How do I build an exorcist?

[Torcularis]

I'm very clearly doing something wrong here as I've made only ~4% of the mysteries on a full run as I would with a comparable voidmancer. (As I write this, I'm just shy of hitting level 100, when I will exile.) I have 140.95 UVg (e68) mysteries right now and 227 stat points.

I know exorcist is more active, requiring use of the exalted clicks, but I'm not sure how to allocate my stats and spells to get anywhere. The interrogator doesn't seem to be doing much as my pet either, even when I have 5 out of my 6 spell slots dedicated to giving him XP. What am I doing wrong here? Where should stats be allocated?

[John Baller]

At that level I think it is better to use the Prodigy or Chronomancer for mysteries. You could probably do the exorcist using the Geode pet for the level reduction. The Exorcist uses 6 buff spells + hallowed clicking, and 4 of the 6 spells are level 100+. To burst you need to max hallowed clicks, and then use Power of Sacrifice. Then you quickly use Restlessness or Holy Fervor and Spell Focus. Next, you change the last two buff spells in place of Restlessness and Spell Focus. Activate all the buffs and start clicking until you run out of hallowed clicks. Then you can refresh the hallowed clicks and click again before Power of Sacrifice ends if you are fast enough. The buff spells are the last 4 spells, Hallowed Writings, and Sword of Anklah. You put the short duration ones in the spots you swap to reload clicks. At a higher level you use the Anima Construct (~e150 mysteries).

[archmag]

I started using exorcist at e166. During 4 hour mostly inactive run yesterday got from e166 to e172.

Before bursting you need 22k autoclicks and Holy Fervor casts to get all autoclick upgrades (last one costs 4.8e344 mana, so depending on your current max mana you may not have access to all of them so no need to unlock all of them) and to accumulate excess hallowed clicks to increase character bonus. Also Shattering strike depends on amount of casts, so should be used during preparation. There are some unused slots during preparation, so I also use Smite to get 7e5 used hallowed clicks achievement. The pet during preparation is Arcanaworg. The pet during bursts - Archivist. I mostly focus my attributes on Spellcraft (175) and Wisdom (175), the rest are spread for item and pet requirements, but I guess this could be better, it is just a basic setup that works for most of my runs, I don't try specialized setups yet.

During burst it is important to activate Power of Sacrifice when you have max amount of hallowed clicks. I thought that it does not matter as it is not in a skill description, but checked wiki yesterday and it does matter. Archivist (and Interrogator) gives very long duration to incantation spells so after you cast it once and spend all your accumulated clicks you can switch between Holy Fervor and some income boosting spell freely without the need to hurry. With Anima Construct you will have to do it quickly otherwise Power of Sacrifice runs out.

Both Anima Construct and Archivist seems to be good because one of them boosts incantations (L × 2.5%, where L is pet level), which you will have in 5 out of 6 slots on panel, the other boosts evocations, that you will have only one, but boost is huge - (L^1.125 × P × 2500%, where L is pet level, P is pet ability power) (during my last run it was around e9). So you should try both of them to see which one is currently better, personally I prefer Archivist because it freezes incantations and you can burst more confortably.

Just a reminder that I started using Exorcist only at e166 mysteries after I managed to get it to level 134 to unlock final spell. During early stages I mostly used Prodigy, it allowed to gain e2-e4 progress per 2h run.

[Torcularis]

It's looking like it's still really early to actually be using exorcist for me. Strange how I can unlock a class before it's practical, but whatever. No biggie. Thanks for clearing some stuff up, gents.

[Arkhne]

Well, Exorcist "works" much lower than that, but Voidmancer is better until Exorcist can get Battle Trance. I also prefered Arcanist, especially once Arcane Infusion was added to the game. However, Arcane Infusion is beyond level 110, so you might not be able to reach it yet, in which case, Voidmancer or Prodigy is probably better. I got past the early game before the Persistent change, so Prodigy might actually reach much higher levels now.

The Geode/Ley Keeper suggestion probably works, but other classes will likely yield better resuls being able to use better pets.

[dark_anima]

I mostly focus my attributes on Spellcraft (175) and Wisdom (175), the rest are spread for item and pet requirements, but I guess this could be better, it is just a basic setup that works for most of my runs, I don't try specialized setups yet.


The Exorcist do not rly needs Wisdom. Its hardly a waste of Points. Take max 10 for Anima Construct in later e´s. The Arcana Worg gives u more than enough Shards to cast all day long.

I prefer a Statsetup like: Dominance > Spellcraft > Mastery, 25 in Insight for the extra Bonus. and min 20 Int for Arcanaworg(40 for Construct). Empathy is quite useless for Anima Construct but the 75 Points can be good for faster leveling. Patience are quite good for the extra benefits and Int also. It depends on ur max Attributes but i played Exorcist like:

40(50) Int
25 Ins
100-175 Spe
10 Wis
175 dom
25 pat + access Points
75-100 Mas
25-75 Emp

[archmag]

Originally posted by dark_anima:

The Exorcist do not rly needs Wisdom. Its hardly a waste of Points. Take max 10 for Anima Construct in later e´s. The Arcana Worg gives u more than enough Shards to cast all day long.

I prefer a Statsetup like: Dominance > Spellcraft > Mastery, 25 in Insight for the extra Bonus. and min 20 Int for Arcanaworg(40 for Construct). Empathy is quite useless for Anima Construct but the 75 Points can be good for faster leveling. Patience are quite good for the extra benefits and Int also. It depends on ur max Attributes but i played Exorcist like:

40(50) Int
25 Ins
100-175 Spe
10 Wis
175 dom
25 pat + access Points
75-100 Mas
25-75 Emp

Wisdom currently in my run gives 1.26e3% income increase due to bonus that you get at 150 points.
Archivist that I can use because of high wisdom instead of Arcanaworg gives 2.35e10% evocation bonus and 1.82e4% income bonus.
Arcanaworg with 175 wisdom gives 1e10% profit bonus, but without 175 it will be much less because its bonus scales with passive shard regeneration that scales with wisdom.

Dominance - 1.48e4% autoclick bonus, 2.25e2% income increase from bonus at 150 points.
Dominance also seem to increase critical chance (it is already at 100% and I am not sure if it is useful to increase it further, there seems to be x2, x5, x10 crits flying around) and critical profit but I am not sure how exactly it works. Critical profit in few of my tests appeared to be additive instead of multiplicative so does not give much increase.

Looking at those numbers I am not really sure which one is better but wisdom does not seem to be a total waste at least.

Even with Archivist holy fervor recharges hallowed clicks up to 75 max almost instantly (with 175 wisdom) and you don't need to keep changing several spells, only need to change holy fervor to empower, click until you are out of clicks, change them back, clicks are almost instantly recharged so you can do a cycle again.

I am already at e200 mysteries at paragon 16. It is only e2 per 4h run now, so not that good as it was at e167 mysteries. And if it is working and does not require a lot of switching, I don't want to try anything else for a while. Mostly waiting for crafting resources while doing these simple runs to pass paragon 16 wall that requires 2 epics for next level (already completed requirements for 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 so it will be a jump after I manage to craft those epics).

But just for comparison sake - how much increase in mysteries do you get (or did you get if you remember) with your setup and how long the runs take (took) and what is (was) the current level of mysteries when you are (were) doing those runs with Exorcist?

[Jey]

Using wisdom is heresy.
Once you can use hound efficiently (and i'm not even talking about worg), you don't care about shards cost.
You build up (and fill your burst spells) with whichever doggo you prefer, and then you burst with the good pet (I'm not sure Archivist is the best pet, Exo uses 5 incan, so anima should work better. But I didn't check).

Having wisdom is more practical (since you can burst repetitively), but each burst will yield much less (dominance 175 vs wisdom 175 is about x100 better).
So, unless you manually do 100 times as many bursts as without wisdom, you're losing out on each run.
You monster.

[dark_anima]

yes the 150 Wisdomperk gives some quite Bonus but its only a large number. Hallowed Clicks profits from Autoclickdmg at most + the Dominance Perks are even stronger. With Dominance u will get easily to 100% Critchance in Combination with the Exoristset.

Archivist is a quite useless Pet for Exorcist. The Evocationspells of the Exorcist are weaker comparedto manually clicking. Maybe at ur state it is profiting Gameplay but later it wil get rly fast unprofiting.

I Cant remember how much i got per. I think around e4-5 per Run by playing 6-8 Hours. Overnight even higher cuz Anima Construct leveld even higher as overday run. Around e210 it slowes down hardly to a Manawall(i think). U will need even longer Runs+Buildups. Around e215 i had 1Run per Day by 12h Buildup +12Hours Anima Construct leveling(Overnight). and had ~e2 Profit. atm i am on e220 and testing around what would be a good Build for pushing further.

I recommend hardly to wear Artificer`s Shoulders all the time(except burstphase and Void Mana collecting Phase) and upgrade those Shoulders. It will u a good amount of extra Craftmats.

If u dont know that. When u start a Run take Homonculus pet. and level ur Mainbuilding to max by only buy the Mainbuilduing(Grimoires/Libram@Exorcist). If u have enough Patience u can push all Buildings to max with Homunculus.

[PseudonymousBosh]

Archivist isn't useless to exorcist, but it's useful during buildup, not burst.

[archmag]

Ok, if you insist I will go out of my comfort zone that I wanted to stay in until paragon 17 that should give a ton of new bonuses (x64 income, two new item slots, enchanting, 3x exp from actions) and try some other things while I wait.

Originally posted by dark_anima:

Archivist is a quite useless Pet for Exorcist. The Evocationspells of the Exorcist are weaker comparedto manually clicking. Maybe at ur state it is profiting Gameplay but later it wil get rly fast unprofiting.

Shattering Strike is evocation spell. I am not sure why you compare it to manual clicking here. It lasts 15 seconds and autocasted on reckless.

Originally posted by Iffu:

You build up (and fill your burst spells) with whichever doggo you prefer, and then you burst with the good pet (I'm not sure Archivist is the best pet, Exo uses 5 incan, so anima should work better. But I didn't check).

At level 100 Archivist improves evocation efficiency by 2.41e10%, profit by 1.86e4%. Shattering Strike is evocation that lasts 15 seconds and increases character ability power by 6.31e20% (with this archivist bonus, 2.62e12% without archivist), so it directly improves income by e8 and extra e2 for a total of e10. This also scales with pet ability lineary and with pet level as L^2.125 (first bonus as 1.125, second lineary). Shattering Strike is not used manually, it is on reckless autocast, I still click when I have to do a burst. My mistake in previous estimate was that I forgot that all bonuses are in %, so to find actual multiplier to income you need to remove e2 from each bonus, so it gives only e10 (e8*e2) instead of e14 (e10*e4) increase to income as I though before.

At level 100 Anima construct improves profit by 1.62e11% and invocation efficiency by 2.5e2%. This means that income from invocations is improved by 3.5^5 (because there are 5 invocation spells during burst), or 5.25e4%. This results in e9+e2=e11 total income increase. But it scales with pet level as L^6 (lineary for 1st and 2nd bonus, but 2nd bonus is in 5th power because of 5 spells). This does not take into account the Sword of Anklah spell that seems to have three modifiers that all scale with efficiency, I am not sure exactly how it works, so I just used only profit part of it in estimate.

Ok, numbers show that you were right (e10 for archivist and e11 for anima construct), even with huge boost to single spell archivist does not win this comparison even at level 100 (losing e1 income) and at higher level the difference will become larger. There is a thing that bonus from archivist scales with pet ability as p^1.15 and from anima construct as p^1, but at my current value it does not seem enough to overcome AC.

Next run will try with dominance to compare things but it seems like it will be quite a problem recharging hallowed clicks during the burst. Maybe will have to switch in Mana beast and Spell focus after activating Power of sacrifice.

Originally posted by dark_anima:

I Cant remember how much i got per. I think around e4-5 per Run by playing 6-8 Hours.

Btw, was it before or after reaching paragon 17?

Originally posted by dark_anima:

yes the 150 Wisdomperk gives some quite Bonus but its only a large number. Hallowed Clicks profits from Autoclickdmg at most + the Dominance Perks are even stronger. With Dominance u will get easily to 100% Critchance in Combination with the Exoristset.

I don't have full Justice Of The Seventh set yet (only 4 items), I am using Power Armor (214x income increase due to all bonuses to evocations, invocations and profit) and The Great Journey (50% character ability bonus and 50% exp from actions) so it gives 321x total multiplier to income.

Full exorcist set bonuses and 4 items seems to increase critical hallowed click profit 54x and critical rating by 2500 (I am not sure what that affects but it seems additive, not multiplicative, I already have 9000 crit rating, so it will be extra 11500/9000=1.27 multiplier, I think). With Sword of Anklah spell active I already have a crit chance of 100% without this set, so it does not look really useful (I don't know how extra crit chance works after 100% and I am not sure about effect of 2500 critical rating so those may change actual results).

[archmag]

Originally posted by dark_anima:

If u dont know that. When u start a Run take Homonculus pet. and level ur Mainbuilding to max by only buy the Mainbuilduing(Grimoires/Libram@Exorcist). If u have enough Patience u can push all Buildings to max with Homunculus.

And this advice seems really weird. As far as I understand Homunculus/Simulacrum are used when you need to get to previous levels of sources on a character that can't easily get there himself and that needs those levels for whatever reason (I mostly use that in challenges on weak characters). Exorcist does not need those sources until burst phase and when you start bursting you surpass previously reached levels in just few bursts, so it does not make sense to waste time using these pets instead of arcanaworg/archivist during preparation.

You can use Simulacrum at the end of your run to get extra 30-42 of each source, but this is minor bonus to income (only 50%) and wasting time switching pets and losing much higher bonus from previously leveled pet seems not worth it. If you reach cap using one pet, then switch to homunculus, then to simulacrum to get that 1.5 multiplier, then switch back to first pet you lose extra levels that you accumulated on first pet before and that may lead to losing more than 50% that you just gained unless you keep doing the run and recover those bonuses again.

If you don't focus on wisdom, then you rely on Spell focus/Conjure Manabeast and other summons for your excess clicks accumulation during preparation.

Arcanaworg lets you cast 4 holy fervor per second 10 out of 15 seconds at level 100. Spell focus and manabeast give minor mana so maybe you can cast one or two more holy fervors during those 5 downtime seconds. This gives ~400 hallowed clicks per 15 seconds. 36 autoclicks per second with 4% chance for click give another 21 hallowed clicks from summons in the same 15 seconds, this is minor compared to holy fervor.

Archivist increases bonus from spell focus to 4k spellshards, so this means you get 2 casts of holy fervor for each spell focus cast up to the maximum of 4 per second. With 16.5 shards per autoclick and 36 autoclicks per second you get 594 shards per second that are spread among two spells usually (other 4 spells are not instant so they are usually at max charges right after their occasional casts). Holy fervor (cost 2000, instant), Spell focus (cost 20, instant), so Spell focus gets 297 shards each seconds, which means it gains all 4 charges every second, which means that holy fervor also gainst all 4 charges every second, so it gives 4*15*10=600 hallowed clicks per 15 seconds, which is better than preparation using Arcanaworg.

Homunculus/Simulacrum does not increase Spell focus so it seems not to get holy fervor cast per second capped. So it slows down preparation part. And if you just buy single source you miss out on a lot of character levels (this will make reaching the last spell longer and lose out on extra efficiency upgrades) and extra income multiplier upgrades from the nexus sources.

This is provided I correctly understand how spellcasting works. If it does not cap the amount of possible charges to 4 per second for each spell then calculations for Archivist will be slightly different and it will become even more efficient with even more holy fervors casts per second. Arcanaworg part should remain the same because pet gives shards every second, so there the cap is clear.

Btw, after finding out how critical rating works it seems that Spirit of Valor is better than Empower (at least without boost from anima construct). So my burst set of spells is now: Power of Sacrifice+Battle Trance+Spirit of Valor+Hallowed Writings+Sword of Anklah+Shattering Strike.

[dark_anima]

i think there are different ways. 1 seems to be the most profitting one but anyone has to take his own one that comforting him/her the most. I had themost enyoing one with mine.

[archmag]

I agree. There are different ways and there is no wrong way to play the game. You are not going backward ever.

I like that there are so many different ways to progress (a lot of characters, each with his own way to play, different pets that improve different things and give new ways to play with the same character, different spells which you use to find useful combinations) and sometimes I like to explore new things (like when I switched from Prodigy to Exorcist). Other times I just enjoy slowly progressing doing familiar things.