- = [ 1.2 Beyond ] Righteous Fire Discharger = -

I attempted to harness all the power that various fire skills offer and honed them together into what I believe to be a very powerful contender. Although there is a variety of things going on with this build, the focus is primarily on the intertwining of two very famous builds: Burning discharge, and Righteous fire.

Righteous Fire has been used in the past in one of two ways: Either in high-life characters which attempt to burn mobs down through degeneration, or as a significant amplifier to spell damage.

I ask: Why not both?

Discharge has long had the drawback of struggling against reflected damage. A popular solution has been to spec into Vaal Pact for quite some time, but I've opted for the alternative of high resists. Given that all non-crit Discharge builds utilize fire damage for the burn, and granted the comodity of Fire being the easiest element to obtain a high resistance value for, I am rather surprised this alternative had not been experimented with before. Burning discharge builds had disappeared for a while due to gem rule changes which prevented them from amassing endurance charges with ease, luckily, spell echo has brought that possibility back into the table.

So what do you end up with?

A high-life character, with high resistance values, wearing primarily armour-based gear, casting an amplified version of a fast-clearing AoE spell that at the same time melts foes within its vicinity, while at the same time avoiding most if not all of the dreaded character killers:

Lightning Thorns? - You land only one large hit.
Corrupting Blood? - You land only one large hit. And have high life regeneration.
Puncture? - You have high life regeneration.
Reflect? - Your fire resistance reaches a peak of 97%
Physical Burst? - You wear a shield, primarily armour gear, and have a large health pool.

The icing on top of the cake is the use of Immortal Call.

So you've heard it all about burning packs of mobs from afar, melting mobs near you, but are still worried about holding your own ground in a one-on-one situation? I've got you covered: Flame Surge. Not only the hardest-hitting spell, but also benefiting from -you guessed it- mobs being on fire. So, even if the ignite from your Discharge has dissipated, they will still be burning from being near you.

I'm honestly not the best/fastest at leveling, but this is how I'd start:


Once you reach level ~53, and if you have spell echo for enduring cry, you can start using Discharge. Remember to carry 1x ruby flask with you in case you find yourself facing reflect:


You can then either wait until level ~73 and fill the gaps until you can sustain Righteous Fire:

Or refund some points and spec into more life regen once you have a Rise of the Phoenix. The earliest possible way to sustain is at 65:

I unfortunately ripped to a lag spike (oh the joys of living in a shithole!) which rendered me unable to obtain higher tiers of gear. All my linked gear is obtainable with approximately 2 exalts. Doon Cuebiyari and Doryani's Catalyst/Invitation are obvious upgrades.

The gem setup is not set on stone. I often found myself considering taking Discharge into a 4-link, and carrying Flame Surge in my 5-link. However, I found myself limited by my mana, which caused me to opt for the current setup, so there is definitely room for improvement. Iron Will might come off as a weird choice, but given the mana I can dispose of, the lack of a multiplier on Iron Will, and my 350+ strength count, it's not a bad choice at all! Specially so since it favours the layers of multiplication with Righteous Fire. ((Base*Increased)*More)

I ran some numbers, and the results seem to suggest that the following is the order of priorities:

Discharge -> Ignite -> Proliferate -> Iron Will/Fire Pen -> Burning

Here's the math:


As far as Flame Surge goes, my testing has been limited by my mana regen, which is why it feels correct as a 4 link. If I were to aim for a fully linked Flame Surge, I'd go with something along these lines:

Flame Surge -> Iron Will -> Fire Pen -> Conc. Effect -> Faster Casting -> Spell Echo

*Keep in mind that you might be bound to use Life Leech in one of your slots*

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEAxthYY1BQLv-iD18_458nL-8OvJ-krPIvqBhUSWoe0iGezVcNpzDZYZHOAecUcRQgGS426A48A8ZQRyftZKOfywYOGJH8S8T2GlVj_WwWPQ88LWEhCfaHGSSLxq6E7xLhfLscp7c-dO062MWKDF9Bh_4Keu_sOC3S8B9Tpfno8kXYvWBLKU8aOASzogBodDrhNZIFLeQigpunhBRNAnHaYqZX_o_EWBpskFWDOJSgTeMn1Z2uFm_vfBJpJKo8BRccNumf33F542qLjAVb4XPtIEbXxBU=

Normal - Help Oak
Cruel - Kill All
Merciless - Help Oak

Waste Pool (level 72 map): http://youtu.be/_SGZnWiE-hY
Promenade (level 69 map): http://youtu.be/MrHXJMZ-TaM
Villa (level 70 map): http://youtu.be/bLhXNdUT7m0

The base duration of ignite is 4 seconds. The burning damage over time is 20% of the initial hit of fire damage, per second. Therefore, over the base duration the target will take 80% of the damage dealt by the original hit

An approximation of 350 strength results in 70% increased spell damage.

((1250 base *(100 fire +50 spell +70 will))* 55 more.)* 35 flammability
((1250*3.2)*1.55)*1.35
-> 8,370 initial hit
((80% of 8,370 ignite) * (100 fire + 75 burn)) * 35 flammability
(6696*2.75)*1.35
--> 24,858 burn over 4 seconds.

Mobs with 0 fire resist would normally take 100% damage, these will now take 135% of original damage. Fire Penetration is more effective than regular spell increases against fire-resistant mobs given that 50 fire resist mobs would take 50% damage normally, but when lowered to 15 resist would take 85%. This represents an increase of 170% damage.

((1250 base *(100 fire +50 spell))* 55 more) * (35 fire penetration + 35 flammability)
((1250*2.5)*1.55)*1.7
-> 8,235 initial hit
((80% of 8,235) * (100 fire + 75 burn)) * 35 flammability
(6587*2.75)*1.35
--> 24,457 burn over 4 seconds.

((1250 base *(100 fire +50 spell))* 55 more) * 35 fire penetration
((1250*2.5)*1.55)*1.35
-> 6,539 initial hit
((80% of 6,539) * (100 fire + 75 burn + 60 increased burning)) * 35 flammability
(5231*3.35)*1.35
--> 23,658 burn over 4 seconds.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEAxthYY1BQLv-iD18_458nL-8OvJ-krPIvqBhUSWoe0iGezVcNpzDZYRRxFCAZLg48378DxlBHJ-2fywYOGJH8S8T2Y_1sFsQVPQ8J9ocZffUki3y7OtjsOClPGjjkIoKbp4QabJBVna4WbxJpJKoXHDbpcXnjag==
Use Flameblast, Fire Trap, Searing Bond and/or Flame Surge. You can pick up ancestral bond if that's how you want to level, or grab dex nodes for fire trap, or just int for flameblast.

You can either use clarity and start branching upwards, or head straight down for blood magic, unwavering stance, and fire damage first.

I personally got blood magic and unwavering stance first, but that's just because I hate using mana flasks, and being immune to stuns is very good to cover up for bad gear and to reduce desyncs.