[2.2] LL 100% Chaos Crit Vaal Molten Shell | DUAL CURSE | OVER 1 MIL DPS |


Hello everyone my name is ehLee and I will be talking about the Vaal Molten Shell (will use the abbreviation VMS for the rest of the guide) build that I have been playing in PSC.




FIRST THING FIRST: WHY V.M.S.?
VMS is a very fun skill that gives you a buff of some armor plus the effect of exploding anytime you take physical damage. We abuse this explosion mechanic by wearing a Scold's Bridle to deal physical damage to ourselves while we cast our spell. This will trigger the VMS explosion continuously while it is active and you will faceroll through packs of mobs.

NECESSARY UNIQUES
We are converting all of our fire damage to chaos damage by dual wielding Consuming Darks.

We are going Low Life so Shavronne's Wrappings is necessary. A 6L is NOT REQUIRED for the build, you can do this with a 5L.

We need a Scold's Bridle in order to proc our VMS with our spell.

Skyforth offers us increased stun threshold, which is extremely necessary for LL builds, as well as granting us some reduced mana which we will need.

Due to the lack of STR and DEX we get from the passive tree, Astra seems to be a very simple choice for me. However, if you can find these stats elsewhere (gloves/rings/belt/another ammy) feel free to use a rare amulet.

CONCEPT BEHIND THE BUILD
I HATE REFLECT, I HATE TEMP CHAINS, I HATE VILLAGE RUIN BOSS, I HATE NOT KILLING BOSSES IN 0.5 SECONDS.
No but seriously, this build literally facerolls bosses that don't have phase mechanics (Core, Colesseum). You just whirling blades in, proc VMS a few times, and they're dead.

The concept of the build is convert 100% of our fire damage to chaos damage by dual wielding Consuming Darks, and dealing insane chaos damage with our VMS by proccing it with Flameblast. The two best skills to proc VMS are Flameblast and Incinerate because they have identical cast speed. Flameblast was chosen due to the fact that it has crit capabilities and scales with our area damage nodes. It also applies poison very well while you are charging your first VMS.

THE BUILD
Passive Tree

Ascendancy Class
For the Ascendancy class I have decided to go Occultist. First, Occultist offers us more ES (Wicked Ward), which is needed because we are dual wielding. Second, it offers us more chaos damage and we reduce enemies' chaos resistance (Void Beacon). Third, cursed enemies we kill have a chance to explode, dealing a percentage of their maximum health as chaos damage similar to the Abyssal Cry mechanic. This combination of Ascendancy points turns us into an AOE killing machine.

Bandits
Kill All, Kill All, Alira

Gems and Links

VMS LINKS
5L: Vaal Molten Shell - Increased Duration - Void Manipulation - Elemental Focus - Increased Area of Effect
6L: Vaal Molten Shell - Increased Duration - Void Manipulation - Elemental Focus - Increased Area of Effect - Empower

Increased Area of Effect is needed for clearing maps as VMS AOE is fairly small, even with the radius nodes from the tree, you can swap this out for Concentrated Effect for bosses... or not, we deal a shitton of damage anyway.

Void Manipulation vs Controlled Destruction
I use Void Manipulation over Controlled Destruction because 1: we are crit and 2: the spell damage from Controlled Destruction does not scale the poison applied by Consuming Dark. Void Manipulation will give you less tooltip but it will actually increase your damage. It's not all about the numbers people.


Flameblast
4L: Flameblast - Faster Casting - Concentrated Effect - Void Manipulation

Flameblast is how we will proc our VMS and get its initial charges. Concentrated Effect and Void Manipulation for the maximum damage and poison, the small AOE is fine since we are using Abyssal Cry to clear packs.

AURAS
4L: Enlighten - Blasphemy - Warlord's Mark - Assassin's Mark

We are dual curse if you look at the passive tree, and we run these two curses for the leech, the endurance charges, the big CRITS, and the power charge sustain. Even though we are using Skyforth, because of the nature of Flameblast mechanics, we need Assassin's Mark to sustain power charges so that VMS will have a higher chance of rolling crit.

2L/2L: Discipline - Summon Flame Golem / Blood Magic - Haste
We only want Haste on our life to make us Low Life so make sure one of your 4 socketed items is NOT 4-linked, we want two and two. Discipline and Flame Golem in the others.

Movement Skill
3L: Whirling Blades - Faster Attacks - Foritfy

Self explanatory, probably the best movement links in the game right now. Fortify is icing on the cake.

CWDT
3L: Cast When Damage Taken - Immortal Call - Abyssal Cry

We are generating endurance charges through Warlord's Mark, so our Immortal Call will last for 1-2 seconds, which is a very nice defensive option against physical damage. We use Abyssal Cry to help with clear to get our initial VMS charged.

My Gear


A part from the Uniques I mentioned above, you want to fill out resists on accessories and try to also get Energy Shield and Cast Speed. For gloves get high ES and the resists that you need. Disregard the WED craft on the belt, I used it on my ST char and it is not needed for this build.


Flasks

We NEED a Diamond Flask, mechanics are explained in the next spoiler.
I am using Rumi's for the extra survivability, Sulphurs for the damage, Silver for the cast speed, and finally Vinktar's to shock which I usually only use on bosses. You need to get grounding on a flask to counteract Vinktar's shock. Get bleed removal on another for obvious reasons. And finally get a freeze removal flask because we do get frozen quite frequently. Once again disregard the Lightning Damage to Attacks Vinktar's, I used it on my ST character and I have not bought a Lightning Damage to Spells one yet.

VMS Crit Mechanics
If you did not know, VMS snapshots it's crit roll for the entire duration of the buff. When activated, if VMS rolls crit, the explosions will crit for the entire duration. This makes a Diamond Flask absolutely necessary, and when playing you need to make sure you pop the flask before you activate VMS. What a Diamond Flask during its duration is that everything you cast rolls crit twice, and if one of those rolls gets a crit, the spell will crit. With charges I currently sit at ~40% crit which translates to ~64% crit when I pop a Diamond Flask.

DPS Calculations

This is my DPS with in hideout with no charges. Disregard the damage per use, we will do our own accurate calculation. Our calculation will be based on the assumption that our VMS will snapshot crit. Keep in mind with Silver Flask, my Flameblast has 9.8 casts per second.

(24813 + 37213)/2 = 31013
31013 x 3.25 = 100,792
100,792 x 9.8 = 987,764

There you have it, my VMS, when it crits, does 987,764 DPS with a level 3 Empower and non 20/20 support gems. This calculation does NOT factor in DPS from poison, which will push it well over 1 MILLION DPS against bosses with high health.


CONCLUSION
This concludes the guide for now, I hope you all enjoyed it. I have had a very fun time playing this build the last few days. I will update the guide regularly and hopefully receive good feedback. My plans for the future are to take and post a few mapping videos as well as making a video guide which will cover everything I talked about here in text.


4/11/2016 - Gorge Video Added, Normal Atziri Run Added
Last edited by ehlee64 on Apr 11, 2016, 2:13:12 PM
Last bumped on May 17, 2016, 4:14:12 PM
Hi there, I have a 6L shavs but unfortunately I cannot afford Skyforth's, Could I use Eye of Chayula and earn the Str/Dex elsewhere?

Also is this build Uber viable? I have a goal to kill Uber Atziri before the end of the Perandus League, Thanks.
Which skills should I use to level the witch? I was thinking LMP freezing Pulse

Report Forum Post

Report Account:

Report Type

Additional Info