[3.15]Archmage Ball Lightning Hierophant, will it work in Expedition?

Thanks for the build.. Easy kill sirus A8..

I like this build and I want to try it next league (the budget version).
Will you update the build to 3.11?

HI,

How do you cast so many balls in the sirus video clip? :D

Hey,

looks nice, but what about clear speed and AoE for Map clearing?

Cheers!

Seems like got hit pretty hard by the balance changes.
Still will be great i guess.

hey looks like the new patch will hit this indefinitely. i'd say a solution to losing the fevered minds is to just replace them with clear minds, and take out clarity since you won't need that mana regen with all of the clear minds. (also change the watcher's clarity mod)

I'd like to make a suggestion/recommendation for a slight change to this build.

Replace Elemental Focus with Unleash. And this is why...

Using the OP top tier PoB, the current average Sirus hit is 1.45M and shoots 4 BL's per cast/set.

Each ball can hit 13x during their duration (1s/150ms = 6.67 * 2s duration = 13.3 hits max per ball).

The OP says max hits possible is 20, but this is not correct. BL's duration is not 3s, it's only 2s. (See here: https://youtu.be/XE3Pq1AcDKU)

That equates to ((4 * 13)*1.45M) = 75.4M damage per cast/set of 4 BL's, or 37.7M DPS (also requires at least 33 AoE radius + 20/20 slower projectiles).

But with this build, it's really easier to just calculate damage per cast/set rather than per second.

HOWEVER......

If you swap out Awakened Elemental Focus for just a 20/20 Unleash, and then set shock effectiveness to ~5 (which is probably low-balling it) since BL can now do ailments after dropping EF, the average hit drops to ~1.03M (down from the previous 1.45M).

But now, you're shooting 7 BL's per cast/set instead of only 4 (as long as 3 seals are up).

Which equates to ((7 * 13)* 1.03M) = 93.7M damage per cast/set of 7 BL's, or 46.9 DPS (Requires at least 35 AoE radius + 20/20 slower projectiles).

AND.....

It appears that Thunderous Salvos (+1 max seals/+30% crit chance) is moving into the passive tree in 3.11, which means we'll likely be able to access it without having to use an anointment. Which means you can keep Whispers of Doom anointment.

AND.....

You can also try and get a helmet with the +1 seal affix on it, too. This means after 3.11 comes out, this build with Unleash can shoot 9 BL's (1 normal + 2 greater spell echo + 1 spell echo + 5 unleash).

This equates to ((9 * 13)* 1.03M = 120.5M damage per cast/set of 9 BL's, or ~60M DPS (Requires at least 36 AoE radius + 20/20 slower projectiles).

Now the big caveat for this to work properly so 9 BL's actually get cast, is you need 5 unleash seals stored up. Well, you also need at least 36 AoE radius and 20/20 slower projectiles, but those are a given already with Sanctuary of Thought + Illuminated Devotion + Greater Spell Echo (that's +175% AoE).

5 seals at .71 seconds per gain means you need to wait about 3.5s per cast. If you stand there stationary and just hold down BL, you'll get something like 9 BL's, then 4 BL's, then 5 BL's, then 4, then 5, then 4, then 5... and so on. Because we can cast so quickly, you only gain 1 seal about every other cast if you just stand there holding BL down. If you get a level 5 Awakened Unleash, you can hold BL down and get about 5 per cast every cast. And of course, you can get 5 seals gained a bit quicker than the 20/20 version.

So yes, in that scenario, you might come out with less overall DPS than if you simply had Elemental Focus in there instead of Unleash. But how often can you just stand in one spot stationary and shotgun down bosses without moving?

Let's break it down and see if there's even a difference between 5 casts/sets...

(((4 * 13) * 1.45M) * 5) = 377M damage

(((9 * 13) * 1.03M) = 120.5M + ((4 * 13) * 1.03M) = 53.6M + ((5 * 13) * 1.03M) = 67M + ((4 * 13) * 1.03M) = 53.6M + ((5 * 13) * 1.03M) = 67M) = 361.7M

So about a -15M difference if you stand stationary for 10 seconds holding down BL.

I don't ever see that happening, though. I'm ALWAYS casting once or twice, then moving for a bit, then casting again. If I stand in one spot for 4+ seconds, I'm typically scrambling to heal up. So for me, personally, I like the burst capability with Unleash. Cast once, move for 2-3 seconds, cast again, move for 2-3 seconds... and so on. And the DPS is significantly more with Unleash if that's how it's played.

Just sayin....


Now of course this could all change if they nerf Archmage gem and/or Fevered Mind jewels with 3.11, which is quite possible. Maybe even likely. But it's not like they're going to ruin the build if it goes from 60M DPS down to 50M DPS.

Anyway, good luck everyone. Hope this helped some folks.

archmage support is nerfed by ~20% (not a big deal) the big deal is the mana cost items (fevered mind is reworked and limited to 1! now)
also hiero ascendancy was mentioned in the balance manifesto(getting nerfed for sure)
unleash idea is great tho.

For Delirium I tried herald stacking guardian BL... it was awesome, but now it's dead :( I was hyped to try this BL Hiero build in Harvest but it seems they heavily nerfed all strong builds, I feel very disapointed, is there a way to make this build still worth to play in the new league ?

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SpectraI wrote:

archmage support is nerfed by ~20% (not a big deal) the big deal is the mana cost items (fevered mind is reworked and limited to 1! now)
also hiero ascendancy was mentioned in the balance manifesto(getting nerfed for sure)
unleash idea is great tho.

Might have to break out the Indigon?

And I wonder if Fevered Mind jewels will get standardized to all be the same?

I know this build uses 4 40% inc spell dmg/50% inc mana cost, but on my build, I'm using 2 30% inc spell dmg/100% inc mana cost.

I'm glad I horded some 100% mana cost ones. If they stay at 100%, they'll be the best in slot for this build since only 1 can be used.