(3.8) Poet's Pen with Indigon Volatile Dead Necromancer

This is my short showcase/guide of my Poet's Pen & Indigon character.
I recorded some videos while leveling it so you can check them out and read on if interested in specifics of the character.

Videos:
Spoiler

First normal map after leveling from 70-75 with Coward's Trials and doing uber lab
https://youtu.be/l_to0-6N_3o
First red map (shaper stronghold crimson temple) at around lv80
https://youtu.be/Uh2fEZvquks
First guardian map (minotaur) at lvl91
https://youtu.be/ohBnzyIsTcw
First Uber Elder (deathless at lvl92 , lvl19 gems)
https://youtu.be/AWVknEtnKMw


Path of Building: https://pastebin.com/dTWzBk3G , it has couple trees for leveling and assumes you'll do a quite big respec when you get to lvl70 and can wear all your gear. The flask ndoes version was what I ended up going with after starting with the life/mana/es tree. I'm also using the LocalIdentitys fork of PoB https://github.com/LocalIdentity/PathOfBuilding where you can set shock amount to 20%.

Gear I used and stats I was going for other than Poet's Pens and Indigon:

Uniques I used:
Spoiler

Must have jewels
Spoiler

3x of each

and a clarity ES watchers eye. I additionally had the chance to gain 10% mana on skill use, but after playing with the char and fiddling with the passive tree I would rather recommend the increased mana recovery mod as secondary.



I used cloak of defiance as chest and don't really think there is a better option


For amulet I had:

All the stats on it are quite nice for the build, even the reduced attribute helps with dex. You could also use a rare blue pearl amulet with mana/mana regen roll + other stats but that seems a lot harder to get and you'd lose out on the % increased maximum mana roll.

As anointment I had Mana Flows from duelist area as it was the best mana node left on the tree. It (and for some reason pretty much every other mana notable) requires a golden oil so if you want to go with something cheaper there is Primal Spirit (2 silvers) or for even cheaper some defensive options like Disciple of the Unyielding (Opalescent/crimson/violet).


In rare gear you are generally just looking for life/mana/resists, but
you'll also need 2 dex rolls on gear to fill in the requirements for it.
Spoiler

For gloves you'll want to have insanity essence crafted ES base gloves (sorcerers or fingerless).


Belt should have the shaper base mod % increased mana recovery rate and preferably the t1 version of it (16-20). Mine happened to also have cdr roll but you don't need that.


Boots don't need anything special just basic life/mana/movement speed is good. I had the other dex roll I needed on them.


On rings you'll want to have a free prefix to craft added fire/x damage mod on at least one of them, so that your frenzy/Orb of Storms can ignite for combustion. Other than that if you can squeeze in mana regen mod on one of them at least do so.



For flasks I had:
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You could use The Wise Oak instead of Cinderswallow (especially if you manage to balance your resists), although the extra crit on cinderswallow also helps with ignites for combustion.


Gem links:
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Poet's pens: Mainhand: desecrate - spell cascade - concentrated effect Offhand: Volatile Dead - Spell Cascade - Elemental Focus
So I ended up with ele focus with VD after testing and coming to the conclusion that with conc effect I didn't always get 9 corpses consumed because it didn't hit enough corpses. Biggest down side of ele focus is that you lose some of the synergy with Cinderswallow and are relying on frenzy hits to ignite. So try both out and see which you prefer.

Gloves: frenzy - faster attacks - combustion - volley

When starting out at lvl70 drop the volley/lesser multiple proj because your mana regen won't be enough yet. Also if you happen to get gloves with supported by faster attacks you could use frenzy - curse on hit - flammability - combustion , but it will lower your manacost making the ramp up time longer for Indigon so I'm not sure if it's actually good..

Chest: flame dash - Orb of Storms - curse on hit - flammability - Arcane Surge - (Increased duration)
The 6th link Increased Duration is nice to have but in no means necessary. I chose flammability for the extra ignite chance over elemental weakness (<1% more dps).

Boots: Immortal Call - Cast when Damage Taken - Increased Duration - (Clarity/Precision)
I used craft at least 2r to get base 2 red sockets and then the jeweler method of crafting 3 sockets - 2 sockets - 3 sockets until I got the third red on them (off color). My boots were dex/int base so the last one will most likely be b/g when you craft the 4th socket on it and you can then just slot in either clarity or precision.

Helm: Precision/Clarity then you have 3 extra sockets I went with Cast when damage taken - Wave of conviction - Combustion just for the extra chance at combustion and exposure


Mechanics of the build:
Spoiler

So you have dual ramp up of Indigon and Corpse Pact with one giving you damage and other attack speed. With my gear and skill tree (using the flask node tree from pob) I can cap Indigon spell damage stacks and get to 8-10aps with Corpse Pact while consuming on avg 33 corpses a second.

With my gear I should have 4,3k life 4,5k es and 8,5k mana at lvl96. The hybrid life/es build does leave you kinda weak against chaos damage.

You also have ~700-1700 (depending on tree and eye mods) life regen/s from your Enduring Eternal Mana Flask and Indigons Non-instant mana recovery from flasks is also recovered as life.

Mana regeneration gets to over 4k with my gear, and that doesn't take into account what you get from mana flask (~700-1700 depending on passives and eye mod). Path of Building doesn't have support for the mana regen from Essence Glutton and Arcane Surge effectiveness so it shows a lot lower number. The mana recovery watcher's eye mod would add another ~20% and would also boost the flask life/mana recovery.
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without arcane surge up:

with arcane surge up:



Last bumped on Dec 18, 2019, 12:44:15 PM
Hi, thanks for a good writeup of this kind of build. :)

One question though: Do we get the two passive points from the bandits?
yes, two passives (it should also be selected in pob link).
Thanks!

I asked, because two passives is usually the default settings, and many simply doesn't change it. :)

Almost gotten to maps on my necro now, seems to really start coming together. Plenty of damage so far, even without Indigion. :D
Last edited by Avous on Oct 21, 2019, 1:04:38 AM
Trying this for 3.9, is there a reason you don't use Herald of Ash?

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