ELE LIGHTNING STRIKE - ALL T16s, Shaper, Uber Atziri, HOGM, Chayula, Elder

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Ceryneian wrote:

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OnlyInferior wrote:

Greetings Ceryneian.

First off, much appreciation for developing and maintaining this guide. Also, my apologies for having this become a much longer post than I initially expected.

Having tried this build with my own variations and remaking twice, I've become intrigued in what you've posted on page 23. I'd like to test out a low-life variant of this build however I'm not sure how I should go about the passive tree. I know you've stated your own difficulties in balancing ES and damage nodes however could there be another workaround to compensate for the lack of ES?

I've tried using Lightning Coil with the regular variant of this build and it somewhat works I just haven't optimized it enough to provide sufficient conclusions/data. How about also trying Eldritch Battery with Mind Over Matter to soak some damage as well? Some combination may work and I would love to be the guinea pig but again, the passive tree eludes me.

I've also looked through other possibilities for items and came across Daresso's Courage which would help alleviate gear slots while also providing solid stats for a low-life variant. With the high spell block provided by Daresso's on low-life, one could replace their Stone of Lazhwar and Rainbowstrides granted, yes you would have excess spell block if you also went for maxed physical block but that shouldn't be something detrimental.

Having said that, with the following:

Spoiler

Innately high evasion due to build.
70%+ Physical block chance.
Nearly all resists capped.
Relatively safe trigger gem setups posted below.
Ondar's Guile (Doubles chance to Evade Projectile Attacks).
Lori's Lantern (While on Low Life, Enemies are Unlucky when Damaging you).
Daresso's Courage (120% of Block Chance applied to Spells when on Low Life).
Lightning Coil (40% of Physical Damage taken as Lightning Damage).

We should be fairly set to tackle what the original build could minus what's mentioned next.

Currently, the only problem would be chaos damage like all low-life builds fear. However maps with chaos ticking per second could be easily disregarded with enough health regen so that should be a non-issue or at least not as impactful. Taking actual chaos damage on the other hand could prove to be very trivial without Shavronne's however with a big enough health pool despite reductions dropping health below 35%, wouldn't it be possible to sustain with maybe around 1000 health (post-reduction)?

The gem setup would also be relatively similar (if one was not utilizing the Bringer of Rain) with my own little twists. Below is a very rough idea as to what I planned on eventually running:

Spoiler

24 sockets - 6, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3

6 used on chest (Lightning Coil) - Blind(G), Double Strike(G), Multistrike(R), Melee Splash(R), Life Gained on Hit(R), Faster Attack(G)

3 used on weapon (?) - Flicker Strike(G), Culling Strike(G), Item Rarity(B)

3 used on shield (Daresso's Courage) - Cast When Stunned(B), Molten Shell(R), Ice Nova(B)

4 used on boots (?) - Blood Magic(R), Enfeeble(B), Faster Casting(B), Immortal Cry(R)

4 used on helm (?) - Reduced Mana?(R), Blood Magic(R), Grace(G), Hatred(G)

4 used on gloves (?) - Cast When Damage Taken(R), Temporal Chains(G), Enduring Cry(R), ?

Socket Colours Req:

- 8+ Greens
- 9+ reds
- 5+ blues

This variant would require absolute focus and would not be recommended in any hardcore league however I feel like the danger that this variant could provide brings even more flavor to the build that I already love so much.

What are your thoughts if you were to try and progress on the low-life variant? I eagerly await your response and once again, thanks for the guide.

Hey, thank you so much for the post! I've actually been thinking about 2 projects, but I've been busy playing a Scion crit dagger spectral throw which is a lot of fun, but I most now get back to the below 2 items I was thinking of:
- Low-life ES evasion based that uses Lori's Lantern
- True evasion tank - very high health, high evasion, max block + max spell block, and Mind over Matter/Lightning Coil + high Endurance Charges (will have low DPS so I am thinking of using Facebreakers with Infernal Blow)

Low-Life ES Evasion
- I actually tried to make a Witch several times with this build, however it has been extremely difficult trying to combine high evasion, high block, high damage, and high ES. Dodge is obviously out of the question because it halves our ES
- However, you mention Daresso's Courage! This is a superb idea and I think it is what will make the build viable. I had completely overlooked this item
- The reason I was having trouble is because without Daresso's your spell block would be so low as you cannot get a lot of block (around +36%) on the Witch/Shadow side if you want to go evasion and block as the block nodes are too far, so the build would be mediocre with around 65% block and less than 50% spell block at best
- However with Daresso's I now see a way and this is the path I plan to try:

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMBVysHY-aBEVC71jvh4venK20ZLR9MswQHHwLmfIXFfuIrDZwth2U2xdgkpwi4kwx9EH_Gno9GHRRMNSjF87760nB9qZUaMlFgEdszdsHzoqN_xhGWwuwegUuN_xy0xSsKwQDbGhB79Uu-OohrtvcRL5ma62NcigW1jb9RRzB8fyvWis3q6NabJjIBshnPemHrelPe9to9J2EG6QkhwcXsGMNtflknqXC72RMvb0cGX2oXL4bRJLCApI_6e9d313RBFHUOrUOcGNt08SFgQKDvTii1Kjjb5wzypcs2PQ==

- Why Witch? The Templar has some great block nodes that we need for the build and the Witch has the best path to them (Scion/Shadow not as good)

- To get maximum Spell Block with Daresso's you need 75%/1.2 = 63% regular block. I have overcapped this on the tree and I have +36% block on the tree + say 30% from Daresso's = 66% regular block.
So with this build you will have 66% regular block and 75% spell block

- Other defense layer: evasion. I grab evasion from the Nullification nodes and from the Revenge of the Hunted circle. The extra life from the Revenge of the Hunted circle is actually a PLUS for a low life build: it means we can run higher levels of Clarity because our life pool is bigger. The mana regen from Clarity is great for the Witch because it is boosted by the 40% mana regen node that she takes early on

- Ondar's Guile: for evasion against projectiles

- Vaal Pact: for instant leech to ES through Ghost Reaver

The rest of the nodes I have grabbed take advantage of low-life:
- Arcane Vision
- Aura nodes - reservation nodes (this will help us run as many auras and as high a Clarity as we can) and aura buff nodes
- Inner Force - this will buff the auras as well, as well as Blood Rage - which has great benefits when on low-life
- Fire resistance nodes: not really necessary but to get as much DPS out of this build we will need to use Crown of Eyes (ES leech, mana leech, and taking advantage of Pain Attunement on low-life to increase damage). Crown of Eyes gives -30% fire resistance which is tricky to fix using only gear
- Pain Attunement

Offense:
This is the hard part and is what I am worried about - as you can see from the tree - it is hard to get decent block, decent evasion, and damage, and I hardly take any damage nodes (except Pain Attunement and some fire damage nodes for the fire resistances). I think these are the 2 few ways that may work to get high DPS on the build:
- Facebreakers with Infernal Blow -> this would work well if you are using Lightning Coil (great suggestion) as the colors would be easy to roll say 1/2Gs and 4/5Rs as you lay out. Downside is you have to fight in melee range. However I am hesitant to use Lighting Coil because: no ES, no Chaos defense -> it is still possible as you mention but it requires a ton of focus
- Spectral throw crit dagger -> this would work better if you are using Shav's Wrappings as the colors are easier to roll: 2Bs (crit chance/crit damage/PCoC/IIR), 2/3Gs (ST, Faster Attacks/LMP) and 1/2Rs (Life Leech/WED/Added FIre Damage/IIQ). Why crit daggers? -> because crits works great with Spectral Throw and Vaal Pact and the dagger nodes are right there by Witch and Shadow. However you will probably have to unspec from some block/evasion nodes and grab dagger crit nodes. The upside to Spectral Throw is that you get to fight in range mode and can kite to avoid damage!

This would be the Spectral Throw build (I took off 8% Block and some evasion):

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMBVysHY-aBEVC71jvh4venK20ZLR9MswQHHwKcLYdlNsXYJKcIuJMMfRB_xp6PRh0U-tJwfamVGjJRYBHbM3bB86Kjf8YRlsLsHoFLjf8ctMUrCsEA2xoQe_VLvjqIa7b3ES-ZmutjXIoFtY2_UUcwfH8r1orN6sHF7BjDbX5ZJ6lwu9kTL29HBl9qj_p713fXdEEUdQ6tQ5wY23TxIWBAoO9OKLUqONvnDPKlyzY9TDUoxfO-naP8q4hCkBtwVpoT29RW6gV96f65fOZ8hcV-4isNl9BW9bk-22594w==

Auras: we will take advantage of low-life and Inner Force to run as many auras as possible. We should be able to use 4:
- Grace (say on life), if you are using Spectral Throw we may not need evasion since we are kiting and not in melee range and still have very strong block. In this case use Wrath instead
- Clarity (on life)
- Hatred (on mana)
- Discipline (on mana)

Other Gems:
- I think the other gems you lay out are great. If using Spectral Throw then I would substitute Whirling Blades for Flicker Strike
- I may also run CWDT linked to Flame Totem + Blind + LMP/GMP + ... OR Arc + Arc/Frost Wall + Blind if I do Spectral Throw. Frost wall works great with ST giving nice survivability and pushback

Other Thoughts:
- The key behind this build would be Lori's Lantern and Daresso's Courage. However it becomes extremely expensive with the Crown and Shav's. I hear that Shav's is extremely cheap in Nemesis because no one is running low life builds, but the new Crown is very expensive (however it only adds DPS to the build)
- I really really like the idea of using Lori's Lantern on this build - I think this is another underrated/underused item similar to how Stone of Lazhwar was underrated
- It would work extremely well against Lightning damage (Piety, Dominus) - because lightning typically has a wide range of damage roll from very low to very high
- It would also work extremely well against crits (and I'm not sure but would this also apply to reflect if you run a crit build?)

Anyway, thanks again for the post and suggestions! Would be interested to hear how you are thinking about this and what tree you were considering.