Doomreaver fun "off meta"/0 ES[EB+MoM]/cursplosive mapping/crits 4 fast bosses/budget/early endgame

Doomreaver fun "off meta"/0 ES[EB+MoM]/cursplosive mapping/crits 4 fast bosses/budget/early endgame

https://maxroll.gg/poe2/pob/1h60y0dh

I'm sure this one won't be a game-changer for anyone, especially at this late stage, but I'm having a ton of fun messing around with it and maybe it will give someone something to try on an Alt.

When I picked Stormreaver, I wanted to try and stay "off-meta" as long as I could manage. I kind of stumbled into this build and it has lasted a lot longer than I expected. It's an extremely budget-friendly build; I've got a couple ~2-3d items from recent Arbiter drops, but prior to that I would say my entire kit was probably <5d in total and I was managing all right. I'm sure someone with more disposable currency could tighten things up a lot (e.g., my jewels are goofy).

I run Eldritch Battery + Mind Over Matter w/ Archmage, stacking as much mana as my budget allows (~5.2k) while balancing cost (-1.2k/s) with regen (+1k/s) and mana-on-kill (+250/kill); I've tried running Font of Mana on my Orb of Storms, but not sure it's worth the socket. Adverse Growth is another one I had at some point but gave up for more pew pew (none of my deaths seem to allow room for recouperation anyway).

For mapping, I use 2x Orbs of Storms w/ Overabundance to spread shocks, then 95% of actual kills come from Conductivity + Impending Doom + Cursed Ground + Unleash for instant curse-replacement Doom Blasts that are just super fun and surprisingly effective. I'm constantly experimenting w/ different support combinations incl. Ritualistic Curse, Heightened Curse, Inspiration, Spell Echo, etc. My Cast on Shock w/ Lightning Conduit does fire while mapping, but it's usually overkill and just ends up zapping a bunch of dead bodies.

For bosses, I use Arc w/ my double orbs to build two stacks of 56% magnitude shocks, which get stripped by Lightning Conduit when it triggers. With ~50% crit chance and ~4.7x crit bonus, this makes quick work of max-difficulty map bosses in T16+2s and early pinnacle kills. I killed Arbiter +1 for the first time last night and was happy to not have to do any of his mechanics. He was technically at 0% after about ~10 seconds but full kill technically took ~25 or so after a period of invulnerability and dialog/RP before he fell over.

Obviously, the big weakness with this setup is survivability, although I'm definitely not nearly as squishy as I expected to be -- especially given the insane range this build permits. I kill a lot of things before they're even on screen, and because my DPS comes from my curse I'm able to bridge gaps and cast across elevation differences that would stop normal spells from reaching targets.

Biggest threats seem to be chain-stuns due to my low threshold and big physical hits from bosses, but as long as I pay attention and don't overspend my mana-health away, it usually feels manageable. I do skip any maps w/ increased Stun Buildup, Ailment Threshold, or higher "less damage from crits" affixes. I run the double charms and have tried to add threshold with my last couple purchases to mitigate the stun situation a bit.

Here's some highlights from a recent T16+2 (albeit with pretty tame affixes) including a ~1.8s boss kill thanks to what looks like a ~5M+ crit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmuKM5Tw9qU

Like I said, I know it's probably not a viable build for the "real" pro's, but I think it's fun and at least a little bit unique. I plan on keeping it going as far as I can -- it seems like surviving the Simulacrum will be a test.