Hello,

I'm kind of theorycrafting a fireball flamewall build. Fireball to map fast, and Firewall to use against boss. I want the life / Block / Armor / Staff build, to get, I think, good survivability.

https://pastebin.com/p7tDq3f4

Look at the LL build in items and tree for a realistic view of the build (around 20-30 ex to get there, so nothing impossible).

Purpose :

I love fireballing, I love fire, and the sad truth is, I can't burn everything in real life, because people don't like ashes and stuff. They get sad. I love my precious fireballs so much in fact, that I even found them a cute little nickname : I called them Bob.

I feel that in POE, our avatar lacks some identity sometimes, we play "meta" because we want the good stuff.I also played extensively a metorb soso in diablo 2, with great pleasure. Just wanted to get something approaching in POE. Something simple and cool, not another Bayblade thingy with cold conversion and infinite heartbound loop of BSOD.

My goal is just to get to nuke boss and deli MAPs. Already done it with other builds, squishier ones with more DPS, it was fun, but these builds had one major flaw: they didn't have Bob in it.

Damage, mapping and boss.

DPS wise, we have 2 mill 2 ignite DPS without pot, and 2 mill 4 with. There is a staff (Staff HL), which seems craftable and a nice upgrade to the DPS of the build to 3 mill 4.

• The idea is to use Bob setup to clean trash mob fast. GMP + Chain + the use of Vaal Fireball, seems to do alright in early map. In my experience with Bane and other DOT Build, 300K Dot is enough for most of the content.
• When mobs get tougher, drop a flame wall and throw Bob at the face of the enemy. You can offscreen mobs that way, and Fireball GMP + Chain seems to get everywhere (like sand).
• For elite, boss and "I-Wont-Die mobs", Focus trigger on helm is one of my personnal favorite to get WOC, Combustion, Purifying flame (survivability) and Flame Surge (to get damage). But it can be replaced by another one of my favorite, Arcanist brand (at the cost of purifying flame or flame surge). Maybe Voidsphere to manage the swarm of mobs.

I did try on early map (like T5) with mediocre gears in Atlas Invasion, and the build seems to roll. The clear was good (and the boom boom of my friends Bob was a delight to hear), but we all know that T5 are not representative of higher contents, so who knows.

Defense :

Well, this build won't kill things in seconds, so my witch needs to survive the swarm of slighty burned and very enraged mobs.

• There is a mastery that get 2% life each time you ignite something not on fire. Maybe she enjoys fire so much, she forgets she has to die, I don't know.
• Little life regen. Vitality and stone golem help the life regen. (like 449, 600 with consecrated ground). I get a little life leech from my pal' Bob
• Block: Good old staff. 50% block and 36% spell block, more when she drinks the sweet juice of Rumi (arhem). Staff Mastery give a 2% of life back if you block.
• Phys damage reduction: High armor, and endurance charge get you 90% Phys damage reduction. With determination, a sweet basalt pot, Rumi glorious side effects, and of course Molten Shell. That part will probably get nerfed, I guess.
• I always try to get 75% all resist, including chaos. Thanks to the holy cluster, you can get Chaos Resist and Damage over time "easily".
• Divine Flesh can be used I think, but the passives tree will need some cuts to get that max chaos res higher. Or I will need to move my ass and level up my witch.

I couldn't try it yet, but I feel that it gets me to a point where my Witch can tank good hit, and get enough rege to tank them again a moment later...

Item :

• Searing touch is good. Not godly, but enough I think to get the build going.
• Pyre is always nice.
• Flammability on hit ring is the nice touch, but I don't mind casting it manually at first on big boss. (or put it in an arcanist brand setup)
• Intuitive leap is good to get some passive point

Everything else is fairly standard: cluster, +1 fire jewel, Cinderswalloy, everything that make things burn faster and brighter.

Cluster Jewel are of course very goods to get the fastest. Some are easy, some are expensive. All in all, I did a "op" item set, just to get the feel of what I should be looking for.

Thoughts :

Well, first, I'm maybe missing something crucial that will make my friend Bob ineffective and a perfectly round-shaped flaming disappointment.

Maybe your experts eyes have some upgrades and advises to get the build more DPS, or more tankyness.

Or maybe you just want to say hi to Bob.

Thanks for reading.