[3.2] Spellomancer, facetank 95%, clear 99.9% of the game with ease. Budget, Shaper, Uber, HoGM ...

NO PMs plz, i will not answer them anymore, since i get duplicate questions. Ask here, so other have the answer too. Or get help form other players, while i'm not around.



x. 3.2 Changes

Scion is now a superior class choice for this build. I made a new thread, where i will continue to update this build.

While this build is still viable with Necromancer, i would advise going for scion. With scion we can get up to 8 extra passive points and a useful 2nd ascendancy. While with witch on Mistress of Sacrifice is useful now, meaning 6 ascendancy points are wasted.

Build is still very tanky, just requires a little different itemisation now.

Mistress of Sacrifice got a big nerf. What it means in numbers:
- loss of 17%(lvl 20)-19%(lvl 26) block.
- loss of 25%(lvl 20)-27%(lvl 26) spell block.
- loss of 297(lvl 20)-445(lvl 26) life on block. This hits Soul of Arakaali mechanic very hard. Because now we get only 50% increase to 50% of life on block. So that means a loss of 75% effectiveness on that mechanic. With it, the numbers will go down to 445(lvl 20)-667(lvl 26) life on block.

1. Intro

If you like tanky builds, which can clear all the content(including farming Hall of Grandmasters), look no further.

The build is based of my old 2.2 Spellomancer. With the 3.0 MoM changes i wanted to see, if the only weakness of the build, damage over time would be gone. For the most part it is. Only some extrem DoTs, like in Hall of Grandmasters are a problem.

As the previous version, this can also be done with almost any spell. I leveled till 91 with Essence Drain, got bored(played with it already 2 times) and switched to Scorching Ray(never used before).

This build with Scorching Ray can clear absolutely all current PoE content deathless. Hardest map mod is no regen, still doable with mana flask.

The only downside is the mediocre clear speed with Scorching Ray. As a followup form this, it is very hard to beat the timer in Chayula's Domain. Not that hard with RF version of the build. Other Breachlord's Domains are pretty good doable. Hence the 99.9% easy.




2. Videos


3. Necessary Things

Start as Witch, ascend as Necromancer, get Mistress of Sacrifice.

One of the following items for spell block:
Use lazhwar only if a worthy shield is available or as starter gear. Most combos with rathpith will be superior. For example easy one with atziris foible.
+1 curse is not necessary, but is very good, saves 4 points on the tree.
With shaped shields and amulets it is possible to roll spell block on a rare item and completely ditch these uniqs.

4. Main Build Mechanics

With Mistress of Sacrifice, Bone Offering also effects the caster. Allowing to get max block/spell block relatively easy and get a lot of life back on each block. Coupled with high hit points and life/mana regen, the build becomes very tanky.

Clarity lvl depends on how much life and mana is available. Have it at minimum of lvl 6. If current life x 3/7 < current unreserved mana, can lvl clarity until it is about equal. For Cloak of Defiance life x 4/6. The reson for this is to have as much HP pool available, as possible. In later stages mana regen is not an issue. Using Essence Worm and Clear Mind is not worth it, if you have good rare ring and 3 mod jewel. At the beginning of mapping mana problems may occur, then can lvl Clarity, until mana issues are solved. Later can be replaced with lower lvl one.

Soul of Arakaali:

This power needs to get 1st upgrade(Capture Arachnoxia) for it to work in the described way.

!WARNING! READ NEXT PARAGRAPH CAREFULLY!
Dont use Blood Rage as long as you dont have the upgrade. I personally would recommend starting with it from t12+ maps, it is not really needed in white and yellow maps. Blood Rage will make more trouble(may even kill you), than helping in early/mid stages of the game(especially while still in story mode). It will cause you A LOT of mana problems. Unless nice gear is available from the start of mapping. And by nice i mean similar to mine. Having CwDT lvl 1 + Immortal Call is always nice, so can keep that.

CwDT lvl 1 + Blood Rage + Immortal Call will proc it a lot. As soon, as IC procs, you stop taking dmg from Blood Rage and procing Arakaali for 4 sec. This will increase your life regen buy 50%, it doesnt show up in char screen, but still works. AND it will increase the life on block from Bone Offering buy 50%!!!. Making it 966 life on block instead of 644 at lvl 21.

Put Offering in a +1 to gem lvl item(corrupted shield for example) and link it to lvl 4 Empower to gain a lvl 26 Offering. This recovers 891 and with Arakaali up 1336 life on block! This also puts block to 74/74, making Rumi's unnecessary.

Elemental Overload(EO) and Elemental Equilibrium(EE) are very important for this build, since they are huge damage multipliers. Scorching ray does not hit, it can not apply EE and can not land a critical hit to proc EO. While general map clearing, both EE and EO are applied with Tempest Shield and/or movement skill. For longer fights, like bosses or multi essence mobs, it is important to use Orb of Storms at the beginning of the fight and re spawn it, if needed. Therefor it is from utmost importance not to have any flat added fire damage to attacks and/or spells on gear. It will apply EE in a bad way for fire damage and handicap the build in a big way.

If another skill is chosen, to use with this build, then it must be checked, if the skill is hitting the enemy, or not. If it is, then EE can not be used. EO is fine. If the skill is a chaos skill, then neither EE nor EO can be used. Therefor this build is less effective with chaos skills, plus the tree becomes very inefficient.

5. Gear







Stats for rare gear: life, mana, fire/spell/burning dmg /DoT, mana regen, str, int, dex(need 111, or 114 for lvl 21 gems) and ofc resists cap.

Labyrinth enchantments:
- Helmet, 40% Scorching Ray damage, if no Bone Helmet is used.
- Gloves, use Fingerless Silk Gloves.
- Boots, 2% life and mana regen when hit, very very OP for this build.

6.1. Passives

lvl 100 Path of Building - https://pastebin.com/vhP5eg1Q

lvl 98 Path of Building - https://pastebin.com/XqTN7G5s

lvl 100 tree
lvl 98 tree

Base tree for SR without +1 curse amulet.

Core tree, depending on items and spell of choice pathing to Cruel Preparation and Whispers of Doom may vary.

Bandits: Kill all (optionally can help Oak or Alira). If you are sure, you want to do RF version, help Alira.

Jewels: look for %life and %burning dmg + other dmg mods or %mana. As a 4th stat can also use stats, resists or mana regen for more budget version.
My jewels:
Ascendancy in order: Mistress of Sacrifice -> Commander of Darkness -> Spirit Eater.
As last 2 points either Beacon of Corruption for chaos resits or Flesh Binder and use Zombies on CwDT.

6.2. Pantheon Powers

Major: Soul of Arakaali

Minor: Soul of Gruthkul/Soul of Tukohama, depending on what i need. Mostly Gruthkul.

7. Gems


8. Leveling progression for Scorching Ray


9. Animate Guardian

Thx to insobyr for bringing this to my attention.

10. Budget

11. Spellomancer meets Poet's Pen

Now, that the helmet enchant got fixed and i've done almost all the relevant content(only chayula's domain left), i can share this with you. Since i still play this and the character is not done yet, sings may change.

12. Righteous Fire
With 3.1 RotP nerf this is now harder to run, need more life and mana regen.

I now tested Righteous Fire version of the build. All of my thoughts to it with videos you can find in the spoiler below. Needed to respec only 11 points. Scourge is definitely better weapon for this. Bone helmet would be superior to mine.

13. +3 Fire Staff

Thx to thebanned00 for giving me the idea.
Played a bit with a +3 fire staff. All findings and stuff below.

14. "Max" DPS experiment

15. Firestorm

This is just a showcase of the build with a different skill. I kinda like firestorm and it didnt require too many points to respec, so i chose it.

The gear in not optimized for the skill, but was enough. Tree could prolly be optimized too, not sure about that. I would use belly instead of tabula, but didnt wanted to recolor mine.

Ofc this can be used in a +3 staff or with RF.

Can replace fire storm with cremation, volatile dead or detonate dead and go with them.

Level 4 Empower worth using over any of the typical support gems? :)

"

Dorlok wrote:

Level 4 Empower worth using over any of the typical support gems? :)

No, less dps then anything else.

"

1337fun wrote:

"

Dorlok wrote:

Level 4 Empower worth using over any of the typical support gems? :)

No, less dps then anything else.

Cheers - 350c more for swapping into your build :)

Loving the idea of the build. Quick question though, what is your opinion on using a +3 staff. According to path of building a +3 staff ( with no spell damage or other mods ) with an empower on it is roughly 150k dps increase while still maintaining block cap ( with the staff block nodes )

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thebanned00 wrote:

Loving the idea of the build. Quick question though, what is your opinion on using a +3 staff. According to path of building a +3 staff ( with no spell damage or other mods ) with an empower on it is roughly 150k dps increase while still maintaining block cap ( with the staff block nodes )

As we spoke in game

Positive:
- +3 multi modded staff with lvl 4 empower instead of swift affliction would give around 30% more dps(according to path of building).
- Removing swift affliction and dropping the lvl of other dex gems(not a problem) drops dex requirements significantly.

Negative:
- loss of the benefits of the shield, mana on block and harbinger buff. This will make less recovery maps harder and no regen much harder.
- Loss of 6 gem slots.
- Less mobility/clear speed, since i run almost all of the content with brightbeak, only shaper and uber with dps weap.
- Build becomes much more expensive :)

Changes:

Swapping belly for kaoms would keep the total HP pool around same lvl, maybe even increase a bit.

For staff i would change the tree to something like this:

Not needing the block nodes from marauder makes the route much less desirable.

With kaoms would need to drop 1 curse, meaning can get lazhwar with +1% to max resits. To keep 2 curses, could use vuln corruption on gloves.

Loss of 6 gem slots would make the setup to something like this:
Staff: Scorching ray - Burning Damage - Elemental Focus - Efficacy - Controlled Destruction - Empower lvl 4

1st 4L: Leap Slam - Faster Attacks - Fortify - lvl 6 Clarity.

2nd 4L: CwDT lvl 1 - Blood Rage - lvl 3 Immortal Call - lvl 5 Enfeeble/lvl 5 Vulnerability.

3rd 4L: Bone Offering - lvl 7 Arcane Surge - Desecrate - Orb of Storms.

If want to have a Golem, needs 1 unset ring, preferably with +3 to gem lvl.

Lvl of faster attacks, desecrate and blood rage depends on how much dex is available.


Overall it is personal preference. Since i have no problem with dmg, i rather have more tankiness. Still i prolly try this later on.

Are scorching ray gems listed in order of importance? What's the 5-link set up? Is this decent on a 5-link or is 6-link necessary?

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generalchaos wrote:

Are scorching ray gems listed in order of importance? What's the 5-link set up? Is this decent on a 5-link or is 6-link necessary?

Yes. I wrote it in the guide.

I would recommend to have 6L for uber atziri and shaper, if u r not experienced int hose fights. Rest i very much doable with 5L. However since the build is very tanky, u can get away with using tabula for any content. I cleared all, but uber atziri with tabula. Would have tried her in tabula too, but got hope after i got 1st 6L(was cloak of defiance). I use dps weapon only for shaper and uber atziri, all the rest i clear with brightbeak, dmg is enough.

Hi

I'm new so please pardon the noob questions.

Why don't you use Flammability and Elemental Weakness? I'm assuming they don't work for Scorching Ray?

What do you think about spending the 4 points to use Temporal Chains as the 3rd curse (beside Vulnerability and Enfeeble)? Would that make things safer?

Thanks

Also I must say I love your guide. Things you say make more sense to me than some other guides do.