Could you guys recommend any other builds that a) you think are cool and just as enjoyable as this one, b) league starter friendly and c) not traps/mines?
storm brand (inquisitor or elementalist). Playstyle is very close to arc
But it's very early to chose your skill for the next league, we don't know all the nerfs or buffs yet.
other than that, I don't see anything close with
Last edited by blg_RealiZe on Feb 16, 2019, 10:17:51 PM
With this guide I want to provide a well-balanced caster build for beginners and veterans alike
that scales well into endgame, has great mapping consistency and can even be played selffound.
Instead of just showcasing a build, this guide is set up as a comprehensive learning experience.
I've tried to explain everything you need to know, and there's additional miniguides at the bottom.
All information is listed where it contextually makes sense, so I advise you to read this guide carefully!
If you still have some questions left then please ask them here, DO NOT message me ingame!
Questions and Discussion about the current build version start at Page 666.
If you have a question about your setup, please make your character tab public!
+ cheap & fully SSF-capable + smooth gameplay & progression + capable to do all content & mapmods + immune to all kinds of reflected damage + fairly safe, lots of damage reductions & ranged playstyle - not made for facetanking, physical damage hurts - good boss damage requires some investment - Lightning has inconsistent damage output
Main Mechanics in this build
‣ Chaining: Arc is a lightning-based spell with the ability to chain from monsters and destroyable objects, even around corners and out of your line of sight! Each time it chains, it will also split to
a second nearby enemy from where it can't chain further. The amount of times Arc can chain depends on its gem level and can be increased by enchantments.
‣ Shock: An elemental status ailment which increases the damage an enemy takes by up to 50% for a duration. Normally this is based on the amount of Lightning Damage dealt within a single hit relative to the enemies total life, however this build overrides that rule and can consistently put strong shocks on all enemies. I'll explain how further down the guide.
‣ Semi-Crit: Instead of going all out on crit, we just get some to proc Elemental Overload, a conditional buff which gives us a 40% more damage multiplier if we've crit in the past 8 seconds.
‣ Damage Reductions: Our passive tree pathing and Ascendancy class don't really offer many possibilities for secondary defenses, so we focus on reducing all incoming damage through various buffs and debuffs instead. Elemental Damage can be reduced by up to 85%, Physical Damage by up to 46%, only Chaos Damage remains mostly unchanged. On top of this comes an additional damage reduction towards Critical Strikes, regardless of their damage type.
‣ Mind over Matter: This is a Keystone which redirects 30% of damage we take to our mana pool, as long as we have sufficient mana. In order for this to be effective, we need an unreserved mana pool equal to approx. 43% of our life pool and a quick way to refill mana, which we gain through regeneration and leech.
Here's the full Path of Building setup for this build, including all passive trees, gear choices and gems. To use this, click Import/Export Build and paste the full code or use Import from Pastebin, then read the Notes Tab to learn how to properly use this. You can get Path of Building here.
I know that some people jump straight to the PoB without ever reading the guide, which often leads to failure and is then blamed on the build. Don't be that person!
I've invested lots of time into this guide and find it very rude when people just disregard that
and ask about things that are already well explained. This unfortunately keeps happening.
Your journey through the ten acts can be seen as an extensive tutorial, slowly confronting you with the majority of game mechanics and increasingly more difficult enemies to learn to counter.
This section will help you while playing through the ten acts and shows the recommended
passive tree progression, gem setups, quest progression and exp farming zone for each act.
Keep in mind that it may also include some major storyline spoilers, if you care about that.
If you want to explore zones or do quests not mentioned here, or even want to level with
a completely different skill then do that, this section is just an aid.
‣ Keep your flasks updated. I recommend to start with 2x Life Flasks, 1x Mana Flask and
2x Quicksilver Flasks, switch to a quest reward flask whenever the guide mentions it.
‣ Upgrade your gear. While not as relevant in the beginning, it's important to look out for gear with solid life and resistance rolls. Ideally you want to have all three Elemental Resistances capped at 75% at the end of Act 3, only Chaos Resistance may be at whatever value.
Rare or Unique gear pieces are not always the best for this purpose, sometimes you're better off with Magic gear giving life and a single resistance.
You can easily craft your own gear, ideally on already 4-linked pieces you get from vendors or drops, however only use Orbs of Transmutation/Augmentation/Alteration at this point, everything else is a huge waste!
‣ Great Uniques for leveling are Lifesprig, Heartbreaker, Goldrim, Wanderlust and Tabula Rasa, but prioritize a good lifepool and capped resistances!
‣ If you happen to get a 5-linked, or even 6-linked Intelligence-based gearpiece, check the damage skill setups in the gem section to know what gems to add.
‣ We don't use the full gem setup during leveling. You're likely to replace gear very often,
and it's just not worth preparing all temporary pieces to fit in all gems.
‣ Use Portal Scrolls and enter town to refill flasks during bossfights.
‣ Get all waypoints you can find. I mention specific waypoints you will definitely need, but generally it's recommended to get them all, since you never know if you may disconnect or need to get back to that zone for other reasons.
‣ If there's multiple gems listed to get, it means you're supposed to get one of those as quest reward and buy the rest from the gem vendor in town.
‣ The passive tree goals for each act are just a pointer, if you're short by 1-2 points or overleveled that's not a big deal.
Act 1
‣ Get Arcane Surge (keep it Lv1 for now!) from Large Chest and kill Hillock
‣ Get Freezing Pulse, link it with Arcane Surge and throw away Fireball
‣ Start looking out for a 3-linked, all blue socket Wand or Sceptre
‣ Get the Coast Waypoint, kill Hailrake on Tidal Island and get Quicksilver Flask in town
‣ Enter Submerged Passage, look for Flooded Depths and kill the Dweller of the Deep
‣ Get Orb of Storms and Passive Skillpoint in town
‣ Enter Prison, get Added Lightning Damage and link it to Freezing Pulse + Arcane Surge
‣ Start looking out for 2x Sapphire Rings
‣ Complete Trial of Ascendancy in Lower Prison
‣ Kill Brutus, progress to Ship Graveyard and get the Waypoint
‣ Look for Ship Graveyard Cave, get Allflame then get Cavern of Wrath Waypoint
‣ Travel to Ship Graveyard Waypoint and kill Fairgraves
‣ Go to town to get Passive Skillpoint, Clarity, Flame Dash, Storm Brand & Arc
‣ Throw away Freezing Pulse and craft a +1 Lightning Gem Wand/Sceptre
‣ The recipe is Magic Wand/Sceptre + Topaz Ring + Orb of Alteration
‣ If needed, the recipe for Topaz Rings is Iron Ring + Green Skill Gem
‣ Put Arc + Arcane Surge + Added Lightning Damage in there
‣ Replace Orb of Storms with Storm Brand
‣ Equip Sapphire Rings and kill Merveil
‣ Once in town, enter the Old Fields first
‣ Start looking out for 2x Topaz Rings
‣ Look for the Den, kill Great White Beast and get second Quicksilver in town
‣ Continue to Crossroads and get Waypoint
‣ Enter Chamber of Sins, complete Trial of Ascendancy on Level 2 and kill Fidelitas
‣ Go back to Crossroads, enter Broken Bridge and kill Kraityn
‣ Back to Crossroads once more, enter Fellshrine Ruins and Crypt
‣ Complete Trial of Ascendancy in Crypt
‣ Back to town, enter Riverways and get the Waypoint
‣ Go to Western Forest, kill Alira & Captain Arteri
‣ Look for Weaver's Chambers and kill Weaver
‣ Back in town, get Controlled Destruction and replace Arcane Surge with it
‣ Link Arcane Surge to Storm Brand
‣ This spreadsheet by Banana_Lee shows which level you should keep your Arcane Surge at
(AS = Arcane Surge, ID = Increased Duration)
‣ Enter Lioneye's Watch and get Passive Skillpoint
‣ Go back to Riverways, enter Wetlands, kill Oak and get Waypoint
‣ Get two Passive Skillpoints from Eramir in town
‣ Make your way to the Ancient Pyramid, equip Topaz Rings and kill Vaal Oversoul
‣ Start looking out for 4-linked Intelligence-based or Hybrid (Int + other stat) gear
‣ Kill the Blackguards in City of Sarn and enter town
‣ Go to Slums, enter Crematorium, finish Trial of Ascendancy and kill Piety
‣ Get Sewer Key in town
‣ Go back to Slums, enter Sewers, get Waypoint, find three busts and get skillpoint in town
‣ Get Marketplace Waypoint and finish Trial of Ascendancy in Catacombs
‣ Enter Battlefront, get Waypoint and kill Captain Aurelianus
‣ Go to Docks and get Thaumetic Sulphite
‣ Back to Battlefront, enter Solaris Temple and talk to Lady Dialla
‣ Destroy the Undying Blockade in Sewers
‣ Enter Ebony Barracks, get Waypoint and kill General Gravicius
‣ Enter Lunaris Temple, kill Piety and get Skillpoint in town
‣ Get Imperial Gardens Waypoint and finish Trial of Ascendancy
‣ Go to Library and finish Siosa's quest
‣ You can now buy all unlocked gems at Siosa (currency needs to be in bag!)
‣ Get Lightning Penetration from Siosa and replace Added Lightning Damage with it
‣ Also get Decoy Totem and Mana Leech from Siosa
‣ Link Mana Leech to Storm Brand
‣ Enter the Sceptre of God and kill Dominus
‣ Enter the Dried Lake, kill Voll and enter the Mines
‣ Free Deshret's Spirit in Mines Level 2, progress to Crystal Veins and get Waypoint
‣ Get Passive Skillpoint and Summon Lightning Golem in town and optionally farm Dried Lake
‣ Complete the first Labyrinth, you can enter it through the Sarn Encampment
‣ Read up on the Lord's Labyrinth and Izaro to get an idea what's going on
‣ After finishing the Labyrinth, ascend to Elementalist and get Paragon of Calamity
‣ Go back to Crystal Veins, enter Kaom's Dream and kill Kaom
‣ Now enter Daresso's Dream and kill Daresso
‣ Get Spell Echo from Dialla and buy Cast when Damage taken in town
‣ Put your Arc setup into a 4L and add Spell Echo
‣ Replace your weapon with a good sceptre or dagger, the Spell Damage recipe can help
‣ Get Enfeeble in Act 3 and add it to CwDt (keep CwDt Lv7 and Enfeeble Lv10!)
‣ Kill Piety in Belly of the Beast, and finally Malachai in the Harvest
‣ Kill Overseer Krow and enter town
‣ Find the Miasmeter in Control Blocks and kill Justicar Casticus
‣ Get Stibnite Flask and Skillpoint in town
‣ Replace one Quicksilver Flask with Stibnite Flask and try to roll of Staunching on it
‣ Make your way to Templar Courts, kill Avarius and get a unique jewel in town
‣ Get Ruined Square Waypoint and optionally kill Utula to get Assassin's Haste in town
‣ Finish the quest in Reliquary and get Skillpoint in town
‣ Look for the Sign of Purity in Ossuary
‣ Kill Kitava on Cathedral Rooftop
‣ You will suffer a permanent -30% resistance penalty after this fight
‣ Clear the Twilight Strand to unlock Lilly as Skillgem Vendor
‣ Get Immortal Call and link it to CwDt (keep it at Lv3!)
‣ Get Increased Duration and link it to Storm Brand + Arcane Surge
‣ Get Leap Slam if using Sceptres or Whirling Blades if using Daggers
‣ Get Faster Attacks and Fortify and link them to the above movement skill
‣ Start looking out for either two Sceptres or Daggers as upgrade
‣ The recipe for Spell Damage is Weapon + Magic/Rare Chain Belt + Blacksmith Whetstone
‣ Refine the weapons with your Crafting Bench, Cast Speed or Attack Speed are good to add
‣ Get to Mud Flats and kill the Dishonored Queen
‣ Enter Karui Fortress, kill Tukohama and get Skillpoint in town
‣ Use Soul of Tukohama for now
‣ Finish Trial of Ascendancy in Prison and kill Shavronne
‣ Enter Prisoner's Gate, kill Abberath and get Skillpoint in town
‣ Get Riverways Waypoint
‣ Enter Wetlands, kill Puppet Mistress and get Skillpoint in town
‣ Light the Beacon and kill the Brine King
‣ Use Soul of the Brine King for now
‣ Find the Silver Locket in Broken Bridge and get Basalt Flask in town
‣ Replace one Life Flask with Basalt Flask
‣ Enter Crossroads, get Waypoint then enter Crypt through Fellshrine Ruins
‣ Finish Trial of Ascendancy and find Maligaro's Map
‣ Go back to Crossroads and enter Chamber of Sins
‣ Kill Maligaro in Maligaro's Sanctum
‣ Finish Trial of Ascendancy in Chamber of Sins Level 2 and enter the Den
‣ Make your way to Ashen Fields and kill Greust, then get Skillpoint in town
‣ Get Northern Forest Waypoint and enter Dread Thicket
‣ Collect all Fireflies and kill Gruthkul, then get Skillpoint in town
‣ Use Soul of Gruthkul
‣ Find Kishara's Star in Causeway and get Skillpoint in town
‣ Get the Vaal City Waypoint, enter Temple of Decay and go back to town
‣ Finish the second Labyrinth and get Shaper of Desolation
‣ Get back to the Temple of Decay and kill Arakaali
‣ Enter the Toxic Conduits and kill Doedre
‣ Go for Quay first, find Ankh of Eternity, kill Tolman and get Skillpoint in town
‣ Kill the Gemling Legionnaires in Grain Gate and get Skillpoint in town
‣ Enter Solaris Temple, get Sun Orb then enter Solaris Concourse and get Waypoint
‣ Go back to Doedre's Cesspool and go for the Grand Promenade now
‣ Get Bath House Waypoint and finish Trial of Ascendancy
‣ Enter High Gardens, kill Yugul and get Skillpoint in town
‣ Enter Lunaris Temple through Lunaris Concourse and get Moon Orb
‣ Go to Harbour Bridge and kill Solaris & Lunaris
‣ Use Soul of Solaris
‣ Find the Storm Blade in Vastiri Desert and speak to Petarus & Vanja in town
‣ Look for a blocked entrance in Vastiri Desert
‣ Go to town, talk to Sin and then to Petarus & Vanja
‣ Kill Shakari and get Skillpoint in town
‣ Get Foothills Waypoint, enter Boiling Lake and get Basilisk Acid
‣ Enter the Tunnel and finish Trial of Ascendancy
‣ Get Quarry Waypoint, enter Refinery and get Trarthan Powder
‣ Go back to Quarry and kill Garukhan and get Sekhema Feather
‣ Go to town and give the feather to either Tasuni or Irasha, get Skillpoint
‣ Enter Belly of the Beast and kill the Depraved Trinity
‣ Go left on Cathedral Rooftop and kill Plaguewing
‣ Get Sulphur Flask in town, replace Quicksilver Flask with it
‣ Go back to Cathedral Rooftop
‣ Now go right, enter the Ravaged Square and go south
‣ Enter the Control Blocks, kill Vilenta and get Skillpoint in town
‣ Optionally find the Teardrop in Reliquary
‣ Go back to Ravaged Square and get its Waypoint in the upper part
‣ Enter Ossuary, complete Trial of Ascendancy and get Elixir of Allure
‣ Get to Desecrated Chamber through Torched Courts and kill Avarius
‣ Finish the third Labyrinth and get Beacon of Ruin, if this is too hard then keep it for later
‣ Enter the Canals and make your way to the final bossfight
‣ You will suffer another permanent -30% resistance penalty after this fight
‣ Talk to Lani for two Skillpoints
‣ Enter Templar Laboratory and get a map from Zana, then buy all maps she's selling
‣ That's it, you've reached the endgame! Gear up and switch to the endgame gem setup
‣ Divinarius + Heartbreaker is a good unique dagger combo to get started
‣ Optionally farm a Tabula Rasa through Humility cards in Blood Aqueduct or Channel Maps
‣ Paragon of Calamity(Normal): This is our source of life leech and enough to reach leech cap. Also provides a powerful defensive boost, some offense and protects us from Damage Reflection.
‣ Shaper of Desolation(Cruel): Helps with shocking and chilling more consistently.
‣ Beacon of Ruin(Merciless): Gives our shocks a minimum damage increase of 20% and enables us to chill with any cold damage by atleast 10%, which both get multiplied by their respective ailment effect modifiers. To reach the maximum 50% shock damage increase we need 150% shock effect, with less you can calculate your final shock damage increase with this formula: damage * (1 + (0.2 * (1 + shock effect))) = final damage
‣ Liege of the Primordial(Eternal): Allows us to use our second golem and buffs them.
This is the endgame setup, for Act 1-10 check out the Leveling Section!
Arc is our main skill - it comes with high base damage, decent cast time, shock chance & -effect and a more damage modifier for each remaining chain. This simply means that if for example your Arc can chain 7x and there's nothing to chain to, then it will get a 105% (7*15%) more damage multiplier for that hit.
We can also use Vaal Arc, which grants both the regular Arc skill and a buffed up Vaal Arc that grants us the Lucky Buff. This buff counters our high lightning damage range by rolling each damage roll twice and taking the higher one. However, it can still happen that it rolls two low values and you end up getting a few small hits.
Instead of artificially inflating tooltip numbers, our support gem setup is laid out for the highest real damage output. Here's a summary of what each support does, in order of importance:
Spell Echo substantially boosts our cast speed and repeats each skill use without consuming mana for the repeated cast, all at the cost of a minimal damage penalty. Controlled Destruction is a straight up more multiplier with a crit chance penalty for the linked skill. This reduces our probability to proc Elemental Overload with Arc to the base 5%, but doesn't affect any other skills we can use to proc it. Lightning Penetration is a "hidden" damage increase - it doesn't directly affect our tooltip damage, but rather acts as a dynamic more multiplier by reducing the enemies lightning resistance during damage calculations, and can even drop it into negative values. Added Lightning Damage adds lots of flat lightning damage at 90% value due to Arcs damage effectiveness. Replace this with a Lv4 Empower if you have a +1 to Level of socketed Gems chest. Hypothermia is another damage increase that's not represented in our tooltip. It gives a huge more multiplier against chilled enemies while also buffing the effect and duration of our chills.
To reliably make use of this, we need Beacon of Ruin and atleast 1 cold damage dealt with Arc, which we can gain through gear or jewels. Due to that, it's our 6th link choice.
Storm Brand is a great tool for us to proc Elemental Overload by creating many individual hits on a relatively large duration. We also use it to proc Arcane Surge, a buff that grants a more Spell Damage multiplier, cast speed and mana regeneration. Increased Duration increases both Storm Brands and Arcane Surges duration. Mana Leech backs up our mana sustain.
Arcane Surge procs based on total mana spent with the linked spell. To reliably proc it with every cast you need to keep it at whatever your mana cost allows, usually Lv6!
Cast when Damage taken (CwDt) is a trigger gem which will proc all linked spells after reaching a certain treshold of damage received, as long as the spells are within the level limitation.
This doesn't refer to the spells gem level, but rather its required level - in our case max. Lv38. Immortal Call helps surviving physical damage by temporarily giving us physical immunity. Ignore the Endurance Charge part, it has a base duration and works even without charges! Cold Snap helps with chilling in maps with the Chance to avoid Elemental Ailments mod, and occasionally grants Frenzy Charges. Increased Duration maximizes their duration.
Keep CwDt at Lv1, Immortal Call at Lv3 and Cold Snap at Lv7 for consistent procs!
Two different movement skill setups, which one to use depends on your weapon choices. Leap Slam is for Sceptre users and allows for relatively fast movement while also being able to pass obstacles on its own, Whirling Blades is for Dagger users and gets insanely fast with enough Attack Speed scaling, but can't pass obstacles. Faster Attacks increases their speed, Fortify grants a buff on hit that reduces all incoming damage from hits by 20%. Flame Dash is just meant a backup movement skill, mostly interesting for Dagger users to be able to pass obstacles or avoiding taking any damage from ground effects.
Clarity helps sustaining mana for skill usage costs and Mind over Matter by adding flat mana regeneration to our base amount, which then gets multiplied by all respective % modifiers.
Unlike other auras, it reserves a flat amount of mana which is dependent on its gem level, keep it at a level where you're comfortable with the reservation cost compared to regeneration gain. Enfeeble curses the enemy with a debuff that greatly reduces their damage as well as hit- and crit rate. We link it to another Cast when Damage taken to automate casting.
Keep CwDt at Lv7 and Enfeeble at Lv10 for a good proc/effect ratio!
Decoy Totem uses a taunt skill, that with good rhythm can prevent you from getting hit at all in the majority of bossfights. Its purpose is not to tank infinitely, but rather distracting the enemy to buy you some time. Shaper, Elder and their guardians can't be taunted! Summon Lightning Golem grants us a companion that boosts our attack- & cast speed and occasionally casts a mini-Wrath aura, giving us some flat lightning damage. Minion and Totem Elemental Resistance helps both of them surviving, you can also consider switching this with Empower to raise their base life.
After you finish the Eternal Lab and spec into Liege of the Primordial, you're able to summon a second golem. The best choice is Summon Flame Golem, which grants a generic damage buff and being an elemental golem, is also immune to elemental damage with Liege of the Primordial.
Quality
Once your gems reach Level 20, you can vendor them together with a Gemcutter's Prism to get a Level 1 gem with 20% Quality back, as long as the gem wasn't corrupted.
Gearing in Path of Exile is all about opportunity cost - sure, that unique item may look good,
but is it better than all other options? Can you make up the loss of vital stats somewhere else?
In this section I want to give you a quick rundown on what to look out for in each slot.
It's structured into base stats to start with, additional stats to add at a higher budget
and optional unique gear choices to consider, each with their own specific purpose.
Before I go into more detail, here's some important basics about gear and this section:
‣ Rare items can have up to six affixes, split into three prefixes and three suffixes
‣ Item level decides which affixes can roll, and up to which tier
‣ Shaper/Elder items can roll special affixes, those are accordingly colored in this section
‣ Socket color probability is tied to the attribute requirement: Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence
‣ 20% Quality increases the probability to hit the maximum possible number of sockets and links
‣ Affixes saying "with/to attacks" don't affect Arc, flat damage on weapons only if it's "to Spells"
‣ Armour, Evasion and Energy Shield can be ignored, all we care about is Life and Mana
‣ We need 37 Dexterity and up to 21 Strength from gear to meet gem attribute requirements
‣ The Crafting Bench can add powerful affixes for cheap, if the item has open Prefix/Suffix slots
‣ Each Unique that's not listed in this section is either too weak to compete with better choices,
too expensive for too little gain or simply doesn't synergize at all with this build
All gearpieces shown are just examples, focus on the text written underneath!
Weapons are just statsticks for casters, the base damage comes mostly from the spell gem itself, increasing by ~ 10% with each level. Despite that, we still can get a lot of damage out of them.
For this build we have two choices: Sceptres or Daggers, Wands lack a good movement attack.
We're dual wielding, but can't mix them as it disables our movement attack skill usage.
Sceptres have the better implicit affixes for us and there's two very solid unique choices,
Daggers grant us access to the better movement skill and block chance with Sai Daggers.
Regardless of what you go for, aim to get Spell-, Lightning- or Elemental Damage and Cast Speed, optionally Lightning Damage added to Spells and Attack Speed. On a higher budget, add Damage Penetrates x% Elemental Resistance or Gain x% of Elemental Damage as extra Chaos Damage.
The veiled mod "Trigger a socketed Spell when you use a Skill" allows a solid alternative setup.
Cerberus Limb is a great budget weapon, even if only the Spell Damage and Cast Speed apply when dual wielding. It can only drop from Ahuatotli, the Blind. Doryani's Catalyst loses out to Cerberus Limb in terms of raw damage, but comes with the benefit of Attack Speed and Global Crit Chance, and its huge amount of Elemental Damage
greatly buffs our Inpulsa explosions. It can only drop from Atziri in the Apex of Sacrifice.
A rare in this slot is only temporary. 80+ Life, Mana and some Resistances is all you need.
Tabula Rasa is a cheap 6L that can last you from Lv1 all the way into maps, at the cost of having no stats unless being corrupted. You can farm one pretty easily through Humility cards. The Queen's Hunger is an excellent chest for us. It comes with very solid Life and Cast Speed and automatically casts one of three Offering skills every 5 seconds if there's any nearby corpses, that apply to us at slightly reduced effect. Bone Offering is especially helpful, giving us a good amount of Block- & Spell Block Chance. It can only drop from the boss in Mastermind's Lair. Loreweave is a great allrounder for almost any lifebased build, and this one is no exception.
Its biggest strength is Your Maximum Resistances are #%, which locks your maximum resistances at the shown value as long as your total resistance of each element reaches that.
It can only be gained by selling any 60x Unique Rings together to a vendor. Inpulsa's Broken Heart is the highend option and absolutely recommended, focus on a high Life and Shock effect roll. The explosions can be scaled through Lightning Damage %, Elemental Damage % and Damage %, but not Spell Damage %, and properly scaled explosions are enough to take down even some bosses under the right circumstances. When using this chest you also won't need the ..of Grounding suffix on flasks.
Absolute highend is an Inpulsa's with +1 to Level of Socketed Gems or +2 to Level of socketed Duration Gems corruption or even both, but I don't recommend trying to corrupt it on your own. The chance is very low and you can end up destroying your item!
A rare helmet is the preferred choice here, should have atleast 60+ Life, some Mana and Resistances. At higher budgets you can look out for Adds x to x Lightning Damage to Spells and/or x% increased Effect of Shock.
Bone Helmets are great! With Spiritual Aid, all sources of Minions deal #% increased Damage apply to our damage, which makes their implicit equal to the 40% increased Arc Damage enchant. The implicit has a small range, but it can be rerolled cheaply with Blessed Orbs.
Another option is buying a base with Arc chains an additional time or x% increased Effect of the Buff granted by your Lightning Golems enchants and then craft it on your own.
Mind of the Council is a cheap way to gain better mana sustain at the cost of other stats from this slot. Its weakness is the Monsters have #% chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments mapmod, which makes it not as reliable as the Watcher's Eye mentioned in Jewels Section.
It can be farmed through the Unbearable Whispers prophecy chain.
Start with some basic gloves with 60+ Life, Resistances and Attack Speed. Later on, upgrade to a pair with Attack and Cast Speed for a mobility- and DPS gain, or Socketed Gems are supported by Mana Leech/Faster Casting/Blind to buff Storm Brand and gain utility/DPS. You could even go with an Essence of Insanity crafted pair to boost your movement skills.
Fingerless Silk Gloves are good for their 16% Spell Damage implicit, or try to get ..of Light, ..of the Tempest or ..of Thunder enchant here.
Command of the Pit allow us to have a Lv1 Arcane Surge up pretty much all the time and grant 1-2 additional Abyss Jewel Sockets, at the cost of potential attack speed from this slot. You won't need to link Arcane Surge and Increased Duration to Storm Brand with these gloves.
Focus on 60+ Life, Resistances and Movement Speed with optionally Mana. The recommended enchants are Damage Penetrates x% of Elemental Resistances or Adds 1 to x Lightning Damage if you haven't Killed Recently for bossfights, x% increased Attack and Cast Speed if you've Killed Recently is a decent mapping speed boost and x% of Damage leeched as Life/Mana is a cheap way to help mana sustain.
Bubonic Trail are similarly to Command of the Pit mostly for the extra Abyss Jewel Sockets, although I wouldn't recommend to use both together. These boots are interesting for Uber Elder farmers, as they allow an easy switch to Kaom's Roots without losing resistances from this slot.
70+ Life and Flask Duration are required, fill the remaining two suffixes with Resistances.
Stygian Vises are the best base and easy to craft, they drop after finishing an Abyssal Depth. Otherwise go for a Leather Belt or Heavy Belt.
Cyclopean Coil is a pretty solid belt that gives us Life and generic Damage, helps with reaching attribute requirements and even provides us Shock & Ignite immunity with the common setup.
It can only drop from the Elder.
Any amulet with 40+ Life, Spell/Lightning Damage and optionally Cast Speed, Mana or Mana Regeneration Rate is a solid start. Great additions at higher budgets are Damage Penetrates x% Elemental Resistances, x% increased Movement Speed, Gain x% of non-Chaos Damage as extra Chaos Damage, x% additional Physical Damage Reduction and x% increased Attack Speed.
A good basic ring should have 40+ Life, Mana and Resistances, optionally with Mana Regeneration Rate, Cast Speed or Lightning Damage %. Opal Rings are the most highend & expensive base.
Good high-budget mods are Adds x to x Lightning Damage to Spells and Attacks, Adds x to x Lightning Damage against shocked Enemies and x% increased Spell Damage.
Essence Worm with Wrath socketed is the biggest DPS boost we can get from any ring
and enables us to make use of powerful Watcher's Eye mods. Don't skip this ring!
Flasks
Flasks are really powerful in Path of Exile. Unlike in most other ARPG's, they aren't just limited to Life & Mana healing, but can also grant various offensive & defensive buffs and even immunities.
We get the majority of base flasks for this setup through quests, the others are common drops.
Through those flasks, we need to cover Curse-, Bleed- and Freeze/Chill Immunities.
Crafting Advice: Start by scouring all flasks and put 4x Glassblower Baubles on each, which can be bought for 8x Blacksmith's Whetstones each at the gear vendor in town. Transmute and use Orbs of Alteration until you hit one of the listed prefixes without a suffix, and add one of the listed suffixes through Einhar's beastcrafting in the Menagerie. If you hit a listed prefix already together with a listed suffix, you should of course keep that.
Our savior in many situations. Eternal Life Flasks provide the best heal per second ratio. Don't use a Seething Divine Life Flask, they are bad and will only cause issues! Prefixes:Catalysed Suffixes:of Staunching
An Eternal Mana Flask helps with mana sustain early on.
Replace this with one of the unique flasks below once you can. Prefixes:Catalysed, Saturared Suffixes:of Warding, of Heat, of Curing, of Grounding
Great mitigation against all sources of physical damage.
Try to roll it to have two uses during bossfights! Prefixes:Chemist's, Ample Suffixes:of Warding, of Heat
Gives a damage boost and drops Consecrated Ground, which provides 6% life regeneration. Don't use The Sorrow of the Divine or The Overflowing Chalice, they're bad for us! Prefixes:Experimenter's, Chemist's, Ample Suffixes:of Warding, of Heat
Wise Oak gives offense and defense, but requires some juggling with resistances.
Uncapped Resistance refers to the value inside brackets in your characters defense tab. Atziri's Promise provides extra Damage, some Leech and lots of Chaos Resistance.
Jewels
We have two choices here - regular jewels or Abyss jewels. The former are better to boost mobility and have overall more relevant damage modifiers for us, while the latter are an easy source of shock effect and can add additional safety at bosses through 30% Hinder slowing.
Abyss Jewels are generally also pretty easy to craft on your own.
No matter what, if you don't have this covered by other gear you need to use an Abyss jewel with Cold Damage to Spells (or -while dual wielding) to chill with Arc and make Hypothermia more effective. The value doesn't matter, even lowest roll is fine.
For regular jewels, priority order is:
Attack & Cast Speed > Lightning/Minion/Spell Damage > Life > Cast Speed > other Defenses
For Abyss jewels, priority order is:
Shock Effect > Life > Lightning Damage > Hinder > Cast Speed > Penetration > other Defenses
Watcher's Eye with x% of Lightning Damage leeched as Mana while affected by Wrath is recommended for great endgame mana sustain in combination with Essence Worm + Wrath.
This allows you to switch Mana Leech in your Storm Brand setup with Culling Strike, Blind or Onslaught. You may also use a lower level Clarity or disable it completely.
If you can afford, good additional mods are:
x% of Damage taken from Mana before Life while affected by Clarity
x% increased Mana Recovery Rate while affected by Clarity
x% chance to recover 10% of Maximum Mana when you use a Skill while affected by Clarity
x% of Damage taken gained as Mana over 4 seconds when Hit while affected by Clarity
x% increased Lightning Damage while affected by Wrath
Damage Penetrates x% Lightning Resistance while affected by Wrath
Clear Mind is a cheap damage boost and adds as much as a Lv20 20% Herald of Thunder + rare jewel would, without reserving mana. You have to stop using Clarity to make this jewel work, replacement could be a Lv13 Molten Shell or a higher level Enfeeble to cast on demand.
‣ Arc has a great range, there's no need to get close to the enemy unless you want to proc Fortify.
‣ The buffs gained by casting Storm Brand on enemies provide a significant damage boost, while also gaining important leech to survive.
‣ Movement is a big part in this build. It's not just good for fast clearing, but also forces you to learn all fights and proper positioning to succeed.
‣ Most enemy skills give you some cues and time to react. The more time you have, the more likely it's able to kill you even without any damage mods.
‣ These skills often also target your position during their animation start and won't follow you. Simply moving away is enough to survive in this case.
‣ The environment can be used to block many skills and is often meant to be made use of.
‣ Flasks refill pretty fast while clearing, you can usually keep them up with some practice.
Mapping
Before you start mapping, make sure that you have:
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‣ atleast 3.5k Life and 1k unreserved Mana
‣ Fire, Cold and Lightning Resistance capped at 75%
‣ the correct Pantheon powers activated (unlock extra powers as you map)
‣ a proper Flask setup (check the Flask section above)
Your first maps shouldn't be an issue with this, just keep on progressing through the Atlas.
Here's a comprehensive mapping guide you can read up on for more information.
Two more things you should read up on are monster mods and map mods to understand what everything does and how they may affect enemies or yourself.
While we can run all mapmods, decide for yourself if it's a good idea in that combination or against that boss. Things that are usually harmless can really start to hurt with the wrong mods!
The following mods affect our build negatively in some way:
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‣ Elemental Weakness: Counter with Wise Oak, Warding flask or 34% resistance overcap
‣ Chance to avoid Elemental Ailments: Huge damage & safety loss, play cautiously
‣ Enfeeble/Elemental Equilibrium/Resistance: Minor damage reductions, avoid stacking them
‣ Chain: Deactivate your golems so projectiles can't chain from them to you
‣ Less Recovery Rate: Lowers your recovery from Leech, Regeneration and Flasks
‣ No Life/Mana Regeneration: Keep Storm Brand + Mana Leech up if needed
‣ No Leech: Equip a Mana Flask if needed and play cautiously
Bossfights
All bossfights are mechanical, so your focus should be on learning how to play around them.
The usual strategy should be cast Decoy Totem opposite of your direction before starting the fight and cast Storm Brand at the boss, then pop DPS flasks and damage them until you have to either move or refresh Decoy Totem and repeat the whole thing.
Special thanks to everyone who helped improving the guide or supported it in any other way,
and to GGG for this awesome game and their exceptional support!
If yall haven't tried to spec into phase acro, i suggesting trying it out. I just spec'd into it last night at lvl98 and the mitigation is night and day, at least for me.
Can you give more information about the difference, and pros and cons you have felt.
I feel this explanation night and day is too vague for me. I checked your build PoB it seems cool, but what is the REAL FEEL :D
If yall haven't tried to spec into phase acro, i suggesting trying it out. I just spec'd into it last night at lvl98 and the mitigation is night and day, at least for me.
Is there any information out there on specing it into this build? I am intrigued. Does anyone else have input on this variant?
yeah just look up my tree lol. i kept all my gear the same, just respeced a few nodes.
Hah, fair enough. I was on my phone when I wrote that and couldn't see your whole skill tree.
So, disregarding the other variations you've made with passive skill point allocation (Fangs of the Viper, Nullification, Revenge of the Hunted), if I were to gain one more level (currently level 97) and spec Phase Acrobatics into my own build, this would be the requisite trade-off:
Lose:
43% increased maximum life
+8% to chaos resistance
26% increased effect of flasks on you
10% increased flask effect duration
Gain:
+70 to dexterity
30% chance to dodge spell hits
30% chance to dodge attack hits
10% additional chance to dodge attack hits
50% less armor
30% less energy shield
30% less chance to block spell and attack damage
Can anyone offer insight on the trade-off? I'm capable of plugging these changes into PoB, but I don't know how to meaningfully interpret the stat changes.
Edit: according to PoB, this seems to result in the loss of about 700 life, 150 energy shield, and 7% chance to block attack damage, plus the increased flask effect/duration noted above. The payoff is 40% chance to dodge attacks and 30% chance to dodge spells. Honestly, I don't even know the difference between evading and dodging, much less what the implications of these changes are to this particular build. None of the builds I've made in this game so far have been ones that rely on any type of statistical evasion; can people with practical experience comment on this trade-off?
Last edited by WorderMostFoul on Feb 17, 2019, 2:44:55 PM
