Gear & Crafting

Poison Spark Pathfinder Gear Progression, Important Milestones, Budget Items, Jewels & Crafting.

Core Items

Weapon

Item: Elemental Sceptre

Your weapon provides +1 to level of all Lightning Spell Skill Gems and a large amount of flat Lightning damage to Spells which is converted to Chaos damage thanks to Spark's alt quality. Look for Cast Speed for smoother gameplay and damage over time multiplier granting more damage.

Shield

Item: Atziri's Reflection

Your Shield offers Evasion and Energy Shield, Resistance, and Movement Speed. Additionally it provides several unique bonuses, being Unaffected by Curses means you suffer no negative effects from being Cursed. Increased Effect of your Curses lowers enemy Chaos resistance, and increases the length of time where they are affected by your Poisons.

While Atziri's Reflection is best in slot, if you're lacking Spell Suppression or Ailment Avoidance you can temporarily use a Rare shield instead.

Helmet

Item: Chimeric Crown

The Helmet provides you with Mana Reservation Efficiency, Physical Damage taken as Cold Damage, Chaos Resistance, Life, and Energy Shield. You can craft a helmet using a fractured Hubris Circlet obtained by Delving. Then spam Deafening Essence of Loathing until you hit Chaos Resistance. You can use Eldritch Chaos Orbs or Metacrafting with Veiled Chaos Orbs to hit Life or Energy Shield as a Prefix, then craft the other. You do not need a helmet that's as good as the example. If you want a cheaper option and don't plan to fight Uber Bosses, you can swap things around a bit to use The Devouring Diadem.

The Labyrinth enchant you need for Poison Spark Pathfinder is: Spark fire 3 Additional Projectiles.

Body Armor

Item: Cloak of Flame

Your best bet is to wear a Unique in this slot. This chest gives Fire Resistance, 40% of Physical Damage taken as Fire (which is great because it applies to Physical damage over time such as bleeding!) Other Body Armor options offer damage, but this build has damage to spare so it's best to focus on defenses. Because Cloak of Flame has no Life modifiers on it you can take advantage of the Life Mastery for 15% increased Maximum Life.

Alternatively if you have the budget for a Corrupted chest piece, look for one or more of the following;

• +1 to Level of Socketed Gems
• +2 to Level of Socketed Projectile Gems
• +2 to Level of Socketed Duration Gems

Gloves

Item: Asenath's Gentle Touch

Your Glove slot provides Curse automation and explody effects for a bit of extra clear. Asenath's are great while mapping but you can switch to Hands of the High Templar for more Corrupted implicits while bossing. Be sure to get a pair with Curse Enemies with Despair on Hit.

Alternatively if you have the budget for multiple Corruptions, look for one or more of the following;

• % Increased Cast Speed
• +1 to Level of Socketed Gems (and place your Auras in your gloves, do not use with Diadem)
• +% to Spell Critical Strike Chance (for higher Elemental Overload uptime)

Boots

Item: Death Sole

Boots are a key source of Spell Suppression, and chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments. Start with a Fractured Suppression base, roll the suffixes with Deafening Essence of Loathing, then use a Wild Bristle Matron, or Suffixes Can't Be Changed combined with Veiled Chaos Orb or Aisling to obtain Life and Movement Speed prefixes. The below guide walks you through the boots step by step, just remember to start with Fractured 14% Chance to Suppress Spell Damage instead of Fractured Chaos Resistance.

Amulet

Item:Ashes of the Stars

The importance of this amulet cannot be understated. It's as core to your build as Phantasmal Spark itself. Make sure you have +30% to Quality of All Skill Gems so your Spark's damage is fully converted from Lightning to Chaos. Having 19% increased Reservation Efficiency of Skills makes the rest of your gearing easier, but isn't strictly mandatory. Remember to anoint your Amulet with Steeped in the Profane for more damage.

Rings

Item: Corpse Spiral & Dragon Knot

Rings are a great source of Attributes or Resistances and these are stats are generally interchangeable with your Belt and Boots. The Expedition vendor, Rog, can reliably rings with great Suffixes, So it shouldn't be too expensive to craft or buy a good base. After that look for Life and and an open prefix, or simply an open prefix so you can do the following; craft: "Suffixes Cannot be Changed" on the crafting bench or by using a Wild Bristle Matron beast and proceed to using a Veiled Chaos Orb to gain a veiled prefix. Before unveiling, block Mana with the Crafting Bench and look for Life as your unveil. To finish the ring, craft Non-Channeling Skills Have -7 to Total Mana Cost. If you want some extra damage craft a Fractured +16% Cast Speed Ring with Essences of Delirium for extra Damage over Time Multiplier. Alternatively if you have a good ring with an open Prefix and no influence, slam it with a Crusader's Exalted Orb to add % Increased Maximum Energy Shield, or Gain # Life Per Enemy Hit With Spells.

Belt

Item: Tempest Trap

Your Belt is critical to maintain 100% uptime on your flasks. Look for a belt with 10-20% Reduced Flask Charges Used (you may need to Divine this if the roll is low). You also want Increased Flask Effect Duration, or Increased Flask Charges Gained. Try to find a belt with 70+ Maximum Life, it's better to buy a Belt like this than attempt to craft it yourself. If the belt you purchased has no influence try slamming it with a Hunter's Exalted Orb for +% Increased Maximum Life or % Increased Chaos Damage.

Flasks

Flasks are an especially important part of your gear because they provide the Poison Spark Pathfinder with a massive amount of defense and damage. Roll, use and enchant all your flasks following these combinations:

• Saturated Eternal Life Flask of the Antitoxin
• Progenesis
• Quicksilver Flask
• Taste of Hate
• Topaz Flask

Enchant your Utility flasks with Instilling Orbs:

• Used when Charges Reach Full

Ensure your Silver flask has 1 of these prefixes:

• +(46–50)% Increased Charge Recovery
• (26–28)% Reduced Charges Per Use

Ensure your Topaz flask has this prefix:

• 27–23% Reduced Duration (Lower is better)
• 25% Increased Effect

Have 1 of each of these suffixes:

• % increased Elemental Resistances During Effect
• 25% Reduced Mana Cost of Skills During Effect

Your Unique flasks, Progenesis and Taste of Hate provide a massive amount of defenses. Having a bit of recoup helps mitigate the degenerative effects of Progenesis meaning you have to use your Life Flask less.

Jewels

Watcher's Eye

Item: Watcher's Eye

This Unique Jewel can grant a boost to both your defenses and damage. Since this build utilizes a defensive offensive Aura there is a wide range of Watcher's Eye mods you can look for. It is recommended to look for at least 1 damage stat and 1 defensive/utility stat listed below:

• +% to Damage over Time Multiplier while affected by Malevolence
• +% of Damage is Leeched as Life while affected by Vitality
• Gain Life for each Enemy Hit while affected by Vitality

Ancestral Vision

Item: Ancestral Vision

Use this Jewel to cap your Elemental Avoidance by using Spell Suppression. Stormshroud could be used instead but Ancestral Vision tends to be a bit cheaper. While Ancestral Vision means generic Ailment Avoidance on your boots, you can easily use Deafening Essence of Torment to roll Shock Avoidance on boots instead.

Impossible Escape & Brutal Restraint

The exact version and position of both your Brutal Restraint and Impossible Escape is crucial. There are many different versions of each item and it's easy to use the wrong one if you're not paying attention!

Cluster Jewels

The Dragon Vessel and Honour Heart Cluster Jewels grant utility and damage as well as an extra jewel socket to place your Medium Clusters and rare jewels into. The best cluster jewel type for the build grants 12% increased Chaos Damage. Get 3 Notable, 8 Passive Large Clusters with the following;

• Unwaveringly Evil for Chaos Damage .
• Unholy Grace for Chaos Damage and Cast Speed.
• Dark Ideation (don't allocate this).

For your Medium Clusters use 2 clusters enchanted with grants 12% increased Chaos Damage over Time, look for 2-notable clusters with Flow of Life and another Chaos Damage notable like Wicked Pall or Circling Oblivion. Also use 2 clusters with 6% increased Flask Effect Duration. Look for 2-notable clusters which have Peak Vigour for Life, combined with Brewed for Potency to get extra Flask uptime.

Your Cluster Jewel Suffixes are your best way to get those last few Attribute points! Look for Medium Clusters like Fulgent Vessel and Fulgent Wound

Rare Jewels

Rare jewels are a great way to gain additional damage as well as some life and any other resistances you might need to cap. You can use the search function in Path of Building to seek out the best jewels for the build after you've imported your character. You must have the implicit Corrupted Blood cannot be inflicted on you on one of your jewels. Depending on your Ashes of the Stars you may need jewels with the implicit or explicit % increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills (check this in Path of Building before making purchases). Make sure you have at least 1 jewel similar to this example with Chance to Poison on Hit; Chimeric Ruin. (If you can't find one drop Curse Effect for Chance to Poison with Spells within radius of your Impossible Escape).

Cobalt, Viridian, or Crimson Jewel

• % increased Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier
• % increased Damage over Time Multiplier
• % increased maximum Life
• Damaging ailments deal Damage % Faster
• % increased Poison Damage
• % increased Damage
• % increased Chaos Damage
• % increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills (as needed)
• to Strength/Dexterity/Intelligence (as needed)

Abyssal Jewel (Socketed in your Stygian Vise)

• Corrupted Blood cannot be inflicted on you
• + to maximum Life
• #-# Added Lightning Damage to Spells
• #-# Added Lightning Damage to Spells while holding a Shield
• Increased Damage over Time while holding a Shield
• % to Resistances (as needed)
• to Strength/Dexterity/Intelligence (as needed)