This is my projected tree to level 93. Currently I'm at level 82 and haven't taken many life nodes yet. My current HP/ES is 4300/1100, which will be about 5500/1100 when I fill those life nodes.
Ascendancy: Deadeye - Occultist
Bandits: Oak (40 life) in normal - Alira (cast speed) in Cruel - Kill all (+1 point) in Merciless
My current PSC gear:
You can check all the links from my items.
- The core, must have item for this build is 2X Consuming Dark, which runs at about 1 ex for both. My gear is a combination of self-found (boots, all jewelry, belt, helm, 1 consuming dark) and the things I trade. As such, I would say the minimum cost for this build would be 1.5 ex (which is not hard to come by to be honest). Another item I consider core is Rain of Splinters jewel, which is very cheap.
- Winds of change are amazing. Projectile damage affects both the initial hit and the poison, so they are a great DPS boost. Proj speed make map-clear a lot smoother as well.
- Essence Worm is nice and is necessary to run both Haste and Anger with no enlighten or reduce reservation node. Put Anger in it, as Anger scale better with level.
- I highly recommend using 6L. Yes, Tabula works fine. If you desperately need the tankiness from the chest piece and prefer 5L, take out Controlled Destruction.
- My other pieces are messy. Ideally you want Armor+ES or pure ES base on all of the pieces to push your eHP further.
The mechanic and DPS
This build is simple in mechanic. 2x consuming dark will convert all your totems damage into chaos, and your totem will poison enemies for extra DoT as well.
Now the DPS:
This is my DPS with all auras up, flask up, Elemental Overload:
I know 60k don't seem like a lot but you have to consider these:
- It's for each totem. With 2x totems striking the same target, the DPS is doubled to 120k.
- Due to the ramp-up mechanic of Incinerate, its final stage damage is actually 150% more, or 2.5 times of that tooltip DPS, so now it is 300k.
- My Incinerate gems is only lvl 18 and all of its support gems are not fully leveled yet (some has no quality). My Anger gem is level 19. Overall, expect 40% more damage when I get lvl 21 Incinerate and Anger and level 20/20 of the support gems. This will make the DPS raise to 420k.
- Vaal Lightning Trap effectively gives 50% more damage due to the shock ground. Thus the effective DPS on bosses will be 630k.
- Finally, all that is just the initial hit damage. Poison is extremely potent and though it's hard to calculate exactly how much damage it can deal, it approximately contributes over 60% more damage.
Thus, the effective end game damage can reach over 1 million. Quite high, isn't it?
Leveling
If you can get an early 5L (or even better, an early Tabula) and Incinerate gem with high quality (15+), you can level up with this right away and will face-roll ALL contents till you finish A3 Merciless. If not, I advise you to level up with Firestorm instead.
At first, spent points on the left side of the tree (Templar area) and try to reach Ancestral Bond ASAP. After getting Consuming Dark, you can extend to Shadow area for the great Chaos damage nodes and some more life.
Atziri and end game
Atziri is very easy. I first kill her at level 79 (deathless and not a single time drop down to less than 2/3 health).
For end game, I have push as far as lvl 13 maps. All you have to do is play safer and don't rush. Some bosses might be near impossible (Core, Palace) but I don't think this build will have big problem against Shrine Piety, Wasteland Voll or even Abyss/Colosseum bosses.
Some thoughts *SHOULD READ*
1. Incinerate, really??? That spell sucks after nerf!!!
Spoiler
I agree Incinerate is somewhat limited in mechanic. You have to stand still and channel it, which requires your character to be decently tanky. It also burns mana like crazy. Before 2.1, that might not be a problem. However, with nerfs, it's hard to be a tanky self-caster while still doing great damage and have enough mana/reduce mana cost to back it up. That's why I chose to play Incinerate Totem instead. By using totem, you basically erase limitations in Incinerate's mechanics and make the nerfs feel like non-existence.
2. Is it an OP build? HC possible?
Spoiler
No, it's not current Spark level of strength, but it will do it job very well. As the tradition of this game, broken things will get nerfed (just like Incinerate before 2.1), so I tend to favor these "balanced" build more.
About Hardcore, I can confidently say yes, it is very viable. I am at level 82 and still has many life nodes nearby to take, so if you play more conservative and take them before the damage nodes, you can survive well. Even with my risky approach (as I play PSC), I only died twice and 1 of that is due to lag. Haven't die a single time since I reach Merciless.
3. Why not Blood Magic (BM)?
Spoiler
BM with Infernal Mantle fits a crit Flame Totem build better. Going BM, you can't use Haste. Clear Mind gives 60% spell damage but it still gives less damage than Haste (and less utility because of no extra movespeed or attack speed for whirling blade). Clear Mind also takes 1 jewel slot (which in case you use Haste, you can put a 4x damage mods in).
4. Why Scion: Deadeye - Occultist
Spoiler
It's a non-crit chaos totem build so it's logical to extend to both templar-witch area (for totem nodes) and shadow area for chaos nodes. Though the Witch - Occultist can also do this, I find that she fits an ES based build better, and even then, she will still lacks the sheer clearspeed of the Ascendant - Deadeye. Deadeye nodes of the Ascendant is simply perfect for many projectile spells. Though we benefits nothing from the Pierce chance, all the rest gives huge buffs to both damage and clear speed. Occultist nodes are great as well. You don't always want to be near the mobs, thus I consider the -15% chaos resist to enemies YOU CURSE much better than the "nearby enemies have -20% chaos resist" from the Occultist herself.
5. How do you compare this to crit chaos Flame Totem or crit elemental flame totem?
Spoiler
In term of overall performance, I would rate this build equal to ES based crit chaos flame totem. It is slightly better than an Inquisitor crit ele flame totem and way better than life based crit chaos totem.
That's all for now. Hope you enjoy the build and have fun grinding.