[3.14] Archmage Ball Lightning Scion - +3 million DPS per Lightning ball (+12 million DPS per cast)
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Hi everyone! I am here to present you my version of the build for Archmage Ball Lightning. This build is very simple to gear as the require uniques and gear are not too hard to find. Out BiS weapon is the unique staff - Pledge of Hand so no need to put in tons of currency in a rare expensive weapon.
Core build mechanism:
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Mana regeneration: Since we do not have high innate mana regeneration as Hierophant, our main mana sustain will come from our mana flask. Pathfinder ascendancy ensures our mana flask will never run dry under any circumstances. Mana recovery of mana flask nodes from the tree and Cluster jewels are vital for the build. This is the reason why I would not recommend brand playstyle on this build since we would not have enough point to invest in Brand nodes and brand cluster. Stun immunity: We use the Cinderswallow Flask with the 50% chance to avoid stun during flask effect. We achieve 50% flask effectiveness from tree and Spiked Concoction from Cluster Jewel. Therefore, the flask will now gives 75% stun avoidance. Spending 2 points to Heart of Oaks for an additional 28% chance to avoid stun means we are well overcap out stun avoidance stat whenever we have the cinderswallow flask up. Since we have the Pathfinder ascendancy, our flasks rarely run out. Videos showcase:
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PoB: https://pastebin.com/4iudzhMa Poe ninja profile: https://poe.ninja/challenge/builds/char/greendragon2194/_Krystalise_?i=11&search=class%3DAscendant%26skill%3DBall-Lightning Pros and Cons
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Pro:
- Very tanky due to high eHP with 60% attack dodge and 50% spell dodge. - Stun immunity and Ailment immunity from flask. - Very easy to find gear on trade. No high-end crafting is needed. Cons: - Require some mechanical skill since we will be briefly lockdown due to self cast - Not exactly a budget build. - Level intensive - much weaker at low level but get a lot stronger later - Corpse clearing will be a problem until we get the Asenath Touch gloves. - Not SSF-friendly. bandits choice:
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Alira is best
Gearing:
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Weapon:
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Pledge of hand staff is the one and only weapon we use. The reason is that the staff comes with high mana stats and spell damage as well as gives us an additional link which is a decent mana multiplier for our archmage support gem. The more support link -> the more mana we spent -> the more damage we deal. Helmet:
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Crown of the Inwards Eye is another BiS helmet. Not only it increases our life and mana by a wooping 21% but also due to our high mana scaling, "Transfiguration of Mind" will also give about additional +100% spell damage as we get about +300% increase mana on the tree. This rivals even with a mirror tier helmet. Any ball lightning enchant here is good. I personally find additional ball to be favourite as it cover more hitbox AoE. Please note that these all balls under same cast DO NOT shotgun so having GMP is not a damage multiplier. Amulet:
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If you play MoM Archmage build. This is a must amulet. Not even a mirror tier rare gives as much mana as this amulet. Rememeber, more mana means more damage in our build. Don't forget to use Fertile Catalyst on the amulet Body Armour:
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A decent choice here is the Cloak of defiance. However, upon pushing to min-max territory, a rare Shaper chest with spell crit, Mana over life and life with some resist will be best in slot. Best is to get one with a spare prefix to craft % life and mana as seen on my chest. Life roll here kinda matter as it will be one of the few sources of flat life we get from. Getting elemental resist here will be crucial for min-max as the high-end version of the build will use Asenath Touch gloves which means resist are hard to comeby. Rings:
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One ring will be an Essence Worm for Wrath aura. The other ring just get a rare with life, mana and AS MUCH RESIST AS POSSIBLE. If you can get chaos resist here, it would be very valuable for defence. This is the main slot for defence stats. Prioritising all defence and resist mod over anything else. Gloves:
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For starting a rare gloves with life, mana and resist is fine
As you progress further, the Asenath Touch gloves is what you will need: The gloves covers 2 of the build weaknesses which is clear speed and corpse destroying (for mostly detonate dead or Porcupine mobs). I yolo vaal my gloves on the temple and got lucky with the spell crit mod. This is something extra and not needed at all Belt:
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BiS is a Redeemer Stygian belt with T1 MANA RECOVERY MOD alongside high life,mana roll. If you could even get the mana recovery from flask it will be godlike. Preferably, you should get one with a spare prefix to craft flask effectiveness mod to save 1 point on the passive tree for flask effectiveness The abyss Jewel best mod is shown as below: - Mana - Life - Crit multi - Fire damage to spell (to procs Cinderswallow 10% more damage mod) Boots:
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Omeyocan is BiS. High mana, high dodge chance and perma onslaugh means nothing compare against this boots for MoM build. If possible, get the ele pen enchant for better single target. Flask:
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If you can get T4 Hillock to 28% quality the mana flask. The quality boost the mana recovery of flask immensely. I personally prefer Divine mana flask than Eternal mana flask as it provide faster mana recovering rate. Jewel:
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Rare and unique jewels:
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Stats you want for rare jewels are: - % Maximum mana - Crit multi (global/spell/elemental skill/lightning skill) - % Cast speed One Intuitive Leap jewel. Get either cannot be hindered, corrpupting blood immunity implicit for it. Watcher eye: A must mod is the mana recovery mod with Clarity. Get it alongside with 1 or 2 more of the following mod: - Damage taken from Mana before Life while affected by Clarity - Damage taken gained as Mana over 4 seconds when Hit while affected by Clarity - Chance to Recover 10% of Mana when you use a Skill while affected by Clarity - Increased Lightning Damage while affected by Wrath - Increased Critical Strike Chance while affected by Wrath - Damage Penetrates Lightning Resistance while affected by Wrath (highest dps mod in this list) Cluster jewel:
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Large Cluster jewel: Get the following mods: Scintillating Idea x 2, Disorienting Display x 1, Corrosive Elements x 1. Medium Cluster jewel: one cluster with combination of Concoction and Liquid Inspiration (a must - very important), The rest just get a combination of Distilled Perfection and Liquid Inspiration. => these clusters are the main powerhouse of our build. Get this full as soon as possible. Small Cluster jewel: As we starves on skill points so only 2 points small clusters can be utilised. We get 1 with Scintillating Idea and the other with Liquid Inspiration. In order to min max our build, get as much ele and chaos resist and flat mana roll on cluster jewel as possible. For chaos resist we can do aug chaos on jewel on a spare suffix to guarantee the mod. The same can be done for Fire, Cold and Lightning resist. A tip here is to get a large cluster jewel with 3 mods as you see in my jewel. This is because all of our desired mod are prefix. A large cluster jewel with 2 prefix and a suffix motable will push 2 prefix on the side and the suffix notable to the back as you can wee in this example picture:  This means if we only need 2 notable, just get any 3rd useless suffix notable and spec only on the 2 prefix notable on the side and the jewel socket. This saves up loads of points as large cluster jewel with only 2 notables will push 1 notable to the back which will make us spend more points to get. Gem links:
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Weapon: Ball Lightning (Divergent is BiS) - Lightning Penetration - Arcane Surge Support - Archmage Support - Spell Echo Support
- Greater Multiple Projectiles Support (Slower Projectile for single target) Body Armour: Storm Brand - Hextouch Support (Use awakened Hextouch if you use Asenath gloves) - Conductivity - Faster Casting Support - Culling Strike Support - Increased Duration Support. 4-links 1:Sigil of Power - Intensify Support - Faster Casting Support - Increased Area of Effect Support 4-links 2: Vaal Righteous Fire - Arcane Cloak - Increased Duration Support - Second Wind Support 4-links 3: Anomalous Clarity - Fortify Support - Faster Attacks Support - Phantasmal Leap Slam Essence ring: level 21 Wrath. Last edited by greendragon2194 on May 25, 2021, 2:16:18 AM Last bumped on Aug 17, 2021, 4:37:56 AM
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Hi man, thanks for the guide.
I want to try a BL build as well - currently trying to figure out if I want to go for Hierophant, Scion or Elementalist. Haven't seen a real comparison so far. Any idea? I see most people on poe.ninja choose Hierophant and Damage, Mana and Mana regen as some indicators seems to support this decision. What do you think about the three options and why did you choose Scion? |
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" Hierophant has many benefits: 1. High innate mana regeneration: This means an archmage Hierophant can do any lightning playstyle. This includes Storm brands which I considered one of the top dps if built correctly. 2. Bigger AoE: Sanctuary of Thought allows Hierophant get Huge AoE without any investment on AoE on skill tree. Ball lightning does benefits from AoE as enemies will be inside hit ball hitbox for longer. Scion most prominent benefits is the perma flask. This might not appear valuable on paper but for mapping and especially long boss fights, this is game changing. Most builds claim to have x amount of buffed DPS but only when flasks are up. When playing with scion, perma flask means you can have fully buffed DPS when fight Sirus from phase 1 to the final phase. In addition, perma flask means you can have perma immunity to curses while mapping (most beneficial for temp chain maps) and no regen mod is a joke for you as the mana flask will take care everything for you. In summary: Scion is better on utilities which cannot be measure by dps or number. Hierophant is pure DPS on paper but might not be the most convenient. Gear requirement for both should be very similar. Last edited by greendragon2194 on May 26, 2021, 3:52:35 AM
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As a newbie what is he one skill I can leave off chest as I only have a 5 link?
I am using Cloak of defiance Last edited by snax09 on May 28, 2021, 6:02:29 PM
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" Just for clarity the ball lightning set MUST BE in the pledge of hand For the chest a 5 link is enough, just leave out increased duration as it is the least matter support (purely of more duration so that you can cast less frequently) |
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Hi thanks for the reply ,just I am using the gems you have shown in the cloak of defiance ,so which of those gems do you think I should pass on?
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" Sry but the gem I shown in the Cloak of defiance was for a different build (Divine Ire), ignore the gem inside Just follow the gem link I show below the gear section. And as I mentioned, the 6th link for the body armour should be increased duration support |
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I'm currently playing the Non-crit EO version instead until I can afford Bottled Faith. Can you advise what is my next upgrade? I currently only have about 10ex to spare so I don't think I can immediately transition to Crit BL. Thanks for the guide!
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" Bottle Faith on this build is huge. It gives ailment immunity and a lot of crit. Secondly, since we have 50% flask effectiveness, the amount of crit it gives and enemies damage taken increase to 15% more rather than 10% (so a 5% more damage than normal). The consecrated ground it creates is almost screen-wide, thus enemies will always be on consecrated ground (have increased crit chance on your spells) and you have ailment immunity while moving anywhere. I say save it for bottle faith, it's just too good.. |
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I don´t understan why go put spell echo in Pledge of Hands slot if we have greater spell echo in Pledge of Hands as a 7 link???...
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