[3.21] Aegis Incinerate Elementalist - Tank with over 10mil Shaper DPS!

*************************************************************
IMPORTANT
Q. Why is this in the Templar forum?
A. Over the years and over many balance changes the build has evolved from being better as a Templar to being far superior as a Witch Elementalist.
Instead of remaking the thread in the Witch forum we decided to keep everything here, together with all the helpful information gathered over time by everyone here.

*************************************************************

Latest version
"
*NOTE*
The gearing and skills in the guide below might not be 100% accurate anymore, but still contains a lot of useful information. For the most recent versions of the build, check the PoB's.

*************************************************************
Elementalist:
https://pastebin.com/JsKeZtxa

There are 2 trees in this PoB, one for when you can get a Skin of the Lords with Pain Attunement and one for when you don't have it yet.

Thanks Andy for helping me put this together!
*************************************************************


Intro:

Are you looking for a tank that can still deal damage?
Tired of the swoop swoop speedmeta of late?
Do you like seeing your ES go up and down while laughing at the mobs' damage?
Have you missed playing Incinerate?

Then this build might be for you...

Before we start, I made this entire build on a budget of around 50ex in the Delirium league. That includes the Awakened gems.
If you want to save on cost a bit, you can just use the regular versions of the gems and skip on using the +1 corrupted chest. Also, don't use the Unnatural Instinct jewel then.
That would lower the cost to around 12-14 ex.




Index:
"
1. Update log
2. Pros & Cons
3. Stats
4. Gear
5. Skills, gems & links
6. Skill Tree
7. Leveling
8. Ascendancy
9. Pantheon
10. Bandits
11. Videos
12. Tips & Tricks


1. Update log:
Spoiler

07/04/23
Updated for 3.21

06/05/22
3.18: no changes or nerfs!

04/02/22
Updated for 3.17
3 different PoB's added

19/10/21
3.16 updates
With the full skill tree rework there come some changes to the build. Check the PoB!

25/07/21
3.15 updates



2. Pros & Cons:

Spoiler

Pro:
*Tank
*Nice damage
*High effective life pool
*Uses some very different but nice mechanics
*Easy league starter
*Cheap to start...


Con:
*...but can be expensive to perfect
*Can't do Ele reflect (but you can on the Elementalist version) or no regen
*As the range of Incinerate is quite limited, the clear speed isn't the fastest



3. Stats:
Spoiler



Defence:
Spoiler




We sport the following layers of defence:

-8K EHP (4k life + 4K ES)
-25k armour unbuffed
-60k armour buffed
-75% Attack block
-75% Spell Block
-Resistances are 76/81/76/75
-Ele weakness capped
-Chaos res capped
-90% Physical damage reduction
-Immune to Stun, Freezing, Chill, Ignite, Shock, Corrupted Blood, Maim and Silence.



Offence:
Spoiler




For Offence I use Incinerate, which on average deals about 6.8 million Shaper DPS!
This takes into account all easily accessable buffs + flasks.
Peak damage can even go over 8.7 million, with Vaal RF up!

How do we get this much damage on a defensive focussed build you might ask?
We first try to increase the level of the Incinerate-gem itself as much as possible, which increases its damage exponentially.
Secondly we employ some nice tricks to both increase our own damage dealt, as well as making enemies take more damage.
A very nice trick to increase damage is by using the Coward's Legacy belt combined with the Pain Attunement-keystone to give us an extra damage multiplier.
Debuffs such as Curse, Unnerve, Ash and lowering Fire resistance make enemies melt.




4. Gear:
Spoiler

The real essential item is Aegis Aurora. This is what gives us most of our defence.
Other items are not really required but HIGHLY recommended!
Some of these are harder to get in a new league though (Coward's Legacy, Skin of the Loyal, Watcher's Eye, ...)
These can easily be replaced with rare's with just life/ES/armour/resists until you can get the uniques more easily.

My own gear:
Spoiler






More in-depth:
Spoiler

Helmet:
Spoiler


Since we focus both on getting Life and ES it is a nice helmet to use, because it increases both by A LOT!
At the same time, the Transfiguration of Soul & Transfiguration of Mind mods on it give us a nice damage boost.

From the Wiki:
"
Transfiguration of Soul: Increases and Reductions to Maximum Energy Shield also apply to Spell Damage at 30% of their value

Transfiguration of Mind: Increases and Reductions to Maximum Mana also apply to Damage at 30% of their value


I managed to get a +2 stage Incinerate enchant on it, which is a nice increase in damage (25% MORE per stage).

Since this item only drops from Sirus, it might be hard to get it in the beginning of a league.
I would recommend using an armour base helmet with life and resistances until you manage to get one.


Body Armour:
Spoiler


This is both an offensive and defensive boost.
Offensive because the +1 level of socketed gems increases both the level of Incinerate and Empower. I even got the corruption which increases both by another 1 level.

Defensive because this chest increases "Global Defenses", which includes armour and ES.

Note that you have to get one with the right colours, since colours on this one can't be changed.
If you can't find a 4B 2R one, try a 3B 3R and add (Awakened) Fire Penetration instead of (Awakened) Elemental Focus, but expect to see a pretty substantial drop in damage.

A Tabula Rasa would be a good option until you can get this one. Since this only drops from Breachstones, it might be hard to get in the beginning of a league.


Gloves:
Spoiler


Regular rare that fills out the stats I need: Life, armour, resistances.


Boots:
Spoiler


This is a special one.
We are using a cluster jewel called

The downside of this jewel is that it reduces our movement speed.

The boots solve this issue by stating that our "movement speed is 150% of base value". This means ALL THE TIME!
The downside of the jewel does nothing for us and it even gives us the advantage that we cannot be affected things like Hinder as well.
The only thing that does slow us down still is Temporal Chains.

It also has the mod that increases cooldown recovery speed for travel skills, so if we want to use Flame Dash we could cast it much more often.

This is considered a "Blight unique". This means we can put an anoint on it, something which is normally only possible on an amulet.
Note that you will have to choose if you want a Lab enchant or an anoint on the boots. You can't have both!

I have chosen to put the node "Inexorable" on it, which increases armour by 50% while stationary and gives us our Endurance charges!

From the Wiki:
"


If you can't get this item early on, you can also use Kaom's Roots. This will give you the same advantage as The Stampede, but a lot less movement speed and no gem sockets.


Weapon:
Spoiler


This weapon gives us a nice bit of damage but more importantly, increases our defences A LOT.
It does this by giving us increases to ES depending on how much armour we have on our shield.
Since we use Aegis Aurora, which has a nice bit of armour, our ES is increased by quite a lot!

A good (but way less defensive option) would be Doryani's Catalyst or a rare with spell damage/fire damage/cast speed.


Shield:
Spoiler


The bread and butter of this build.

It replenishes ES based on the amount of armour that we have on each block.
Since we have both 75% attack and spell block, we pretty much block all the time.
During regular mapping without flasks up we have 26k armour. This means we replenish over 500ES on each block and with flasks up this goes up over 1000ES even!

Needless to say, this makes us into a very tanky character!

Notice that I've put 30% Quality on this item. This has been done by way of the Bestiary recipe in the Menagery. This is a perfectly safe way to do it (cannot brick your item) and it gives a bit of extra armour and ES.


Amulet:
Spoiler


This slot is used to fill out the resistances we need.

The anointment I got on here is "Soul of Steel", which increases armour and maximum resistances.

From the Wiki:
"



Rings:
Spoiler


These are very important slots!
Firstly it gives us stats: life and resistances.
Secondly, we are using the Coward's Legacy belt, which unfortunatly has the modifier "50% increased effect of curses on you".
With these rings however, we solve this downside. Instead of increasing curse effect on ourselves, we even managed to reduce curse effect a little!

Note that this mod only comes from Crusader rings and cannot be rolled on regular rare rings!

If you want an alternative, Kikazaru-rings would also give the reduced curse effect but adds no real other stats to the build though.


Belt:
Spoiler


This belt makes it so that we are considered as "Low life" all the time.
This gives us the option of picking up the "Pain Attunement"-keystone in the tree for a nice 30% MORE damage multiplier!

This belt comes with 2 downsides though:
1) we are cursed with Vulnerability.
We solved this by using


2) 50% increased Curse effect on you.
This has been solved by getting 2 rings with reduced curse effect on them.

This means that we get the juicy advantage of the belt while getting none of the downsides.

WARNING!!
"
If you can't get a Watcher's Eye with the mod "Unaffected by Vulnerability while affected by Determination", don't use this belt.
You would be much better off then using a rare belt with life or ES and resistances and maybe a crafted damage mod on it.
You would die way to much otherwise.


With patch 3.11 Harvest it's now possible to get an enchantment on a belt by using a Divine Font in the "Dedication to the Goddess"-labyrinth.

Here are 3 good options for this build:
-15% increased area of effect while you have Arcane Surge.
-300 to armour while you have Fortify

But the best option of them all (in my opinion ofcourse)
-30% reduced effect of curses on you while on Consecrated Ground

First off, we get this effect ALL THE TIME, because we get permanent Consecrated Ground from the Inquisitor ascendancy.
This mod allows us to either not get reduced curse effect on one of our rings (thus making that ring cheaper to get), or you could still get it on rings and be more comfortable to run stuff like maps with Temp Chains/Elemental Weakness/...


Flasks:
Spoiler

"

Panic button: instant full life on use. The chaos degen it gives is no problem, as are chaos resistance is capped out.
The only time this might become an "issue" is in no regen maps, but even then, with all the resistance we have, it would maybe degen us for 400 life.

Notice that I did not put quality on this, exactly to have the chaos degen effect on us as little time as possible.

This flask also gives a nice bit of extra dodge and "Phasing" (allows us to run through mobs, might come in handy in tight spots).

Note that I would only recommend using this flask when you manage to get your chaos resistance capped or near cap. The degen might otherwise be sketchy in certain situations.
If you want a good alternative, get a Divine flask with the Seething prefix.

From the Wiki:
"



"

This gives both nice offence and defence. Since we managed to triple balance our elemental resistances (meaning that the resistance between brackets on all 3 elemental resistances is the same) we get both advantages of the flask for all elemental damage types!

How you can see it's working:
"



"

Nice increase in armour.
Will help us replenish ES faster.
Keep in mind that this also affects the offensive properties of Vaal Molten Shell.



"

Nice extra damage and life leech.



"

Life gain and Bleed removal.



PRO-TIP 1:
"
Notice that I don't have a curse removal flask in my setup.

That is because that would also remove the Vulnerability from us, and that would mean we don't get the advantages of Pain Attunement anymore for the entire duration of the flask.

For a more in-depth explanation, see gearing section => Belt.



PRO-TIP 2:
"
It's nice to use a Quicksilver flask while leveling, but you can drop it as soon as you get The Stampede-boots.
Since these put us at a fixed 50% movement speed, Quicksilver flasks (or any movement speed buff for that matter) won't affect us anymore.



Jewels:
Spoiler

"

Gives life, armour and chaos res



"

The most important mod on here is "Unaffected by Vulnerability while affected by Determination" because it helps us negate the negative effect we have from our Coward's Legacy-belt.

If you don't have the Vulnerability mod on this jewel, don't use the Coward's Legacy belt!
You would be way too susceptible to DoT damage otherwise and would die too much.

This one also gives us nice extra armour, of which we need a lot of in this build for the benefits of Aegis Aurora to be usefull to us.

I was able to get one with ES gained on hit as well, but this mod is not necessarily needed. Just a nice bit of minmaxing.
Note that this mod will work for ALL automatic skills we use too! (Vaal Molten Shell, Reckoning, Wave of Conviction, Blade Blast)



"

Socketed on the left side of the Templar area, it covers a lot of cold resistance nodes. This is a handy way to get maxed on Spell block.
I managed to get one with "Cannot be Maimed", which helps in a lot of fights.




"

This, socketed just between Witch and Shadow, gives a nice bit of extra life, ES and damage.



*Items in red are the ones that apply to us

This saves a couple of skill points that we can invest in other life, damage and armour nodes.

This is a VERY high budget option. Replace this with a rare jewel with life or ES/armour/damage/resists. Would recommend taking the entire "Melding"-cluster then (See leveling section for skill tree's).



"

Both have stats to increase damage, but also make us Stun immune, and give some block chance.
The medium one is been corrupted to that "Corrupted Blood cannot be inflicted on us".

Large:


Medium:



"

Nature's Patience gives us a nice bit of extra defence while also gives us a chance to double our damge. As explained in the boots-section, its downsides get negated by using The Stampede-boots, which always make our movement speed 150% of base value.
I was lucky enough to get the corruption "Cannot be Cursed with Silence" on it, which helps against certain mobs.



From the Wiki:
"



"

The Megalomaniac gives us some nice quality of life. It is a cluster jewel that can potentially have ANY notable from all available cluster notables in the game. It's quite rare to get a good one though, since it drops corrupted and can only drop in Simulacrum maps or from Delirium events in maps.

The one that I use gives the following benefits:
-Fortify on Sceptre attack, which we do all the time because we have Reckoning, which triggers everytime we block.
-Extra armour
-Extra defences from shield, which both increase armour and ES

The most important node is the "Overlord" here since it's an easy way to generate Fortify.
For the 2 other nodes it would be pretty much whatever.
Pretty much anything that would:
-increase armour
-increase life
-increase ES
-increase fire damage
-increase AoE
-...



If you can't get a decent Megalomaniac you can always just use a rare jewel with life/armour/resists and use Shield Charge linked with the Fortify-gem to get the Fortify-buff.




Order of importance to get first:
Spoiler
The most important one to get is Aegis Aurora. This is what makes the build shine and makes us not die.

Secondly the body armour. Skin of the Loyal provides us with both a nice defensive and offensive buff.

If you want to use the Nature's Patience jewel, The Stampede-boots are a must. Otherwise, your movement speed will suffer tremendously.

Next I would recommend getting the weapon. Cerberus Limb will provide both offence and defence and is actually quite cheap.

The others can be either the same pieces as I use, or can be replaced with rares.

I would recommend going for the cluster jewels before you invest in Awakened gems, as the jewels will provide you with much more benefits then better gems would.
Awakened gems are real endgame upgrades.


Other good/budget options:
Spoiler

Almost any slot (except for the shield) could be replaced for a rare with life/armour/ES/resists but I do feel that you would not get the same advantages as with my current gear.

Options would be:
Kikazaru - Would also be a good way to reduce curse effect on yourself, but you would miss out on some life and nice resists.

Praxis - If you feel like you are having mana problems, this could be a nice ring during leveling. Wouldn't recommend it endgame though.

Kaom's Roots - Would give the same benefit as The Stampede, but a lot less movement speed and no cooldown recovery.

Tabula Rasa - This is a cheap 6L that would get you to maps easily.

Doryani's Catalyst - Drops from Atziri and gives about the same damage as Cerberus Limb but adds no defensiveness.



5. Skills, gems & links:
Spoiler

Short version:
Spoiler

Body Armour:
Incinerate - Infused Channeling - Inspiration - (Awakened) Controlled Destruction - (Awakened) Elemental Focus - Empower

Helmet:
Cast When Damage Taken - Vaal Molten Shell - Wave of Conviction - Combustion

Shield:
Cast When Damage Taken - Blade Blast - Void Sphere

Boots:
Reckoning - (Awakened) Hextouch - Flammability - Elemental Weakness

Gloves:
Enlighten - Discipline - Determination - Herald of Ash
OR
Enlighten - Discipline - Determination - Arctic Armour

Weapon:
Lightning Warp - Less Duration - Infernal Cry
OR
Flame Dash - Second Wind - Infernal Cry

Rings:
Vaal Righteous Fire

Other:
Commandment of Flames


More in-depth:
Spoiler

Body Armour:
Incinerate
Spoiler

Incinerate - Infused Channeling - Inspiration - (Awakened) Controlled Destruction - (Awakened) Elemental Focus - Empower

I have put the links in order of importance.
Awakened gems aren't required for the build, but it's a nice bit of min-maxing.
If you don't have a level 3 Empower or higher, use (Awakened) Fire Penetration instead. This will give more damage then.
The higher level you can bring Incinerate, the more damage it will do. In this setup I have it at level 28 (level 21 gem, Empower level 4, +1 from the mod on the armour, +1 level of gems from the corruption on the body armour (which both apply to both Incinerate and Empower).



This skill deals a ton of damage, even on a defence focussed build. while the AoE is quite small, the nova it does at the end kinda makes up for it.

Since 3.11 we can accompany this skill with Infernal Cry for faster clearing!


Helmet:
Cast when Damage Taken-setup
Spoiler

Cast When Damage Taken - Vaal Molten Shell - Wave of Conviction - Combustion

Vaal Molten Shell is here to give a little more defence but the most important gem here is Wave of Conviction.
This will put Fire Exposure on the enemies, which lowers their fire resistance by 25%, which in turn, will be a nice damage increase for Incinerate. It will also trigger Combustion, which reduces enemy fire resistance even further.
Note that if you don't have an (Awakened) Hextouch, you can replace Combustion here with Cold Snap for a bit of extra defence.


Shield:
Cast When Damage Taken-setup
Spoiler

Cast When Damage Taken - Blade Blast - Void Sphere

Blade Blast puts the "Unnerve"-debuff on enemies, which will make them take 10% increased spell damage.

Void Sphere is a recent addition to the build. It does have a couple of advantages though:
-Firstly, it puts the "Hinder" debuff on enemies, causing them to move more slowly.
-Secondly, it pulls all enemies together, making them easier to hit and easier to use Infernal Cry on.
-And thirdly, this skill actually consumes corpses, giving us a damage boost caused by a couple of the nodes the "Unnatural Instinct"-jewel hits (30% increased damage to be exact).


Boots:
Reckoning & curses
Spoiler

Reckoning - (Awakened) Hextouch - Flammability - Elemental Weakness

This one is used as a utility skill.
It will automatically apply our curses which reduces enemy fire resistance further. Since I have a lvl5 Awakened Hextouch I can apply 2 curses instead of 1.
Also, because we have the "Overlord"-node on the Megalomaniac jewel, it will also give us Fortify everytime Reckoning activates.

If you can't get an Awakened version of Hextouch, use the regular one and add Combustion here instead of in the Cast When Damage Taken-setup. That would leave you a spare socket to add something like Cold Snap for a bit of extra defence.


Gloves:
Aura's
Spoiler

OPTION 1
"

Enlighten - Discipline - Determination - Herald of Ash

Provides a lot of extra defence through more ES and armour, as well as giving more dmg from the Herald. A level 4 Enlighten is needed if you want to run all 3 of these without picking up mana reservation nodes from the tree. Alternatively you can use a level 3 Enlighten and pick up the mana reservation nodes left of Templar start (Sovereignty-cluster).



OPTION 2
"

Enlighten - Discipline - Determination - Arctic Armour

If you feel like your damage is high enough, you can drop Herald of Ash in favour of Arctic Armour, which would add yet another layer of defence to the build.
This might come in handy in some of the higher tier battles.
The "less phys damage taken"-mod gets calculated after the phys mitigation we get from armour, meaning that, if we take phys dmg, that dmg gets reduced byt 90% (from armour), which leaves us with 10% dmg that gets through. Of that 10%, Arctic Armour will then reduce the dmg taken further by an additional 12 or 13% (depending on the level of Arctic Armour).
Additionally, enemies which hit us get chilled, causing them to move and attack slower.

I want to stress that this setup will only be beneficial if your damage is high enough! Otherwise, stay with OPTION 1.




Weapon:
Movement & utility
Spoiler
There are 2 really good options for this setup.

OPTION 1
"

Lightning Warp - Less Duration - Infernal Cry

Used to get around faster. Less Duration serves to make sure that the travelling between point A and point B goes as fast as possible. A good alternative would be Flame Dash, but that is a little bit less spammy then LW.

Infernal Cry is a new gem added in 3.11 and it has some really nice benefits to the build. Firstly, it can cause a big fire explosion which helps with clearing. Secondly, it covers the enemy in ash, causing them to take more fire dmg. When used on bosses it makes them take 20% more damage, so it is a HUGE damage boost.

WARNING!
"
Make sure that you put Infernal Cry in a seperate slot, not linked to Less Duration, because this would otherwise reduce the duration of the debuff.



OPTION 2:
"

Flame Dash - Second Wind - Infernal Cry

The advantage of this setup is that we can use Infernal Cry more often because it also benefits from the Second Wind, but Flame Dash is a bit less spammy then Lightning Warp, meaning that every now and then you will run out of charges,
even if it benefits from the Cooldown Recovery on the boots.

If you use this setup, make sure that all 3 sockets are linked to get the most out of both skills.


Overall, there is no real winner or loser here. It all comes down to your own personal preference. I do like the fact that I can spam Infernal Cry a bit more with the second setup, but that also means that we have to deal with running out of charges every once in a while.
Luckily this doesn't happen all too often :-)


Rings:
Utility
Spoiler

Vaal Righteous Fire

For a nice bit of extra damage during bossfights.


Other:
Skills that aren't gems but we get from gear
Spoiler
Commandment of Flames

This is an enchantment on our gloves. It triggers when we hit an enemy. This is a very nice bit of extra damage, and since its an AoE skill, it sometimes kills an entire pack on its own.

A good alternative would be "Commandment of Inferno". The damage of this enchant is higher but this only triggers when we kill an enemy, so it is mostly useless against bosses. Flames triggers on hit so can be used in all situations.




6. Skill Tree:
Spoiler

PoB:
Spoiler

"
I am using the community fork edition of PoB, which can be found here:
https://github.com/PathOfBuildingCommunity/PathOfBuilding/releases


https://pastebin.com/JiPYmt5V


Screenshot:
Spoiler





7. Leveling:
Spoiler

"
Start by leveling with Lightning Tendrils.
The first support gem you will get is Arcane Surge. You'll then receive Infused Channeling as a quest reward. Use it (either as your third link, or instead of Arcane Surge, as it will increase your damage by a lot).

Around this time you'll also get acces to a Clarity gem. This will help you solve the early mana problems you might have. You don't need to level this gem too high, as it will be obsolete further in the leveling anyway. Around level 5 should me more then enough.

Another gem you'll want to pick up is either Dash or Flame Dash. This will help you move around faster. If you didn't use Arcane Surge as the third link on your main skill, use it on here instead.

Pick up a Quicksilver flask from the quest rewards as well for faster movement.

Around level 12 you get access to the skill this build is focussed around: Incinerate.
Replace Lightning Tendrils with it.

If you feel that you are lacking in defence a bit, Flesh and Stone might be a good mana reservation buff to pick up. It only reserves 25% of your mana, and makes it so that enemies have a harder time hitting you.

At lvl 18 you can use Controlled Destruction and Elemental Focus.
These will both increase your damage by A LOT!

If around level 40 you happen to have free sockets, add the Reckoning-4L. This will increase damage on bosses.

Definately add Infernal Cry too. If will be a nice clear speed boost as well as provide you with extra single target damage.

This setup could carry you all the way up to maps, but if you happen to find a 5L along the way, add Inspiration as 5th link.
This will make the mana cost a bit more managable as well as give you a nice damage boost.

Add the rest of the gems and gear as shown in the "Gear"- and "Skills, gems & links"-sections whenever it is possible for you. You already have the most important stuff up and running. The rest won't alter the build dramatically but will just add some nice quality of life and will just help to increase the damage and defences further.

Don't bother adding Determination too soon as with little armour on gear, it won't be very effective.



PRO-TIP:
"
Note that you can check the vendors in each act to buy gems that were given as quest rewards for other classes.
A good way to get access to all gems is to finish the Act 3 Library quest. The NPC there can sell you all required skill gems then.



For skill tree progression, I recommend the following:

~Level 30 skill tree:
"
Spoiler



Go for the AoE nodes and big damage nodes first. While you are heading into Witch territory, you can also pick up "Elemental Overload", which will be a big damage boost. Incinerate hits a ton of times, so it will be no problem to keep this buff up all the time.

From the Wiki:
"



~Level 60 skill tree:
"
Spoiler



Pick up the damage nodes on the left side of Templar and head towards the block nodes on the right side of the tree, picking up all nice life, ES and mana nodes on the way.

Note that getting Arcane Swiftness (right side of the tree) is pretty big, because that node alone gives 5% spell damage per 5% chance to block. Since we are capping block chance on this build, thats a wopping 75% increase in damage for 1 node!



~Level 80 skill tree:
"
Spoiler



By this point we are focussing on getting most of the block nodes and hopefully we have enough currency to get the required unique jewels.

"Glancing Blows" is an important node here.
This is how we can get max block chance on a non-block focussed Ascendancy.
When it covers a keystone, it changes that keystone to "Glancing Blows".
That is why we have this socketed just under the "Mind over Matter"-keystone.

From the Wiki:
"


Its downside is no problem since because of our shield, we replenish ES all the time!

This one is quite essential if you want to max out your block chance. Without it we are sitting at 40% block/39% Spell block, which would still provide some nice defence, but it's better to have it fully capped.

If you can get the Coward's Legacy belt and the Watcher's Eye with "Unnaffected by Vulnerability"-mod, pick up Pain Attunement also.
This combo will result in a big damage increase!

From the Wiki:
"


The "Sanctuary"-cluster is an important one here too because this will give a lot of attack block and resistances, but, because the ring from our "The Blue Nightmare"-jewel covers this cluster, this will also be a huge buff to our spell block!



~Level 90 skill tree:
"
Spoiler



We pick up most of the cluster jewel nodes as well as get the remaining life nodes. We are mostly done with the build.

Note that for the node "Prodigidal Perfection" (north of Witch) we get enough mana to gain the full damage bonus from the node (40%).



~Level 95 skill tree:
"
Spoiler



If we don't have an "Unnatural Instinct"-jewel yet, we pick up the "Melding"-cluster for more life and ES.
This is also the point where we fill out most of the nodes on the cluster jewels.



My current level 100 tree:
"
Spoiler



The remainder of the points are used to get more armour as well as fully fill out the cluster jewels.

Note that we also pick up "Steelwood Stance", which is normally associated with Staves, but the +600 armour actually works on any block. So thats a nice overall increase of armour to the build.

I was able to find an "Unnatural Instinct"-jewel, which I placed just between the Witch and Shadow areas. This gives us most of the Life/ES nodes that we would otherwise have to invest points in, as well as some damage nodes and reflect reduction.
The points that we save here, are used to pick up more dmg nodes in the Templar area and more life and armour nodes.



8. Ascendancy:
Spoiler



We go for the Inquisitor Ascendancy.
While normally this is a crit-focussed ascendancy, we don't go for the crit nodes at all on this one.
Instead we focus on stuff that help both our offence and defence.

The first node to pick up is Sanctuary.
Consecrated ground will be on us all the time while stationary. Since Incinerate is a skill that requires us to stand still, we will have it's bonus all the time, which includes life regeneration.
It also gives us a nice dmg boost against all nearby enemies.

The second node to go for is Pious Path. This will make us immune to elemental ailments, which include Chill, Freeze, Ignite and Shock.
It also gives us ES regen.

Thirdly go for Augury of Penetance. This one is pretty straightforward: it increases the damage that enemies take while also reducing the damage they deal.

Lastly go for Instruments of Virtue. This is the least important of all the nodes, since it barely gives any damage boost, but it still helps.

I have tried to fiddle around with the Fanaticism charges from the "Instruments of Zeal"-node, but they seem kind of hard to maintain, and 4 seconds is not long enough to give any real help to the build.


9. Pantheon:
Spoiler



I went with "Soul Of The Brine King", which gives us extra block recovery
and
"Soul Of Tukohama", which gives us physical damage reduction as well as life regen.


10. Bandits:
Spoiler

Kill all!


11. Videos:


12. Tips & Tricks:
Spoiler

Playstyle:
For general map clear just swoop around with Lightning Warp (or Flame Dash) and attack with Incinerate.
You can even keep holding down the button for Incinerate and then just the button for Warp to go where you want to be. Incinerate will start casting again automatically then and on each warp you will release the final wave, resulting in some nice clearing.
On bigger packs you can activate Infernal Cry so they die all at once with a single stack of Incinerate.
For bossing, activate Infernal Cry to cover the boss in Ash (20% increased Fire damage taken), pop your flasks and start casting. All of your other abilities are automated and will activate when you get hit.

Problems solved by using specific gear pieces:
-Coward's Legacy - Increased curse effect and Vulnerability
The increased curse effect we solve by getting 2 rings with Reduced Curse Effect on them.
The Vulnerability gets solved by the Watcher's Eye that has a mod "Unnaffected by Vulnerability while affected by Determination".

-Movement speed reduction from Nature's Affinity
This gets solved by using The Stampede boots which have a mod that says "Movement speed is 150% of base value" which basically means 50% movement speed all the time.

-How to get Fortify
I have a Megalomaniac cluster jewel with the "Overlord"-notable on it. That states that you get Fortify on melee hit with a mace, sceptre or staff. Our main weapon is a sceptre (Cerberus Limb) and we use the skill "Reckoning" which automatically triggers on block and so, in turn, it activates Fortify for us.


Closing notes:

I hope you guys like the build guide. I haven't made many in the past but I decided it was time to make one for this beast, as it is the first one I ever got to lvl 100.

If you have any questions/remarks, be sure to leave them in the comment section below and I'll be happy to answer them.

Greets!
Last edited by Claeysken on Apr 7, 2023, 3:28:53 PM
Last bumped on Mar 27, 2024, 11:36:20 PM
"First!"

On a serious note, I am happy that you decided to write up the build! Would love to give it a try next league!
Great guide! Good work!
This build looks so nice!!!!!!!!
How it works with A8 and delirium maps/waves?
"
Furtibo wrote:
This build looks so nice!!!!!!!!
How it works with A8 and delirium maps/waves?


Hi!

Works very well, only thing dangerous during a Sirus fight is that slam he does while you are trapped in his circle, the rest you can just facetank.

Delirium maps are no problem either, although the bosses in 100% delirium maps have A TON of hp, so can take a bit to kill them.
Same with W20 Simul. 1-19 is a breeze, but on W20 the boss has a ton of life. So just takes a bit longer to kill :)
Thank you for your reply.
I will wait how it goes for next league and i will give it a try :D
I spent well over 20 exalted so far...
...only to be able to run red maps without ascendency and at level 74.

Splendid build so far. Clear speed is really bad though, but to be honest i was tired of all the zoom-zoom stuff. It looks like I'll be enjoying this one until the end of Delirium, and probably gonna build it in Harvest as well. Thanks for sharing it with us!
Last edited by KodiakTheBard on Jun 4, 2020, 11:23:26 PM
"
KodiakTheBard wrote:
I spent well over 20 exalted so far...
...only to be able to run red maps without ascendency and at level 74.

Splendid build so far. Clear speed is really bad though, but to be honest i was tired of all the zoom-zoom stuff. It looks like I'll be enjoying this one until the end of Delirium, and probably gonna build it in Harvest as well. Thanks for sharing it with us!

Hi!

Getting the Ascendancy will provide a nice boost in both clearspeed and dmg (though it will still not be zoom-zoom ^^).

Also, don't forget to pick up the Elemental Overload-keystone as it will provice a huge boost in dmg!

Greetz!
Gonna need to adjust the tree a bit if you want to play this on 3.11 because glancing blows will be moved to the tree (number 5 on the picture) and won't be a timeless jewel thing anymore

"
Kryptex wrote:
Gonna need to adjust the tree a bit if you want to play this on 3.11 because glancing blows will be moved to the tree (number 5 on the picture) and won't be a timeless jewel thing anymore


Hi!

Yea, saw that too. Luckily the keystone isn't too far from the tree I have now, so adjusting it shouldn't be too hard.

Going to wait to make the changes until I see the final patch notes though,
since they seem to be making quite a lot of changes to the tree :)

Greetz

Report Forum Post

Report Account:

Report Type

Additional Info