[3.2] Scionic Flametank "16k ES ed." (ES-CI-ZO-GR, SR-CWC-FS, extensive guide)

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ssgtparker wrote:

With the new changes any ideas on pushing more damage. With the setup as it is delves and incursions at high lvl just seemed lacking.

Yes, I have.

Having recovered from a broken leg (which hospitalization prevented me from playing or updating the guide last league), I spent the weekend tweaking the flametank using two of my old L93 flametanks in standard.

I am pleased with the way they play out in T15/T16, doing more damage and having greater survivability than the earlier flametanks. The gem overhaul for 3.6 allowed some combinations that worked really well together once I began playing with the mathematics.

The cost? The flametank is once again Incinerate based rather than SR-CWC-FS based, which in practice means it has less range since investing enough skillpoints in AOE increases to make it match the range of CSR-CWC-FS would defeat the purpose

(Though if one wants to stick with SR-CWC-FS, it is still stronger than the earlier versions, just not as large an upgrade in the damage department. I did test that, just to be sure.)

Key was realizing that:

1. I could guarantee Fire Exposure from CWDT Wave of Conviction on tough enemies at close range by using the new Infused Channeling support gem (for MORE typed fire multiplier) with a few +fire damage% modifiers, and I wanted to use that gem anyhow for the damage reduction. (Since only one wave can be active at once, when there's heavy damage being taken the wave doesn't reach enemies further away)

2. I could guarantee consecrated ground spammed all over the place where enemies were (and right in my face when fighting melee mobs) by use of CWDT Purifying Flames.

3. The new increased crit% on enemies in consecrated ground meant I didn't have to jump through hoops to get crits to trigger elemental overload (such as the old Orb of Storms - Increased Critical Strikes, so long as I made sure not to include Controlled Destruction in the link and hit enemies lots of times.

4. With Arcane Surge's new damage multipliers, it would fit quite nicely into a main 6L; For most spells I'd still do more damage with AS deployed in the OOS-AS combo and using the 6th link for something else, but the new option meant that for a channeling skill like Incinerate where resetting the stages to cast OOS to trigger AS is a bad idea AS would make an excellent link. Not only that, it would help ameliorate some of the mana issues with Incinerate as well.

5. Energy Leech support is so very, very, good; Spending skillpoints in the Witch area on leech to get higher maximum leech% will be better for many other builds (that is, the builds where leech is their primary survival tool), for a build like this where every skillpoint invested in something that doesn't increase strength, greatly increase damage, or shore up a critical weakness should be very carefully considered, Energy Leech is a gift from heaven. Or GGG as the case might be.

6. With Energy Leech in the link it means that anybody who wants to run Anger with a -x% FR(Anger) Watcher's Eye can do so if they can afford it, because they aren't tied to getting the leech on gear or Vitality for the leech(Vitality) Watcher's Eye.

7. Cast speed has become an important damage multiplier now - as well as being needed to run max level Arcane Surge, since 400 mana needs to be spent every 4 seconds (or less) - and by fun coincidence Doon Cuebiyari provides a decent amount to start with, Arcane Surge as well, and there are a few miscellaneous cast speed increases in the tree already picked up for other reasons, and then there are those frenzy charges created as a side effect of the CWDT-IC-BR mechanics used to trigger the Soul of Arakaali.... So including a Lightning Golem as the new Golem of choice the build reaches 69% increased cast speed without even trying.

8. The overhaul freed up some links due to no longer needed the Orb of Storms Arcane Surge trigger, meaning that the Shield Charge-Fortify combination is now extended to Shield Charge-Fortify-Increased Duration-Faster Attacks. While still leaving room for a Flame Dash teleport.

So together with some tweaks to the skill tree, it all worked out really well in theory, and practical testing confirms it.

I'll be updating the guide over the week, but for now I can share a POB link with level 93 versions of Incinerate (and SR-CWC-FS) builds using the equipment I'd gathered at the end of 3.2, the last time I leveled a flametank.

Here it is: pastebin

You can try out the different combinations of VIT+AA, VIT+HOA, HOA+AA, and ANG in path of building by selecting which skill groups to enable.

E.g. if you want to look at Incinerate build with HOA+AA, you enable the skills

WE
INC: Main spell
INC: HE3
INC: BO
INC: SH
INC: GL

..whereas if you want to look at Incinerate with VIT+AA, you'd enable INC: HE1 instead of INC: HE3. The full names in the skill list are fully explanatory.

Likewise if you wanted to look at a Scorching Ray (CWC-FS) build with HOA+AA, you enable the skills

WE
SCO: Main Spell
SCO: HE
SCO: BO
SCO: SH
SCO: GL3

(One warning about the current POB version: It stacks Fire Exposure from Scorching Ray and Wave of Conviction for a sweet 50% FR reduction. This is probably a bug.)


--- I have not taken a look at flasks, but given that most of the time consecrated ground will be handily created for you - the exception being when you are being attacked from a distance with nobody conveniently dying near you (e.g. facetanking hydra from middle of room.. but don't do this except at very high ES) - it is probably safe to carry only a single Sulphur Flask for ranged emergencies.

Sorry to hear that man but glad your back. Iv been jackin with the pob a bit wanted to use the new crafts on chest that you can get 900+es with the loss of zealot's oath so the anger leach might go well with that.

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ssgtparker wrote:

Sorry to hear that man but glad your back. Iv been jackin with the pob a bit wanted to use the new crafts on chest that you can get 900+es with the loss of zealot's oath so the anger leach might go well with that.

I'm not up to date with the new crafting you mention at all, having been out of the loop for quite some time.

Is that something that is Synethesis specific or something that has moved into the base game?

Either way, it sounds like something that might be worth it for me to investigate. I doubt I'll be leveling a new flametank this league, but I do want to update the guide so it isn't so far behind the curve.

Yeah(betrayal) Quality crafts damage pen corruptions don't override enchants now. TBO Iv been wanting to try this with Divine Ire new spell thats kinda like BF but for casters.

I misunderstood you, then. I thought you were talking about doing something to the Geofri's Sanctuary to make it lose Zealot's Oath in return for higher ES.

If you are talking about crafting a normal armour with 900 ES and using that instead of Geofri's Sanctuary, you should consider that with good gear the flametank already gets 900+ maximum ES from Geofri's Sanctuary.

E.g. the level 93 one in the POB link gets 966 ES from Geofri's Sanctuary (base + STR*2/5) as well as the +18% all elemental resistances and Zealot's Oath, so you'll need not only to craft a 900 ES armour but to craft one with other good mods to even dream of competing with Geofri's Sanctuary at high levels for this build.

Oh ok

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ssgtparker wrote:

Oh ok

It is one of the things that makes strength stacking so sick with this build: Every extra 100 strength (after multipliers) is 40 maximum ES and 20% increased ES%.

So as an example going from a 900 ES Geofri's Sanctuary to a 1000 ES one is achieved by gaining another 250 strength. (Which will of course additionally provide another 50% increased ES% courtesy of the Shaper's Touch.)

That is gained, assuming 52% increased strength (12% mod on amulet and belt, 18% boots, 10% chieftain), by getting 250/1.52 = 164 strength on equipment.

IIRC last time I tried to make a hypothetical BIS level 100 build for the flametank I ended up with around 1200 maximum ES contributed by the Geofri's Sanctuary.

Now, obviously nobody will ever get that gear and, from a practical perspective it stacked strength at the cost of some important resistance from the gear and tree, so it would be stupid to do, but getting 900+ in the 90's is the norm.

It is reaching 1000 ES from the chestpiece that requires real dedication and luck with +STR/+ALLSTATS on equipment or so good resistances on equipment that some of the resist clusters the build commonly uses in the tree can be dumped in favour of more Inertia/Efficient Training jewel strength stacking.

Yeah Im throwing all the gear back together seeing where I put things from testing other builds. Man this is faster lvling up gems atm Minotaur>still easy :P

The Focus skill 'recover 29-31% of mana and ES when you focus', which is one of the immortal syndicate crafts, is oh so nice, so if you can somehow afford a top end ES chest, with a spare suffix to add that craft, it might still be rather tempting.

Interesting idea, WyvernG, but do you really think that a 12s oh-shit button recovering ~30% ES (when you already recover some 50-60% ES/s under normal circumstances) is worth losing both the extra base ES from Geofri's AND the ES% increases lost due to spending extra skill points to pick up Zealot's Oath manually (3-5 depending on exact build - at high levels a skillpoint is usually worth at least 80-100 total ES in this build, as that's what you get for plunking it in a +10 STR node, and often more)?

Depends on how high ES you can craft, of course, but if it only around 900 ES, we are still talking about ending up with a total energy shield that'll be about 1k lower than if sticking with Geofri's Sanctuary (and correspondingly lower recovery from regeneration and leeching.

OTOH there's also that shaper mod that recovers ES on kill, I guess, though it is possible that we are running out of mods on the hypothetical super-crafted ES armour. Something to play around with in Path of Building, I guess.