INTRODUCTION
I was thinking about another use for Lucius’ Blade-Arm and I came up with aether Fire Strike Sorcerer. I have both melee and ranged versions. Ranged versions use Dreadscorcher and Vortex of Souls. The core of the build is the Krieg’s set because of bonuses for Arcanist and especially Reckless Power. You need chaos conversion to aether and we get it from two Albrecht’s Duality rings. Partial conversion from fire to aether is done with a belt and an amulet. In devos I went for Korvaak and Guardian’s Gaze. I had as my first version more offesnive one without Haunt relic and Guardian’s Gaze devo but Reaper was unkillable with in it SR 80. If you don’t want to play high SR I recommend Agrivix’s Malice as a relic and put one point into Blackwater Cocktail for proccing Arcane Bomb. Ranged versions have lower AS but are not slower generally. All versions are slower and a llittle squishier than my aether FS Defiler. Despite melee having more DPS its lifeleech is weaker than ranged. Best version to play is Vortex against groups and Dreadscorcher against bosses but differences between all versions are very little. All versions can do SR 80 but if they had 2-3k more life it would be more comfortable. With bad mutators (low health, crits to enemies) physical hitters can be very dangerous. I think that Demolitionist generally needs some health on it (Saboteur and Defiler would like it as well).
I have other aether melee builds here. I have other ranged builds here. All my builds are here.
GRIMTOOLS
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/1NXQ7jX2 pure melee version
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/b28GWMzN ranged/switchable with Dreadscorcher
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/b28GndLN ranged/switchable with Vortex of Souls (with piercing)
Build has two monster infrequent items - Lucius’ Blade-Arm and Mark of Nacrathan. You want affixes for aether damage, stun resistance and OA, DA. Crafting bonus on Vortex is to stun resistance.
Stats of the build for melee version
OFFENSE
DPS 160k
OK OA - around 2950 OA
lower critical damage 25 % (40 % for FS)
good aether resistance reduction from Haunt, Thermite Mine, Arcane Bomb and Reckless Power - up to -106 %
damage from devotions – Korvaak, Arcane Bomb and Guardian’s Gaze
DEFENSE
OKish life around 12500 HP
OK DA - around 2900 DA
95 OA reduction to enemies from Arcane Bomb
good lifesteal 21 %
good CC resistances
reasonably overcapped resistances
OK physical resistance 25 %
OK armor - close to 2200
% damage absorption from Maiven’s Sphere
Ghoul
Mirror of Ereoctes
Nullification
Stats of the build for Dreadscorcher version
OFFENSE
DPS 130k
OK OA - above 3100 OA
lower critical damage 29 % (44 % for FS)
good aether resistance reduction from Haunt, Thermite Mine, Arcane Bomb and Reckless Power - up to -106 %
damage from devotions – Korvaak, Arcane Bomb and Guardian’s Gaze
DEFENSE
OKish life around 12500 HP
lower DA - above 2800 DA
95 OA reduction to enemies from Arcane Bomb
good lifesteal 21 %
good CC resistances
reasonably overcapped resistances
OK physical resistance 25 %
OK armor - close to 2200
% damage absorption from Maiven’s Sphere
Ghoul
Mirror of Ereoctes
Nullification
Stats of the build for Vortex version
OFFENSE
DPS 100k
good OA - around 3050 OA
lower critical damage 29 % (44 % for FS)
good aether resistance reduction from Haunt, Thermite Mine, Arcane Bomb and Reckless Power - up to -106 %
damage from devotions – Korvaak, Arcane Bomb and Guardian’s Gaze
DEFENSE
OKish life around 12500 HP
lower DA - above 2800 DA
95 OA reduction to enemies from Arcane Bomb
good lifesteal 21 %
good CC resistances with crafting bonus to stun
reasonably overcapped resistances
OK physical resistance 33 %
OK armor - close to 2200
% damage absorption from Maiven’s Sphere
Ghoul
Mirror of Ereoctes
Nullification
image from the game for melee version with passive buffs only
image from the game for Dreadscorcher version with passive buffs only
image from the game for Vortex version with passive buffs only
SR, CRUCIBLE
I play SR with camera pointed away from enemies and I try my builds only in SR 65-66 and SR 80. I play around 10 SR runs per character.
All versions can do SR 80. Because of lower life it is squishier. Melee version is squishier than ranged in SR 80. Ranged is a little slower in boss rooms than melee. Reaper is tough but doable. It is harder to heal from Valdaran. Gargabol is very tough and really slow to kill. With melee you have to make zero mistakes in order to kill him. With ranged you can kite him. Use Mirror and Bloodthirster at right moments. With bad mutators (low life, crits to enemies) it is tough - physical hitters are dangerous.
I don’t play Crucible so I don’t have a time number for it.
But I primarily played with melee and then tried ranged also. But one can play switchable melee/ranged and that has Lucius’ Blade Arm as well.