Nice build, it is like a… yellow VK 
My only gripe is orbs + sigils, ouch, as discussed here Annoying short duration self buffs - #30 by Trasochi
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gave it a try since i got a composite staff with a t6 damger over time, T5 elemental dmg, T5 ignite chance and chill. isnt the best staff but its good enough. yet the rest of gear isnt good enough for empowered monos, but every other are a breeze.
some thing i noticed when looking through my idols. a 4x1 idol with timerot chance exists. stacks up to 12 times. probably not the biggest dps boost but i will try and see if the inc stun chance is good.
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Trying this build now, and it’s hillariously fun. I barely bother with sigils for regular monos, not up to empowered yet tho, it’ll probably be a different matter there. I do hate that pretty much ANY viable sentinel build includes sigils, because it’s such a tedious skill to use. I really hope it gets a revamp at some point.
I was curious as to whether there’s a reason you’re not using a composite staff? It has an extra up to 120% DoT damage. The staff in the build planner just has increased mana cost and Adaptive spell? Is the build planner gear the “optimal” gear, or just what you’re wearing atm?
Anyway, really fun build! Awesome work!
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Composite staff is better.
Build planner is what my character is using due to exalt roll. It doesn’t show it, but i have near perfect rolls on that staff (and low mana roll too): https://i.imgur.com/WqA70ta.jpg
Hey,
Just wanted to say been having a blast with this build. I’d been trying to figure out a fire dot build for a while now but wasn’t sure if I wanted to try something with paladin, or just stick with mage.
These gloves that I dropped seem like they work really well with the build. At least until I can farm the blessings.
Also, which would you say is more important, the ignite or the ele/dmg over time? I have a decent rolled Pontifex, but also a T5 ele dmg over time/T6 dmg over time staff (a little over 600% total - but no ignite chance). I’ve been trying them both but I’m not sure if the extra ignite/cremate from pontifex is better than the flat 600% dmg that also applies to void and lightning as well.
I just came in to say this build looks really cool with both the yellow and purple explosions all over the screen. I never thought of the idea of relying on the DoT ignite part of the orbs/smite when I used to go full void knight devouring orbs for the flat damage.
For a new character though, what would you recommend building into though first? I know you mentioned not to start the build until you have some good weapons first. So to start, do you think a warpath ignite build would be a good start before eventually switching over?
Also, do you think Javelin with the banner would be a boost to this build? Let the enemy pick up the banner and carry it around as it casts Smite which would trigger more Ignites?
I hope they allow us to keep numlock for the future release because it works so well for this build!
Well, not sure what Aschere would say, but I did some testing between pontifex and my own composite staff, which I managed to get T5 with ele dmg over time, dmg over time and ignite, plus 113% dmg over time implicit. I went from around 330 ignite damage with ~300% ignite chance to around 590 ignite damage with ~200% ignite chance. Thing is though, with the elemental and dmg/time boosts (around 600% total) also affecting electrocute, it drastically boosted single target damage. On top of which, the damage over time also affects Doom. Lastly, I also got the “Frostbite” blessing, which deals cold dmg over time.
Once you stack all the sources of DoT damage, I think the staff, with 300% - 600% (depending on DoT type) damage increase vastly outperforms the additional 80% or so ignite chance you get from the pontifex.
Plus… pontifex makes you take more damage from fire, and fire enemies in Enhanced echoes can nuke really hard, so I’d personally opt for the staff. The trade-off isn’t worth it… though initially at lower levels it was fun to run around as a pally with 15 fire skelly mages following you around ^.^.
What I’ve been wondering about is whether the additional 60-100% bleed chance blessing is better, and how it interacts with your damage outputs, vs taking the 50-70% crit avoidance blessing instead, freeing up a couple of suffix slots for added HP or endurance.
Yeah, I felt similarly. The staff definitely felt better but I guess I just wasn’t sure if there was more happening off screen due to the pontifex cremate mechanic.
Another small addition I’ve been playing with is throwing one of the 1x3 “inspiration on kill with void skill” in a slot to reduce the lunge/orb CD even more. The buff feels like it has 90%+ uptime with how many orbs are being spit out, and seemed worth for a single 1x3 slot. I happened to find mine with fire dot suffix (up to 60%) so it didn’t feel like I was giving up a slot or anything drastic.
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Also, which would you say is more important, the ignite or the ele/dmg over time?
The rough rule of thumb for most builds will be 25% “ignite chance” modifier is about the same as 100% “increased damage” modifier.
The more detailed answer is that it depends a lot on your current stats and the current ratio of the (Sum of all % increased damage sources) / (% Chance to Ignite). Most builds will typically be around a ratio of 3-5. which means that 100% increased is about equivalent to 20%-30% ignite chance. Here it is in a table format:
https://i.imgur.com/aOu5LXP.jpg
For a new character though, what would you recommend building into though first?
I think I transitioned to the build around low level 60s.
I’d probably recommend three stages:
- Early leveling (1-40): I’d recommend void warpath especially if you have a Dreamthorn sword.
- Mid leveling (40-60): Once you get your ascendancy (Paladin), I’d put points into void knight tree (preferably “Temporal Corruption” and “Void Bolts” for more flat void dmg). You can then just run this as a hit-based void damage build using the same skills.
- Transition to this build (levels around 50-75): Once you get enough gear to get a reasonable ignite chance and % increased DOT/ele DOT, you can spec out of Temporal Corruption/Void Bolts and go full DOT.
Also, do you think Javelin with the banner would be a boost to this build?
You’d need to drop another skill. I don’t think banner would justify dropping either of main two DPS abilities: Devouring or Smite. I also don’t think banner would justify dropping Sigils (unless you just don’t want to deal with them) as they are such a massive DPS boost. As such, I’d probably suggest dropping Holy Aura but just be warned it’ll make gearing a bigger challenge. It would probably be a good glass cannon variant though if you ignore those resists/endurance.
As such, I think Javelin with banner + auto-smite casts could be a good addition and would work if you want to focus more on damage.
There is also Judgement+Smite as an option. I tried getting this to work pre-0.8.3. but scrapped it due to mana costs. With changes to Judgement mana it might work now. Between Judgement and Javelin, I think Javelin would probably be better.
What I’ve been wondering about is whether the additional 60-100% bleed chance blessing is better, and how it interacts with your damage outputs, vs taking the 50-70% crit avoidance blessing instead, freeing up a couple of suffix slots for added HP or endurance.
For my build, I have an 86% bleed chance blessing. Running the math it comes out to about 2-3% of my total damage, so not super significant. At lower gear levels I’d expect it to be more significant. I think crit avoidance is a good potential blessing to free up one more suffix for more defensive buffs. I updated the guide to indicate this. Thanks!
Awesome addition! I’ll add to build
Thanks for the build! Small question: in the loot filter for “Recolor Staff with Ignite / Ele DOT”, you have Elemental Damage selected and not Elemental Damage Over Time - is that on purpose?
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Shoot. I did mess up the filter on the first staff recolor. I’ll fix. Thanks for catch.
No problem! The build is fun, I’ve just barely gotten enough pieces to cobble it together. Another question: when and why are you hard casting Smite? Are you holding any keys down (not counting numlock for orbs) when you play?
The loot filter link seems to be blank for me
I generally self cast Smite (hold down for however many casts I deem needed) when:
- There is a tanky single target that I want added damage against
- When I want mana back like after casting a bunch of sigils/holy aura
- Close range healing
- When I have nothing better to do.
Smite is about 30-40% of your total damage against a single target (about 50% if you run electrify). For a lot of map clear though you can just ignore it altogether.
I just double checked it. It works for me. Scroll down to the bottom of the pastebin to the “raw paste data”. Click inside the box, click ctrl+a (select all). Ctrl+C. Then go into game and “import” the filter from clipboard.
Maybe you have to be a member. Still blank for me unfortunately. Can you make it a downloadable file we can use?
It might be some adblocker or something. Either way, I copied it to a different paste service. You can try copying it here (just select all and copy).
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That worked, TYVM mate.
Thank you for the detailed information about how to get started with the build. I started void warpath but I stumbled a good Elemental damage/Ele DOT/Ignite staff early on and swapped to this build just after arriving reaching the Imperial Era. Immediately rushed devouring orbs and dropped warpath/rive for Smite/Holy Aura and took it slower until I got Orbs.
With Devouring orbs up I managed to wreck through the rest of the Imperial era quests by adding some DOT shards and then gearing defensively, necrotic resist. This build is amazing!
As for the Javelin idea, I was considering it due to personally disliking Sigils of Hope but I realize that I am currently squishy and not lacking for up close damage with Orbs doing most of the work. So I need more defensive gear and Sigils I’ll just have to get used to. I think banner eats up Lunge’s cooldown anyway so if you just spec into Lunge with Smite casting it’s roughly the same as Banner. Also I don’t think that the “Lunge” that the Javelin banner does actually uses your Lunge tree? So Smite on normal Lunge doesn’t seem to cast?
The Javelin “Dash” doesn’t actually use Lunge. It uses an ability called “Dash” (the artwork is the same since they haven’t done a lot of the skill node artwork). It does put Lunge (and Shield Rush) on a cooldown, but it is a MUCH shorter cooldown than the normal one.
Upon fooling around with it some, I think Javelin is probably superior for low-tier content. The Dash is really nice for extra movement. This would let you move through maps even faster. Plus if you spec into it casting Smite every 0.8seconds it’ll still do some extra damage.