Introduction
Doing a follow up to my initial theorycraft for Smelter’s Wrath + Siege Barrage Javelins found here:
Quite a bit of the mystery surrounding the build has been cleared up, and I have found some very helpful tweaks while actually leveling it. The two main unknowns about the build were whether Backdraft double casted the javelins and if the javelins cost mana per cast. Backdraft does not double cast, but its total area coverage is more than worth the single point for QOL. Javelins also do not cost extra mana to cast per use of Smelter’s Wrath.
I just started empowered monos, but the foundation of the build feels solid enough that it should scale well into end game.
The revised build looks like this:
New Version:
- Changed skills and passives and idols around to accommodate using Wildfire Embers necklace.
- Reconfigured some Ring of Shields to use Shrapnel and Respecialized Lunge to instead use Shield throw.
- Changed exalted prefix for boots to Cooldown reduction and added desired corruption bonus for rings to be 1% elemental leech.
https://www.lastepochtools.com/planner/BM6dJ6Yr
Older Version:
https://www.lastepochtools.com/planner/BM6098gE
The main changes include:
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Passive tree revamp. I tightened up some areas and swapped out some points for more damage. Notably, 20% more fire penetration for Smelter’s Wrath.
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Shield Bash was swapped out for Smite. I completely overlooked Idol abilities that allowed smite to be cast by thrown attacks. With around 50% Smite chance, you can get the full 10 extra attacks within the 2 second cooldown. That’s an extra 100 ignites + the very powerful spreading flames DOT.
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Gear affixes have been shifted around to include mana regen. The Javelins don’t cost mana but with the reduced channel time and the cooldown reduction, you use more mana. To counteract this 3 mana regen affixes on jewelry fix the issue. I also shifted attunement affixes to strength. You could argue for fire damage over time as well in those slots, but Strength scales way more things, and you need the % armor to help you cap since you eat all of your stalwart stacks.
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I’ve exalted the most important stat on each piece of gear and picked the most impactful weapon corruption. You don’t need every piece of gear to be juiced this hard to function. It should just help highlight what the final setup should look like.
Stats
Defense
3k hp
80% armor
90% block chance
50% block mitigation
60% endurance
100% critical damage reduction
65% Damage over Time reduction
Offense
800% Fire damage for hits
1100% Fire damage for DOTs
45% Fire Penetration for Smelter’s Wrath
80% Fire Penetration for ignite
1000% Base ignite chance
70% more damage for hits
40% more fire damage for DOTs
115 flat melee damage
58 throwing damage for Javelin
Synergies
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The passive nodes Smelter’s Might + Forgemaster Might + Maehlin’s Hubris. This synergy allows you to equip a 2handed weapon with a shield while benefiting from double bleed / ignite chance from Smelter’s Might. You combine this with Maehlin’s Hubris, and you get 400% ignite chance just from 11 points in the tree.
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Avatar of War + Smelter’s Wrath Sulphurous Sublimation node lets you convert 10 stalwart stacks (150% area bonus) into 450% more Fire DOT damage. If you get the 80% area modifier from corruption, that is another 240% more fire damage for your Smelter DOTs. 10 stalwart stacks also get converted to 100% more damage just for having the 5 point bonus from Avatar of War.
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Smelter’s Wrath node Spear Volley + Javelin’s node Siege Barrage should let you throw 18 Javelins every 1.5 seconds. With all the ignite stacking, you’ll be producing close to 216 ignites per cast just from the javelins.
Gameplay
Gameplay requires a methodical approach. It takes careful consideration of position, grouping, and overall pathing to efficiently take down screens of enemies at a time. If you do it right, you can keep up with the current season mechanic and max out the blood shards. You use increased ignite duration to set up a concentrated DPS window of a little over 4 seconds for most of your ignites. As you gather cooldown reduction and ignite duration, you will be able to squeeze in 3 waves of javelins. These ignites make up about 80% of your total ignites.
Smelter’s Wrath has a longer ignite window of around 6 seconds. Smelter’s ignite will also be around 4x to 6x stronger than your other ignites. They make up about 20% of your total ignites but equal around the same damage since they are several times stronger.
Conclusion
The build has been successful so far. It provides plenty of damage via ignites and direct damage. The addition of smite feels particularly good as you are stuck using potions for sustain before that. I’m currently getting my blessings together before I start to push corruption to farm my amulet. I look forward to pushing the build further and will update the guide if I run into any more helpful discoveries.