[3.10] LL Storm Brand Hierophant 8k+ ES, 10k Mana, 10M+ DPS per brand

Hey, I am thinking about making this build, got one question though. What do you think about chain support ? I heard it's amazing for clear and also because of high mana multiplier it might give a pretty nice damage boost as well. If so, which of these support gems would you switch for chain ?

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widmox wrote:

Hey, I am thinking about making this build, got one question though. What do you think about chain support ? I heard it's amazing for clear and also because of high mana multiplier it might give a pretty nice damage boost as well. If so, which of these support gems would you switch for chain ?

Hmm, I personally have never felt the need to use chain for stormbrand for clear, so I can't say if it clears better to be honest. The issue with chain, in my opinion, is that you would trade single target for more clear, and as the build is right now Orb of storms + normal brands clear whole screens just fine.
Another thing to consider are the massive dex requirements for Chain, which would be very hard to reach as is. All in all I'd say you don't need chain in there but if you really want it, got for it, the damage should still be more than enough to kill pretty much everything, but you will have issues reaching the attribute requirements for everything.

Hi, very nice build! I do not do it like full copy, but I feel something is wrong. Can you take a look, please? )
I would like get 10k ES, how can I do that? Damage is much more, than I expected. And what do you think about adding clarity later on for watcher eye jewel?

P.S
I see you swap Energy leech for Awakened elemental focus, is that do not hurt survivability that much?

Hey, adding clarity watchers eye is definitely an endgame option, one I'm eyeing myself. As for your tree, looks good, very close to what I have, you are just missing the second fevered mind instead of the Clear mind you are using right now. Also I'd recommend switching to Illuminated Devotion as soon as you get all spell-leech out of your "normal" setup.

As for the awakened gems, yes ele focus does more damage and does not hurt survivability if you have Illuminated Devotion instead of Conviction of Power as an ascendancy. You will basically always be at leech cap anyway with the amount of damage the build does and the more multipliers from energy leech pale in comparison to elemental focus. It sadly takes away the ability to shock and shatter but orb of storms takes care of the former on bosses.

Yeah, now I am understand that setup and will defenetly use it. About clear mind: I am using that on maps, because it gain mana regenerations and with two fewered minds mana cost is kind of tough, cant really control my mana level and get slapped by chaos damage. On fat bosses like 8 awakened Sirus 2 fewered mind better.

Two questions, the first, how am I supposed to be using Orb of Storms? I feel like I cast it infrequently at best and I'm not sure how best to make use of it.

The second, any thoughts on how to squeeze in a small cluster jewel with some of the increased maximum mana notables? Not really sure where you'd find the space or if it would be much of a dps increase (as PoB doesnt seem to be calculating Archmage the mo)

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widmox wrote:

Hey, I am thinking about making this build, got one question though. What do you think about chain support ? I heard it's amazing for clear and also because of high mana multiplier it might give a pretty nice damage boost as well. If so, which of these support gems would you switch for chain ?

I can comment on this as I just switched from chain to Elemental Focus.

Clear feels about the same but I do notice the extra dps against bosses. It's early still but I'm thinking Ele Focus or another dps gem is going to work out better than chain.

How much as a budget would you recommend to have when starting this? 5 ex ? 10 ex? less? thanks.

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Aueberon wrote:

Two questions, the first, how am I supposed to be using Orb of Storms? I feel like I cast it infrequently at best and I'm not sure how best to make use of it.

The second, any thoughts on how to squeeze in a small cluster jewel with some of the increased maximum mana notables? Not really sure where you'd find the space or if it would be much of a dps increase (as PoB doesnt seem to be calculating Archmage the mo)

You can def squeeze one in, depending on what other stuff you have, but I'd say it's tough unless you have something to compensate for the points you loose, on my current setup I have one, but I also switched to using unnatural instinct.

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KGF wrote:

How much as a budget would you recommend to have when starting this? 5 ex ? 10 ex? less? thanks.

Hmm, hard to say, to be honest, the baseline items you need are one fevered mind(40c), ivory tower(10c for nonlinked, 40c for 5link), mindspiral(1-2c), atziris foible (2c) and ideally also voidbringer(2c). (all of these prices are for items with suboptimal rolls)

If you don't go for optimal rolls on these you should be able to make it work on a budget of 1ex and have money left over for regrets to switch to lowlife. From there the build keeps chaining and you can buy upgrades whenever you got the cash. I'd strongly recommend getting a five-link to start with as the mana multipliers from skillgems directly translate to damage from archmage.
Sidenode: Coloring Ivory tower can be a bitch so make sure you got some chroms on hand if you don't get your hands on a 5 blue one.

how would you compare using ivory tower over Cloak of Defiance?