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

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Arafúra#5611 wrote:

Sweet build! Figured I'd throw in a little idea - not sure if it was mentioned already, but you can get a 'Cannot Be Blinded' corruption modifier on jewels. Might be worth to fit that in one of your jewel slots.

Also, I'm looking to switch from Gas Grenade Gemling Legionnaire to this - would that be doable or am I really just gimping myself for not being a Witch Hunter in this case?

This is great tip altogether. Just got a cheap one and Im not self blind anymore!

A couple of minor passive tree questions:

Is it worth getting the jewel socket north of the Crushing Judgment/Authority wheel? It's only one 12% damage node away.

Is the 5 attribute better than 5% increased cooldown recovery near Distracting Presence?

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firehellkite#1365 wrote:

A couple of minor passive tree questions:

Is it worth getting the jewel socket north of the Crushing Judgment/Authority wheel? It's only one 12% damage node away.

Is the 5 attribute better than 5% increased cooldown recovery near Distracting Presence?

That's a great idea re: the jewel socket north of Crushing Judgement/Authority. I'm going to try to work that in to my tree.

Re: the 5 attribution, I don't think it's better than 5% decreased cooldown I was just taking it because I needed the attributes (if I remember correctly).

There are also some other great damage nodes to grab when your tree is getting pretty full:
1. Giantslayer, which I actually switched to replacing Cull the Hoardes when I was one shotting every magic mob and most rares.
2. +16% damage vs. rare/unique before Cull the Hoardes (you'll only need DPS vs. rare and unique endgame, everything else is one shot)
3. +12% crossbow damage

hint for anybody leveling this build

use Radiant Grief hood with your gas grenades for instant explosions


"Enemies in your Presence are Ignited as though dealt 100 Base Fire Damage"

pretty damn potent power leveling tech, makes your gas grenades go off instantly for significantly higher base attack damage than stun grenades

wound up using stun grenades for packs and gas grenades for rares/bosses

dp

I added a Maxroll planner link as well, if anyone wants to see my current gear and perhaps an easier way to visualize the passive tree: https://maxroll.gg/poe2/planner/6cghf0vk

I really like the guide. I do have one question though. Is the only reason to pick up armor gloves to get strength on it and to take advantage of the bottom node? Could it be better just to maximize on evasion/es?

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Cotillion0#4880 wrote:

I really like the guide. I do have one question though. Is the only reason to pick up armor gloves to get strength on it and to take advantage of the bottom node? Could it be better just to maximize on evasion/es?

Yeah it definitely could be better to just skip armor. Armor is pretty bad in POE2 (especially vs bosses) and it would save you 3 passives + you would need less str. Worth experimenting with for sure.

And glad you’re enjoying the build! Blew my mind that Witchhunter was 2nd lowest played ascendency. Can be a lot of fun.

Hi!
Just want to ask your opinion about taking the Gemling Legionnaire instead of the WitchHunter in terms of the boosting the gas grenade with extra scattershot (for example, instead of Inspiration).

And the second question about the helmet that ignites enemies. Does it interrupt armor breaking stacking, since the cloud will explode much faster?

And the last question, why not Payload (Grenade support, 70% reduced cooldown recovery rate, 50% chance of extra explosion) but Ingenuity (just 30% reduced cooldown recovery rate) for the Flash Grenade?

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Sairef#3190 wrote:

Hi!
Just want to ask your opinion about taking the Gemling Legionnaire instead of the WitchHunter in terms of the boosting the gas grenade with extra scattershot (for example, instead of Inspiration).

And the second question about the helmet that ignites enemies. Does it interrupt armor breaking stacking, since the cloud will explode much faster?

And the last question, why not Payload (Grenade support, 70% reduced cooldown recovery rate, 50% chance of extra explosion) but Ingenuity (just 30% reduced cooldown recovery rate) for the Flash Grenade?

I haven't tried Gemling so hard for me to say, but I do like Witchhunter's decimating strike and ability to switch to explode for breach farming. But I bet Gemling is good as well, I don't think this build is overly reliant on the ascendency.

Re: igniting enemies vs. breaking armor, the armor break is SO fast (it breaks bosses in like ~2-4 seconds) that I think you'll break them either way, but I just didn't find ignite that valuable. I'd rather have the gas cloud sit around in case boss is phasing or I'm fighting in something like a breach where mobs keep coming.

Re: Payload, it slows down the grenade cooldown (while ingenuity speeds it up), so you're just much slower at firing rounds of grenades. The DPS might be similar honestly, but because we have leech it's quite important for our tankiness to be able to put out rounds of grenades constantly to keep life+mana replenishing. You could experiment with payload though, I did try it I just didn't like it.

Hope that helps!