Cadence is used only for Deadly Momentum buff. Cast speed is irrelevant, forcewave is not transmuted, it has 1,2sec cd in this build. Most of the damage comes from internal trauma (forcewave and skill of doom relic), not from direct physical, though blitz helps.
Eddie_Alucard pretty much explained it.
Pet builds are very strong in the campaign at least. I agree, crucible is simply not made for pets.
I’ve played dozens of builds and I can say that some archetypes are simply stronger than the other. I guess, devs don’t even consider balancing them all
equally. That’s pretty much what they did with new crucible levels: they narrowed the amount of archetypes that can clean it reliably even more, now not only pets, but ranged builds, melee non-shielded builds and even non-kiting casters are all not welcome in 150-170.
I don’t like it, but it is what we have to live with. At least it gave me a punch to become a better build maker.
Well, I already have my own version of this for a long time (build 3 in caster section). Since the mythical Dreeg set is meh I found it pretty slow even for waves 100-150.
It should work in 150-170 because it is a tanking kiting caster after all. I haven’t tried my version yet. Have you tried yours? Because I have serious doubts about clear times and I don’t see how your version is better than mine, so it might also be slow.
I didnt even know you updated Drizzito’s build for AoM in the first place.
I tested the build and i could clear 150-170 with proper kiting and 3 blessings and a Stonewall Banner in around 35 minutes. I just did it for the sake of beating it and i actually found it quite tanky and strong.
I also didnt go for full Mythical Dreeg and have chosen more reasonable gear instead of double Stonehide + Kings.
You caught me with that ‘reasonable’ word! I’m trying to be 100% reasonable in this thread! Maybe that’s why I make wacky stuff like double conversion physical cabalist (and it doesn’t work, sadness)
Anyway, I’m now more experienced than I was when updating that build. So now I see the problem with both our versions: we have puny increased duration, and that’s crucial for a dot build. For example, bwc sorcerer has 350+% duration and it can clear under 20 min with 2 buffs. We must rival that!
What I want to try now is double Mythical Ring of Eternal Rot + Mythical Venomlash. Maybe also will try to insert Aeon’s Hourglass into the build for cdr. And I also wonder how witch hunter version will do, it has poison resist shred after all.
Thanks for the inspiration!
If you had seen my first post in the Drizzito’s build thread i mentioned i used double Eternal Rot for procs and solving the duration issue.
Double Poison Nova procs with Tainted Eruption is such an amazing burst and AoE, you gotta try it.
Judicators nice for OA/DA, resistances and all that stuff but mainly for Energy Regen.
I think Hourglass would cost a lot of damage and AoE loss plus CDR isnt necessary in this build imo. Build thrives on the full aggresive procs and acquires a lot of OA and damage from the devotion setup.
I cycle between Overguard and Menhir’s Bastion for bosses and they already cover each other’s duration 95%.
Even Overguard Transmuter isn’t that necessary thanks to the Relic choice i made.
Just did my first test today: I managed to include Hourglass with the cost of losing about 200 OA and Manticore devotion (had to compensate for its mandatory proc with good old Mythical Black Star of Deceit).
Equipped double Mythical Ring of Eternal Rot + Mythical Venomlash.
In this setup I have 630% increased poison duration in my character sheet, but the resists were real PITA to cap.
I don’t use transmuter in Overguard. Didn’t go for Menhir’s Bastion relic, I think the damage loss is too big and damage absorbtion is not added to Possession, it only overlays it and we get 15%, not 27%.
I cleared 150-170 in 25 min on my first and only try (with 3 blessings). Hourglass works wonders, helping with defences a lot. Not even talking how Hourglass and increased duration affect damage, it’s pretty obvious. However didn’t feel safe, it’s harder to play than 2 sorcerers posted here for example. Definitely requires more testing, I just wanted to share first result.
EDIT: Ok, 630% increased duration seems to be overkill, since dots from the same source do not stack. But my damage seems much better now, is it Hourglass that buffs it so much? Definitely needs more testing.
Hey, you don’t need 3 MIs for the Octavius build, I can clear 150-170 the same buffs as yours in 18-20min quite reliably with this one https://www.grimtools.com/calc/62a650DV
Dont forget Focused Gaze adds another 100% duration to DEE aside from 460% ish. Im still testing between Wendigo’s Mark and Wayward Soul and i like both of them.
I think its safe to say this a pretty solid and strong build for 150-170 without needing any MIs also.
Thanks for sharing - any thoughts on Tactician instead Witchblade for the build? Just wondering as i have a 85 WB and contemplating on leveling it or just making a new Tactician?
I think a Witchblade or Deathknight is better than Tactician despite the fact the the set was obviously made for Tacticians. I took a look at the Inq bonuses:
2 to Steel Resolve and Vior: Meh, these two are easy to softcap anyway.
12% armor to WoR: Good, but Blood of Dreeg or Mark of Torment is better for survival. It’s not the physical hitters that kill you with this build anyway.
1 Inquisitor: Actually meh, you only need a few support skills from Inq tree which are all easy to softcap.
No phys RR
The seal is useless as you are too tanky for MC (thus don’t need it) but would need to hit and run all the time in 150-170 (thus don’t need it either).
I think Octavius is a bit like Krieg, the latter was originally made for Battlemage but everyone chose to make Death Knights with it anyway.
Yeah, I was going to add the non-green version myself, but since you’ve already done one, I’ll add yours
The rings are good choice, extra RR seems very helpful (but Judicators are safer, more regen). I wanted to go for Mythical Boneshatter Treads, they seem to give -210DA debuff.
Why do you go for crane in devotions? It seems useless. Ulo at least works as Nullification.
And the most important question: The Pummeler has 10% piercing, does it affect Forcewave? Because if it does it is 10% damage loss. I guess it’s still ok for budget version, but I would like to know how much better Mutant Bludgeon is. Btw, you can obtain one from vendor, so just refresh him many times, and in the end you’ll be rewarded.
I’ll add your version as a budget one anyway. It seems to me the main downside of your version is small stun res without Overguard.
Vestments of the Great Guardian is definitely the way to go, but why do you use that helm? With Dreeg helm from set you can get +2 skills to Occultist mastery. And why do you use Haunted steel and Restless remains? Lifesteal only works with weapon damage and we basically have none.
Rings are definitely better than Judicators, huge damage boost. Mythical Widow’s Sting epic ring is also very good.
From my testing I’m now thinking I have to let go the Hourglass and lean to something like your setup, because Mark of Divinity is too good to pass.
Witchblade all the way. Actuanpanda is absolutely right. Occultist has RR debuff, look at it as 25% damage increase. Plus blood of dreeg. Deathknight is ok, but I doubt you can make a budget version with no MI, because it doesn’t give +100% poison res like witchblade.
You could switch Solemn for Ulo and our devotion routes are basically the same, like Crane vs Panther , what’s the diff :D?. I prefer Solemn since I’m bad at timing the Ulo proc.
I have no idea why they added 10% armor piercing to a freaking hammer, we lose a bit of immediate damage but at least it doesn’t affect the DOT.
Edit: Did they add 5% crit damage to Panther in a recent patch? Looks interesting although I doubt it will make any big enough impact.
Still testing and another successful run around 22 minutes.
I take Haunted Steel because Blood Burst and the Helm gives 33% Weapon damage to DEE and it helps quite alot although not significant but different sources of damage make it valuable.
The Helm also gives quite bit of HP and has high flat energy regen so i really see no reason to not use that helm as BiS.
Vestments of the Great Guardian was my initial choice right away and it is perfect for the build with all the bonuses it grants. Another fat source of Energy Regen.
Im using Footpads of the Grey Magi again, i find the 100% reduced entrapment duration to be amazingly invaluable since i have been in a lot of hard situations. Proc has 50% uptime and gives 15% physical resist, in game with the proc i have 54% physical resist which is insane and makes me able to facetank quite strongly.
Dreeg’s Affliction is an option, i liked Menhir’s Bastion for the bonuses but im quite happy with the Citadel since it increases my DA a lot and i got 4% DA rolled as bonus so with procs i see around 3.1k DA.
Stun resist is almost capped and the only slightly lacking thing is armor but high phys resistance and increased DA, HP, Shield make up for it more than enough and im quite satisfied with this build.
I’ll test double Widow Sting and i do like the proc, its quite strong but still Eternal Rot is BiS for HP bonus, amazing proc and especially duration bonus.
The only undecided part for me is the Devotion. There are different options to take and i can’t tell which one is better.
But i have never thought Hourglass fits to the build in any way tho
I think Bat has better sustain and eases up the devotion path compared to Wendigo.
Im not a big fan of Rumor proc but i also made it fit in this at the cost of some OA and slight HP.
I like the modifications you made to this build. I put together a version that uses Hood of Dreeg like Zhuugus suggested because I think getting the set bonus (+2 to occultist skills) is too good to pass up. Although you lose some DA, health, cast speed etc. you gain a decent proc skill and elemental resistances which frees up some options for components.
The loss of % weapon damage to DEE made me decide to forgo adcth completely in favor of more hp regen based setup (although I’m not sure how this would impact survivability, it would need testing). Instead of Haunted Steel I opted for Seal of Blight which adds valuable % crit damage.
As for devotions, I dropped raven and viper in exchange for hawk and filling out behemoth while also adding 1 point in revenant for energy leech & 2 points in crossroad for the 10% health). Let me know what you think.
You can easily allocate Hawk without altering anything so i think i’ll also put Hawk instead of Raven.
I think the build doesn’t really require hard skill points thats why i didn’t really bother with the Dreeg Helm since its lackluster compared to Voice of Dreeg and i even switched MB with Citadel and even -1 Soldier didn’t really affect the overall build.
Sure could it use more skills points? Hell yeah but its not an obligation neither necessary.
I’m hard set on using this although i liked your 750+ ish hp boost and you can still replace HS with SoB but these are minor changes and with Hawk its the same crit damage bonus.
And again if you want to put Murmur in its a different setup and for some people every possible RR is a must take and i also noticed things die faster with Rumor proc on.
You can also easily replace Dreeg’s Affliction with Citadel to reach 17k HP again. As i said bonus points from Hood of Dreeg barely affects the general outline of the build and i firmly stand with my Voice of Dreeg choice.
