[1.3]KuteKitteh's Evasive Flameblast - Cheap, fast clear, reflect-immune, HC-viable!

Ever since the block nerf, I had been seeking ways to make builds tanky, and EB + Cloak of Defiance was the prime go-to choice. After a while, however, I started to theorycraft non-MoM builds, which can exploit costly auras and the Acrobatics keystone.

In staying true to my recent trend of playing around with fire spells (and in light of my horrible failure of an attempt to make a viable 100%-pierce Fireball build), I decided to make a Flameblast build. The nature of Flameblast, however, made high physical and elemental defenses a must-have.

With that in mind, I stacked a curious set of defense mechanisms, namely:
-Acrobatics + Phase acrobatics
-Evasion (via Grace)
-Arctic Armour
-Saffell's Frame
-Cloak of Flame
-Purity of Fire

The end result: an amazingly low death count of 0.

So why and how does the build work?

When I take physical damage (let's say a 1000 damage hit), the following happens:
40% of the time, I dodge it.
30% of the time, I evade it.

Therefore, only 42% of those attacks will go through. Assume I get hit:
For ease of calculations, I’m going to ignore the 15 damage that my armor will block. The 1000 damage gets converted to 800 physical and 200 fire damage by CoF. The 200 fire damage is mitigated by my 82% fire res to 36 damage before being completely blocked by Arctic Armour. The physical damage aspect will be likewise mitigated by AA. Depending on the level of AA, only ~650 physical damage will go through.

The net boost to eHP versus physical damage rivals that of a 1.2 block/MoM build.

So how is it reflect resistant? I have a 30% chance to dodge the reflected damage and a 13% chance to block it, so there’s only a 61% chance for the reflected damage to go through. The 18% reflect is mitigated by my 82% fire resist, which further drops it by 18%. Therefore, the reflected damage is only 3.24%, which is further mitigated by Arctic Armour.
Example: Let’s say I charge up a 10k damage Flameblast and I hit 5 enemies that have 0% fire resist. On average, 3 of them will reflect 324 damage, and let’s say AA cuts down 120 damage each. Therefore, the net reflect from dealing 5x10k damage is 600.

As long as I keep the flameblast charges within 4 stages, I won’t feel any reflect. If I just want to kill a reflect rare fast, then I pop a ruby and charge all 10 stages, and it will only reflect ~100-200 damage at most as long as there aren’t many nearby enemies.

-Eldritch Battery, Acrobatics, Phase Acrobatics
-Reflect-resistant
-Arctic Armor
-Grace, Purity of Fire
-82/79/79 resist
-Super cheap
-Extremely durable
-Hardcore-viable

http://youtu.be/R-7I6LYOU-o
Zana fracture map.

http://youtu.be/fHQpR8aPljk
Reflect demo.

More to come as I farm maps and get higher-level maps.

Pros:
-Resistant to elemental reflect
-Extremely mobile and evasive, takes in much less damage
-Super cheap, completely affordable, new-league viable
-Beginner-friendly
-Doesn’t need leech of any kind
-HC-viable

Cons:
-Not invincible
-Damage is somewhat subpar without Doryani's Catalyst
-Extremely reliant on flasking!

As you can see, I clearly don't have all the HP nodes I need. Somehow, 3-3.5k HP has been enough to get me through the rippiest of maps, including a no-regen map and a double-merveil necropolis.

"Wait, but this is a squishy build!"

0 deaths bruh, 0 deaths. By nature, it is not squishy.

Bandits:
N: Oak
C: Passive
M: Passive


Level 90 tree


Important: Read through all the notes please!

After you finish the level 90 tree, you can either grab more health via scion life wheel or you can grab damage via shadow.

I specifically constructed the tree to several specifications. The first was that it must be able to achieve a high amount of dexterity and evasion to synergize with Grace. While some of you might object to pathing out of the way for the Revenge of the Hunted circle (as opposed to going to Acro via Blood Drinker), I checked all the pathways and tradeoffs and concluded that, with the current setup, the complete Revenge of the Hunted circle results in a net 37% more evasion for 3 points, which I believe is completely worth the cost because that 37% more evasion is huge for phys eHP.

I didn't get Celestial judgment/punishment because it was too far out of the way and the build doesn't really need any more damage nodes. I also didn't get Breath/Heart of Flames for the same reason.

Although I originally spec'd into Written in Blood, I later concluded that, because the build runs a Cloak of Flame and a Saffell along with Acro's 50% less ES penalty, it just doesn't get enough ES out of that +25% ES. Revenge of the Hunted, Devotion, or Constitution are much stronger for those 4 points.

The build is viable with a Templar, Shadow, or Scion start.

During the leveling phase, I would rush the shadow side before immediately going for all the mana regen nodes on the templar side.

Flameblast
1. Elemental Proliferation
2. Chance to Ignite
3. Fire Penetration

If you have a 5th link on your CoF, Spell Echo is the best choice. From then on, I recommend Concentrated Effect.

During boss fights, you can take off Elemental Proliferation and use Concentrated Effect. I would do that if I had a conc effect gem :P


Auras
Clarity
Grace
Reduced Mana
Purity of Fire

Until you get all the mana nodes, Acrobatics will make it fairly tough to run Purity of Fire. I didn't get around to running PoF until level 70 or so, but that was on my sub-optimal tree.


CWDT
Enduring Cry
Immortal Call
Optional: Temporal Chains

If you ask me what level these should be, I would recommend 7/9/8/9, respectively. The Temp Chain on damage is very strong because it gives you a huge advantage in mobility and it lets you flask better under pressure.

Optional: Flame Surge
1. Fire Penetration
2. Spell Echo
3. Concentrated Effect or Faster Casting

You can choose to run Flame Surge if you want a mop-up spell for those lone, low-HP mobs. It's a quality-of-life thing, and if I had a BRGG helmet I wouldn't run this.

Optional: CWDT AB
CWDT
Arctic Breath
GMP
Blind

The AOE chill and blinding effect of this setup synergizes extremely well with the temp chain setup and further ehances the evasive nature of this build. Keep CWDT and AB at level 1, since the damage of AB doesn't matter. We just want the chilled ground and the blind on hit.

Others:
Elemental Weakness/Flammability
Arctic Armour
Lightning Warp + Reduced Duration

Your basic cookie-cutter spellcaster kit. An offensive spell, AA for tanking junk, and Lightning Warp for mobility.