[1.3.0] Fire Damage 3 Curse Auramancer
 Hey fellow witches! This is a safe build I've been using for easy and relaxed farming, so I can drink many beers while doing so ^_^. Note that I am not yet using 20/20 gems, I am using several mediocre rares, and a 6L armor is not required, so it's fairly budget. Therefore, it allows flexibility in your gear choices at lower levels. As the title suggests the build's main focuses are Fire Damage, Curses and Auras apart from minions. The build includes all closely available Aura nodes to run 4 auras. As such, you don't have to go for Prism Guardian or Blood Magic auras and can use the Chaos Inoculation (CI) passive. Don't worry though, a 6L is not required, as you could add Flesh Offering to other slots as well. First, gear and gems (Standard League):
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Only important part missing are 20/20 gems (getting there!), but you probably get the point now. The build does require gear with a lot of mana and mana regen if you want to run all 4 auras at the same time. After recent patch changes, Clarity is no longer an option IMO. Depending on the gems you use, it will also require lots of Str and Dex, but that's a common issue for all classes. Therefore, Atziri's amulet is pretty much a staple for this build, unless you are crazy high level. Here's the passives (I'm lvl 88 atm): Passives You will notice some oddities, but those are reviewed below. Elemental equilibrium, elemental weakness and flammability together provide around -150% fire resistance with quality gems. Initially I ran Nycta's Lantern to boost fire damage of my spectres even more, but I needed more Mana and Mana Regen. Faster Cast is pretty important for summoning Skellies, Arctic Breath and running 3 Curses, but I could not manage any more nodes atm. Temporal chains adds many synergies and is a staple for this build. The key advantages of this build are:
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1. Minion Instability is fire damage, which is boosted by having a) Minions with increased Damage and Life (see Wiki) and b) Lowered Fire Resistances of the mobs. On level 75 maps exploding Zombies are room clearers (I think the AoE is around 10-15 yards).
2. Arctic Breath keeps enemies at a distance and is better at doing that than any other Cold spell I have tried, because it creates Chilled ground. In combination with GMP and Pierce its incredible. 3. Arctic Breath and Temporal Chains together make it very difficult for mobs to hit you, as ranged mobs are blocked by your minions, and melee mobs won't be able to reach you. Temporal Chains increases Chill length caused by Arctic Breath. Additionally, Temp Chains does not require faster attacks or multistrike for your Zombies per se as they can chase down mobs much easier. Lastly, Elemental Weakness and Flammability last longer because of Temporal Chains, which supports not having to use the permanent curses passive. 4. Chaos Damage is still a pain in the butt, especially when combined with hard Map mods. Being able to run into Chaos damage mob packs with Quicksilver flasks to 'teleport' your zombies right on top of them equals funfunfun. And efficiency! 5. The AoE Burn caused by Zombies due to the Added Fire Damage, Melee Splash and Flammability is pretty sweet and I don't even have quality gems yet. 6. No life or mana pots required. Using 1/2 Granite, 1 Quartz and 2/3 Quicksilver Flasks. The Armour/ES passive nodes + Granite Flasks give me >10k Armour (~53% reduction) during flask duration of Granite flasks, which is really needed for those pesky desync chargers. Granite + Quartz really helps to get your Minions through doorways (remember that your Minions don't have collision with you, but you do with them, so you need to either stay before doorway or run through it). 7. Auras are amazingly powerful and add the needed survivability to your zombies. Additionally, Anger adds a lot of Fire Damage for your Splash Damage Zombies or spectres that deal many hits such as Tentacle Miscreations. You will need survivability for your Zombies as you can't be chain casting Zombies and also casting Arctic Breath and 3 Curses all the time. When survivability is balanced correctly, Minion Instability clears the hardest rooms, but allows your Zombies to survive 95% of the other packs. Playstyle is more or less as follows, in theory and in practice:
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In theory
1. Cast Temporal Chains first to maximize the duration of Arctic Breath and other Curses 2. Cast Arctic Breath to incoming mobsters to slow them even further 3. Cast Elemental Weakness 4. Cast Flammability (if needed and you have time) 5. Back to step 1 or loot Voltaxic Rift while minions are melting other stuff ^_^ In practice Flammability (and sometimes Ele Weakness) can't even be cast when mobs die too quickly or simply do not pose a threat. This ofcourse depends on your Map level and mods, the mob types (you'll want to chain cast Arctic Breath and Temp Chains on body spewers) and your beer level. I'm using a high ES build. Obviously, a summoner is a good candidate for a CI build, since you rarely get hit! People tend to forget that. I was using Necro Aegis before to have my Minions walk around with ~800 ES, but with Vitality this has become redundant. This is also because you'll need lots of mana and mana regen as mentioned, which limits your gear choices (depending on your wealth). I have not taken up any additional -ES Recovery cooldown since I find it a waste similarly to the above summoner argument; you don't get hit much anyway and you can just run away a bit and wait 3 seconds. Also, with Zealot's Oath I regen around 150 ES/second always anyway (which is great vs Elemental Reflect maps). So don't be lazy and run away when needed! With Clarity gone, Arctic Armour is out of the question atm. Best spectres DPS-Survivability-wise with this setup (from best to worst):
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1. Flame Sentinel (best AI because they follow you closely; attacks on sight; crazy amount of fireballs when combined with GMP; look awesome!)
2. Tentacle Miscreation (hits mobs 1.5-2 screens away because of piercing attacks; constant amount of life leech; synergies best with Anger aura) 3. Goblin-looking-backpack-carrying-flame-throwing dude (fire bomb DPS is sick, so dominates in small rooms and doorways; slow-walking) 4. Undying Evangelist (makes you immune to damage; shines in close quarters and tightly packed mobs; is physical damage so benefits less from -fire res; dmg has a timer so often misses mobs that run towards you) 5. Voidbearer (very high damage; high FPS drops; is almost melee range so dies quicker) 6. Carrion Queen (stay very far away, which sometimes increases their survivability but sometimes actually results in their death as they run into other mob packs out of sight for you; large AoE dmg; fireballs cause screen shakes) 7. Fireball Goatmenz (very high damage skill when mobs come close; lower overall damage) 8. Burned Miscreations (highest damage of all; much dying, so only high level ones are reliable enough for high level Maps) 9. Kraityn Sniper (explosive arrows "you've-got-something-stuck-to-your-BOOM-haha"; don't shoot explosive arrows continuously; slow-walking) 10. Any lightning damage spectres such as Brittle Archers with Lightning Arrow as you are using Elemental Equilibrium (mostly useful when mobs have increased Fire Resistance) So plenty to choose from :)! Considering Map Mods, running a summoner is great because Mods generally only affect you and not your minions (e.g. -Max Resists or Vulnerability). Below is a summary of the worst Map mods specifically for this build and some (generally feared) Map mods that hardly or do not affect this build:
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Worst Mods
1. Immune to Curses. Even more difficult when combined with +damage mods as you can't use Temporal Chains. To counteract the loss of Temporal Chains simply chain-cast Arctic Breath to have permanent chilled ground. At the same time, doing so makes elemental equilibrium more prevalent, somewhat counteracting the loss of the -Resist Curses. Manageable Mod, but potentially deadly. 2. +75% Fire Resist. Similar to the 1st mod, either chain-cast Temporal Chains and Arctic Breath or chain-cast both -Resist Curses to overcome the increased Fire Resist. Lastly, this mod causes other damage type Spectres to become a more interesting choice (which creates gameplay diversity!). Does not affect your survivability much, just takes a little longer to clear maps. 3. Players Have no Life or Mana Regeneration. This is a mana-heavy build. To counteract this Mod, disable Anger aura to have more mana and switch some run speed Flasks for mana Flasks. Requires some re-managing of skills and mana, but not too much trouble. No Life Gain does not affect this build. 4. Players recover Life, Mana and Energy Shield 50% slower. Again, because this build is mana intensive it requires you similar precautions as above, although you can manage easier mods without any adjustment. To be sure, prioritize Temporal Chains over -Resist Curses. 5. Players have Blood Magic . Rare Mod, but insta-death for CI users so can't do Map. Reroll Mods! Easier Mods 1. Players are Cursed with Enfeeble. You don't do damage anyway. 2. Players take Chaos Damage over Time. Immune! 3. Players are Cursed with Elemental Weakness. You should still have close to max resists because of Purity Aura. I'm using Atziri and 1x Doedre's and still have 60+ all resist with this Mod. -Max Resist is more dangerous, but that is not a specific issue for this build. 4. Monsters reflect Physical Damage. Zombies die a bit quicker, but who cares with MI? 5. Monsters reflect Elemental Damage. Again, you don't do much damage. Still, because of Arctic Breath, you don't regenerate Energy Shield normally. Zealot's Oath passive counteracts this Mod fairly well. Alternatively, you could switch to using a level 1 Arctic Breath gem if you are doing too much damage to yourself or simply be careful using Arctic Breath. Just don't forget to keep checking your Energy Shield level (you tend to forget, because you hardly ever get hit srsly)! 6. Players are Cursed with Vulnerability. You can hide behind your minions more than usually, so not too difficult except for some Bosses. Still, be careful when combined with Ranged mobs that penetrate. 7. Players are Cursed with Temporal Chains. Prioritize Temporal Chains and Arctic Breath over -Fire Resist Curses due to slower casting speed. Being able to use 3-4 Run Speed Flasks really helps counter this Mod, as well as your Minions, which don't suffer from the Curse. Improvements Some passive and gear choices are somewhat odd. I need to upgrade some gear, but generally they show what is needed. For example, I still need some more mana (have 98 mana available), as I have to disable an aura now to cast zombies (less dying when gem is 20/20 ofcourse). I could switch some nodes to increased % mana ones, probably vs. things like Light of Dinivity, Faith and Steel (but I used them now because I needed the Strength and overall it seemed better). I will probably want Hex Master, as it will buy me much more Arctic Breath casting time and uptime through increase Temporal Chains duration (Arctic Breath is the skill that has the shortest duration on mobs in practice). Also, I may decide to get Unnatural Calm as my gear is getting better and find other ways to deal with Strength requirements. After all my gems are level 20, I will probably start switching out gear for MF, such as using 1x or 2x Andvarius depending on Map mods. Currently, I'm using skellies as the only MF cullers on map bosses. Summoning Skellies takes some practice to time right, so don't use Spell Totem. If you have any suggestions, let me know. If you have any questions, happy to share! And information too... /hug. @ExperimentY NOTE: This build is FPS heavy, so like many other summoner builds not party friendly. Thou shall be kicketed! Replacing GMP with LMP for Arctic Breath and using specific Spectres increases FPS a lot in large mob pack encounters. Just don't use avoidbearers (I like word jokes yes) when you suffer from low FPS. Same goes for Evangelists (known to crash drivers). Last edited by Tecnik#2783 on Apr 1, 2015, 6:59:16 AM
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Sharing the love once more. Please let me know if you find any improvements :)
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" What? Never heard of some build-in faster casting. " I don't get it. Using Minion Instability + Necromantic Aegis seems to be self-contradictory. Either you want them to explode (then you don't protect them) or you you protect them so they deal melee damage without exploding. |
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" I was under the impression that melee characters had slower Curse Casting Speeds, but I think I was mistaken. Thanks for pointing that out. " TLDR; If you are only referring to MI + Necro Aegis: Yeah I was not using MI when I was using Necromantic Aegis at the time
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MI and Necro Aegis don't contradict each other per se, as it all depends on what kind of mobs you are farming. Yes, in general you want to stack Life for MI, but if your Zombies still die too fast, you may as well provide Necro Aegis for them. Of course, now I am being specific for things like Jungle Valley boss, etc. It depends on playstyle too.
I often hear a line of reasoning similar to yours about protecting or not protecting them. I found out the best is to do both, especially in end-game map farming. Ultimately, I felt MI's effectiveness (i.e. in its dmg and usability) depends on the sweet spot of Zombie Life _and_ survivability. More importantly, MI is so much more effective for this build when using -Resist auras than by chain casting low survivability zombies. This is because MI offers a guarantee that on the hardest +DMG/IAS/shrine mob packs, it will still clear the room without too much trouble (5% of the content I face, which is the hardest content). For the other 95% content that is much easier, I want their melee damage, yes, so I rely on their survivability. Last edited by Tecnik#2783 on Dec 21, 2013, 8:52:17 AM
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Bump for interest.
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Updated bump.
And thanks for adding to builds list Bada_Bing :) Last edited by Tecnik#2783 on Dec 21, 2013, 9:15:24 AM
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Bump. Added a Map Mods section.
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Bump for recognition! /sarcasm.
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What reward should I get for the normal bandit quest? This is my first witch and I am not sure which one to get.
Last edited by daved86#0262 on Jan 31, 2014, 12:38:06 PM
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Hey all!
As I've been travelling I haven't played my witch for a couple months. I was wondering when I come back, will this build still work? I hear Minions did get buffed a bit? Kind regards, Tecnik Last edited by Tecnik#2783 on May 20, 2014, 10:10:13 AM
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