[3.6] Trickster Spark with dual Shimmeron - 1.5-1.9 Million Shaper Dps - Deathless Uber Elder Kill

Dual Shimmeron & 7 Power Charges to knock out.

Mind over Matter covers degen. so that only 70% of it affect our life pool. Even though we reach a negative mana & life regeneration, we can sustain both of them in maps thanks to the trickster's excellent recoveries. Boss fights are tougher and we rely on orb of storms for the mana & life leech. We carry both a life flask and a mana flask for a quick recovery in dire needs.

I can hear you that 1 shimmeron + 1 void battery would be best for this build to handle the light degen but I don't want to use void battery for many reasons: First, dps will go down. Second, shimmeron isn't as meta as void battery is and thus, it is cheap. I bought those two wands for 2c and 3c in the first or second week of the league. Third, shimmeron provides spell block. Fourth, I enjoy the extra challenge from the shimmerons' degen. even though it is a bit dangerous. It is fun to slide along the edge of a blade.

In Delve, labyrinth or a map with no reg. mod, I use the following shield instead of a shimmeron to eliminate the degen. issue. I got this shield from a drop before starting any maps.



Some piercing of projectiles is necessary to use spark in maps. We get two piercings from the passive tree.

Dual worm rings with 100% unreserved mana and Mind Over Matter for the bulk.

We put zealotry and wrath into those rings to boost our offense further without compromising any effective life. Trickster ascendancy passives provide mana, es & life recovery from kill which handles the degeneration from the two shimmerons. Moreover, our mana remains near full during map runs which means that our effective life is usually at its maximum in maps.

Loreweave is the best chest for this build despite its nerf in 3.6. The extra 3% light. res. mitigates the degen. from the wands more. The extra 3% ele. res. is good anyways. All the other bonuses are useful for a life based spell crit. spark build. I was lucky to get this good roll with a single divine roll after buying the already colored chest for 7ex. As always, stick to a Tabula Rasa until you get a 6-link Loreweave.

Another strong unique. It is a bit expensive but not too much (0.7ex - 1.5ex cost range). It provides large boosts to both offense & defense thanks to MoM.

Rare items: The elemental resistances are acquired from the rare belt, gloves, helmet & boots. There are a many good unique choices for the boots (Inya's Epiphany or Voidwalker or even Kaom's Roots or Atziri's Step) but I've gone for a rare boots to reach the resistance cap more easily. The cost of other rare items will be more expensive if we use a unique boots without any res.

Instead, it is better to use a shaped gloves with mana leech. I was lucky to buy mine very cheap. I also got a very nice shaped leather belt drop with a spell damage boost.

The Wise Oak Trick: Even though we've already enough light. penetration (gem, passive and possibly watcher's eye), this flask is still useful to boost the damage. As we suffer from the light. degeneration, it is also useful to get an extra defense against lightning. This is achieved when "ALL" the uncapped elemental resistances are equal to each other. In my setup, I've magically hit the common 80% uncapped elemental resistances.

Jewels: I use a single "hazardous research" jewel instead of two. It has a disadvantage (lower spark duration) versus minor boost and it is better to use a good rare jewel instead of the 2nd one. For rare jewels, look at least a life boost and a single damage boost. The critical multiplier bonuses should provide the best dps bonuses but the other ones (damage or cast speed or crit. chance) are still good. Make sure to get an abyss jewel with "fire damage to spells" so that the increased recovery in Patient Reaper triggers.

Boots enchant: Try to get "2% Life & Mana reg. when hit". This build lacks enough life regeneration and this enchant is great to cover this weakness.

6-link: Spark + light. pen. + echo + energy leech + power charge on crit. + faster projectiles/cont. dest.

This is the main setup that I've used in maps and also against uber elder. The
last swap between faster projectiles and controlled destruction requires a white socket as the support gems come in different colors. Vorici's bench at the research safe house provides white sockets. First color the chest with 6B and then put at least 1 white socket.

If you got a 6-link loreweave without a white socket, then go for 5B1G colors and pick faster projectiles which is very useful overall. It is essential for very high map clear speed but it is still useful against many bosses including map bosses. For uber elder though, it is better go for extra dps and pick controlled destruction instead.

Elemental focus is not viable as the loss of shocking somehow amounts to a huge loss of dps.

The power charge on crit. strongly boosts dps and also provides power charges in boss fights.

Here are the shaper dps numbers:

3 dps flasks and 7 power charges but no frenzy charges: 1.5 million
Fully buffed (with 4 frenzy): 1.9 million

4-link: Orb of Storms + Life Leech + Mana Leech + Arcane Surge (lvl 6-7)

This is the main source of life & mana leech in boss fights as spark doesn't have one except during the Atziri's Flask. Keep the arcane surge at a low level so that a single cast of OoS procs AS. If you've got a shaped gloves with mana leech, use innervate or light. penetration support gems instead.

4-link: Light. Warp + Less Duration + Faster Casting + Swift affliction

Movement skill. Swift affliction can be 1/0 as additional level or quality does not provide any bonus. Warp can be used without swift affliction as it provides tiny bonus.

4-link: Cast when dmg. taken (lvl 1) + Immortal Call (lvl 3) + Purifying Flame (lvl 11) + Increased Duration (lvl 20)

This is the first defensive cwdt setup where purifying flame provides consecrated ground which is very useful in this build.

3-link: Cwdt (lvl 1) + Enfeeble (lvl 5) + Wave of Conviction (lvl 7)

This is the second defensive cwdt setup where wave of conviction reduces the light. resistance of a monster a good amount but its range is medium, not long. You can use a meta choice like vaal Haste + vaal right. fire + inc. Duration instead if you prefer.

3-link: Cwdt (lvl 20) + Light. Golem (20) + Storm Brand (20)

I've finally settled on this 3-link after many tries and practices. The light. golem provides nice dps buff. Again, you may pick a meta vaal setup if you prefer.

I've trided frenzy + faster Attacks + accuracy before but I rarely used it in boss fights. In the uber elder fight, it is better to focus on the battle position and move around often while casting spark rapidly. We already use 3 skills in this fight (spark, warp & orb of storms) and using a fourth skill (frenzy) is not viable. It is better to focus casting the previous 3 skills instead where warp & orb of storms provide dps buffs only for a short duration (4 seconds).

Level 93

This passive tree emphasizes +3 power charges, spell crit, cast speed and lightning damage bonuses in addition to many life boosts and 4 jewel slots. We get 21% ele. res. plus 15% light. res. in addition to 15% ele. res. from Alira. These bonuses are valuable so that we can use cheaper rare items and jewels with damage or life boosts only.

Also, we get the essential twice piercing of projectiles. A third piercing can be acquired by spending two more passives on the tree but this extra piercing is hardly necessary. 2 piercings is already good enough. Some packs with the invulnerability buff from a rare monster can be problematic and a third piercing can be useful but these exceptional issues are very rare.

PoB: https://pastebin.com/x4A7MDmX

Bandits: Side with Alira for all the useful bonuses.

I usually use the above flask setup for a fast map run. A defensive flask like jade is necessary to tank the spiker packs which shoot projectiles on death.



The wise oak and atziri's flask boost not only our damage but also our defenses and they can be used in map runs. The 1.6 million shaper dps relies on wise oak, atziri's flask & a diamond flask. Rumi can be used instead of a jade flask. Evading seems better as blocking damage induces stun but rumi provides a bonus to spell block as well.

1) The deathless shaper kill is a half lie. I died to piety before the shaper fight not shown in the video.

2) I originally picked Harness the Void instead of Ghost Dance for more dps but my character was dying a lot during leveling even though I had over 6k effective life. I later picked Ghost Dance instead and died much less after the change. Also, ghost dance mitigates the light. degeneration from the wand which is useful in this build.

3) PoB does not calculate the unleash damage boost at all. On average, it proides additional dps as: "average damage" x 0.74/0.71 which is not calculated. Moreover, it can have some potential nuking instances.

4) I've thought of this build in this form (2 x shimmeron + 2 x worm) before the 3.6 patches came out and trickster became meta.

5) I hate RNG & crafting but well crafted elder/shaper rare items should be able to beat worm rings or amulet. I don't know for sure what will be best or viable and not too expensive. Feedback appreciated.

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