[3.10] Gryph's Volatile Dead Necromancer || Fun, Medium Budget, Tanky, Millions of DPS

i noticed on the leveling build, you go heavy for minion dmg, does that scale VD damage aswell?

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Gryphenprey escreveu:

I start it at level 16 when I can use desecrate + spell cascade + Arcane Surge on a 3L. faster Casting on an eventual 4L.

You can use it sooner than that with Unearth, but it wont feel as good.

Hey Gryph, first of all thank you very much for your work! I am really sad i didn't try the build last season but i am more than interested to try this build as a league starter for 3.9.

Due to the fact that i am quite the noob regarding PoE i am very interested in more information on the levelling section.
Am i right in thinking that the 4 link setting you mention is meant to work in combination with a manual cast of VD ?

I guess you'd then support VD with concentrated effect, inspiration and elemental focus in another 4L ?

And as soon as available go for the auras as well?

May sound stupid for you but I'm just trying to figure out what brings me best to lvl 65-70 until I'm able to get Scold's to shift to Cyclone and CWC...

I hope that makes sense for you :-)

Did a test run to find some combinatiions.

Leveling
Early // Freezing Pulse, Explosive trap into SRS minion damage, melee splash.
Mid // Incinerate, Faster Casting, Combustion + something if 4L
Late // Incinerate, Volatile Dead, Descecrate, Cast While Channeling,

Farm a Tabula with last setup in Blood Aquaducts.

Decent setup, pretty fun.

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Esharadin escreveu:

Hey Gryph, first of all thank you very much for your work! I am really sad i didn't try the build last season but i am more than interested to try this build as a league starter for 3.9.

Due to the fact that i am quite the noob regarding PoE i am very interested in more information on the levelling section.
Am i right in thinking that the 4 link setting you mention is meant to work in combination with a manual cast of VD ?

I guess you'd then support VD with concentrated effect, inspiration and elemental focus in another 4L ?

And as soon as available go for the auras as well?

May sound stupid for you but I'm just trying to figure out what brings me best to lvl 65-70 until I'm able to get Scold's to shift to Cyclone and CWC...

I hope that makes sense for you :-)

My plan is to level to 16 with Freeze Pulse, Frost Bomb, and Explosive Trap. I might throw something else into the mix like SRS. From there I will go with VD with the following two 3L setups (working into 4L), also note some of the supports aren't available until 18:

Desecrate - Spell Cascade - Arcane Surge - (4th) Faster Casting

Volatile Dead - Spell Cascade - Conc Effect - Combustion

Herald of Ash @ 16

Anger/Zealotry after completing normal Lab for Essence Glutton

A couple of thoughts:

-Make sure arcane surge is kept low enough level so that Desecrate triggers on each cast.

-Spell Cascade on VD may be dropped for more individual ball damage. This also allows for less alternating button-pressing. Desecrate - VD - VD - VD - Desecrate vs Desecrate - VD - Desecrate. This is mostly a preference thing.

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Hatebeard escreveu:

Did a test run to find some combinatiions.

Leveling
Early // Freezing Pulse, Explosive trap into SRS minion damage, melee splash.
Mid // Incinerate, Faster Casting, Combustion + something if 4L
Late // Incinerate, Volatile Dead, Descecrate, Cast While Channeling,

Farm a Tabula with last setup in Blood Aquaducts.

Decent setup, pretty fun.

I like just using VD - Spell Cascade - Conc Effect - Combustion as a 4L, rather than use Incinerate+CWC. Still have to stop to cast Desecrate so this works better IMO. That said, use whatever you're comfortable with; I didn't go too deep into the leveling methods after all.

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Regozai escreveu:

i noticed on the leveling build, you go heavy for minion dmg, does that scale VD damage aswell?

Spiritual Aid makes all minion damage scale as generic damage, so yes it scales VD. We get a good chunk of minion damage incidentally in our Ascendancy, so picking up SA is very efficient.

Hey ! i defintly want to play this.
What about a spell totem support on desecrate with the incinerate setup for leveling ?

and when can we switch to cyclone ? only in map ? when we have the helmet ? whats the requirement ?

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Altistic escreveu:

Hey ! i defintly want to play this.
What about a spell totem support on desecrate with the incinerate setup for leveling ?

and when can we switch to cyclone ? only in map ? when we have the helmet ? whats the requirement ?

Spell totem is okay for bosses, for general clearing in the campaign it's just slower than casting desecrate on your own though.

As for the Cyclone part, you can start using it once you have the Scold's and Doedre's Malevolence gloves OR you can link desecrate into the CWC setup (this is a fairly slow proc rate, but is pretty fine. Definitely want a Tabula for this). You can automate corpse generation with just Scold's and a Fevered Mind jewel (to boost mana cost), and then self cast VD though.

I would say, plan to play as Self Cast Desecrate+VD starting off and even into early maps with Scold's as the first thing you want to invest into buying.

It took a couple days into the league during Blight for a good number of Scold's to enter the market at a reasonable rate though. I got mine on day 1, but I was lucky with drops.

Prophecy: The Malevolent Witch -> Kill Phantasmagoria map boss while holding Doedre's Tenure

Scold's is a Torment League specific unique, so the drops rates are pretty low. They can drop behind walls in the Mines as well as from Blight and Legion encounters. I think beast crafting unique helmets is possible too. I think there's a chest in Temple of Atzoatl warehouse room that can drop league-specific uniques if it's fully upgraded.

There are many ways to get it to drop so I am not too concerned with them entering the market, but I want to make sure everyone understands that if you league start with this it's a good idea to plan for self cast VD+Desecrate for a little while (or whatever alternate methods you plan to use for leveling). It's a viable strategy in its own right for the majority of content so I am not worried about using that play style myself if I need to.

Hope this helps a little.

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Gryphenprey escreveu:

You can level as this build with self cast Desecrate + VD all the way through until you get to Scold's. Or level as a generic summoner, but that's boring to me :P

Fucking hell, I made a witch to see how this build felt to level at league start, and I can't figure out what you must be running to say it doesn't feel bad to level with self cast VD + Desecrate. I'm constantly getting stunlocked and have tons of mana issues, even while spamming flasks. I am using your leveling trees, but those must have been made assuming you're using something I'm currently not, as without leveling gear this kinda feels like trash compared to most other builds I've leveled. It's like ED contagion, but without damage or clearspeed.

As it stands, I want to play this build but can't see myself leveling with it. Even with the nerfs, minion leveling would be probably 3 times faster from what I've experienced so far. I also could probably level it way slower and be fine, but I'd rather not take like 12 hours just to reach maps so if you have some advice it would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Grpyh,

Abit of a noob here - I'm looking at both the levelling and endgame PoBs and kinda confused as to where you get enough dex from to use VD (says you have 50 on build but need 100)? Would you mind elaborating abit?

Thanks !

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malarix1222 escreveu:

Fucking hell, I made a witch to see how this build felt to level at league start, and I can't figure out what you must be running to say it doesn't feel bad to level with self cast VD + Desecrate. I'm constantly getting stunlocked and have tons of mana issues, even while spamming flasks. I am using your leveling trees, but those must have been made assuming you're using something I'm currently not, as without leveling gear this kinda feels like trash compared to most other builds I've leveled. It's like ED contagion, but without damage or clearspeed.

As it stands, I want to play this build but can't see myself leveling with it. Even with the nerfs, minion leveling would be probably 3 times faster from what I've experienced so far. I also could probably level it way slower and be fine, but I'd rather not take like 12 hours just to reach maps so if you have some advice it would be greatly appreciated.

I would recommend faster casting on your desecrate. I started leveling one in ssf yesterday (to 17 only bc time constraints) and I had some of these issues. Casting desecrate is usually where I have problems like you mention. Faster casting support and keeping Arcane Surge buff up should help with this. It may also be correct to path through the faster cast rate nodes at the switch start to help make things smoother.

I do suggest leveling with whatever methods you prefer. The tree should generically be fine for most spells.

After first lab mana is a non-issue thankfully but I spam mana flasks on this a lot.

Basically do what you need to do to make the leveling best for you.

Everyone should try to get 2x BBG 3L wands in act 1 and use the vendor recipe for added fire damage to spells.

Blue wand + Ruby Ring(make at least blue) + Orb of Alteration.

VD has a 120% added damage effectiveness so any form of added damage is a significant boost to dps.

VD - Conc Effect - Combustion/Spell Cascade (decide for yourselves what you prefer)
Desecrate - spell Cascade - Faster Casting

Wave of Conviction can be used to apply exposure to tougher mobs.

@Wolfofwong

I have a Brutal Restraint jewel. POB doesn't recognize the mods added by this: including the 50+ dexterity it gives me

Questions regarding CoC versus CwC:

Coc triggers up to 6.6 times/s while cwc only 2.8, but since the CWDT setups can't follow both of these rates it is worthless to go CoC with CWDT/Scold/Doedre?

If yes, therefore going CoC means having both Desecrate and VD in the 7th link and even though you generate more balls, you have one support less for VD (socket taken by desecrate now), right?

Also, coc requires being in hit range of Cyclone while cwc allows you to quite. That's also one advantage you count on?