dual Searing Bond, 1 hander / shield version, cheap and easy, endgame maps easy

it was fun and it was a great way to play endgame for low costs, and with 4 link gear.

after the 1.2 patch changes, i don't see a motivation anymore to keep on playing this skill as the main dps skill.

- cheap
- immune to reflect damage
- safe
- solo viable ( I played 95% solo)
- good dps
- great survivability
- fun
- relaxed play style
- no 5 or even 6 link needed
- leveling the char up is easy too

- in comparison to the "searing touch" build with "arctic armor", this build offers only 2 support gem sockets for searing bond. so, regarding an "item rarity" gem, the searing touch version has an advantage.

- the technique of searing bond generally, doesn't allow the fastest kill speed one can get in this game. that doesn't mean it is slow. it has nothing to do with dps. the dps of this searing bond build is great. the searing bond gem level can be increased until lvl 28. the searing bond gem dps gets increased by 387%. which means, pure searing bond gem dps * 4.87 plus a couple of free dps nodes straight nearby, which can get traded for defensive stats, if prefered.

edit 12. July 2014
"Agility" (+30 dex): the dexterity was needed for leveling the "multiple traps" gem to 20 in order to get a 20% quality bonus from the vendor recipe. after that, the dexterity from Agility is not needed anymore and can be refunded. the free point can be used at any free dps node e.g. at the "Totemic Mastery" area.



passive skill tree (game version 1.15d):

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgUBAnEEswVbC2EQzBJpFE0XHBmFGjIaOBpsHRQkqicvKMUo-ilPKhMqjSu2LKc1kjbFNtg26T38QYdE50WdRtdKyEw1UWBVxlnzWitdxl5dXz9gbWo7bqpwfXF5eA15aHqqgpuCx4M4iBuI8YuMjEaMz49GkFWXhZitmuCdgJ2uoLSiAKPypKynCKeEp5SoGKluqZW1BLXytz64k7yfwBrBBMMTxq7PZdDQ0TbR_dgk2t3d8-Fz42rjn-Qi6-7sOOxV7SDvDu-F8B_yL_MG877z3fZI-JP56PrS-6r-Cv6H

- "clarity"
- "purity of lightning", (because lightning is the most powerful damage mobs can deal imo, and searing bond does not reflect, so purity of fire is not needed)

- "tempest shield" (+4% block chance) causes also a mana pool reduction.

screenshot


i use a level 20 searing bond gem, thats
- 13504,8 dps, with a level 2 empower gem. (searing bond = lvl 25). thats what i have currently.

- a level 3 empower gem would increase dps up to 14882 (searing bond = lvl 26)

- a level 4 empower gem (corrupted) would increase dps to 16392. (searing bond = lvl 27). these gems go for 50+ exaltet. --> not an option in my opinion, just for theorycrafing what is possible.

- a corrupted lvl 21 searing bond gem would increase the levels also +1. it would increase dps to 18046 dps (searing bond = maximum lvl 28). these gems go for 2-3 exaltet.



elemental equilibrium and elemental weakness curse are a huge dps boost. this is useful especially for fire resistant mobs.

screenshot


79 fire res
79 cold res
83 lightning res
65 % block chance to attacks
62 % of block chance applied to spells = 40% block chance for spells

4843 life
117 shields
3383 armor
1054 mana (850 is good enough)
213 life reg per seceond
80 mana reg per second (70 is good enough)

weapon:
this is a very good endgame sceptre for searing bond.
the "+ 1 to level of gems" and "+2 to level of fire gems" are mandatory on the endgame weapon.
the good stats are "15% increased elemental damage" and the "15% increased fire damage" . the more you get here, the better the weapon. a 3rd useful stat would be "xx% increased mana regeneration"




amulet:
the stone of lazhwar is needed due to the 50% block chance applied to spells. try to get a corrupted one with "additional block chance" (expensive) or "-24 physical damage from attacks" (costs: 5-10 chaos)

rings:
should have "increased fire damage" there are not many ways to get the dps up. rings can increase dps.

body armor:
source of resistances, life, armor.
edit: new chest, without mana and energy shield added. traded for more life, resistances and armor.

infernal mantle?



boots:
movementspeed, life, mana, resitances, and they are perfect.

Rainbowstride Conjurer Boots?
sure! not mandatory, but these boots are great for this build and make it even stronger. additional spell block chance instead healthpoints.


helmet:
one of these two options you should have for endgame:
- Chitus' Apex Necromancer Circlet
- Hrimnor's Resolve Samite Helmet
the chitus' apex gives mana and expirience gain, the Hrimnor's gives armor and a bit more dps.
the 50% anti freeze/chill property on the Hrimnor's can be ignored, it is useless for this build. also without a Hrimnor's i can't remember beeing freezed in endgame so far (too much life and resistances i assume). and if chilled: blink away with lightning warp.


belt:
the biggest source of life. (mine has 131 healthpoints, i payed ~ 5 chaos)
also a source of resistances.
armor is great, but makes it expensive. if money isn't a problem, armor makes the belt perfect.

shield:
block chance as high as possible. + life, + resistances. + armor is a nice bonus.

also this unique is an option:
i do not use it, because




important:

generally only these modifiers increase searing bond dps:

"increased elemental damage"
"increased fire damage"
"increased burning damage"
"increased totem damage"



all other modifiers do not increase dual searing bond dps. like:

"adds xxx fire damage"
"adds xxx cold damage"
"adds xxx lightning damage"
"adds xxx chaos damage"
"xx% increased spell damage"
any crit modifiers

weapon (3 link RRR):
increased burning damage/searing bond/empower


shield (3 link BRB):
lightning warp/reduced duration/faster casting



4 link BGRB: faster casting/multiple traps/blood magic/lightning trap

4 link RRRR: cast when damage taken/enduring cry/immortal call/increased duration

4 link BBBR: elemental weakness/vaal summon skeletons/increased duration/molten shell

4 link BBRR: clarity/tempest shield/purity of lightning/reduced mana




the "cast when damage taken/enduringy cry/immortal call/increased duration" combo:
make sure to link the gems in the right order, and not randomly. Cast When Damage Taken casts the supportet skills clockwise, and its better to get the endurance charges up, before immortal call is castet.

with dual searing bond it is not possible, to leech life. the only way to get life back is from passives "x.xx% of life per second regenrated" and from flasks. that's why, these are a "must have"

this isnt a problem. survivability comes from meatshield in form of totems, block chance and high resistances. block chance should be around 60% to aim for. the more the better ofc. 62% applied to spells, means about 37% to spells. this is what you should have at least. its sounds low, but totems tank a ton of hits and i played with these stats for a long time.
with the shown gear i had:
65% to attacks, 40% block chance to spells. it felt very tanky.

instead of spending even more passive points into this, its better to spend some points into totem life and totem resitances. your totems have a great survivability withe the buffs from the passive tree. with a Q20 totem gem, (which i still do not have - im working on it) your totems are better than needed.


Elemental Eqilibrium alone is very good, elemental weakness is very good alone. together they are really strong. the dying speed of unique mobs is fast, even fire resistant uniqes go down in a few seconds.
important information about "elemental weakness" and "elemental equilibrium":
read this spoiler please:

if you start this with a bit of money, and want to invest in gear: buy a quality searing bond gem at the start, and level it up to 20. because, i leveled up a zero quality to lvl 20, then I vendor reciped it to Quality 20 and leveled it up again. i am at level 92 now and i am still not done with it. its about 20Q lvl17 now. so, this investment would have been absolutely worth it.


a Quality empower gem is very useful. spend some gemcutters into it, if you have some. an empower gem is the strongest dps booster. they need a lot of expirience to level them up. mine is at 40% of next level(3) now, other gems reached max level almost twice in the meantime. Quality on empower gems gives an experience buff to the gem. 20% quality means 100% more experience, 10% quality means 50% more experience, etc.


i have a level 21 "increased burning damage" gem. i just used a vaal orb at a lvl 20 and i got this. but, the damage "boost" is low, something about +50. so, its nice to have, but not needed.

in mercyless and when starting maps, the "Stone Of Lazhwar" amulet modification "-xx physical damage taken from attacks" becomes usefull against these high attack speed projectile shooting trash mobs (like "tentacle miscreation", "piety's miscreation" etc.)

you must trigger Elemental Equlibrium. searing bond doesn't trigger it. this is very useful. you do not have to worry about, if its already triggered or not.
since you can't deal damage beside searing bond, you must use traps to trigger EE. (there is an important information about curses and EE at the "survivability" spoiler. please read it.)



Elemental Equlibrium Trigger Skills:
i prefer:
lightning trap/ multiple traps/faster casting/blood magic

you can also use:
icenova/trap/multiple traps/anything you want



playstyle:
- first of all, cast molten shell.
this is +1058 armor (unbuffed) for more than 17 seconds.


- throw the traps to trigger EE. if there is pressure/no time: you can curse with elemental weakness instead. (this is faster) if there is time, you can curse in addition to EE. for trash mobs, elemental weakness alone is perfect. mobs die in a second.


- cast your 2 totems in front of you.
don't "spam" totems. the time until a totem starts dealing damage is lost dps time.
so, if you spam it, you lose dps time.
only cast a new totem, if it is nessesary. its better to change the position (and so the attack area) if needed.


- Lightning Warp:
if your totems are up, a fast repositioning of yourself changes the attack area immediately. this is very useful.
Lightning Warp supportet by reduced duration and faster casting is a must have.



- vaal summon skelettons
this is a big additional meat shield for boss fights, or rogue exiles.

- enfeeble
switch the elemental weakness gem with enfeeble for dangerous bosses.

normal: help oak (+40 healthpoints)
cruel: kill all (+1 passive point)
mercyless: kill all (+1 passive point)

1. if you use dual totems (ancestral bond keystone activated) you can not deal damage beside it anymore. exception: traps.

2. because of that, elemental equilibrium must get triggered from traps, which deal any other elemental damage than fire.

3. searing bond does not trigger EE. This makes searing bond a perfect dps skill for EE, since there is no need to pay attention if EE is already triggered or not.

4. map bosses have 60% reduced effect of curses on them, Act Bosses 70%. Example: Launching a curse (elemental weakness) on a map boss, which decreases the elemental resistances by 50%, reduces his resistances by only 20%.

5. the “cast when damage taken” gem casts linked spells in sockets in clockwise order.

6. “+1 to level of gems in this item” increases the searing bond gem for 2 levels, if there is an empower gem linked.

7. there is a vendor receipe to get +1 to levels of fire gems (or any other element) on a weapon. it is useful for the leveling weapon. (recipe and example inside the leveling guide section)

8. increased fire damage, increased elemental damage, increased totem damage, increased burning damage, all have the same effect on searing bond dps, if it is the same % value.

9. "increased spell damage", "adds xx fire damage", "adds xx cold damage" etc., have no effect on searing bond.

not possible at the moment, sorry. if i have new hardware, i make a video.

dual totem (ancestral bond) was activatet about level 30. with dual totem, elemental weakness curse is important. (or flammabilty curse) since no other damage can be dealt anymore, except from traps.

you can get the searing bond gem from a quest reward in act 3 normal, quest "lost in love". it is the very 1st quest you get in in town in act 3 normal. minimum level for the gem is 24.

before searing bond, there is no special strategy for the dps skill. any elemental damage gets boosted with the first templar passive tree nodes. storm call, ice nova, arc, fire trap, molten strike,...

weapon for leveling up:

passive tree: