There’s absolutely no top tier DoT builds, DoT’s have been under-performing more as time goes on. This sucks 'cause I love DoT builds!
The closest thing to a great/S tier/whatever DoT build is the necrotic DoT one over on the acolyte forums, but if you’ve gone after an empowered mono boss it quickly shows itself to be very slow in the single target department.
Maybe I’m wrong and I’ve just missed it. Are there any DoT builds performing on par with the current S tier builds? (VK smiter & super melee whatever build, Sorcerer LB & Nova & Static Orb, Paladin holy-crap-that’s-alotta-smites build, Spellblade reave/shatterstrike builds).
Wow, on typing this I’ve realized… Are there even any builds that aren’t Sentinel/Mage that are as good as builds that are Sentinel/Mage?
Don’t even say Spellbow. I love that build but it’s too squishy to be S tier, the above builds can wreck screens, single targets AND be tanky.
The problem as I see it is both speed and lack of duplication. For example, I lot DoT builds too, but I can kills most of the screen instantly with two different acolyte builds, so why what am I gaining using DoTs?
For lack of duplication, which goes with speed, I can use for example spirit plague and hungering souls, but again the speed is only OK and there’s nothing else I can really stack in there to have the DoTs running together. I don’t like the Aura for this, the radius is too small I find with this idea in mind.
I am looking at a couple of options, hoping they work out. But, for the most part I agree with you, especially as you go up in level.
Then again, “great” is subjective. I’m happy enough if my meme-y builds can go 200+ corruption and not die. Some aims to push to 500+ corruption, good for them.
Wow! Thanks for pointing all of these out to me, I have some builds to toy with!
Just FYI though, I have tried the Bleed rain of arrows and the Lich, they clear mono’s wonderfully but the bossing is seriously slow going (IMHO, rain of arrows would be an A, the Lich would be A+ just because as long as you’re tossing spells you can’t friggin’ die regardless of how slow the bossing is lol).
Druid - Spriggan form vines, stacking Attunement. The vines scale both poison chance and damage with attunement. Good at AOE and single target, very tanky, safe and easy to play. Easy to gear for, you just need cast speed and one key unique:
I’d forgotten all about the beastmaster serpent strike build, I actually have an old character who used that! I think AotShark got the axe though, not sure how bad.
Druid… Druid was the class I was the least interested in, but in all the commotion I forgot all about spriggan! Might be time to broaden my horizons!
I’m currently playing a Spriggan Druid, I have no need for any Unique. Which one is it? If it’s the belt, you can totally do without it.
He’s still in the leveling phase and in timelines 90, here’s the guy:
Well I only had 4 chars left that weren’t in the 80’s or higher (Druid, Shaman and Paladin), now I’m starting a druid I’m probably going to try every one of these because I love me some DoT! Thanks a ton everyone =)
Mind giving me a brief outline of how it’s played @grimlock9999 ? Leveling a druid now since I never did one of these
EDIT: In the 30’s now, vines are amazing! What am I doing with the totems since they seem to do less damage than the vines? I assume all the other pets are basically supportive and not heavily utilized?
EDIT2: Ohhh they restore mana! Neat!
Playstyle is move + cast vines ahead of you.
Crows are for healing and a bit of ward, Wolves are for the extra companion and for a bit of damage or howling. Spriggan is for healing aura. Thorn totem is never cast directly.
You have a high mana pool and the legacy of the quiet forest belt, so you’ll stay in spriggan form all game. Just cast vines ahead of you and spam vines for high HP targets (hence 100% increased cast speed = double damage). But the high cast speed will drain your mana, so you need to watch the bar and spam healing totems (which proxy thorn totems) to regen mana.
Defences are: You get lots of healing effectiveness for spriggan, crows. Plus you get good endurance from the tree so you should have maxed resists, high threshold and lots of damage reduction for nearby enemies, and damage reduction on low life. As usual in this game, the only really necessary defensive stat is movespeed. The boots give you decent ward with the move/cast playstyle and high mana pool.
I’ll admit, I have a hard time wondering why people are so enthralled with the idea of “top-tier” builds and talking about “anything that doesn’t hit 300 Corruption is a meme build,” when we’re still in beta, and the devs can easily adjust for difficulty by making the corruption harder, nerfing the unintended exploits, and so forth. It’s hard to know whether LE even wants to be a game where builds are designed to clear entire screens at once and the game becomes nothing more than “get this amount of DPS or it’s trash.” Especially when Primalist / Acolyte have skill trees that are 2+ years old and are nowhere near the applicability of the Sentinel / Mage trees.
That being said, DoT builds are meant to place a lot of attacks at once to stack the damage, whether it’s through a ton of attack speed (for melee), or placing multiple skills at once where the interactions allow you to stack a whole ton of DoTs at once (for casting). I can’t say for sure which skills are meant to be the big AoE trash clears while saving up the burst skills for stacking up the single-target DPS, but there are a lot of skill nodes in underused skills that simply don’t provide the damage multipliers to compete with the bog-standard skill trees.
I’d love to see what sort of damage numbers and multipliers are necessary for something like Wandering Spirits or Thorn Totem to really compete with something like Smite. Because I agree, if the damage isn’t there, the skill doesn’t really serve an identity, and that’s difficult for the people who spent so much time with the animations and getting the skill to function if it doesn’t have a real function in the first place.
Thanks to those who shared their builds. I love learning about people get so creative with their skills and abilities.
Here’s another DoT build that might have legs. Much more gear dependent in the long run, but i’m playing it now with trash gear and the damage looks good already. Just like the vines, it’s nice to cast your poison wraiths way ahead of you. Then hit em with dread shade for super poison chance and damage multiples.
I’m probably going to try every one of these because I love me some DoT! Thanks a ton everyone =)