Created for Patch 3.22
The Best Crafty Guides by Odealo
Guide notes |
November 9, 2023 -Build created |
Build Overview | |||
Tags: [ELEMENTAL] [CASTER] [LIFE] [CRIT] | |||
Budget: Defenses: |
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Boss DPS: AoE: |
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The new aspect of the Saboteur Ascendency specializes in everything that involves Triggers or Cooldown Recovery. The Triggerbots granted by one of your Ascendency Node double the output of every Trigger effect with a little bit of Damage penalty. The Arcanist Brand and Brand Recall works particularly well with this Ascendency. Arcanist Brand is a special type of Brand that doesn't have its own effect, instead, it uses any Spell linked to it. The Brand specifically Triggers those Spells, so they are being doubled by your Triggerbots. The Brand Recall causes all your Brands to teleport to your location and force them to activate once, despite not being attached to any target. However, thanks to some very clever mechanics the Saboteur can make even better use of this Spell. By socketing the Brand Recall Gem in a Wand that Triggers Spells when you use a Skill, you will double the Recall with Triggerbots again, resulting in a total of 4 casts of Brand Recall at the same time. You can have 7 Arcanist Brands, which leads to 28 instances of a Spell being fired each time you use the Brand Recall! 2 of those Brands will also Attach to the Enemy and Cast out Spells like usual, providing consistent Damage.
With this Setup, you can use any Spell in the game to deal Damage, but the Blazing Salvo seems to work the best. It is a Fire Spell that releases a high number of Projectiles that deal Damage in a small Area that can overlap. You can also use the Nimis Ring or Returning Projectiles Support to make them return to you to deal the Damage again. Activating the Arcanist Brand consumes a large amount of Mana, but thanks to the Eldritch Battery Keystone and Energy Shield on Hit paired with so many Projectiles, it trivializes this problem. You can also use the Divergent Inspiration Support with other sources of Reduced Mana Costs such as Flask Suffix to reduce the Mana Cost down to 0, but it is a significant investment for a similar result.
You can also check our other Path of Exile builds right over here Odealo's Crafty Guides - Full List
Cast Arcanist Brand to Attach them to new Enemies, which causes them to use the Balzing Salvo Spell. Using any Skill, including the Arcanist Brand itself, will Trigger the Brand Recall Socketed in your Wands with a special modifier, which releases an overwhelming amount of fiery Projectiles in every direction. Against Bosses, you should also use the Sniper Mark, and position yourself close to the Enemy so the Returning Projectiles aimed at you can Hit the Boss again.
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PROS |
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CONS |
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You can use Brands to level up with. You can start with the regular Storm and Armageddon Brand and swap to the Arcanist Brand later on, as you gather more resources to sustain the high Mana Costs. The leveling tree is very suitable for every Critical Strike-based Elemental Spell.
Suggested leveling Gem setups:
Storm Brand setup | |
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Storm Brand - the first Brand Spell at your disposal, you can start using it at level 12. It deals Lightning Damage to a few nearby Enemies. |
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Added Cold Damage Support - adds a flat amount of Cold Damage to your Spells, allowing them to Chill or Freeze. |
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Added Lightning Damage Support - adds a flat amount of Lightning Damage to your Spells, which further enhances Storm Brand's ability to Shock. |
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Arcane Surge Support - grants you Spell Damage and Cast Speed when you spend enough amounts of Mana. You might need to keep it at a low level to trigger it more reliably. |
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Inspiration Support - this Support Gem increases your Elemental Damage and Critical Strike Chances while lowering the Mana Costs. |
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Concentrated Effect Support - the Storm Brand deals Area Damage, but the range is affected by the Chain Range, so this Support Gem is pure profit. |
Aura setup | |
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Wrath - a powerful offensive Aura that improves your Lightning Damage with Spells. If you deal a mixed types of Damage, you can use the Zealotry Aura instead. |
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Vitality - a very useful Aura to make surviving the Acts more easy, it grants tons of Life Regeneration. |
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Clarity - the best friend of every Caster during the leveling process, this Aura grants you Mana Regeneration. |
Utility setup | |
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Flame Dash - a default choice for a Movement Skill, it causes you to teleport in a short distance. |
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Elemental Weakness - lowers all Elemental Resistances of affected Foes. |
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Steelskin - best Guard Skill for the campaign, as it removes the Bleeding Effects and absorbs part of the incoming Damage. |
Bandits:
Kill all Bandits to get an additional 2 Passive Tree Skill Points.
Leveling Skill Trees:
40 Points Passive Tree
1) Blood Siphon 2) Elemental Focus 3) Assassination 4) Doom Cast 5) Disciple of the Forbidden 6) Heart of Flame/Thunder/Ice (depending on your main Damage type)
70 Points Passive Tree
Allocate:
1) Cruel Preparation 2) Purity of Flesh 3) Holy Dominion 4) Runebinder 5) Runesmith 6) Light of Divinity
Recommended leveling items:
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Adds (7-10) to (15-20) Cold Damage to Spells and Attacks +(200-300) to Evasion Rating 50% chance to Avoid being Chilled 10% chance to Freeze Adds 40 to 60 Cold Damage against Chilled Enemies |
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Item has no level requirement and Energy Shield (Hidden) Item has 6 White Sockets and is fully linked (Hidden) |
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+(30-50) to Evasion Rating 10% increased Rarity of Items found +(30-40)% to all Elemental Resistances Reflects 4 Physical Damage to Melee Attackers Level Requirement reduced by 100 (Hidden) |
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(12-24)% increased Global Physical Damage Adds (14-16) to (30-32) Fire Damage to Spells Adds (10-12) to (24-28) Cold Damage to Spells Adds 1 to (60-68) Lightning Damage to Spells +(6-15)% to all Elemental Resistances 30% increased Elemental Damage during any Flask Effect |
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50% increased Movement Speed Level Requirement reduced by 100 (Hidden) |
Final Skill Tree:
118 Points Final Passive Tree (doesn't include Cluster or Unique Jewels)
118 Points Path of Building (PoB) link
Ascendancy points:
Preferably in this order:
Pantheon:
Major God: Soul of Arakaali: 10% reduced Damage taken from Damage Over Time; Debuffs on you expire 20% faster; +40% Chaos Resistance against Damage Over Time
Minor God: Soul of Ralakesh: 25% reduced Physical Damage over Time taken while moving; Moving while Bleeding doesn't cause you to take extra Damage
[DPS] Arcanist Brand setup | |
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Arcanist Brand - a Brand that activates linked Spells. The important caveat is that those Spells are Triggered, so they can be doubled by Triggerbots. |
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Blazing Salvo - releases a massive amount of Fire Projectiles in a specific direction. By concentrating them in one place you can deal tons of Damage against a single enemy. |
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Elemental Focus Support - disables inflicting Elemental Ailments but grants insane amounts of Damage in return. |
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Empower Support - improves the levels of Supported Active Skills. If you can't get a high-level version of this Gem, use Inspiration Support instead. |
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Fire Penetration Support - grants a lot of Fire Penetration for your Fire Spells. The Awakened version also grants you a chance to inflict Fire Exposure. |
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Increased Critical Strikes Support - increases the base Critical Strike Chance of the Blazing Salvo, making your Critical Strikes more reliable. |
[UTILITY] Brand Recall setup socketed in your Wand |
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Brand Recall - teleports all your Brands to you and forces them to trigger one time, even without being Attached to any Enemy. Since it is being triggered by your Weapon, it will get doubled by Triggerbots. |
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Orb of Storms - in the Trigger Wand you should also socket other utility Spells, as the Cooldown is applied individually to each Skill. The Orb of Storms is used to sustain Power Charges against Bosses. |
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Power Charge on Critical Support - gives a high chance of generating Power Charge to linked Spell upon landing a Critical Strike. |
[UTILITY] Brand Recall setup socketed in your Wand |
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Brand Recall - you can use two Brand Recall setups with an unsynchronized Cooldown to trigger them independently of each other. |
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Sniper's Mark - increases the Damage Enemies Take from your Projectiles, and causes them to Split upon impact, causing even more overlaps. |
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Enhance Support - improves the Quality of Supported Spells, improving their effectiveness. |
[UTILITY] Aura setup | |
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Grace - a defensive Aura that grants and improves your Evasion Rating. You can also use the Watcher's Eye Jewel to gain a bit of Spell Suppression while using this Aura. |
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Determination - your second defensive Aura, it works very similarly to Grace but grants Armour Rating instead. Since you want to use Evasion-based Gear, you may consider the Petrified Blood Aura instead, as the Armour won't be that high anyway. |
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Zealotry - improves your Spell Damage and Critical Strike Chance for Spells. You will also sometimes create a Consecrated Ground effect under Enemies you Hit. |
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Discipline - grants you lots of Energy Shield and its Recharge Rate. It is used to enable the Watcher's Eye modifier to gain Energy Shield on Hit. |
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Herald of Ash - greatly improves your Fire Spell Damage and burns nearby Enemies for some amount of the overkill Damage. |
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Enlighten Support - Support your most Mana-reserving Auras with this Support to reduce their Reservation. With proper Items, you may use the remaining Auras unlinked. |
[UTILITY] Divine Blessing setup | |
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Anger - another powerful offensive Aura. It grants a lot of additional Fire Damage for your Spells. It also enables powerful Watcher's Eye modifiers, which are often undervalued. |
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Divine Blessing Support - changes your permanent Aura into a temporary Buff with a certain Mana Cost you need to pay each time you activate it. |
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Inspiration Support - reduces the Mana necessary to activate the Divine Blessing. With enough Energy Shield, you can skip this Support to free up a Socket. |
[UTILITY] Other utility Skills | |
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Flame Dash - the best Movement Skill to use for this Build, it teleports you in a short distance and leaves a burning path on its way. You will stack a lot of Cooldown Recovery Rate, so you can use this Skill more often than usual. |
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Steelskin - a very useful Guard Skill. It absorbs part of the incoming Damage and disables Bleedings on you. You can also use the Molten Shell if your Armour Rating is high enough to make it stronger than Steelskin. |
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Frost Shield - creates an icy globe that reduces the Damage you take while standing inside of it. It also Chills Enemies and increases your Critical Strike Chance. |
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There are many useful modifiers you should look after to improve your Character. Firstly you should always use a Weapon with the Trigger modifier, one with the Veiled 4-second Cooldown, and one with the crafted 8-second Cooldown modifier. To boost your Damage look for increased Spell Damage, Critical Strikes, Cast Speed, or Cooldown Recovery Rate. Defensively, you should try to get as much Spell Suppression Chance, which will force you to use Evasion Rating Gear. You should use the hybrid bases that also include some Energy Shield, as you will need plenty of it to cast your Spells. Mana Reservation Efficiency is also important to fit in all your Auras. You will need lots of Elemental Resistances and Attributes, so try to make the best use of the Jewellery Quality to fulfill those Requirements in the most efficient way. The extra Quality for your Spells sourced from the Ashes of the Stars or Dialla's Malefaction is useful to have, but not mandatory.
Stat priorities on items:
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Min. requirements: Trigger a Socketed Spell on Using a Skill, with a 4/8 second Cooldown 70% increased Spell Damage Optional affixes: +1 to Level of all Fire Spell Skill Gems increased Cast Speed increased Critical Strike Chance/Multiplier for Spells |
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+1 to Level of Socketed Gems Socketed Gems have 25% increased Reservation Efficiency Trigger Level 15 Feast of Flesh every 5 seconds (180-220)% increased Energy Shield 10% chance for Energy Shield Recharge to start when you use a Skill Eldritch Battery |
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Min. requirements: 15% Mana Reservation Efficiency (Essence + Eldritch Implicit) 10% Spell Suppression Chance +60 to maximum Life Optional affixes: Resistance Attribute % of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Fire Damage |
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Gems can be Socketed in this Item ignoring Socket Colour Gems Socketed in Red Sockets have +2 to Level Gems Socketed in Green Sockets have +30% to Quality Gems Socketed in Blue Sockets gain 100% increased Experience Has no Attribute Requirements |
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Min. requirements: 20% Spell Suppression Chance 10% of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Fire Damage Optional affixes: Elemental and Chaos Resistance Mana Reservation Efficiency Critical Strike Multiplier for Spell Damage Zealotry has #% increased Aura Effect |
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(5-10)% increased Experience Gain of Gems (10-20)% increased Reservation Efficiency of Skills +1 to Level of all Skill Gems +(20-30)% to Quality of all Skill Gems |
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+(10-16) to all Attributes +3 to Level of all Blazing Salvo Gems +(10-15)% to all Elemental Resistances (10-15)% increased Reservation Efficiency of Skills Items and Gems have (15-10)% reduced Attribute Requirements |
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Min. requirements: +60 to maximum Life +1 to Level of all Fire Spell Skill Gems Optional affixes: increased Cast Speed Global Critical Strike Multiplier Elemental and Chaos Resistance Attributes +1 to minimum Frenzy Charge |
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Recommended anointment: Charisma |
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Min. requirements: +70 to maximum Life 30% increased Movement Speed 7% increased Cooldown Recovery Rate +60% to Elemental Resistance Optional affixes: Spell Suppression Chance Onslaught on Kill Action Speed Attributes |
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Min. requirements: +80 to maximum Life +60% to Elemental Resistance Optional affixes: Spell Suppression Chance % increased Damage while Leeching % increased Damage during any Flask Effect #% chance to Unnerve Enemies for 4 seconds on Hit #% of Fire Damage Leeched as Life |
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Min. requirements: +70 to maximum Life +60% to Elemental Resistance 10% increased Cooldown Recovery Rate Optional affixes: % Flask Charges gained % increased Life Reduced Flask Charges used |
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Min. requirements: +30 to maximum Life Recommended affixes: Corrupted Blood cannot be inflicted on you increased Cast Speed if you've dealt a Critical Strike Recently Resistances Attributes Critical Strike Multiplier |
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+(30-50) to Dexterity (25-35)% increased Projectile Damage Projectiles Return to you Projectiles are fired in random directions |
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Min. requirements: +60 to maximum Life +50% to all Elemental Resistance Recommended affixes: increased Cast Speed increased Fire/Elemental Damage Critical Strike Multiplier +1 to minimum Frenzy Charges Life Recoup Attributes |
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Min. requirements: increased maximum Life Recommended affixes: Resistances % to Critical Strike Multiplier with Fire/Elemental Spell Skills % to Critical Strike Multiplier with Spell Skills % to Global Critical Strike Multiplier Mana Reservation Efficiency Attributes |
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Carved to glorify (2000-10000) new faithful converted by High Templar Dominus Passives in radius are Conquered by the Templars Historic |
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(4-6)% increased maximum Energy Shield (4-6)% increased maximum Life (4-6)% increased maximum Mana <Two or Three random aura modifiers> Recommended Aura mods: Gain (20-30) Energy Shield per Enemy Hit while affected by Discipline (+(30-50)% to Critical Strike Multiplier while affected by Anger +(12-15)% chance to Suppress Spell Damage while affected by Grace |
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Suggested Flasks:
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If you have any other build requests please leave that in the comments below. We are always open to suggestions and constructive feedback.
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