I’ve been trying to make a selfmade Warlock build and having some trouble making this Damn(heh) setup work. So I wanted to showcase it and see if anyone has attempted a similar thing or any suggestions for improvement.
The main focus of the build is Chthonic Fissure(but not using Torment) since the node Grim Tide gives a more necrotic damage to all ailments it applies (164% more damage in my case) the spirits apply 3 stacks of Damned at base on top of this, I have around 400% chance to apply damned on hit with necrotic skills and 320% chance to apply ignite with necrotic skills. I also use the recently buffed Damned overload which give me 190% more damned damage(at 5% health since low life) and Ignite overload which gives 180% more ignite damage (360% chance to ignite with fire skills).
I also use manually casted Chaos bolts which have 90% more DoT damage(due to my missing 1800 life) that procs more ailments, Rip blood for more hits (40% more damage) and ward gen, Spirit plague for Ward gen and Transplant for mobility+bone armor+mana. I have tried other skills like Infernal shade to increase Chthonic fissure’s frequency and Profane Veil for the more damage multipliers while channeling it but those felt markedly worse (Also I dislike the gameplay of Veil).
Witchfire should be getting 8000% more damage from my 400% damned chance and 3600% more damage from my 360% ignite chance.
I am also maintaining 5 curses on the target (spirit plague, torment, acid skin, bone curse and anguish) for another 20% damage boost from the mastery as well as 4% more and 6% more from the passives. I have around 300% increased damage for both fire and necrotic DoT and consistent 10 stacks of resistance shred with fissure.
Now since I am prattling on about damage multipliers, as you might have guessed my problem with the build is its damage. Attacking the Enemy dummy in arena(spamming chaos bolts after casting fissure+plague+transplant) with 350+ stacks of damned, 170+ stacks of ignite, witchfire and both overloads active results in a maximum of 280k DoT ticks. Now I don’t do math but this seems REALLY wrong considering all the multipliers I just stated.
The damage feels so low that I think some multipliers are just not working or maybe bugged so I thought to make this post and see if anyone has had a similar experience or if I am missing something.
Something in the 1.1.2 patch has broken Warlock more than just the stated notes. Average damage of my DoT ticks has gone from 180-190k down to 65k. Witchfire has gone from 85k down to 35-36k. I am not even using the “Doom Herald” passives that you stated were bugged to begin with.
so it might be bugged.
Other than that
Witchfire is deceptive, because it has a very long 12 seconds duration. Even with those seemingly crazy high damage bonuses, it won’t actually add that much damage per tick.
Your other characters had weapons with high % Penetration for one of the ailments.
Its so awkward, maybe they should just give it some base damage scaling or allow it to stack and proc on hit with necrotic/fire skills during Overload.
Problem is there are pretty much no sources of damned necrotic penetration unlike Frostbite and Electrify’s uniques. There’s only the weak 40% from Isadora’s (which conflicts with helmet damned chance) and the weird 2h Axe which requires you to self ignite/damn which is rough because you already are forced into Low life for Overload.
There’s a Necrotic Pen base 2h axe, you could just ignore the uniques and wear an exalted weapon. I’m more concerned about mana, because you’d lose the -5 manacost affix from wand:
Yeah, doesn’t work out in terms of damage and defense. Spamming chaos bolts gets a fair bunch of ailment stacks and also generates a lotta ward(which will have major mana issues) on top of the Int, resists and ward retention from an offhand.
Did some testing with and without a 29% pen axe, the difference seems to be barely 10k ticks at the cost of a lotta ward and running outta mana.
I was also initially testing a Kris dagger with similar affixes as it has more global crit multi (and Traitors tongue to potentially replace Nihilis) but those also don’t work out due to the lack of - mana cost.
I did some testing and just my Witchfire does around 28k ticks on the dummy.
This is insanely pathetic, I have 8000% more damage and 3600% more damage from Grimhilde’s domain. The base damage is 1200 over 12 sec so 100 per second. The damage SHOULD at minimum be 1008036 = 288000 or 288K. So I’m dealing 1/10th the actual damage, I think the skill is bugged to hell…
Dots tick in 0.5s intervals, and you applied both modifiers to both damage types, which is incorrect. 8000% goes to necrotic, but not to fire. 3600% goes to fire, but not to necrotic.
The simplified formula would be
Necrotic: 600 x (% increased Necrotic total) x (% more Necrotic 1) x (% more Necrotic 2) ... x (% more Necrotic source final)
Fire : 600 x (% increased Fire total) x (% more Fire 1) x (% more Fire 2) ... x (% more Fire source final)
Then you add it up, then divide by 24 to get close to what a tick should show.
https://imgur.com/a/KhWbh2K
The node says Witchfire deals more damage not Witchfire deals more necrotic/fire damage. So the multipliers should apply to both the fire and necrotic damage.
If we take 0.5 ticks then its 1200/24= 50 per tick(25 fire and 25 necrotic), 50 * 80 * 36=144000 and that is without even considering % inc damage and other damage modifiers.
That is if the node is doing what it says it does which I assume is bugged.
You’re right, I misread that. I tried to calculate the damage on the dummy. Taken from the planner with numbers set to “Actual”:
ailment chances
global damned with necrotic: 458%
global ignite with fire: 371%
witchfire more dmg
Grimhilde’s
necro: (458 x 20) + (371 x 10) = 12870%
Overloads active
damned overload: 90% missing health → 180% more necrotic
ignite overload: 360% ignite chance / 20 = 18% more fire
vs. Cursed passive
more DoT to cursed: 4% more
per Overload passive
more DoT per overload: 6% more
witchfire increased dmg
fire: 267%
necrotic: 346%
Calc
necrotic: 600 x 4,46 x 129,7 x 1,04 x 1,06 = 382617,90528
fire: 600 x 3,67 x 129,7 x 1,04 x 1,06 = 314844,77856
total: 697462,68384 dmg over 12s
per tick: 697462,68384 / 24 = ~29060 per tick
You said you got 28k ticks, so this is pretty close.
I don’t know if it has anything to do with it, but I see that node says specifically “more damage per % global chance to ignite/damned with fire/necrotic skills”. And this is by far my biggest gripe with LE at the moment… the descriptions are completely not standardized and every single day I find something that could be ambiguous like this description right there.
I mean, if this was simply more damage per % global ignite/damned chance, then there wouldn’t be a reason to specify the “with fire/necrotic skills” part. Or it could actually be just one of those not standardized descriptions that are almost everywhere, and it actually cares only about global % ignite/damned.
So it leaves me wondering if maybe you’re calculating on your global ignite/damn chance, and the node actually calculates on the specific “% ignite with fire skills” and “% damn with necrotic skills” stats, that we are not able to verify anywhere in game unless we keep track of them manually.
Just a thought… Because those more multipliers seem a little crazy right? 12600% more damage just from one node? Idk
Nah I’m calculating with Fire and necrotic skill chance specifically which gets much higher than global thanks to Soulfire relic and the passive Chaos flames.
Funnily enough you can’t even see your global damned chance in game as there is no space for it in the character sheet (and also electrify I guess).
It is a SINGLE stack ailment with a FIXED very low base damage and really silly proc conditions. It also doesn’t inherit more multipliers from any specific skill tree due to its proc condition(only buffed by global modifiers). Its damage is also split into two types further reducing the ability to scale % damage and penetration. It NEEDS ridiculous multipliers even with this it can barely compete with other stacking ailments.
Ah so I think then my mistake is expecting this trash to actually deal damage. Its probably a joke by the Devs like charged Puncture and charged Detonating arrow.
This build leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It feels like the skills are not meant to deal damage and there’s barely any support for Damned in the first place.
I think better to just give up on this Trashfire and just go respec to Torment Warlock and Profane veil to deal damage.
I would first make a list of how many stacks are applied by what skill. If most stacks are applied by Chaos Bolts, then stacking Crit Multi for Fissure isn’t correct.
Not to mention that even if Fissure applies the most ailments, stacking Crit Multi only boosts a part of your damage, but your weapon could have % increased DoT damage affix, which applies to ALL ailments you do.
For example, if you reach 1500% increased DoT damage, the calc for Witchfire becomes
(600 * 16 * 129.7 * 1.04 * 1.06) x2 (fire and necrotic DoT), which translates into ~114385 per tick.
Level of Chthonic Fissure also has built-in increased DoT damage. The spirit frequency can be a T2 sealed affix and you’ll still have 12-17%, and you’ll still get T7 Damned on hit.
Fissure does the bulk, around 200+damned and 70+ ignites, it can tick for 200k on its own (with overloads up, witchfire and spirit plague + bone curse). So I think the crit multi and fissure frequency are definitely worth it.
Chaos bolts and Rip blood support with another 80-100k and most importantly generate a lot of ward.
1500% increased damage is a lot of investment and I don’t think many builds can reach that much. I have around 450%+ necrotic and 400%+ fire DoT damage (around 90-120% from spirit plague buff that I cast inbetween chaos bolts).
Not worth it as it only scales my weaker fire damage.
left ring and offhand already do have % increased damage, weapon and second ring would be possible but I don’t think a significant boost.
These idols would mean losing Damned chance on hit idols which would reduce both Witchfire and Damned damage.
Anyway I respecced the character to a pure Damned Stygian beam Warlock which deals much better damage although is a bit squishy (still need an Exsanguinous) and maybe not as good as Poison Stygian beam. But I wanted a Damn Damned Warlock and finally made one viable especially difficult with the lack of duration, penetration modifiers like other ailments.
Crapfire’s split damage scaling, trash scaling, single stack limitation and extreme proc conditions seems really bad to me in comparison. Looking back perhaps splitting between damned and ignite was also a problem. Hybrid damage although promoted by the passives is probably a noobtrap I fell into.
Given how much you focused on Witchfire and its modifiers, I thought you wanted to make Witchfire a significant part of your kit and go for this Necrotic + Fire DoT combination.
If this isn’t really the case, then there’s no reason to spend this many passive points in Witchfire. Ignite is also a lesser part of your damage kit and was there mainly for scaling Witchfire, so there is also little to no reason to be scaling Ignite, right? You could just ditch the hybrid parts and focus on Torment that deals Necrotic damage just like Damned.
