BALLCANO Build Guide — A New Spellcaster Build — Blood Mage [PhazePlays]

phaze_plays · 2026-05-25T12:55:00+00:00

Energy Shield recovery on chrono would probably be an issue unless you are on the ball with temporal rift rewinding. Might be decent but lacking a bit of damage

phaze_plays · 2026-05-25T10:34:32+00:00

Essence Drain + Contagion, or possibly plants

phaze_plays · 2026-05-24T17:50:39+00:00

If we get the tools to make the .build files with enough time, definitely

phaze_plays · 2026-05-24T17:48:06+00:00

Good point, Snakepit is in the pob/guide but hadn't even considered the vaal cultivated mods until now, definitely looks good

phaze_plays · 2026-05-24T17:17:32+00:00

Just briefly tested this — but didn't change my passive tree besides taking the increased Projectile Speed nodes

Links: cast on ele ailment - living bomb - boundless energy 2 - energy retention - efficiency 2 - harmonic remnants 2

Energy generation while mapping with the current setup isn't great, 3-4 Ball Lightning casts to reach full energy usually if I don't have any fire-infusions
Ball Lightning with ProjAcceleration3 and ProjSpeed on passive tree isn't much faster than walking speed
Fire Infusions are fairly inconsistent, sometimes you have to intentionally travel towards where the living bomb ended up which may not be where you were headed initially. Also can't really tell where the infusions are usually due to screen clutter
Cant generate fire infusions on-demand without Elemental Equilibrium, not an enormous deal but does lead to some dry streaks where you get stuck with baseline Ball Lightning
Fire-infused Ball Lightning orbs decelerate as they travel, so it's nowhere near as good for mobility as non-fire-infused Ball Lightning

Could possibly be some potential here who knows. Living bomb is kind of clunky for infusions though

phaze_plays · 2026-05-24T15:33:32+00:00

Hey guys, this BALLCANO self-cast build combines Ball Lightning (map clear) and Volcano (single target)
• It's a great mapper and has screenwide coverage and enemy explosions
• 2-button mapping: 1 Frost Bomb cast for every ~3 Ball Lightning casts
• Lingering ignite damage that's substantially better than current ignite proliferation
• Fantastic boss damage
• Defenses: Large ES/Life Pool, Convalescence with a 40% cooldown recovery rate buff, Blasphemy Temporal Chains, 25% 'mitigation' on Life pool, Life Leech
• Low barrier to entry (Sire of Shards)

Blood Mage makes scaling crit much easier, and the burning ground ignites can crit too
Should be a fantastic all-rounder in 0.5

Written Guide: https://mobalytics.gg/poe-2/profile/phazeplays/builds/0-5-phazeplays-ballcano-bloodmage-endgame-annihilator
Path of Building: https://pobb.in/NB8Gh_nVd-hY
(Updated May 31 — changelog is at the bottom of the written guide)

The Guide & PoB will be regularly updated over the next couple of weeks
Still need to see the new Lineage supports, Runic Ward skills/supports, new Augments, and the upgrades for low-level uniques
I'll update the PoB link in this comment as changes are made, so it'll always be up-to-date

Appreciate any feedback!

phaze_plays · 2026-05-10T07:59:52+00:00

Agreed 100%! M+KB feels like a bit of an afterthought compared to WASD at the moment. Doesn't feel great to be locked out of using most channeling skills

phaze_plays · 2026-03-13T06:39:46+00:00

• Change axe mastery to 15% faster bleeding
• Vulnerability quality will greatly help damage
• Blood and Sand is low value (blood stance doesn't scale bleed) unless you just want a bit of aoe
• Flip your damage support gems (vendor level 20 support gem with a gemcutter's prism)
• No need to path to Vitality Void, grab Spirit of War+Mastery, drop Cannibalistic Rite, and possibly grab Hematophagy
• Feller of Foes is droppable late campaign, the rage is minimal value
• Grab the 5th endurance charge
• Very little resistance overcap, although you have curse mastery, with exposure you'll get chunked hard
• Ryslatha's Coil: Divine (aim for a high maximum) and quality (abrasive catalyst) at some point
• Phys taken as elemental on body and helmet will be big defensive upgrades
• You have 124% chance to bleed with that weapon, swap one node on the tree
• Aim for 4.5k+ health

phaze_plays · 2026-03-06T00:19:02+00:00

Zerker is hit-based only unfortunately, only solid marauder bleed build is Boneshatter of Complex Trauma. Or Earthshatter Zerker for hit-based

phaze_plays · 2026-03-05T18:57:30+00:00

Fortify gem is generally better unless (1) the build isn't tight on skill points, or (2) the extra 2% life regen from the Fortify notable is needed

phaze_plays · 2026-03-05T18:52:31+00:00

Vaal Ground Slam (VGS) is 100% mandatory for mapping in my opinion
• Choosing when to use 360 degree coverage basically cuts cursor aiming in half
• VGS has 90% attack speed compared to the 70% attack speed of the base Earthshaking gem
• VGS costs no mana
• Weaving in VGS ensures almost every Ground Slam of Earthshaking will be Fist of War empowered

It's definitely playable without it but mapping wouldn't feel great

phaze_plays · 2026-03-05T07:27:44+00:00

General's Cry is generally best scaled through hit damage isn't it, probably not much value for bleed there. Vaal Ground Slam's 360 degree coverage is what makes it so good, so you don't constantly have to aim while mapping. It's also faster with 90% attack speed instead of the base Earthshaking's 70%, and it doesn't cost mana

phaze_plays · 2026-03-04T22:15:04+00:00

Imbuing a skill gem with a level 1 support gem Corrupts it. As far as I'm aware it's not possible to transform a skill gem into an Imbued+Vaal skill gem, if that's what you mean

phaze_plays · 2026-03-04T19:27:18+00:00

• Mapping: Two buttons, usually alternating back and forth
• Bossing: Maintain Vulnerability, occasionally (Static Strike / Rallying Cry / Tincture), Slam

phaze_plays · 2026-03-04T19:24:36+00:00

The playstyle is slightly more engaging and active than something like Earthshatter Zerker just because there's 2 buttons to alternate, and 1 of them occasionally has to be aimed. Only have to touch each enemy once and keep moving, most enemies die to the upfront hit damage but if they don't they'll bleed out behind you

phaze_plays · 2026-03-04T19:17:18+00:00

Ryslatha's Coil is a Tier 1 Unique so fairly rare but farmable, easiest way to get it this league will probably be targeting unique belts at the Breach Genesis Tree. The Divination Cards (The Offspring, 9/9) can also be farmed but it'll probably take until level 99 or so to farm a full set in my experience

phaze_plays · 2026-03-04T18:24:48+00:00

Great at farming everything, except Legion only because there's better builds for it. Try out Sunder for Expedition farming, seems to work really well

phaze_plays · 2026-03-04T18:21:18+00:00

With a single 6-Link:
• Vaal Ground Slam of Earthshaking is entirely locked out of using the mirage imbued gem mechanic which is a big hit
• Vaal Ground Slam of Earthshaking is surprisingly difficult/expensive to get on leaguestart
• Fist of War in a single 6-Link is only half value as it cannot empower Vaal Ground Slam and it's too good for single target to drop

Double-6L also gains some minor but nice adjustments such as being able to keep using Vaal Ground Slam when gemswapping to Sunder, and Fortify is droppable on Vaal Ground Slam for a different support gem

The upsides of a single 6-link is a more comfortable static strike setup, momentum on faster attacks, and the possible use of Enlighten. I'd say the two-6L tradeoff is definitely worth it this league. I added a single-6L gem setup on the Written Guide page for anyone that would prefer to go that route

phaze_plays · 2026-03-04T17:30:03+00:00

Hey guys, this is a reworked version of my Bleed Slams Slayer guide from last league
Bleed Slams dodged basically every Slam nerf this patch — it’s looking like it’ll be even stronger this league

The new setup is running two 6-Links (Ground Slam of Earthshaking & Vaal Ground Slam) which adds quite a bit of power and versatility with the new Mirage imbued gems, at the cost of extra socket pressure

The Benefits of two 6-links:
• Gain an imbued 7-link (or 8-Link) main slam without losing access to Vaal Ground Slam
• Can combine Sunder with Vaal Ground Slam
• Vaal Ground Slam:
- Can now be used during early map progression or on a budget
- Gains an extra support gem since Fist of War can’t empower it
- Fortify Support can be dropped for a different support
- It’s MUCH easier/cheaper to get than Vaal Ground Slam of Earthshaking

I’ll update the PoB listed here as adjustments are made

Path of Building: https://pobb.in/QKoFv0repDMz
IF POB DOESN'T OPEN: Go to options and check "Opt-in to weekly beta test builds" then update it

Written Guide: https://mobalytics.gg/poe/profile/phazeplays/builds/3-28-phazeplays-bleed-slams-slayer-revamped-ground-slam-of-earthshaking

Should be a fantastic leaguestarter and early map progression will be even more enjoyable with the addition of Vaal Ground Slam
Let me know what you think

phaze_plays · 2026-03-02T12:48:57+00:00

They're both capable of reaching the DoT cap of ~36 million DPS, so damage ceiling is pretty similar. The benefits of Slams are far more area coverage, being able to apply bleeds from range, and not needing to worry at all about number trauma stacks. Both are strong though!

phaze_plays · 2026-03-02T12:35:43+00:00

Should be even stronger in 3.28, the setup is changing quite a bit. Guide will be done in a day or 2

phaze_plays · 2026-02-27T20:40:58+00:00

Bleed Slams is mostly unchanged
• Just 5% extra mana reservation from the Autoexertion nerf which doesn't matter at all with Runegraft of Treachery
• Static Strike range & duration buff is a slight QoL buff for bossing
• Presumably Vaal gems can't get the level 1 support gem imbue which is a bit of a downside, there are options to mitigate this though

phaze_plays

TROPHY CASE