New Pathfinders Guide for 100% Flask Uptime

There are a lot of new Pathfinders out there due to the totem bomb builds, and I'm one of them. This post is a guide to my plans for 100% flask uptime without kills. It takes a little effort to reach that threshold, so hopefully this will help new PF's figure it out. And I'll probably learn a lot as well. I extensively used Path of Building for these calculations, and I encourage new players to dive into that tool as well.

For a summary, see My Stats and Tables at the end of this post.

What & Why

The Pathfinder ascendancy focuses on flask use. With the right skill tree nodes and gear, we can achieve 100% uptime on most flasks - basically they apply their affects at all times without needing kills. We'll enchant all flasks with "use when charges reach full" and then ensure they always refill before their duration expires. Some map mods and some infrequent mods monsters can interfere with this, but are generally a non-factor.

100% uptime is very useful because flasks provide a massive power boost. Mageblood, arguable the most powerful item in the game, has a similar effect and costs hundreds Divine Orbs. A mid-roll Bismuth flask with selected prefixes and suffixes is +124% to all elemental resistances. And unlike Mageblood, we can support Unique flasks like Taste of Hate and Sorrow of the Divine.

Skills and Ascendancy

Firstly, Pathfinder class is assumed. For ascendancy, take Nature's Adrenaline and four small nodes. Typically PF's take Nature's Adrenaline, Boon, Reprisal, and Toxicist.

Take 2 flask wheels on the skill tree: Natural Remedies & Careful Conservationist. No Mastery choices are required. The Replenishing Remedies wheel is unecssary.

Equipment

Belts can have three flask suffixes: Increased Charges Gained, Increased Duration, and/or Reduced Charges Used. I use a belt with T4 Increased Duration and T1 Charges Gained (and no Reduced Used). No specific uniques or cluster jewels are needed.

Flask Affixes

Magic utility flasks have 1 prefix and 1 suffix, and a Quality which scales their duration.

Prefixes can affect flask sustain, we care about recovery rate, duration, and charges gained. Different utility flasks benefit more from different prefixes, but the recovery and charges gained are generally superior. Typically you'll need T3 or T2 rolls for your prefix.

Suffixes provide supplemental affects, such as armour, evasion, elemental resistance, or mana cost reduction (crafted). There are also variants of affixes these that increase the effect of the flask at the cost of duration. Note that duplicate suffixes on different flasks don't help - you only get the larger effect.

Quality impacts the duration. For my calculations, I use 20% quality unless it is necessary to go higher to achieve 100% uptime. If 20% is insufficient, I calculate the stats at 30% quality. Hillock in Betrayal hideouts can craft several tiers of these higher qualities.

Utility Flask Types

Flasks come in a variety of types which have different key stats. We care about the base "charges used" and "duration" stats. We don't care about max charges, because every flask will be enchanted for "Use when charges reach full". Based on the two relevant stats, we divide flasks into the following groups.

1. Flat Bonus: Quicksilver (speed), Granite (+armour), Jade (+evasion), and Quartz (+spell suppression and phasing). 30 charges used, 6 second duration.
2. Percent Bonus: Sulphur (%damage), Basalt (%armour), Stibnite(%evasion). 40 charges used, 8 second duration.
3. Ruby/Sapphire/Topaz (Elemental resist & reduced damage): 20 charges used, 6.5 second duration
4. Bismuth (All elemental resists): 15 charges used, 8.5 second duration.
5. Amethyst (Chaos res): 35 charges used, 6.5 second duration
6. Silver (Onslaught): 40 charges used, 6 second duration

Unique Flasks

Several unique flasks are highly desirable. Taste of Hate (physical damage taken as cold) as well as Replica Sorrow of the Divine (Eldritch Battery) are especially popular among Pathfinders. Unique flasks have limited flexibility and some can't achieve 100% uptime. Taste and Sorrow can, however, without much effort. Others, such as Dying Sun, can't hit 100% uptime.

My Stats and Tables

I'm currently running a belt with T4 Flask Charges Gained and T1 Flask Effect Duration. I took the ascendancies and two skill wheels noted above. Here are the required flask roll tiers to achieve 100% uptime. For example, my Granite flask at 20% quality need a T2 Recovery Rate roll or T1 Charges Consumed roll. My Amethyst flask must have 30% quality and T2 Recovery or Consumed roll.

Type:       Flat Bonus      Percent Bonus     Bismuth      Elemental    Amethyst
           (QS, Granite,  (Sulphur, Basalt, (All resists) (Ruby/Topaz  (Chaos Res)
            Jade, etc.)      Stibnite)                     Sapphire)

Qual Req'd      20%             30%             20%          20%          30%
Prefix Tier
Recovery:       T2               T3           Natural*     Natural*        T2
Duration:    T3(30Q)             T2           Natural*     Natural*       N/A**
Consumed:       T1               T3           Natural*     Natural*        T2

Natural*: No special prefix needed, can even support reduced duration & increased effect.
N/A**: Not possible w/out further gear.
Silver flasks cannot achieve 100% uptime regardless of affixes and qual (with my gear)
NOTE: All these assume zero kills to regain charges.

Conclusion

With the right tree investment, you can 100% uptime flasks for any and all resists, armour, evasion, and phasing. You might spend on alts rolling the flasks and a trip to visit Hillock for extra quality, but you can have Mageblood power for minimal cost.

My testing PoB where you can craft flasks and check uptime numbers: https://pobb.in/k56gMFB1wvmm