Bloodmage - "The Needler" Arbiter of Ash DOWN (Bonestorm + Corpse Explosion)
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I. Introduction
Good day Exiles! This is yet another Bonestorm build guide. I've analyzed the other guides on the forums, and I think they're all fine, but they lack a bit of min/maxing that my guide seeks to answer. I would definitely give these other guides a gander as you can derive valuable information from them as well! I won't be covering too much of the early game of this build, as I'll let these other content creators do that for you. This guide is mostly here to give you a general understanding of how to scale Bonestorm. I'm currently level 92 right now easily pushing 15 Waystones, doing roughly 70k DPS, and every end game boss is dead. Here's my twitch link for watching gameplay and viewing past vods if you're interested!  My Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ayyypoc Fellow Bonestorm Guides: Chavic - https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3608770 Drugaddict - https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3592603 My buddy Legarto also made a Hexblast Chayula Monk Guide! Here's a link to his guide, if you like 1 button builds definitely give it a look. Legarto - https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3654759 II. Bosses/Vods
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T15 +3 Juiced Boss: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2330361083
T15 Breach: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2330359427 10 Wave Ultimatum Boss:: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2330350463 Trial Master Encounter: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2330355964 Xesht, We that Are One: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2332043760 Copper Citadel: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2332025808 Stone Citadel: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2332030191 Iron Citadel: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2332033193 Arbiter of Ash: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2332036218 More boss vods incoming soon! III. Skills & Supports Here's a quick look into what skills & support gems I choose to run! I'm trying to keep the build rather simple and effective so I tried to reduce the amount of buttons we press even if pressing more buttons could result in more dps! With each skill I'll give a short explanation on why I choose what I did! Main Skills
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Bonestorm:
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Concentrated Effect / Arcane Tempo / Arcane Surge / Considered Casting / Brutality
Note: I've extensively tested Concentrated effect using a lvl 1 Bonestorm on the snake boss in act 2. The Bonestorm projectile actually at a base explodes on impact causing AoE damage. Thus Concentrated Effect indeed raises the single target dps of the skill without requiring power charges! PRO TIP: You can cancel the slow of Bonestorm by tapping the ability waiting 0.3~ seconds then holding the ability again. As I'm a long time Competitive Smash Bros Melee Player, (Falco Main) I'm going to coin this abuse of game mechanics S-Cancelling! This is incredibly powerful and allows you to move at full speed while channeling the ability. I sadly don't expect this to last very long :( Bone Cage
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Lockdown / Persistence / Spell Cascade / Lacerate
Note: I'm still testing what other great supports I'd like to use here. However these two supports so far feel great. You could also possibly use Physical Mastery here as well to raise the damage of the ability or use blind! I'll leave this one up to you! Detonate Dead
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Spell Echo / Magnified Effect / Ambush / Mobility
PRO TIP: You want Detonate Dead to be as low level as possible as we're not interested in scaling the fire damage of the ability. All we care about is the fact it does 20% of the mobs Max Health as Physical Damage. Grim Feast
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Clarity / Cannibalism / Herbalism
Note: Not too many options here for support auras, but these are what I wound up using! Arctic Armor
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Glaciation / Bludgeon / Cold Mastery
If I had an additional 30 spirit I'd instead choose Blasphemy utilizing Enfeeble as opposed to Arctic Armor, but I didn't have the money for an amulet with that as well as cast speed, %energy shield, +3 to proj skills. SoonTM IV. Skill Tree
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Feel free to change a few points here and there, but here's the skill tree I came up with so far! @lvl 90. I don't feel like going too much into the weeds with this and instead I'll let my fellow guide creators educate you on what's optimal for leveling. Personally I did a Chaos Damage over time build until I reached my 1st Ascendancy at level 25~ then swapped over to Bonestorm + DD.
https://maxroll.gg/poe2/passive-tree/dvgsf0hc V. Ascendancy
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There are a few different ways you can choose to ascend, but I vastly prefer going defensive rather than offensive as Bonestorm already does a crazy amount of Single Target and Detonate Dead doesn't need any help for clear.
Defensive: Sanguimancy > Vitality Siphon > Grasping Wounds > Crimson Power  Offensive: Sanguimancy > Vitality Siphon > Grasping Wounds > Gore Spike  Note: Unless you plan on playing a different build you never need to consider Sunder the Flesh or Blood Barbs as our abilities are already 15% Base crit and we don't intend on dealing any elemental damage or focusing on bleeds in particular. VI. Atlas Tree
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https://maxroll.gg/poe2/atlas-tree/ed2nz01e
I'm not sure what's the best for making currency but this tree works well for me to sustain T15 Waystones. VII. Desired Stats It's important we get a basic understanding on WHY we get the stats that we want, and most importantly how I came to understand the "weights" each stat holds either offensively or defensively. This data will be very important in determining what gear suffixes/prefixes we choose. This will be split up into 3 sections and should help provide you a basic understanding of each. PRO TIP: "Just hold Shift" When viewing your skill tree you can see how each node will affect your characters stats by hovering your cursor over the node and holding shift. I know the PoE Tool tip hasn't always been the best indicator of your "true" dps, but it's the best we have to work with until there's a Path of Building for PoE2. With this data you can begin to understand how much each offensive stat will affect your Skill's dps. PoE like any other ARPG is a balancing act, building too much Crit will raise the weight of Crit Damage. You want try to not build too much of one stat as each come with diminishing returns. Before taking a node in you passive tree make sure to see how it'll affect you DPS! Just hold shift! A) Offensive Stats
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Crit
Due to the insanely high base Crit of Bone skills tend to have in PoE2, Crit as a stat is incredibly powerful and is an obvious choice to scale Bonestorm's Damage. Crit Damage Of course if we're choosing to scale our Crit then obviously we're going to be desiring as much Crit Damage as possible! Cast Speed Cast speed is an insanely important stat for making Bonestorm feel much better to use as well as increasing our dps. +# To the level of Skill For most casters raising the skill level of an ability is by far the most influential stat you can get for raising the dps of your ability. This however comes with a caveat, one that we'll discuss later. Spell Damage/Increased Mulitpliers Since we're stacking so much Crit/Crit Damage/Cast Speed we're going to want to ultimately pair it with spell damage, spell physical damage, and of course global physical damage, as all three of these essentially the same "increase" multipliers. "More" Multipliers Just like you have Crit and Crit Damage you also have "Increased" and "More." Simply put More multipliers are multiplicative bonuses that greatly increase your output. It's important to have a healthy balance of increased and more multipliers in your build, but as of now in EA you can't really get enough more multipliers so we value this stat incredibly high. B) Defensive Stats
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Maximum Energy Shield
For my Bonestorm build I'm choosing to go hybrid due to the abundance of ES nodes scattered throughout the skill tree, while going full life is an okay option, I'd rather have a bit of a buffer on my life pool as the cost of Bonestorm drains your life incredibly quickly leaving you vulnerable during your casts! Maximum Life/Strength Because we have spell leech increasing our total life pool gives us faster leech per second and keeps us safer when we drain our life for our casts! Faster Start of Energy Shield Regen Just having a huge pool of energy shield isn't good enough. The base time it takes for energy shield to regen without taking damage is 4 seconds, we're looking to lower that time greatly through this stat so we can keep our life pool healthy for casting! Energy Shield Recharge Rate Simply enough this increases the rate at which our energy shield regenerates. When paired with faster start of energy shield regen, this makes having a big pool of energy shield feel amazing. Say for instance you get hit with a boss ability every 5~ seconds that does 3-4k damage. With a combination of both recharge rate and faster start, you'll be able to sustain the damage without your precious health pool being touched. Life/Mana Recoup Recoup is a pretty disappointing defensive stat in comparison to PoE1. I'm currently fiddling with having a bit of Mana Recoup on my neck, but it doesn't feel too impactful as it takes a whole 8 seconds to realize the gains from the damage you take. Resistances The pinnacle of defensive stat. Having Max resistances (75%) is INTEGRAL to not taking too much damage and dying. When you finally finish the campaign you want to make maxing your Fire/Cold/Lightning Resistances top priority before attempting maps. Chaos resistance is incredibly important as well, but honestly you can procrastinate maxing this stat until you get into high level maps/content. C) Utility Stats
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Mana/Int/Mana Regeneration
Mana/Mana Regeneration is integral to our build as we're looking to increase the level of our Bonestorm as much as we possibly can. If we don't have mana we can't use our Bone Cage or Bonestorm so we prioritize this stat pretty heavily on the skill tree and on gear. Arcane Surge notably gives us a More multiplier to our mana regeneration so we'll be gathering those nodes. You start out with 4% regeneration of you maximum mana per second so increasing your mana pool gives you more mana regen per second as well. Movement Speed When looking to buy boots, movement speed is the MOST important by far compared to any other stat. Simply put it's one of the best stats in the game period. We want all of the movement speed. Spirit An additional +30 Spirit allows us to run Blasphemy over Arctic Armor which gives us another layer of defense. Projectile Speed Projectile speed isn't something we focus on, but projectile speed often makes builds similar to what we're playing feel better to play. Projectile speed also notably increases the distance your projectiles reach so it's great for hitting initial mobs in spooky corridors. VIII. Gear https://poe2db.tw/ I cannot understate how valuable PoE2DB is for learning what pieces of gear have what stats available to them. The website isn't quite complete, but everyday more data regarding each pieces respective pool of stats is being added. Every piece of gear is comprised of Prefixes and Suffixes. You're able to have a max amount of 3 of each! You can see what stats are Prefixes and Suffixes by holding "Alt" and hovering over your piece of gear. For this section I'll include each piece of loot and what stats to loosely prioritize so to make your search on PoE Trade a little bit easier. I could just show images of my gear, but I don't think that's a good way to educate someone on what pieces they're looking for. I recommend using the Wand/Focus combination as your focus early on can be a bit of a bastion of a buff essential resistances then later can have very powerful offensive stats Recommended Gear Stats!
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Wand/Staff
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Offensive/Utility: + To the level of Skill > Mana > Spell Damage > Cast Speed = Critical Hit Chance for Spells = Crit Damage > Mana Regeneration
Note: Cast Speed/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are all amazing stats on a wand but I think those are just the cherry on top compared to the bread and butter of Skill Level/Mana/Spell Damage. Focus
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Offensive: + To Level of Skill > Spell Damage > Cast Speed = Critical Strike Chance for Spells = Crit Damage
Defensive: Resistances > Energyshield Utility: Mana Regeneration > Mana Note: Mana Regeneration isn't avaiable on many of our pieces of gear so grabbing it where we can is very important! Helm
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Offensive: Critical Strike Chance
Defensive: Resistances > Max Life = Energy Shield Utility: Mana Note: I'd prioritize getting Crit Chance last on your helmet as there are much better sources for crit chance on other pieces of gear Body Armor
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Defensive: Energy Shield = Resistances > Max Life
Utility: Mana Note: This will later be a great slot for obtaining a bit of chaos resistance as their are better slots for obtaining a large amount of resistances Gloves
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Offensive: Crit Damage
Defensive: Resistances > Life > Energy Shield Utility: Mana Note: Similar to helm I wouldn't prioritize Crit Damage and instead focus on capping your resistances and grabbing a chunk of life and a bit of ES. Boots
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Defensive: Resistances > ES
Utility: Movement Speed > Mana Note: Movement Speed is by far the most important modifier on your boots. Belt
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Defensive: Life > Resistances
Utility: Charm Slots > Mana > Flask Mana Recovery Rate > Flask Charges Gained = Reduced Flask Charges Used Note: As of right now charm slots are incredibly rare so don't actually expect to get some. Amulet
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Offensive: +Level to Spell/Projectile Skills > Cast Speed > Crit Chance = Crit Damage
Defensive: %Energy Shield > Life > +Energy Shield Utility Mana Regeneration > Mana > +30 Spirit > Damage Recoup as Mana Note: This is a great slot to try to get a bit of cast speed on, but more importantly get some skill levels from this slot! Rings
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Offensive: Cast Speed
Defensive: Resistances > Life Utility: Mana Regen > Mana Note: Rings are the best source of getting your resistances capped, use your rings slots for getting as much resist as possible! Prismatic Rings w/ All Res and one other Res (Fire/Lightning/Cold) are incredibly powerful as using a catalyst targeting your specific res on it will increase all of the resistances of the ring simultaneously! Jewels
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Offensive: Spell Damage > Crit Chance = Crit Damage = Cast Speed
Defensive: Energy Shield > Faster Start of Energy Shield > Faster Energy Shield Regen Utility: Mana Regen Note: Try your best to get 3/4 of these stats as you'll spend a fortune trying to get 4/4. IX. Changes/Updates
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0.0.1 Changed Inevitable Crit to Considered Casting for Bonestorm
0.0.2 Boss Kills Uploaded 0.0.3 Bone Cage supports updated! Corrected "Pin" to Lockdown and added Spell Cascade & Lacerate. Last edited by Apoc8#0634 on Dec 22, 2024, 7:26:12 PM Last bumped on Dec 22, 2024, 7:25:10 PM
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" Sounds like a bug/exploit though :D |
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Yeah it definitely is a bug/exploit. Whether you want to use it is up to you, but like I said in the guide I can see it being fixed here pretty soon.
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Which support skills do you use on life life remnants?
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I don't use any supports on life remnants. Whenever I'd try to link something to it, it'd as always turn off with the error "you lack enough spirit."
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As I've seen posted on other guides, I think inevitable crit is bad for bonestorm because bonestorm is marked as a "sustained" skill-- meaning that each needle has it's own crit chance. This results in the inevitable crit support only guaranteeing a crit on the very first needle that hits the target (1/20th of the skills damage when fully charged). Someone correct me if I'm mistaken.
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Last edited by Apoc8#0634 on Dec 19, 2024, 1:08:04 PM
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" Oh hey really good to know I'll change/update the guide immediately to reflect on that! |
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Pin support on Bone Cage seems pointless as the skill already has "Hits are pinning", right?
I've been using Spell Cascade, Lockdown and Lacerate with Bone Cage. Seems alright, Spell Cascade was very useful during the campaign at least. |
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" Ah good catch! I've been using Lockdown support not pin my mistake, I just flubbed when writing the guide. Also I like the idea using Spell Cascade for Bone Cage, I'll update the guide with it! |
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