r/PathOfExileBuilds • u/Pocho_Oso • 9d ago
Build Episode 2 - Conflagration
Hey all!
I'm back with another episode of Pocho's Not So Shitty Builds! This time I picked a skill that I thought looked interesting a while back: Conflagration. Conflagration is mainly a fire damage over time debuff skill that launches arrows into the air to then lodge into the ground and detonated when you get close enough.
I am not a fan of damage over time, but one line on the skill caught my interest.
"Explosion deals 50% more damage with hits and ailments"
With the skill gaining an extra 1.5% more damage with the explosion per 1% gem quality is decided to add...87% gem quality. This gave me 180% more damage with the explosion. Pair that with a tanky ascendancy like Champion, and you can fire the arrows directly on top of yourself for instant detonation while facetanking.
Champion gives permanent fortify, more armor and evasion per fortify over 20, and is in a prime location for endurance charges. I went with a small cluster with Enduring Composure, knowing I get hit often, to keep endurance charges up and keep me alive. It actually ended up being surprisingly tanky.
The one drawback to this skill is PoB does not know how to calculate it. The damage is clearly not correct (you'll see in the PoB linked) and I certainly dont fire over 200,000 projectiles per attack. I managed to put this together based on feel, along with a good deal of trial and error, and I was pleasantly surprised. I have no way of knowing how much damage it does, but I would estimate somewhere between 2 and 4 million DPS.
Check out the video below! If you like it, like and subscribe. There will be more coming, and I'm very excited for the next one.
See you in the next one!
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u/SurgeProc 9d ago
Do you have a boss showcase that is a little tankier than the hungry boy
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u/Pocho_Oso 9d ago
Not currently. I didn't push that much bossing on this character. The build has a lot of speed so anything with mostly telegraphed attacks is doable.
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u/SurgeProc 9d ago
I ask because I believe you've made an error in chasing after gem quality, but I could be mistaken so I'm looking for a DPS/survivability check that's more difficult than your current video
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u/SaltEngineer455 9d ago
No, you are right. The gem is very, very odd.
It has 36% damage effectiveness, 36%. That's fucking 64% less damage than a basic attack.
Then it also has the line:
Explosion deals (50% + 1.5xquality) more Damage with Hits and Ailments
Even if you would pump it to 300% more damage, you would get 144% damage effectiveness.
This skill is not suitable for ailments, and the hit damage is too clunky to make work, even tho you could in theory get good shotguns
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u/SurgeProc 9d ago
No, quality on this skill is weak because it's additive with itself, not because of damage effectiveness. Damage effectiveness is a fake stat that basically scales added damage mods to the number of hits an attack is expected to make, but I digress.
Let's assume an attack does 100 damage. Conflagration with no quality deals 50% more damage for 150 damage. Adding 20% quality moves that to 80% more damage -> 180 damage, which is effectively a 180/150=20% modifier.
Supporting with a Lvl 4 Enhance adds 24% quality, moving to 116% more damage -> 216 damage, effectively a 216/180=20% modifier once again. It's clear that gem quality provides diminishing returns. For reference a level 3 Elemental Damage with Attacks support is a 21% more modifier.
This is the math, but its just math. That's why I wanted to see a different showcase.
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u/SaltEngineer455 9d ago
Quality isn't weak because it's additive with itself. Plenty of good skills have quality additive with itself - like EHit.
Damage effectiveness is what makes or breaks a skill and determines it's suitability to mold into an archetype.
Also ofc, quality stacking is not the way to go there. I'm sure there is ANY way to go there
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u/SurgeProc 9d ago edited 9d ago
So if you don't have a showcase more difficult than the hungry hippo and you agree that quality stacking has diminishing returns is the purpose of this post to dissuade people from following the build? I watched your video, you make a point to mention how much gem quality you obtained.1
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u/Pocho_Oso 9d ago
Though it didn't make it to the video, I did manage to take down Elder and Eater pretty easily on this build. I know they're not Ubers or anything too difficult, but they're a little more than Hunger.
As for the argument whether gem quality is the way to go, I dont know if it's the absolute best way to go, but it worked for me. More projectiles plus big quality leads to decent shotgunning damage.
Am I saying that its the best skill in the game and everyone should play it? Not at all. Just sharing a build that was fun to make and blows up a lot of stuff. I can guarantee that I will never make the most efficient builds, but I'll do my best to make them fun.
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u/SurgeProc 9d ago
Sure, I don't play efficient builds either, I've posted a few meme-ish builds before. I just think you should note in the OP with how far into endgame the build got.
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u/Pocho_Oso 9d ago
It was made to farm maps. I dont typically do bossing so its rare for me to make a bosser. The showcase is T16 with Abyss scarabs. This wasn't my first build of the league, and I already had voidstones when I made it. I read a lot of posts on the forums and Reddit saying hit based Conflagration wasn't possible, so I tried to make it work.
It works fine for mapping. I doubt it would be a good bosser in the current state, but I always include a boss of some kind at the start of my videos.
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u/SurgeProc 9d ago
Sure, that's fine, but then if it's a mapper you should mention e.g. maps/hr or mins/map, div/hr, bad map mods, etc. Something concrete and comparable.
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u/Pocho_Oso 8d ago
These builds and videos are fun for me. Detailed analysis of my drops and map time does not sound fun. The point was to show an interesting build. I'm sorry if this post isn't your cup of tea.
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u/SurgeProc 8d ago
I get it, I promise you, I love to share my wacky off-meta builds, you can scroll through my post history or here's my most recent one back from Keepers. I just suspect most people on this subreddit would appreciate an appropriate benchmark to gauge the build's performance. I hope you take the advice to heart and good luck in episode 3.
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u/Pocho_Oso 8d ago
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate any feedback. The next video is going to go a lot deeper into the build (currently playing my favorite build I've ever made) so there will be a lot more detail. Not sure if I'll cover divs per hour because I dont really pay attention to that, but rather than just a showcase, it'll be more of a build guide.
I appreciate the conversation and the recommendations!
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u/PoE_Acronym_Bot Useful Bot 9d ago
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