Do you want to obscure your screen with plethora of fire effects? How about being in mercy of tens of passive procs? Does stacking multiple burning areas on top of each other to make them burn faster sound interesting and stupid? Oh, do I have a build for you!!
Introducing: Infernal Knight BWC spammer Shieldbreaker!!! (now updated!)
This is my absolutely favorite build and it was a pure joy to theorize, play and optimize.
BWC spam builds have always worked, but the latest patch (1.2.1.6) buffed the the skill heavily, making this able to farm SR32 really comfortably and climb way higher (and do celestials) with bit of potions and kiting. I haven’t tested The Crucible, but I don’t see a reason why this wouldn’t work there.
Generally, the idea is to hold down the button assigned for BWC while having maximum cast speed. You throw bottles really fast and the flame ticks damage at double speed as well. Other skills are basically non-intrusive defensive utility, RR and some burst procs in form of Meteors for example.
The build I’ll showcase here (and do all the content with) has only purple gear, meaning you don’t have to farm greens with good affixes! There’s a good chance you already have multiple pieces laying around, so give it a go!
I’ll go into details in drop boxes below (lots of neat info and alternative choices!)
Gear
Core:
The build revolves around this, as it supports BWC amazingly. Its also the reason why Judgment is an option to replace Flashbang.
Reworked to support pure fire BWC this patch (1.2.1.6), previously it mixed in vitality, making a generic “all skill boost” amulet better. Currently, nothing works better than this.
-8% fire resistance isn’t that much, but it’s still RR without a better alternative.
You need this to cap Demon Fire. The stats aren’t the greatest, but capping a core skill in a build like this is important.
Great stats, free skill points and crafted, so you can add a blacksmith bonus into the mix (I chose aether resistance, it’s a safe choice, but whatever works for you). Versatile!
Great options (with choices):
I previously swore by Ugdenbog Flamestrife, as it has more flat fire boost than Herald. However, Herald was buffed, making the difference smaller (plus increased BWC duration as well as Meteor proc are great). Flamestrife with great rolls may still be better though.
Excellent for BWC spam playstyle. Chaos damage conversion isn’t needed anymore though, as Blightlord’s Vector covers it nowadays, so technically Compelled Wraith may be better with great rolls. However, Atonement is otherwise perfect, so I’d just stick with it.
Like Blightlord’s Vector, it was remade to support pure fire BWC. It’s a good, safe crafted piece. Slathsarr’s Crest with good rolls can be better, as it has more flat fire boost and comfortable casting speed stat.
Casting speed as well as reduced skill energy cost are too good to pass by. Meteor procs are nice as well. Korvaak’s Deception has OA, which is always great, but you’re sacrificing other as important stats for damage if you choose to go for it. Especially with Flashbang, you are gonna have bad mana issues too.
Both can roll with Temper & Agonizing Flames bonus, free skill point for two core skills!
Good options (with potentially better alternatives):
OA, physical resistance and free skill points. The better option of two legendary fire pants imo. Grava’Thul’s Leggins is better though if you have a decent pair stashed.
Solid defensive option with a skill I don’t use. Mythical Wyrmscale Footguards are offensively way better, but you’ll have to fix your resistances. If you go with green pieces and work around the lost defences, Wyrmscale wins.
Skills
Active skills:
- Blackwater Cocktail
Deals minor fire chip damage and inflicts burn in intervals in a 7m area. Area lasts for 7,5 seconds. Areas can stack on top of each other and cast speed affects fire damage tick speed.
Reduces targets’ OA by 250, damage by 25% and resistances by 35.
The main star of the show! Also the reason why cast speed is the most important stat for this build, as it affects both throwing speed, as well as doubles the fire ticks (twice each second).
The secondary effects are also amazing, making you able to not care about other sources of OA and damage reduction, while also allowing you to skip Rhowan’s Crown devotion completely.
- Flashbang
Reduces targets’ DA by 280 in a large area.
Also inflicts fumble, impaired aim, slow and confusion.
Using Flashbang doesn’t interrupt BWC, so feel free to spam this as much as needed (and your mana allows). Uptiming DA shred is extremely important for a low OA build like this.
For those unaware, fumble and impaired aim makes the target miss % of their melee / ranged attacks, respectively (with this build, 34% on both at cap). Nothing resists them, making both extremely powerful and useful.
Alternative Choice: Judgment
- Judgment
Deals decent damage, inflicts burn, reduces targets’ DA by 254 and pulls them closer in a large area around you.
Has a noticeable cooldown.
While Flashbang is the more consistent, defensive option for DA shred, The Infernal Champion set makes this an offensive alternative.
I played with Judgment a lot, only recently switching to Flashbang. The build doesn’t have much cooldown reduction and even if you can fully uptime the DA shred, it’s annoying against multiple enemies when some of them are just out of the reach. The damage is there, but it’s not THAT much, as only the set bonus supports it.
However, if you are able to facetank bosses comfortably without Flashbang’s defensive effects, Judgment is better in that situation!
- Thermite Mine & Summon Guardian of Empyrion
Approximately -30% fire resistance reduction on both skills.
I’ll lump these together, as their function is the same. RR is important and both of these are good skills for it!
- Ascension
Improves your offensive and defensive stats greatly for 10 seconds.
Has around 50% uptime.
Great, important skill, but I don’t like to put more than one point in its nodes without more cooldown reduction. It’s good, non-interrupting skill with minimal investation that can be used on cooldown. I only save it in SR boss rooms for the beginning of each boss, or in case I know Moosilauke is coming (it’s the only source of freeze resistance in this build).
- Vire’s Might & Blazing Charge
Dashes.
Mobility is always good. Vire’s Might is given, but Blazing Charge can be whatever you want. I personally enjoy it as I play with a controller, making Vire’s Might a dash that goes through enemies while Blazing Charge is one that stops on top of them.
Passive skills:
- Vindictive Flame
Increases total speed (both movement and cast), health regen and grants other stuff you don’t care about (lol).
The most important passive, yet not necessarily one to max. With points in Vindictive Flame, you can adjust your cast speed easily. If you’re overcapped, lower the points and put them in something else. Everything else (aside health regen) is useless in this build.
- Flame Touched
Increases OA, DA and fire damage.
Max both nodes, OA and DA are that important. It’s also an aura, so it’s great in multiplayer too!
- Blast Shield
Grants you a decent shield and makes you generally tankier for 4 seconds if you drop below 60% health.
Has 50% uptime.
It’s a great defensive proc, as your health’s gonna fluctuate a lot in this build. 10 points is an alright soft cap to stop at if you can’t afford more, due to maximum resistances not increasing before overcapping (at 14 points).
- Presence of Virtue
Grants OA, energy regen, health and health regen
Both the main node and Haven are extremely good, as the stats they grants are really important. Max them. Rebuke is pretty useless, but I put 1 point in it just in case I need some reflected damage and life reduction.
- Resilience
Makes you way tankier for 5 seconds when you drop below 66% health.
Has less than 50% uptime.
Has the same purpose as Blast Shield: a defensive layer when your health drops. 6 points is a decent soft cap to stop at if you can’t afford more.
- Divine Mandate
Increases fire damage and crit damage and grants slow resistance.
Exclusive skill.
Demolitionist doesn’t have its own exclusive skill, so Divine Mandate is the only realistic choice. Sadly, this isn’t a crit build, so that aspect is pretty wasted, even if fire damage and slow resistance is good. I’d cap it, but probably not overcap.
Devotions
Active skill procs:
- Dryad
Dryad’s Blessing bound to Blackwater Cocktail
This is the most important devotion, don’t even think about dropping it! Dryad’s Blessing is THE reason this build has sustain and works in high-end content. Being bound to BWC makes it proc pretty much on cooldown, which is great, because you need as good uptime with this as possible.
- Fiend
Flame Torrent bound to Summon Guardian of Empyrion
The devotion itself isn’t the best, but it has a good constellation bonus and Flame Torrent works really well with pets, especially when there’s multiple of them!
- Solael’s Witchblade
Eldritch Fire bound to Thermite Mine
Spreading fire RR, probably necessary for every fire (or chaos) based builds.
- Ulzuin’s Torch
Meteor Shower bound to Flashbang / Judgment
Ultimate standard fire devotion. Top right corner is pretty useless for this build, so doesn’t matter that this setup lacks points for it. Meteor Shower with Flashbang is 54% chance, Judgment is 100% chance (but hasn’t 100% uptime with longer cooldown). Both are suboptimal, yet in action, both are totally fine without better alternatives.
Passive skill procs:
- Tortoise
Turtle Shell is a decent all-damage shield proccing at 50%. Devotion itself isn’t noteworthy, just a good defensive stepping stone.
- Crab
Arcane Barrier works only against non-physical elements, but it has way shorter cooldown and no health requirement to proc. Alright devotion which I personally enjoy a lot!
- Chariot of the Dead
Wayward soul is a nice heal and defence buff with great uptime, but more importantly, Chariot has amazing stats. Tons of offensive ability and slow resistance are vital!
- Behemoth
Giant’s Blood is a great heal and regen with around 50% uptime. Stats are all about health and regen, which this build enjoys.
Other devotions:
- Raven
OA and energy regen are great, making this a good stepping stone!
- Harvestman’s Scythe
Lots of health, energy and regen for both. Great!
Devotion Path
- Yellow
- Dryad
- Remove Yellow
- Green
- Raven
- Remove Green
- Tortoise
- Red
- Fiend
- Eel
- Purple
- Empty Throne
- Chariot of the Dead
- Solael’s Witchblade
- Harvestman’s Scythe
- Remove Eel
- Crab
- Remove Purple
- Remove Empty Throne
- Behemoth
- Ulzuin’s Torch (no top-right node)
Components
Core components:
- Prismatic Diamond, Seal of Annihilation & Arcane Spark
Applied to helm, amulet and medal, respectively.
Standard mana regen trio, this build needs them. Thankfully all of them are great otherwise as well, granting important stats from OA and cast speed to health and passive shield proc.
- Mark of Illusions
Applied to both rings.
Even more mana regen. Good that none of the other ring components are that great for this build.
- Scaled Hide
Applied to pants.
It probably common knowledge nowadays, but you need this for 100% armor absorption if your head component or skills don’t grant any. It’s imporant!
Other components:
- Seal of Might
Applied to weapon and off-hand.
Safe, defensive pick. Always a good choice (unless you’re playing aether build). However, if you’re aiming to do more damage, Enchanted Flint is 100% increase to fire. It’s obviously great, but you’re gonna have to work your defenses in other ways.
- Ugdenbloom components
Applied to rest of the gear.
Ugdenbloom components meaning the lv75 ones that need Ugdenblooms to craft, such as Living Armor, Sacred Plating and Ugdenbog Leather I use.
These can honestly be anything, just to (over)cap your resistances.
Augments
Personal picks:
The only augment that doesn’t have any alternate choices, this is literally the weapon augment for a build like this.
350 health and stun resistance is good, but Arcane Heart Powder’s OA is tempting. Use your own judgment on which you value more, both are great.
- Resistances (armor slots)
Just overcap your resistances. Health augments can be good alternatives, but overcapping your resistances pays up even without RR enemies, as both Blast Shield and Resilience increases max resistances.
Consumables
Passive consumables:
- Elixir of the Dranghoul (elixir)
Increases OA and DA by 40.
It has OA, so it’s good. Nothing to compare with though, it’s easily the elixir to go for.
- Ugdensalve (oil)
Increases health and energy by 800.
Both health and energy are important, so it’s easily my go-to choice for extra hard content (where consumables are actually used). Kymon’s Sacred Oil and Ugdenjuice are technically options, but neither do enough to compare in my opinion.
Active consumables:
- Aether Cluster
75% damage absorption and full skill disruption protection for 8 seconds.
90 second cooldown.
Everyone doing harder content should have these in their hotbar, but especially build like this, that lives and dies by their procs, really love being (almost) invulnerable for 8 whole seconds.
(Just to paint a picture of how long 8 seconds is, it fits Turtle Shell, Blast Shield and Wayward Soul once plus Arcane Barrier as well as Dryad’s Blessing multiple times!)
- Kymon’s Wrath Tincture (tincture)
Deals fire damage and burns in a large area around you.
Has 8 second cooldown, shared with other tinctures.
It isn’t that powerful, but the animation doesn’t interrupt anything, meaning that it’s just free damage (or the opposite of free, as it costs gold, but nothing else, lol).
- Courageous Tincture (tincture)
Increases DA by 60 and armor by 25% for 10 seconds.
Has 30 second cooldown, shared with other tinctures.
It’s actually a decent free defensive skill. Useful on extremely difficult fights, as Kymon’s Wrath isn’t really impactful, while this may save your life.
Thanks for reading (or skipping) this far, here’s an SR32 video, enjoy!
