Seeing the large amount of self damage needed for level20 CWDT-loops (like wardloop), I'm now tinkering to do the opposite, that is create a CWDT-loop with the least amount of self damage per proc. Note that this build is falls squarely in the category: Let's see if I can make this crazy idea work.

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POB (current gear, probably incorrectly configured, old jewels): https://pastebin.com/k1Ji7hyN

CWDT-loop idea

The lowest damage required for a CWDT gem is when using a divergent level 1, with high quality. To get high quality I use a Dialla's Malefaction, resulting in 50% quality. Therefore it only requires 264 damage to proc.

Making a loop with such a gem requires three ingredients:

1. How to deal this self damage
2. How to deal damage with a lvl 1 CWDT
3. How to recoup/recover/regenerte/etc. the self damage

The approach to dealing damage consists out of three steps. The first is to use the CWDT to summon and consume corpses (desecrate, unearth, offering, volatile dead, spell cascade). The consumption of corpses triggers a Soulwrest to spawn phantasms. This Soulwrest is not linked to the level1 CWDT, so it can use any level of gem to support the phantasms. Repeated summoning of phantasms is not so useful, so I burn and explode them using infernal legion and minion instability to deal damage. This also allows triggering the CWDT via a Heartbound loop.

To prevent the damage being fatal I spread it 50-50 over life and ES via Corrupted Soul. The 50% hit to life is recouped using the life recoup on the passive tree. The 50% hit to ES is regenerated via Divine shield's "3% of physical damage prevented from hits recently is regenerated per second". The damage prevention is done via armor, and with sufficient armor enough damage is prevented to regenerate the left over damage that is needed to trigger the CWDT.

In practice this loop tended to stutter and stop quite often, especially when walking in more confined maps. I expected that this is from the time between spawning and using the corpses. By using a Bubonic Trail the corpse detonation is much faster, and the loop became much more stable.

Status of the build

It works :D, regular mobs die easily so general map clearing (lvl 10ish) is no problem. The stronger mobs, such as from essences and some bosses, reveal that it is still rather squishy and can have better single target damage. Any ideas for this are very welcome.

Additionally, the large amount of effects makes it very good at giving a stuttering view while dropping the FPS and being very noisy.

Previous idea

Use self damage via Herald of Thunder & Storm Secret (enemies are shocked by summoning corpses). However that dealt little damage. Mitigate the elemental damage via absorption charges (Graven's Secret), generate them via Ralakesh's Impatience. This resulted in rather low trigger rate of the CWDT, and requiring two more uniques.