[1.3.X MIJOTHY'S SHOCKING RF INCINERATOR - 200k+ DPS, 10k Fire Pen Tooltip (LMP), Shocks all bosses*
 Shocking level 77 Zana Palace Dominus second form, without cursing. Video of character shocking merciless dominus
DPS
1.3 tooltip  1.2.x tooltip  3 Streams at 9.4k Per Stream, 300% More Multi from 3 stacks, 50% More Multi from shock, not taking penetration into account, assuming all three streams hit. 9400*3*4*1.5 = 169,200 pre-curse and pre-penetration DPS. (Calculations are based on 1.2 stats as I don't have time to update much, but the only difference in 1.3 is the loss of 9% curse effectiveness and optional 20% shock duration but about 10% gain on tooltip DPS and 1% penetration) If we assume a monster has -40% fire res already (i.e. a situation in which fire penetration has the least value, and which we can think of as a 0% fire res monster cursed with elemental weakness), with 37% penetration (Level 20 gem + Heart of flame) this number rises to 213,917 DPS If we assume a monster has 30% fire res (e.g. a 70% monster cursed with elemental weakness, or a generic resistant mob), then the 167,400 DPS becomes 253,800 DPS, not taking into account the fact that we have cursed with ele weakness. If we factor the fact that we are cursing elemental weakness 20/20 with 20/20 curse on hit, then we are effectively reducing 70% res down to 14%, which we then further penetrate by 37%, taking the enemy down from 70% to -23%. Our 167,400 DPS becomes an overly inflated, artificial and meaningless 686,340 DPS (I think) So although the tooltip might not be the best, we get full efficiency with fire pen and elemental curses, something that added chaos (the largest tooltip alternative) doesn't benefit from. The collection of damage all under the fire element lets us shock anything we come against, even shocking 77/78 map bosses while being able to curse enfeeble. If we want to, we can also boast about our massive optimal-scenario DPS if we want to be annoying Concept The aim of this build is not necessarily to come up with anything completely original, but rather bring together a number of pre-existing ideas in a complementary and novel way. It aims to address what I consider the major flaw in many 3 Dragons [incinerate] builds. They aren't able to meaningfully shock enemies - by that I mean the fire damage output is insufficient to reliably shock endgame heavy rares and bosses. This build also aims to use shock to boost leech, RF damage, and to proc Herald of Thunder in a curse setup, which, coupled with our significant survivability, allows us to run on autopilot in endgame maps. Skip to the end for a pros/cons list, screenshots, gameplay footage and an FAQ. The three key ideas used in this build are Righteous Fire Incinerate, The Three Dragons and Fire Damage scaling through elemental conversion. Righteous Fire Incinerate needs no partciularly detailed explanation - it was featured in the most recent build of the week and is an relatively old concept. Righteous Fire provides a significant damage boost to spells, a 59% 'More' multiplier and a 15% 'increased' spell damage boost at 20/20. This comes alongside a relatively powerful degen effect on both the user and nearby enemies. Hence, building a Righteous Fire caster tends to mean that considerable passive investment is required in order to counteract the degen effect, passives which could otherwise be spent on damage/survivability nodes if the RF route is not taken. On the other hand, if one can sustain RF, then they are already a relatively tanky character. The RF spell damage boost more than makes up for the passive point 'loss'. Incinerate is a suitable partner with RF as it is a fire spell that requires relative tankiness owing to its stationary nature, and as it cannot crit, scaling spell/elemental damage or cast speed is the route to boosting its potency. The Three Dragons has been used in a number of powerful builds since its inception - a previous build of the week used The Three Dragons with incinerate, and a more recent Crit Bow Burn Proliferation build also showcased its power. Why this helm is interesting to us is because it allows fire damage to shock, while preventing it from igniting (which we have no desire for). So why is the third key idea used in this build? The problem with using incinerate with The Three Dragons is that incinerate is a spell which hits relatively weakly, but very quickly. To understand why this is a problem, I will need to explain a little how shock works in this game.
Shock
Shock is a status effect which causes the affected agent to take 50% more damage from all sources. It multiplies all incoming damage by 1.5. In order to apply shock, three checks need to be passed. 1. The damage source must be one capable of shocking. This means it must be lightning damage that can crit or that is accompanied by % chance to shock, or, with The Three Dragons, it must be fire damage that can crit or is accompanied by % chance to shock. 2. The damage must crit or roll positively on the chance to shock. 3. The duration of the shock must be greater than or equal to 0.3 seconds, otherwise it won't apply. Shock duration is a function of the damage dealt by the potentially shocking hit. The most important check that must be passed in our case in shocking an enemy, then, is the third - the damage dealt by the potentially shocking hit must be such that it causes a shock of greater than or equal to 0.3 seconds. Because incinerate is a relatively low-power but fast hitting spell, achieving this duration can be difficult without investment into scaling fire damage. Shock duration nodes help, by essentially lowering the duration threshold required for shocking. Three Dragons incinerate builds, can, on the whole shock whites and blues, but tend to have trouble shocking heavier rares and map bosses, particularly once level 75+ maps are being run. This is where I consider such builds to be wasting resources. If the only enemies you can shock are ones with HP so low that they would die in under a second anyway, then building for shock is pointless. Shock is most important when dealing with heavy enemies that are tough to shock. Shocking a map boss is meaningful - they take more than a few seconds to die, so a 50% decrease in your time to kill is significant. Not only does shock allow you to leech more life off them, but it also goes some way to negating their offence as they die faster. At this point, you might be wondering why I think Three Dragons incinerate builds generally fail to shock heavies, despite their popularity and the common belief that they can do so. I could refer to my experiences playing them, but more convincing is a video of merciless dominus failing to be meaningfully shocked by top-end incinerate fire damage (323-484 tooltip fire damage, + fire pen). So the task is apparent - we must find a way to scale incinerate fire damage to such an extent that shocking map bosses, heavy rares and so on is as close to guaranteed as possible. We do this through damage conversion. This can be done in two ways, but the way I prefer is to use the Cold-To-Fire gem, which converts 50% of cold damage into fire damage, and adds a further 29% of cold damage as fire damage, alongside the keystone passive Avatar of Fire, which converts the rest of our cold damage to fire damage. We then use two gems to obtain a decent amount of cold damage which can be processed through this mechanism - Herald of Ice and Added Cold Damage. These two gems, once processed through the conversion method above, add between 3000 and 4000 damage to our LMP Incinerate Tooltip. With this conversion, we are able to shock any (shockable) boss in the game. Furthermore, even not taking the shock into account, the damage boost we get from this conversion is very large and competitive with other setups from a purely tooltip perspective. Furthermore, all of our damage is lumped together as fire, so penetration and elemental resistance weakening is fully efficient.
Pyre
We could use the pyre method, which requires us to give up a ring slot but compensates us with a gem slot. This is certainly a possibility, as pyre gives decent resists and increases our RF damage. However, this is far from optimal once we have a 6l, and even with a 5l the loss of the 29% Cold-added-as-fire from the gem is noticeable. It is an option, and perhaps competitive when using a 5l.
---- Anyway, onto the guide proper.
Trees,Bandits
NecessaryItems
The Rise of the Phoenix grants us, primarily, 8% maximum fire res which is required for us to be able to sustain Righteous Fire. The Three Dragons grants our fire damage the ability to shock, which, when combined with our scaling of fire damage to high levels, gives us a more-or-less permanent 50% 'more' multiplier on our damage output. The +1 Max Resistances corruption on this piece frees up valuable passive points for us to be able to sustain RF while still being able to invest passives into damage/survivability nodes. The amulet itself is powerful for the build - it gives us damage (through cast speed), more mana to help us have enough spare for using incinerate, and 50% block chance as spell block, which is huge. It is possible to run the build without the 1% corruption, but this comes at the cost of 4 passive points (as we need to get Warrior's Blood near the Marauder's starting area). The stats of note here are the -8 mana cost of skills - as we aren't running clarity and have very little mana left after auras, -16 mana cost of skills allows us to sustain LMP Incinerate without investing passives points into mana regeneration and maximum mana. This piece grants us significant survivability, and as we run purity of lightning with a number of increased aura effectiveness nodes, the downside of -60% lightning res is cancelled out. We will also need about 50 or so dex from gear to cover gem requirements. On top of these items, we need a few skill gems - Purity of Fire 20, Purity of Lightning 20, Vitality 20, Righteous fire, Incinerate, Herald of Thunder and Herald of Ice, and three level 20 reduced mana gems
Links
Main Skill Incinerate - Spell Echo - L/GMP - Fire Penetration - Added Cold Damage - Cold-To-Fire Righteous Fire Righteous Fire - Increased AoE - Increased Burning Damage Curse Setup Reduced Mana (20) - Herald of Thunder - Curse on Hit - Elemental Weakness/Enfeeble Defensive Auras Reduced Mana (20) - Purity of Fire (20) - Purity of Lightning (20) - Vitality (20) Offensive Aura/Spare Gem slot Reduced Mana (20) - Herald of Ice - (Lightning Warp) CWDT setup CWDT (3) - Enduring Cry (6) - Increased Duration - Immortal Call (5) ----
ExampleGear
Sometimes I'll swap in a lightning flask with additional armour rolled on it in place of one of the quicksilvers.
Screenshots
1.3 Incinerate Tooltip with Fire Pen Defences without flasks  Shocking level 77 Zana Palace Dominus second form, without cursing 
Videos
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Pros
+Very high damage output: Righteous Fire and 9k fire pen LMP tooltip incinerate, coupled with reliable shocking of all enemies and automatic cursing. +Great survivability: 92/76/83 Res, Lightning Coil + 15% Phys reduc from Armour, 70/71 Block/spellblock with Rumi's up (and it's effectively always up when needed), cannot be stunned, chain mini-stuns through shocking enemies, 2% ele leech. +Fast Clearspeed: We can comfortably run 2 Quicksilvers, letting movespeed be less of a bottleneck than it would be otherwise. Our survivability lets us pop boxes unid and sit in the middle of the fray, allowing us to clear spaces with extreme speed. +Shock Utility: Boosts party damage, does mini-stuns on non-boss enemies, gives us 100% herald of thunder uptime in clears, which provides us with extra damage to deal with stragglers and curses everything around us for even more damage/survivability (+Hardly ever needs to use flasks)
Cons
-Shocked ground and vulnerability are annoying, as they increase RF's degen effect. -Freeze: though I haven't been frozen in a while, running a defreeze flask is an option if one wants to play it safe -Somewhat expensive: 20 vit/PoF, RoTF, +1 Max Res Lazhwar, 2 elreon rings (more tedious than expensive), Rumi's. On the other hand, the build scales extremely well with investment. -Map Mods: Blood Magic is a no-go, as is no regen. Half-regen and -max is doable without turning on RF (i.e. at the cost of damage). Regardless, map mods are hardly a problem on the whole anyway, as one can either roll past them or trade them.
Credits
FAQ
Q: Why LMP? GMP gives more shotgun damage, and if stuff dies so quickly anyway, isn't AOE coverage superior? A: In short, yes. However, there isn't enough mana regen/leftover mana to run GMP, unless we want to take more reduced skill cost nodes. Also, until the character is fully developed, we need the higher stream damage of LMP to shock endgame heavies reliably Q: Atziri? A: Yes, ezpz Q: Why avatar of fire? A: It gives us more damage than if we didn't have it (not counting shock), but denies us the use of Atziri's Promise. This isn't much of a loss as stuff dies quickly enough that we don't need to waste a flask slot on more dps. Q:I can't sustain RF, help! A:Your tree regen should equal or be greater than what is in the IFV20 column if you have vitality 20, or the IFV21 column if you have 21 on this chart. Ensure you have all the buff/aura effect nodes that I do on the tree (including athleticism and inner force). Orange is for if you don't have a +1 max res amulet, and green is if you do, as is recommended.  Q: Shocks all bosses*? Why the asterisk? A: Some bosses are unshockable - Atziri and her uber form, by their nature, cannot be shocked.
Spoiler
More videos and more details to be added to when I feel less tired. Of course if I'm wrong about general 3d Incinerate builds, evidence to prove it is welcome - videos of 75+ map bosses being shocked in particular. Any questions or comments please ask away - I'm open to all feedback. Last edited by MIJOTHY on Dec 16, 2014, 10:47:45 AM
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Nice Guide!
I am doing something similar on some accounts on others its quite different. Essentially i don't do shock but stuck more cast speed and aura effect and alphas. In the end i have similar life slightly higher res, i can run aa at least l20 and 20% inc proj speed in tree, but you have more spellblock with rumis and slightly more dps due to shock and pen on all dmg even though i have more tooltip. Different take similar results :) Btw I think dmg support in rf is pretty useless on this build, since it does only dmg in shotgun range of incinerate and is there only a negligible addition. I would empower and enhance it to buff the main attack, it should be a bit better. My aura take
Tree
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMABAcI9AxfDH0NfA-rEFgQfxXnFr8XLxmKGo8cpxzcHaofAiSwJpUn7Sj6LJwtHy1HLYMvbzI0Nuk8LUGHRKtFfEWdRnFMs1BCUzVTUlOlVUtVrlXGVdZXyVnzXyph4mTnZp5odGpDaxdsFnC7c7N_xoCkghCCHoLHgwmD24bRhxmHZYw2j6aQVZMnlSCXBpeXmuCbtaKjp4Ssqq-3tAy3PrvjvOrAGsBUwcXB88SixPbGnsau2L3ZE9sL34rfsOGI42rquuvk6-7sGPBr9tr56PrS-wn8S_4K_ro=
Gear
Screenshots
Offence If my math is not completely wrong, i should have 13.6k tooltip with L20 incinerate, ice and thunder and even slightly more with q on ice and thunder This is slightly lower then yours with shock but you also have better pen since roughly 4.5k of my dmg does not have a pen. Screenshot is with l17 incinerate l16/0 herald of thunder and l19/0 herald of ice.  Defence  Last edited by lord_leto on Oct 27, 2014, 4:51:11 AM
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Thanks for the reply.
Funnily enough I was thinking of making an RF Lightning Tendrils char with a relatively similar tree, so I can understand a lot of your choices. In particular going the shadow/ranger route for the extra aura effectiveness rather than the bottom-left marauder route, and also using an alpha's for the extra 2% max res. I actually levelled with an alphas until I thought about trying the 3D route, and it was certainly powerful. With respect to RF's damage, I've tried 3 empower and it adds about 120 tooltip which translates into pretty measly 2160 non-pen shotgun DPS. Having said that, I think you're right that it's better than the burning damage support gem. Even though righteous fire actually does a considerable amount of DPS according to this calculator, enough for me to notice it burning down enemies behind me, empower beats it in terms of overall damage output. According to the calculator, it does 9k DPS to a 35% fire resistant, shocked mob. The increased burning damage gem is responsible for 1200 of that damage. So swapping out increased burning damage for L3 empower would give me roughly an extra 1k overall damage. Thanks for pointing that out! Being able to run that level of AA with an LC is pretty impressive. Personally I haven't found phys damage to be at all an issue but I imagine that there are situations in which it trivialises content - one in particular I imagine would be the Atziri trio after killing the spikes thing first, could swap in an anvil and get a constant source of healing. Naturally, fire damage isn't really an issue for RF builds. I suppose the main defensive difference then between our builds is 20 AA vs 75% block as spell block (34/26 without rumis, 70/71 with). In situations with a lot of small hits, AA is probably better than my not amazing unflasked block, but in situations with a few hard hits/1HKOs, (spell)block takes the cake. Again though, both competitive choices and you get movespeed too. One major thing I was worried about (owing to the build's relatively stationary nature for damage output) was stun - do you find it to be a problem at all, or is practical casting + heart of oak sufficient to avoid stuns? Even more intriguing is that you've also opted out of a CWDT-IC setup - was it not doing much for you? Overall, impressive character - I haven't seen too many incinerators with over 10k tooltip with fire pen, especially without fully levelled gems. -- Updated OP to reflect new stats with empower linked to RF, and crafted 2nd elreon ring -- Last edited by MIJOTHY on Oct 27, 2014, 12:28:54 PM
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Thanks for your thoughts.
I respeced the char 4 days ago (was rf arc/surge before), it is def a work in process. So I am not clear on all the choices. With regards to CWDT setup, its one of the things i am not completely decided on. I didnt not seem to need it on arc/surge setup. But here we will see. I could remove Vaal Molten and Enfeeble for it. But before trying to color es boots in 4R or at least 3R i thought to try out without. Vaal Molten is incredibly powerfull (15k explosion and 18 sec dur), i have to test this on the Trio, that is essentially the only situation where i think i might really miss CWDT. On the other hand with Vaal Molten active those guys almost kill themselves just by attacking me. One could also link it to Life Leech to get insane leech for the duration, would need 3R here. Considering stuns. I do have some Evasion and Heart of Oak and with 15 casts/s the ramp up is quite fast. Also in Groups you profit form Grace which many people run. Solo you just kill really fast. If i really feel like this hurts me, still can opt for the cast interruption nodes on witch (with a bonus of 20 dex, but i would still need 7 dex on one of the rings). Also i try to not play very static, so i do move and i do lw around. As you see i even have enhance on aa and rf not emp, but might switch that too. But ask me in few days with more experience on the char. So far i am pleased. Seems solid, does alot of dmg and the only real dangers are corrupting blood and high chaos degen. I actually didnt tried atziri yet after the respec, but from my experience with rf arc/surge i dont see any reason why it should be a problem, since this deals substantially more dmg :) Last thing to mention if i want >70 block, i just need to spec to the 3 flask nodes and id have it with rumis, that seems like a more efficient way then blocknodes. It also buffs resistflask (97 light res with flask and 3 nodes) so i dont really see why i need spellblock on tree. Maybe i spec to flasknodes when i want to run Atziri back to back, for general maping those 3 passive are better spent on life i think. Having said that i see where you are coming from with your corrupted lazhwar. Last edited by lord_leto on Oct 27, 2014, 10:11:48 AM
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Just had a few more thoughts on your take on the build:
When you run PoL, what's your unreserved mana? Why do you feel you need MoM on top of a coil? What's your reasoning behind running AA? To give my 2 cents with regards to your reply, spellblock is a very powerful mechanic that (essentially) reduces all spell incoming damage by 71% during the flask duration, and 26% without. Spending 3 more passives is quite a considerable investment at 91, and there's always an opportunity cost to flasks. Since I often run without a lightning/cold flask, as I prefer to run an extra quicksilver, converting some of my block to spellblock is a more efficient way of passively mitigating spell damage, and making the most out of the one flask slot that rumi's takes up. Furthermore, some endgame bosses have resistance penetration mechanics, while none have block/spellblock mitigation. Since I like being able to run maps on autopilot, just hitting my quicksilver flasks and occasionally rumi's, I find the passive defensive boost of block/spellblock to be more useful than taking flask nodes and having to swap flasks for different situations, then remember which flask is my topaz/jade. But yeah, I suppose it's not of particular importance. Looking forward to hearing your reasoning on the above questions, as the decision to (not) run MoM/AA for me was one I thought a decent amount about. Last edited by MIJOTHY on Oct 28, 2014, 9:04:29 AM
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I always run PoF, PoL, Vit, Clarity, Herald of Thunder. I switch PoI and Herald of Ice situationally. 200 unres with PoI 330 with Herald of Ice. So both setups can be run comfortably. And i can switch then on the run as both gems are green. PoI is not needed most of the time since alpha negates already gives antifreeze. But for Merviel i rather have PoI and slightly less dmg.
I dont run MoM, i dont think i said i do, and there is no way how i could, even if i wanted. AA almost completely negates refl and also helps with phys. If you dont craft elreon rings you need alot manaregen anyway, so AA is almost free in my setup. It also removes any remaining risk in particular situations. I can solo Crema Boss or Igna or Summoner Exile in a 6 man party even without ruby. About spellblock, you have 4 passives, and 2 gear slots invested in it (lazhwar and strides). By having lazhwar you loose a lot manaregen and so you also loose high lvl aa. To make your main attack work you need elreon rings. If you go for manaregen and highlvl aa i dont see how you can make spellblock work. But with flask nodes I can still attain the same normal block as you and higher max res under flask. I always have a ruby and topaz with me anyway and switch between sapphire and quicksilver situationally. Ruby is like a second lifeflask and a good place to have a second bleed remove, so not bad, and i feel you always need a topaz, even with spellblock and without topaz you risk taking alot dmg, since light dmg is very common, especially on bosses. I dont think i need a second quicksilver, since even without one i have 41% mvm speed and an empowered and dur reduced lw. Dmg that penetrates is usually boss dmg which ideally should be completely avoided by manual dodging. If you dont dodge and have spellblock and no flask in 3/4 cases you dont take dmg and 1/4 cases you take a lot dmg (potential oneshot). With flask and no spellblock you certainly take a moderate amount of dmg (mostly no oneshots). By taking flask nodes one can substantially reduce that dmg (ex. 97 vs 94 light res). But in general mapping situations i feel those 3 nodes are not worth the investment. They shine for example if you want to just tank the atziri light storms by topazing. But even here i need to test if 94 res is not just enough. As you said 3 passives are lot. I dont take them at the moment as you can see in tree. I just said i could take them easily if i feel i need them. I think both approaches are viable and i dont see one being much better. But to go your route id need to replace all my jewelry and my boots and it would also be harder then for you since i have a higher castspeed so I still would need more regen then you have. Btw after some thinking i recolored my boots to If need i can put cwdt there. But i really like vaal molten, it shortens bossfights considerably (I think pen is the best support here, with 2% leech it needs to proc only ~3 times per sec to leech cap anyway) | |
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Thanks for the explanation.
I remembered your build incorrectly wrt MoM, so yeah that makes sense. I'll try Vaal molten at some point if I decide to play the character more, it's a pretty decent interesting skill and when I toyed with it a while ago on another char it was very potent in boss fights. Also, imo the recolouring was a good move. I can sympathise with the regen stance - replacing items to the extent that would be required just isn't worth it unless it's for a significant gain, and as we've said, both routes are very competitive and faceroll endgame content. Interesting to have input from someone who has made a similar but different character. I hope I didn't come across as somewhat confrontational - I just like to press others quite hard for the reasoning behind their decisions. Last edited by MIJOTHY on Oct 28, 2014, 1:34:30 PM
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I enjoyed our discussion and decided to do my first video.
Its the third atziri run with this char. Still some mistakes. In the last split some streams attack mirror for example and my health dips considerably. The amount of non fire dmg is quite high. On my first attempt I actually managed to rip by shotgunning the mirror, lesson learned. http://youtu.be/RxOg6lFNbDI I did one run without cwdt. This one is with seems a bit more safe with trio. Flask nodes dont seem to be necessary. Last edited by lord_leto on Oct 28, 2014, 3:54:28 PM
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" Can u explain how u have 93% fire resistance? I understand from ROTP, alpha's, barbarism, and then the aura nodes make u go up to 93%? |
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75% Base max res
+8% Raise of the Phoenix +1% Barbarism +5% Base PoF L23 (21+2 from Alpha's) +4% through 80% increased effect on PoF (26% inc effect of buffs + 54% inc effect of auras) =93% max res for 80% inc check tree in poebuilder https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgMABAcI9AxfDH0NfA-rEFgQfxXnFr8XLxmKGo8cpxzcHaofAiSwJpUn7Sj6LJwtHy1HLYMvbzI0Nuk8LUGHRKtFfEWdRnFMs1BCUzVTUlOlVUtVrlXGVdZXyVnzXyph4mTnZp5odGpDaxdsFnC7c7N_xoCkghCCHoLHgwmD24bRhxmHZYw2j6aQVZMnlSCXBpeXmuCbtaKjp4Ssqq-3tAy3PrvjvOrAGsBUwcXB88SixPbGnsau2L3ZE9sL34rfsOGI42rquuvk6-7sGPBr9tr56PrS-wn8S_4K_ro= |
