Most build guides present ideal gear, ready for endgame, as optimized as possible.
In reality, it is often difficult to gather the same stuff, with the exact wanted affixes. Even more when the build relies on Exalted items!
Here, I will present you a character that has just reached empowered content. I will present her exactly as she is in game, and I will explain each item. This way, I hope to show how to deal with what we can find while playing, and how we can do with not optimized content.
I will also explain the skills and the idea behind them, even though it is probably not a never seen gameplay.
First, here is the lady:
It is a Lich which deals normal damage with Spirit Plague and burst damage with Hungering Souls powered by Death Seal. So, she deals Spell, Necrotic and Over Time damage.
Her sustain comes from health, resistances, a bit of endurance and leech.
Now, let’s see what she wears and uses.
- Staff
I started the campaign with wands because I wanted to have the catalyst for crit and resistances, but somewhere during the campaign I changed to a Staff, for more raw damage. I used the highest adaptive spell damage I found, so it’s a Sorcery staff. I still have my previous Oracle staff in case the spell damage is too high, but it seems to be ok if I don’t spam Hungering Souls manually. - Helmet
I wanted to use a helmet with Minions Health implicit, that would give them a bit more health, but I found this one worthy for damage. I added minion health regen for their sustain, intelligence and health for me. I maxed health regen first, so the helmet fractured and I could not add more health. - Armor
Lich needs leeching, so this chest piece was perfect for me. It’s all about health, for my minions and for me. - Belt
It dropped with minion damage and I did not touch it, I only added health. Liches need lots of health! - Boots
They dropped with movement speed and health regen. I would have preferred health, but I also needed some regen. Sadly, they fractured quickly. I may replace them with any kind of boots with high mobility and health. - Gloves
I found these gloves with a relatively strong implicit, I just added survivability on them. - Relic
I changed several times, with different implicits. Finally, this one dropped with minion health regen, so I kept it. It helps with some resistances that were lacking at that moment. - Gold Ring
17% elemental resistance. That was a big help, so I kept it. I did not have a rune to remove poison damage, so I kept it. And I just dropped some more resistances on it. - Coral Ring
It dropped with Endurance and Cold resistance, which was lacking at that moment. +5 Health Regen, I had to keep it. I just added the damage and it fractured. - Amulet
I’m still looking for a good one, this one is also a remain from the time when I was lacking Cold resistance. I dropped Phys resist on it before entering difficult content - Idols
They mainly conver resistances and health.
For the passives, in the Acolyte tree I focused on Intelligence for damage, resistances and health.
In the Lich tree, some Intelligence, all Leech nodes, all Health nodes, Necrotic penetration for more damage, and several Increased Damage points. My focus was first on sustain, second on damage.
From the beginning, I knew I was going for Hungering Souls, cast by Death Seal. There is a node giving more damage when we have exactly three minions, and I knew my skeletons would die less if the skill was specialized. I needed another damage dealer. Souls were Necrotic and DoT, and I wanted something matching this. Spirit Plague seemed to be the closest. And of course, even if I’m not fully comfortable with it, I knew Reaper Form would give more more damage and survivability. So I had my skills. I will not give a list of nodes, but just why I chose these nodes.
- Hungering Souls
When they are launched by Death Seal, it’s one by one, so it’s useless to add more souls. Then, I went for one only soul each cast. I gave it max added necrotic damage and I maxed the support by minions. As I knew I would also cast them manually, I added only a bit more damage with low cost. And with the last points, I added a kill threshold. - Summon Skeleton
Lich is limited to three of them, so I took the nodes to summon all three at once. This way, if one died, I would summon three healthy ones. I also gave them max leech for a good survivability, and I added a bit of damage. If I must have skeletons, better let them be useful. - Spirit Plague
I linked the damage output to the intelligence. Then I maxed global DoT in order to help the Souls. All the rest is more damage and debuffs for enemies. - Death Seal
Almost nothing here. I maxed the generation of Souls, I set the char to low life when Death Seal is activated, and I put a bit of Death Waves for more damage and for self protection. - Reaper Form
I maxed my leech, doubled the health given by potions, and maxed my attack speed.
All this gives a hero with crappy gear that would not be presented, but a hero that has followed normal content of the game and that is now ready to take on empowered content.
It’s not a min-maxed character, but she looks far more “real life” that all what we see in some build guides.
Don’t look at the gear, just understand the need!