[3.10] Build was killed

I don't know my shaper dps because I don't know how to simulate it on POB. If anyone could do that, that'd be great.

I don't exactly know how to calculate EHP as well. But it has 3800 energy shield, 3000 HP with 48% MOM and 8200 Mana with 75% block/spellblock with capped res and 71% physical reduction with flasks up.

Depending on market supply/demand goes in the game this build may or may not be expensive by the time you decide to build it. But for now it seems to be still pretty inexpensive.

Just did A8 Baran + Sirius cuz I realized I had them queued (Died twice on sirius cuz I'm bad), brief build explanation is at the very end of the video after Sirius kill:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/599116125

Second A8 Baran + Sirius:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/601255477


20 Simulacrum:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/601700957

Did 2 sets of Uber Elder
Not deathless cuz I've never done this fight before and I went in blind. Also I'm dumb and stood in pretty potent shit.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/601808679

Budget (<2ex):https://pastebin.com/N54kmNBj

High end (<5ex):https://pastebin.com/C1nsT4S3

1. Sirius A8 deathless. But I'm bad at this game and it's my first time playing so I've done him deathless only twice and died by doing stupid shit subsequently. I can tank his DIE beams and I've gotten so lazy that I sometimes just stand there to avoid the other ground effect bullshit to just wait out the phase. I've done at least 8 A8 Sirius kills so far.
2. T16 Elder/Shaper maps at max delirium.
3. 20 Simulacrum with both Kosis and the fat dude on the 20th wave. (I can't remember his name)
4. Elder/Shaper deathless.
5. Uber Elder. You can probably do this deathless.
6. All T16 maps are comfortable with all mods except for ele reflect.(fuck Vaal temple tho)
7. Fly across maps with both Dash + Shield charge leading to pretty impressive clear times.
8. Tank all the shit that one shot most other players. Shaper slams, elder balls, Sirius lasers. Make mistakes, don't get punished.
9. Catarina, deathless. Done this multiple times.
10. Do all 36 challenges to get your free cosmetics (just did this btw)
11. Killing conquerors in Delirium fog. Done this to Baran so far, trying to get VODs of the rest.
12. Pushing Delve depths now. Will update this when I hit the limit of what I can do with the build.

Disclaimer: These are the price of items at the point I got them. If you're having difficulty procuring them at these prices do let me know and I can try to help you think of substitutes. Even better, PM me ingame if you need help with making the build I've given away 24 ex of gear so far and if you're earnestly trying this build and need help with items I can help you out.

1. Indigon ramping up skill cost/spell damage means you can skimp on additive damage sources on your gear/passives and just stack defenses. It also means you can ignore 6-L skills if you're relying on Arcane cloak to run a 4 second cycle for mana spend. This allows you to run two damaging skills, namely 4-L Vaal Blade Vortex and 4-L Armageddon brand and a secret third damaging skill I will go into detail later.

2. Without needing a 6-L as well as not having to ramp up damage with fevered minds you can use Sanctuary of thought which is a significant AOE boost as well as a huge EHP bonus (20% mana to ES).

3. With the ES buffer from Sanctuary you can rely on "Recover/Replenish on block" mechanics along with capped block with Rumi's + Lethal Pride Kiloava to be very tanky/ not rely too much on regen allowing you to run no regen maps. I find Aegis Aurora to be the best for this mainly because stacking armor + Skin global defenses really gives you a crapton of physical damage reduction.

4. Indigon's recover health with mana potion use synergises very nicely to deal with chaos damage, damage that goes through your energy shield buffer. It also means you don't have to run health potions and you can double dip your recovery with 40% mind over matter (50% if you have a watcher's eye).

5. Armageddon brand has the potential to shotgun. But only if you have the area of effect for it. Luckily with Sanctuary you have 100% more AOE so... interpret that however you will. This is also the reason why Storm brand is not used unless its <wave 15 on simul or T1-13 maps, because storm brand has better area clear but crappier damage. (no shotgun)

6. Skin of the Lord's global defenses is really nice because it adds 100% global defenses which allows you to increase the ES from Sanctuary as well as the amazing stats off Aegis Aurora. It also has potentially phase acrobatics/unwavering which are both very nice for this build. You also have the opportunity and flexibility to run something like sporeguard (more annoints = more mana) which basically gives you a cheap explody chest option and more chaos res (testing it now on my char)

7. 12% Cooldown recovery on belt, 12+% on boots and second wind allows for decent cooldown on Arcane Cloak, slot on a less duration support and you get to cycle it every 4 seconds to keep the indigon buff to your skills up with minimal downtime.

8. This is the secret sauce of the build. This 2C weapon basically gives you your third damaging ability and does double the amount of damage a maxed Blade Vortex does for DPS (provided you play it well). Rippling thoughts grants you a damaging Storm Cascade wave spell that scales with socketed support gems, even Archmage + Indigon. It is also the only triggerable spell that scales its mana cost with Indigon allowing you to nuke for pretty decent damage.

This coupled with shield charge on faster attacks/culling strike and fortify on hit allows you significant trash clear speeds as well as another damaging ability for bossing along with a free fortify.




Oh and it allows you to summon an invulnerable buddy that casts Arcane surge on you.

1. Cheap.
2. Easily accessible.
3. Easy leveling cuz stormbrand op.
4. Most of your items are uniques. Hence pretty straightforward gearing.
5. You accumulate currency easily as a solo player.
6. No 6-Links required. Making this a very straightforward starting character to build.
7. Your resistances is going to be obtained via jewels. Which means its going to be very very easy to cap your resistance. (if you change the res composition of your armors based on what is cheap, swapping around a different set 5-10c gems with All Res + Dual res + Mana is going to cost you alot less than trying to balance capped res with armor pieces.)

1. It's the only non-braindead way of playing archmage. Corrected: You're playing a piano baby! 8 activatable skills, sinvecta swaps. 5 potions. Good luck. You also have to manage your mana costs and time your spell usage.
2. Doesn't have super amazing boss damage. 5 min+ Sirius A8. Then again you have builds that cost 10ex doing the same thing so I guess this is fine.
3. Needs more ele pen and suffers fighting anything that takes reduced ele/lightning damage.
4. Not fully perfected. So far very few of us play similar setups so I haven't had the opportunity to bounce ideas around good brains. So the build can get alot better.

Here are the recommended Gem links for this build.

4-L Vaal Blade Vortex (helm or gloves or boots)
Supports:
Archmage (0%)
Unleash
Increased Duration

4-L Armageddon Brand (helm or gloves or boots)
Supports:
Archmage (20%)
Controlled destruction
Concentrated Effect

4-L Storm Cascade (weapon:Rippling thoughts)
Supports:
Archmage (20%)
Controlled Destruction
Concentrated Effect

4-L Arcane Cloak (helm or gloves or boots)
Supports:
Less duration (20%)
Arcane surge
Second wind (20%)

3-L Shield charge (body armor or shield)
Supports:
Faster Attacks or Culling strike (20%)
Fortify

3-L Cast on damage taken support (body armor or shield)
Supported skills:
Wave of Conviction
Tempest Shield

3-L Second wind support (body armor or shield)
Supported skills:
Brand recall
Dash

Determination (Essence worm) <- Mandatory Aura

Wrath/Zealotry (Essence worm) or Level 1 Clarity (Unset ring) <-Optional Auras

Your choice of Auras heavily depends on the mods of your Watcher's Eye gem (the cheapest you can find with a bare minimum of +800 armor when you have Determination)

1. Always test your damage output when you alter the mana costs of your skills and when you regear.

I divined up my Indigon yesterday for better rolls and didn't realize that my damage skills was going overcap with mana costs and hence doing 0 damage when certain conditions were met.

Spent the entire day wondering why my build sucked till I fixed it by divining down the mana cost of the indigon.

2. If your ES is depleted and your mana is low hit Lavianga's. It will allow you to continue spamming your skills while at the same time replenishing your mana pool so you can soak any incoming nukes. This is at at the cost of damage though as your skill mana costs will drop to 0 meaning archmage does no damage.

With this, never spam your spells when you feel a nuke coming. Keep mana pool high and try to get ES up to tank the incoming damage.

3. You're not playing a traditional squishy storm brander. Shield charge into mobs and keep going forward. Face tank mobs and only dodge the really big hits. Only back pedal if you deplete ES and your mana is low.