemesis. You’ll probably have many skill bonus and more skill points. So 10/10 is recommend for longer time(very effective with cooldown reduction;CDR)
I apologize for the double post and for bumping my own thread, but I’m still looking for some input on my original post. Any other feedback/suggestions?
I’m totally in the same theory-crafting space as you, and 10 levels behind you but my take on this is an Aether / Cold version. Here’s where he is currently.
Edit : Urrgh. Since I’m new the system won’t let me post links yet, but here’s the build id you can put into Grim Calc. Once I’m “old” enough I’ll edit and put in a proper link.
b28qP6yV
Storm Box seems to be pretty PROC friendly, so I opted for that over Drain Essence, using the modifier skill (Arcane Net of blaa-de-blaa) to convert the lightning damage to Aether. Just finished the Imp devotion and it seems to trigger a lot. Completing Falcon now and that should push me towards Widow and Spirit of Winter.
Not sure why I have Reaping Strike at all any more (I’ve been chopping and changing, had Skeletons for a while before I thought “Why?”). Probably better to strip it out and dump all those skill points into Ranged Expertise so it boosts Bone Harvest.
Kind of annoying that there doesn’t seem to be any Constellations especially geared for Aether / Cold. Imp is Aether / Fire and Widow Aether / Lightning. Sigh. But the proc skills are the main draw here anyway.
I have no idea of what late game items will be useful at all, haven’t delved in that far (play time is split between trying the new skills and playing older characters with the new content).
Not sure if any of this is useful to you, I’m only here pretty much for the same reasons as you (How do you make a “caster” Apostate)
@ Carnifax - thanks for the reply. Hopefully we can both get some benefit out of this thread. I will be curious to hear how your character finishes up, as I considered Aether damage myself. I actually found a soul splitter (http://www.grimtools.com/db/items/8790) in the last week, but for now I have decided to stick to my guns with cold only using a prismatic eviscerator for now - http://www.grimtools.com/db/items/2583, and have a stonefish rebuke http://www.grimtools.com/db/items/2607 waiting for lvl 50.
I’m currently level 41, and almost to Fort Ikon. Character seems to be doing very well, but it’s also just Veteran difficulty. My biggest debate right now is whether to keep Viper for resistance reduction, or to try to change things up and head for murmur, master of rumors Instead - possibly dropping the elemental storm proc to do so
Edit: now level 46, and read reviews that elemental seeker is a lackluster Proc. Therefore, I’ve decided to drop that whole constellation, and instead go for murmur to get more resistance reduction, and also pick up the healing proc from behemoth
For a Drain Essence Apostate consider elemental damage not just cold, for more synergies. I have such a build, it’s only level 55 (Homestead Elite) right now but it’s efficient and fun to play.
Regarding the skills and devotions I went:
Transmuted Drain Essence [Elemental Storm] to keep your right hand busy during fights.
Siphon Souls [Wendigo’s Mark] for a large instant healing.
Rune of Hagarrad for coolness points.
Inquisitor Seal [Blizzard] for tankiness and frequent procs.
For the gear:
Word of Inquisitor Abalon converts 50% vitality to elemental.
Blazeheart converts 45% vitality to fire.
Then we also have rings to convert more vitality to fire, gloves to convert pierce to fire or cold, and it’s probably worth dropping lightning damage because fire/cold has a lot of item support anyway.
The reason Apostate is wonky is because their damage skills and types don’t really synergize, as well as RRs (except for Aether). Necromancer skills are inherently either Melee (Siphon Souls, Bone Harvest, Spectral Binding) or Pet focused, whereas a lot of Inquisitor skills focus on Ranged (guns) or Caster (runes) kind of play.
That being said, Inquisitor has great defensive options for Melee characters as well, and the skills it has do a variety of effects that are useful for lots of different types of builds. IMO, Inquisitor is definitely the strongest class at the moment and you can’t really go wrong with any Inquisitor combination.
Here are some Apostate ideas that you should be able to level with…
Cold/Vitality caster with Rune of Hagarrad, Bone Harvest, Soul Siphon, and Ill Omen. Mythical Speaker of the Dead would work really well with this. Kite harder mobs, spam abilities off cooldown and go Aura of Censure for more resist reduction. Devotions should go for Murmur, Elemental Storm, and Wendigo along with heal/defensive devotions, perhaps working in Leviathan.
Hybrid Pet build with Inquisitor Seal + Word of Renewal + Rune of Hagarrad and/or Storm Box of Elgoloth for DA reduction, and Pet skills + Master of Death. Send pets forward to kill while using your active skills to buff pets/debuff monsters. Focus on Pet OA, flat Pet damage (preferably Vitality) and survivability.
Pierce/Aether/Elemental Gunslinger. You get access to a lot of Flat damage early on in both skill trees so even though the damage types start off all over the place, it should be OK. Get Spectral Binding, the WPS skills, Ranged Expertise, Word of Renewal, Death Sentence, Inquisitor Seal, and the other passive buffs/defensive skills. Just gun everyone down.
Keep in mind there’s lots of gear that convert damage types around so that you can help focus the more wonky damage combinations. Diviner’s Set converts Elemental to Aether for example, Decrees of Malmouth/Aldritch convert Elemental to Vitality/Aether respectively. Converting to Aether would definitely be your best bet if you get the items for it.
Been some time since this post was last updated. Did any of you figure out a way to make a this build or an aether apostate work? I have an aether apostate i’m levelling but i’m kinda worried about damage later on since Storm Box and Srain Soul don’t do that much damage.
Im working on Aether apostate and i cant achive Spellbinder clearspeed/survivability level =( Reasons:
1)Dealy aim looks good on paper, but actualy dosent work so good on actual game, even worse in crusible. Unreliable, go up when you dont need it, dosent work half of time.
2)Realy bad gear support for Apostate. Even worse for aether apostate - you are forced intro Claivoyent or Krieg set, an that it.
3)Aether Drain essence is realy lack-luster. It simply suck >_> no dmg, bad sustain, lots of mana PITA that force you intro shitty-devotions route.
4)It is possible to atain -210% total RR for aether on Apostate! Looks good? Well, it just dosent work like that in real game=( Its extremly hard to sustain all these procs/debuffs in crusible . Heck, i have half of my spellbinder single target dmg with only ~100% RR on him. That suck. But what suck the most is AoE - all you have is Bone harvest, Soul siphon and some low-dmg procs.
5)3100 effective DA, 2600 armor with 100% absorbtion and 33% phyz resist, 86-92% all resistances in Krieg set+ some absorbtion from seal. Soonds tanky? Lets add 27% dmg reduction from Decay! Realy tanky? I cant explain this, but my spellbinder with half of these stats feel safier.
Anyway, that the best i could thing http://www.grimtools.com/calc/RZRAbkrV . Too squishy for crusible, but more or less okaysh for vanila.
Sadly I never got much more feedback or advice. My take was that the build is doing extremely well through veteran normal content and AOM. I anticipated the same for elite… Wouldn’t hit the real challenge until ultimate. However, I got distracted with JOV’s poisons/acid doom bolt build, so basically took a time out from this one. I was hoping in the time away from it, there might be more feedback and more of an end-game type plan
Can anyone confirm that Guardian of Death’s Gates (https://www.grimtools.com/db/items/8801) is not a monster infrequent or particular boss drop. I don’t believe that it is, but just want to confirm that there’s no way to speed up farming for it
I doubt anyone’s actually keeping up with this, but I figured I’d continue to update my progress. I’m certainly still looking for feedback/suggestions, also.
I just finished Elite AoM, at lvl 85. Currently feeling very strong, and AoM content wasn’t really a challenge – at least until I reach Ultimate difficulty.
Current Grimtools: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/eVLBz8PN
As you can see, I decided to drop pets. They were fun, but as expected, without full attention, were kinda week. So, I dropped Necro Mastery, and increased Inquis. to reach Aura of Conviction. Restructured some of the skills, too.
Currently opted for Scourge for my Relic, as I liked the additional attack skill. With Rune of H., Bone Harvest, and Scourge Strike rotating, I have a nice attack rotation. I was also looking at Vengeance… and honestly, my Deathchill actually had higher sheet dps (aura).
Any other thoughts? Really hoping for some advice on how to maximize skill point placement. My gear is VERY lacking in +skills.
