[1.3]Fire Spear: the most noob friendly build in existence

I am sure tons of people have used a build of this kind, but somehow it apparently never led to a proper guide.

The core idea is to use Ice Spear to proliferate very high burn damage at long range.

This build is designed for:
-: casual gamers
-: people looking for a first easy cheap character to farm currency/gear
-: I can't talk for beyond 72 maps because I will probably never be interested in doing them.

This build is:
-: incredibly cheap(no core item. 3 link is enough to kill merc Dominus. Requires only 1 out of character skill gem: cold to fire which costs 1 chaos at worst)
-: incredibly noob friendly (summoned meat shields, fair defenses, very long range, cast&forget gameplay)
-: good enough to run early maps with ease (currently lvl 72 maps easy peasy because the season is still young and I don't play that much)
-: perfect to start a season, or as a first character ever.
-: on line on level 4.
-: equipped to deal with absolutely everything the game can throw at you (under lvl 72 maps at least. Cant yet speak for later with no gear). No need to skip anything ! Even no regen/ele reflect maps (even though these ones will prove tricky).

The bare minimum
GEMS:
Use a 3 links BBR to get Ice Spear + Cold to Fire + Elemental Proliferation.
Use zombies with minion life in a 2 link.
Use Assassin Mark in a 1 link. Shouldn't be too hard to find.
SKILL TREE:
Focus on increased critical strike multiplier.
Get Avatar of Fire.
Get Spell/Elemental/Cold/Fire damage nodes over cast speed and critical strike chance.
Don't forget the mandatory life nodes !
ITEMS
Nothing in particular.

The Skill Trees:


Why does it work ?
Elemental proliferation and burning is a very well known combination. And a very powerfull one at that. For a burning proliferation, you need:
1: high "single shot" fire damage
2: ignition
The mechanics of Ice Spear pretty much settles the ignition because it natively has 49% chances to crit in it's 2nd form. With the few crit chance we get from the tree, making ennemies actually burn is very easy with absolutely no gear investment.
The high single damage part is less obvious, because Ice Spear is less damaging than a Fireball or Flameblast. But you make up for it with the damage conversion mechanics. By itself, cold to fire offers an impressive multiplicative boost. Herald of ice becomes even nicer because it's boosted by cold to fire without the need to be linked with it: neat ! And with avatar of fire you can use herald of thunder. And you benefit from both fire and ice damage modifier. This means that you fully benefit from weapons with +spell damage AND +%fire AND +%cold. Gross. This kind of things are cheap. The crit multiplier really works wonders here.

Why is it better ?
A flameblast proliferator deals more damage. I think. Never tried. But I suppose.
However you don't have to stay in place like a dumbass for 3 seconds whenever you want to damage fast moving mobs who will dodge your poorly synched circle anyway.
No. You cast it from afar. Once. And everyone dies. And since you don't need to invest in cast speed you have cool minions to tank for you !
I can't insist enough on all the pros of using a long distance projectile in this game. You have the safest playstyle possible: long range + minions. A dream for every poor exile of Wraeclast.

I have the bare minimum, how do I get better ?
GEMS
-: the 6 link dream you (and I mean: I) will never get (add gems in this order. Use item rarity whenever you want):
Ice Spear + Elemental Proliferation + Cold to Fire + Fire Penetration + Increased critical damage + Increased burning damage.
-: get a summon skeleton + spell totem
-: get herald of ice + herald of thunder
-: get raised spectre (with or without supports)
-: desecrate is handy to have around
-: improve your zombies with resists and speed
-: Vaal Summon skeleton for emergency situations and strongboxes
SKILLS:
-: minion instability is nice. Zombies look ugly anyway.
-: more spell/fire/cold damage
-: more burning damage. Ignite duration is nice but ignite chance is useless.
-: minion stuff
-: the AoE increase in the witch area is worth taking to proliferate farther
-: life, es, res, whatever you fancy
ITEMS:
-: resistance, life, es. Usual stuff.
-: I prefer wand or dagger + shield, but dual wielding is fine. Even though honestly I don't think you need the damage boost. The searing touch is good, but costs a lot more than a dual wield setup for similar results. Look for spell/fire/cold/crit mult.
-: iir, iiq. Usual stuff
-: crit multipliers. You really don't need the expensive ones like Malygaro's gloves or whatever. A bit of it here and there and you will do enough damage for a very long time.

My current setup:
Witch lvl 74

Running up to 70 map without any issue. Started from scratch.

How to start a league with this char:
1: get ice spear
2: cast ice spear
3: get shitty zombies
4: get clarity. Level it as needed
5: I suggest starting by completing some of the east side of the skill tree, but rushing towards avatar of fire is fine too
6: buy cold to fire from someone (1 chaos max)
7: buy elemental proliferation. You could wait until the quest reward but you won't regret buying it either
8: get a 3 links
9: you are done. Enjoy your dirt cheap, powerfull and safe build.

Video

*Reserved for -most likely- no purpose at all*

Just found a Pyre during a nice double unique drop in a Vaal side area. Looking at the build, it's possible with that item to skip over getting Avatar of Fire and use that ring... possibly reassigning the point elsewhere.... or at least delaying it until you start using the Heralds to boost DPS....Thoughts?

This was among my countless theorycrafts - an ice spear prolif build with CtF and avatar of fire to proliferate burns. In fact, it was among my first builds that I attempted earlier in the league before dropping it due to its inefficiency.

I decided against it for two reasons - firstly, the burn becomes super moot against fast melee enemies that can avoid the +600% ICC, and secondly Flameblast can always do it better, whether it's close range or off-screen. A flameblaster can charge up a reasonable-damage flameblast in the time it takes an ice spear caster to cast 1-2 ISs, and that flameblast is guaranteed to ignite and burn everything 99% of the time, whether it's up close or off-screen.

With respect to your specific take on it, I would say that the build is far too squishy. +80% life is by no means "the most noob friendly build" if it inherently prevents them from doing most map bosses. With your gear setup, you probably have around 2,370 HP and 950 ES, which is very, very squishy by any standard and inherently not noob-friendly. That is, unless you can prove my general statement wrong by uploading a video of a Jungle Valley or Torture Chamber boss run, or even something simpler like a Necropolis Merveil. Until then, it would be difficult to claim that it's "the most noob friendly build."

Also, upload your video to youtube :P

Pyre doesn't work because the corpses wouldn't proliferate the burnning. Pyre only works well for pure direct damage, not burning.

Flameblast has it's issues: terrible against fast mobs because you have no minion buffer. Terrible against strong bosses because of the channeling. This build, while it deals less (overkill) damage, has none of these issues.
You really have the spare points to buff your minions, therefore I never find fast mobs to be a problem: the minions and the totem get the attention most of them and you just have to run half a screen away from 2 mobs at worst.
Agains tough bosses, it's night and day. You are far. You have mobility. You have two layers of buffers (minion + totem).
Overall, my early/midgame experience with this build is miles ahead from the one I had with flameblast. It's simple: I simply couldn't take the flameblast to mid merciless.

This build has very few weaknesses. The only one I can think of right now is flicker strike mobs on crack if you don't have Vaal skeletons ready. Everything else, it has the tools to deal with it with no sweat.
Flameblast is good. It's strong. But it has huge weaknesses (reflect, fast, flickers, mobility...)

Flameblast really doesn't do it better when it comes to survival and adaptivity. I would like to make a video, but I am lazy and don't have the tools to do it.
I didn't test this build on high level maps (72+) because I don't play that much. But so far, my maps are really a breeze with less deaths than I can count on one hand.

You've gone to early-mid game. As far as I can see, this is your highest level character.

On the other hand, I've done Atziri kills without flasks and a Doryani’s for the lolz. I’ve run lvl75 double-Merveil Necropolis on a flameblast build and that flameblast build still has 0 deaths to date.

I'm not saying your build has to be Atziri viable at all, nor am I saying Atziri is the end-all-be-all guideline for any build. I’m just saying this to point out that I’ve been to end-game and I understand “defence.” I understand that any build can be just-for-fun, and there are plenty of just-for-fun niche builds out there that I find quite amusing. I'm not saying your build isn't viable - it's obviously completely functional. I'm saying that there is a huge inherent flaw in externalizing your defenses and then claiming it to be the most beginner-friendly build. No beginner wants to die over and over again, and no beginner wants to be gated from doing specific map bosses just because the build can't do it.

When I first started Path of Exile and reached low-level maps, I decided that investing nodes into minions and creating a minion buffer was a viable defense. Against normal mobs that anyone can kill, it was a viable defense. However, it gated a lot of content simply because AOE-based bosses or enemies could destroy minions and totems like nobody’s business, leaving just me, my poor defenses, and the boss. That’s inherently not beginner-friendly. Beginner-friendly means it’s gotta be able to access most of the game content for an affordable price.

I can list all the maps bosses that a build with externalized defenses via minions will have trouble with:
Museum map 68
Graveyard 70
Colonnade 71
Labrynth 72
Torture Chamber 72
Jungle Valley 72
Cells 73
Necropolis 75
Crematorium 76
Academy 76
Precinct 76
Shrine 77
Palace 78
Courtyard 78

It will be able to do some of them with enough kiting. Others, like Jungle Valley, Shrine, or Palace, will be 100% impossible.

That's not "few weaknesses" in my opinion. Once again, that doesn't inherently invalidate the build's viability - I'm just questioning the bold claim you've thrown up there in the title. That's all.

That's fair.

I haven't played that much, and my standards must be a bit old:
-: complete merc
-: run docks
-: run Piety
-: then start maps if your build is strong enough

I suppose that now that maps go that high, my idea of the endgame is moot. Being able to jump straight into maps after merc is a bit new for me for example.

For casuals like me, just being able to run the early maps (I say early maps but in my mind I hear just "maps". Because that's what I think: maps are maps, no matter the lvl. It must seem silly now I guess) nearly naked is really all I ask. So that I can farm with ease.
For that purpose, I really prefer Ice Spear to Flameblast. I can do nothing more than trust you for the "even later" game. Anyway, even if I could reach the highest maps it would probably take me at least another month :p I will have rerolled by long then. And the gear would probably go from 0 chaos worth to a few exalts !
I am a bit surprised though. Because I heard that summoners are viable "endgame" and I really don't see how they would get tankier than my char except for minion block.

Your point is entirely right though. Thanks. I will edit my guide to further explain to whom this guide is designed for.

I'm not very fond of the idea to invest 10 points into minion nodes just for some zombie meatshield. You better invest those points in life nodes and/or some offensive nodes in the templar or shadow tree.

Imo you would be better of with spell totem - summon skeleton - blind.
1) The totem resummons the skels. No need for you to interrupt casting ice spear.
2) The totem summons the skels directly at the enemy whereas zombies have to run there.
3) Bosses with aoe kill your zombies without you being able to resommen them. No problem with a totem that summons.
4) Better chance to evade attacks. Now you have to invest 10 points to get 5 zombies; with the totem you can summon 6 skeletons. Effective chance to evade attacks with 5 zombies: 1:5; with 6 skels + 1 totem: 1:7.
5) If you want some damage support from your skeletons you could take minion instability.

BTW Flameblast ain't that bad even against fast moving enemies. A common setup is to use trap-cold snap-cold penetration-elemental proliferation to freeze/slow the mob and then cast flameblast. Works really well.

EDIT:
In case you are interested there are 3 guides from 1.2 that use fire ice spear (trees are broken though):
[1.2.1] Mahesys's Crit AoF Fire Ice Spear Elemental proliferator
[1.2.x] Burnshocker Ice Spear
[1.2.x] Infernal Sniper - AoF Crit Piercing Prolif Ice Spear

Thanks for the links.

These are nice guides, but they don't use minions. But first and foremost they don't point out what is for me the main strength of this build: it costs nothing. You can do 66 maps with all blue gear and 3 links.
I lack 72+ experience. I admit that. Maybe when I reach lvl 75 map all my zombies/skelies/ghosties are going to spontaneously combust upon summoning and the build will reach it's limit. But even then, this build is still mind-bogglingly viable until then. More than viable.

I came up with this build because I initially wanted a hybrid witch: a summoner who would use another source for damage. Ice Spear burning came to me as the best solution (without gear investment). The various minons help you land your Spears, they keep most of the mobs away and your totem is a splendid scout tool.

Maybe after 72 the minions starts to fall off. Maybe. I honestly don't know. But they really add something until then.

hey.. while searching i found your build i think ill try it.. it cheap bild no need specific equip and i can use summon. it fun
use spell totem to summon skeleton ill try in next league..