√ SeaBurner, Flame Surge Tank, Self Found

Hello, I will show you a solid spell caster build for leveling and play all the contents, from the beginning to "end game" maps.

Main spells are Flame Surge and Fire Trap.

I'm playing in the Darkshrine Event at the moment and I reached level 90 in about two weeks. I played self found, and with an hardcore gamestyle, not as a race. Now I'm farming Tier 8-12 Maps, I'm level 93 and just reached the top 200.

I choose Templar, because I still have not leveled one.
I think Templar has a very nice start, the build is also startable by Witch, Scion or Marauder.

You can do all with this build, it's cheap, selfound, hardcore viable. I could try the same build in Hardcore, because it's very solid, I just had few random deaths, all avoidable with a smart play.



LEVELING

I played with Firestorm and Flame Totem for leveling until Act 3 Merciless, then I switched to Flame Surge and Fire Traps.

I could start with Fire Trap and Flame Totem too, but Templar and Scion have not Fire Trap gem as reward in the early quests, and I got one Fire Trap a bit late.

Creating a level 1 Shadow is an easy way to get one Fire Trap with the first quest, for example.

TREE

Life, Cast speed or 3 skill points with Bandits. Take some status notables, if need Intelligence or Dexterity, and some reduced mana cost if needed.



SELFY EQUIPMENT AND UNIQUES

Look for Life, Strength, Armour, Resistances, first of all.

I had good drops playing self found, so I leveled pretty linear: The Lightning Coil helped a lot, also I dropped two unique shields. During the last levels, I dropped also a second Coil, a Tabula Rasa and a nice Glorious Plate. At level 89 I found a Stone of Lazhwar. At 92 I 6-linked the Coil.











In "end game", I would to rise the block, especially the block to spells. In order to reach an high chance to block, need some unique shields, boots and other items. If play selfound, try to chance items with orbs, but the chance is pretty low, for my experience.

About currency, while I dropped chaos, fuses, chisels, vaals, few blesseds. Only I dropped 1 Regal, 1 Divine, no Exalts, in the first 90 levels. So, for some crafting, the regal recipe is mandatory, also I reciped a lot of hammers for chisels.

I added the quality to the gems, farming the Darkshrines in this event, a nice boost for the gems.

GEMS

- Main Spell: Flame Surge, Faster Casting, Spell Echo, Fire Penetration, Iron Will

- Burning Spell: Fire Trap, Multiple Traps, Fire Penetration, Area of Effect

- Movement Skill: Whirling Blades, Faster Attacks, Fortify (or Flame Dash)

- Auras: Clarity, Purity of Lightning, Purity of Fire (or Arctic Armour)

- Defence: CwDT, Molten Shell, Fire Penetration, Area of Effect

- Defence: CwDT (lvl 7), Immortal Call (lvl 9), Warlord's Mark (lvl 10), Tempest Shield (lvl 11)

As 6th gem, there are various options.



...all 20 Q!

DAMAGE

(Flame Surge 20/20)

Single Target DPS ~ 43200

Tooltip DPS 21000
Fire Penetration 37%
Against Burning 50% more

Casts per Second 6,85
Chance to Critical Strike 16,4
Crit Multiplier 201%

DEFENCES

Total Life 5870

Free Mana 110 (1200 Total)
Tooltip Armour 7180 (41%)
Tooltip Evasion 1310 (15%)

Fire Resistance 80% (120%)
Cold Resistance 75% (129%)
Light Resistance 79% (121%)
Chaos Resistance 5%

Life Regeneration per sec 480
Mana Regeneration per sec 134

Chance to Block Attacks 34% (37% with Tempest Shield)
Chance to Block Spells 24% (26% with Tempest Shield)

Stun Recovery 35%
Movement Speed 26%

RESULTS

At the moment, I did Malformation, Residence, Volcano, Necropolis, also a Village Ruin and Shrine and some other tier 11 and 12. To improve my equipment, I will focus on block, life and crit.

I found the drop rate very good overall, nice rare and unique items, playing high maps until tier 12.

See You, suggestions and nice comments are welcome.

SeaBurner
rule a world bathed in flame...

Update 24.11.15, patch 2.0.X

Excellent!

Looks really nice, but I am curious about not using Concentrated Effect with Flame Surge. Is that just personal preference, or is there a more practical reason?

Thank you, well, Concentrated Effect is a nice boost of damage, but at the same time it reduces the Area and the length of Flame Surge, so depending what is the purpose of the build, it could be used or not. There are also other damage support that don't reduce the area, like add damage or critical gems. Area can also be increased with Increased Area, for a bigger range.

Some updates, gems at 20.

Just hit level 92 and top 300 in DarkShrine Event.

I tried also some 6L configuration with Tabula Rasa and i seen some interesting solutions:

With 6th socket blue we have:

Area of Effect and Concentrated are 140%. I tried Area and it's great, but doesn't add damage.
Crit Chance is nice too, because it's only 115%, and good boost.
Other interesting gems are Added Chaos, Added Lightning, Inc. Damage, with 130% multiplier.

As red we have Life Leech, while as green we have Added Cold Dmg, at 130% multiplier, both.

Also there are other combinations, but I would to keep Cast Speed and Spell Echo.

Adding the 6th gem need more mana reduced / mana regen, to keep the cast.

Also tried a spell damage shield, very good for dps, but less tanky ofc. Build is pretty versatile.

See you for next updates.

Interesting build, but are you sure the spell critical chance is actually worth it? 8%-9% more chance to do double damage seems a bit weak. Maybe invest those points in more block chance/life?

Yes, I could to change 4 Points, losing 115% Crit Chance and 10% Multiplier, gaining 18% Damage 10 Int 1 Point, so approximately we have 115% Crit (6,9%) against 18% Damage. I think Crit it has a better potential with better items, for example, crit jewels, better dagger, 6th gem. So depend much of the rest of the items too, I can reserve more damage later in the game.

But...

the new BIG UPDATE is I finally linked the Coil and I leveled a bit with Added Cold Damage and then Life Leech as sixth gem, I will try to make 4 blues, but need lot of chroms for that.

I added some reduced mana cost nodes in the tree, to cast the 6L.

Reached level 93 and rank 200. Follow some screenshots,

hard maps, alone and with my guildmate EyeOfTerrorr:



Thank you, and see you for next updates.

I am using this build with slight modifications now in Talisman HC and was able to solo Malachai cruel with self found. I really like that the fire traps can keep ES of enemies down, while you are busy evading in bullet hell.

It's really a pretty nice balance of offense and defense and well suited for HC.

Very nice, happy you are enjoying with it.

Thank you and good luck.

I just ripped at char level 74 to a Haku mission because I was stupid. But I was in Act 4 merciless and the build was still holding up really well. One change I did was omit the crit spell chance nodes and instead slot Controlled Destruction to Flame Surge, for a great damage boost. Omitting the crit nodes meant I had to take a slightly different path in the Witch tree, and I also made a short detour in the Templar tree: My planned path