0-Mana-Cost 1-Button Doom Caster Gemling

Hello PoE2BuildReddit,

Last week I stumbled upon this Build Concept by a Video of Koten, a small PoE Build Creator, and this is the final result of 1 Week of testing and fine-tuning.

Notably, outside of the Amulet, every Expensive Item can be replaced by a budget Version.

So the Core-Concept of the Build is that Despair on a Gemling gets additional Quality to reduce Cost, and at 40% Quality, you can reach 100% reduced Cost. [This is on the same Layer as increase Cost Nodes like Raw Mana, so can't use that!]

With 0 at one Layer of the Cost Multiplier, we can throw Archmage on top of Despair and still have 0 Cost.

Now, to make this interaction deal damage, add Impending Doom. Doedre's Undoing sadly doesn't work cause it has a Mana Cost of 0 and doesn't mimic the Despair Quality just Level. Doom Blast of Impending Doom has a Mana Cost of Nothing, so Archmage applies Damage but not Cost.

So the Core Setup is Despair + Impending Doom + Spell Cascade + Cursed Ground

Cursed Ground + Spell Cascade creates Instances of apply curse that immediately removes it because of the Limit of 2 Cursed Grounds, resulting in the first Doom Blast Proc. Any subsequent casts remove the previous Cascaded Cursed Grounds and can yield up to 2 additional Hits of Doom Blast for up to 3 Hits Total per Cast.

This does require some investment into Curse Activation Frequency to keep the Delay below the cast time. So that in between each Cast of Despair, the cursed grounds go active, apply the curse, then get replaced, expiring the curse and procing Doom Blast.

In my testing, I also concluded that Adonia's Ego is the Best Wand once Archmage is added to the Build. Its 152% More Damage for 4 additional Buttons once each Minute. With a 20% Chance(heightened charges) to reach 300% more Damage for 2 Minutes.

We can get Gem Levels from Cultivated Vertex and Prism of Belief, so the more multiplier of the Wand outshines any increases of a Rare Wand.

With Pinacle of Power and a WS 2 Setup to generate Infusions and Power Charges with Infused with Power to consume in WS 1 Pinnacle of Power, we get all the More Damage we need. (can't be WS 2 Buff is locked to the Weapon Set Pinacle of Power is used with)

So to combine it:

1. High Base Damage from scaling Gem Level without the downside of increased Cost
2. Massive Damage as Extra from Archmage, scaling with Investment into Mana
3. Also using Mana for Cultivated Rathpit for %inc Damage and %crit Chance(forgot to mention so far)
4. More Elemental Damage from Adonia's Ego Pinnacle of Power

Overall, a really satisfying and fun build.

PoB: https://pobb.in/wgKip7f8w_Sl

Written Guide: https://mobalytics.gg/poe-2/profile/cyclon-definitiv/builds/doomcaster-gemling