[3.6] Pure Incinerate Trickster - 25M Shaper DPS - Videos Up - Uber Elder Down (Deathless)

While Synthesis personally left a lot to be desired, creating this Incinerate build and subsequently a build guide by popular demand was certainly the highlight of the league for me. It's an area of PoE that I had yet to explore, and I've learned a lot about pushing a character beyond initial expectations as well as how to reliably and effectively communicate those discoveries to a curious audience.

The build itself accomplished everything I wanted it to and more. We completed a Deathless Uber Elder run on the first try, we instakilled damn near every boss the game could throw at us, we completed 36/40 challenges this league and have the Synthesis Wings to show for it. We even completed an Uber Atziri run that this build really has no business attempting. In all facets of measurement, this is one of the best builds I've ever played.

The build guide was more popular than I expected it to be as well. Many curious players found their way into the thread, perhaps wowed by that initial sticker DPS, only to find that what they were reading was real, and it was certifiably achievable. Many experienced players also found their way into the thread, offering advice to other players as well as suggestions to the original guide itself. Many of these suggestions stuck and changed the build for the better.

I want to thank each and every one of you who who posted a comment, a question, a suggestion, sent me a private message here on the website, or whispered me in-game. It really made the league for me.

As far as what to expect for this build guide in 3.7 and beyond, I must solemnly say that it will likely not receive significant updates with each patch and/or league. Instead it will remain mostly as is, serving as sort of a guideline for those in the future who happen to stumble upon it in some form or another. While I may comment from time to time, I think that my work here has been seen through to the end, and I am truly satisfied. It's been fun guys. 'Til next time.

Incinerate builds up stages as you channel it, dealing more damage per cast based on the stage you're on. Once the channel is released, Incinerate sends out one final wave in the direction of your cursor dealing massive damage.

With this information in mind, cast speed tends to be the most useful stat in this sort of build, where the quicker we can ramp up, the faster we can reach our maximum DPS. As far as quality of life is concerned, cast speed also makes the skill feel far less clunky to play.

Pros
+ Absolutely massive DPS
+ Easy charge generation
+ Satisfying clear
+ No mana sustain to worry about
+ Both budget and tankier versions are easy to transition into
+ Flexible gearing

Cons
- Channeling skills are an acquired taste, not all will enjoy the playstyle
- Can feel squishy against certain map mods
- Relatively expensive to gear if you want the same DPS as me
- Can feel sluggish without investment into cast speed

Forge of the Phoenix

Lair of the Hydra

Shaper

Deathless Uber Elder

The new Ghost Dance and Escape Artist ascendancy nodes make it easier to justify going hybrid this time around, specifically hybrid with Eldritch Battery and Mind Over Matter. With ES spell leech readily available in the tree, we can comfortably sustain ourselves with a combination of life leech, es leech, and life/es on kill thanks to Patient Reaper.

Pure life and pure ES versions of the build either lack enough effective HP to feel good, or are too difficult to gear. Quality of life issues like mana sustain are also a factor as to why we choose hybrid above all else.

PoePlanner link for those who don't have access to Path of Building. I strongly recommend you find a way to get it on your device though.

We stay entirely on the top half of the tree, pathing as efficiently as possible to all the juiciest damage nodes while maintaining a comfortable amount of life. There are potentially a few variations, but this is what I've landed on to be the best version.

Honorable Mentions:
Scion Life Wheel - Would be nice, as always, but ultimately I think it's a tad too far to justify.

Melding - Usually a no brainer in a hybrid build, but you have to consider that we're required to travel to Eldritch Battery no matter what, so it just makes more sense to me to use that top line of pathing instead.

Lucidity/Nimbleness/Blast Radius/Amplify/Any other damage cluster - Can't take them all, unfortunately. We have to be sort of picky when it comes to which damage clusters we take, so if something is a point or 2 more efficient than something else, that's probably the reason it was or wasn't selected for the final version.

I'm currently level 94. At this point I would consider the tree finished, but in the event that you surpass this level, I'd recommend picking up any remaining life nodes you may have missed.

1: Swift Killer - Power and Frenzy Charge generation, lots of damage. Great for leveling early on.
2: Ghost Dance - Nothing too exciting, but all the stats are good for us.
3: Escape Artist - Let's us be hybrid. Also gives soft stun immunity. The cast speed per Ghost Shroud is also very good.
4: *Patient Reaper - Not really needed until we get to maps where the sustain on kill is more noticeable.

*If you have a Cinderswallow flask you could skip Patient Reaper and take Harness the Void instead for even more DPS, but the on-kill sustain and the increased recovery rate of life and es is extremely noticeable. When you're at ~25 million DPS, does a few more million really matter?

Flasks are very flexible for us, it all really depends on how hard you want to flex your DPS. Wise Oak is a good DPS boost as long as your fire resistance is higher than the other 2. Atziri's Promise is mostly just damage, but the Chaos Resistance is very noticeable. Bottled Faith is a massive damage buff, not to mention it's an on demand Arcane Surge because of our Watcher's Eye. Consecrated Ground cominbed with our recovery rate boost is also great sustain. A diamond flask is a big damage increase and allows us to get freeze/chill immunity. You're also going to need bleed and curse immunity on 2 other flasks, preferably a life flask and a quicksilver. Cinderswallow can be swapped out for the quicksilver, and the life flask can be swapped out for a Bottled Faith if you can afford it and want the most DPS possible. Mashing all these flasks at once give us about half our damage total, which is just insane.

Balance out the immunities you need with what you can realistically afford, and go from there. Tailor the affixes to what activity you're doing as well. You don't need curse immunity during the Uber Elder fight, for example.

The only 6 link you need is the staff.

Incinerate - Empower - Infused Channeling - Controlled Destruction - Elemental Focus - Concentrated Effect

Storm Brand - Combustion - Curse on Hit - Flammability

Vaal RF - Increased Duration - Cast When Damage Taken - Immortal Call

Lightning Warp - Faster Casting - Less Duration - Swift Affliction (For mapping.)

Flame Dash - Faster Casting (For bossing.)

Zealotry

*Anger/Herald of Ash

*Something I've failed to consider is if Anger is worth running or not in our current setup. After a bit of testing, I've come to the conclusion that, with a level 26 Incinerate like we have, Herald of Ash is actually more damage than Anger. With 25% of our mana now open, we could run an Aspect of the Spider for even more damage. A bit more expensive, but more efficient nonetheless.

This does not hold true if you're only working with a level 20 Incinerate. Anger is more damage than Herald of Ash comparatively, but if you combine Herald of Ash and Aspect of the Spider, even with a level 20 Incinerate you're looking at more damage. If you're on a budget then this information doesn't pertain to you - I would recommend to continue using Zealotry and Anger.

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These are the recommended gem setups. This leaves you with quite a few open sockets - feel free to experiment with additional gem setups that you think might benefit you, or use them to level excess gems.

I just recently started testing a different mapping setup to make it more enjoyable, and I've discovered Cast While Channeling - Volatile Dead. Now, normally our staff would need 5b/1r socket, so this is where the Vorici Bench comes into play. If you can grab at least 1 white socket on your staff, you'll be able to swap in Volatile Dead for mapping. The mapping setup looks something like this:

Incinerate - Empower - Cast While Channeling - Controlled Destruction - Increased Area of Effect - Volatile Dead

Volatile Dead goes into the white socket of course.

With this adaptation you can expect your clear speed to double. Volatile Dead helps immensely by finishing off stragglers that you would otherwise miss. It also gets rid of corpses, and helps you have better screen wide clear without having to walk up to each individual pack and clear it all one at a time.

I absolutely cannot recommend this mapping setup enough. It's a game changer.

For strict bossing I would stick to the pure Incinerate setup. Unearth totems can be used to help generate corpses during boss fights if you would like to keep using the Cast While Channeling playstyle, but it's annoying keeping the totems alive for the most part.

I've gotten a few questions asking how people can more comfortably start with less gear and work their way towards what I have, so I've created a separate Path of Building link to show just how little investment it takes to get great damage with this skill.

Here's a link to that: https://pastebin.com/9WYdFq23

As you can see, there's virtually zero damage on any of our gear except an extremely basic wand that you could find for less than a chaos. The most expensive piece would probably be the Tabula, which at this point in the league should be affordable for most players. The skill and the passive tree really carry us in terms of damage in these early stages. As an overview, look for basic rares that give you life and fill out your resistances until you're capped at 75% across the board.

Going to try my best to address a brief list of frequently asked questions.

Thanks for reading through everything. I'm really proud of how this build turned out.

If you have any suggestions in reference to the build or the build guide itself, feel free to comment. If you have any questions regarding anything you've read here today, I'll be answering everything in the comments below. Try to be specific with what you're asking, it really helps when formulating an answer.