Scorched Earth - Burning Damage Templar

Hi Everyone.

To start, I'd like to link you to the video I made regarding this build which showcases it's strengths and weaknesses and general play style.

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j--iJsdQOYk&feature=youtu.be

I'll keep this short, otherwise. Essentially, this build relies on a massive concentrated fireball to proliferate a huge amount of burning damage in a large area. I've seen in the past a lot of people use Searing Touch (pretty much required for this build) for it's +2 to fire spells, but not as much for its 70% burning damage, which is huge. So getting the full benefit from it as an end game weapon is this build's key.

Skill-tree

Main points about the build are the burning damage nodes, 80% in total from passives. Along with the Searing Touch it is a total of 150% burning damage. Another note is the double permanent curse with Hex Master and Whispers of Doom, which allows me to stack Elemental Weakness with Flammability for pesky fire resist mobs.



Gear

My gear is ok I think. Chest, belt, boots are pretty top notch, and everything else is mediocre. The most important thing is definitely the 5-link Searing Touch.


Pros
-High mobility due to fire and forget capabilities of burning damage
-High damage output in a large area
-Permanent curses (especially for temporal chains) means not having to stop to reapply them.
-Other basic benefits from the passive tree (Serpent Stance with Searing Touch, etc)

Cons
-Fire resist mobs can be a pain in the ass sometimes (depends on the monster type)
-Fire resist mobs with curse immune are a HUGE pain in the ass sometimes (molten shell helps)


Future plans:
As stated in the video, I plan on heading towards EB for more mana from discipline and the nearby crit modifier as well as more health. While mana isn't a huge issue now, occasionally I run out at inconvenient times, so a bigger pool should help, considering I have large down time while things are burning to death.

I'd love to hear feedback and criticism on the build and video :)

Thanks for reading.

If you worked in Cloak of Flames and Arctic Armour, it would be even better.
Awesome build, brings me way back to 0.9.5 Discharge (and CB diamond flask fire trap) days.

This build seems really awesome, although you said the staff was kind or essential, so I was wondering how much one would cost?

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BkMassiv wrote:

This build seems really awesome, although you said the staff was kind or essential, so I was wondering how much one would cost?

I got my 5L Searing for about 3.5 exalt equivalent.

I feel witch does a better job of this personally.

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/60422

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faytte wrote:

I feel witch does a better job of this personally.

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/60422

Hmm, didn't see that one. Pretty similar builds except for CI and critical weakness. I feel like in the end I'll have more survivability though having gotten a lot of health nodes by starting with Templar near the Marauder.

Maybe, but its softcore builds. You just need enough survivability to survive given neither build really face tanks anything. Curse curse cruse, kite and fireball, burning does the majority of the work.

Enough CI builds exist that CI on its own seems survivable enough.

Think about getting a different Fireball for single mobs/rares/bosses.

The Conc area of effect only increase the dmg of the explosion, NOT of the hit done by fireball. So you not get any benefits from conc aoe when it comes to face single mobs.
On the other Hand, vs single mobs, ure burn chanche seems a bit to low. In the vid u often need to cast some fireballs at single mobs to get them burning. Maybe build up a single target fireball in the boots/gloves/whatever with increased ignite chance.

Also, u are only 2 points away from elemtal equilibrium. Its a bit complicated, but with frostnova or a frostnovatrap, u could easy increase the burn dmg by an very huge ammount.

If you'd only had 4L Items, which support would you reject on your Fireball?

is this build viable for hardcore? I see all of the marauder + templar life nodes so it looks like it would be to me, just wondering if there is anything you'd change for hardcore.

thanks