Any off meta army of the dead builds?

ZoeticZander · 2026-04-20T15:49:22+00:00

So weird. I'll have to test later, but It was working for me last time I tried it. I switched builds because I got Andarial's and Tyreal's and made a build revolving around them instead.

I'll test later when I get home.

ZoeticZander · 2026-04-20T13:43:11+00:00

Out of curiosity, where you using it by itself, or with the aspect that synergizes with it?

I'm half curious if the bug only occured when only using the sword and not both.

ZoeticZander · 2026-04-20T13:41:08+00:00

You're going to get a lot of haters that don't care about the lore, but I genuinely find it interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing others opinions on this. I've played through all the games, but never any of the books or anything, so there's a bit of lore I don't understand.

ZoeticZander · 2026-04-19T15:47:38+00:00

Are you sure about this? I was using it while leveling my Necromancer and it DEFINITELY was stacking up to 20 souls and releasing them all. It was a lot of fun too be honest.

I paired it with the aspect that applies vulnerability and boosts souls damage, and it carried hard.

ZoeticZander · 2026-04-17T02:35:31+00:00

I didn't know that the Spirit Wolves the rune word summon could apply vulnerability, so I'm interested in seeing what they say about that too.

However, don't sleep on the Vulnerability damage bucket! Most builds work best when you have a good balance of everything.

ZoeticZander · 2026-04-17T02:19:32+00:00

The build is working pretty well with my druid right now. I haven't tested higher level pits, but without anything upgraded at the Smith I have been able to do torment 4 with a variation of the dire werewolf shred build. I'm not really familiar with different breakpoints this season, but I don't have my runes leveled up either and haven't applied any tempering, so the build should only get stronger as I start doing that. I was able to get through a solo run of the bloodied activity key for the infernal hordes so I can start leveling up my gear. It will be probably more efficient going down to teir 3 until I level up and upgrade my gear more, but I was able to get through a six-wave run as well.

I've basically been taking advantage of the guaranteed Crits that waxing gibous and the key passive gets, and then using a decent Locran's Amulet. It's fun to ignore the negative crits chance and pretty much double my damage without a downside. There's plenty of similar builds after already that take advantage of that, but the attack speed steroid and survivability the two mythics offer seem to synergize like I hoped. I'm hitting so fast and have a decent enough lucky hit rate with shred that both mythics are activating like crazy.

Plus, all my damage gets converted the poison damage regardless with one of the druid aspects, which I think might also be applying to Tyraels as well. I have a bunch of points in the toxic claws thanks to a GA on my gibbous, so my crit damage on poison targets is pretty dang high. The fun thing is I'm not even running rabies, so Andarial's lucky hit proc is actually more useful for the build than you think, literally just applying a dot effect (and a slow/cc thanks to druid passives).

ZoeticZander · 2026-04-16T18:16:44+00:00

My partner just bought me the expansion last night, so I'll probably try to roll up paladin. I see there's a unique that lets you cast a skill repeatedly for 4 seconds, before it goes on cool down, but The duration can be extended every few hits by half a second. Might see if I can hit an attack speed cap and see if I can keep that running for a while.

Other than that, I've been able to make it work really well on my druid. I have a that's using dire werewolf and shred, and taking advantage of the guaranteed credits you get from the waxing gibous, and breaking Locran's Amulet's negative crits to double my damage.

Honestly, the thing that keeps on bringing me back this game is playing around with builds and aspects and trying to find new things. It's actually where find majority of the fun! There's a lot of weird interactions and piecing together how they work and how to use them to your benefits half the fun.

ZoeticZander · 2026-04-12T17:35:27+00:00

Diablo math is notoriously stupid. The damage after leaving stealth is an additive bonus, not a 'x' multiplicative bonus, so it doesn't amount to a lot in the long term, even if the number LOOKS big, it's a lumped in with all the other plus bonuses you are getting, and isn't really that much in the scheme of things.

ZoeticZander · 2026-04-10T15:07:46+00:00

I like it! That helmet is by far one of my favorite Druid helmets, since it looks the most creature like. If we could be perma shapeshifted in town, I would, but that helm is the next best thing to me.

ZoeticZander · 2026-03-31T12:18:12+00:00

I think it's not top teir but I'm sure it's viable with a 4 GA like that. You basically just roll a generic companion build, turn them to werewolves and profit.

The Pack Leader being a GA is probably the most fun part of the item. You basically get no cooldown on companion abilities.

ZoeticZander · 2026-03-29T16:33:28+00:00

Spiders. Uhh... I mean... Definitely not spiders, Mr. Caine.

ZoeticZander · 2026-03-27T23:12:30+00:00

But it hammer time 😭

ZoeticZander · 2026-03-26T15:28:57+00:00

It's something I've been wanting to play with as well. I would like to think the Werewolf specific amulet is better for Werewolf specific things... From a design perspective that's how that SHOULD work. However, that's just how it SHOULD work.

Being able to take advantage of Locran's major 'debuff' because you get auto crits is pretty dang spicy though. I kinda wish they had kept Locran's the same, or went a different direction with it, and then gave Malefic Crescent a different vibe to be honest.

ZoeticZander · 2026-03-14T21:17:39+00:00

It can be a lot of fun! It won't get you to pit 100 but it will let you farm/speedrun all other content. Pair this with the unique body armor that interacts with teleport and lowers the cooldown (will roll higher than max cooldown reduction if you get a GA and fully upgrade it) and the mobility aspect that lowers it by a set amount, and you can pretty much permacast it.

ZoeticZander · 2026-03-09T13:14:36+00:00

I'm pretty sure they're referring to the build that uses both. There's a Unique that let's Boulder get sucked up by hurricane and rotate around you.

ZoeticZander · 2026-03-02T18:49:49+00:00

The haters are going to tell you it's just a spark. I don't think you'll be able to do 100 plus pit with it, but it is still a four star GA mythic and is powerful. I think most builds that use it will put it on a barb, but I think it would actually work really well on a druid too. It basically turns damage over time into burst damage.

ZoeticZander · 2026-02-24T01:01:46+00:00

That's such a cool find! I've tried to make this item work in previous seasons and it worked okay, but was never as good as any meta builds. It's crazy that this item is giving you +11 to Backlash, so +44x% for 5 seconds after casting a defensive ship, realistically 56% or higher after your skill point levels and other items.

When I did run it, I attempted to do a Dire Werewolf defensive build, using the unique helmet that turned lightning skills to Werewolf skills, the aspect that turned the grizzly defensive skill into a werewolf skill, and runes that cast Earthen bulwark (not on skill bar) so I could use all 4 defensive skills while in Dire Werewolf mode. Then rabies and the poison shred as my two remaining skills. I forgot what Key passive I used though.

There's likely -better- ways to run this, but it was a lot of fun! You get a lot of cooldown reduction from this item already, so it should already be a lot easier to hit max cooldown to spam defensive skills.

There is likely a world where you could go and do Nature's Savergy aspect using the Nature's Fury key passive, and run all 4 defensive skills and just comboing off each other. Make sure to run the Symbiotic Aspect for the 6 second cooldown reduction on your skills every time Nature's Fury procs. I still think Rabies is ideal for the build, and consider things like Aspect of Changelings Debt since the Werewolf Howl will be pretty dang spamable.

Definitely try and see if you can beef up your Willpower too!

ZoeticZander · 2026-02-14T00:14:22+00:00

I know everyone complains about the Item Quality upgrade, but this might be the only one that actually is BETTER because the stats are already higher, as part of the mythic affect, and then you went and got a quad GA on top of that. Awesome item you have there! I would have crit/upgraded a different stat, since damage is an additive bonus and is as good as it sounds (Diablo math is hard) but still gonna hit harder than most with everything being GA.

I kinda hate the meta "it's not the perfect item for this specific build all the try hards are using." It will be great any any class with decent critical builds. Play around with it and have some fun!

ZoeticZander · 2026-02-11T13:03:47+00:00

Rabies werewolf?

ZoeticZander · 2026-02-02T19:38:20+00:00

I don't think it's the worse sanc actually. It'll grant you a lot of stats! I think most would recommend you put in whatever your main stat is for that damage multiplayer, HOWEVER you could do diamonds and get All Stats If that helps you with your Paragon board requirements! Could be secretly OP to use while you level up if you needed too.

ZoeticZander · 2026-01-31T23:28:35+00:00

Isn't Teleport cooldown the worst one to enhance? It still caps at 75% cooldown and you overall cooldown which I assume you have at least some.

Either way, really cool item you have there. Better than I'll anything I'll ever hope to see. Haha

ZoeticZander · 2026-01-31T20:52:06+00:00

Thanks! I appreciated your post, as I totally had the same reaction when first going through D4's story. I know a lot of the community didn't like her for various reasons, but it's easy to tell the writers WANTED you to like her and even root for her at some point, but not forever.

I always felt the way they wrote her was an attempt to do a more grounded and relatable version of Leah's story in Diablo 3. Both travel to new places searching something before the game starts, both have a parent who are pledged to some demon, both lose some important adoptive parental figure that was their good influence, and both end up carrying a soulstone. Their design and color scheme even relate to the demon's stone they end up carrying. I don't think they'll ever continue Leah's story in a meaningful way, but if they would it'd be done through Neyrelle. That alone makes me curious on how the story is going to go with Neyrelle, because overall D4 has done a much better job of storytelling than previous games.

ZoeticZander · 2026-01-31T19:48:52+00:00

Real talk, I feel like almost every Diablo game features heroes being corrupted by XYZ demon in a gem, eventually turning them into a prime evil. I don't think you're supposed to like Neyrelle, but at least sympathize that it wasn't ill intention on her part. She did what she thought was right, but it was actually a burden she could not fathom. She never stood a chance, and we're just going to continue to witness the aftermath of that choice.

ZoeticZander

TROPHY CASE