fire taint good

a5 merc with dual plauge sword and a dream helm/dragon armor would be dope on this character

we already went over tainted
you can get 2-3x tainted with about 36k+ fire damage but they shoot about once every 23 frames, needing you to telestomp directly on targets or cast deathmark with its animation, an extra cast either way to aim the fireballs because otherwise they have incredibly small aoe and only hit 2-3 targets at a time. Its a very lacking aoe. Blood boil meanwhile does about 12.5k fire/phys damage every 9 frames, hitting a gigantic aoe, about 1/4 the whole screen area.

a big problem is with opportunity costs
each tainted for 1/3 of the max tainted dps has to be weighed against
>consumed tainted giving +20% / -15% fire to blood boil, ~32% life, ~43% frw
>defiler giving ~56% damage amplification to 5 targets at random
>bound demon that gives holy freeze + amplify damage and tanks fairly effectively even after nerf, though might have to sacrifice either reliable aoe amp or direct damage now

you can't max tainted without losing points into demon or mastery or blood boil synergies. If you lose the bound demon, you lose amp on your blood boil. The extra aoe of each tainted isn't as much as the first defiler tagging stuff for +56% blood boil.
The only place where tainted really shine is at killing single targets like bosses or just seal popping and ignoring spread out packs / minions to kill only champions, because their aoe is so focused on a small spot

I wonder why you meming idiots hate on a guy who makes useful, well done content most of the time and shares it with you pricks for free. But hey, since I defend him here, I probably love him. I watch him all day.

This post was edited by Kaltrato on Apr 17 2026 11:08am

imagine thinking streamers with ad-supported videos are doing this for free

he is volunteering his time to let us know that big number good

don't worry about big number good vs fire immune, and definitely brush over the fact that when he tele's past monsters, they only shoot about once every second, so most monsters along the way for a 9 fps tele only gets hit once every 3 teleport

This post was edited by LeetThrust on Apr 17 2026 12:02pm

You’re correct for all builds, except the one discussed here.

If we’re talking about a build using 3x tainted as main skill, and not a BB build supported by tainted…
If your goal is to make those tainted as strong as possible then you need to cast them on swap (could be +12 from magic dagger/grimoire), then you want conv + fana.

This leaves you with 2 options:

self-wield infinity + faith merc (35 frw, 30 mf, 0.5 vita per lvl)
or
beast + infinity merc (stronger merc, 1 extra aura of choice, possibility to use shields)

Pure tainted approach is kinda good.
Very fast as you can just tele around, without having to stop and cast. No need to constantly cast engorge also, unlike when playing BB.
It’s faster than BB in many areas.
Their dmg is not bad at all even vs fire immunes, down to 95-17=78% res.
And you already max BB, so this becomes your support skill vs tanky fire immunes.

Another fun variant I tried is to stop using BB (still max it for the tainted synergy), and since we’re using a weapon with high CB% (no matter if infinity or beast) and we’re also supported by fana, mirror blades becomes quite good at taking down bosses, heralds, or tanky fire immunes.
You don’t need ar due to conviction.
All game content is a breeze on this build.
Feels even faster than the current ES build in most areas.

After trying many setups, this is my favorite iteration:
+12 tainted on swap
Enigma
3demon/20fcr 2os magic circ /w ber + protector stone (cuz I’m melee hybrid and summons don’t benefit from -fire res)
Arach
Beast zerker
Then either 125fcr with spirit, or 75fcr with SS
Fire sunder (needed for tainted)
Infinity merc

cta is completely unnecessary for general pvm with maxed blood oath and all 4 bodies around you blocking lots of dmg, and most of the time you just keep teleing around avoiding most dmg compared to other builds who need to stop to attack/cast.
I used cta for ubers/ancients

Free for you to watch is what I said. You guys are unable to count from 1 to 10.

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