[3.5] Fireball Ignite Trickster - League starter - Shaper Down

Pros:
League starter
No required uniques
Fast clear
Only leap slam for movement
200% life from tree, MoM, Phase acrobatics

Cons:
Doesn’t scale very well with heavy investment
Mediocre single target

Path of Building (level 40, 70 and 93): https://pastebin.com/31cMKWR5
PoE Planner (level 93): www.poeurl.com/cd3J
Ascendancy: Patient reaper > Prolonged pain > Weave the arcane > Swift killer
Bandits: Kill all (+2 skill points)
Pantheon: Brine King, Ryslatha

Doryani’s Catalyst is a fairly cheap stat stick for our build. We want to put this in our main-hand for faster leap slams. If you opt for a rare sceptre instead, keep in mind that spell damage does not scale ignite, and that you cannot use a dagger with leap slam.

Balefire gives us a hefty level 25 4-link Scorching Ray. Don’t ignore the life/mana on kill stat, as this build lacks sustain.

Tabula rasa is the most obvious choice. You can easily pick up a corrupted +2 projectile/AoE tabula, which will give a huge damage boost.

Rolling Flames x2 are cheap and help with clear. You can probably find ones with corrupted implicits for a reasonable penny, or do it yourself. For tough bosses (Shaper etc) you could switch these out for % life, % burning damage rare jewels.

Skin of The Loyal is an alternative to the Tabula Rasa. If you run an Empowered support you can pick up a +2 Projectile/AoE SoTL with about the same effect as a +4 Tabula, but less than half the price (I paid 1 ex for mine when +4 Tabula was 5+ ex). Just make sure the sockets are correct. I suggest 2B 2R 2G. I wouldn't suggest using a rare, or any other unique body armour unless you can at least get +1 socketed gems on it.

Atziri’s Step is a good, cheap choice if your resists are very overcapped. It gives a lot of evasion and spell dodge, which we can’t say no to. As for enchant, most enchants are good, but make sure you don't have added fire damage if you have killed recently, as it will ruin Elemental Equilibrium.

Ngamahu Tiki gives a lot of fire damage, but lacks in HP and resistances compared to rare amulets.

Singularity could be a decent, much cheaper option to Doryani’s Catalyst. However, it does require you to engage in close combat to get the DPS boost. It’s probably better to just get a cheap rare in that case.

In general: HP, mana, resistances (including chaos), fire damage, elemental damage, strength, dexterity, cast speed. You want around 130 strength/dexterity to use level 20 support gems. I'd recommend you have around 40% of your life as mana in order to sustain MoM properly.

Helmet
Since Fireball is rather off-meta you can find % Fireball damage and Fireball cast speed enchants pretty cheap. Fireball damage gives more pure DPS, but cast speed is good QoL for mapping. If you have money you can buy/craft one with -9% fire res of nearby enemies, since this build often fights tougher enemies in close combat.

Amulet
If Syndicate goes core you can find talismans with projectiles pierce 2 additional targets, which is good QoL in general, or just one with % fire damage.

Rings
You can buy opal rings and/or look for % fire damage if you want a DPS boost.

Gloves
Shaped or elder gloves can give you global projectile damage, cast speed, and so forth.

Boots
You can get a pair of elder boots with a chance to get an endurance charge on kill.

Belt
You can pick up expensive fossil belts with a lot of fire/elemental damage, or belts to boost your flask usage. Our options for Abyss Jewels are mediocre, so don't stress getting a Stygian Vise too much.

In general: Make sure you have immunity to bleed, freeze and curse. Increased duration or reduced charges used is preferred.

A Diamond Flask helps us keeping up Elemental Overload.
A Sulphur Flask gives us DPS and consecrated ground to stand on for extra healing when channeling Scorching ray.
A Quicksilver Flask with movement speed is an obvious choice.
As for our fourth flask, either a Dying Sun, Witchfire Brew (this might not be a good idea, since it'll conflict with Flammability unless you have +1 curse), Silver Flask or something for survivability (Basalt, Granite, Jade, Quartz).
As for the life flask I suggest a Sapping Eternal Life Flask (40%+ healing, 10% of healing taken from mana) to get the most health out of it. The mana drain doesn’t affect us very much.

Chest: Fireball, Ignite proliferation, Burning damage, Deadly ailments, Combustion, Swift affliction/Greater multiple projectiles.

Note: If you have +1 socketed gems on chest you can pick up a level 3 (or 4) Empower and swap out Combustion. Buying level 21 Fireball is highly recommended. Shouldn’t cost more than 15-20c. If you get a Dying Sun or when fighting tough bosses you switch GMP for Swift affliction.

Helmet: Orb of storms, Curse on hit, Flammability, Arcane surge.

Note: Make sure you don’t overlevel your Arcane surge. I stopped at level 5. It’s very important you do not have any added fire damage on your gear, or else OoS will proc fire Elemental Equilibrium.

Boots/gloves: Leap slam, Faster attacks, 20% quality Culling strike, Fortify.

Note: Culling strike with quality gives additional attack speed to our Leap slam. Fortify only procs if you hit something with the Leap slam, so consider the risk/reward.

Balefire (Scorching Ray): Burning damage, Elemental focus, Efficacy.

Note: If you don't have a Balefire I suggest you socket Scorching Ray into a 4-link and drop Culling Strike for Leap Slam and put it in the weapon slot.

Boots/gloves: Minion life, Minion and Totem resistance, Stone golem, Decoy Totem.

Note: The golem will still die a lot, so make sure you resummon often.

Main-hand (two options):
1. Portal, Vaal righteous fire, Increased duration

Note: Vaal RF gives extra spell damage when activated, which scales our Scorching ray. Be careful as it sacrifices a portion of your life at the start.

2. Immortal call, Cast on Damage Taken, Increased duration/Portal.

Note: Make sure you don't level up Immortal call and CwDT too much/little, or else they wont function properly.

Shoot fireballs and run/leap slam around. A single fireball/ignite is usually enough to kill most monsters, even rares. For tougher enemies you want to ignite them, put down Orb of storms, Decoy totem, and channel Scorching ray. Depending on where you place your mouse the additional fireballs (from GMP/Dying Sun) will spread differently.

Difficult mods:
- Reflect elemental damage is basically a no-go. Ignite does not reflect afaik, but it’s easy for the hit itself to crit and destroy you instantly.
- 90% less chance to inflict elemental ailments can be tough on certain bosses, but is okay for general mapping. The fireball hit and scorching ray is often enough for non-boss enemies.
- Temporal chains is just annoying, but can be mostly mitigated if you have curse immunity on flask. Red map bosses can destroy you, since you won't have 100% flask uptime during the fight.
- Any big collection of damage mods and curses can make it difficult to channel Scorching ray without dying, so know your limits.

Pick up Fireball and Scorching ray as soon as possible. I’d recommend leveling with a shield and Shield charge + Flame dash, which you can swap when you have two sceptres for Leap slam. I wouldn’t recommend taking MoM early on, unless you struggle with survivability and can handle your mana. Same goes for Phase Acrobatics as long as you’re using a shield.