[3.8] Martyr of Innocence - Self Ignite - CoC Flame Surge - 1M+ DPS - Uber Elder viable!



Hello everyone!

After many years of trying to create jank I finally stumbled onto something reasonable, and in SSF of all places!

Videos
Spoiler
Uber Elder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IDA8rAOOMw
This is only my second time ever killing Elder so I died twice and it was a bit sloppy, but someone with better gear and more experience should have no problem without dying.


Why do this?
I was playing Legion SSF and a Martyr of Innocence dropped. Hit 6 sockets in 30 jewellers, and then 6 linked in 7 fusings. It's an item I don't remember ever seeing before and it felt like the RNG Gods were beckoning me. From there I looked up how people use the item and saw self ignite with Eye of Innocence. Since I could target farm that I figured I'd try it out, but what to do from there?

A main goal of mine was to use all the mods on the staff. They all kind of pull a character in different directions, especially the Level 15 Vengeance. The staff rewards you for blocking, but Vengeance is a 'hit taken trigger', and there is even added block. Furthermore it adds both fire damage to attacks and spells. How to put all these together?

There are probably other ways you can go, but I immediately thought it'd be sweet to do CoC since I'd never done that before. Out of all the ascendencies I ultimately ended on Scion. Gladiator is great for the block and the challenger charges, but then you have no additional crit. Assassin is great for the crit, but then there is no block. Scion allowed me to get additional gladiator block while being able to get crit in order for the skills I'm using to work.

Why Flame Surge?
This is certainly a skill I've never used before, as I typically stick to melee, but I was combing through all the fire skills and this one stuck out. It scales massively against burning enemies, but it cannot ignite by itself. Thankfully the cyclone can ignite for us so that's not a problem. It's also an AoE gem so it scales along with cyclone.

What to do with Vengeance?
Because the staff already has a baked in trigger skill, and I'm trying to block as often as possible anyway, I decided the staff was best used as a quality of life stick. Threw in a Riposte and let it apply curses for me, while occasionally get a culling strike.

Path of Building
https://pastebin.com/31XUEX3x

Pros:
* Clear through Uber Elder
* Decent melee clear speed for a non-meta build
* Fairly strong survivability. My character has 59% attack block and 31% spell block
* Don't care about regeneration

Cons:
* Have to repeatedly leap slam to maintain fortify
* Build doesn't feel quite right until late levels
* Gear can be a bit weird to itemize
* Cannot do elemental reflect
* Need leech

Gear
Spoiler

A six-link Martyr of Innocence is definitely overkill. I find that the culling strike rarely procs, and the combustion may or may not be relevant. Ultimately I wanted to make sure that combustion was always on and I had the extra link so why not. Prioritize block roll -> Spell damage roll -> Attack roll.

Carcass Jack is definitely the best chest. I got really lucky with this six-link (about 300-400 fusings). The six-link is critical as nothing here can really be spared, as the combustion applied by cyclone is critical, and the increased critical strikes are important to get flame surge to proc.

These two are important for self ignite. Can't reliably ignite yourself without the amulet, and the ring allows you to get more flame surges in.

Cooldown Recovery speed is the last thing you need to really conquer endgame. I researched CoC before I made this character and found this helpful post.
https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/a1e0o1/psa_cooldown_and_aps_thresholds_for_new_coc_and/
The TLDR is that for maximum DPS before you have any CDR you want to keep your attacks per second below 6.06. Once you have 14%+ you can then scale your attacks per second up to 7.57. It's a MASSIVE DPS increase as you're getting in 1.5 extra Flame Surges per second. You can do T15/T16 without it in reasonable gear, but don't underestimate that mod. It can come from either shaped boots or belt at that number.

For the helm I really wanted an Elder one for the spell block. Any rare with Life and quality stats is generally fine.

Solid rare ring that you can craft -mana cost onto. Very important to allow for maximum mana reservation and not have to worry about Cyclone costs.

Movement speed/Life/Resistances/CDR if not on belt

Life/Attack speed/Resistances. Found this one off a Legion mob and about crapped my pants at that added damage against burning enemies with all the other mods.


Skills
Spoiler
Riposte-> Curse On Hit -> Assassin's Mark -> Flammability -> Combustion -> Culling Strike
Really only need 4 link.

Cyclone -> Cast on Crit -> Flame Surge -> Increased Critical Strikes -> Combustion -> Increased/Concentrated area of effect
Not much negotiable here. Swap increased/concentrated area of effect when clearing or bossing

Leap Slam -> Fortify -> Faster Attacks -> Blood Magic
Main movement. Need to Leap Slam every 5 seconds to maintain Fortify

Herald of Ash -> Zealotry -> Precision
Unfortunately I've not found an enlighten gem yet in nearly 150+ hours since Legion started, but that'd be used in a 4 link with these auras so I could use Blood Rage without Blood Magic.

Blood Rage
Can only really use this once you have the 14%+ CDR roll on something. I intend to put this in my uncut ring, but you could replace culling strike on the staff for it.
Last edited by BaZierk on Sep 5, 2019, 11:40:00 PM
Last bumped on Sep 25, 2019, 4:30:19 PM
I like the look of this build.
Just did a bit of tweaking on PoB by taking the assassin instead of ascendant you can get a major damage increase, though you do sacrifice roughly a third of health from tree, though with Elusive from assassin and some aura/gear tweak you can increase your defenses with dodge and evasion.

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