Of the many things I like from other ARPGs, health drain/sustain builds seems to be lacking from this game. In particular, I feel like Acolyte does not have a cool/fun Blood themed build, when it could have an amazing option with a simple change.
Currently, the Arteries of Malice node in Ghostflame changes the Necrotic damage to Physical and adds a HP drain. However, it does not remove the mana costs, making the use of Ghostflame still incredibly rare and not very good.
My suggestion is to up that HP drain cost, but remove all mana costs from the spell with that node, allowing the players to choose a full scaling HP drain setup with this ability, taking advantage of the baseline Acolyte synergies with Rip Blood, Marrow Shards, Bone Curse, Soul Feast, etc.
I yearn for a no mana/HP drain build for my Acolyte that allows me to think about a build from a whole new perspective, and use abilities that otherwise see little play.
Curious. If EHG removed the mana cost, do you think you can maintain Ghostflame all throughout an area if you had the regen + that one node where you can move while channeling? If we can do that in the future, I’ll definitely make a Ghostflame build!
It’s a % of current hp so it can never kill you. That kind of effect can get your hp down to a fraction of 1 hp such that the game rounds it down to 0.
I actually already have a basic build ready to go, and it works fine with the health loss, especially with Flayer’s Pride as a shield. There are also multiple idols that reduce health costs, but without this change I really dont see any way to utilize this stuff with any real effect.
This node is clearly intended for low life builds, but it’s odd that there’s no buff on the node like removing part of the mana cost or a defensive buff or something.
Removing the mana cost portion of Ghostflame would open up all kinds of cool builds, which is what I am really hoping for. Ghostflame casting Marrow Shards in particular, with Bone Curse using Rip Blood is what I am hoping for.
