Fire pen on burn build?

Is it worth to use fire pen in a build whose main dps source is burn? I know fire pen doesnt affect burn itself, but it affects the initial hit, which then increases the burn caused by the hit, right? So is it worth it?

depends on what you're using to apply the burn i guess, and how much benefit that pen would really give and what you're giving up to use fire pen.

i'd probably say no. just utilize curses in order to lower resistances for both the hit and burn. dual curse elemental weakness and flammability. boom you win

Depends on how much cursing you do.

Lowering resists (through pen and curses alike) is 100% necessary, because the higher enemy resists are, the more of an effect it has on them. Bringing resists from 75 to 50 doubles your damage, for example.

If you don't do any resist-lowering cursing, then yeah you're going to need to use penetration simply because when you do run into a high-resist mob, it'll take FOREVER to kill them. This can be trouble if said mob is a dangerous map boss.

Curses are probably the better route if you can manage it though, since they also apply to the burning damage. My suggestion is to get as much increased curse effect as you can to improve effectiveness against bosses (they have reduced curse effect, and, just like with resistances, increased curse effect has a disproportionate effect on curse-resistant mobs), then either double curse with dual resist-lowering curses (flammability + ele weakness), or try to make some space for Enfeeble, which is absolutely amazing when you're pushing 30% reduced curse effectiveness.

Uhh pretty sure fire pen does work on burn. As if I ignite as target and curse it afterwards there is a very apparent difference. I cannot imagine fire pen being any different as in lowering their resist

Fire pen works on the initial hit so it does increase the damage, but on the resulting burn it has no effect. Resist reduction, on the other hand, increases the inital damage AND the resulting burn damage for as long as the enemy mob's resists are reduced.

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gilrad wrote:

Fire pen works on the initial hit so it does increase the damage, but on the resulting burn it has no effect. Resist reduction, on the other hand, increases the inital damage AND the resulting burn damage for as long as the enemy mob's resists are reduced.

QFT

Also curse immune mobs would be a pain with no fire pen(they're very common)
Use curse and fire pen.

Hm, thanks a lot for the answers. I can't afford to go double curse, unfortunately.

The spell in question is incinerate, and I plan to go burn with emberwake and max chance to ignite. I'll use fire pen and flamm, but rly can't go double curse.