[3.3] Greased Lightning MF | Inpulsa/Vinktar's Autobomber

This build utilizes Pathfinder's Flask upkeep for Vinktar's + Inpulsa's to spread electric blue explosions! Most of the damage comes from scaling lots of flat lightning damage to spells for Abberath's Hooves as a trigger for the "autobombing." Now, this doesn't self perpetuate as well as let's say a Cospri's Autobomber that scales crit. It does, however, have the same feel in regards to shield charging through maps and watching things explode. Abberath's will consistently pop packs in lower tier maps, which will trigger Inpulsa's explosions thanks to Vinktar's always keeping the enemies shocked.

Esh's Mirror, as well as the keystone Elemental Overload, will help scale the damage of Inpulsa, Herald of Thunder, and Abbearth's. For single target, Vaal Breach makes stacking for Esh's Mirror a cinch.

This build reaches 55-60% Increased Item Quantity pretty easily, but we have to use the Mind Over Matter Blood Rage combo in order to sustain Divination Distillate's effect. This requires about 5.2-5.3k life; the trick here is to get enough life to so that our mana degen is strong enough to counteract the mana gained from Distillate. This is a bit tricky since this is on a Pathfinder and we get all of that extra flask effect. Because of this engine, Blood Magic is needed on all actively used skill gems (Blood Rage, Shield Charge, etc).

Leech is maintained via Vintar's and Atziri's Promise. Both have nearly 100% uptime thanks to Pathfinder being Pathfinder. During bosses, Vaal Breach gives us more than enough flasks back(not to mention the boss is usually dead within by the end of the flask duration anyways).

Now, this is Hardcore viable, even for bossing to a point, but only after the build is completely functional. Taking on the boss too early could cost you your life, which isn't something to take lightly in Hardcore. I would probably stick to Burial Chambers(T3) or Pens(T2) for HC. In SC you can push the build freely and see how far it takes you. Right now I'm just chilling out in Pens with the build, but I plan on experimenting with a few different maps by the end of it all.

Bandits: Kill all for more jewel sockets, or kill Alira for all res.

20 Points
45 Points
65 Points
108 Points(my current tree)
https://pastebin.com/CDkCZc5j - Pastebin with all the leveling trees + condensed notes on the build.

This is a basic leveling tree set for Abbearth's. If you have Poet's you can adjust to whatever tree you prefer to level with. I'd recommend 3 Cobalt Grand Spectrum for 12% elemental damage per. This will give you a ton of elemental damage. Until you need flat life on abyss jewels, these will do as good placeholders anyways.

As for points 65 till 108, just fill in whatever you feel the build needs at the moment(more life if you're dying, more damage if you aren't killing fast enough, etc).

Use something like Controlled Destruction, Added Lightning, Added Cold, and Increased Area of Effect while leveling and adjust your links later on to lightning pen once you have enough lightning damage to warrant it(flat lightning abyss jewels, lighting to spells vinktar's, etc). Use Herald of Ice + Herald of Thunder to level with. You can swap out Herald of Ice for Wrath later if you'd like.

As for points past what I currently have allocated, I'm thinking of going over to Herbalism, then hitting up that dex jewel socket, and the str jewel socket near the scion life wheel. Currently I don't have any more abyss jewels worth socketing in so I haven't gone toward those yet.

Ascendancy:
Honestly the order of this is all preference. You can go for Nature's Adrenaline for faster movement speed for leveling with Abberath's. You can go Nature's Boon for flask upkeep, then rush Master Alchemist so you don't have to worry about your flasks. Honestly just pickup whatever sounds good and roll with it. You'll have all your ascendancy points eventually anyways.

Pantheons:
Lunaris: Reduced Physical Damage is nice, plus with improved with dodge more projectiles. Amazing for Incursions.

Sharkari: Reduced Chaos Damage and immunity to poison; also amazing for Incursions.

Added Lightning - Controlled Destruction - Lightning Pen - Increased Area of Effect(In Abberath's)

Herald of Thunder - Curse on Hit - Conductivity - Added Lightning - Lightning Pen - Blind

Wrath x Vaal Breach(Portal) - Faster Casting - Enhance (Enhance isn't required, just nice to level)

Cast When Damage Taken(1) - Immortal Call(3) - Conductivity(5)

Blood Rage - Inc Duration - Blood Magic

Shield Charge - Blood Magic - Faster Attacks - Fortify(Socketed in Insanity gloves for clearspeed)

Herald of Thunder is fine on a 3L to be honest. I put the gems in HoT in order of importance in case you don't have a 5/6L. The blind is there because there's no mana multiplier on it. If I had mana reserved reduction (such as a reduced mana Wrath enchant), or I fiddled around with the gems to get Enlighten on Wrath instead of Enhance on Vaal Breach, I would use Onslaught over Blind for more consistency; or culling strike or added cold(it's pretty much whatever floats your goat).

I've been messing around with links on Abberath's trying to find a sweet spot for boss damage and clear. After some testing, I think Increased AoE is the best gem for the 4th slot. Just feels good to clear with and gives you more hits per second with Abberath's without stressing over your mouse placement on rares/bosses.

Blood Magic is required on some of these links because we drain off all our mana for Divination Distillate upkeep. I go over some of these details in the "What it do" section at the top of the guide.

The corruption for lightning damage + attack speed might actually be a damage lost compared to the natural implicit for elemental damage. I don't think Path of Building is super accurate in regards to damage. For now, I'm using it anyways, but my point is that it isn't required at all. I just saw it up for a few chaos and decided to give it a whirl. I feel like Doryiani's is the best in slot for what we want, but Singularity could be a more defensive option for hardcore. The hinder is super nice, and the damage scaling isn't bad for Abberath's. You lose global elemental damage for Herald of Thunder and Inpulsa's, but it's still a viable option, especially for early league when Doryiani's isn't around. Or if you're in SSF and happen to find it before a Catalyst.

Regarding the Ventor's, just use rare rings with resistances until you have currency to buy decent ones. It's not worth getting 5% quantity Ventor's(at least not to me) with okayish res's. These can cost upwards of 2EX if you want decent HP, 9-10% Quantity, and good res's.

The helmet enchant isn't required at all. Wrath mana reservation might be better since it allows for some flexibility for gem links on Herald of Thunder.

Lightpoacher could be used over a rare, but with downsides; it has less life than a rare, and less resistances; you'd have to find a lot of fire resistance elsewhere on the tree or on jewels. I'd gun for Ballistic Mastery, pathing through Heart of Oak, to make the clear feel better with it. Otherwise it's not going to keep up with your shield charge. You'd have to reroll physical reflect maps I think, unless you do something like Physical to Lightning, Faster Projectiles, and GMP. This might cut it down enough to where you wouldn't feel it as bad. I'll experiment with this once I have some more abyss jewels and flexibility on resistances. I just shelled out money for decent Ventor's, so I can't afford to buy one with 40+ fire resistance at the moment.

Shaper Amulet vs Bisco's: This is normally preference based. I frequently am asked about what I like to run more, or what the "best" option here. In this case, I like the idea of getting a resistance on my amulet, and some life. The build requires a certain amount of life to degen via Blood Rage, so wherever you can fit it in, it's amazing. Now, I'm not saying you can't use Bisco's Collar. I'm just saying that I prefer Shaper over it in this case, and that you'd need to make up for the lack of flat life elsewhere. I mean, my roll is only 35 life, but that's a somewhat-okay abyss jewel. Just weigh your options and think on it before making a decision.

Insanity Gloves are super amazing for clear. You can go Sadima's here for maximum MF, but I wouldn't recommend it. You lose a healthy chunk of life, and a 16% more modifier for attack speed with Shield Charge. Choose wisely.

Esh's Mirror: Overpowered damage scaling at it's finest. Enjoy. I wouldn't replace this with anything else really. It's too much flat damage to ignore, especially in a league where Vaal Beach is not only accessible, but comes with a free Portal gem as well. If this isn't ladyPOGGERS I don't know what is.


Bisco's Leash: This can be replaced with a good Stygian Vise or Darkness Enthroned if you have more abyss jewels. I like rampage for clearing maps personally, but if you go the Lightpoacher route this could prove super useful. Headhunter would also be great if you have the budget.

If you opt out of Divination Distillate, you can drop the Blood Rage/Mind Over Matter Engine. This frees you up a bit on links and allows you to gear a bit more freely. I highly recommend sticking with it for a bit, though. It gives 18% IIQ, and some rarity, and additional max resistance.

As for the Quicksilver of Adrenaline, you NEED a Corrupting Blood Jewel. I'll be linking mine and talking about different options for it in the Jewel Section below. If you don't have one of these jewels, just use a Quicksilver of Staunching. Alternatively, you can go Master Surgeon on your Ascendancy instead of Veteran Bowyer; this will hurt the consistency of the flasks a bit, and you lose 10% Penetration, but it is an option if you really want to have the Adrenaline roll on your flask to zoom zoom.

Atziri's: Good for leech, good for damage scaling.

Vinktar's: Penetration is fine for this as well, since it applies it to Inpulsa's. I feel like the flat lightning helps us clear the first few mobs to get Esh stacks going, and for consistency when the Esh stacks fall off.

Wise Oak: With Vinktar's up, you always have Lightning Penetration here. The penetration also works for Inplusa's which is super nice.

The base for the corrupting blood jewel doesn't matter at all. Any jewel will do. Try to get some form of life for Blood Rage degen, whether it's percent life or flat.

One Onslaught jewel with at least a 5% roll will do pretty well for clearspeed; try to get life and another useful mod but don't stress about it. You can always upgrade later via self-crafting or buying one.

For the other jewels, our best mods are flat lightning to spells, flat lighting to spells while holding a shield, and flat life. As always, if you have to settle for fire damage to spells or other kind of useful rolls, as long as it has life it's super good. Just get as much as you can for that Blood Rage degen.

Watcher's Eye: Percent increased Lightning Damage while affected by Wrath + Lightning Pen would be better than an abyss jewel. I don't think a single roll would be out a double flat damage roll, though. It's about 75EX, so still far away for me. It's not a priority, but it's fun to think about; just like horoscopes.

Pen Map(T2)

So far the build's been a blast. I just started mapping with it yesterday, so I imagine I'll be able to min-max it quite a bit from this point onward. So far it feels like a smoother autobomber(compared to Cospri's), and much easier on the eyes. Glacial Cascade also tends to lag my computer, so maybe I'm a bit bias. Regardless, the steadiness of the build not relying on crits to chain feels nice as well.

If you give the build a shot, let me know what you think! Also, if you have any questions about the links or mechanics in general, feel free to leave a comment below or catch me on Twitch. I stream almost every day. Stay safe exiles!