Enki's Arc Witch Memorial Page

On the "Act 1" section it says to not level Arcane Surge beyond level 8. Is this advice just for Act 1, or should I never level it past 8? If so, why?

Thanks in advance!

Just reached Level 81 here, it's been smooth as butter. Yellow maps are incredibly easy. Very little currency spent (about 1ex to start mapping, then another ex for gear upgrades), first char in the league.

I want to share my thoughts on a few changes i made. My character is public.

For single target, i've been keeping ball lightning and slow projectile gems on inventory/off-weapon slot for leveling. When it's boss time, i just quickly swap them in and remove arc + onslaught on my 5L pledge. I'll probably grab another 5L pledge for dedicated single-target eventually.

I have a jewel with the following stats: 1 block on staves, 7 life, and here's the interesting one: 5% chance to knock back on hit.
Might seem pathetic, but this meager 5% actually permanently knocks back bosses with ball lightning, due to the ridiculous amount of hits, improving your survivability a lot against melee bosses. I suppose +life on hit would also be incredibly good, i'll try to get a jewel with it soon.

Since my chest 5L is free, i've been using it to improve my defenses. So, in total, i have 2 4Ls and 1 5L dedicated to defense.

On one 4L, i have leap slam, fortify, faster attacks. The usual. But i also have a stone golem there, which seems to be the best survival-oriented golem for this build, correct me if i'm wrong.

On another 4L, cast when damage taken, immortal call, increased duration, and decoy totem. I love decoy totem.

Now, on the 5L, and this is where a new gem shines: Orb of storms, increased crit, duration, arcane surge, and... Blind support!
With our ridiculous block chance, blind might be a great addition to our survivability. I'm still testing it, though.

I've been thinking about swapping my chest duration support (improving arcane surge) with my stone golem. This would give fortify the duration increase, instead of arcane surge.

Have you tried any Vaal Haste or Vaal Grace, to help with boss DPS/mapping movespeed or boss survivability?

Have you tried out Kaom's Roots? I've been thinking about grabbing one. Seems like it might be worth sacrificing the 4 sockets. But the movement speed loss might be too much.

What about Bisco's? Seems like a very popular and very lucrative item these days.

Thank you very much for all the dedication you put towards this! <3

hi,do i chose this 6L +3 gem staff: http://imgur.com/a/b4993 whith more crafted spell dmg and cast speed, or a 5L pledge of hands? sry for english

Hmm, is Counterweight really necessary? The crit chance is only to orb of storms, and 4 casts per second from spellecho-arc or ball lightning + ~2 per second from storm (when you aren't even standing in it) is 91% uptime already at 5% crit. If you're in your orb of storms then your effective casts/second are crazy and your uptime is basically 100%.

It gains in value when you have to stop casting or it's fallen off between packs, but it seems like it would be weak.

Thanks for the build guide.

I am playing SSF. I am only level 37 and doing good so far. I am worried about hitting the 70's and having issues. Do you really believe this is a SSF friendly build?

What's a another green support gem to replace slow projectiles? I changed gear around and dont have enough dex anymore. I already took the two dex nodes on the tree.

Just stick with onslaught?

@Ariachne & Fersoltil: Thanks! Glad you enjoy the build so much :)

@raulbsc: This was actually my very first setup when testing the current build.
The lower offering level isn't really the problem, the real issue is consistency.
With that setup, you'd have to get hit to get a large part of your defense to activate,
which may work for generic mapping but is very risky in other situations.

But don't worry, there is a solution: Just use a Fevered Mind jewel, it will boost your mana cost high enough until you get your hands on a 6L.

@r0estir0bbe: That's true with the regular setup under specific circumstances, the Kitava's Thirst setup that i assume most people switch to in endgame fits into 24 sockets.
My way of thinking here is to use the 25th gem in some off socket in either a 5L6S chest or staff, since that's what most people will have at that point. And if they do have everything sixlinked already and/or don't want to use Kitava's Thirst, there's the option to use an Unset Ring which is mentioned in the gearing section.

@UnknownBeef: This is for all acts and endgame. Arcane Surge procs based on mana spent with the linked spells, and this treshold goes up rapidly at higher gem levels without giving too much in return.
We keep it at Lv8 to assure getting the buff proc with every cast of the spells it'll be linked to.

@Raikke: That sounds like a very nice setup indeed, wish i wasn't so close to the 50k limit in my guide since there's still so many things i'd like to add, such as some alternative setups.
Luckily people seem to experiment and figure their own preferred setup out themselves.

Stone Golem seems like the best choice here, he's pretty tanky by default and also has a taunt skill.
Blind is also nice, there used to be a whole meta build based around maxblock and blind years ago.
Also liking the Knockback idea, it is indeed pretty good with Ball Lightning.
Only thing that won't work is the life gained on hit jewel mod, since it's only for attacks.

I've tried Vaal Skills, while they're nice their impact isn't that high and we're already really socket starved, but it's an option for people who go the weapon swap way.
Kaom's Roots don't really fit into this build, since we really need the sockets and movespeed.
Bisco's however is always good, just switch it with Lazhwar on tougher bosses and you're fine.

@Vyper07: Depends what you prefer more. Pledge would give about 1k mana and a very fast casting Arc, the +3 Staff would give up to two extra chains to Arc and some extra cast speed to all skills.

@talchas: It's good to assure EO proccing right at the start of bossfights, where you most likely will have all buffs and flasks up to burst down the boss.
With just 5% crit on OoS, i've noticed some inconsistencies and this two point investment fixed them.

@ohkanada: Leveled it 3x in Beta fully SSF with Lightning Tendrils as single target. Have to mention that Act 9 & 10 weren't in Beta, but it will work just fine if you overlevel a bit for Kitava.

@chapppy: None unfortunately, we need Slower Projectiles for Ball Lightning to deal good damage.

Is it possible to do Atziri with this build?

What do you do about bosses/mobs that have gap closers such as leap slam and blink, that jump on you and insta - stun you?

Ah. Bummer. Thanks. I guess I'll have to figure out the Dex requirements. Was considering culling strike but same Dex req.

Also, it would be nice if you can expand the guide a bit for ones who are ok with weapon/gem swapping. I know you've reached the character limit. So maybe can reduce it by providing a link in the "First steps for new players" that links to your third post. And then copy everything in that section to the third post.

I'm only doing T2 maps, but it feels like using a 5L/6L chest can boost damage with an offensive lightning golem or increase survivability with Raikke's build.