5 Overwhelming Surge, 5 Embershield, and 2 Iceheart

GrumpyDuckling · April 2020

Since I anticipate running VMA a lot (again), I thought I would put together a fun little Elemental-AOE build around these three sets. Because I'll be heavy attacking often (to proc Embershield, which now should be more fun to use), I thought DK would be a nice pick for Molten Armaments. But I'm also having fun theorycrafting other classes too, and I'm wondering if the pets/summons from other classes can proc Overwhelming Surge with their passive attacks.

Does anyone know if these pets/summons can proc Overwhelming Surge with their passive attacks?
Scamp
Twilight
Bear
Shade
Skeleton Mage

Larcomar · April 2020

I checked this on my petsorc a while back. I don't think either the scamp or twilight did. But it procs regularly with boundless storm and LL. Basically any time you do damage with a class ability. Look for aoes. Awesome set tho.

Larcomar · April 2020

Ps you asked about passive attacks. I don't think the scamp's active attack was proccingg it either

GeorgeBlack · April 2020

Covid19 boredom ye?

GrumpyDuckling · April 2020

Larcomar wrote: »

Ps you asked about passive attacks. I don't think the scamp's active attack was proccingg it either

Good to know. Thank you. I imagine the other pets/summons operate the same way.

GrumpyDuckling · May 2020

I think I have settled on Necromancer for this build:

Beckoning Armor gives me Major Resolve, and pulls ranged enemies into the Iceheart/Embershield/Overwhelming AOEs that are circling around me. Having Beckoning Armor up also activates the Disdain passive so I take 15% less damage from DOTs (which will be nice against the Daedroth guards in the 9th arena).
Unnerving Boneyard gives me another AOE damage skill and also applies the Major Breach debuff to all enemies. Plus, it will also gain me ultimate with the Corpse Consumption passive.
The Skeletal Arcanist summon does AOE damage, and having it active will give me the sustain boost from the Undead Confederate passive (200 stamina and magicka recovery).
All of my damage and sets do DOT damage (and I have an Embershield Lightning Staff for heavy attacks), so all of my damage will benefit from the Rapid Rot passive (increased damage over time by 15%).
To round out the bar I then toss on the light armor shield and a heal like Resistant Flesh (for even more mitigation on top of the Embershield proc and Beckoning Armor), and I think I can one-bar this build for relaxing-ish VMA runs.

Austinseph1 · May 2020

The only thing I don't like is that Embershield only procs 50% of the time, a couple of other sets that you could get more benefit from that fit the bill would be Elemental Succession ( all 3 elements around you, a LOT of spell damage for skills and heavy attacks and also drops in MA so you can get it anyway), False gods devotion for unlimited sustain and speed in vMA (It is literally the best set I've taken into vMA, it makes a huge difference regaurdless of normal or perfected)And Ice furnace (Will proc on ice damage, so your Iceheart and boneyard will proc flame explosions all around you) which actually has great aoe damage potential on a very short cool down.

GrumpyDuckling · May 2020

Austinseph1 wrote: »

The only thing I don't like is that Embershield only procs 50% of the time, a couple of other sets that you could get more benefit from that fit the bill would be Elemental Succession ( all 3 elements around you, a LOT of spell damage for skills and heavy attacks and also drops in MA so you can get it anyway), False gods devotion for unlimited sustain and speed in vMA (It is literally the best set I've taken into vMA, it makes a huge difference regaurdless of normal or perfected)And Ice furnace (Will proc on ice damage, so your Iceheart and boneyard will proc flame explosions all around you) which actually has great aoe damage potential on a very short cool down.

They are actually changing Embershield to remove the proc (which is the reason I actually want to use it now). From the PTS:

Embershield:
[*] Fixed an issue where the damage from this set was considered Direct Damage instead of Damage over Time.
[*] Reduced the Armor granted to 3300, down from 3440.
[*] Decreased the damage done per tick to 860, down from 1032.
[*] This set no longer has a proc chance.

OG_Kaveman · May 2020

Does anyone know if these pets/summons can proc Overwhelming Surge with their passive attacks?

none of them do. pets "passive attacks" do not proc any sets. this includes the damage from blastbones and the skeletal arcanist.

Larcomar · May 2020

GrumpyDuckling wrote: »

I think I have settled on Necromancer for this build:
Beckoning Armor gives me Major Resolve, and pulls ranged enemies into the Iceheart/Embershield/Overwhelming AOEs that are circling around me. Having Beckoning Armor up also activates the Disdain passive so I take 15% less damage from DOTs (which will be nice against the Daedroth guards in the 9th arena).

Unnerving Boneyard gives me another AOE damage skill and also applies the Major Breach debuff to all enemies. Plus, it will also gain me ultimate with the Corpse Consumption passive.

The Skeletal Arcanist summon does AOE damage, and having it active will give me the sustain boost from the Undead Confederate passive (200 stamina and magicka recovery).

All of my damage and sets do DOT damage (and I have an Embershield Lightning Staff for heavy attacks), so all of my damage will benefit from the Rapid Rot passive (increased damage over time by 15%).

To round out the bar I then toss on the light armor shield and a heal like Resistant Flesh (for even more mitigation on top of the Embershield proc and Beckoning Armor), and I think I can one-bar this build for relaxing-ish VMA runs.

Iceheart is kind of crap now. But overwhelming surge pairs well with Grothdar - bother 8m radius.

Banana · May 2020

I'm going to give Grothdarr Elfbane and Overwhelming surge on my mDK. Hoping that will give me some off balance for the odd lash. Double infernos.

Dagoth_Rac · May 2020

OG_Kaveman wrote: »

Does anyone know if these pets/summons can proc Overwhelming Surge with their passive attacks?

none of them do. pets "passive attacks" do not proc any sets. this includes the damage from blastbones and the skeletal arcanist.

Yes, anything that says, "when you", the game takes very literally. It really has to be your character, not a combat pet.

Cireous · May 2020

Interesting build. Would be cool to see a video clip of all these proccing on your body, all at the same time.

GrumpyDuckling · May 2020

Cireous wrote: »

Interesting build. Would be cool to see a video clip of all these proccing on your body, all at the same time.

I am well on my way. Got all of the Overwhleming gear yesterday. And tonight I just had a great haul to finish getting the gear I needed to complete the sets:
Embershield Restoration Staff (for back bar)
Embershield Necklace
Embershield Ring

I already had:
Embershield Lightning Staff
Embershield Ring

Now all I have left to do is to level a Magicka Necromancer. He's my 18th character, and should be maxed out by the time the new chapter drops.

Larcomar · May 2020

Always worth remembering the good ol' Thunderbug too if you get bored of embershield. I run Grothdar - overwhelming surge - Thunderbug as my overland questing set up. It's awesome. As in fun rather than meta. It's also surprisingly good for farming public dungeons. With boundless s storm, EB and LL up.... We'll you can imagine. I just wish it was an 8m radius rather than 5. Much cooler effect than OS tho