Enki's Arc Witch Memorial Page

If I'm using the three dragons helm instead of the CotB ring, should I still use the cold pen gem? or should I use lightning pen?

You don't deal any cold dmg with Arc when you're using The Three Dragons. Cold Penetration will not boost your dmg output.

But I'd also like to hear your opinion about Cold Pen. I'm still running a 20/23 Light Pen, since I don't think it makes too much of a difference and I don't have a levelled/quality Cold Pen. So, do you think that's a big mistake?

Btw. I am really amazed of what this build has become since the patch! I am still using the dual curse setup (I really like the Enfeeble/Temp Chains combo and I hate using Blood Rage)and have now switched Life Leech for Empower (level3, after an unfortunate Vaal Orb) and can get up to 75k dps. Freaking amazing!

Regarding the Cold Penetration gem, I asked that same question (along with a bunch of others) in my discussion with the OP in the last two pages.

The gist of it is that Cold Penetration does not strictly improve the DPS in any meaningful way (in that case it's essentially the same as Lightning Penetration, since half of our DPS is Lightning and half is Cold,) but the primary reason for switching to it is for added flexibility in gem swapping for certain situations -- Cold Penetration being a green gem/socket allows us to swap it for Mana Leech to run 'No Regen' maps. This would not be possible if you used Lightning Penetration, since that is a blue gem and socket.

I also assume for gear like the Lightning Coil, it's easier to roll B-B-B-B-G-R than B-B-B-B-B-R.

Congrats on that 6L LC, Vaaroth; Very jealous, especially since I failed my own 6L attempt the other day!

For single target damage, I had the same reservations, but the OP is using the Vaal Storm Call mainly as a supportive damage boost alongside Arc. If you want to replace it entirely with another skill during boss fights, I was thinking of looking into regular Storm Call or Flame Surge.

I haven't had a chance yet to look into Ice Bite either, since I've been trying to get a new MF character up in Talisman, haha.

@ouis: Looking good so far!

@Merneith: Vaal Storm Call is just additive damage to Arc for single targets, but often enough to kill the boss on its own. I've tried almost all other spells for single target, and nothing was really worth it. Only setups that had a higher boss killspeed than just arcing was Vaal Storm Call + Arc and Flame Totem + Arc, with the former being the fastest of all.

Arc totem isn't worth it, it just slows you down for nothing.


@Vaaroth: Congrats!


@Sherkkan: Penetration is insanely strong, especially once you roll high level maps with 60%+ additional resistances. Shock/freeze duration are dependant on the amount of its respective elemental damage you deal - Light Pen increases shock duration, Cold Pen increases freeze duration. You also need to deal atleast 0.5% of the enemies life to apply the ailment at all.
Simple put, Cold Pen allows us to freeze more stuff, plus more flexibility for No Regen maps and easier Lightning Coil chroming.


@Tooooooasty: As BundesHeinz pointed out, stick with Light Pen.


@BundesHeinz: Like mentioned above, Cold Pen is better for freezing and utility. But until you got a leveled one, i'd stick with Light Pen for now.


@DarkRogue_3: I've tried out Ice Bite, and unfortunately it's no substitute for Blood Rage. Gained at most 1 frenzy charge in a full Dried Lake run, sometimes even none at all.
Guess we'll have to wait for a dual curse jewel or some other alternative and stick with Blood Rage for now.

Aww, that is disappointing to hear. That said, not entirely unlike my previous experience with that gem on my old Witch. I wasn't using it specifically for charges back then, but I did try to gain charges when feasible, and often it gave me none (linked to Cold Snap at the time) but would randomly give me one or two. It was extremely unreliable -- I suppose it has to be linked with Arc in order to more reliably provide charges, but our links are pretty full.

They really need to make Ice Bite less restrictive if they want it to see more usage.

Level 78 on Talisman league. I have been following this build pretty closely and I have to say it's amazing. It's the fastest I've ripped through content with a fresh league.

10/10.

"

zeels90 wrote:

Level 78 on Talisman league. I have been following this build pretty closely and I have to say it's amazing. It's the fastest I've ripped through content with a fresh league.

10/10.

Pretty much the same for me.
Having a blast playing it.

I dropped a PoH this afternoon..
I'm torned between selling it or playing ice nova now.
Life's hard.

Rerolling to this build now. Fun to play.
How bad is it not having the right bandits? Chose Oak->kill all->kill all with another build before the patch

@Heltgalen

I'm doing kill all - kill all - alira and its working fine but honestly the alira merciless reward is needed IMO. 1 extra power charge is pretty useful for getting a high crit chance.

@Enki91 Your screenshot for offensive, is that with or without power charges up?

@Darkrogue thank you :# I wish you luck on your 6L attempts!

If i started this build as a shadow, would it be worth it to grab the spell damage from the witch start?