[3.10]Semi-Auto Self-Cast Volatile Dead, Tanky, Easy Awakener lvl8.

1. Intro
2. Pros/Cons
3. Videos
4. Mechanics
5. Gear + Gems
6. Passives
7. Leveling process
8. Possible upgrades.
9. CwC Cyclone
10. FAQ

Awakener level 8 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIrMHqp0XYY&t=

Shaper - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdQvDPdxPg4

CwC showcase - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pbp7XT55_I

Both videos (Shaper and Awakener) highlight the tankieness of the build.

- 63% Dodge, 50% Spell Dodge, 31% Block, 23% Spell Block
- A LOT of regen
- some evasion
- Good HP pool through MoM, 8-9k, 50% MoM (if i could get more MoM, i totally would)

Main defensive mechanic is the High Templar Venarius Militant Faith Timeless Jewel. This jewel transforms any Keystone in range into Agnostic (in this build Elemental Equilibrium). It does: "While not on Full Life, Sacrifice 20% of Mana per Second to Recover that much Life". Buy stacking mana, this build gets quite a bit of life regen. 50% of damage is transferred to mana. High mana regen + mana flask recover lost mana very fast. Life usually gets recovered so fast, that no life flask is needed.

Mana regen comes from a lot of sources, this is main cause for gear and tree requirements.

I chose to use Volatile Dead as my main damage skill, because it is good with out full dps investment and synergies very good with necromancer ascendancy by constantly consuming corpses.

By utilizing Scold's Bridle everything else is automated. Only at start of the fight 1 cast of Desecrate is needed. Most of the time VD balls from 1 pack will travel to the next and kill it and this dead pack can be used to summon more balls for the next pack and so on.

This build could probably be done with other spells also, but how effective, i can not tell.

This staff gives very good mana boost, while providing good damage as well.

Great mana and mana regen boost, extra 10% MoM, saves 1 point on the tree by not needing to allocate MoM keystone.

Automates most of the stuff. Makes play self cast VD actually nice.

Huge mana boost. Budget anoint is Dreamer notable.

Increased mana recovery is the important mod here. Flask recovery rate is not needed.

Enduring prefix is the important part. Suffix can be something else.

Clarity jewel with extra MoM.

Damage rolls or resist are a nice bonus. Need to be careful with those jewels, they can transform important Notables into something useless. But also may transform not used Notables into something very nice. Best slot for it is between Witch and Templar, right under MoM. Alternatively scion start slot can be used, i use it myself, since this jewel i have bricks Essence Extraction for me.

20% Dodge and Spell Dodge is amazing. Permanent Onslaught is very nice too.
Socketed in Ranger area, this jewel provides nice mana boost and 10% movement speed for extra mobility. This item is not optainable in leagues anymore, only as legacy version. Split Personality unique jewel with mana and life roll is actually much better in that socket now.

Swap in for ele reflect maps, if i really need to run them. Also need to allocate MoM on tree for that.

Awakener flasks.

Volatile Dead - Spell Echo - Arcane Surge - Concentrated Effect Elemental Focus - Fire Penetration

CwDT lvl 20 - Bone Offering - Curse of choice(Flammability, Elemental Weakness(if playing with poeple who use other elements), Enfeeble)

CwDT lvl 1 - Unearth max lvl 8 - Greater Multiple Projectiles - Greater Volley

CwDT lvl 1 - Desecrate max lvl 7 - Wave of Conviction max lvl 7 - Combustion

Leap Slam - Faster Attacks - Fortify

Clarity, Vaal Righteous Fire, Desecrate, Herald of Ash.

Optionally Aspect of the Spider from gear. If it is used, Clarity should be lvl 1 extra HP pool is more important, then gained mana regen.

PoB - https://pastebin.com/Cjzg10fZ
PoB minimum base tree - https://pastebin.com/XMazHVLe

Ascendancy in order of progression
Plague Binder -> Corpse Pact -> Essence Glutton -> Mistress of Sacrifice(alternatively Commander of Darkness).

Bdandits: Help Kraityn. Alternatively kill all.

Pantheon:
- Major: Solaris, 2nd upgrade, Capture Eater of Souls, very important.
- Minor: Shakari, can be swapped for anything else, accept Ryslatha.

Tree Progression:
1. Straight to Elemental Overload.

2. Quick Recovery.

3. Straight to Heart of Flame.

4. Straight to Phase Acrobatics.

5. Fill up necessary life and mana nodes as shown in base PoB

6. Fill up rest of the nodes.

Progression in PoB - https://pastebin.com/qMKVgjVH

Gear and Gems:

Acquire 2 Pot's Pen wands.

Till lvl 12 anything goes to kill mobs.

At lvl 10
Clarity(if no -mana cost items avalible)
Flame Dash - Arcane Surge

At lvl 12
Poet's Pen:
Wand 1: Unearth - LMP - Combustion
Wand 2: Volatile Dead - Added lighting - Combustion
Barrage

At lvl 16
Barrage replaced by Frenzy
Herald of Ash
Wand 1: Desecrate - Spell Cascade
Wand 2: Volatile Dead - Spell Cascade - Combustion

At lvl 18
Wand 2: Volatile Dead - Spell Cascade - Concentrated Effect
Frenzy - Faster Attacks - Combustion - Culling Strike

At lvl 24
Curse

At lvl 68
Can swap to staff.

The list is in order of Magnitude of upgrades.

1. Volatile Dead consumes up to 1 additional corpse helm enchantment. Huge DPS boost of 33% more. It ss very expensive. My enchant is 2nd best for DPS and gives only about 4.5% more DPS. Herald of Ash has reduced mana reservation is a good defensive enchant, if Aspect of the Spider is used. Can utilize full 50% MoM and have Clarity higher level.

2. A Agnostic jewel with 2 damage or 1 damage 1 resist mods, which doesn't brink any notables around the socket between witch and templar.

3. Replace Ruby Ring with Opal Ring, similar to what i have already. Requires resists from jewels, tree, and/or respec from Mistress of Sacrifice to Commander of Darkness.

3. Doeuble/Tripple Clarity Watcher's Eye for even more mana regen.

4. Flat cold damage when hit or ele pen if didn't killed recently boot enchant form eternal labyrinth.

5. Awakened Spell Echo, slight DPS boost. Not worth buying.

I tried a version of this build using Cyclone Cast while Channeling and Doedre's Malevolence gloves. I liked it very much.

Pros and cons compared to the original version.
Pros:
- better clear speed.
- doing damage while moving. Very high DPS uptime.
- On top of already very tanky build, can get away from dangerous skills when they are used and not get hit at all.
- extra 11% block. If using Martyr of Innocence.
- doesn't lock the character in place for long time.
- better CwDT setups, due to only needing 1 Desecrate + Cascade setup for corpse generation.

Cons:
- harder to gear. Hard to cap resist due to loosing gloves as one of the sources.
- requires one extra uniq.
- significantly higher self damage. Very hard to run no/less regen maps, harder to tank(may die) Awakener "Die"-beam, etc.
- significantly less paper dps. Compensates due to high dps uptime.
- significantly less HP. Significant loss of mana from not using Pledge of Hands anymore.

Important remarks.
1. I did not optimized my gear for this build. I needed to take Ash, Frost and Storm cluster and Militant Faith jewel with resists per 10 devotion to cap my resists. And use Militant Faith in sub optimal slot, because it changes Essence of Extraction.

2. Pledge of Hands is 34% less DPS and 709 unreserved mana compared to Marty of innocence for me. It is better to drop Aspect of the Spider or Herald of Ash, if more HP is desired. For me it would give about 1100 extra HP vs one shots. Stone Golem compensates somewhat the loss of life regen form loosing max mana.

3. Martyr of Innocence is very good, but a rare staff could be better.

4. It is possible to get good rare staff with 0 or very little DPS loss, have it 6L and craft "Trigger a Socketed Spell when you Use a Skill". Then Armageddon Brand could be socketed in there for exta DPS.

Must have gear.

Pledge of Hands is no longer needed. Everything else stays the same.

New additional must have item:


My gear with gem setups.


Passives.