Level 95 Explosive Concoction Pathfinder^3.16

Notes

---- BEFORE YOU START ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ONCE GEMS ARE UPDATED IN POB REMOVE THE CUSTOM LINES IN THE CONFIGURATION TAB
SWAP EXPLOSIVE CONCOCTION WITH POISON CONCOCTION AND REMOVE THE "POISON CONCOCTION" LINES FROM THE AMULET

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---- POISONOUS CONCOCTION(PC) ----

As this is a new skill a lot of testing will be needed. It is functionally the same as explosive concoction meaning:
The projectiles overlap and we expect the 30% AoE from PF to be enough for 5 projectiles. 
Being poison further means that the less dmg multiplier from GMP / LMP  / LVolley / GVolley does not affect the poison dmg part as they only apply projectile dmg portion.
Now the interesting part is if we can take advantage of greater volley + GMP for a total of 9 projectiles it might require the Helmet enchantment for +24% AOE/AOE on gear/Dying Sun. The exact amount is not known. 
Also not having to use deadly ailments might make us able to take advantage of leech. 

The flat damage gained from the flask is only based on the actual recovery amount listed on the flask!

---- THE OVERALL GEM SETUP ----

The gem setup is very tight due to the fact that we are lacking 3 sockets of the weapon. In the endgame there is a lot of opportunity to be had by gearing. 
Despair on hit ring / corruption on gloves or even witchfire brew (This flask should make speed mapping better by further enabling the Plague Bearer running strat)
Anomalous Withering Step with increased duration should be enough to remove the entire wither totem setup for your wither needs. The +3 wither stacks from the helmet enchant can also work in a pinch.
Once you don't need a withering totem setup anymore you can now add a CWDT setup or whatever you find to be pleasant in your endgame gem setup.

For the stat requirements just lower ancestral protector / wither down in levels so they fit whatever stats you have available

---- GEARING ----

Gearing is generally very simple: cap out resist, stack life and wherever possible get accuracy until cap / attack speed / dot multi / generic damage / chaos dmg / aoe I listed some possible uniques but I suggest you just stick to rares for the most part.
The best life flask should be a divine life flask with 28% quality and the highest tier of the saturated mod. If you have more than 1 life flask it will alternate between the flasks when consuming them for PC

---- MASTERIES ----

Masteries open up a lot of opportunities both during leveling and in the endgame. Notice that I use the life & mana gained on hit claw mastery early but I swap it to: monsters cannot crit while poisoned once we enter the mapping stage.
Poisons you inflict on non-poisoned enemies is increased by 300% is great for an early boost to mapping and clearing but adds no real dmg to a boss fight. Consider swapping out of it endgame.


---- AURAS &  MANA RESERVATION ----

The build runs 3x 50% auras with Charisma & the evasion mastery we end up with exactly 0 mana left.
In order for us to use abilities we need to have either enlighten or mana reservation efficiency on gear: shield(shaper or hunter influence), Essence crafted Helmet or influenced neck or in a pinch a helmet enchant. 
We run grace / malevolence / purity for the high evasion good dmg and duration and less strain on resists + ailment immunity it checks all the boxes. Also have the benefit of giving us great options for a watcher's eye. 

---- LIFE LEECH / GAIN & MANA LEECH & GAIN ----

For mana recovery early on we can just rely on an enduring mana potion as a PF it will always be active. Later on elreon craft rings / amulet combined with some leech and mana on hit gain might allow us to use another utility potion
Life leech is a bit of a tricky one as we have very little hit dmg. This is why we want to try and get out of using deadly ailments.
The leech mastery gives us 100% total leech recovery. I won't go into detail about leech mechanics but the stat is a great help for somewhat low hit dmg builds to benefit from leech if it ends up not being high enough impact we will spec out of it.
Life gain on hit should be a very potent addition to the build because of the large amounts of overlapping aoes each attack.

Life tap might be worth considering to avoid any mana issues.

---- FOCUS MODS ----

The 120-140% increased Duration of Ailments you inflict while Focused helmet mod is NUTS. It provides a 60-70% more dmg boost during its duration. So make sure to prep the ancestral totem and your wither stacks before you press focus.
You can pair this mod with the glove mod Increased attack speed 30-40% while Focused for even more burst.

---- REPLENISHING REMEDIES(RR)  VS CAREFUL CONSERVATIONIST(CC) ----

Whichever comes out on top is yet to be seen. If we start running out of life flask charges on boss fights we might need to keep RR or get a better flask belt or opt into the Life Flask Pantheon Soul of Rhyslatha. 
If it's not needed CC should win out as being better overall for all flasks pick whatever makes the build feel better.

---- GHOST DANCE ----

Ghost dance is a key component to the build?s survival; it can be looked at as burst prevention but also as general recovery over time if you get chipped away over time. 
A few examples below of how much ES you recover back after you get hit based on your evasion.

15000 EVASION = 450 ES Recovery from Ghost Dance
30000 EVASION = 900 ES Recovery from Ghost Dance

To take advantage of Ghost Dance you want to have more total ES than the recovery to not let any of the ES go to waste. 
It's worth noting that having a larger ES pool can be a nice upside as let's assume lots ES from degen putting it close to 0 and you now take a couple small hits. 
Say you can recover 900 per charge and your max is 2000 getting hit twice for 100 would then net you 1600 total ES. 
But note that having x3 the ghost charge as ES would be hard to maintain as the build has little ways of recovering the ES outside of the charge and ES on Kill

---- ENCHANTS ----

Helmet:

For the best helmet enchant we can assume it follows Explosive Concoction and gives us dmg/aoe/reduced charges out of these the Increased Area of Effect for Poison Concoction
would be the better choice for the AOE overlap we previously discussed

Boots:

The best boot enchant is more of an open choice as it can augment several playstyles and needs. Everything that has an on-kill component like attack speed / avoid stun / leech can be great augmentations for mapping. 
Regen if you've been hit is a great all round choice for both mapping and bossing, same thing goes for movement speed if you haven't been hit. Lastly Spell suppression is a good choice if you otherwise can't cap your spell suppression.

---- CLUSTER JEWELS ----

The main jewel you want in the build would be a large chaos cluster jewel; it provides a significant amount of %increased chaos damage that the build lacks.
It's very easy getting a triple notable jewel rolling 50-67 ilvl large chaos cluster jewels with aberrant fossils.

---- Legion Jewels ----

I placed a lethal pride in the jewel slot to the right of the ranger, this could also be a maraketh jewel (which I think might just be better). It gives a potential 9 notable passives HUGE POTENTIAL :O

---- WORTHWHILE MENTIONS ----

The new stats on the Survivalists Instinct obtained from the golden hand quest (act 2) provides us with:
 "50% chance for Flasks you use to not consume Charges? and ?70% less Flask Charges gained from Kills" combined with our ascendancy might prove to be incredibly strong we will have to test it.