[3.0]PewPewPews Official Cheap Firestorm Build - Perfect for Newcomers/SSF

Hey!

First off, thanks for all the answers everyone! I haven't been able to comfortably sit and play, nevertheless answer questions, so it's great you guys are helping me out here :)

@kd7svh: There are a few components that increase our firestorm damage: Damage, Cast Speed, Increased Duration and Area of Effect(notably decreased area of effect, but that's not all too important right now). Only Damage and Cast speed will appear on rare weapons.

Let's start with the damage. Firestorm is an elemental spell, so the follow modifiers adds flat damage: X% Spell damage, X% Elemental damage, X% Fire damage and X - X cold/fire/lightning damage to spells. Elemental weapon damage only works for attacks, not spells, so we can ignore that. Honestly, it's best to check the tooltip, to see which weapon deals more damage then another.

Cast speed however, will not get reflected in our Dps tooltip chart. The reason is, well, Firestorm doesn't show the total DPS you would do with the skill, only the Damge from one bolt. While I always promote getting a healthy amount of cast speed on your gear, keep this in mind: If you feel you can't move fast enough after casting your skills, consider getting a weapon with more cast speed.

When it comes to a combination of cast speed and spell damage, it's hard to say for sure which weapon is flat out 'better'. It's all how you play that makes certain weapons better then others :)

@RJonesUSC: It's fine to just level everything to max, as long as you make sure your Cast when Damage Taken is a higher level then the rest of the skills, like you already found out :D

But true, dex could be an issue(and even Strength). Just not leveling your gems is an option. But if you really want those extra gem levels.. Well I usually get one of the bigger Attribute nodes from the tree(the ones that give you 30 flat out Dex, str or int). Especially when you're newer to the game, this is a more reliable way to get some attributes, instead of trying to get them on gear(I know, there is mastercrafting, but have fun explaining item suffixes and prefixes).

@Wolftame: It's been said already, but they have no link with each other. The reason I put them with flame dash, is so that both the golems and flame dash are linked to faster casting! While you won't be summoning them too often during fights(at least they shouldn't be dieing often), it's more of a QoL then anything else I suppose :)

@skitte: I've put the CwDT setup in my shield, and moved the Golem utility setup to one of the 4 links :) Check out the gem section, it's listed in there :)

Can anyone explain to me what this is all supposed to mean? There's more gems in the first section than can fit on a 6-socket item even, and there's not really any indication of links?

I'm a complete beginner, and while your explanations make sense, implementation is leaving me completely confused.

@draedeath It means you can use either one of those two gems, and he explains why in the section. It also means you can switch one out for another for different situations. Like switching to concentrated effect for bosses, and then to increased area of effect for faster clearing. Hope this helped :)

Nevermind.....

Ah, I think that does help. So gems on the same row are alternates, rather than pairings. Thanks :)

Just wanted to share progress for anyone playing this build.



After picking up Paragon of Calamity I decided to try out a reflect map. I'm still early in my atlas so it was only 8% reflect, but it's totally doable. I think for the future I'm gonna level a Stone Golem and swap it out for the flame golem during reflect maps. The regen will make me feel more comfortable. But it was definitely doable if you're careful.

Hi all. I would like to hear your opinions about next improvements.
1）Buy 6-link Pledge of hands (firestorm+spell echo(from pledge)+faster casting/innervate+concentrated effect+controlled destruction+elemental focus+empower)
2) Get 6-link body armour and put there raise zombie (minion health+speed+resistances+fortify+empower)
3) Get helmet on +number of zombies.
It will be about 10 exalted and final stats will be about >5k hp and >5k dmg.
And it will give us great boost to the zombie survival.

Hey man!

Thanks for a really solid guide. First time playing PoE and im soon at act4 on cruel. I'm playing hc so i'm wondering about how much life you need. I see you mentioned 3,5k + 500 es for merciless labs. Isn't that on the lower end or?

Finally could change my wand with the sceptre you recommended :) Doing more great now :p

Anyone tried the Guardians or Breachlords with this build? If so, how well it did? =D