Thoughts on a Scion Battlemage Build - Any Ideas?

Hey guys.

Im a really slow player, currently playing on Harbringer HC League.

Planning on trying out a build ive been thinking up while on work, but since, as stated earlier, im a slow player i would like inputs on it before i start out.

I want this character to feel like a warrior, leap slamming into the midst of the enemies, cycloning around while tossing off a couple of spells once in awhile.

Skills:

1. Leap Slam -> Fortify Sup -> Stun Sup -> Endurance Charge on Stun Support.

2. Warlords Mark -> Assasins Mark -> Increased Area of Effect -> Blasphemy Support

3. Cast on dmg taken -> Spell Totem -> Spark -> Iron Will -> (Crit Chance) -> (Spell Echo)

4. Cyclone -> Faster Attacks -> Accuracy -> Onslaught -> (Added Cold) -> (Melee Dmg)

5. Discharge -> Iron Will -> Crit Chance -> Elemental Focus



Playstyle:

Leap slamming into the fray --> cycloning around generating END / POWER charges due to double curse --> Spell Totem is cast on dmg taken, casting spark, further inreasing charges --> Discharge. Rinse and Repeat.

Skill Tree:

Buildt like a warrior.


Anyone has any thoughts on this? Every part of the build is up for discussion, but i want a character that feels like and plays like a warrior, but still has spells.


Archibald Fluffy

This, coupled with Eye of Innocence is pretty much the best weapon if you want to go for a melee/caster hybrid and allows you to use 2 5/6links.
You should build around fire/area damage and use Elemental Overload so both attacks and spells get the bonus.

It's not going to be as strong as a pure melee/caster though.

Hi, and thanks for answering.

The Martyr of Innocence coupled with the Eye of Innocence looks like it could fit the build very well.

Would you put Elemental overload on both the cyclone skill, discharge skill and on spark from spell totem?

Yeah, i kinda figuered a pure build would be the strongest, but i just want a character that is viable and diverse.


AF

I forgot to mention that you also need at least one Mokou's Embrace to ignite yourself.

Elemental Overload is a passive in your skill tree.
You would probably want to swap Assasins Mark for Flammability because going crit is a bit difficult.

Also, totems cannot be triggered by cast when damage taken; spell echo doesn't work on totems either.

Really good support gems are Fire Penetration, Elemental Damage with Attacks, Controlled Destruction and increased AoE/Conc. Effect. Iron Will isn't that strong.
Elemental Focus also gives a lot of damage (ignite doesn't du much) but you kinda want to ignite your enemies from time to time - maybe with a level 1 cwdt spell linked to chance to ignite?

I'm not sure how I would level this, probably with a Hidden Potential.
Also keep in mind that skilling physical melee damage would do almost nothing, as the main damage is fire.

The "battlemage" idea rarely works in PoE. Attacks and spells are different things and usually whatever you invest (stats on gear, passive points) in one will not benefit the other, so you end up with one being weak and the other being strong, or both being mediocre.

That said, there are ways to scale both at the same time: as already mentioned use a weapon which does fire damage and a spell which does fire damage and scale them both with increased fire damage and fire penetration. You can generalise this with other elemental damage types or maybe all three.

Another option is strength, which naturally affects melee physical damage and can be made to affect spell damage with Iron Will. The only example of that which I can think of right now involves Pillar of the Caged God, Cast on Melee Kill Support and Repentance gloves.

Of course, you don't have to have an attack which does good damage, instead you just use your attack as the delivery mechanism for strong spells. Examples include Cast on Crit builds such as the 'Fakener. There are also a couple of weapons which 'proc' spells: Cospri's Malice and Mjolner. There's also Cast while Channelling with an attack. I think the only channelled attack is Blade Flurry, which you can use with CwC and a spell.

There's also a new item in Harbinger leagues: The Rippling Thoughts. I haven't tried to build around it though.

Looking at your original idea you appear to be planning to alternate between using attacks and spells. Honestly that's likely to be bad. Unless something in one active skill does something to boost the damage of the other active skill then what is the point of having these multiple active skills (unless one is for AoE and one for single target)?