[3.11] Decaf's Brand Detonate Dead Necromancer (SSF HC viable)

-Unwavering stance is moved, so inaccesible to us, however the crab pantheon will help with stun
-Brand rework in general makes this build feels more clunky, however it now has more control on the targets
-addition of Undertaker notable for additional damage when using corpse boosts our DPS

Pros
- very tanky
- cheap gear
- not a lag build
- can do all content (including reflect and no regen)

Cons
-might be clunky to play self cast and brand
-cant push end game bosses (Uber elder, Uber atziri, etc)

Offense is straight forward, we used DD as our primary skill and desecrate to provide us with corpses. DD will be attached to the new brand support, while we self cast desecrate. Fighting against mobs shouldn't need repeated cast of Desecrate since the dead mob due to DD could be use to damage the other mobs.
Other gem setup that is used to boost our damage is:

1. raise specter --> gives you a pool of specter minions that has a higher base health than the avg mobs in the map
2.Orb of storm in Malachai's artifice will be useful to proc elemental equilibrium. This will lower the enemy's fire resistant by 50%
3.Waves of conviction + Combustion, with this combination we will give enemies fire exposure which lower their fire res by addition 25% from exposure + addition 20% from combustion support if our waves of conviction burn the enemy.
note : DD can't burn the enemy since we use elemental focus, however we socketed immolate on DD relying on the burn from wave of conviction.
4.From the Necromancer Ascendancy we got Plague Bringer, which gives us dmg by perma shocking enemies and additional corpse life.

This build will stack a lot of health, ES, Block, and Armour. this will give us a substantial amount of eHP and damage mitigation.

Bulk
1.With an average budget gear we could easily reach 5k hp and 2k Eshield
2.One aura is used in this build, which is Vaal Discipline. Vaal Discipline will be buffed by the Supreme Ego keystone. this contributes to the high ES pool.
3.This build uses Blood magic, however no mana reservation for discipline since we use Mortal Conviction Keystone

mitigation
4. Max block chance is easily obtainable with about 50% spell block chance. This comes from having to use shield, our skill tree, tempest shield, flask, and bone offering
5. Armour plays a important roll in this build, we can reach about 8k Armour which gives as around 25% phys dmg mitigation.
6. Continuing on armor, we use vaal molten shell on CWDT to gives us more bulk, with that amount of Armour we can easily get around 2k molten shell shield.
7. Fortify is accessible by using shield charge.
8.on end game, we could generate endurance charge either by kill (Red nightmare jewel) or by being hit (inexorable notable)
9.Necromancer ascendancy will give us chills to nearby enemy, resistances, and dmg reduction
10. Vaal Summon Skeleton with meat shield will be used to taunt enemies and generate more corpses

Regen
11.The eternal youth keystone will convert our Eshield recharge to life regen. since we are aiming to have at least 2k Eshield, we will have around 600 life recharge.
12. by allocating Heart of flame, we will get Eshield leech. This is the primary way we will recharge our Eshield.

https://pastebin.com/FXBhPhKY
Skill tree preview can be seen in the leveling section

go for Necromancer
I recommend using this order:
1.Commander of Darkness
2.Plaguebringer
3.Corpse Pact
4.Mistress of Sacrifice

Will Update

Shield : Aegis Aurora, The surrender
Boots : Kaom's Root
Jewelery: Head Hunter, Malachai Artifice, Circle of Anguish*
Flask : Rumi's Concotion, Cinder Swallow, Wise Oak
Jewel : Might of the meek, Red nightmare

Weapon
DD/ VD corpse explosion dmg scales out of Area dmg, fire dmg, and corpse life. So we need a rare wand that gives us a lot of ele dmg, fire dmg, and area dmg. However, it is better to find rare weapon with "trigger socketed spell" to enable constant burns with wave of conviction and flammability.


Shield
Best in slot for shield is Aegis aurora, since it gives use ele dmg, Armour and e shield. Additional benefits including max cold res.
The surrender is also a solid choice since it will gives us a lot of Armour.
If both unique options are hard to get, any rare shield that gives eshield and Armour with high life and res can be used


Helmet
Good helmet Enchants : #% Increased Detonate Dead Damage, Detonate Dead has a #% chance to detonate an additional corpse, #% increased Flammability curse effect
High life, with high elemental resist. Any ES or Armour is also useful. Craft for "Nearby enemies has -#% fire resistance" is also good.


Body Armour

High life, with high elemental resist. Any ES or Armour is also useful. Craft for "life as maximum ES to maximize" the value of the eternal youth keystone. Bases like astral plate/ vaal regalia is recommended.


Glove
Similar to the other gear, high life, with high elemental resist. Any ES or Armour is also useful.



Boots

Similar to the other gear, high life, with high elemental resist. Any ES or Armour is also useful. Find any boots with movement speed since we don't have any movement speed modifiers.
If you need more life, the minion 4 links (spectres and skeletons) can be traded for the kaom's root. which will free our flask slot from anti freeze flask


Amulet

This build will be lacking DEX, so a high DEX amulet is needed. If DEX is still not enough, try to find other gear with dex or allocate some +30 Dex in your skill tree. Other mods you should be aiming for is Life, spell dmg, and fire res pen.
Allocate "Heart of Flames" to increase dmg and gain energy shield leech from DD


Rings

On one slot, Malachai Artifice is a good offensive ring, since it will provide us with access to Elemental Equilibrium. Elemental Equilibrium will be proc by Orb of Storm, make sure there are no flat global flat fire dmg to spell in other gears for this to work.
For the other slot, Any rings with good life and resist roll is good.


Belts

For budget option, leather belt with a life and resist roll is sufficient, you can upgrade to a stygian vyse and slot it with good jewels that can give onslaught or ele pen. With more investment, you can slot in Head hunter. Since it will give use dex, this will give us more flexibility tot he amulet slot.


Jewels
2x might of the meek will be placed near the scion starting location. Do not take the jewel socket if you don't have might of the meek. the socket near the life regen can boost both ES and Life. Watcher's Eye with the ES on hit mod can be used but not mandatory in this build.
Red nightmare can be placed on the left side of the tree for bonus block chance and endurance charge on kill.
For Rare jewel, search for life, fire damage, ele damage, and area damage. If you are using Malachai Artifice, don't equip any flat fire damage since it will mess with the elemental equilibrium.

Cluster jewels
This build does not need any cluster jewel to function, and was made without cluster jewels in mind. however cluster jewel can be acessed by pathing towards the top side from Elemental Overload. Primarily, Cluster Jewel will help in gaining more offensive stats.

Flasks

The Wise Oak : Gives Ele dmg pen when uncapped fire res is highest
Rumi's Concotion : To max out Block and additional Armour
Cinderswallow : Gives life when ignited enemy killed and gives movement speed
Rare Instant anti freeze divine flask
Any other rare utility flask of with anti bleed. Dont pick jade/stibnite since we cant evade attack. I personally prefer Basalt or Quicksilver.

General pathing idea


Red colored arrow is the main passive for the build to run
1. grab Heart and should then EleOverload
2.path towards Templar tree and get more life
3. I assume that DD setup is complete so take undertaker for more damage
4. Grab the scion life
5. grab more damage by Templar side (Spiritual Aid)
6.Finish up by grabbing life& Armour nodes on the marauder side

Grab light blue nodes when switching to brands

White arrows are allocated when build is ready to transition to eternal youth + ES setup
1.Grab eternal youth + supreme ego
2.blood magic + mortal conviction should be taken at the same time with supreme ego.
3 & 4 is supplemental eShield

grab green nodes when you have might of the meek to put in the socket

There are two ways to level this build.Since this is a hybrid of DD and brand we can level with either two arche-type. However, I recommend using the spellslinger leveling guide since it is very powerful and easily convert able to our end game build. but keep in mind that when using spellslinger we wouldn't be able to use Discipline combo for the defensive capability.
Here is a video made by Zizaran on leveling a VD spellslinger build from start to act 8 :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6DiTfy2yWg&t=2906s
the video is well made and very detailed, i recommend to watch the video before league start so you'll get a general idea to level the build.