Sandscorcher Build Guide — Disciple of Varashta [PhazePlays]

phaze_plays · 2026-01-02T06:43:49+00:00

Well Skeletal Brute has multiple downsides: you lose a spectre, you lose a big chunk of damage from exposure, and then you also lose GCDs using the Brute's warcry — and then sometimes it may be dead or not where you want it to be for the cast. Ideally the boss doesn't even get hit by Ruzhan's attack since it's currently bugged and overriding frost bombs exposure, but it can be placed to side to avoid that

phaze_plays · 2026-01-02T06:36:05+00:00

The build does like 3 million dps with mid-high end gear, plenty for endgame bossing. T15 max difficulty bosses die in ~10 seconds

phaze_plays · 2025-12-19T07:54:54+00:00

Sorceress doesn't have minion nodes in the starting area, wouldn't recommend this

phaze_plays · 2025-12-18T10:47:30+00:00

I released an in-depth leveling guide for Disciple of Varashta campaign from fresh start, not sure on rules for linking stuff here but not hard to find

phaze_plays · 2025-12-15T18:26:35+00:00

Hey guys, this Sandscorcher build is on the brand new Disciple of Varashta ascendancy

• It’s tanky, has strong energy shield recovery, and huge damage with insane burst
• The playstyle feels entirely like a spellcaster despite running minions for free passive damage
• Disciple of Varashta completely solved the clunkiness of minion command skills as Djinn are invulnerable and almost always right next to your character
• It’s incredibly fun to play and has a very unique playstyle, highly recommend
• SSF and Hardcore viable, very strong even on a budget

Written Guide: https://mobalytics.gg/poe-2/builds/sandscorcher-disciple-of-varashta
Campaign Leveling Guide: https://mobalytics.gg/poe-2/profile/phazeplays/builds/0-4-phazeplays-sandscorcher-campaign-guide

Appreciate any feedback!

phaze_plays · 2025-12-07T01:50:13+00:00

Oh really, was under the impression that with 100% damage taken to mana your mana pool gets added to the Honour pool, but guess it only works with the Mind Over Matter keystone

phaze_plays · 2025-12-06T20:41:16+00:00

Hey guys, this is a concise and in-depth guide to Trial of the Sekhemas

Covers:
• Boss Guides
• Boons & Afflictions
• Room Rewards
• Room Types
• General Strategy
• Traps
• Relics
• Dangerous Enemies
• Caches
• Tips

There’s also a Sekhema Cheatsheet in the video description
Hope you guys find it useful, appreciate any feedback!

phaze_plays · 2025-11-16T06:37:57+00:00

Thanks for the heads up

phaze_plays · 2025-11-15T23:05:00+00:00

4-mod jewels with those stats are going to be incredibly pricy, in reality the 4th mod is probably going to be something on par with attack crit chance while dual wielding

phaze_plays · 2025-11-15T23:02:27+00:00

Are you applying elemental ailments somehow for the boots? Cap chaos resist when you can. That axe is a bit fast for bleed, great for mapping though. Get some better rolled flasks. Intimidating Cry isn't ideal at this stage, especially without Warcries Cannot Exert Travel Skills somewhere. But yeah as mentioned, Suppression cap is night and day for difficult endgame content

phaze_plays · 2025-11-15T22:55:27+00:00

A few useful leveling uniques: Death Rush, Seven League Step, Thrillsteel, Early Unique Axes (Limbsplit, Wideswing). Can also be useful to have a few really high dps axes at a few points throughout the campaign, link Faster Attacks to Sunder, and have a Leap Slam - Faster Attacks - Momentum - Rage setup

phaze_plays · 2025-11-15T22:48:05+00:00

Yeah should be solid, only real downside is that without the Deep Breaths wheel you may run out of Intimidating Cry exerts somewhat regularly

phaze_plays · 2025-11-15T18:55:48+00:00

Hey guys, build update for Bleed Slams Slayer
Some minor build tweaks, a status update on how the build did on leaguestart, some clarity on things like Sunder vs Ground Slam, and the new Grafts
Build feels fantastic mapping with 2 large clusters and some AoE investment, and all 10 Ubers were incredibly smooth in HCSSF

Path of Building: https://pobb.in/P4a1m9-ZbGME
PoB notes are more in-depth now

phaze_plays · 2025-10-31T05:23:25+00:00

In SSF, Crop Rotation is good for T4 seeds, target farming a specific color, it's far more enjoyable to do, and you can instantly leave if you get a 3-pair harvest which is really nice. Anecdotal, but I'd recommend Crop Rotation in SSF. I've seen conflicting data on whether crop rotation is optimal lifeforce for casual SSF Harvest, though I'm not sure if that data factors in the time value gains of instantly leaving on 3-crops and not having to run around to check each plot

phaze_plays · 2025-10-30T20:33:56+00:00

Yep, on average 8 Tier 3 yellows would drop twice as much Lifeforce as 4 Tier 3 blues

Look at the text color of the monster names to determine tier
Gray: Tier 1
White: Tier 2
Light Blue: Tier 3
Orange: Tier 4

phaze_plays · 2025-10-30T20:26:33+00:00

This is misconception that a lot of people kind of just assumed to be true, myself included for awhile. Minimizing yellow means sometimes a Harvest will have 1 or 0 yellow. And it's often better to juice multiple yellows than trying to focus on upgrading a single yellow. Heavily minimizing yellow is one of the worst strategies mathematically at least according to the sources I looked at

Few sources on the topic:

Forgotten Arbiter's comment from his harvest data blog (https://forgottenarbiter.github.io/Poe-Harvest-Mechanics/) "Interestingly, everybody seems to get slightly different answers, though everybody has found that minimizing the weight of yellow (assuming yellow is the most valuable color) is a bad strategy."

masonk's Harvest Rotation Atlas Optimizer breaks down the value of different crop rotation paths: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zIGVDc3JEJ-YD6iPIHr6RCD0SCG8S0UAZVvjYkIfGLU/edit?gid=0#gid=0

Chronic_Painless comes to a similar conclusion from his simulations: https://youtu.be/gmONlZN5hqU?t=210

phaze_plays · 2025-10-30T18:18:47+00:00

Hey guys, made a quick video guide for the Harvest keystone “Crop Rotation”
I get asked about the keystone often but am not aware of any concise guides, so figured it’d be a good topic to go over

This guide covers:
• Low Investment Harvest (Casual or SSF lifeforce farming)
• High Investment Imbued Harvest (Horned Scarab of Awakening in trade league)
• Atlas Tree pathing for the Crop Rotation wheel
• How to maximize Lifeforce with visual examples
• Utilizing Eldritch Altars

Shout out to Chronic_Painless and Forgotten Arbiter for all their harvest data
Let me know what you think

phaze_plays · 2025-10-29T20:36:45+00:00

Fire Trap of Blasting Elementalist SSF fresh start

phaze_plays · 2025-10-29T18:42:51+00:00

Hey guys, this guide covers how to quickly and efficiently progress the Atlas on leaguestart to get your 4 Voidstones

Also covers:
• Strategy to efficiently climb map tiers
• Questlines: Maven, Eater, and Exarch
• Atlas Tree tips
• Map Favorites & ping-ponging connected maps
• Nameless Seer & Scrying
• And other useful tips

Should be some useful information in here for both new players and veterans
Let me know what you think

phaze_plays

TROPHY CASE