[HC 2.1] LV91 Dual Phys/Chaos Siege Ballista - over 32k dps, very tanky - Avatar of Thunder down

I was curious about the new Ballista skill since it was introduced, mainly because it looks cool and is first dedicated bow totem in PoE (hopefully more to come).
It advantages over normal RAT are - no need for RAT itself, Ballista is already a totem which gives us free link and crazy damage effectiveness. Downsides are low attack speed and unability to use with chain as it 100% pierces

This isn't a detailed guide from the ground up, I'm assuming you know the game and know how to play totems. Just poining few highlights in my build, you can always play your own way.

Build focuses on using Ballista high damage effectiveness to scale chaos and phys to apply poison on hit. This achieves one important thing - you can still do dmg even when totem misses or is beetween shots, it's useful for fast moving enemies. Also you can stack crazy DOT on big sluggish and high life enemies like Malachai. Last thing - it gives us ability to generate charges with totems through curses.

Key gear:


Very cheap yet very powerful bow. It gives 100% MORE damage up close - just where your totems gonna be. This stacks with Iron Grip and Point Blank passives from tree resulting in crazy scaling of damage. In reality it is 3 TIMES your tooltip shows
Lioneyes Glare is also a good option and saves passive for RT



Self explanatory. 100% projectile dmg because Ballista always pierces + some life and phys dmg. BIS




This gloves generate our charges. With this your totems dont kill anything - you do. Ballista applies poison which counts as your kill giving you bonus charges from curses, in this case Poachers

Rest of the gear is rare


Tree at lv 90. Pretty much finalized at this point. Next levels can get more life/dps or jewel slot below duelist. Thre are few options, all are good


https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwAAAO4EswagC2EOPBDMFHEUdRUgFm8XLxiRGNsZtBo4HNwi4icvKaUqEypNLKcs6S2DMgkyfjLRNZI6UjwtPydFR0WdR-JKxErIU1JV1ljlWfNaK1pSW69eXWSEZOdlTWZUZp5oZWjybEZuqnIPcmxyqXTxdct2rHsge8N8g3zZgKSCB4Nfg8yGs48akFWUb5rgm12iAKPypDmkwqeUqJqsqq2Nr2y18rc-vJ-9Nr6nwGbE9sauz37R_di92XzdDeNq6hjqYuvu8B_yQfKX8932rvcy-JP46_m9-tL-Cv6H?accountName=arcadius&characterName=CastingCouchPoe

Links:

Siege Ballista - Faster Attacks - Slower Projectiles - Poison - Added Chaos - Void Manipulation

Currently using 5L, switched from Tabula Rasa



Curse:

Split arrow - Chain - CoH - Poachers Mark (life on hit if 5 link)

What this does is applies your curse, chains and gives you bonuses from curse instantly - life and mana on hit. Goodbye mana problems. Also it's a pretty good healing setup - 7 arrows x3 = 21 hits. That gives us 500 life on hit if everything hits.
With Life on hit (20/20) as 5 link its about 1600 instant life which can be boosted even higher with curse effectiveness!


Stats:

Dps with 3 frenzy charges. Remember it's 3x tooltip = over 32k
In reality damage is impressive because it bypasses monster defenses. Big physical hits cut through armor and mobs dont have much chaos res in general and there aren't any maps mods giving them more res so it's more effective damage than elemental. Vulneralibility is unnecessary
It's on 5L




Defense not buffed


Defense buffed - Amethyst flask and granite. Almost maxed chaos res.
Witch Poachers and proper managing flasks (not spamming when not needed) we can keep it almost always





Gameplay video on some low level map to demonstrate how this works. Maybe more will come

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tngWCeIMqt0&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKpAI2avrTE&feature=youtu.be

Why not run Void Manipulation instead of Culling Strike?

It will increase both the poison and the initial hit and should prove better than culling strike no?

Also viable. Im still testing the optimal setup

Wouldn't Vulnerability be the better curse? Buffs both the initial hit and the poison over time damage.

I dont need more dps at least for now - t6-8 maps. Higher tier also shouldn't be a problem
Poachers is not only about dps, read the curse section. I'm planning to maybe use second curse at some point but it will be something defensive like tc or enfeeble

Advantages of Poachers Mark:

- frenzy charges
- life and mana on hit
- flask charges (good managing of flask is very important for totem builds because of no leech. See my defense with granite, we want to keep it as long as possible)

About poison. Most of things die from oneshots so it's a side bonus for now not a main dps measure

Ah ya I was originally thinking you got no benefit from the life and mana on hit but now I realize that of course you would using your curse on hit setup. Also did not consider the importance of flask charges. Thanks for the response.

Updated DPS at level 86. Upgraded quality on my gems, still not on lv 20 so it will be more



That means ~32k per totem

With auras and three power charges. No other buffs (flasks, vaal haste, etc).


I melt bosses including atziri. A great single target skill to pair with my Lightning Arrow.

Set-up:

Updated for lv 90