Fireball Blood Mage Leveling Guide

Act 1

Uncut Skill Gem I or II (Cut in order)

1. Spark
   • This is your main damaging ability throughout Act 1 and Act 2.
2. Flame Wall
   • When any projectile skill passes through the Flame Wall it deals additional Fire damage. Always use Flame Wall before casting Spark, and make sure you position it between you and the enemy so that the spark projectiles become empowered.
   • Support it with Fortress to form a circle making it easier for sparks to move through.
3. Frost Bomb
   • Deals a massive amount of cold damage and freezes your enemies. Use it on cooldown when fighting tougher enemies and bosses.

Use any leftover Uncut Skill Gem II that you drop to level up Spark, Flame Wall and Frost Bomb in that order.

Support Gems (Cut in order)

1. Pierce for Spark
2. Arcane Tempo for Spark
3. Fortress for Flame Wall
4. Spell Cascade for Frost Bomb
5. Save your remaining Uncut Support Gems for Spirit Gem IV

Uncut Spirit Gem IV

1. Raging Spirits
   • Activate it by opening your skill gem menu and Right Click the skill icon left of the skill name. To see if it's active check if your Spirit shows 0/30 and the Raging Spirits icon swirls.

Support Gems (Cut in order)

1. Persistence for Raging Spirits
2. Save your remaining Uncut Support Gems for Skill Gem VII skills

At this point use any leftover Uncut Skill Gem II that you drop to level up Spark, Flame Wall, Frost Bomb and Raging Spirits in that order.

Act 2

Uncut Skill Gem VII or VIII (Cut in order)

1. At the very end of Act 2 and the start of Act 3, acquire two Uncut Skill Gem IX or X
2. Pick Fireball and Frost Wall.
   • Support Fireball with Scattershot and Unleash.
   • Support Frost Wall with Spell Cascade and Icicle, this is important to one-shot the Frost Wall.
   • Use Fireball to destroy Frost Wall causing a big explosion of fireballs and ice explosions.
3. Support Frost Bomb with Magnified Effect
   • Use Frost Bomb to apply Exposure, significantly reducing enemies' cold resistance.
4. Remove Spark, Flame Wall and Orb of Storms.

Support Gems (Cut in order)

Check if you have missed any of the recommended gems before heading into Act 3.

From here you may use any level 1 Uncut Support Gem to liberally fill your remaining skill sockets however you see fit. Check the skill slider above for ideas.

Act 3

Act 3 gives you access to Uncut Support Gem II, substantially increasing the amount of support gem options available to you.

Tip: Make sure to pick up the guaranteed Lesser Jeweller's Orb in the Sandswept Marsh that can be found in a chest in a small encampment at the edge of the layout. Don't use it for now and keep it for later!

Uncut Spirit Gem of any tier once at 60+ Spirit

1. Cast on Freeze
   • This is the core of this build. It allows you to automate Cold Snap by casting it anytime you freeze an enemy.
   • Use Lesser Jeweller's Orb on Cast on Freeze to increase the amount Support Gem Sockets to 3.
   • Put Cold Snap in the first Support Gem Socket of Cast on Freeze.
   • Support it with Spell Echo and Concentrated Effect.
2. To check if you have missed any of the permanent Spirit bonuses you acquire during your campaign, check out our Permanent Stats From The Campaign Guide.

Uncut Skill Gem XI

1. Comet
   • Replace Cold Snap in your Cast on Freeze setup with Comet.
   • Replace Concentrated Effect support with Impetus once you allocate Meta Skills gain 8% increased Energy. This allows you to trigger Comet with every instance of freeze.
   • Use Inspiration for easier mana and life sustain.

Act 1 and 2 Cruel

Continue leveling Comet, Fireball, Frost Wall and Frost Bomb with Uncut Skill Gems.

Act 3 Cruel

1. Pick up the second guaranteed Lesser Jeweller's Orb in the Sandswept Marsh that can be found in a chest in a small encampment at the edge of the layout.
   • Support Fireball with Wildshards.
2. After defeating the Boss in the Azak Bog for +40 permanent spirit support your Life Remnants with Vitality and Cannibalism. Life Remnants is your ascendancy skill on the Blood Mage, and it can be supported with gems.
3. Once you find a source of +Spirit on your Amulet or Body Armour use Blasphemy
   • Support it with Temporal Chains and Ritualistic Curse.
   • Replace Vitality if needed.

Congratulations, you've finished the campaign gem progression of the Fireball Blood Mage Leveling Build and your links are properly set up to tackle your first Waystones.

• The 8% Energy recovery is crucial to your Comet triggering on every freeze!
• As soon as you can, Mana and Life on kill jewels are extremely helpful for sustaining!
• Once you get Heavy Frost, you ignore resistances.
  • This means effects like Frost Bomb no longer make enemies more vulnerable to your cold damage.
  • However, this also means you no longer need to worry about cursing or using exposure and it helps the consistency.

• By far the best way to get better gear in the campaign is to check the Vendor in Town each time you level up! As vendors change their offerings based on your level this is an excellent way to find extra upgrades.
• Prioritize +#% to Fire, Cold and Lightning Resistance as well as +# to Maximum Life on your gear.
• Most of the damage you take during the campaign outside of Boss/Rare encounters is Physical Damage. Small amount of strength allows you to equip some Armour based pieces of equipment for additional survivability. Cloak of Flame helps a lot if you can get your hands on one.
• Look for a Wand with + Levels of Cold Spell Skills or + Levels of All Spell Skills. You increase your DPS by looking for the following stats, sorted by order of importance:
  • + Levels of Cold Spell Skills or + Levels of All Spell Skills
  • Gain % of Damage As Extra Cold Damage
  • Gain % of Damage As Extra Lightning or Fire Damage
  • %# increased Spell or Cold Damage
  • % increased Freeze Buildup
  • % increased Critical Hit Chance For Spells

• Use a Shield with %increased block for increased survivability. Block chance applies to both attack and spell block making it very powerful, and giving you the Raise Shield ability to help when you get surrounded or block boss abilities.
• A great source is checking vendors occasionally for promising bases to craft on with Orbs of Transmutation, Orbs of Augmentation, Regal Orbs, Exalted Orbs, Chaos Orbs and Essences.
• To finish off your item use one or two Artificer's Orb and socket defensive Runes like Body Rune or Glacial Rune.
• If you are still struggling check out our Survival Guide for additional useful information!

When should I swap from Spark to Fireball and Frost Wall Spells?

You can swap to Fireball and Frost Wall at the end of Act 2 and early Act 3, once you find 2 level 9 Uncut Skill Gems. Make sure you have both before you swap, as they work together!

I struggle with my attributes, what should I do?

If you follow the build guide the attribute you need the most for your skills is intelligence. Pick it on your passive tree while traveling though the highway nodes and this should be enough to use all of you skills. If you want to equip some equipment that requires small amounts of strength or dexterity respec some of the attribute points. Make sure to still keep enough to be able to use all of you abilities. Using items with very high strength and dexterity is not recommended.Ingenuity provides 25 Intelligence and solves intelligence pressure on your build.

I keep dying! Is there any way to solve my defense?

On normal difficulty there are not that many defensive options for Witch. Your best friend is scaling life and resistances. With some investment into strength you can use some armor bases for additional physical damage mitigation, or use Cloak of Flame.

Why doesn't my Cast On Freeze always proc Comet when I freeze enemies?

Cast on Freeze generates 100 energy every time you freeze an enemy. To cast you need to generate 166 energy. Cast on Freeze higher levels provide additional % energy generation with level 12 providing an additional 30%. In combination with Meta Skills gain 8% increased Energy your every single freeze generates at least 166 energy guaranteeing a cast of Cast on Freeze. Remember that if you freeze multiple enemies with a single cast of a spell Cast on Freeze still procs only once!

When do I take my first Ascendancy point?

It is recommended that you do not take Sanguimancy first because it is quite hard to sustain life costs early in the game, the Life Remnants ability is really nice later on for overflow but does not work well early on bosses without high critical strike chance. With that in mind you should take both your first and second Ascendancy points at the same time.

Why am I dying to my own self-casts?

Sanguimancy takes a lot life recovery to sustain costs, I recommend you get % life on kill jewels and use Cannibalism for clearing. On bosses you will need high critical strike chance. Also make sure you are using Inspiration on your Cast on Freeze for double benefit of the less cost.

The video below goes over all the leveling steps while also showing gameplay and playstyle tips.

Congratulations on finishing the Fireball Blood Mage Leveling Guide! You beat the campaign and are ready to progress into the Endgame. You'll continue to annihilate enemies with shattering Frostwalls and Fireballs, all while comets are raining down. This build continues to scale with gear, stacking life and critical strike damage at the same time, and eventually huge life bonuses from the Ascendancy. Stay tuned for the Endgame version of the build that will be released soon!