3.18 - Arcanist Brand Bladefall - Bladeblast Inquisitor

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e1esdee wrote:

https://pastebin.com/PVAjGDt7

I started the league with the intention of using arcanist brand with reap but that got put to bed pretty quick. The life cost on reap is just too high to keep up with and you end up dealing a ton of damage to yourself in higher end content.

My options were limited to phys skills since I was already full converting to fire. BV just felt bad to me, EK wasn't going to be an option so that left BF/BB which worked out better than I could have ever expected.

3.18 - No major skill changes, build should work the same.

Ascendancy/Pantheon

Spoiler

Sanctuary > Pious Path > Battlemage > Righteous Providence

Brine King - Freeze immunity, rest of the perks are nice too.
Ryslatha - I personally love panicked life flasks and this node makes sure you never run out.
Yugul - Recently switched to this for the curse effectiveness reduction.

Passive Tree

Spoiler

http://poeurl.com/dBFz

Bandits

Spoiler

Kill all

Gear

Spoiler

Most of the gear is pretty flexible. The biggest problems to solve with your gear is how to hit the dexterity requirement for BF/BB and how to elemental leech life.


Required Uniques

Devouring Diadem - This saves a ton of points with built in Eldritch Battery and is just amazing in general. I got lucky with the enchant, Arcanist Brand Unnerve would be ideal.

Vulconus - Has a ton of crit, converts the other half of phys to fire with Avatar of Fire to avoid using the glove mod and has a ton of weapon damage for Battlemage.

Other Uniques

Voll's Protector - I found this 6L super early. Gives pseudo power charge on crit and the mana reduction doesn't matter.

The Tactician - Found this pretty early too, synergizes super well with the build and haven't felt the need to replace.

Light of Lunaris - Also found a Malachai's Loop and used that for a while because Tempest Shield negates the downside but ultimately switched to this.

Rares were all self crafted but I bought the influence bases.

Tossed Essence of Sorrow at Shaper gloves until faster casting, fill life/resists depending on other rolls.

Life, resists, move speed.

Originally found this thing with 3% spell damage instead of the veiled mod, yoloed T3 Aisling and removed the spell damage for veiled area. The anoint is to pick up the extra brands and free up the mastery for the bouncing brands which helps a lot with clear.

Received this base from my friend with two accuracy suffixes, beast split it perfectly, slammed T1 life.

Started as a Warlord base for Flammability on hit and life. I found an Awakener Orb, added the life gain on spell hit and managed some super lucky annuls to multimod. The only thing that really matters is the curse/life, rest of it was for fun.

Flasks

Spoiler

Like I mentioned above, I really like panicked flasks.

Bottled Faith would be a good upgrade, but otherwise these work pretty well.

Onslaught for bosses and other times when not killing things.

Paired with Yugul, this mostly offsets curses while mapping.

Jewels

Spoiler

Rare jewels get life, resists and damage rolls of some kind.

Intuitive Leap for witch jewel socket. I found this pretty early, if unavailable I'd probably pull points from Explosive Impact and drop Infused Flesh.

The Watcher's Eye was a recent buy just for fun because I found a mirror shard, it was a rare jewel before.

Gem Links

Spoiler

BB - Critical Strikes, Critical Damage, Elemental Focus, Intensify, Fire Penetration
BF - Arcanist Brand, Spell Cascade or Awakened version, Concentrated Effect, Faster Casting (Gloves)
While leveling I would probably prioritize faster casting over concentrated effect until shaper gloves are available. The awakened cascade is totally not needed but does feel real nice.

Herald of Purity/Ash, Zealotry, Discipline, Tempest Shield
Brand Recall, Flame Dash
CWDT - Wave of Conviction, Combustion, Desecrate

Stone Golem, Enduring Cry, Steelskin
The rest of your supports are flexible; my golem is dead all the time, the warcry speed doesn't feel great but it does help after a big hit, steelskin is bound to my left click and that feels pretty good.

Leveling

Spoiler

Storm brand until you can BF/BB. I rode the struggle bus leveling figuring this stuff out but I expect you can transition into this as soon as you can handle the trigger cost.

3.18 - Level with storm brand until you finish cruel lab and get the ES regen from consecrated ground then you can switch. Once you hit 68 you can grab a Vulconus and Avatar of Fire, do your merc lab to get battlemage.
level 55: http://poeurl.com/dENI
level 68: http://poeurl.com/dEO0

Progression/Next Steps

Spoiler

This build is a boss destroyer. Being able to attach two brands to a target with spell cascade pumps out so many BF blades and leaves you free to move around to pop BB or just sit there spamming BB if you don't need to move.

I learned the hard way that Atziri is a special case you will need to adjust for to become reflect immune or you will murder yourself. The pantheon alone wasn't enough so I used the pantheon and a Sibyls Lament ring, a Shaper ring with reflect reduction would be better.

The individual bosses for The Feared are witnessed, just haven't completed the final encounter yet.

Uber Elder (x)
Sirus (x)
Infinite Hunger (x)
Eater of Worlds (x)
Black Star (x)
Searing Exarch (x)
Maven (x)
The Formed (x)
The Twisted (x)
The Forgotten (x)
The Hidden (x)
The Elderslayers (x)
The Feared (x)
Hall of the Grand Masters (x)

Future high end upgrades could probably be a nice influence chest and an Elder amulet.

edit: Completed the feared and spent a little more time crafting/finishing up gear.
Endgame PoB: https://pastebin.com/Fg3GLRV8

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think!