Hellcat5's Guide to Great Balls of Fire! (or death from the dead) for 1.3.1

hello!

I'm hellcat5. I make game videos, game programming videos, music, and I do voice overs. I built a fire based witch, and I want to share my build with you. This character allows you to play two ways, or more, depending on what fire based skills you like. Here's a link to the video -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlJSF6yWtvA&index=19&list=PLA7erk0oNe2pec8aJEI-sMzXEmL13K8WN

notes - I decided I wanted to make a witch character since I've never tried this before. I went for the basic ranged caster fireball user, but I'm using herald of thunder to apply curse on hit with enfeeble and chance to flee. This keeps the monsters running around while I throw a ton of fireballs. I enjoy this build, and it seems I can level with it further. I only die if I play stupidly.

essential gear -
nothing in particular

suggested gear -
searing touch - http://poe.trade/search/imaritesanahik - I use this because I happened across a nice 5 link. You can use any staff with spell damage % or fire damage. There are staves available in game that are rare with better mods than searing touch.

alpha's howl - http://poe.trade/search/nnesitokataheh - I use this for auras. This is a wonderful item for running auras,and still having mana to cast spells from.

infernal mantle - http://poe.trade/search/hukakazitomabo - this is the cheapest unique I know of, and few people use it. I use it with this build because it works perfectly.

gang's momentum - http://poe.trade/search/ionosimokonioo - this is another very cheap unique that works very well with this build.

for gloves rings and amulet, pick those that you need to finish off your resistences, maybe with some mana regen.

gems -

There's two things you can do with this build. I will cover both here.

1. Fireball Build -
fireball+faster casting+spell echo+greater multiple projectiles(+increased burning damage for 5L) - this is the main damage skill. This plays much like an archer. Play kiting the monsters around to avoid damage.

clarity+discipline+arctic armor+reduced mana - this link contains two auras and arctic armor all benefit from reduced mana. I mainly use clarity and actic armor from this link because I cannot run all three and keep my mana above the low mana state. I avoid low mana because of the infernal mantle. With this, however, if I'm in the middle of physical damaging monsters, I can turn on discipline to take more damage. infernal mantle only adds to spell damage received if into the low mana state. play smart. think of what you're fighting.

decoy totem+flammability+increased area of effect+ increased duration - both decoy totem and flammability benefit from increased area of effect and increased duration. I use decoy totem to control where the monsters go. I make them go into my fireballs. lol. I'm going to build into the +1 curse nodes, so having this along with the curse on hit enfeeble works great.

herald of thunder+curse on hit+enfeeble+chance to flee - this turns into an auto curse mechanic from how herald of thunder works. This is WONDERFUL. Thanks to Fire_Stick2000 for the idea. He uses his for dual curse.

cast when damage taken+molten shell+decoy totem+increased area of effect - this is the standard defense gem setup. when you take a lot of damage decoy lures the monsters away from you, and molten shell gives you added defense for those that might still hit you.

on my secondary weapon I use faster casting+decreased duration+lightning warp to move out of harm's way when necessary or to move around the map faster.

BUILD OPTION 2 -
Detonate DEAD!!

Detonate dead+increased burning damage+elemental proliferation+iron will+whatever you think is a neato gem to add to this linking. ;)

For detonate dead, I also bring desecrate along so I can make corpses to explode.


build -
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMAAW8FQhBYEVASaRVQFxwXLxslHRQdTx8CH8co-it4LJwtizI0MtE1uTbFPAU9X0GHQZZEq0VHRZ1LrlJTU1JVrlXWVytboFxrXsBk52jybRlxeXwOfEuApIIQgpuCx4RIh2WIWot6j0aPppZ0l5WX9Jo7muCdrp_foEKnCKcrp1Wus6-3toa3PriTvYLAZsNt0PXVptgk2Vva3d-K37Di9-kC6-7tIO0873z56PrS_rM=

Linking reduced mana with arctic armour will not lower AA's mana consumption (neither will quality on the reduced mana gem). AA is a debuff to your mana, not a skill that uses or reserves mana.

Not always running discipline on a hybrid build with that kind of gear is borderline suicidal.

Holy Fire is a bad choice for that kind of build. Elemental/fire nodes double dip. They apply to the initial hit (thereby increasing the burning damage by increasing the initial damage) AND a second time to the burning damage. Increased burning only applies to the burning portion. Your damage will be higher if you take elemental/fire nodes instead.
Holy Fire makes sense with dedicated burning builds where you shoot one (1!) fireball so as to get max possible damage on one hit and then spread the burning with elemental proliferation.
Your build can't decide which direction to go. It wants burning but has almost no crit (and especially crit multiplier) to make the secondary damage worthwhile.


I don't think that this is a viable build.

With the suggested gear your resistances are too low.
With infernal mantle you can either choose to not run discipline (very bad) or run it and go low mana (also very bad). In the end you'll have to drop HoT. So there goes your autocurse.

With ~1200 life you won't survive alchemists in maps (or even vaal constructs who also have a wide range). Waste pool (a trivial map for most builds) with the little room to run and alchemists will be unplayable.
Everything that jumps will also stunlock you. You may evade the first frog due to Practical Application but the second one is gonna stun you long enough for you to be killed.


tl,dr 2.2k ES + 1.2k life. Will not work.