[3.8] A Shocking Elementalist, Lightning Tendrils CwC Arc - All Content - Budget version included

Thx alot mah dude!!

Really helped me and my friends out on this one as we're all pretty 'new' to the game.

We never got to end game before so we're happy so see helpful plyers around :D

Hello and thank you a lot for this well written build, I have followed it as my return to PoE after 5 years and my first char on betrayal, and I'm having a lot of fun :)
Currently sitting around T13-14 maps while I grind my way to an inpulsa, I wanted to share with you an idea for the budget part : as I was levelling I came upon "Gifts_from_Above" and I kept it until I could afford a Valako's. It has crit, good survivability, and a lot of damage, and about 100% uptime with this build, the +rarity is also a nice addition for budget builds.

I was wondering about your take on my choice of skills, as well : Since my damage setup is on my kalisa's, I found myself with an unused 5L chest, and tried a few skill chains with it. My golem kept dying even with 20% gemq, so I got tired of maintaining it and tried something else : on top of the CwDT/IC/ID, I used another CwDT, Tempest shield, Storm Brand, Elem Proliferation and blind. I would love to hear your input on this setup, and any improvements you think I could make to it :)
Thanks again, and good holidays ;)

"

Runooo wrote:

Hello and thank you a lot for this well written build, I have followed it as my return to PoE after 5 years and my first char on betrayal, and I'm having a lot of fun :)
Currently sitting around T13-14 maps while I grind my way to an inpulsa, I wanted to share with you an idea for the budget part : as I was levelling I came upon "Gifts_from_Above" and I kept it until I could afford a Valako's. It has crit, good survivability, and a lot of damage, and about 100% uptime with this build, the +rarity is also a nice addition for budget builds.

I was wondering about your take on my choice of skills, as well : Since my damage setup is on my kalisa's, I found myself with an unused 5L chest, and tried a few skill chains with it. My golem kept dying even with 20% gemq, so I got tired of maintaining it and tried something else : on top of the CwDT/IC/ID, I used another CwDT, Tempest shield, Storm Brand, Elem Proliferation and blind. I would love to hear your input on this setup, and any improvements you think I could make to it :)
Thanks again, and good holidays ;)

Hey ! Thanks for the feedback :)

I didn't recommend Gifts from Above on the second ring slot because the purpose of Valako/Berek's Grip is the leech. But if you are using other source of leech it's definitely a good budget ring.

With a free 5L I would go :
Orb of Storm or Storm Brand - Power Charge on Crit - Unbound Ailments - Arcane Surge (level 7-9 i'm not sure about the mana cost) - Blind or Increased Duration (applies to the Arcane Surge buff too)

You don't need Ele prolif because you already have it in your Ascendancy and the radius of the gem is inferior. Switch with Unbound Ailments, it guarantee a better value of Shock. Self casting this instead of CwDT, enables Arcane Surge, which is a pretty important buff damage wise.

If you want another CwDT you can put Tempest Shield - Ball Lightning - CWDT (level 1) in a 3L for additional Black chance and frequents Shocks from BL that will recover your Mana pool.

But in the end, if you are satisfied with this setup, don't change, the build should have enough damage anyway so it's more a matter of how it feels to play.

Hey and thanks for your quick response :)

"

I didn't recommend Gifts from Above on the second ring slot because the purpose of Valako/Berek's Grip is the leech. But if you are using other source of leech it's definitely a good budget ring.

Good point, I suppose the leech from WM was indeed enough, and the 6% regen was also good, all in all I would recommand it for early levelling.

"

With a free 5L I would go :
Orb of Storm or Storm Brand - Power Charge on Crit - Unbound Ailments - Arcane Surge (level 7-9 i'm not sure about the mana cost) - Blind or Increased Duration (applies to the Arcane Surge buff too)

I actually have the Orb/PCoC/UA/AS on my helmet, and LW/FC/SA/LD on boots, so I was kinda in excess slotwise, which is why I was looking for another skill to add to the mix. I thought maybe using a vaal stormcall or storm brand to use with the orb when I have to kite and don't get to sit and use the channel as much might be interesting, maybe you have an idea of something to use ?
I really like tempest shield as an additionnal defence, but can't really let go of WM for the moment, cause I still do a ton of mistakes and like the extra security.

"

You don't need Ele prolif because you already have it in your Ascendancy and the radius of the gem is inferior.

Oh, well, I look silly there, not reading the skill properly, I guess I'll try ball lightning/unbound ailment for now.

Thanks again :)

Hey again :)
I've been learning a lot about the game these past few weeks, and while I still consider myself a noob, I'm starting to pick up a few things.
Still love the build, but I've always felt like it was possible to optimize the setup for secondary skills. I finally came up with a few ideas, and would love to hear your thoughts on them before I start testing it in game.

I've never been a fan of the golem without an auto cast for it, and I felt that with my limited currency I was way over the necessary damage for clearing T15/16, while sometimes a bit short for bosses. I really wanted to add the vaal storm call to my boss rotation, and since without golem we basically have a free 4L available, I think of changing my setup thus :
Helm : VSC + Conc. Eff. + Less duration + Elem. Focus
Gloves : Flame Dash/LW + Arcane surge + Faster C. + Less duration
Boots : CwDT + Tempest S. + Storm B. + Blind
3L : Orb + PCoC + UA
3L : Herald + Curse OH + Conductivity
Ring : Wrath

I'm thinking proccing the AS with a FD or LW every 4 secs is doable as you'll have cleared mobs or be in need of repositionning within that time frame anyway, and it makes it possible to have the added safety of blind on SB with the CWDT setup for more damage mitigation without spending a lot of currency on good shaper gloves (it does have a bit of anti synergy with the Tukohama pantheon, but meh).
I'm really unsure as to which supports would give the best dps for VSC, and I'm problably missing some important ones. With this setup, however, if I understand what I read in PoB right (and I'm definitely a noob there as well), it's about a 200k shaper dps increase with your gear.

What do you think ?

Love the build. Learned a lot from reading this, mechanically.

I really enjoyed storm burst while leveling so I have been trying that out.

I just double corrupted my mind of the council and got:

0.5% of Lightning Damage Leeched as Life
+1 to Maximum Power Charges

Thank you for the guide.

"

Runooo wrote:

Hey again :)
I've been learning a lot about the game these past few weeks, and while I still consider myself a noob, I'm starting to pick up a few things.
Still love the build, but I've always felt like it was possible to optimize the setup for secondary skills. I finally came up with a few ideas, and would love to hear your thoughts on them before I start testing it in game.

I've never been a fan of the golem without an auto cast for it, and I felt that with my limited currency I was way over the necessary damage for clearing T15/16, while sometimes a bit short for bosses. I really wanted to add the vaal storm call to my boss rotation, and since without golem we basically have a free 4L available, I think of changing my setup thus :
Helm : VSC + Conc. Eff. + Less duration + Elem. Focus
Gloves : Flame Dash/LW + Arcane surge + Faster C. + Less duration
Boots : CwDT + Tempest S. + Storm B. + Blind
3L : Orb + PCoC + UA
3L : Herald + Curse OH + Conductivity
Ring : Wrath

I'm thinking proccing the AS with a FD or LW every 4 secs is doable as you'll have cleared mobs or be in need of repositionning within that time frame anyway, and it makes it possible to have the added safety of blind on SB with the CWDT setup for more damage mitigation without spending a lot of currency on good shaper gloves (it does have a bit of anti synergy with the Tukohama pantheon, but meh).
I'm really unsure as to which supports would give the best dps for VSC, and I'm problably missing some important ones. With this setup, however, if I understand what I read in PoB right (and I'm definitely a noob there as well), it's about a 200k shaper dps increase with your gear.

What do you think ?

Vaal Storm Call is definitely a great pick for a burst on bosses. The reason I didn't use it originally is because thematically I don't like when my DPS is dealt by something else than the skill of the build (LT/Arc). Vaal RF is a general More multiplier so it fits more for me, but yeah no great reason or not an optimization, it's purely a matter of feeling.

For the links it seems right, EF and Conc Effect are usually the best raw DPS gems for spells, I don't know how well Less Duration scales VSC so I can't really say but it should be fine. I havn't thought of Storm Brand in the CWDT before, that's clever as it should get faster on the enemy and hit longer than Ball Lightning.

The only thing where I'm not sold is Arcane Surge.
Linking it to Lightning Warp which is linked with duration decreases gems, isn't great because it will also decrease the duration of the buff itself.
If you stick to Flame Dash + Arcane Surge + Faster Casting you will have a low mana cost skill to proc Arcane Surge which is not great as the level of the buff will be lower. You can't really let the Arcane Surge high level because spamming Flame Dash to get the buff isn't really an option with a skill with a cooldown.

I would change the gloves and a 3L like this :

3L: LW - Less Duration - Swft Affliction/Faster Casting
or
3L: Flame Dash - Faster Casting (you can socket in a Phase Run for long sections without mobs)
Gloves: OoS - Arcane Surge - PCoC - Unbound Ailments

And when you get Shaper gloves with some "Supported by" mods it will increase the cost of OoS and you will be able to get a higher level Arcane Surge.

"

Stackbundles666 wrote:

Love the build. Learned a lot from reading this, mechanically.

I really enjoyed storm burst while leveling so I have been trying that out.

I just double corrupted my mind of the council and got:

0.5% of Lightning Damage Leeched as Life
+1 to Maximum Power Charges

Thank you for the guide.

Oh wow that's a sick corruption ! Definitely beats a good enchant as it frees a ring slot :D
If you are rich try to get a Eldered Essence Worm to pair with a Shaper's Mark, that would be an insane uprgade.

Hey, thanks for your input :)

"

For the links it seems right, EF and Conc Effect are usually the best raw DPS gems for spells, I don't know how well Less Duration scales VSC so I can't really say but it should be fine. I havn't thought of Storm Brand in the CWDT before, that's clever as it should get faster on the enemy and hit longer than Ball Lightning.

Actually I realized that as a boss killer, VSC+EF+CE+ culling strike might be the winner combination, damagewise, pob tells me hypothermia would be the way to go otherwise.

"

Vaal RF is a general More multiplier so it fits more for me, but yeah no great reason or not an optimization, it's purely a matter of feeling.

Good to know, and a good reason ^^

"

If you stick to Flame Dash + Arcane Surge + Faster Casting you will have a low mana cost skill to proc Arcane Surge which is not great as the level of the buff will be lower.

Well actually, FD on lvl 20 costs 30 mana, while orb costs 28. A 3L FD/AS/FC is 36 mana, which is +1 mana cost over Orb+AS+PCoC+UA. So the AS level can stay the very same. LW is 33 mana on lvl 20 unsupported, a 4L LW with AS could actually allow it to be 1 lvl higher than the OOS setup (and it's 1 mana off the 51 mana mark, which would allow another lvl).

That said, I will test both setups to see what feels more efficient and fluid and give you my feeling on this. My other priority is going to build up defences. I'm currently playing a melee build (flicker strike/molten strike) and the survivability is so good I got used to it, I'd like to have a bit more room for errors with the Elem build ^^ as well.

Actually this feels like a pretty fun build. After some years of break i got back to PoE so i am not that deep into numbers yet but i actually felt a bit limited due to the range of the tendrils and nova and as i was not able to get an inpulsas yet i tried to turn my range problem into a slightly changed build. I use carcass jack as armor now that already gives 48% area of effect and as i use the Kalisa Gloves with the tendrils and nova/arc in it i started to swap around gems for my personal favor of fun. One socket is free in the gloves (Tendrils, Arc/Nova, CoCs) so you can either increase the area of effect again (this will result in a pretty giant nova size), add more damage or whatever. If you change one of the sockets to green you can even put detonate dead in it and will get the same effect that inpulsa offers.

As shield i have chosen unyielding flame. It does not increase the spell damage but adds live, resistances and most interesting critchance and cast speed.

Will test around more for sure :)

How do u think the build would do as inquisitor instead?