[0.3] The Bonedozer (Bone Cage Pathfinder, one-button build) by snettel

The goal was to make a one-button nova build where no aiming is required.

Bone Cage has excellent base damage and base %crit chance but its area of effect is small, it has a long cast time and the cast lags behind at the location where you were at the start of your cast. These aspects make it difficult to integrate into a fast moving, screen clearing build.

If we stack as much increased area of effect as we can reasonably get (support gem, passive tree, helmet runes), we are just able to get the Bone Cage far enough in front of us that we can move pretty fast and clear what's in front of us. The Pathfinder ascendancy Contagious Contamination comes in handy to increase our effective clearing range even further (this can be replaced by or combined with Bursting Plague support for even greater effect and satisfying pops).

We need to move fast so we get a lot of %increased movement speed. We need to move smooth so we get the Pathfinder ascendancy Running Assault (50% less ms penalty) and some sources of %reduced ms penalty (boots rune, passive tree).

You can't bone without protection. Because we are a melee spellcaster we invest into evasion, deflection and energy shield to confidently facecheck enemies without hesitation. That's right, bone everything you want.

Skill
Efficient charge generation. Bone Cage pins, pin can be used to generate frenzy charges with the Combat Frenzy buff. With the Armour Break support it also generates endurance charges. Power charges can be generated, with a little bit more effort, from corpses with Profane Ritual. This lets us use the Charge Regulation buff at full effect (15% more skill speed, 20% more defenses and 25% more %crit chance) and the boost to all of these stats are relevant for the build. We use our remaining spirit well with Clarity for much needed mana regen and a very strong Ghost Dance (because we stack both ES and evasion).

Passive Tree
Efficient pathing. The high base %crit chance on Bone Cage is great for the ranger which has access to nodes on the passive tree to good crit damage nodes. We are also close to evasion and energy shield nodes on the passive tree which are both strong. We amend the weakness of energy shield (regen) with our unique belt Shavronne's Satchel. Our flask effect is improved with some efficient flask nodes and the downside of Shavronne's is circumvented by using an instant flask (which is also mandatory because of Chaos Inoculation).
Small note about the passive tree, we play 75 dex because that is the requirement for lvl 18 Ghost Dance. This is a breakpoint that gives an extra shroud. So that determines the skill level of all our other dex gems (our gear has slightly lower dex requirements). The strength is the minimum amount you need to play your red support gems.

Ascendancy
On top of the important movement speed and poison proliferation we get from the Pathfinder, we also get a free curse. We can support Temporal Chains with Atziri's Allure (+1 to curse limit, 25% less curse effect, curse is reflected). The Pathfinder ascendancy Relentless Pursuit makes us immune to the slow effect of this curse. The second curse effect "other effects on target expire slower" is generally a boon because it will make buffs expire more slowly (Rite of Passage charm, Charge duration, Shrine buffs, guard, volatility, etc.). Debuffs will also expire slower but are not that common because we are poison and bleed immune with Chaos Inoculation. Ignite is worse though.

If the build was better, it wouldn't even need the curses. The bad news is that we need them to make bossfights easier.

I have found all content extremely satisfying and easy to play (Abyss, Ritual, Breach, Expedition, Sekhema, Chaos trial, ...).

However, the build is not good at bossing. You are tanky enough to take on the strongest bosses, but it just takes a while to do 10M+ damage with your few 100k dps. On top of that you have to play a little bit, because your sustain is from your flask and you don't have an infinite amount of charges.

Your dps is low because Bone Cage is supported by a lot of gems irrelevant to bossing, your mana regen is insufficient because your recover mana% on kill doesn't do anything. You can only reliably get a frenzy charge (with Sniper's Mark). An endurance charge when you're lucky (20% chance on armour break). A power charge when you're really lucky (Charge Profusion support on Sniper's Mark).
So after you run out of mana, you start casting Bone Blast, but unfortunately it is just a bad skill. Good news, the lvl 20 Bone Blast wands are cheap.

No expensive uniques required. Seed of Cataclysm is currently 20 exalt and Shavronne's Satchel is 5 exalt. This makes it possible to eventually get these with good enchants from corrupting.

The included PoB has a lot of affixes on gear that provide rarity. Obviously, these can be replaced by other, useful affixes, so all affixes can be lower tier and the items will be affordable. Some of the affixes on my gear are not ideal either (e.g. life on boots, lightning res on shield). I crafted the wand, amulet, boots, focus and flasks, so there is certainly a ceiling in terms of cost. I can explain the crafts if there is interest.

The boots in my PoB are by far the most expensive piece of equipment, because of the 3 sockets and the Essence of Horror affix. You will be slower until you can afford these, I'm sorry.

I recently got a +3 Prism of Belief but this jewel is not actually that good, because it forces me to play Efficiency support. You can play a different jewel that increases your damage and play a support gem that also increases your damage for similar performance (I am not even sure what's best yet, I need to test some more). The ideal damage jewel for this build is currently not expensive (1 div), it's included in the PoB (Sapphire). An extra benefit of playing the rare jewel is that it also affects your Bone Blast damage.