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

Thanks for the update!! This is my favorite build I've played so far, the damage is insane for the investment. Question: I've been using PoH and switching off slower proj for GMP for mobs. This seems to have double the DPS than the sire of shards config. Is the only benefit from sire of shards the circular projectiles? Is that worth the investment and DPS downgrade? I'm debating whether to get sire or invest in something else like Divergent Ball Lightning.

I have no idea where I went wrong with this one. I just can't seem to get enough cast speed and the Greater Echo from POH just makes it super awkward.

I finished the main story today and jumped into a t4 map- the damage was not there at all. Packs took forever to kill. The map took me about 15 minutes to get through lol.

I followed the tree provided and the only thing I am missing is the ring, but I don't understand why that would make that much difference. Yeah it would boost dmg, but nowhere near the extent to where it would feel that much better.

Haven't done the ascendency yet as I wanted to get an idea of how it felt in maps before I commit to running lab. So there is surely a deficit there. But all things considered, it just doesn't feel anywhere near as good as what I hoped.

Even my starter (spec throw) which is a godawful skill this league, performed way better on just a 4l. I don't get caster builds at all lol.


Thanks for sharing the build, I had a little fun playing something new at least.

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NotAMage wrote:

Thanks for the update!! This is my favorite build I've played so far, the damage is insane for the investment. Question: I've been using PoH and switching off slower proj for GMP for mobs. This seems to have double the DPS than the sire of shards config. Is the only benefit from sire of shards the circular projectiles? Is that worth the investment and DPS downgrade? I'm debating whether to get sire or invest in something else like Divergent Ball Lightning.

The dps downgrade on Sire of Shards is huge, but we deal so much damage that it just doesn't matter in terms of clearing maps. Sire of Shards is more than enough to kill everything in t16 maps in 1 or 2 hits. The circular cast and 8 projectiles instead of 5 is much much much faster than GMP + pledge of hands.

The only situation where Sire of Shards MIGHT be a little slow for the top tier player is if you are doing beyond t16 fully juiced delirium maps but even then at least for me it deals plenty of damage and having to aim and wait for Greater Spell Echo just pisses me off during clearing.

Also, I find that Pinpoint Support is better than GMP overall. Almost the same effect as GMP without the dps loss. Plus the option to increase your dps at anytime without a gem swap.

Top tier build, thank you. What do you think about using Tempered/Transcendant Mind in socket between Witch and Templar? It costs 2C, but gives me 16% mana recovery, which is better than best rolled Clarity Watcher's Eye. It allowed me to use MoM Watcher instead of recovery one to boost overall tankiness. Thoughts?

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twittypoopcraft wrote:

I have no idea where I went wrong with this one. I just can't seem to get enough cast speed and the Greater Echo from POH just makes it super awkward.

I finished the main story today and jumped into a t4 map- the damage was not there at all. Packs took forever to kill. The map took me about 15 minutes to get through lol.

I followed the tree provided and the only thing I am missing is the ring, but I don't understand why that would make that much difference. Yeah it would boost dmg, but nowhere near the extent to where it would feel that much better.

Haven't done the ascendency yet as I wanted to get an idea of how it felt in maps before I commit to running lab. So there is surely a deficit there. But all things considered, it just doesn't feel anywhere near as good as what I hoped.

Even my starter (spec throw) which is a godawful skill this league, performed way better on just a 4l. I don't get caster builds at all lol.


Thanks for sharing the build, I had a little fun playing something new at least.

So, you wanted the build to feel good without any investment and any effort put into it. Nice one smh

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Melnevacor wrote:

Top tier build, thank you. What do you think about using Tempered/Transcendant Mind in socket between Witch and Templar? It costs 2C, but gives me 16% mana recovery, which is better than best rolled Clarity Watcher's Eye. It allowed me to use MoM Watcher instead of recovery one to boost overall tankiness. Thoughts?

It seems like an interesting possibility, although you do lose out on a possible 7% life / 10% mana / supercrit jewel which in the end will be better for survivability AND a pretty big dps boost. At some point, our mana regen is plenty and what we really need to worry about is 1hko's.

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twittypoopcraft wrote:

You tore apart your character before anyone could help...it could have been any number of things going wrong that could have easily been tweaked. For me, I was running with tabula and pretty mediocre gear (except 6L Sire of Shards), no qualtity on my gems, and I could clear regular maps up to t10 with no problem at all. 1 cast and everything died. I was also completely new to archmage builds in general with only this guide to help.

But also, not having 3 ascendancies done before maps is just a terrible idea for ANY build. You were missing permanent 4 power/endurance charges, huge arcane surge and aoe buffs. All it takes is some regret orbs to reset your ascendancy later...

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jsuslak313 wrote:

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twittypoopcraft wrote:

You tore apart your character before anyone could help...it could have been any number of things going wrong that could have easily been tweaked. For me, I was running with tabula and pretty mediocre gear (except 6L Sire of Shards), no qualtity on my gems, and I could clear regular maps up to t10 with no problem at all. 1 cast and everything died. I was also completely new to archmage builds in general with only this guide to help.

But also, not having 3 ascendancies done before maps is just a terrible idea for ANY build. You were missing permanent 4 power/endurance charges, huge arcane surge and aoe buffs. All it takes is some regret orbs to reset your ascendancy later...

I think the idea of me going straight into low-tier maps without ascendency or major investment was to get a relative feel for how it performs, before I invest further.

Being that I've never had any luck at all with playing caster, I was very dubious about my own ability to play another, at least not without some reassurance that it performs strong enough to compensate for my lack of skill.

I detest doing Labs beyond measure, so I consider that in itself a pretty big investment. But having read your post, it does seem like I am missing out on a lot there.

The lack of damage was only the start of my problems with this character. I was also having huge issues with survivability. The wind-up time on BL made it so quick moving mobs would just swamp and stun me before I could gain any momentum. This seems compounded by being locked into the Echo for so long.

What totally eludes me though is how one get's enough cast speed so as not to get locked into Echo stagnation. I tapped all the cast speed nodes I could reach and yet the initial Echo chain feels absurdly slow. That proved to be a huge problem for me, especially when doing Rituals.

I tried using a beefy 6l Astral with a lot of armour that gave me a bit over 3k hp and 4.2k mana, which I thought was going to be okay to start with. But it seems not all the defences in the world could save me when my dmg can't clear fast enough to protect myself from being swamped.


If someone would be willing to help me solve my cast speed woes that would be a great help. Here are my links for anyone willing to help:


BL - Arch mage - LMP - Controlled dest - Awakened added light dmg

I know Light pen might be a little better for dmg, but it's pretty close according to POB so I used ALD since I already have it and I need to level it.

Also my MoM is only 30%. I know that we get 10% from the body armour, but where do we get the extra 10% from ?

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twittypoopcraft wrote:

I think the idea of me going straight into low-tier maps without ascendency or major investment was to get a relative feel for how it performs, before I invest further.

Dude, how long will it take to finish a Lab? Don't you use Lab Compass? A simple Divine Guidance will give you 10% MOM and over 30% more damage.

Edit:
And I notice you don't even take Elemental Overlord and give up easy 40% more damage.

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Aniki_Leads_people wrote:

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twittypoopcraft wrote:

I think the idea of me going straight into low-tier maps without ascendency or major investment was to get a relative feel for how it performs, before I invest further.

Dude, how long will it take to finish a Lab? Don't you use Lab Compass? A simple Divine Guidance will give you 10% MOM and over 30% more damage.

Edit:
And I notice you don't even take Elemental Overlord and give up easy 40% more damage.

I was not aware there was such a thing as Lab compass, but it sounds like that could help ease the tedium of doing it, thanks.

Not sure what A divine Guidance is but I will google it.

I did not invest in Ele overload yet as my crit is so low that I can't see how I would ever proc it. My crit is about 2% so the uptime on EO might be too low at this point to justify the passive.