[3.13] Ignite Fireball/FW Agnostic Trickster. NO CLUSTERS REQ. LVL Guide. ScorchingRayVerInc

I saw in the main post that you said "Brands can't be triggered." Not sure why you'd think that; they absolutely can be. Exception for Arcanist's Brand because you'd be running up against double-trigger rules.

yeah that part is outdated. i used to think they couldn't because i thought brands and totems shared the same rules. but yeah brand can be triggered, i just haven't changed that part in the guide.

i do still think storm brand is best self-casted in this case, because it is only one thing to self-cast, where as to put the brand in the helmet leaves you with several other things to self-cast.
but no build has anything set in stone. anyone can and should change things to how they prefer

I'd actually love to get some thoughts on where I can improve at this point. I'm feeling decidedly un-tanky; repeated hits (almost) never kill me, but one-shots seem to be a real problem.



I dropped Sigil of Power because I have no idea how to effectively use it. I don't feel like I'm ever standing in one place long enough to get a substantial amount of use from it, so I moved Storm Brand in for more QoL. I used the freed slot to put in Frost Bomb for dealing with Maven regen shenanigans. I'm not using Infernal Cry because I hate warcries.

I also unspecced all the block nodes and Glancing Blows because they didn't seem to be make a significant difference in preventing one-shots, and I wanted to free up some points for a cluster setup. Also took out Holy Dominion and its travel nodes to make space for the cluster. My clusters are somewhat subpar at the moment:







...but it still already feels better than Glancing Blows did, especially for Sirus. The fire-DoT medium clusters are more expensive than any of the others, so I haven't laid hands on them yet.

So, with all that out there... where can I look to improve, particularly with regards to survivability?

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wolfkstaag wrote:

I also unspecced all the block nodes and Glancing Blows because they didn't seem to be make a significant difference in preventing one-shots

you answered your own question

the block and glancing blows is specifically used to stop most one-shots. it gives you mitigation versus majority of hits. yes, when you don't block you still take full damage, but its about limiting that window as much as possible - which glancing blows does

if you're still getting one shot through glancing blows mitigation (something you can't really know is happening) then its possible you just need more ehp at that point.

just couple things outside of that i can see is
#1 you're still kinda low level at only 91. get to 95-96 and you'll see a drastic increase in your ehp
#2 catalyst your jewelry. rings amulet belt. squeeze out that extra ehp. and maybe divine your foible
#3 could opt for different gloves. its about the only piece of your gear i'd consider upgrading. really just to get more mana, but if it would be a trade off for less life it probably wouldn't be worth it either

looks like you're sitting in a good spot overall for how the build is put together.
i haven't played this build this league so im not sure of what challenges this particular build faces and what it has troubles with. however, i do think you have a fundamental misunderstanding about the function of glancing blows in this build. it is the single most useful thing to mitigation one-shots as much as possible.

Yeah, I've been kinda hard-stuck at 91 because the build just refuses to stop randomly dying, and I've had absolutely god awful luck with drops this league so there's not a lot of expendable currency to buy into some Pure rotas or something. Same reason I haven't quality'd the jewelry; that many Fertile Catalysts is a freaking expensive proposition.

With regards to Glancing Blows, I did actually understand that the point was to mitigate one shots, but it simply hasn't been happening for me. Since unspeccing that and the staff block nodes and putting them towards my cluster setup, things have felt much better overall, though definitely still struggling to hold on to my XP.

Here's my current eHP according to PoB:


For posterity, this is what it looks like with GB instead of the cluster setup:


Thank you for the input, regardless! I think I might try finding a spot for a Poacher's Aim jewel to make glove shopping a bit less painful and see what I can do there.

Hello! Ty for you build - it looks promising! I have a question: why don't it use Indigon? It seems pretty decent boost to FB damage if you can control the mana spent.

This was the most fun I had playing 3.13. Any chance this might get updated to 3.15? I don't care about all the nerfs, I just want to have fun again.