Evolved Sunwreath Flame Reave Spellblade Build Guide

High burst damage with good AOE

Very high ward generation. 7k idle, 10k in some moments

Fun active playstyle, no brain-dead boring gameplay

Visually pleasing as you build your stacks and then explode to melt everything

Viable in high corruption without having all build set. (Check FAQ to see how far I made with it)

One skill is automatic, the other semi-auto. This makes it ideal for controller and 6 mouse button play

It's an expensive build and may not be a good cycle starter

Active gameplay leaves little room for errors; you must git gud. So maybe not too much beginner friendly

Not a good boss killer, the need for building 6 stacks before doing the actual damage makes dealing with bosses more challenging because the encounters takes longer than with other builds

Mana generation is mostly ok, but if you Flame Rush too many times and use Flame Reave in quick succession, you may deplete your mana pool, but you can regain it by "attacking air" with Unsealed Mana 5/6

Only gets skill full skill loop at lvl 50+

Can't go super ultra high corruption (1000+) since its melee

No crowd control

High Attack speed and Ability Cooldown are needed for you to feel the power of the Build

Summary

The core gameplay loop revolves about getting to six stacks, and then exploding for damage.

Six Firebrand, then one Flame Reave. Everything melts away. Repeat.

Trash mobs may die with fewer stacks, but stronger ones will need six.

Every hit gets you ward, so keep attacking.

Attack and defense are empowered by starting with Flame Rush to proc more ward, Fiery Overload 2/2 and Smolder and Burn 5/5. And with the occasional use of a potion to even more ward and attack speed due to Exsanguinous third affix and Chains of Uleros.

Key Passives

• Volka's Razor 10/10 and Blade Weaver 6/10 are the bread and butter of damage in this build. Blade Weaver must be taken as soon as available.
• Burden of Knowledge 5/5 is another essential node, because of Arcane Severance 4/4 spell to melee conversion. In my version of this build, we are not taking any other flat melee node like Infused Weapon or Fire Blood, and are taking only the needed points in Prismatic Blade 3/8. This is due Burden of Knowledge being much more efficient, and due to the need of defense for higher corruption content.
• All attack speed nodes are needed, so take Mage Flurry 5/5, Essence Duel 5/5 right after they're available.
• Gemini 1/1 is needed because of melee attack speed, fire penetration and more damage on your offhand, that can not be achieved by a shield, catalyst or two-hander.
• Mana sustain is done with Unsealed Mana 5/6, the build cannot mantain mana without it. The objective is the five point effect. We also get some sustain, so it's a woth point investment. Until you get the 5 points use Mana Strike, after that you can Firebrand comfortably.
• Since survival is key on harder content, we are taking basically every defensive node in the passive tree. A special note goes to Arcane Shielding 5/5. Take the 5 points as soon as able, since the dmg reduction is very strong. And as soon as able also take one point in Shattered Aegis 1/5. It may look like you are losing dmg reduction, but you will be attacking very fast with this build, so almost always you will have 4 stacks of arcane shielding, and by doing the math with 4 stacks you go from -10%dmg to -16%dmg. If you want to know why, here it goes. Shattered Aegis lowers Arcane Shielding effect by 60%, so if 100% is -10%dmg, then 40% is -4%dmg. So with each stack you get -4, therefore with 4 stacks you get -16. Later in the game, taking the remaining points of Shattered Aegis 5/5 is interesting because of the armor buff, but it's only good after you have better gear with higher armor.

Key Skill Points

• Flame Reave damage scaling happens based on cumulative "more multipliers". Arcane Severance 4/4 (which also gives spell damage conversion), Ember Infusion 4/4, Rhythm of Fire 1/1 and Scorching Tide 2/3 (since you always inflict ignites from Sunwreath with enough attack speed). And Flame Caller 1/1 it's just bonus damage from a second weaker hit, that costs almost nothing. Some words may be necessary as to why not take the Heat Wave 2/5 > Slash and Burn 2/3 > Scorching Tide 1/3 route: By going to Precise Destruction 2/3 route, we make hits always crit, while with 5 points investment we get 40% more damage. Going through Heat wave route, with the same 5 points we don't secure crits, and achieve the same 40% more damage, ignite chance from Slash and Burn 2/3 ends just being a waste of points.
• Incineration 1/1 is an important multiplier from Firebrand that will be applied to Flame Reave, this together with Blade Weaver 6/10, is the reason for the six attacks.
• Enchant Weapon is a huge source of damage increase, almost 200%. And with Kindling Blade 1/1 and the requisite 60% cooldown, you can get it to always be up without any action needed from you. This is the auto skill mentioned earlier.
• When it comes to traversal skills we have 3 possibilities, we could either go for Teleport, Surge or Flame Rush. All 3 have its strengths, but after some testing I found that Flame Rush was better. Not only it is the cooler one, that fits the build aesthetic but it also: has the lowest cooldown, the lowest cost, travels longer and faster, synergizes greatly with the need for attack speed for the build because of Fiery Overload 2/2, and last but not least can apply a good amount of Shred Fire Resistance with Smolder and Burn 5/5. As a bonus, you got -18%dmg that can be used together with Flame Ward Barrier 5/5 for -58%dmg. Surge did some extra damage and offered a full invulnerability window, but that one was too short and the damage too little. Teleport gave some good dmg buffs, but cost and cooldown were too high compared. But I guess in the end it's more of a personal thing.

Common mistakes

• Ignite is a mistake, this is not a DoT build. Ignite will not scale right on this build, so its damage is negligible. If you want to do a DoT build, you must invest full on it, there's no middle ground. So, for this build, forget it.
• Fire Aura is somewhat the same. You can build around it, but that's not the build for it, so leave it be.

Survivability

Ward Gain and Ward Retention are the foundation of defense in this build.

• Many passives and skill trees give ward generation on hit, they all add together, and with attack speed you got a respectable defense.
• Because of the latter point, survival comes from hitting things. You must hit things to stay alive, so don't panic and run around unless for dodging strong attacks and effects.
• Intelligence stacking is very good, since you get both damage and ward retention.
• In this version of the build, Flame Ward is set as pure defense skill. I did not take Through Flames, and focused on three aspects: first is Barrier 5/5 together with Dilation 3/3 for a huge less damage taken bonus. Second, to make this reduction and ward gain even more powerful I built together Dual Aegis 1/1 with PrefixFlame Ward Charge and Added Ward on armor for 3 charges of flame ward (the increase in cooldown from Fuel The Flames 2/3, is reduced by general cooldown reduction from several items). Third, since this is a low life build Desperate Defense 3/3 fits very well. And the same as Wootles Astonish 1/1 is a nice addition since it gives an auto use when you need most. Though I do not advise you to let flame ward to autocast only, use it often, every time you get 3 charges use one, if you feel like you're going to take lots of damage use it, too many mobs? Use it. This skill is your safety net, and this is the semi-auto skill I mentioned before.
• As stated before potions will play a dual role, because of Exsanguinous and Chains of Uleros you will get a haste/frenzy effect while also getting some chunk of ward in the process, use it a lot. But always save at least one for when everything goes wrong.

General strategies about survivability

• Resistance cap. Although different from other arpgs like PoE capping resistances is not so important in LE because of the way it is calculated, I will not go into detail, but if you end with 3% left to cap, maybe you can live with it. In my build, I had 74% in poison res, and it was not the end of the world. But as a general rule, try to reach res cap.
• Critical mitigation. In this build, I dealt with critical strikes with only one item. But it's things like that, that made the build so expensive. If you do not have the money (or patience to try to drop), try distributing either crit avoidance or reduced bonus dmg from crits mods between items, but I would suggest choosing one and focusing in trying to get 100% in it. In this case we made it with Citadel Boots with an almost perfect roll for crit reduct together with a SuffixReduced Bonus Damage Taken from Critical Strikes at least T6 for a 100% less bonus dmg, it is, normal dmg.
• Last but not least, try to do not take damage at all, how? Keep moving, try to telegraph strong moves before they happen, learn monster abilities and identify the dangerous ones.
• DoT can and will kill you fast. If you can, try to get PrefixWard and Ailment Cleansing on Potion Use on the belt. It helps a lot.

The Need For Cooldown Reduction

We need Ability Cooldown reduction for many reasons in this build. Keep 60% as a bare minimum to get the build going.

• Enchant Weapon is very, very powerful, and our goal is to automate it with Kindling Blade 1/1 reducing cooldown as close as we can to 9s, so it is always up. You can reach this cooldown at ~60% cooldown reduction. This requires focusing many affixes and implicits to get to it, but is totally doable. If you can get something around 9,5 the build is manageable, if you are not in late late late game don't fret with a 9,5. But remember during 0,5s your hits will be considerably weaker, try to be aware of enchant weapon activation.
• Lower cooldown for Flame Ward is an obvious survivability improvement. Specially in this version where cooldowns are slightly higher due to Fuel The Flames 2/3.
• Cooldown reduction is also good for Flame Rush since it has so low cost and usefulness for survival. It also gets more reduction from Blazing Flux 3/3. With the 60% global reduction, the skill will almost always be up for the use. But as stated in the cons, be careful to not overuse it, or you risk going dry on mana, remember you only gain mana when using three 0 cost skills in succession, in this build only Firebrand has 0 cost, so be aware.
• In the remote case you end up with +3 levels for Flame Reave by whatever reason, there's a cooldown interaction to be aware of. You can take Firewalker 1/1 and Kindling 2/2 to get some haste. With this, we want to make so that Flame Reave gets off cooldown just as you made the next six attacks with Firebrand, so your rotation is not harmed.

Damage scaling stats for equipment

Attack speed > Fire Penetration > Cooldown Reduction (to soft cap of 60%) > Melee/Fire/Spell Melee Damage > Intelligence > Fire Damage % (Pyromancer's) > Armor Shred Chance

Survivability Scaling for equipment

Ward Per Second > Intelligence (if the tree is finished) > Ward Retention > Ward Threshold # > Armor

Miscellaneous Notes

• The need for stacking buffs makes it so attack speed is crucial to the build, while also giving more ward in the process. Go crazy with attack speed.
• Main scaling is done trough Melee Damage, Fire Melee Damage, and Spell Damage. Flame Reave converts Melee Damage at 160% and with Arcane Severance 4/4 Spell Damage is also converted into base damage as well.
• Note that Intelligence stacking is very good since, as mentioned, it gives more defense (ward retention) as well as damage (since all skills scale from int).
• The build lack innate fire penetration. So fire penetration in our equipment (scepter, sword and amulet) is very valuable and Grand Breath of Cinders is mandatory.
• Getting LP for the uniques is very important. In this version of the build, getting at least LP2 in every unique is mandatory if you want to reach higher corruption. One more reason for the build being so expensive. (On a side note: the 2LP Exsanguinous with almost perfect roll was a lucky drop I got while still at lvls 80s and wasn't even farming for it, please don't hate me ;P)

The core of the build is not available until around level 50. This can be a little annoying, so until then, follow this guidelines:

Keep gearing with the suggested stat priorities.

In the start use Fireball, then Elemental Nova, and Disintegrate after that, until lvl 25.

You can start using Flame Reave at level 25. Sunwreath is available since lvl 21 so at lvl 25 you should get both the skill and the unique. By then your core loop will be: 3x Mana Strike to Flame Reave. Mana Strike have a small multiplier in its skill tree so that's useful.

Enchant Weapon is available at lvl 35, use it as soon as you can.

Mana Strike is used until get Firebrand at lvl 50.

You can get Flame Rush when you see fit, only need 5 lvls after lvl 20. Until you get it keep using Teleport, even if you don't spec into it.

This version of the build is already late endgame. But there are ways I have thought of that can push it even further.

Passive Tree

Maybe it's too much PoE in my history, but I tend to focus too much in defense. I have lost interest in the build without fully testing it like I wished. Maybe some defensive passives can be exchanged with offensive ones. Suggestions:

• If you manage to get more intelligence on gear, then you can get 9 points back from respecing Defender of Welryn 8/8 and the requisite Warden's Echo 1/5.
• If you want to respec for full damage, Infused Weapon is priority, since it is the most efficient.
• If unsure and trying to balance defense and offense, Fire Blood is your choice since getting more vitality will end netting you even more ward.
• If you still want more offense, consider taking some points off from Outrun and Outlast, but not all.

Skills Trees

I really tried many different combinations of skill trees, and believe that arrangement is the best. But you never know, do make some tests.

I don't know if you are aware but, past 200 corruption you may fully respec a skill tree and get it back to 20 in 1-2 fast echoes runs.

Gear

Here is where the most changes can be made, and maybe here are the possible changes that can make the Ultimate Flame Reave Build.

• A 3LP Exsanguinous is an obvious improvement, if you manage to get your hands in one, do put some intelligence in it. The armor attribute affixes are the higher ones in the game, so getting a T7 int would be crazy.
• Also an obvious statement is the myth of LP4 uniques, good luck on that one (truly)
• One very appealing upgrade I have considered was the addition of a LP3-4 Eye of Reen. I have played with a non-lp one, and since Flame Reave always crits and also reach a pretty large area you can get 20 stacks of Reen's Ire pretty easily, which boosts crit multi and can give some increase to damage. But the implicts of a Crystal Sword are too good to forfeit, therefore the need for a higher LP. Maybe it would be very strong, but the Eye of Reens were too much expensive on the market and, as said, I lost interest in the build. Maybe someone can push further and try that item.
• Swaddling of the Erased would be very good for damage both against bosses and trash mobs, but I couldn't find information about the possibility of Weaver's Will items rolling experimental affixes. If it is possible, you could grind very hard until you got one with a good roll of PrefixExperimental Ward per Missing Health . But in order for this to work, you would have to meet the 60% cooldown reduction elsewhere, so this is a very hard change to make...
• As stated by the Wootles, another possible option would be a Boneclamor Barbute. But building around this would almost imply a completely different build. Since you would have to account for the lost of cooldown reduction, and find ways to buff necrotic res in a way it surpasses PrefixIntelligence , SuffixWard per Second and SuffixHealth affixes. And you will also be losing the very needed mana regen from the implicit together with the PrefixMelee Elemental Damage.
• What else? I'm sure I'm letting something pass, and you might be the guy to discover that? Why not give it a try? It's a cool build, trust me :D

Some notes about being an "evolved" build

Apart from what it looks like, I did not just copy that build. Thing is I started this build trying to make Enchant Weapon a main damage dealer with Conflagrate, but when I reached empowered monos the build was not working well so I switched to a Flame Reave build. By the time I looked for a guide I already had most of the build done, and by coincidence, I had reached a very similar build as Wootles. But that guide helped me with some ideas, mostly about enchant weapon auto-cast, the use of a scepter, and other minor things.

The difference is that, besides building differently in many points, I also tried to push the build as far as it could go, and proved that you can run EVERY content with it. I lost interest in keeping pushing before the build could not progress, so maybe someone can push it even further. Also, just like Wootles, I'm by no means a LE expert, so I believe someone may still make an ultimate version of this build.

PS: You will see that some sections of the guide, and the build itself is very similar to Wootle's, this is because the builds are really very similar and there's no escape from some interactions with the skills and passives. Please do check his guide, and give credit to him.

How far can this build go?

This build is all content-able, but with some observations.

You can comfortably do 250 corruption, and t3 dungeons and arena without having the whole build set.

With the whole set, you can do 400+ corruption echoes without much hassle. But to kill 400+ Orobyss and echoes bosses, t4 arena and Dungeon bosses, you will need to play the build with attention and with not much space for errors

Why the Sceptre?

This idea came from Wootles guide, thing is that there's a node in the Flame Reave tree, Arcane Severance 4/4, that grants base spell damage as additional fire damage, it's a direct conversion with 4 points invested. This makes the scepter provide strong base damage for the build, and considering that we still get space for a sword offhand, this outweighs any two-handers that we could use. All of this while also getting more attack speed, so it's a worthwhile investment.

Why Gemini instead of Off-hand or Shield?

Because of attack speed, damage and armor shred. The bonus you get from the sword can't be given by shields or catalysts. Also, defense is already good with all the ward generation we get from the build.

Why not use Jasper's Searing Pride?

There's a third version of this build in YT that uses this item, but I consider that build to not be as strong, and in the video they run very low corruption to showcase it. I have tried the weapon myself, and 0LP one so, I might be wrong. But the increases in skill levels do not pay off the losing of raw damage from both weapons. But the worse part is the attack speed issue, you would be hitting much more slowly, and if you hit slowly you 1) Take longer to build stacks, and 2) Gain much less ward per hit. So I believe the version of Flame Reave build that uses this item needs more work, or maybe even an update to the weapon to really shine here.