[1.1.1b] ~ Poorman's Culler ~ Cheap and versatile support culler.
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Valid points.
Not trying to break your build, just trying to figure out the most cost effective gem choice - I guess the Quality on Incinerate can be "countered" by the Faster Projectiles gem? afaik a FP will surpass a 20Q Incinerate range, even more if you Quality the FP. - Again you mention incinerate damage, maybe I'm looking at your build all wrong. Incinerate also takes a few seconds to build 3 stacks for max damage, while Flame totem doesn’t. - Granted, mana cost of Flame is way higher - True, but Flame totem Quality improves life, therefore it's survivability which in the end translates to more up time. So it all kinda balances out it seems: range: Incinerate Quality vs faster projectiles from the extra gem slot damage: incinerate stack time vs flame totem frontal damage duration: spell totem quality duration vs flame totem life increase mana: spell totem > flame totem To gather anything more conclusive would require extensive testing. Seems that my point of view is purely from a "my totems are there to live and cull, not do damage". I assumed the build provided very little damage, maybe I'm wrong, are you able to solo maps/bosses with the build? Last edited by Solkanari on Mar 25, 2014, 9:10:10 AM
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" That's right. But the ideal is that you eventually end up with a 6L chest with both Incinerate and FP. " Yeah. Pretty much, although I think that the mana cost alone is a great advantage, given that you're running 5 auras off your mana. I don't think I'd be able to use a Flame Totem with my current gear and stats. As for the extra Flame Totem life, I don't think it's much of an issue. My totems rarely die, the main problem are ranged elemental atatcks with area effect or chain (such as Black Arcmages), and I don't know if some extra life would really make a difference there, since the problem is the low elemental resistance of the totems. For a non-final setup, you should go for whatever suits you the best. If you already have a 5L with the colors for a Flame Totem setup, and throwing Spell Totem + Incinerate would require a bunch of off-colors, I guess you could use Flame Totem instead. But for a final setup where you have a 6L chest, Spell Totem + Incinerate + FP would be way more efficient than Flame Totem + FP + anything. Especially if you or someone else runs Haste; a couple totems would cover the whole screen. " No, you're right. This build isn't meant to do damage. A couple of totems + a curse are enough to deal with any non-boss monster, as well as with some weak bosses from low level maps, but it will take some time for your totems to kill any high-hp monster. I've done some 67 maps solo with this setup, but it's really tedious. It was mostly for testing different gem combinations. | |
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5L's are not a problem, got 3 5L with colors so support either Flame or Spell Totem.
What's really bothering me is... should I completly respect my current Fireball Shotgun witch, or reroll a new char. I'm not the fastest leveler in the world (my witch is only lvl 77 and played from start of ambush), so it would take me at least a week to reach maps with a new char. On the other hand, changing my build would probably require me to deplete all my currency into Orbs of Regret... decisions decisions... :) | |
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The good thing about cullers is that as long as there isn't a culler already in the party, you're pretty much welcome everywhere, even if you're a few levels behind the rest of the party.
On different news, I just used my Aurseize for scientific research and lost them: On the good side, I tried with a different pair and got a great mod: The bad thing is that I forgot to add quality to these before corrupting them, and that this pair has 2% les IIR than the other one, but meh, +1 level to all Purity auras makes up for it. (: | |
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Do you find Chaos damage hard to deal with?
Did you try/consider/therycrafted a CI variant of your build? | |
" Not particularly. But I'd suggest keeping a chaos res ring in your inventory just in case. " Yup. Too expensive. To go CI, you must have a Shavronne's, and that would turn this into nothing but another "Step 1: Be rich" build. | |
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For someone like me who started last week and finds 1.5ex for a heartbreaker plus more chaos for the rest of the gear way too expensive, is there any replacement for the heartbreaker?
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" You could replace Faster Casting for Culling Strike while you save up for a Heartbreaker. Or if you can afford the mana cost, you could use a Flame Totem instead of Spell Totem + Incinerate* and keep Faster Casting. If you feel that your totems aren't that effective with Culling Strike wasting an extra slot, you could have another Culling Strike linked to something like Arc, just to be sure that you can snipe all rares and uniques. * check previous replies where we discussed pros and cons of each. | |
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Well as fate would have it, my friend (IRL) gave me some currency to start off with so I should be fine now. Thanks!
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That's great! (:
Let us know how it goes. I might add a strategy part to the guide later today. As simple as it looks, effectively culling has its tricks. |
