I am fairly new to the game this is the first build I am actually trying to make a good build out off. I am just not sure if this set up is going to work and I haven’t really seen any impressive guides on defilers that would attract my attention on here as of yet.
The main focus of the build is to deal fire and aether damage, however I could not find any good items that would do both or that would give good set bonuses. So I decided that it would be a good idea if I converted most of that fire damage to aether damage and focus on that kind of damage in the main build.
Still not sure if I should opt for the wolf medal and equip two dreadfire daggers.
I am not even sure if this can work so any comments are welcome I would like to improve this build and maybe at some point finalize it if I receive some helpful advise.
Please check it out and I will be posting updates after some comments.
Your first draft is looking good :), some minor changes/suggestions I can make are:
-Taking some points out of Vindictive Flame, the main use for it here is for the % total speed and that starts to scale poorly after 16/16, you can even drop down to 9/16 if you need the extra 7 points elsewhere as 9-16 isn’t amazing either but is better than 16+
-I’de suggest taking the points out of BWC - if you’re converting from Fire to Aether, you’re likely not taking advantage of the Burn damage and BWC has a big chunk of Burn.
-Put at least one point into Flashbang and Searing Light, preferably 12/12 Flashbang - it strips DA, provides some crowd control on groups and can make a decent devotion trigger due to the large AoE and duration/recharge scaling up % chances.
-You might also want to consider pushing the Demolitionist mastery bar up to 50 and taking Brimstone so you can convert it’s Chaos over to Aether as well using a combination of Mythical Albrecht’s Duality and the Clairvoyant set pieces (namely the Shoulders/Chest). The non-Mythical versions do the same.
Thanks for your comments which are taken into account and make sense. I didnt realise BWC was doing more burn damage than fire and that burn damage is not actually considered fire but a different kind of damage. By going 50 Demo I think I will be needing quite a lot of points which I would rather leave where they are and invest in the flashbang since it helps tons with the DA strip. And I think it will be a pain trying to change chaos damage into aether damage as well, having to use items for that reason when I can use those slots for items that can enhance what I already have. If that makes sense.
Thank you for pointing out that Aether/Fire won’t work. I thought so myself that is why I tried to convert that fire damage into Aether. Thanks for sharing your builds with me.
I went with shield because of the “tankin” more like “self healing” capabilities of Necromancer and I thought it would be nice if I can stay alive and heal back the damage. I would rather make something that is not considered “meta”.
Also can you please tell me why you opted for Master of Death and not Harbringer of souls ?!
Thank you both for your time. I took your comments into account and will try to adjust it accordingly.
% casting speed does nothing for Fire Strike. Vitality or Vitality Decay aren’t your focus so the flat damage and conversion are pretty useless too. About the only thing you’de be getting use from on Harbinger of Souls is the % Aether which a drop in Chthon’s build when he has 1500% Aether damage + ~230% from Spirit and the life steal which is compensated nicely by a Haunted Steel.
Master of Death provides % OA and flat DA - these are incredibly useful as you want quite a bit of OA/DA.
After taking all the comments into account I guess I will be switching it to a Dual Wield build since it seems to be giving me the best gear combo for conversion of fire damage to aether and allowing me to get other items in different slots.
This is the build up to now. Will soon update the devotions and the gear components and augments and get back to you. Maybe I will be changing some gear if I see that components are not helping the way I want.
Thanks for that guys. I didn’t realise Kraken was only for 2H weapons.
After checking out Drain essence in game is probably not a good choice for this build. So I opted for the Mortar trap since its the only skill that gives me the most flat fire damage from Demolitionist at the moment.
Sorry I’m away from my computer right now but a couple things…
Defilers certainly can use shields if the build calls for it. Mythical Will of the Living is a great example. I’m leveling a Drain Essence S&B Defiler that uses BWC + Flashbang for debuffs and VF (with UW) + SS + Spectral Wrath for extra damage and it is breezing through content.
I don’t know why Chthon hasn’t brought it up but the main issue any DW Fire Strike Defiler will have will be attack speed; both his build and yours hit slower than my grandma. New Harbinger of Souls will help with this somewhat, but not having any attack speed on your weapons or aether damage-supporting gear will be a great hindrance for you. ADCtH is almost worthless as a result. Not saying your build is bad (it looks well designed), but with such low life total + low phys resist + low attack speed (meaning slower life leech) you’ll probably be kiting whenever Blast Shield or MoT are off cool down. TBH a Spellbinder or Warlock (with Chaos --> Aether conversion) should have much more potential for DW Aether than a Defiler.
Again, not saying it won’t work, but it’s unfortunate in that anything Defilers can do, typically a Spellbinder or Ritualist can do better.
EDIT - Unfortunately as far as Aether builds go, Defilers will hands down always be worse than Spellbinders or Apostates. For Vitality builds, Ritualists or Cabalists will always be better. Lightning or Aether/Lightning builds will be better with a Ritualist. That leaves Fire builds, but unfortunately while Blazeheart is fantastic for this, there’s little to nothing we can do with the Aether damage from Necromancer to synergize with fire. We need more Aether --> Fire conversion!
Defiler being worse than Spellbinder is true to some extent but worse than Ritualist is a stretch imo. Defiler still has benefits of its own over Ritualist but I agree atm it’s the class that needs the most help since after recent patch Aether Sorc>>Aether Defiler. Then again Aether Ritualist isn’t exactly shining either
I didn’t bring up the attack speed thing because it felt too obvious (the stat is visible on the second page :eek:)
And it’s true non-soldier shield melee exists but you’re dead slow in most cases. Even Savaegery based Shield isn’t very fun to play with
