[3.1] Inferno Sprinkler Knight: Uber Lab - T16 - Shaper - Elder - League Starter (Molten Strike)

Assuming all classes go for the same amount of life:
Elementalist: 451k dps per ball, 6278 life.
Berserker: 567k dps (around 25% more), 6210 life (effectively 5650 life due to 10% increased damage taken), 12% less elemental resistances.
Inquisitor: 460k dps, 6163 life, has to go crit to match dps (and swap a defensive flask for Diamond), dps falls down vs bosses where you can't sustain Power charges from Assassin's Mark (down to 397k). Inquisitor isn't made for Strength stacking, since there isn't many general/projectile Crit nodes in the area.
Raider: Very low dps, there isn't enough points to grab Frenzy charges while also stretching the tree to grab Elemental Overload. Same problem as Inquisitor, Raider is made for Crit, which doesn't work great with Strength stacking.
Scion: 372k dps (around 20% less), 6344 life, can drop Silver flask due to Raider sub-ascendancy granting Onslaught.

Dyadus: 2 Chaos for almost perfect (284-330/15) rolls. Otherwise under 1C.
Belt: 1-3 Chaos. Lots and lots of great and cheap belts in Abyss league.
Tabula: Dropped, but 8-10 Chaos otherwise. 5L are much cheaper.
Mortem Morsu->Ornament of the East->Wasp Nest: Spent altogether 3 Chaos on weapons during leveling. Ornament and Wasp Nest were sold within next day for 1 Chaos each, so no loss there.
Thief's Torment: 5 Chaos for one with very good (23@ res / 59 life gain) rolls.
Ngamahu Tiki: 17 Chaos. Not necessary for the build, you can buy much cheaper rare amulets.
Helmet: Dropped some crappy helmet with res and self crafted life.
Wildfire: One dropped, one from quest in act 5.
Shield: 2 Chaos.
Shaper's Touch: 3 Chaos.
Total: Around 45 Chaos.
Without any changes to the gear that I was using from level 70->86, I done several full key Uber Lab runs and easily finished corrupted tier 14 maps. Even tier 15 and tier 16 (with easier map mods)
was doable once I bough a +2 projectiles helmet and learned the fight mechanics (playing mostly with old VP you kind of skipped them).

Please check pastebin for the version you want to play. Some gear combinations are better then others for different setups. If you need to, feel free to ask in the thread.


Bread and butter of this build. If you cannot afford it, don't worry - Dyadus is super cheap and enough to do majority of game's content without much trouble.


For end-game, use either a good rare with Strength, resistances and life. If on a budget, use Tabula.
If you go with full ES or hybrid Life+ES version, use Geofri's Sanctuary for massive ES and good resistances.


Shaper's Touch is great for survivability through added mana for MoM. If on a budget or you don't use Lycosidae, it will also give you decent amount of accuracy.
Finally, if you go with pure Life version, use can use rare gloves with life/strength/attack speed, and hopefully other nice mods life added fire or resistances.


For belt, use a rare with resistances, strength and life. If using Brutus, Strength becomes more important, but Abyss jewels are OP, so stick to Stygian.
If you are using full ES version, you might want to use Cyclopean Coil, as it's really cheap but provides great ES/dps boost.


Alberon's are best in slot, no rare with t1 stats will beat it. Lioneye's Paws are great for leveling, being available 19 levels before Alberon's, and also a better choice if you cannot afford Brutus since you won't benefit as much from Strength.


Thief's Torment is a base of this build, working like an old Vaal Pact's little brother.
You can also use Elder rings with life gain on hit/resist/strength for same effect, but they are much more expensive, and don't synergize with MoM versions due to no mana gained on hit.
Finally, if you go with full ES version, just use rings with high strength/resistances/ES and possibly Fire/Elemental damage.


For shield, use Lycosidae if you can afford it. Otherwise, use a rare shield with life, Strength, resistances and possibly accuracy or other damage mods (ES shields can roll quite a lot of increased fire damage, for example, while Evasion shields can roll attack speed).
Since you will need some Dexterity on the tree, you are likely to pick up Versatility and Precision, and with MoM version you will most likely be using Shaper's Touch - this will give you enough accuracy, to the point when Lycosidae is not much of an upgrade over a 30-50 Chaos rare shield, due to added strength/more life/resistances.
Lycosidae is definately worth it on a pure life version, where you are more starved for points.


You do not need an enchantment to play with this build, as they can be expensive. Rare helmets are best since you can craft/chaos spam/essence craft your own affixes. Hrimor's Resolve is great if you are on a budget, and also makes you Freeze/Chill immune.


Xoph's Blood is BiS amulet for this build. Worth every bit of Chaos spent on it, and every bit of time it takes to farm it.
Ngamahu Tiki is also a truly amazing amulet for its price, great for both end-game and leveling. Use it if you cannot afford Xoph's Blood, as it also has fire resistance, making switch a lot easier.



Flasks:

One anti-bleed, one anti-freeze, one life flask for emergencies/labs.
As for offensive flasks:
- Dying Sun is great both for bossing and clearing - extra projectiles help vs bosses, AoE helps vs trash.
- Wise Oak will provide you with great dps boost as long as your fire resistance is highest.
- Silver flask is also great for added dps and mobility.
- Finally, if you are feeling ballsy (pun not intended), you can swap either Basalt or Life flask for Sulphur flask for slightly more dps, or Doedre's Elixir for Frenzy charges.



Jewels:

We want 2 of these in Marauder/Templar areas. Pick one up in act 5 when leveling this build.


Efficient Training goes by the Witch starting position, and Inertia between Duelist/Ranger. But, only used those if you have Brutus' Lead Sprinkler.


Lastly, any rare jewels you unlock should have Fire damage, Increased Damage, Strength, Maximum Life, Attack Speed, Area Damage, Projectile Damage mods or resistances. However,

With Abyss jewels being as OP as they are, it would be a waste of your currency to buy traditional jewels: use what Abyss league provides instead.

Don't forget to get "Axe" jewels if using Dyadus.

Main Skill:
Molten Strike + Elemental Damage + Elemental Focus + Concentrated Effect + Multistrike + Fire Penetration
Swap Fire Penetration with Ancestral Call when you map.

Alternate mapping gems:

Auras + Curses:
Anger
Best offensive aura out there, and biggest dps increase per point of mana reserved. However, you might want to not run any damage aura at all if your mana pool for MoM is too small. It depends if you want more safety of dps. I run without it, unless I want to clear faster some white/yellow tier maps.
If running a Pure Life version, this aura is a must have. If running MoM, it depends on how much you value survivability vs dps.

Haste
Good to use in Pure Life version, just make sure you have a spare Enlighten (level 3 is necessary) and link them three together with Anger. Do not use it if running MoM.

Clarity
Not necessary, but it does improve your regeneration for Uber Lab and versus various degens. It doesn't reserve that much mana, so might as well use it. MoM version exclusive.

Buffs and debuffs:
Flame Golem + Lightning Golem + Cast When Damage Taken
Last thing you want to do, is wasting time recasting golems, which can kill you in a boss fight.

Vaal Lightning Trap or Vaal Haste
Great vs all bosses, if you don't forget to use it. Pick either one and roll with it. You might not have enough gem slots to use both.

Elemental Weakness (corrupted gloves)
If you don't want to self cast curse and you cannot afford corrupted gloves, you can use it in one of the CwDT setups.

Ancestral Protector
20% more attack speed. Nothing more to say here, just use it vs bosses. You can link it to Blind support if you find a spare gemslot.

Movement:
Leap Slam/Shield Charge + Faster Attacks + Fortify
Leap Slam is a great movement skill, especially in the Lab or some less then A-type layout maps. However, Shield Charge will proc Fortify much more easily, and generally is a faster skill to move around linear/open maps.

Elemental Overload / Mastermind of Discord Proc:
Orb of Storms + Critical Strikes + Faster Casting
Faster Casting is both offensive and defensive link, as it allows you to cast the spell quicker and you can be back attacking much sooner. Increasing the speed also makes OoS attack more often, triggering EO more reliably.
Being a Lightning Skill, it also procs our bonus from Mastermind of Discord. Win - win.
You can also use Ice Spear in one of your CwDT setups to increase probability of EO triggering while you map. However, if you are short on links, drop Faster Casting - you will still be able to trigger EO easily versus bosses.

Spike damage protection:
Cast When Damage Taken + Immortal Call + Increased Duration
No explaning needed I hope.

Additional defensive measures:
Vortex / Molten Shell
First one provides a 20% slow that also works for bosses, second one can boost your armour by around 1-1.5k (not much, but it might just save your life). These work best in your CwDT setups, but it all depends on which gems you want to prioritize.

Another build by me, and this time, another bosskiller build. If you liked my Azure Knight, you will probably like this build as well.

After playing Blade Flurry 3 leagues in a row, I've burned out. Completely. I don't want to play another Blade Flurry character ever again. But, I've still wanted to play Witch, still wanted to play melee or semi-melee, and still wanted to kick ass. So I've looked at other possibilities. However, I didn't want to make just a worse version of Berserker/Scion/Raider.

I've seen Invalesco's hybrid life/ES HoWA build on the forums, and later, some RF life/ES mana Guardian Shaper kill post on reddit, which used Geofri's + Shaper's Touch. From these 2 completely different ideas, my new idea of Molten Strike was born. Here's the link to Invalesco build: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1981964
I couldn't find RF link now, for which I apologize.

The premise of this build is to use Brutus Lead Sprinkler, which gets its offensive power from stacking Strength. Strength stacking, together with Geofri's Sanctuary and Shaper's Touch, provides us with some outrageous ES pool. To utilize it, we use Soul Tether, which allows us to leech to both life and ES. At the same time, having big ES pool over life makes it easy to reliably get the bonuses from Damage on Full life gem.
If you prefer even more defensive approach, you can use MoM for a massive 12-13k eHP pool.

Still leveling, will upload videos as I go.
Please note my laptop is ancient, so expect lag/freezes and occassional deaths due to poor fps. I'll make better videos once I level up a bit more.
Thief's Torment version:
7 Key Uber Lab run
Soul Tether (no MoM) version:
Phoenix run - level 90.
Minotaur run - level 90.
Shaped Racecourse, Elemental Reflect - level 86.
Uber Izaro - level 85.
Xoph's Domain - level 83.
Tul's Domain - level 83.
Esh's Domain - level 82.
Chimera run - level 80.
Minotaur kill - level 80.
Normal Atziri - leveling 75-80 at 200-300k exp per hour. Unfortunately my laptop freezes a lot when recording so even though I had only 2 deaths in total, one is on this video. https://i.imgur.com/k1dpqGl.png

Pros:
- Great bosskiller and amazing dps.
- Very tanky with easy 5k life and 5k+ ES at levels 85-90. So far I've tanked: Minotaur Burrow/Slam, Shaper slam, Uber Izaro slam, attacking while standing in a field of Flame/Frost Bearers and more.
- Manliest Witch build ever.
- Reflectproof.
- Hybrids aren't popular, so you won't be expected to pay up extras for hybrid gear (like helmets/shields/life+es rings etc.).
- Apart from weapons, it doesn't cost that much to get it started (enchantments/6-links/Xoph's Blood etc. excluded) or could be started with Ngahamu's Flame and life based gear on a budget.
- Leveling is made super easy with Life on hit gear and Brutus (I've carried on my own single target for my leveling group of 2 wanders, Ancestral Warchief Duelist and a Blade Flurry Scion).
- Uber Lab version runs can afk in traps, deletes Izaro and does full key runs easily.
- Exciting "In your face" playstyle.

Cons:
- It's a "in your face" build, if your eHP isn't high you can die to one shots since Multistrike might delay your dodging.
- Leveling might be tougher without life gain on hit (no early access to leech).
- Min-maxing gear is somewhat expensive, ex. rare/normal helmets with enchantments are hard to find since ES meta death and Tempest Binding being no.1 for goldmine for lab runners. Not that Tempest is bad, but its too expensive compared to normal/rares which not many people enchant anymore.
- Mapping speed is slow compared to QoTF Wanders etc.

We pick Elementalist as our ascendancy.
Liege of the Primordial: We get +40% increased fire damage with Flame Golem, further 38-40% increased damage from Flame Golem, and 18% attack/cast speed from Lightning Golem.
Pendulum of Destruction: A big increase in damage, and extra AoE. AoE does not hurt Molten Strike as much as you might think, since it is 25% on top of 50% that we already get from jewels (and even more if are using Dying Sun). If you ever tried stacking extra increased AoE on top of AoE gem in other builds, you know that after the 3.0 changes, every additional point of increased area is less and less impactful. Since Pendulum is a timed buff, you can consider it as only 40% increased damage instead of 100% every 10 seconds for 4 seconds.
Mastermind of Discord: We go for Elemental Overload, and proccing it is easiest with Orb of Storms, which is a Lightning spell. Once you use it, you trigger extra penetration from Discord and Elemental Overload at the same time. Great buff before and during boss fights or tougher enemies.
Paragon of Calamity: Reflect protection is quite important if you don't want to one-shot yourself. We can even run Elemental Reflect map with this node and Yugul pantheon power.


Major God Power:
- The Brine King. Stuns and freezes can be deadly, this pantheon power does help a lot vs both. Worth upgrading.
- The Soul of Arakaali. You can use Blood Rage together with this pantheon power, so that every time your Immortal Call triggers, you get 50% more life/es leech for 4 seconds. Even with Blood Rage's degen, this is still a 20-30% more ES leech. Blood Rage also allows you to build Frenzy charges. Has to be upgraded if you want the benefit.
Minor God Power:
- Tukohama. While attacking with Multistrike, we will be stationary at least for a second, and longer if we tank damage. Tukohama greatly helps when you want to go full yolo a boss. Life regen is useless unless you follow an Uber Lab version, so only then worth upgrading.
- Yugul. We do have reflect protection from ascendancy, however, if you want to run Elemental Reflect maps, this will allow you to do it. 5% reduced cold damage taken isn't worth Divine Vessel, unless you want to min-max or have nothing else to do.

Bandits:
Kill all is the best option for majority of players. If you are following Uber Lab variation and want to dedicate this character for Lab runinng, take Oak.

Note: When following Life+MoM, Uber Lab or Life based variations, parts of the leveling trees might not apply. Consult respective pastebins/passive tree links for referrence.

Example 32 points tree
First, get Elemental Overload and Strength/Dexterity nodes, as you are more then likely to lack stats. Firewalker is nice for damage and resistances, after that, head straight down and pick up all the juicy nodes in the Templar area. Heart and Soul is also nice if you struggle with mana, and we will take it later on anyway, but if you prefer you might skip it for now so you can travel further in your tree.

Example 57 points tree
Not much to say here, just carry on all the way down to Art of the Gladiator. You can go for Constitution if you prefer more life, if not, go towards Point Blank first.

Example 75 points tree
Constituion, Point Blank, jewel sockets and Fury Bolts are all great nodes that we should have by now.
If you do not have any Life Gain on Hit on your gear, prioritize getting Vitality Void and mixed life/mana leech node next to it.

Example 99 points tree
This is more or less what you want in the end game. You have enough dexterity to unspec 30 point node we took at the start. From here, you can take whatever you want - damage nodes, life nodes, resistances, maybe even MoM (and getting Clarity instead of Discipline). See next link for my character's intended tree.

Example 111 points tree (level 88)

You can also check alternative version setups further in the guide, from Uber Lab farmers to league starting budget versions. This is my main setup for mapping/T16 etc. Currently, I've respecced my character to farm Uber Lab, so checking my character is going to show you different version.

Equipment:
Gems:
PoB pastebin and stats:
Running Uber Lab without specialization for it:

Both Shaper's Touch and Geofri's Sanctuary are high level items, and it is these 2 that provide almost all of our ES on their own. Therefore, you will want to level as a normal life build, ignoring ES almost completely.

- Since we don't get leech until late in the leveling process (around level 50-60 I believe), you might struggle early. However, life gained on hit can very easily carry you to maps. For this reason, Thief's Torment is the BiS unique item for leveling, as it works like having instant life flasks even with shitty dps. Pick it up at level 30 and you will become almost unkillable unless one-shot. If you cannot get this ring, use Blasphemy Poacher's Mark for leveling, use Claw based weapons, or Life Gain on Hit gem.
- Goldrim is a golden standard leveling unique thanks to its resistances. Honourhome is also an option as a poor man's Goldrim. Three Dragons is usually more expensive, but also has loads of resists.
- If you are leveling with Tabula or similar 6 link armour, do not use Damage on Full Life gem, but Penetration instead. Without a big layer of ES covering your life, you will not be on full life often enough to get full benefit from the gem. No other unique chests are really worth recommending for leveling, so if you don't have Tabula, stick to rares.
- Mantra of Flames is a powerful jewel, until you get some decent rare. It is also relatively cheap.
- Lioneye's Paws is like mini-Alberon's. Also helps greatly with Dexterity for gem levels.
- Best leveling belts are: Belt of the Deceiver, Prismweave, The Magnate, Meginord's Girdle, Ryslatha's Coil and Perandus Blazon, in this order.
- Rare amulet with loads of stats (mainly Strength) and resists will be fine. Astramentis and Carnage Heart are also great if you can afford them.
- Lycosidae can be equipped early and will help with your dps. Thirst for Horrors is also a decent choice for leech before you can get any on the tree.
- Good unique gloves include: Volkuur's Guidance (fire version), Ondar's Clasp, Meginord's Vise and Lochtonial Caress.

Here are some filters that might help you find cheap gear or gear upgrades for this build. Following links are to find high resist/strength gear for Hybrid Life/ES version.
Shields - resistances, strength or possible crafted strength, damage mods or life.
Rings - resistances, strength, damage mods and life.
Life +3 dps/res mod jewels.
Life +2 dps/res mod jewels.
4 dps/res mod jewels.

Originally, I planned this build for Life/ES only, however I quickly realized that without having a lot of currency to start with (ex. start of the league), this isn't going to work.
I have added budget Life+MoM and Life based versions to the thread, and finally, a high regen variations designed to tackle and farm Uber Lab.

Soul Tether version can reach 9-11k eHP (5+k Life and 4-6+k ES), but is more expensive then sticking to Life or Life/MoM since you absolutely need a linked unique to make it work. This version uses Shaper's Touch, Geofri's Sanctuary and Soul Tether to combine decent life pool with equally big ES pool.

Soul Tether MoM is a more defensive version that can reach 12-13.5 eHP (5-5.5k Life, 3-3.5k Mana and 4-4.5k ES), but it sacrifices some of its dps to keep high pool of unreserved mana. This version also uses Shaper's Touch, Geofri's Sanctuary and Soul Tether to combine good life pool, great mana pool and decent ES pool.

Life version has highest dps potential (have to drop Damage on Full Life gem but gets more strength, and can use Lycosidae or Lioneye's Vision), easier to cap resistances due to using more rares, but has limited potential in terms of eHP.
The advantage is that this version is much cheaper, since you can make it work with a corrupted 6-linked rare (around 10-40c) or just a regular 6L life/resist/strength rare (150-400 Chaos for very good rolls).
This version usually uses Meginord's Vise, Volkuur's Guidance or rare gloves, rare belt, Lycosidae and rare/unique body.

Thief's Torment versions aren't fully optimized for mapping, having lower dps in general. These versions work as Life+MoM, easily achieving 5k life and 3k unreserved mana, and utilize Thief's Torment ring to help against curses and massively increase life and mana sustain even without VP.
Main strength of these versions is high regen, making them great for Uber Lab farming.

Dyadus budget versions are just that, alternative means of building Inferno Sprinkler character on a low budget, without Brutus'.

It is up to the player to choose which versions he might prefer, but here is a quick cheat sheet with some stat comparisons:


Alternative versions mini-guides: