[2.0.3] Blackdepp's Firestorm Witch (General Gravicius Cosplay)

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen,

I'm Blackdepp and today I will show you the Firestorm Witch that I've created for the Awakening. First things first: This won't be a detaild build guide but more of a short rundown of what this build uses and how it works. But if you ever wanted to play a General Gravicius cosplay (firestorm + molten shell) this is exactly what you were looking for.
This character is armour based, that means armour is our way of mitigating physical damage. It is somewhat of an hybrid build with little energy shield (~1k) on top of the life pool. Other than that firestorm is the skill of choise both for single target and aoe.
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Other build guides:
[2.0.3] Blackdepp's Arc Witch (beginnner friendly, endgame viable)
[2.0.3] Blackdepp's 2H Mace AoE Marauder (easy, cheap, strong)


I hope you like this short rundown of my build. If you have any questions feel free to ask them in the comments below.

thanks for making this guide so quickly.

just the things i needed.

+1!

edit: what do you say about double curses?
edit2: isnt the CWDT lvl too high to be effective?

There are nice unique boots for double cursing but I personally wouldn't do that.

I like it that high. It only goes off when I really need it and the higher the cwdt the higher molten shell and the armour it provides. You can of course run it a few levels lower but I wouldn't recommend a cwdt setup below level 13 for endgame.

solid build
only thing i would add is a nice vaal molten shell

Vaal Molten Shell also might be an option! Though about that as well.

Hi, just wanted to ask - wouldn't Increased Duration be better for Firestorm dps than Chaos dmg? I am pretty new and ended up with the same setup while planning a build, except this part. I've read this on the wiki:

"

Duration: Increasing duration with either supports or passives will increase the total number of fireballs that fall before the spell ends.

I've initially been planning to make a crit Firestorm build, but this spell and crit don't seem to go well with each other, aren't they? (not enough sockets, not enough skillpoints).

The number of balls will increas. Maybe that is even a better support gem than added chaos, but the damage per ball won't increas. That means you need more balls with increased duration to deal the same ammount of damage than with added chaos damage.
Though after your second or third cast the overall damage with increased duration will be higher I guess just because the firestorms will overlap.
Tbh I don't know what's better, I just roll with added chaos because I like it that way^^

Hey so I've been interested in Firestorm for a while and your build looks like a good place to start. I can provide some updates as I level and you can link (saves you time, helps curious folks.) Plus I enjoy reflecting or analyzing as I play (maybe getting feedback about less optimal gem choices etc too)

Anyway, lv1 Witch starting in Twilight Strand...gogogo!

I actually wanna try this .. can u plz devide this build for leveling ( like about progression for lvl 30 .. lvl 60.. )

Start: Take the elemental damage nodes on the left side of the Witch start and work your way up to Elemental Dominion.


15 points: Fire Walker & Cruel Preparation
24 points: Explosive Impact
33 points: Quick Recovery & Purity of Flesh
51 points: Light of Divinity, Discipline & Training, Sanctity, armor & life from Templar Start, Retribution, Elementalist.



I bought Fire Trap from Nessa after Hillock, used that until level 4 at which point I bought Flame Totem from Nessa. Used that until Brutus reward where I got Firestorm and started using them together. The clear speed with these two skills is great, which is why I didn't grab more damage nodes. Since the end game goal is a Fire skill, and the best leveling gems are Fire, it's super easy and convenient to level without having to respec later.

I prioritized life/armour in anticipation of act 3/act 4, where physical damage starts getting a bit sketchy. In act 2 Cruel now, with 1400 life, 250 es, 500 armour (28% phys reduction).
i equipped Ice Tomb instead of Thousand Ribbons at level 39 to gain a lot of armour, es and cold resist. this was around a4 normal where i needed physical reduction badly.

damage is 1200 with flame totem+added cold+added lightning and about 200 with firestorm+faster casting+spell echo+added cold.

after I pick up the rest of the 51 points goal I'll probably grab the fire cluster above Cruel Preperation.

will continue as I keep leveling!