[2.4] Melee Ignite Elementalist - Feedback requested
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This is the first build I've made on my own that's actually decent. I seem to have plateaued around T13 maps. Most bosses just hit too hard or their gimmicks make it too difficult to attack while using melee skills. I'm hoping that it'll be possible to help the build along and get past there, but even if not, this was a fun build to try out.
Premise Razor of the Seventh Sun used for rapid healing with melee attacks. Conflux from Elementalist grants high effective ignite chance, and Beacon of Ruin grants proliferation with no damage loss. Emberwake is used to maximize ignite damage, since the regeneration favors many weaker attacks, while ignite normally favors fewer stronger attacks. Dyadus provides very good elemental synergy, but isn't strictly necessary. History I got the idea when Razor of the Seventh Sun was first announced on the PoE site. At the time, Shaper of Desolation still gave full Elemental Conflux after kills, which would mean a constant 100% ignite chance in most situations. This got changed on release, which somewhat affected my plans. I had also originally planned on using molten strike to take advantage of projectile damage double-dipping, the multiple projectiles per attack (and thus multiple ignites), and Point Blank for free extra damage. In practice I couldn't stand using it, as the delay between hit and projectile impact made it feel way too lethargic and getting into melee range too dangerous/cumbersome. I switched to lacerate much later on, but my original skill choice probably influenced some of my node choices around the Duelist area. Skill tree Gear
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Skills
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Lacerate is the main skill. This is mostly for personal preference. Reave should work well, and I think the local area modifier also applies to proliferation as well. Molten strike was my original plan, linked with multistrike (high attack speed bonus, penalty only affects the melee hit), concentrated effect and slow projectiles (both double dip). MS will probably give much better single target damage, so it might be possible to use it on bosses and a better area skill against mobs.
Lacerate is currently linked to WED, concentrated effect (double dips), increased area of effect, and multistrike. Multistrike is, sadly, a very mixed bag: the increased attack speed means more regeneration, but the loss of control can be very fatal. I find that lacerate clears mobs just fine, and reave is worse against bosses, which is one of the reasons why I stuck with lacerate. Blood rage is used to quickly generate frenzy charges, and also gives extra attack speed. The life leech only applies to physical damage and thus probably isn't significant. The degeneration is just barely not cancelled by passives; this could be easily "fixed" by grabbing Warrior's Blood or Master of the Arena, but it's not a big deal. I just used a marble amulet. Ancestral Projector is used for the 20% more attack speed. This both boosts damage and grants more life regeneration from ignites, so it is far more useful than Chieftain, which only boosts melee physical damage. The links are largely inconsequential. Frenzy for keeping up charges. Whirling blades for movement. Anger for additional base fire damage. Flammability is huge, as it grants additional ignite chance (more regeneration and damage) and significantly more fire damage by lowering resists (which double dips). I'm using Blasphemy since I couldn't think of a reliable way to use curse on hit. Fire and Ice golems are both used, since the +40% elemental from Liege of the Primordial doesn't stack, and ice golem grants crit chance and accuracy, both of which are largely lacking from the tree. Also golems have a cooldown and trying to cast fire golem twice in a row is annoying. Skills not used: Phase run looks nice on paper: more melee physical damage doesn't hurt, and decreased visibility should make it possible to go all-out on the precious 2 seconds of full elemental conflux. However, it also drains all frenzy charges, and that completely negates any theoretical benefit from being able to wait and time your attacks. Herald of Ash was not chosen because it destroys corpses and thus prevents after-death proliferation effects, and rapid attacks means overkill damage would be minimal. The +20% increased fire damage would probably negate these concerns, especially if I dropped Dyadus in favor of a pure physical weapon. Math
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Elemental Conflux grants 100% ignite chance 43% of the time. This is the ideal case, as it also ignites for combined damage, rather than just fire damage. Separately, I have a 8.5% chance to crit. Gear gives either 11% or 36% to ignite depending on which hand is holding Dyadus, and flammability is 14% at level 20. Assuming main-hand Dyadus, this is a combined 54.25% ignite chance outside of conflux, or about 74% overall.
With 5.93 APS (6 frenzy charges, blood rage, Protector), this yields an average regeneration of about 4.39% instantly, per enemy, doubled for targets in Lacerate's overlap zone. This is on top of life leech (which is much harder to quantify) and life gain on hit. If I didn't add wrong, this build has an ideal ignite multiplier of 9.85, or 39.41% of the initial hit per ignite stack per second (20% normal ignite, another 20% for emberwake). This includes Elemental Overload (1.40), 6 frenzy charges (1.24) concentrated effect (1.59), and a total of 257% increased damage (3.57; includes "100% increased burning damage if you've ignited recently"), but not: sulplur flask's global damage increase, Shock, "Enemies chilled by you take 40% increased burning damage", Paragon of Calamity, or the decreased fire resistance from flammability. I'm significantly less certain about this math, but given (outdated) damage-per-hits of 3573+1343 (no conflux) or 4189+2838 (conflux), this yields a final DPS of 34,878 (no conflux) or 49,855 (conflux) solely from ignites, after reaching maximum stacks from 4 seconds of constant attacks. This was with tooltip DPS of around 22k. The actual numbers will be lower than this, since it doesn't take into account attacks missing or ignite chance failing (which is only a concern outside of conflux, at least). It also requires standing perfectly still and doing nothing but attacking, which isn't always viable. Mostly against mobs - they tend to die well before 4 seconds have passed, meaning direct hits deal a much larger proportion there. Known issues I significantly underestimated the value of attack speed. I really should've taken Kraityn's cruel reward, at minimum. The block nodes are probably unnecessary. 26% block, no spellblock probably isn't worth the point investment. Riposte could be linked to life gain on hit if I re-ordered gems, but I haven't gotten around to it. Too much physical damage. Almost all of it is dual wielding, which probably ties in with the block chance. Stat screenshots:
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Hideout, no charges or overload (aura and golems):
  Offense, with max charges, elemental overload, protector, and added fire damage from recent kill (boots mod):  Suggestions on improving this would be greatly appreciated. I don't know if there are vital problems with the passive choice, or if it could be greatly improved with minimal Regret orbs. Or maybe better gear would give me better survivability. Either way, I did have fun, and this might be of interest to other players. Last bumped on Nov 8, 2016, 8:35:26 PM
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