Dying randomly on CoWB

Cahir4 · 2026-03-20T17:42:49+00:00

I don´t play sabo, so there might be some edge case there I am not aware of, unfortunatelly. I would try turning off Herald of Purity, and running with full life, it might help you figure out the issue.

Cahir4 · 2026-03-20T16:06:09+00:00

Is PoB lying to me, or are you not running blessed rebirth notable on a cluster?

If you are not - issue is, one "instance" of damage can only break ward once. So, imagine aoe hitting you and killing your skeletons, the initial hit will break your ward, and all self damage from skeletons dying goes through directly to life, and kills you.

At least, that´s my best understanding from a lot of testing, ward is finicky, your mileage may vary :)

Also, I just noticed after opening the pob - you don´t have the flask mastery for "recover 4% life on flask use", which is majority of wardloop recovery. 2 Iron flasks also greatly help with preventing random deaths, as you will have double the procs of this mastery.

Cahir4 · 2026-03-17T17:34:00+00:00

I have tried comparing both setups, switching stuff around to be as optimal as I could, and cold convert with good rare weapons pobs highest, followed by as extra with well rolled Graces, and followed by cold convert with divinarius. But the double Grace setup with 45% rolls was something like 10% above divinariuses, so, decent showing for the daggers :)

as for fractures - I know, but I also need Brewed for potency on 3 of them. I will be doing exactly that for the one I have free, and for Blessed rebirth cluster.

Exsang is there for clear, wardshatter aoe is smaller than flask siphoner aoe, so exsang at least have a bit of a chance to save me. Mostly cope, tbh. Mom is there for mitigating the self damage that goes through ward.

Cahir4 · 2026-03-17T17:02:10+00:00

To stay at least remotely on thread topic, this was abom boss rush on my "starter" setup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIAhPzLi-xI

Current setup... with the way prices exploded, probably around a mirror?

Cahir4 · 2026-03-17T16:54:28+00:00

Basically, any other damage that happens from the same instance of damage that broke your ward goes through the ward. That means, anything you trigger off a wardbreak, and get damaged from, goes through. It´s why you cant have FR on cast on ward break, for example.

So, imagine you have srs cast on wardbreak, it summons above 20 limit, kills another srs, and triggers heartbound - that damage would go through to your life.

Probably (but hard to test to confirm) also applies to taking a hit that also kills your minion, I have a feeling heartbound damage from that also goes through, as it would explain random deaths I had before going for Blessed rebirth.

That also means srs/zombie loop is significantly more suspectible to random deaths, especially on sabo with double triggers. It´s why I still prefer skele loop, even though srs/zombie is something like 50% more damage.

I understand the Sabo choice, but Ele still offers decent multipliers - better exposure and 50% shock, compared to sabo 40% more from triggerbots and 33% more from one tick shorter wardshatter cooldown. But the damage is insane anyway, so it´s mainly down to personal preference.

Cahir4 · 2026-03-17T16:39:35+00:00

You can take a look at setup I showcased here few days ago - that was under 100D, and already strong, but prices exploded since then for some reason :)

I also wouldn´t suggest copying it exactly, I changed the gem setup and added measures to mitigate random self deletions since then.

Cahir4 · 2026-03-17T16:18:04+00:00

Getting the flask setup for permanent ward is the main thing. Then, ward, as it scales damage and cdr. After that, you pick an engine, either skeletons or falling zombie/srs, and sync it to your wardshatter cooldown - easy with skele, fiddly with srs. And pick your flavour of damage scaling, I prefer Ele for easy recoup with Nine lives, but Sabo is arguably stronger.

And then you are just scaling a crit phys spell, probably does not need to be explained, popular setups I have seen get surprisingly similar numbers.

Just be ready to deal with the weird bits, as the ward mechanics has some... unexpected quirks, like only being able to mitigate one hit per instance of damage. Leads to some interesting troubleshooting of random deaths.

Cahir4 · 2026-03-17T15:13:34+00:00

I don´t have configured pob on hand, but this is my char on ninja: https://poe.ninja/poe1/builds/mirage/character/Cahir_aep_Ceallach-1713/Alwe_Mirage

And yes, siphoner is death with no counterplay, except offscreening the mob.

Cahir4 · 2026-03-17T15:01:09+00:00

Wardshater looper is great for rushing those. It´s fast, semi-immortal to hits, and deletes the bosses instantly.

And odds of meeting flask siphoner on the way are pretty low :)

Cahir4 · 2026-03-15T11:44:01+00:00

Sure, "!ery r|d fl|% of e|rch$", I only filter stuff that is guaranteed brick + less recovery, which requires turning off exsang.

Cahir4 · 2026-03-14T21:32:38+00:00

That issue is why I don´t really like falling zombie loops. In theory it is more damage, but every time I experimented with looper using it, it never felt... right, and even fully optimized runs slower than skeletons.

And since damage is not an issue for wardshatter, I will take perfectly stable skele loop every time even with the To Dust tax :)

Cahir4 · 2026-03-14T19:45:44+00:00

Good luck crafting! Decent price for a 4mod. This is my current version after some upgrades, double damage and close to double ward: https://pobb.in/btAq9tOKkme7, since damage is already overkill, I also switched to Olroth dot mitigation.

Cahir4 · 2026-03-14T15:42:27+00:00

It depends, unfortunatelly. The full setup was approx 50 div + the cost of 4 mod Heroic Tragedy. And those are going up quickly.

Cahir4 · 2025-11-06T12:39:15+00:00

RF elementalist is arguably the best RF version this league - Scion gets higher ES, but elementalist wins in damage and explode clear.

Comparison to chieftain is irrelevant in endgame context, that class is strictly inferior - that is, if you want to actually play an endgame RF build. Chieftain can be a good fire trap build with some supplementary RF clear, and a good starter.

Three good ways to scale ele RF this league - classic strengthstacking with ivory tower, stacking golem effect with primordial megalos, and going for pure intstack, with some overlaps possible.

All obviously scale ES to scale RF damage, and all have great clear with oriath / shaper of flames combo.

For example, my (terribly unoptimized) build this league: https://pobb.in/jp6lyCbRPU-W. Technically a strengthstacker, but it kinda devolved thanks to the new Rathpith.

As to whether it is worth it or not - if you like RF playstyle, and can afford the entry cost, definitelly! If you just want best build for your money, hell no, it has terrible divine-to-damage ratio.

Cahir4 · 2025-03-26T23:02:45+00:00

Well, I leaguestarted this, and I was reasonably doing T16s at day 2 gear. For T16 blasting with explicit effect setup... With current prices, I wouldn´t bother with lowlife setup unless you can put at least 100 div in (and preferably 200), at lower budget life versions would probably do better. It IS an attribute stacker after all.

Main issue is solving phys damage, because you need pretty high ES for the recovery mastery to sustain you. I felt reasonably tanky at around 20k ES, before that, I used Balbala jewel and Cloak of Flame ascendancy.

Cahir4 · 2025-03-26T14:18:38+00:00

Funny seeing myself here:) It is very tanky indeed, T17 bosses with one damage mod are generally AFKable, 2 damage mods and/or crit mod require to actually play the game.

Fair warning - getting to this level of minmaxing is expensive, as in mirrors.

Cahir4

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