[2.6] Blast Rain Slayer Build Guide. Xoph's Nurture + The Taming + Emberwake

Sorry about not having harder content, I don't have a lot of hard maps remaining in standard due to me not playing there. If there is request in the future i'll try to get some more maps there.

Excavation Map
Notable Mods were:
Players are cursed with temporal chains
Monsters deal 99% extra damage as lightning
+40% Monster elemental resistance
Players have 60% less recovery rate of life and energy shield

Gorge Map
Notable Mods were:
Monsters have 100% increased AoE
Monsters deal 91% extra damage as fire
40% monster elemental resistance
Monsters have a 20% chance to cause status ailments

Crematorium Map Boss (no leech)
Notable Mods were:
Cannot leech life from monsters
Cannot leech mana from monsters
Monsters deal 97% extra damage as lightning

If there is a request for more videos of content, i'll try to add some. The Crematorium map displays a hard map mod which is no leech, due to the life recovery from the bow when we ignite however we are able to survive, due to lack of mana leech though our kill time is heavily impacted. Another hard mod that I didn't have a map to show is elemental reflect. This mod is doable but it heavily depends on monster life in the zone and how much damage you take from said enemies. Generally as long as you don't 1 hit yourself to reflect you'll leech back to full life very quickly. I would not recommend running this mod in hardcore however.

Xoph's Nurture is a core part of this build due to the '50% of Physical Damage Converted to Fire Damage' mod which along with Blast Rain's own 50% physical to fire conversion, means we do not need to take the Avatar of fire notable, saving us several skill points. The 'Ignites your Skills cause spread to other Enemies within a Radius of 12' mod also means we do not have to use the Elemental Proliferation gem or the Elementalists 'Beacon of Ruin' ascendancy point, meaning we are free to play Slayer or any other ascendancy of our choosing. Besides the large amount of physical damage this bow provides it also has the 'Recover (40-60) Life when you Ignite an Enemy' mod which gives us a ridiculous amount of life sustain with the amount of ignites which we produce.

Kaom's Heart is BiS for most fire based life builds which are able to get links elsewhere, like we are with a bow. If you cannot attain one of these straight away its fine, they're not required, just a very strong luxury. You could alternatively use a 5/6 link as your body armour until you are able to link your bow and get a Kaom's.

The Signal Fire is a very strong unique for this build, providing the 'Gain (25-35)% of Physical Damage as Extra Fire Damage' mod which gives a large boost to our damage due to the conversion being 'Extra' instead of just mere conversion such as with some other uniques. Whilst this item is very strong, it is not very defensive. As such if you wish to be tankier a Rearguard unique may better suit you.

Xoph's Blood is a very strong unique for this build, providing the 'Damage Penetrates 10% Fire Resistance' mod which along with the fire penetration gem and nodes from the skill tree allow for a large amount of fire penetration which is great for mapping. It also gives the 'Cover Enemies in Ash when they Hit you' mod which makes enemies who hit you take more fire damage and have less movement speed. Defensively this item also provides a large amount of life through the '10% increased maximum Life' and '10% increased Strength' mods giving you more EHP. Another possible amulet you could try if you cannot afford this item is a Ngamahu Tiki which provides up to 70% increased fire damage. A well rolled Eyes of the greatwolf would also be very strong, albeit expensive.

Emberwake is one of the two rings which underpin this build. It provides the 'You can inflict up to 300 Ignites on an Enemy' whilst giving 80% less burning damage. Whilst this may seem like a fairly large issue we also use The Taming, which turns this item into a massive damage buff.

The Taming is by far the most important item for this build, providing the '10% increased Damage per Freeze, Shock and Ignite on Enemy' mod, which alongside the emberwake ring can allow for up to 3000% increased damage on an enemy due to enemies being able to have up to 300 ignites on them, instead of the typical 1.

The Green Dream is a jewel which provides the 'Passives granting Cold Resistance or all Elemental Resistances in Radius also grant an equal chance to gain a Frenzy Charge on Kill' mod. This should be socketed in the jewel node next to the templar area above the devotion node. This will mean, once you have the points allocated you will have 20% chance to gain a frenzy charge on kill with this jewel. The green nightmare is the upgrade of this gem and can also be used, to greater effect. Due to it providing chance to dodge from cold/elemental resistances at 35% of their values.

Dying Sun is a BiS flask for this build, the increased area of effect and extra 2 projectiles which it adds are ridiculous and massively help when clearing maps. It is however by no means required and I would suggest on focusing on other items before getting one of these.

Final Tree (lvl 94)

Levelling Tree (lvl 70)

Deadeye Final Tree

Slayer (I'll list notable effects from each tier):
- Normal Lab: 'Bane of legends' Gain onslaught when you kill a rare or unique enemy. Culling strike enemies at 20% life or lower.
- Cruel Lab: 'Headsman' 20% more damage and 15% increased AoE if you've killed recently.
- Merciless Lab: 'Endless Hunger' 20% of overkill damage leeched as life, life leech effects are not removed at full life.
- Endgame Lab: 'Impact' 20% increased AoE. 'Brutal Fervour' 100% increased life leeched a second, 10% of max life added to max life leech rate. Cannot be stunned and are immune to bleeding whilst leeching.

I chose Slayer due to the vast amounts of AoE which you can pick up from the available nodes. With Impact which I picked up I have an extra 45% increased aoe, coupled with the other nodes from the tree gives me a large amount of area of effect. I am also given notable life leech as well as decent damage increasing travel nodes, such as 14% increased damage with two handed weapons and 5% increased attack speed. You are free to take other ascendancies however, if you are to pick another one I would probably suggest Ranger's Deadeye, which would likely provide more damage in the long run. However you'd lose out on life leech. I have also seen similar builds running elementalist and pathfinder. For my build though I would suggest either Slayer or Deadeye.

Blast rain - Chance to ignite - Fire penetration - Faster attacks - Weapon Elemental Damage - Increased Area of effect/Concentrated effect
- These are the best links I have found for this build, They are in order of importance so you can take them as you see fit whilst levelling.

Anger - Herald of ash - Summon Flame Golem

Blink Arrow - Faster Attacks - Vaal Haste - Vaal Breach
- Vaal Breach is a massive quality of life buff for boss killing with this build due to the way that the taming works providing more damage for each ignite on an enemy. Popping vaal breach when in a boss room will spawn dozens of enemies which you can quickly ignite along with the boss, massively multiplying damage done.

Cast When Damage Taken - Firestorm - Ball Lightning - Chance to ignite
- This provides a silly amount of ignites on enemies, which along with Xoph's Nurture gives a bunch of life for each enemy ignited.

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