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

Playing the crit inquisitor version of this build.

Any tips (besides KEKW reroll to hiero)?

https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/forestgrenpa/characters?characterName=LightningBallsTorture

Leveling awakened gems in offhand currently.

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Cruxation wrote:

This has been my experience with crit. It’s either all or nothing and the way it was easy to tell was ele overload. It is hard to keep up but if each strike was rolling it should be up always indefinitely due to the sheer number of strikes. I have a feeling the crit version is going to be very spiky because of this. Assassins Mark seems pretty necessary for the base crit but self casting is such a pain on Marks now. Any one have any clever automated versions?

Not really.

You want Conductivity on hit on the open ring since it applies to all mobs and procs cursed concoction small passives. Although, if you don't have cursed concoction wheel, then I guess it really doesn't matter and you could put AM on your ring.

I personally do not mind self-casting it. It's a 0.33s cast time, which means it's damn near instant-cast, and I barely see a blip interrupting my existing BL casts. And, this also ensures AM is on all the time rather than waiting for me to take damage to apply it.

That said, has anyone tested linking it to Arcanist Brand as this would likely extend the duration of AM on any intended target quite significantly?

But, the downside there is the cast time goes up and it's now a bigger interruption to any existing casting. And, the AoE is surely smaller, so you have to target more accurately, too. So not sure it's worth it this way.

Does Bane apply Marks? If so, that's and option, too. But not much different than just self-casting it, either.

I would imagine Bane will apply the mark too, but only to one random enemy in the radius.

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SkylerOG wrote:

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Cruxation wrote:

This has been my experience with crit. It’s either all or nothing and the way it was easy to tell was ele overload. It is hard to keep up but if each strike was rolling it should be up always indefinitely due to the sheer number of strikes. I have a feeling the crit version is going to be very spiky because of this. Assassins Mark seems pretty necessary for the base crit but self casting is such a pain on Marks now. Any one have any clever automated versions?

Not really.

You want Conductivity on hit on the open ring since it applies to all mobs and procs cursed concoction small passives. Although, if you don't have cursed concoction wheel, then I guess it really doesn't matter and you could put AM on your ring.

I personally do not mind self-casting it. It's a 0.33s cast time, which means it's damn near instant-cast, and I barely see a blip interrupting my existing BL casts. And, this also ensures AM is on all the time rather than waiting for me to take damage to apply it.

That said, has anyone tested linking it to Arcanist Brand as this would likely extend the duration of AM on any intended target quite significantly?

But, the downside there is the cast time goes up and it's now a bigger interruption to any existing casting. And, the AoE is surely smaller, so you have to target more accurately, too. So not sure it's worth it this way.

Does Bane apply Marks? If so, that's and option, too. But not much different than just self-casting it, either.

I looked into Arcanist brand but it rotates skills. Meaning if you try to use it to apply wave of conviction/curse/marks it does so on rotation over time. I think I prefer the instant use of storm brand applying curses instantly (once it hits level 5 I plan on applying conductivity and ele weakness with storm brand with culling strike as well.

I will consider whispers of doom and an assassins mark ring on top but I don’t love giving up mind drinker annoit and it doesn’t require me traveling to the cursed concoction wheel which I like avoiding. I added a cinderswallow so I may drop mind drinker if it’s consistent enough. Assassin mark gives 1.5 base crit and 42%ish multi which seems tough to give up on bosses.

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forestgrenpa wrote:

Playing the crit inquisitor version of this build.

Any tips (besides KEKW reroll to hiero)?

https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/forestgrenpa/characters?characterName=LightningBallsTorture

Leveling awakened gems in offhand currently.

I'm really confused why you don't have your 3 level 1/20 awakened gems in place of your 3 20/20's already instead of leveling them on an off-weapon. Level 1 awakened > 20/20.

I also suspect you're hanging out around 26 or 27 radius since you don't have Illuminated Devotion(Heiro ascendency), Blast Radius, Arcane Expanse, or Amplify. (read my previous posts about PoB showing incorrect AoE radius for Pledge of Hands and BL currently by a factor of ~8 radius too much).

Also, I'm getting +20% more DPS with my build as Heiro than it is as Inquisitor.

My PoB as Heiro (1.45M Average Hit): https://pastebin.com/mbXtget3

My PoB as Inq (1.2M Average Hit): https://pastebin.com/TwCb3TbW


And, because your radius is actually well below the 31.6 min needed to get max hits/s, you're actually quite a bit less DPS than even just the -20% Average Hit difference is showing.

There's also about 40% less mana regen on the Inquisitor between the 2 PoB's, too.

I can get those AoE increases if I spec out of Throatseeker, but I am unsure if this will give me significantly more DPS.

With those nodes the radius goes to 29.

EDIT: I can also try and get the ball lightning AOE enchant which thrusts me to 32, so should be fine like that.

Comments?

Has anyone looked at the potential of a Shavronne's Vest/Blood Magic/Low Life/Pain Attunement version of this build with maybe ES Leech in place of Controlled Destruction?

Could do Zealotry, Discipline, and maybe Flesh & Stone with this setup and not have to worry about mana reservation at all. Or even just Zealotry and Discipline and not have to wear an Essence Worm ring. Which would allow us to have both AM and Conductivity on hit on 2 rings with a +1 curse mod somewhere. Which could potentially free up our entire other 6L for another big damage source, such as Arc totems.(imagine dropping down 5 juiced up arc totems and then unleashing 30M+ DPS worth of BL's)

Would very likely have double the ES than we currently have on life, and would also have more mana regen since no Righteous Fire + Agnostic.

Or is this even possible with MoM/Divine Guidance? Or is there something that will cause MoM to take damage from mana when ES is the only source of a health pool in this scenario? I can't remember.

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forestgrenpa wrote:

I can get those AoE increases if I spec out of Throatseeker, but I am unsure if this will give me significantly more DPS.

With those nodes the radius goes to 29.

Comments?

This is actually more complex than people surely realize. Which is why all this is such a pain in the ass and even a calculator spreadsheet wouldn't be able to help figure stuff like this out.



So you're at 29 radius after just adding 4 points to +AoE nodes?

If so, I think dropping Annihilation for Blast Radius would be the better option than dropping Throatseeker.

The 4 nodes at Throatseeker = about 13% of your Average Hit damage, while the 4 nodes at Annihilation = about 9% of your Average Hit damage.

With hypothetically a 6.0 cast rate and 26 listed radius (which is roughly what I assume you were previously at once you added 100% reduced AoE to your PoH), you'd be doing about 34 total hits/lightning strikes per second (9 from BL #1, 12 from BL #2, 6.67 from BL #3, and 6.67 from BL #4 = ~34 hits).

So multiply that 34 by Throatseeker's 13% value to see what Throatseeker is really worth per second.

Multiply that 34 by Annihilation's 9% value to see what it's really worth per second.


And then remember, every 50% AoE = ~4 radius. So if you get BL #1 to 29 radius, that means BL #2/echo #1 is at 33 radius. That means BL #1 is likely around 6 hits/s. While BL #2 has now made it past the 31.6 threshold to hit the 6.67 cap.

So with that hypothetical 6.0 cast rate, that's about 38 hits/s (BL#1=12, BL's#2-4=26) But as mentioned for you before doing any changes, without adding more AoE, you were around 34 hits/s.

So what is 4 missing hits * your Average Hit?

Now compare that number to the total per second worth of Throatseeker and Annihilation.


Is it worth it to add more AoE in place of Annihilation, or no?

No, I had to take all the AoE nodes to be at 30 (after a kill) radius. I bought the ball lightning enchant helmet so now I am at 32.

EDIT: Nvm, I need sleep.

I have throatseeker and annihilation both, but I dropped the whole right side.

My avrg hit with the right side and -aoe is 815k and without the right side drops to 715k (probably because of the crit chance).

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forestgrenpa wrote:

No, I had to take all the AoE nodes to be at 30 (after a kill) radius. I bought the ball lightning enchant helmet so now I am at 32.

I had to pass on the whole right side of the tree and drop throatseeker to get those nodes, but in turn I took a jewel socket to compensate, so it was not as terrible.

Also the problem with removing annihilation is that I would need another level to grab throatseeker now, since I will miss one point.

What would be the total amount of hits for 32 radius, so I can calculate the worth now?

What's your cast rate, first?

Remember, you have a 4 BL cast sequence. So if your cast rate, for example, is 6.0, you will cast your 4 BL's, and then it will loop back to the beginning and cast BL #1 and #2 again... 6 BL's cast with a 6.0 cast rate. 5.52 BL's with a 5.52 cast rate. Etc. etc.

But with 32 radius, you're past the 31.6 threshold, so every BL can reach 6.67 per BL hit/lightning strike cap.

So at 6.0 cast rate, you would have 6 * 6.67 = 40 hits/strikes per second.

Then simply multiply that by your Average Hit and there's your true DPS... That's IF your Average Hit calculation and AoE radius are truly accurate. Meaning you have your configuration tab items all set properly, and so forth.

At 29 radius, that's about 37-38 hits.

At 26 radius, that's about 34-35 hits.

I give a range, because to get the top number, you have to be standing at literally the exact radius units away from the target mob to get that many hits.

If you have 32 radius, for instance, but you're standing only 20 radius units away from the mob when you start unloading your BL casts, you're not going to get the BL duration cap (which is 13 hits per cast). You'll get the first 6.67, but the next second each BL will go too far past the target and get fewer hits as a result.

So when you fight a boss, you want to be right around your radius edge when you cast. Each BL travels 67 units in it's duration (with 20/20 slower proj). So to get the 13 max hits per BL cast, you need to start ~32 units away (the mob has a hit-box of 2... so 32 + 2 + 2 + 32 = 68, which is greater than 67, hence all 13 possible hits can hit).