



TL;DR:

- Using molten shell as main spell

- Using scold's bridle as activator

- Losing 3k+ HP per cast

- 40k++ damage per cast of molten shell (with leech and AOE gem)

- massive life regen

- normal leech

- insta leech (without vaal pact)

- 50k armour (without flasks)

- 10 endurance charges





I wanted to make a molten shell build since open beta, now my time has come.

I combined the build of Bliqz (



Basically its using Scold's Bridle to cast Molten Shell (MS). Just need to increase the mana of casting MS as high as possible, so the physical damage mitigation of the char will make MS explode in one cast. On level 20, this MS needs 1500 damage to explode. Therefore we need to damage our self with like 2000 damage, and have a shitload of physical damage mitigation. Scold's Bridle will quadruple the mana. So when casting MS costs 300 mana (life), it will damage us for 300*4 = 1200 damage, plus the 300 life used to cast itself (blood magic).



So far so good. But I wanted to push this as far as possible. With a +1+2 staff and level 3 empower, MS is level 27. It needs 3000 damage to explode. MS takes currently 1000 mana, which damages me for like 4k physical (before mitigation), and also removes 2500 HP just because of blood magic. I loose like 3-4k health just casting MS. It really is stupid.



Note that this post is not a real build, its more to store my thoughts. The text may be written confusingly and in no logical order.





STFU, show me the gear



Spoiler





Skill tree?



Spoiler https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAEBAAGRA3UEBwSzBg4Gxgj0CfYLYQxfFCAWbxkuGjgaPhpsHKcfAiSqJy8n7SkuLdIyNDWSNsU26TpYOtg64TwFPC09Xz38RZ1Ms03jUEdSU1NSU6VVxlZIVw1YY1h3XaRfBF8_aGVo8moeakNtGXasfLh99YIHgpuDX4PMg9uFModljM-QVZErkc6WbJeVl_SaO5rgna6f36IAplenCK2Nr2yvt7c-u-3AAcBUwGbE9sauxtjLHs9-0B_SIdI41HzVptgk2L3ZYdl82t3d1eNq5CLr7uw47TzvDu987-vwH_Gs8i_yQfJF843zm_SD9kj-Cv6P?accountName=siliconlife&characterName=IzanaShinatose





Screenshots?



Here:





Vids?



All with 9 endurance charges (no death's door)

















With death's door:









Ascendancy: Juggernaut



Juggernaut has two/three interesting ascendancy points:



Unflinching:

- +1 to Maximum Endurance Charges

- 20% chance to gain an Endurance Charge when you are Hit



Unrelenting:

- 6% increased Damage per Endurance Charge

- 8% reduced Elemental Damage taken while at Maximum Endurance Charges

- 25% chance that if you would gain Endurance Charges, you instead gain up to your maximum number of Endurance Charges



Unbreakable:

- Cannot be Stunned

- Armour received from Body Armour is doubled



All of them benefit the build.





Endurance Charges



I like endurance charges. I mean generally, not just for this build. With Unflinching, it is possible to passively generate endurace charges when casting Moltenshell (through Unflinching, and even more with Unrelenting).

What happens is this: Attacking with Moltenshell will generate endurance charges (through Unflinching, with Eye of innocence and scolds). The damage of Scolds will be mostly mitigated by armour, and therefore be used to cast Moltenshell.



I also decided to go the Nenivrak way, and used (initially) a +2 fire gem and blood magic staff (2ex, easy) and the Brass Dome Gladiator plate (like 1 ex). With Juggernaut ascendancy, the 4000 armour are doubled to 8000, and i dont need to worry about crits. yay! With the +2 staff, i got MS up to level 24, which is still somewhat reasonable.





Physical damage mitigation



Most of the physical damage mitigation is coming from the armour. Most of the armour is coming from the chest. Chest gives like 8000 armour. I dont have any substantial sources of armour on other gear items. Gloves could have like 400, boots 300. This is not even 10% of the chest, so not really worth aiming for. Its better to cap resists with the non-unique gear.

Additionally i have 9 endurance charges and a chaos golem, which give 9*5=45% damage reduction. And then fortify, for additional 25%.

Afaik armour comes first, so damage -> armour reduction -> 45+25=70% additional reduction.





Gear sinergy



At the end, we have some nice sinergy:



Scolds:

- The enabler (what else)



Kaoms's way:

- More Endurance charges:

- More life regen

- Longer IC duration

- Better physical mitigation for scold's to cast MS



Brass dome:

- Much more armour

- No critical damage taken



Death's door

- 1 more endurance charge

- good amount of armour

- and also: immunity to bleeding (thank god!)



staff:

- more MS levels







Gems for MS



The gems i've choosen for MS:

- Fire pen (ofc)

- Empower (ofc)

- controlled destruction

- Increased are of effect / elemental prolif

- Life leech





Without elemental proliferation, the build feels clunky. Some mobs just dont get hit, even when they should. And i got so much burn, it feels nearly mandatory. It's just completely useless on bosses, and i dont like switching gems. But its a less modifier. I'm usually mapping with just AOE instead of proliferation.







Other Gems?



- Arctic armour + Determination for auras

- Leap slam + fortify + faster attacks + blood magic

- enduring cry + blood magic

- cwdt + flammability + inc aoe

- cwdt + some cool stuff







Survive casting



Ok its like this. With a +2 to fire gems staff and lvl2 empower (lvl24 MS), this build is already pretty stupid. Self-damage is annoying, but not 100% deadly. With a +1+2 staff and lvl3 empower (lvl27 MS), this gets really stupid. I loose 3-5k life per cast of MS. How is this reasonable? (it aint, but at least its working).



To recover life, i use leech and life regen. Life regen is like 15-20% of 6k HP, lets say 1200HP/s. With leech gem, it's an additional 20% of damage leeched, so an additional 1200HP/s. So its like 2400 HP/s. Pretty ok for normal mobs in a map with some traveling in between. Note that we need to hit multiple mobs, because each mob gives only 2% life leech, up to the max of 20% (10 hits to max). Note that leech gem quality and warped timepice amulet, we can get (80% increased) nearly 4% life per mob (5 hits to max). Damage per cast is like 50'000, so 4% is 2000HP. Not bad, but also not so good.



How much HP am i loosing? 1000 mana per cast multiplied by 2.5 (BM) equals 2500, and the part which got not mitigated by armour: 1000 (1000*4 = 4000, MS lvl 27 need 3000). So, 3500 hp per cast, or around 5000 per second.



"But dude", i hear you asking, "how can you survive bosses, with 5000k hp loss per second, just doing DPS?". "AHA!", i say, "HAHAAAA" (mischievous laughter). How about 20k HP instant recovery, per second? Lets just use a Zerphi's flask:

- 50% increased Charges used

- Skills used during Flask effect grant 800% of Mana Cost as Life

Or, more like 2-3 of them, just to be sure (if bosses take longer than 10s to kill). 1000 mana per cast (without BM, i dont know what counts), multiplied by 8, multiplied by 2 casts per second equals a shitload of health.

To use Zerphi's flask, we cannot be on full mana (its a mana flask after all). So I take MOM. With MOM, i'm basically always low/empty mana (because of scold's i self-damage myself, which gets partially mitigated by MOM), so Zerphi's works very reliable.



A note on leech gem alternatives: Could use 0.2% of fire damage leeched as life on staff and amu (corruption) and belt, but this is laughable. Sadly PoE leech is very bad for big hits, because we'll have only 2% of our maximum life leeched per hit, until the max of 10 stacks (20%), which will take like 5 seconds. Also leeching stops when on full life, which is also stupid. It is possible to go to vaal pact, takes just like 15 points currently. But then we lose all the nice regen we get for free from the tree and the endurance charges. Also, when casting the first MS, we lose like 2000HP which would not regenerate, and we'll therefore stand there with our dick in our hands. Additionally, vaal pact it stupid and everyone is using it, therefore not hipster enough. Also, did i say i like life regen? Like 20%, which is like 1200hp/s? On top of the leech ofc. Did I mention that vaal pact is stupid? Free full instant leech. When taking ES, ES is not regenerating, but recharging works fine. Nah that's not broken at all. Nah i'm not salty, just bored as fuck of my whispering ice guardian.





Jewels



I currenlty need 2 fevered mind jewels: http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Fevered_Mind

- (20-30)% increased Spell Damage

- 100% increased Mana Cost of Skills



How many you need is based on your armour/physicalmitigation, and the mana cost / current gems. I needed 3 fevered mind before i switched gems up.





Conclusion



At the end, all this works together pretty nicely. It works for mapping. Not for leveling though.



Pros:

- Hipster build

- Good physical damage mitigation

- Interesting mechanics to tinker with

- One-shot damage



Cons:

- Mobility (leap slam is slow as fuck)

- Elemental damage hurts (fortify, 8% reduced elemn. damage taken when on full endurance charges, and no crit damage)

- Hard to cap resistances because of all the uniques

- No XP gain because of "unexpected" deaths





FAQ



Q: "Dude, why are you not taking vaal pact" ?

A: Sure, i can take vaal pact. While we are at it, I could also go ES. And BV. And pathfinder. Or in other words: Please take your vaal pact and stand back while real man do the work here.



Q: "This build is stupid".

A: I know!



Q: "Why is this build stupid?"

A: Because I took the thing which is doing the most damage to myself (gem level of molten shell), and then doubled it, just to gain more DPS.





Reasons i die



- Loosing the endurance charges (or not having them, like at beginning of map), only cast molten shell every 2nd cast, killing myself on MS cast

- Being shocked, therefore loosing a shitload of life on every MS cast, killing myself on MS cast

- Being on low-life, killing myself on MS cast

- Trying to facetank bosses with bad map mods

- Reflect





Note on gear



Amulet:

I dont know if Eye of Innocence is really worth it. I think it only does more hits to myself, therefore more endurance charges. The rest of the stats seem wasted.

http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Eye_of_Innocence

- +(16-24) to Strength and Dexterity

- 10% chance to Ignite

- (50-70)% increased Damage while Ignited

- Take 100 Fire Damage when you Ignite an Enemy

- 2% of Fire Damage Leeched as Life while Ignited



ATM i use Warped timepiece. Mostly for the dex and leech, but cast- and movement speed are also awesome.

http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Warped_Timepiece

- +(16-24) to Dexterity and Intelligence

- (8-12)% increased Attack Speed

- (8-12)% increased Cast Speed

- 12% increased Movement Speed

- (12-8)% reduced Skill Effect Duration

- 30% increased Life Leeched per second

- 30% increased Mana Leeched per second





Boots: (when take rare amu with resists and hp)



Death's Door

One more endurance charges. And armour. And resists. And no bleeding, yay! I'm seriously considereding this one.

http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Death%27s_Door

- +(20-40) to Strength

- 200% increased Armour and Energy Shield

- +(10-15)% to all Elemental Resistances

- 25% increased Movement Speed

- +1 to Maximum Endurance Charges

- 50% increased Elemental Status Ailment Duration on You

- Cannot be inflicted with Bleeding





Gloves:

Battering Ram

http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Veruso%27s_Battering_Rams

- 8-13)% increased Attack Speed

- (120-180)% increased Armour

- (3-5)% increased Movement Speed

- 50% increased Stun Duration on you

- 4% increased Melee Damage per Endurance Charge

- You cannot be Shocked while at maximum Endurance Charges



This build is stupid. It's based on a stupid build (TM). And I made it even more stupid.TL;DR:- Using molten shell as main spell- Using scold's bridle as activator- Losing 3k+ HP per cast- 40k++ damage per cast of molten shell (with leech and AOE gem)- massive life regen- normal leech- insta leech (without vaal pact)- 50k armour (without flasks)- 10 endurance chargesI wanted to make a molten shell build since open beta, now my time has come.I combined the build of Bliqz ( https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1767085 ), with the one from Nenivrak (same thread, https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1767085/page/2#p13875255 ), and "2.4 Windz's Perma IC RF Jugger" https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1752047 Basically its using Scold's Bridle to cast Molten Shell (MS). Just need to increase the mana of casting MS as high as possible, so the physical damage mitigation of the char will make MS explode in one cast. On level 20, this MS needs 1500 damage to explode. Therefore we need to damage our self with like 2000 damage, and have a shitload of physical damage mitigation. Scold's Bridle will quadruple the mana. So when casting MS costs 300 mana (life), it will damage us for 300*4 = 1200 damage, plus the 300 life used to cast itself (blood magic).So far so good. But I wanted to push this as far as possible. With a +1+2 staff and level 3 empower, MS is level 27. It needs 3000 damage to explode. MS takes currently 1000 mana, which damages me for like 4k physical (before mitigation), and also removes 2500 HP just because of blood magic. I loose like 3-4k health just casting MS. It really is stupid.Note that this post is not a real build, its more to store my thoughts. The text may be written confusingly and in no logical order.Here: http://imgur.com/a/lZp4m All with 9 endurance charges (no death's door) https://youtu.be/1oJj-TEaKK4 Gorge lvl13 https://youtu.be/5NKK6LuXT_A Waterways lvl13 (with exalt drop from boss <3) https://youtu.be/wjaZ6TDkdiU Shipyard map lvl12 https://youtu.be/FDJ9eItphYs Precinct lvl11 https://youtu.be/zxulKHmWc_0 Bazaar lvl11 https://youtu.be/CCp3PcDpFvk Underground sea lvl11With death's door: https://youtu.be/Rk6J_vIQACM high gardens lvl13 (bad mods: enfeeble, less life recovery, fire res, double unique boss facetanking) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0t4NfEQ0lY beacon lvl13, enfeeble + inc. boss damage, still facetanking himJuggernaut has two/three interesting ascendancy points:Unflinching:- +1 to Maximum Endurance Charges- 20% chance to gain an Endurance Charge when you are HitUnrelenting:- 6% increased Damage per Endurance Charge- 8% reduced Elemental Damage taken while at Maximum Endurance Charges- 25% chance that if you would gain Endurance Charges, you instead gain up to your maximum number of Endurance ChargesUnbreakable:- Cannot be Stunned- Armour received from Body Armour is doubledAll of them benefit the build.I like endurance charges. I mean generally, not just for this build. With Unflinching, it is possible to passively generate endurace charges when casting Moltenshell (through Unflinching, and even more with Unrelenting).What happens is this: Attacking with Moltenshell will generate endurance charges (through Unflinching, with Eye of innocence and scolds). The damage of Scolds will be mostly mitigated by armour, and therefore be used to cast Moltenshell.I also decided to go the Nenivrak way, and used (initially) a +2 fire gem and blood magic staff (2ex, easy) and the Brass Dome Gladiator plate (like 1 ex). With Juggernaut ascendancy, the 4000 armour are doubled to 8000, and i dont need to worry about crits. yay! With the +2 staff, i got MS up to level 24, which is still somewhat reasonable.Most of the physical damage mitigation is coming from the armour. Most of the armour is coming from the chest. Chest gives like 8000 armour. I dont have any substantial sources of armour on other gear items. Gloves could have like 400, boots 300. This is not even 10% of the chest, so not really worth aiming for. Its better to cap resists with the non-unique gear.Additionally i have 9 endurance charges and a chaos golem, which give 9*5=45% damage reduction. And then fortify, for additional 25%.Afaik armour comes first, so damage -> armour reduction -> 45+25=70% additional reduction.At the end, we have some nice sinergy:Scolds:- The enabler (what else)Kaoms's way:- More Endurance charges:- More life regen- Longer IC duration- Better physical mitigation for scold's to cast MSBrass dome:- Much more armour- No critical damage takenDeath's door- 1 more endurance charge- good amount of armour- and also: immunity to bleeding (thank god!)staff:- more MS levelsThe gems i've choosen for MS:- Fire pen (ofc)- Empower (ofc)- controlled destruction- Increased are of effect / elemental prolif- Life leechWithout elemental proliferation, the build feels clunky. Some mobs just dont get hit, even when they should. And i got so much burn, it feels nearly mandatory. It's just completely useless on bosses, and i dont like switching gems. But its a less modifier. I'm usually mapping with just AOE instead of proliferation.- Arctic armour + Determination for auras- Leap slam + fortify + faster attacks + blood magic- enduring cry + blood magic- cwdt + flammability + inc aoe- cwdt + some cool stuffOk its like this. With a +2 to fire gems staff and lvl2 empower (lvl24 MS), this build is already pretty stupid. Self-damage is annoying, but not 100% deadly. With a +1+2 staff and lvl3 empower (lvl27 MS), this gets really stupid. I loose 3-5k life per cast of MS. How is this reasonable? (it aint, but at least its working).To recover life, i use leech and life regen. Life regen is like 15-20% of 6k HP, lets say 1200HP/s. With leech gem, it's an additional 20% of damage leeched, so an additional 1200HP/s. So its like 2400 HP/s. Pretty ok for normal mobs in a map with some traveling in between. Note that we need to hit multiple mobs, because each mob gives only 2% life leech, up to the max of 20% (10 hits to max). Note that leech gem quality and warped timepice amulet, we can get (80% increased) nearly 4% life per mob (5 hits to max). Damage per cast is like 50'000, so 4% is 2000HP. Not bad, but also not so good.How much HP am i loosing? 1000 mana per cast multiplied by 2.5 (BM) equals 2500, and the part which got not mitigated by armour: 1000 (1000*4 = 4000, MS lvl 27 need 3000). So, 3500 hp per cast, or around 5000 per second."But dude", i hear you asking, "how can you survive bosses, with 5000k hp loss per second, just doing DPS?". "AHA!", i say, "HAHAAAA" (mischievous laughter). How about 20k HP instant recovery, per second? Lets just use a Zerphi's flask:- 50% increased Charges used- Skills used during Flask effect grant 800% of Mana Cost as LifeOr, more like 2-3 of them, just to be sure (if bosses take longer than 10s to kill). 1000 mana per cast (without BM, i dont know what counts), multiplied by 8, multiplied by 2 casts per second equals a shitload of health.To use Zerphi's flask, we cannot be on full mana (its a mana flask after all). So I take MOM. With MOM, i'm basically always low/empty mana (because of scold's i self-damage myself, which gets partially mitigated by MOM), so Zerphi's works very reliable.A note on leech gem alternatives: Could use 0.2% of fire damage leeched as life on staff and amu (corruption) and belt, but this is laughable. Sadly PoE leech is very bad for big hits, because we'll have only 2% of our maximum life leeched per hit, until the max of 10 stacks (20%), which will take like 5 seconds. Also leeching stops when on full life, which is also stupid. It is possible to go to vaal pact, takes just like 15 points currently. But then we lose all the nice regen we get for free from the tree and the endurance charges. Also, when casting the first MS, we lose like 2000HP which would not regenerate, and we'll therefore stand there with our dick in our hands. Additionally, vaal pact it stupid and everyone is using it, therefore not hipster enough. Also, did i say i like life regen? Like 20%, which is like 1200hp/s? On top of the leech ofc. Did I mention that vaal pact is stupid? Free full instant leech. When taking ES, ES is not regenerating, but recharging works fine. Nah that's not broken at all. Nah i'm not salty, just bored as fuck of my whispering ice guardian.I currenlty need 2 fevered mind jewels: http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Fevered_Mind- (20-30)% increased Spell Damage- 100% increased Mana Cost of SkillsHow many you need is based on your armour/physicalmitigation, and the mana cost / current gems. I needed 3 fevered mind before i switched gems up.At the end, all this works together pretty nicely. It works for mapping. Not for leveling though.Pros:- Hipster build- Good physical damage mitigation- Interesting mechanics to tinker with- One-shot damageCons:- Mobility (leap slam is slow as fuck)- Elemental damage hurts (fortify, 8% reduced elemn. damage taken when on full endurance charges, and no crit damage)- Hard to cap resistances because of all the uniques- No XP gain because of "unexpected" deathsQ: "Dude, why are you not taking vaal pact" ?A: Sure, i can take vaal pact. While we are at it, I could also go ES. And BV. And pathfinder. Or in other words: Please take your vaal pact and stand back while real man do the work here.Q: "This build is stupid".A: I know!Q: "Why is this build stupid?"A: Because I took the thing which is doing the most damage to myself (gem level of molten shell), and then doubled it, just to gain more DPS.- Loosing the endurance charges (or not having them, like at beginning of map), only cast molten shell every 2nd cast, killing myself on MS cast- Being shocked, therefore loosing a shitload of life on every MS cast, killing myself on MS cast- Being on low-life, killing myself on MS cast- Trying to facetank bosses with bad map mods- ReflectAmulet:I dont know if Eye of Innocence is really worth it. I think it only does more hits to myself, therefore more endurance charges. The rest of the stats seem wasted.http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Eye_of_Innocence- +(16-24) to Strength and Dexterity- 10% chance to Ignite- (50-70)% increased Damage while Ignited- Take 100 Fire Damage when you Ignite an Enemy- 2% of Fire Damage Leeched as Life while IgnitedATM i use Warped timepiece. Mostly for the dex and leech, but cast- and movement speed are also awesome.http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Warped_Timepiece- +(16-24) to Dexterity and Intelligence- (8-12)% increased Attack Speed- (8-12)% increased Cast Speed- 12% increased Movement Speed- (12-8)% reduced Skill Effect Duration- 30% increased Life Leeched per second- 30% increased Mana Leeched per secondBoots: (when take rare amu with resists and hp)Death's DoorOne more endurance charges. And armour. And resists. And no bleeding, yay! I'm seriously considereding this one.http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Death%27s_Door- +(20-40) to Strength- 200% increased Armour and Energy Shield- +(10-15)% to all Elemental Resistances- 25% increased Movement Speed- +1 to Maximum Endurance Charges- 50% increased Elemental Status Ailment Duration on You- Cannot be inflicted with BleedingGloves:Battering Ramhttp://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Veruso%27s_Battering_Rams- 8-13)% increased Attack Speed- (120-180)% increased Armour- (3-5)% increased Movement Speed- 50% increased Stun Duration on you- 4% increased Melee Damage per Endurance Charge- You cannot be Shocked while at maximum Endurance Charges Last edited by siliconlife on Nov 30, 2016, 7:48:19 AM Last bumped on Nov 30, 2016, 2:27:13 AM