|||||| [2.5.2d] The Endless Retch (Updated 1/29 w/Temp League Guide!) ||||||

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Update: This build guide hasn't been updated in a long time. It's probably not very good any more.

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Disclaimer
This build utilizes expensive legacy and league specific items, and you’ll probably hate it.
(See the Temporary League Mini-Guide if so)

Build Overview
The Endless Retch is a build that I have been playing since Ascendancy launched. It is a highly synergistic build that relies on 4 specific components to deal a significant portion of chaos damage to enemies. I’ve drawn a diagram below to outline how this works.

• High Lightning Damage - This can be achieved with a number of abilities, but my favorite is Cyclone
• Vessel of Vinktar, Topaz Flask (Legacy Recommended) - This gives us high Lightning Damage Leech, and makes our leech instant. Vaal Pact is required for non-legacy
• The Retch, Rustic Sash (League Specific) - This converts our insane instant leech to chaos damage, and extends flask duration
• The Slayer's Endless Hunger notable ascendancy skill - This allows leech effects to continue even when at full life. The Retch’s chaos damage is a “leech effect”

Next is a chart showing damage dealt to another player, first without and then with The Retch equipped. Beneath each test, you can see the total percent damage increase simply from equipping the belt. I’ll caveat this section by saying that this is rough math, and that I’m simply deriving these percentages from the results of my testing on another player. I’m not necessarily saying that you will do 94% more damage in all scenarios to all monsters/players (however my results were pretty consistent!)



Realize that this mechanic works with both attacks and spells. When leech is instant, the chaos damage is added to your attack or spell in the same way that flat elemental damage is added (think Herald of Thunder). I have chosen to use Cyclone as my primary attack, but I have tested almost every other lightning-based (or phys > lightning) gem and found success there as well. Refer to the "Build Variants" section below for some other top picks. The only requirement is that the ability can do Lightning damage. Of course, an ability which converts some physical damage to lightning (i.e. Lightning Arrow) or an ability that deals pure lightning damage (i.e. Spark) will deal even more Chaos damage due to higher % life leeched.

Regarding flasks, note that because we are taking most flask nodes on the tree (and because of The Retch’s flask duration bonus), our flasks all last for 10+ seconds and refill more quickly (even overcoming the penalty on The Retch). Additionally, flask effects are boosted 38% from the Alchemist cluster and the Conqueror's Potency jewel. This is primarily to enable the mechanic discussed above with Vessel of Vinktar, but it greatly enhances the effects of the other utility flasks used in this build. It’s important to remember that this build is greatly diminished when flasks are not up. However, it is very easy to obtain 100% flask uptime in almost all situations.

Pros & Cons
Pros

• Great DPS
• High life and defenses
• Can do any map mod (no Leech requires you to use Blood Magic + LGoH)
• Fast clear speed (180+% Movespeed with all buffs up)
• Crazy AoE (59 Melee Range on Cyclone + Ele Prolif HoA!)
• Shock immunity
• Bleed immunity
• Very High sustainability due to high instant life leech combined with high attacks-per-second

Cons

• Expensive
• Requires piano playstyle
• Bosses that cannot be burned down in less than 20-30 seconds (mainly Atziri and Shaper) require a trip back to town for flask charges (this is very rare…most bosses are dead in < 10 seconds). In extreme cases, you can use a second Vinktar to double your combat availability.

Stats







Gear & Gem Setup





Skill Tree
Level 100 Skill Tree

Build Variants
Below are some of the best alternatives to using Cyclone. I won't go into much detail, but I'll provide the 6L gems I use, a quick synposis, and a video. Skill tree is basically the same. Refer to the "Variant Gear" section above for gearing changes.

For each of these except Static Strike, I recommend a swap weapon with a high single-target DPS setup like Cyclone + Conc effect, or Static Strike.



















Bandits

• Normal: +40 Life (or skill point)
• Cruel: +1 Skill Point
• Merciless: +1 Skill Point

Temporary League Mini-Guide
Due to popular demand, I've created a mini-guide for people playing this build in a temporary league. Unless addressed here, everything stays the same as the primary build.







Videos
Current Version of Build (See "Build Variants" and "Temp League" for videos of each variant.)
T16 Maze of the Minotaur

Older Versions of Build
The Shaper's Realm
T16 Forge of the Pheonix
T16 Lair of the Hydra
T13 Waterways Map
T15 Dark Forest Map
T15 Overgrown Ruin Map

Closing
Thanks for reading the whole guide! If you have any feedback or see any errors, let me know.

First! Marking my territory here lol

Very cool. You could level to 100 fast chaining gorges with that speed.

I've mapped with him extensively and he has no issues keeping up with the 2 fastest attack based clear speed builds in the game (LA and KB), in fact, its actually the reverse situation if I run out of quicksilver.

slow down beef tornado!

dat terrible accuracy tho

one - mostly irrelevant note - the damage dealt by Retch is a 'reflect' damage. it does not add up to your attack nor is modified (further) by any of your attack related mods. there is a quote from Mark floating around there explaining how does this thing work and what is/isnt possible to with this setup

Try to get one ring with flat acc roll you have so much % acc from the tree it's a waste.

"

sidtherat wrote:

one - mostly irrelevant note - the damage dealt by Retch is a 'reflect' damage. it does not add up to your attack nor is modified (further) by any of your attack related mods. there is a quote from Mark floating around there explaining how does this thing work and what is/isnt possible to with this setup

I wonder if this means that Shock double-dips with the retch. I think it does. Occultist seems like a great pairing, with both Void Beacon and Profane Bloom.

This build is pretty cool. The Retch/Slayer interaction had occurred to me, but I didn't think to pair it with legacy Vinktar. You know a build is crazy when it abuses the best item in the game.

One question, why no lightning pen? Your chaos damage depends on your lightning damage, right? Would Arcing Blows be better than Graceful Assault?

I like so much this mechanic! Good job

What is the dmg from the retch without the alchemist node?

"

sidtherat wrote:

one - mostly irrelevant note - the damage dealt by Retch is a 'reflect' damage. it does not add up to your attack nor is modified (further) by any of your attack related mods. there is a quote from Mark floating around there explaining how does this thing work and what is/isnt possible to with this setup

Yes, you're absolutely right. I tried some of the nearby +Chaos Damage nodes, and they did not effect the Chaos Damage added to my attacks from The Retch.

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Poimu wrote:

dat terrible accuracy tho

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ponkata wrote:

Try to get one ring with flat acc roll you have so much % acc from the tree it's a waste.

Yeah, I know....I should fix that.

"

ThatsSoGoodman wrote:

I wonder if this means that Shock double-dips with the retch. I think it does. Occultist seems like a great pairing, with both Void Beacon and Profane Bloom.

This build is pretty cool. The Retch/Slayer interaction had occurred to me, but I didn't think to pair it with legacy Vinktar. You know a build is crazy when it abuses the best item in the game.

One question, why no lightning pen? Your chaos damage depends on your lightning damage, right? Would Arcing Blows be better than Graceful Assault?

It would be really hard to test that, as my Shock and Chaos Damage output are coupled. I think you're probably right though.

Great question about lightning pen, and yes you are correct that Lightning Penetration would increase my Chaos Damage. I originally did take Arcing Blows, but I removed it because I had this arbitrary goal of being at 9k+ life. I may revert and be happy with 8k+. It's definitely a big damage increase.

"

silentowl wrote:

I like so much this mechanic! Good job
What is the dmg from the retch without the alchemist node?

Thanks! The Alchemist increases damage from the retch by about 30% (30% lightning life leech to 39% lightning life leech.)