[2.0] THOR'S RAINBOWNUKE: DO ALL MAPS, UBER ATZIRI, AND EXPLOSIONS!

For this build we're obviously going to have some required pieces, so here they are:



The only newly added piece is the 'Kingsguard' chest piece and as you can see the main draw of it is that it has the 'Gain 100 Life when an Endurance Charge expires or is consumed' affix on it. Given how frequently this build uses up Endurance Charges via its mechanics it comes as no surprise that one can expel A LOT of ECs and thus gain A LOT of life quickly. I am no math guru but suffice to say that you can regenerate life very fast with this chest piece. It WILL NOT totally replace life flasks and it DOES NOT make you invincible against elemental reflect, but what it does do is gives you a reliable life regen method and it practically negates the need for a Life Leech gem in the Mjolner hammer that the LL build needs.

**NOTE** Gem setups will be covered later so please do not comment on what you see in this section as it's meant for gear showcasing.

Those are the required pieces, but how about everything else? Well, in case you are curious, here is what I currently have equipped and do note that this gear can change, but you'll get the general idea of what I am doing:



You'll see that I am using a mixture of Evasion and Armour gear, and that's because this variant I have found is most successful when you are stacking armour. But then why do I have Evasion gear, you ask? That's because this build makes use of the 'Iron Reflexes' keystone, which converts all of your 'Evasion Rating' on gear into 'Armour Rating', your base evade chance becomes 5%, and you gain no extra ER from Dexterity. This will be covered more in-depth when it comes to the skill tree section,but suffice to say here are the major points my gearing aims to accomplish:

1. Required uniques for generating PCs and ECs to fuel Discharge damage as well as regen life via Kingsguard.

2. Using Alpha's Howl for both aura reservation reduction (more on that later) and to give us the extremely valuable 'Cannot Be Frozen' mod.

3. Getting enough resists to ensure that I am overcapped for maps and Elemental Weakness map mod.

4. Using a mix of Armour/Evasion gear to have a high Armour rating so I can reduce physical damage as much as possible since I can't rely on long Immortal Call times like before. Goes very well with a Granite Flask, too, but that's a bit later for more details.

5. The rare ring slot is used mostly for life and fulfilling attribute requirements for Intellect as this variant does run a little short on it. Headhunter belt IS NOT REQUIRED, as you can use a very good rare leather belt or heavy belt to meet Strength requirements. Dex is usually not an issue with this build given how the passive tree is designed.

6. Gloves can roll IAS on them if your resists are up to par, but not required, and obviously you can roll better Armour/Evasion multiples to squeeze out a bit more defense.

7. I should also mention that there is one piece of switch gear that I use along with flasks, but I will showcase the flasks in their own section. The one gear piece that I do use is this:



This is the shield that I use to handle elemental reflect maps as without it the damage I do is far too great for even Kingsguard to keep up with. Hitting a massive blue or white pack of mobs, even with elemental flasks popped is sheer suicide and the shield is needed to reduce the damage to manageable levels. Again, will go over more of that later, but for now, I strongly suggest you get one of these shields...even a non-legacy version will suffice, but if you can nab a legacy one, then go for it!

Level 95 Passive Tree

http://poedb.tw/us/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwABvryC5JARiq9KyG6qtfI1kti9_gq3PoPMPC2DX8auxPZyqfcyfNkLYa9saPLwH6IABLPAZqyqWfNyD5RvZlQaOJBVJy9mnvrSFm_jahcvZOdV1oCke8N4DcAabzupblivNugB56cwn8sUTfxLvJ8YkXfjAdyE2Ud-vTZlTb6nhmBhUu9OhtEnC4O2XhNAoCFgdPEppUa302967wUtdO1EnlO7t9bbWS2osZC-gIMJb57KSl-wm7WExcM6GYr7CfbaGo9GceGIHar-SbQMytO-iqEvkyd_xsHF7Bhwu9kTL28=

Now, you might be wondering why I only have 112 points in the tree even though I'm saying it's level 95. Let me explain...two of those points are going towards bandit rewards, which are:

Normal = Oak
Cruel = Passive Point
Merciless = Alira

Since we're life that means the 40 Life from Oak is a no-brainer and we want an extra Power Charge for offense via Discharge. I tried getting an extra EC from Oak to have 5, but I could never get 5 to come up with only 4 PCs, so I opted for a 5th PC to increase damage and it's certainly easy to get them to pop up even on single targets. That all said, that means some other points aren't allocated, and the reason for that is because this passive tree is assuming that you have the 'Intuitive Leap' jewel. The jewel is to be placed in the jewel socket in the Templar area, allowing you get the EC, PC, and Faith and Steel notables without having to directly path to them. Again, more PCs and ECs equal to more offense and defense, and since we're stacking armour, the FaS notable is very nice...the extra all resist doesn't hurt either.

For the rest of the tree I pathed around taking what life nodes I could and some of you might notice that I only have 137% max life, and that might be setting off red flags. Normally, you'd be right, but this tree has something else in mind...it get EIGHT...yes, EIGHT JEWEL SOCKETS that are not out of the way. You may not need to get life% on all of the sockets, and even accounting for the IL jewel to leave you with 7 useable sockets, that's potentially an extra 49% life. You can likely get around 40% extra life from jewels alone and get around 5,200+ life, which is a very respectable total and combined with your other defenses and smart play, you'll be plenty fine.

The only other major note I want to make on the tree is that this build gets 38% aura reservation reduction and 63% aura effectiveness. Those numbers are very important and I will go over them further when it comes to the gem setups, but keep them in mind. Otherwise, I think the rest of the tree should make sense to those who analyze it a bit...oh...and the life regen nodes are obviously taken to counteract Blood Rage as much as possible since the life variant CAN use the gem. Here is a level 100 version of the tree for those of you who may want to see what it looks like in the end:

http://poedb.tw/us/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwABvryC5JARiq9KyG6qtfI1kti9_gq3PoPMPC2DX8auxPZyqfcyfNkLYa9saPLwH6IABLPAZqyqWfNyD5RvZlQaOJBVJy9mnvrSFm_jahcvZOdV1oCke8N4DcAabzupblivNugB56cwn8t34wHchNlHfr02ZU2-p4ZgYVLvTobRJwuDtl4TQKAhYHTxKaVGt9Nveu8FLXTtRJ5Tu7fW21ktqLGQvoCDCW-eykpfsJu1hMXDOhmK-wn22hqPRnHhiB2q_km0DMrTvoqhL5Mnf8bBxewYcLvZEy9vUzVQQow2VUth4iaVFr9ybGxGMgk=

For this, I removed the 'Bloodless' life cluster near 'Unwavering Stance' and with the remaining points I pathed into the Shadow area to grab the life nodes there along with 'Trickery' and 'Coordination'. That provides me with extra Int for stat requirements, some extra damage, and extra attack speed. I also took the 'Berserking' cluster for more IAS, though that one is totally optional and you can instead put the points elsewhere for either more life, another jewel socket, or whatever else you might need.

1. Mjolner = Arc -> Discharge -> Iron Will/Lvl. 4 Empower(?)/Life Leech

2. Alpha's Howl = Lvl. 3 Enlighten -> Lvl. 21 PoF -> Lvl. 21 PoL -> Lvl. 21 Grace

3. Shield = Blood Magic -> Increased Duration/Lvl. 3-4 Enhance -> Blood Rage

4. Gloves = Lvl. 3 Enlighten -> Wrath -> Herald of Thunder -> Arctic Armour

5. Boots = Increased Duration -> Lvl. 14 Cast When Damage Taken -> Lvl. 16 Immortal Call -> Lvl. 17 Enfeeble

6. Chest = Lvl. 1 Molten Strike -> Fortify -> Multistrike -> Blood Magic -> Faster Attacks -> Greater Multiple Projectiles

Aura Setup

Wrath -> Grace -> Purity of Fire -> Purity of Lightning -> Herald of Thunder/Arctic Armour

Most of these are pretty self-explanatory, but I'll go into detail about some of them, starting with the aura setup. Alpha's Howl is used here for the 8% mana reservation reduction that it offers. Combine that with the 38% percent reservation reduction from the tree and the Lvl. 3 Enlighten gems and we can run a total of 5 auras on nothing but mana. Wrath, Grace, and both purities are pretty much the mandatory auras we'll be running here and depending on map mods you can choose between either HoT for more damage, or AA for more defense.

Alpha's Howl is also used for its +2 to aura gems, which is why we put our level 21 corrupted purities in there and Grace. We get level 23 purities in the end, which bumps up their base +Max Resists to +5 instead of +4, and that's why the 63% aura increase from the tree is so important. If we only had +4 resists, then we'd get +6 Max Resists when all is said and done, but +5 gets bumped up to +8, and those extra 2% max resists make a HUGE difference. Grace is put in the helm simply to boost how much flat evasion it gives, and if you can afford a corrupted level 21 Grace, then put that in the helm. Wrath isn't needed there as it gains no substantial benefits from the +2 affix.

Here's an aura calculation for those curious about the mana reservation: https://poe.mikelat.com/#k0Jp-Rh/raZPu_q (simply switch between AA and HoT for the last aura)

The CWDT setup has some very specific numbers in it and the reason for that is because I've found that the damage threshold at level 14 (1980) is good. It's not so much to where you need obscene damage amounts coming in for it to trigger, and it's not too little to where it triggers so much that you're not really benefiting from it. This is especially true since Immortal Call now has a 3 second internal cooldown, and at level 16, combined with the Endurance Charges we'll have up as well as the Increased Duration gem, you're getting enough IC uptime on average for it to just outlast the cooldown and ready to trigger next time you take enough damage...usually. Not perfect, mind you, but it helps. Enfeeble is there to obviously decrease enemy damage, but if you're running a map that doesn't need the extra damage reduction, then chuck in either Conductivity or Elemental Weakness for a little power boost now and then. You can also consider Warlord's Mark if you want some leech.

The last major setup is obviously the chest piece and I chose this setup because it not only provides Fortify for a near-constant 20% damage reduction to all damage, but since we're reserving pretty much our entire mana globe, the Blood Magic gem allows us to run our main skill without worry. The coloring on the chest piece can be a bit of a pain to get, and I'd honestly suggest trying to single Chrome the color combo a bit before going to the "At least two green sockets" from the Vorici crafting table. More often than not you're gonna get 3R2G1B and pull your hair out in frustration at how much it dances around 4R2G, but such is the RNG and life at times. Nothing else here to explain in terms of what the rest of the gems in the chest piece are used for...pretty standard for this build.

Let me start off with some of the Unique flasks in the game and where I find them best to be used.



1. Atziri's Promise is an all-around excellent flask to use both in terms of offense and defense. You get a Chaos Resist boost as well as added Chaos Damage that then gets leeched as life, and all of that damage bypasses not only Energy Shield, but cannot be reflected back at you. I tend to use this flask on maps where I am not faced with E.Reflect mod and it's good for helping to handle single E.Reflect rares and works nicely on pretty much any boss in the game, too. In an E.Reflect mod map or double high elemental damage maps, I set this one aside for elemental resist flasks, but otherwise, it's on my bar for pretty much everything else.

2. Rumi's Concoction - While not providing as much armour as a Granite Flask of Iron Skin, that's not what this is used for. This baby comes out for those maps that have bosses that just pour out damage via spells like Shrine Piety, Crematorium firestormer, first phase of Palace Dominus, etc, etc. Combine this with the Saffel's Frame shield, and you're either capping or getting very close to 75% spell block, while still getting a little extra armour to boot. Of course, the spell block is what you're after, so consider porting out of the map right before these bosses to equip the flask and get full charges, or switch in earlier if you can kill enough remaining monsters safely to get to full charges.

Those out of the way, here is my standard, non-super-hard map running setup:



Some things to take away from this setup (and please note that it is NOT 100% super-optimized...still workin' on it):

1. Two life flasks that have curse removal and bleed removal on them and also the 'Sapping' prefix. Since we don't run on mana we can get away with using 'Sapping' and take advantage of the big life boost it gives. You're getting roughly 950 life per second, and I find that this build works better with heal over time instead of the more commonly used 'Seething' variant. We already has 'instant heals' via Kingsguard and thus we can stretch our charges out more via the heals, especially for degen ground effects or even bleeds. Speaking of bleeds...

2. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE AT LEAST ONE BLEED REMOVAL FLASK! I cannot stress this enough, and I'd honestly put it on either a Quicksilver Flask, or even a Ruby Flask and an 'emergency' one on a life flask. Corrupting Blood is a huge issue with this build as we hit so many times per second, you can get to 20 stacks so fast and your life can drain so quickly that you're going to want bleed protection. Corrupting Bloodline is also a thing for blue packs, so even more reason to pack bleed removal.

3. Curse removal is also what I would consider mandatory for maps like Academy and other places where curses get thrown around a lot. Again, best on a Quicksilver or Ruby Flask, though on a life flask is perfectly fine if you just need a quick removal and not the full duration that some flasks can provide.

4. Make sure you roll some Topaz and Ruby Flasks for this build as you're going to use them on Elemental Reflect mod maps. Rubies are the wild card as I've sort of alluded to and are great for Bleed/Curse removal, though Topaz should have shock immunity/removal on them. You don't want to be taking 50% MORE DAMAGE in higher end maps, especially around lightning damage as that's just asking for trouble. Also, have a Sapphire Flask handy if you're going against bosses like Necropolis Merveil. Even with Alpha's Howl protecting you against Frozen (means you don't need it the mod on flasks at all) you're still going to want to get extra frost resist and whatever else you might need on the flask. Or roll it anyway if you want to just bypass chilled ground at times, but at the very least know the bosses and damage you're facing on maps and bring flasks accordingly.

5. For your Granite and even your elemental flasks, try to roll the 'Perpetual' mod as close to 40% as you can. We can't take advantage of the 'Surgeon's' affix on a RT build so we need as much charge recovery gained as possible. Belt mods can help here as well, but that's for other gear...if you get really unlucky with rolling 'Perpetual' then +Charges is not bad at all. At the very least you should be able to get 3 uses out of your flasks instead of the standard 2. Back to the Granite...Iron Skin as close to 100% as you can as that's going to affect all of the Armour Rating you get not only from the flask, but from your gear as well. With solid gear, you're looking at 35,000-40,000+ Armour when your Granite is up. Combine that with Fortify and ECs...you're getting some powerful physical defense for when you need it.

6. Again, mods you should be looking for: Iron Skin on Granite, Shock removal on Topaz, Curse/Bleed removal on Ruby, Curse/Bleed on Life, Curse/Bleed on Quicksilver, potential Frozen/Chilled on Sapphire, but remember that last one isn't required.

7. STUDY THE MAP MODS AND BOSSES OF MAPS! I can't stress this enough...flasks give you a huge amount of defense and flexibility. Learn how to use them and adapt to the situations you are given and don't stick to just one setup. Carry extra flasks in your inventory if you're partying and can't use a portal before a boss to change your setup a bit, change it up before your enter an E.Reflect modded map, etc, etc. Practice and experiment and you'll learn which flask setups are best for the situation.

1. Elemental Reflect = You're going to be using a Topaz flask, Ruby Flask, and Saffel's Frame here to ensure that you do not kill yourself. Make sure you have your Granite Flask here as well because YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO BLOCK ATTACKS WITH SAFFEL'S EQUIPPED! That means you're relying on Armour, Fortyify, and ECs for your physical protection, but that should be the least of your worries here. Take it slow, preemptively flask before big packs and only use 'bursts' of attacks instead of just holding down the button and spamming Molten Strike. Be extremely careful of 'Allies are Immune' auras from rares or totems as well. Otherwise, portal out if you run out of charges and don't want to risk your experience, and play it safe...should do fine otherwise.

2. -Max Resists = You can run Saffel's here, but honestly you should be all right without it. Keep it around just in case you come across a rare E.Reflect mob and want to play it extra safe, but otherwise it shouldn't be too much of an issue. Equip your Elemental flasks if you want, and I suggest keeping them in your inventory. If you're doing a map like Shrine or Crematorium then DEFINITELY have the appropriate Elemental flasks, put on Saffel's, and have Rumi's at the ready.

3. Double Extra Damage = Again, keep the appropriate elemental flasks around and equipped if you feel you need them, but you shouldn't need Saffel's here, save for maybe a boss fight. Otherwise, don't go rushing into battle and make sure you use your flasks well...shouldn't be too bad with a little practice.

4. Reduced Regen/No Regen = Blood Rage is going to start eating into your life pool on the first one, and you may find it not able to be sustained with the latter. You can of course use two life flasks to help out, but you'll likely find your life pool dropping like a stone otherwise. BR is doable in the first one, but I would recommend no running it in a No Regen map, and for these BE VERY WARY OF CORRUPTING BLOOD!

5. Vulnerability = With the armour you have the regular physical damage isn't an issue. It's that Blood Rage will once again be doing more damage to you AN CORRUPTING BLOOD IS NASTY HERE! Bleed removal flasks are 100% mandatory or you will die insanely fast if you don't pot quickly enough. BE EXTREMELY WARY IF YOU GET THIS MOD + REDUCED/NO REGEN thanks once again to Corrupting Blood and Blood Rage will likely be draining life too fast for it to be useful.

6. New map mods in patch 2.0.1b = Obviously be careful around these, but note that with Kingsguard you get around the life leech immunity provided by the 'Congealment' affix. You aren't leeching life, but instead gaining it via using/removing ECs so you can generate your life back no problem, and since this build doesn't run on mana, that's no problem either. Again, just use caution around those mods especially when combined with any of the above.

I am sure there are others, but those are the big ones, and you can use your own skill and knowledge to plan for the remainder of the mods.

As you can see I look for several things on jewels:

1. Life%
2. Spell Damage%, Lightning Damage%, Area Damage%
3. Attack Speed
4. Chance to Shock
5. Intelligence Attribute

They're all pretty self-explanatory as to why, though in terms of priority, that's going to be up to you with what you get from your gear and the like. However, you will absolutely want 'Chance to Shock' since we're not taking any of the nodes in the tree that provide those chances, and I'd shoot for around 8-10%, which is more than enough. Spell Damage is obviously there for increased damage and thus longer shock durations, life for defense, and attack speed to swing faster. Intelligence is used for stat requirements on gear...yeah...pretty much what you'd expect. A good jewel to look for is somethign like:

Spell Damage%, Life%, IAS, Chance to Shock

But again, this will all depend on your gear. Use your best judgement and remember that you have 7-8 sockets to work with and you can always try and roll your own if you can't find something on poe.goods.