[2.5] The Soulcaster, Blight Occultist by CantripN (WIP)

Theme: Caravan Palace - Wonderland

WIP

What's we'll be trying out this time is Blight! Waiting on final patch notes to decide if it's worth it, as it's quite obviously not good enough at it's current state.

Tree:


Curses:
Temp Chains - Because Persistent Time Stop is Fun!
Vulnerability - MOAR Damage!
Enfeeble - Because why not? :)

Gearing:
Shavronne's Wrappings
6L Bow (Crafted with Woe, Catarina 8 for Cannot Roll Attack Mod, Exalt for +1 Gems, replace Catarina's Mod with something like 20% Reduced Damage Taken from Damage Over Time / Damage Over Time - Leo is your friend!)
Soul Strike Quiver
High ES Rares
Best head Enchant = +30% Temp Chains Effect / +30% Blight Duration
Flasks = The Overflowing Chalice / Witchfire Brew / Quicksilver / Silver Flasks / Stibnite Flask

Links:
6L = Blight / Void Manipulation / Controlled Destruction / Empower / Faster Casting / Increased AoE (Conc Effect for Bosses) ***RAPID DECAY IS A TRAP***
6L = CwDT / Immortal Call / Increased Duration / Vaal Discipline / Vaal Lightning Trap // Lightning Golem
4L = Blashpemy / Enhance / Temp Chains / Enfeeble (you apply Vulnerability with the Flask)
4L = Blood Magic / Clarity / Discipline // Blink Arrow
4L = Spell Totem / Wither / Inc Duration / Faster Casting

Reserved for thoughts:

If Blight continues to be a steaming pile of garbage, this gets scrapped, of course :)

Max DPS for Blight in the current state, with ALL BUFFS/DEBUFFS IN YOUR FAVOR = ~600k
At it's current state, as a LOW-LIFE CASTER, it's less than 20% of the DPS of a 20c Ignite build. We're gonna need something like x2-3 DPS AT LEAST, and a LOT more AoE, to even bother using this.

Any skill that lacks double-dipping (Poison/Ignite) needs a SERIOUS damage base to even WORK.
To be fair, Essence Drain doesn't do a LOT more DPS (perhaps not even THAT), but it has Poison and Decay.

So the main issue I have seen with people hating on blight, is that the damage isn't quite there, and a lot of that reasoning seems to be regarding the issues of standing still long enough to apply/maintain 20 stacks. (I saw a video of a guy trying to min/max it, and he was doing as much with 6 stacks of blight, as he did with a 4L ED would in his setup.

So, why hasn't anyone tried a spell totem version? That might be a noob question, but I've seen everyone switch to that regarding the Scorching Ray setup.

I'm no theorycrafter so I don't know what implications that might bring, but it seems that inifinitely maintaining your 20 stacks (and easily) would work out great for this skill.

"

mebell333 wrote:

So the main issue I have seen with people hating on blight, is that the damage isn't quite there, and a lot of that reasoning seems to be regarding the issues of standing still long enough to apply/maintain 20 stacks. (I saw a video of a guy trying to min/max it, and he was doing as much with 6 stacks of blight, as he did with a 4L ED would in his setup.

So, why hasn't anyone tried a spell totem version? That might be a noob question, but I've seen everyone switch to that regarding the Scorching Ray setup.

I'm no theorycrafter so I don't know what implications that might bring, but it seems that inifinitely maintaining your 20 stacks (and easily) would work out great for this skill.

The problem is that even 20 stacks pushed hard to the max still does mediocre damage.

35% More damage now. I doubt this is enough, especially with the nerfs to Soulstrike and slightly less % ES.