PoB: https://pobb.in/iivKAJtGXJhX

Also T16 phantasmagoria (closed, evil, evil layout): https://youtu.be/xMLD3s4rvbw

About Stormbind

Why?

GGG quadruple buffed Stormbind of Teleportation this patch (Damage, cast speed, teleport time and mana cost, yes that is a buff). They also introduced Hallowed Rite for Ocultists which pairs perfectly.

Quick Pro/Cons

Pros:

+ Walking is for peasants, we teleport here.

+ Always a teleport on hand to get away from anything

+ Pretty chill once you get the rhythm for teleports

+ Switch between area coverage and strong nukes just by holding a key longer.

Cons

- Mana hungry

- Corners and doorways are evil

- Needs finger dicipline

- Every now and then you will teleport right to your demise.

Stormbind

So, Stormbind is a weird skill. It works in three stages. First you channel stormbind, it create runes which spread outward from your cursor and hinder enemies. Second you channel runeblast, which charges runes in a 3x3 centered on your cursor in relation to mana spent for more damage and more area. Finally you relace runeblast and the runes explode with overlapping damage.

Gameplay

The way in which I play this skill is by holding my Stormbind hotkey down all the time, then pressing Runeblast when I have the runes where I need them and holding it down depending on how much damage I need. If moving quickly through packs I usually charge Stormbind longer and just tap Runeblast. For stronger enemies or bosses channel just the runes you need and then fully charge them with Runeblast.

I don't relace my Stormbind key while channelling runeblast, this way as soon as I detonate the runes and teleport my Stormbind is already laying down new runes at my mouse position.

I never stop channelling. I do not walk places. Thats what peasants do. I teleport.

Scaling

Area is not coverage.

Area is damage.

Cast speed is coverage.

Cast speed is also damage.

Mana cost is also damage.

Scaling on Stormbind is, as with everything about this skill, a bit weird. More Cast Speed allows us to lay down runes quickly so it helps with coverage, to the point I would say its the main way in which the skill scales for "area" even more that it does with Area of effect. Instead, more Area of Effect gives you more overlaps increasing your damage, specially for the charged runes, but up to a point. Mana cost reduces the time it takes to charge the runes so it boost your single target damage, but it means you don't want mana cost efficiency as it makes the charging the runes harder.

Area of Effect

This is where I would calculate % of overlapping areas in relation to increases to area of effect but I failed at math.

Instead I will keep this simple. Runes seems to have a size of 2x2 meters. With a 20% Quality Stormbind on a blue socket you need 45% increased area of effect to get a explosion radius of 2.9 meters when fully charging the runes, meaning there is small area in the middle of the 3x3 charged rune square that gets to overlap all 9 runes.

Lucky for us enemies are not a point and have their own hitboxes so hitting the full overlap gets easier with the size of the enemy.

More than 45% increased AoE give you better overlaps for general clearing and improves your chances of hitting the 9 runes overlap, but wont improve your celling for single target unless you get (checks notes) 400% increased area of effect to hit the target with 4 additional unimproved runes for 11% more damage. But if you are into that you do you.

Unhallowed Rite and manacosts

Runeblast charges a 3x3 square of runes in relation to mana spent, this means that Single Target damage becomes a race to spend as much mana as possible as quickly as possible so we can detonate those runes and lay new ones. The fact you have to spend the mana means no cheeky workarounds like spending ES or Life. This also means reducing the cost of the spell with % Cost Efficiency eases the requeriments on your mana regeneration at the cost of single target damage.

Unlike other Arcane skills and supports Stormbind doesn't care about your total reserved or unreserved mana, only how much mana per second can you throw at it.

Unhallowed Rite tops at 50% more damage and 100% More Mana cost, which is great as long as we can pay it, and we don't worry about maintaining the stacks because we are always channeling.

I did not scale additonal levels on the stormbind gem more than the 21 corruption because while it gives you more damage it increases both the manacost AND the threshold for rune improvement meaning you need more mana regeneration for the same charge time. Also I was bored of always scalling every spell with additional levels.

Build specifics

Gear

Running Ravenous Passion, Kalisa's Grace and Tawhanuku's Timing because I am spending a minimum of 600 mana points a second and I want to benefit form them as much as possible.

Less damage per rage vestigial on Kalisa's Grace was cheap and is nice to have.

Atziri's Foible instead of a damage amulet because this skill is a mana hungry demon.

My testing seems to indicate that while Tawhanuku's Timing works with channeling the effect does NOT stack with 2 of them. Still, the rings cost me 1d with the +1 power charges corrupt and a rare ring with +1 powers and stats equivalent to 70 mana, 70 es and 30% spell were ten times as expensive.

My flasks are a mess, I know.

Skills

Berserk on automate has good uptime as Ravenous passion generates lots of rage.

The golems die every now and then but the buffs are worth it so I deal with it.

I had never used Sigil of Power before, its great for the build. It takes 3s to charge, area is huge and gives both less damage taken and flat damage which scales a lot given that I am using a lvl 21 gem.

Open to ideas and improvements