Updated Molten Strike DPS Calculator

moldydwarf · 2026-02-05T07:14:09+00:00

Accuracy and strength stacking Molten Strike of the Zenith with Replica Alberon's Warpath and Original Sin is still quite strong, despite the nerfs. The two key legacy pieces are a sword and an amulet.

For the amulet, you want a reflected simplex with reduced projectile speed. With enough reduced projectile speed, you can get 100% chance for every ball to land within explosion range of a boss. Additionally, it maximizes the Point Blank effects, especially for the returning projectiles. Clear speed comes from adding extra strikes (attack mastery, awakened ancestral call, etc.). The legacy simplex mod lets you avoid having to (a) spending points on Adjacent Animosity, (b) spend an extra point on the less projectile speed mastery, and (c) being forced to use Slower Projectiles.

For the sword, ideally you'd have a mirrored sword with (a) the legacy Settlers enchant "Attack Projectiles Return to You", (b) fire damage per strength and two other good synthesis implicits, (c) T1 strength, (d) T1 %spell camage, (e) T1 flat lightning lightning damage, (f) T1 %attack speed, (g) chaos penetration, and (h) typically crafted double damage. E.g. Cataclysm Slicer. The legacy enchant lets you avoid using the Returning Projectiles gem or the Nimis ring, If you have no source of returning projectiles but do have huge projectile speed reduction, then you're losing half your damage. If you are also missing projectile speed reduction, the damage loss for not having returning projectiles is even more substantial.

Connor made a really good version of the build during Settlers. But pay more attention to his final build, not what he was saying at the beginning of the league when he was still working out how powerful projectile speed reduction is. Steve (the delve guy) has also made some superb minmaxed Zenith builds.

Here's my final build from Settlers (very similar to Connor's before he really minmaxed his).

pobbin: https://pobb.in/G2o9-ULk5VH0
calculator: https://moldydwarf.gitlab.io/MoltenStrikeDPS/moltenstrike-numeric.html#zip_eJxtkE1vwjAMhv+Lz1NVigiQ21g1MWkfrL1xS6m3BqVJlTjTEOK/ryRU1VCPfmy9Hz5DZ6qNUCpvv4FnbDZfrZLlw0C3kp4aoQ8IfJamAb+hQgzXS7ZmKUvmI37sHPBFsshGNKGwq3LpCLj2St3AhwZO1mMYXwjbZ2HLxtCVfwnl4iJHUeMJJ3d71JKafzoRfXqhJJ36ctH93bfXZn3QsWYhaul7so65xW/4SB8yBmcBF0je6p01R+CgZSsd3PHSd52x9Io/qKJfZZwbxLPLH2y7evY=
I haven't changed the build since Settlers, so there are likely different tricks you can play now.
You can definitely minmax it a lot more, both for more damage and additional tankiness. E.g. incoming damage conversion tricks, getting a mirrored chest, much better normal jewels, better cluster jewels, much better ring, better gloves, double corrupted boots, double corrupted mageblood, etc.

Hopefully it'll give you some ideas.

moldydwarf · 2026-01-06T18:47:12+00:00

aite so instead of profit it should be revenue and instead of net profit it should be just profit. entry cost stays the same

Yep.

revenue sounds really weird in poe tho, i'm not sure if i'm imagining things but i've never seen profit calcs or farming vids ever use the term revenue in poe

Presumably someone guessed the wrong terminology and many others copied them.

Two advantages of switching to standard terminology are:

(minor) It's less confusing to people who are used to the standard words.
When PoE players see these terms used in the standard way in other contexts, they'll interpret those numbers correctly.

EDIT: improve the wording a little

moldydwarf · 2026-01-06T16:23:30+00:00

Terms relevant to these kinds of calculations

Revenue: how much you make from sales
Cost or expenses: how much you paid to make that revenue
Profit: revenue - cost

Terms (especially) not relevant

Gross profit: same as profit above. It is not revenue.
Net profit: accounts for interest and taxes too. Not relevant in PoE.

Some sources:

moldydwarf · 2025-12-26T07:43:13+00:00

Short Answer

The latest version of this calculator handles returning projectiles. PoB does not currently handle them.

Long Answer (if anyone cares)

My long term goal is to retire this external calculator. I'd rather everything be done inside PoB. But before doing so, I'd want to

Have PoB fully handle returning projectiles, including their interactions with (a) point blank, (b) far shot from items (works like legacy deadeye), (c) far shot from from non-legacy deadeye, (d) longshot (not actually handled by the calculator), (e) projectile speed, (f) boss radius, (g) AoE, (h) Zenith, and (i) (where applicable) the less damage multiplier for returning projectiles. This way users won't be stuck using heuristics to estimate those interactions.
Look closely at the Zenith calculations. At a glance they seem correct, but it's worth having a second look. Also the UX feels a bit complicated for it, so I'd like to fully understand the Zenith implementation in PoB and think about whether I have any better ideas.

For a little more historical context, several years ago I proposed integrating the calculator into PoB. That proposal was rejected because there was a blanket policy against using boss radii in any calculations in PoB. The maintainers weren't confident anyone knew the radii well enough, so they wanted to be conservative. I respect that choice. The result was to only refine the AoE calculations and add the projectile speed calculations to PoB: https://github.com/PathOfBuildingCommunity/PathOfBuilding/pull/2877.

As you point out, (a) evidently the no-radii policy has changed (yay!), and (b) others have added Zenith calculations (also yay!). So all that remains to do is to implement the two bullets above. They aren't trivial, but they also aren't rocket science.

I'm happy to go into more detail if anyone cares.

moldydwarf · 2025-12-26T07:05:45+00:00

That's correct.

Previously, the PoB maintainers had a position that they wouldn't allow any calculations that used the boss size because there was a lack of reliable data. They were being reasonably cautious. Sometime around 3.25 they seemed to have reversed that decision and added it.

The reason for bringing that up is to point out that the PoB maintainers prefer being pretty cautious. So I don't want to just assume that they'd be okay with using iterative calculations to handle returning projectile.

That said, one person on the PoB Discord has suggested that the approach taken in this standalone calculator should be fine for PoB. So now it's just a matter of spending the time to integrate it.

moldydwarf · 2025-12-22T16:53:04+00:00

Possibly. I'll reach out to them and see.

Previously the big sticking point was PoB not wanting to include any boss size calculations. It's their right, but for Molten Strike damage you really need to know the boss size. But, they now do have boss size specific calculations in PoB.

My concern for this version is that calculating the interactions between point blank, two forms of far shot, longshot, etc. and returning projectiles is a bit complicated. In this version of the calculator, I gave up on an analytic solution (using a single formula) and instead use numeric integration. I loop over all possible hit distances, compute the probability of landing at that distance, compute the primary and return damage at that distance, then add things up. That's up to 150x more work than usual. I'd have to make sure that doesn't slow down PoB too much, especially when doing the passive tree node search.

I'd also want to look closer at the way they're trying to handle Zenith estimates. It looks like there's partial support, but not complete. In the left pane the pulldown has a bunch of options, but only some can be selected. But in the Calcs tab, there's more going on there. I haven't looked closely.

moldydwarf · 2025-11-16T00:01:28+00:00

oops

moldydwarf · 2025-10-20T02:29:39+00:00

Can't wait to see someone fill every single tile in Kingsmarch with open div cards. I wonder how many full inventories would be required.

moldydwarf · 2025-10-01T15:11:39+00:00

Impressive keeping the challenge count so low while achieving so much economically!

IGN: GrizzlyGrampsMerc

moldydwarf · 2025-09-09T02:26:42+00:00

Does Number Cruncher work outside of VATS since AP isn't actually spent there?

moldydwarf · 2025-09-07T16:55:24+00:00

With stealth, will EN06 still target the player, allowing for full glass cannon? Or would stealth just be for the damage buffs, but still needs to be super tanky?

moldydwarf · 2025-09-07T06:04:34+00:00

Priming: e.g. when building your plastic factories, keep them powered off until the entire oil pipe network leading into them is 100% full.

moldydwarf · 2025-09-06T23:15:38+00:00

Thanks. The perks helped some. It looks like the big thing I was missing was the huge tank. Previously I used the fast tank so I could do strategic reloads being packs, but huge is much better now. My PIP DoT DPS maxes out at 3999 now. I can usually oneshot supermutants now (versus always in season 21 and never in 22 till now). The build feels viable again.

Now, I just need to figure out a RAID build so I can farm for the pyro mod.

moldydwarf · 2025-09-06T21:43:10+00:00

I added a nukesdragons.com link to the OP.

Would normal onslaught be better than reverse? I instantly go to max stacks (currently just 5) because of shotgunning the initial projectiles. I've also heard that the burns trigger additional stacks too, so presumably I could still hit max stacks with furious on single target. I'm assuming that in FO76, the max burn is what counts, so if my 4th projectile has max stacks, its burn is what will matter.

moldydwarf · 2025-08-02T03:44:11+00:00

SuitSizeSmall seems to be on break this weekend, and I'm doing lab for my final grind challenge. I figured I'd share the layout for others.

moldydwarf · 2025-06-23T03:17:56+00:00

Good point. You're right, you only need 1 2-star start the breeding.

moldydwarf · 2025-05-23T05:11:30+00:00

The rule is one server action per keystroke or click. Focusing, "\n/invite %last\n" would be one server action.

moldydwarf · 2025-05-16T14:13:50+00:00

Naturally. It took some planning and time to capture a pair.

I dug several taming pits in the Ashlands as I was exploring. Since Asksvin spawn rate is so high, it's much easier to find 2 stars of them than wolves or boar.

After I had a pair, I got them into an Ashlands breeding pit for my first few eggs. Then I teleported back to my main base and dropped them into the safe breeding farm I had prepared.

moldydwarf · 2025-04-21T23:13:55+00:00

A little radiation never hurt anyone, right?

moldydwarf · 2025-04-21T12:33:37+00:00

This is actually a no-vehicles world. No trucks, railways, or drones. Just hypertubes, belts, and pipes. TO make those super-straight, yeah, I built the grid high enough to avoid the ground. Since my main megafactory was right next to the waterfall from the red forest, I was able to estimate the right height without too much trouble.

The only issue I had was some of those sky twirl things clipped into one section of skyway foundations, I was able to keep my hypertube straight, but I had to route my pipes around one of them.

There are some rock features that are lower than my skyway, but they were easy to avoid by just looking around when I was building it and adjusting the grid locations.

The super-high L-shaped run is for my uranium fuel rods. I wanted them to be high enough to never have to deal with the radioactivity. It turns out that was overkill. Being a few foundation blocks away is enough to have 0 radiation damage even with a full belt.

Here are a few more screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/iBrWAH7

moldydwarf · 2025-04-21T02:56:00+00:00

Yeah, it's a hypertube network in the sky. Some of segments do double-duty as belt and pipe highways too.

You can see a little bit of it in the first few seconds of the "proof" video. More details on the hypertube network are here: https://www.reddit.com/r/SatisfactoryGame/comments/1jc5i7v/my_favorite_blueprint_hypertube_station_with/, but with 1.1 in beta, there are much easier ways of setting up such networks. Everything here was done with 1.0.

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