







Theory

Spoiler

Molten Shell has one of the highest base damages and fastest cast speeds in the game. So if we can find a way to reliably set it off, then we've already got a pretty solid build.



Self Detonating

We use Scold's Bridle to deal physical damage to ourselves, and we use a combination of armour/arctic armour/chaos golem/fortify/soul of steel to mitigate enough damage to set off Molten Shell.

In order to deal enough damage to ourselves, we use a lvl 1 blood magic gem and a fevered mind jewel to boost the amount of "mana" we use.

The amount of armour needed varies greatly with what lvl gem you are using and you can use different lvl blood magic gems, or add extra fevered mind jewels or a pair of voidbringer gloves to adjust the mana used. I suggest using an armour calc site to figure out roughly how much mana you should use and how much armour you will need before each time you lvl your Molten Shell gem. I used this one:



Required Items

Scold's Bridle: Needed for self damage

Fevered Mind Jewel: Needed for increasing mana cost



Build Defining, but not Required Items

Eye of Innocence: Lots of damage and leech, and 10% ignite chance (leech is very noticeable on high fire res bosses)

2x Mokou's Embrace: Gives insane attack and cast speed when paired with Eye of Innocence and up to 20% ignite chance

I think these items are pretty much BIS



Optional Items

Doryani's Catalyst: My choice of the 3. Leech and high Ele Damage which double dips. Also has good attack speed for movement skill and cast speed

Divinarius: Good damage and AoE increase, but poor attack speed and no cast speed

Razor of the Seventh Sun: I found the life recovery kinda low and damage only affects burning

Doryani's Invitation: Solid budget choice until you get a good vanguard belt



Ascendancies

Elementalist:

I chose Elementalist for the free prolif, some damage and chance to ignite, and the most importantly: 50% reflect reduction.



Berserker:

This is another option since there's free leech if you deal yourself a big enough hit and a 40% more damage modifier. I didn't go this route since you would essentially be swapping life leech for ele prolif, which has a less damage modifier. Also, you'll be taking extra damage each time you cast, which reduces your effective life. Lastly, there's no way to deal with reflect 1 shotting you.



Any other ascendancy requires too many gem slots, unless you get rid of 1 of these 3: elemental prolif/controlled destruction/increased aoe. There's just not enough benefits from other ascendancies to justify losing 1 of those gems.

Molten Shell has one of the highest base damages and fastest cast speeds in the game. So if we can find a way to reliably set it off, then we've already got a pretty solid build.We use Scold's Bridle to deal physical damage to ourselves, and we use a combination of armour/arctic armour/chaos golem/fortify/soul of steel to mitigate enough damage to set off Molten Shell.In order to deal enough damage to ourselves, we use a lvl 1 blood magic gem and a fevered mind jewel to boost the amount of "mana" we use.The amount of armour needed varies greatly with what lvl gem you are using and you can use different lvl blood magic gems, or add extra fevered mind jewels or a pair of voidbringer gloves to adjust the mana used. I suggest using an armour calc site to figure out roughly how much mana you should use and how much armour you will need before each time you lvl your Molten Shell gem. I used this one: armour calculator Scold's Bridle: Needed for self damageFevered Mind Jewel: Needed for increasing mana costEye of Innocence: Lots of damage and leech, and 10% ignite chance (leech is very noticeable on high fire res bosses)2x Mokou's Embrace: Gives insane attack and cast speed when paired with Eye of Innocence and up to 20% ignite chanceI think these items are pretty much BISDoryani's Catalyst: My choice of the 3. Leech and high Ele Damage which double dips. Also has good attack speed for movement skill and cast speedDivinarius: Good damage and AoE increase, but poor attack speed and no cast speedRazor of the Seventh Sun: I found the life recovery kinda low and damage only affects burningDoryani's Invitation: Solid budget choice until you get a good vanguard beltElementalist:I chose Elementalist for the free prolif, some damage and chance to ignite, and the most importantly: 50% reflect reduction.Berserker:This is another option since there's free leech if you deal yourself a big enough hit and a 40% more damage modifier. I didn't go this route since you would essentially be swapping life leech for ele prolif, which has a less damage modifier. Also, you'll be taking extra damage each time you cast, which reduces your effective life. Lastly, there's no way to deal with reflect 1 shotting you.Any other ascendancy requires too many gem slots, unless you get rid of 1 of these 3: elemental prolif/controlled destruction/increased aoe. There's just not enough benefits from other ascendancies to justify losing 1 of those gems.



Stats

Spoiler

Unbuffed Damage





Buffed Damage while ignited, Elemental Overload, and Conc Effect subbed for Inc AoE





Unbuffed Defense





Defense with Granite Flask



Unbuffed DamageBuffed Damage while ignited, Elemental Overload, and Conc Effect subbed for Inc AoEUnbuffed DefenseDefense with Granite Flask



Skill Tree

Spoiler

Level 90



Bandits:

Oak

Point

Point

Bandits:OakPointPoint



Leveling

Spoiler

Level with flameblast until you can use Scold's, that's pretty much it. Take health when you need it, take damage when you need it. Make sure you have enough armour before you level up your Molten Shell gem. It would be a great idea to keep a 2nd gem at 1 lvl below your primary in case you overlevel it and can't detonate it anymore. Again, here's the

Level with flameblast until you can use Scold's, that's pretty much it. Take health when you need it, take damage when you need it. Make sure you have enough armour before you level up your Molten Shell gem. It would be a great idea to keep a 2nd gem at 1 lvl below your primary in case you overlevel it and can't detonate it anymore. Again, here's the armour calculator



Current Gear

Spoiler







Gems

Spoiler

6L (5L is doable if you get rid of CD, but you'll likely need either another fevered mind or voidbringers)

Molten Shell --> Blood Magic, Life Leech, Increased AoE, Fire Pen, Controlled Dest



4L (ONLY USE IF YOU ARE IGNITED, OTHERWISE NO LEECH)

Vaal RF --> Fire Pen, Controlled Dest, Conc Effect



4L

CWDT --> Blade Vortex, Increased Crit, Tempest Shield/Warlord's Mark



3L

Shield Charge --> Faster Attacks, Fortify



3L

Chaos Golem, Flame Golem, Minion Life



Others

Determination, Arctic Armor, Warlord's Mark(if tempest shield in CWDT setup), Conc Effect (for swap)





Pros

Spoiler

1. Can do majority of map mods. See Cons for ones you can't.

2. Very high damage. consistent 174k dps (58k per hit at 3 casts per sec), not including shock and ignite damage. Ignite adds another ~100k. Can also use Vaal Righteous Fire for initial burst and ignite.

3. Good physical damage mitigation.





Cons

Spoiler

1. This build is not HC viable. Low effective health since you'll lose ~600-900 (depends on gear and flasks) health from casting and damage every time you use Molten Shell.

2. My number 1 cause of death: Volatiles. This build will oneshot most rares, and even if you don't hit the volatile rare, if it steps into the prolif range, it'll die in less than 1s, making it very difficult to avoid.

3. Map mods you can't do: Blood magic and no leech.

4. Map mods that are difficult/annoying:

Vulnerability: Can be done as long as you cast shield charge before each detonation. Or you have to have granite and basalt flasks active.

Shocked Ground: Pretty much same effect as vulnerability, except only in localized spots.

High fire res: You might not be able to kill the boss and some essence monsters due to not being able to 1-2 shotting them and not having enough leech to sustain casting.





Videos

Spoiler

I don't use Vaal RF or swap to Conc Effect in any of these so you can see actual damage on bosses and because I'm lazy.

Gorge Map

Atoll Map

I don't use Vaal RF or swap to Conc Effect in any of these so you can see actual damage on bosses and because I'm lazy. This is probably my most successful self theorycrafted build and also my first character to lvl 90 (I get bored of builds easily). To mark the occasion, I figured I'd make a build guide. This build was inspired by Vaal Molten Shell builds. After the damage and duration nerf, I figured I'd try it with regular Molten Shell. Last edited by Bliqz on Nov 19, 2016, 10:02:12 AM Last bumped on Nov 29, 2016, 12:14:32 PM Posted by

Bliqz

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Congrats on making it work. I tried this build a few leagues ago and due to a bug it didn't work. I reported it and apparently it was stealth fixed at some point.

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1574190 Posted by

happymeal79

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I prefer the Juggernaut version, but thanks for the guide! Cool build! IGN: Scordalia_ Posted by

Caliginosus

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So, I'm theorycrafting a same kind of build for the next league. It's not going to be the exact same.



First of all, i'm ASHAMED that none have thought about using elemental equilibrium. Come on ! A simple setup on the helm CWDT lvl1 - Ice Nova - Curse on Hit - Flamability would proc BEFORE the chest and set a -94% elemental resistance (and free curse !).



I intend to play with a weapon swap. Brighbeak + shield with a CWDT lvl 1 setup, and leap slam setup + fortify, in order to moove fast. The other weapon will be a +1+2 fire staff, using this setup : MS - Fire Pen - Controlled Destruction - Empower - Elemental prolif - Increase AOE.



Why elemen prolif, and not using the elementalist ? Because the true difficulty of this game are the bosses. Ignite won't work well on them, as they reduce curse effectiveness. I'll swap Elem Prolif and increase AOE for Concentrated Effect and Elem Focus. And BTW Witch radius for prolif is 9, elem prolif radius is 12.



And elem prolif will help me reducing my damages in order not to get OS by reflect. This plus a fire resist potion will do the trick.



As I'm using only ONE unique (Scold's), i'll be able to stack 6K+ HP. I'll reach even more armor without a shield by using endurance charges. If I ain't got enough armour, I could always swap a ring for a Kaom's ring.



With the Zerker ascendancies, i'll reach 62% increase attack speed simply by using a Doerdre potion while needed (-50 Chaos resistance = 15% life taken on use) and will get a 100% life leech when needed.



The Zerker will also provide the very-effective-in-this-build mana leech in order to be able to sustain the high mana cost spell, even in hexproff maps. But I'm also thinking about crafting on the +1+2 staff Vagan's "supported by level 1 blood magic". It will increase the mana cost and grant me a 7 link.



Tree : https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAECAMbYWGM9_IzP9khfPxQg7w4aPny4KS7xrFcN85toZZZskc7SIfJBggfZfNlhrY3PfhkuJ-0GDtR8CfbE9sauPC2DX4PMtz7-Cti9C2Hv69Af8kU64aZXaPLwH6IABLPAZjwF73yf35o7gpvtPNWm7DiFe2ZUOtgnL5BVGjgBkS3Su-3kIhpsNukkqhZv42qdrgN1kStYd18EpwjYJFZIr2xVxoPbPV9SU5eVTLMEBx8CNsVN4_6PNZLr7prgRZ1TUhzcjxq4kyj6mK3qECGQX9D4X5hXFukkN78IbRlqQ8BUCPSX9J7NpzAB5xv6Jd-2LKQZFE38S7yfGJE= Last edited by Kikoyou on Nov 14, 2016, 5:59:10 AM Posted by

Kikoyou

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" The Zerker will also provide the very-effective-in-this-build mana leech in order to be able to sustain the high mana cost spell, even in hexproff maps.



You won't be able to cast with mana, trust me. The 1%/3% mana leech isn't the only problem, especially since it'll be 1% when against bosses, you'll need a shit ton of mana. If you're using a +3 staff and empower, you're looking at mitigating 2457 damage to trigger. So that's taking probably a 3200-4000 damage hit (and that's conservative). You need a minimum 800 mana cast to do that. Assuming you have enough unreserved mana, it still takes a pretty long time for leech to give you back that amount of mana, so you'd only be casting maybe once per second (leech rate is 20% of max per second, you'd need 4000 max mana).



Even with blood magic, you're effectively losing ~1600 health per cast, which is not very safe. If you're ever under 1600, you die.



I chose not to use empower and I'm currently only sitting on a lvl 19 gem because I had to wait at lvl 18 for a while before I had the gear to mitigate enough damage for lvl 19. And I don't think I'll be able to get good enough gear to mitigate enough for lvl 20. Even if I did, I'd probably have to socket another fevered mind jewel and take more damage, which isn't really worth it. You won't be able to cast with mana, trust me. The 1%/3% mana leech isn't the only problem, especially since it'll be 1% when against bosses, you'll need a shit ton of mana. If you're using a +3 staff and empower, you're looking at mitigating 2457 damage to trigger. So that's taking probably a 3200-4000 damage hit (and that's conservative). You need a minimum 800 mana cast to do that. Assuming you have enough unreserved mana, it still takes a pretty long time for leech to give you back that amount of mana, so you'd only be casting maybe once per second (leech rate is 20% of max per second, you'd need 4000 max mana).Even with blood magic, you're effectively losing ~1600 health per cast, which is not very safe. If you're ever under 1600, you die.I chose not to use empower and I'm currently only sitting on a lvl 19 gem because I had to wait at lvl 18 for a while before I had the gear to mitigate enough damage for lvl 19. And I don't think I'll be able to get good enough gear to mitigate enough for lvl 20. Even if I did, I'd probably have to socket another fevered mind jewel and take more damage, which isn't really worth it. Last edited by Bliqz on Nov 14, 2016, 7:42:29 AM Posted by

Bliqz

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Yep, that's why I was thinking about the craft "supported by level 1 Blood Magic."



The mana leech was more about the leap slam mana regen.



I intend to reach 90% phys reduction with endurance charges (6-7) Posted by

Kikoyou

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" Bliqz

I chose not to use empower and I'm currently only sitting on a lvl 19 gem because I had to wait at lvl 18 for a while before I had the gear to mitigate enough damage for lvl 19. And I don't think I'll be able to get good enough gear to mitigate enough for lvl 20. Even if I did, I'd probably have to socket another fevered mind jewel and take more damage, which isn't really worth it. I chose not to use empower and I'm currently only sitting on a lvl 19 gem because I had to wait at lvl 18 for a while before I had the gear to mitigate enough damage for lvl 19. And I don't think I'll be able to get good enough gear to mitigate enough for lvl 20. Even if I did, I'd probably have to socket another fevered mind jewel and take more damage, which isn't really worth it.



Have you at all tried messing around with reduced mana nodes? Or does that really defeat the purpose because then you can't appropriately trigger your molten shell? Have you at all tried messing around with reduced mana nodes? Or does that really defeat the purpose because then you can't appropriately trigger your molten shell? Last edited by Jozen on Nov 14, 2016, 9:32:04 AM Posted by

Jozen

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" Jozen " Bliqz

I chose not to use empower and I'm currently only sitting on a lvl 19 gem because I had to wait at lvl 18 for a while before I had the gear to mitigate enough damage for lvl 19. And I don't think I'll be able to get good enough gear to mitigate enough for lvl 20. Even if I did, I'd probably have to socket another fevered mind jewel and take more damage, which isn't really worth it. I chose not to use empower and I'm currently only sitting on a lvl 19 gem because I had to wait at lvl 18 for a while before I had the gear to mitigate enough damage for lvl 19. And I don't think I'll be able to get good enough gear to mitigate enough for lvl 20. Even if I did, I'd probably have to socket another fevered mind jewel and take more damage, which isn't really worth it.



Have you at all tried messing around with reduced mana nodes? Or does that really defeat the purpose because then you can't appropriately trigger your molten shell? Have you at all tried messing around with reduced mana nodes? Or does that really defeat the purpose because then you can't appropriately trigger your molten shell?



That's not the point. A level 20 Molten Shell requires more damage to be proc. Reduced mana will only reduce the damage dealt to you. And a higher level MS requires INCREASING mana cost. That's not the point. A level 20 Molten Shell requires more damage to be proc. Reduced mana will only reduce the damage dealt to you. And a higher level MS requires INCREASING mana cost. Posted by

Kikoyou

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For proccing MS, is it base damage or final damage after mitigation that matters? If it's base damage, then why not get the extra endurance charge? Posted by

Jozen

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