• https://pastebin.com/HdjjJKDL : Budget version (level 87, cheap gear, 5 link armor and 6 socket unlinked staff). Reaches 1.6m DPS on mapping config (flasks active, no convergence, assuming you're killing enemies) and 1m DPS on bossing config (no flasks, Shaper resistances, convergence active). This isn't counting Flame Surge, which will give at minimum another 25% more damage.
• https://pastebin.com/G5QL3sPD : More invested version, but still not GG gear. Level 95, some influenced items and good jewels, better mods on staff (though the staff ceiling is massive, it can easily give 50% more damage even from there). Reaches 3.4m DPS (plus flame surge) on a mapping setup as above, and 2m on a shaper setup.
• https://pastebin.com/62jz9Ufk : Similar to the above, but uses Replica Emberwake and some very precise scaling so ignites last exactly 1 second. Against bosses, having Arcanist Brand up should mean they are constantly ignited so there's no big loss of efficiency there. Reaches 4.4 mapping DPS.
• https://pastebin.com/bc2j2hky Just for fun, here's the build with completely unrealistic GG gear. Hits a comfy 13m DPS against unique enemies when mapping. Not that it will ever happen, but it's fun to dream.
• EDIT: https://pastebin.com/NQUA6RLP This is the "mid investment" build taking some of the feedback from this thread. It's mostly tree changes so you can apply it to any of the versions above. I took cluster jewels for the Deep Chill interaction, Divine Shield, Ungil's Harmony to opt out of staff crit nodes, some minor pathing improvements, etc. Takes mapping DPS to 4.5m with slightly better defense. I consider this right now the ultimate target of this build idea, and what I'll go for.

The body armor has a few adjustments for missing 3.16 PoB mechanics. Note that I've adjusted for the drop in base damage for fire burst (there's a 34% less multiplier on the armor)

As for defenses, both versions are relatively close and have a bunch of good layers:

• Full Glancing Blows block and spell block.
• Pretty high armour
• Full ailment immunity (elemental ailments from Purity, bleeding and curses from flasks)
• Passive endurance charge generation + CWDT Immortal + Cold Snap
• Recovery on block (20 life, 20 mana, 2% ES and life for attacks, 50 ES for spells).
• Sources of instant life gain when clearing (2% life when igniting, 4% life on kill).
• 5k HP and ~1k ES
• Capped chaos res
• Auto-blind everything (the curse mastery blinds on hit as we're using hextouch)
• The playstyle being as forgiving as it gets. Against bosses, one brand cast every few seconds and just run around like a headless chicken.

Some thoughts on options I've considered/I'm considering. Open to feedback here!

• There's an argument for Replica Emberwake so we purposefully leave ignite very close to 1 second duration so the 2% life on igniting is constantly triggering. Problem is my smol brain can't do math well enough to know where exactly the limit is so it starts feeling good. EDIT: Added a PoB for this idea at the top. I think this is what I'm going with since the damage increase is massive and should be very easy to sustain thanks to the new Fire Burst cooldown. EDIT2: disregard, I'm silly and this doesn't work. Replica emberwake is still the way to go though, as it massively increases DPS for no drawback if we invest in cdr or ignite duration a bit.
• We have 17% crit chance on FB which should be enough to have full EO uptime, but I wonder if there's wiggle room here in either direction. EDIT: Math: On a rolling 8s window we need to make sure at least one of eight fire bursts crit, which is odds of 1 / (0.83 ^ 8), roughly 78%, so we have about 78% EO uptime. I'm not messing with it since the build generates power charges when blocking which I think would take it close to my target of 90% , but I might invest in CDR to guarantee it.
• Not sure how flame surge scales yet, which might mean the gems have to be re-shuffled to account for scaling flame surge further.
• There's a cool trick that this build could do by using Replica Stampede instead of Windshriek, anointing Whispers of Doom, and scaling Flame Dash DoT for another 1.5m damage against bosses.
• The build could do with Infernal Cry, but I'm not sure where I'd slot it and whether it would feel good to use at all, plus we already have a passive chance of ashing on hit, so it may be unnecessary.

Thoughts? I'm likely leaguestarting this so I'll appreciate any input and ideas.