[3.10] Storm Brand Pathfinder | All Content | League Starter | PoB updated [T16] [UE] [Pathfinder]

Introduction

Hello, I am Kevic. This is my Storm Brand Pathfinder.

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3.6 Update
Path of Building has been updated

The nerf to Storm Brand was not bad at all! If my math is correct it should be around a 25% dps loss from the nerf. Our damage should still be fairly comparable and fine for doing all bits of content. When we finished this league my PoB on bosses was around 800k dps ON shaper which is plenty of damage.

Here are the changes if you have not seen them.
Spoiler

Storm Brand
Mana Cost at gem level 20 is now 21 (was 20).
Now deals 2 to 7 Lightning damage at gem level 1 (from 3 to 8) and 75 to 225 Lightning damage at gem level 20 (from 97 to 290).
Now has an added damage effectiveness of 30% (from 35%).


What in the world does this build do?

This build is designed to run fast and clear maps safely. It summons storm brands that shock, freeze and trigger our herald to clear massive packs of mobs both on screen and off. With Brand Recall we can pull the brands with us to a new screen, clear it AND extend the duration of the brands themselves. It has good single target for map bosses because if 2 brands attach themselves to the same target, it increases the damage EACH BRAND DOES BY 50% MORE DAMAGE.

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Pros
+Pathfinder Ascendency means you have infinite flasks
+IMMUNE TO ELEMENTAL AILMENTS like FREEZE SHOCK AND IGNITE and an increase chance to cause those same ailments by 20%!
+Clears effectively and looks cool as HECK
+Can do all content!

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Cons
-Low hp
-Cannot do Elemental Reflect

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How it Works
Pathfinder = Infinite Flasks + 55% increased flask effect
Storm Brand + Brand Recall keeps your skill around you to re-position without having to stop moving often to cast as Brand Recall is Instant

Skills
Storm Brand is a skill that was introduced in Betrayal League. Storm Brand creates a magical brand which can attach to a nearby enemy. It periodically activates while attached, firing beams which deal damage to nearby enemies and those around them. The brand will detach if the enemy dies.

Brand Recall is a skill that was also introduced in Betrayal League to go with both Brand skills. Recall your brands to you, detaching them from enemies, then cause them to activate. The brands will have increased attachment range until they next attach to an enemy.

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Damage Skills

Storm Brand - Main damage ability

Vaal Storm Call - Boss/Betrayal/Red Beast mob killer ability in conjunction with Vaal Righteous Fire.

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Gear

This build can fill multiple roles including: Boss Killer, Map runner, Uber Lab farm, Delve Farmer

The gear needed changes based on what specific piece of content you want to run. Luckily for us, the swap from Map runner to Boss Killer is very minimal.

Standard Gear for All Builds
Spoiler


Weapons

These daggers can we swapped with wands with similar mods.

Spoiler

I recommend starting with a the 40% Global Critical Strike (Fiend, Demon, Imp) for the lower cost end OR if you want to spend the money go for a 50% Global Critical Strike (Golden Kris, Platinum). Both of these Bases NEED to be at the very least SHAPED AND ilvl 83. ONCE AGAIN if you have the MONEY GO FOR A ilvl 85+ version

Wand Search
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Betrayal/bDDqVaTL
For wands we ideally want the spell damage base (Prophecy, Opal) and we are looking for the specific mod Topotante which gives us Percentage Lightning damage and Lightning damage to spells in a combined mod. If you cannot find one with that specific mod I would focus on Lightning Damage to Spells/Light Damage Percentage, Critical Strike to Spells/Global Critical Strike



GLOVES
Spoiler


Shadows and Dust

We ideally want to gain rampage in some way. These gloves provide that along with some global crit and crit multi. These gloves are pretty cheap as well. If you have the money to spend, consider getting one with Spells deal increased critical


Amulets and Ring

Spoiler



Essence Worm

We socket Wrath in this ring because it gives it +2 and makes it cost no mana to reserve but increasing the amount other auras cost by 40%. This is fine because we can still fit in 2 more aura's.


Rare Ring with Conductivity on hit.
The stats besides the curse on hit can be whatever you need filled, be it more resistence or crit.


The Unique Amulet I enjoyed was Choir of the Storm, although recently I switched to an insane neck that dropped for me with aspect of the spider. After a lot of maps and the change I made to my rare ring I am more partial to Choir of the Storm because of the damage it proves through the lightning bolt, increased damage AND the critical strike increase.
I recommend Choir of the Storm because its way cheaper to pickup and it is a good starting point for this build.


This is the amulet I am using as a more defensive option - it definitely is more expensive than Choir of the Storm.


Flasks
Spoiler


Movement Speed.

We are aiming for a high percentage of crit so we can apply shock and do even more damage.

This Flask usually has a negative but since we are a pathfinder we do not deal with that because we are immune to elemental ailments. This flask gives us a ton of utility and damage by shocking nearby enemies when activated, added lightning damage to SPELLS and giving us lightning damage LEECH.


Rare Boots and Belt
Spoiler



High resistance, at least 30% movement speed boots to fill resistance issues we have and Stygian Vise for the extra jewel slot along with more resistance gap filling.

Cheap Gear - Prices are relative to the league
Total - 1 exalt 40 chaos


Expensive Gear - Prices are relative to the league
Total - Low End 28+ exalts - High End 78+ exalts
Spoiler


MultiMod Mace/dagger

Mace - 2.5+ Exalts
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Betrayal/Q7Jmy3Hw

Dagger/Mace - 6.5+ Exalts
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Betrayal/n25aelS0

Rare Helm - Lightning Pen + brand enchant - 4.5+ Exalts
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Betrayal/0d83OYIg

Aspect of the Spider - base value of item + 1 Exalts
This is a bit hard to price as you can have this on any rare piece of gear that isnt your weapon. I would say this will increase the price of the item by around 1 exalt or so. Finding an appropriate piece that can fit this on it is definitely something good to do as we still gain some damage BUT with the insane benefit of everything around us being slowed by 30%-90%

Stygian Vise w/ Good stats - 1.5+ Exalts
What I mean by good stats is, stats that cover what you need AND health and if you can afford it - lightning damage
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Betrayal/6WO7PkCG

Bisco's Leash - Fairly Cheap starting at 28 chaos going up to 90~ ish
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Betrayal/LKdYIn

Headhunter - 50+ exalts
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Betrayal/12bdck

Loreweave - 4.5+ exalts
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Betrayal/rBMmZRSQ

5b - 1g OR 6b Queen - 7.5+ exalts - this item is strange because the variance of how you get the socket colors can be different.
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Betrayal/48WZBwT9





Ascendancy
Spoiler

Nature's Boon > Nature's Adrenaline > Master Alchemist > Master Surgeon - The only change is once you acquire a jewel with "corrupted blood cannot be inflicted on you" - You replace Master Surgeon with Veteran Bowyer for the extra Elemental Penetration


GEM LINKS
Spoiler

4-link
Vaal Storm Call > Less Duration Support > Lightning Penetration > Concentrated Effect

4-link
Herald of Ice > Ice Bite > Innervate > Enlighten(lv 3+)

4-link
Cast when Damage Taken(lv 1) > Immortal Call(lv 1) > Increased Duration > Vaal Righteous Fire(lv 20)

3-link
Brand Recall > Empower > Arcane Surge (lv 4)

2-link
Flame Dash > Faster Casting

2-link
Herald of Thunder > Enlighten(lv 2+)
Switch from Herald to Aspect of the Spider when you can.

Ring
Wrath


The two versions that I play and research the most are the Mapping and Boss Killer.

Mapping
Spoiler

Queen of the Forest



You want to aim for 45000 Evasion rating in order to cap out Queen of the Forests unique mod that increases your movement speed PER 600 evasion rating Capping at 75% total movement speed. Queen is an amazing chest that also gives you health AND resistances along with its movement speed buff.
The downside to this is the link colors we want are fairly hard to get and can get very expensive.
The easiest way for this character to attain that high evasion is to abuse Pathfinder and continuously use flasks that modify evasion rating.

Flasks



This Flask is extremely important to have for this build as it gives you an INSANE amount of evasion rating.

This Flask is also high priority as it gives a ton of evasion.

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HELMET


The Gull
This is a really fun item to use. Since Zana mods do not provide quantity anymore I can run Domination on my maps and gain a mini Head Hunter like affect that makes mapping super fun. Ideally you would want to get one with a Storm Brand Penetration enchant.

You can also run Devoto's Devotion with no enchant if you are looking to fill the slot as it gives MORE movement speed.

Crafted


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Pantheon
Soul of Lunaris > Soul of Shakari
So we can avoid getting 1 shot by chained abilities off screen, adds a bit more movement speed in maps and makes us immune to poison and take way less damage to caustic ground.

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Gem Links
4B - 2G - Cheapest QotF color
Storm Brand > Concentrated Effect Support > Power Charge on Critical Strike Support > Increased Critical Strike Support > Hypothermia Support > Added Cold Damage Support

5B - 1G - Expensive QotF color
Storm Brand > Concentrated Effect Support > Power Charge on Critical Strike Support > Controlled Destruction Support > Increased Critical Strike Support > Added Cold Damage Support



Boss Killer

This is slower than the Mapping setup BUT it still is not THAT slow. This setup is made for being safe while securing the highest possible damage.
(we go from 230% movement speed to 135%)
Spoiler

Loreweave



Loreweave is an incredible item that gives us great defensives and offensive capabilities

Flask


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Helmet

Rare Helmet with the enchant and possibly the -9 lightning pen delve craft OR starkonja's with the enchant as it provides a TON of health, Evasion and Global Critical Strike Chance.

Crafted Helmet


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Pantheon
Soul of the Brine king > Soul of Yugul

Stops us from getting chain stunned from bosses

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Gem Link

6B - Loreweave
Storm Brand > Concentrated Effect Support > Power Charge on Critical Strike Support > Controlled Destruction Support > Increased Critical Strike Support > Lightning Penetration Support/Elemental Focus
Maximum damage

I took off Herald of Ice and switched a single 5% health node for Mind over Matter so I could gain a huge amount of effective health via the wrath watcher's eye mana leech. This helped me do Uber Elder much more effectively and safely.



JEWELS

Watcher's Eye Prismatic Jewel - Lightning Damage is Leeched as Mana while affected by Wrath

This gives us the mana sustain we need.

Rare Jewels that we could potentially fit in are any with Cast speed/Cast speed on Critical Strike, Cold/Lightning Damage to Spells and if you can afford it, Health.

Jewel DPS Mod Tier List
1 - Critical Strike Multiplier: to Spells, with Lightning Spells, Global
2 - Cast Speed/Cast Speed on Critical Strike
3 - Lightning/Cold Damage
4 - Lightning/Cold Damage to Spells
5 - Critical Strike: Global, to Spells, with Lightning Sells

* - Increased Maximum Life - Both Flat and Percentage (IF YOU CAN AFFORD IT)

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BANDITS
Kill all for +2 points or Alira - Both are great for us

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PATH OF BUILDING & SKILL TREE
Spoiler

This is my Path of Building link and I created skill trees for every 10 levels leading up to my current level. You can toggle through them by clicking the default menu on the tree screen in PoB at the bottom left of the screen and choosing whichever one you need.

https://pastebin.com/GBJydV0A

Notables

Runesmith, Explosive Runes - +1 brand each Shaman's Dominion - A LOT of Crit and Crit Multiplier in this ENTIRE node
Alchemist - this node gives us flask effect which gives us even MORE evasion from our flasks
Annihilation - More Damage
Power Charge x 2 - the more power charges we have the MORE damage and crit chance we have because of the support gem Power Charge on Critical Support

Keystones

Rune Binder - Can attach 2 brands to 1 target - Damage Doubles on single target


Leveling Guide

You can easily level as Storm brand even as pathfinder. Since Storm Brand has great clear its perfect for traversing the story. League start you would ideally craft a +1 lightning wand (topaz ring + magic wand + orb of alteration to the vendor) and use Arc until storm Brand (lv12).
Links for leveling until Storm Brand - Arc > Added Lightning Damage > Added Cold Damage Support
Links for leveling once you have Storm Brand > Faster Casting > Added Lightning Damage > Added Cold Damage Support

Leveling Uniques
Spoiler

Lifesprig - wand - gives you all the stats you need to get going and casting your spells FAST.
Tabula Rasa - chest - 6 link white socket - makes your main skill basically 1 shot everything in the story
Goldrim Leather Cap - helmet - gives you some nice resistance
At level 38 replace Goldrim with The Gull - helmet - if you want to make your experience leveling more FUN
Wanderlust - boots - cannot be frozen, gives mana regen and Movement speed
Atziri Foible - amulet - gives us mana regen and lowers the gem stat requirement which could be very useful
Perandus Signet - ring - May be more expensive to get but it definitely helps the leveling process
Wurm's Molt - belt - stats and health


What is being Worked on?

Spoiler


Fixing Skill Tree



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Special thanks to Roolstar who has been helping me test everything you see here in the guide!

Thanks for reading everything! If you like my content/guide please give me a follow for more of it!
Storm Call Elementalist|EB/Occultist|CI
Storm Brand Assassin Guide

Feel free to PM me in game
Twitch.tv/Kevic
Guide Forum posts: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2461277
Last edited by Kevic on Mar 20, 2020, 12:07:12 AM
Last bumped on Jul 4, 2019, 8:54:32 PM
Saved
Twitch.tv/Kevic
Guide Forum posts: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2461277
What's the best way to craft the mace to have only the "enemies killed explode ..." suffix ?
I haven't really spent much time crafting so I'm not entirely sure how to make a 1 affix rare.
The best I could come up with was to start with a white base, craft the cheapest prefix, regal so it turns the item rare and if I hit the suffix I want just remove the crafted mod. If not, scour and try again. Is there a better way ?
Hey! Thanks for posting this question. I realize now that I did not provide the info on the exact process of crafting.

I started with the base, transmute orbed it to have one property and alteration orb until it had the suffix "Enemies killed epxlode...". I would then regal orb it to become a rare mace so I potentially could multi mod it. Now when you regal orb it, it will gain another property and then become a rare with either 2 or 3 properties. You then annulment orb to hopefully take away the other mods you dont need and only have "enemies Killed explode..." on a rare base. Then you can multimod and put whatever you need on it. Ideally you want that specific shaper suffix to happen on the transmute application but a lot of the time it does not. Myself and others that tested this specific craft got it within 20~ ish alterations. I thought it was just dumb luck but I asked others who had done the same thing and they were similar ratio's.

Here is a quick search I did on the pathofexile trade website which may expedite your crafting process.
https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Betrayal/YKwgRkHY

There are a few other bases you can fit in instead of petrified club as the strength requirement for Magna Eclipsis is 159. Keep that in mind when crafting this mace. It is probably the worst part about it.

If you are still confused please message me in game.
Twitch.tv/Kevic
Guide Forum posts: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2461277
Thanks for the quick answer.
It'd be great if you added the order of the ascendancy passives too.
Ah yes! Thank you for reminding me about that! I updated the guide to provide that info along with some leveling information!

Thanks again!
Twitch.tv/Kevic
Guide Forum posts: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2461277
First of all LOVE the build. Second you mention currency going towards headhunter.Can you elaborate? Just curious what you shooting for.
Thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to read through the guide!

So I am allocating any exalts or extra chaos towards attaining headhunter. I am still going to continue sustaining my t16 map pool with whatever map I run be it Fungal Hollow or whatever I change to (Elder Cells). So that currency invested in the maps will basically come back to me.

I really think this build will shine even more with headhunter, but most builds skyrocket with headhunter anyway. This is more-so a personal goal for me i'd say.

But any real upgrade that costs more than an exalt will more than likely not be purchased unless it is an insane deal.

Twitch.tv/Kevic
Guide Forum posts: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2461277
Last edited by Kevic on Jan 10, 2019, 11:38:18 AM
Trying our ur build dude, love the idea.

Quick question, can't we double wield wands? Or am I missing something and the mace and shield are essential for some reason?

And in case it has to be mace and shield, is this a valid base? Just making sure before I spend ex on multi-crafting it.



Thx for the guide :)
Last edited by Roolstar on Jan 11, 2019, 12:22:50 PM
Yes, This base looks to be fine because you are multi-modding it. The mods that you craft on it will be for one-handed weapons and those can be the same ones as mine.

The reason we want to use the mace base is because that explosion mod only comes on shaped maces.

For the shield, If you have no resistance issues I would definitely use another dps weapon. BUT the drawback is that we cannot get close to a +7 - +9 brand recall making the CD around ~1.2ish seconds BUT that is something i thought would be an insane quality of life but I personally don't think it is as impactful as before after running around 70 t16's fully juiced with GULL/HH. The damage is definitely NEEDED for bosses and betrayal mobs so this will be something I look into this weekend for sure.

The idea of dual wielding is definitely something I need to check out because the more damage we have the better we are at killing stuff and we just want to clear the map/boss. A lot of other builds use voidbattery/shimmeron and that wouldnt be a terrible idea to try out. Void battery would probably be the better option because more power charges = more crit + MORE damage because of our links - But this is if you are looking for a unique. If you want a rare wand/dagger, I would look for a grouping of mods like - flat ele on spells, castspeed, penetration, spell crit, crit multi. Something to note, Daggers give global crit and wands CAN give cast speed depending on which one you ideally want.

I personally am going to look for a dagger because I lose a ton of spell crit from replacing the shield. I will post updates on it as well AND you are more than welcome to ask questions in my stream. I try and answer everything as accurately as possible.

Thank you for liking the guide! I hope this helped you!
Twitch.tv/Kevic
Guide Forum posts: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2461277
Last edited by Kevic on Jan 11, 2019, 12:55:16 PM

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