Sorceress
Disciple of VarashtaThis (HC) SSF Varashta Sorceress leveling & endgame build guide will allow you to complete the campaign safely and quickly, while melting bosses and transition easily into the endgame.
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⭐If you have any questions about the build, please feel free to ask while I'm live streaming here.
I highly recommend watching both of these videos, which compliment this guide.
What this guide will teach you:
- How to quickly reach level 21 and Ascend to the Disciple of Varashta.
- All the information about skills, how to use them, and what the best Passive Tree choices are to enhance your build.
- Important gear suggestions and crafting tips to help you stay alive.
- How to easily progress your character through the campaign, early endgame, into T15 maps and Pinnacle Bosses.
BUILD OVERVIEW
- This build utilizes Djinn Minion Command Skills
Kelari's Deception, Kelari's Brutality & 
Ruzhan's Trap from the Discple of Varashta Sorceress, while using Muster and as many different Reviving Minions to decimate our enemies. - Defensive wise, we rely on Armour throughout the campaign to get us into maps.
- Once it maps, we can reach insanely high EHP and Max Physical Hit due to having a ton of Energy Shield, which also translates to additional armour rating through our 4th Ascendancy nodtable
Sacred Rituals. This armour can not be broken or removed. If you thought Energy Shield was OP, wait until you try this.
SKILLS & ROTATION
The goal is to reach level 21 and become a Discple of Varashta ASAP. After testing, I believe the best way to approach for me was by using Grenades. If you're not into the Grenade playstyle, no worries. There is a Minion and Elemental Spell variant that you can find below!
We start by using Grenades from Level 1 to 21. Use a combination of 
Explosive Grenade, 
Flash Grenade, 
Gas Grenade to clear areas and defeat bosses. We use 
Frost Bomb to apply Elemental Exposure. For mobility, we use 
Pounce with a Talisman on Weapon Swap 2 to dractiscally increase movement speed, while also allowing us to jump across difficult terrain.
After we Ascend to the Disciple of Varashta in Act 2, we use Kelari's Deception (AoE explosion) & Kelari's Brutality (Critical Weakness Daggers) for clear and single target damage. We pick up Ruzhan's Trap (AoE fire tornadoes) after getting our second Ascendancy points for extra clear. We use 
Pain Offering and 
Thunderstorm to enhance our single target damage further. We also use Pounce supported Mark for Death bosses to break their armour.
Kelari's Deception deals 50% more damage per consecutive use, up to 300%. This is extremely broken.
IMPORTANT BUFFS
We take advantage of the INCREDIBLY POWERFUL 
Archon of Undeath, which completely removing our cooldowns for Kelari's Deception during boss fights. It provides the following benefits:
- Your Minions deal 25% more Damage (this damage applies to our Kelari's Deception and Minion Command Skills)
- 200% More Cooldown Recovery Rate for Command Skills.
- 100% More Limit of Temporary Minion Skills.
In the late endgame we annoint 
Dominion to effectively have no cooldown on Archon of Undeath.
⭐NOTE: You can reforge 3 Concentrated Liquid Emotions at the Reforging Bench to create the next tier higher. This is helpful for obtaining Concentrated Liquid Suffering and Isolations for Dominion
We also take advantage of investing in 
Puppet Master chance, which provides the following benefits:
- You have increased skill speed and reduced Movement Speed penalty of Command Skills
- Your Minions deal increased Damage with Command Skills, and have increased Movement and Skill Speed
This is amplified based on how many stacks of Puppet Master we have at any given moment. After investment, we will have 6 stacks at all times, greatly improving our mobility.
DEFENSIVE & SPIRIT SKILLS
For Spirit Skills, we use 
Attrition in Act 1 / 2 for increasing our single target damage against rares and bosses. After we become a Varashta, we replace Attrition with more Minions, and pickup 
Convalescence after we get 
Chaos Inoculation.
HELPFUL CAMPAIGN UNIQUES
Enfolding Dawn is amazing, giving you 100 additional spirit for more Minions, which translates to more Damage with Muster.
Luminous Pace & 
Wanderlust to keep you movin'.
IMPORTANT LINEAGE SUPPORT GEMS
Lineage Support Gems are powerful, unique support gems that have strong effects. We can take advantage of quite a few of them in our build.
- Kurgal's Leash - Super important first pick up for Kelari's Deception, giving our Minions (and command skills) Unholy Might, which gives them 30% extra damage gained as Chaos. This is extremely powerful. Obtained from completing Abyssal Depths & Abyssal Content
- Vorana's Siege - Very strong improved version of Magnified Area II, which absolutely melt bosses and pinnacles with Kelari's Deception. Obtained from Medved in Expedition.
- Uul-Netol's Embrace - Incredibly powerful in the late-endgame, allowing us to Break Amour in Kelari's Deception based on Chaos Damage, and giving us extra chaos damage. Obtained from killing Xesht.
- Xoph's Pyre - Strong in Ruzhan's Trap - Obtained from killing Xesht.
- Amanamu's Tithe - Combined with Infernal Legion III and
Wolf Pack, providing you with three Abyssal Modifiers. These can be powerful offensive and defensive buffs. Obtained from Amanamu influenced Abyss monsters. - Rakiata's Flow - For obvious reasons, this is also very strong in Ruzhan's Trap. Obtained from the Jade Isles Anomaly map in the endgame.
- Brutus' Brain on Pain Offering allows it to not be destroyed, while not impacting it's effect on our damage. Obtained through a random global drop.
IMPORTANT MANA SUSTAIN OPTIONS
🔵 At the Late Endgame Stage with +8 and above levels to Minions, this build gets pretty mana intensive, use the following ways to mitigate this:
- Use Essence Harvest on multiple minions to recoup mana when they die. I'm currently using this on Wolfpack.
- Use
Mana Remnants, you can remove one of your Persistent Minions if you don't have enough Spirit. - Take Mana Cost Efficiency nodes on the Passive Tree.
Efficient Casting is a great option. - Make sure your
Ultimate Mana Flask has the highest amount recovered possible.
F.A.Q
1️⃣ How do I leave Clearfell with Renly's Skill Gem uncut? The game wont let me.
In order to leave Clearfell encampment without cutting Renly's skill gem you must DISABLE TUTORIALS in your Game Settings.
2️⃣ Why can't I use a Jewelers Orb on my Kelari Skills?
To gain support gem slots on our Djinn skills, you can not use any Jewelers Orbs on them, and will need to level up. The slots are gained at level 36, 65 and 90 respectively.
3️⃣ What Specters do you use?
Vaal Guard Specter that cost 50 (Utzaal) -> Powered Zealot Spectre that cost 55 Spirit -⚡Blue Lightning Balls (Etched Ravine)
4️⃣ How many of each Minion do you use? Do which do we invest more into with extra spirit?
All you need is 1 of each minion. If you have extra spirit, you can use it on whichever you can afford.
5️⃣ Which is better? Ruzhan (The Fire Djinn) or Navira (The Ice Djinn)?
After testing both, it's my personal preference that I prefer Ruzhan. He is smoother to use, with less buttons.
6️⃣ When should I get Chaos Inoculation ? Why am I getting 1-Shot with Chaos Inoculation?
For Softcore, 4-5k ES is fine to swap into Chaos Inoculation. For Hardcore, I prefer 7-8k ES. If you're getting 1-Shot, or are dying frequently while using Chaos Inoculation, it's due to your Mana Flask taking a % Recovery from your Life, or you have taken 
Heavy Buffer on the passive tree.
WEAPON SETS
This build takes advtanage of two different Weapon Sets to use a Talisman and Sceptre. Not sure how that system works? No worries, I've got you covered. I've broken it down in a video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtzgJVSFLB4
LOOTFILTER LINKS
FOLLOW MY CURRENT CHARACTERS PROGRESS HERE
MY PREVIOUS LEVEL 99 VARASHTA POE2NINJA
This character was on an HC Trade Private league (basicially SSF lite gear).
📢 A special shoutout to Arjac and Zleepi for assisting with the Level 1-21 variants of this build guide.
