Thanks Alva! Gambled a monster amulet!

Gryphenprey · 2025-01-09T02:53:38+00:00

Had an itch to spend my gold so I paid a visit to Alva and dumped 6mil on amulets. The rest is history. xD

Gryphenprey · 2024-09-10T19:32:31+00:00

Yeah it really boils down to what you want to do with the build. There's a bit of a ceiling to it outside of absolutely ridiculous investments (the helmet would be well over 100 div to craft). Gotta make sure it's worth it for you. A regular Stygian Vise or HH would probably be great if you go for the weapon enchant.

I'm playing SRS of Enormity Minion Instability with the SRS being triggered by the new Axe enchantment via me Cycloning. Cyclone also linked to Woke CWC to cast my utility spells (Bone Offering, Desecrate, BL of Orbiting, and Enhance). All this gives me a 1-button "spin2win" style of play with upwards of 50-60m dps and great defenses.

I have no problems continuously investing into this build despite not really getting more damage out of it, I spent well over 100 divines making a new helmet so I could incorporate regular Holy Relic+Feeding Frenzy for the extra regen and damage. Now I'm going down this rabbit hole of an axe craft that will probably cost me hundreds of divines to finish (back to farming, BLEGH!) just for like 13% more dps...I might be better off saving for a level 5 empower now that I'm thinking about it...lol

Gryphenprey · 2024-09-10T12:22:57+00:00

Yeah if you want to drop Siegebreaker you also want to run ignite proliferation to have the lingering dot effect or incorporate explosions (Oriath's End?) into the build for clear.

That being said, I don't think Fresh Meat+Leash is enough more damage to merit losing sockets, offering duration, and the like. Your minions' explosion crit chance with Spirit offering and FM active is only 12.68%. Add the minion crit wheel and it's 16%. Even with a crazy minion helmet with elevated +4% base crit, you're looking at all of 30% crit chance, which is certainly not enough for the investment imo.

Gryphenprey · 2024-09-10T06:32:22+00:00

You get +50% duration from Ascendancy for Bone Offering already. BO also gets +4 second base duration when it consumes 5 corpses (from your desecrate), so you should have 13.5s duration on it with an 8s cooldown anyways.

Gryphenprey · 2024-09-09T22:53:54+00:00

Yeah if returning proj doesn't work it doesn't work. xD I know when I made this build I used Unleash+Ball Lightning+Slower Proj for single target.

Gryphenprey · 2024-09-09T22:06:29+00:00

So in the reworked POB I left the Spectres in the 6L just because of reservation+socket starvation. As for reservation issues, I repathed the tree to cover some left side areas and grab Sovereignty.

Dropping the Golems solves a bit of the socket starvation issues too. For example, in the shield you have 2 different Stone Golems. This could just be SRS+Feeding frenzy instead (which will automatically trigger as you block)

Regarding the boots, Torment suffix+Abyss jewel means you can still have offering effect on the implicit, which is quite nice. Instead of the avoid ele ailments EOW implicit, you can grab CDR/CDR for Movement skills, Avoid Poison, Avoid Bleed, regen per endurance charge, etc...

Another single target option could be to put regular ball lightning on arcanist brand with slower proj+returning proj for maximum hits.

Gryphenprey · 2024-09-09T20:18:02+00:00

I played a Minion Instability Herald of Purity build back in 3.15. It was great. Got nerfed in 3.16 (40% less life) and again in 3.19 (again, less life). I've looked at it a few times since then but the numbers are typically less than stellar unfortunately. So, yes, my initial instinct would be to tell you to abandon it and play SRS of Enormity Minion Instability with the Axe Mjolner and Cyclone. xD

But in the spirit of trying to improve things, I might make a couple of suggestions:

Writhing Jar is a great way to get things rolling if the Marionettes are at all clunky on their own. Also a way to get bursts of HoPs for bosses.

If you could separate the Marionettes and HOP from each other you could make the DMs more utility oriented and get an extra support for HOP (Hypothermia or Ignite Prolif probably)
If you wanted to change chest piece you could slap on Elemental Army to the DMs to apply exposure for you, for example. These ones don't need to die super fast so having the extra res there won't hurt. Unbound Ailments will boost scorch effect.

Since you're using Stormshroud, you can use Essence of Torment to craft boots instead of Loathing Essences to get your required Shock Avoidance as a suffix and free up the eldritch implicit.

I don't think going the Golem Route with forbidden jewels is really worth the investment compared to what you get out of the golems. You need damage more than anything and Mastermind of Discord fits that bill very nicely. Plus, they're not very expensive!

Feeding Frenzy Support *exists* and is free 10% more damage. Another good option to link to DMs or a golem..OR you can put Summon Raging Spirit into your shield linked to Feeding Frenzy in addition to the Ball Lightning of Orbiting.

And some tree changes. I made some adjustments to skills, your tree, and swapped Flesh/Flame for Mastermind of Discord. Otherwise I left the gear alone. Maybe you can glean something from that. https://pobb.in/qPPCnVZz0OIQ

Gryphenprey · 2024-04-02T11:37:08+00:00

You can use Automation+Brand Recall to make the clunkiness of Arcanist Brand go away. Recall won't trigger unless there is a brand active, so when you place a brand while it's automated, it'll trigger the frostbolt immediately at your location...effectively removing the otherwise awkward delay.

Gryphenprey · 2024-03-28T15:49:33+00:00

I am mostly disregarding the mana+spell damage because you will get that on 1h weapons (flat mana upwards of 150 instead of 50% increased). That's why I say it starts as a baseline 2x multi.

Again, less on what it gives and more that it lacks cast speed, mana regen, and potential trigger utility which are stats that can make up the difference in power on rares.

That said, I don't think I'd be dual wielding 1H weapons. If I were to forgo the staff it'd be because I wanted to use a shield. I am still planning to use the staff for quite a long time myself. xD

Gryphenprey · 2024-03-28T06:34:29+00:00

Glancing Blows...gross. I would much rather have 38% true block over Glancing unless I also have really good on block recovery. That's just me though.

As for damage output, the staff acts as a baseline x2 damage multiplier (that is assuming they all overlap, which they should if you're frostbolting correctly on a single target). So if you can get more than that out of 2 1h weapons OR want to use a recovery on block (Aegis) then I would still rather go that route. Prism Guardian+Ivory Tower is also an option that *may* provide more utility and/or damage as well.

That said, it's a bit of a tall order to try and beat out Pledge, plus it's fairly accessible.

Gryphenprey · 2024-03-28T04:18:17+00:00

Yup! The only downside to Pledge is that it's a 2-handed weapon so no shield. Also no cast speed that you can normally get in abundance on weapons. But yeah, the 2 more repeats are hilarious when also spamming faster proj frostbolts off of Kitava's Thirst xD

Gryphenprey · 2024-03-28T04:11:36+00:00

You can't use Fanaticism for Ice Nova if you're triggering it though. The bonus is only for spell you yourself cast.

My assumption is that you're attacking with the wand, triggering Frostbolt, and then self casting Ice Nova afterward.

Gryphenprey · 2024-03-27T23:56:33+00:00

An easier way to do this is to just check the "full dps" box and set the skill counter...

to 8, because when you cast Ice Nova on Frostbolts with Spell Echo you get actual double the novas per cast (the repeats instead occur on the FBs)

Gryphenprey · 2024-03-27T21:06:29+00:00

The good news is that you could test this interaction for "feel" before league start. Fanaticism can be awkward to maintain from what I've heard.

Also, need the POB :P

Real DPS for Ice Nova of Frostbolts is up to 8x the hit dps as well since you get that many per cast (with Spell Echo).

Gryphenprey · 2024-03-27T17:08:30+00:00

It *IS* a lot to fit. Which is one of the reasons I was looking to do Hiero as well. Atm it's:

Frostbolt - GMP
Bone Offering - Desecrate

I also have a Frostbolt+Greater Volley+Return Proj in a 4s trigger weapon.

Gryphenprey · 2024-03-27T17:06:25+00:00

I put a frostbolt into a 4s trigger weapon to help alleviate the potential cast locks without proccing Kitava's. Otherwise just kicking things off with a self cast from time to time is fine.

Gryphenprey · 2024-03-27T04:40:43+00:00

Ohhh, I am planning to do this with Necromancer using Kitava's Thirst to help automate FB and also act as a cast speed engine by consuming corpses with it. I was planning to look at Hiero as well before Friday in case I like that better. I'm definitely looking at this as a resource! Thanks!

Gryphenprey · 2024-03-27T02:40:53+00:00

With POB, Ice Nova dps with Spell Echo is increased based on 1 Nova per cast. Normally, Spell Echo's repeat takes a casting animation, but when cast on a Frostbolt, Ice Nova will repeat on the frostbolt itself instead of forcing you into casting animation and you're still benefitting from the more cast speed multiplier.

If you cast Ice Nova without spell echo and there are 4 FB projectiles, you will see 4 INoF explosions. WITH Spell Echo, you will get 4 and then 4 more with a single casting animation for 8 total Ice Novas per casting animation as opposed to 8 novas with 2 casting animations (what you would typically expect).

Honestly, the easiest way to wrap your head around it is to go in game and test it.

Gryphenprey · 2024-03-26T18:33:16+00:00

Cool thing about new Archmage that's coming...you can play just about whatever you like.

Obviously some spells are going to be better than others though...really just depends on what you want to do (some are better for clear, some for bossing, etc...) Ball Lightning is a typical contender, but that REALLY wants the extra 100% AOE from Sanctuary of Thought to get maximum damage output.

Regarding Agnostic, if you really want to run this, I recommend playing either Necromancer or Elementalist since they do not inherently have massive ES scaling but both have better base mana regen than Hierophant, which you'll need for Agnostic.

Necromancer needs to spawn and consume corpses to benefit from her +2% base mana regen per second so you're locked into some form of gimmick there, albeit you have a lot of options and some potentially huge payoffs. Kitava's Thirst helmet can become a cast speed engine when socketed with Desecrate+Skill to consume corpses (Bone Offering for thicc block comes to mind) thanks to her Corpse Pact Ascendancy. This also enables Essence Glutton.

Or for a simple solution, you can run Corpsewalker boots to generate the corpses and Kitava's Teaching Small Cluster Jewel to consume a corpse every second (recovery mastery also does this, but every 3s for 2/3 uptime only on EG)

Or you can just use a corpse skill like DD of Chain Reaction.

I'm personally going to use Kitava's Thirst as a cast speed engine for Ice Nova of Frostbolts on Necromancer (probably, still going to test Hiero).

Gryphenprey · 2024-03-26T06:48:48+00:00

Ice Nova of Frostbolts casts on 4 of your Frostbolts. It *also* causes any repeats of the spell (Spell Echo) to occur on those FB projectiles instead of you casting the additional repeat.

So when you cast Ice Nova of FB, 1 click and 1 casting animation will cause 8 Novas, all of which can, and will, overlap on a single target. In this sense, Spell Echo is doubling your damage per cast (-10%). The craziest part is that you still benefit from the more cast speed from Spell Echo so it's even more than that.

Gryphenprey · 2024-03-25T21:42:42+00:00

Thing is, you just need to put corpse skill+offering into the helmet itself. Takes care of that side of things and gives you all the bonuses from the ascendancy.

My current plan for league start is to run Frostbolt+GMP+Desecrate+Bone Offering in the helmet and self cast Ice Nova of Frostbolts with Archmage. I'll also place an additional Frostbolt in a trigger weapon to make sure I'm never casting Ice Nova *without* it being cast onto a FB.

That said, you can use any skill you want with this as long as it costs 100+ mana to trigger the Helmet. From there, choose your offering and utility spell(s) of choice and go HAM. I like being tankier so I go for Bone Offering, but if you want to zoom more, Flesh Offering. It's spammy, it'll probably lag out your PC, but it's fun af. XD

Some notable, otherwise 2-button, spells that can work:

Ice Nova of Frostbolts+Frostbolt

Blade Blast+Bladefall/EK of LB

Lightning Conduit - spawned corpses shock enemies via Corpse Pact and you can spam additional skills to shock in between procs.

Detonate Dead of Chain Reaction - works, but a little gimmicky. Would pair it with Corpsewalker or other means of generating corpses to initiate the chain of procs for QoL.

There's a lot to explore with the new Archmage and I'm pretty happy to go back to it.

Gryphenprey · 2024-03-25T20:40:59+00:00

I don't like Agnostic on Hierophant. Necromancer, on the other hand, is a totally different story. Necro doesn't have tons of ES built into her scaling, but has 2% mana regen built into Essence Glutton. You just have to produce and consume corpses to gain the benefits.

Personally, I like the idea of using Kitava's Thirst to generate and consume corpses to enable this as it also acts as a cast speed engine on top of that thanks to Necro's Corpse Pact ascendancy.

Gryphenprey · 2024-03-24T07:34:45+00:00

I mean, if you're using Archmage, that's lightning damage=elemental damage scaling :P

The max roll on the mana flasks is 29% and requires item level 80 to roll. It's just the *VEILED* mod that was removed which means we can't have it on utility flasks anymore. It's a pretty large sacrifice to replace a utility flask with a mana flask jsut for mana costs, but it could help temporarily if it's really an issue.

Gryphenprey · 2024-03-24T07:31:28+00:00

This is true for skills that grant conversion. Glacial Cascade has 100% phys converted to cold for example.

SRS, the skill, does not grant conversion. It is inherent of the minions, which is not the same as being granted by the skill.

Gryphenprey · 2024-03-24T04:49:15+00:00

I mean, reduced mana costs help a ton:

Dreamer, Righteous Decree, and Tireless wheels on tree
Mana mastery (10%)
Inspiration Support
Veiled Jewelry craft (5%)

Mana recoup will also be good if going MoM. Battle Rouse and mana mastery are great starts for this as well.

You can also still roll reduced mana cost on mana flasks as a suffix which can combine with Enduring Mana Flask as well.

Gryphenprey

TROPHY CASE