[Merc] Flash Grenade Melter (Easy, Cheap, Fast Clear on T16+)

Updated Jan 26

If you're looking to melt T16's without worrying about getting one shot, this build is for you. It's super tanky, cheap (T15's on a couple divs of gear), and the DPS is solid (you're not going to 1-tap pinnacle bosses, but nothing is going to give you that much trouble).

This build also doesn't require any super expensive items to get started, you can just buy regular gear and then upgrade when you have the budget.


SHOWCASE VIDEOS

1. [NEW] Wave 14/15 Level-4 Difficulty Simulacrum (super-expensive gear):
https://youtu.be/eMaRwic8uvs

2. One minute video of a T15 breach with -11% max res (cheap gear):
https://youtu.be/28VXS4Nql50

3. 90 second video of a T17 boss (difficulty 4) fight (mid-cost gear)
https://youtu.be/EhVm5wglBMw

4. Full T16 with delirium, breach in delirium, ritual, and boss demo (cheap gear):
https://youtu.be/9X7fLhOWh1k

5. Full T15 8-mod + boss (cheap gear):
https://youtu.be/A9xIOsaLlPQ

6. Vs. Level-82 breachstone + boss (mid-expensive gear):
https://youtu.be/zso0AmIkiUM


THE TL;DR
Flash grenades do the damage (and serve as a defensive layer via blinding, which is the equivalent of roughly +15% evasion rating, and stunning everything). When fighting bosses we add in gas grenades (to break armor) and every once in a while oil grenades (to slow, but I only use them ~5% of the time).

We also have ripwire totems for rage, mana and life fountains, but again we rarely use them.

Wind dancer and ghost shroud provide additional defenses, and you end up with 85% evasion, 27% armor, 3k life, and 1k ES. Tanky enough to tank most boss slams.

SKILLS SETUP

Flash Grenade - DPS
- Scattershot
- Concentrated Effect
- Brutality
- Heft
- Ingenuity (not needed but great for quality of life)

Gas Grenade - Breaking armor
- Corrosion
- Break Posture
- Persistence
- Demolisher
- Inspiration early when mana sucks, martial tempo when your mana is fine (to get them out faster and get back to DPS)

Oil Grenade - Slow bosses
- Encumbrence
- Despoiler
- Maim
- Magnified Effect

Ghost Dance (highest level you have int for) - Defensive layer
- [BEFORE ATTRITION] Precision (if accuracy is bad)
- Fast Forward

Wind Dancer (highest level you have dex for) - Defensive layer for evasion + if I get surrounded pinning/knocking everyone back
- Pin
- Lockdown
- Blind
- Life thief

Grim Feast (highest level you have int for) - Doubles our ES during mapping, because we get hit so rarely
- No supports

Ripwire Ballista - I throw this down before boss fights and in between phases just to get a little rage, why not. Rarely need it.
- Font of Blood
- Font of Mana
- Font of Rage
- Inspiration (if you're not using it on gas grenade)

[WHEN YOU CAN AFFORD] Attrition - Add this when you get +50 spirit on your amulet, it's really only valuable vs. max-difficulty pinnacle bosses.
- No supports

BUDGET ITEMS (FINE FOR T15+)
Just get life, resists, and attributes (you'll need attributes as you'll have armor gloves + ES/evasion helmet and armor, so need ~65 int, ~110 str, ~140 dex). This gear cost me less than 5 div, though it was league start so prices have gone up now. But you don't need it all to be perfect.

I do highly recommend getting mana leech and life leech via your items. Doesn’t matter which item you get the leech on but leech means you’ll never need your flasks.





For jewels, you'll need 3-4 and look for the following:

MOST IMPORTANT: You need the "You cannot be blinded" corruption on one jewel. Doesn't matter which.

Rubies with:
1. Damage vs. fully broken enemies
2. Attack damage or Global physical damage
3. Stun buildup

Unique jewels:
1. When you have the mana, Prism of Belief with +3 levels to Flash Grenades is just 50ex. Insanely cheap because we're so off meta. Huge DPS boost.
2. Megalomaniac with useful skills like Pile On (+60% increased dmg vs. fully broken enemies), Forthcoming (cooldown reduction), etc. This isn't necessary and will cost you ~3-12 divines, so it can wait.

For charms, just use a simple Stone Charm with reduced charges use to make you effectively stun immune. I use the same charm I found in the campaign at level 92.

Damage with super cheap/budget gear:



MID-LEVEL UPGRADE ITEMS
The first wave of upgrades I'd recommend is adding Rysthlatha's Coil (which is really cheap, you can get a great one for 2 divines), Morior Invictus (I chose global defenses and max life for tankiness), a higher DPS crossbow with + proj skill levels, and rings with added phys damage.




Damage with mid-budget gear:


EXPENSIVE ITEMS
To really max out the build and increase DPS, I switched to the Ingenuity belt, breach rings with fat physical damage, life and mana, and Atziri's Disdain Helmet for huge energy shield increase. Ingenuity was really expensive (40 div for my 85% roll, though you can get a worse roll for ~5 divs). The rings were a couple divines each (pretty cheap because they are off meta), and Atziri's is super cheap for lower rolls (like +32% ES is 10ex) but for mega rolls like mine (+37% ES and good rarity + low damage passes ES) it's 10 divs or more.

I made this change because Ingenuity was the only way I could get enough mana for my level 33 flash grenades (+6 from crossbow, +3 from amulet, +3 from Prism of Belief) and enough resists/attributes to not need a helmet. With fat phys rolls on breach rings, it also doesn't lose too much DPS vs. Rysthlathas (even before you factor in that it lets you afford higher level flash grenades).

Expensive items + resulting damage:


^ Remember, we shoot 5 grenades + have massive DPS boosts vs. broken armor enemies, low life enemies, + we have devastating strike (average of ~16% of life taken from enemies instantly), culling strike, and attrition for long fights.



PASSIVE TREE
See Maxroll for my current tree: https://maxroll.gg/poe2/planner/6cghf0vk


CHARACTER STATS
With my current, expensive gear:

With mid-price gear:

With cheap gear:



LEVELING ADVICE
Leveling isn't too bad with this build. It was my first character of the league and I got through the campaign without buying gear from trade with ~50 deaths.

You'll use Flash Grenade, Poison Grenade and Oil Grenade as soon as you get them (first act).

For the passive tree, go straight down to get the grenade wheel (Grenadier + Cluster Bombs for +1 CD use and +1 projectille) and then a little further down for Volatile Grenades (25% shorter fuse) and Distracting Presence (10% reduced CD).

Once you hit level ~70 you can branch out to the right side of the tree to add Energy Shield (and some evasion) for added tankiness in the end game.

For your early stage amulets, use the High Alert (Ire, Ire, Greed) anoint for a big evasion boost that's super cheap. Late game you'll get that skill on the tree and anoint Crushing Verdict (Envy, Suffering, Ire) for DPS.

Let me know if you have any questions! My in-game name is CantBeThatHardCanIt


[JAN 26th] Back with upgrades for late game
[DEC 25th] Got blind immunity via jewel corrupts – full credit to Arafúra for the idea. Updated passive tree reflecting some small tweaks I've made.
[DEC 22nd] Added high-budget items, which doubled my DPS + improved tankiness even more. I also added Precision to my Ghost Dance.
[DEC 21st] Added another video + skill supports + some more expensive gear options as you scale.

A couple of questions people have asked:

1. There are no map mods you need to avoid, including super rippy things like crit, - max res, ele pen, etc. The only one that I avoid is cooldown reduction because it's just makes the clear slower.

2. Re leveling, there's nothing special to it you use flash grenades the whole way. The only thing I'd say is to start with pure life/evasion then add in ES at around level ~80.

Nice Build.

Can you show what helm and gloves you are using too?

Hey,

can you write out the support gems please? Im gonna give this build a try :)

Also what direction on the skilltree do we fill out first while leveling?

Your gear + gems are worth north of 20 div closer to 40.

Why do you path out to the totem nodes (Carved Earth) on an alternate weapon set?

"

dmiric#7196 wrote:

Your gear + gems are worth north of 20 div closer to 40.

When I bought them they were way less, things have gotten more expensive though for sure. But you can get really good gear for less, you don't need PERFECT stats on everything, and there are no game breaking items needed. Just life + res.

"

GB_WarPig#6935 wrote:

Why do you path out to the totem nodes (Carved Earth) on an alternate weapon set?

Honestly I barely use them, but I have Ripwire totems on my other weapon set with a +6 proj skills crossbow (only 1ex, only stat you need is +6 projectile skills). They give me rage, life via vitality, mana via clarity, and they pin + maim enemies. I only ever use them in boss fights and I feel like they don't really matter though.

"

victomat#2274 wrote:

Hey,

can you write out the support gems please? Im gonna give this build a try :)

Also what direction on the skilltree do we fill out first while leveling?

Yeah sure I'll update the main post but here they are:

Flash Grenade - DPS

- Scattershot
- Concentrated Effect
- Brutality
- Heft
- Ingenuity (not needed but great for quality of life)

Gas Grenade - Breaking armor

- Corrosion
- Break Posture
- Persistence
- Demolisher
- Inspiration

Oil Grenade - Slow bosses

- Encumbrence
- Despoiler
- Maim
- Magnified Effect

Ghost Dance - Defensive layer

- Vitality
- Clarity
- Fast Forward

Wind Dancer - Defensive layer for evasion + if I get surrounded pinning/knocking everyone back

- Pin
- Lockdown
- Blind
- Life thief

Added another video of a 8-mod T15 + boss + breakdown of skills to the main post!

Let me know what else I can help with.