Guide: Fireball CI Curser - Proliferated Burning Critical Fire Damage | In-depth | SC |

Hey, good questions you have. Much i think is because i haven't updated all parts of the guide or shown my end build yet, since i started playing this char again a few days ago. It is in part because the patch in a few days will contain some changes to damage over time effects and add some passive points for it, as i understand, so i just wanted to wait and see.

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manly_ wrote:

I have a question for you because I can't seem to make sense of your current build considering the initial post. Do you want mana regen or not? I'm not sure if your build is meant for solo play or not. It feels like youre trying to eschew mana regen talents in favor of better auras when possible, but is that because better discipline is the real goal which happens to have a side effect of also helping mana regen?

The guide has a very high emphasis on mana regen, because when the build was created it needed pretty much everything that was nearby to be able to afford the mana cost of a 6 linked using faster casting. It has become slightly easier to manage now since clarity has been boosted with the aura change and the choosing of new passive aura points. That, in conjunction with my chest refusing to 6Link itself after several thousand fusings means have not picked all the mana points yet.

The build is intended for both party and solo play, it can easily perform exceedingly well in both. The only weakness is that if your group is really strong and well geared with instant damage attacks, it may be possible to kill things before you can really burn.

The reason to go for aura points is so that you are able to use 3 auras(Clarity, Discipline, Purity of Fire) and have mana left to cast, and also because clairty becomes so very powerful with it.

Here is the build that i have been working on lately:

Level 100 theoretical guideline build

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manly_ wrote:

- no 12% spell damage on the very first talent?

It will come, but other talent points have been higher priority thus far. If i had to take it now i would have to postphone bloodthirst till next level, and the crit stability is more important.

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manly_ wrote:

- no mental acuity? (2 points = 20% mana regen, 30% crit chance, 30 int)

A great talent i will move points around to grab should i finally succeed in 6linking. At the moment it is 30% crit chance for 2 points, more or less.

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manly_ wrote:

- no throatseeker? (guessing those 5 points went towards sovereignty)

Certainly that will come with levels, but it also happens to be so that it is some of the last points you actually need, so to be honest those will be level 93-98, even if they are very powerful. They are an endgame goodie!

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manly_ wrote:

- how important is faith and steel?

Not overly important, if your gear is insane you may be able to skip them altogether but i would not recommend it. They are very strong survival points and you save 1 point of +30 strength by getting the 2x10 str nodes on the way there, so it is only really 3 points to claim them, and will help you to equip such things as maligaros earlier.

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manly_ wrote:

- hows the sovereignty playing out?

Very well, It allows me to run Purity of Fire and gives me great boosts to mana regen and energy shield. All-around it makes the build very well rounded, greater early power, a bit less gear reliant and it is certainly worth it endgame for the +7% maximum fire resistance purity of fire will give you when boosted by points and inner force. Those fire resists also counter your main weakness, elemental reflect.

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manly_ wrote:

- i just dont get the points between celestial walker and amplify! hear me out:

Why not cut all 6 points (-21% increased elemental damage, -40% mana regen, -8% increased radius of area skills) to get prestidigitation/mental acuity ? Consider what you get: [+8% max mana, +6% cast speed, +40% mana regen, +7% reduced mana cost of skills, +40 int, +30% increased crit chance]

The plan is to have prestidigitation and the 7% reduced mana cost in addition to the radius points. The reason i have not picked them yet is because i do not have the 6link. I think the radius as well as mana regeneration rate is essential to the build, and i cannot see where i should gain more benefit from those points. The radius affects curses as well as proliferation/fireball. The radii of proliferation and the fireball hit aoe and have already been lowered by concentrated effect, so it actually increases the radius by 22.2%, which then results in a whopping 48.8% increase in actual area!(49.4% if you do the precise calculation) Area = π(radius)^2. 1.22^2=1.488.

I hope it makes sense! I had actually not noticed that mental acuity had been boosted, lol, thanks for pointing that out i now incorporated it into the build.

Hi again. Thanks for the responses crackmonster. Now that you've seen the patch notes essentially seemingly buffing this spec, what changes come to mind? more spell damage nodes perhaps?

I forgot to ask in my previous post about something that seems crucial to mention. I am a new player. I wasn't there in the betas and still discover everyday the game intricaties such as the *quality* of reduced mana not doing anything for auras. In the original post, there is a mention about not having *improved* fireball because you dont want non-crit ignites (because it prevents crit ignites to apply? im unsure on this..). In your gear I can't help but notice a 12% quality fireball. Is this the same reason you seem to replace flammability? I understand my questions are dense but so are game mechanics :/ I'm assuming the explanation also will explain why no blaze talent (8% fire damage, 5% ignite chance). Maybe come this patch blaze will be more interesting. I'm looking forward to a level-headed answer.

I was originally going under the theory that I should pick a lot of crit% talents just to 'push out' the odds of getting a non-crit ignite. In retrospec it seems like a bad way to go about it.

Actually you hinted at something in your last post I'd like to clarify. The aura talents (not the radius ones!), do they also affect ignite/elemental proliferation?

While levelling, I can't help but feel stretched point-wise around the lvl 55+ mark. It's a bit messy trying to get dps nodes and survivability. More specifically, what is the order of talents you feel is appropriate? Here is the abridged list:

deep thoughts
hex master/whisper of doom

inner force
influence

chaos innoculation

sovereignty

assassination
coordination
nullification

faith and steel

celestial walker
amplify
prestidigitation

throatseeker

For now there are no changes that come to mind, it just seems like a great boost. I calculated that i would be boosted to deal 56% more burning damage. Muwhaha. I need to see the changes to the skill tree before i know if any changes are needed. One thing it does mean is that +fire/elemental damage nodes are more powerful since they will increase instant damage and then further increase burning damage, so burns will benefit twice. Althought elemental dominion won't do that since it only increases elemental damage with spells.

The reason i am not particularly interested in quality on fireball or other sources of ignite chance is that some monsters flee when ignited, and because this build is created around critical hits which always ignite. You will do very little damage with non-crit ignites compared to ignites from crits so you will gain very little from having it, but may risk some monsters fleeing before they die. The strongest ignite will always be active so it isnt because of that. Still, it is mostly a matter of personal choice, and i am not even sure myself if i want to have it or not, which i why i simply stopped upgrading my quality on fireball for now and just play around with it until i decide. Quality bonus on fireball is insanely good for leveling though, when you do not have proper crit stability.

Elemental weakness with quality bonus will give additional reduced resistance whereas flammability will give burn duration, that is why elemental weakness is better.

The aura talents will only increase the radius of auras, when i was talking about proliferate/fireball aoe in the last post i meant those increased area nodes you suggested to remove.

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manly_ wrote:

While levelling, I can't help but feel stretched point-wise around the lvl 55+ mark. It's a bit messy trying to get dps nodes and survivability. More specifically, what is the order of talents you feel is appropriate?

It is hard for me to say exactly which is best, both because it greatly depends on your gear and also because it is a long time ago that i leveled and the build was different back then. Generally i would suggest to first go damage, get your basic aoe points in witch/templar area and some burn. From there i would either go get all aura points and then curses, or get curses and then aura points. Energy shield you need to squeeze in on demand, it really depends how much you feel you need it.

So i would probably go something like Damage(witch+templar area) --> Auras/Curses --> Energy Shield, but squeezing in survival points as i felt i needed them.

The best way is to experiment a bit yourself, feel for what you need and just remember not to postphone auras and curses too long.

A build like:

This here

Is pretty basic for level 74-78 or so, depending on what attribute points and things like that you need. It has the most important things. I suggest to camp out some low-risk area or whatever for some time to farm currency and get the basic build more or less completed. I think that's the best way i can express myself as i am running out of time, i have to go to work now!

Hope it helps and just ask if there is any.

Ok, I'm now 72 and I can most definitely certify that those 8% extra area size make a huge difference. A few details I came to realize.

- I personally don't use the same curses. I use elemental weakness and flammability as my go-to curses for most content. Obviously if the content is tough enough temporal chains is in order. My point here being I much more enjoy running fire penetration + elemental weakness + flammability for some sweet negative resists. It clears mobs rather smoothly without needing that well placed crit. Maybe you should give it a try and let me know your thoughts! Maybe it works really well because less resist on burning damage too?

- I use enfeeble with cwdt rather than (1) zombie. I reasoned that if a decoy totem and 2 skeletons dont grab the attention, I doubt a 4th one will.

- The way I saw it, I made a list of every talent I could possibly go towards to simplify my choice. Towards the ending stretch is where it gets trickier. I am not asking for you to comment on this, I'm just listing it so other players can somewhat use this info to make a somewhat informed decision.

. blaze - 2 points - 14% fire damage, 5% ignite
. nullification - 5 points - 4% movement speed, 32% max ES, 36% max EV, 10% ES recovery speed, 8% resist all
. doom cast - 2 points - 60% crit, 10 int
. reduced mana - 1 point - 7% reduced mana cost of spells
. faith and steel - 5 points - 22% max ES, 28% armor, 8% resist all, 20 str, 10 int
. chaos innoculation - 5 points - chaos innoculation, 30% max ES
. inner force - 4 points - 21% increased effect of buffs on you, 10 int
. sovereignty - 7 points - 28% increased effect of auras you cast, 8% reduced mana reserved, 12% aura radius, 30 int
. throatseeker - 5 points - 70% crit multiplier
. influence - 3 points - 24% increased effect of auras you cast, 5% reduced mana reserved

- About the 40 mana bandits. How much more mana is this equal to, considering its base mana? I made the mistake to go talent point, but now that I can change it, I'd be glad to know the alternative.

- Also just how good is the 7% reduced mana single talent? I'm not sure how it interacts with everything else. Does this end up being significant ?

- im still unsure how I want to use my point leading towards level 100. I don't think I'll delay throatseeker to 92-97 but I play very aggressively. I totally get now that sovereignty is there mostly for the reduced mana to allow a 3rd aura, which I don't think I could afford without it. It does feel very unfortunate to spent as much as 7 points for that, but considering how good the 8% increased radius of area turned out to be maybe I shouldn't underestimate. My impression is that inner force is rather hard to justify for solo play. Clarity by itself doesn't really give all that much more mana (from inner force), and discipline is a sweet increase but its still ~ 300 ES we're applying the 4 talent points on. 21% more out of ~300ES*buffs. Its good, but not earth shattering. The only thing I could understand, and hence the question, does the inner force talent increases the *quality* bonus from purity of fire ? ie: are the getting more resists beyond 75% from that talent? If so, maybe I could understand but would still personally feel it being a lesser important point expenditure.

You have some very good points, i have looked into some of them now and will get back to you tomorrow.

I have to work now, so long!

Peace!

Guide discontinued. I've had enough.

EDIT: Okay.. maybe i overreacted... if Concentrated effect scales with ignite now as well i might still play, because then i would have gained 58% more burning damage :D

Can you explain how exactly this build has been ruined by the latest patch? Or is it still viable? I am worried...

2 things.

Burning Damage was nerfed

Curse immune is now a map mod.

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/661106

I tested if concentrated works on the burn portion in addition to initial hit, and it does not. Guide discontinued :D

The question is whether *even before the patch* CE affected more than the initial hit, ie DoT burning. Was this ever tested? If initial crit hit damage is affected by CE (and of course it is), then this hit damage is still a component of crit ignite damage. I'm not sure it was ever any different, even pre-1.02.

I am following your build and I expected the worst with this patch but I do not actually notice any lessening of damage in practice. I still 1-crit-kill Kole.

Can someone explain how the build is ruined? I have not been using concentrated effect so I'm not sure if the nerf mostly wrecks that or if it sis to burning dmg as well. If this build is not viable anymore, we have to figure out how to redo fireball and our crit build.

Btw, I am 73 now. I have ~4300 ES with auras. I am still using searing touch but I desperately need a wand and shield. The nice shields I've seen tho sr are insanely expensive though so I doubt I will switch for a while. I may try crafting one once a high level spirit shield drops.