[2.0] Ball Lightning + Call of the Brotherhood build, freezing balls of shattering goodness!

Introduction
Enjoy Ball Lightning? Unhappy you can no longer see the Herald of Ice shatters due to the low damage effectiveness? Wish you could freeze or chill stuff like a frozen orb? Look no further, we now have an awesome unique ring that will allow us to do this.

Level 82 passive tree


Build Details
I went with hybrid defenses because I've always enjoyed stacking huge EHP. Everyone also love curses right? Whispers of Doom is nearby, so it's a must have. Right now this build is running 3 self buffs and 1 aura, which is Herald of Thunder, Herald of Ice, Clarity and Arctic Armour.

Herald of Thunder works really well with the ring, most white monsters approaching you will be frozen. Herald of Ice is obvious for the shatters, and Arctic Armour for your defense.

I've been experimenting with my gem combinations, and right now my choice is:

4L: Ball Lightning + Spell Echo + Increased AOE + Increased Critical Damage
5L: Ball Lightning + Spell Echo + Increased AOE + Increased Critical Damage + Hypothermia or PCoC

Don't have a 6L, but I believe you can use PCoC on the 6th link, or Innervate if you can support the mana cost.

What about other gems? It will be mostly up to you, but I recommend:

Arc + Curse on Hit + Assassin's Mark + Warlord's Mark
Chaos Golem + Minion Life + Fortify
Vaal Storm Call + Concentrated Effect + Lightning Penetration
Arctic Armour + Clarity + Herald of Thunder + Herald of Ice

Curses are really up to you though. If you want more DPS, you can go Assassin's Mark + Elemental Weakness. I prefer something a bit defensive, so I went with Warlord's Mark. Any other remaining sockets it's up to you to customize. A CWDT setup, a flame or decoy totem setup, sky's the limit.

Gearing
Obviously, you need this ring:


For the rest of your stuff, you don't need anything special. Just get ES and life gear, and stack as much EHP as you can. This is my gear, nothing special or expensive. I recommend also getting some mana and regen from your accessories, try to get over 1k mana.


Proof of Concept
Curious on the style of play? Here's a video, clear of level 72 Pier map:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZF2n1t4YLc
Apologies for the bad video quality.

Questions
Any questions? Feel free to post it here.

I'm curious to what your dps is with this build. I also run a BL witch, but on standard (i really need to get back to my 63 BL witch on Warbands). That ring plus the lightning doriyani belt I think would be really great together and push my dps a bit higher.



Edit: Also I noticed on your tree you ahve no jewel slots. getting even one jewel and rolling lightning damage would help the damage output, or even better a life jewel for more survivability

Hi. This is an interesting build. I want to try it but is this build viable from level 1? If so, how about the passive progression?

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merdakai wrote:

I'm curious to what your dps is with this build. I also run a BL witch, but on standard (i really need to get back to my 63 BL witch on Warbands). That ring plus the lightning doriyani belt I think would be really great together and push my dps a bit higher.



Edit: Also I noticed on your tree you ahve no jewel slots. getting even one jewel and rolling lightning damage would help the damage output, or even better a life jewel for more survivability

Hey there, my DPS is 2.5k on the sheet without any power charges.

I didn't take jewels slots yet, it's something you should get after level 82. It's really up to you once you push past level 82, you have many points leftover to grab the nearby jewel sockets.

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alteisen612 wrote:

Hi. This is an interesting build. I want to try it but is this build viable from level 1? If so, how about the passive progression?

This build is viable, passive progression is straight forward. Head towards the shadow side after getting all the nodes at the witch side, then around level 60, you should be done with the shadow side too. The Templar side should be the last ones you get.

What's the highest map you've cleared on this char? What level are you now?

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Boozler wrote:

What's the highest map you've cleared on this char? What level are you now?

Level 82, highest I tried was 73. I have very bad map RNG.

Ever tried Rain of Splinters jewel?

I think you'd like that :)

Really really awesome build. I love the idea. Props :)

Isn't rain of splinters for totem only?

hey is the ring absolutely necessary? cos i've tried looking for it on poe.trade and for some reason I can't seem to find any :/ can the build still work without the ring?

// nevermind found it