[3.11] Flameblast/Vaal Flameblast Ignite Trickster (EB+MOM)

Thanks for the build, leveling now. Any good leveling uniques useful for around lvl 50?

Can you recommend passive pathing while leveling?

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Surfinn wrote:

Thanks for the build, leveling now. Any good leveling uniques useful for around lvl 50?

Can you recommend passive pathing while leveling?

Well, you are already quite far in leveling and got most of the important things equipped. One thing might be that ashcaller wands are better than lifesprigs and are equippable since lvl 18. And a tabula with +2aoe or dmg corruption is a big improvement for leveling too, though of course not necessary. About pathing - it's quite correct what you did. Pathing for some extra life nodes that you might unspec later is fine, otherwise just follow the path and don't branch to eldritch battery, skip the branch upwards to breath of flames and instead rush towards MOM and EO. Once you get to maps and get decent gear take EB and then just move towards dmg or defences whichever you feel what is more important atm.

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Grozaa wrote:

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Surfinn wrote:

Thanks for the build, leveling now. Any good leveling uniques useful for around lvl 50?

Can you recommend passive pathing while leveling?

Well, you are already quite far in leveling and got most of the important things equipped. One thing might be that ashcaller wands are better than lifesprigs and are equippable since lvl 18. And a tabula with +2aoe or dmg corruption is a big improvement for leveling too, though of course not necessary. About pathing - it's quite correct what you did. Pathing for some extra life nodes that you might unspec later is fine, otherwise just follow the path and don't branch to eldritch battery, skip the branch upwards to breath of flames and instead rush towards MOM and EO. Once you get to maps and get decent gear take EB and then just move towards dmg or defences whichever you feel what is more important atm.

Thanks so much for the response. Gunna keep at it

I'm in yellow maps now, I am loving this build. Was a little squishy at first, working my way through to a higher life pool.

Question.. unless I missed something, what do you do about being cursed? I've been running with curse removal instead of freeze for stuff like vulnerability/temp chains/ele weakness.

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Surfinn wrote:

I'm in yellow maps now, I am loving this build. Was a little squishy at first, working my way through to a higher life pool.

Question.. unless I missed something, what do you do about being cursed? I've been running with curse removal instead of freeze for stuff like vulnerability/temp chains/ele weakness.

As you approach lvl 80+ you should comfortably be able to get 5k+ life and 2k+ ES which should already be good enough and later on 9k+ EHP is also reachable.
Speaking of flasks, there is some sort of compromise that has to be done depending on your preferences. Basically, in my opinion bleed and freeze removal are the most crucial and unavoidable things. So if you are missing a curse removal slot, my approach is to simply reroll maps if they have annoying curses. Alternatively, you can give up something else - for example, as you did, skip freeze removal (which I would not recommend), you can also get freeze removal on quicksilver flask(but you would lose adrenaline affix), or you can swap soul catcher with a magic flask. Either way, some sacrifice, and your personal choice.

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Grozaa wrote:

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Surfinn wrote:

I'm in yellow maps now, I am loving this build. Was a little squishy at first, working my way through to a higher life pool.

Question.. unless I missed something, what do you do about being cursed? I've been running with curse removal instead of freeze for stuff like vulnerability/temp chains/ele weakness.

As you approach lvl 80+ you should comfortably be able to get 5k+ life and 2k+ ES which should already be good enough and later on 9k+ EHP is also reachable.
Speaking of flasks, there is some sort of compromise that has to be done depending on your preferences. Basically, in my opinion bleed and freeze removal are the most crucial and unavoidable things. So if you are missing a curse removal slot, my approach is to simply reroll maps if they have annoying curses. Alternatively, you can give up something else - for example, as you did, skip freeze removal (which I would not recommend), you can also get freeze removal on quicksilver flask(but you would lose adrenaline affix), or you can swap soul catcher with a magic flask. Either way, some sacrifice, and your personal choice.

Ok, sounds good. I've noticed that my energy shield is recharging slowly if I'm not killing anything and that I often don't have it up at all, especially if there's not big groups of enemies around (particularly for bosses and morph encounters). Is there a good way of having my shield regen/leeching? As I approach red maps, I've noticed that I'm back to being pretty squishy. I'm trying to get my life to 5K, but I'm feeling like I have to play quite carefully in T11 as I sometimes get almost one shot during syndicate encounters/morph bosses. Feels like I'm getting hit REALLY hard and I'm not sure why.

Edit: Yeah, double checked, my shield is almost never there for single target, I just get zapped with one or two hits then all I have left is my 4.5K HP.

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Surfinn wrote:

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Grozaa wrote:

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Surfinn wrote:

I'm in yellow maps now, I am loving this build. Was a little squishy at first, working my way through to a higher life pool.

Question.. unless I missed something, what do you do about being cursed? I've been running with curse removal instead of freeze for stuff like vulnerability/temp chains/ele weakness.

As you approach lvl 80+ you should comfortably be able to get 5k+ life and 2k+ ES which should already be good enough and later on 9k+ EHP is also reachable.
Speaking of flasks, there is some sort of compromise that has to be done depending on your preferences. Basically, in my opinion bleed and freeze removal are the most crucial and unavoidable things. So if you are missing a curse removal slot, my approach is to simply reroll maps if they have annoying curses. Alternatively, you can give up something else - for example, as you did, skip freeze removal (which I would not recommend), you can also get freeze removal on quicksilver flask(but you would lose adrenaline affix), or you can swap soul catcher with a magic flask. Either way, some sacrifice, and your personal choice.

Ok, sounds good. I've noticed that my energy shield is recharging slowly if I'm not killing anything and that I often don't have it up at all, especially if there's not big groups of enemies around (particularly for bosses and morph encounters). Is there a good way of having my shield regen/leeching? As I approach red maps, I've noticed that I'm back to being pretty squishy. I'm trying to get my life to 5K, but I'm feeling like I have to play quite carefully in T11 as I sometimes get almost one shot during syndicate encounters/morph bosses. Feels like I'm getting hit REALLY hard and I'm not sure why.

Edit: Yeah, double checked, my shield is almost never there for single target, I just get zapped with one or two hits then all I have left is my 4.5K HP.

Maybe I should clarify some mechanics. When you say that "your energy shield is recharging slowly while you are not killing anything", it's not exactly correct. Here are the mechanics that help you sustain energy shield:

1. Recover %shield on kill - this is gained by patient reaper and cinderswallow urn. Those are mostly reliable while mapping, but also during metamorph fights as they do spawn a lot of adds
2. Energy shield recharge - this is working in two situations - if you haven't been hit for 2 seconds OR if you use vaal discipline - in this case this is instant

Now, what should be said is that in most situations you shouldn't run of energy shield - if you have a good life/ES balance, you probably should be dead if you run out of ES. However, there are cases where there it might happen since you also have life regen and life flask. What to do in such a case: the best option is to press vaal discipline. What to do to avoid something like that at all : well, it comes down to experience, just general tip is that since it usually can only happen in bossfight so you should always try to keep distance from the boss and use flameblast when you are about a screen away from him.
Other obvious way to increase survivability is of course to spend points from new levels on defences, and to improve your gear. I don't know your current budget but I can point what things you might be able to improve relatively cheap.
1. Rings - your second ring is a bit weak. In general, try to find rings with temple mod %max life. It's a free mod and usually it means extra 100-150hp for you. Of course make sure you are still resist capped but for now you have much room for that ( you should be able to get much better rings for about 10-60c)
2. Gloves - again, you can get more life there than a crafted mod for sure. Gloves can have up to 110+hp with hybrid mod (110+life and 80+resists gloves can be bought for 30c)
3. Jewels - for now you are focused on getting other passives and that's fine, but you have at least 3 2-point jewels close to you and usually you can get some good ones with %life, %es, fire dot, burning dmg etc.

Thanks again for your detailed responses, I've made a few upgrades. I apologize if I'm asking too many questions, but hopefully someone else find something useful out of it as well.

I noticed that my arcane surge isn't popping when i dash, is that because I'm spending shield instead of mana? I noticed that it's still in your setup in the OP. How do I get it to trigger?

Edit: whoops looks like I may have misread, looks like it's not there

New question. Would it be useful to do flesh and stone (instead of aspect of spider) for the far damage reduction and blind up close, until my survivability is better, was thinking of trying something that gives me some cushion.

Also, I'm looking at PoB and trying to figure out how you were able to get another 1000 life over me, I must be missing something.

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Surfinn wrote:

Thanks again for your detailed responses, I've made a few upgrades. I apologize if I'm asking too many questions, but hopefully someone else find something useful out of it as well.

I noticed that my arcane surge isn't popping when i dash, is that because I'm spending shield instead of mana? I noticed that it's still in your setup in the OP. How do I get it to trigger?

Edit: whoops looks like I may have misread, looks like it's not there

New question. Would it be useful to do flesh and stone (instead of aspect of spider) for the far damage reduction and blind up close, until my survivability is better, was thinking of trying something that gives me some cushion.

Also, I'm looking at PoB and trying to figure out how you were able to get another 1000 life over me, I must be missing something.

Looks like you have figured out but on EB characters it's almost impossible to get arcane surge since we do not spend mana. About flesh and stone - you can use it if you want but in my opinion aspect of the spider is much better (both defensively and offensively and aesthetically). POB difference: a little bit of gear, a little bit of levels, a little bit of passives - things add up.

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Grozaa wrote:

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Surfinn wrote:

Thanks again for your detailed responses, I've made a few upgrades. I apologize if I'm asking too many questions, but hopefully someone else find something useful out of it as well.

I noticed that my arcane surge isn't popping when i dash, is that because I'm spending shield instead of mana? I noticed that it's still in your setup in the OP. How do I get it to trigger?

Edit: whoops looks like I may have misread, looks like it's not there

New question. Would it be useful to do flesh and stone (instead of aspect of spider) for the far damage reduction and blind up close, until my survivability is better, was thinking of trying something that gives me some cushion.

Also, I'm looking at PoB and trying to figure out how you were able to get another 1000 life over me, I must be missing something.

Looks like you have figured out but on EB characters it's almost impossible to get arcane surge since we do not spend mana. About flesh and stone - you can use it if you want but in my opinion aspect of the spider is much better (both defensively and offensively and aesthetically). POB difference: a little bit of gear, a little bit of levels, a little bit of passives - things add up.

Ok, sounds good. Maybe I'll use flesh and stone until I can get a piece that's got spider. What does spider do defensively? I thought it was just offensive increases.

Edit: I see, because of hinder it looks like. That does seem very good

I thought for sure that flesh and stone would be better.

I'm still not quite sure how I'm missing 1000 HP, doesn't look like I can really get anymore on my passive tree.