ChayulaMode (Embrace The Darkness) pt.2
Original Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile2builds/comments/1k7uk4z/chayulamode_using_embrace_the_darkness/
I realized that I got my wires crossed and meant to be building this around Voll's Protector and not Combat Frenzy lol.
I left most of the post untouched but edited what needed to change. I'm still looking for help but I figured the last build was too invalid to cultivate meaningful discussion, so I am hoping a new post will remedy that.
Anyway, here is the update:
https://maxroll.gg/poe2/planner/tn64y08i
Acolyte of Chayula is mega underused, and it appears to be for good reason if what others appear to believe is true. I say it that way because I'm Mr. Late-to-the-party and only starting to look things up right now. That being said, there does not seem to be any mention of using lightning skills in tandem with Chalupa Darkness, so I'm hoping to further conceptualize this build along with people who know what they are doing.
I'm going through a bit of experimentation with Embrace The Darkness after I spent my time as a tempest/charged staff/herald of thunder invoker and realized that there are a few things that I can do to synergize that with chaos damage (and by extension, without a herald).
Combat Frenzy cannot be used for generating charges as I had clearly forgotten, so I removed the nodes for Electrocute chance and resonance and instead pumped more into crit to emphasize our Power Charge gain through Voll's Protector.
I can HAPPILY take Event Horizon since my main skills are not chaos skills, which then opens me up to Spaghettification.
I tried maxing out my resistances first and realized that I could add on even more defensive layers afterward so I can address mechanics in the game that just... piss me off tbh. This being the Ghostmarch unique allowing me to dodge THROUGH enemies, which, their unapologetic tendency to cover every milimeter of space in a small corridor and prevent you from being able to progress in a direction of your choosing. This isn't a complaint post, but I will say at least this. I HATE being stuck in an enemy horde enough to dedicate and entire precious gear slot for that one explicit "DODGE ROLL PASSES THROUGH ENEMIES". The fact that it capped off my remaining chaos res is just the cherry on top. I no longer get my Ghostmarch since I needed my resistances to come from somewhere. My boots are just defense/res/movespeed boots now. Switching the Ghostmarch out and the Voll's Protector in left me with uncapped chaos res, so that's what the previously empty runes are being used for now.
Eye of Chayula was chosen for two reasons. Reason 1: I'd rather have more rarity on my charms and permanent light stun IMMUNITY versus being pelted with stunning moves, have the charm run out of duration, and then get stunned anyway. Reason 2: It's Chayula. It's for the RP. It's cool. Just let me have it.
I tried boosting Subterfuge Mask by including Illuminated Crown, but I'm not too sure about this one. I don't know how the math works and whether this boost is meaningful enough to be worth going out of my way for this node.
- My current thoughts on an alternative for the points used on illuminated crown are to either move them to Lightning Quick or Spectral Ward.
I wanted to also include, specifically, a damage build type that dances around critting and not critting and benefitting from both scenarios. So that's why I moved into the crit tree opposite of Resonance as well as started through the crit nodes at the monk's starting place.
Power charges are pretty important for this build, so I grabbed a few here and there but didn't maximize it. There just aren't enough passive points to go around. That being said.... Illuminated Crown.... hmmmm...
I also don't know what the base strength is for monk at endgame, but it should be noted that Voll's Protector requires 39 strength and this build only adds on 28 strength through items and passives. So one or two passive nodes may need to switch from int/dex to str.
I'll also just throw out there that this isn't going to be something I will give up on just because it's bad. I want Embrace The Darkness to be good. And I want to make meaningful progress in realizing that because I think the idea is really cool.
Anyone have some thoughts on this? Again, I'm Mr. Late-to-the-party. I have a few hours under my belt, but they were played without thinking much. I just ran into the game and saw what it was all about. I'm pretty much a noob still so any insight is greatly appreciated.
Comments
I’m not playing Embrace the Darkness, I’m playing Leech with Chayulas Gift and the bonus Chaos Dmg chance notable. However, the core of my build can be applied to Embrace and utilize just the leech notable.
For starters I’m using Original Sin to convert all elemental damage to Chaos. This is great for leech as leech is calculated after reductions and chaos has very little reduction due to rarity of the resist appearing.
I’m actually only using CoC spirit gem, not bothering with heralds as it’s difficult to proc them reliably so I focus on other things for clear speed. CoC actually doesn’t even do much for me, I have frozen mark socketed for the occasional AOE burst as chaos damage. You could omit all of my spirit and still function well.
For abilities in using Ice Strike as primary, but mixing in Hand of Chayula with Snipers Mark, Profusion, Chaos Curse, and Hex Bloom. I’m also utilizing Frozen Lotus with Magnified Effect, Cold Infusion, Glaciation, and Ice Bite. Snipers Mark is to generate power charges for Charged Staff which is using Withering Touch to increase chaos damage. Once Ice Strike is 6 linked I will probably put withering touch there, but may opt for Combo Generator as there’s some tech I use with Siphoning Strike and gathering storm.
So Siphoning Strike has an AOE trigger on shocked enemies that hits like a brick. Currently it has Overpower, Impact Shockwave, Culmination, Lightning Mastery, and something else can’t remember. The idea is to build up combo with ice strike on big mobs like bosses then hit them with a gathering storm into siphoning strike combo for enormous damage.
Gathering storm also has Innervate. For packs the movement is simple: hand of chayula into the pack, frozen locus immediately back, gathering storm into the pack, then throw siphoning strike on a shocked mob.
This is the combo-centric gameplay GGG talks about. The shocked ground triggers innervate on kill, and locus triggers ice bite on freeze, so we gain 35% of damage as extra lightning and ice that is not converted.
I’ve specced for crit but utilize spaghettification leg as well as some value ES. Currently sitting at 5k ES 1.5k HP.
Not using passives has its downside but it allows me to look for value mods outside of spirit, which is nice because my +3 melee skill amulet with +crit and + rarity is really a stellar value. I crit about 60% with my current weapon, but my last weapon was well over 70% because it had a much higher crit roll on a sinister base.
Hope this gives you some ideas. I’m enjoying Chalupa and breezing thru t15s and will look more into heavier juicing and higher tier pinnacles (currently doing t2 well) once I get my perfect weapon and whittle thorns off this otherwise perfect chest (max tier resists and 2 max tier defense mods on a 13% chaos res Rambler). It’s so close to being mirror tier.
Unfortunately Darkness is a dead end and the best Chayula can offer is a safer/bastardized version of other builds by uniquely leeching chaos/ele damage.
Once you have enough Energy Shield and can switch to CI, enough crit to use the Atziri gloves for instant leech (allows ES leech to actually work) you essentially become an unkillable ES stacking mapper with slightly less focused ways of scaling damage.
Reality Rending offers good damage, Into the Breach is also very efficient support/reservation gem dump with decent damage now that they added Magnetism and increased effects.
Also, scaling Chaos damage on the passive tree is essentially a bait. Most real scaling comes from hit - > conversion. Unless you're going true chaos spells it's unfortunately better to focus on attack damage, physical damage and whatever ele damage you are trying to build.
Darkness will be good eventually. There are weapons, skills etc missing from the game that might synergise with what it offers.