[2.4] CI Assassin Cospri's Malice + Pyre Vortex + Vaal RF (one shot Hydra, Mino, Shaper)

Hi guys... this is my first guide. I made a few videos one shotting hydra and shaper and got tons of people asking me to make a guide for this build. I don't know how I feel about making a guide, since a lot of the fun is tinkering around and making a build work for you.

Build Basics
This build utilizes high crit rate with Shield Charge + Cospri's Malice + Pyre Ignite Vortex in order to clear maps and trash very quickly. For bosses, I use Vaal Righteous Fire to one shot any boss that doesn't have phases.

**Warning** -- Not a beginner friendly build. There are a LOT of little things that are important for making this build work. If you want an easy shaper farming build, this is not the build. Also, Chimera and phoenix are not easy with this. I have done both of them but it's a struggle. For phoenix I used dual consuming darks and had to use 4-5 vrf to kill him. It wasn't pretty. I have not bricked a shaper run yet, even while testing.. but it's not easy. You have to remember to keep up charges... swap weapons, etc etc.

**Be careful of remnant of corruption** These cannot be leeched from, so your VRF will leave you at 1 hp if you hit this monster only. Also if you use remnant of corruption and the essence monster "breaks free" it will gain the properties of corruption and also cannot be leeched from.


Pros/Cons
Spoiler
Pros
-It's fun
-Clears maps pretty fast
-One shots bosses
-My build has *A LOT* of room for improvement... it's far from optimized

Cons
-Bosses with phases are a problem
-Bosses immunte to ignite are a problem
-Easy to mess up until you get really comfortable with using VRF
-Not the best shaper farmer, but quite doable once you get the hang of it (not easy to get the hang of it.. takes good understanding of the fight)
-Semi-expensive
-Has trouble with certain map mods (hexproof, immune to status ailments, reflect ele damage, blood magic, no leech)
-There is one exile that will DRIVE YOU CRAZY! He uses lightning warp and he is almost ALWAYS desynced... meaning when you use vaal RF next to him, he's not actually there and you hit nothing. Watch out for him :)
-I should probably not write so many cons and act like this is the best build in the game


I apologize for not having many videos. I guess I'll record a little more if I can. I lose a TON of fps when recording maps, so I move at like half the speed I normally do... which is very frustrating and kinda dangerous.

Videos
Spoiler
Hydra 1 shot (outdated, not what I do now) -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwWBF1P_E8o

Hydra t16 full run (also slightly outdated and slow but you get the idea) -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKihjTSUZUQ

Shaper "one shot" -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz8C2OvdONc

Shaper Phase 1 (not fun.. I had ele equilibrium for shaper as well) -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7lVAoq2ltI&feature=youtu.be

EE Helps vs shaper a lot, but I've done it without



IMPORTANT Mechanics
Spoiler
1. Get leech enchant on your boots. This will make hexproof not scary. If you VRF vs hexproof monsters/totems without leech you will be in danger. You can also just use Life Leech gem in place of fire penetration... It should be able to 1 shot most things and is a million times safer. I would probably do this if I wasn't crazy.

2. GET JAWS OF AGONY! In your weapon swap, you NEED Jaws of agony. Link Multitraps + Cluster traps to a lvl 1 fire trap (makes mana cost low). This way you can get 6 power charges prior to entering a boss room. This is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. If you don't have power charges, you won't crit. If you don't crit, you're in trouble. I can't understate how important this is.

****DO NOT USE VRF WITHOUT FULL POWER CHARGES... EVER!****

3. When using VRF versus bosses, DO NOT HIT THEM WITH ANYTHING ELSE FIRST. Use VRF vs FULL HP bosses for assassin's ascendancy which grants 100% MORE Crit chance vs full hp monsters. This will effectively give you 99-100% crit chance. I have 99.8% (I think, someone else did the math for me and I'm too lazy to find the exact math) with 87% crit on my VRF.

4. Get a handful of Vaal RF gems and a few Vaal discipline gems to charge up a bunch in a map. These are your insurance for if and when you mess up (this is only really an issue for guardians and shaper). I used to mess up a lot when starting out so having the extra vrf as backup helped. Nowadays I don't mess up as I've become more comfortable with the build, but earlier on I made a lot of mistakes.

5. (more will be here once I remember all the questions people have been asking)


Gear
Spoiler

So getting stats and overcapped resists can be a challenge on a budget. You will need a lot of dex and bit of strength from gear. I had to use Careful Planning jewel for a long time to get enough dex to use Cospri's Malice. Try to craft a good crystal belt with dex using the essences.

Vinktars will help vs Hydra/Mino and could be nice for mapping... I prefer silver for maps because I like speed. I also use vinktars vs shaper ONLY for the times when he summons adds... it makes them die faster. Shaper, himself, cannot be shocked so it's pointless vs him.

You really want to craft Essence of horror gloves (+3.5% base crit to socketed gem)

Essence of insanity craft on gloves is really good too for speed... I think I might prefer it, messing around with both.

If you can afford skyforth, great! That will make life very easy for you.


My Gear
Spoiler


**IMPORTANT**
Make sure to switch around gem links when doing super fat bosses... you'll need to 6L your Vaal RF to 1 shot hydra, mino, shaper. t15 and below should be fine with two vaal RF 5L, even with life leech.


Passives (lvl 92)


Bandits
Spoiler
I did Skill point, atk speed, and power charge. You can do skill, skill, power charge if you prefer. I like attack speed for faster map clear.


Gems (Don't copy me exactly because what I'm doing isn't optimal)
Spoiler
-I HIGHLY Recommend using Ice golem over Lightning golem. I only use lightning because I'm a sucker for speed. Ice golem is almost certainly better.

-Life leech in place of fire penetration is a much safer option

-Flammability is most likely better than ele weakness

-You may want Additional Accuracy over increased crit in your gloves. Try both out and see what works for you.


Jewels
Spoiler
Izaro's Turmoils are NOT necessary... in fact I don't think they are optimal. They are nice for clearing maps and making vortex stronger.

I would recommend trying to get some good 3-4 stat jewels with:
-crit chance
-%es
-fire dmg
-increased damage
-increased area damage
-spell dmg (not as good as the 3 above since it doesn't scale ignite)
-crit multi
-atk speed (faster mapping!)
-resists if you need them
-stats if you need them
-more that I probably can't think of right now


How to one shot bosses (please read this)
Spoiler
Ok... it's very important to follow these steps.

1. Make sure your Vaal RF is 6 linked with Fire pen, Controlled destruction, Increased crit chance, concentrated effect, increased crit damage.
2. Equip Doryani's Catalyst (ONLY NEEDED VS HYDRA/MINO/SHAPER... t15 and below bosses do not need this step).
3. GET MAX POWER CHARGES USING JAWS OF AGONY
4. Summon ice golem if you need extra crit on your vrf
5. Walk into the boss room
6. Walk forward
7. Pop all your potions (Vinktars vs Hydra/Mino)
8. Pop vaal disc
9. Walk next to boss and pop vaal righteous fire (DO NOT HIT THE BOSS WITH ANYTHING BEFORE USING VRF)
10. Don't miss
11. That's it. The boss is dead unless you messed up or it has phases.


Mapping
Spoiler
To make mapping easy and stress free... I like to use 2 Vaal RFs in my 6L. This way I can just use it whenever I run into a fat rare monster or an essence rare. It makes mapping a lot faster. I take out increased crit damage support. I ONLY use increased crit damage vs guardians and shaper.

Last edited by dogbaby22 on Nov 11, 2016, 12:36:29 AM
Last bumped on Jan 21, 2017, 5:37:02 AM
I have no idea what I'm doing
Nice build, I'll try this.
Last edited by kenobixd on Oct 12, 2016, 12:13:51 AM
There are 2 ways to get 212 dex for Cospri's Malice

Damage Option: ~+103 dex from ring and belt (Sorrow Essence)
Tankier Option: x2 Careful Planning jewel and use Anger Essence to roll the ring
how do you lvling with this build i want to try this
This build will become a buff soon! :)
"
Achillezzzzz wrote:
how do you lvling with this build i want to try this


Good question! I wish I could give you a good answer but I don't really know. I actually didn't level up with this build in mind and created it after I was 85+ and used regrets.

If I were to lvl this char again, I would probably do a generic firestorm caster to level. You could probably start using vortex early on too with pyre. There's not much that will be faster than firestorm caster leveling speed though.

I imagine you would just want to be hybrid HP/ES for a while until you get enough ES to transition into CI... probably around 5-6k ES without CI is when I would transition. You could probably do it earlier than that depending on your gear.
Last edited by dogbaby22 on Oct 12, 2016, 8:45:44 PM
and how about ladybrith ??
how you can kill izaro with VRF
"
Achillezzzzz wrote:
and how about ladybrith ??
how you can kill izaro with VRF


Same way I do shaper phase 1 in the video. I swap to self-cast vortex. It's not exactly a great lab clearing build but it works fine. I wouldn't recommend farming lab with it though.
Last edited by dogbaby22 on Oct 13, 2016, 1:06:19 AM
What do you think about converting some of the elemental damage to chaos damage ? I know it sounds kinda crazy , but using The Consuming Dark it is possible , like you said you struggled with some bosses , maybe this could shift the build to the more ''stable against all mods'' direction? what do you think ? let me know :) , btw great build .
Don't try to hold it, flow with it.

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