0.3 Chayula Feedback based on brief Research

Hello,

I would like to bring into attention some findings I've found after trying to research a good Acolyte of Chayula build to play and what I've found is disapointing:

Many of these builds seem expensive to build and the return on investment is unclear.

Based on PoE Ninja, many would argue the reason for this viewpoint is centered around the reliance on Legacy Support Gems that allow Chaos Damage to contribute to Elemental Ailments and uniques that do the same thing.

Users of Mobalytics on the other hand note the reliance on Essentia Sanguinis, in what can be interpreted as an attempt to regain power lost from the nerf on "Sap of Nightmares". The people who post builds there, try to avoid adding the new legacy support gems to make their build more accessible, but users of both sites who notice the use of the unique ring "Original Sin" can assume their build will be heading the same direction as those on PoE Ninja...cost wise.

Last patch, I had a decent amount of fun experimenting with the Darkness nodes offered by Chayula. It made going through the campaign much more relaxing thanks to it giving me a 3rd health bar while also allowing to save the precious and hard to get spirit gems for other characters.

However, 4-6 out of 8 Ascendancy points to consolidate a third health bar has been seen as controversial, when you take into account that Kitava awards similar levels of defensive prowess while maintaining access to Spirit Gems.

Personally, I would like to see Chayula maintain it's status as a low buget defensive build similar to Smith of Kitava and see reworks centered making Darkness work, while abandoning Leech and Chaos Damage as central mechanics.

This is my bias talking, but I prefer builds like Kitava or Ritualist because it allows me to experience a character by using off meta weapons...such as Ritualist and Hammer or Kitava and Elemental Spells.

In my view, Chaos Damage builds are done better with Invoker because all Chaos and Elemental Damage builds navigate towards Shocked and Frozen status and thanks to Invoker you can apply your desired effect on to any Poison or Chaos based spell.

Meanwhile, I feel I can't comment on Leech because I lack the math skills necesary to determine if Leeching from both Lighting and Cold Damage at the same time by pairing "I am the Blizzard..." with Lighting Based or vice versa is strong enough to overtake Sap of Nightmares, with it's built in 11% increases to Health and Mana Leech.