Time for something a bit unconventional. Turning Armageddon brand into a single-target nuker with Brand Recall. I’ve tried several times to build this, but this is the first time I’ve had relative success. It’s more of a proof of concept, but certainly playable.

The idea is simple: get 7 brands active, use brand recall on cooldown, and watch the screen explode. Even if you already know how that works, be sure to read the section on cast speed to see why it’s still valuable.

Here’s the PoB: https://pobb.in/YWas8qSQ4lR4

TL;DR: 11.85m Guardian/pinnacle dps. Possibly 15.15m. Somewhat fragile, but serviceable defense.

Edit: You can reasonably replace the forbidden flame/flesh with some crit chance+multi jewels, and use a diamond flask instead of the Basalt flask for more damage but less amour.

###How does Brand Recall work?

What happens to a brand when it is recalled?

The general consensus is that “maximum number of brands” is relatively worthless, especially in single target situations. This is not the case.

Brand recall has a somewhat little known feature: It activates your brands when they are recalled, if you can pay a base 20% fee per brand of the brand's cost.

When it says "activated," it means it will deal its damage without having to be attached to anything at all. This activation can shot-gun. I've tested this with Romira's Banquet, counting the number of power charges generated in single-target.

Bear in mind that brands are not forbidden from attaching themselves to nearby targets when this recall happens. The brands that do attach to an enemy will still activate instantly, which I believe means they won’t get the bonus damage from being attached. But they will still inflict that “increased damage taken” bonus.

That instant activation happens regardless of the Brand's hit rate. More specifically, it seems to reset it. That means if you cast Brand Recall right after a brand activates, it will double cast. But if you do so right before a brand activates, it will not double cast.

This is why Cast Speed is still valuable on this build. Getting the cast speed of Armageddon to be just slightly faster than our cooldown rate insures we have 2 extra brand's worth of DPS in single target, and up to double brand DPS in clearing.

Brand Recall can be bound to the move action, allowing us to cast it frame-perfectly while moving. So long as our brand's trigger rate within a hair's breadth of our recall Cooldown time, we can perform this tech with 0 effort on our part.

Brand Recall Mana

As previously mentioned, brand recall has an additional 20% fee. If you can't pay, the brand does not activate on recall.

But let's take a step back. What does "spends 20% of brand's cost" really mean?

I've done some testing, and I can determine the following properties:

The additional mana cost is -not- modified by the support gems on Brand Recall. It -is- modified by increases and reductions to the mana cost of skills. It -cannot- be converted to a life cost via Life tap, even though the base mana cost of Brand Recall will. This was tested using Indigon and Shavronne's Revelation to disable our mana regen.

In short, it is as generous as possible, which is good for our mana sustain.

The Best Brand

It's Armageddon brand. The low trigger rate and high damage is perfectly suited for our this approach. It even delays the meteor drop, giving time for the brands to connect to nearby enemies, applying the small bonus damage to it.

We even get to place them faster. The other brands just can't compete.

Calculating damage

There is one mechanic about Armageddon that I simply am not sure of. Armageddon Brand has the following line:

“39% more damage with hits against branded enemy”

When and how is that multiplier applied? If there are 2 attached brands hitting on an enemy, and 5 unattached brands hitting that same enemy, how many of them get the damage bonus?

Scenario 1: The multiplier is applied on hit to branded enemies. It doesn’t matter what brand it is, so long as it is branded when the hit is calculated. So all 7 recall hits get this bonus damage.

Scenario 2: The multiplier is applied to the trigger of the attached brand, on the enemy. In this scenario, 2 out of 7 recall casts get the damage bonus

Scenario 3: The more damage multiplier checked when it is activated, before any of the brands are attached. This means that none of the brands get the damage bonus.

My testing method is inconclusive. Armageddon brand needs to be a high level for a noticeable multiplier, and with the damage range being what it is, it’s just difficult to not kill something that you’re testing on. Additionally, you need to do so enough that you can factor out that damage range in a distribution chart.

PoB calculates the damage of Armageddon Brand as always being on a branded enemy. This applies to all of the brand casts. I’m a pessimist, so I assume scenario 3, and thus, the average hit appears to be higher than it should. That being said, the odds are still decent that it's scenario 1.

For complicated math reasons, the true damage of our brand's average hit is approximately 28% less vs bosses to counteract the 39% more damage modifier, and 27% vs non-boss enemies. If you make too many changes, that will need to be adjusted.

So, our single target damage will be 7 unattached brands and 2 attached brands (from the cast speed tech) every time we cast brand recall.

In the PoB I linked. this corresponds to (7 * 1.08m+2 * 1.50m) * 1/0.891, or about 11.85m Guardian/pinnacle dps.

Now, if it’s a scenario 1, then the damage will be 9 * 1.50m * 1/0.891, or about 15.15m.

###Everything else about this build

There really isn't much else going on here, but I suppose the defensive choices deserve some mentioning.

Defense

It's one of my favorite defensive combinations. Merging armor with life/es recovery.

We get a large amount of armor from converting hybrid armor/es nodes to pure armor using Energized Armor. We grab the mastery that makes increases and reduction to Armor apply to ES recovery rate. We then grab Eternal Youth to turn that ES recharge rate into life recharge. And we also grab Divine Shield to give us some extra ES recover, so that it's not an entirely dead stat.

On the PoB I linked, this results in a recharge rate of 69.3% of our max life per second, and a delay of 1.25 seconds. The result is a pseudo Dissolution of the Flesh, but we still have our other recovery options and some ES to boot.

Elemental damage wise, it's lack-luster. We don't have any sources of max elemental resistances, and no spell suppression.

###Conclusions

As it is, it's certainly playable if you enjoy the Brand playstyle. I'd have to make some low-cost versions, but we all know how great arma brand is as a league start.

As for whether or not it's worth the investment I showed in this high-cost version, I'm not so sure. Perhaps someone else will be able to push this further, or utilizing the concepts employed in other builds.