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

Thanks for the details post @evilsofa (what does and sofa need to do to be evil anyway, just curious)

I'm also planning to make them lv 20 then get 20% quality gems, but not all at once since i don't have that much prism stones, and it'd make me too weak which not very comfortable. so most likely will be fire storm first, then rise zombie

I removed all zombies/skeletens from the build and replaced them with other CWDT setups/vaal gems. The reason for that is because i am lazy as fuck and i always forgot to resummon the minions. Also i now have more points avaible for the passive Skilltree. All in all i think it was a success (at least for me).

A relative of mine suggested an optimization to the Necromancer skill tree: to drop Explosive Impact as well as the two Fire Damage and the +10 intelligence that link to it; and instead, take the Dexterity link between Retribution and Quick Recovery, and then take Light of Divinity and the 10% increased spell damage after it.

What you lose: +10 intelligence, 45% increased fire damage, 8% increased AoE of area spells

What you gain: +10 intelligence, 35% increased spell damage, 4% increased cast speed, 20% increased light radius, +10 strength, +10 dexterity

92 skill tree with these changes

He also disagreed with Grave Intentions; with those five skill points, you could instead get two more Jewel slots - one after getting two 4% Increased Elemental Damage slots just below Whispers of Doom, the other after getting +10 strength to the left of Elementalist (92 skill tree). I am less sure about this adjustment, but I gotta say, it's kind of cruel to be limited to one single Jewel slot for a build; that's passing on 8 lines of rare mod affixes.

(Edited bad math as noted by next post)

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evilsofa wrote:

A relative of mine suggested an optimization to the Necromancer skill tree: to drop Explosive Impact as well as the two Fire Damage and the +10 intelligence that link to it; and instead, take the Dexterity link between Retribution and Quick Recovery, and then take Light of Divinity and the 10% increased spell damage after it.

What you lose: +10 intelligence, 35% increased fire damage, 8% increased AoE of area spells

What you gain: +10 intelligence, 35% increased spell damage, 4% increased cast speed, 20% increased light radius, +10 strength, +10 dexterity

92 skill tree with these changes

He also disagreed with Grave Intentions; with those five skill points, you could instead get two more Jewel slots - one after getting two 4% Increased Elemental Damage slots just below Whispers of Doom, the other after getting +10 strength to the left of Elementalist (92 skill tree). I am less sure about this adjustment, but I gotta say, it's kind of cruel to be limited to one single Jewel slot for a build; that's passing on 8 lines of rare mod affixes.

this sounds kinda wrong.
fist: "to drop Explosive Impact as well as the two Fire Damage and the +10 intelligence that link to it;"
this subtracts 45% increased fire damage, not 35% ( Explosive Impact added 25%, 2 fire damage node each added 10%)
second: "take the Dexterity link between Retribution and Quick Recovery, and then take Light of Divinity and the 10% increased spell damage after it."
this only adds 25% increased spell damage indeed (Light of Divinity added 15%, and 10% from the side node)
beside, why grap that 10 dex node? if you really need Dex, i prefer to get the big +30 dex on the right side of Explosive Impact, though it may need more points to reach, but then you can spare the dex from gear, which is my case.

what i'm not really into in the lv92 skill tree is the long way to exceptional Performance. That's a lot of points, so i may just spend those for jewel slots insteads ( could have 2 more jewel slots for just 4 points)

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first: "to drop Explosive Impact as well as the two Fire Damage and the +10 intelligence that link to it;"
this subtracts 45% increased fire damage, not 35% ( Explosive Impact added 25%, 2 fire damage node each added 10%)

Oops. Fixed that.

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second: "take the Dexterity link between Retribution and Quick Recovery, and then take Light of Divinity and the 10% increased spell damage after it."
this only adds 25% increased spell damage indeed (Light of Divinity added 15%, and 10% from the side node)
beside, why grap that 10 dex node? if you really need Dex, i prefer to get the big +30 dex on the right side of Explosive Impact, though it may need more points to reach, but then you can spare the dex from gear, which is my case.

The +30 dex on the right side of Explosive Impact is already part of the OP skill tree; as it stands, the OP skill tree leaves those using The Scourge needing 49 dex on gear. Taking the 10 dex instead of 10 int would reduce that to 39 dex on gear, and you get the +10 int back from Light of Divinity.

I guess 10% fire damage and 8% increased AoE is too much to spend to get 4% increased cast speed, 10 strength, 10 dexterity and 20% light radius, so I guess I'll drop this idea.

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what i'm not really into in the lv92 skill tree is the long way to exceptional Performance. That's a lot of points, so i may just spend those for jewel slots insteads ( could have 2 more jewel slots for just 4 points)

Skill Effect duration applies to Firestorm (lasts longer = more damage), Bone Offering, Molten Shell, the length of time that Skeletons from Summon Skeletons last, and the length of time that the totem that casts Summon Skeletons lasts. You're getting a lot from those four points, and you'd be losing another 10 dexterity that you need for The Scourge.

Hi - firstly thank you for the detailed guide. I'm new to the game and I've been having fun with this. Just about at the end of Normal and got through the lab without much trouble.

Just one question - why is Herald of Thunder in a link with Curse on Hit? Would I not want to cast HoT and keep it up as I play? I don't quite understand the interplay of gems in this link.

Thanks for the help

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sonicReducer wrote:

Hi - firstly thank you for the detailed guide. I'm new to the game and I've been having fun with this. Just about at the end of Normal and got through the lab without much trouble.

Just one question - why is Herald of Thunder in a link with Curse on Hit? Would I not want to cast HoT and keep it up as I play? I don't quite understand the interplay of gems in this link.

Thanks for the help

Yes you're correct that HoT is self-cast - CoH is so that you can gain endurance charges through the linked WM when you killed shocked enemies (through shaper of desolation).

@paraxis_d2 ah, gotcha. Thank you

I am stuck getting 1 shot by the leaping goats in T13 gorge. How can i improve my gear, can you tell me:

Hey If I use thunder of herald to apply curses... it doesn't really work for some reason... but if I replace with firestorm I can apply curses fine... can you please explain why this is happening? :/