[2.1] Berserking Reverse SWT Searing Bonder || The original Searing Bond Atziri killer

Build is working great in 2.0, with the exception of the global totem duration nerf, meaning my lightning warp totems last all of 3.8 seconds. Burn is 30k, will probably go higher with 20/20 increased burning. quick tree

With regards to mana cost, I might drop clarity and sustain on mana flask as well (with the bonus of max 20.9 second warding). Currently Searing Bond costs 67 and Lightning Warp costs 98 (53 with reduced mana dropped in).

I picked Chaos Golem as additional decoy (before the patch I was running flimsy zombies), since damage is high enough. It's linked to Fortify alongside Whirling Blades for mobility.

Jewels are placeholder at the moment - Spire of Stone isn't essential since searing bond doesn't care if it's stunned and lightning totems can be always recast; and the 10% ele quest reward one. Really looking forward to playing with

Right now my lw totems last 8seconds with a lvl10 red. Duration. I won't be upgrading it past 10, may even get a lower level one. It's worth getting all 3 totem duration nodes. my LW totems last 8s even with reduced duration.

depending on the map swapping fire and chaos golem would be appropriate.

Still testing MoM but from what I can tell if we run MoM we will not be able to run any purity auras most likely. This may not be a problem though cause we could drop AA for any purity aura. Also for piety the new AA + Flask should be more then enough.

Totem defenses are in an fantastic place as is and we may not need to run PoE anymore to keep them alive. My totems are surviving also sorts of crazy crap even without PoE.

What is nice about MoM though is even if we get dropped to 0 mana we do not cast all that often and with clarity we regen very quickly so it really is no issue at all with the smaller mana pools.

Edit: yeah, it will come down to either running MoM or purity of <something>... not sure what would be better... Either way the aura reserve nodes don't seem worth it.

well i looked into jewels and there is no reason to run Purity of Elements anymore. Just cap your own resistances to 230% (157 merc) total in normal and be done.

We want jewels that give:
Totem Damage
Totem Life
Totem all Res


I paid 1c for this gem so its not an investment at all to get these.

Totem Damage and Totem Res being the priority. Totem life just being icing on the cake. Obviously if we can get any fire damage somehow on it that would be great too.

edit: just noticed that we gained a nice of dps boost from flammability getting a slight buff

level68 with just shy of 12k dps. Still have DPS nodes, life nodes, and the flasks nodes to get.

once I can replace my amulet, gloves and maybe my boots ill go for Atziri. Currently 75 with 19 SB gem and still only level 1 empower... both wont level for good while. Sitting at 14k dps which was the same as the pre 2.0 version with 20 SB + 2 empower and capped damage nodes. Still will pull another 1k dps, based on current state, from the 2.0 passive tree. The build will probably be sitting in the 20k range once the tree is done, empower hits 2, and SB hits 20. Build should be done at 83.

with level 3 empower and a lvl21 SB, closer to 25k.

Just took empower and its looking like a good choice. Have my eyes on a decent hp/res/mana regen amulet and need to upgrade my clarity more but since we do not spam skills bit hits are not a problem.

Hi, thx for your constant updates on the build. Since I returned and playing in tempest league, it's always nice to have some infos about "what's will happen in the future levels"...

Btw long time since I last played so few questions :

Do you up clarity to max ?

For defensive purposes, You say PoE may be not needed anymore, but I would like to know how is your physical resist, and if determination could be an interesting choice? AA seems... well pretty inferior compared to that it was before...

opinions about dual wielding?

and finally do you corrupt your empower at lvl1 directly or did you try to corrupt her at lvl2 ? :o


thx for your answers, cheers !

Hey Arkolas

1) Yes take clarity to max level if you are running MoM... I did hold off on my clarity around 14 or 15 until i swapped to MoM.

its important just to remind everyone that do not swap to MoM until you have your gear in check. Meeting the resist % of 157 with just gear and or with endurance charges up.

2) Physical damage is rough in general with 2.0. I am aiming to stack pure armour gear to help with this. The best thing I can say just like with the pre-2.0 set up run both a very high physical shield as well as a saffell's. This will put your physical mitigation in a pretty decent spot.

Resistances >>>> armour though. So currently my resists are near the mark my by armour is pretty meh. I still have around 40% phys mit. without an armour shield and with MoM i feel pretty safe. Trying to purchase high armour with good life and resists will be a little be expensive but it is not as needed.

3) AA is in a much better spot in my opinion then before. Coupled with MoM we are mitigated the small damage the same as before 2.0 but now with AA being % based we can take on harder hits with a lot less trouble.

4) Dual Wielding is great when running non-RIPy maps. Adding a Doryani's can give a massive boost to our damage. But I cannot suggest this at the moment as I am trying to afford a specific item for testing which means we would not be able to do this.

5) I corrupted my first empower pre-2.0 after it hit 2. This time though I plan on investing in GCP, getting empower to 20% and leveling it to lvl3 before corrupting.

thx for your enlightenments, it will help me for sure :o

About physical damage, I wanted to point out this, because of the mobs in daresso's area at act 4 where we have not a lof of space to kite/escape... really harsh time even in normal :x

Concerning AA, despite the buffs are not that bad, I just found weird the "while stationary" fact... but I guess it's depending on our own type of gameplay.


And for endurance charges/cry, do you have any tips or you do it in a manually old-school-style ? :o I will try molten shell too but I worry about the number of skill slots available (considering we use 2 or 3 curses too...)

swapping to wands for the build. With the changes to frenzy charges we can gain 12% more damage with just 3 stacks. Scepters are still great but frenzy charges lets us boost our damage even more, though not necessary. More just for number hoarding on the tooltip in my opinion as it adds more difficulty to the build to keep them up safely.




@Arkolas:

For areas where you do not have a lot of room to maneuver its best to lead with the totems. This will distract most mobs from gunning for you. Just slow the roll a little bit. If you are having harsh times vs physical pre-maps its probably because your gear is a bit dated. Physical is only a problem I found in maps with +% more damage mod on the map. But at that point everything hits hard as hell.

You don't run Soul Mantle till at least 49, cruel A3 i believe, so having access to a heavy armour chest and shield should really give you little trouble vs physical early on. Especially with EC charges.

The stationary is a annoying but generally the only times I am getting hit is when I am casting so it works to my benefit. You swap AA for purity vs heavier lightning/cold damage

endurance charges are old school now. my cast priority is, in general, this:
1) Totems
2) EC
3) Curse
4) Frenzy

kinda new player here, will try this build from lvl 1 on hardcore, looks good i'm sure it will not disappoint me.

Current Tree (Level 65 pre-Mines Merciless)
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwUATwRDyFugp1V8Dmjy8B-iAASzfEuWdK9sC2HGrsT2r6cczitQDc3-VDwtg18QzCu2jEb4k4PMtz7-Cti9NZL-j03jplc64fJFtfJuqmSEBqD5vUGH-eiIWl7Agsco-pituJMc3I8a6-6nCI9GHRT60hZvJKo26eNqmuBFnVNSm6EYajlSWAf316yYOlhVxoPbdFVfKmaecg9Z8xo4kFUnL58-LdJY5cMTWiuj8g==

Planned end-game tree (Level 93):
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwUATwRDyFugp1V8Dmjy8B-iAASzfEuWdK9sC2HGrsT2r6cczitQDc3-VCftBg7UfAn2PC2DzINftz7-Cti9NZK18m6qZIQGoPm9QYf56ILHKPq4kxzc6-6PGprgRZ1TUpitpwh8g6eUXl3R_Y9Gm6H316yYOlhVxoPbdFVfKvFsIbA22EkbKo3sVR0UEmkXHHF5-tIWbySqNunjamaecg9Z858-LdIaOJBVJy-Ub2ZUcYWIWl7AEMxY5Voro_KMRiu2wxP-j03jplfyRTrh-JOdrgN1kStYd18EGGpYB3rmY_1G13gvfOU=

So, I feel like this is a good place to do a writeup, since all I have left to take are damage/highway nodes (and to swap the Curse Cast Speed/Effect nodes, since they translate directly to more dps). I ended up taking a passive point in both Cruel and Merciless, but I can easily see taking an extra Endurance Charge if you wanted to; player's choice, imo.

I am using two unique jewels currently, "Self-Flagellation" (which gives EXTREME dps, if you haven't tried this one Kartikdon I'd highly recommend it) and "Conqueror's Potency", and a 5-Link Lightning Warp in my Soul Mantle: LW - Faster Casting - Increased AoE - Less Duration - Reduced Mana (6th is a blank, not concerned). Searing Bond is in a garbage +1 to Fire sceptre, but for endgame I'm planning on a Staff with +2 Fire, +1 All: Searing Bond - Increased Burning - Empower - Fire Penetration - Iron Will (-Reduced Mana as 5/6th depending on costs).

Damage with dual-curse + EE is, shall we say, impressive even with terrible gear and no passive investment. I'm sitting at 3.3K HP/939 Mana/976 ES and 2377 (before Flame Golem) Searing Bond DPS, all of which should go much higher in time. I am very happy with the way it's shaping up. Managing dual-curse, totem placing, and Enduring Cry/Immortal Call gives a very engaging playstyle, which is refreshing in the current meta :^)

The mechanics of Lightning Warp Totems with Searing Bond are incredibly synergistic, and being able to place (double-Bond + Warp), (Bond + double-Warp), or triple-Bond for extreme area-denial give the build incredible utility and the ability to handle all sorts of different situations. I cannot say enough good things about how safe and strong this build is, it's EXTREMELY hardcore viable, so good luck Koreanin.

It's also extremely satisfying to watch things melt like butter while great big Obelisks crash down onto their heads, while you just walk around yelling obscenities and picking up shiny stuff :3

I am in bad need of upgrades and will be farming Dried Lake Merciless like a madman over the next few days, so I am using Purity of Elements + Discipline to help. I like it a lot, since it makes my Golem as well as my Bond totems even tankier, but I don't think I'll be keeping Purity of Elements in the long term; Discipline + Clarity + MoM seems like a VERY efficient setup to run off pure mana.

So, since all I have left are damage nodes, gear upgrades, and leveling, I think I'll go get back to it :D