Cheap Prolif Flameblast, HC viable - 2.3 updated

Thanks for a good response.
Yes, I agree. I think I will be going for the version 3 eventually myself as well.

I might just go with a BM version earlier though. I am not sure yet. It does depend on with what skill I am going to level with. The problem with going BM together with flameblast in this build, is that FB starts getting good when both the aoe clusters are picked up. Picking all these nodes and then heading to BM - is quite a long way. So many early benefits of BM falls away.

It is not really a problem carrying a mana flask, and the lack of dmg we will get from going the BM route - well it won't make much up for the little extra life. Your leveling path works well - going the BM route is more of a gamble.

6500life + and enfeeble is great! But the problem is more being level 70-80 and having 5k life. Just checked my ripped char, and it had 5150 life at level 80 with all hp nods taken plus 1 life jewel on the tree. Gear:


5270hp with a better belt. This is the point I am wondering if BM might be safer and pushing the HP closer to 6k. I'm not sure. It does complicate things far more than your nice guide. It is a tough one as to what HP level I am comfortable doing higher maps with.

I suppose my first question would be, exclusively as a Hardcore player, is how vital is Cloak of Flame? I understand according to your writing it's the Best in Slot, which makes sense, but how significant is it? What is the difference in having it equipped vs. having something more defensive? Kaom's is out, of course, because of the lack of links which just cripples you provided you don't want to do a staff-type build, which itself would be crippling in some ways. But, either some general armor with Life/Tri-Res/etc., or something like a Lightning Coil. PoE is a game of trade-offs, I understand, so unless Cloak of Flame is given one of those Prophecy upgrades, which would be enormous for this build I would imagine, it's a big slot to sacrifice and I'm curious as to your take on the potential cost/benefit analysis.

Thank you for your time!

There's really no better choice than Cloak of Flame. Well, I suppose, Lightning Coil could possibly be superior if you can afford getting one with the right colours, these being 4-5B1R. According to http://siveran.github.io/calc.html getting such colours on Lightning Coil would cost you, on average:
22,039 chromes for a 6L (5B1R)
2,505 chromes for a 5L (4B1R)

So yeah.

Same problem with the Belly of the Beast (frankly, I'm not even convinced it's better than Cloak defence-wise).

Aaaand, same problem with rare chests. Pure armour is out of question, evasion is not even worth mentioning. ES works, but we don't really need ES. So your only gain is some life. But you'd have to ask yourself whether it's worth giving up 15-17% phys reduction, ignite chance and duration for some life and res.

I absolutely agree that the colors on a Coil would be problematic. It was an enormous pain to get 2B4G in Perandus, let alone 3B3G (Got 3B occasionally, and you can master craft 3B at the hefty cost of.. 285 chromes?, but no guarantee of the other three).

My one hesitation would be that you're not getting exactly 20% Physical Damage reduction. You're not taking the physical damage -20%. The damage is converted and then mitigated by respective resistance, which, by the sounds of it, would be augmented further by +Max Fire Res. And the type of damage that we, as HC players, would be concerned with is the high physical spike damage, not the quick rapid succession smaller hits, which a moderate amount of mitigation is great for. But, the effect suffers from diminishing returns the higher the damage spike. If my memory serves correctly that's how it works. If it's different with pure armor-based mitigation vs. damage conversion mitigation, then that's a mechanic I'm unfamiliar with and would be very interested to hear about it. But, assuming my base knowledge is correct, I think that 20% is potentially misleading given the mechanics of how physical damage scales relative to the effectiveness of physical mitigation. So the armor would be almost purely offensive outside of the flat fire resistance. Which, as an exclusively Hardcore player, is sometimes a cause for concern. I suppose that's what prompted my question to you.

Anyways, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter with all of the above in mind. And please do correct me if I'm mistaken in any given area. I certainly don't want to have the wrong information. :)

Can you post a CI version of the build?

When you gonna start to use flameblast, and which skill should you level with? flametotem firestorm? Spark? And which gems should be linked with low lvl flameblast

loving and will start the buid in the new league. wondering in what order ascendancy points should be picked, please? thank you.

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Sivluu wrote:

40% buffed 20/20 Enfeeble:
Cursed enemies have -42% to Critical Strike Multiplier
Cursed enemies deal 42% less Damage
Cursed enemies have 37% reduced Critical Strike Chance
Cursed enemies have 54% reduced Accuracy Rating

40% buffed 20/20 Temporal Chains:
Cursed enemies are 54% slower

I'm pretty sure this is a vastly better option than getting 1k more life.

Are the Enfeeble amounts from the old Enfeeble or the new nerfed Enfeeble in 2.3 ?

Thanks for the Guide, looks really solid.
Which of the Versions would you recommend for the new League?
Also i'm not sure if its only for me, but the Ascendancy Points are not showing up in your Skilltrees.

Edit: Another Question i'm sure you answered already 100 times but what do you think about running 2x "Consuming Dark"?

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JamesMMA wrote:

And the type of damage that we, as HC players, would be concerned with is the high physical spike damage, not the quick rapid succession smaller hits, which a moderate amount of mitigation is great for. But, the effect suffers from diminishing returns the higher the damage spike.

Armour suffers from diminishing returns vs high spikes as it doesn't give flat % damage reduction, the char sheet just gives an estimation for it. Here's a graph for it: https://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/pathofexile.gamepedia.com/1/1e/ArmourReductionPlot.png?version=e6aa7884cfd6a5eef16149f3581bbd1c

but neither the 20% conversion or reduction from resistances suffer from diminishing returns. They're both just flat % values.