Fireball-oriented Fire Mage Build

[letsrock]

Please see Steam link:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1454079424

Below is a short snippet:

Introduction
This is a guide on the Conjurer (Fire + Spirit) build focusing on fireball attack (fire-damage staff with Ternion attack skill). I like fire mage and I like this style because it is more fun, it fits more to the fire mage fantasy (I think) and it's strong, compared to some other styles such as Eruption or Volcanic Orb oriented.

Pros:

• Staff with Ternion attack scales well, better than spells. The reason is that a spell damage only scales with int and +% elemental damage while staff with Ternion attack scales with the staff as well. You can also enchant staff for debuffs (especially to reduce resistances) etc
• Very good AOE while still good at killing bosses
• Relatively tanky, compared to other mage builds. No need to kite melees.
• Two life-saver skills: Death Ward and Stone Form.

Cons:

• Difficult to have a balanced fixed gear set -- need to swap gears depending on the zone / boss
• Not the fastest boss killer

[mammoth_hunter]

How do you deal with fire absorption?

[letsrock]

Nothing special, I just stay in melee range and attack for the spirit and enchant debuffs (reduce resistances), and let the Lich King and/or the Outsider help killing the target. I didn't have any problem in the Fireland, the only mob  that is a bit slower than usual to kill there is the Infernal, but just a bit.

[mammoth_hunter]

I haven't tried fire builds in ragnarok which is why I'm asking. There is a yotun variety in Yotunheim, grimdark-something, essentially an ice giant. They are nearly immune to cold because of cold absorbtion. If Nordic is anything like consistent, infernals should have fire absorbtion too.

Nothing special, I just stay in melee range and attack for the spirit and enchant debuffs (reduce resistances), and let the Lich King and/or the Outsider help killing the target

My inner perfectionist is against such tactic, build has to have some means to kill it without 180 sec cooldown outsider or waiting. Spirit has a different damage type suitable for that, it is vitality. But I fear using it will go against your builds prime goal.

[letsrock]

Lich King and Outsider are not required, just to make things faster.

I just tested not using them (so using the fire staff only) in Fireland and I killed Infernals etc without any problem. I stayed in melee range (so that I hit them with all 3 ternion fireballs) and it took me around 5 shots to kill an Infernal. Not fast, but not too slow either. And my gears are nowhere near optimal -- I finished Legendary with an yellow staff from Asgard.

[mammoth_hunter]

That doesn't sound like full absorbtion. Oh, its a forum of modders, isn't it? Why woudn't anyone check what exactly is going on with absorbtion and resistances for eldyotun, infernals and volcanic wyrms?

[botebote77]

this is a classic ternion build actually.. one that is being played since TQIT days.. if there ever was a guide written, i don't know.. the other popular ternion builds were oracle (either cold or lightning) and diviner (i suspect because of Poinas harrowing guide).. there were other ternion builds like soothsayer (some play it as pets + ternion) and the less popular poison ternion warlock (but I've been told it's just as effective)

regarding act 5 fire and cold absorption, i don't know about fire but IIRC the frost jotuns are not 100% immune to cold.. i can still damage them with ice shards but very very very very little (not sure anymore but it's how i remember) even with squall.. maybe letsrock has flat damage other than fire.. 5 hits seem slow but at least it's AoE.. but in xmax, it might be a problem if core dweller can't stay alive.. the easier solution is equipping a cold staff on secondary like Boreas

[mammoth_hunter]

Cold damage is a type this class can not really support while vitality is what it can. Just needs a vitality staff. Deathchill, circle of power, unearthly power. Which is why I said it goes against the builds prime goal.

Core dweller has either resistance or fire absorb itself. If anything, it shouldn't die to fire mobs.

[botebote77]

but fire jotuns deal physical too and possibly pierce because they use swords.. how sturdy core dweller is, that i cannot say

cold may scale better than vit because for a fire ternion, you would wear %elem gear, not %vit.. and fire elementals are weak against cold, this i can say with certainty.. and i mentioned Boreas because it has high flat RR

[letsrock]

Botebote77 is right about additional source of damage. So the hand gear gave my fire mage 12 elemental damage. I swapped it out and now it took me 7 shots to kill an infernal. There's still another source of damage though: Shen-Nong enchant gives 144 poison over 3 seconds. It scales with Dex so doesn't scale much but still. I can't swap it out though because without Shen-Nong, the elemental resist reduction debuff will be reduced as well, and the point of the build is to have sufficient elemental resist reduction.

Anyway I'm not a purist so I'm fine with, says, 95% fire damage and 5% vitality damage from my fire mage and the spirit pets.

Some other points:
- I don't think Core Dweller is needed for this build.
- I only play the game as it is, I don't play mods.
- Yes this build should be familiar for the old hardcore TQ players. I haven't seen a guide posted for AE:R though.

[mammoth_hunter]

cold may scale better than vit because for a fire ternion, you would wear %elem gear, not %vit..

How much is that? Circle of power and unearthly power are 170%, its easy to find items with 40% and on some it can go up to 90%

[botebote77]

if you don't mind switching items, and if you have Praxidikae, sure why not? the only vit staff i ever found is necromancer's (base damage is very low) and i don't have it anymore because stupid me sold it

cold staff is easier to find and you just press W