Hexblast Ignite...Elementalist? PoB Update #5 [Beefing up the leaguestarter] (PoE 3.16)

PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE GUIDE AT LEAST ONCE BEFORE LEAGUESTART TO GET A GRASP OF HOW TO PROGRESS LEVELING TREES ARE PROVIDED, SIMPLY SELECT THEM IN THE BOTTOM LEFT OF THE SKILL TREE WINDOW Kill all Bandits. Ascendancy Order: Mastermind of Discord, Heart of Destruction, Liege of the Primordial, Shaper of Flames Leveling: If you want to, you can mule an Onslaught Support from a Scion character, as well as stashing any gear you get from Hillock, the 3 Wisdom Scrolls, and getting an extra check of the vendors for proper linked gear. Look for the following *linked* sockets at the vendors whenever you come back to town: 2x BBG (Blue-Blue-Green) wands or gear pieces. BR (Blue-Red) gear piece. BBB (Blue-Blue-Blue) or BB (Blue-Blue) and another piece of B gear. (The Blue Blue Blue gear should only have 1 link, so Clarity does not get linked with Arcane Surge. Skills: Stormblast Mine - Swift Assembly - Added Lightning Orb of Storms - Onslaught (If muled) - Elemental Proliferation Holy Flame Totem - Infused Channeling - Combustion Frostblink - Level 2 Arcane Surge (Do not level this) At level 10 replace Frostblink with Flame Dash, and add in Clarity Holy Flame Totem can easily carry most of the clear early on. Drop Holy Flame Totem and Orb of Storms, and then spam and detonate Stormblast Mines on bosses. Try to make at least 1 flat lightning to spells vendor crafted wand before Merveil (Magic Wand + Normal Rarity Topaz Ring + Alteration Orb). Also try to wear at least one Sapphire Ring for the Cold Resistance. Both rings can also be crafted from vendoring an Iron Ring + a gem of the corresponding stat (Sapphire = Int Gem, Topaz = Dex Gem, Ruby = Strength gem) At level 16 add Herald of Thunder and Summon Skitterbots to the build and activate them. If you are struggling with mana, level up your Clarity more and deactivate Skitterbots for the time being. At level 20 do the Flat Lightning wand craft again for both wands if possible, but this time using rare Topaz rings which can easily be gotten by using any essences you find on the way to make them rare. Rare rings will add a higher tier of flat lightning to spells with a level requirement of 20. At level 24 add in a Purity of Elements and drop Herald of Thunder. The damage from HoT is nice, but with two wand crafts our damage is more than good enough for simply the next 4 levels. Also pick up a Determination and level it in the offhand. Nothing will change until at least level 28 when we can start using Hexblast and also achieve 100% chance to ignite. When transitioning to ignite, purchase 2 Ashcaller with as high of Fire DoT Multi and Burning Damage as you can, but don't overpay. These wands are fantastic now that we don't use Elemental Equilibirum and the added fire to spells resetting it is not an issue. You can transition to Hexblast immediately at level 28 assuming you've specced out of Lightning Walker and the Witch starting spell damage nodes. This will require 6 regret points, which can be gained by completing the quests A Dirty Job, Through Sacred Ground, and Victario's Secrets. As previously stated, spec out of the Witch starting spell damage nodes and Lightning Walker, as these will both do you no good once we switch to ignite. It won't be until level 29 that we can get Skittering Runes though, so anticipate that damage boost You can now drop the Stormblast, Orb of Storms, and Holy Flame Totem setups entirely. Arcane Surge can also be dropped. Hexblast links (BBBG) should be as follows: Hexblast - Combustion - Unbound Ailments - Deadly Ailments Swift Affliction is *slightly* more damage than Unbound Ailments at this point, but the quality of life of the far, far longer ignites and far, far more total damage per ignite is well worth it. Also PoB is currently broken and doesn't register 'less duration' ailment lines so the total damage per ignite and duration of ignites when using Swift Affliction is going to be far less than PoB states. I simply do not like Swift Affliction at all and advise against it's use in most cases. When you switch to Hexblast also pick up Flammability and Elemental Weakness. Use Flammability to gain doom via Doomsday for now, remembering to re-curse bosses with Flammability after igniting them for extra damage. A Wave of Conviction - Increased Duration setup should provide an easy 15% exposure without the socket and tree investment needed to get Scorching Ray totems to 8 stacks. Wave of Conviction will also later proc Convergence before our big ignites for 30% more elemental damage. An additional 1-link of Flame Surge should also be used once a boss is ignited for tons of additional damage. Once you get the Sovereignty wheel + the 15% mana reservation efficiency mastery + the Vitality reservation efficiency Life Mastery you can try to drop Summon Skitterbots in favor of Vitality for much better sustain and survivability. The damage lost is relatively minimal compared to the tankiness we get from Vitality. At any point in time you can invest in a Doedre's Damning ring for an additional damaging curse, which should be Elemental Weakness, and should be added to a Bane setup, so the hex does not gain doom, and therefore isnt removed from the target when we Hexblast: Links are Bane - Elemental Weakness Also consider picking up a Pyre ring; it gives a very solid amount of resistance, as well as 60-80% increased burning damage; a massive boon for an ignite build. At level 34 add either a Stone Golem or a Chaos Golem to your build, whichever you feel is better for you at that particular point in time. We will eventually use both. At level 36 you can buy a Vixen's Entrapment, which will give an additonal curse, which should be Despair. This item will automate the casting of your socketed additional damage curses, with no need for Bane anymore. When you cast Flammability, they will simply auto-trigger with no input from you. Very handy. At level 38 pick up Ignite Proliferation, and replace Combustion with it. With 2 Ashcaller Wands we will still be at 100% chance to ignite. At level 39 consider buying a Doedre's Scorn. With 3 curses on the enemy this can give up to 80% increased damage as well as longer curses. Once we get Rigthteous Decree, try to fit Determination into the build. If you can't, simply wait a few levels until your total mana pool increases. Once we get the Determination mana reservation efficiency armour mastery from Combat Stamina, see if you can fit in a Defiance Banner. If you can't, simply wait until a later level when you have more total mana and try again. Once we hit level 68 or so and get Whispers of Doom, you can drop your Doedre's Damning in favor of a life and resistance ring. Once a 5 link is acquired, add in Burning Damage support to your Hexblast setup. Once a 6 link is acquired, add in Efficacy to your links. Past that, simply gear up as best as you can, following the endgame gear as a rough guide for what to look for. Look for fire DoT multi jewels, add in Cluster Jewels when you can afford them (9 or 10 passives larges with only 2 notables are fine to start with, but 8 passives with 3 notables are optimal), get a 6 link (your endgame crafted chest can wait until much later). Ashcaller Wands are more than strong enough to continue on into maps with. Pick up either a Martyr of Innocence or 2 Sceptres or Wands (preferably a Sceptre with an elemental damage implicit, as spell damage wand implicits do not scale our ignite dps) with at least 25% Fire Damage Over Time Multiplier and +1 to level of Chaos Spell Skill Gems or +1 to level of All Spell Skill gems. If you can, look for items with an open prefix for crafting on % fire damage. Once a Blackflame is acquired, we should switch to Occultist and start saving currency for cluster jewels and following the mid-tier PoB.