[1.0.8.0] Voodoo Queen - Ailment summoner gunmage!
Introduction:
I was answering some random question on YouTube about how to scale summons damage beside the obvious summoning nodes, and that led me to do some research on skill runes that buff "allies damage" , or debufff enemies to take more damage. I found some interesting and decent modifiers on most elemental spells here and there, and I happened to have a failed character stuck at Act II boss, so I made quick reset, and this build was born. I wanted to share it with the community before 1.0.0.5 patch because it seems that summons will get even more love and this build is properly going to be stronger than ever. If it's doing good now without buffs, it can only get better.
Concept and Skills:
https://wolcen-universe.com/builds/GnDj0y-ailments-summoner-gunmage
Going summoner seems to sync well with Ailments. And Curse is one of few modifiers that provide a "more" multiplier for your damage and you summons damage by increasing damage taken by monsters. So going for shadow damage was easy choice.
1- Going with Thunderstrike with shadow damage modifier, I could get easily Max cursed stacks, and a shadow damage buff for myself and allies. It's also perfect spell to apply Ailment as it have auto target, chain to other enemies, have no cooldown, have small willpower cost, and scale with cast speed which all fit into the purpose of it: Stacking as many Ailments as fast as possible. It even can chain from your allies, so you can stay very far from bosses where they can't see you, and still chain thunderstrike to them through your summons, buffing them and focusing boss at same time!
2- To dump Rage, I chose to use "Stings of Krearion" , as it have good AOE, pierce enemies, have no cooldown, scale with attack speed, and able to shotgun bosses (hitting multipile projectiles from same shot) which increases our Ailment stacks as well.
This combination can only be used by a Gunmage, with pistol on one hand, and catalyst on the other, so no melee skills or weapons possible here.
For my other 3 main skills, I went with:
3-Livor Mortis" converted to shadow damage for mobility and damage scaling, while still tanky enough.
4- Hunting swarm converted to either shadow or Toxic.
5- Mark of Impurity modified to spread to other enemies and increase Ailment chance.
Sadly that leaves us with no mobility spell, so I highly recommend getting your 6th skill slot (number 5 on keyboard) before starting this build, it will make your life much easier if you add Aether Jump in addition to all of the above.
Attributes:
I prefer 4 wisdom : 4 agility : 2 Toughness. and keep wisdom as highest with gear
Passive tree and leveling
1-5 into Scholar tree to get "Attrition strategist"
6-8 "emotional intelligence" and 2X "steadfast"
9-12 Go into "Cabalist" straight through "Strike like lightning" up to "Grievous Affliction"
13-14 "enfeebling energy" and "Power of the first men"
15-32 From here you can either go "Immortal offering" first before going "Plaguebringer" Or you can grab all summons nodes first then return to immortal offering and the max ailment stacks nodes. Either way, you will have everything you need from Cabalist and Plaguebringer exactly at level 32 , when you will challenge ACT II boss. And let me tell you , this build just counter him in every way. It's one of easiest builds to do act2 boss in my experience.
Build now will look like this: https://share.wolcen.dev/s/PoXUGNzsif , I also put skills and the proper runes for early leveling.
33-43 It's tough choice here, as you will not be able to reach our next major damage nodes before final boss. So you can either be patient and spend act III just traveling around towards warlock and timeweaver (totally in the other direction of the tree).
Or you can respec, rotate the wheel, and sacrifice couple nodes to rush towards Warlock and Exorcist and get "Branded Burst" at all costs.
It could look something like this: https://share.wolcen.dev/s/aUoZntoZjd
Also around this level, you should be able to get some flat dodge on gear so you can keep your "Tenet Points" as long as possible before having to stop attacking and go hide from enemy fire. It's very strong defense mechanism that people usually underestimate, but it it works well for characters that don't get in melee and don't get hit often. summons and distance and high dodge rate will make you virtually invincible for few hits. And if your damage output is enough, that's all you need before everything dies.
After we unlock "Champion of the storm" we need to go for Timeweaver , everything here is juicy and can buff our build to new heights, So we need to properly adjust our damage types to do Aether damage along with shadow damage on Thunderstrike, to apply both cursed and stasis. And we can scale our Stings of Krearion with other two damage over time ailments (Poison is easy choice since it have a rune which double poison stacks) , but we can also use Aether to get full benfits from "captured Velocity"
Also remember to pick up "Covert operative" from Sentinel to increase your dodge chance by a lot after you get hit once. It helps both: maintain Tenet points, and give you chance to recover before second part of damage of "Dire Juncture" hit..
That's a rough guide for leveling. And when I've tested the build in late endgame, I'll post another link with better adjustment for skill tree.
Equipment and stats:
Look for high dps pistol, with the proper flat damage. Please keep in mind that for Ailment to work, you need to have the two damage types you want to inflict Ailment from as the highest two damage types. And that calculated seperately for attacka and spells.
I prefer to go poison and bleeding in my attacks, with a pistol that increase Material damage and Material ailment chance. Though I also go sometimes with Frost damage to freeze enemies for maximum safety and easy clear.
Unique Pistol "regicide mark III" can carry you through most of the campaign easily, and you can use "added X damage to attacks" on jewelery to get the Ailments you want,
The unique chest Agony will easily give you 100% damage over time modifier, very strong if you scale damaging Ailments on your attack.
Otherwise, you need to look for:
For defense:
* Resistances, dodge chance, Toughness, movement speed, along with some good life.
For offense: * Wisdom, +% transfer time reduction between willpower and rage, attack and cast speed, flat added damage for proper ailment, rage and willpower cost reduction, and Status ailment chance.
Pro tip: *This build doesn't need or utilize cooldown reduction, so every good piece of equipment you found for other characters but discarded because it doesn't have cooldown reduction (which is mandatory for other builds). Now you can find a good use for it here.
Also you don't need dodge chance on big pieces, stacking small numbers on gloves and shoulders and boots can build up nicely to give you nice chance to negate all damage, for such low cost.
If you have reached this far, I thank you for reading all of this, and hope you 've enjoyed reading through it. If you have any question, suggestion, or just anything to say about the build, please do in the comments below. And If you have tried this build or something similar, please share your experience with the community here. And Thank you again. :)
Replies: 5
Created: 4 years, 1 month ago
Category: Gameplay