[1.2] Elemental Crit Lightning Strike, Hybrid Melee/Ranged - Atziri Capable

Lightning Strike is actually two separate attacks that fire off at the same time. The first is a melee attack which only affects a single target. The second is a projectile attack. Each attack takes your base damage (the total +damage on your gear and from auras) and applies the respective melee or projectile bonuses. The melee attack and projectiles cannot hit the same target.

The projectile attack follows all the normal rules for projectile attacks, but any passives which grant bonuses to damage, crit, etc. with one-handed melee weapons will also affect the projectile portion of the attack, since the attack was initiated with a melee weapon.

The melee physical damage bonus from strength will apply to the melee portion of the attack but not to the projectile portion. But the physical damage we deal is so insignificant that we don't worry about this. Also, none of the passives in this build are specific to melee damage.

If your melee attack connects, your projectiles are guaranteed to hit. If you miss, the projectiles are rolled individually. For example, at a 90% hit chance, your projectiles would hit 99% of the time.

1) A 20% quality Lightning Strike gem, which grants 60% chance to pierce.

2) A fast, tri-elemental, crit dagger: 180+ elemental dps.

3) A high-block shield. You can use a rare with +block, Crest of Perandus, or Thousand Teeth Temu:

4) Mana and mana regen on gear. This is essential to be mana stable. With the introduction of Forsaken Masters, we can now craft mana on pieces which could not normally spawn with mana, e.g.:

Notable Passives:
- Piercing Shots: 4 nodes for a total of 40% chance to pierce and some projectile damage.
- Adder's touch: 5 nodes which provide a good deal of crit and crit multiplier with daggers.
- Deflection and sanctuary: 7 nodes which provide a combined 16% chance to block.
- Sovereignity, Dynamo, and Mental Fortitude: 10 nodes which allow us to be mana stable.

Bandits:
- Kill them all for 3 skill points.

1) RRRBG: Lightning Strike (q20) + Faster Attacks + Weapon Elemental Damage + Increased Critical Damage + Life Leech (5L).

The 5th gem can be either Life Leech, Multistrike, Added Lightning Damage, Added Cold Damage, or Lightning Penetration (provided you stack lightning damage).

2) CWDT (low level) + Enduring Cry.

3) CWDT (leveled) + Decoy Totem + Enfeeble.

4) Reduced Mana + Clarity + Wrath.

4) Reduced Mana + Herald of Ice.

5) Whirling Blades + Faster Attacks.

You will need a lot of int on gear.

Regarding the chest, I chose an armor/evasion chest so that I could roll red sockets more easily. Lightning Coil is another great choice, since it grants lightning damage along with the physical damage reduction.

Some accuracy is needed on gear. If you can't get it, reallocate passives from life or crit into accuracy as needed.

Pretty straightforward. Cast Assassin's Mark and either attack in melee or at range. I prefer Life Leech or another gem over Multistrike. Multistrike doesn't give you enough control, so in tough situations you may not be able to kill your desired target quickly enough, e.g., the dog that's melting your face.

Against hard-hitting mobs or against hard map mods, play more cautious and stay at range. Cast Warlord's Mark to maintain Endurance Charges.

An array of resistance auras and a Rise of the Phoenix off-shield are carried in case of high-damage elemental maps. Rise of the Phoenix is used against Queen Atziri, in case you screw up and don't dodge a flameblast, as well as against the Crematorium boss.

2x Vaal Oversoul:
Avoid lightning ball. Carry 1-2 lightning flasks and run Purity of Lightning if needed. I don't find the beam attack does much damage, but lightning ball hurts. Obviously kill both of them around the same time to avoid dealing with enrage.

The trio:
Kill the one that does physical rain of arrows first. Even without a power up, standing still for just a couple seconds agsinst her attacks will get you killed. Use granite flasks frequently until you kill her. The remaining two can be killed in any order.

Queen Atziri:
Auras: Purity of Lightning, Purity of Fire, Clarity, and Herald of Ice.

Curse: Assassin's mark in her immunity phase as well as during the split phase. Don't bother cursing during her normal phase unless you have a curse immunity flask. If you do have a curse immunity flask, cast Enfeeble.

Flasks: 2x life w/ remove bleeding, 2x lightning, and 1x fire.

Gems: use Life Leech with Lightning Strike. Unlink CWDT from Enfeeble to avoid enfeebling yourself.

Here we equip Rise of the Phoenix. While her flameblast is easily avoidable, we pump up our fire resistance in case we fail to dodge it. This makes it less of a threat. The real threat is her lightning-based attacks. Failing to dodge them usually results in death. But if you can't avoid it, use the lightning flask to lessen the blow. Use whirling blades (w/ Faster Attacks) to avoid flameblast and to avoid taking extra damage from puncture. You won't be able to remove all punctures.