Whiplock (Spine of Malakros) build for 1.2 - viable for high corruption!

Acolyte
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Youtube guide & showcase
Buildplanner

Hey guys!
I’ve been an avid Warlock player since it’s release. When Spine of Malakros was first introduced, it was heavily bugged and extremely bad. It has since then been buffed and fixed, and in 1.2 it’s damage effectiveness was increased from 100% to 300%!!

I played this as a league starter, and although it wasn’t the best idea in hindsight, I am happy I decided on trying to make it work (again).

This build has a decent to good map clear, but where it really shines is bossing - it basically stunlocks them. It has innate high stun chance, and a very high single target DPS. I am currently clearing 1200 corruption (and could prolly push more) pretty comfortably atm, just to give you an indication of what it can achieve.

Flame Whip is a spell that comes with the weapon Spine of Malakros, which replaces Spirits on your C’thonic Fissure. If built correctly, it scales with ignite chance and necrotic res, gaining 1 added spell damage and 5% stun chance per 2% ignite chance. It also gets 6-9% crit multi per 10% necrotic res.

Some of these scalers come from the C’thonic Fissure tree itself, as the weapon makes Flame Whips use the C’thonic FIssures skill tree and all it’s modifiers, except the ones that specifically only work with Spirits (except spirit frequency).

The way we crit cap ourselves in this build, is by utilizing the skill node “Forbidden Chasm” and “Acid Bane” within the C’thonic Fissure skill tree. This way, we get 20% base crit, and 1% extra crit per 10% increased poison damage. Well, how do we get poison damage then? Through generic %increased damage modifiers from the passive tree, and by using a cool interaction from leech. By getting melee leech affix on your weapon, and picking the “Hollow Lich” passive, we can get up to 400% increased damage from this alone. To reach crit cap, we will need 750% increased poison damage in total.

Defensive-wise, we use the standard low life option, with %missing health gained as ward from gear. On top, we try to get as much armor as possible, without sacrificing too much max health. We also scale defenses through necrotic res (while simultaniously scaling dmg with it).

My version will also be stacking int, as I really like the benefits of 2x Red Rings, but it is possible to play this without them.

Overall, this is a very enjoyable build once you get it going, but I would not recommend it as a league starter, as you rely heavily on several items and affixes. Play it once you have a good collection of stuff, or you’ll be disappointed.

It is also worth mentioning that the 1x1 unique idol Singularity is a straight up 20% dmg increase of the build. It has some weird interaction with Acid Skin, so you can still crit with it. Not sure if it’s a bug or not, so use at your own discretion. Same goes for snapshotting Aura of Decay idols for 200% increased Poison damage (see youtube video).

Another note: this is NOT playable without the “Increased C’thonic Fissure spirit frequency” affix on your chestpiece. Get t7 asap.

Cheers,
Dirtbag

2 Likes
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Hey! First of all, I’m LOVING this build!

Second, I’ve been trying to reach you through youtube comments but got no response T_T
I’m using Maehlin’s Hubris + Immolator’s Oblation belt + Exsanguination node from Spirit Plague because I haven’t been able to drop an Exsanguinous
But I’m dealing a SHIT TON of dmg already, and I’m only level 64

Have you tested this setup? I was thinking about playtesting with the gloves Salt The Wound as well…

I’d really appreaciate some feedback, thanks in advance!

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Good luck with finding two red rings with open slots for slamming :wink:

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I’m sorry, I don’t understand
I know the build planner has two red rings, but I wasn’t talking about the red rings…?

This isn’t meant to be ofensive, I’m autistic and I have a difficult time understanding the tone of other people messages on the internet

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I mean this build will be very hard to replicate especially in cof. Durikg my 1500h playtime I have found only 4 red ring and none with open slot to slam. So going towards this build is unrealistic imho. Of course it will work with other rings but without dmg reduction and all res and int you will a lot less fire power and survivability. Just my 2 cents.

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While red ring is rare, its not that rare. If you specifically target farm it using all the avaialble tools you can easily get a few dozen within a few weeks.

Also no build really requires it anyway, its just a nice defensive boost but its not build enabling anyway.

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You’ve had some majorly bad luck mate. With the imprint-system it’s not that hard to find Red Rings spamming unique ring prophecies. Something like 100k favor worth of prophecies should yield results. And then just Nemesis them and hope you get lucky with LP. Even if you don’t then put the nemesis legendary Red Ring into imprints to raise the chances of getting LP.

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Yeah, it depends how much time you spent in endgame and not leveling other chars all the time. Still getting 2x red rings is a lot of effort imho. But, why not? If u r having fun, no problem for me.

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Oh, I see!
You make a good point, but I don’t mind farming for the rings, and even if in the end I don’t end up dropping them, I’m already playing this build and having a really good time with it!

But thank you for your input! (I’m not being sarcastic)

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Hey man, sorry for no reply. I actually thought this forum post was dead as it received no traction for a while after I posted it. I’ve gotten alot of questions on both the youtube video and reddit post, but I haven’t been able to reach everyone. Especially because some questions were repeated alot.

I’m glad you like it! I quit the season a few weeks after I posted this, as I achieved everything the season had to offer and I didn’t feel like making a new character. I tried out the belt for a bit, but didn’t feel like it did anything. Not saying it can’t work, just saying I couldn’t make it work. Feel free to experiment with it. You do however already have an amazing way of stacking spell damage through Ignite chance, so I think it’s not necessary. Afaik Maehlins doesnt work. The ignite chance has to show up on your character sheet, and I don’t think Maehlins does that. But feel free to test it. Maybe you’ll find a hidden gem there.

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I did specifically state in the post and youtube video that MY version uses Red Rings and int stacking, but you can easily make it work without it. I know RR used to be super rare, but nowadays the power level is through the roof compared to EA. You can easily get Red Rings on trade, and in CoF you’ll have to grind a bit. But diff still very much doable. I actually found 2 RR myself even though I’m playing trade (through imprint).

Another thing I mentioned in the post (and youtube video) is that the game is NOT league starter friendly. That means you don’t just jump into this build guide as a first character. I did that myself, and I wouldnt recommend it, even though it’s doable. But the build is too reliant on certain pieces of gear and affixes to function properly.