[1.3 Bloodlines] RF Shockpulse In-Depth Guide (Affordable, 40k+ DPS, reflect resistant)

Current Tree (Level 87)
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgUATwRDyFugp1V8DmjyfEvwH5Z0ogAEs-FzwGaaO5_f7TyCm-981absOCcvkFUaOMAaZp5xhfrSVykXLxZvHRRG12TnJLAkquNqj0avjdq5VdZCozbpm6GnCLFCgKT313gvuJOsmBhq6-50VfFsOlh85Sj6muBfKjbYVcZYB4LHRZ1JG_noU1IqjUGHaHTsVbc-2mLGrv4KlKA8LRyn8kXYvcT2DF864T0PJ-1TpaZXHM4ZLgYOK1DUj9lh1HwNzWebrY0J9v5U5FHPflBH7w4UIF8_9kjEWIPb

Planned Tree
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgUA-d1PBEPIW6CnVXwOaPJ8S_AflnSiAASz4XPAZpo77TyCm9Wm7DgnL5BVGjjAGmaecYX60nrmFy8Wbx0UY_1k5ySwJKrjao9Gr41G11XWQqM26Zuhpwgwl4Ck99d4L7iTOYqsmBhq6-6xQnRV8Ww6WHzlKPqa4F8qNthVxlgHgsdFnUkbg9v56FNSKo1Bh2h07FW3Ptpixq7-CpSgPC0cp_JF2L3E9gxfOuE1kj0PJ-1TpaZX_o8czhkuBg5N4ytQ1I_ZYdR8Dc1nm62NCfb-VORRz35QR-8OFCBfP_ZIxFg9_Fhj

Arctic Breath Variant
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgUA-d1PBEPIW6CnVXwOaPJ8S_AflnSiAASz4XPAZpo77TyCm9Wm7DgnL5BVGjjAGmaecYX60nrmFy8Wbx0UY_1k5ySwJKrjao9Gr41G11XWQqM26Zuhpwgwl4Ck99d4L7iTOYqsmBhq6-6xQnRV8Ww6WHzlKPqa4F8qNthVxlgHgsdFnUkbg9v56FNSKo1Bh2h07FW3Ptpixq7-CpSgPC0cp_JF2L3E9gxfOuE1kj0PJ-1TpaZX_o8czhkuBg5N4ytQ1I_ZYdR8Dc1nm62NCfb-VORRz35QR-8OFCBfP_ZIxFif3-98

There are two ways we can convert our damage to fire and each of them have their tradeoffs.

1. Pyre
Pyre is great because it allows you to run herald of thunder without nerfing its damage (don't run AoF if you run Pyre). Additionally it allows for the following fun/interesting reactions between heralds (if you choose to run herald of thunder):

i. Herald of Thunder will cause corpses to shatter because of three dragons, allowing you to proc the herald of ice shatter bonus and destroying some corpses (nice for necrovigil/detonate dead).

ii. Because we are shocking with freezing pulse, we will be very good at proccing herald of thunder (and having its lightning storm damage un-nerfed is nice but not required

It does however eat up a ring slot we could be using for life + resistances and a potential +80 life on a ring is huge considering we get roughly +250% max hp from passives + belly.

2. Cold to Fire + Avatar of Fire
This is the method I currently run, because it frees up your ring slot and allows you to wear something with HP.

While Avatar of Fire cuts herald of thunder's damage in half from the conversion (if you choose to run it), it's actually closer to a 30% damage reduction because our passive tree scales fire more than it scales Lightning. Some of this damage difference can also be made up by grabbing a ring with cast speed (ideal situation) or cold/fire damage (also good).

By converting 100% of freezing pulses damage to fire using Avatar of Fire and Cold to Fire, we get to benefit from our high fire resistance (89%) in combination with Arctic Armour to deal with reflect. Although we can only sustain moderate levels of arctic armour, the damage reduction is rolled separately for each projectile of freezing pulse, effectively giving us 5x the effect per cast.

As a result, this build is capable of running double reflect maps without issues although ruby flasks are recommended for large packs in case of crits vs shocked monsters.

Jungle Valley Map + Boss (Boss at 2:30
http://youtu.be/V8xVgZy5OCg

Torture Chamber Map + Boss (5L demo)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGmCOD6ILM8&feature=youtu.be

Gorge Map 5L FP Demo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZuDjMWMRUY

Gorge Map 5L Arctic Breath Comparison
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9XAtE6yanY

Freezing Pulse (chest)
4-Link: Freezing Pulse + GMP + Spell Echo + Cold to Fire/Fire Pen (if you run Pyre)
5-Link: Fire Penetration/Cold to Fire
6-Link: Faster Casting

If you choose to run pyre you can opt to use Cold to Fire as a 5th link or 6th link so that you can use Fire Penetration sooner. For your 5th link if your Faster casting has quality it will give slightly higher tool tip DPS compared to Cold to Fire (about 150 higher with my gear) but is slightly worse at shocking because the size of each hit is smaller. Additionally, three blues on belly is harder to get than 2 reds, and Faster Casting takes significantly more mana to cast so I lean towards Cold to Fire, but the choice is yours.

Cold to Fire performs roughly equal to Added Cold Damage, but edges out Added Cold once it gets quality and levels (Quality on Added cold is only freeze chance where as Cold to Fire is 20% increased damage). Both aforementioned gems outperform Added Chaos (slightly lower than added cold because not scaled by ele/fire damage) and Empower (lvl 2 empower adds far less base damage than added cold).



Arctic Breath Variant
4-Link: Arctic Breath + GMP/LMP + Spell Echo + Cold to Fire/Fire Pen (if you run Pyre)
5-Link: Fire Penetration/Cold to Fire
6-Link: Faster Casting

GMP is better in the majority of situations, but LMP is worth carrying to swap to vs bosses you know you don't want to stand close to eg. Vaal/Dominus. Rest of the links are the same as freezing pulse

Auras
4L: Herald of Ice + Clarity + Purity of Fire + Reduced Mana

Optional: Herald of Thunder + Reduced Mana (good extra damage but gem slot hungry (see "Remaining Links")

Curses
Ball Lightning + Curse on Hit + Elemental Weakness + Flammability

OR

Elemental weakness + Flammability + Enfeeble (optional) + Faster Casting

OR

Herald of Thunder + Curse on hit + Elemental Weakness + Flammability

Running Hearld of Thunder with curse on hit is very nice automation which speeds up clear speed, but requires mana/mana regen on gear to sustain decent levels of Clarity + AA while still running Herald of Ice and Purity of Fire.

CWDT
4L: CWDT -> Enduring Cry -> Immortal Call -> Increased duration

Lightning Warp
3L: Lightning warp + faster casting + Reduced Duration

Remaining Links
We have a remaining 3L and up to two gem single slots from unset rings. Potential things to run are:
Righteous Fire + Arctic Armour (both are required, but can easily be put into unset rings)

3L Vaal Haste + Vaal Grace + Increased Duration (optional, nice utility for bosses)

Herald of Thunder + reduced Mana (optional, requires 2 reduced mana reserved nodes in tree and some mana on gear)

Bone Offering (Optional, useful to clear corpses vs possible detonate dead or necrovigil)

Still looking for gloves upgrade, gear is mostly finished otherwise. Flat mana/mana regen on gear where you can get it helps support higher levels of AA + Clarity (it hard to have enough unreserved mana if you want to run two heralds). Otherwise HP + resists should be prioritized, dexterity also is needed in some places. Overcapping fire res is highly recommended so ele weakness/flammability dont make you degen and unsafe vs reflect.

Q: Is Cold to Fire needed with Pyre?
A: You don't "need" it strictly speaking because damage conversion is already taken care of. However, it still adds 29% more damage at higher levels and actually surprisingly outperforms other gem options (like added cold/added chaos/empower) and performs roughly equal to faster casting. You could opt to run a fire pen gem instead of a cold to fire gem if you want to run Pyre with a 4 link though.

Video to compare gem links to be added soon.

Q: Crit vs Righteous Fire?
A: Righteous fire and crit are both very point intensive so going both in the same build is not viable. Righteous fire allows us to build very tanky, mostly ignore reflect and deal high consistent damage. Crit allows for higher potential damage.

Q: How do we shock if we are non-crit?
A:We get 10% chance to shock in the passive tree which is actually plenty because each cast of freezing pulse shotguns with GMP and counts as 5 seperate hits. Each projectile then rolls its own separate chance to shock giving us 5 separate chances per cast. This gives ups roughly a 41% chance to shock on the first cast and an 88% chance to shock the target by the 4th cast (4 casts takes about 0.8 - 1.2 seconds of casting depending on cast speed). As a result we can shock targets extremely quickly/consistently.



Q: Belly vs Coil?
A: Coil gives slightly better defense vs physical, Belly is better vs Chaos and elemental damage. Because coil is nerfed and we do not have the mana reserve to run Purity of Lightning I prefer belly.

Q: Cloak of Defiance?
A: Cloak at first glance seems like a great option because we already build large amounts of mana regen and eldritch battery is close by. However, because our helm and chest are dedicated to three dragons and rise of the phoenix it is very hard to get a large enough unreserved mana pool to make it worthwhile.

Q: No Eldritch Battery?
A: As mentioned under cloak, while eldritch battery seems attractive, in practice it is too hard to get enough ES to make it worthwhile. Our chest, helm and shield offer a combined ES of about 100, leaving only our gloves and boots.

Q: No life leech gem?
A: I found that 1% fire leech on weapon is enough to sustain myself once I was dealing large amounts of damage. Dropping fire pen or faster casting for a life leech gem, or running warlord's mark instead of flammability are viable options if you feel you are lacking sustain.

Q: What about Empower/Added Chaos Damage/Added Cold Damage?
A: Added cold actually is a close contender with faster casting and has the benefit of eating up significantly less mana while allowing you to shock more targets because you have a larger single hit, however faster casting is higher tooltip dps. Added cold is significantly better than added chaos because of our passive tree + cold to fire gem. Added cold trumps empower because freezing pulse has 100% damage effectiveness.

Q: No Inner Force?
A: While Inner Force does offer a huge boost because it buffs the righteous fire damage buff as well as heralds, it requires to either travel to the duelest/golem's blood areas for more regen or requires us to run level 21 purity of fire with Alpha's Howl. I have not tested either of these options so I can't say anything definitively but I do not feel that they would be worth the point investment or loss of three dragons.

Q:Herald of Thunder? Is it worth it?
A: From a damage perspective, for the 2 points invested in reduced mana to be able to run Herald of Thunder nothing else on the tree is going to be as point efficient. However, Herald of Thunder requires an additional 2 links (an extra one for reduced mana), and prevents you from running Vaal Grace/Haste. Which you prefer is a matter of preference.

Q:Why not incinerate?
A: Incinerate is probably the better boss killer because of how hard it scales, but freezing pulse allows for greater ability to play from a distance + greater mobility + can shock, while still offering you a good ability to kill bosses if you would like to.

Q:Can this build kill Atziri?
A:I haven't tested it because Atziri is not high on my priority list and I am still enjoying leveling/mapping. However, there's no real point running three dragons if you are doing atziri since she is immune to shock, so you would likely want to tweak the build. You would also want to find a way to run Purity of Lightning.