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

I've never played with guard skills, how does arcane cloak play out in this build? Are you just constantly spamming it along with flasks? Or do you try to time it for specific moments in boss fights when you anticipate damage? Does it mean that when it's on cooldown, you're quite weak?

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Chen93 wrote:

So am I missing something. What is the Holy Flame Totem for?

You drop it to apply culling strike. In theory you can use it to bypass curse on mana flask, but I find that you always have charges for it. Getting a pair of gloves with culling strike allows you to play with something else. I rarely use totem, cause things drop so fast anyways, even with non-crit build.

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LordMagix wrote:

I've never played with guard skills, how does arcane cloak play out in this build? Are you just constantly spamming it along with flasks? Or do you try to time it for specific moments in boss fights when you anticipate damage? Does it mean that when it's on cooldown, you're quite weak?

You put it on left click and then pretty much just derp. Once in a while it'll go down at a very unlucky moment and you'll have to wait for GCD, but it beats having to monitor it constantly and pressing it on a keybind that is not on the mouse. In general you'll be surprised how tanky this build feels vs sustained damage and even burst, aside from the BIG crits.

Hi you all. First things first : big thanks to Rudybaby for this guide. This is one of the strongest build I have played, if not the strongest. Tanky and strong in DPS, I have slowly (perpetual noob here) fought and vanquished many of the endgame bosses with it (Heart of the grove just now).

However, Sirus 8 was a nightmare in his final phase and I seem to be unable to progress further than level 95 right now (from 65% to 0 two days ago, and never back too this progression since).

Could anybody in the know look at my build and tell me what I could improve (especially free upgrades, since I am quite poor) ? I have taken some liberties (I use breathstealers for the annointment for instance and can't get out of the frenzy charges it gives me).



My tree is not optimal right now as I am just trying the agnostic (so yeah I have a very useless glorious vanity due to that, was playing with 2800 ES before and felt tankier). Any advice would be welcome, especially on support skills (I have seen everything and anything and cannot choose).

I even have some crit jewels in swainting for a crit version but my res are abysmal without my present jewels. Anytime I move something, I seem to lose something else important.


Edit : found how to export my POB : https://pastebin.com/GRujr5zL

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Flaxiz wrote:

You put it on left click and then pretty much just derp. Once in a while it'll go down at a very unlucky moment and you'll have to wait for GCD, but it beats having to monitor it constantly and pressing it on a keybind that is not on the mouse. In general you'll be surprised how tanky this build feels vs sustained damage and even burst, aside from the BIG crits.

Thanks!

At a budget of ~100 ex, is it a good idea to go crit?

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Flaxiz wrote:

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Chen93 wrote:

So am I missing something. What is the Holy Flame Totem for?

You drop it to apply culling strike. In theory you can use it to bypass curse on mana flask, but I find that you always have charges for it. Getting a pair of gloves with culling strike allows you to play with something else. I rarely use totem, cause things drop so fast anyways, even with non-crit build.

I mean that makes sense, but in the PoB culling strike is linked to Arcanist Brand, Wave of Conviction setup. I guess that's why I was confused.

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LordMagix wrote:

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Flaxiz wrote:

You put it on left click and then pretty much just derp. Once in a while it'll go down at a very unlucky moment and you'll have to wait for GCD, but it beats having to monitor it constantly and pressing it on a keybind that is not on the mouse. In general you'll be surprised how tanky this build feels vs sustained damage and even burst, aside from the BIG crits.

Thanks!

At a budget of ~100 ex, is it a good idea to go crit?

I don't play the crit version of the build - but I can tell you, that the non-crit version is awesome with as low as 20ex. I don't lack damage at all. I force sirus phase swap within a barrage of casts, crit maybe does it in fewer balls (before barrage finishes). I am just sticking with non-crit to conserve ex for other stuff.

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Chen93 wrote:

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Flaxiz wrote:

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Chen93 wrote:

So am I missing something. What is the Holy Flame Totem for?

You drop it to apply culling strike. In theory you can use it to bypass curse on mana flask, but I find that you always have charges for it. Getting a pair of gloves with culling strike allows you to play with something else. I rarely use totem, cause things drop so fast anyways, even with non-crit build.

I mean that makes sense, but in the PoB culling strike is linked to Arcanist Brand, Wave of Conviction setup. I guess that's why I was confused.

I think culling and bladeblast are interchangeable, so doesn't matter much either way.

if i wan to go crit..sld i use ele focus instead of controlled destruction?

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Flaxiz wrote:

I don't play the crit version of the build - but I can tell you, that the non-crit version is awesome with as low as 20ex. I don't lack damage at all. I force sirus phase swap within a barrage of casts, crit maybe does it in fewer balls (before barrage finishes). I am just sticking with non-crit to conserve ex for other stuff.

I'm willing to invest a bit more since it's my last character of the league anyway.

I'm also confused about the role of Holy Flame Totem. Flaxiz said you use it to proc Culling Strike, but OP gets that from Arcanist Brand on their character, and HFT isn't really linked to anything.

Also, is CWDT BB/Cold Snap there just to proc unnerve when we take damage? And frenzy charges against adds? So we're not expecting to reliably have these up?

(edit: removed stupid question about power charges)