Intro
This low budget, league start, and hardcore viable build guide is designed for all players veteran and new. If you’re a seasoned player and just want the PoB then scroll down past the videos. If you want a more detailed guide then read on!
Videos
Changelog
v1.21 – 13 March 2020
- No changes – 3.10 Ready
v1.2 – 13 December 2019
IMPROVED
- Path of Building updated
v1.1 – 15 September 2019
ADDED
- Advanced Section for End Game only
v1.0 – 5 September 2019
- Guide Published
Overview
The written portion of this build guide is designed for new players who feel like they need some hand holding. As such some things that veteran players and experienced racers might do in the early levels have been left out as to not be too complicated. That being said, this should still be a smooth and quick leveling experience.
Path of Building
Not sure how to use Path of Building, or what it is? Engineering Eternity has a brilliant guide that you can check out here https://exiledguides.com/home/poe-tools/path-of-building/
Pastebin Import: https://pastebin.com/ntZ5nnPD
Passive Tree, Ascendancy & Pantheon
Level 90 Tree
Ascendancy
Normal Lab: Pursuit of Faith
Cruel Lab: Ritual of Awakening
Merciless Lab: Conviction of Power
Eternal Lab: Illuminated Devotion
Pantheon Powers
Major – Soul of the Brine King
Might as well upgrade this, but its not a priority at all.
Minor – Soul of Shakari
Capture Terror of the Infinite Drifts
Gem Setup
Divine Ire Totems: (In order of importance. If you only have a 5-link, leave out the last one)
Divine Ire–Spell Totem Support–Faster Casting Support–Multiple Totem Support–Hypothermia Support–Increased Critical Strikes Support/ Controlled Destruction Support
Movement:
Shield Charge–Faster Attacks Support–Fortify Support
Alternate movement (for crossing gaps):
Flame Dash–Arcane Surge Support–Faster Casting Support
Curse:
Storm Brand–Curse on Hit Support–Elemental Weakness–Onslaught Support
Auras:
Hatred / Herald of Ash / Zealotry
Gear, Flasks and Jewels
Gear
There are no uniques needed for this build.
On your weapon and shield, + levels of all lightning gems is a priority roll. Then critical strike chance to spells of 60% or more.
For your weapon only, the Physical Damage as Extra Damage of X element mods (on Shaper bases) are fantastic for end game gear, but not needed early on. The same goes for Non-chaos Damage as Extra Chaos. Otherwise, prioritise cast speed and spell damage.
On the shield, we are eventually aiming to get a +1 to our total amount of summoned totems. This mod also requires a Shaper base shield, however, so you likely won’t be getting this on day 1.
On your gloves you will be looking for 25% of physical damage converted to lightning, which can come from temple gear or as a craft. This will be a very important mod to find as soon as possible once you are mapping. Ensure you have this by the time you reach red maps at the latest.
The rest of your gear can be just rares with Life and the resistances you need. Cast speed can sometimes be found on gloves and jewellery, and if we luck into those we will be very happy.
Flasks
- Seething/Bubbling Divine Life Flask of Dousing (to remove ignite)
- Alchemist’s Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline (This is for speedy speed)
- Jade Flask
- Stibnite Flask
- Quartz Flask
On these flasks, we will need to roll some affixes when we are at maps. But it doesn’t matter which of the last 3 flasks has which affix as long as all 3 are covered.
- Staunching, for bleed.
- Warding, for curses.
- Heat, for freeze.
This combination will mean you cannot bleed, or be frozen or cursed, while mapping – super helpful and strong.
*Note* The Quicksilver Flask could also have any of these suffixes at the start if you are okay moving through maps a little slower. This is just the ideal setup; what’s really important is you have the Staunching, Heat, and Warding on utility flasks by the time you enter maps – in that order.
Jewels
Primary jewel stats are:
Life, Cast speed
Secondary stats are:
Spell damage, Increased Damage, Spell damage while holding a shield, and any resistances or attributes you may need.
Leveling
There are some good general leveling guides that can be found here for specifics on how to get through the acts: https://exiledguides.com/home/beginner-guides/leveling-guides/
Advanced
This section is about how to push your character further now that you have a budget and are willing to invest more currency into the build.
There are two ways to go all out in a more advanced version of this build: one uses the Devouring Diadem unique helm, while the other uses the Soul Mantle unique body armour. Both trees are contained in the following Path of Building link, each named appropriately. I’ve kept these trees separate from the original guide as they are not cheap and will require some respec points.
Path of Building Pastebin Import: https://pastebin.com/6qNx5fUX
In both versions of this build we drop the Conviction of Power Ascendancy node in favour of Arcane Blessing. This will, however, require us to generate power charges another way. The easiest way to do so is the same in both versions: change the Storm Brand links to generate power charges with the Power Charge on Critical Strike Support gem instead of the Onslaught Support gem. As a result, we lose onslaught on bosses – this may be okay for you, or you may want to replace one of your flasks with an onslaught flask for faster mapping.
New Storm Brand links: Storm Brand – Curse on Hit Support – Power Charge on Critical Strike Support – Elemental Weakness
Both advanced versions of this build will deal significantly more damage with significantly more defences. The Soul Mantle option focuses more on DPS, however, while the Devouring Diadem option focuses more on defences (though it still has far more damage than the original build).
Using the Devouring Diadem means we get to take Mind Over Matter (a Keystone passive on the tree) and Eldritch Battery (also a Keystone passive, but it is granted by the unique). This lets us split our damage taken between life and energy shield, as well as allowing us to use our energy shield as Mana.
The unique helm also comes with 20% reduced mana reservation to socketed gems, which allows us to run Hatred, Zealotry, and Herald of Ash all at once (by socketing them in the helm). This also making finding a relevant Watcher’s Eye jewel much cheaper and easier, as we have stats from two 50% auras to look for.
Using the Soul Mantle unique body armour will not change our useable auras. Instead, this body armour supports socketed gems with Spell Totem Support, resulting in our totems becoming a 7-link (at this point, we will use both Increased Critical Strike Chance Support and Controlled Destruction Support rather than choosing between them).
As a drawback though, this body armour will curse us each and every time a totem expires – including when one is overridden by us placing a new one. To counter this, we will become “unaffected by curses” through the use of two Kikazaru rings and the Sanctum of Thought notable on the passive tree. (Note that this wording “unaffected by curses” is not the same as “immune to curses” – the curses will still be applied to us, they just simply don’t have any effect. As a side effect, this means that we don’t need to use a Warding flask any more.)
As a final addition to the build, we also get to use a Self-Flagellation jewel – with a maximum roll of 20%, this will grant us 20% increased damage per curse applied to us.