Infernal blow for SSF league start 3.30

================================== LEVELING ================================== Beforehand: - `"-[rgbw]-|ts:.*\w-|Runn|rint|s:.+sw"` - gems: `"^added l|poa|^spell c|ess su|^purity of f|od rag|cal t|^trin|^more|t wall$|rd'|^smi|wrat|^lightning p|^spectral t|tap s|^ancestral ca|skin$|ost bl|al blo|^mark|mpes|^leap|rog|^arct|bat s|^mom|esh a|^sigi|e dash$"` - Upgrade sword often - ==Consider making a mule !== - If you make a mule, get frost blades as reward to help clear ##### Act 1 Buy iron rings & rustic sash early on if able Check vendor for lapis amulet and buy if able Minimum link requirements before infernal blow swap: - 2L (spectral throw) - 2L (leap slam) - 1L (frostblink) - 1L (precision) - 1L (sniper's mark) Minimum link requirements for infernal blow switch: - 3L (infernal blow) - 2L (leap slam) - 1L (frostblink) - 1L (precision) - 1L (steelskin) --- - Quests: - Enemy at the gate: - buy spectral throw - Mercy mission: - pick ancestral call - buy ruthless if 3L - buy frostblink + steelskin (optional) - Breaking some eggs: - pick sniper's mark - pick dash - The caged brute: - pick faster attacks - pick precision - buy leap slam - The siren's cadence: - buy infernal blow - if 3L equip ruthless ##### Act 2 Make ruby & topaz ring from spectral throw + chance to bleed, consider crafting more res on them Whenever two-stone rings drop, check for upgrades Minimum link requirements: - 3L (infernal blow) - 2L (leap slam) - 1L (frostblink) - 1L (precision) - 1L (poacher's mark) - 1L (blood rage) - 1L (herald of ash) - 1L (steelskin) --- - Quests: - The great white beast: (only do if no heavy belt or quicksilver drop) - pick heavy belt or quicksilver depending on character state - Intruders in black: - pick herald of ash - buy blood rage + poacher's mark + arctic armour + flesh and stone (optional) - Sharp and cruel: - pick elemental damage with attacks, replace ancestral call - buy close combat, replace ruthless -> can also go phys to lightning before convert mastery ##### Act 3 - Quests: - Lost in love: - at this point check if precision is needed, and disable it if not - The ribbon spool: - pick lapis amulet ##### Act 4 Buy warlord's mark before doing lab, to put quality on it After 1st lab there is no need for precision anymore so remove it (put in weapon swap) Whenever a good 4L drops: - if elemental damage is balanced buy trinity in act 2 - if not keep close combat + ruthless/phys to lightning Minimum links requirements: - 4L (infernal blow) - 2L (leap slam) - 2L (poacher's mark) - 1L (frostblink) - 1L (blood rage) - 1L (herald of ash) - 1L (steelskin) --- - Quests: - The eternal nightmare: - buy mark on hit ##### Act 5+ Fix res and upgrade weapon Whenever you can, slot in flesh and stone if it's not there already Replace poacher's mark with warlord's mark around the time you get the endurance charge cluster Added lightning damage is good before you get a good weapon and auras Minimum links requirements: - 4L (infernal blow) - 2L (leap slam) - 2L (warlord's mark) - 1L (frostblink) - 1L (blood rage) - 1L (herald of ash) - 1L (steelskin) - 1L (flesh and stone) ================================== ENDGAME ================================== Atlas tree: https://poeplanner.com/a/6Rpb (3.29) Buy a couple lifetaps for mark, leap slam, frostblink & steelskin whenever mana becomes too tight Switch off 2 handers asap Ways to get weapons: - At level 58 you can start equipping corsair swords, only need 1 base so can faustus gamble until that or simply find it in vendor or on the ground - Phys vendor recipe + attack speed craft is enough for a lot of content and probably exarch/eater - Topaz + augment can give flat lightning 1 tier higher, alt roll for flat and do the recipe, then aug, regal and craft asp if not hit or %phys Getting a good prismatic tincture with 35% effect and either attack speed or elemental penetration gives a huge damage boost Before brine king freeze immune use arctic armour, after replace with tempest shield Keep arctic armour in weapon swap Try to get perseverance belt, huge QOL - Keep all unique belts in case ancient orbs drop - Can maybe faustus gamble belt if leftover gold For searing exarch especially the ball phase in HC, level purity of fire in weapon swap, and have frost wall + spell cascade (my personal preference) or totems to tank some balls, and have a ruby flask Probably a good idea to have flame dash as well and use it instead of frostblink Eldritch implicits to look for: - Helmet: - exarch: aoe - eater: % lightning pen OR phys as elemental - Gloves: - exarch: +1 strike - eater: lightning exposure OR attack speed - Boots: - exarch: action speed - eater: regen per endurance charge - Chest: - exarch: fortify - eater: frenzy OR endurance After getting fortify on chest and +1 strikes on gloves you can remove a bunch of point on the tree to allocate on damage Best weapon mods for endgame: - wed - % phys - flat lightning - attack speed Good uniques: - perseverance - voice of the storm - subsume the source -> accuracy or lightning damage (hard to farm + hard to fit) - paradoxica, rebuke of the vaal, hyaon's fury (in order from best to meh) - foulborn infinite pursuit (ailment immune variant) - golden rule (to help apply bleed on self) A cardinal round shield with crafted chance to block (50%) and some nodes on the tree + annointed Sanctuary overcaps versatile combatant with tempest shield Subsume the source can fix accuracy on its own, can even remove the accuracy nodes on tree, or can add a shitton of flat lightning damage, but it has no stats Actually leveling precision helps a ton with accuracy Can also use accuracy tattoos since we have spare dex points to use Foulborn infinite pursuit + endless hunger is crazy synergy, gets you everything immune as long as you are bleeding and leeching (almost always) ================================== FAQ ================================== Q: Why slayer? A: Impact fixes accuracy, leech is strong and frenzy stack gives a lot of attack speed which infernal blow really likes. Later, masterful form provides pretty good tankiness Q: Why no multistrike? A: Infernal blow only applies the debuff on the first hit, so multistrike is actually a damage downgrade on single target, since you get a lot of damage from the explosion and it triggers every 6 attacks, which becomes 18 attacks with multistrike Q: Why swords? A: I wish we could use claws but you can't with infernal blow, so swords are the next best thing. It's easier to cap accuracy than with axes and they have higher attack speeds Q: Why trinity setup? A: Infernal blow inherently converts some of its damage to fire but we are stacking lightning damage since it has a lot of easy sources of flat. Since lightning has such a huge range trinity is always active statistically because we will be doing more fire damage on some hits unless we have obscene amounts of flat, which isn't really a concern before super end game Q: Why not use X skill for leveling? A: I want to use infernal blow as early as possible because it's my favorite skill, but you can probably use another skill to go through the campaign faster. Kinda not the point though but you do you Q: What can this build do? A: 4 stones is doable if skilled, otherwise exarch/eater is pretty fast and easy. It's a really good mapper for alch & go, and mechanics with big packs of weak monsters. NOT a good bosser AT ALL even with all the investment towards single target. I have pushed this build to atlas completion in HCSSF with a shield variant that is surprisingly playable. Ubers are probably a stretch with this level of investment Q: How to scale further? A: It's not impossible to pivot to crit but you need significant investment to actually get it to deal more damage than this budget starter, in SSF I probably would want to reroll to another build for higher end content. A budget accuracy stacker would be the natural next step with ritual boot bases and foulborn dreamfeather