Incinerate | 2 totems | CI | 2 curses | Awesome DPS with low gear requirement

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Varga wrote:

[...]

I'm facing a few issues and would like some help / advice.
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Your build lacks ES nodes. You should work on that asap. I also strongly recommend the casting speed nodes on the left branch at the witch starting point.

Aside from that, a 5L Chest would be helpful. And you want a lot more ES on your chest. My lvl 40ish one has almost triple the ES yours has.

A lot of my personal leveling power came through my Searing Touch. I know people bash on it for it's end-game lacking. Which is true. But for leveling it was overwhelmingly powerful.

You might want to try to get your hands on a wand with some projectile speed, nasty spell damage and +fire skills. Makes a huge difference.

Aside from that, your build doesn't look so bad. The shield defense nodes over in the templar area are not bad. Not the best choice either, but they work. I personally dislike the resistances nodes you chose (the circles with 6all/15special/15special resistance)- you might want to cover your resistance needs via gear and scratch those nodes.

If you have more question, ask away and try to be as detailed as possible.

edit: ^ ninja'd my post!!
and as always revolve the build around you. If you have awesome gear and don't need the resist nodes, don't pick em up :).

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Varga wrote:

OP, could u plze link the actual gear u use ?

gems aren't in the right place but here it is. (a lot of magic find ;) )


The first thing you want to do is up your ES before going CI.

Then you'll want to get cast speed on everything you can get it on. Weapons/amulets/rings
Cast speed is the single most important dps stat for incinerate and dual totems in general.
Try to spec points into cast speed nodes as soon as possible without getting rid of a ton of survivability.


I'd change your weapon out with something that has spell dmg/projectile speed/cast speed.
It usually isn't too expensive because a lot of people look for crit modifiers.

A shield such as rathpith would be great for this build. Although they usually run for about 2 exalted orbs.


tl;dr get more cast speed either though gear or passives. get more es from your equips. More spell damage.

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mariox1011 wrote:

edit: ^ ninja'd my post!!

I didn't ninja anything.

I'm your mere disciple, trying to do some work, you can't be bothered with yourself :P

When I put in the added lightning damage into my 4 Link, the incinerate skill on my skill bar now reads... Deals a max of 3 lightning damage. Was the amount that each added damage gem capped? What am I doing/see that is wrong. Thanks

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MrButterrs wrote:

When I put in the added lightning damage into my 4 Link, the incinerate skill on my skill bar now reads... Deals a max of 3 lightning damage. Was the amount that each added damage gem capped? What am I doing/see that is wrong. Thanks

After LMP and the 20% dmg effectiveness of Incinerate, that's what you are left with - per projectile at stage 1. Nothing wrong with it.

So if I understand this correctly (sry for the noobness)... Its 3 lightning dmg per tick. With a 0.16 cast time, that means it hits 6.25 times per second. It increases 80% per stage so the 3 dmg at stage 1 would be:

stage 1: 3
stage 2: 5.4
stage 3: 9.7
stage 4: 17.5

17.5 x 6.25 times per second = 109.35 dmg/second on just the lightning dmg portion.

Is this correct?


How does added chaos damage work? If it works the same, would it be better to use instead of the lightning dmg?

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MrButterrs wrote:

So if I understand this correctly (sry for the noobness)... Its 3 lightning dmg per tick. With a 0.16 cast time, that means it hits 6.25 times per second. It increases 80% per stage so the 3 dmg at stage 1 would be:

stage 1: 3
stage 2: 5.4
stage 3: 9.7
stage 4: 17.5

17.5 x 6.25 times per second = 109.35 dmg/second on just the lightning dmg portion.

Is this correct?


How does added chaos damage work? If it works the same, would it be better to use

instead of the lightning dmg?

your calculations on the stages is right.

You should try putting the chaos damage gem in and see what it's like. If you like it, then use it. I just like getting the occasional shock on targets for faster farming.

Don't forget, though, that lightning dmg varies a lot. It's actually 1-x when it says "a maximum of x lightning dmg"(obviously, just pointing it out again).

Realistically you'll end up with less average damage. Not least because you aren't always hitting with all 5 projectiles at the same time. Works considerably well on tougher targets, where you are "shot-gunning", though.

Still, in reality it's quite a bit less.


€:

@Mariox:

When did you get rid of Searing Touch btw? What is roughly required on a one hander to make it better?

And did you use Fire Traps, too? I'm running two atm - unsupported that is - and they are pretty much melting shit ridiculously fast.

Just wondering ;)

So far this build vastly exceeds my expectations. It's ridiculously powerful, the damage is really crazy.

i stopped using searing touch at around 50 when I picked up the two 15% resist nodes when shields are equipped. On a one hander you're going to want cast speed/spell damage/projectile speed.


a wand like http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/275369 would be a gg 1 hander for this build. Then i'd get a rathpith or saffell's depending on your needs. You could also equip 2 one handers if you are more interested in dps instead of survivability.

As for fire traps, I have two along with one bear trap. I only use the traps against things like alchemists, who can gib your totems through the frost wall and massive bosses. Although when you shotgun big mobs down, you don't usually have time to place traps.

Thanks for your input.

Well, I know what stats to look for on my weapons, not my first caster. I think the biggest concern is about the +2 fire gems stat. I never had this before and I'm pretty sure it's why this build kicked asses so badly while leveling.

I know there are wands with 100ish spell damage, +2 fire and cast speed. But let's face it, I will never own such a thing because I'm sure it's expensive as hell.

I'm sometimes missing a shield, more resistances and some block chance would be good. Unfortunately, I forgot the most crucial part to switching weapons: my staff is 5L. So unless I get my hands on a 5L chest, switching is not an option anyway.

Can't complain so far, as mentioned I'm raping stuff pretty badly. Although I'm still waiting for the added dmg gems to have any status alignment effect. I'm pretty sure my ACD isn't chilling anything (although you can see the icy splatter kinda thing around mobs sometimes, but they aren't really slowed. Still not sure how status alignments are calculated. If each of the many many hits try's to create its own or if they are summed up in-between a certain timespan).

But as I said, these are luxury problems. I'm facerolling anything.

The only real problem with this build is the fact, that my gfx card has a hard time handling max. stage spam for too long ^^ My fps drops considerably and the fan goes crazy.

But whatever .. ^^