Zerphi 3.0

Zerphi is still viable, and much easier to opt in than before, so I wanted to share the possible variations and an implementation.

You don't need any more special gear, like the old Mana gain corruptions because it got nerfed to over time, so it is not a sufficient recovery mechanic any more.

The two major variations are:
1. Blood Magic support, MoM, no CWDT self-proccing, maximum heal, RF or Blood Rage
The mana pool is not actively used, MoM + RF or Blood Rage is only used to permanently keep mana down, so Zerphi stays up for full duration without any manual help, you can reserve most if your mana for auras.
The healing can be scaled without any boundaries, using blood magic you heal the same pool as you use for casting, but your only damage output will be your self-casted skill. About 2 Fevered Mind jewels are enough to scale your mana cost high enough so you heal to full life each cast.
Besides the above Zerphi-sustain mechanics it is a very generic build type you can use almost all skills (no channeled), can be spell or attack too. Very simple gearing, no necessary uniques, focus on life and any other stats you want to scale, easy to swap around.

2. no MoM, Scold, self-procced CWDTs, lower heal, mana recovery scaling
You actively use your mana pool for spending the mana cost of your main skill, and heal is based on your mana recovery, which is fairly limited.
You use Scold's Bridle to boost your damage output by self-proccing CWDT spells. Scold only works in this version, because they changed it to not work with blood magic any more.
The best consistent mana recovery mechanic is still using a Mana flask, but you also stack mana regeneration, which can get you around 1000 mana per second with high investment, so around 12000 life recovery per second with max flask effect, but 4000 is used up by scold for CWDT proccing, so your total is around 8000 life recovery. Mana leech is possible, but not reliable because opponents can get immunity to it.
You need to keep around a ~1-2k unreserved mana pool, because if you stop spending mana for 1-2 seconds your Zerphi effect ends at full mana, so you constantly need to look out and keep it up.

3. Heartbound loop with CWDTs
Take the 1. as a base, use a movement skill as main with BM which will heal you, and use Hearhbound loop rings and reduced duration lvl1 skeletons on cwdt to constatly damage yourself.

4. Molten Shell
Molten Shell is a special variant of the 2. because MS is self casted, but the damage trigger depends on the self damage taken from Scold and it's mitigation.
Old guide thread: Molten Shell - The build
A 3.0 PvE variant by DreamScythe: Boom Box
I didn't try to remake it myself, because imo it wouldn't fit well in the offscreen meta, and it lost a lot of ehp without the MoM and proc rate from the Scold nerf.

Build example for the 1. variation:
Meta slave Glacial Cascade





Tree: https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAIDAABeAO4B5wQHBLMILgj0DlwQWBRNFSAWbxeWGJEZjhpsHNwfAiP2JKok2Cj6Kk0snCzpMjQzkjWSNsU26DbpN0w6WDrhPAU9Xz8nQYdDE0QNRX5KyEyzTZJN41JTVIJVxlZIWK9qQ2r6bqpvO3gNe8N-x3-AgayCm4LHg9uFMoVthrOKr419jxqQEZUEl5WX9JitmjubjZ2unrefy5_fogCjiqPvplenCKcwqW6pea-btfK3PriTvJ-86sAawGbHncjw0B_TftWB1abYJNi942rkIuRq5YvpmOvu7Tztg-4O73rvfO_r8B_xbfJF9qP52_no_Ev-Cv6P_xA=?accountName=M%C3%A1rkusz&characterName=TheWalkingM%C3%A1rkusz

Bandit: Passive
Pantheon: Solaris and whatever else you just need

Stats:
7144 Life
94830 DPS GC tooltip (with RF and EO), 47% cold pen
2.94 casts per second
540 GC mana cost
6480 life recovery per GC Cast
372 LW mana cost (4464 recovery)
75/29 Block
25% chaos resist (75% with flask)

Stun immunity is a must-have from some source.
Mana nodes are only picked up for the flask bonuses.
A movement skill over QS is recommended because it heals while you move.

With actual non-crappy gear, Legacy kaoms, it can get around 10k life, and very good dps.

Conclusions:
Not being able to use the mana pool as hp is a big nerf to tankyness, but not needing to get mana gain corruptions makes gearing easier, and Solaris anti-crit pantheon helps a lot.
It doesn't have much requirements to use Zerphi, so it's a very good option for most life builds. Even non-Pathfinders can use it, but it needs a high-dps build, where you can use it as an occasional heal buff when rushing.

I appreciate this kind of threads. But to get Zerphi nerfed we need something else.
Maybe a video like "Look guys! I'm facerolling the Shaper bullethell phase on 12 different classes with Zerphi's flask only!"

"

a_z0_9 wrote:

I appreciate this kind of threads. But to get Zerphi nerfed we need something else.
Maybe a video like "Look guys! I'm facerolling the Shaper bullethell phase on 12 different classes with Zerphi's flask only!"

It's doable.

For now Zerphi is at least something standing in the way of the meta going full CI because of the broken chaos DoTs.

"

Márkusz wrote:

"

a_z0_9 wrote:

But to get Zerphi nerfed we need something else.
Maybe a video like "Look guys! I'm facerolling the Shaper bullethell phase on 12 different classes with Zerphi's flask only!"

It's doable.

I know it's doable, you know it's doable, everybody knows it's doable.
Only devs are like "Zerphi! What Zerphi? it was disabled in 2.0 release! Stop wasting our time."

Are EA+Scold+CWDT builds still viable?

"

FranGT wrote:

Are EA+Scold+CWDT builds still viable?

That depends on your definition of viable, but it's much worse than it was before. There is a solid cap on total mana recovery around 1000 per second without losing much hp or dmg, so it caps your self damage with scolds to around 4000 per second, around 1 proc per second, which was 5+ before scold nerf.

Heathbound loop should be tested with, but I didn't think of anything broken yet.

"

Márkusz wrote:

"

FranGT wrote:

Are EA+Scold+CWDT builds still viable?

That depends on your definition of viable, but it's much worse than it was before. There is a solid cap on total mana recovery around 1000 per second without losing much hp or dmg, so it caps your self damage with scolds to around 4000 per second, around 1 proc per second, which was 5+ before scold nerf.

Heathbound loop should be tested with, but I didn't think of anything broken yet.

Alright thanks for the info.
I was thinking about a Cyclone one too but I guess it had the same fate.

hmmm make this work for lv 40 sarn n_n
i wanna troll

You may have forgotten about Forbidden Taste another way to drain mana for zerphis

You may have forgotten about Forbidden Taste another way to drain mana for zerphis. Great in pve :D