[3.2] Scionic Flametank "16k ES ed." (ES-CI-ZO-GR, SR-CWC-FS, extensive guide)

I made a very minor tweak to my 2.0 build, and made blade vortex my primary spell.

I switched Arsonist for Potency of Will. I also swapped incinerate and LMP for Blade Vortex and Increased AOE. Initial results are promising: I am able to munch up Voll with a lvl 13 blade vortex gem.

I'll report back.

I'll be interested in hearing about your experiences, AedwyneofFolkstone.

For now, I'm sticking with Incinerate, since I managed to make everything work well enough with it with some modifications.


For now, I have updated the first post with all the relevant information concerning the 2.1 "After Dark" version of the Scionic Flametank, with instructions for both pure fire users and for Consuming Dark users.


...AND I hit the 50,000 character limit for posts and had to be less verbose in places. :D

Hi, I wanted to say that I really like this build a lot. It's very fun and pretty simple, and since I get dragged AFK intermittently when I'm trying to play, it's a huge help!

I was wondering if you'd considered Firestorm at all. With the recent buff, it appears to be pretty popular. Does Incinerate wind up better than Firestorm, regardless of the buff to firestorm and the nerf to incinerate?

Also, under the skill tree development, the 30-points and the 49-points are the same link?

"

DaLordEtrius wrote:

Hi, I wanted to say that I really like this build a lot. It's very fun and pretty simple, and since I get dragged AFK intermittently when I'm trying to play, it's a huge help!

Good to hear it.

"

I was wondering if you'd considered Firestorm at all. With the recent buff, it appears to be pretty popular. Does Incinerate wind up better than Firestorm, regardless of the buff to firestorm and the nerf to incinerate?

It is a case of different strokes for different folks. Incinerate still winds up doing more damage consistently in a larger area so long as you have good projectile speed, but Firestorm allows you to move, doesn't have a ramp up time, and delivers quite concentrated semi-random damage within its small radius (assuming you are using Concentrated Effect, which you are in any serious Firestorm build). With regards to playstyle, both allows you to remain stationary, while Incinerate merely requires you to point in the general direction of enemies the Firestorm requires you to sweep the screen with more precise mouse movement or hold it centered on yourself where you know most enemies will approach.

Before 2.1 Incinerate was far ahead in damage - that's definitely not the case now. But since what attracted me to Incinerate in the first place was the playstyle, it'll take a much worse nerf than this to make me abandon Incinerate. :p

ANYHOW, it is trivial to make a Firestorm version of this: After all, I originally started out with Dy'Ness Firestorm tank early last year and Dy'Ness is still going strong, so one can either take Dy'Ness build or just steal the obvious Firestorm relevant nodes (e.g Potency of Will) and bolt them on to the core build after removing the few projectile specific nodes (Sniper and projectile damage):

"

Also, under the skill tree development, the 30-points and the 49-points are the same link?

Thanks for the bug report. This is now fixed.

Thank you very much, that was a super helpful reply. :)

I have following problem: I'm currently level 50. While I have nice survavibility(cant facetank yet though) my damage is really poor. I use flameblast 4L at the moment, it's the only spell that allows me to kill monsters packs in a reasonable speed ;(

I'm starting this build in Talisman since I wanted a tanky spell caster. I have a Lvl 89 Ranger Crit Arrow build that is too squishy. I'm curious what end game gear suggestions one might have for Talisman? Some gear is harder to come by, but I can farm with my Ranger. Also any tips on leveling gear (uniques/skills) would be great. Right now I have flame totem in a Night's Hold Talisman and I'm sailing through Normal and Cruel.

@trolldemort

As your profile is set to private I can't see your spec and gear, and as I furthermore have no idea what you consider a "reasonable speed", it is hard for me to give advice except for the generic:

* Got a decent wand (or other 1H) with good total spell+fire damage increases? -- This is your primary method of increasing damage in the early game with this spec.
* Rolled some decent fire/spell/projectile/damage increase jewels for the few gem slots you are picking up while leveling?
* Got projectile speed range increases for your Incinerate (quality Incinerate, gems, wand, or even Karui Ward)
* If all else fails, pick up a few more damage nodes before proceeding along the recommended track - you can always spec out of them once your equipment compensates.

And, of course, while you are running around with a 4L leveling, running an auxiliary Flame Totem will help your dps quite a bit. (A Flame Totem was part of the build in a CWDT until 2.0 prevented that from working, but it can still provode a considerable DPS increase during the early game.)

This is a tank build and especially while leveling it can feel like it deals very low dps, as the core build's majority of damage increasers come from jewels and worn equipment, not from the skill tree.

Err, one thing.. I don't mean it as an insult, but I don't know you and I really don't have any idea about what equipment you are using, so there exists the possibility that you have are using poor magic gear; If this is the case and can get your hands on a Hidden Potential jewel, then you'll get 20% increased damage for each magic item you have equipped (counting the nine main gear slots). But as you are likely using the best rare gear you've collected along the way rather than magic gear, this probably won't be useful to you.


@formica19

I don't play in the Talisman league, but since the build doesn't rely on any unique items except for Consuming Dark, and that only if you want to play the After Dark version, the recommendations for gear given in the guide should work for Talisman as well.

I don't really recall any uniques that will be really helpful for leveling this build apart from the Shaper's Seed and Karui Ward before you reach the late 60's with Doryani's Invitation, Auxium, and the Vertex, and those three are hardly considered leveling uniques under normal circumstances.

One HUGE change from Standard is the introduction of Talismans with +2% life generation. The only reason that I don't use the Shaper's Seed in this build is that its benefits apart from 2% life regeneration are minimal and the life regeneration, while a substantial defensive benefit, doesn't match the combined offensive and defensive benefits of a good amulet with +ES, +maxES%, and some resistance/spelldamage/cast speed stats. So when Talisman allows random neck-slot items with 2% life regeneration and other stats, it won't take all that many other stats to make an item that is superior to most current amulets. Heck, a decent spelldamage and either high ES or high maxES% roll along with 2% life regeneration would probably have me ditching my current great amulet.



Flame Totem in Night's Hold sounds obscene for leveling purposes. :p

Hi, thanks for this tanky build, I am trying this build right now because I'm quite annoyed with the squishiness of my arc crit witch.

Right now I am lvl 70 and just drop this body armor last night




I've decided to test it on Dominus and it's quite crazy since I can eat all his lightning in phase 1 with just 5K ES and, passive regen from the build, and the leech from the doryani belt.

what's your opinion on this chest piece.

Maybe it's worth trying this with blade vortex as main attack?

@sombresonge Good to hear you are having fun. Regarding Incandescent Heart, it is a decent chestpiece to use until you get a decent ES chest, by finding, buying, or self-crafting. (Crafting a 400-500 ES chestpiece is fairly easy, and if you get lucky you'll end up with one considerably higher, so given the massive contribution from the chestpiece it is tempting to take a white high item level Vaal Regalia and try linking it via 4xarmour+fusing until you get a 6L, that you can then alt/aug until you have a good armour base.)

As for Blade Vortex as main attack rather than incinerate, I haven't tried it. My initial reaction to the suggestion is that I'd initially be concerned about the need of rather more Dex for Blade Vortex and the other high Dex skills as well as the need for picking AOE radius nodes to get the full benefit from Blade Vortex. It sounds like something that could easily get out of hand in terms of cost of skill points unless the build was substantially changed... But you try it out and tell me! :)