Advise needed - VD Spellslinger keeps dying

Hey guys,

I tried to follow Zizaran's guide to the Volatile Dead Spellslinger necromancer, but I have trouble with surviving *any* rare mob or higher. I most of the time get one-shotted several times during a Tier 1 map (normal rarity).
So, I'm a bit stuck in my progression, not being able to get beyond tier 1 maps (if any new maps will drop for me anyway that is, because I haven't got T2's yet)

Since I'm in SSF league, buying stuff isn't an option. Still running with a 4-link chest, because RNG decided I don't deserve a 5- or 6-link.


look at my toon's profile:
https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Rewena/characters
it's the one named: IlseDeWitche - lvl 72 Necromancer.

So, what's the best I can do ? If there's little I can do, then deleting that character might be the best way to go, and convince myself that the most-played meta build is not for me to enjoy.

Thanks for any tips :)
Rewena

Hello.

The reason you keep dying is because you have almost no life on your gear. You barely have 3k life and one of your resists is uncapped. Having enough life to actually be able to take some damage is the most important thing (for life based builds anyway) for survivability. Your best bet might be to farm some non-map content (i.e. acts), gather some bases and use the yellow seeds to craft some life gear. Also, use your crafting bench to craft some life on gear that can accommodate it.

Also maybe replace your Plaguebringer ascendancy with mistress of sacrifice and self-cast bone offering for extra block.

Thanks for the reply :)

I will work on some more life where possible and farm some more from Oriath Square (good density)

On my resists. I only have -22% on Chaos, but I don't think that can be raised easily


And I will get bone offering. Didn't think of that because this is not a minion build :)

Regards,
Rewena

Keep in mind that you can't benefit from an Offering unless you have Mistress of Sacrifice.

But Bone Offering + Glancing Blows should help quite a bit. (Zizaran takes GB with the Tireless circle in his guide it looks like.)

I also wonder whether the guide gives a specific reason for the Ruby + Sapphire flasks. I often prepare one of each elemental flask with the relevant immunity if I don't have it somewhere else. But I only use them for specific boss fights where that element or ailment is particularly nasty.

A granite flask should give you more phys mit than basalt at this point. You can also think about crafting increased armour on a flask for even more. If you ever find a Rumi's, it will be a great replacement for a basic granite.

I was going to suggest Enduring Cry but you have it, along with Call to Arms. You should get used to keeping your flasks and enduring cry up nearly all the time when you're clearing. (Both maps and delve...) It will make a huge difference. Also, developing a specific play style that works well with this particular build.

Are you playing the Harvest content? I'm about to see whether the link seeds will provide a 5L. At a minimum you should be able to 4L everything, and find some good bases to see if you can craft some better rares than you have. If you can get your Life + ES closer to 4500, between gear and the tree, that will help a lot.

I would use the ele + chaos combo on the bench to try to get your chaos resist up over time, but chaos is not a big factor in white maps.

Hope that helps a bit. Good luck.

Good suggestions :)

4-links is not a big obstacle with a few Orbs of Fusing. 5-linking is another matter, and would need more orbs then I have available.

I just took some different flasks that seemed helpful to me, and the most useful immunities. Keeping them up all the time would require more fingers than I have on my two hands :)

I would love 4500 life and ES combined, but is out of reach without an endless resource of currency. I'm a casual player, and not a streamer/professional with 10+ hours a day in game.

ele + chaos recipes not yet available. For that I need to run Jun maps, and running maps is not an option yet :(

This Harvest league seems to be geared towards players with lots of time, or in the Trade league (for buying everything you desire), SSF sucks in that respect. Getting seeds will be better later in maps, but right now, my gardens are mostly empty, and the crafting options do not help me at all.

Thanks
Rewena

"

Rewena wrote:

4-links is not a big obstacle with a few Orbs of Fusing. 5-linking is another matter, and would need more orbs then I have available.

The primal feasting horror seeds can give you a 5L. I'm not sure what level is required - I hit one with a L:70 seed. You can get a 3, 4 or 5L. I'm guessing the odds of a 5L are maybe 5% or so. But you get a ton of these seeds so just keep planting them.

"

I just took some different flasks that seemed helpful to me, and the most useful immunities. Keeping them up all the time would require more fingers than I have on my two hands :)

It's called "piano flasking" and you develop a rhythm. Quality helps reduce the frequency. If you only use flasks reactively, it will seriously limit the content you can handle, since the game is designed with flasks as a core element.

"

I would love 4500 life and ES combined, but is out of reach without an endless resource of currency. I'm a casual player, and not a streamer/professional with 10+ hours a day in game.

Harvest is key for SSF. With the reforge/life and reforge/defense seeds, you should be able to get there with a little seed crafting.

"

This Harvest league seems to be geared towards players with lots of time, or in the Trade league (for buying everything you desire), SSF sucks in that respect. Getting seeds will be better later in maps, but right now, my gardens are mostly empty, and the crafting options do not help me at all.

I have not bought any seeds, and I have only spent 2c on gear this league. I've gotten a number of solid pieces out of seeds as described above. It will take a little time to figure out how a basic t1 garden works, but once you understand, it's not that hard or time consuming.

Update:

I made some modification and tried it out..
Died in Act 10 - The Canals
I guess this overpowered spellslinger volatile dead is not for me.
perhaps I'm getting too old for this ;)

this character is scheduled for recycling

I also suggest to switch controlled destruction with elemental focus actually.

you dont benefit much from elemental overload if you run it with CD.

Also take out Detonate Dead for the moment and replace it with wave of conviction / combustion. Its to early for you to use both at the same time and you run probably way better just with VD.

This alone probably should help you a lot

Edit:

Switch Commander of Darkness with Cropse Pact which gives you also a lot of defensive utility regarding chilled and Attack / Cast Speed. If you make it to a 5 Link, add Hypothermia as next Gem

https://pastebin.com/VLgFHL0v

Hi, That's a Path of Building pastebin for checking out a lev 79 Volatile Dead/Spellslinger Necromancer I made in a short Hardcore Solo Self-Found Private League during Delirium. You could try some of the defensive layers this toon has.

Some are:

-Arctic Armour
-Flesh and Stone
(to fit these with Spellslinger you need reduced mana reserved from tree like with Sovereignty cluster and Conqueror's Efficiency Crimson jewel you get from quest.)
-Stone Golem for Life Regen
-Shield with Tempest Shield for block, armour, resists etc
-Proximity shield spectres like Undying Evangelist from Act 3 Sceptre of God
-Lots of life, life regen, and armour nodes on tree
-Enduring Cry/one +1 endurance charge node
-Life Gain on Hit lnked to wand trigger skill for some leech
-A Cast when Damage Taken Setup - my build had Enfeeble, Steelskin, and Convocation to bring in the proximity shield spectres
-Lots of armour, life, and resists on gear

Also, it helps to learn defenses and boss fights to play Hardcore as the format forces you to pay attention to these things.

Best of luck to you and you definitely can turn your toon around!!!

A few things:

1) You have a big hole in your flasks. You don't have a bleed immune flask. Get this, it is the most important one to have.

2) Attack setup, you don't have one. Frenzy + Barrage Support + Combustion, you should be using this as your main attack to fire off all the other spells.

3) Inspiration is not needed at this point in your character's career. You can reincorporate it later when you get better gear. For now, replace it with something else, like elemental focus.

4) What are you trying to do with the CWDT in your gloves?

5) I would recommend dropping Wave of Conviction and use Detonate dead. If you want to continue to use WoC, then cast it manually until you get a trigger wand.

6) Ascendancy - Respec out of Mistress of Sacrifice and spec into Corpse pact. Doing that and using Detonate Dead + frenzy setup should be a big damage boost for you.

You can look at my character, Wandalious, to see an example of what you need to do. Even though the character is in the trade league, I haven't done any trading yet. So all the gear is self-found or crafted and I have no problems doing T11+ maps.

Hope that helps.
Good luck.

Edit: Added point 6.