I have noticed a few items and one devotion that seem at a glance not to give much in the way of bonuses but instead put heavy penalties on the character. Chains of Anguish, Boots of Unseen Swiftness, perhaps others. Just wondering if anyone has tapped these and can the bonuses be worth the penalties? The variable move speed on the boots was just too much for me.
If I have a melee character, I’ll usually use the Chains of Anguish at lv50 until 75, as it gives nice lifesteal, damage and crit damage. Even though it periodically weakens you, if you have Maiven’s or Blade barrier, you can avoid it, and also Elite isn’t too challenging.
The duration vs. recharge of Chains of Anguish’s debuff make it pretty good still, as the uptime is less than 10%. I still don’t use it, as I don’t like spiky damage, plus moving between fights/packs eats up some downtime, so the actual in-fight uptime is higher.
What’s the masochistic devotion? I can’t think of one off the top of my head.
The true definition of self-induced pain, however, is the Fevered Rage transmutor on Bloody Pox. While it does increase the skill damage, it buffs the enemies something fierce!
Hungering Void is the one I was thinking of, though that one gives some hefty bonuses for the cost. I am liking this, Transmuted Bloody Pox, Chains, Swiftness, Hungering Void. There has to be more…MORE.
I know there are also item skills which increase certain stats at the cost of others. Usually they are offensive buffs which cost defenses akin to a berserker. Here is one example. I think there are some others.
So far, you’ve got 3 gear slots, a primary damage skill, and a tier-3 devotion. Looks like a full masochist build is in the works. Good luck.
Building off of what Rylocke said:
- Fevered Rage pairs well with Retaliation. It’s not what you’re going for but it bares mentioning. If you’re intrigued, here’s a build from the Chinese community.
- Some other items/methods that are similar to the Berserker Cowl are Grasp of Unchained Might and the Frenzied weapon prefix. Both of these are Physical or Soldier focused so not sure if they’ll help. If you go Soldier, Fighting Spirit can also fit the theme of taking damage for more offense.
Blood Orb of Ch’ton saps 50 hp/s for ele>chaos conversion.
Thanks for the suggestions. Don’t know that I will be doing this soon but I found the items interesting and wondered if there are more. There are several epics Sets that aren’t “sets”, in that they complement each other as if by design and are thematically similar. Would just be fun to see if there is a similar complement in these items with masochistic tendencies.