[3.11] Kitava's Thirst Builds - Flame Surge/Blade Vortex - Sirus /T16 Farm

Shameless self-bump, new update, uber elder down.

Did you still use your regular leveling stuff or did you level with brands or anything new this league?

Arc first, then, at lvl 28 I switched for Arma brand + Flame Surge. Good speed with silver/quicksilver, not the best though, but it was my league starter and I wanted to test the brand. And it's really cheap.
I took Malachai's Artifice asap, it was fun to wreck bosses with Flame Surge.

Bump, I'm remaking many videos for 3.5, you can check them out in the guide.

I'll also make a proper deathless Uber Elder video, coming soon. :)

I'm quite intrigued by the BV version, also do you think ES is still viable for 3.5? Probably better off running it with the regular Flame Surge build no?

With good amounts de evasion ES should be fine, though I have a preference for the life version now that you can boost MoM with Watcher's Eye.
The BV build is unchanged and still stronger than Flame Surge for clear speed, maybe a little less dps because of the shaper mods nerf.

One (maybe) addition to this concept, Tempest shield now has only 0,25s cast time, making it 2x faster than others you used. It is however quite bad skill, but amybe on weapon swap for clear it can be fun. Nice build.

I've seen variations with Tempest Shield, and Orb of Storms.
You have your Tempest Shield on a 4L : Faster Casting, Arcane Surge, Inc Duration.
You get your Orb of Storms in a 6L and Lightning spells in your helmet. You can easily achieve 12 mana spendings/sec, and you don't have to use a staff, which is geat for mobility.

It is surprisingly good, even in single target. I've been planning to do one, eventually.

Edit : here's the PoB link of someone I found on poe.ninja if you're interested : https://pastebin.com/RHCuRbEy

ATM I have this gear on, + Kaom's Roots as boots.
I feel very squishy, at 3024 life , 500 ES, and 2k available mana with 40% MoM.

Does anything about my character stand out as particularly weak?

My resistances are all capped and my damage is pretty good but I my character pretty much explodes if a pack manages to get a hit on me.

Also, I have 5ex stashed atm, is Skyforths a good upgrade for me here? As I noticed you mentioned it was a good DPS upgrade, but we already have capped power charges anyway thanks to Swift Killer.

Thanks

This league is particularly tough with Syndicate bosses, you need a CWDT setup (Immortal Call + Warlord's Mark) to ensure survival.

As a league starter it was difficult entering maps while gearing. Basically you need to get as much life/mana on your gear (aim for 70 of each on rares), the new crafting system is awesome for that.
When searching gear, look for empty prefixes (for life/mana) or suffixes for resists so you can craft on it. You can easily upgrade your rares for less than 10c in total.

I hesitated a long time about Kaom's Roots, because it's a great item, but evasion is very strong with this build, having a Jade + Stibnite flask combo is very strong to reach 90. And it allows you to have movement speed on your boots.

Skyforth are useful for giving power charges against bosses (when Swift Killer only gives it on kill), and also gives you a stun immunity. And tons of mana. But they're not a priority. Focus on your rares for now.

You're doing fine, a difficulty spike is usual when entering maps. Good luck :)