[2.5] TankyBlast™ - Casting For Free - Life based Flameblast Elementalist [+Video] [SC/HC]

I know, I know, ANOTHER flameblast post, even a tl:dr would be straining your patience, but still. let me bend your ear for a moment ;)


Intro:

I was starting Prophecy league as the same old prolif-flameblaster as everyone else, presumably, but at some point towards T8 maps I really felt dissatisfied with my defensive capabilities.

So I sat down and optimized the build to squeeze in as much defenses as possible.

This variant is the one to go for for everyone who prefers not dying and being able to comfortably run hard content over dps focus.




Concept:

Layered Defense

It's the most effective way, instead of relying on a single form of defense.

We throw together a high HP pool up to 6.5k with good gear and high level, Block ( see item explanations), physical damage mitigation through resistance ( Cloak of Flame) and Enfeeble. Especially block and Enfeeble are a dream team, as enfeebled monsters have less accuracy, thus hitting you less often and the remaining hits being blocked.

Reduced Mana Cost

And then of course, we have a T1 Quality of Life aspect: being able to run our main skill at 0 mana cost, which is huge for a caster.
A) It frees up a flask slot ( no mana flask necessary yay)
B) You can stack cast speed sky high and
C) No regen and less regen on map... 0 f*cks given :)

I run and can run all map mods except ele ref (certain death) and blood magic ( no auras sucks, but could be done ).

Its Uber Lab (not facerolling but easy enough if you concentrate and use flasks) , Atziri and HC viable.
I also did some T15 Collosseums ( did the Ambrius challenge with this char) and Abyss maps (also tried Core, got boss to 1/3 HP) and some mad corrupted T14s lately without even getting close to dying.

This league I did over 300 without a singe death.

After doing some silly stuff and reaching lvl 98 I'm at 27 deaths (4 while mapping after lvl 70!!! one of which was opening ele ref w/o reading map mods), and I'm a silly, sloppy player with next to no skill xD




Leveling / Bandits / Lab Points:



My Tree:




The gear:


Explanation of my choices:


Cloak of Flame:


20% of physical damage taken as fire damage. The mini Lightning coil so to speak. We get +1 max fire res from the tree and running Purity of Fire is defensive double dipping as it reduces incoming fire damage from both mobs and reflect while also reducing physical damage we take. Having a ruby flask up only makes it better. A 5L is perfectly fine until red maps.


Rathpith Globe:


10% Inc max life is always nice, some lightning resistance, spell damage is also pretty nice, and most of all the block chance to spell block! Having at least 50% is a must, getting a higher roll is even better, as it allows for capping spell block more easily. This in combination with the next unique adds heaps of survivability.


Stone of Lazhwar:


In the good old combo with Rathpith, this will give us 100% of Block chance applying to spell bock chance, which is huge if you can get a decent amount of block chance. It also gives a lot of cast speed, which is a GG stat for Flameblast. Getting the block chance corruption is a luxury upgrade, though since block is out of meta, it's quite a cheap thing to get. ( max roll 4% "just" 1 ex in PSC)


Rumi's Concoction:


Getting high rolls is a matter of budget, but no matter the roll, this item allows us to have up to 73% attack and 75% (cap) spell block up at almost all times. It's just amazing. [These values are now only achievable with a legacy Rumi's in Standard. Is it still worth using in a new league ? Yes, absolutely, but you might aswell replace it with Taste of Hate now for example]


Rings:


Depending on the level of your FB gem, you might get away with a lower roll, but you kinda always and only want ones with -8 to mana cost. The approach I chose ( this was my starting build in Prophecy) was to buy magic -8 ones for 1alc - 2c in bulk and just regal them. You are looking for resistance or unset bases and you want to regal, life, res, cast speed and dexterity.
Something to keep in mind:
The +4 mana gained on kill on the unset ring is not random, I wanted exactly that, as it allows me to steadily recast golems and lightning warp in no regen maps!


The rest of the gear consists of Rare Items. Life, res and dex are the key stats.

Weapon:



You can use either Wand or Sceptre (even dagger for the WB lovers) but I'd say, hands down, Sceptres are the best. You want the ones with the highest implicit elemental damage (Void and Opal) as that scales our burning damage as well.
Stats you want are : high cast speed, flat fire damage, spell damage.

Alternatively you can use Doryani's Catalyst:




Gloves:


Just something cheap, stat filler. Block chance as is a neat little extra.


Boots:


Movement speed is always nice.
Boots Enchant: I had leech before, but I'd say the best Enchants are flat fire damage if killed recently and cast/attack speed if killed recently.


Helm:


Life, tri res
Helmet Enchant: FB area is a lot more useful in my opinion, but until you get a lvl 21 gem, damage might be better.

Belt:


Stat filler again, inc flask charges gained is something nice to have


Flasks:




Jewels:


Life > at least 4% Reduced Mana cost > Damage (Fire/Spell/Area/Damage)


My current Gear in Std:




Gem-links:



Videos:



Additional Info:

I should mention here that I use the ascendancy prolif over the gem, as GGG has confirmed that as long as you use a skill that works and is linked with inc AoE, the ascendancy prolif range DOES scale with the inc AoE gem :) nice 20% more damage over them gem, and the area is still big enough imo.

Hey nice build. I'm currently running the regular 3 elreon + 2 scepter flameblast prolif build and definitely feel like my defenses are lacking (have about 4.5k life at level 81). Do you feel that the loss of a scepter and addition of Rathpith + Stone of Lazhwar decreased your dps considerably? In terms of cast speed decrease at least.

Also would a Doryani's Catalyst be sufficient for the Scepter? In addition I'm assuming that all Jewels should at least have an increased life roll on them right?

I was really concerned about the loss of the dual wield more cast speed, but with a decent sceptre, 16%+ cast speed, lightning golem and the stone of lazwhar cast speed, if feel really comfortable.
sure, more would be nice, but im already getting told its hella fast. the area enchant helps pushing that feeling aswell.


all in all with rathpiths spell damage, theres hardly any damage loss while you gain SO much tankiness..

ye, doryanis is fine, the elemental damage increase makes your burning damage alot stronger but the cast speed is really meh unfortunately. should do very well until you find a nice rare.

Yes, life and in my case reduced mana cost have priority.

First of all congrats on this build man!
I wanted to play pizzablast and tried your spec. Lab is quite easy with this spec so I'm now thinking of taking on Atziri. Do you think it can be done? Any advice on the Apex in general?

Updated and now properly written :)

Ty. Will play this on Atlas.

Updated, finally added a Video!

Only change I made for 2.5 is dropping a tiny bit of Life in order to get the Golem HP regen node next to Zealot's Oath, its pretty dank :3

Hey,

I play similar build to yours (we share around 70% of the tree). My defensive layers are massive regen + cloak + MoM + block + fortify + totem, a side product of my focus on unusual defensive choices was that I bought uber gear under 1 ex ... all thanks to current meta (life sux hogwash), that leaves me at 9k damage buffer (6.6k HP, 800 ES, 1500 unreserved mana ... 2.3k in hexproof, where I turn Flammability off) with 75/75/75/73 resists.

What is possible with my build:
- Izaro / Argus - joke even in uber lab (I didn't see any difference vs merc lab)
- T15 bosses - joke without at least 2 damage mods (even twinned), but Dark Forest map did not drop for me though so haven't done that T15 boss.
- Atziri - normal is boring. It was my 1st run ever and I was expecting some hard stuff and only trio partially delivered, did not get pieces to enter Uber (can't be bothered to farm boring content).
- Breachlords - At normal difficulty they're joke (all of them), if you forget about the "possessed powerful enemy" prophecy slotted in, like I did, then they are doable, but MUCH MUCH harder (read as "I died once when OOF and too far from portal").

For my build, only two mods are no go ... no regen and reflect (technically I would be able to run reflect map, if I use Phoenix shield and charge FB max to 3th or 4th stage, but it's faster to reroll the map).

Edit: Got sorted nm!