Shock burn proliferation build: redux

I made a thread on this a little while back, but I'm still suck on the idea, so I wanted to make a new thread with the new information I've gathered. Let's start with the various components of the build:


1) Burn damage. This is obviously the core element of this build, as it is the only thing causing damage. As it is capped at 1/9 of target HP per second (One third of one third), it is important to have as many passive increases to burn damage as possible. The possible sources are the 2 clusters in the templar/witch portion of the tree (+80%), the searing touch (+70%), and burning arrow (+20%). The only other 2 ways of increasing burn damage would be shock instances, and lowering fire resist.

2) Shock. This is self explanatory, as it is one of the few ways to increase burn damage. With elemental proliferation, the entire group of enemies will take increased damage from the burning. Any attack that can be used with LMP is ideal because it will guarantee 3 instances of shock on critical hits.

3) Area of effect. Because the build is based entirely around elemental proliferation, it is important to pick up as many AoE increase passives as possible. There are 3 clusters total, one in the templar section, one in the witch section, and one in the center of the tree. Additionally, the increased area of effect gem can be used in conjunction with elemental proliferation.

4) Curses. Because of the need to shock enemies and the need to reduce fire resist as much as possible, 2 curses should be used, likely elemental weakness in conjunction with flammability.

5) Survivability. This build has a potential downfall of fragility, as it will center around grouping enemies together, and then critting and waiting for them to die. Surviving while they burn to death will be a key part of the build succeeding. Endurance charges + immortal call will likely be the most effective way of making this happen, as the build is already centered in the str/intelligence portion of the tree.

6) Crits! Without critical hits, this build is useless. As a result, there needs to be a way to have a reasonable chance of critting with some reliability. This is a bit of a challenge, as the marauder portion (and to a greater extent, the duelist portion) of the tree is starved for crit passives. Furthermore, because crits are the only form of damage needed for the build, crit multiplier raises efficiency of damage resources greatly.

7) NO COLD DAMAGE! Shattering enemies completely ends any elemental status ailments present, rendering this build useless. Cold damage must be avoided at all costs.



Given the above parameters, I see 3 possible ways of going about this build. Searing touch + fireball, burning arrow, and flicker strike. I will explore the pros and cons of each.


1) Fireball. While this started as the main concept for this build, I realized as I went about theorycrafting, that the fireball approach is a bit impractical. As lovely as the increased burn damage from searing touch is, the only way of shocking enemies is with the added lightning damage support gem, which is very unlikely to be adequate. That being said, I think it is still worth looking into.

Pros:
-Searing touch provides an incredibly good bonus to burning damage.
-LMP allows for 3 crits (shocks) in one cast.
-Fireball shotguns incredibly well
-Fireball has a 6% base critical strike chance

Cons:
-Requires heavy investment in crit passives.
-Added lightning damage is the only source of lightning damage, and there are very few ways of increasing this.


2) Burning Arrow.

Pros:
-Burning arrow increases burn damage by 20%
-Lightning damage can be obtained from equpment very easily.
-LMP compatibility for 3 shocks at once.
-Blackgleam and burning arrow make for more than adequate fire damage.
-Weapon elemental damage increases damage greatly.
-chin sol can be used to increase damage greatly.

Cons:
-Low base crit chance on bows
-Non spell crit passives are even more scarce


3) Flicker strike. Why flicker strike? Because it cant be dodged, and the quality bonus can amount to 80% increased critical strike chance. Elemental hit at level 1 is a bit sketchy because even the level 1 cold damage is fairly sizable now that it has a level 19 requirement. The other thing that occurred to me is that tempest shield could be used for the purpose of shocking enemies, alleviating some of the issues with not having LMP available.

Pros:
-Daggers have a very high base critical strike chance
-Daggers have increase critical strike chance as an implicit mod
-Shield use increases survivability
-Potential use of tempest shield for shocking enemies.
-Viper strike available for tough solo enemies.

Cons:
-Adequate fire damage will be hard to come by
-Dex and int stat requirements
-No way of shocking more than once per attack
-No increase to burning damage except from passives




Right now the most appealing build to me is the dagger path, because of the highest possible crit chance and highest level of survivability. Any thoughts from anyone who is interested?


Edit: christ this build would have been so much easier with diamond flasks.

Edit2: I felt like I should add some figures regarding fire damage in proportion to lightning damage. Since I want the fire damage to be equal to 1/3 of enemy HP (any more is wasted), and I want lightning damage to be able to shock for the full burn duration, I'm looking at roughly 15% of enemy HP in lightning damage. Lightning damage is unpredictable, and enemy lightning resist will be higher than fire resist, so for practical purposes, I'll probably want lightning damage to be roughly equal to fire damage.

Remember that LMP shotgunning may help your Shock stacks, but it'll also nerf your Burn damage. You could use an Arc/Nova Totem to supply Shock instead.

Curious where you heard burn damage was capped at 1/9th of the targets hp per second?

Heard it was just 4/3th of the damage dealt over 4 seconds

All elemental status effects are capped at 1/3 of enemy max HP. If it deals more than that, the shock/freeze/burn will take effect as though 1/3 of max HP damage was dealt.

So 4/3 of 1/3 max HP = 4/9 over 4 seconds = 1/9 of max HP per second.

I dont think burn is incorporated into that, at least it's not in the mechanics thread.

Just reading it it doesn't seem intuitive that you'd have to wait 9 seconds to kill a mob with pure burn damage.

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0nin wrote:

Remember that LMP shotgunning may help your Shock stacks, but it'll also nerf your Burn damage. You could use an Arc/Nova Totem to supply Shock instead.

LMP wont nerf the burn damage as long as the fire still crits for 1/3 of max enemy HP. Thanks for the idea on using a totem for shocks, though. I didnt think of that.

I'd want to stay away from shock nova and arc because they both have 4% base crit chance which is pretty low, but spark could work well, and it would mean I wouldnt even need LMP on fireball, leaving room for a crit chance support. That doesnt sound bad at all.

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FoolyCoolant wrote:

I dont think burn is incorporated into that, at least it's not in the mechanics thread.

Just reading it it doesn't seem intuitive that you'd have to wait 9 seconds to kill a mob with pure burn damage.

Hrm.... I took that from the wiki, so I'll have to confirm it I guess. If that indeed did not apply to burn it would certainly change this build concept fundamentally.


Edit: nevermind, it says it here in the mechanics thread:

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All three are capped at considering 1/3 of max life - if you deal more than 1/3 max life as that element, the status ailment occurs as though you did exactly 1/3.

Yes, all three. Chill, freeze and shock.

Looks like I was wrong about the ignite cap, which completely changes everything. Havent gotten a dev response, but I've gotten confirmations from other players.

For starters, the dagger build is probably a no go, because fire damage just became much more important.


I'm willing to bet that shock isnt really all that necessary anymore, and that stacking lowered resist curses with as much fire damage as possible will do just fine.



The only question that remains, then, is whether burning arrow or searing touch fireball will cause more damage with ignite.


Between chin sol, point blank, blackgleam, added fire damage, and weapon elemental damage, I'm not so sure that searing touch will actually yield the best results. Anyone care to do some number crunching?

For burning arrow + proliferation, you also want chance to ignite, weapon elemental damage, and fire penetration. It works decently (could be very strong with good gear) but don't play it on hardcore unless you have a death wish. it's definitely fun burning everything though! Good luck