Searing Bond Viable?

According to GGG, searing bond is "more than map viable"

http://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/1ip4iv/melbourne_meet_greet_a_prophecy_was_written/

I thought I'd show you my searing bond build and see if it could be changed or improved to achieve this.

Death by Lasers

I use searing touch with SB, increased burning damage, totem resistance (and will add reduced mana when I get a 4-link). This gives a large amount of increased burning damage:
- searing touch (70%)
- Pyromaniac passives (60%)
- increased burning damage gem (59%)
for a total of 189% increased burning damage

The vulnerability curse adds 40% increased damage from damage over time effects making the searing bond beam deal 229% increased burning damage.

SB is affected by enemy resistance so the rest of my build involves lowering enemy fire resistance as much as possible. I do this with elemental weakness (49%), flammability (49%) and by using an arc totem to trigger elemental equilibrium (50%) giving a total of -148% enemy fire resistance. SB does not 'hit' so it does not reset elemental equilibrium, meaning that any monsters hit by arc *should* get a permanent -50% fire resistance.

The arc totem also generates shock stacks very well, which, together with the Static Blows cluster and elemental proliferation, quickly spreads three shock stacks to every monster on the screen, causing monsters to take 120% increased damage from all sources (including burning!)

This should stack additively with the damage increases from burning increases and vulnerability giving 349% increased burning damage. Combing this with the ridiculously low enemy fire resistances should result in all white mobs melting instantly and bosses soon thereafter.

My character is level 44 currently and it has been my easiest play through so far and I had by far my easiest normal Piety kill yet. I don't even have the pyromaniac passives yet and have only two curses. Only a few passives are used for damage meaning the rest can be used for survivability, resulting in a super tank. Finally, with this build, you get to run around and destroy everything with lasers! How fun.

Does anyone have any other ideas on how to increase the damage and effectiveness of this build or searing totem in general?

EDIT:

The above is incorrect as shock/vulnerability should be considered separately to burning damage increase, the following should be correct:

- increased burning damage: 189%
- increased damage from all sources: 160% (vulnerability + 3 shocks)
- enemy fire resistance: -148%

Searing bond does fire dmg, not burning dmg. Unless of course I'm missing something.

Edit: misread. XD

looks interesting, keep posted with progress

GGG has a very strange definition of viable if they consider Searing Bond to be map viable as a main skill. Maybe they mean "to get to maps"? Even then it peters out in merciless act 3 like nearly all non-standard builds.

I wish the OP the best of luck, though he will find that the time it takes to tri-curse everything and position his totems correctly will be far more than the time it would take to just spamclick through with virtually any other build in the game.

The only way the damage starts to approach "strong" is if you use a Soul Mantle and stand in melee range with enemies, hitting them with ~6 beams at once. The only problem there is that you're virtually guaranteed to die. At least your tree will be 99% defensive outside of Pyromaniac (but whose isn't nowadays?).

I do suggest using a decoy totem or enduring cry+spell totem along with this build. Controlling enemy AI and keeping your totems alive/your damage consistent will help more than the big damage boost you get from shock stacks and equilibrium.

I find it patronizing to say that "players haven't figured out how to use SB" when the truth is that it just doesn't scale well and is far too slow paced to be interesting. It's a straightforward skill.

"

Timbob a écrit :

causing monsters to take 120% increased damage from all sources (including burning!)

This should stack additively with the damage increases from burning increases and vulnerability giving 369% increased burning damage.

not really, resists is an independent calculation.

PS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuQLAcOGUxU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy7zY3_DGg0

"

JahIthBerTirUmMalLumKoKoMal a écrit :

not really, resists is an independent calculation.

PS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuQLAcOGUxU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy7zY3_DGg0

So the increased damage from shock stacks will not be affected by the monster fire resists while the increased burning damage will?

"

Timbob a écrit :

"

JahIthBerTirUmMalLumKoKoMal a écrit :

not really, resists is an independent calculation.

PS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuQLAcOGUxU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy7zY3_DGg0

So the increased damage from shock stacks will not be affected by the monster fire resists while the increased burning damage will?

no, what I am saying is shock, vulnerability, negative / positive resists and increased damage, and increased burning damage are all independent and not additive. Well actually, shock and vulnerability DOT part are additive together

The Cursed enemies take x% more Physical damage and Cursed enemies take 40% increased damage from Damage Over Time effects mods are effectively multiplicative with your overall damage because they apply to the amount of damage an enemy takes, instead of how much damage a player does. This also means they will increased damage the monster takes from any source (such as party members), not just damage from the caster of the curse.
Cursed enemies take 40% increased damage from Damage Over Time effects should stack additively with other effects and curses that increase damage taken by enemies, such as shock, while Cursed enemies take x% more Physical damage should stack multiplicatively since it uses the word more.


(edit/ so thats 349% increased burning dmg taken and 120% increased damage taken from initial fire hit (not 369%, and also I thought you took -resistances into account as an additive increase - my bad, I misread)

i had this idea of having one searing bond totem, and the other totem being a lightning warp totem a while ago. it was pretty good in concept, it made the searing bond follow the foe via the lightning warping totem. but in practice the damage was just too low.

"

JahIthBerTirUmMalLumKoKoMal a écrit :

no, what I am saying is shock, vulnerability, negative / positive resists and increased damage, and increased burning damage are all independent and not additive. Well actually, shock and vulnerability DOT part are additive together

The Cursed enemies take x% more Physical damage and Cursed enemies take 40% increased damage from Damage Over Time effects mods are effectively multiplicative with your overall damage because they apply to the amount of damage an enemy takes, instead of how much damage a player does. This also means they will increased damage the monster takes from any source (such as party members), not just damage from the caster of the curse.
Cursed enemies take 40% increased damage from Damage Over Time effects should stack additively with other effects and curses that increase damage taken by enemies, such as shock, while Cursed enemies take x% more Physical damage should stack multiplicatively since it uses the word more.


(edit/ so thats 349% increased burning dmg taken and 120% increased damage taken from initial fire hit (not 369%, and also I thought you took -resistances into account as an additive increase - my bad, I misread)

Ah I see, I'll make the change in the OP

someone tested if the searing bonds from other party memebers connect ?

if so maybe thats the key

"

ventiman a écrit :

someone tested if the searing bonds from other party memebers connect ?

if so maybe thats the key

Even if that works, that's kinda hard to pull off. If only I could use like 6 of those, rather than 3 max. Even if both of you use 3 each, for 6 total, 6 Spark / Ice Spear / Incinirate Totems would be scarier.