[3.3] The Poet's Pen Volatile Dead/Bodyswap "Shaper Down"[Inquisitor ✌]

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Mirkocrocop wrote:

"
Why is ICS a better support for Volatile Dead rather than Elemental Focus? Apart from damage (EF shows higher damage than ICS) with ICS I crit almost all the time and shatter all corpses. Does not VD benefit from the corpses on the ground in order to produce some more VD without having to rely on Unearth to create them first?

Depends on your base crit chance.


With EF i have 38.8% base crit chance and 72.75% with charges, AM curse and diamond flask. With ICS I have 59.62% base crit chance and 90.15% with charges, AM curse and diamond flask.
Last edited by DarkAvenger2279 on Jan 14, 2018, 3:04:18 PM
How bad would it be if i wanna do something like flamedash instead of bodyswap? is it even viable?
Hi there,

My 2 cents about some stuff that shouldn't be neglected as possibilities to improve / alternatives to some items :
-wands and amulets can be corrupted with 0.2% fire damage leeched as life. It's a gamble, but it can be bought with that mod (or be crafted while trying to get other corruptions). And it can be added to other source of leech if needed.
-wands can be corrupted with culling strikes. Very good corruption (and very priced items) : works on everything and not just a linked skill, you "earn" a gem slot (good for any variation of the build i guess, even 6L ones)
-elder mod on amulet can grants 0.3-0.5 fire leeched as life (if you get lucky you could have a corrupted elder amulet with doble fire leech so 0.5-0.7 fire leech)
-you may consider Cospri's will to get +1 curse AND taking care of hexproof mobs (but not immune to curse ones). After some damage cap hexproof are not a problem you won't even see them, but i played with this for a while, no need +1 curse amulet or passive skill for extra curse.

======

Having seen some friends playing 'this' build (at least dual poet frenzy/vd/unearth), i wanted to try myself.

Leveling was veryyyyyyyyyyy fast (<6 hours before map, taking my time, opening all abyssess, doin' some trades...) and fun. That's just with poet's pen mechanics & tabula rasa+elereon rings to spam anything. Very funny to try anything. I especially loved shock/ice nova and gmp fireballs/arctic breath.

Once i've reached map, i wanted to try two things : abyss unique items and shaper/elder mods. I didn't get all the stuff right away, just improved step by step, certainly not best stuff for this build, but i wanted to keep on that thematic.

So here my items and caracter (lvl91 inq) :
http://poe-profile.info/profile/camarchepas/Boules_et_GroBill
Spoiler

Got the gloves by myself, bought the body and helm (with enchant). Abyss boots with 2 abyssal slots cost tooooo much for now.
Got something like 13 abyssal jewels grantng all the bonuses on the abyss items (intimidate + maim on hit from gloves, many novas froms helms, life gain on kill on body armour) and a good improvement on total life (life on each jewel + %life on body +%life/abyssal jewel on body)
Something like 6350 hp (poe-profile not right).
Most jewels are life/resist all, got too many specific uniques so i need shitons of resists on them.

Gems setup are not always the right ones, i make a lot of test. Desacrate+arcane surge was a test to grant more corpses for some fight and grants the arcane buff (i hate flame dash).
Amulet was granted by the warden divination card, i didn't even check to buy a better one yet.
Elder's and shaper's ring was a good way to compensate for the very few avaliable sockets : the two needed curses on hit (so no coh+curse1+curse2 and it works with all hits). Level 22 herald of thunder = one free gem slot, other herald may be better, didn't check anything. Unset ring = another free slot for an aura.
Playing hatred and herald of thunder, on a crit builds seems good to me. Hedgehogs barely ever explode (that was an issue considering the teleport into packs and obliterate them instanty).

Without the armour (had a 6L cospri, meaning big loss in total life) and some worst abyssal jewels i was able to kill all 4 shaper guardians (few death, especially hydra was tricky with all the balls), all red elder (deathless). Failed to do red elder but wrong skill set and getting angry and not enough life, i'll try again once he pop on red maps (and i'll try shaper).

I'll probably go check for a new amulet, change some skills. Maybe try body swap on manual set to let only 2 skills on poets and not 3). I've try to corrupt some Poet's but for no it's 3 complete destructions and 1 that didn't move. Have to get some better enchantments on those boots and gloves too.

If that builds doens't get rekt on next leagues, i'll probably make it again, with rares items and not full abyss.

Those wands are so fun i think i'm also gonna try the skeleton/dark pact one. ^^
Last edited by CaMarchePas on Jan 14, 2018, 10:58:00 PM
welp. Basically, Im done with this build. Shaper left to kill but I dont think its going to me a major problem for this build.
Here is my gears


and ofc Watcher's eye with 1.4% life leech.

Your first and main upgrade is Helm with +1 VD. This is a huge boost on your VD DPS.
Equip it and you can see a big difference. I recommend to get it as your first major upgrade.

Watcher's eye with life leech is very good QoL but IMO, it is very expensive at this stage.

Yesterday, I did T16 Hydra with EE mod and I could not see the difference in clear speed.
Inquisitor subclass is too good to be passed on for this build.
Tried with both Berserker and Inquisitor and Inquisitor is way better than.

Bellow T9 , Swap PCoC for BodySwap then you will have one of the fastest clear speed build in game
T10 +, You still can use BodySwap but I recommend use this one
or

These flasks will keep you alive.
"
Rake7 wrote:
Hi Guys, i finally found my final setup for the aimed 8 APS Bodyswap playstyle.

For all who are interested in reaching 8 APS too and have some currency to spend here is an short overview of it:


Weapon setup one for normal mapping and most bosses



Weapon setup two for bosses with "one shoot area" mechanics where i have to control where i have to be to avoid them



Body armour and helmet are equal to 4-5 APS builds



Amulet, Rings and Boots have to cover the needed resists. I had room for attack speed on rings, so i needed less on Jewels. The assasins mark ring is mandatory to change my frenzy setup like shown in the gloves below



the Build have no use for a cdr belt. so this belt is the best choice with some attack speed, life, flat damage an crit multi jewels (which combination is really hard to find - the multi roll make them so rare)



the most important part for the 8 APS version of the build. it just gives to much attack speed. power charge on crit make it possible to have power charges in boss fights.

because of the 8 APS i always had some mana problems in boss fights. especially in the phase before the fight begins and you spam volatile dead to burst the boss as soon as he spawns. in this phase no mana leech is possible, so i always run out of mana. to solve this i come to the solution to use reduced mana and a watchers eye with -x Mana when Clarity is used. So my final Frenzy mana costs are 3 Mana (could be 2 Mana with max rolled watchers eye). This allows me to use the following Auras:

Anger, Purity of Elements (i've maxed out the damage and attack speed on rings, this Aura gave me the oppurtunity to do this), Herald of Ice and Clarity with an Enlighten 4. With this Setup i have 10 Mana left which is enough with 42 Mana Regen per second.

As a side note: If you are looking for gloves like this, don´t take gloves with multiple "supportet by xy gem". That just raises the Mana cost for Frenzy with no benefit. The only needed supported gem stat is "faster attacks".




The jewels. Perfekt would be Life, 8% attack Speed with wands + 2 damage rolls. Buts thats kind of rare. But these are fine. And like i said before, for an 8 APS build the watchers eye with the second stat -x mana when Clarity is used is simply the best. That allows to drop warlords mark (which i had on the second ring) and to drop the points for the second curse on the tree.


And here is the pastebin. Just imported from my charakter. I made no changes to calculate the real VD damage.

https://pastebin.com/kJptmqqX


If somebody wants to get started with this setup the most important part are the gloves. They are about 5-12 ex. To reduce the cost of the boots and rings it should be droped attack speed on rings and the damage (suffix) rolls on amulet for resists. That make it possible to get quite cheap rings, amulet and boots to get the needed resists. The jewels are another expensive part if you want to max the damage. At a start, 3 stat jewels (abyss or normal) with life, attack speed (at least a 6% roll) and one damage stat should be enough and only about 5-30c for each jewel.



Finally, to make it clear. The 8 APS version does not do more damage than the 4 APS version as long as only one active spell is used in each Pen. I've deciced to go to 8 APS because i wanted to use bodyswap and unearth, so two active spells for most part of the game. And in this case, the 4 APS Version lose a lot of VD damage on bosses. So if you want to have a faster playstyle and to use bodyswap on most bosses and have the needed currency, you should think about 8 APS

Thanks for all the information dear friend. Surely this data is useful to all players.

"
N4Z wrote:
wow. your gears' value is around 40ex total easily.
Im going ham on this build.
Will invest another 30ex more for VD enhance and fire leech jewels which are around 30ex.
Going to sell this

and

from my BER's pen build.
Damage from Ber's pen is disgustingly low in compared to Inquisitor's pen.
Very disappointed.

Some players whispered to me saying exactly the same thing. Inquisitor is the best way :)

"
GsengteSau wrote:
"
WildWombat wrote:

I got real squishy in red maps with 6.3k life until I threw warlords mark into blasphemy seems I was not leeching very well.


This. Been enjoying the build while leveling, but had hard times without warlords mark even in yellow maps. With warlords mark i can easily run the easier red tier maps.
Running herald of ice and warlords mark as auras, maybe I'll try anger and warlords later.

I have to admit i didnt spend any currency on the build yet, apart from the wands and kaoms heart of course. Didnt even get jewel slots yet.
The price of the life leech abyssal jewel simply is riddiculous, but seems to make the build much more sustainable. Can't think of running shaper without it though, but I simply dont have the currency to buy it.

You can do shaper, the items you must have are, the helmet with the enchant and kaoms. That's enough for me to kill shaper.

"
widowmaikr wrote:
Can you guys help my min-max char (I still need to upgrade gems/flasks). I put this character together in a couple of hours the other night, but like it, so I want to min/max. Thanks!! Also, what would be the best setup (non mf - just speed) for farming shaped vault. thanks



Your char is perfectly equipped. Congratulations. In your skill tree I would make a change, I would not use Berserking. Try with those points get to Heart of Flame.

"
CaMarchePas wrote:
Hi there,

My 2 cents about some stuff that shouldn't be neglected as possibilities to improve / alternatives to some items :
-wands and amulets can be corrupted with 0.2% fire damage leeched as life. It's a gamble, but it can be bought with that mod (or be crafted while trying to get other corruptions). And it can be added to other source of leech if needed.
-wands can be corrupted with culling strikes. Very good corruption (and very priced items) : works on everything and not just a linked skill, you "earn" a gem slot (good for any variation of the build i guess, even 6L ones)
-elder mod on amulet can grants 0.3-0.5 fire leeched as life (if you get lucky you could have a corrupted elder amulet with doble fire leech so 0.5-0.7 fire leech)
-you may consider Cospri's will to get +1 curse AND taking care of hexproof mobs (but not immune to curse ones). After some damage cap hexproof are not a problem you won't even see them, but i played with this for a while, no need +1 curse amulet or passive skill for extra curse.

======

Having seen some friends playing 'this' build (at least dual poet frenzy/vd/unearth), i wanted to try myself.

Leveling was veryyyyyyyyyyy fast (<6 hours before map, taking my time, opening all abyssess, doin' some trades...) and fun. That's just with poet's pen mechanics & tabula rasa+elereon rings to spam anything. Very funny to try anything. I especially loved shock/ice nova and gmp fireballs/arctic breath.

Once i've reached map, i wanted to try two things : abyss unique items and shaper/elder mods. I didn't get all the stuff right away, just improved step by step, certainly not best stuff for this build, but i wanted to keep on that thematic.

So here my items and caracter (lvl91 inq) :
http://poe-profile.info/profile/camarchepas/Boules_et_GroBill
Spoiler

Got the gloves by myself, bought the body and helm (with enchant). Abyss boots with 2 abyssal slots cost tooooo much for now.
Got something like 13 abyssal jewels grantng all the bonuses on the abyss items (intimidate + maim on hit from gloves, many novas froms helms, life gain on kill on body armour) and a good improvement on total life (life on each jewel + %life on body +%life/abyssal jewel on body)
Something like 6350 hp (poe-profile not right).
Most jewels are life/resist all, got too many specific uniques so i need shitons of resists on them.

Gems setup are not always the right ones, i make a lot of test. Desacrate+arcane surge was a test to grant more corpses for some fight and grants the arcane buff (i hate flame dash).
Amulet was granted by the warden divination card, i didn't even check to buy a better one yet.
Elder's and shaper's ring was a good way to compensate for the very few avaliable sockets : the two needed curses on hit (so no coh+curse1+curse2 and it works with all hits). Level 22 herald of thunder = one free gem slot, other herald may be better, didn't check anything. Unset ring = another free slot for an aura.
Playing hatred and herald of thunder, on a crit builds seems good to me. Hedgehogs barely ever explode (that was an issue considering the teleport into packs and obliterate them instanty).

Without the armour (had a 6L cospri, meaning big loss in total life) and some worst abyssal jewels i was able to kill all 4 shaper guardians (few death, especially hydra was tricky with all the balls), all red elder (deathless). Failed to do red elder but wrong skill set and getting angry and not enough life, i'll try again once he pop on red maps (and i'll try shaper).

I'll probably go check for a new amulet, change some skills. Maybe try body swap on manual set to let only 2 skills on poets and not 3). I've try to corrupt some Poet's but for no it's 3 complete destructions and 1 that didn't move. Have to get some better enchantments on those boots and gloves too.

If that builds doens't get rekt on next leagues, i'll probably make it again, with rares items and not full abyss.

Those wands are so fun i think i'm also gonna try the skeleton/dark pact one. ^^

Woou man, what a great test!! There is a similar build, created by another player, if you have not seen it yet, I recommend you do it, maybe it can help you to have more options. Thanks for sharing your experience, it is appreciated.
Hey guys, enjoying this build heaps at level 73 and invested probably a total of 2 ex for all my current gear except for the poets pens which were 40c each, needing some advice on where/what to upgrade next as for some reason I still feel very squishy and not a whole lot of boss damage.
Thanks in advance guys.

https://pastebin.com/JCLpDDes
Can someone explain bodyswap mechanics to me? It's just teleporting randomly... Sometimes it works, sometimes is doesnt. I am really confused how to make it work all the time or how to teleport to the my mouse location (when i use frenzy). Thx in advance.

Warning: might be a noob question!

Am I stupid when I don't get how you ignite yourself with Eye of innocence and Mokous embrace? I just don't get how you are supposed to trigger the leech...
"
eXonERati wrote:

Warning: might be a noob question!

Am I stupid when I don't get how you ignite yourself with Eye of innocence and Mokous embrace? I just don't get how you are supposed to trigger the leech...


The 100 fire damage that Eye of innocence deals you when you ignite an enemy can ignite you. So you become ignited when you ignite an enemy, it becomes unreliable in maps where enemies have a 90% chance to avoid elemental ailments.
"
ytko wrote:
Can someone explain bodyswap mechanics to me? It's just teleporting randomly... Sometimes it works, sometimes is doesnt. I am really confused how to make it work all the time or how to teleport to the my mouse location (when i use frenzy). Thx in advance.

Ok. Apparently, the problem was my lvl, unearth without GMP causing bodyswap to fail most of the time:D

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