[POE2 EA] CheapBunny's Crit Ignite Detonate Dead Bloodmage | Avatar of Fire | Skeletal Brute
 Introduction Hello Exile, welcome to my first build guide for POE2. If you dont know, I am a build creator for POE1, and has been doing 2-3 build guides each league. I league started a Bloodmage in POE2 launch and enjoyed it so much. Bloodmage is undoubtly weaker in earlier game, I do struggle abit in campaign and early mapping, however it just get better and better towards endgame, I actually think that Bloodmage is one of the stronger ascendancy for end game, I am able to farm juiced T15-16 map comfortably, bossing damage is also pretty decent with only 1 6L needed. I will not go through leveling process in this guide but focus on the endgame build, because me myself is still new to the leveling, and as I said I did struggle in campaign with Bloodmage too. I dont think you can play this build right away in campaign and require transition, I actually leveled as a fire mage, and swap in to Detonate Dead after I got Avatar of Fire and enough Spirit to reserve Sacrifice and Skeletal Warrior (Only change into Skeletal Brute while I got more Spirit). I wont suggest new player to try this build because of the transition required and weaker campaign experience, it is also not an easy build to play (The need to control both character and minions). But if you are not new and want some explosion going? Enjoy the build :). Also GGG, Summon Reaper in POE2 when? Build Thought
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I started this build without any plan, other than decided to go with Bloodmage after watching the teaser, I just thought the Ascendancy is cool and very end game potent, everything else is an afterthought. Bloodmage Problem
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First thing every Bloodmage will realize immediately after ascension is the draw back of the first mandatory ascendancy node, Sanguimancy. Sanguimancy cause your skill to gain life cost equals to the mana cost, essentially double the cost to cast skill. This is a huge drawback in POE2, where mana cost issue is more prominent, what make it worse is this node is mandatory for Bloodmage. Therefore, the skill cost issue would be first problem that need to be solved for every Bloodmage before able to reap the end-game power potential locked behind the first ascendancy. Why Detonate Dead?
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In POE2, skill mana cost can scale up to very high as the level of skill increase, which is a problem for Bloodmage (draw back of Sanguimancy). The simple solution to overcome this drawback is to use a skill that does not scale very well with its own level, and so that we can keep the mana cost down by keeping its level low. You guess it right, it is Detonate Dead. Detonate Dead deals Physical damage equal to flat 20% of Corpse's maximum Life regardless of the skill level. What better is we could still scale minion (corpse) level for damage without increase the skill cost. How to deal damage in boss fight without corpse? Why Skeletal Brute?
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 Sacrifice spirit gem enabling detonate reviving minions for 60 Spirit reservation, but it is only usable at level 58. I use Skeletal Brute because they have the highest life among all reviving minions, which gives highest damage. Why scale Crit and Ignite as well? Why Avatar of Fire?
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Bloodmage ascendancy nodes gives a lot of Crit scaling, so it is natural to go with Crit scaling. Ignite has some great synergy with Detonate Dead and Bloodmage. Firstly, Ignite in POE2 works differently with POE1, it scales multiplicatively with critical damage by default in POE2, so it works pretty well with Bloodmage ascendancy. Secondly, Ignite is dealing damage overtime which do not require as much cast speed as hit-based build, which helps reducing mana/life cost drawback from Sanguimancy. However, most of the damage dealt by Detonate Dead is physical, which cannot Ignite by default, so I took Avatar of Fire key stone to convert 75% of physical damage into fire. Why use ES/Mana as defense? (Synergy with Grim Feast)
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In POE2, source of maximum life is scarce, they are mainly obtained from gears and inherent bonus from Str attribute. As this build requires high Int to use high level Skeletal Brute, we wont have enough Str to boost maximum life to a comfortable level, it almost felt forced to use damage to life taken from mana mods, because Int we got has given so much maximum mana, it would be a waste not to use mana. Grim Feast spirit gem also has great synergy with Detonate Dead, it has chance to drop Grim Remnants that grants you Energy Shield when your minions died or detonated. Energy shield also protect your life from damage, this keep the critical damage bonus from Gore Spike ascendancy node as high as possible before Energy Shield depletes. Build Mechanic
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Detonating minions and Reviving
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Detonating Dead by default cannot target minions, Sacrifice spirit gem enables that. Skeletal Brute revives automatically 5 secs after death by default, Sacrifice gem make the reviving slower. This build takes minion revives faster nodes on passive skill tree to improve damage uptime. NOTE : Strongly suggest to rebind "Direct Minion" key to any key you like, this command makes overall gameplay much more smoother as you can command the Minion to go to the place you want to explode. Multi-Layers Damage Scaling
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The best part about this build is that it can utilize so many layers of damage scaling that work multiplicatively with each other due to its unique way to deal damage (detonating minions), making high DPS easily attainable. Below is the list of scaling benefit the build: i) Fire damage ii) Spell damage iii) Minion life iv) Minion level v) Critical chance vi) Critical bonus damage vii) Ignite duration viii) Ignite magnitude ix) Cast speed x) Fire penetration xi) Extra damage as fire Utility and Debuffs
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This build invested in curse effect/critical chance in 2nd weapon skill/set for i) Flammability ii) Ball Lightning - Refresh ignite duration (via Total Incineration notable)  I actually think the refresh ignite duration setup is not that effective, just ignore it if you want one less button to press. iii) Solar Orb Supported by Fire Exposure to apply Fire Exposure, it also provide life/mana regen while supported by Font of Life/Mana. Defenses
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1. 6.5k eHP 2.2k Life + 2.9k ES + 1.4k Mana 2. Double Life + ES eHP Life Remnant + Grim Feast 3. 32% damage taken from mana before life - 10% from amulet annoinment - 22% from jewels 4. Grasping Wound (Ascendancy) 25% damage prevented, and taken as damage over time 5. 75% Chaos Resistance Videos
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Early Access Standard League Trial of Sekhemas Final Boss, Zarokh https://youtu.be/NUZVirvzjIU T16 Map + Difficulty 4 Map Boss https://youtu.be/IBhBMCkavI0 Breahstone + Difficulty 0 Xesht https://youtu.be/dc867a_dMVE T16 Difficulty 4 Stone Citadel https://youtu.be/YSgXZ943In0 Difficulty 0 Arbiter of Ash https://youtu.be/pewf0hy_2NA Skill Tree
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(It is just for showing the final tree of the build, do not follow the nodes taking order) 23 Dec 2024 - [POE2 0.10] 93 lvl skill tree (Latest) https://maxroll.gg/poe2/passive-tree/8y3u80vq 17 Dec 2024 - [POE2 0.10] 93 lvl skill tree https://maxroll.gg/poe2/passive-tree/ro2jj0nv Ascendancy
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 Sanguimancy -> Grasping Wound -> Gore Spike -> Sunder the Flesh Gears & Gems
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My other build guide
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Last edited by cheapbunny#0890 on Dec 30, 2024, 5:58:18 AM Last bumped on Jan 2, 2025, 8:41:31 PM
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Update
23 Dec 2024 - Removed Zealot's Oath keystone - Replaced +2 minion rare helmet with unique Aztiri's Disdain, switch the build's defense from AR/ES into ES/Mana - +3 minion on amulet - Updated passive skill tree (mainly replace armour nodes with energy shield and mana nodes) - Uploaded new video for Gears & Gems Last edited by cheapbunny#0890 on Dec 23, 2024, 11:04:05 AM
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Reserved
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This is a really cool build. I'm running DD also, and I'm thinking to cook up something similar with Infernalist using the "While not on low infernal flame, all damage from you contributes to ignite chance and magnitude" to avoid having to path all the way down to Avatar of fire to convert. I'm going to steal some of your tree for inspiration I think. I'm hoping I can do enough phys damage to close the gap. If that doesn't work, maybe I'll just go full bleed.
Granted, it will be weaker than just picking up archmage, but the cool part is the ignite! Last edited by FatnissNeverlean#2150 on Dec 22, 2024, 11:39:28 PM
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Hey, mate!
Would you add the new gear and skill gems? Since the old one got removed by you. I can't make the buidl without knowing what gems i should use. Thanks in advance! |
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" One thing to note is that I believe fire damage will not scale your ignite damage if you ignite with physical damage, but I could be wrong. |
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" I will upload an updated version shortly, meanwhile I have made the old video accessible again. |
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Build guide ready.
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" I think you're right, I think you have to scale the base hit damage types, not fire damage. It doesn't really work though. Like, in theory it works fine, but infernal flame doesn't interact with anything. You can't use archmage, which makes sense. You can't use sigil of power, you get stuck at the base 1 stack and can't generate more. You can't use mana storm, I think it's bugged because you push the button and your character does the animation and nothing happens. So no easy spell damage scaling there, basically leaving you just passive nodes on the tree. Then you can't really scale phys damage much outside of the tree. Vulnerability is armor reduction, and I already break armor on crit, so it's useless. There's no "exposure" or "reduced resistances" to phys damage that I can find, so no help there. So it looks like if you want to ignite, your approach is better since you can scale exposure and actually use a curse and also have access to the mana spell scaling abilities (archmage, manastorm, etc). Last edited by FatnissNeverlean#2150 on Dec 24, 2024, 10:56:00 AM
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" One downside is Avatar of Fire has 25% less damage due to conversion, but if there is more way to convert damage into fire in the future, it will be huge buff to the build. Many of the ignite nodes are combined with fire damage too. Last edited by cheapbunny#0890 on Dec 24, 2024, 4:05:14 PM
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