[GUIDE] 1339 Fireball Shotgun/CI Sorc v1.0.0

@MetalheadNorm Thx for your answer.

What I would really like to see a video of you blowing up everything :)
I searched youtube for some fire witch videos but did see any that are really effective at it.

I was thinking that The Searing Touch could be a good alternative to the double Void Battery. What do you think about that?

Also please explain how did you reach 2k mana without EB, that seems pretty hard even with all the mana passives.

There is something I don't understand about ES builds.
Do they run with 0 Armor? Where do you get Armor from? Only Granites?

Well keep in mind I have well over 500 INT in addition to 10+ passives devoted to increased mana. I pretty much just made mana a priority when I was searching for gear. Take my hat for example. My buddy thought I was dumb for spending 2 exalts on a hat with sub-300 es, but the main reason I like it so much is due to the INT and mana mods. Most of my gear compliments mana stacking - Fragments, pernandus, R.strides... even void battery rolls up to +50.

As for armor, the only sources of it for this build will be your belt and granite flasks. Luckily, all those body + soul nodes make even the 300ish a good belt offers into a significant amount. Keep in mind that CI build will have up to 3000 more shields than its life counterpart (non-koams), so its okay to skimp on armor especially since not even larger hits can stun you as long as you have the Eye amulet.


I am interested in doing a video as well, could anyone recommend a decent software to record gameplay with?

p.s. Regarding searing touch: Dual wands > Staff any day of the week. Seriously though, staves are for noobs.

Good points there on mana. I will this, and I hope I can sustain everthing on mana regen.

The Belt you have is just perfect. The 300 armor on it is just so sweet.

Regarding Void Battery, considering that it's 10+ exalts each, that is more than 20 exalts for 2 wands I think I will go with Searing Touch or Divinarius+Rapthir Globe.

2 exalts (5L Searing) vs 20 exalts double Void Battery. I'll go the cheap way :)

Anyway, nice straight up build. Classic Fire Sorc sounds so good :) We are only missing the Frozen orb.

GL and keep that video coming. I would like to see some action.
Some players used bandicam or fraps for recording.

First off, i'd like to thank the OP for taking the time to publish a great spec and guide!

Obviously you are excited about this build, and i can only imagine how much fun it would be with your gear.

Having said that I do have some criticisms, mainly due to the cost of the build. Your would be lucky to spend less than 70 exalts for your gear, and i think it would fair for you to perhaps list that as a CON. Hell you even list "No Shavronne's required" as a PRO to the build. That's great and all but you can build a nice sporker with 40 exalts.

Now, i have attempted to "limp" along with the following:

- Divinarius/Rare spell dam/crit wand
- dream fragments + eye + rainbowstride + rare ring
- ~700 ES 5-Link Armor running Fire pen as my 5th socket
- total ES approx 4k
- tooltip DPS for fireball at 3.4k with 7 power charges/4 frenzy charges up
- ~2k mana, which i believe to be close to the minimum to sustain Arctic Armour
- level 80

Okay so i've been trying this out with these sub-optimal stats and i have to say it is a lot of fun and extremely tanky-feeling despite the fact that i've died a few times. Killing is still pretty fast really, i can only imagine what it must be like with double batteries. Magic/Rare mobs with extra health or ele resist/fire resist are annoying,and it takes me sometimes 5 6 or 7 FB's to down them. (Even with casting Flammability on them)

Keep in mind i've only tried this up to level 70 maps, which already cause my ES to yo-yo uncomfortably even with granite- Iron flasks up.

I think to go past 70 maps you'd need at least 1 battery and 5k ES, but that's just a guess.

Anyway i thought some folks might like to know how this build plays out with ~10 exa gear.

Edit: Just wanted to say that i don't recommend Searing Touch, tried out my 4L and it just didnt pack the same punch. And i don't feel burning damage really helps much unless you really spec for that.

Edit 2: Although i wonder if a slightly modified build that uses elemental proliferation and concentrated effect with a qual. FB gem might work out for folks with less gear that don't insta-kill stuff. With those max gems and all the critting going on the burning damage would spread all over the place and might really help with the kill speed.

@teflonsheep Thx for sharing your experience

As far as I'm concerned I want to make a caster with either FP or FB, not sure yet. They are equally strong but in different ways.
Do you want big Pierce AoE + Freeze or bigger DPS and blow everything up? I guess it just comes down to personal preference. They are both just as viable, with a note that FP is safer with q20 one which you won't need for FB.

For this FB build I want to use Searing Touch because it's the best I got. Basically I will use this staff for the +2 to Fire Gems. I am not interested in the burning damage. I want to avoid Conc effect because the AoE really helps.

I have no good wand/dagger. My best dagger is a 40% crit chance and 49% spell power, which doesn't cut it past 50s.

I will test if Divinarius + Rapthir Globe is better than Searing Touch(because those I own), but I seriously doubt it.

The OP has some godly gear, I can't even dream of own such gear... yet.
I am struggling to get my hands on a 6-700 5L ES chest right now.

Anyway if you have the gear to one-shot most of the mobs this build really rocks and it's very rewarding. I don't know why I have avoided Fireball as a core the a build for so long. It's so simple and straight forward.

Well, nebunelux. The reason searing touch is so bad is mostly because it is a staff and uses both hands to carry. The best possible ST offers 90% fireball damage and only 10% cast speed. A high-end wand can grant over 100% FB damage and 18+%cast speed. PLUS you can wield two of them. Not to mention the possibility for critical and mana mods that this build craves.

The build's simplicity is what's so great though. Instead of bothering with CC, ele equilibrium, or other methods, its just 'shoot shit and it dies' which is pretty nice =].

How do i go about farming?
Im lvl 55 and i just made it to fell shrine. The fire resist from the skeletons is stupid and my flammability helps, but its not enough. My clear speeds on my lvl 57 Sporker and my previously lvl 55 EK duelists clear speed were practically 2x this speed :/
Farming is zzz x2.
Where should i farm?, should i go back to The Ledge- even tho pretty much all mobs have fire res?

- i think i am enjoying your build, but atm it SUX :(

just out of interest, is this build worth trying out if i dont have access to the elite gear that you rock? I like using fireball but just dont want it to fail me right in the ass when i get to a higher level with shitty gear

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kicksome wrote:

just out of interest, is this build worth trying out if i dont have access to the elite gear that you rock? I like using fireball but just dont want it to fail me right in the ass when i get to a higher level with shitty gear

From my experience, you at least need semi-good gear. The fire resist in merciless is enough to drive you nuts, even with your flammability curse :/

Like I mentioned in the guide, mid-game leveling can be a hassle for this build. The three major farm areas are dominated by fire resistant monsters. Don't underestimate the power of fire penetration gem. Also, don't be afraid to really get up in the enemy's face. Shotgun fireball is what makes this build so effective. You think I 2-shot hybrid widow from a screen away? Nope. Shotgun technique multiplies your damage output by a factor of 2.1!

A lot of people will not use fire pen just because it doesn't increase your tool tip dips - this is a noob mistake. My advice for poorer players would be to forego the power charge aspect of my build until you have the gear to support it. If you are stuck with a 4L, FB + LMP + Fire pen + Life leech is a perfectly fine setup.

Also, as CI, western forest is a legit as hell grinding zone in place of Fellshire. Nothing resists fire there, so you're good to go.

I guess the main thing I have to say is that Flamm + Fire pen + Shotgun makes this build much more powerful than your tooltip states. Just as an example against a boss with low fire resistances, my sorc's tooltip 9.1k quickly turns into 50k+ - its no wonder things drop in a second flat.

Against a monster with around 75% resistance to fire, just using flamm + fire pen multiplies your effective damage by 4.