[1.2] Aware's Tanky Fire Discharger [Video]

Pros
You very rarely take any damage at all
Therefore, your potions can be tailored to troublesome situations
Can do any map mod EXCEPT "Immune to Curses"
Moves very quickly through maps (higher mob density = higher speed)
Capped chaos resistance makes certain troublesome map mods/bosses easy
Armor/Evasion/ES on gear doesn't do much, so is not required
Cheap to construct (3.5ex total for end-game)
Works well with Scion and Templar

Cons
Difficulty against Curse Immune mobs
Must keep up IC manually (This process takes a while to learn and get used to, and if it falls you don't have much physical defense to fall back on)
Ele Reflect can kill you if you aren't paying attention

A word about Ele Reflect: I generally avoid the map mod. As a mob aura, it is literally the ONLY thing that can seriously endanger you in low and mid level maps. Train yourself to count your IC buff in your head so you can keep your eyes trained on looking out for Ele Reflect packs. Being vigilant and careful about it will make it a non-issue.

Required
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Saffell's provides amazing spell resistance and spell block at no cost due to physical immunity. Mokou's provides great fire damage, and also ignite chance to make your discharge about twice as likely to burn and prolif. Stone with +1 Frenzy for the spell block (frenzy charge optional, but amazing). Carcass Jack is perfect for this build, with great defense and offense. Finally, Kaom's Roots save lives and prevent desync. Stun prevention makes sticky stun-lock situations non existent. All of these uniques are pretty cheap, totaling about 2 ex if you look for good rolls.


The rest of my gear is centered around Life, Ele resist, and Chaos Resist. Here is my current setup:

With Purity of Fire/Lightning running:

Hybrid - You need at least one flask that will restore mana. It is used when you need to kill durable, curse immune mobs with Incinerate spam, or when you run out of mana in other rare situations. Seriously, do not try to run without a hybrid or mana flask (I recommend hybrid). If you run out of mana and need to refresh IC, you might die if you can't restore mana quickly.

Granite is for the rare instance where your IC falls off unavoidably, or before it is up when you begin a map. Otherwise, can be used to clear pesky curses.

Ruby is for mitigating Spell Reflect when I know I'm going to discharge near the edge of a reflect pack, or as a precaution if I'm unable to see very well due to my screen being flooded with mobs.

Make sure you roll your Quicksilver well, as travel can be painful without it.

(Underlined = 20% quality REQUIRED, Bold = 20% quality is HIGHLY recommended)
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Discharge - Conc Effect - Ele Prolif - Cold to Fire
Flameblast - Conc Effect - Spell Echo
Ball Lightning - Curse on Hit - Warlord's Mark - Flammability
Purity of Lightning - Purity of Fire - Reduced Mana
Increased Duration - Immortal Call - Blood Rage (keep BR level 1)
Enduring Cry - Spell Echo

Three reasons:
-High-duration IC means you need to level up IC, and therefore level up CWDT, making it proc less often. At some point, high-level CWDT will let a crit through, allowing you to get 2-shot. No thanks.
-CWDT can proc off of non-physical damage, making a low-duration IC over-write a high-duration IC. For example: If I have an 8-charge IC (20 seconds) I'm immune to phys, but will still take hits from elemental and chaos sources. If i take enough damage to proc CWDT when I don't have any Endurance charges up, IC will proc with just 1 endurance charge (lasting only ~3 seconds) and overwrite my awesome 20-second IC. This will get you killed.
-Simply, you have to take hits for it to work. I don't like taking damage.

-More charges = more damge.
-Frenzy charges allow you to discharge even when you have to use your Endurance charges for IC.
-Capping chaos resist is easy and worth-while because the build has very low gear requirements due to physical immunity.

Opening Rotation
1. Cast Enduring Cry (with Spell Echo) with mobs barely on the edge of the screen (inc AoE passives make the range very high). This should build at least 2 endurance charges to get you started. 2 endurance charges give you ~6 seconds of phys immunity.
2. Run into a pack, Ball Lightning with Curse on Hit to curse most of the mobs.
3. Blood Rage
4. Enduring Cry w/ Echo for 8 charges
5. Immortal Call w/ high charges (20 seconds)
6. Flameblast the mobs down quickly (grants Endurance charges from Warlord's Mark and Frenzy charges from Blood Rage)

Normal Rotation
1. If you don't have any/enough charges, EC
2. Ball Lightning into the pack
3. Discharge

**********************IMPORTANT**********************
If your IC gets below 5s, your first priority is ALWAYS refreshing it with 4+ charges.
**********************IMPORTANT**********************

Normal - Oak (+40 Health)
Cruel - Kill all (+1 Skill Point)
Merc - Oak (+1 Endurance Charge)

From 1 to 60 you will primarily use Flameblast. I use Added Light/Cold damage until 31, then use Increased AoE and Spell Echo + whatever you have links for and prefer. Use a standard CWDT, EC, IC, ID setup when available. I find that all of the strength nodes make the build very tanky without a huge focus on armor, but make sure you cap your resists.

Level 30: First goal is to reach up to the strong fire nodes in the Witch area


Level 45: Reaching down to the Scion life wheel


At level 60 I switch to manual-casting Immortal Call and start using discharge to clear packs, while keeping Flameblast around to kill durable targets and individual reflect rares. With 8 endurance charges, IC lasts between 15 and 20 seconds. DO NOT LET IT FALL OFF. This takes practice. I recommend practicing using Enduring Call frequently and keeping IC running in Ledge. At level 60 it shouldn't be overly dangerous.

Level 60: Reaching final endurance charge and filling in inc. duration nodes


How you prioritize points after 60 is up to you. The options are: % Life, capping spell block, or even going for more damage if you feel safe (not recommended, I prefer defenses for mapping).

Level 80: Adding more and more life/block nodes


Level 90: Final build, 174% life, max spell block