[3.14] The Bloodsucker Exsanguinate/Reap Corrupting Fever || League Starter || Budget || Mapper

Exsanguinate Reap and Corrupting Fever all apply Physical Damage over Time.

Exsanguinate has an initial hit then stacks a DoT up to 3 stacks.

Reap has an initial hit then stacks a damage buff on you up to 5 as long as no targets die.

Corrupting Fever is a buff you keep up on yourself similar to Blood Rage. It comes with an initial life cost to apply the buff then refreshes itself once a certain amount of life is spent. That life is spent casting Exsanguinate or Reap. Corrupting Fever applied stacks of Corrupted Blood which will stack up to 10 times on each enemy hit. Damaging an enemy with anything while affected with Corrupting Fever will apply stacks of Corrupted Blood on the targets hit. This is where Void Sphere comes in handy. Anything that gets caught up in the Void Sphere will quickly gain lots of Corrupted Blood stacks, get sucked in and die, that is if they did not get 1 shot from Exsanguinate or Reap first.

Exsanguinate and Reap gain damage scaling from Spell Power, Physical Damage, and Damage over Time.

Corrupting Fever scales with Physical Damage and Damage over Time.

Since these abilities are spells they scale very well with gem level. It's beneficial to get +1 physical spell skill gems or +1 to strength spell skill gems on weapon, shield and amulet. Influenced Amulets can roll both at the same time.

Offensive stats to prioritize
Physical Damage
Physical Damage over Time
Damage over Time
Spell Power
Frenzy Charges


**Crit will affect the initial hit of Exsanguinate and Reap but not the damage over time, so crit is not a priority. Crit is the main stat on daggers, however I am only using daggers so I can use Whirling Blades.
Edit: I have moved to Shield Charge now that I am using a wand. So far so good.

Tree is Glad/Necro for max block.

Trigger dagger set up to trigger Desecrate, Bone Offering and Void Sphere.

Bone Offering gives life on block.

Void Sphere helps keep monsters off your face.

Void Sphere can also be set in an empty spot for manual casting if you choose to have more control over its placement. For fast mapping it's easier to set it to the trigger weapon. For big boy bossing it may be more efficient to manually cast Void Sphere instead.

Void Sphere just sucks everything in and stacks up Corrupted Blood without any extra clicks. I can just whirl around and Exsanguinate. 2 Click build after buffing Corrupting Fever.

High Life -currently sitting at over 5700 life

Life Leech

High Mobility with Whirling Blades that triggers Fortify

CWDT with Immortal Call


Defensive stats to prioritize:
Block -Attack and Spell Block
Max Resists
Armor
Physical Damage Leeched as Life ***IMPORTANT NOTE*** Be careful when searching mods on rares. Exsanguinate, Reap and Corrupting Fever are Spells. So anything that specifies Attack Damage will not work.

That is why is a very important piece to the build. There are other pieces that give physical damage life leech but I have only found them on rings and amulets. The whole game turned a corner once I put that baby on.

6 Link Exsanguinate, these seem to be the standard gems most people are using. Controlled Desto, Efficacy, Brutality and Chain. Except I chose Faster Casting. I know it's less damage than other choices but the increased cast speed to Exsanguinate really helps sustain life leech and decrease time spent standing still to avoid getting killed while casting. So the damage loss of taking the Faster Casting seems worth it to me from a survivability standpoint.


Switch Chain out for Swift Affliction for Bossing for more damage.

If Using Reap as main ability:


3 Socket Weapon. Works best socketed in this order:


Auras: Malevolence, War Banner and Herald of Purity. Malevolence for damage and increased uptime for dots. Herald of Purity for physical damage which really gets amplified from the Circle of Guilt.


4 Link Gloves Corrupting Fever goes here so once you can get Apothecary Gloves that have explicit mod of Socketed Gems Deal 30% More Damage Over Time then you have a 5 link.


Before you can get at least a level 3 Empower, use:


Movement: I like whirling blades since it's an attack so it can apply Fortify and Culling Strike, it's fast and can move through monsters. The downside is I have to use a dagger which has lots of crit mods that aren't the best for this build. I could use a wand with shield charge but I personally would not like to use shield charge in the Ultimatums. You can use whatever you like for a movement setup.




CWDT:


You can choose any golem or spell you like here. I feel like the golem just dies more often than not but I don't know what else to put here right now.


Early maps before I had a lot of life and before I could afford vulnerability on hit ring, I used Corrupting Fever with no supports. I used Reap to trigger Vulnerability -just for a little extra damage for bossing. I am not using these gems right now.

Exsanguinate: I have enough cast speed on my gear and upgraded gems that I feel like I don't need the faster casting anymore. Now I have an extra gem slot to pump that damage.


Switch Chain for Swift Affliction for big bossing damage.


Corrupting Fever: Same gem setup as above. Can upgrade to awakened gems.
Awakened Brutality, Awakened Swift Affliction, Level 4 Empower...

Weapon: I still have Desecrate, Bone Offering and Void Sphere, However I switch the Void Sphere for Storm Brand for Bossing because it will stack Corrupting Fever better on single target.


Auras: Added Vitality to take advantage of the Watcher's Eye, I have it leveled to about 8 currently because that gives me just enough mana to cast my movement skill so adjust your level accordingly.


CWDT: The golem had to go. He just died all the time. I have been tinkering around with Vaal Skills. Right now I am using Vaal Cold Snap. It's leveled just high enough so Cold Snap will trigger off of CWDT and I have Vaal Cold Snap available to self cast as needed for frenzy charges.


Movement: I have a wand now so I had to switch to Shield Charge. That way I still have an attack to apply Fortify and Culling Strike.

I just focused on capping Resists and stacking life in the beginning. I had plenty of damage for early maps just from gem levels.

Weapon +1 to Physical Spell SKill Gems -Trigger Socketed Spell when you use a Skill

Shield: +1 to Physical Spell Skill Gems -Life, resists as needed, Spell Damage, Extra Block if needed.

Helm Armor Boots -Life Armor Resists as needed
Using Belly right now for life boost. I am sure there are better rare chests out there.

Gloves -Damage over Time, Life, Resists as needed. Apothecary Gloves are great.

Rings -Circle of Guilt you definitely want to get one with Increased Physical Damage While Affected by Herald of Purity. The Implicit Mods are up for grabs here. You could find one that grants Vulnerability on Hit and be POG. I feel lucky that I found the Increased Damage and Increased Global Physical Damage for a reasonable price.

2nd Ring, Vulnerability on Hit was my priority here, then Life. The cast speed and resists were a bonus. Rings can also roll Physical Damage Leeched as Life

Amulet -Try to max out resists on helm, boots, ring, gloves, etc so you can prioritize gem levels on amulets. +1 to Physical Spell Skill Gems and/or +1 to All Strength Skill Gems. If you can find/craft/afford one with both that would be best.
I don't have the funds for that yet so I settled for charges on kill instead.

Anoint Command of Steel. 1 Amber, 1 Crimson, 1 Opalescent a few chaos if buying the oils.

Belt -Discussed above, gives hella resists and most importantly Physical Damage Leeched as Life. If you found enough leech on rings/amulets you could switch the belt out for a good Stygian.

Next upgrade should probably be a new chest. I am not sure what mods will be best other than life/armor/Increased Effect of Offerings.

Most expensive item I have ever bought 19Ex
+1 physical spell skill gems and +1 Spell skill gems. Exsanguinate is now level 29!! Spell Damage...Damage over time multi...Cast Speed...Trigger...this baby has it all.


+2 amulet. It could have better stats like life for starters


I bought this belt after I bought a watcher's eye with life leech

Lots of life & physical damage


More resist, cast speed


More life, resist, movement speed, armour

Replica Pure Talent for both Increased Damage and Skill Effect Duration.


Rares -just going for that life, spell damage and physical damage. Buffer resists in case I need to change up my gear.

Watcher's Eye 2Ex not too crazy. Socketed a Vitality to make use of the life leech.

-nothing special to note, I am sure they could be better.