(3.16) NERFED DO NOT PLAY THIS Raider Archmage BF/BB [CHEAP, Tanky, HCSSF viable, (100m+ dps)
As someone who struggled a lot with lightning traps and also during the transition to BF/BB I can give a few tips.
1. Just grind out a few levels in blood aqueducts. Once I hit level 69 I had enough skill points to grab nodes that increased my damage, which helped tremendously.
2. Get at least 3 of the ascendancies completed
3. Mana is important, but you can definitely make this build work going into maps with 3500 mana as long as you have enough damage.
The whole guide is just weirdly worded and a lot of things are not explained properly.
It says we should not have arcane cloak on lmb but then where the hell would you put it, unless you want to use ctrl also.
You have so many things to look after, BFBB, Sigil, Conductivity, Arcane cloak, General's cry or what ever fortify you have, the build is horribly clunky and really tedious to play, this is the least fun build i have played in my 1.4k hours in the game.
Farming enough currency to respec and get starting gear is hard to do when you have no dmg and survivability.
Imo the build is not worth the hassle and there are much easier and stronger builds around.
reroll to something easier then, obviously build is too complicated for you.
Last edited by ChemistHCSSF#2067 on Apr 19, 2021, 3:36:16 PM
The whole guide is just weirdly worded and a lot of things are not explained properly.
It says we should not have arcane cloak on lmb but then where the hell would you put it, unless you want to use ctrl also.
You have so many things to look after, BFBB, Sigil, Conductivity, Arcane cloak, General's cry or what ever fortify you have, the build is horribly clunky and really tedious to play, this is the least fun build i have played in my 1.4k hours in the game.
Farming enough currency to respec and get starting gear is hard to do when you have no dmg and survivability.
Imo the build is not worth the hassle and there are much easier and stronger builds around.
reroll to something easier then, obviously build is too complicated for you.
I am not going to reroll at this point, wasted too much time on it already.
I just don't see the point of it being this complicated for what it is.
Really enjoying this build—currently crushing low red maps with pretty mediocre gear. The only real issue I've run into is mana management on bosses that run around a bunch like Al-Hezmin, but that's mostly my lack of patience in general.
Had a few questions after looking at some people on ladder and through the PoB:
1) Is there a reason the endgame PoB tree is taking the 3rd 8% mana node near Wind Dancer instead of finishing the Arcane Chemistry wheel? 8% mana vs 10% mana + 15% increased Mana Recovery Rate from flasks.
2) What are your thoughts on the Trinity support setup with CotB?
https://poe.ninja/challenge/builds?class=Raider&item=Essence-Worm,Call-of-the-Brotherhood&skill=Blade-Blast&blade-blast-support=Trinity-Support
3) With Harvest nerfed do you think Cloak of Defiance is a good chest piece to target for midgame?
4) Once I go Agnostic, when is it safe to drop my Seething Life Flask? I was considering swapping it out for a Jade Flask, since that would push my evasion up a good bit.
5) Double Scepter or Scepter / Shield end game? Do you still think Replica Mistwall is our endgame chase shield, or is that more geared towards HC?
Thanks a lot for putting this guide and build together, Chemist. I last minute switched to this an hour before league start, and the PoB was a great reference.
1. Tree can be played around with, it's preference as for that node specifically im not at my computer but ill check later
2. Trinity with cotb is fine, it's not how i would scale the build with currency but more is fine
3. Cloak is very solid
5. I like sceptre shield, once you get a shaper shield or rep mistwall it's impossible to die to shotguns
4. i like the burst healing, once you get a corrupting blood jewel you can drop the life flask imo as this can quickly eat your mana
Just want to shout out - this build has been really successful for me so far in Ultimatum.
Leveling with lightning trap was annoying (I hate traps) but quite easy. I respec'd with about 10c to my name farming in BA which was enough to respec + buy life/mana gear and a 5L archmage set up (had about 3k health/mana).
That carried me to my current state of decent gear (3.5k health, 7.5k mana, crown of the inward eye etc.). Cruising through yellow/red maps and have about 1 or 2 deaths total since the campaign.
I mapped arcane cloak to a mouse button and I do fortify on shield charge (softcore) for now (will do vigilant strike later on). Excited to scale this up further. It's definitely not an easy build to play but it feels incredible in that it rewards good positioning and skill rotations by making you relatively invincible.
I disagree that this is not a league starter, however you do need to make sure you read up on the requirements. I feel most posts saying this isn't a viable league starter just haven't read the original post.
I did feel that a four link became mandatory in act 5-6, and if I didn't make sure to upgrade my weapons with lightning spell damage recipe the damage fell off after each act.
I farmed BA between level 58-61 or something like that, then continued.
Post act 10 I bought a 5L for 1c and used Lightning Trap until level 75. I do think it's almost mandatory to get a 5L for the LT to do good damage in maps, damage started falling off after tier 3-4 though and when I had enough currency to invest in some mana items, I swapped to AM BF/BB. I made sure to get as good mana rolls as I could on anything I bought, and managed to buy two scepters with 100+ manarolls for around 3-5c each.
Initial cost to get started with AM was perhaps 10-15c and that gave me around 2.8k life, 3k mana and 250k dps with 10 blades.
Right now I'm level 88 and almost at red maps, no real issues, occasionally I die, mostly due to not popping cooldowns at the correct times. 4.8k life, just reached 6k mana. I think I have around 2 mill dps atm, everything is falling like leaves including Conquerors. I can do most/all Ultimatums in maps including all waves without dying.
Great build, and thank you! It's one of the best starters I've played, it has both damage and can take a hit, and it has cooldowns I can pop when I need that extra survivability or damage boost. Looking forward to red maps and beyond :)
Any tips what my next upgrades should be? Crown? Shield instead of scepter? Clear Mind?
crown and clear mind, also consider cloak of defiance. A shaper shield with recovery on block is very strong as well.
