Talk to me about Zombies and EA

[TheSpiritFox]

Alright. So I have never made an undead MM and I'm gonna give it a try. And hearing that the zombies are rather more fragile than like bots, thugs, and demons, and hearing EA's absorb made it possibly the most survivable secondary, and you know resistance and zombies, I found my next MM. 

 

I'm a "purple out every 50" kinda player and so I'm wondering what I need to know about Zombies/EA leveling and like I'm looking for maybe a top end build suggestion for it or discussion about how to slot out zombies and EA. I am not a fan of tankerminding, but I am open to the idea for this build. At the same time I generally build towards the pets tanking for me directly and with thugs, demons, and bots you can actually do that and have it work. I don't tend to take personal attacks at all unless it's like electric fences, bonfire, etc. I do tend to build MMs for perma hasten. 

 

How would you build a zombies/ea? How do you slot your zombies? Umm does soul extraction mule? I don't actually know that yet. Insights, suggestions, information about how zombies play, information about how EA plays. I kinda just want to like have a plan before I even make it because I'm undecided on whether or not I'm gonna power level it. 

[JJDrakken]

Mastermind - Necromancy - zn_Electrical Affinity.mxd

 

Here is a build you can look at & tool around with.

 

Edited May 29, 2020 by JJDrakken

[Hopestar]

I have a build for it as well, but I don't think me putting this into words would do it justice, so here's some pretty pictures. To answer your question, Soul Extraction mules exclusively because your henchmen dying is a bad thing and it's not so easy to make specifically the Lich die to get the most out of Soul Extraction. Zombies get most of their damage out of your lvl 6 Enchant Undead so they perform well at low levels, probably better than most other primaries. Grave Knights do like 50% of the damage of the whole set, so once your zombies start decaying in effectiveness, GK steps up. Normally the 30s and up would start to be not so great, but with Insulating Circuit at 35, nothing should die. Energizing will keep you and your team topped up on endurance, but early without enhancements its a long cooldown and not enough to keep you full on end with how much MMs use endurance (Careful not to spam Faraday Cage).

Note: Currently Mids doesn't calculate Incarnates for Electrical Affinity at all.

 

MM - NecroElec.mxd

[Riverdusk]

1 hour ago, Hopestar said:

 To answer your question, Soul Extraction mules exclusively because your henchmen dying is a bad thing and it's not so easy to make specifically the Lich die to get the most out of Soul Extraction. 

You can use macros to make it much easier though.  I can soul extract a lich on demand by pressing these two binds (I use numpad divide and numpad multiply).

 

/bind divide "petcom_pow Zombie dismiss$$petcom_pow Grave dismiss$$releasepets"

/bind multiply "powexecname Soul Extraction$$petselect 0"

 

Someone else may be able to come up with a better way.  Course you then still have to resummon and buff them all again, but it does make it a bit quicker.  I still tend to only bother when I really feel the need for the extra firepower though and yes it is mostly used for the pet IO's.

Edited May 30, 2020 by Riverdusk

[Redlynne]

25 minutes ago, Riverdusk said:

/bind divide "petcom_pow Zombie dismiss$$petcom_pow Grave dismiss$$releasepets"

/bind multiply "powexecname Soul Extraction$$petselect 0"

Clever ...

[JJDrakken]

16 hours ago, Riverdusk said:

You can use macros to make it much easier though.  I can soul extract a lich on demand by pressing these two binds (I use numpad divide and numpad multiply).

 

/bind divide "petcom_pow Zombie dismiss$$petcom_pow Grave dismiss$$releasepets"

/bind multiply "powexecname Soul Extraction$$petselect 0"

 

Someone else may be able to come up with a better way.  Course you then still have to resummon and buff them all again, but it does make it a bit quicker.  I still tend to only bother when I really feel the need for the extra firepower though and yes it is mostly used for the pet IO's.

 

Not only that, peeps should be thinking recipes in advance. Soul extraction allows you recharge pet set(E.R.) That has forever proc of +10% Res, add in S.R. +10% Res & Upgraded MoS, +15% Res value. Your pets whenever out will have +35% res bonus to Resistances.  I don't think many MMs factor this in.

[TheSpiritFox]

Thanks for the comments everyone, processing it and looking over the builds. 

[Dr Causality]

Most important decisions will probably be what Incarnate Alpha and what Epic Pool?

 

I've really only looked at Demons/EA.   Necro will need to build differently because you won't get the massive +Resistance from Ember Shield.      For Demons I think Alpha Cardiac Radial or Resilient are the clear best choices.   Because they both buff the Absorb of your best /EA power and also buff the Resistance Shields of Faraday Cage and Ember Demon.  The other parts like Cardiac's  +End Reduction and +Range, or Resiliente's +Tohit, +Immobilize, +Taunt are just nice to have.    Those Alphas will still be good on Necro/EA, because they're great for /EA.      But Necro won't be getting the additional +Res from Ember Shield.     That changes a lot, and other Alpha's may turn out to be more valuable.   That said giving up the additional +Absorb buff letting you go past ED Enhancement is going to be a tough choice...

 

A few thoughts:

 

Alpha Choice

 

Vigor -- Each of your pets has a Siphon Life on 15s to 30s cooldown.   But there's unlikely to be room to actually slotting for them heal.   I'm thinking 'Vigor Radial Paragon' might actually be best on Necro.     That would,

• Enhance the healing in all of your pets, and the healing in your 'Rejuvenating Circuit' past ED.  /EA's heal is already very big for and aoe heal that isn't targetted on enemies like /Dark or /Kin.  That means there's a large base to enhance past ED...
• give you +Accuracy enhancement in all your powers, freeing you up to short slot. This is especially valuable if you want to go for proc-ed attacks.
• give you +End Reduction in all your powers, further freeing you up to short slot your build.

That means Vigor would make pets more self-sufficient and give you a lot of overall build slotting opportunities.  

 

Musculature -- Always worth considering for the +Damage.  But Musculature Radial Paragon could be especially good on Necro/EA, since it also buffs Endurance and -Tohit debuff.   This is likely what you'd go with if decided on a -End Drain focused build. 

•  +Damage enhancement in all your powers. not only increases your pet damage by around 20%.   Like Accuracy, the +Damage Enhancement also helps free you up to slot procs and chase set bonuses when slotting your pet powers.  
• The +Endurance Enhancement will super charge the -End Drain powers and also make Energizing Circuit return more End to everyone in the chain (including yourself)
• The -Tohit Enhancement will impact most of the powers the pets have.  It will only boost something like an additional -1.25% Tohit per attack.   But spread across 6 pets that could add up. 

 

Epic Pool Choice

 

I think this will be the toughest choice for a final build.  

 

 

Mace Mastery --  People's first instinct seems to be to go with Mace Mastery likely to fill in for /EA's lack of any inherent Def buffing powers.   But I'm sure also because Mace gives you a very reliable easy to use, large aoe Immobilize.    However, I do not think Mace is the best choice for /EA.    /EA's biggest overall hole is lack of damage or DPS opportunities like -Res.  Mace Mastery isn't good for helping to patch the DPS problem.   Immobilize is very nice to have on a MM, but /EA wants an Immobilize that (a) does damage, which (b) means it can slot a Annihilation chance for -Res proc and Dmg procs.   For me this makes Mace Mastery non-optimal on /EA.  

 

But in Mace Mastery or Chill Mastery's favor, Faraday Cage+Tough means with set bonuses you can get to 75% hard cap Smash/Lethal resistance.   The challenge being that you likely won't (a) need both an Epic Resistance Shield AND Tough.  And especially if taking an Epic Res shield you (b) may want Weave to reach decent Def numbers...so what do you with Tough.       That said, it's is it's much easier to fill in a portion of the needed +Def for softcap from Inspirations, then it is to fill in +Res for hard cap.   This is especially important on /EA, because the Absorb shield hugely benefits from Resistance.   High defense builds will still take some hits from streak breaker, meaning resistance is ultimately what gives an /EA player time to re-apply Insulating Circuit's Aborb, so pets or teammates die less.  High defense builds without good resistance are still only two back to back hits away from death.     On an /EA MM I'd prioritize getting close +Res cap 1st, then work on Def.     

 

That means I think Mu, Fire or Soul are probably the best on Necro/EA:

 

Mu - Probably the best choice if going for -End Drain build.   The +Energy Resistance is very nice to have.   Thunderstrike, which I normally would skip, provides an /EA player a very high proc chance slot for Fury of the Gladiator -20% Res proc.   /EA needs all the -Res it can find, and this would stack with the Annihilation and Achilles you'd also want to try to fit in the build.    ThunderStrike can slot up slot up to around 50% +Rech enhancement and still keep the 3.5PPM Fury proc capped at 90%, that should let you keep it up near permanently with decent global recharge you'll have.    Even with it's lower 2PPM, at 50% Rech the FF proc would still have around 50% chance to proc per target.   I still don't love Thunderstrike due to the incredibly long animation, but could be interesting with /EA and is more -End Recovery for -End Drain builds...  

 

Stun build idea - Electrifying Fences can be turned into a psuedo mezz power.    It takes both the Immob and End chance for stun procs.  Sadly, they're only a 2PPM, but at 0% recharge they still each have a 33% chance to proc an 8s Mag2 stun.   So nearly 45% chance of one proc, and 11% chance of both for a Mag4.   You can also stun Proc Discharge with up to 27% chance to proc.   And Thunderstrike has it's own 50% chance for a Mag3 stun.    All together that would be a good amount of stun opportunity.     But would be much better with a Pets that do their own stuns....  The annoying thing about both mezz and End drain builds on MM's is you need to take pets out of BG mode in order them to keep attacking disabled enemies....

 

Fire Mastery - Bonfire with KB -> KD is amazing mitigation.  Fireball is good damage.  Tough + Faraday Cage should be enough to get to hard capped Smash/Leth resistance, so it's okay there's no Res shield.  But you're also giving up an Immob.  I think this means you'll need to take Provoke, to help ensure fights stay inside 'the Cage'.  

 

Soul Mastery - The 15% base Negative and Tox Resistance is nice to have.   Soul Tentacles has decent proc chances, and the cone works well when hovering above Faraday cage.   Oppressive Gloom is good mitigation against minions, and can hold aggro from enemies it doesn stun.    If you don't mind dealing needing to take pets out of BG mode to keep them attacking, then it could be interesting.  The stun proc in Discharge would give you a chance to stack Mag4 stun.  

 

 

 

 

Other Thoughts:

 

That Cage Fighting Life

• Its' very important for /EA that fights always take place inside Faraday Cage.   For enemies that are already inside your Faraday Cage, an Immobilize is useful.   But Immobilize doesn't help get enemies into the cage and a MM doesn't have high enough Mag Immob to keep lots of enemies like AVs, Crimoreans, Werewolves etc.     In my /EA play so far Provoke was by far the most reliable way of keeping enemies and pet fights inside the Cage.   Hovering over the cage made it even more effective because the Taunted enemies needed to run underneath my MM to jump up and try to use shorter range and melee attacks.  That creates an enemy pile underneath you which is perfect for cones or aoe attacks.

Leveling

• Leveling an /EA MM is slow going.   You don't get -Res or other DPS powers.   And you're best survival power doesn't come until Lvl 35.    At least you get Faraday Cage at 18, because you will definitely be want that Res and Mezz prot...    It's doesn't do much to speed up clear times, but for surivivability while leveling I think you'll need to go for a -End Drain build.    Sadly, this is also slow going because it's easiest using Discharge + Defibrillate, which you don't get until lvl 28.      But Necro has an interesting gimmick that would be fun to try.   All the pets can slot Tohit debuff IO's, do you can slot a Deflate Ego chance for -25% Recovery Debuff.   I've never used that proc because....Lol.... but up to 7 pets stacking that in most of their attacks on top ofyour Discharge.   That would probably keep enemies perma drained.     The proc is dirt cheap and avaiable at lvl 10.    You should at least try it, for laughs.  

Gloom

 

• I'm not usually fond of single target MM attacks.   The dpa tends to not be impressive, and you often have better things to be doing.    But Gloom is something special.   It has the highest dpa of all the MM single target attacks.  It's 8s cooldown gives it good proc chances.  In addition to the ranged purple and pvp procs, also takes the Accurate Tohit dmg proc.   That means with 0% Rech, you can have  2 x 53% chance for 71 Dmg and 1 x 68% chance for 107dmg.   At lvl 50 that's an expected average proc Dmg of around 149, plus with slotting for Dmg up to 109 Dmg from the power.  So you should be hitting for an average of 258 with spikes up to 358, and cooldown time after global recharge probably around 4s. Pretty good for a MM.    

 

• But for leveling you might take Life Drain instead.  It's much worse activation time so worse base dpa, but it additionally takes the Accurate Healing Dmg proc, which is handy for leveling when you can't yet slot Apocalypse. The worse activation time, means a 4% better proc chance.   Plus you'll be squishier, so the heal will be appreciated.  

 

-Res:  You need it

 

• At least during leveling, I'd definitely consider taking Weaken Resolve.   It's a very reliable Achilles -20% Res proc, that stacks with it's own -12.8% resistance.  You can also turn it into fairly respectable dmg power with procs.   It will take up to 3 dmg procs, that each would have capped 90% proc chance, even if you slot Weaken Resolve for over 100% Recharge Enhancement.  Biggest challenge while leveling and short on slots will be getting both the procs and enough accuracy for them to hit... 

 

Let me know what you're leaning towards and I'll try to mock out a build or two...

 

Edited June 1, 2020 by Dr Causality