[1.0.4] No Searing Touch Burning Discharger: More damage for a fraction of the price [Domination]

Before: Burning damage dealt 33% of the initial damage per second, for 4 seconds. And it could only be modified specifically by burning damage modifiers.

Now: Burning damage deals 20% of the initial damage per second for 4 seconds. But now, elemental damage and fire damage modifiers increase the burning damage as well. So they actually work twice to increase burning damage, first by improving the initial hit, and then on the burning damage itself. That's why we won't use the Searing Touch.

In short, the "burning damage" modifier isn't as strong as before, firstly because the base burning damage went down from 133% to 80% of the initial hit, and more importantly, because now elemental and fire damage improve your burning damage twice -along with your initial hit of course. So, in this build.... we don't use the Searing Touch. A big part if its efectiveness was the increased burning damage, but now I really believe using 2 wands or 2 scepters is the superior option.

I bought those 2 scepters for 3 chaos:



A perfect Searing Touch (which costs a lot more than 3 chaos) has 50% increased Spell Damage, 40% increased Fire Damage and 70% increased Burning Damage.

Math inside, hopefully it won't be too wrong:

I agree I didn't factor the +2 to fire gems in the searing touch. That would improve discharge itself, and in a 6 link, fire penetration, and maybe burning damage if you use it (arguably burning damage isn't worth it anymore)

I still think it's much better to use 2 scepters/wands, and link discharge on the body armour. If I were to spend 2-3 ex on the weapons instead of 3 chaos, the stats could be insanely better too.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgABAecCcQPGBAcEswVbBg4IZwn2EmkUIBRNFHEWbxccGDwZLhmFGjgabB8CJIskqiWtJ-0pTyqNLdIxnjWSNsU22DbpOtg64TwFPC09Dz1fQYdG103YTeNQR1JTVcZXDWP9Z71xeXy7gW-Cm4M4h2WI8YuMjHaPRpBVkc6TOpeFl5WboZwtna6ePJ7Nn8uf36IAplenCKcwp4SsWbc-u-29J8T2xq7PZdDQ0iHYJNlh4XPjauQi52PsOOxV7SDub-988B_yRfno_Qv-Cv6P

Bandits: Help Oak, kill all, help Oak.

Since this is a Domination build, I didn't go for Vaal Pact, opting for more damage instead (and being able to have life regen and use health pots). This means elemental reflect can kill you if you're not paying attention. If an elemental reflect boss appears, you can either separate it from the group to kill it, or discharge another group, then make the boss go near the corpses, which will proliferate the burning and kill it.

Needed uniques: Windscream Greaves and Doedre's Damning ring. Both of those have "Enemies can have 1 additional Curse", allowing us to apply 3 curses at the same time to the enemies, increasing our damage and making the build work.

For the weapons, either scepters or wands with high spell damage, elemental damage and fire damage (not flat).

For the rest of the equipments, just get the best you can with life, resists and armour.

Discharge + Elemental Proliferation + Chance to Ignite + Iron Will + Fire Penetration + Concentrated Effect: This goes on the body armour since we aren't using the Searing Touch. If you don't like the smaller area of effect from Concentrated Effect, you can use Increased Burning Damage, but the damage will be much lower. We are taking both the templar and the witch increased area of effect nodes, so it shouldn't be too bad. Also get a quality discharge for more area of effect.

Cast when Damage Taken + Warlord's Mark + Flammability + Elemental Weakness: Basic combo from Kripp's build, 3 curses to increase damage, ignite chance, and give endurance charges. Quality on Warlord's Mark means more chances to get endurance charges on kill.

Shock Nova + Elemental Proliferation + Iron Will + Concentrated Effect: Used to proliferate shock stacks on mobs, which will increase the damage output of discharge. Mostly used on hard packs or when there's a boss around, it's usually not necessary and overkill for trash mobs.

Cast when Damage Taken + Molten Shell + Summon Skeletons + Rejuvenation Totem: More survivability with Molten Shell and the totem, and some meat shields with the skeletons. Feel free to use Cold Snap or whatever you prefer, this is what works for me.

Reduced Mana + Clarity + Determination: Feel free to substitute the auras to the ones you prefer. Right now, I'm using purity and vitality with clarity, since my equips are still pretty bad.

Also have Enduring Cry somewhere for endurance charges and Leap Slam or Lightning Warp for mobility.

http://youtu.be/QIx4Zi_XDRM

Bear in mind I'm extremely poor in Domination. I made this char a few days ago, and it's the only one I have in this league. I'm using only a 4 link discharge, and have pretty bad equips in general. I'm level 60 or so in the video. I can make other videos when I level up and get to harder content such as maps.