[3.13] Blackfire Penance Brand Elementalist

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Core Build Mechanic

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The build utilizes the new unique Blackflame ring which causes all ignited enemies to take all damage over time from ignite as chaos damage instead of fire damage. In essence, this means that the ignites you inflict are still scaled with most of the usual modifiers, but it is resisted by the enemy’s chaos resistance rather than their fire resistance.


Things that scale your ignite damage:

Fire Damage Over Time Multiplier
Damage Over Time / Damage Over Time Multiplier
Generic Damage
Burning Damage
-% Chaos Resistance on the enemy


Things that do not scale your ignite damage:

Chaos Damage Over Time Multiplier
Increased Chaos Damage
Exposures (such as the one from Wave of Conviction)

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Gear

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Helmet

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Diadem provides excellent utility in the form of "free" mana costs and reduced mana reservation. Another option would be to fix mana issues and play with a 'nearby enemies have -% to chaos resistance' Hunter mod helm. Significantly more damage but greatly less QoL, personally don't think it to be worth it.

Amulet

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In an amulet, you're looking for Dexterity, % as Extra, Life and Resistances.

Budget option would be to run Primordial Chain. It would also function with a tankier, golem-focused version of this build.

ANOINT either 'Burning Brutality' or 'Corruption' - latter is better for bossing, but doesn't function for mapping.

Body Armour

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Rare Shaper/Redeemer Astral Plate is best.

Frenzy on Hit, Phys taken as Cold and +# to Level of Active Skill Gems.

Weapon

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Disintegrator will beat out everything but a +5 god-tier staff, with the drawback of having to build specifically around it.

Rings

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Shaped Call of the Brotherhood is best for raw damage if you are willing to sacrifice curse on hit and use Witchfire Brew as a substitute for your curse. For QoL, a hunter/shaper Vermillion ring with Despair on Hit.

Gloves

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Rare Shaper/Warlord Gloves with the following:

- Life
- Resistances
- Increased Damage Over Time (elevated)
- Fire Damage over Time Multiplier (elevated)
- Dexterity

Belt

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Rare Elder Stygian Vise with the following:

- Life
- % Life (Elder Mod)
- Triple Resistances

For the jewel, fix resistances, add life, perhaps onslaught on kill - customize it to your needs.

Boots

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Boots are the most flexible slot on this build. Tailwind and Elusive feel great for mapping even with low crit, Onslaught is a cherry on top. +30% MS is a must.

I have chosen not to run mine as neither Elder or Shaper, but as said previously, this slot is highly customizable. For highest damage (and degen from the staff) you could run it as such.

Flasks

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Triple damage flask only for bossing, for mapping you can run Rumi's or any defensive flask of your choosing, drop Witchfire Brew for it.

Jewels

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For all of your non-cluster Jewels, you are looking for:

- Increased Damage Over Time
- Fire Damage Over Time Multiplier
- % Maximum Life
- Anything you can get on top (corrupted blood <3)


2x Large Cluster Jewels with the following:

- 8 passive points
- Burning Bright
- Prismatic Heart
- Widespread Destruction (important to not waste points, there are no
substitutes for this!!!)


3x Medium Cluster Jewels with the following:

- 4 passive points
- Circling Oblivion
- Burning Bright

An optimization I made in the edit (post-playing the build) was switching from Blowback (15% faster ignite) to Circling Oblivion (16m damage per point according to PoB). 3.2s ignites turn to nearly 7s ignites.

I played the build with the Blowback variant and it was completely fine, likely going to feel much better for bossing with Circling Oblivion, so it is a change I recommend.

There are certainly other options if you want to gain utility/defensive benefits instead of the raw damage from Burning Bright:

- Brush with Death (Recover 1% Life on Kill)
- Smoking Remains (10% chance to create Smoke Cloud on kill)


1x Medium Cluster Jewel with the following:

- Holy Conquest
- Brand Loyalty

Absolutely mandatory for clear. When doing The Feared, I would recommend running another cluster instead, as when there are multiple high-health bosses present, Holy Conquest delays your ignite explosion.


1x Watcher's Eye with the following:

- #% to Damage Over Time Multiplier while affected by Malevolence

Phys Converted to Cold while Affected by Hatred can be a good option, as otherwise you'll be forced to run the conversion on your gloves (Syndicate benchcraft), but it is not mandatory.

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Concluding Thoughts

For a first build, I don't think it is too bad. With some tweaks and perhaps going the Golems route (Primordial Jewels and Amulet) you could squeeze some extra defensive benefits into the build - feel free to test it and see how it feels in comparison to this. Getting rid of Disintegrator is difficult, but a +5 staff will outperform it both in terms of raw damage and QoL (degen is annoying).

Blackfire turned out to be fairly decent after all.