Yeah, I figured you'd say that about WoC in the trigger wand. If you're dropping Tempest Shield, you have a few options. Not sure how you're planning on getting Culling Strike and Unnerve into the build--they're both necessary luxuries if you're really trying to push damage, in my opinion--but between CwDT and the trigger wand, you could do some combination of WoC, Blade Blast, Sigil of Power (I just cannot swallow that it deserves its own dedicated setup), Increased AoE (works very well with the three aforementioned skills), and Culling Strike. You could also try an Awakened Hextouch setup with something like Storm Brand (LOL, yes I'm a broken record) where the Sigil was. Tons of possible permutations, plus way more additional options than I can think of.
Maybe Phase Run would be good in that mix, too, if there's room. A hierophant will be generally slower than an elementalist because of less cast speed, so even just more movement speed will probably make him feel better to play.
Options, options ...
I'm leaning towards:
CWDT - Tempest Shield/AoE skill/Chaining skill/... - Culling strike support - Blood Rage/Golem/Phase run
Blood Rage looks nice but it will depend on the total drain on my mana due to The Agnostic compensating for this and Righteous Fire.
For my skill I'm looking for a skill that has a duration and hits more than one enemy, so Culling Strike is somewhat dependable.
I was thinking about Blade Vortex, but it interacts with Blade Blast ...
Storm Brand also looks nice, but I don't know if it actually 'hits' the branded enemy.
If it does and I have Culling Strike from gloves/cluster, the setup you suggested looks also nice there:
CWDT - Storm Brand - Awakaned Hextouch - Elemental Weakness/Temporal Chains/...
In trigger wand same as Enki:
WoC - Conductivity - Blade Blast
Movement/Arcane CLoak same as Enki:
Flame Dash - Arcane Surge support - Arcane Cloak - Second Wind support
Cast speed won't be much different, sind Arcane Surge gets buffed alot more.
Also cast speed looks nice in POB, but gives a skewed views due to needing the mana to cast which isn't calculated.
The drain from Blood Rage pales in comparison to RF or Omeyocan, I guarantee you won't even notice it with Agnostic and strong mana recovery. You can put it anywhere, really: trigger, cwdt, even self-cast.
Storm Brand absolutely hits--both guaranteed and frequently. That's why it's so perfect for EO/Hextouch/Culling Strike. I think I'm going to just bite the bullet tonight and buy an Unnerve/CS cluster jewel so I can finally put Elemental Weakness in my SB setup and be done throwing my alts away. (You may have been thinking of Wintertide/Penance/Arcanist brand, as those do not hit the enemy they're branded to.)
I think I'm going to just bite the bullet tonight and buy an Unnerve/CS cluster jewel
I bought a 6 passive one yesterday for 6 or 7 ex, has Master of Fear and Wish for Death. I didn't notice a huge difference with it but my build has diverged from what you are playing. I should be on in two to three hours if you want to take a test run with it for a few maps before buying one.
Anyway, you'll still have a maxed-out AS linked to your AC, which should have like 95% uptime, so you should still be getting another 14% more spell damage and .7% mana regen as compared to the elementalist, now that the new patch has supposedly fixed that fucking glitch.
Let us know when you've got it up and running! If it's got noticeably better survivability and the damage is comparable, I might try starting with one next league.
It will be even more ;-)
I got 2 awesome Megalomaniacs ready for this build with Arcane Heroism and 2 other great notables on each:
Arcane Heroism is like 6,5%+ more dps for 1 notable.
Will do; have started my character, but I expect it to take a week to lvl.
another question,
i can enchant my boots, thought of going for 50+ mana,
but now i can craft the veiled mod "non vaal skills deal 51-60% increased dmg during soul gain prevention"
isnt this a crazy dmg boost for arc in some cases?
like when my vaal RF expires or when Ive used my vaal arc?
the numbers see so much bigger then a little mana!
thanks in advance
Well, for starters, you're talking about a crafted mod versus an enchantment--so you don't have to pick and choose. You can have them both!
Second, 70% increased mana regen is extremely strong in a build like this one that depends so much on mana regen for both offense and defense. It's applied to your flat mana regen, which we stack as much as possible via inherent 1% regen, Cloak of Defiance, Clarity, Arcane Surge, Mastermind of Discord, and Pure Talent (and probably other sources I'm forgetting to mention). Just the enchantment by itself would take you from regenerating 5% of your base mana per second to 8.5%. That's 12 seconds versus 20 seconds to refill your mana from 0% to 100%. There aren't many places in the game you can find that kind of boost in mana regen with practically no strings attached.
Next, 50% increased damage is good...but this game distinguishes between "increased" damage and "more" damage in its calculations. The difference is astronomical, and far from just semantic in this case. 50% increased damage is a little boost; 50% more damage is HUGE.
Finally, unless you're actively and frequently using your Vaal skills when mapping, which I personally don't, the amount of time you spend in soul gain prevention is negligible.
thanks dude!
i wasn't actually talking about the mana regen enchant,
but you did teach me about there being a big diffrence between increased damage and added damage. so cheers!
The drain from Blood Rage pales in comparison to RF or Omeyocan, I guarantee you won't even notice it with Agnostic and strong mana recovery. You can put it anywhere, really: trigger, cwdt, even self-cast.
Storm Brand absolutely hits--both guaranteed and frequently. That's why it's so perfect for EO/Hextouch/Culling Strike. I think I'm going to just bite the bullet tonight and buy an Unnerve/CS cluster jewel so I can finally put Elemental Weakness in my SB setup and be done throwing my alts away. (You may have been thinking of Wintertide/Penance/Arcanist brand, as those do not hit the enemy they're branded to.)
Yes, but Blood Rage will only be a debuff on boss fights with nothing to add.
I'll probably go for Culling Strike with Storm Brand (or whatever fits good).
I got 3 Megalomaniacs atm (2 equiped and 1 linked in previous post) and would like to drop the one with the Culling Strike for the one linked since it has way better notables.
Is this a valid option instead of the two wands? As it feels like we'd lose a lot of functionality (trigger socketed spell / double focus dmg).
Penny for thy thoughts
Pledge of Hands is a valid option and fits right into this build, if it weren't for the nasty side effect that it has.
With Greater Spell Echo support provided by the weapon you'll be casting 4 Arcs (1 from your action + 1 from the normal Spell Echo + 2 from Greater Spell Echo).
That seems nice, but it locks you into place until they are all cast.
Depening on cast speed you'll be locked into place for 0,7-1 sec, after which you still have to cast Flame Dash to avoid the nasty things coming your way.
Expect quite a few deaths due to being too late to dodge.
I also quite like the trigger wand as a QoL, but an extra 6-link is great too.
Not too sure about using it with all the golem gems though; there are better classes to appreciate a 2nd 6-link.
Last edited by Reechaani on Feb 10, 2021, 6:07:52 PM
Is this a valid option instead of the two wands? As it feels like we'd lose a lot of functionality (trigger socketed spell / double focus dmg).
Penny for thy thoughts
It's a distinctly different playstyle. I have not enjoyed it in the past when I have tried it, it just felt very clunky and it's extremely on the glass cannon side of things. I was frustrated dying constantly with Elementalist so I respecced to a Necro like last league. So far that is feeling pretty clunky itself with all the block stuns and to get the damage up it's going to be a very expensive build. I am also considering leveling a new character and giving PoH a try with a proper glass cannon crit build, already bought the staff and 6 linked it. I only had about 300 jewelers and 600 fusings and assumed that I would fail to get it linked. Now I have to choose between gutting my Necro, selling the PoH for a few ex, or leveling a new witch. I am leaning towards the latter as a good break between trying to drag my Necro from 95 to 96 which seems doable unlike the Elementalist but it isn't much fun. If you choose to try it you need to respec a lot of the skill tree as it won't work with just swapping weapons.
Is this a valid option instead of the two wands? As it feels like we'd lose a lot of functionality (trigger socketed spell / double focus dmg).
Penny for thy thoughts
Agree with Reechaani and BuckFutter here. PoH is definitely the easiest and most effective way to up your DPS, but it just feels horrible, especially for mapping. I did notice its popularity on ninja a few weeks ago and have to assume it's because of the potential for good boss damage. But seriously, I do not recommend it for Arc.
