[3.8] "StormFire" A non-ignite Flameblast Elementalist | League Starter | Shaper Video
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Intro:
Hi, this my first build guide. The first time I tried a Flameblast build was back in essence league, I was following a [2.4] video guide made by ItsYoji. I took a long break after essence league, when I stared again in Bestiary that build was completely outdated, and at the time, I couldn’t find any self-cast Flameblast build that wasn’t focused purely on ignite, so I decided to make my own build. This build got buffed twice since then. (In Incursion, then in synthesis)  I usually only make 1 or 2 characters per league, so I wanted a build that's fun to play and can do most content. I have killed the Guardians, Shaper, Red Elder, Uber Atziri and Uber Elder. However, doing them deathless requires good awareness, you need to focus and be able to dodge the boss attacks. I was able to do all of them deathless, except uber elder which took me multiple deaths to do. Will try him again at some point. I'm currently taking a break from PoE, but i'm still keeping this guide updated. Pros: + Good clear speed. + Decent EHP (6K+ life, 1K+ ES, Fortify) + Decent damage (1Mil+ Shaper DPS) + cheap and can be a league starter Cons: - Can’t do Elemental reflect maps. - Low regen - Gem swap for bosses 3.8 Changes:
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No major changes.
Beacon of Ruin buff: it now gives "30% increased effect of non-damaging ailments on enemies". With that, we end with around 35% more dmg from shocks (up from ~30%). Mana changes:: The only change that affect this build is the Clarity buff, from 17.2 to 33 mana per second. This could be enough to remove the need for "% reduced mana cost" on jewels. will update this once i test it. Global gem level mod:: Caster one-handed weapons can now roll +1 to all Fire Spell Skill Gems, this is another good mod to look for when crafting. 3.7 Changes:
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Beacon of Ruin nerf : "The Elementalist's Beacon of Ruin notable has been changed, no longer granting proliferation of elements, and with a lower value of minimum shock." Minimum shock effect is now 15% down from 20%, so we end with around 30% more dmg from shocks (down from ~40%) Without the proliferationn, Orb of Storms will no longer shock every single mob in a pack for Inpulsa to explode, but it will still shock enough of them. We lose a little bit of clear speed, but Inpulsa is still worth using. Warlord’s Mark nerf: "Warlord’s Mark now only applies its leech bonus to attacks." Warlord’s Mark is replaced with clarity for mana, multiple reduced mana cost on jewels are needed to be able to spam Flameblast 4 times before running out of mana. Shield Charge buff: if you click Shield Charge near your character, you can bash without charging, this is useful for keeping Fortify up safely, the AoE seems to have increased a bit too. Immortal Call: Immortal Call no longer grants immunity to physical dmg. I replaced it with Steel Skin. General Overview:
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This build mainly uses 2 skills:
First Orb of Storms to increase damage and debuff enemies, then Flameblast to one-shot almost anything that's not a map boss. With Inpulsa, Flameblast will no longer be needed for white monster packs, Orb of Storms + Herald of Thunder + Inpulsa will take care of them. With the Elementalist Ascendancy, Orb of Storms can keep enemies chilled, shocked, and ignited practically 100% of the time. This allow us to use Support skills like Immolate and hypothermia for Flameblast, and combustion for Orb of Storms. This ring gives a nice damage boost, and makes our damage more consistent by allowing orb of Storms to ignite. (More on this in the gear section) It is a highly recommend unique, not a mandatory one. Its name and flavor text fits the "theme" of the build, so I named the build after it. Current Skill Tree (Lv94) Current Gear:
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Offensive stats:
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Flameblast Shaper DPS: 1.7 Million
Flameblast average hit damage against Shaper: 1.3 Million Defensive stats:
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This build has a good EHP pool but low regen, i highly recommend using 2 life flasks and Soul of Ryslatha for bosses.
Stats: Life: ~6.7K ES: ~1.4K Block: 25%. Spell block: 17% Fortify Mobility: Shield Charge + Flame dash. PoB link: https://pastebin.com/hye1ijCX Videos: [3.6]
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Shaper: youtu.be/5B7gq0ZRVQc
Maze of the Minotaur: youtu.be/IqTPI9oSLZ4 Pit of the Chimera: youtu.be/ary2zTXEG04 T14 Primordial Blocks Without Inpusa: youtu.be/ME5NrCsCRvw Ascendancy, Pantheons and bandits:
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Ascendancy points in order:
Pendulum of Destruction -> Mastermind of Discord -> Shaper of Desolation -> Beacon of Ruin Bandits: We get much better options with 2 skill points. Kill All. Pantheons: Minor: Soul of Ryslatha helps with long boss fights. Major: Anything you want. I went with Soul of Lunaris. Soul of the Brine King is also good for Stuns. Skills and Gems Discussion:
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Skill Gem Levels:
All Gems should be leveled to max level, except Arcane Surge: The required mana to trigger Arcane Surges needs to be equal to or lower than orb of Storms total mana cost. Check Orb of Storms on your skill bar to see the final mana cost. Flameblast:
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Links are in order of importance.
Flameblast- Infused Channeling - Immolate support - Controlled Destruction - Faster Casting / Concentrated effect - Hypothermia Swap faster casting with concentrated effect for bosses Increased Area of Effect could be better than Faster Casting if you don't have Inpulsa. Elemental Focus / hypothermia: Elemental Focus has a higher dmg multiplier than Hypothermia, but it removes Flameblast’s ability to chill, shock and ignite. Once we add the ignite dps, Hypothermia ends up dealing about the same dmg without having a drawback like Elemental Focus.
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This is the main "support skill", it buffs Flameblast’s damage in 6 different ways:
1) Trigger Elemental Equilibrium causing enemies to lose 50% fire res 2) Trigger Elemental overlord (40% more dmg) 3) Shock enemies making them take around 35% increased damage.
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This is possible thanks to the Beacon of Ruin ascendancy: "Shocks from your Hits always increase Damage taken by at least 15%”.
That 15% scales up to around 35% with the “increased effect of shock” and “increased Effect of non-Damaging Ailments”. (we get 28% from the skill tree, 30% from Beacon of Ruin, 34% from Unbound Ailments and 25%-40% from inpulsa). 5) Ignite enemies to trigger Immolate (added fire dmg) and Combustion (-19% to fire res) 6) Trigger Arcane Surge. (More spell dmg, increased cast speed and mana reg) Any amount of "+cold dmg to spells" makes Orb of Storms chill with every hit. An abyssal jewel with % chance to hinder will give Orb of Storms a good chance to hinder bosses (-30% move speed) due to its fast cast speed. Links: Orb of Storms - Arcane Surge - combustion - unbound alignments Combustion: With the Stormfire unique ring, Orb of Storms can ignite even when the Igniting Conflux from Shaper of Desolation is not active. Unbound alignments: This is used to increase the effect of shock.
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Herald of Ash:
It gives a nice damage boost because of the Mastermind of Discord ascendancy: "25% increased Effect of Heralds on you" and "Damage penetrates 25% Fire Resistance while affected by Herald of Ash" Clarity This is needed to deal with the high mana cost of Flameblast. Herald of Thunder: It only adds a tiny bit of dmg to Flameblast. It’s mainly used for clear speed: Orb of Storms + Herald of Thunder + Inpulsa can kill whole packs of white mobs before you even use your Flameblast. Herald of Thunder is not as important if you don’t have Inpulsa.
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Cast When Damage Taken (CWDT):
CWDT - Steel Skin - increased duration - Enfeeble or Phase Run or tempest shield Shield charge: This is our source of Fortify, with all the area of effect we have, you can hit enemies from a safe distance and trigger fortify. Links: Shield Charge - Faster Attacks - Fortify - Increased Area of Effect Another option for fortify: Vigilant Strike + the vigil unique jewel gives a 35sec fortify duration. Useful for boss fights, but costs you one jewel slot. Flame dash: Shield Charge tends to get stuck in obstacles if you're too close to them. Flame dash can help when that happens. It’s also needed to cross gaps. With all the cast speed we get from gear and tree, it could be used to dodge boss attacks instead of Shield Charge. But it also have a cooldown, so Shield charge is still needed for general mobility. Lightning Golem: For the cast speed bonus. Spell Totem - Scorching Ray: Optional, it applies fire exposure (-25% to fire res) at max stages, needs about 2 seconds to reach max stages, this depends on your cast speed. Gear Discussion:
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Current Gear:
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Gear Explanation: Main Weapon:
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Scepter / Wand :
Option 1: It has cast speed, reduced mana cost and a good amount of dmg if you can keep the enemy hindered. The range for its hinder is not that big, you should get an abyssal jewel with % chance to hinder before using it. Option 2: This one gives more dmg but no cast speed or reduced mana cost (around 9% higher DPS) Option 3: Rare A Rare specter or wand with cast speed, and as much damage as possible. Damage mods can be: elemental / fire / spell damage, % of elemental damage as extra chaos, area damage, +1 to Lv of Fire Sell Gems, or added lighting damage to spells. You need a really good rare otherwise the unique options will be much better. "% of elemental damage as extra chaos" Mod:
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This is not as effective as in other builds, it's still good, but don't over estimate it:
Our total of reductions and penetrations to fire resistance is 98% (50% from Elemental Equilibrium, 25% from ascendancy, 19% from combustion and 4% from Skill Tree) Even against the Shaper with 40% fire res, our fire dmg will be increased by 58%, while the chaos dmg will be reduced by 25%. Use PoB when trying to compare weapons with the extra chaos mod. You can't rely on the in game tool tip, it doesn’t count the resistances. (Same thing for the “added lighting damage to spells” mod)
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This is another cheap unique with really good stats. It can be replaced with a rare with similar stats and Cast speed instead of spell block, and maybe some more elemental resists. 3.7 update: Rathpith Globe now has 2% increased Spell Damage per 100 Player Maximum Life, this gives way more spell dmg than the old version. its new down side "Sacrifice 4% of your Life when you Use or Trigger a Spell Skill" should not be a problem with a channelling skill like flameblast. (I haven't tested it yet) Alternative option: Dual scepters / wands PoB comparison between dual scepters and scepter + shield: Stats used in PoB : Scepters: Void Scepter 50% increased spell dmg 15% increased Cast speed 20% of elemental dmg as extra chaos 15% fire dmg Shield: Using dual scepter, you get around 14% more Hit dmg, but lose some life, energy shield, block chance and the ability to use shield charge. The dmg increase will be higher if you have scepters that are better than the ones i used in this comparison, so if you have two extremely good scepters, dual wield might become the better option.
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Inpulsa has some dmg and increased effect of shock, but it mainly helps with clear speed: You only have to kill a few mobs in each pack, Inpulsa does the rest. This is not a top priority, a rare Chest will give you much more Hp, ES and resists, and is much cheaper. Only switch to Inpulsa if you have good life rolls and enough elemental resistances on the rest of your gear.
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Using Elemental Equilibrium means we can’t have any fire damage for Orb of Storms, so it can only ignite when the Igniting Conflux from the Shaper of Desolation ascendency is active (6 seconds out of 14) Stormfire allows Orb of Storms to ignite with lighting damage, so we can use combustion with it for the reduced fire resistance. The consistent ignites will also guaranty that Immolate is always triggered for Flameblast. It also adds some damage, elemental resists, and mana regen. Try to get it as soon as you reach the required level (Lv80)
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Stats to look for:
- Max Life / Elemental resists > cast speed > Energy shield > Mana reg / Max mana - Move speed for boots. - Flask effect duration for Belt. (Preferably a Stygian Vise Belt for the jewel socket.) - around 30 Dex for Inpulsa and Hypothermia, and ~15 Str for max level Shield Charge and Steelskin. - Shaper helmet with "Socketed gems are supported by Innervate" and / or "Socketed gems are supported by increased Area of Effect", this is not required. - +1 to minimum Frenzy charges (Veiled Craft) on ring and amulet if possible. Make sure none of your gear has "+ fire dmg to spells" as it will make Elemental Equilibrium increase fire resistance instead of reducing it. Alternative options for amulet: - Impresence (Flammability version) - The Pandemonius: it makes Orb of Storms blind with every hit. Both of these are expensive.
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2x life flask at least one of them with instant recovery.
1x defensive flask: Rumi's Concoction, Basalt Flask, Taste of hate… 1x movement flask (silver flask or Quicksilver Flask) The last flask could be anything you want. The Wise Oak is a good option if your Uncapped Fire res is the highest. At least one flask should have the “of Staunching” Suffix (Removes Bleeding). At least one flask should have the “of Heat “Suffix (Removes Freeze).
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One abyssal jewel with "adds cold damage to spells" to be able to chill and trigger hypothermia. This is not needed if you have +cold dmg to spells on your weapon.
The rest are rare Jewels, try to get life and cast speed on all of them, a few reduced mana cost rolls are also recommended : Maximum life > Cast speed > reduced mana cost > increased damage (fire, spell, area damage) / Elemental resists > energy shield Leveling and skill trees:
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I always like to level with the skills I plan to use at the endgame, so I started using Flameblast as soon as I hit the required level.
There are faster ways to level, this is just how I leveled when I made this character. Low Level:
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Link : Skill Tree You can start with any spell you want (magma orb, freezing pulse...). Link it with arcane surge. Lv 10: you can start using Shield Charge. Lv 12: Switch to Fire Storm and start using Orb of storms. Lv 16: you can start using Herald of Ash and Herald of Thunder. Lv 18: you can Link Firestorm to Controlled Destruction and Elemental focus. And link Shield Charge with Faster Attacks Links: Firestorm - Controlled Destruction - Elemental focus Orb of Storms - Arcane surge - Faster Casting / Increased critical strikes Shield Charge - Faster Attacks Don't over Level Arcane Surge! Once you get Elemental Overlord from the skill tree, Link Orb of Storms with Faster Casting or Increased Critical strikes to make Elemental Overlord trigger more consistently. This won't be needed once you get enough cast speed from the skill tree Low Level after switching to Flameblast:
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Link: Skill Tree You can start using Flameblast at Lv 28, you should pick some cast speed and area of effect nodes from the skill tree before switching to it. Flameblast has a high mana cost, so start using Clarity. Get Vaal Clarity if possible. If you still have mana problems, you can turn off herald of thunder until you get more mana regen or a reduced mana cost jewel. After you start using Flameblast, you can get Elemental Equilibrium from the skill Tree. This will allow Orb of Storms to reduce the enemy’s fire resistance. Check the in game tooltip for Orb of storms to make sure it’s not dealing any fire dmg before getting Elemental Equilibrium: Any item that "adds fire dmg to spells" will cause orb of Storms to deal fire dmg, making it increase the enemy’s fire resistance instead of reducing it. Links at Lv 28: Flameblast - Faster Casting - Infused Channeling - Controlled Destruction Get Vaal Flameblast as soon as possible and use it for bosses. At Lv 38 you can use Increased Area of effect: Flameblast - Faster Casting - Infused Channeling - Concentrated effect / Increased Area of effect Increased Area of effect makes Flameblast much better at clearing packs of mobs. Replace Increased Area of effectit with concentrated effect or Controlled Destruction for boss fights. You can use Increased are of effect for orb of storms too. At LV 34 You can start using Lightning Golem. Pick the +30 Dex or Str nodes if you need it for your gear requirement while leveling, you can Respec out of those nodes later. Mid-Levels:
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From here the order for the skill tree is not too important. Choose between life nodes and damage nodes depending on what you need.
Link: Skill Tree Links in order of importance: Flameblast - Infused Channeling - Faster Casting - Concentrated effect / increased area of effect - Controlled Destruction - Elemental Focus Orb of Storms - Arcane surge - Faster Casting - Increased Area of Effect / Combustion The Mastermind of discord ascendancy gives a nice dmg boost and reduces mana reserved. Try to get it as soon as possible. You can start using Immolate with Flameblast and Combustion with Orb of Storms once you get the Shaper of Desolation ascendancy. Don't use immolate and Elemental Focus at the same time until you have Storm Fire equipped. High Levels:
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Link: Skill Tree at Lv85 Flameblast Links: Flameblast - Infused Channeling - Immolate - Concentrated effect / Faster Casting - Controlled Destruction - Hypothermia / Elemental Focus Start using hypothermia (instead of Elemental Focus) once you get the Beacon of Ruin ascendancy and a weapon or jewel with +cold dmg to spells. You can use increased are of effect instead of Faster casting. If you decide to do so, switch back to faster casting once you get inpulsa as you will no longer need to hit the whole pack with Flameblast. Orb of Stroms links: Orb of Storms - Arcane Surge - combustion - unbound alignments Start using Unbound Alignment Once you get the Beacon of Ruin Ascendancy. Link: Current Skill Tree at Lv94 Additional Notes:
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- This is my first build guide, any suggestion to improve the build or the guide are welcome. - Damage calculation and shock effect in PoB :
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To get accurate dmg values in PoB, you need to uncheck the "is the enemy shocked" box, then manually multiply your dmg by the appropriate amount that you get from your shocks:
Beacon of Ruin makes Shocks increase enemy Damage taken by at least 15%. Using my current gear: 15% x (1 + 0.3 + 0.28 + 0.34 + 0.37 + 0.08) = 35%. (0.28 from the skill tree, 0.34 from Unbound Ailments, 0.3 from Beacon of Ruin, 0.37 from inpulsa, 0.08 from Helmet). This means 35% more dmg (using my current gear). so uncheck "is the enemy shocked" and manually multiply the dmg by 1.35 Checking "is the enemy shocked" will automatically give you 50% more dmg which is not correct. - Link to the now-outdated [2.4] Flameblast build guide that inspired me to do this build : www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYQxRIb1OLE Last edited by TN_Sylar#0295 on Sep 14, 2019, 6:49:26 AM Last bumped on Jan 10, 2020, 7:58:20 AM
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I've been playing self cast flameblast during this league too, i think its in a decent spot. I play a hybrid es/life/mom heirophant, ambystoma on my profile. My top damage is lower than yours, but I have over 2 times your ehp. So far ive cleared red elder and shaper, we will see if uber elder happens. The draw to play hybrid for me is the fact that you can leech es and life at the same time now.
I like the fancy stuff you pull off with elementalist + orb of storms. Being able to proc ee and combustion with just orb of storms looks amazing, I have to waste gem slots doing that with seperate spells. Your clear is likely better than mine, I rely on just flameblast+herald of ash with every aoe node on the tree I can reach taken. Tbh I think Cheiftan and inquisitor can work great with flameblast right now as well. Chieftain could easily sustain righteous fire to clear trash mobs and buff flameblast, Inquisitors consecrated ground while standing still has great synergy with a channeling skill. |
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Nice build, bro!! I´ll start it now.
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" Sounds interesting, all that EHP probably makes all bosses pretty easy for you. For me things like guardians with multiple attack mods are dangerous, one wrong move could lead to death. I have enough EHP to not get one-shotted, but a 2nd or 3rd big hit is deadly. I originally thought about a life / ES hybrid but couldn’t get my ES high enough with the gear I could get, so I switched to inpulsa once I was able to afford it. This was before all the new ES leach nodes and gem, not sure how good those will be for bosses with a skill like flameblast that only hits once. Last edited by TN_Sylar#0295 on Apr 4, 2019, 3:49:53 AM
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Sounds interesting, all that EHP probably makes all bosses pretty easy for you.
I just cleared uber atziri today, build was good enough, but i failed on the first map since i wasn't familiar with mechanics. Once i killed constructs together, killed trio in correct order, and learned to dodge flameblasts everything was fine. Despite all my ehp frenzied construct and atziri's flameblasts were too much to take. The lightning and bleed weren't to bad. When i cleared minotaur I was able to face tank his attacks, only had to dodge his burrow. blind + stormbrand helps a lot vs melee enemies like that. path of building claims i can cap energy shield leech with flameblast, but only get halfway with life leech on a single target. i always carry a life flask just in case. Dont need mana leech, mana regen is enough except on no regen maps with chaos damage- then i have to rely on cinderswallow urn and move fast. I trade off a lot of potential damage for the tank stats- damage is 600k+, can go up to 1.4 mil with cinderswallow urn + vaal righteous fire. 10000 energy sheild, 8500 life+mana so far. |
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I'm trying out this build as well. I have already bought the "core" items and just left out some rares so I'll be able to fix resistances later on. However, can you cite some good leveling items? Currently leveling with flameblast is a bit of a pain as its slow.
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" I just checked your character, the gear you have seems good enough for your level, maybe get an onslaught flask it's really good for clear speed. You can also try onslaught support for herald of thunder and see if it triggers often enough to be worth it. i see you're still missing the merc and uber ascendancies, try to get them ASAP, they will make Orb of Storms shock more consistently to trigger inpulsa. |
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" Yup just a bit lazy with labyrinths(I actually hate labs). one thing i'm unsure of tho is that flameblast's damage is a bit lacking? or does it scale heavily with gem level? PS: some items(mostly rares) are now very hard to find. i think its because the league is abou to end. if you can help me find good gloves/jewels, would be very much appreciated :D Last edited by exraven0829#0285 on May 22, 2019, 4:02:40 AM
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" Gem level doesn't scale it that heavily, but it gives a nice boost to dmg, you get another dmg boost when you start using immolate with Stormfire. And once you get Beacon of Ruin, you get around 35% more dmg (from the shocks of orb of storms) Finding rare items now seem to be even harder than it is in Standard, because most people moved to flashback league. For the jewels, i usually make a search with many mods then select different combinations of those mods and see what i find. Something like this : https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Synthesis/0qDvkQIg |
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Hey man I wanted to ask with the 3.7.2 changes where wands can be used with Shield Charge and Fortify there is no other reason to prefer a scepter right? Like you can buy wands from these let's say https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Legion/kqdVyWH5 without any issues (except the reduced mana cost ofc)
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