Searing Bond

Beams no longer stacking is one of the best changes I've seen to a skill in a long time. It opens whole new ways of using dual totem builds with SB. Especially combined with EE, seeing as DoT doesn't trigger as a "hit" to cause the +25% resists (or does it?). You also no longer need to rely on using fire trap and investing in trap passives in order to deal any real damage.

Now, as for a dumb question, its been a while since I played so I don't know if the mechanics of DoT's "hitting" changed for it: does fire penetration still not work with SB?

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Vipermagi wrote:

Damage over Time does not Hit, and thus on-Hit effects are not triggered. This includes both Blind and Culling (Penetration is another notable one).

This also means that linking an IIQ or IIR gem to Searing Bond has no effect, or?

Does it benefit from increased AoE/increased AoE dmg stats?

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Vipermagi wrote:

IIQ/R Gems have been updated to also work with Damage over Time.

Searing Bond is not an AoE; it does not have the AoE tags in the Gem description.

Thanks!

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tidez2013 wrote:

by the way yes totem nodes do increase searing bond dps.
and so far using dual totem searing bond and arc and fire trap on the side. breezed through normal. breezing through cruel. still making plans for survival.

my gear is crap and at lv 38 here's what ive done so far with my passive tree
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgUABVsSaRZvFxwdFB8CKPoqEyynMtE2xTbYRUdG11XGWfNaK13GXl1mnnF5h2WIG4uMj0aYrZwtna6j8qcIp5S1BLiTwBrDE89l0NDR_dgk4XPr7uxV7SDvhfrS

and main skills are...

Spoiler

Running a similar offensive set up currently, Nemesis Level 60, my first merciless character lol, still crushing everything. I will probably make a guide if it ends up working :P

lvl 78 atm using Ancestral Bonds and Searing bond as my main DPS.

I'm still new to the mapping scenario, but even in 6 slotted parties it's been crushing with just 7k dps.

As for max dps with perfect everything and max level you can get around 12k+ dps with it atm.

Side note: Fire traps (while nerfed) gain bonuses from everything searing bonds does, so invest in it if you're going searing bonds.

Also, if you're not going summoner, I highly suggest investing the very few points into dual curses since you'll be able to pump out the deeps with searing bonds and still remain a very effective supporter role in your group.

Thank you for the tip on IIR/IIQ vipermagi much appreciated. Can we get a link to where that is confirmed by GGG?

I was testing gem combinations yesterday with Searing Bond, as i am busy trying to finish my planned build. This is what I discovered:

Support Gems that Work with SB:
-Increased Burning Damage
-Faster Casting
-Increased Duration
-Remote Mine
-Trap
-Reduced Mana
-IIR
-IIQ
-Empower
-Enhance
-Minion and Totem Ele Resist

Support Gems that DONT Work with SB (Mostly because they require a hit to occur or buff spell damage, which doesnt effect SB):
-Fire Pen
-Chance to Ignite
-Ele Prolif
-Life Leech
-Mana Leech
-Conc Effect
-Inc AOE
-Added lightning/cold/fire/chaos
-Increased Critical Strikes
-Increased Critical Damage
-Iron Will
-Cold to Fire
-Culling Strike
-Blind
-Chance to Flee

Once my build is finished and properly tested I will post a guide etc.

I am not overstating it when I say the new Searing Bond is the most fun I've had with PoE in a long time. I'm level 56 and am doing more than 4k DPS with (Level 14) Searing Bond, Remote Mine and Increased Burning Damage support, not counting EE and Vulnerability, and with further options to scale the damage via passives later on. I play fully self-found and have no empower, no +fire gems, no Searing Touch. It's amazing.

Of course I realize this is so fun because it's so easy to scale as it is (and I realize totem survivability is going to be a bitch later on). I wonder if this kind of aggressive tuning to damage represents GGG's stance going forward (Flameblast is another recent and similarly aggressively tuned skill) or did this one slip through the cracks?

In any case, thanks for this.

Speaking of totem survavilability. How to make it last? By the nature of it one would expect it to last to do good in endgame, but can any totem live long enough? Tried it on my 1k str caster with doon, damage is ok (lvl 15 with only lvl 2 burn damage support and no burn damage, totem passive taken), but it just doesn't last.