[3.7] CoC Volatile Dead Ascendant (Uber elder, shaper, Uber atziri viable)

Hi fellow exiles!

Linked another VD build in the end. Cheap and really fun!

First of all, this build is not 100% my creation. I found awesome looking youtube video without pob etc but i managed to track down creator (lengocanh171092) so credits of creating the base idea and raw tree goes to him.

I fine tuned his creation into this masterpiece of Greatness

NOTE: this build is really expensive and probably NOT a viable league starter.

So here it is. Cast on Critical strike Volatile Dead.

3.7 Changes:
Spoiler
Waow. Cyclone took huge "nerf" by going down with mana cost. All way down to 2.
I afterall figured a way to go around this. Maybe even few ways.
Doedre's Malevolence.
+50 to Total Mana Cost of Skills
ramps our cyclone mana cost to 55 with 0 fevered mind.
Sadly we lost "instant" leech BUT it was more of a quality of life thingy anyway.

Becouse of fevered mind dropping we got 2 (3 if u dont wanna use pure talent, i ditched it) more jewel spots. Crit multi + increased max life are gods here.

Another nerf was Unnatural instinct. It's fine, more might of the meeks.

Warlord's mark took nerf. Not that big overall. Cyclone provides some life leech + mana leech.

Gemini claw is mandatory for mana gained on hit (im not 100% sure of this but small amount of testing says so).

I went for ~7.x cyclone attack ticks per second. Results ~1.6k phys damage taken per sec -> enuff to proc scolds and to pop those lovely VD balls.

My pob dps went up after changes to itemization/tree.
Doing now over 600k per ball. SO theoretical max is 24x600k = too much.
Tried 1 guardian and melt it without vaal RF in like 1 second.
Shaper died with lower gear in p3 while he was casting that blast thingy where he dissappears then 1 shots. DPS is INSANE.

Updated gear/tree to match current build.




3.6 Changes:
Spoiler
Normal RF cannot anymore be sustained due to nerfs at ascendant scion.
Wave of conviction gives us a TON more dps.

I made some serious changes to itemization and gem setups.



HOW BUILD WORKS;
Spoiler
We cyclone away -> scold's bridle deals damage to us -> cast when damage taken gems proc -> loads of corpses spawn and a wave of conviction is cast to deploy combustion (and -fire res) to enemies nearby.
Meanwhile we crit with cyclone and CoC procs and tosses Volatile deads out.
The build relies on evasion, acro, phase acro and leech for defences.



PRO'S and CON'S;
Spoiler
+All Content viable
+Good clearspeed
+All res max 80
+Wrecks Syndicates in t16 map with mods
+Depending optimization up to 13+ Million shaper dps (from volatile dead only)
+Super fun & easy to play
+Volatile Dead!
+Reflect proof!



-Expensive (give or take 50 ex)
-Min maxed it so hard i cant find any more CON's :S



COUNTING THEORETICAL DPS;
Spoiler
Formula is:
Hit chance x crit% x Attacks per second
With my stats:
(allways hit) 1 x (99.2% crit) 0.99 x (attack rate shown in pob) 7.11 -> ~6 casts per sec. Each cast procs 3 (4 with enchant) balls which results us 18x (or 24x) single ball damage for theoretical maximum dps of 14+ million (without vaal rf and without flasks exept crit).



PoB LINK;
Spoiler
https://pastebin.com/yTyid4s3



GEAR;
Spoiler
My gear



GEAR BREAKDOWN;
Spoiler

Weapon;

No need to get any IAS here if u dont want to :)

Shield;

For shield u want spell dmg, spell crit, life and either 1 or 2 resistances
The mod X% of fire damage as extra chaos is last good dps stat here.

Helm

Scold's is only option for the build.
Getting one with VD enchant is tons more DPS.
Other viable enchants are:
-Blood rage more attack speed
-Volatile dead damage
-cyclone attack speed
-more desecrate corpses

Chest

Loreweave seems to be best here. It has all we need. Ele dmg, crit, life, max res up to 80.
Corrupted ones like i got are huge dps boosts.
Alternatives could be elder chest with something like:
+1 to socketed skills
+1.5% crit to attacks
+High life
+Res

Gloves;

Mandatory for +50 mana cost mod.

Boots;

Enchant: damage penetrates if you haven't killed is best by far.

I quess rare boots could work but most damage from boots slot is gotten from 2 abyssal socket bubonics with 2 different abyss jewels.
Also some life and good MS.

You can propably use 1 abyssal socket bubonic and if you do you get 1 free gem slot open.

NOTE: you can also go bit more defensive and take enchant for 2% regen if hit. This wont prevent those odd 1 shots but should make build a bit more tanky

Belt;

Third different abyssal jewel for enabling bubonic +10% for total of 30%. Here we want fire dmg, ele dmg, life and some res.

Amulet;

My amulet is still under construction as im figuring out do i need more mana mods to sustain better or just plain life.
After testing it seems that we msut get some % of fire damage leeched as life to improve sustain. Elder marbles are expensive but propably best for this.


Rings;

Most dps is gained from circle of anquish.
Elder ring base can be anything from res to opal ring. Depends what you are aiming for.

Jewels;


Crit multi is god. Life is his best friend.

3x abyss jewels Murderous + Hypnotic + Searching (2 in boots 1 in belt)
In abyss jewels we want:
(1 allmost has to have "X% chance to blind enemies on hit. We are low on defences and this is by far the best defensive layer we can add)
Life
Crit multi
Global crit
Fire dmg to spells



FLASKS;
Spoiler

Diamond flask is no-brainer
Wise oak is really good
Bottled Faith is really nice
Rotgut OR Silver flask for onslaught. Empties itself fast but good for burst.
Cunderswallor urn can be replacing silver flask if u want to :)
In testing Rotgut was still superior




GEMS;

Spoiler
3L
Herald of Ash 21
Anger 21
Enlighten 4 (unfortunately mandatory)

3L
Cast when damage taken 1
Wave of Conviction 7
Combustion 21

4L
Blood Rage 21
Arcane Surge 11 (can be higher if u want to spam Blood rage more)
Increased Duration 20
Vaal RF 20

6L
Cyclone 20/20
Inc crit strikes 21/20
Cast on Crit 21/20
Volatile Dead 21/20
Elemental Focus 21/20
Concentrated Effect 21/20

4L
Cast When damage taken 1
Unearth 7
GMP 20
LMP 20

2L
Cast when damage taken 1
Desecrate 7



PANTHEON
Spoiler
For pantheon i chose Arakaali and Yugul
Mostly becouse it's hard to count those extra phys reductions with cwdt's. You can use Solaris or Lunaris but bare in mind that cwdt might fail.
Minor is only decent one imo and the -5% cold damage mod won't hurt in uber elder aswell.


BANDITS
Spoiler
For bandits we want alira. Who would've quessed :)




KILLED;
Spoiler
All Guardians
Uber elder
Shaper
Atziri
Mastermind
Uber Atziri


VIDEOS;
Spoiler


Uber Elder:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1jE1LOiNpY

Mastermind: (did poorly yes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LusFayZh_1s

Lair of the Hydra:
https://youtu.be/EX4L5sfJcuQ

Forge of the phoenix:
https://youtu.be/LK1c898f-FA

4 Elder Guardians:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJEN5hqmx1c&list=PLOxuPKyx3XEP0MdzqCt5ZLKRdIZ0ehGxT


If you have questions please post those here or ingame! :)

Btw there's still lots of room to try things like disintegrator, eye of innocence, 2h sword with coc mod, 2h staff with cwc mod (prolly too few casts per sec if cwc). I encourage you guys to try it out and make your own choises! Post PoB links here for greated good!

Must add this here:
Another great build that kinda can't keep up with my dps but it's R E A L L Y cheap.
Tried it this league and it was fun. Crashed first 6 man instance i joined :P
It's not my build but works similar ways.
Let your left arm scream and beg for mercy :D

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2586284/page/1
Last edited by Nela88 on Jul 12, 2019, 2:01:49 PM
Last bumped on Sep 3, 2019, 6:41:37 AM
Can this build done with CoC Two-Handed sword? Or i need this +14 mana from claw?
"
gopotan wrote:
Can this build done with CoC Two-Handed sword? Or i need this +14 mana from claw?


Hi.

I didnt even thought about that! I think it's a great idea if you get attack speed figured out (max 3.3 aps, a bit less is optimal).
This would change gem setups quite a bit.

"
gopotan wrote:
Can this build done with CoC Two-Handed sword? Or i need this +14 mana from claw?


Tried 2h today. Issues with mana sustain were real :/ It can be done with 2h, but in that case replace LMP in gloves with Immortal call and put lvl 4 enlighten with anger.

Also getting crit, crit multi ,50 life, 50 mana abyss jewels could make it work.

2h version deals tons more damage. 1 ball dps went from 191k to 250k when i swapped. 7th gem i used for my testing were fire penetration.
I've tried a two versions of this after reading this post.

A LL assasin with zealotry/pain att. Used claw shield and 2h version. Had highest tool tip damage with 2h and LL by a good margin, over double the damage of the CI version. I used a warlord mark ring for the 2h version.

A CI assasin because I was getting sick of corrupted blood and poison degens killing me.

I used presence of chayula for both builds, so that does take some dps vs. Xophs...but that was the character I had to use just a few regret orbs on to make it work.

I think the best version was the claw LL set up. Over 8k es, 48k tool tip damage per ball, better attack speed than 2h also. es sustained with es on hit eye and spell leech nodes.


I also have a scion cospri/Coc (ass/ele for reflect) that I plan on possibly trying. That would have a hybrid of about 1500es/6500 life. Do you feel that the sustain with a life version is better?

I've been using elemental focus instead of combust, which saves me a 3L for phase run-arc surge-Inc. Dur, which to me at least is a big deal. It may be less dps than combustion support, but I didn't check.

The build feels a little squishy to me still on some maps and I get a few random deaths. I've been considering a PP VD scion for more tankiness. Have you played one? How does this compare? I went from hating cyclone with all my heart to being annoyed at stopping to attack with my other builds.

Here's a pastebin of my scion version: assassin/elementalist (for ele reflect maps mostly) I've used slayer/champ/inquis for this build when I used cospris.

https://pastebin.com/E3hDqnbr (standard so legacy atzriri)

I prefer VD to ice nova, etc for the automated seeking balls of fire, but it seems to do less dps than my cospri version, especially on bosses. Although I have 3k es (and about 9500 total "hp") it seems to sustain less due to less hits from the es on hit eye. I thought life on hit+es on hit+instant life leech+es leech and 80% resist would sustain me better. I think that inquis+zealots oath flask might work.

Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions on improvements, especially survivability, it would be appreciated. I think I will try the pantheons to increase my recovery rate, but then I can get possibly chain stunned or frozen.


Edit: After messing around in PoB, it seems that having elementalist+yoke ramps up dps significantly vs. xophs (260k vs. 200k). I'm not that familiar with PoB, so maybe the shock is being calculated wrong. Ele Focus does provide more dps than combustion support too. Your tree gives much more damage than mine too,I guess I've underestimated crit multi. I'll drop the templar area (which i specced mainly for the ele pen with pure talent and the melee crit chance nodes) and fill out more crit multi nodes.

And how are you sustaining rf? I tried to make it work and couldn't.

Edit 2: Saw your update, looks good. You have some pretty sick gear there. I think I should really change my phase run for blood rage before I try any more changes. Without CDR boots (or legacy belt iirc) frenzy charges would mess up your attack speed breakpoints though wouldn't it? That is the main thing keeping me from using bp boots.

I never noticed all the fevered mind jewels you use. Was it that way on the first interation? I'm only using 1, maybe thats part of why it doesnt feel quite right sometimes.

Like the addition of consecrated ground, that flask is crazy spendy now though. I do feel the inquisitor version is probably best from my testing though. Slayer felt meh. Champion/inquis felt best, but im not sure if fortify messes up the cwdt stuff. Ele is good mostly for reflect. The PoB puts way too much damage for shock it seems.

Wave of conviction is a spell i never even looked at, but good catch on that for sure.

My work-in-progress updated pastebin: https://pastebin.com/QeeMK48m
Last edited by EveryGlenn17 on Apr 28, 2019, 6:47:36 PM
Hi.

Glad you liked the build. So where do we start..

I have not tested other classes so can't say much about those. Scion life wheel with might of the meeks and unnaaturl instinct is far too valuable to loss imo.

What comes to LL i haven't tried tht either. Did you use shavronne for those?

What comes to fb/nova cospris im pretty sure it does more dps then this build. There are mny builds that do more damage and many builds that do less damage.
I chose this as im in love with VD and don't want to play anything else.

One of big reasons i didnt go for CI was the loss of scion life wheel. I tried to play with pob but ended up with like 6k es and i find that to be too low.

Those one shots do occur sometimes. It's life build with some low % of phys reduction. I think there's no solution to tht unless you change tree or flasks.

What comes to shock pob shows shock with full effectiveness. So it gives flat 50% more which is incorrect. The way you can test with yoke is to mark enemy to have 1 poison or bleed and add 20% More Damage to your movement speed flask and enable the flask. This is only for elementalist tho.

I tried yoke in league with chance to bleed jewels. It was fine but yoke has no life so i decided to ditch it.

What comes to blood rage and frenzy charges.BR doesn't provide frenzies while we are at boss and that's what im thinking. At trash it doesnt really matter what you do and how messed up your attack speed is as stuff dies too fast anyway. I use BR to proc arcane surge and fix my attack speed.
Seems that BR first tick is counted towards procing scold's so if you are in a boss and can't seem to generate enough corpses you can spam BR constantly.
Fevered minds are there to ramp cyclone mana cost to 150 which is enough to proc cwdt's. (Cwdt requires 528 damage taken and scold deals 4 times the damage -> 150 * 4 = 600 -5% phys reduction -> 570 damage taken -> enough to proc cwdt's 4 times in a second.
I think there's a way to remove 1 fevered if you manage to constantly spam BR to proc ebough corpses while figting a boss. Need to try that out in next few days.

So you are not reflect immune ? O.o assassin ascendancy says you wont take reflected if you crit so constantly spam your diamond flask while in ele reflect map.

Consecrated ground is really nice but only provides regen benefits if you are using legacy acuitys or some other gloves.
I have tried many setups but i keep coming back to legacy acuitys becouse the leech is so mad and to ensure im in "full hp" to get extra damage from my claw.

I didn't check your pob's yet. Thiese are just thoughts i had while writing this at work.

And crit multi is best dps stat you can get.

Hope this helps!
Hey yeah, thanks. I'm not looking at getting best dps or whatever, but just good dps and survivability while really fun to play.Bolt/Ice nova is admittedly def more dps for bosses, but VD is just so fun to play while mapping or delving.

Really the only reason I did any CI or LL was because that is what i had my assasin specced towards at the time and i wanted to try the playstyle before reworking my scion. With either I was able to get 8k+es, but es is just harder to sustain while we are doing so much damage to ourselves. The life wheel is really hard to pass up, i agree.

Glad to know that these random one shots just happen. I have a life+es of around 9k, not sure what else i could to and still make the build work at all.

I feel like the ES is useful for bosses with vaal disc, but i have yet to try it with vitality instead. I do have a shield with high spell damage instead of high es to switch to. Thinking about it, I think fortify might work pretty well, since the damage from scolds shouldnt be hitting to be decreased by it. Lose quite a bit of damage socketing it though. To get scolds to proc i spam phase run with my cyclone because its instant. I did go up to using 2 fevered mind though and that feels way better than 1.

I also have a hard time giving up the legacy acuity, my first big purchase after my first league and I feel like I should get good use out of them. They're just so good. For the CI/LL i used tombfist, which was nice too.

The assassin reflect immune with crits just isnt enough generally. Even if you crit 99% of the time every few seconds you dont and it only takes one to kill in my experience. Not to mention that crit chance is probably closer to 75-80 with diamond flask before you build up the power charges, and that first cyclone/VD into a mob group will not crit consistently. My testing is based on using a cospri build, but I assume this would be similar. It probably could be done with some reduced reflected damage taken, but thats a swap to a crappy ring, a pantheon swap, and/or a watchers eye+purity.

I'm still testing stuff, but fairly limited with time lately.

Unfortunately fortify's damage taken does reduce damage you take from scolds.

After 6 uber elder kills i can safely say that using 2x fevered minds is enough. Spamming BR while cycloning allows a bit of control with mana usage which feels great.

I didn't think about swapping items. I don't know but there could be a 'clear' weapons and then swap items for 'bossing'.
Nice idea tho, need to ponder possible changes.

That is interesting about fortify. it says less damage from hits..I wonder if scolds damage counting as a hit could be used for any advantage. Being hit recently buffs is all that comes to mind now.

I actually sometimes use a basalt flask for bosses and it seems like there are still plenty of bodies to turn into fiery balls of death. I probably take more damage than you without acro so bosses probably proc cwdt on me quite a bit. I am planning to switch to acro eventually, but atm i just dont really have time to play much and Id rather run a few maps than tweak my build.

I kinda wanna try it with desecrate in a 6link. Maybe with a 2h sword or bow with built in coc. Balls only every other hit then, but it would really open up the gear and gems slots alot and be way tankier. Investing in cooldown/atk speed speed could help with the dps. Could maybe even get RF back in play without needing scolds...

If GGG ever adds more ways to either damage self or create corpses look out, this build will be even better.
Last edited by EveryGlenn17 on May 9, 2019, 2:16:56 AM
Noob question. Isn't the Atziris Acuity in your gears a legacy? the instant leech from crit strikes? how did you get it in synth league?

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