What are the best solo + self-found builds out there for HC?

Hey people.

Despite having played PoE on and off since release I've never actually completed merciless or gotten to the map part of the game. The positive side of this is that I've never really gotten "tired" or bored with PoE. In this bloodline league I really want to make my first character that can complete merciless + do all maps as solo self-found only.

Any advice for builds that are best suited for this goal other than summoner?

I'm not really sure what the core survival + DPS requirements are for Atziri etc.
I have no clue what the minimum gear requirements are for doing end-game maps.

I am not looking for builds that are super-specialized and requires X legendary together with Y legendary etc. to be good.

Though I do consider myself a skilled player, there is no doubt that this game is highly gear dependent. So I am looking for builds that manages to circumvent random item luck.

Fire proliferation is extremely strong and nothing was changed for it in 1.3

Fire trap, Flameblast, even Desecrate+Detonate Dead can easily take you to maps with a 3link.

Havoc is running a Flameblast Templar in Bloodlines, you can look for his build, extremely tanky as always and Flameblast is strong enough to carry you to maps without any uniques/gear of any kind.

I think Fire Trap is pretty meh until you get to higher levels. Flame Totem, Shockwave Totem, and Ethereal Knives builds (there's one in my signature) come to mind as good self-found builds.

Everybody seems to praise Flameblast as a leveling build. I haven't tried it, but it's quite popular.

Thanks!

In addition to what's been mentioned already Summon Raging Spirits is also excellent for solo self-found. In the last one week race I got to level 86 as solo self-found with SRS. I made a day-by-post on the Item Showcase section of the forum if you want to take a look: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1112771.