PoE2 0.4 - Early Endgame Blood Mage | Build Update in description!

GENERAL ------------- Q: Why Blood Mage and Chaos Conversion? A: Blood Mage homogenizes different damage types when using different elemental skills, and provides 15% base Critical Hit Chance. This combination allows us to reliably scale any combination of Elemental skills. Q: Why not run unconverted Frostbolt (pure Cold)? A: Because it's more expensive (due to Rakiata's Flow), whilst the Chaos version has higher damage potential. However, it does require you to apply Wither stacks and manually upkeep Despair. The Cold variant is mechanically less involved. Q: Why Frostbolt and not Fireball? A: Frostbolt doesn't need Infusions, and potentially shotguns single targets much harder. SKILLS --------- Ember Fusillade: - One-click wonder with Unleash to increase clear speed and single target damage. - Because of Unleash, the downsides of Considered Casting and Deliberation are negligible. - The damage reduction from Unleash does not seem to affect the Embers. Frostbolt: - Bread and butter for clearing. - Snakepit makes Frostbolt explode on impact with monsters and Frost Wall instead of it piercing. - Keep spamming this to stack Life Regeneration from Sacrifice of Blood. Frost Wall: - As mentioned above, allows you to shotgun single targets with the overlapping explosions. - Shotgunning does require a good placement of the Frost Walls and timing it with incoming Frostbolt projectiles, or hugging the target entirely, so keep that in mind. Chaos Bolt: - Another one-click wonder with Unleash to apply full Wither stacks per cast. Despair: - More damage. Duh. GEAR -------- Rathpith Globe: - Despite the nerfs, still the biggest source of damage for a Crit build like this. Veil of the Night + Kaom's Heart: - Biggest sources of Life, and therefore damage through Gore Spike. - No Spirit means no Cast on Critical setup, nor other supportive spells. - No Resistances is playable, but makes Waystones with Elemental modifiers dangerous to run, causing more bricks. Original Sin: - Source of Chaos Conversion. Snakepit: - Makes Frostbolt explode, increasing upfront damage and it allows shotgunning with Frost Wall. Undying Hate (Tecrod): - Source of Sacrifice of Blood Keystone for Life Regeneration stacking. - Mandatory to sustain Rathpith Globe and utilize Atalui's Bloodletting. - If lucky, can offer Increased Life Recovery Rate on a Notable. Controlled Metamorphosis: - Allows us to efficiently grab Wither Away + Pure Chaos. - Also allows us to grab Ice Walls for Frost Wall. - Grab Ether Flow for some MS QoL. - Easy access to Eldritch Battery for some more Mana to utilize with the Lucidity cluster. Time-Lost Ruby: - These amplify your Life Regeneration and Recovery Rate, boosting Sacrifice of Blood substantially.