Please help to optimize spell Asassin build

Hi and thanks for bothering.

I want to make it clear that this is my first char ever in PoE and I'm playing about two weeks total.
Ergo I'm a Noob. Expect that I will not know some game mechanics or acronyms, so please be enough clear.

With that said I think I have learnt a lot in these two weeks (playing RPGs from the previous millennium :-) and the character even tough it went on some of the hardest paths for a newbie and in the wrong direction, it turned out quite good for the first char.

I went with the following:
- Shadow, Assassin - because i like crits
- Power charges - they sounded cool
- Went CI - and the noob problems that goe with it
- Focused on Spells (lightning), bad choice i see for real endgame

The first week was a real struggle and part of the second was even more in mercyless.
But in the end I dropped a divine orb and the chaoses and the vaals that i farmed allowed me to get some non-garbage gear from poe.trade.

The char: https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/marsovac/characters
The skills: View skill tree ...

I have very little left, like 10 chaos for additional purchases.

Currently I have (Path of Building):
- Level 81
- 5 link chest
- Playing Ball Lightning
- 5125 Energy shield - low but i have crap gear and missing some nodes
- Generate all type of charges (curses etc) in a speed run 6, 3, 3
- Maxxed res
- 32k buffed dps against white monsters (more in reality because of herald procs)
- 15k buffed dps against boss (struggling a lot, more later)
- No quality gems
- 1 free point, 12 respecs

My main problem is boss fights when advancing maps.
For that I need to switch gems in the chest to mana leech and life leech because the enchant on the boots does not work on single target (need to kill recently) and herald of ice does not proc so does not leech life.
Then my actual dps drops to like under 10k on the boss and it takes too long to kill.
I want to play a relatively safe char, more or less melee face speller.
I guess my gem setup could be wrong...

Is there something I can do to be able to kill bosses fast enough without much changes to gear and build? Also some tip to get more energy shield in an easy way?

Remeber:
- 12 respecs
- 10-15 chaos

Thank you in advance for all the tips.

GL HF!

bump

First off I want to say that I have never actually played a full ball lightning character, but I will try to give some insights.

I changed around the tree a bit, cleared up some travel points that was not too well spent etc, added a few more levels.

https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAYBAQMeBUIN0Q5ID8QQkhEPES8RUBGWFdcabBslG_EdFB2DHxgfQSBuJ6kqCysKLJwsvy0fMFsyMjW5O3w8BT1fQZZFfElRS65Ms1AwUftSU1RHVmNca13yX2pjQ20ZcFJwu36vfsd_xoKbhEiGronTjDaNGY5kj0aP-pUglYeXlZeXl_SaO5uhna6exJ_foqOmvqcIpyusl6yYrrO0OLb6uMq5k7xvwGbBxcHzwwnDbc0W0B_Q0ND11abZW9lf2YbbXt2M4BLjhOQi5Rnli-kC6_XsGO0873zv6_DV8h33pvfX-_U=

I dropped vaal pact for now, and you might be more comfortable grabbing additional ES nodes instead of the heavy invest towards templar. Judging by your post, It seems like you struggle with high enough damage, and with Call of the Brotherhood you might be better off with the logic that a good offense is a good defense. Reflect will be a problem with this setup, but hopefully you can combat that by running purity of lightning and a topaz flask or two. An Atziri's promise is also a good choice. I would suggest a flask setup with Atziri's promise, topaz, basalt, granite, quicksilver.

I also noticed that you have a lightning damage craft on your dagger. This is a local lightning damage, and will not affect your spells at all. You should try to find someone nice with the masters vagan or catarina in level 7 who can remove your current craft and craft extra lightning damage to spells on it instead.

Your gem setup could probably be improved a bit as well. Ball lightning is an area of effect projectile that pulses with damage every 200ms or so. This means that slower projectile will effectively double dip in terms of DPS. It will both add 29% more damage, as well as making the ball move slower. This means that enemies will stand inside the AoE of the ball for longer and take more damage. Increased AoE will also help in this regard, as it further increases the area and allows for the ball to tick more per cast.

I would go for a setup like this: Ball Lightning > Slower Projectiles > Increased Area of Effect > Lightning Penetration > Increased Critical Strikes.

Increased AoE, lightning penetration and slower projectiles will not properly show the damage increase that they provide, but will increase both the DPS and how good the skill feels to play with.


Hopefully this helps you a bit. Use a mana flask instead of mana leech, maybe drop a herald. For auras I think I would use something like this (purity if you drop Vaal Pact):

Herald of Ice > Curse on Hit > Assassin's Mark

Discipline > Purity of Lightning > Enlighten