Hi folks, back with another question about scaling Grasping Vines for leveling.
Would I be better off choosing something else?
For context, I am playing a conjurer, and am using the “Carmilla” guide here on the forum as a reference point.
My main worry is what I perceive to be a lack of support for bleed damage, and that once I hit Malmouth content on veteran, the character will start to struggle.
I absolutely love the CoF + Grasping Vines combo, but I’m wondering if the character would be more effective focusing on Vitality damage, in the form of transmuted Storm Totem supported by Bloody Pox, CoF, and Wendigo Totem.
Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated, particularly if I’m wrong about the bleed damage issue.
If you have chosen the Devotion path from the Carmilla Guide you should have more than enough Resist Reduction (RR) for Bleeding. Just use Devouring Swarm too and you will just do fine in my opinion.
It’s a bit tricky to level with Grasping Vines. As Rhylthar said, use Devouring Swarm too and it should be ok. Even with a couple of points into them the Vines are an awesome proccing tool for devotions, so no loss there. Once you get the non-mythical Wildblood set (pretty common drop) you can focus more on them, if you like. Btw, Valinov posted a great Conjurer build focused on Grasping Vines, if you’re interested in the skill for end game content.
I’m a new player, planning on following Valinov’s Grasping Vines build for my conjurer, and I’m in the process of levelling for now (currently lv65, about to finish veteran Malmouth).
I can say that I’ve had no problems so far. I’m using Grasping Vines as my main AoE, along with Vitality Storm Totem, Devouring Swarm and Savagery. I’m not really focusing on boosting Vines, I’m choosing vitality devotions (bat, wendigo, Rattosh) and gear is just the best stuff I have access to, so a bit all over the place.
I’ll say the damage is pretty good, trash mobs die nearly instantly, and storm totem obliterates whole packs. Boss damage takes a bit to ramp up, but after you drop your second totem and stack a few Grasping Vines, the damage skyrockets.
I prioritised the skills I mentioned above along with the buffs/toggles, I’m only now starting to pick other stuff like Curse of Frailty and Bloody Pox.
But, as I said at the beginning, I’m new at this game, and the only other experience and reference point I have is a Mage Hunter I played up to act 1 elite, so take my post with a handful of salt xD
Always start out with devouring swarm, in my opinion the single strongest starting skill in the game, taking in to account it’s obsurd levels of sustain and accessibility from level 1.
Devouring Swarm + Falcon Swoop
Grasping Vines + Rend
Don’t think I have ever had such an easy time leveling than when I just used these 2 skills and devotions. The damage is nuts, the sustain is nuts, the safety since you can play a mile away from any danger is nuts. All round nuts! Just remember Devouring Swarm does fall off quite hard around level 35+ since it has no upgrade path so you are scaling purely off gear and devotions which at low level, won’t do much for the skills power anyway.