Flasks-- am I just being a stupid noob?

So i didn't read any of the various guides and have played the game up to level 40ish with a lightning witch. Now I read a bit about the varius lightning builds here and see one of the main concerns/problems with light witch is the general fragility of the character, particularly to be reflected.

So I just picked up this unique belt called the magnate, and it seemed like I could keep the topaz flask effect up 100% of the time by switching between 2 flasks with this belt equipped. Then my eyes spied the flask effect sphere/nodes witches are blessed to have so early in their "area".

So this seems like a very strong combo, on top of being able to make your granite flasks better/longer lasting, which are also totally awesome. It just seems like awesome x awesome for survivability, which this character build is supposed to lack, yet I look at the builds here and don't see people even taking the flasks at all. Am I totally missing something or have I been biased by the magnate I found?

The magnate isn't strong enough to replace Doriyani's Invitation or a rare belt for most builds. Crit builds refill flasks with the surgeon's prefix. There are some non-crit mjolner builds that make good use of magnate, but that's pretty much it AFAIK.

Relying on flasks to deal with reflect is fine early on, but once you get to level 90+ a single mistake costs 10% of your exp, and isn't worth the risk.

The flask effect nodes are strong, but because they are situational for most builds, most people choose nodes that are useful all the time rather than some time. Many builds that are focused on uber atziri pick these nodes up because we rely on resistance flasks.

Ahh, thanks for the info. i wonder if surgeon prefixes alone allow one to run with topaz up pretty much indefinitely with a crit build? I did just rezlize that charges on flask come from kills, not damage done, which lowers my opinion a bit more on the belt. Well, at least I got a cool belt that looks like good twink bait material too for any new toon I roll up.

The Magnate is insane for crit mjölner builds. Keep in mind that rare belts can get 20% flask charges gained too. Most mjölner builds uses discharge and want +1 endu charge from belt and its easier to corrupt magnates than rare belts.

You dont need Magnate to keep charges up but it makes it 50% easier.