S-TIER | BUILD SORCIÈRE SPARK BLOOD MAGE (@Fubgun) | SAISON 5

Build Video

Build Overview

Meet one of the fastest characters of the entire Season 0.5 of Path of Exile 2: Fubgun’s Spark Blood Mage, a Cast on Critical Witch capable of blazing through maps at insane speed. While most Spark builds used to rely on Comet, Fubgun evolved his version around Arc this season to maximize pack clear. The result: a character that chain-teleports across the screen and literally erases entire packs of monsters before they even appear on screen. The Cast on Critical interaction is the engine behind this relentless clear speed.

The defining feature of this Blood Mage build is that it stacks Mana instead of Life. Through the combination of keystone Mind Over Matter (Mind over Matter, which converts Life into a shared pool) and keystone Eldritch Battery (Eldritch Battery, which converts Mana into an Energy Shield pool), Mana effectively becomes the character’s true health bar. This results in an overflow of roughly 7,000 Mana, giving an effective pool of close to 8,000 — very comfortable for a class that is historically squishy.

Finally, this build directly addresses the biggest change of Season 0.5: Blood Mage leech was heavily nerfed, and infinite sustain is no longer possible. Fubgun works around this with Remnants, which restore Life and Mana on pickup. This is a high-end character — it costs several mirrors in its current form — but its gameplay logic is entirely replicable on a smaller budget.

Strengths / Weaknesses

Skill Gem Setup by Step

This build offers 2 progression steps from leveling to the final build. Select a step to see the corresponding skill gem setup.

Temporalis Starter Live Build

Temporalis Starter

13 skills • 57 gemmes

ÉtincelleSpark

Déclenchement lors de CritiquesCast on Critical

Reliquats de VieLife Remnants

Projection de sortilègesSpellslinger

ArchimageArchmage

Sceau de pouvoirSigil of Power

Armure arctiqueArctic Armour

Reliquats de ManaMana Remnants

Remnants of KalguurRemnants of Kalguur

Explosive Transmutation

TransfertBlink

Orbe des oragesOrb of Storms

Siphonnage des élémentsSiphon Elements

Live Build

13 skills • 57 gemmes

ÉtincelleSpark

Déclenchement lors de CritiquesCast on Critical

Reliquats de VieLife Remnants

Projection de sortilègesSpellslinger

ArchimageArchmage

Sceau de pouvoirSigil of Power

Armure arctiqueArctic Armour

Reliquats de ManaMana Remnants

Remnants of KalguurRemnants of Kalguur

Explosive Transmutation

TransfertBlink

Orbe des oragesOrb of Storms

Siphonnage des élémentsSiphon Elements

Recommended Equipment

The goal on each piece is straightforward: as much mana and Energy Shield (ES) as possible, since mana serves as the life pool. Here is the setup used by Fubgun:

• Wand: cast speed, +4% critical strike chance, +1 to levels of spells, mana, added fire damage and spell damage. The wand is the best base for this build; a sceptre (Sceptre) remains a decent and cheaper alternative.
• Rings: one rare ring with the season’s new mod, +1 to all spell skill levels, complemented by mana and cast speed; the second slot holds Kalandra’s Touch, the unique that copies the stats of the other ring.
• Helmet: the helmet with as much ES as possible and all three resistances (tri-res).
• Amulet: Absence base (Absence), Archmage level 20, Spirit, max mana, cast speed and +1 to all skills (up to +6 with a catalyst).
• Focus: Rathpith Globe, whose only essential mod is increased damage per 100 max mana. Avoid at all costs: the mod that makes skills cost 6% of life (the life cost becomes unmanageable).
• Body Armour: Temporalis, the piece that makes Blink (Blink) nearly instant — this is what provides the speed.
• Gloves: life cost effectiveness, +2 to projectile skills and projectile speed. They are converted to Ward (Bouclier d’écaille), so prioritize flat ES over percentage-based ES.
• Belt: Headhunter, clearly preferred over Mageblood for juiced Mapping (rares, abysses, breaches).
• Boots: three resistances, movement speed and double ES.
• Charms & flasks: one anti-burn charm (Dousing) and two unique charms, Nascent Hope and Rite of Passage, paired with the unique mana flask Uhtred’s Chalice and an instant recovery life flask.

Gameplay Tips

• Mind your mana-to-life ratio: aim for 100 to 150 mana cost per skill and route the rest into life. A life cost that is too high will instantly drain your bar; a mana cost that is too high will chip away at your defense.
• Keep at least one piece converted to Ward: at least one equipment piece (the gloves here) must generate Ward to activate certain Remnant skills.
• Continuously pick up Remnants: killing or simply attacking enemies spawns Remnants that restore life and mana — this is your primary sustain.
• Adapt your belt to the content: Headhunter for rare-heavy mapping (abysses, breaches), but Mageblood becomes preferable on rare-sparse content like the Simulacrum or rituals.
• Trigger all three elements: adding fire and cold damage on your gear lets you generate elemental Remnants via Siphon Elements, an essential cog of the build.

Mind over Matter + Eldritch Battery: Mana as a Shield

This is the core of the build’s defense. keystone Mind Over Matter causes a portion of incoming damage to be absorbed by Mana before Life, while keystone Eldritch Battery converts your Mana pool into a defensive pool. On a Blood Mage that stacks Mana, both keystones combine to completely invert how the class functions: your Mana becomes your true life bar.

In practice, you stack as much Mana as possible on every piece of gear to reach an overflow of around 7,000 Mana. Combined with remaining Life (between 500 and 1,500 depending on active skills), this yields an effective pool of roughly 8,000 points — a level of comfort few Witches can afford this season.

Remnants: the New Blood Mage Survival in 0.5

Season 0.5 heavily nerfed Blood Mage leech: infinite leech is gone, so you need to find other recovery sources. Fubgun’s answer is Remnants. By running Vigorous Remnants and Arcane Remnants, each Remnant you pick up restores both maximum Life and Mana — it is the equivalent of near-infinite regeneration as long as you keep killing or hitting enemies.

The build even stacks multiple Remnant sources: Life Remnants, Mana Remnants, and the new Remnants of Kalguur spawn them in large numbers. Several passive tree notables amplify the effect (doubled effect, additional Remnants, increased range). This is simply how this season’s sustain issues are solved.

Temporalis: the Key to Speed

Temporalis is what makes this character spectacular. The item drastically reduces the cooldown of Blink (Blink), to the point of achieving 5 to 9 teleports per second once cast speed is high enough. This is what places the build among the fastest in the game, alongside the most mobile archetypes.

Good to know: Temporalis does not interact with any other skill in the build — its sole role is to shorten Blink’s cooldown (Blink). The build is therefore 100% playable without Temporalis. You will simply be much slower, as the upper portion of the passive tree offers almost no movement speed.

Rare Jewels and The Adorned: the Heart of the Passive Tree

A large part of what makes this build so expensive comes down to the jewels. Rare jewels have become extremely powerful this season: a single one can offer 40% crit, 46% critical damage, 49% critical spell damage, elemental damage, and fire damage. The passive tree is built to pass through as many jewel sockets as possible.

On top of that, Fubgun uses a corrupted The Adorned, the unique jewel that amplifies the effect of rare jewels socketed nearby. This is what makes jewel sockets the best nodes in the entire tree. Good news: the build remains very solid without The Adorned — simply replace the remaining jewel sockets with standard crit notables.

Against the Darkness + From Nothing: Generating Spirit

This build needs a lot of Spirit. The solution lies in a particular jewel socket that combines Against the Darkness (with a spear and added cold damage) and the conduit From Nothing. This combination allows you to reach up to seven notables without spending any points to access them.

Each node then grants 4% additional cold damage and 12 Spirit, for a total of roughly 84 Spirit and a large amount of additional cold damage from a single socket. The added cold also serves to trigger elemental remnants via Siphon Elements, in direct synergy with the rest of the build.

Skill Tree