http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1162760
:for my reference only:
General gear tips:
You have 2% mana and 2% life leech on the tree. The 2% mana leech on tree is fine, but you could aim to replace those two nodes (Mind Drinker) with a 2% mana leech on gear.
Aim for 2-5% more life leech on gear, we're not using life leech gem so all our leech will be from physical damage.
Obviously cap your resistances before starting maps. Aim for high evasion and life on gear too.
For DPS, physical damage roll are very important, they scale from the nodes on the tree, they provide great damage and help us leech too.
Crit chance and crit multi are also very strong. Then for bonus get accuracy and attack speed.
Like all crit builds, the damage will scale exponentially, every small upgrade you get will scale off everything else. Every level and gear upgrade is very noticeable.
Wand:
Required - High physical dps. Local crit chance roll.
Bonus - Elemental dps rolls. Crit multiplier. Attack speed.
Local crit roll is very important for this build. All the other crit from your tree, gear and power charges scaled from the local crit number on your wand. So the difference between a 8% crit wand and a 10% crit wand is huge.
Invest a lot into your wand, it's a very important slot. If you want to get a cheaper wand, look for high physical dps wands with open suffix, then master craft crit yourself (up to 27%).
Imbued Wand is the best base for wanding, due to its 1.5 base attack speed. But any high physical dps 1.35+ speed (and crit) wand will be fine.
Don't use a wand without a local crit roll, I can't emphasise this enough. You're missing out on so much crit without it.
Rough Wand DPS Benchmarks:
I started mapping with a 130 pDPS wand, it's a little low but will be fine for 66-69 maps.
For 68-74 maps 160 pDPS wand will be fine.
For 74+ maps you'll want a good wand, 185+ pDPS recommended, but the sky's the limit.
Invest in a decent 1ex wand at first, like the one I listed above. Then when you're 80+ buy a crazy wand if you enjoy the build and want to take it further.
Shield:
Required - High evasion, life, resistances.
The shield slot has a lot of opportunity to roll high evasion. I'd focus on evasion base, but early game just use whatever has high hp/res.
Amulet:
Required - Life, physical damage roll.
Bonus - Crit chance, crit multiplier, mana/life leech, accuracy, elemental damage rolls.
Amulet is a very important slot for all crit builds. If you want to snipe cheap amulets then search for the stats you want but leave off either life or crit chance, then master craft that mod yourself.
Rings:
Required - Life, physical damage roll.
Bonus - Resistances, accuracy, mana/life leech, attack speed, strength.
Rings are also a great slot of dps, but they can also provide you with leech and high resistances. Focus on getting life and a physical damage roll first.
Chest:
Required - 5L
At first if you don't have much currency, buy a 5L rare/normal evasion chest. This will be fine until you can later upgrade to a unique chest.
I prefer Belly of the Beast on this build, is provides a lot of extra life.
Other options are:
Lightning Coil (hard to cap resistance but great physical mitigation and a little lightning damage).
Daresso's Defiance (Dodge chance, life leech).
Carcass Jack (Good for softcore for increasing clear speed).
Tips for getting a 6L:
So, at 90ish I luckily fused a 6L Belly. The cheapest way to acquire a 6L is to buy a 6s of the chest you want to use, throw fusing into it until it gets a 5L, then sell the 5L and repeat the process.
This takes quite some time. In Bloodlines I have 5L 4 Belly of the Beast, 2 Lightning Coil, 6 Cloak of Defiance using this method. I was making a slight profit on average, then I hit the jackpot and got myself a 6L Belly.
Remember, this takes a long time, you might make profit, you might make a loss (until you get a 6L), but it's the most efficient way to get one (efficient for currency, not time).
Belt:
Required - Life, rustic base, resistances.
Bonus - Weapon elemental damage roll, strength.
Belt is a good slot to pick up any strength you need, and also get a nice damage boost with the rustic base and weapon ele roll.
Helmet:
Required - Life, accuracy, resistances.
Bonus - High evasion.
Helmets can roll accuracy, make sure you take advantage of this.
Optional uniques:
Rat's Nest (great dps, recommended for softcore).
Boots:
Required - Life, resistances, 25-30 move speed.
Bonus - High evasion, strength.
You need high movespeed with this build to kite, especially at lower mapping levels when your damage isn't as crazy.
Gloves:
Required - Life.
Bonus - Attack speed, physical damage, life/mana leech, accuracy.
Gloves can roll T1 attack speed on master craft, so if possible, look for open suffix gloves and craft this yourself.
Optional uniques:
Maligaro's Virtuosity (great crit rolls, just lacks defense. Not recommended because rare gloves can be amazing, but this is a good cheap option).
Thunderfist (put single target in here).
Flasks:
My Flasks
Verified
Verified
Verified
Verified
Verified
Everyone prefers a different flask setup, but above is what I use.
You need a dispel freeze flask, a curse immune flask, an instant health flask. The rest is up to you really.
Kinetic Blast AOE:
Kinetic Blast + Power Charge on Crit + Faster Attacks + Greater Multiple Projectiles
This is all you really need to be successful with the build.
For 5th link I'd add Physical Projectile Damage. Pierce is also an option but PPD gives us more leech and hits monsters harder.
For 6th link I'd add Pierce. Other options include Weapon Elemental Damage, (Quality) Accuracy, Life Gain on Hit, Crit Multi (softcore only).
I upgraded to a 6L at around level 90, before that I didn't have any pierce and still cleared great.
Pierce sets off the Kinetic Blast explosions every time it pierces, it's great for clear speed but I feel as though there's more important gems to use in a 5L. Test yourself though!
Single Target:
Power Siphon + Crit Multi + Faster Attacks + Physical Projectile Damage
If you play in a party then Frenzy is an option (with Conduit), but Power Siphon is the most effective skill for sniping single monsters.
Honestly though, Kinetic Blast is the best single target. I kite rare/boss monsters to a wall, and shotgun them with KB explosions.
Auras:
Hatred + Herald Of Ice + Reduced Mana.
These are the important auras. Hatred will scale your physical damage, and Herald of Ice increases our clear speed so much. The shatter on kill effect sets off a chain reaction and just pops entire packs, very satisfying.
I also use Herald of Ash.
It's ok physical scaling, the on kill effect doesn't do much because of HoIce being so strong.
Instead of HoAsh you can use Herald of Thunder + Assassin's Mark + Curse on Hit. Then you can drop Power Charge on Crit in your main AOE links.
I prefer having Enfeeble on the monsters but it's up to you.
You could possibly drop Hatred for Grace, but it's not really needed.
CWDT:
Because you're evasion based you need a good CWDT setup for scary physical monsters, mostly chargers and leapers.
Cast When Damage Taken (6) + Enduring Cry (8) + Immortal Call (7) + Increased Duration (20)
I use a higher level CWDT IC setup than most people, but it ensures a longer IC duration. I'll sometimes drop to half HP but will be immune for 4 seconds. With good pot usage this is never scary.
Optional:
The rest is up to you really, all personal preference.
I use a Smoke Mine for opening Strongboxes safely.
Also a second CWDT setup for Enfeeble.
Also Lightning Warp for navigating the map easier.
You could also use manual curses, manual Enduring Cry/Immortal Call.
Vaal Haste is also a great option.
Verdanian suggested Frost Wall + Spell Totem + Faster Casting, great for shotgunning bosses/rares.
Up to you what you do with your free gem slots.
Normal - Oak (HP)
Cruel - Kraityn (8% attack speed) or Oak (18% phys damage) [Kraityn recommended]
Merciless - Alira (power charge)
Q: How's Reflect?
A: With Ondar's Guille reflect is really not an issue, now that my damage is crazy I try to avoid reflect maps but they're manageable. Reflect monsters are no issue.
HoIce is your main threat in ele reflect maps because you can't evade the shatter, so turn off HoIce in ele reflect maps.
With good leech, pot usage and Ondar's, reflect is not an issue.
In hardcore I'd avoid going over 400% crit multiplier, but below that you're safe.
Q: What about Chain?
A: I tested Chain for a few hours, the auto targeting is nice but it really nerfs your damage. Test it out yourself but I feel as though pierce is superior.
Chain would only be more effective with insane top end gear, where the only thing slowing you down is being able to hit a monster with a projectile, chain will auto target for you.
Q: I cant leech enough, why?
A: Mana leech is capped at 12.5% of your total mana per second. If you don't have a large enough mana pool then you may run out of mana.
You may also not be doing enough physical damage yet.
So focus on flat mana rolls on gear, physical damage rolls on gear and get a good wand.
At lower levels you should use a mana/hybrid flask if you need it.
Q: How much does this build cost?
A: I'd suggest having around 3ex to start, you can comfortably get a rare 5L chest, a decent wand and average gear in the rest of your slots for that price. Like all crit builds though, the more you invest, the crazier your clear speed.
Q: Frost Wall?
A: Frost Wall is great, you can shotgun single monsters with it. I tried it out for a while but it just slowed me down, you can kite high HP targets to a wall and shotgun them with Kinetic Blast explosions. But try out Frost Wall for yourself and see what you think.
Another option is Frost Wall + Spell Totem + Faster Casting.
Q: On the way to Elder Power (40% wand dmg), why is it better to get the ele nodes over the physical ones?
A: Those nodes are stronger than the 12% phys damage nodes, they're like mini added fire gems. With all the ele conversion nodes and our auras, we add a lot of our physical damage as elemental, so with the high crit we shock/ignite/freeze most monsters.
If you want to take your damage to the next level you can use Weapon Elemental Gem and scale this even further.
