[3.15]Archmage Ball Lightning Hierophant, will it work in Expedition?

For anyone who isn't playing the new league and pretty much only plays Standard (like me), I've got an updated PoB for ya on this build.

https://pastebin.com/ebSQsdZ1


I can get it just under 1M damage per BL hit (977k), with 38 AoE radius.

With that radius and -30% projectile speed from Slower Proj, we can still get 13 hits per cast per BL on the target with proper spacing.




This means 4 BL's per cast * 13 hits * 977k = ~50M damage per cast.

And even if you can only get your char to half that (489k dmg per hit), 25M damage per cast is still pretty crazy.

Remember that 36 AoE radius is the minimum needed for 13 hits per BL to be possible with just -30% projectile speed. The bigger your radius, the more forgiving you can be with your spacing. Meaning it doesn't have to be perfect


My build has around 11k persistent effective life (~4000 life + ~3000 ES + ~4000 mana EL from MoM/DG/CoD), and then add in another 4700 effective life for 7 of every 9 seconds with Arcane Cloak (64% of 7300 unreserved mana + Dynamo wheel).

So nearly 16k EHP for most of the time, which is pretty spectacular, combined with elemental ailment immunity, curse immunity(HFT), some life regen, and some okay life and ES leech, plus crazy mana regen, and okay block chance... it's a decently durable char.

I do not have Arcane Cloak attached to CWDT. I manually cast it about every 9 seconds against bosses or when clearing big mob packs. This allows me to max it out and attach it to a maxed Arcane Surge. Yes we get a level 1/0 AS from Arcane Blessing ascendancy node, but a level 21 AS is a nice 10% more multiplier and +1.5% more mana regen on top of that when wanted. Also, the Dynamo passive node is awesome as it gives +20% mana recovery every time you use AC.

I have both Heart of Thunder and Whispers of Doom showing as anointed on the amulet, but this is only because PoB is bugged and doesn't account for the additional curse under Awakened Curse on Hit gem. HoT is the only real anointment.

I use Holy Flame Totem for several reasons. 1. It is a very easy way to put the target on consecrated ground (with a long duration), which won't show it in your tooltip, but that's another +100% increased crit strike chance; 2. Because HFT has the unique feature of giving us curse strip/curse immunity; and 3. It also grants us +6% life regen on demand. And I use multi-totem with it so I can drop one on the target and one on me at the same time.

I also do not use Storm Brand to apply curses. I have Assassins Mark (level 12) being applied on hit from my ring, and then Proj Weakness and Elemental Weakness applied from lvl 1 CWDT + lvl 7 Wave of Conviction(also applies lightning exposure) + Awakened Curse on Hit + lvl 4 Enhance.

It's just a more efficient setup, IMO, than manually applying them. It's so easy to take 528 damage to proc CWDT/WoC, it happens constantly without fail. And this frees me up more to cast HFT and AC, too.

I strongly recommend getting Assassins Mark on hit on your ring (although it's quite expensive), as it pretty much guarantees you 3 power charges up all the time, as well as giving you some life and mana recovery each mob you kill. Not to mention, of course, significant +crit chance.

I use Zealotry instead of Wrath because I'm going for crit chance AND because my Watcher's Eye has elemental penetration with Zealotry on it. If yours has Wrath, then feel free to swap them. If you don't have a watcher's eye, then I recommend using Zealotry for the crit chance and consecrated ground.

I like Phase Run + Flame Dash + Increased Duration + Second Wind 4-link setup, and then i put Phase Run in my movement button (left mouse button). When I'm not using skills/spells, it's a permanent +50% movement (duration=cooldown), and the ability to run through mobs if needed is nice.

I use Windshriek boots for the additional curse (3rd one) instead of Whispers of Doom anointment. This frees up the anointment slot for Heart of Thunder (equates to ~8% more damage, plus penetration). And then after some effort, I got the 80% chance to avoid being stunned if you've killed recently uber lab enchantment on the boots. This, combined with Brine King pantheon, which I typically stay in anyways, and I haven't noticed a stun problem at all. It's also very nice having the life regen back, and AM keeps me maxed on power charges. So I think this is a good substitute for Skyforth boots.

And lastly, because we're on Standard, we still get to use at least 1 Fevered Mind jewel. And since there is a +100% mana cost to skills version, we can still get BL mana cost up to around 35% of our mana pool (with Forethought), even with Sanctuary of Thought, which is extremely necessary due to the +AoE radius. The downside is, those +100% mana cost Fevered Mind's have suddenly gotten exponentially more expensive. Might want to try and grab one while they're not outrageous just yet. Some folks still don't realize what they've got.



So that's about it. If anyone can improve on this on Standard, please do so. There might be a cluster jewel version that can beat it, but I couldn't seem to find it. Maybe someone else can.

Also, I'm still unsure if Unleash might be a huge boost. If you watch this video (from The Badger: https://youtu.be/UIWExGDXYRE), he insists that Unleashed BL's are all considered separate casts/independent balls. Which if they are, that means we could get upwards of 100M damage per cast with 8-9 BL's still (1 normal + 4-5 unleash BL's + 1 spell echo + 2 greater spell echo).

The PoE Wiki says Unleashed instances are not considered separate casts/independent, but if you watch that video, the dude is one-shotting Conquerors with a single cast (just 6 Balls from one unleash cast), with NO spell echo or greater spell echo. Just a 5-seal Unleash. And I don't see how that's possible if Unleashed BL's aren't all getting their 13 hits each in. I mean there's just no way he's one-shotting Conquerors with just one BL really doing all the damage.

This is a really huge deal that I think people are overlooking who play this build. It needs serious further testing and confirmation. I mean the evidence in that video is extremely compelling, suggesting that Unleashed BL's ARE considered separate casts.


Anyway, hope this helps some of you Standard server folks. Good luck everyone.

Thanks for your very detailed explanation! One issue though, you don't have to stand that far away from mobs... In your drawing, the ball will hit nothing in its first second flying.

Also, with the new Arcanist brand, we could try Arcanist brand-Wave of Conviction-Curse on hit setup. Sometimes I really feel it takes forever for waves to reach mobs XD.

Edit: I believe the "13 hits" comes from a 2-seconds ball duration, which is definitely wrong. Balls can last 3 seconds for sure.

Edit 2: Unleash on the Pledge of Hands is a very bad idea. here is why:

Let's say we have a 0.2s cast rate and 4 seals with a 0.6s sealing time(with thunderous salvos cluster). 5-linked BL has tooltip damage 1.

Without unleash we deal: 1 + 1.35 + 1.7 + 2.05 = 6.1 damage in 0.8s, equal to 7.625/s

With unleash we deal:
1.4(mana cost multi)* [0.89*5 (first cast and 4 seals) + 1.35 + 1.7 + 2.05*.89*2(one seal ready on the last cast)] = 15.61 in 0.6*4 + 0.8 = 3.2s, equal to 4.87/s

And if we switch unleash to ele focus we can get 7.625*1.3*1.5 = 14.9/s

Hello, first, thank for this build, i very like how BL work here (sry for my bad english), it's my first time with a Spell Build and i have some question, how can i reach a descent dps (120 000dps when with Overload, but only 6%crit chance :/).



///- https://pastebin.com/HSqmVsmk -///


i trying to have 6socket/6link on staff and cloak, some enchant on boots/glove/helmet, but i'm verry far from a nice dps. I actually don't know what jewel buying, you can see i trying fevered mind (now i understand why he's dead ^^). Well i'm a little lost, can you give me some advice please ?

Thank !
- Floflit

Hey, you get elemental overload from storm brand, and other crit related passives are all useless for EO build.

You can check my current character in Harvest for some build ideas.

"

Floflit wrote:

Hello, first, thank for this build, i very like how BL work here (sry for my bad english), it's my first time with a Spell Build and i have some question, how can i reach a descent dps (120 000dps when with Overload, but only 6%crit chance :/).

///- https://pastebin.com/HSqmVsmk -///


i trying to have 6socket/6link on staff and cloak, some enchant on boots/glove/helmet, but i'm verry far from a nice dps. I actually don't know what jewel buying, you can see i trying fevered mind (now i understand why he's dead ^^). Well i'm a little lost, can you give me some advice please ?

Thank !
- Floflit

"

Aniki_Leads_people wrote:

Thanks for your very detailed explanation! One issue though, you don't have to stand that far away from mobs... In your drawing, the ball will hit nothing in its first second flying.

Also, with the new Arcanist brand, we could try Arcanist brand-Wave of Conviction-Curse on hit setup. Sometimes I really feel it takes forever for waves to reach mobs XD.

Edit: I believe the "13 hits" comes from a 2-seconds ball duration, which is definitely wrong. Balls can last 3 seconds for sure.

Edit 2: Unleash on the Pledge of Hands is a very bad idea. here is why:

Let's say we have a 0.2s cast rate and 4 seals with a 0.6s sealing time(with thunderous salvos cluster). 5-linked BL has tooltip damage 1.

Without unleash we deal: 1 + 1.35 + 1.7 + 2.05 = 6.1 damage in 0.8s, equal to 7.625/s

With unleash we deal:
1.4(mana cost multi)* [0.89*5 (first cast and 4 seals) + 1.35 + 1.7 + 2.05*.89*2(one seal ready on the last cast)] = 15.61 in 0.6*4 + 0.8 = 3.2s, equal to 4.87/s

And if we switch unleash to ele focus we can get 7.625*1.3*1.5 = 14.9/s

1. I fixed the drawing to the correct distance. I did it in haste originally and placed the mob too far back. It's correct now.


2. The discrepancy here is that it appears you're talking about the total duration of a BL from it's inception to dissipation, which is longer than the amount of time a mob is capable of touching/being hit by the radius of a BL.

The answer to this question lies in how many units of radius does a BL travel per second with -30% slower projectiles.

Mark_GGG says here that the base units for a BL travel is 36 per second (Here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/960086/page/14#p8249654). Which would mean it's 25.2s with -30% slower proj.

Is this still correct or has it changed? The Wiki says 48 base travel units per second, which isn't possibly correct, and is contradicted by Mark, himself, whom the Wiki even references.

Because if 36 base travel units per second is correct, then a 3-second duration is irrelevant because you'd have to have an AoE radius of 48 just for a mob to last 2 seconds inside a BL's radius start to finish. For a mob to last 3 seconds inside a BL radius with the BL traveling at 25 units/second, you'd have to have a radius of 73 on your BL.

So it appears I've even over-estimated with the 13 hits number with 36 radius.

36 radius means first hit occurs when the BL is 18 units from the target. (ie. the target is half the total radius units away from the epicenter of the BL)

At the 1 second mark from that first hit, the epicenter of the BL has gone 25 units, which means it's now 5 units past the mob (who is 2 units in size).

And at this point, the mob has been hit 6.67 times (1s / 150ms = 6.67).

That leaves only 13 more units of travel the BL has left with the mob inside it's radius (36 unit radius - 25 units/s travel speed + 2 size of mob = 13).

13 units means only 3.47 more hits (13/25 = .52 * 6.67 = 3.47). 3.47 + 6.67 = 10 hits.

So it appears I even over-estimated at 13 hits. With 36 radius and -30% slower proj, the mobs are only inside the BL radius long enough to be hit 10x.

In other words, with a radius of 36 units and a BL that travels 25 units/s, a mob is only capable of being inside the BL radius, for 1.52 seconds.



When slower proj was -44%, that meant a BL traveled 20 units per second (36*.56=20).

This is why with 36 BL radius, we use to be able to get ~2 seconds of a mob inside the BL radius.

With 36 BL radius, the BL would first hit the mob at 18 units. Then at the end of 1s (6.67 hits), the epicenter of the BL was at 20 units. The mob, itself, is 2 units in size. This left 18 more units the BL had the mob inside it's radius (36-20+2=18).

18/20 = .9 * 6.67 = 6.0. 6.67 + 6.0 = 13 hits.



Again, the 3 second duration of BL is irrelevant. The mob isn't inside the BL radius for that long.


So right now, if you're trying to figure out how much DPS your char does, the formula is this (assuming -30% slower proj and 36 BL radius):

((Number of Independent BL's * 10) * Average Hit Damage) = Damage Per Cast

DPS = Damage Per Cast / 1.52



3. We still need to determine if Unleashed BL's are each considered independent or not. The Wiki says they are not, but the Wiki is too often wrong.

That video of The Badger using ONLY Unleash and still one-shotting Conquerors with only a 400k average hit PoB and 5 Unleash seals suggests to me that Unleash BL's ARE considered independent.

And if that's the case, then it hurts nothing to add Unleash to the build UNLESS you plan on standing stationary in one spot holding down your cast BL key against every boss.

I personally don't and can't do that. I cast once or twice at most, and then move, and then cast again, move, cast, move... and so on. And as a result, Unleash would net me more damage per cast than if I used Controlled Destruction in it's place (I'm a crit build, so I use Elemental Focus over Controlled Destruction).

But again, this is moot until we can somehow get some confirmation on if Unleashed BL's are considered independent casts.

"

Aniki_Leads_people wrote:

Also, with the new Arcanist brand, we could try Arcanist brand-Wave of Conviction-Curse on hit setup. Sometimes I really feel it takes forever for waves to reach mobs XD.

I just tested this, and Arcanist Brand won't activate the curses if Curse on Hit is linked.

Even if you have Wave of Conviction there, it will only cast WoC, but WoC will not apply the curses on hit for some strange reason.

It's possible this is a bug and needs reported.

In other words, this works fine if you're not using Awakened Curse on Hit to be the source of an additional curse.

Here's the breakdown:

Arcanist Brand + Wave of Conviction + Proj Weakness + Elemental Weakness (with Whispers of Doom) = all 3 get triggered from AB... WoC cast and both curses applied.

Arcanist Brand + Wave of Conviction + Awakened Curse on Hit + Proj Weakness + Elemental Weakness + Assassins Mark (with Whispers of Doom) = Only WoC is cast/triggered, and no curses get applied.


Looks like a bug to me. WoC hit SHOULD trigger curse on hit and apply curses, but it doesn't if it's triggered from Arcanist Brand.

This shouldn't be any different than CWDT which allows WoC to be triggered and apply curses on hit just fine.

so... worth trying this build in harvest ? how good is it in lategame?
unleash gem worth it or not ?

"

SkylerOG wrote:

With 36 BL radius, the BL would first hit the mob at 18 units.

Dude, I think you mess up between "radius" and "diameter"...36 radius means it starts hitting the mob at 36 units. And the overall cover range is 72 units.

And what about the fevered mind rework.

It is totally garbage now. Give it up.

"

Fr0s7y1 wrote:

And what about the fevered mind rework.