Prismatic Bomb v2 - Help Needed for Endgame Build - Shock Nova/Proliferation Blood Witch

I made a post on this build before and nobody noticed. I wasn't sure it would work, but it it working well in maps and I am now lvl 68. I need help on what passives to take with my high levels.

This is an overview of the build:

Common wisdom is that Shock Nova sucks, but I am hitting a nice radius (Voltaic Seal range if I choose for outdoor maps). Elemental Proliferation and a good chance to shock means that everything gets shock stacked instantly and these stacks persist on the ground after monsters die, shocking the next group to run in. As I just got my gem to lvl 17, I am doing 1792 DPS with a 5L and fast casting/reduced mana (which I don't normally run) so damage can go even higher.

Shock Nova is like an amplify damage curse for the team, +40% for each shock up to 3. I am not sure if it is "increased damage" or "more damage" (better). Right now I supplement with single target Fireball and Ice nova totem which both also proliferate burn/freeze, but I may switch to running 2 Novas, one with proliferation and concentrated effect, one with increased AOE and faster casting.

Running 2 novas will help deal with the "dead zone" (inner ring where nova doesn't hit) but I also run Molten Shell and 6x Endurance Charges, so I am able to tank fairly well. With endgame gear, my ES pool has grown almost to more than my life. I have 47% chance to block attacks and 31% to block spells currently. I also run Zealot's Oath, changing life regen to ES regen which gives 50% chance to avoid stun and also play blocking animations or be interrupted.

This is my tree now at level 68 and 2 respec points. This was my tree at 66 before respec'ing and I think it was an error to advance toward the center of the tree.

This is what I think right now will be the best build for 100 points: link

I took the +40 life from Oak as well as +1 endurance charge and feel like this may have been mistakes because I want to stretch along the path on the bottom and pick up another endurance charge/life regen/shield nodes. Maybe with some respec it will be possible at lower levels or maybe I will reconsider what is best.

This is my gear and gem setup currently:



I know that this gear is rather high end, but I would say that the only really important pieces are 15%+ Shock Nova, 25%/25%+ Malachai's Simula and Rathpith Globe. I got lucky finding the rolls I wanted on Rathpith in trade for 3 exalted; I think High ES and block is more important than the spell damage.

I ran Crest of Perandus as a shield for a long time, which is still nice for its life/regen and 40% block rate. If you can't afford Rathpith, just get a 7+ regen Perandus and don't go for the "+Energy Shield from Shield" nodes. A nice rare ES shield may be viable.

Builds without blood magic or getting blood magic on the tree or another item may work. I just happened to find the Malachai's Simula and wanted the challenge of making a build viable for high level maps using it plus a skill everyone writes off as bad. I am really pretty proud of myself that it seems to work well, I just don't know yet how to optimize in these high levels.

I think that I may put off adding some of the "ES from shield" nodes and delay or put off things like the endurance charge duration to stretch for Golem's Blood and the nearby shield node which also has "+20% defenses from equipped shield".

This build is very flexible because you can change the size of your nova to suit the area, tank fairly tough mobs with molten/EC stack while leeching life off everything outside the blast range or you can hang back and totem/fireball mobs which are too tough. I am currently running power siphon + rarity/quantity for map bosses but I have also experimented with Tempest Shield/Reduced Mana/Culling Strike which does get the blinding from Moonsorrow and also finish off any low life mobs attacking me.

I usually run Iron Will instead of Reduced Mana with Shock Nova and am okay with life, but I have also experimented with Stun/Knockback and would like to work in an 18% quality Lightning Penetration I have but don't feel like using chromes on my armor.

The "100% Increased Mana Cost of Skills" from Malachai's Simula is worse than the "mana cost multiplier" on support gems and the same type of multiplier as reduced mana cost of skills on the passive tree. So, I am very sensitive to running too many 150%+ multiplier support gems.

You have to look at the base cost of the skill on a gem (41 in the case of my Shock Nova) then multiply that by the modified skill cost (100% - 42% in my case) before taking the mana cost multipliers from gems. My understanding of the math here is a little shaky because the number I am getting (106) is higher than in game (104). My skill cost seems to not round to 65 life (64.78) then multiplies by 1.2*1.3*1.4*0.75 for an actual cost of 106, but I can't figure out why it is actually two lower. Math fail or somehow Reduced Mana is multiplying differently.

Anyhow, I usually run a non-multiplier skill and am fine, so Reduced Mana should only be required for rare maps with bad regen mods. I ran a hard rare map before getting my 5L armor and Rathpith and potions were a real issue but I didn't belong in maps at all then at level 62.

I have some concerns with chaos damage (-60% and never played a chaos damage map yet). Windscream and 2 curses is not necessary at all, but curse duration is extended from Temporal Chains as well as the tempting Buff Duration nodes I am near. I feel like chaos damage is balanced such that getting to 0% is still great, so I am working on better gloves,jewelry and rare shoes with chaos resist.

This isn't intended as a full guide yet, but if anyone is interested I will answer any questions on the mechanics and maybe work on some videos to show gameplay.