I decided to not follow any build and try to experiment on my own with the playstyle I enjoyed the most. After many tries, I went for a caster-dot build for my VK which I’m still working on. On the leveling phase at the moment.
I’m going full-caster so it is all about spell dot damage. Making use of Abyssal Echous, Devouring Orb, Void Rift, Time Rot, etc.
Obviously, I have some direct damage in the build as Smite, basic skill damage here and there (DO) but I want to focus on DoT.
1 - How do I increase the DoT as a caster VK?
2 - Should I prioritize some affixes over others?
3 - Should I prioritize some semantic words over others? e.g. “add”, “more”, or “increased”… heard about the difference between additive/multiplicative dmg but didn’t get so much.
I know hovering the skill and pressing Alt I see all the tags to scale that, in my case is Vitality, Void, damage over time, spell. But for every tags there are some additive/moltiplicative affixes to look for.
I was wondering if there is a right way to do that…
Would like to scale the damage over time value at the best…
Depends on the DoTs, but you want to use affixes/modifiers that affect the tags for the DoTs (void for time rot, fire for ignite, increased DoT for everything), if it’s a stackable DoT (most but not all are) you want to stack as much hit rate (effectively cast speed if you’re a caster) & duration (if there is such a stat) as possible, the relevant modifiers from within the applying skill tree (as long as the node does matching tags, eg, void but not spell for time rot & doesn’t specify hit damage).
More (aka multiplicative) is generally better than increased.
I think we would need mroe specifics on your build to give specific advise.
Generally %inc. Void Damage and %inc. Damage over Time are the easiest accessable damage prefixes across all items.
Sentinel Idols have a numerically very good stat that combiens both of these: %inc Void Damage over time.
Tiem Rot does not scale with spell damage, it is an ailment.
More modifiers that apply to most of your damage should always be prioritized, but are realyl hard to come by and usually only are avaialble in skill spec trees.
Something similar to a more damage modifiers would be %inc. damage taken on enemies. This exists in Anomaly (Mark of Rot Node) and Volatile Reversal (Harbigner of Dust Node) for example.
Added damage, like spell damage or spell void damage does help for some of the stuff you listed but not all.
How many stacks fo Time Rot can you relaibly apply? Time Rot is unique as it is capped at 12 stacks.
One mroe thing that you should try to get in your build is Doom, that is a unique ailment that coems from Shade of Orobyss Uniques. In your case you can probably only use Siphon of Anguish once to get it. Depending on the roll and your cast speed you might get 2-3 stacks up relaibly.
I can tell you taht Void DoT Void Knigth does work, but there are many many different ways to go about it across various skill setups.
If something doesn’t quite work, stick to the archetype and try stuff around.
Erasing Strike also has some cool Void DoT Spell Lasers if you are interested in that.
Hey guys thank you for all the information! I am a new player and still trying to understand some game mechanics…
Are you maybe MrLlamaSC from Diablo2?
Why hit-rate and cast-speed on stackable dots?
Didn’t get this part
So do ailments scale only with increased-damage-over-time? But in Time Rot case being void damage it scale also with increased-void-damage right?
This is the tricky part to me. Understanding which skills are affected by wich affixes. Is there a table or infographic to have an overhall look at that?
Okay gonna write down everything. Now some information about the build I am working on. I am tweaking something here and there while leveling.
Concept is to have DO as if they were totems, I cast these on mouse location and they do aoe damage from different sources and also when enemy dies.
Highly reduce cooldown on DO skill (Orb Master node)
They don’t spin around me but are set on the target location.
They have 40% chance to ast Time Riot (World Rot node)
They cast Void Rift (Hollow Orb node) every 3sec + increased cast rate (Chaotic Torrent node)
They cast Void Rift when an enemy dies (base skill)
------ Abyssal Echoes -------
This skill spreads a lot and basically cover whole screen everytime. It is the first skill I use and after I strategically place DOs where enemies are located.
Cast Abyssal Decay (base skill)
Slow and Blind enemies
-100% Larger area
Can spread multiple times (Corrupting Harness node)
Can be casted at mouse location (Dark Torrent node)
Generally speaking damaging ailments in LE stack indefinitely. The exception here is time yrot, which stacks up to 12 stacks. So you want to apply these as fast as you can and as many hits per hit as you can.
Both the % chance and the attack cast speed help with that.
If you have above 100% chance to apply an ailment you can apply multiple stacks with one hit. E. G. With 180% chance to apply Time Rot you apply 1 stack and 80% chance for a 2nd stack.
Everything in LE has certain Tags. In the Tooltip of each I dividual skill or ailment you can see that at the bottom.
Time yrot for example only has Damage over Time and Void tag. So it does not have a spell tag.
Also there are things that specifically trigger on hit. Damage over time affects do not hit.
Yes ailments scale with DoT and their respective damage type as pointed out above already, you can stack multiple stacks to further scale the damage.
On top of that ailments do scale with damage modifiers from skill spec tree from the skill they are applied by. Unless the Node specifies hit damage.
Example: The Sacrifice node gives Smite 50% more damage. This would apply to ailments applied by smite. The Blinding Light Node specifically affects Hit damage and thus does not apply to ailments applied by smite.
Just look at the Scaling Tags at the bottom of a skill Tooltip. That is all the info you need
I am currently work and can’t check your build, but will do that later today when I am back home
