2.0 - Ball Lightning + Flame Totem Crit / Iron Will, High Damage & Life, Works with Other Spells!

Background - Ball Lightning 2.0 build

Wanted to share my Ball Lightning / Flame Totem build which has been a lot of fun, and relatively strong. Currently a Shadow at level 92 and having a good time running level 80ish maps. Any map up to 77/78 is a breeze. Build is definitely Atziri capable (never had a deathless run, but always finish easily with 3+ portals remaining).

The main idea of this build is to maximize the secondary Flame Totem skill by taking only synergistic nodes (this would include all projectile damage nodes, elemental damage, spell damage, cast speed, and crit...basically anything except lightning nodes).

I pop out a flame totem before any mob or boss, essentially adding the damage of BL + FT together for a great combo. Why is this better than (spell totem + X lightning skill)? Much more damage, no more need for extra projectiles with 2.0 FT buff, and it helps with lightning resistant enemies to add a second element. Sometimes, BL can turn into a close-range skill when the mobs engage you, so a totem helps with this quite a bit.

Also, by combining very high strength for Iron Will gem, Crit, Crit Multiplier, Dual Wield, and 8 Jewel Slots - we get a very strong damage for both skills (15k+ Ball Lightning DPS, 40k+ Flame Totem DPS - no charges). I am not too sure how this stacks up with other BL builds, but it works great for both bosses and large mobs.

Finally, with certain gear like Belly armor this build can achieve 6000+ life (or much more easily 5200+), decent armor, and does not use mana for main skill so constant casting! (blood magic gem + decent life regen).

Note – this general template works with many spells, if a respec is wanted it could be done with a few regrets + new skill gem. Basically any projectile spell that crits will work well. Ethereal Knives is VERY effective with this setup (105K+ DPS) – just change to physical dmg nodes in shadow, switch wrath to hatred, and remove 2 AOE nodes. I have also tried this with Arctic Breath GMP which is powerful, Spark GMP (kind of fun), and some other projectiles. The projectile speed nodes help with all of these.

Note 2 - I am currently playing this build with Shadow. Scion would also be a wonderful choice (maybe even better! Just go for projectile nodes or spell damage nodes to begin). Templar works just as well too.

Ball Lightning stats


Flame Totem stats


Defense stats


Passive Tree


Some Weaknesses (strengths already mentioned):
Elemental Reflect can be an issue, avoid on maps
Flame Totem is not on blood magic gem, so need a bit of mana unreserved and some mana regen (this is only my preference, BM gem could be used but reduce FT dps by 25%).
Can have issues reaching high enough Intelligence
Crit chance is lower than many people would like (i'm at 31.2% chance). But with good enough cast speed, it crits plenty for me!
May have some issues coloring blue slots on chest armor (or 3b 1g on a pure armor base, which is even harder!)

Bandits:
Normal – help Oak or Skill Point
Cruel – help Alira or Skill Point
Merc – Skill Point – unless you want to really modify the build for charges!

Why skill points? In my opinion, the addition of Jewels (which are damn strong) is a slight inherent nerf to Bandit Rewards, because the skill point may be better if it helps you get to another jewel slot.

My Links

6L Ball Lightning –

4L Flame Totem –

4L – Wrath, Grace, Enlighten lvl 3 or higher, + (Preference)

Wrath is what I prefer due to highly upping the damage of BL and also having a small effect on Flame Totem (if Added Lightning is used). Using Herald of Ice + Thunder is also an option.

4L CWDT – CWDT, Immortal Call, Increased Duration, Assassin’s Mark (any power charges are a bonus since build does not utilize them)

3L - Leap Slam/Whirling Blades + Fortify + Faster Attacks (or any other preferred movement skill)

3L (Flame Golem) + whatever your preference

Gear
Generally it’s good to get Strength on any item, if possible, without sacrificing too much. A good rare heavy Belt works great!

Any increase to critical strike chance is highly preferred, since the base crit is only 5% and no spell crit nodes are taken. Maligaro’s gloves are a great option, as are diamond rings and a crit amulet.

A +1 gems item for either the Flame Totem 4L or the aura 4L is ideal, where possible.

For chest armor, a good rare with high armor or armor/evasion, 90+ life and resists would work well (note - possible blue color issues!). Belly of the Beast or Lightning Coil could be good options if you can manage to max resistances (lightning coil would require aura tweaking).

Sceptres / Wands / Daggers - all are very viable. Look for very high spell crit, moderate spell damage and added elemental damage to spells, cast speed (except for daggers), and crit multi.

My gear:



Use Inertia jewel between Shadow and Ranger for wonderful strength effect (as many others have noted in their builds).

Ideal for jewels would be getting damage rolls (especially Spell Damage/Cast Speed While Dual Wielding or similar damage mods + maximum life (6%+), along with any additional resists or intelligence that might be required.

Playstyle
Always pop a flame totem before running into any mob, and use it frequently to kite enemies or attack tough mobs (corrupting blood, etc.). Try not to cast BL too long in one position or mobs focus too highly on you! Use Atziri flaks for extra DPS. Add either Vaal Haste for extra damage or Vaal Grace for defense.

Any questions feel free to PM me. Or if you have any tips for me, or ideas for improvement, let me know!

Anyone try this build? I feel like it would only do BL and FT at half of what it could be if you went full.... I like the concept though thoughts ? Clear speed on higher maps ?

I get what you mean about the FT only being "half" - simply because you only use 1 totem. But with the BL it's still a very full build.

Yes, the tree is missing Witch lightning nodes, many spell crit nodes, and also the Celestial Judgement wheel near Templar. But if you were doing a build like that, you wouldn't be able to get the 117% Proj Damage nodes this build has, or maybe the 8 jewel slots, or all the strength for Iron Will. So there isn't a big tradeoff there. I have heard that 15k+ for BL is really high (and I had 107K with the EK version).

Clear speed is pretty good up to a certain point. Something like a 77 Plateau it will shred through very fast, and melt the boss :). Around 79 maps it tends to slow down though. Normal Atziri runs were fast and easy.