[Build] RF + Flame Surge + Doon Cuebiyari Marauder

1.2.4e / 12/9/14: Semi-update and TENTATIVE skill tree:
So, some hype for anyone who enjoyed this tree and maybe tried this build for themselves...

Since the last time I posted in this thread, I've made a few changes. I dropped Three Dragons for Alpha's Howl, shuffled a few gems around to run Clarity on Blood Magic and swapped the Blood Magic gem in my Flame Surge for Fire Penetration. I also upgraded a few pieces of equipment and dropped Vitality. My current tooltip DPS for Flame Surge is 23,939.8. Keep in mind that this can no longer shock, but comes with Fire Penetration.

Initially I thought 1.3 would make my build unmakeable. However, taking a second look at the tree, I think I've managed to make the build slightly better than before. Yes the regen is slightly lower, but I believe that with this tree I will be able to run an empowered Purity of Fire in my Alpha's for a total of 90% fire res (up from 89%). The PoEBuilder link to my tentative tree is here. It gets not only the same reservation as my current (not listed) build, as well as the mana cost + life cluster. So Flame Surge should be easier to spam, I might overall have better regen, there's an ele cluster up by Templar start... Long story short I have a good feeling about this.

If I'm wrong, and it fails, I have another Marauder of a similar level who I will make into a plain Doon/RF Marauder similar to those that were popular just before the snapshot fix (but with the addition of Doon obviously).

Feel free to take a look and see if I'm missing anything. Best of luck on your 1.3 builds!

~~END NEW CONTENT~~

**LAST UPDATED 10/5/14 █ CURRENT PATCH 1.2.3**

This is similar to a build I did on ambush, but with the addition of Doon Cuebiyari (idea borrowed from this thread).

The Synergies

So first, there's Righteous Fire.

Righteous Fire does four important things:
1: It deals damage to nearby enemies based on your maximum life/ES.
2: It gives the burning status to nearby enemies.
3: It provides a more mod to your spell damage.
4: Scales with AoE and area damage.

Then there's Flame Surge.

Now it's pretty obvious that Flame Surge was created with Righteous Fire in mind (and I believe the devs have been quoted as saying this). Things to note about Flame Surge include:
1: It is a spell, and thus gets the more damage mod from having Righteous Fire activated.
2: It deals 50% more damage to burning enemies.
3: It scales with AoE and area damage like Righteous Fire.
4: It cannot ignite.

Then there's Doon Cuebiyari.

Doon Cuebiyari is an interesting weapon in that it provides a way to increase all of your damage by stacking high amounts of strength. This then further increases the damage done by Righteous Fire, as two points of strength add one base point of HP, which is then modified by your tree and any equipment.

Finally, there's The Three Dragons.

The Three Dragons allows your fire damage from Flame Surge to shock. Shock causes enemies to take 50% increased damage from all sources, which in this case means both your Flame Surge and your Righteous Fire. This comes at no loss, since Righteous Fire doesn't technically ignite (it burns, but does not ignite), and Flame Surge cannot ignite anyway.


The Build

Main Site
PoeBuilder

101 Points Spent
209% Current Maximum Life (with the Scion Wheel mostly open)
13.3% of Life Regenerated per Second
26% Increased Effect of Buffs (yes this increases the amount RF burns you for, but it also increases the effect of your two auras and RF's spell damage boost)
Iron Reflexes and Unwavering Stance
+1 Maximum Fire Resistance


The Gear

Required

RotP is essential to almost any RF build. +8 max fire res is nothing to scoff at.


Doon Cuebiyari is central to the idea this build is based off of. At my current 837 strength, it gives me 104% increased damage + the 10% implicit. This is more than a max rolled Doryani's Catalyst, and Doon has better cast speed (15-18% vs. Catalyst's 6-10%). Doryani's only advantage is the leech which is admittedly nothing to scoff at.


Optional (everything else I currently use)


Though The Three Dragons was the item my initial ambush build was based on, the changes to shock make it slightly less appealing than it used to be. Prior to 1.2, shock was IMO a superior way to boost RF damage compared to the more often used elemental equilibrium + cyclone method. Now, however, I wouldn't even bother recommending The Three Dragons unless you're specifically building around Flame Surge.


Carcass Jack is a pretty obvious choice. AoE radius, area damage, life, energy shield and even some resistances. 6L can be swapped for a 5L provided you either A: enable the build to be run without Blood Magic or B: Drop The Three Dragons and thus the Q20 Added Lightning Damage.


Strength is damage, strength is life, life is more damage, you get the idea.


Global damage, strength and all resistances. Quite a nice ring.


These boots? They're insane. These boots give me 128 strength, 198 life and 1719 tooltip DPS with Righteous Fire active. Keep in mind that that tooltip DPS is before the 50% more modifier Flame Surge gets when used against a burning target.


Are there any fire builds that wouldn't use this belt, save for totem/trap/minion builds? Armor, damage, resistances and elemental leech. Good stuff.



This brings us to the only two rares I use in this build, which are solely there for filling resistances and adding to my life and strength totals. The armor on the gloves is nice too, but could be better. The ring could in theory get an ES roll to increase my RF damage but that would require a lucky exalt, an eternal exalt, or the sacrificing of the 7 strength craft (which eventually I'll turn up to 11).

Flasks are mostly preference. I personally carry these
though at some point I plan on incorporating a dousing flask into the build, probably a seething divine life of dousing, as a replacement for the ruby of staunching.


Suggested Experiments
-- Alpha's Howl
Alpha's Howl would improve this build's somewhat lacking defenses at the cost of being able to shock enemies. I currently only have 8k armor, which is slightly lacking. Switching my Added Lightning Damage gem (which would be nearly useless without Three Dragons) with a level 17 Faster Casting increases my tooltip DPS by about 2500.
Clarity (Semi-Fail)

With my current build, if I drop Vitality (which does not cause me to degen) and run Clarity on blood magic, I can sustain my current RF on mana. However, this does little good as I run out of mana when I add Fire Penetration in the newly opened link. I may be able to take a few mana nodes or cost nodes and see if I can do this. Applicable nodes are the Dynamo cluster (max mana and mana cost), the Mental Fortitude cluster (reduced cost and enemies cannot leech mana) and the Prestidigitation node (6% Cast Speed, 20% increased mana regen rate, requires passage through a 7% reduced mana cost node).
After swapping out Blood Magic with Fire Penetration, I did not have full sustain with any of the following: Prestidigitation / Mental Fortitude Cluster / Dynamo Cluster / Dynamo Cluster + One 5% Reduced Mana Cost node from Mental Fortitude Cluster. You could probably do it with a few more points but I am happy enough with my DPS as is that I don't want to drop 5-6 points for fire pen. HOWEVER, this is probably the easiest way to run your Flame Surge on a 5L.


Links

Increased Burning Damage / Righteous Fire / Concentrated Effect / Increased Area of Effect (RBBB)
Standard RF setup.

Blood Magic / Iron Will / Flame Surge / Concentrated Effect / Spell Echo / Added Lightning Damage (RRBBBB)
The reduced AoE from Concentrated Effect doesn't matter, as you want to hit things in your RF range anyway, and conc adds a lot of DPS. Added Lightning Damage with quality grants flat chance to shock. Since your shock duration is now based on how much fire damage you do, you get significant shocks against bosses with this. Iron Will is there because of the high strength this build has. As stated before, the easiest things to drop for a 5L are either added lightning (in which case drop the Three Dragons for an Alpha's Howl) or Blood Magic.

Blood Magic / Elemental Weakness (RB)
Elemental weakness is strictly better than flammability, since quality on elemental weakness grants further elemental resistance penalties, whereas flammability only adds ignite duration.

Molten Shell / Cast When Damage Taken / Life Leech (RRR)
Put these in your Doon Cuebiyari. The classic Enduring Cry / Immortal Call would work too, but Molten Shell takes full advantage of the inherent Iron Will in the scepter.

Purity of Fire / Vitality / Reduced Mana / Grace (RRRG)
Grace gives flat armor with Iron Reflexes, Vitality gives HP regen, and purity of fire gives important max fire res. Vitality isn't entirely necessary as I don't degen without it, so in theory you could run a different purity or Herald of Ice if you really wanted to.


Leveling: I don't know. I got to where I am with a free respec (Your character was created 516 days, 5 hours, 9 minutes and 8 seconds ago).
Bandits: Oak / Passive / Passive, or possibly all three passives. I haven't experimented because I don't have the currency to waste. Since this was originally an EK char, it's actually got Oak / Oak / Passive currently, so if you were to recreate this build you'd have one extra passive.

Some stats (in Eternal Lab with RF, Purity of Fire and Vitality active)
Life: 5539 (recently dropped 5-6 life nodes to grab Iron Reflexes. This will correct itself in a few levels)
Strength: 837
Tooltip Flame Surge DPS: 19,162.2
Resistances: 89(148) / 75(91) / 75(102)
Armor: 7995

Videos may come if interest is expressed but they won't be that great quality, as I don't own any recording software and I have no experience getting it to work.
Aura Reservation Calculator: https://poe.mikelat.com/
Chromatic Calculator: http://siveran.github.io/calc.html
Tired of using GGG's crappy skill planner? Tell them here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1555283
Last edited by MosesXIII on Dec 9, 2014, 6:27:11 PM
Questions? Comments? Rate my build?
Aura Reservation Calculator: https://poe.mikelat.com/
Chromatic Calculator: http://siveran.github.io/calc.html
Tired of using GGG's crappy skill planner? Tell them here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1555283
One more bump.
Aura Reservation Calculator: https://poe.mikelat.com/
Chromatic Calculator: http://siveran.github.io/calc.html
Tired of using GGG's crappy skill planner? Tell them here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1555283
Thanks for sharing the build gonna try this with one of my free respecs.
IGN: Cirandyl
Updated to reflect a tree reroute and upgrades to my gear.
Aura Reservation Calculator: https://poe.mikelat.com/
Chromatic Calculator: http://siveran.github.io/calc.html
Tired of using GGG's crappy skill planner? Tell them here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1555283
Last edited by MosesXIII on Oct 5, 2014, 10:34:00 AM
How does this compare to dual curse elemental equilibrium and rf?

Currently I run dual curse with cyclone to apply and trigger EE with lightning dmg on a ring.

I been thinking of making the switch to something like this.
I've never actually played a "standard" RF build, but pre-1.2, with the existence of shock stacks I could almost 100% guarantee this was a stronger build. Static blows was closer and IIRC was a higher shock chance, so bosses regularly were shocked all to hell.

Afterwards? I am still inclined to say yes. I still burn through trash without having to use flame surge for the most part. Despite not having the -39 enemy resistance of flammability, the shock from flame surge provides a 50% increased damage mod, and you're also getting the actual extra DPS of flame surge (19k tooltip, as said in the OP, which gets a 50% more mod to become ~28.5k DPS against any enemy in my RF range).
Aura Reservation Calculator: https://poe.mikelat.com/
Chromatic Calculator: http://siveran.github.io/calc.html
Tired of using GGG's crappy skill planner? Tell them here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1555283
looks like only big diff between my tree and yours is i took all the life nodes by scion. I might pull the stuff out of my 5L chest and try this for awhile. If I get a chance I can give you a comparison if you like, at least at how it is in my experience. Heck this might be a good option to switch to for curse immune maps for me :D.
I'd be quite interested in that comparison. Good luck and let me know how it goes. :)
Aura Reservation Calculator: https://poe.mikelat.com/
Chromatic Calculator: http://siveran.github.io/calc.html
Tired of using GGG's crappy skill planner? Tell them here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1555283
Do you any experience running Atziri/Apex of Sacrifice or Uber Atziri with this build? Also do you believe it's possible to fit notable amounts of mf without losing too much damage?
IGN: Swaddles , Swadchan

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