Hello everyone,

TL;DR at the end.

After the reveal stream for 3.27 on Twitch I did some scuffed in-game testing and started playing around in PoB, trying to see if the new Chaos Bloodline ascendancy could make Vaal skills more viable as main skills. This post is meant to compile information on this topic with help and feedback from the community.

The Basics of Vaal skills

• Vaal skills are very strong and often mechanically very different compared to their base version. Maybe not all, but most of them.

• Vaal skills "cost" Souls instead of mana, life or other resources. This "cost" is not a cost in the general sense and is not reduced by general cost reductions like Tireless. More on how to manipulate this cost later.

• Vaal skills have a "cooldown"-time called Soul Gain Prevention Duration, which aptly prevents them from accumulating Souls in any way, for any Vaal skill during that time. It starts when a Vaal skill is used. If a Vaal Gem has multiple stored Uses, you can use those during that time, but it also applies the Soul Gain Prevention Duration of that skill again.

• Vaal skills can't be supported by various Support Gems.

Viable Vaal skills

For a Vaal skill to be viable as a main skill, I want that skill to be as available as possible. This means getting around the Soul Gain Prevention Duration.

Achieving 100% reduced Soul Gain Prevention Duration is currently possible on Vaal gems with the modifier "Modifiers to Skill Effect Duration also apply to this Skill's Soul Gain Prevention". This causes reduced Soul Gain Prevention Duration and reduced Skill Effect Duration to be additive, circumventing Soul Gain Prevention, if the combined reduction is at least 100%. Because Soul Gain Prevention Duration is rounded up, PoB (and PoE probably as well) will always calculate a duration of at least one server tick.

The percentage of Vaal skills with this modifier is actually quite big, but most of those skills become worse by reducing their Skill Effect Duration. Some don't care too much, while a few can actually be scaled by reducing their duration. Here's a list of gems that seemed viable from testing them. If you think there's other viable options I forgot, please write them in the comments.

• Vaal Cleave (Attack, 25 Souls, 3 Uses) - Can't be evaded solves accuracy. The Buff and stolen modifiers become negligible with reduced duration. Super slow, feels horrible. Listed here as a warning. Just don't do it!

• Vaal Earthquake (Attack, 30 Souls, 1 Use) - Feels awesome! Sadly, still needs accuracy. The aftershock mechanic of Earthquake itself wants a lot of reduced Skill Effect Duration and the Vaal version double dibs on that with its movement causing aftershock mechanic.

• Vaal Glacial Hammer (Attack, 15 Souls, 3 Uses) - Can't be evaded solves accuracy. Each hit instead of every third also freezes as though dealing more damage. The Ice Prison becomes negligible with reduced duration which is probably an upside for your own mobility.

• Vaal Smite (Attack, 20 Souls, 2 Uses) - Incredible clear! Can't be evaded solves accuracy. Aura is short but if you can spam the skill & have enough attack speed, the aura buff functions long enough to support the next attack, refreshing itself.

• Vaal Firestorm (Spell, 35 Souls, 1 Use) - The time it takes the meteors to fall is not affected by increased/reduced/more/less duration modifiers from my testing. It was always around 3 seconds. Burning ground becomes negligible with reduced duration. If you play this skill, it's because of its effectiveness of added damage.

• Vaal Lightning Trap (Spell, 20 Souls, 3 Uses) - Reduced duration makes the trap expire very quickly, so it practically triggers the moment it lands. Shocked ground becomes negligible with reduced duration. Can store 3 Uses, so there's that. If you want to play a Vaal skill trapper, otherwise not that good.

• Vaal Storm Call (Spell, 30 Souls, 1 Use) - Incredible for bursts of damage, but keeping Souls up was difficult while testing. Hits 24 times. The number of hits stays the same no matter how much you scale duration down, because the interval between the hits also becomes shorter. Could be really good if someone finds a way to generate enough Souls in short enough time to spam the spell.

Important: The 3.4 patch notes state:

Vaal Soul Gain Prevention time is now modified by modifiers to skill duration and buff duration if those modifiers in some way affect the associated skill. For example, reducing the duration of Vaal Earthquake will also reduce the Vaal Soul Gain Prevention time, while increasing the duration of Vaal Haste will increase the Vaal Soul Gain Prevention time.

I'll need to do further testing to find out, if the Soul Gain Prevention Duration of Vaal skills without "Modifiers to Skill Effect Duration also apply to this Skill's Soul Gain Prevention" can be modified, if those Vaal skills are given a duration tag through Arcane Surge Support, Lifetap Support or other means.

Sources of reduced Soul Gain Prevention Duration

• 20% Priest of Yaomac (Ascendancy Notable) - From the new Chaos Bloodline. Why I think Vaal skills might now be viable as main skills, without sacrificing too many equipment slots.

• 10% Soul Catcher (Flask) - Needs investment into flask duration and charge generation for 100% uptime. Flask Effect sadly doesn't scale the reduced Soul Gain Prevention Duration effect. The Traitor keystone from a Brutal Restraint Balbala can enable this.

• 6-8% Yaomac's Accord (1-Hand Weapon) - Can be used twice if necessary. Bad base weapon damage, but decent increased damage for Vaal skills as well as great random charge generation, if you can spam your skills. The Shepherd of Souls Keystone needs to be accounted for if the cost of your Vaal skills is calculated in Souls.

• 30% Triumvirate Authority (Unset Ring) - Only applies to socketed gems. Maybe useful if all you want is an otherwise unsupported Vaal skill for utility. Doesn't seem good. Can also roll the detrimental modifier "Socketed Vaal Skills have 80% increased Skill Effect Duration".

• Best percentage possible -> 76% reduced Soul Gain Prevention Duration

Important: The higher the percentage of "reduced Soul Gain Prevention Duration", the longer the actual skill duration will be.

Sources of reduced Skill Effect Duration

• 10-20% Warped Timepiece (Amulet) - Annoying to get the best roll for our set-up. Seems necessary for any proper set-up.

• (-)20-20% Timeclasp (Ring) - Extremely painful to get the best roll for our set-up. At least one seems necessary for any proper set-up.

• 5% Reduced Skill Duration (Minor Passive) - 2 on the passive tree, as part of the Window of Opportunity wheel.

• 15% Window of Opportunity (Notable Passive) - South of the Scion starting point. Requirement for enough reduced duration.

• 10% Hasty Demise (Notable Passive) - Located between the Templar and Witch areas. If you path near it, take it. Otherwise you need to anoint this.

• Best percentage possible -> 95% reduced Skill Effect Duration

Important: The higher the percentage of "reduced Skill Effect Duration", the shorter the actual skill duration will be.

Advice: The unique jewellery pieces are both T4 uniques. Especially Warped Timepiece, but also Timeclasp have stats that greatly benefit from Accelerating (Speed) Catalysts. Timeclasp can also greatly benefit from Fertile (Life & Mana) Catalysts. Quality them before going for corruptions.

How to lessen Soul costs

To increase the frequency at which we can use Vaal skills, we have limited options to lessen the number of Souls required. These are Less modifiers to the cost of Souls needed.

• 80% Shepherd of Souls (Keystone) - Gained by equipping the Yaomac's Accord unique sceptre. Only affects non-Aura Vaal skills. Great if you want to use a Vaal skill every few seconds only. Has the terrible downside of increasing the Soul cost by 100% for each Vaal skill used in the last 8 seconds.

• 30% Priest of Yaomac (Ascendancy Notable) - From the new Chaos Bloodline. Affects all Vaal skills.

• Best percentage possible -> 86% less Soul cost of non-Aura Vaal skills

How to gain Vaal Souls

• 1 Vaal Soul per kill.

• 1 Vaal Soul per 2% life lost when damaging a rare enemy - Cooldown of 1 second.

• 6 Vaal Soul per 2% life lost when damaging a unique enemy. - Cooldown of 1 second. Life that was restored by Unique enemies during phase changes will not grant souls.

• 1 Vaal Soul per second. Runegraft of the Soulwick (Runegraft) - Slow but steady.

• 1 Vaal Soul per second. Vaal Souls (Ascendancy Minor Passive) - Slow but steady. From the new Chaos Bloodline.

• 50% chance to gain an additional Vaal Soul per Enemy Shattered. Chill of Corruption (Jewel) - Only good for mapping.

• Gain Vaal Souls equal to Charges consumed when used. Soul Ripper (Flask) - Great "on demand"-utility.

Important: Soul Eater will prevent characters from gaining any Vaal Souls during the buff effect. Details.

How to regain Vaal Souls

This is a percentage chance for Souls spend on Vaal skills to be immediately refunded. Can be nice for quick succession bonus casts/attacks.

• 15-20% Atziri's Reign (Jewel) - Also increases Vaal Skill Effect Duration, so you need to account for that or you'll suddenly have a Soul Gain Prevention Duration again.

• 20% Priest of Yaomac (Ascendancy Notable) - From the new Chaos Bloodline.

• Best percentage possible -> 40% to regain Vaal Souls on Use

Using Rage for Vaal attack skills and how to reduce Rage costs

Through the Hateforge gloves, we can convert the Soul cost of Vaal skills into a Rage cost. On one hand, this sadly converts the base Soul cost, before Less modifiers to Soul costs apply. On the other hand, Rage is a normal resource and thus is affected by generic reduced/increased/more/less modifiers to costs.

• 10-25% Hateforge (Gloves) - Needed for the Rage version of the build.

• 3% Life and Reduced Cost (Minor Passive) - 3 on the passive tree, as part of the Tireless wheel.

• 6% Tireless (Notable Passive) - Located between the Marauder and Templar areas.

• 20% Savage Intensity (Notable Passive) - Located between the Duelist and Marauder areas. Requires at least 20 Rage to take effect.

• Best percentage possible -> 60% reduced Rage cost of Attack Skills

How to gain Rage

I didn't include all the ways to gain Rage for a build like this. Only the ones I found suitable enough. (If you know a good set-up, please write it in the comments.)

• Gain X Rage on Melee Hit. All sources of Rage gain on hit are combined into one source. There is a shared cooldown preventing you from generating Rage on Hit from more than one hit every 0.5 seconds. If your Rage gain on hit is higher than your skill costs, you can sustain Rage indefinitely.

• Autoexertion set-up with enough Warcries to complement Rage gain on hit.

  • Rage Mastery "Warcries grant 1 Rage per 5 Enemy Power, up to 5"

  • Warcry Mastery "Warcries have a minimum of 10 Power"

• The Vengeful Cry set-up can be used at-will to increase maximum Rage and gain Rage generation. Very button intensive, but also the most consistent option, if gain on hit is not sufficient. Risky as you need to calculate a lower chaos resistances carefully and can't just have high chaos resistance. Can benefit from Runegraft of Bellows and Warcry Speed / Duration. Video explanation by Surgeon General / u/HolesHaveFeelingsToo.

  • Vengeful Cry socketed in an off-hand Redblade Banner.

  • Forbidden Rite socketed in an off-hand Al Dhih or weapon of your choice.

    • Weapon swap to your off-hand.

    • Cast Forbidden Rite, dealing yourself a Savage Hit.

    • Cast Vengeful Cry, gaining 15 Rage per second for a duration.

    • Weapon swap to your main-hand.

• Any of the following Chains of Emancipation set-ups should work to quickly grant Rage up to your maximum every now and then. Reddit explanation + example video. Useful if you want this passively, but has the downside of being inconsistent.

  • Chains of Emancipation + Temporal Chains + Witchbane + Rotblood Promise

  • Chains of Emancipation + Temporal Chains + Witchbane + Shackles of the Wretched

  • Chains of Emancipation + Temporal Chains + Witchbane + The Arkhon's Tools + Profane Proxy

Basic example set-up PoB and thank you for reading :)

I hope this information is helpful to someone.

https://pobb.in/Tp1KU17oUMVb

You need to import this build. pobb can't show the relevant stats, they are hidden within the calculations tab.

TL;DR:

Compilation of information to enable Vaal skills as main skills. If you know a set-up that let's you use a specific (or several) Vaal gem as a main skill, please leave it in the comments :)