[2.0] Surging Power - Hybrid Crit Shock Nova [30K+ DPS, 7K+ Effective Life]

Disclaimer: My current iteration of the build uses some expensive items, however for a budget version you would just run a 5L setup.

This is a Shock Nova build, i noticed there aren't a lot of these at all atm so decided to showcase my build in Warbands.
However you can play Storm Call / Ball Lightning or even Arc with this build if you wish so.

Important:

Shock nova deals 150% of the tooltip damage when you hit the enemies with the white ring it produces, so positioning for max DPS is important. Tooltip dps doesn't factor in the Shock or Lightning Penetration gem also, keep that in mind.



The above tooltip translates into:
21360 * 1.5 (ring) * 1.5 (shock) * 1.36 (lightning penetration) = 65351 DPS

Versus a 75% lightning resist monsters you are looking at:
19224 - 28836 DPS depending on whether you shock it or not.

Stats:




I Core Items

So for this build i wanted to build around one of the new items introduced, which is where the name of the build comes from:

(the corruption is irrelevant, however BiS corruption would be elemental weakness on hit)

These gloves are at the moment giving me +42% spell damage at full power charges and +21% elemental damage at full frenzy charges for a total of 63% damage increase.

Sustaining charges is cruicial to making the most of this item so we run:
* Power Charge on Critical gem
* Assassins Mark curse
* Blood Dance boots

Frenzy charges are somewhat optional, i will refer to this a bit later.

For the build to function you want a minimum of a 5L chest armor, a 6L will bring another 20-30% damage increase however.

II Defenses

Being a crit caster the defenses you can run are limited, so we opt out for a bit of everything:
* Huge buffer (2.9k HP, 4.1k ES atm)
* Endurance Charges
* ES leech & Regen
* [optional] Chaos Golem
* Granite of Iron Skin
* Bit of Block with Tempest Shield
* Lategame Vaal Pact

Which should in most cases provide sufficent, this is however not a HC build guide.

III Gear



For gear you want:

IV Links & Playstyle

Links go as such:


DPS in a 5L should still range from 10K - 16K tooltip dps (around 45k dps after you factor in shock + ring + lightning pene).

I do not run concentrated effect because i like the increased survival from big aoe i get.

V Passives & Keystones & Bandits

Early/mid game (level 1 - 87):
Zealoth Oath
Ghost Reaver
2 Jewel Sockets

Endgame (level 88+):
Ghost Reaver
Vaal Pact
3 Jewel Sockets

Bandits:
Normal: Oak or Kill All
Cruel: Alira
Merciless: Alira



Stat breakdown:

VI Playstyle

You basically run around spamming Enduring Cry for endurance charges + es regen and casting Assassins Mark to jump start power charges. After you get some power charges the PCOC gem takes care of further charge generation.

For hard hitting enemies you want to, and i cannot stress this enough, move out of the way. You will have a big life buffer (7k+) but to leech at highest effect you need to hit enemies with the ring of the nova, that means moving all the time.

For single target we use a 4L vaal storm call + a 4L flame totem.
Flame totem is currently sitting at 17k DPS with charges, while vaal storm call is at 6K Average damage with 5.13 casts / second.

VII Jewels

Jewel options depend on your preference of life vs ES, however you should look for:


Cast speed is ok also, if you can sustain it.

VIII Auras & Buffs

There are 3 viable setups when it comes to this:
Wrath + Clarity

This is the option i am running, provides a 21% more multiplier and mana regen.

Herald of Thunder + Arctic Armor + Clarity

Provides less damage but gives more survivability, remember only time you are getting hit should be while you are casting and leeching. Reducing damage taken at that time is probably the only time you are taking damage. This build uses movement a lot to maximize dps.

Herald of Thunder + Herald of Ice + Clarity

A medium dps solution, the crits should freeze & explode trash monsters, however i feel like it is redundant because crits already explode everything on the screen.


I will continue the write up regarding leveling & other things a bit later.

Reserved for leveling trees / tips, etc.

Bump for visibility.

Thanks for making the build, it looks decent and I'm looking forward to respec my witch.

Thanks mate, i will try to update the build once i test out Vaal Pact (tho i have a feeling i may make it mandatory because it literally has no penalty to using it).

If you are running on a budget you can expect to reach 15k tooltip with charges on a 5L running PCOC (i have around 18k with a 5L setup atm and almost 23k with a 6L).

You can still break 20K tooltip with a 5L if you use some other way of generating power charges (for example Ice Spear + Power charge on hit) once you reach into higher levels.

So for a budget version i think 45k dps is something you can expect with a 5L.


If vaal pact proves strong enough i may replace Added Lightning damage with Concentrated Effect for bosses.

And if you do not fancy Shock Nova, my Ball Lightning reads 7.2k tooltip dps with full charges so it is a viable alternative.

Just a couple things I'd like to point out to help the guide along (and out of curiosity)



*Where is your leech coming from?
(This one's a curiosity)

Maybe I missed it, but i see no leech on gear, no leech on items...only assassin marks on kill effect (which are instant anyways)



*You are missing one of your 4 link setups

Based on the guide i'm assuming it's the one you use to curse with, but still, it's missing on your gem links section



*Vaal pact has no penalty

It does have a penalty if you are using The Blood Dance boots. Blood dance gives you 1% life regeneration per frenzy charge...so using vaals pact would kill that 3% life regeneration effect.


Overall, love shock nova builds and am happy to see another successful one with an emphasis on an interesting unique item, so well done, well built, and well written guide.

I am using a Life Leech gem in my setup to facilitate leech.

I didn't put one of the 4L because i might switch to Kaom's Roots which have no sockets, thus no additional 4L.

Atm in that 4L i run portal and assassins mark only, if i switch to kaoms il just relocate the curse to another socket.

What i meant was, Vaal Pact has no more leech penalty, instant leech or some life regen is a choice ofc, but i think Vaal Pact is more useful for mapping.

Also i am leveling a Tendrils / Ball Lightning / Enlighten in my weapon swap for testing purposes, might remove flame totem in favor of a Tendril / Ball Lightning totem later.

"

Mannoth wrote:

Also i am leveling a Tendrils / Ball Lightning / Enlighten in my weapon swap for testing purposes, might remove flame totem in favor of a Tendril / Ball Lightning totem later.

Yeah, I have been leveling a lightning tendrils since level 1 to test it for single target compared to vaal storm call as well.

Currently i use Vaal Stormcall + Vaal stormcall + Spell echo + Added lightning

Might change it up to Tendrils, Lightning Penetration, Spell echo, Power charge on crit (+Added lightning or life leech or concentrated effect with more links)
^^^
Mainly because vs single targets I won't have power charge or warlords mark for life leech sustain when fighting a single target that doesn't summon minions (IE like Kaom or Daresso in Act4).

No reason to use added lightning on vaal storm call imo, lightning penetration is needed since bosses usually have resists.

I was thinking of maybe using the following link:

Spell Totem + Tendrils + Knockback + [ Faster Casting / Conc. Effect ]

Reasoning being that i could use the fast number of hits tendrils have to keep the enemies pushed away while my shock nova still has the range to hit them. Thus i might use conc effect or not on tendrils totem, depending on it's reach.

It's a really interesting idea i had, and should make some bosses and harder packs trivial since knockback is rolled per hit and tendrils hit 4 times per cast (so literally knocking them back all the time).

Hello. I'm very interested in your build, and would like a video demonstration of it. Also, some quick questions.
Is shavronnes viable for build?
Can I use stone of lazhwar with life leech?
How well does it deal with reflect heavy maps?
Can I put CoC+IAoE+ALD+Shock nova?
Can I use enlighten gem in order to reduce mana reserved and put another aura setup like discipline-vaal clarity/haste?
Volls protector?

Ty in advance.