[2.0] Flameblast Solo Map MF'er (20 IIQ, 230-330 IIR)

Hey Mike,

Good news for me... I found a lvl19 Templar in my list of characters from pre-1.3 so I had 20 passives to get started using this build to the letter. So my tree now looks like this build, and I am outfitting right now. Thanks again for all the help. I will post updates as I go along here, so that we can let people know how it goes using your build 100%. Too bad I cannot just absorb all of your experience automagically.

-Rick

@Mindlapse

Glad you're having fun with the build and that it's proving strong for you as well =)

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1) With all the auras up I have only 100 something unreserved mana. I'm not having any problems at all with sustaining lvl22 arctic armour (my mana does go down while moving, but at a slow enough rate that I never run out of mana to cast or anything). But it still feels like I should have a little more mana or at least enough mana regen so that movement doesn't make my mana go down at all. Plus, I might need that additional unreserved mana/mana regen if I get a level21 flameblast gem later on. I think I've already gotten all the aura/mana related nodes in the tree but I'm not sure, so I don't know how to get a safer amount of mana/mana regen without changing my gear which would require drastically changing multiple pieces of gear due to affix limitation and lack of wiggle room with my current setup.

Let me know your results when you get another level and pick up coldhearted calculation. It's easy to miss that it also provides 20% mana regen on top of 12% spell damage.

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2) So I've broken the 0.5ex/hour mark now. The question is how do I actually turn that into exalts? I have a bunch of assorted currency (stacks and stacks of alts, chroms, jewelers, etc) but I don't know how to turn it into exalts without losing a lot of value. Everyone spamming trade chat offering currency exchange is providing really ripoff ratios where at least 20% or more is lost if I convert through there. What do you do to efficiently convert your lower currencies into exalts?

Exchanging lower currency for chaos is often going to run into flippers who are looking to buy (with chaos) at a higher equivalent value than they would get with exalt. For example, last I checked chromes were 250:1 but flippers were buying them at 9:1 chaos (assuming 37c:1ex exchange), so they'd net 333 chromes, sell 250 and still have 83 left to flip.

So more often than not it's better to just reserve chromes, alcs, vaals, chisels until you can exchange them for exalts directly to get a better ratio. You'll often get better conversions as well with fuse, so I convert all my jewellers and alts to fuse before exchanging for exalt. Same principle for chances > scours > regrets.

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3) What should be my gear upgrade priority right now? I'm leaning towards 6L searing to really push up the IIR or IIQ nicely. Or should I upgrade my gloves to a higher rarity/resists at the cost of quantity? I read a lot that 1:5 IIQ-IIR ratio is optimal. And if I'm not mistaken, map quantity gives "more" (multiplicative) whereas IIQ gives "increased" (additive) so more IIQ would scale very well with more map quantity. The third option is getting a level 21 flameblast but I'm not sure if it's worth it at this moment? I'm really not sure what upgrades to go for next.

This comes down to preference, at this point. I typically rely on map quantity to cover off what I'd be missing for IIQ on gear, and I always prefer to have my resistances as high as possible without sacrificing much IIR. That way I don't have to worry about swapping out rings to run ele weakness maps. Further, I actually prefer to not use legacy gear because I won't have access to it outside of standard. The exception for me is the legacy Goldwyrms.

The one weakness I have in constructing this build is that I'm not well researched in terms of what would be a better choice, IIQ over IIR. But like I said, I'm avoiding legacy gear (IIQ rares, the gem) in order to provide consistency for new leagues where having that gear isn't possible. And it helps keep this guide in line with players that prefer new leagues, as well, so they can have a better estimate of how it will perform outside of Standard.

However if you'd prefer to stack as much MF as possible, then you can probably keep your gloves as they are, try to improve your helmet above 30% IIR, and move to a 6L searing and 21/20 flameblast. If you're going to farm with this build exclusively for a while, you can save yourself a bit of currency by levelling 6 flameblasts in your offslot and trying to get that corrupt yourself. It will just be a time sink.

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4) I have +life on all the possible gear but I'm still just at 3k. How do I get 4k+? does it just come from being a higher level>

And shadow life nodes, otherwise yes. By the time you get shadow life you'll be around 3.5k, the rest will come from levelling to 90.



@Rogerdidit

Awesome stuff, keep me appraised =)

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Mindlapse wrote:

Suggestions noted.

On another note, I'm thinking about The Vertex helm as an option. 50% reduced mana on skill gems in the helm plus a reduced mana could mean a lot of passives saved from not needing to take so much mana/regen

I don't know if vertex works with auras but it should (same wording as reduced mana tooltip) and not sure if it stacks with reduced mana

It also gives +1 skills so with an empower gem you could have lvl 23 reduced mana and lvl23 auras/arctic armour! Or even lvl 24 if you have the gems as 21 base

Edit: just found out that vertex gives reduced mana COST not reserved. Which means the quality% on reduced mana gem also does nothing for auras since that part gives COST.. Man I wasted exalts getting two 20/20s

The vertex could still be interesting though since it still reduced arctic armour mana drain since that is a cost - and buffs it by one level along with empower

Vertex doesn't work with auras.

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Mindlapse wrote:

It also gives +1 skills so with an empower gem you could have lvl 23 reduced mana and lvl23 auras/arctic armour! Or even lvl 24 if you have the gems as 21 base

Empower doesn't impact support gems, only active gems (auras, skills), but with a corrupt 21 RM you could get a level 22 with vertex.

Hiya! Great build. I made a little video review of it for anyone that wants to see it in action with around 1ex worth of gear.

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coolguitar69 wrote:

Hiya! Great build. I made a little video review of it for anyone that wants to see it in action with around 1ex worth of gear.

Wow, thanks =) Checking out your review now.

Updated with 78 Courtyard map video and some tweaks to levelling process

I'm slowly but surely leveling a Templar for this build. Only 26 and currently focusing on using EK until I get the burn nodes and some more FB levels. Will let you know how it's turning out as time goes on.

In case you didn't see it, Serleth, the preliminary closed beta "notes" were released, and there's one entry you may be interested in. There are no details, but "Burn and proliferation" are being targeted for changes. I suspect it'll end up on the nerf side of things given how effective burn prolif tends to be.

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ConsPark wrote:

I'm slowly but surely leveling a Templar for this build. Only 26 and currently focusing on using EK until I get the burn nodes and some more FB levels. Will let you know how it's turning out as time goes on.

In case you didn't see it, Serleth, the preliminary closed beta "notes" were released, and there's one entry you may be interested in. There are no details, but "Burn and proliferation" are being targeted for changes. I suspect it'll end up on the nerf side of things given how effective burn prolif tends to be.

Yeah, I've put a lede note in the OP stating that if I get into the CB I'll be updating it with my thoughts on the effectiveness of the setup. If necessary, I'll adapt this to a different skill.

It's also important to note (and I'll update the OP on this as well) that if the changes to EB stick there might be a completely different way to run the build in order to sustain AA and Flameblast.

I think IIQ and IIR(gem) will not affect burning monsters.