[2.5] LowLife Ignite Pizzablast Trickster

- Shaper viable? Absolutely!
- Why make a cheap build when you can make an expensive one?
- Because Wraeclast is hungry and pizza is tasty

Trickster has amazing defensive stats for a LL ES build. This build would also be great as a Witch Elementalist, Witch Occultist, Templar Inquisitor, or Shadow Assassin (crit-based). I prefer defensive ascendancies because levelling above 90 requires not dying.

This build is incredibly hardcore-viable at endgame, but levelling a lowlife character to endgame is a daunting task, so no additional advice is provided.

There are two reasons you want to go low-life over CI. First, there is the 30% more spell damage from Pain Attunement, which is just okay - it doesn't double-dip on ignite damage, for instance. Second, and more importantly, running two auras on life allows you better gearing options than a CI build, which is all but forced into running dual Elreon rings to manage mana. The skill tree is also slightly more efficient.

These stats are related to my build - YMMV - but hopefully they will give you an idea of what is possible with an end-game Pizzablaster. This build prioritizes defenses and mobility, and allows gem levels, double-dipping mechanics, and the low-life damage bonus to carry it.

- 5 Frenzy & 3 Endurance Charges
- 31-34% Chance to block w/The Red Nightmare & Tempest Shield
- 12.7K ES as Low-life with Shav's
- Vaal Pact and Ghost Reaver, .4% Elemental damage leeched as life (ES)
- Fortify available
- Dual-curse can be worked in with very minor changes
- Automated defenses - Tempest Shield & Flame Golem via CWDT
- +42% Movement speed modifier (w/25% MS boots!)
- +32% Chaos Resistance
- 70% Chance to Ignite

Base Damage & Cast Speed (hideout, no Golem, no Charges, Inc AoE):


Damage & Cast Speed w/Flame Golem, 5 Frenzy Charges, Elemental Overload, still Inc AoE


Highest Recorded Damage, w/ Conc Effect


Defensive Stats:

This is an ignite build - crit is also incredibly powerful, and there are great Crit Flameblast builds available. Crit requires both great gear as well as a huge tree investment - ignite allows you much more flexibility in your tree, which is why I ultimately chose it. When double-dipping inevitably gets fixed (3.0?), we will likely want to reevaluate.

Regarding Tooltip DPS, like most skills, Flameblast is wildly inaccurate. Ignite damage is not factored into tooltip whatsoever, and neither is cast speed nor elemental penetration. Spell damage is, but spell damage doesn't scale ignites, so it's actually not optimal to stack it (especially on this build). When evaluating Flameblast builds, you should think of your preferred playstyle and adapt your build accordingly.

Weapon:


Just about BIS because elemental damage double-dips flameblast and ignite. High cast-speed, high fire damage scepter otherwise. All corruptions are worse than a natural implicit.

Neck:


BIS for almost all low-life builds. The '.2% fire damage leeched as life' corruption is completely unnecessary but will turn you into a tank god if you have it. +1 curse also good ;)

If you happen to be in the advantageous position to have a pair of Skyforth boots, you can use a rare amulet over Presence of Chayula, but build preferences are Presence over Skyforth (see boot for more info).

Armour:


Shav's is BIS for most uses, since it enables low-life without having to worry about chaos damage.

Boots:


High ES boots with movement speed and resistances are best. Skyforth is not BIS for this build - Presence of Chayula provides so much for this build in the neck slot that the stun portion of Skyforth is unnecessary. Power charges are also wasted on this build, so the preference is to go with something that helps fill in resistances & stats.

The best boot enchant is probably '.6% damage leeched as life and mana if you have killed recently' - this will greatly help your mana sustain on non-boss fights. Otherwise, 'attack and cast speed if you have killed recently' works great - faster shield charges and flameblasts.

Rings:


One or two -8 Elreon rings are necessary for this build. Having two will drastically cut down your needs to otherwise invest in mana.



Opal Rings with fire damage will provide a huge damage boost at the cost of having to invest more into mana. One of the benefit of going lowlife is that you have more unreserved mana than CI would (since Discipline and Clarity are on Blood Magic), so it is possible to use only one Elreon ring.

Rest of Gear:


Buy the highest ES gear you can that meets your resistance and stat requirements. You will want about +40 STR and +40 DEX on gear to meet gem requirements. For your belt, try to get an open prefix for movement speed. ES should be prioritized over spell damage on shields (b/c spell damage doesn't double-dip).

Heretic's Veil is a helm option that you may want to use, especially if you run dual-curse - not having to socket a Blasphemy gem will ease your socket-woes considerably, and your mana reservation is lower. Of course, ES on Heretic's is low, which will need to be made up elsewhere to make it to the golden 12K ES threshold.

Regarding helm enchants, you want Flameblast damage, Flamblast radius, or a Flame Golem damage buff enchant (in conjunction with your level 19+ Flame Golem).

The gear and jewel budget for this build is between 40 and 50 exalts in a softcore challenge league.

Flameblast - Faster Casting - Inc AoE / Conc Effect - Controlled Destruction - Fire Penetration - Chance to Ignite
On a 5L, would remove Fire Penetration. Swap in Elemental Focus for Chance to Ignite for ignite-immune bosses and the 'monsters have XX% chance to avoid elemental status effects' map mod.

Shield Charge - Faster Attacks - Fortify
Shield Charge over Lightning Warp because it requires less supports and over Flame Dash because Flame Dash is awful.

Discipline - Clarity - Blood Magic
Level Clarity as high as it will go without consuming all your life - I have less than twenty unreserved life with a level 16 Clarity, for instance.

CWDT (20) - Flame Golem (20) - Tempest Shield (20)
Flame Golem is a huge boon for his buff and as a general damage soaker. Having him on CWDT means he's there when you want him most. A level 20 Tempest Shield is less-than-desirable, but gem slots are tight.

CWDT (6-10) - Immortal Call - Vaal Discipline - Increased Duration
You want Vaal Discipline on Inc Duration, so shove it into your CWDT-Immortal Call setup to not have to run two of them.

Blasphemy - Temporal Chains
You want Temp chains because it increases ignite duration in addition to being just about the finest available defensive curse. If you were to run a second curse, I would suggest Flammability then Enfeeble.

Orb of Storms
Very necessary to proc both Elemental Equilibrium and Elemental Overload. If you want to run a second curse, add Curse On Hit and your curse here.

Scorching Ray - Spell Totem
This can be dropped in favor of a second curse (or even Vaal Lightning Trap), but it's good for bosses because it soaks damage while lowering Fire res further. Scorching Ray doesn't hit, so it doesn't mess up EE at all for your Flameblasts. Also, who in the world hates on firedonger totems?

One 'The Red Nightmare' Jewel, placed in the leftmost Jewel socket in Templar area, for 6% additional block chance and the ability to generate Endurance Charges. You can use 'The Red Dream' until you can bless it - it is still an amazing addition to this build.

All other jewels are rare. Stat priorities:
- % Increased Energy Shield
- % Increased Fire damage - double dips
- % Increased damage - double dips
- Cast speed of all sorts
- % Chance to Ignite / Ignite Duration
- Spell damage of all sorts / Area damage / DoT - all are damage but none double-dip
- Chaos Resistance
- Stats / Elemental Resistances

Here is a poe.trade jewel search for Standard that will filter down to show just amazing jewels: http://poe.trade/search/omitasakobater. Change to your league and add/remove any properties you want to suit your needs.

https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAYCAQN1Bx4HYw18DkgPqxEvEVARlhXnFr8W8xslHNwdTyGwIvQkiyY8KPopTyo4Ko0rCi2oLpQvnTLRNPc1uTbYPAU9X0VHRXxGcUkbSVFJsUuuTINMs1JTVEdWSFfJWHdauVxrXIpd8l8EX2pmVGwLbRlw1HOzdIF713_GgLOCm4MJhEiExYV7iw6MNox2jxqPRo_6kSuRR5MnlS6XhZeVl5eX9JitmjuboZu1na6ePJ7En9-hL6a-pwinK6yYsZC0DLiTvoC-isBmwzrDbcrTy73QH9DQ18_YJNlb5oHpAuq66-7sOOxV73zviO_r8Gvw1fFs99f5N_mk

Bandits are Kill - Kill - Kraitlyn (Frenzy Charge). You can get cast speed in Cruel if you want.

You path directly by the +1 curse node, so only minor tree modifications are necessary to grab it. If you have two -8 Elreon rings, I would recommend to path to Vaal Pact from the Scion area rather than going down from Shadow start - more efficient, but you will otherwise need the mana.

You want:
- One catalysed mana flask
- One Atziri's Promise
- Two anti-freeze flasks
- One or two anti-bleed flasks
- Potentially one warding flask
- One Quicksilver flask

You do not need Vessel of Vinktar in this build - Atziri's Promise is actually decent for leech and provides more raw damage than Vessel (though no shock to nearby enemies). You have a small amount of chaos damage from The Red Dream/Nightmare and Ele leech from Doryani's, so the extra Vinktar leech is overkill in most situations, and with the downside of having to run an 'of grounding' flask.

Dying Sun is okay - it is an offensive flask only, though, and I prefer defense with my flasks. Witchfire Brew is okay if you dual-curse, but I do not prefer it. Other unique and non-unique flasks can be justified for various reasons.

By far, the #1 issue you will need to manage as a Pizzablaster is mana. A 10-stack Flameblast on a 6L costs somewhere around 400 mana. Elreon Rings are the #1 way to reduce mana costs - a 10-stack loses 80 mana per cast per ring. So, 400 mana goes to 320, then 240. Running Blasphemy on mana leaves my character with about 900 unreserved mana.

There are a lot of configurations that work well to solve mana issues. My solution is roughly:
- Two Ascendancy nodes for mana
- One Elreon Ring
- One full-time mana pot, one swap-in for long boss fights without adds
- Additional mana from tree
- Clarity on Blood Magic

The best solution that I don't have is leech on boots (via lab enchant). Leech on boots will solve 90% of all issues, only leaving you with boss fights to figure out sustain for. With a tremendous invstment in mana (two Elreon rings, for instance, plus more), you can likely add a second curse on Blasphemy or an offensive aura that reserves more of your mana pool.


You want REALLY strong jewels as a Pizzablaster. As a LLer, you can't get double-dipping damage on gear (% damage and % fire damage) easily, so jewels and gem levels are where you really make up your damage. Try to get as strong 4-stat jewels as your budget and the market allows.

Here's a video of a Shaper kill using this build: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzfqX4EcFcs. The kill was far from clean - took it after a few days off just to round out this build guide. Either way, it should demonstrate the damage this build is capable of.

You want Conc Effect in - you are going to lose the fight otherwise. As long as you practice good mechanics and have the required damage, the fight should be routine. For the third phase, swap Culling Strike in for Faster Attacks in Shield Charge.

You will want 12K ES - Shaper slams can be tanked starting at around 11K, so having a bit of a buffer is always good. Don't EXPECT to live through a slam, but I have, so...