[2.3] Freezer Burn: AB AoF MoM EO - (125k DPS) - Cheap, Fun, Screw the meta
Introduction
Welcome, Exiles! My name is Kwitch and I've enjoyed Path for over three years. In that time, I've played hundreds of builds (not all viable) and enjoyed toying with game mechanics much more than the average (see: sane) player. I hope you enjoy reading my newest work du jour, and don't hesitate to ask questions!
We're going to shoot Explosive Flaming Skulls at our enemies in a quasi 9-Link, have tons of hp, use the same skill for both packs and bosses, and generally just be a badass. Click here for Witch / Elementalist version. " " "
Stats
Chieftan DPS in perandus with Elemental Overload in a 5-Link 
Pros/Cons
Pros:
• Nothing in the build should ever cost more than a chaos orb, even in a new league. Can spend more to improve it later. • Forgiving play style with few buttons required. • Has two versions, both with slightly different strengths to suit play style. • Chieftan version has 106% Armour, 200% Max Life, 8.4% Life Regen, 56% Increased mana (MoM). • Before gear is considered, has 326% increased Fire Damage, 20% Ignite chance, and 13% Fire Penetration without cursing (50% with cursing). With cheap budget gear this % easily reaches 500-600%. • Spell effect creates a zone of chill that slows monsters from reaching the player, and overlapping explosions can shotgun. • Life leech from all of our fire damage, and since we have HP based life, maximum leech per second is very high. • A lot of room for personal preference, itemization, or alterations to suit the player without falling apart. • Builds endurance charges for free with 2.3. • Can run Blood Magic, all curses, reflect, less regen/no regen, vuln, most imaginable map mods. (afaik) Cons: • Is not FotM. • Arctic Breath can collide with terrain, thus not reaching intended target (I see this as a pro, but requires practice). • Doesn't have an MTX. • Leveling requires the use of Flame Totem / Searing Bond to be effective without OP leveling uniques. • Some key gems are never made available to Marauders, you will need to make friends. • Does not clear as fast as other builds. There are faster builds. • Will suffer in maps that are curse immune / Fire Resistant / Low Regen (but can still run these). • Tooltip warriors will be disappointed. Actual DPS requires spreadsheet. We use the often neglected Repentance gloves to instill Iron Will into Arctic Breath, which is fully converted into Fire Damage using Cold to Fire & Avatar of Fire. We can double the damage effectiveness in both fire and cold damage jewels. We further maximize damage output with creating chilled ground for the Hypothermia support gem. This chilled ground increases defenses by creating chilling fields in front of the caster. It removes additional crit damage by choosing the Elemental Overload keystone to prevent spikes of incoming damage from Reflect monsters, and focus on raw damage output. Finally, it reserves zero mana to utilize both "Mind over Matter" Keystone passive for increased survival, and a Clear Mind jewel for a small spell power bonus.
Important Keystones:
Avatar of Fire  We convert ALL of our damage to Fire, with no loss to cold damage by using the Cold to Fire support gem. This means we cannot chill with our now fire damage. Luckily, our skill creates chilled ground regardless of it's damage type, and thus will still chill everyone it hits by the nature of the ability. Mind over Matter  We don't reserve any of our Mana, the Clear Mind jewel competes with any aura we could choose, and heralds are awkward to use with Avatar of Fire. 30% of damage is taken from Mana when hit means we will need to keep a hybrid flask/divine mana flask for emergencies, but increases our Effective Hit Points (EHP) by a minimum of 30% against incoming damage after armor/resist considerations. This is great for surviving spikey damage or latency concerns. Do note that elemental reflect will cause our mana pool to dip dramatically, but this is far superior to just dying instantly. Pay attention to your fire resistance once you pick this keystone up, and keep it maxed from Cruel on. (Additionally, Hybrid flasks can all run simultaneously without turning off if one or the other resource fills. Lets us have more hp/s or mp/s than with only those respective flasks.) Elemental Overload  We choose this Keystone for several reasons, but first and foremost because it stops us from killing ourselves against reflect monsters outright. It's still possible in a perfect storm condition, however with a Ruby Flask and paying attention to what we're casting spells at, this is greatly negated by this passive. The second reason we take this is because although our crit chance is moderately low, we will have some portion of up-time for Elemental Overload to grant us 40% More damage, which is far greater than using a Controlled Destruction gem in our spell links. In theory, we have a quasi-8L when we have a 6L with EO & our Iron Will gloves. (arguable, because not many would ever use Iron Will by choice... however, we can without a sharp penalty!) 
Calculations
 Link to Spreadsheet Save a copy of this and input your own values, adjusting as you go. By default, my stats will be represented so you can see how I reach my DPS numbers in use by this guide.
Skilltrees
42 points
By 40 points we are just looking at entering Cruel. We have completed most of our major pathing, and took a detour towards Arsonist to help with leveling damage. We already have 77% increased Life and 4.3% Regen, as well as the Ancestral Knowledge +30 Int notable to help us with gem level requirements. I've gone ahead and placed the first 2 Points of our Ascendancy into Ngamahu, Flame's Advance, but don't feel like you have to by this point if you're busy leveling. 64 points At 64 points, we are well into Cruel and have need of the additional HP nodes in Templar and Witch, and have picked up 2 Jewel sockets. We have also turned 'on' Avatar of Fire, and we should look to do so as early as possible in the build path. Our leveling gear should be fire focused, and we are already using Arctic Breath so Increased AoE damage and radius is a concern. Our next two points of Ascendancy here go into Hinekora, Death's Fury, but again you shouldn't feel rushed to acquire this yet. 98 points 98 Points marks the 'done' stage of the build. We have all of our Keystones, we've pathed up to the Constitution wheel and already have 5 jewel sockets. We did some re-organizing of the Arsonist pathing in Marauder because it is not efficient, instead opting for more AoE and Radius nodes in Witch and the Alchemist wheel. We picked up Deep Thoughts when we also acquired Mind over Matter, and are very close to 'Battle Rouse' between Marauder/Duelist if we are so inclined. Our final 2 Ascendancy points go for Tawhoa, Forest's Strength. 111 points By the time we reach 111 points in the build, everything is simply 'more'. Adding on more Fire damage/penetration, some more cast speed, and Battle Rouse. This is level 88, and the build has been 'finished' for some time now. All of these trees can be modified if your gear or stats have other requirements. We use hardly any dexterity gems, and should have enough intelligence from the Ancestral Knowledge +30 Int notable passive to cover deficits until our gear and pathing makes up the difference. We can eventually drop excess Int nodes so long as we can meet the 300~ Int requirements of our end-game gloves.
Leveling
As you may have figured out, we don't get Arctic Breath until 28, several of our gems aren't even available to Marauders, and even when we do get AB we have spent all of our damage points into fire... and Avatar of Fire will still be far away!
We aren't totally boned for leveling though, remember we want a build that feels good to level with as well as play end-game. Flame Totem / Searing Bond to the Rescue! (no, seriously) I also beg that nice Witch friend we made earlier for a Flame Surge to give me something to do besides dropping totems, and it works really nicely with Searing Bond. You're still going to be moderately bored, but the content will be easy and you will have very low risk of injury. Can use Firestorm, but if you're in a group you will be hated. leveling Uniques that may help you:
Ascension
 Our Ascendancy should come as no surprise, however the priority of points are up to personal preference.Our first two points from normal Ascendancy should always be Ngamahu, Flame's Advance. This enables us to reach either Hinekora or Ramako by Cruel, and the alternative of Tawhoa prodiving 10% strength bonus is not very useful until we have enough strength to utilize it. The choice between Hinekora or Ramako first was difficult, as I prefer builds that 'play themselves' to some extent and Ramako can get Endurance charges for us for free. It also grants increased Life Regeneration which is a plus to our tank concept. However, In terms of survival and damage Hinekora just outperforms it in every way. Feel free to experiment and determine if you prefer Tawhoa first, it's perfectly acceptable.
Links
(All gems are in order of priority) Main Skill: (implied: ) Arctic Breath - Cold to Fire - Greater Multiple Projectiles - Spell Echo (5L + Hypothermia) (6L + Fire Penetration/Faster Projectiles/Chain) 6th link is up to you. If you're running Pledge, you can use both. Faster Proj. 'feels' better, quality increases cast speed as well, and 29% proj damage for only 110% mana multiplier is swanky. I don't feel Elemental Focus is worth losing Burning, especially since we gain 35% increased damage against burning targets. I've spoken to some friends trying the build and they prefer chain, however this is totally up to your playstyle. Support 4-link: Vaal Haste + Increased Duration + Frost Wall + Enduring Cry/Rallying Cry. Frost Wall lets us shotgun easier against stationary or scary boss monsters. It can also put distance between things we don't want close by, and we can shift from one side to another with our movement skill if we need to buy time in a fight for Regen/effects. Enduring Cry is my go-to for Endurance Charges here, and with increased duration on the regen it provides is increased. 394 HP/second at max level is not anything to scoff at. Vaal haste is merely a stimpak steroid, but not a requirement if it's too expensive. We also run Frost Wall on our low level CwDT setup, this one is just for specifically spacing bosses away. Cast when Damage Taken 4-links: CwDT + Immortal Call + Warlord's Mark + Frost Wall. CwDT level 1, Immortal Call level 3, Warlord's Mark level 5, Frost Wall level 10. Our helm is a good place to put this, only need 1 off-color for chromatic orb rolls. Cast when Damage Taken 3-link: CwDT + Summon Flame Golem + Molten Shell This CwDT we max level, because we want the benefits of having high level golems. I prefer having my Golems on CwDT, however you could just as easily manually cast them somewhere else, and use this slot for Molten Shell, more spells to crit with, another curse, whatever. I just like being lazy. Utility 3 Link: Flame Dash + Faster Casting + Curse. Flame Dash technically has a Cast Time. I've never run into a scenario where it didn't cast fast enough, but it feels a bit better this way. We could use Lightning Warp here instead, but it really needs reduced duration, and doesn't leave burning ground. I speficially like Flame Dash because it moves us from one side of Frost wall to the other very efficiently, for really nice AB setup. Elemental Overload 4-Link: CwDT + Ice Spear + Increased Critical Strikes/Power Charge on Critical + Greater Multiple Projectiles We're using this last 4-Link just to perform maintenance to promote uptime on Elemental overload. Ice spear can be leveled to 8, CwDT stays at 1, both supports can increase as much as you like. (Big thank you to Steel_Prophet and his Satori build guide for this recommendation!).
Spells
You may be thinking 'Why choose Arctic breath over other skills?'. There are several great reasons for it, including the fact that it SHOTGUNS, is a projectile and can benefit from projectile modifiers, and is one of two spells that create chill for our Hypothermia. Arctic Armor & Icestorm also create chilled ground, as does Ice Shot (And technically Vaal Cold Snap, but we don't want to think of Vaal Skills as having constant up-time). I specifically choose it because you don't see it everyday, and I think that's a shame.
Lets talk about the skill itself first. When patch 2.0 rolled out, many abilities that had previously been able to 'shotgun' (that is to hit the same target with multiple projectiles from the same cast of an ability) lost this mechanic and became candidates for quality of life improvements to their damage. Other abilities were nerfed as well, however Arctic Breath *technically* can still shotgun. Each projectile explodes on contact, creating an explosion area that can overlap and still shotgun to an extent. This means that supports like Lesser Multiple Projectiles and Greater Multiple Projectiles will be both an increase in white monster clear speed and an increase against single monsters provided you can cause the projectiles to explode close to it. One skill for both trash packs and bosses. Quality increases it's Area of Effect radius. So it's a nice improvement to our overall DPS, but not a requirement. Remember that our shotgunning requires overlap of explosion area. Think of a Venn Diagram to help visualize how we want to aim the ability for maximum damage. Don't worry, you won't have to be perfect with your aiming to see results. It's a very forgiving skill when you remember that it also leaves chilled ground between you and nasty things that want to eat you. Elemental Weakness vs. Flammability Either of these curses perform a similar function for our build: hit them harder. And even with level 20, their reduction is very comparable. I believe Elemental Weakness to be superior personally, as quality on Elemental Weakness grants increased penetration, whereas quality on Flammability increases the duration of burns on the enemy. It would make sense to run Flammability since we only perform Fire damage, and burning damage against rare and boss monsters would benefit. If you plan to play in a party, your group will probably appreciate EW more. Choose depending on if you plan to do solo or group play. For leveling, I also recommend Warlord's Mark, for mana leech to help with mana issues, especially once we activate Mind over Matter.
Uniques
As we mentioned in our Objectives section, our goal is to limit the number of uniques required to make the build 'work', however more can be added as we find better rares that substitute our resists and HP to allow for them.
This is the big one, the rarely used and typically cheap to acquire unique that will keep you rolling Divine orbs to get the lowest possible reduction in spell damage. We expect to have 600-800 Strength in this build, meaning these gloves alone grant 120% - 160% increased damage to our spells before the reduction. Even at their worst roll (30% reduction) we end up with a net bonus of 90% - 130%.
Reduction
Remember that Increases and Reductions to stats are Additive, whereas More or Less is multiplicative. What that means is that Additive modifiers all occur in the same calculation, and produce a final result which is then modified by Multiplicative stats. In the sequence of applications of stats, Global and skill additive stats occur prior to Global and skill multiplicative stats. Therefore, a reduction is not so terrible considering the piece of gear alone will more than make up for the penalty. And if we're lucky, the reduction can be marginal to non-existent.
Doryani's Invitation is a typically cheap belt, and even then it's not a requirement for the build to function at all. It's great because it improves our damage, grants decent resistances, much beloved armor, and increased ignite chance. However, the Life Leech alone is the reason we choose to use it in this build. It adds to our Hinekora Life Leech, and more % life leech helps keep us topped off. We could write an entire section for Life Leech math & max HP. Just remember: More Leech isn't good on it's own, the magic recipe is More Leech + More HP = Profit. This jewel ranges from 40% to 60% increased spell damage, but if we're on a strict budget even a low roll is useful. We are limited to only using one of these, however there is no level requirement so we can technically use this as early as level 15 if we were hell-bent on doing so. It's a nice chunk of mana regen to boot, so this should likely be the first jewel we socket into the build. We have to discuss Doon / Doriyani's Catalyst and a Shield versus a Pledge of Hands at some point. However, I believe Doon fits the theme of our build perfectly (plus it's cheap!) and is the better choice. Using our earlier estimates of 600-800 strength, that means just equipping Doon for the 1% per 8 strength bonus is 75% - 100% increased damage for all sources. We don't gain much for the level 30 Iron Will (we can ignore that without too many spent tears) and more cast speed is always a plus. And just for being a mace, we get an elemental damage boost. All in all, a great addition to a strength based caster. We have several options for shield, however I am currently swapping between my Saffell's for everyday use, and Rise of the Phoenix. I expect most monsters that can reach me in melee range will be either dead or well on their way to it. What causes me to panic is spell damage. +4 to maximum resistances is actually a lot. Spell block without having to be a duelist / Stone of Lazhwar or Rainbowstride is great, and some spell damage and resistances are neato. We cover other options in greater depth in the Luxury section. Makes fitting our gloves much simpler, and still does what we want with our damage and mana pool additions. We could choose others (Luxury) but you may be hard pressed to find a good rolled rare that provides more Int. We can consider Izaro's Turmoil for Fire/Cold damage buffs, however good Rare jewels outperform it.
Luxury
Weapon:
Best: Doryani's Catalyst - A lot of good stuff, more elemental damage leech, 110% increased elemental damage (still doesn't out-class Doon). We don't need a 4L elemental prolif though. Pledge of Hands was covered earlier, but we'll go in greater detail with it here. First, it gives us level 30 spell echo and up to 160% increased spell damage. Juicy goodness indeed. The increase to maximum mana also works well with our Mind over Matter. However, we lose block chance and some of the fancier things that come with some shields. It comes down to whether or not you want to run Kaom's Heart to me, and if we're speaking strictly on budget Pledge/Kaom's isn't within our affordable budget. But that's what Luxury is for, after all. A 6L Pledge with our Iron Will gloves, Elemental Overload keystone will make our AB perform technically as a 9-Link. You may have mana issues doing this, but there is the added benefit of just having more Tooltip damage. Lets say that Doon + Shield is the better build if you are on hardcore, and Pledge+Kaoms can be more for Standard. Especially with legacy versions. Shield: Best: Rathpith Globe - Similar but not as good as Saffell's for us, but still pretty decent. Can't overlook the 10% increase to max life. We can also use any rare shield that fills our HP/resistance needs, and include +armour and spell damage if you want to run an ES shield. Saffell's Frame - Max all res, spell damage, 24% chance to block spells. Due to the nature of the build, most melee monsters should never reach us, leaving projectiles/spells as our main concern. This tackles that nicely. (also typically cheap). Also, Elemental damage reflection maps / monsters return elemental damage to the player which can then be blocked by having spell block. This makes Saffell's a strong contender with Rise of the Phoenix to negate some of the effects of damage reflection. Rise of the Phoenix - Rock this when you know you'll be meeting reflect packs in a map. Not spectacular for our build, but a good tool to keep in our alternate weapon slot for scary content. Others: Any good rolled Armour / Life Spell Damage or Resist shield. Chest: Best: Lioneye's Vision - Level 15 Pierce for free in our 6-Link translates into 24% More damage for only a 110% spell cost increase. All More modifiers are tremendously potent, and this build already is adding a lot of it's power from adding gem links secretly. Additionally, our Arctic Breath clears waves of monsters much faster when it Pierces, continuing to travel past the initial target and hitting more monsters. Also potentially exploding for additional damage to the first target. It's an Armor base, which we adore, and has life on it. The Leech stat doesn't matter to us, and the +20% chance to be Pierced doesn't negatively effect us in any way. Only true downside is not finding resistances on our chest, or it being a pure strength chest may make for difficulty in chromatic orb coloring sockets for our 6-Link. Second Best: Kaom's Heart - amazing for us as it grants 500 Flat HP which we will turn into 1080. The 20-40% increased Fire Damage is great also, however we sacrifice our best 6L location. I would only consider this chest if we were also using a Pledge of Hands, and could move our main skill to it. Others: I also considered including Cherrubim's Maleficence, or any other strong chest armour such as Lightning Coil, Belly of the Beast, Carcass Jack, or Daresso's Defiance. They all offer their own benefits, but we could just as easily use a good rare. The main goal is to get our 5-6L here, so however you manage that. Don't forget that chest is our main location for making our 6-Link, which is RRGGBB, so if we get a piece of gear that is Hybrid, we might spend less chromes buying Vorici 2 gem color crafts. Remember, budget is one of the goals of the build! Boots: Best: Good rolled rares with +90 HP, 35-50 Strength, any missing resistances we need, and 30% Movespeed. We don't ignore Evasion, so any Strength or Strength/Evasion base is good. This also makes rolling our CwDT setup a bit easier. Others: Gang's Momentum isn't amazing, but it does fit thematically. I didn't raise it higher in priority simply because I'm against overloading builds with uniques, and boots are an easy place to acquire stats. Kaom's Roots works for us because we don't *need* the 4-Link from boots to complete our build. It gives us 'can't be stunned' and a bunch of life. If you really want Unwavering Stance, the build paths directly past it so it is an easy pick-up. I don't include that keystone because evasion = damage mitigation, and even if it's minor it's something. Should you manage to equip 100% Armor pieces, then by all means pick it up (but do so with the knowledge that you are losing 5% base evasion). Amulet: Best: Astramentis - Single-handedly solves our Intelligence concerns for equipping our gloves, as well as providing boosts to our Strength calculations and improving our mana pool. An easy pick-up. Second Best: Lapis Amulet (20-30 Int) rolled with Tier 1 +51-55 Int (of the Genius) and +29-32 All Stats (Of the Infinite). a Perfectly rolled Lapis for INT would give us 117 Intelligence, requiring only 2 Suffixes. This leaves open rolls for Resistances, Cast Speed, Spell damage, etc. Harder to find, but can be better than an Astramentis by far and sometimes people mis-price them. (Lapis cieling 117, Astra cieling 116). Others: Rashkaldor's Patience lowers item requirements making our gloves easier, makes our burns last longer, and gives us some more hp/mana. We don't typically build power charges, so it's not terrible at all. If you have the budget for it, you could use Vicario's Acuity / Shaper's Seed / Blood of Corruption / The Aylardex / Voll's Devotion / Any Rotfeather Talisman / anything else random that suits your fancy. I also thought about Atziri's Foible for reducing requirements for fitting, but I would never use it past early leveling stages (Definitely lose it by mapping). Helm: Best: Any good-rolled Rare. We need Strength by the bucket load, resists and armour can be found here also. Others: Black Sun Crest - flat % to Int/Strength isn't too shabby, and we can make use of the +1 to gem levels. And for fun, consider a Three Dragons as a possible build alteration. Hrimnor's Resolve - up to 40% increased Fire damage, lots of armour, and chance to avoid freeze/chill. Fits build and is everything we want. Rings: Best: Rigwald's Crest - Far and away the best in slot, but good luck finding one. league specific. http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Berek%27s_Grip is also game-changing, but we run into other problems of difficulty acquiring it in temp-leagues. Essence Worm - If you want to run 1 Aura and be sneaky about it. Not required but a fun idea. More important in reflect maps. Rare rings should have Increased Cold/Fire damage, cast speed, fulfil chaos/resistances, gain str/int, and just stack life. Others: Shavronne's Revelation (if you can find one) would be a definite quality of life improvement when equipped in the Left ring slot. Could use a Romira's Banquet if you wanted to force Elemental Overload uptime. A Le Heup of All would be easy to use in this build. Flasks: Best: Rumi's Concoction - nothing game-changing here. Others: We can actually utilize Forbidden Taste due to our high regen easily surpassing the chaos damage incoming, good for emergencies. Roll good Granite of Iron Skins, at least 2 Staunching flasks (I like making quicksilvers w/ Staunching), and at least 1 Mana/Hybrid flask to help with your Mind over Matter balancing.
My Gear
70
Current
Jewels
Clear Mind obviously All of these combo jewels are amazing damage multipliers. Not only can we get 30+ Spell Damage easily with these combos, but also other stats or resists we may be missing, more damage Affixes, and they are typically fairly cheap to boot! You should never have to pay more than 1C for these.
Bandits
Help Oak in Normal for +40hp (no single skill point anywhere will grant more HP than this).
Kill all three in Cruel for +1 Skillpoint (You can help Alira if you want 5% Cast speed, but not required). Help Oak in Merciless for +1 Endurance Charge (Remember each endurance charge grants 4% physical damage reduction, as well as 0.5% more HP regen since we we get Ramako).
Videos
T2 Thicket Level 80 in a Thicket Map, lol, nothing too hard just to show off the playstyle. Note here I'm only running a 5-Link, so no Hypothermia. T6 Catacombs Map is still only Tier 6, wanted to test clear speed. T10 Plateau Experimenting with Elemental Focus, and still only in a 5-Link.
F.A.Q.
Q: Why not Pyre?
 So yeah, Avatar of Fire is core to the build. Pyre is not. You can run any derivative of the build you like, but I strongly dislike it. Q: Would this build work as Blood Magic / +3 Staff / -Mind over Matter / -Other changes A: Of course it can! In designing the build, our primary focus was creating a platform that can survive content and grow with upgrades to gear & levels. I believe the build is sufficiently well rounded that it can function admirably in several alternative forms. Here's what that would look like. Q: What gems should I take for what Quests? Why don't I get X gem by Y level? A: Marauder just doesn't have access to many of the skill and support gems we require. I have had little problem acquiring the gems I need for the build by simply looking up the quest that unlocks it for other classes, traveling to that zone, and asking the players there for assistance ( Don't forget to tip your savior!). I would also be happy to help anyone interested in the build by supplying them with any low level skill gems you may need. Q: Your guide says you do a lot of damage, I followed it but I just don't see how you are doing so much. What gives? A: A lot of the build is invisible to the in-game Tooltip DPS calculations. You will have to input your own values for many stats in order to learn what your 'true' damage potential is. I've included a Spreadsheet I made in the 'Calculations' section, save a copy and put your values into it to see what your damage actually is. Q: How come I am dying to reflect maps when the build says I shouldn't be? A: Barbarism/Saffell's Frame/Rise of the Phoenix/Ruby Flask with Experimenter's for duration/Purity of Fire(In an Essence Worm)... take your pick! Mind over Matter functions as an 'Emergency' valve to stop us from free-casting ourselves into oblivion... but you can still overcome this safeguard as your damage continues to improve. Scale your defensive options and be smart about reading map mods / monster affixes and react accordingly! You should find one of these neglected and filling it resolves the issue.
Discussion
• You could run this build as Blood Magic, making mana concerns quite different, and drop Mind over Matter altogether. In such a build, Clear Mind would still function, and you could reserve auras/heralds with HP and still not break it. I considered this for the build, and it's definitely a viable option. I just choose not to use it because I felt the build worked better with Hybrid Flasks, and wanted to utilize the very large Intelligence pool we acquire for Repentance. Again, thematic choices dictated a lot of this build, but min/maxing might see a stronger version emerge.
• If anyone wants, Here is the BM version of the build. Additionally, I gave thought reaching farther into duelist tree for more HP and regen, but the excessive point cost and unfavorable pathing changed my satisfaction with it. You could certainly go towards Golem's Blood if you want, and pick up the extra Endurance charge while you are there. • A last thought that was presented to me was the viability of starting as Templar or Scion. I can see Inquisitors as being strong for the build, but much less 'meshed' in how their ascendancy provides increased HP or Leech/Damage. And Scion Chieftan is too heavily focused on totems in my opinion. lacks the 'oomph' that we get from being pure Chieftan. However, if you have a level 90 Scion with full tree respec sitting on standard and just want to take the build out for a spin, by all means. • Righteous Fire could theoretically be added.... but at the cost of all of our tanky regen. I don't like it. RF builds are strong and great, but this isn't one. • I've also been giving a lot of consideration to running Rallying Cry instead of Enduring cry, with the Spirited Response unique jewel. If we also pick up Battle Rouse (4 points off from current pathing) and possibly find corrupted amulets/rings/shields with '3%-6% Damage taken Gained as Mana' implicits, we may be able to earn 'free' tankiness in the build. I'm scanning poe.trade and trying to find some test pieces to see if it would make sense. Mark_GGG said that the Mana gained in this manner 'occurs just before the damage taken is subtracted from ES/mana/life', meaning that as long as we are missing some mana, We can recover some after MoM activates. This could be Huge, or it could be a terrible idea. More science is needed! • I'm also playing with a Frost wall to our CwDT setup, to instantly put distance between us and whatever is being mean and nasty in our general vicinity. I think it has potential, but further testing is required before I recommend it.
Credits
I want to thank anyone who made it this far for reading my guide, for those who wish to try it I thank you for your time and confidence. I want to thank ArcinUpTheWrongTree for naming the build, and /5055 for answering questions and for generally being a great source of info for newer and veteran players alike.
 Hot Flashes: poeurl.com/bPZT Balance: poeurl.com/btzp Shocking EleHit: poeurl.com/bZXo Last edited by Kwitch on Jun 14, 2016, 4:20:46 PM Last bumped on Jun 11, 2016, 6:32:51 AM
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[Reserved for Version info / Changelog]
To-Do: Add Skill Gem choices for leveling section. Run for Office. Reticulate Splines. -5/18: Added a Spreadsheet for DPS calculations as close as I can figure for all of our uniques. Added Lioneye's Vision to the build, and cleaned up some wording about Saffell's + Spell Reflect. Still leveling to reach higher-tier maps, and post videos of decently challenging content. -5/19: RE: "Ascendancy Classes are being reviewed, reworked and rebalanced to ensure they stay competitive with each other across a variety of builds." -from today's upcoming patch notes for Prophecy. Build guide will be updated to accommodate these changes as they may affect us. In particular, "We are buffing the implicit mods on Wands and Sceptres. In addition, Daggers, Wand and Sceptres will be slightly more likely to roll caster or attack prefixes if they already have related mods." is a buff to the build and makes rolling rares to replace our Main-Hand much easier. I'll weight this against the cheap cost of our Doon and report if this is equivalent. 5/23: Finals week for me, however, uploading a revised skill tree sometime today, and linked current gear. Finally made 6-Link. 5/26 - Finals over! Lots of revisions coming for upcoming Prophecy, will post them soon ♥ 6/2 - Prepping for Prophecy, major revision of layout and content of guide. Moved certain items/choices in priority. Began work on Elementalist variant for 2.3. Hot Flashes: poeurl.com/bPZT Balance: poeurl.com/btzp Shocking EleHit: poeurl.com/bZXo Last edited by Kwitch on Jun 2, 2016, 7:25:35 PM
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This is great. AB is underused so its great to see a build using it.
One thing to consider is running chain off of AB, and using it to chain explosions off of frost wall. Frost wall has a bunch of neat properties that interact with chain like the fact AB projectiles after chaining through a frost wall will home on a target helping with shotgunning. | |
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How does this build feel thematically? Is it a hulking shaman hurling skulls or more of a nimble mage hiding behind a powerfull fusilade of frozen fire?
Arctic Breath seems a bit like dual wielding claws, very enticing from a roleplaying and visual perspective but perhaps a bit more demanding to use efficiently. | |
" To me, it feels like a beefier Kinetic Blast. If you use Chain in your build (See: pledge of hands, replace spell echo with chain) it's exactly like it. The efficiency concern is always 'a single blade of grass is going to stop one of my projectiles', and I've had issues where I've had to re-position in order to git a target relatively close. However, the sequence of events that occurs is quite enjoyable, the damage is quite high, and the survivability is there. I need to get more levels before I fully answer this question, but I promise I'll find more time to play and get it done for ya. Hot Flashes: poeurl.com/bPZT
Balance: poeurl.com/btzp Shocking EleHit: poeurl.com/bZXo | |
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Totally trying this with BM instead of MoM for the mana issues.
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Hey, have you ever made a comparison between your repentance setup and a setup with the iron will gem as a 6th link + rare gloves with high strength? Would be very interested in seeing how much damage you actually gain compared to the life/resists you lose from not having rare gloves.
Cheers! edit: I ran some dried lakes/ low maps on an old firestorm character in standard that i switched with a slightly different build than yours. Comparing a 14% reduced repentance + hypothermia with a lvl 19 5% iron will gem, the repentance variant had about 20% more damage. In my tests the clearspeed felt lower than I expected for a 86 char (and I normally dont care much for clearspeed); shotgunning was absolutely needed for rares. However, right now the characters gear is kinda messy because I couldn't be arsed to search for items in all the tabs, and he isn't ascended yet. I'll try to get some of that fixed, then run some higher maps and report back to you :) Last edited by pneumothoraxqt on May 15, 2016, 4:42:17 PM
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" That is definitely doable, I actually thought about BM initially as it would make any mana issues of casting disappear with the high regen and life leech. I didn't keep it though, due to the fact that I wanted to utilize all of that Intelligence we acquire for something useful, our pathing was already very close by, and that extra form of tankiness would be a fun addition. When I reach 80+ on my test char I'll report back to you on my final thoughts on it. " Thanks for the suggestion, I think a math section is well in order to outline exactly where all of the multipliers factor and show why the choices I made are the ones I made. Most of my time this weekend has been reading for a manuscript, but I promise I will get some time set aside to do this. " Of course, rolling really good -0% Repentance is one of the big desires in the build, but anywhere between 0%-15% should be very survivable. I have to say that Hinekora is a bit of a requirement by mapping for the leech. I would love your input if you do manage to gear him out a bit more if any suggestions may come out of it. I also sincerely thank you for taking the time to test out the build and report on what you think, that's very valuable to me and I really was hoping for input and criticism from other players on this build. Cheers! Hot Flashes: poeurl.com/bPZT Balance: poeurl.com/btzp Shocking EleHit: poeurl.com/bZXo Last edited by Kwitch on May 15, 2016, 5:23:41 PM
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So, I finished up some gear stuff and got my ascendancy. I used a build with blood magic keystone and the celestial judgement/punishment wheel; fire penetration gem as 6th link (did not try faster proj). Damage in maps up to T11 was better than expected, although the frost wall use takes some practice. I ran those maps with some hard mods as one would normally do, only thing still to test is reflect maps (single reflect rares were totally fine so far). Will probably do that on wednesday.
Tooltip dps was at 8k, neither hypothermia nor fire pen are represented there. Defenses are something like 7,3k life, 450 lifereg/sec, 12k armour, 33% block. Things to do: - Get a dyadian dawn belt - I have enough resists to get rid of one of my rings. Rings I consider right now as replacement are sybils against reflect, essence worm + purity of fire (probably better overall than the sybils), doedre's damning (I kinda miss enfeeble, but I don't want to invest too much into curses so I can run those maps) - Test how different it feels to run enfeeble instead of flammability. Also the tooltip difference between Doons and a cheap rare sceptre I had before really wasn't that big, so one could also use a spell dagger for whirling blades instead. |
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Heyas Pneumo, so I have some input for ya about your ideas. I'm not in love with faster proj. personally, I feel that there may be other, better alternatives. I would really like to know which shield you use, I assume a good rare for stats/resistances.
I looked at Dyadian Dawn and wanted to know why you were thinking of it. Seeing as how we do not use attack abilities, we cannot use it's leech against chilled enemies, nor can we burn our enemies faster (again, attack-only). Dyadian only has: +(25 to 35) to Strength +(70 to 85) to maximum Life +(20 to 40)% to Fire Resistance +(20 to 40)% to Cold Resistance To offer us, and I feel like we can do better with very easy acquirable rares. Maybe you meant Doryani's Invitation(fire) ? For your ring ideas, the Sibyl's is an idea for discount reflect help for sure, however it really offers nothing else and would be sub-par at best. I ran a full elemental reflect map with only Saffill's and 1 ruby flask and did not have to slow down at any point while clearing it at level 68. As damage increases, this may be more of a concern however I believe MoM completely 'eats' the reflect for us and prevents us from over-casting to our death in the 50k ~ 75k dps range. I'm running an essence worm for testing purposes currently, and swap between Anger for regular maps, and PoF for scary reflecty ones and I really don't have any issues with keeping my mana full as mana base. I am very interested to know how the higher HP base and regen counters it, and imagine relative 50% uptime sitting at 90% fire res would be easily enough maintained. Doedre's is interesting, I just wish we had an acceptable way of cursing that wasn't CwDT. I halfway considered a CwDT + spell totem + curse setup in our open 4-L, but just couldn't socket the gems without. feeling. immense. shame. Finally, one of my build mentors suggested I might see rather reasonable returns from a +3 staff, as our Arctic Breath would go from base 451–677 to 603–905 (wow). I'm still itching to test pledge, but again the build can function on the cheapest of uniques (doon is maybe 1 fuse on perandus atm) and scale from there as orbs are acquired. I added a calculation for my dps in the build section, and tried to show a theoretical damage model for level 71 with terrible rolled uniques. I should make a spreadsheet for it where people can input their own values later. And finally, I was giving some thought to the Amplify wheel in Templar / picking up some of those lingering spell damage / elemental damage nodes begging to be final investment points past level 85. What do you think about those? *ty again for your testing! *edit* oooooh almost forgot, the idea of using whirling blades for movement meant we could theoretically sneak fortify into the build, which was one of my earliest concessions during planning that I regretted. A fun alternative, definitely +1 if you could swing it with the right rare stats. Hot Flashes: poeurl.com/bPZT Balance: poeurl.com/btzp Shocking EleHit: poeurl.com/bZXo Last edited by Kwitch on May 16, 2016, 4:34:47 PM
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