[3.0] Legasi's Masterpiece - Trivialize Bossfights! Shaper Deathless! Boss Guides inside! HC

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Evertras wrote:

I was theorycrafting this exact build before you posted it, first considering a Hybrid build with MoM but later on scrapping the idea and going CI as well, also I am using a 2 curse setup which I think grants incredible amounts of benefit over anything else you can get (Assasins Mark is just ridiculous for any crit build, Warlords or even Poachers feels mandatory for mana sustain and End/Frenzy charges(4% cast speed and 4% MORE multiplier per charge is broken as hell while you could still get endurance from Enduring Cry)) unless you are running with a support in your group (which this build would benefit immensely from since it can't run auras properly and would save the hassle of cursing).

In my build I do get some aura nodes so I could run discipline and a level 10 clarity + 1 additional aura (maybe blasphemy? AA? not sure if it is worth it) with a level 2 or 3 enlighten, due to WM/PM and clarity I never drop below 40% mana (everything just gets regened up immediately even without Rigtheous Decree, Shaper, Quick Recovery and Deep Thoughts, honestly I think mana regen should rather be gotten on gear, although if you get Skill Duration Shaper feels too good for 1 point).
If you want a more defensive setup you can run Enfeeble + Blasphemy instead of AM.

In the passive tree, instead of turning Quick Recovery into a ES node (I drop it completely anyway) I instead get the Melding Wheel (jewel slots should be taken in most cases anyway) and turn it into a 40% ES for 4 points. Nimbleness (4% cast speed per point + avoiding stun interruption + 4% MS for 3p) gets picked up as well.

Also because I am running dual curses from the tree, and don't connect to templar area via QR/MOM path, Arcane Potency (top left next to Avatar of Fire) turns into a 4 point investment (which get's further reduced because I want the templar Aura wheel) which is really good for it's upside.

Since I am running more off leech instead of Health Regen I drop the DoT wheel next to Written in Blood (even though Poison stacks I do not think it was worth it before, although 10% of your damage poisons and the nodes turns into a 2,8% total damage bonus, so I might reconsider).

Also instead of using a Shield (even though it might hurt your overall survivability a lot considering it gives 400-500 base ES) I was considering running a Bino's Kitchen Knife instead, enabling this build a ridiculous amount of ES regen with ZO, I would like to hear your thoughts on it if possible.

Overall I think your build is very solid while requiring little items until late- to endgame with the upside of not being too reliant on curses, worthy of being called a masterpiece.

Spoiler

P.S.: The more I try to improve my build, the more it turns into yours.
After giving it some more thought I feel like Life Regeneration isn't going to be the saving grace of this build though I might be wrong, DoT Damage seems to be a key for this build(for what I know bosses can be poisoned for the most part).
This is what I came up with and what I'm going to be playtesting for the next few weeks, my witch is currently 80 but I've already run T8-9 with the exception of some bosses (critique would be amazing):
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwMA37DfiukCS64bJdlbbRkRUJf0IvQ1uVJTbAunKx1Pl5U9X5MnTLO-in_G74iuswQHoS8Rlvk3QZbr5A5IBx7XzwVC0PVfKl3ytzCVLkmxLJx0VSoLKwoUCfDVrJhwUhEvE22P-klR99eJ0-tjJojsGNDQ6_WESFKvm6GMNrVIcLssv19qZJ1ca61Kj0YYatkTFdfyHcNtZ_ynCHgvL2-Grp2u6-585VZjGmwc3FgH98HkIriTjxrVpij67TxXyYLHmjsNfPnoHb6f34KbM4fvfDwFA-7AZlxAh8unm3WezxU=


PPS: Sorry for the wall of text :^)

This is exaxtly why I like this game so much. There is no perfect solution for a problem, only several good ones. Which one you take is solely a matter of preference.

Okay, I'll try to answer each paragraph.


I also thought about using dual curse, however scrapped the idea because of a shortage of skillpoints/gem sockets. I personally don't think it's worth running poachers mark just for the mana on hit, a mana flask basically does the same thing. Why the heck is everyone so reluctant to run a mana flask?! That being said, Assassins Mark is the only offensive curse this build profits from. It also solves the problem of PC generation. Might be able to run it by replacing IC in the cwdt setup.
Playing this build with a defensive Aurabot feels veeeery good, basically did lvl 89-90 casually in one evening carrying the whole party without even dropping below 75% es.

Since Discipline is the only 'real' aura my build runs I decided not to take the Influence wheel. I don't run clarity (mana flask op). The mana nodes I took are either have another benefit for are travelling nodes. They are not essential for the build, however a nice bonus.
The original plan was to run WM on Blasphemy instead of AA, but - surprise surprise - it was silently increased to 35%, so I just decided to keep the curse in the cwdt setup and run AA instead.

Melding is definitely an option, I also removed it later on. I wish we could get 20 more skillpoints and 4 more gem sockets, this build would profit immensly from that...
Same with Nimbleness, it's good, but cast speed isn't essential for this build apart from other caster specs, movespeed is secondary because of WB and 15% stun avoid is a nice bonus, but won't change anything.

Seems like you moved away from the arcane potency and Templar aura wheel idea...

I took the Growth and Decay wheel mainly for it's regen, not so much for the DoT. Regen only feels good if you get as much as possible (4.8% is my case). Several people reported that their regen doesn't feel important enough. That's because you got too less dudes... My 600 regen is especially useful in PvP scenarios, but also increases your suvivabilty a lot in PvE.

Feel free to try Bino's but expect not to get more than 10k es this way. I don't think it's necessary at all, damage is insane without Bino's already. I can't really comment on the regen part since I haven't tested that yet. However I think lifeleech with more es (from shield) already keeps your ES full during normal gameplay, no need to hug enemies only to get the buff.



Okay now your skill tree. First off, there are three ways to buff this build's damage.
The first and most efficient is Chaos damage or just damage such as FS quality bonus or Flame golem. It increases the inital hit damage, which applies Poison. The Poison damage is increased AGAIN (double dip scenario).
The 2nd most effecient is direct hit damage, such as crit/critmulti/spell/ele/firedamage. The inital hit damage is increased. Because it deals more damage, the resulting dot is also higher (indirect effect)
The third on is buffs to Poison damage such as increased dot or poison damage. This doesn't affect the direct hit damage and clearspeed, just dps against bosses, which die super quick anyways.

Now, If I gotta choose, I'll obviously try to get as much of the first and some of the second instead of the third for my available points. That's the reason I didn't spec much DoT damage at all. As stated above, regen is very strong if you get as much as possible. No idea how good it is with Bino's. Just try it out and tell me please :)

Okay now your tree itself.
You said you don't want any mana nodes, so why did you travel via Deep Thoughts? If you don't want Heart of Flame either, just remove it and connect directly, saves you 3 points, plus you get 10 extra strengh.
I connected on the other side of both the Corruption and Growth and Decay wheels for already explained reasons (Chaos damage and Regen have way more value then some dot).
I'm not sure if the aura nodes are worth it but I didn't quite grasp which ones you wanna run so I let it be.
Apart from those things I wouldn't change anything. If you really want to you can get Entropy for more DoT and Duration or Nimbleness with the saved 3 points ;) The Alchemist wheel is also underappreciated and very strong for endgame.



Another 'Problem' I came across is the fact that if you dual curse with WM and AM you definitely want the Instabiltiy node and Spell Damage per PC behind it, argh...
Or you just stay with WM and PM, however I personally think it's a waste.

Alright, hope this helped a bit, good luck :)

Thanks Legasi for this great easy to play build.
I respecced my no good srs-summoner in standard after the reset from 2.1 and this is so much more powerfull even tough most of my gems are only about lvl 18 with no quality.

One question:

As we have 100% fire damage converted to chaos damage (75% from the cosuming dark and 25% from the infernal mantle ) is 'Heart of flame' in the passive skill tree actually doing anything?

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kXe_m wrote:

Thanks Legasi for this great easy to play build.
I respecced my no good srs-summoner in standard after the reset from 2.1 and this is so much more powerfull even tough most of my gems are only about lvl 18 with no quality.

One question:

As we have 100% fire damage converted to chaos damage (75% from the cosuming dark and 25% from the infernal mantle ) is 'Heart of flame' in the passive skill tree actually doing anything?

Hi there, glad you're enjoying it.

Even when damage is converted, it's original damage type's tags are kept. This means fire damage and chaos damage affect the direct hit damage *equally*.

Heart of Flame is indeed one of the lesser important wheels. I recommend getting it last. Check my post above this, I explained the damage types a bit.

I hope you're chancing sorcerers boots for the Skyforth. Those boots are just absurd and perfect for this build. I've read that you're taking the mana just because it's near/in the way and a nice addition, but I think that you could (and should) take all the mana nodes you can, specifically to work with the boots. Some calculations that I did say that with the boots your stun treshold would be around the same as if you had around ~15,000 life. On top of that, you'd get a rather reliable way of getting power charges as well, which would be an insane dmg boost. So, I made this tree and this is what I'll try to achieve with my build.



I just hit 68 and specced finally into CI and I love it so far. Got a few kinks to iron out jewelry/belt wise, since I didn't update those yet.

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McRazor wrote:

I hope you're chancing sorcerers boots for the Skyforth. Those boots are just absurd and perfect for this build. I've read that you're taking the mana just because it's near/in the way and a nice addition, but I think that you could (and should) take all the mana nodes you can, specifically to work with the boots. Some calculations that I did say that with the boots your stun treshold would be around the same as if you had around ~15,000 life. On top of that, you'd get a rather reliable way of getting power charges as well, which would be an insane dmg boost. So, I made this tree and this is what I'll try to achieve with my build.

Spoiler

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwMA34rpAkuuGyXZW20ZEVCX9CL0NblSU2wLpysdT5eVPV-TJ0yzvop_xu-IrrMEB6EvytMnqRGW-TdBluvktAwOSAce188FQtD1Xyrqul3ylS5JsSycdFUNfCoLKwrw1REtrJhwUhEvj_pJUXyD99fxbInT62PsGNDQXEDr9evuUq822Iw2tUgsv19qh8tknTLRu01JGxXXp5vyHUVH3V8qjYaudZ7AZmf87FVWY88VPAWf3-98mjvtPIKb1abtIFeUtoYpT3xLlnSePGjyjHYgblAw0B_v62u3hX1HBvLhY0P2_Kc0B2PLveaBFr-ycCpTYpU=

Put Energy From Within in the jewel slot between Witch and Shadow and Eldricht Knowledge next to the power charge in the Witch area, for extra 25% chaos damage.

I just hit 68 and specced finally into CI and I love it so far. Got a few kinks to iron out jewelry/belt wise, since I didn't update those yet.

Spoiler

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwMABAcFQgceDkgRLREvEVARlhXXGyUdTyL0J6kpTyoLKo0rCiycLL8y0TW5Ntg8BT1fQZZFR0kbSVFJsUuuTLNSU1ZjV5RcQF3yXypfamSdaPJsC20ZcFJ0VXxLfIN_xoKbhq6Hy4nTjDaMdo_6kyeVLpZ0l5WX9Jo7njyf36crp5usmK6ztUi2hsBm0NDQ9dWm18_ZW9-K6QLrY-vk6-7r9ewY7FXtIO0873zviPDV8WzyHfk3

You're seriously overestimating how much stun hurts this build. The vast majority of the time being stunned doesn't make any difference at all since your firestorm is already up. Having played my variant up through T14 maps the only time I ever died from being stunned was from a pack of blue lightning warpers perma stunning me in a -12 res Academy.

All of those extra mana nodes would be completely wasted with Skyforth. You'd be much better off investing the points you saved in regen into dual-curse and more damage perhaps in the form of more PC/Frenzy charges or just from raw spell/fire/chaos damage nodes.

Even with only 1200 mana Skyforth would still make a massive difference in you not being stunned anyways.

Been using the hybrid build; just hit 53 today and am transitioning into the CI version -- having a blast so far! Just started using the consuming darkness dagger. Really looking forward to the chestpiece and the chaos nodes.

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MapRef41N93W wrote:

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McRazor wrote:

I hope you're chancing sorcerers boots for the Skyforth. Those boots are just absurd and perfect for this build. I've read that you're taking the mana just because it's near/in the way and a nice addition, but I think that you could (and should) take all the mana nodes you can, specifically to work with the boots. Some calculations that I did say that with the boots your stun treshold would be around the same as if you had around ~15,000 life. On top of that, you'd get a rather reliable way of getting power charges as well, which would be an insane dmg boost. So, I made this tree and this is what I'll try to achieve with my build.

Spoiler

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwMA34rpAkuuGyXZW20ZEVCX9CL0NblSU2wLpysdT5eVPV-TJ0yzvop_xu-IrrMEB6EvytMnqRGW-TdBluvktAwOSAce188FQtD1Xyrqul3ylS5JsSycdFUNfCoLKwrw1REtrJhwUhEvj_pJUXyD99fxbInT62PsGNDQXEDr9evuUq822Iw2tUgsv19qh8tknTLRu01JGxXXp5vyHUVH3V8qjYaudZ7AZmf87FVWY88VPAWf3-98mjvtPIKb1abtIFeUtoYpT3xLlnSePGjyjHYgblAw0B_v62u3hX1HBvLhY0P2_Kc0B2PLveaBFr-ycCpTYpU=

Put Energy From Within in the jewel slot between Witch and Shadow and Eldricht Knowledge next to the power charge in the Witch area, for extra 25% chaos damage.

I just hit 68 and specced finally into CI and I love it so far. Got a few kinks to iron out jewelry/belt wise, since I didn't update those yet.

Spoiler

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwMABAcFQgceDkgRLREvEVARlhXXGyUdTyL0J6kpTyoLKo0rCiycLL8y0TW5Ntg8BT1fQZZFR0kbSVFJsUuuTLNSU1ZjV5RcQF3yXypfamSdaPJsC20ZcFJ0VXxLfIN_xoKbhq6Hy4nTjDaMdo_6kyeVLpZ0l5WX9Jo7njyf36crp5usmK6ztUi2hsBm0NDQ9dWm18_ZW9-K6QLrY-vk6-7r9ewY7FXtIO0873zviPDV8WzyHfk3

You're seriously overestimating how much stun hurts this build. The vast majority of the time being stunned doesn't make any difference at all since your firestorm is already up. Having played my variant up through T14 maps the only time I ever died from being stunned was from a pack of blue lightning warpers perma stunning me in a -12 res Academy.

All of those extra mana nodes would be completely wasted with Skyforth. You'd be much better off investing the points you saved in regen into dual-curse and more damage perhaps in the form of more PC/Frenzy charges or just from raw spell/fire/chaos damage nodes.

Even with only 1200 mana Skyforth would still make a massive difference in you not being stunned anyways.

Yo, of course I'm chancing Skyforth :) Serioulsy, who doesn't? :D

I personally don't like your skill tree version. No ZO, no duration, no Unnatural Calm... You also forgot the 16% spell damage at witch start. I also have to disagree that Skyforth are 'perfect' for this build. No regen is a huge downside. They're perfect for low life wanders. For the Masterpiece build they are 'just' very good. And do you already have your Skyforth boots? If not I would much rather spec into ZO, some regen and less mana, and respec as soon as I get them. In fact that's the plan for my build.
And seriously, does it even matter if your stun treshold comes from 10k or 15k 'hp'? I don't think so. The major downside that everyone seems to overlook regarding this build is the no regen downside. The regen is awesome. You guys just didn't spec enough.

MapRef is absolutely right, stuns don't really matter as I explained in the guide. Having some es up gives automatically 50% stun avoid. My trashy self found gear has about 50% stun recovery. The only time that I have been noticably stunlocked so far was when an Uber Vaal hit me with his BL from offscreen. Even that didn't really matter with a topaz up and some meteors raining on the head of the other one.

I have 1,5k mana in my build btw. With Skyforth that'd be ~1.650. So stuns are checked against 8250 hp. I don't think mana needs any further investments.

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IllusionsFading wrote:

Been using the hybrid build; just hit 53 today and am transitioning into the CI version -- having a blast so far! Just started using the consuming darkness dagger. Really looking forward to the chestpiece and the chaos nodes.

Hi, glad you like it. Lvl 53 seems... very early. How much es do you have?

I am leveling the same build in Talisman sc at the moment. I'll try to stay hybrid as long as possible in order to be able to compare both versions. Currently 3k hp and 4.5k shield with self found gear at lvl 70. Total currency investment 20c so far (19c CD, 1c IM). Solo clearspeed is good, party dps is low tho (4link lvl 15 gems...).

Yo guys, I just learned from that AoE damage also affects poison damage. Actual DpS of this build should be significantly higher too in that case.

I also started to love the idea of traps. If you're using Void Manipulation. Switch in Trap gem, lay some traps around your Wither totem, switch VM back in and start prestacking. Even more burst damage for triggered boss fights like Trio. Thoughts on this?

I can say this build is really cheap, i don't have the best gear in the world, but have a decent gear spented only 2 ex, a have a lot of room for upgrades, still i was able to do atziri deathless and fast.