Ailment based caster, work in progress
Hi guys and gals! New to Wolcen, not ARPGs, and this is the character concept I'm currently working on. I just finished Act 3, lvl 45, so I'm unsure of how this will hold up in later content, but so far so good.
Goal: Abuse the in-game ailment system to both control enemies while also being my main source of damage.
Core Mechanics: So, there are three damage "schools" with 3 damage "types" in each. Each damage type can apply its own ailment. I know, obvious is obvious. While looking at the different ailments, how they work and how they can be manipulated on the passive wheel, one node in particular stood out, "Grievous Afflictions." The ability to add two different ailment types from one spell cast is the crux of my build concept. The next step, was to pick the main two ailments I wanted to focus on. I settled on burning (as my main damage dealer) and stasis (solid control, plus the Which Time Cannot Heal node). To accomplish this, my main spell needs to have its two highest sources of damage be aether and fire. This can be manipulated in your gearing with mods like "x fire damage added to spells". It also means you need to be a bit cautious when selecting upgrades or gem choices so you don't brick your damage.
The next mechanic that stood out is the chance to add multiple ailments when applying them via the nodes "Insidious Decay" and "Power of the First Men". Ailment stacking allows for some huge damage spikes and a viable main damage source (at least thru act 3). The down side is the layered RNG. First you have to roll to apply an ailment when the spell deals damage, then you roll again for the "double stacks" from Power of the first men. That means that spells that take longer to deliver multiple hits will be generally be less effective than those that deliver hits more rapidly. In other words, faster hits/ticks = more dots.
Spell selection: Since I could apply the burning ailment without using a fire base damage spell, it really opened up my options. Anomaly is an AOE with great CC and pulses damage, all with one button press. Its disgustingly good for clearing trash, but the fact it continues to pulse also makes it incredible for boss damage. That one button press can lead to huge amounts of burning stacks. Honestly, its too good.
But I still need a "main" spell that I can spam without a CD. Consuming embers could easily produce burning since its a fire based spell, but its a somewhat slow moving projectile that only generates one damage tick per projectile. Its too in-efficient at building multiplied stacks rapidly. Thunderstrike is decent for trash mobs, but I can't generate the two specific ailment types I want to build around from this spell. Annihilation tho is an aether base, so stasis will be easy to achieve, and with enough added fire damage to spells, can also proc burning. It ticks reasonable fast, allowing for multiplied stacks to really ramp up, and is thus far the most efficient spell I've used for these two specific ailments.
The other spell slots vary some. Plagueburst can be used for additional help in clearing and producing a third ailment type from poison. Thunderstrike can be used as a source of shocked or shadow. I would use it as shadow for additional boss DPS. Solarfall, specifically with the Sunrise rune (cast in place) seems very promising. It would add weakness stacks and, provided the target doesnt move out of the aoe, huge amounts of burning with its tick rate. So far, Anomaly and Solarfall stacked on an act boss will almost instantly phase them.
Aether walk is great. Light-bringer could add something, but the elongated cast time for higher burst damage does not mesh well with this build. Bulwark of Dawn is awesome. I fully expect to use this more and more as I progress thru content, but thus far, its not really necessary. Winters Grasp could be a usefull addition for extra CC, but I have not tried it.
Defense: The main sources of mitigation I'm using are "Dire Juncture" and "Branded Burst". They are both available with almost no travel on the passive wheel, and provide a strong synergy. Since this is a caster build, I can almost always play from range and out of the fray. The big concern is large, one shot type mechanics, and both of those nodes protect against that very well. The one fall back of this build is leech. Leech effects don't seem to work with ailment damage (if anyone has tested this and can confirm, please let me know). That means the only leech I have is from the direct damage of my spells, with I am not scaling, so its not very high. I've compensated by trying to maintain some health regen stats on gear. Also, stasis will have near 100% uptime on any mob that poses a threat, making it much easier to avoid damage in the first place.
Attribute breakdown: 8/10 into Widom, 2/10 into Toughness. For now, this is working great. If at some time I hit a wall with increasing ailment chance with wisdom, Agility could be pretty useful. Increasing cast speed should result in faster tick rates, which should produce more multiplied ailment stacks.
Gearing: I wouldn't call it complicated, just significant. First and foremost, is added fire damage to spells. Not only do I need this stat, it needs to be the highest of any "added x damage type to spells" I have, to ensure that everything I cast can apply burning. Second, is ailment application chance. This is pretty big. My main damage source is burning stacks, so the faster those stacks get built up the better. Third, burning ailment damage. Obvious why its important, I just happen to think that the application chance is still a higher priority than the direct damage scaling itself. Personally, I have avoided Force Shield and focused more on resistances and health regen gear. Depending on how well damage scales later in the game, I could see myself investing passive wheel points into force shield nodes.
So, thats what Ive been doing. Please let me know what you think, good and bad. I'm still figuring out some of the mechanics and could be completely wrong about something, so fire away!
Link to passive wheel https://wolcen-universe.com/builds/yE9BEy-moar-dots!-ailment-caster
Replies: 2
Created: 4 years, 1 month ago
Category: Gameplay