Lightning Strike

My LS does pretty good damage with a 250 pdps dagger.18k with FA + WED + ICD + Life Leech.
I'm not saying LS doesn't clear fast,I'm saying that the tooltip dps on ST isn't so accurate
since it doesn't take in consideration the 100% pierce and the multiple targets that are being hit.

"

Slagmaur wrote:

My LS does pretty good damage with a 250 pdps dagger.18k with FA + WED + ICD + Life Leech.
I'm not saying LS doesn't clear fast,I'm saying that the tooltip dps on ST isn't so accurate
since it doesn't take in consideration the 100% pierce and the multiple targets that are being hit.

I actually believe that best gem combination for Lightning Strike is:
Lightning Strike
Increased Critical Damage
Power Charge on Critical
Additional Accuracy
Faster Attacks (or Multistrike)
Lesser Multiple Projectiles

Point Blank via keystone.

This combination equally boosts all aspects of Lightning Strike - both physical and lightning damage, both melee and ranged combat, etc., while keeping decent mana cost. You wont need Life Leech gem for that, because physical damage will be boosted high enough for consistent leech. Elemental resistance wont totally screw your damage, as physical part is strong enough. LMP helps to clear packs really fast, while direct hit remains a powerful tool for killing rare mobs and bosses (LMP doesnt reduce damage of direct hit). Everything you would ever need, is fused into single skill. Using WED proved to be not as good when it comes to practice, especially after WED nerf.
Try a combination i provided. Of course, you'll need pure physical dagger (or claw, maybe) for it, with high critical chance (8-9% at least).

Hi,
I am working on crit templar build with lighting strike. I am using crit chance nodes specified for one-handed melee weapons while holding 1h scepter. These nodes increases LS crit chance stat but I am not sure if It's count also for projectiles. And what is relation between initial hit and projectiles when crit? I need some clarification here. TY :)

"

Langhun wrote:

Hi,
I am working on crit templar build with lighting strike. I am using crit chance nodes specified for one-handed melee weapons while holding 1h scepter. These nodes increases LS crit chance stat but I am not sure if It's count also for projectiles. And what is relation between initial hit and projectiles when crit? I need some clarification here. TY :)

Scroll tread back, your question WERE answered already.

Projectiles from LS ARE projectiles, they benefit from everything tied with projectiles.
Crit chance is rolled ONCE per skill use, so if main attack crits, then projectiles WILL crit too (since they cant miss), the only exception may be there when your main target is cursed by critical weakness, while targets, hit by projectiles, arent. If main attack doesnt crit, projectiles wont crit either (once again, with exception of critical weakness).

So even if I shoot projectiles from distance without hitting by melee attack, will projectile hits benefits from passive "Increased critical strike chance with one handed melee weapon" while holding scepter?

And what are your experience when using chain compare to LMP?

Thank you

"

Langhun wrote:

So even if I shoot projectiles from distance without hitting by melee attack, will projectile hits benefits from passive "Increased critical strike chance with one handed melee weapon" while holding scepter?

Of course. If an attack is made with proper weapon, all weapon-specific nodes will work. Even if this attack is ranged, while weapon is melee (same applies to spectral throw). However, if your main attack hits nothing, projectiles can miss, as any ordinary attack does.

"

Langhun wrote:

And what are your experience when using chain compare to LMP?

Thank you

Chain is shit. Seriously. It has incredible 200% mana multiplier, screws direct hit (because chain's damage drawback isnt projectile-only 50% less damage), screws projectile damage as well, and so on.
Also dont forget about quality bonus. 60% pierce chance from quality helps A LOT!
GMP is far better than chain (however, still inferior to LMP in most cases), and even Pierce gem is more useful than chain (it has low mana multiplier and provides stable 100% pierce).

I also tried to use LS without LMP, and it proved to be kinda inefficient against packs at decent range. Without cone control, it will always be an issue - you just can make all those 3 projectiles hit targets from decent distance, side projectiles will be most probably wasted. If in future GGG allow cone-control for LS, it will be amazing even without LMP.

"

MortalKombat3 wrote:

"

Slagmaur wrote:

My LS does pretty good damage with a 250 pdps dagger.18k with FA + WED + ICD + Life Leech.
I'm not saying LS doesn't clear fast,I'm saying that the tooltip dps on ST isn't so accurate
since it doesn't take in consideration the 100% pierce and the multiple targets that are being hit.

I actually believe that best gem combination for Lightning Strike is:
Lightning Strike
Increased Critical Damage
Power Charge on Critical
Additional Accuracy
Faster Attacks (or Multistrike)
Lesser Multiple Projectiles

Point Blank via keystone.

This combination equally boosts all aspects of Lightning Strike - both physical and lightning damage, both melee and ranged combat, etc., while keeping decent mana cost. You wont need Life Leech gem for that, because physical damage will be boosted high enough for consistent leech. Elemental resistance wont totally screw your damage, as physical part is strong enough. LMP helps to clear packs really fast, while direct hit remains a powerful tool for killing rare mobs and bosses (LMP doesnt reduce damage of direct hit). Everything you would ever need, is fused into single skill. Using WED proved to be not as good when it comes to practice, especially after WED nerf.
Try a combination i provided. Of course, you'll need pure physical dagger (or claw, maybe) for it, with high critical chance (8-9% at least).

My dagger is this
Gems in there are for leveling reasons.
I have a 5 link so I use 4 support gems for LS.
My 5 link is also AR/ES so I don't think I'll be able to have any crazy combination
in socket colours.

Let's talk for each and every one of the support gems that we mentioned.

1. Faster attacks is obligatory.
2. Increased Critical Damage is a great support gem and it really boosts your dps by a lot.
3. Multistrike is a great dps boost but a huge dph loss.
4. PCoC is also great and I'm thinking it for my 6th link whenever I get one.You get to max
charges extremely fast.
5. WED gives my char a great dps boost and I don't have any mana problems at all since
with 2% mana leech I can sustain LS.
6. Additional Accuracy at 20& quality is also a great option but I don't have one to try it.
7. As for LMP I haven't tested it much so I can't really say anything.

As for Life Leech I don't think I could do maps without it.I'm not the most careful player
out there and since my witch has point on the upper side of the tree doesn't have much tankiness either.

We all agree that 20% quality on LS is also awesome.

I have posted some screenshots here http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/654477 at the bottom of the page which prove my points about WED,FA,ICD and Multistrike.

Hi, I just did some testing with Lightning Strike and Chain, and the tests show that the melee target is immune to hits from projectiles that have chained from another target, the projectiles will still try to target your melee target but they will always miss.

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Slagmaur wrote:

WED gem isnt as great as it seems. First, it boosts only elemental damage (not physical). With hatred applied, you elemental damage will be just 63% of your total damage, thus real damage effectiveness of this gem (lvl20) is just +37.8% more damage. Not as much as you expected, huh? And since it increases elemental damage only, physical leech isnt increased, and elemental damage can be screwed by resistances.

As CI player, i use blood rage, and it gives me 10% life leech for free. Consider about that.

I'd consider Blood Rage if I were a CI character which I'm not.
I have a 5L from my ranger with 2G2B1R and I'm going to do some testing with it.