Offensive Build Analyze of the Writhing One
Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2021 12:55 pm
It's rumored that focusing on one damage type is always better than hybrid. So some think that Writhing One should give up weapon damage and accumulate as much darkness damage with their tentacle as they can. Is this really a good idea?
This article prensents 2 builds based on the ideas of physical-darkness hybrid and pure darkness and compare their offensive power. This article also presents some of the shenanigen builds of the Writhing One, whose prowess is well admired by adventures.
This is the second article of the "Offensive Build Analyze" serie. This serie focuses on comparing the damage output of an endgame character with a chosen class. It mimics the endgame equipments by generating randarts with 3 chosen egos with maximized numbers (but no random powers) or chosen fixdarts. It will test the damage of constant plain attacks (for weapon classes, that means without using any active talents with CDs forwardly) and 0-turn burst damage (which mimics a situation where you must kill an enemy before it ever has a chance to act, so the number of talents is limited, and all dots and map effects are not taken into consideration). It will also use dummies with no defense and some defenses as the target. The damage of the Worm that Walks isn't counted in.
Interesting facts about Writhing One
Mutated Hand is one of the only 4 additional attacks which isn't a turn proc (Flexible Combat and Cleave are two others, and the last one will be covered in this article). The only limit of them is that the additional attack, and any following attacks triggered by this attack, cannot trigger itself, which makes them very powerful and even more powerful together.
The tentacle attack granted by Mutated Hand is subject to weapon talent modifier, but not subject to proc damage modifiers under any condition. For example, an Ogre wielding a greatsword triggers Flexible Combat with its sword, and of course the Flexible Combat triggers the tentacle attack, as well as a lv5 Cripple proc, which triggers another tentacle attack. In this case, the Flexible Combat damage is halfed and the Cripple damage is reduced to 1/4 because of the penalty of ogre-wielding, but all tentacle attacks deals full damage (the one triggers by Cripple deals 190% damage).
Lash Out first attacks with the tentacle, and then does a weapon attack as if without Mutated Hand.
Slow Death category allows the player to obtain talents from other classes temporarily. However, of course the designer isn't as considerating as the gamemaniacs, so there can be cases where you can actually get something permenant. All these cases are considered shenanigens.
Constriction is bugged at the time of writing. It actually disables the Mutated Hand attacks of the target, and the Constriction attack and pull is actually based on a detrimental effect, which only lasts for 20 turns. I've asked my friend the Archangel yutio888 to fix this (that detrimental effect will last forever after the fix) and all following tests are done assuming Constriction is in this fixed form.
Writhing Hairs is also bugged at the time of writing. It decrease damage to that percentage instead of increasing damage by that percentage. I've also asked yutio888 to fix this and all following test are done assuming it's in the right form.
The weapon attack of Foul Convergence conducted by both the Writhing One and the Worm that Walks is physical type.
First let's go with the traditional Writhing One.
This kind of Writhing One wields a 1-hand weapon in their main hand and at most times just bumps the enemies. Some may think that Ogre with a 2h weapon should be better, but Ogre really sucks with Flexible Combat as I've pointed out.
Race: no sync with any races, so I'll use Shalore the best in this case
Stat: max Strength, Dexterity and Magic, the rest into Cunning
Prodigies: Arcane Might + Flexible Combat
Class Talents:
Tentacles 5/5/3/1
Path of Horror 4/1/5/5
Friend of Worm 5/5/5/3
This leaves 22 points for Horrific Body, Controlled Horrors and Disfugred Faces categories. They're not that important for a late-game offensive build so allocate the points as you wish.
General Talents:
Shalore 1/1/1/5
Combat Training 1/1/2/2/5/0
Survival 1/4/1
Harmony 1/5/1
Beyond Sanity 5/1/1/5
Physics 3/2/1
Chemistry 3/2
How to get the speed from Elemental Harmony: get a sling/steamgun with "Warden's" ego, put it in the offset, with a T1 mindstar in offhand. Get some fire damage on hit on your worm buddy and make sure that it's the first elemental damage on hit. Before fight, switch to the offset and hit your worm buddy once, then switch back.
Equipment:
Mainhand mace, hateful + quick + ruin + razor edge
Body robe, ancient + fearwoven + stormwoven + crystal armor
Head wizard hat, mountain + fearwoven + starseer + focus lens
Amulet, enraging + murder + soulsear
Cloak, backstab + conjuring + shadow + ground stripping
Hand gauntlet, nighthunter + strength + war-making + voratun grip
Belt, ravager + reckless + reinforced + fungal web
Feet, massive + spellbinding + void + kinetic stabiliser
Ring1, speed + pilfering + mountain
Ring2, rogue + pilfering + painweaver
Lite, moons + nightwalker + piercing
Tool digger, bloodhexed + brutal + quickening
"of war-making" ego on the handgear is critical, and try very hard to get another "of war-making", or "of the nighthunter", or "of the iron hand" ego, and try to get rid of those useless procs as hard as possible.
Worm that walks is equipped with a weapon with acid groove tinker which reduces target's armor by 25
Plain attack DPT: about 20k against dummy without defense ; about 9.5k against dummy with 250 armor, 90% resist all and 200 flat damage reduction, or about 15k if the player also has 30 ITEM_ACID_CORRODE as melee project; about 5k against dummy with 70% evasion. In all cases, about 2/3 damage is physical, the rest darkness.
0-turn burst attack (presented in order of 5% percentile, first quartile, median, second quartile, 95% percentile):
Eternal Grace + Foul Convergence + Overgrowth + Iron Grip + Lash Out
42.1k, 50.5k, 58.8k, 66.9k, 80.3k against dummy without defense (n = 3000, about 2/3 physical)
16.4k, 20.2k, 24.7k, 29.4k, 38.7k against dummy with 250 armor, 90% resist all and 200 flat damage reduction (n = 3000, about 2/3 physical)
18.0k, 23.5k, 29.4k, 35.4k, 42.8k if the player also has 30 ITEM_ACID_CORRODE as melee project (n = 3000, about 62% physical)
7.0k, 12.4k, 17.9k, 24.0k, 33.5k against dummy with 70% evasion (n = 3000, about 62% physical)
Replacing the amulet with Zemekkys' Broken Glass and maxing Writhing Hair
plain attack DPT drops to 15k against dummy without defense
Eternal Grace + Foul Convergence + Overgrowth + Time Stop + Writhing Hairs + Iron Grip + Lash Out
34.8k, 42.3k, 50.3k, 58.7k, 70.0k against dummy without defense (n = 3000, about 62% physical) This is actually lower than that without Time Stop and Writhing Hairs
13.9, 17.2k, 21.2k, 25.0k, 31.4k against dummy with 250 armor, 90% resist all and 200 flat damage reduction (n = 3000, about 64% physical)
15.8k, 21.4k, 26.8k, 33.1k, 41.8k if the player also has 30 ITEM_ACID_CORRODE as melee project (n = 3000, about 61% physical)
5.3k, 10.6k, 15.9k, 23.0k, 33.7k against dummy with 70% evasion (n = 3000, about 60% physical)
at least Writhing Hairs also benefits the few turns following, and that amulet also grants 10% spell cooldown reduction
Corner snipe (presented in order of 5% percentile, first quartile, median, second quartile, 95% percentile):
Tendrils Eruption
6.6k, 7.6k, 10.8k, 12.5k, 13.6k against dummy without defense (n = 3000, about 90% darkness)
1.8k, 2.6k, 3.1k, 3.7k, 4.5k against dummy with 250 armor, 90% resist all and 200 flat damage reduction (about 95% darkness).
Then let's examining the Writhing One focusing on darkness damage
There is few fixdart weapon dealing darkness damage and they all suck for Writhing One. So to focus on darkness damage, this build uses Channel Staff as common attack while using its tentacle to Constrict the enemies.
Race: Drem, to exploit Tendrils Eruption.
Stat: max Dexterity, Magic, Cunning, the rest into Strength
Prodigies: Arcane Might + Master of Disasters
Class Talents:
Tentacles 5/1/5/5
Horrific body 1/1/4/1
Path of Horror 4/1/4/5
Controlled Horrrors 0
Slow Death 4/4/1/1 Necessary to maintain the insanity cost of Constrict
Disfugured Face 1/5/1/3 (4 in Diseased Tongue floating)
Friend of Worm 5/1/4/2
General Talents:
Combat Training 1/1/3/3/0/0
Survival 1/4/1
Staff Combat 5/5/1/2 (3 in Blunt Thrust floating)
Beyond Sanity 5/1/1/5
Drem 1/1/1/1
Physics 3/1/2
Chemistry 3/2/1
Equipment:
Mainhand staff, bloodlich + cruel + magewarrior + mana coil
Body robe, darkness + fearwoven + stargazer + crystal armor
Head wizard hat, darkness + fearwoven + starseers + air recycler
Amulet, murder + soulsear + starseer
Cloak, conjuring + backstabbing + shadow + ground stripping
Hand Dakhtun's Gauntlet + voratun grip
Belt, balancing + recklessness + magery + fungal web
Feet, fleetfooted + spellbinding + void
Ring1, arcana + darkness + pilfering
Ring2, darkness + pilfering + speed
Lite, piercing + nightwalker + moons + black light emitter
Tool digger, brutal + crystal + quickening
Duathedlen Heart is a good lite if you cannot get a good randart. Remove the mana coil tinker if you equip it.
Worm that walks is equipped with a weapon with acid groove tinker which reduces target's armor by 25
Plain attack DPT (using Channel Staff and Constrict. The character is granted 3 insanity regen, with an initial insanity at 20) about 14.5k against dummy without defense (about 98% darkness); about 7.3k against dummy with 250 armor, 90% resist all and 200 flat damage reduction (almost all darkness), or about 8.8k if the player also has 30 ITEM_ACID_CORRODE as melee project (almost all darkness); about 8k against dummy with 70% evasion (about 97% darkness).
0-turn Burst attack/Corner snipe (presented in order of 5% percentile, first quartile, median, second quartile, 95% percentile):
Blinding Speed + Frenzy + Tendrils Eruption + Overgrowth + Tendrils Eruption (without Worm that Walks acting)
32.1k, 34.3k, 36.2k, 38.0k, 40.3k against dummy without defense (n = 3000)
10.5k, 12.3k, 13.5k, 14.9k, 16.6k against dummy with 250 armor, 90% resist all and 200 flat damage reduction (n = 3000)
10.9k, 13.0k, 14.8k, 17.1k, 20.5k if the player also has 30 ITEM_ACID_CORRODE as melee project (n = 3000)
0, 0, 0, 18.5k, 35.4k against dummy with 70% evasion (n = 3000)
alternatively, with Blinding Speed + 2x Channel Staff
9.4k, 9.8k, 10.3k, 11.1k, 11.9k against dummy without defense (n = 3000, about 95% darkness)
single Tendrils Eruption
14.8k, 16.0k, 17.5k, 18.9k, 20.1k against dummy without defense (n = 3000)
4.6k, 5.4k, 6.5k, 7.6k, 8.5k against dummy with 250 armor, 90% resist all and 200 flat damage reduction (n = 3000)
total win. 5% percentile here is higher than the 95% percentile of the traditional WO!
Summary
The Writhing One focusing on darkness damage is only better at corner sniping with Tendrils Eruption than the traditional Writhing One, and worst on almost all other aspects. So I'd say don't do it.
However, with shenanigens, there will be another build focused on darkness damage, which is likely to be more powerful.
Major edited on 12.04. For some reasons a lot of burst damage data are significantly different after a retest. I hope somebody else can help confirm these data.
This article prensents 2 builds based on the ideas of physical-darkness hybrid and pure darkness and compare their offensive power. This article also presents some of the shenanigen builds of the Writhing One, whose prowess is well admired by adventures.
This is the second article of the "Offensive Build Analyze" serie. This serie focuses on comparing the damage output of an endgame character with a chosen class. It mimics the endgame equipments by generating randarts with 3 chosen egos with maximized numbers (but no random powers) or chosen fixdarts. It will test the damage of constant plain attacks (for weapon classes, that means without using any active talents with CDs forwardly) and 0-turn burst damage (which mimics a situation where you must kill an enemy before it ever has a chance to act, so the number of talents is limited, and all dots and map effects are not taken into consideration). It will also use dummies with no defense and some defenses as the target. The damage of the Worm that Walks isn't counted in.
Interesting facts about Writhing One
Mutated Hand is one of the only 4 additional attacks which isn't a turn proc (Flexible Combat and Cleave are two others, and the last one will be covered in this article). The only limit of them is that the additional attack, and any following attacks triggered by this attack, cannot trigger itself, which makes them very powerful and even more powerful together.
The tentacle attack granted by Mutated Hand is subject to weapon talent modifier, but not subject to proc damage modifiers under any condition. For example, an Ogre wielding a greatsword triggers Flexible Combat with its sword, and of course the Flexible Combat triggers the tentacle attack, as well as a lv5 Cripple proc, which triggers another tentacle attack. In this case, the Flexible Combat damage is halfed and the Cripple damage is reduced to 1/4 because of the penalty of ogre-wielding, but all tentacle attacks deals full damage (the one triggers by Cripple deals 190% damage).
Lash Out first attacks with the tentacle, and then does a weapon attack as if without Mutated Hand.
Slow Death category allows the player to obtain talents from other classes temporarily. However, of course the designer isn't as considerating as the gamemaniacs, so there can be cases where you can actually get something permenant. All these cases are considered shenanigens.
Constriction is bugged at the time of writing. It actually disables the Mutated Hand attacks of the target, and the Constriction attack and pull is actually based on a detrimental effect, which only lasts for 20 turns. I've asked my friend the Archangel yutio888 to fix this (that detrimental effect will last forever after the fix) and all following tests are done assuming Constriction is in this fixed form.
Writhing Hairs is also bugged at the time of writing. It decrease damage to that percentage instead of increasing damage by that percentage. I've also asked yutio888 to fix this and all following test are done assuming it's in the right form.
The weapon attack of Foul Convergence conducted by both the Writhing One and the Worm that Walks is physical type.
First let's go with the traditional Writhing One.
This kind of Writhing One wields a 1-hand weapon in their main hand and at most times just bumps the enemies. Some may think that Ogre with a 2h weapon should be better, but Ogre really sucks with Flexible Combat as I've pointed out.
Race: no sync with any races, so I'll use Shalore the best in this case
Stat: max Strength, Dexterity and Magic, the rest into Cunning
Prodigies: Arcane Might + Flexible Combat
Class Talents:
Tentacles 5/5/3/1
Path of Horror 4/1/5/5
Friend of Worm 5/5/5/3
This leaves 22 points for Horrific Body, Controlled Horrors and Disfugred Faces categories. They're not that important for a late-game offensive build so allocate the points as you wish.
General Talents:
Shalore 1/1/1/5
Combat Training 1/1/2/2/5/0
Survival 1/4/1
Harmony 1/5/1
Beyond Sanity 5/1/1/5
Physics 3/2/1
Chemistry 3/2
How to get the speed from Elemental Harmony: get a sling/steamgun with "Warden's" ego, put it in the offset, with a T1 mindstar in offhand. Get some fire damage on hit on your worm buddy and make sure that it's the first elemental damage on hit. Before fight, switch to the offset and hit your worm buddy once, then switch back.
Equipment:
Mainhand mace, hateful + quick + ruin + razor edge
Body robe, ancient + fearwoven + stormwoven + crystal armor
Head wizard hat, mountain + fearwoven + starseer + focus lens
Amulet, enraging + murder + soulsear
Cloak, backstab + conjuring + shadow + ground stripping
Hand gauntlet, nighthunter + strength + war-making + voratun grip
Belt, ravager + reckless + reinforced + fungal web
Feet, massive + spellbinding + void + kinetic stabiliser
Ring1, speed + pilfering + mountain
Ring2, rogue + pilfering + painweaver
Lite, moons + nightwalker + piercing
Tool digger, bloodhexed + brutal + quickening
"of war-making" ego on the handgear is critical, and try very hard to get another "of war-making", or "of the nighthunter", or "of the iron hand" ego, and try to get rid of those useless procs as hard as possible.
Worm that walks is equipped with a weapon with acid groove tinker which reduces target's armor by 25
Plain attack DPT: about 20k against dummy without defense ; about 9.5k against dummy with 250 armor, 90% resist all and 200 flat damage reduction, or about 15k if the player also has 30 ITEM_ACID_CORRODE as melee project; about 5k against dummy with 70% evasion. In all cases, about 2/3 damage is physical, the rest darkness.
0-turn burst attack (presented in order of 5% percentile, first quartile, median, second quartile, 95% percentile):
Eternal Grace + Foul Convergence + Overgrowth + Iron Grip + Lash Out
42.1k, 50.5k, 58.8k, 66.9k, 80.3k against dummy without defense (n = 3000, about 2/3 physical)
16.4k, 20.2k, 24.7k, 29.4k, 38.7k against dummy with 250 armor, 90% resist all and 200 flat damage reduction (n = 3000, about 2/3 physical)
18.0k, 23.5k, 29.4k, 35.4k, 42.8k if the player also has 30 ITEM_ACID_CORRODE as melee project (n = 3000, about 62% physical)
7.0k, 12.4k, 17.9k, 24.0k, 33.5k against dummy with 70% evasion (n = 3000, about 62% physical)
Replacing the amulet with Zemekkys' Broken Glass and maxing Writhing Hair
plain attack DPT drops to 15k against dummy without defense
Eternal Grace + Foul Convergence + Overgrowth + Time Stop + Writhing Hairs + Iron Grip + Lash Out
34.8k, 42.3k, 50.3k, 58.7k, 70.0k against dummy without defense (n = 3000, about 62% physical) This is actually lower than that without Time Stop and Writhing Hairs
13.9, 17.2k, 21.2k, 25.0k, 31.4k against dummy with 250 armor, 90% resist all and 200 flat damage reduction (n = 3000, about 64% physical)
15.8k, 21.4k, 26.8k, 33.1k, 41.8k if the player also has 30 ITEM_ACID_CORRODE as melee project (n = 3000, about 61% physical)
5.3k, 10.6k, 15.9k, 23.0k, 33.7k against dummy with 70% evasion (n = 3000, about 60% physical)
at least Writhing Hairs also benefits the few turns following, and that amulet also grants 10% spell cooldown reduction
Corner snipe (presented in order of 5% percentile, first quartile, median, second quartile, 95% percentile):
Tendrils Eruption
6.6k, 7.6k, 10.8k, 12.5k, 13.6k against dummy without defense (n = 3000, about 90% darkness)
1.8k, 2.6k, 3.1k, 3.7k, 4.5k against dummy with 250 armor, 90% resist all and 200 flat damage reduction (about 95% darkness).
Then let's examining the Writhing One focusing on darkness damage
There is few fixdart weapon dealing darkness damage and they all suck for Writhing One. So to focus on darkness damage, this build uses Channel Staff as common attack while using its tentacle to Constrict the enemies.
Race: Drem, to exploit Tendrils Eruption.
Stat: max Dexterity, Magic, Cunning, the rest into Strength
Prodigies: Arcane Might + Master of Disasters
Class Talents:
Tentacles 5/1/5/5
Horrific body 1/1/4/1
Path of Horror 4/1/4/5
Controlled Horrrors 0
Slow Death 4/4/1/1 Necessary to maintain the insanity cost of Constrict
Disfugured Face 1/5/1/3 (4 in Diseased Tongue floating)
Friend of Worm 5/1/4/2
General Talents:
Combat Training 1/1/3/3/0/0
Survival 1/4/1
Staff Combat 5/5/1/2 (3 in Blunt Thrust floating)
Beyond Sanity 5/1/1/5
Drem 1/1/1/1
Physics 3/1/2
Chemistry 3/2/1
Equipment:
Mainhand staff, bloodlich + cruel + magewarrior + mana coil
Body robe, darkness + fearwoven + stargazer + crystal armor
Head wizard hat, darkness + fearwoven + starseers + air recycler
Amulet, murder + soulsear + starseer
Cloak, conjuring + backstabbing + shadow + ground stripping
Hand Dakhtun's Gauntlet + voratun grip
Belt, balancing + recklessness + magery + fungal web
Feet, fleetfooted + spellbinding + void
Ring1, arcana + darkness + pilfering
Ring2, darkness + pilfering + speed
Lite, piercing + nightwalker + moons + black light emitter
Tool digger, brutal + crystal + quickening
Duathedlen Heart is a good lite if you cannot get a good randart. Remove the mana coil tinker if you equip it.
Worm that walks is equipped with a weapon with acid groove tinker which reduces target's armor by 25
Plain attack DPT (using Channel Staff and Constrict. The character is granted 3 insanity regen, with an initial insanity at 20) about 14.5k against dummy without defense (about 98% darkness); about 7.3k against dummy with 250 armor, 90% resist all and 200 flat damage reduction (almost all darkness), or about 8.8k if the player also has 30 ITEM_ACID_CORRODE as melee project (almost all darkness); about 8k against dummy with 70% evasion (about 97% darkness).
0-turn Burst attack/Corner snipe (presented in order of 5% percentile, first quartile, median, second quartile, 95% percentile):
Blinding Speed + Frenzy + Tendrils Eruption + Overgrowth + Tendrils Eruption (without Worm that Walks acting)
32.1k, 34.3k, 36.2k, 38.0k, 40.3k against dummy without defense (n = 3000)
10.5k, 12.3k, 13.5k, 14.9k, 16.6k against dummy with 250 armor, 90% resist all and 200 flat damage reduction (n = 3000)
10.9k, 13.0k, 14.8k, 17.1k, 20.5k if the player also has 30 ITEM_ACID_CORRODE as melee project (n = 3000)
0, 0, 0, 18.5k, 35.4k against dummy with 70% evasion (n = 3000)
alternatively, with Blinding Speed + 2x Channel Staff
9.4k, 9.8k, 10.3k, 11.1k, 11.9k against dummy without defense (n = 3000, about 95% darkness)
single Tendrils Eruption
14.8k, 16.0k, 17.5k, 18.9k, 20.1k against dummy without defense (n = 3000)
4.6k, 5.4k, 6.5k, 7.6k, 8.5k against dummy with 250 armor, 90% resist all and 200 flat damage reduction (n = 3000)
total win. 5% percentile here is higher than the 95% percentile of the traditional WO!
Summary
The Writhing One focusing on darkness damage is only better at corner sniping with Tendrils Eruption than the traditional Writhing One, and worst on almost all other aspects. So I'd say don't do it.
However, with shenanigens, there will be another build focused on darkness damage, which is likely to be more powerful.
Major edited on 12.04. For some reasons a lot of burst damage data are significantly different after a retest. I hope somebody else can help confirm these data.