[3.11] TrollErgoSum's ARCANIST BRAND BALL LIGHTNING NECRO | A crazy, cheap, and fun A8 viable build

Hi i don't know how o what im doing bad but , im just ding or doing so low damage !

Here my pastebin https://pastebin.com/kVX5BGcX , please i need help i have all the items and the same three, and i don't know what im doing bad ! thanks and sorry for my horrible english !

First off, great build guide and video!

I was searching for builds using CWDT setups that were actually usable and not just meme builds. Luckily I cam across your video (liked and subbed btw :P).

I started thinking that the EoI/Ngamahu's combo is used so often for CWDT builds, then I realized there's a new CWDT enabler in town. Storm Secret rings! I thought it would be perfect for this build to open up the options a bit more and not be tied to EoI/Self-Ignite style CWDT.

Pretty much completed level 93 PoB if interested: https://pastebin.com/6psgBASb

I did a few maths to see what good options there would be to account for the Storm Secret self-damage:
Storm Secret damage = 250 * 2 = 500

W/ at least 7 activations of HoT/sec ( I chose this b/c it's reasonable..the 50% increased frequency rings are a bit expensive and hard to come by with applicable corrupts)
500 * 7 = 3500/sec

So 3500 damage/sec, let's see how we can lower that.

My gut feeling was to use Divine Flesh, so I went for it. I thought about other combos but this one just seemed fun. Over capping Chaos res + Divine Flesh as a defensive mechanic is great.

Divine Flesh = 50% taken as Chaos
3500/2 = 1750
Chaos Res = 85%
1750 * .15 = 262.5

Up the Chaos Res even further with the Born of Chaos notable (small cluster jewel)
Chaos Res = 88%
1750 * .12 = 210
Chaos Res = 90%
1750 * .1 = 175

So a lvl 1 CWDT requires 528 damage to trigger at a max of 4 triggers/sec for 2112 damage per second dealt. So...

From your guide: "Every time CWDT triggers, we consume 13 corpses (9 Volatile Dead, 3 Detonate Dead, 1 Cremation)". So nothing changes there, however, we aren't doing nearly as much damage to ourselves as with Ignite. But that damage is consistent and never changes - as long as HoT is always up. If we are shocking it is up, so probably not much of a problem.

"We only need to consume at least 25 corpses per second to max out the 200% cast speed bonus from the Corpse Pact Ascendancy node." This assumes maxing it out extremely fast. If we have some decent movement speed (and a strict item filter as well) we can generate corpses slower with not as many CWDT triggers and still reach the Corpse Pact max. For bosses, this only ups the ramp up time to get to the Corpse Pact maximum.

At a bare minimum (w/ consistent HoT hits) we only need to trigger CWDT once every 2 seconds to maintain the Corpse Pact maximum since it refers to recently (4 seconds). Again, against bosses, this damage will ramp up and never cease until they are dead as long as we are shocking them consistently. Phased fights might prove to be annoying but still doable.

So maximizing Chaos res may not be the way to go per the following:
85% = 528 / 262.5 = 2.01 seconds to trigger CWDT
88% = 528 / 210 = 2.51 seconds to trigger CWDT
90% = 528 / 175 = 3.02 seconds to trigger CWDT

With 85% Chaos res, with a little over 7 HoT activations per second we can sustain the Corpse Pact max. It's not a complete downside to run 90% Chaos res as that is more damage mitigation overall for elemental damage. But could prove detrimental in boss fights for our damage output.

Speaking of damage output, the numbers with Inpulsa as the chest piece just weren't there. So I thought why not try the other new unique to Harvest league - Doryani's Prototype (DP)! So that is exactly what I did. Once again I just committed to the idea and it's actually been working out pretty well. The PoB damage calculation more than doubled when I put on DP and -115% lightning res. The PoB calc for Shaper DPS has to be manually edited to account for the 50% all resist that is applied when Shaper is selected, that's why the PoB has -165% :)

So long story short, I stacked Thread of Hope and got zero lightning/all resist on the tree/gear to get -115% lightning res. Threw on an Avian Twins Talisman (lightning to fire), MoM to up the EHP and a EB to not waste the ES. The great thing with this is HoT doesn't need any links really and we don't need Wrath either. So I went defensive and put on Flesh and Stone for the nearby enemies are blinded + lvl 18 blind gem mod on gloves instead of the expensive route of using Essence of Insanity. So, far away enemies do less damage and potentially can be blinded by HoT/BL. It's actually pretty decent thus far. I've only gotten to t15 maps this league and Awakener lvl 4.


With the Corpse Pact maximum the damage looks to be roughly around 5 million Shaper dps.

There are many improvements that can be made. Up leech max recovery rate and limit, more AOE, more attack speed, etc. This could all be crap, but it's playing really well where I'm currently at. I'd love some advice on the PoB if anyone has any!

Nice idea, I'm also tempted to use Doryani's Prototype somehow, but it prevents ignite so not sure if that's the best way to go for this build.

Your calculations aren't quite right I think:

"

iron_Faust wrote:

Divine Flesh = 50% taken as Chaos
3500/2 = 1750
Chaos Res = 85%
1750 * .15 = 262.5

You're neglecting the other 50% which are NOT taken as chaos damage. So at 7 hits per second really it should be
3500 * 0.5 * (0.15 + 0.25) = 700 damage taken per second (or 1.33 CWDT casts)
How does the sustain feel? Probably not doing you too much damage to be dangerous, but from your PoB it seems to take away most of your leech (life) + regeneration (mana). On the positive side, it should trigger CWDT more often than you calculated.

"

iron_Faust wrote:

"We only need to consume at least 25 corpses per second to max out the 200% cast speed bonus from the Corpse Pact Ascendancy node." This assumes maxing it out extremely fast. If we have some decent movement speed (and a strict item filter as well) we can generate corpses slower with not as many CWDT triggers and still reach the Corpse Pact max. For bosses, this only ups the ramp up time to get to the Corpse Pact maximum.

The cap of corpse pact is 200% and each corpse gives 2%. So you need to consume 100 corpses within 4 seconds, or 25 corpses per second. That's not for "extremly fast" ramp-up, that's for reaching the cap at all, i.e. after 4 seconds.

Assuming you consume 12 corpses per CWDT trigger (needs 2 corpses from killed enemies or adding the Undertaker node, otherwise your Desecrate spawns only 10 corpses) within 4 seconds you will consume a maximum of
12 * 1.33 * 4 = 64 corpses from CWDT
1 * 4 = 4 corpses from Disciple of Kitava
5 * 1 = 5 corpses from Bone Offering
= 73 corpses -> 146% Increased Cast Speed

That's still significant, but takes the full 4 seconds to reach and only if you always have enough corpses around / no breaks to your HoT hits.

By the way, I think your version would work equally well with other lightning spells, because you don't have any LGoH etc. that benefit from the high amount of hits from ball lightning. It's not even specific to brands, self-cast or totems would benefit just as much from the increased cast speed since there is no positive cast speed loop. So then it's mostly just a matter of taste if you like the brand casting style.

What do you think about Sadist? 60% ele damage

Thank you for such a good and fun build!
I've been updating the character and getting better items, but now that i have the gloves and helm with the increased AOE and 24% enchant, the ball lightning shows im at 84% and i'm using the widespread destruction plus the supercharge on cluster. Is there anything missing or i just need to go and take one point at amplify node? This is my profile if you could give some advice on what to upgrade -> https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/xt4tik/characters/necrobrandarc
Thank you!

This build looks fantastic. if it doesnt get killed by the patch notes tomorrow, I will try and league start with this in heist.
I hope the damage is not too shit without the cast speed from corpse pact if I have yet to get the amulet (which is at league start tricky or expensive to get)

I was doing some calculations and I think even if I place my 6L setup in the chest (or a tabula, for that matter), it will be fine. I can leave out DD in the 5L setup (making it a 4L and therefore possible to run with the main setup in the chest). Since both BL (dmg and area) were nerfed and EC was also nerfed, this means this build suddenly becomes very flexible and we can use any spell we want for the brand
we can theoretically put vaal RF into an unset ring and then have a free 2L wich we could use to make the simplest CWDT BL setup to help trigger more ignites to get the loop rolling easier.

I am currently thinking about which spell could be used for the main setup then.

the only true question is: how good or bad will it be without the spell loop cwdt setup for the cast speed, as in how good will it actually perform in a league start scenario....

Well glancing blow received the final nail on the coffin so we have to think about another option for defenses, maybe just stack more block after all...