Hello fellow exiles!

I would like to share with you a build idea I had for this league and tell you of the performance I 've seen so far with mid to high investment.

The build : https://pastebin.com/QjhrJcvj

When reading the patch notes and seeing that CwC would receive a nerf of 40% less damage to compensate for the buffs to hand casting I thought that instead of using the usual trigger of Cyclone for CwC what if we used 2 spells that could combine with each other.

As a result I came up with the combination of Incinerate + Anomalous Flame Surge. Flame Surge on its own can hit very hard against burning enemies but it cannot ignite by itself and especially the Anomalous version gives chance to scorch which would further increase the damage dealt by all sources.

Incinerate on the other hand is a very solid spell (imo it's a better flameblast since you can gain stages but also change direction), but its limited reach was always somehow limiting.

So what could be the glue that makes them stick together? And here is where i thought that an ascendancy that could minimise our weaknesses is Occultist. Her pops and increased AoE meant that we could stack charges and go for crit which would guarantee the ignite for flame surge to hit hard, and the pops+ HoA would take care of the clearing.

For the item choices I chose to go LL and use Evasion + Spell Suppression as well as the combo of Stampede + grasping vines to further increase our damage output and our ability to stand still and build stages.

I would say it's a very solid map clearer and boss killer, that can deal all of the content (I have done it so myself with being mediocre mechanic-wise) . Of course with this investment other builds can do it similarly or even better, but this offers a different way of playstyle that could interest some of you.

I think it shines in league mechanics that let you ramp up your stages (e.g. blight, ritual) and at the same time it tests your knowledge of game mechanics and awareness of your character limits because with a good positioning you can dish out very high damage.

For anyone interested, the build is quite away from being min maxed with further points of upgrading being +2 AoE Shavs, +1 fire / +1 all wand, 21/20 incinerate and 21/20 flame surge which could shoot the DPS of upwards of 15 mil. Also with some more levels we could gain more ES and go for 6k+, even more dps, or even more AoE by getting a medium cluster with vast power and magnifier.

Total Cost So Far

Helm : 60c for the base + craft

Shavs : 6ex

Both Rings : 2,5ex

Void Battery : 50c

Ashes : 1,2ex

Watcher's Eye : 1,5ex

Bottled Faith : 6,5ex

Belt : 1ex

Rest of the Gear : 1ex

Total : ¬21ex

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Final Note : I have not included Vaal RF in the calculations as I consider it to be up for such a low time that it does not represent a real showcase of the DPS this build can do.

If anyone is interested and would like to know more, I would be very happy to answer any of your questions!