Natgol

So I am thinking of making a build entirely around molten shell. If anyone knows the answers to these questions, it'd help some of the trial and error i'd have to do!
1-Is molten shell considered a projectile? I'm wondering if like point blank or iron grip would affect it.
2-Are there any aura's that could up the damage of molten shell? I'm thinking the only useful aura's with this build would be determination, vitality, grace - obviously these wouldn't help motlen shell directly, but at least they'd help the build in general.
3-Besides iron will, is there anything that would help molten shell damage? IE: added fire damage,
4-Would it be possible to have multiple iron will gems that stack the molten shell damage?

Posted by
on Jan 29, 2013, 5:47:27 PM

1. not a projectile
2. no aura will increase the damage dealt of this spell
3. concentrated effect
4. no

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Posted by
dzordzo
on Jan 29, 2013, 5:55:56 PM

Above poster hit some of the major questions.
I did a build around this a while back in CB. In addition to iron will / concentrated area of effect, Chance to Ignite is AWESOME with Molten Shell. I believe the ideal setup is something like Molten Shell / Iron Will / Concentrated Area / Chance to Ignite / Elemental Proliferation
If you have the luxury of a 6L then adding Life Leach or Item quantity/rarity would be awesome as well.

Posted by
thepmrc
on Jan 29, 2013, 6:10:31 PM

Thanks for the answers guys. Would critical strikes gem work on molten shell? Or is that a melee only type ability? What about incresed fire damage passives?

Last edited by kallell on Jan 29, 2013, 6:43:22 PM

Posted by
on Jan 29, 2013, 6:31:51 PM

Some curses like flammability and punishment work well with it ,too.

Posted by
on Jan 29, 2013, 6:39:00 PM

Molten Shell deals damage whenever a certain amount of physical damage is prevented by armour, endurance charges, and/or blocking. To get Shell to trigger more often, prevent more physical damage.
1) Get endurance charges with skills like Enduring Cry and Warlord's Mark. Get more charges by taking extra charge passives on the skill tree when available.
2) Maximize blocking with Tempest Shield. Get block chance nodes on the skill tree.
3) Maximize armour with Determination aura. Get armour passives on the skill tree.
4) Getting the Inner Force passive cluster will increase the armour buffs from Shell and Determination significantly, while also giving 1% more block chance from Tempest Shield
5) For the most part, avoid Evasion, missed attacks do not count as physical damage prevention as far as Shell goes
Naturally, doing more damage per activation with Concentrated Effect and fire/spell/elemental passives is good too. I believe all sorts of supports, including Added Fire Damage and Increased Critical Strike Chance, also work just fine with Molten Shell. However, hitting the 5 points above increases overall Shell DPS and makes you tankier.
Another suggestion: Elemental Equilibrium. Try keeping fire damage off your primary attack, best would be a cold-only strike because Tempest Shield triggers would automatically reduce enemy resists against your cold attack, and both would reduce resists against Molten Shell.

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Last edited by Rachel_GGG on Sep 31, 2018 0:61:72 PM

Last edited by ScrotieMcB on Jan 29, 2013, 6:50:04 PM

Posted by
ScrotieMcB
on Jan 29, 2013, 6:43:16 PM

'

Molten Shell deals damage whenever a certain amount of physical damage is prevented by armour, endurance charges, and/or blocking. To get Shell to trigger more often, prevent more physical damage.
1) Get endurance charges with skills like Enduring Cry and Warlord's Mark. Get more charges by taking the extra charge passives on the skill tree.
2) Maximize blocking with Tempest Shield. Get block chance nodes on the skill tree.
3) Maximize armour with Determination aura. Get armour passives on the skill tree.
4) Getting the Inner Force passive cluster will increase the armour buffs from Shell and Determination significantly, while also giving 1% more block chance from Tempest Shield
5) For the most part, avoid Evasion, missed attacks do not count as physical damage prevention as far as Shell goes
Naturally, doing more damage per activation with Concentrated Effect and fire/spell/elemental passives is good too. I believe all sorts of supports, including Added Fire Damage and Increased Critical Strike Chance, also work just fine with Molten Shell. However, hitting the 5 points above increases overall Shell DPS and makes you tankier.
Another suggestion: Elemental Equilibrium. Try keeping fire damage off your primary attack, best would be a cold-only strike because Tempest Shield triggers would automatically reduce enemy resists against your cold attack, and both would reduce resists against Molten Shell.

So would inner force increase the damage output as well? Or just the armor received from the spell?

Posted by
on Jan 29, 2013, 6:49:29 PM

'

So would inner force increase the damage output as well? Or just the armor received from the spell?

Not directly; Inner Force doesn't increase Shell's fire damage per on or its damage-to-trigger. However, more armour = more triggers = more damage.

A shining light in a sea of stagnant bong water.
RussiaGate breakdown: http://archive.is/W81DZ#p21979912
Last edited by Rachel_GGG on Sep 31, 2018 0:61:72 PM

Last edited by ScrotieMcB on Jan 29, 2013, 6:52:44 PM

Posted by
ScrotieMcB
on Jan 29, 2013, 6:51:21 PM

Hmm
So i think i could tweak this, but if passives DO affect the fire damage from molten shell, this is a build worth looking at. I'm not convinced that iron reflexes will give you that much armor -- but i'm not sure what kind of evasion you are sitting at base around level 50?
Anyway, NOT using that passive, you could theoretically run this, going tanky caster. You'd probably have to pick up some fire spells to use along the way. I'm not sure if the endurance charges would be worth speccing in to either.
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEBAnEDxgSzBS0GDgn2DjwUIBRNFHEWbxkuGYUaOBpsJKolrSftKLUpLilPKo0t0jbFNtg26TpSOtg64TwtPfxAoEz_TdhN41BHUFBUSVWpVcZWBFcNWGNfP2BLYIhhUmP9erh65nrvfLiBb4KbhmCIG4jxjHaMz49GkFWRzpeFl7Sdrp48ns2fPp_LogCmV6cIpzCnhKlurFmsuq6Tr2y18rc-ud277cT2xYrGrsbYz2XQ0NIh1HzUj9gk2WHjauQi51LnY-dq7DjsVe8O707vhfAf8WzyRfZI_Qv-Cv6P
another version, more block and included inner will
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEBAnEDxgSzBS0GDgkzCfYMfQ48EH8S4RQgFE0UcRkuGYUaOBpsJKolrSftKLUpLilPKo0t0jbFNtg26TpSOtg64TwtPfxAoEz_TdhN41BHUFBUSVWpVgRXDVhjXz9gS2CIYVJj_Xq4euZ673y4gW-Cm4ZgiPGMdozPkFWRzpeFl7Sdrp48ns2fPp_LogCi6qZXpwinMKeEqW6sWay6rpOvbLXytz64k7ndu-3E9sWKxp7GrsbY0TbSIdR81I_YJNlh42rkIudS52Pnauw47FXvDu9O8B_xbPJF9kj-Cv6P
with 5L or 6L armor you'd socket:
Molten shell
Iron will
Elemental Proliferation
Concentrated Area
Chance to Ignite
life leach / increased critcal strikes / increased aoe
Other spells:
Flammability
enduring cry
tempest shield
Some castable fire spell(s)
Determination / vitality aura's

Last edited by kallell on Jan 29, 2013, 8:01:19 PM

Posted by
on Jan 29, 2013, 7:51:46 PM

Your builds are go way out into the duelist region for only some hp regen and armor. That is very costly. Here is a build that is a bit more diverse:

It takes advantage of the Templar and Witch increased area of effect nodes, which are very powerful in conjunction with Molten Shield. Also you skipped Pyromania (30% increased burn damage) which is insane since Molten Shield will be dealing a ton of fire damage later. This correlates to more burn damage (it is based on how much fire damage you dealt for the attack that burned them). I also choose to take the 'life on kill' nodes because 20 hp for each kill will be a huge heal after you kill like 5-10 guys with 1 blast of Molten.
Now obviously no one expects to have 110'ish points so this build is a bit more on par with what you could expect if you make it through Merciless:

Hope that helps!

Posted by
on Jan 29, 2013, 10:24:07 PM