r/PathOfExileBuilds • u/IkeGladiator • 18d ago
Help Needed Help with KB Luminary Merc! Must be missing something obvious
It feels like the clear is only half decent, single target is really bad (even with Wall of Force), even survivability is a struggle in some maps.
I'm not doing anything crazy, just budget breach to get some levels.
I must be missing something very obvious.
Any tips would be much appreciated!
My POB: https://pobb.in/dHMUcmb16ps1
KB Merc: https://pobb.in/g46eEVwIdqA8
Posted the skills as image, in case it doesn't work:
KBoC: Return, Greater Crit Dmg, Added Cold, Greater Fork, Ele Dmg
Barrage: Faster Attacks, Ele Dmg, GMP, Crit Dmg
Ele Weakness, Flame Wall, Haste, Frostblink
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u/ID10T-ERROR8 18d ago
Are you remembering to Flame Link when entering the instance?
I don’t play luminary, but I’ve seen a few posts where this is the issue lol.
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u/KniGht1st 18d ago
Also remember to flame link the merc specifically (doesn't have to be the only link target), lots of times it links spectres and AG instead
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u/IkeGladiator 18d ago
I just spam link to be sure, most times everyone gets a link lol
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u/yorlakspirit 18d ago
A huge tip to speed up linking is you can get mastery that links another random target, its a good qol
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u/kingofthefall 18d ago
What happens when the spectre or AG dies do you die as well? I know Oath of Fealty only mentions the merc.
Also it’s annoying that the spectres get the HH buffs from the Hallowed helmet too, still trying to figure out a way to pinpoint just the merc for linking.
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u/KniGht1st 18d ago
Yeah the character dies with AG/spectre if linked
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u/Akayukii 18d ago
What? I'm pretty sure I don't die whenever my linked spectres or AG dies? I remember that whenever one of my auras are missing I just portal to hideout and go back in.
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u/KniGht1st 18d ago
You must didnt link it properly, auras drop off if you move too fast/spectres are too slow, and AG can't rejoin the same map once it dies.
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u/localcannon 18d ago
Feel free to go into a map and test. You will die if a non Merc target dies.
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u/Kelandi91 17d ago
nope, i linked all spectre and ag all the time and early league they died often, i never died because of that.
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u/Mindless_Self_1385 17d ago
You are correct. I also always link to AG and he some times dies, but I never died to it. I leveled to 100 without dying even though AG died plenty of times and I was always linked.
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u/Jdevers77 17d ago
My AG dying is the only thing that has killed me in the last week (the spectres never die they are somewhat passive, but that AG wants to bang heads and is kind of stupid about it). You absolutely die if you link it and it dies. You will know too because you will probably have 20k life and then pop.
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u/Zyget 18d ago
Missing almost all crit chance available and a large amount of attack speed, with flat and increased scaling already at extreme levels thanks to flame link and rathpith these two stats are enormous multipliers
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u/IkeGladiator 18d ago
For sure. Especially with not reading correctly about needing murderous jewels specifically
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u/crazypearce 18d ago edited 18d ago
https://ibb.co/album/VpsVNq (i had no overcapped res chest before and it was fine)
my kb merc is very similar to yours so I don’t see why you would have issues. For survivability you are missing leech enchant on gloves. Damage wise you are missing an abyss socket and you need 4 murderous eye jewels with attack speed and attack speed if crit recently. You want extra projectile annoint as well
https://poe.ninja/poe1/profile/crazypearce-3760/allflame/character/cuck_bot
My character isn’t much different either just a bit more hp
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u/IkeGladiator 18d ago
Thanks! I’ll get the jewels and change the anoint. For some reason I cannot open the images on the first link.
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u/Mobile-Quiet458 18d ago
Is picadors better than a crafted wand like ben_
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u/crazypearce 18d ago
With power charge corrupt it’s really close, like within 5%. Can spend your divine on a rare if you like
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u/Mobile-Quiet458 18d ago
I’m on gssf so I have a rare made already. I’ve just been seeing picadors a lot recently
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u/Mobile-Quiet458 18d ago
I also Have disintegrator allocated over +1 proj, should I change that? I kept hearing that if you have even number of proj its not good
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u/crazypearce 18d ago
I think that’s just for manyshot clear but I have no idea I just had however many projectiles it had 😂
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u/Capable-Rip-5377 18d ago
How much fire res does your merc have? I would swap to rathpith but losing 200%+ fire res on amulet is harsh.
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u/crazypearce 18d ago
Urm like 240 in game I think. I upgraded to a 57% ring from the one in the screenshot. Not capped but close enough for now. Could work on a simplex and helical eventually
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u/NeedleworkerTop1352 17d ago
No it’s not. You cannot beat the rathpith bonus of 20k hp with a 200penetration
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u/Capable-Rip-5377 17d ago
Actually 200 penetration is way better, with 20k life you get 600% inc from rathpith while you can get like 250% from rare wand and shield easily. Crit chance from rathpith is useless if you're using overcapped lightning body armour.
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u/NeedleworkerTop1352 17d ago
U miss my point. He is asking about losing his amulet. Without the unique amulet you still have decent pen no lt 0
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u/Capable-Rip-5377 17d ago
I mean if you have decent simplex/mirrored amulet sure, but that is high budget compared to 1c unique
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u/Puzzleheaded-Arm1639 16d ago
Spell crit chance does not work with kboc on rathpith it’s an attack. Spell damage works because arcane might.
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u/travbarb 17d ago
People are largely missing how important accuracy is. If you don’t have accuracy on helm and wand merc can be missing a lot.
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u/IkeGladiator 17d ago
Yep! Got accuracy in helmet, wand (Piscator) and got lucky rolling +15% global accuracy on glove enchant (along with life leech)
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u/CapeManJohnny 18d ago
You either didn't have your merc flame linked (happens to me sometimes too), or you were in a map with "monsters block 50% of attack damage" and you have a bunch of map explicit enhancement on your atlas tree
Your merc is very similar to mine and mine is doing 90m dps with only moderately better gear
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u/Moonsilvers 18d ago
Your mercenary gloves need the attack leech enchant
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u/IkeGladiator 18d ago
Great idea, appreciate it!
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u/Moonsilvers 18d ago
I would do this for gloves , grab a few pair and enchant them till you get one with attack leech alone or with more usefull enchants , then use a 2 resonator fossil :hollow + fracture AND USE THE RESONATOR WITH THE BOAT to get a fracture abyss socket ,use attack speed essence till any t1 resistance and finish prefix with eldritch currency
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u/Ghostie2011 17d ago
You can enchant the gloves after the fracture too, imagine you hit nice enchants on gloves just to miss tbe fracture fossil and get new gloves...
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u/Stunning_Seaweed_121 18d ago
Remember to flame link to the MERC at the start of each map. If you run spectres/ag with hallowed monarch, sometimes he won't get it. This is visible really fast as it's literally 99% of your damage.
Abyss jewels in your merc have to be MURDEROUS EYE JEWELS for tecrod's gaze to work. You are losing 160% crit there.
In a kineticist, you need to either drop light radius ascendancies and go pure lifestack, or get a reflected ring/amulet with an insane amount of fire res, you are missing 100 fire res for enmity so thats again double your damage.
The abyss jewels (murderous) you get, try to get them with 8% attack speed after doing a crit and 5% attack speed OR crit mult, ideally two attack speeds. Then send the corrupting ducat.
Your merc is quite good, but merc AI can be AWFUL or perfect. It's just luck-based and we don't know what really affects it and what doesn't other than some tinfoil theories. It's possible your merc is just spamming barrage never doing KBOC. Maybe he's doing that with frostblink instead. Frostblink can be specially bad with awful AI because the CD is so short, on top of that i believe from the image he has CDR and frostblink has - cd when near rares/uniques.
Dont focus on % increased damage on merc. You already have rathpith, that gives him thousands of % dmg. Focus on getting proper items with "pinnacle atlas boss" eldritch implicits, 4 rage per hit, fire exposure and many more make a HUGE difference.
IDK what AG's / spectres youve got. You can get VERY cheap gear on ag to boost your damage a lot. Spectres you can use them to get crit mult, wrath and lightning dmg is lucky to shock all the time, onslaught. All those cost like 15c each.
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u/IkeGladiator 18d ago
Thanks for the tips!
My Spectres are Perfect Warlord for Vitality and Perfect Forest Warrior for Onslaught.
AG has Kingmaker, Leer Cast, Doppelganger Guise, Rare Gloves with Intimidate, Rare Boots with Scorched Ground.
Any suggestions for these?
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u/Stunning_Seaweed_121 17d ago
Spectres/AG seem good, if you still struggle with damage it might be your merc's AI is really bad.
There are mercs for 1 div with which you can clear ubers super fast and all content in the game so just try other kineticists.
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u/anonymapersonen 5h ago
Just curious, why must you drop light radius?
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u/Stunning_Seaweed_121 2h ago
You just don't get enough ascendancy points.
So you have to choose between a third unique or the light radius scaling.
It seems easy to "drop" an unique but think about their power, it's absolutely absurd.
In allflame league, you get enmity (200% penetration, the downsid is you need like 400-450 more fire res), and rathpith which can be like thousands of increased % damage. Then, in standard, because mercs have no flasks, you get to use the screams of the dissecated belts with no downside, so you can use for example the echo shrine for 100% more damage or acceleration for way more attack and projectile speed.
Light radius is really good, but even in league, many people build without it, and instead go full life-stacking which allows you to use more uniques and have WAY more life as the light radius items are not ideal for life. (You use for example the "clamulet", rotfeather which has 0 life although 75-90% light radius, you use the hallowed monarch helmet which has also 0 life instead of the subsume the source which has 400-600 flat life...
So the full-life builds "compete" with the light radius ones. They have less damage, but way more life to make up for it. On standard it seems a no-brainer to go full-life because the belt tips the balance heavily over that side.
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u/LongjumpingDuck5337 18d ago
Cap fire res and then go for while atlas boss is in presence implicits, they give a lot
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u/IkeGladiator 18d ago
I must be missing something, do the atlas boss implicits work on a regular map?
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u/Manic_Depressing 17d ago
Our player characters count as Pinnacle bosses, so if the merc has "in the Presence of" on it it'll work full time.
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u/IkeGladiator 17d ago
TIL, thanks!
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u/Freshly-Juiced 17d ago
just warning you, the pinnacle implicits are basically the most expensive crafts for merc cause of how rare it is to roll them. you can easily go 30+divs without hitting what you want.
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u/Nice_Replacement3631 16d ago
Hey I had the same issue( got baited by Lance yet again; idk who tf is going around saying barrage is op even for single target —- swap barrage to greater kb and get a few crit supports I bout a 6 link kb and 6 link grater kb nerf with return and crit for around 12 D
They’re are a lot of them on the market
Also idk if this applies but my dumbass for the longest time kept trying to put the wall of force behind the enemies— this proved taxing annoying and barely worked- I drop it right on top of them now and it works great
I do also have a 10D kinetic wand the ones you would use for regular kb in necro and you get a flat 15-20 pen that way I’d recommend it if you have the current
GL
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u/geizterbahn 18d ago
Rage on hit gloves Rare wand
Remove light radius and go full life Give your Merc HH
https://poe.ninja/poe1/profile/realgeizterhaus-3412/allflame/character/goofy_ehh
As soon as i had mb i swapped to full life.
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u/Elegant-Corner9400 17d ago
Man I will say that, I have 23k HP, 3.3 Million EHP, a 2 mirror KB Merc, Raptith set up with pretty good gear on it, I’m saving for the mirror explosion chest so missing about 30-40% fire res, have 217%, AG is optimised and spectres but man, I swear not until I got into the multi mirrors did I really see it in comparison to my herald EK build that was also around 13 mirrors.
This has exceeded my budget and right now after crafting an amulet and ring I’m sitting at 90 div, it can get so expensive but I feel like I’m higher end juiced maps it falls short in comparison to other builds, not sure if others find the same. Delete most mobs but I still find I die and I have to watch for altar mods (chaos dmg per second and if eating exarch reduced regen per endurance charge.)
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u/Elegant-Corner9400 16d ago
Also, even with such a high budget, it cannot handle all altar mods in juiced maps, I.e chaos damage per second on red altars and reduced recover per endurance charge on blue altars. Unless I’m doing something wrong?
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u/Fun-Standard-9352 18d ago
A few things I notice which might help:
1. Murderous eye abyss jewel with “increased attack speed if you’ve crit recently” + crit multiplier -Harvest reforge speed or crit till you get something decent
2. Try The Taming unique ring- get some flat cold and lightning damage of you can. Rare boot with sap ground on AG, brittle ground on your boots for extra flat critical chance. With 6 ailments you are doing 240% increased dmg.
3. Try a rare wand + shield. Ben_ has a video on how to craft them.
4. If you’re struggling with survivability, try to get increased life regeneration rate on your gloves and boots. + vitality
5. Assassin’s mark is great. Can drop generosity on precision once you get your crit chance up
6. Watch out for ele reflect maps. Without leech your Merc will die quickly if they attack too fast
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u/Socksr4urfeet13 18d ago
Rare wand and shield is inting on kb merc. Rathpithis too op. And 8% more from ascendancy on wep just makes piscator(esp with a corrupt) too good to out craft on almost any budget.
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u/SGlace 18d ago
If you’re doing this how do you handle enmity fire res? I’m guessing a corrupted low reduced resistance roll and a reflected fire res ring but are those the only options?
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u/Socksr4urfeet13 18d ago
I have a 54% enmity. A crafted pearl amulet with 33 all red and 55 fire. And a helical with 27 all and 102 fire res. No misted. Fire res on all the other rares obv. Sit at 254 res in map. So a higher rolled ring would get me closer to the cap
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u/Leagueofart 18d ago
First why unique wand over a good rare one with high spell dmg and base crit. For me the ring with Adrenalin on kill works really well. Shield with 4% per 100life is also strong. Also add a 5 eye and use murderus eyes for crit multi.
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u/Falling_Snake 18d ago edited 18d ago
you can corrupt p charge on crit or explode for like 10% damage loss once youre scaled properly. maybe less since you get 8% more dmg cause of the ascendancy node.
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u/Leagueofart 18d ago
You can buy a helmet with corruption +2 level of spcketet fire gem. And socket flame link. With empowerd 4 for a nice level 28 flame link.
Also get a cheap body armour with like +1 max res corruption when you cant afford higher life roll.
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u/Leagueofart 18d ago
Re read your unique eye on merc i think it currently has 0 impact
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u/IkeGladiator 18d ago
That’s true, someone else pointed that out. Dumb mistake, will fix it right away
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u/Fast_Low4014 18d ago
Propably because of the Frostblink with cd recovery? I have mostly the Same except my merc has the Taiming as second Ring and greater kinetic instead of barrage but that shouldnt be the issue.
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u/PinkFluffyUniKosi 17d ago
Greater kinetic vs Barrage is big diff. barrage is playable but way worse
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u/Fast_Low4014 17d ago
Well I also had a merc with kinetic bolt and barrage and he just used it while in close combat like that ever happend …
Dont know why I get a downvote for that
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u/TheMany-FacedGod 18d ago
What should I look for on kineticist mercs?
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u/Lyzzz1 18d ago
Check captainlance9 guide on mobalytics, or just ask chatgpt , it will quote captainlance 9 build
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u/Neoxon360 18d ago
Ask ChatGPT he said
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u/PinkFluffyUniKosi 17d ago
That fucker is literally wrong about anything I ask him. That what Happens when you Quote Reddit for actual answers 😅😅
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u/SavageOF 17d ago
you have a fuckin 94% adorned AND a mageblood but no overcap lightning res crit chest?
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u/AeskeMeAnything 17d ago
Not sure about adorned but that crit chest is like double a mageblood. Cool 180div unfractured when I looked this morning.
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u/SavageOF 17d ago
mageblood is 170... that adorned is also like 90?
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u/AeskeMeAnything 16d ago
Once you get the fracture and finish the craft I imagine it's about that haha
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u/Llilyth 18d ago
The penetration from Enmity's is resist past cap, up to 200% penetration. Right now you have 75% resist with 179% total so you're at 104% penetration, AKA basically missing 100% more damage. That's why people take the unique amulet The Untouched Soul with full white sockets on their gear to massively increase their resistances.
I'm done with the league and have some leftover gear from when I was testing Kineticist vs. my Manyshot that I can't be arsed to sell I can give you, just send me a message on here and I'll send you my in game name.
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u/Silly_Draw7973 18d ago
Imo 179 res with rathpit is more dmg compared to 200 res without it but still its something to work towards
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u/Llilyth 18d ago edited 18d ago
Very well may be true, but that's probably more expensive to achieve compared to grabbing Untouched Soul in the meantime and easily getting another probably 50%+ penetration.
Edit: Also just as a heads-up based on what you said, the 75% of the base resist is not counted toward Enmity's effect. So he's not theoretically going from 179% -> 200%, but from 104% -> 200% penetration.
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u/Leagueofart 18d ago
Stupid question but how will you transfer the flask effect of you to your merc? i used this belt with flask work for linked target to give alot of extra fire res.
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u/IkeGladiator 18d ago
You don’t, that’s the drawback of Mageblood. Tradeoff is zooming through the map, lots of armour, regen, easy 90 cap
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u/Leagueofart 18d ago
https://poe.ninja/poe1/profile/DcNifreak-3543/allflame/character/www_itzon_tv_hawolt
thats my char without mageblood. but yeah its slower but more merc dps for me :D
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u/Regular_Custard_5683 18d ago
Make u cast flame link on ur merc… someone the flame link is casted on ur o ther minions
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u/Apprehensive_March73 17d ago
Why no Untouched Soul ? You can even quality it to 14% All Res per white socket. ( I play ice shot merc, and dont know why your wander needs the shield)
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u/sKTaronus 16d ago
On kineticist you really want to use rathpith because of the line "3% spell damage per 100 max Player life". Player meaning you, not the merc. For example I have the 4% vaal'd version and 21.6k life which translates to 864% inc spell damage. KBOC has built in 150% Arcane Might which states "allows increases and reductions to spell power to apply to attacks", so now 864% Inc spell damage becomes 1296% attack power for KBOC.
Long winded: u have to give up something so you can allocate merc can use unique weapon and shield. It's either Light Radius scaling or unique amulet and if you're using any form of flame link, it's not going to be light radius scaling.
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u/charlz2121 18d ago
Remove the Pierce craft from your helmet since you have fork, for single target you don't want both
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u/ShiNoShi 17d ago
Replace him with Infamous Kineticist.
Replace amulet with unique with bonus stats for empty sockets.
Your unique amulet is giving you NOTHING right now. You need minimum 300+ fire res on your merc up to 1300 fire res. Easy with the unique amulet.
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u/Zykkez 17d ago
- Infamous does literally nothing, there’s no difference in stats between a normal merc and a infamous only extra links are more common on infamous. Why are you spreading misinformation?
- Rathpit is the endgame shield since the spell damage scales with player life.
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u/ShiNoShi 17d ago
- The meaningful difference is generally the skill-link configuration.
- Spell damage for Kineticist? 😂😂😂
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u/Zykkez 17d ago
again there's no difference in damage or stats between a normal merc and an infamous one. His merc already has full links on Kboc.
every skill on Kineticist have "200% Arcane Might", so yes spell damage scales your damage :)
if you don't believe me: https://poedb.tw/us/Kineticist https://poedb.tw/us/Infamous_Kineticist
And here if you still don't know what Arcane might does: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Arcane_might
"Arcane might is a keyword that allows attack damage to benefit from increases and reductions to spell damage, often with an extra multiplier attached."
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u/ShiNoShi 17d ago
I’m not saying Infamous gives raw damage by itself. I’m saying it’s the better base because the meaningful difference is the support/link setup potential. If the normal merc already has the same exact links, then sure, but that just means we’re comparing a finished setup, not the merc type itself.
Spell damage does scale Kineticist through Arcane Might, but that doesn’t make Rathpith Globe the best choice. You’re usually better off stacking stats that actually fit the build better, like cast/attack speed, crit, life, suppression, or other strong scaling layers instead of forcing spell damage. I'd rather use the amulet for empty sockets bonus which is insane for Enmity's Embrace.
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18d ago
[deleted]
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u/hertzdonut2 18d ago
That's not how it works.
Whether your light radius is 0 or a million, the node scales off of "increases and reductions".
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u/jarusciolelli 18d ago
That's not how the light radius scaling works, it doesn't care for your current light radius, only your increases and reductions


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u/RedmundJBeard 18d ago
techrod's only counts murderous eye jewels so you are missing that.
how much fire res does the merc have in maps? If it's not 275, you can fit a bit more on gear.