I'm stuck at lvl 82

Hey there,

gz for reaching lvl83 and upgrading your gear :)


Id like to point out some more improvements you could make, if you like to.
If I was you, Id go lowlife. That means you have to reserve at least 65% of your life. They way to achieve that is to link auras to a blood magic gem.

This allows you to allocate the Pain Attunement keystone for a massive 30% more dmg! More dmg indicates a dmg multiplier whereas increased dmg is just additive dmg. So thats basically a free lvl20 supportgem for all of your spells.
But if you do that, your lightradius will be reduced, because your lifeglobe isnt full anymore, which can be fixed by allocating Arcane Vision right next to Pain Attunement.

How to get the points needed?
Drop the following nodes, because the dont do anything for you:
- Mystcism
- Dark Arts (both want you to dual wield wands and refer to attacks, not spells)
- Mind over Matter


Thats enough points to allocate Pain Attunement, Arcane Vision and the entire Melding cluster.
The 2 remaining points could be invested either into Faith and Steel or the jewel socket right next to Melding and run an Energy From Within jewel there to turn the life nodes in the Melding cluster into ES nodes.


All of this would boost your Incinerate dps from ~65K to ~85K as well as boosting your ES pool to roughly 5.2K
You should do a lot better afterwards, killings mobs faster and thus take less dmg.

Keep going and have fun

Little upgrade here and there and you can change whole thing.
It seems you have missed some skill quest or PoB shows strange things:)
Type: /Passives .. on chat (You should have 106 passives with +2 from Bandit quest)

- You can get one more big aura while being low life (link bloodmagic with aura)
Zealotry + BloodMagic
Add Anger (while keeping HoA and Discipline) - you can reduce mana reservation with Enlighten gem (lvl 2+)
- Added the second curse (Ele weakness)
or you can run Enfeeble + Temp chains for mapping

- Link flame Dash with faster casting + Arcane surge (keep it on low lvl --- free damage multiplier once you spend enough mana)

- I would probably prefer high level SteelSkin as guard skill but it´s up to you

Flasks:
You don´t need life flask once you take Pain Attunement
Use utility flasks to deal with ailments (freeze, bleed is must have); curse imunity, ignite/shock/poison eventually
Stun might be problem too
You can use Pantheon to deal with Stun / Poison and/or other gear (dream fragment ring, Kiara's Determination flask etc.)

Other interesting flasks:
Atziri´s Promise (extra leech, damage, chaos res)
Rumi´s flask is also popular (armour, block) but ailments are prio

Lvl 84 tree according to things mentioned above (kept your main items)
for reference
https://pastebin.com/qcaha930

LvL 93 endgame tree (+ Divine Judgement + two Sockets)
https://pastebin.com/BxR2k9Qy

Stats from lvl 93 (lvl 84 is very similar bcos of two missing jewels)
220K DPS (no stage Incinerate -- not sure about best gem setup here (never played it)
650K max stage - with flasks (without PoD buff)

7100 ES (with Energy from Within jewel)
+ ES leech, ES regen, 2 Free sockets (for extra ES, damage)
+ double curse

You have still plenty of room for gear improvements: six link SW, 21/20 gems, Watcher´s Eye jewel and other juice items.
HF:)

Both PoB links posted above are solid - would just add Arcane Vision.
Otherwise its going to be really dark out there :)

Another little tweak I like is using a cast when dmg taken (lvl1) linked to a cold snap (lvl1).
Cold snap will slow down enemies (great synergy with Temp Chains curse) and also allow you to generate Frenzy charges for more dmg and cast speed, if you kill mobs standing on Cold Snaps chilling ground.

Alrighty. I'm level 86 at the current moment. One thing i only recently noticed is that i had 3 quests uncompleted, wich i tought were unimportant side quests, but they reward a skill book, rofl. I was effectively 3 levels behind for a long time xD

So... Yes, I changed all my gear with around 200 chaos spent (only survivors were a wand and the belt). 1 week ago when i first bought my equipment i was very poor, so i spent like 1~5 chaos on each piece. I also didn't know at the time the importance of every little bit of energy shield (and other stats) you can get.

With the equipment changes i now have 5300 energy shield (buffed) and some 1.1k life to spare. My dps remained the same (hurray). Since i opted for Shavronne's, I chose some chaos resists on the items, so i'm sitting at 0% resist instead of -60%. Those Vaal plants that shoot 3 chaos projectiles were previously killing me like i'm made of butter, now i can facetank an entire pack of them without a tickle.

Changed the flasks to include more utility. It sure does help.

As defense, i'm using currently enfleeble + frost wall with cast on stunned. I was having a lot of problems with being chain stunned, frost wall is amazing at avoiding that. It not only pushes melee enemies away but also blocks projectiles


With those changes alone, i'm currently able to do maps 8~11 with ease, without diyng. I've done arond 30 runs so far, and the only deaths were 2 to Riker (Syndicate) wich for some reason was 1 shotting me, some chain freezing ranged dogs (my fault for being slow on the flask use) and a boss wich applied corrupted bleeding that took my entire ES in less than a second.
I haven't yet tested higher maps than 11, but i'm guessing i'll be able to go for tier 14 maps with this setup. After that some more equipment/skill tree changes should be needed for t15~17 maps, but i'll be also a bit richer when time comes to that.



Changed the skill tree a bit. Did some temporary changes, because i haven't quite understood how to do this blood magic stuff...

There are 2 main problems:

1- There's this Mana multiplier of 245%, that makes any linked aura become too costly, it always says i don't have enough hp to cast it,not even the first one.

2- I don't quite have enough gem slots to use that many gems. I really love having support gems for flame dash, i like the totems + brand (they help A LOT in blight encounters and sometimes even distract the boss a bit, they also deal quite decent damage by themselves and apply burning for the flame surge damage boost. Flame surge and incinerate are my main skills, so i'm also not giving up on a dedicated item full of support gems for each one of them.
The spirit shield with its 3 slots, occupied by herald of ash, clarity and discipline, all irreplaceable.

That leaves me with the boots 4 slots as the defense mechanism, with frost wall + enfeeble + cast on crit. The 4 flame golems are also a core part of the build, they increase my damage by a crap ton because of Elemancer + Liege + Golem commander...


I quite like the skill tree Rakiii posted. Lots of ES leech and great total ES. But there are some questions i have with it:

Why that minion wheel, i'm not summoning minions... Is that so broken you take it in every mage build?
Zealoth's oath worth it? I don't have any life regen anyways
Can i apply 2x the same curse with whispers of doom? Double enfeeble = double reductions?
Lucidity and explosive impact not worth it?

And one last thing. I can add an annointment for an extra good passive. It has to be unexpensive, no gold or silver oils. I'm using Testudo at the momento, but it's quite unimpressive since it doesn't increase the energy shield from my spirit shield for some reason

I will try to go as far as i can with the build as it is, and once it fails, i'll do the final needed changes.

"

recolino wrote:

Changed the skill tree a bit. Did some temporary changes, because i haven't quite understood how to do this blood magic stuff...

There are 2 main problems:

1- There's this Mana multiplier of 245%, that makes any linked aura become too costly, it always says i don't have enough hp to cast it,not even the first one.

This multiplier will decrease, if you lvl your bloodmagic gem.
To kickstart being lowlife you could just link Herald of Ash, which usually reserves 35% mana. 35% x 2.45 = 85,75% reserved life with a lvl1 bloodmagic gem.
Thats more than 65% and therefore works.

"

recolino wrote:

2- I don't quite have enough gem slots to use that many gems. I really love having support gems for flame dash, i like the totems + brand (they help A LOT in blight encounters and sometimes even distract the boss a bit, they also deal quite decent damage by themselves and apply burning for the flame surge damage boost. Flame surge and incinerate are my main skills, so i'm also not giving up on a dedicated item full of support gems for each one of them.
The spirit shield with its 3 slots, occupied by herald of ash, clarity and discipline, all irreplaceable.

Thats a very common problem in this game :)
You have to make decisions and accept the consequences. We´re just showing you alternatives. Pick whatever you like best and stick to it.

"

recolino wrote:

I quite like the skill tree Rakiii posted. Lots of ES leech and great total ES. But there are some questions i have with it:

Why that minion wheel, i'm not summoning minions... Is that so broken you take it in every mage build?
Zealoth's oath worth it? I don't have any life regen anyways
Can i apply 2x the same curse with whispers of doom? Double enfeeble = double reductions?

The minionwheel is stupid overpowered because it will buff your flame golems and Spiritual Aid will apply minion dmg not only to your minion (golems) but to your char as well.
This is generic dmg, so it scales absolutely everything in this game. Impact dmg as well as DoT dmg and ofc minion dmg.
Also you could run gear with increased minion dmg now, which will buff you too and thus opens up more gear choices.

Zealoths Oath can be worth it. If you are using a Sulphur flask or any mechanic like Zealotry aura dropping consecrated ground (4% life regen while you stand in it), it will convert the life regen to ES regen.
You could also run a stone golem for some flat life regen and its taunting ability, if you can make room for another gem

No you cant apply the same curse two times.
But Enfeeble plus Temp Chains is a very powerful defensive combo, because it will reduce the mobs dmg output and slow it down, so you can easily dodge its attacks and get out of the way.


Cant check annointments right now, so cant help you with that.
Just be aware: You can trade up oils by selling 3 of the same kind to any vendor. You´ll get 1 oil of the next higher tier in return.
This way you might be able to turn a lot of useless oils into something.

The 3:1 vendor deal works for many items btw. You can sell 3 maps of the same kind and get 1 of the next higher tier in return.

"

recolino wrote:

Lucidity and explosive impact not worth it?

And one last thing. I can add an annointment for an extra good passive. It has to be unexpensive, no gold or silver oils. I'm using Testudo at the momento, but it's quite unimpressive since it doesn't increase the energy shield from my spirit shield for some reason

Both nodes are worth taking. It´s about priorities though.
Lucidity seems too good to pass though.
I haven´t checked Oils closely but Tranquility seems BiS for ES spell caster?
I guess it needs some very rare oils (would ad on great amulet too) so what about Explosive Impact you have noticed.

Testudo should give you a bit of ES or you can try Deflection if you want smth more defensive.

New update, with some more changes to the skill tree, following some of the suggestions, and the aquisition of a nice jewel for only 20C, currently sitting at 6.5k ES


Still can't do blood magic tho. A lvl 20's mana multiplier goes from 245% to 196%, it's not much difference. And i don't have strenght to use a lvl 20 pure strenght gem =(


Also, after testing on pob, i saw that Anger increases my damage by a crap ton, a lot really. But i can't run herald, discipline, clarity and anger, not enough reserved mana =(. Maybe i drop herald of ash? It's not as fun not watching enemies explode xD

"

recolino wrote:

New update, with some more changes to the skill tree, following some of the suggestions, and the aquisition of a nice jewel for only 20C, currently sitting at 6.5k ES


Still can't do blood magic tho. A lvl 20's mana multiplier goes from 245% to 196%, it's not much difference. And i don't have strenght to use a lvl 20 pure strenght gem =(

Thats good news - 6.5k ES is solid for now :)


You can totally go lowlife and run bloodmagic, just not with all auras.
If you had 2 red sockets in your shield, you could run Herald of Ash and Clarity with a lvl1 blood magic gem.
This would allow you to run Discipline and Zealotry without a blood magic gem on mana.

Your incinerate dps (zero stage) would go up from ~58k to ~91k.
So its a massive boost.


The only trouble is, you dont have 2 free sockets for Discipline and Zealotry right now. Which means you need to make room.
Id sacrifice the totem setup tbh, at least partially.

Just have a spell totem with armageddon brand and then use the 2 free sockets for the above mentioned auras. Keep in mind: Your totem will be buffed by Pain Attunement and Zealotry as well, so you shouldnt even lose much dmg there, just the ability to cast 2 totems.

If you want to do that, make sure to break the links in your gloves from 1 4link to 2 2links. Otherwise the auras would be linked to the spelltotem and cant be casted.

I would do that in a heartbeat, no second thought.
The dmg boost is just too good to pass - also having consecrated ground everywhere will help sustaining ES (if you allocate Zealots Oath) and also help the golems to survive, because they will benefit from consecrated grounds healing effect as well.

"

Orbaal wrote:

Thats good news - 6.5k ES is solid for now :)


You can totally go lowlife and run bloodmagic, just not with all auras.
If you had 2 red sockets in your shield, you could run Herald of Ash and Clarity with a lvl1 blood magic gem.
This would allow you to run Discipline and Zealotry without a blood magic gem on mana.

I would do that in a heartbeat, no second thought.
The dmg boost is just too good to pass - also having consecrated ground everywhere will help sustaining ES (if you allocate Zealots Oath) and also help the golems to survive, because they will benefit from consecrated grounds healing effect as well.

Did it.

Indeed, the damage jumped drastically. I just don't feel as comfortable having no hp at all, i guess it takes some time to get used to.

I'm not convinced on Zealotry tho, since i have Elemental overload the crit chance and crit multiplier are 100% useless, the only thing left is the small healing and small damage increase. 6% of max health is very little, i only run into trouble if i get bursted really hard, 6% /sec will never save me... It would be amazing on a crit build tho. The golems survive just fine, and since i have them on my auto cast boots, they just keep being auto summoned whenever they die, did some testing and i'm always at 4 golems.

I'm running Anger instead of Zealotry, wich just adds up to even more damage xD

"

recolino wrote:

New update, with some more changes to the skill tree, following some of the suggestions, and the aquisition of a nice jewel for only 20C, currently sitting at 6.5k ES


Still can't do blood magic tho. A lvl 20's mana multiplier goes from 245% to 196%, it's not much difference. And i don't have strenght to use a lvl 20 pure strenght gem =(

Also, after testing on pob, i saw that Anger increases my damage by a crap ton, a lot really. But i can't run herald, discipline, clarity and anger, not enough reserved mana =(. Maybe i drop herald of ash? It's not as fun not watching enemies explode xD

You can see in my PoB link how to run all auras at once.
I have been running an extra 4% reduced mana reserved node (Influence cluster) + lvl 2 Enlighten (reduced mana reserved too).

You can supplement that by taking one passive of 4% reduced mana reserved
in Sovereignty cluster or Level 2+ Enlighten
The setup looks like that:
Zealotry (or Anger) with Bloodmagic (gem lvl 14+)

Anger (or Zealotry) + Discipline + Herald of Ash + lvl 2 enlighten (or 4% reduced mana passive).

You can´t run clarity aura (maybe lvl 1 or so) but it shouldn´t be needed.
Incinerate has low mana cost.
Craft -mana cost on one ring/ amulet (you need open prefix) to solve the problem with mana (you can drop clarity and use smth else then).

Btw gz to your progress:)