[2.0] Flameblast Solo Map MF'er (20 IIQ, 230-330 IIR)

I've come to the decision that, for the time being at least, I am no longer maintaining this guide.

I don't have time, and there are other goals I want to work on in PoE in preparation for the next challenge league.

Perhaps by 2.1 I'll revisit this, but until then.

----------------

Introduction & Explanation of Changes for The Awakening.

The purpose of this build is for those that don't like to party or do dom runs. While this build is decent for dom, it's by no means the most efficient. This setup is designed specifically for solo map farming with good MF combined with a relatively fast clear speed.

Pros:
- Relatively decent currency-earner. Prolif dead = not as great as it was, but it's still solid.
- Runs any map mod except blood magic and no regen.

Cons:
- Proliferation is dead.
- Not Atziri viable (at least not easily).

Before I go any further, I'm going to explain the 0.5ex/hour in a bit more detail.

The 0.5 ex/hr Explanation
I calculated this number using Standard league exchange rates, roughly listed in the below spoiler. This value was compiled after spending two weeks running nothing but blue maps level 66-70 (and the Zana dailies, 74-77) tracking the net currency over time played, and ONLY includes currency earned from:

- Raw drops
- 6S / chrome vends
- Chaos, gcp and regal recipes

The aforementioned exchange rates
Fuse 42-44:1
Chaos 36-38:1
Gcp 11-13:1
Regret 15-18:1
Vaal 25-27:1
Chrome 220-250:1
Alts based off fuse @ 42:1 (336:1)
Alcs/chisels 90:1


The 0.5ex/hr figure does NOT include ANY sales whatsoever, and will vary at the start of new leagues where exchange rates are closer to 45c:1ex and 70f:1ex, whereupon the exalt/hr rate will dip to about 0.35-4. But the market takes care of the balance anyway, and the value for currency vs item cost ends up equalizing.

It also assumes that you are converting all of your income straight to exalt, and does not factor in how you might be spending that currency (rolling maps, alc'ing jewelry, etc).

I typically drop at LEAST one item per day worth 20c, often worth 1ex+, whether it's a unique like Alpha's Howl or Divinarius, or a good rare ring. I once dropped a Mjolner, two Alphas and a perfect-rolled Belly all in about 4 hours of playing. But then there are other days where you get 20 Goldrims for no good reason. Be patient, and the drops will come.


First of all, I would like to say I personally plan on abandoning this setup for now unless / until Proliferation becomes useful again. Until then, I'll be running the the Poison Arrow version of this setup.

However, I will be updating this guide to keep it current for those that want to continue running Flameblast, to keep this alive for those of you staying in Standard and who do not feel like rerolling or who cannot yet afford to do so.

As of right now, I have not tested a wide variety of changes to try improve this build in 2.0, but:

Fundamental changes you need to be aware of:

1) Proliferation is dead. So we are no longer going ignite-based.
2) Artic Armour
3) Eldritch Battery
4) Aurseize replacing one Andvarius ring and changes to auras.

1) Proliferation now has a flat radius of 12 which does not increase as it levels nor does it scale noticeably off AoE nodes on the tree. The radius is about as far as you can throw a horse. It's killed Proliferation entirely in the game, as far as I'm concerned, and in facts slows our clear speed to run it. So we will be changing our setup to Flameblast > Faster Casting > Fire Penetration > AoE > Conc Effect > IIR.

2) EB/MoM/ZO just isn't viable. The skill has too hefty a mana cost. We continue running with AA but now that it reserves mana, we need to drop Purity of Fire. This means that we lose an Andvarius ring and run Aurseize instead with a gold ring (ideally) that has 30%+ explicit IIR.

Our new auras are AA, Clarity, Purity of Elements.

3) Eldritch Battery now protects mana instead of converting ES to mana. This means it's no longer required for AA, but may be required for skill sustain and for a MoM setup.

4) Since our mana pool will be significantly lower than it was in 1.3, defensively we cannot afford to run two purity auras. The adjustment to this, with a more or less negligible loss of IIR, is to acquire a perfect 50% Aurseize and a 15% gold ring with 30%+ explicit rarity. This fundamentally means that resistances will be a lot easier to manage, and can allow us to drop Purity of Fire (ugh, reflect), possibly even Purity of Elements if you can get GG enough gear.

You may consider picking up EE for bosses, and running an Arc spell totem.

MF values
In case you can't see the images for whatever reason, your MF values will roughly be this:

New leagues
- 5L: 20iiq/230iir
- 6L: 20iiq/280iir

Standard:
- 5L with legacy Goldwyrm 25ish-iiq/230iir
- 6L with legacy Goldwyrm 67iiq/230iir (with IIQ gem) OR 25ish-iiq/280iir (keeping with IIR gem).

My current MF stats with tweaked gear in a 6L: (standard)

(waiting until release)


Defensive Sheet
(Will update later, but not much has changed)




Leveling
You'll begin by taking Lightning Tendrils and Flame Totem from Hillock and Mud Flats quests.

At that point you immediately want to craft a +1 lightning wand and a +1 fire wand (or sceptres).

To both skills: you will want link added lightning damage and faster casting the moment the options become available, and run Herald of Thunder as soon as possible.

Don't forget to grab a Flameblast and start levelling it immediately.

From here you have two options: either level this way all the way up to 60 and adjust your tree as you go, then switch to Searing Touch and Flameblast. Alternately, you can temporarily spec into Flame Totem full-time with Ancestral Bond.

Don't worry about 5Ling your Searing. Seriously, get at least Aurseize and 1 Andvarius ring first, and buy a cheap 5L chest. Those rings will boost your drops, making you mad cash, which you can use to buy jewelers/fuses later on.

With the changes to auras, Eldritch Battery, and the fact that Proliferation is terrible, we need to actually drop one Andvarius ring with this setup so that we can remove Purity of Elements from our previous setup. Your auras will now be PoF, Discipline and Vitality since we will pick up Zealot Oath for EB/MoM (Unconfirmed: we may drop Vitality and run AA instead of EB/Mom. I will test this immediately upon Awakening's release).

And then yeah. Crush maps and level. Don't be afraid to drop your MF if you're dying a lot. Switch to rings that will keep you alive (life,res) so you can level faster, unless you're totally comfortable just speeding through 66 maps until you get the mad dollahs.


Bandits
Oak (normal), kill all (cruel), kill all (merciless).


Gear
So after some discussion with patrick32123, we've realized that Searing Touch (if you're not going ignite-based) is no longer optimal. He gave me some rare wands to test out with 70ish spell damage and some well rolled flat fire (min 36), and the difference is.....

Searing - 1923.5 tooltip
Rares - 2178.2 tooltip

These numbers are with no supports and with an older version of the tree, but it's clear that going non-ignite, even with the +2 gem level from Searing, it's better to go with good rare wands.





Gem Links


Flameblast > Faster Casting > Fire Penetration > Area of Effect > Concentrated Effect > IIR (option for IIQ in standard)

Lightning Warp – Reduced Duration - Faster Casting

Clarity – Purity of Elements/Fire – Artic Armour – Enlighten (QoL)

CWDT – Flammability – Immortal Call

Enduring Cry



And that's it. Enjoy your farms.
Jul 27, 2011 - Sept 30, 2018.
Last edited by Serleth on Nov 1, 2015, 5:37:43 AM
Just want to say as a old friend of Serleth and having worked with him during leagues.

1. This works extremely well to the point where im mad he told ppl about this

2. I was able to get all the gear needed, 5l searing (forced because i got it early on), Distillate, and a cloak of defiance within the first week of Torment.

Build is very strong and drops a ton of stuff
IGN: TripleSixStorm.
my templar is lv37, sped through normal like it was nothing and one shotting things just from ignite. have a 5l staff and messing w/ some links trying to find a good balance. faster casting doesnt seem to do jack squat at least at lower levels, but i hate conc effect because it makes it feel harder to clear packs. im guessing with more nodes and probably CJ it won't be as bad? ive never used FB really, always preferred tendrils while leveling but it seems way better when you have multiple links and a focus on ignite/prolif.

im looking forward to start farming maps w/ this guy though, already have a lot of MF gear handy but was burnt out on farming dom w/ dual totem mara. thanks for the guide!
"
alexvsevil wrote:
my templar is lv37, sped through normal like it was nothing and one shotting things just from ignite. have a 5l staff and messing w/ some links trying to find a good balance. faster casting doesnt seem to do jack squat at least at lower levels, but i hate conc effect because it makes it feel harder to clear packs. im guessing with more nodes and probably CJ it won't be as bad? ive never used FB really, always preferred tendrils while leveling but it seems way better when you have multiple links and a focus on ignite/prolif.

im looking forward to start farming maps w/ this guy though, already have a lot of MF gear handy but was burnt out on farming dom w/ dual totem mara. thanks for the guide!


You're welcome =)

Yeah you want Amplify off the tree and Carcass Jack really before running conc effect, otherwise the amount of times you'll miss will slow you down. But once you get it and run CE, you really only need 1 charge in order to clear white packs and a lot of blues. I don't ever exceed 3-channels until I'm dealing with rares, bosses, or ele resist packs.

Quick trick with flameblast if you're not that familiar with it: normally if you just hold flameblast and then let go, there's a bit of a delay before it impacts. You can actually cancel this delay by moving or cursing instead so it hits immediately. This greatly increases efficiency for clearing packs cuz if you miss, you can just adjust your aim, move + cast again quickly with no delay.
Jul 27, 2011 - Sept 30, 2018.
Last edited by Serleth on Jul 9, 2015, 3:30:41 PM
"
what do I do if I cannot afford 6l searing? not sure if I can even afford a 5L one


6L is not required, 5L is all you "need" to get this build to run efficiently. Until then, you can buy any random cheap 5L and use dual sceptres with explicit fire % damage so that you get the double-dip damage on the initial hit and the burn.

Assuming you build up to around at least 150% iir, you should be able to afford a 5L searing in around 10-15 hours or so of time played. 150% is relatively easy to do. Aurseize gets you to 50% on its own, then if you get at least 20% IIR on your hat, rings and amulet, that will put you easily to 120%. If you use gold rings for a base to add an additional 15% each, bam, 150%.

The 6L is just gravy for adding the IIR gem.
Jul 27, 2011 - Sept 30, 2018.
"
can you also explain, for example, what your process is when farming?

I am confused as to how you are able to pick up/sell all the items that the MF pops while in maps due to limited inventory space and map portals


That's dependent on the IIQ of the map. For blue maps typically I'll use 4-6 portals, but if I leave any rares or chrome vends behind, it's usually only one or two.

For rare maps (50%+ quant) I'll typically only pick up one two-hander per trip. I prioritize 1x3, 2x3, and 2x2 if I have to, making exceptions for 6S 2H-ers or uniques (since a lot of uniques provide alc shards).

It's important to note that I also don't backtrack for anything. If I end up thinking that I'll need to leave 2hers behind because of the high quantity, but I only end up using five portals, I don't run around picking up leftover loot. That's a waste of time. I just load a new map and go.

Once my map pool is significant (ie, I have a tab each of 66 and 67 maps) I'll just basically transmute and then go kill the boss and exit without worrying about full clears. If you want to run the highest level map you have all the time, that's fine. Nothing wrong with it. But I typically only speed farm 66-68 maps, and leave 69+ maps for when I want to roll new builds. This allows me to build a fairly stable map pool from 69-71, and I let my Zana dailies add whatever possible.
Jul 27, 2011 - Sept 30, 2018.
Last edited by Serleth on Apr 11, 2015, 8:33:20 PM
"
I'm in progress of following this build right now (managed to get a 5L searing)

do you think you can post a video of a full map run? it would answer a lot of my curiosity about the build :)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9mNkiKq-D4&feature=youtu.be

=)

As you can see, with 87% quant and twinned tri-boss, I don't have enough portals to continue clearing the map after the boss kill. So I just backed out after the last trip and went to load another map. If it was a 70+ map, I would've used that last portal to full-clear.
Jul 27, 2011 - Sept 30, 2018.
Last edited by Serleth on Apr 12, 2015, 1:58:34 AM
Hello, nice guide! And I really can recommand everyone to play flameblast in this style!

My Flameblaster has a close tree atm, but yeah with MF you need to run purity auras ... The fire damage wheel over the witch should give you enaugh Chance to ignite to drop the gem.

Im in Leveling process at 92, mapping fast without IIR/IIQ. but when im hitting lv 96 i get 100% exp penality from 77/78 maps, too. and that makes me running 66/67 maps at this level fast and with iiq.

I enjoy the fact of IIQ in standard league. you drop a freaking lot of currency.

Also I am not sure what to use, a 6l searing touch or a 6l + doryani's catalyst?

I am using myself a doryanis + shield cause that is safe to reflect. But did you checked about both options too? Im still not sure which one is better, cause flameblast level are stacking alot of damage.

Gear:
Spoiler


When I hit lv 96 I go mf with:
Spoiler


"
Hello, nice guide! And I really can recommand everyone to play flameblast in this style!

Also I am not sure what to use, a 6l searing touch or a 6l + doryani's catalyst?


First of all, thanks =)

Secondly, for raw clear speed, Searing Touch is Better. Catalyst + RoTP will still work effectively if you want to play it safe, and especially if you want to level without risking a death to reflect past level 90 but for straight up farming, Searing Touch is the way to go unless you REALLY want to stack on extra IIR with Wheel of the Stormsail.
Jul 27, 2011 - Sept 30, 2018.
"
any speculations for a4? passive tree gems are going to open up a lot of possibilities I hope I won't have to spend too many orb of regrets


The only adjustment I can think of making without seeing the passive tree or a more comprehensive list of jewels is finding a way to add the additional curse jewel to run dual flammability and ele weakness.

Until at the very least the json is released for Awakening, I can't say anything definitive. And this doesn't include any changes that may be coming to ignite/proliferation.
Jul 27, 2011 - Sept 30, 2018.

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