Viable Oracle build that doesn't utilize Ternion Attack?

[Kero]

Hey guys. This is my second character that I plan to take through legendary, but I just wanted opinions on this build since it's not the stereotypical Ternion spammer.

http://www.titancalc.com/TitanCalc.a...0-1-12-0-8-0-0

The main bossing skills are Thunderball for the stun and Spell Breaker/Spell Shock for damage with Deathchill Aura with Ravages of Time for the huge resistance debuff along with Summon Outsider extra DPS. Storm Nimbus for the HoF. Life Drain/Cascade and Liche King for trash mobs. Dark Covenant and Unearthly Power for extra damage and Death Ward if health drops to low during. This build is semi pet dependent but with good gear that has either +%Lightning or +%Vitality damage, -cooldown, and +%attack speed, I think that this could be a very powerful build. What do you guys think? Any constructive criticism is appreciated.

Cheers~

[KargaN]

Your build looks OK but there are few thing which i would change if it was my character. First of all Necrosis removes onlly Bleeding, Vitality and Life Leech Resistance. If you`re trying to create a caster Oracle then your main damage is elemental, so Necrosis does not help much. Besides the Oracle is a very fragile class - you have to be away from monsters most of the time so they won`t be reached by Deathchill aura. Life Drain/Cascade is useful for healing but in Legendary the spell does insignificant damage even at maximum level. If you can find some items with - % recharge in order to maintain permanent Dark Covenant it will be great. Probably something like this:

http://www.titancalc.com/TitanCalc.a...0-0-1-1-12-8-0

You can max Death Nova if you have extra skill points. Hope this will help. Good luck!

[Kero]

Thanks for the reply.

Even if Life drain does little damage in Legendary, does it still heal quite a bit cause it'd still do the damage, wouldn't it? What about switching out the thunderball tree and only putting one point into lightning bolt for the ice shard tree? Or does it not do so well in legendary? I haven't taken either of these masteries through legendary. :P

[EDIT]
Whoops, didn't see the points left over. :P Even so, how is ice shard in legendary?

[KargaN]

Ice shards spell does not do much damage in Legendary unless you focus on cold damage with many items providing +% cold, +%elemental damage, +%intelligence. Still it`s possible to make it trough Legendary, only a little harder. Concenrning Life Drain i`ve personally tested the skill with one point in Life Drain and maxed Cascade. It is not useful for healing from a single opponent but when you encounter a group of monsters (which is almost all the time) then you can recover a significant ammount of health points (over 1500). Thunderball is very important - it is your "stunning skill", so you shouldn`t remove it. One more thing - if you don`t use mods (Xmax etc.) and don`t do boss runs you usually finish Legendary at level 61-62 so try to complete your build at this level.

[Shalie]

Your build is unrealistic, level 75 is reachable with a lot of farming at the end of Act IV Legendary. By that time you will have plenty of experience with an Oracle and be able to answer most of your current questions yourself. Better questions would be what skill progression will help you complete Normal and Epic mode.

Ice Shards and Deathchill Aura are both good at slowing monsters down, giving you time to cast more Shards. This will be a good way to get through Normal. Ice Shards are very energy hungry, so you'll need a lot of energy potions with this strategy. By the end of Normal you will want both your base masteries trees to be maxed for the increase in stats.
Example level 37 build

In Epic I would start building up Squall/Obscured Visibility and the Lich. Don't get the Arcane Blast Lich spell, it lowers the amount of time he casts his Soul Blight spell (he gets that at level5). Soul Blight is his best spell, it reduces resistances in an area.
Example level 54 build

And from there you can test different spells and find the ones you like: Spell Breaker for bosses, or a high damage Lightning Bolt, or different stun/crowd control spells. But you will have a much better grasp of what you skills you need in Legendary when your character actually is in Legendary.

[Irma2]

Bosses have very high stun resistance, relying on Thunderball to stun them won't work unless you can nuke their resistances by an awful lot. Spell Breaker/Spell Shock only works well as a damage spell against certain bosses. With others, it will be a very slow killer.

Also, taking Thunderball and Squall but not putting anything into Static Charge doesn't make much sense. These are damage spells, you want them doing as much damage as possible.

Generally, with a mage, you have two options of delivering damage: spells and staff. You have avoided the two main damage-dealing spells in the Storm tree, Lightning Bolt and Ice Shards. So that would place a higher premium on the ability to do damage with your staff. In that case, not taking Ternion doesn't make any sense.

If you want to do damage with Life Drain/Cascade, you need to debuff enemies as Undeads have very high resistance. That means getting in close so that Necrosis can do its work. But then you will also want the fan patch and Ravages of Time. Oracles are very fragile, you need all the protection you can get, especially when working at close quarters. Storm Surge will provide some protection but Ravages of Time is essential too.