3.6 Incinerate Trickster [League starter] [Beginner friendly]

Goal of this build is to be strong and reliable campaign and early map clearer.


Highly recommend reading ingame help/tutorial panel for basic understanding of game's fundamental mechanics. Such as links and sockets.



I've mostly played this character mostly as SSF, the only things I've traded for were the shield and body armor base(, fossil crafted that on 1st roll, lucky me).


For experienced players:
PoB of my character at the time of writing: https://pastebin.com/VHF3i3pg
Config: Frenzy+Power Charges, Enemy is burning, player has onslaught, exposure to Fire from WoC.


Strengths and weaknesses:
+ Absolutely smashes campaign's dps checks
+ Gets really fast without investments (thanks Trickster buffs)
+ High tempo playstyle
+ Screen length flamethrower is fun!

- Channeled skills can occasionally feel clunky (looking at you Izaro)
- Requires certain amount of cast speed to feel good, mostly obtained via levels and ascendancy, getting to max stacks relatively quickly is important
- Relies quite heavily on life flasks and overall ability to dodge for life sustain thorough campaign and mapping, until you can find a source of life leech that works with spells.
- High tempo playstyle




Ascendancy:

- Normal Labyrinth: Weave the Arcane
- Cruel Labyrinth: Ghost Dance
- Merciless Labyrinth: Escape Artist
- Eternal Labyrinth: Swift Killer









Leveling this build:

- You unlock Incinerate on beating Act 1, around level 12. I used Explosive Trap and Frost Bomb to reach that point, using random wands/scepters I could find. Explosive Trap takes care of beefier enemies, while Frost Bomb linked with Onslaught Support keeps you running.
- Pick up Combustion and Infused Channeling supports and slot those into free sockets so they will gain exp while you are using skills listed above, Combustion is alright support for Explosive trap, but not mandatory damage wise at this point.

- Clarity & Flame Dash are quest rewards from Act 1


- Incinerate feels disappointing on the earlier gem ranks, while it has damage it lacks range. Potential supports if you want to start using it now are Infused Channeling, Combustion and Onslaught, I'd still use explosive trap for single target damage, it is that strong.

- You unlock Herald of Ash and Wave of Conviction in Act 2


- Act 3 you can really start incinerating enemies with the 3 fore mentioned support gems.

- Anger aura

- Act 4 nothing new to be gained

- Acts 5-7 is where this build will occasionally feel squishy as your Incinerate doesn't quite have screen wide range. Damage is there though, most definitely is.

- Act 6 Grab remaining support gems from Act 6 Lily after doing her quest and slot em into open gem slots if you have some spare ones, so they gain xp for later.


About Incinerate playstyle, the more cast speed you have the earlier you get to peak dps, once you reach max stacks you can release the solid chunk of burst damage, but since we are partially scaling only channel damage portion the final wave isn't as strong as it could potentially be on a incinerate build.

just a reminder, if you miss any of the gems listed here, you can always buy em from respective town's gem vendor or later in Act 6.





If you have questions, by all means ask, I'll try to answer the best I can.

Nice build, bro.

Doing something similar, Incinerate rocks.

A good recommendation for early levels, to get used to channeling mechanics and getting some levels in Infused Channeling Support is Lightning Tendrils, so when I got Incinerate the transition was much more comfortable, range of lvl 1 Incinerate is bigger in stage 1 than Tendrils overall range... And from there Incinerate only gets better.

GLHF.

"

BMatrim wrote:

Nice build, bro.

Doing something similar, Incinerate rocks.

A good recommendation for early levels, to get used to channeling mechanics and getting some levels in Infused Channeling Support is Lightning Tendrils, so when I got Incinerate the transition was much more comfortable, range of lvl 1 Incinerate is bigger in stage 1 than Tendrils overall range... And from there Incinerate only gets better.

GLHF.

Yeah I was honestly surprised of it as well when I got my hands onto it, the build idea started out with CWC Flame Surge setup, but it just felt out of place when I tested it with lvl 18 CWC. I personally wouldn't bother channeling on Act 1, Bomb+Traps carry super hard to begin with. As channeled skills will be fundamentally tad slower than insta cast & kill skills. The advantage should be on the sustained dps.

I'm doing something similar to this, I think =P

I'm combining Mathil's 3.5 Incinerate CWC (insert any other skill here) and Tarke's current Soulrend EB+MOM build.

First time going EB+MOM and I'm wondering about the Ascendancies.

After merging/adjusting the tree, https://pastebin.com/Ar0yCUhQ
(ps: ignoring the items for now)

With regards to ascendancies, other than the more or less required Ghost Dance and Escape Artist, I took Swift Killer and Harness the Void. SK seems like a no brainer, but I'm wondering if HtV could (or should) be swapped for Weave the Arcane or Patient Reaper?

I understand Incinerate doesn't count as DoT, so PR seems to be only for the utility 2%-4% recovery, and the boosted heal rate should mobs die via ignite.

As for WtA, based on tooltip, it adds a ton of damage, which I am assuming comes from the 20% cast speed. However, it seems unreliable due to the short duration in which the buff is active.

So...any suggestions? =)

"

vain_c wrote:

I'm doing something similar to this, I think =P

I'm combining Mathil's 3.5 Incinerate CWC (insert any other skill here) and Tarke's current Soulrend EB+MOM build.

First time going EB+MOM and I'm wondering about the Ascendancies.

After merging/adjusting the tree, https://pastebin.com/Ar0yCUhQ
(ps: ignoring the items for now)

With regards to ascendancies, other than the more or less required Ghost Dance and Escape Artist, I took Swift Killer and Harness the Void. SK seems like a no brainer, but I'm wondering if HtV could (or should) be swapped for Weave the Arcane or Patient Reaper?

I understand Incinerate doesn't count as DoT, so PR seems to be only for the utility 2%-4% recovery, and the boosted heal rate should mobs die via ignite.

As for WtA, based on tooltip, it adds a ton of damage, which I am assuming comes from the 20% cast speed. However, it seems unreliable due to the short duration in which the buff is active.

So...any suggestions? =)

If you are not using Elemental Focus or equivalent things, you apply ignites reliably enough to benefit from Patient Reaper's 70% inc recovery rate. The dot doesn't need to kill, just kill a target that has your dot on it. Especially if you are using ES as main hp pool, I could see PR rising in priority over Weave.

HtV gets stronger the more you convert, on a mono dmg dmg conversion route aka base fire -> pure fure, HtV gets very little benefits to warrant a pick up. I find Weave's free movement skills, about same dps increase via cast speed and the 6% dmg mitigation(something that channel skills need IMO) way more worth it than on average 12.5% more dmg of mono convers HtV.

Recently refers to 4s, as you probably knew. At least I can't list that many boss fights where I have been sitting in place for more than 4s at a time. Even for sake of Shield Charge into Fortify + Inci wave dps.

The cast speed offers more than just raw dmg, it is a defencive stat as well. the faster you can cast, the less you self stun yourself with cast animations etc.



So my opinion in short:
- Weave is the best single ascendancy point for any mana using Trickster, the thing left to check is that would you get more stats from 2nd 2 pointer, instead of 2pointer+2x1pointers
- I could consider PR for extra clear sustain
- HtV just isn't sufficient without conversion shenaginance. And personally I haven't had a single moment of where I'd had found myself wishing that I had more dps.

Hope this sheds light to your question.

"

Kroohpyyh wrote:

If you are not using Elemental Focus or equivalent things, you apply ignites reliably enough to benefit from Patient Reaper's 70% inc recovery rate. The dot doesn't need to kill, just kill a target that has your dot on it. Especially if you are using ES as main hp pool, I could see PR rising in priority over Weave.

HtV gets stronger the more you convert, on a mono dmg dmg conversion route aka base fire -> pure fure, HtV gets very little benefits to warrant a pick up. I find Weave's free movement skills, about same dps increase via cast speed and the 6% dmg mitigation(something that channel skills need IMO) way more worth it than on average 12.5% more dmg of mono convers HtV.

Recently refers to 4s, as you probably knew. At least I can't list that many boss fights where I have been sitting in place for more than 4s at a time. Even for sake of Shield Charge into Fortify + Inci wave dps.

The cast speed offers more than just raw dmg, it is a defencive stat as well. the faster you can cast, the less you self stun yourself with cast animations etc.



So my opinion in short:
- Weave is the best single ascendancy point for any mana using Trickster, the thing left to check is that would you get more stats from 2nd 2 pointer, instead of 2pointer+2x1pointers
- I could consider PR for extra clear sustain
- HtV just isn't sufficient without conversion shenaginance. And personally I haven't had a single moment of where I'd had found myself wishing that I had more dps.

Hope this sheds light to your question.

Thanks for the feedback!

I guess you're right about Weave, since taking out Faster Casting, the speed difference is noticeable. Will play around without PR and see how much effectiveness I lose from the boosted ES recovery rate since I'm probably going to only take 0.3% ES leech from the tree. Couldn't fit in the ES Leech support currently, and PoB is not exactly showing the correct configs for "when leeching".

It does show the proper config, when you have the support on. Energy Leech support is amazing for dmg purposes alone already 39% more multi + added utility of leech, what more can you wish for from a single support gem?

Also free movement skills can sometimes be a real life saver.

My build went with more hybrid approacah and getting Doryani's Catalyst was a major upgrade in overall recovery. ES was recovering alright, but for life I heavily relied on chugging flasks.

Currently my links are

Incinerate
CWC (will remove this once I get a CWC staff, replace with Conc Effect)
Detonate/Volatile Dead
Infused Channeling
Combustion
*Energy Leech (playing around with Immolate, but will eventually swap for Empower Lv4 if I manage to corrupt)

No slots left unfortunately. Unless I rotate Energy Leech with Conc Effect for mapping?

I'd run
1. Incinerate
2. CWC(until you get the staff)/Empower/Immolate
3. Deto/Vola dead
4. Infused Channeling
5. Combustion/FirePen
6. ES leech


ES Leech support is respectable dmg support on it's own as well, just use blood rage etc. to never be full ES so you get the bigger dmg buff.This should enable you to drop your single 0.3% es leech point for something more useful, like a jewel.

While conc is more dmg, I find the added survivability more useful than shaving 3s from a boss kill.

Well, since I'm now running EB, I believe whenever I'm casting, the "not on full ES" part of the Energy Leech jewel is activated?