[2.1.0] Poison Balls (Voltaxic Rift 100% Chaos Ball Lightning Caster)

This is just a fun experiment I put together trying to play with the shock and poison status ailments, there is probably ways to optimise this build far better but I'm not taking it too seriously. If you're looking for a mad DPS tank then this build is not for you.

Pros and Cons
Pros:
Reflect immune.

Decent damage.

Ball Lightning is a good hit and run skill, cast once and side step while letting the Ball Lightning zap everything it comes across, even more so since this is a poison build you can let the DoT do the work while you re position yourself.

Only requires one unique, flexible gear choice.

People don't usually seek defensive stats on quivers so they are pretty cheap and having more defensive stats means you have more options for your other equipment slots.

IT'S FUN.

Cons:
Probably should not be your first build, Voltaxic costs at least 1 exalted and even more if it's 5L or 6L. It also costs quite a lot of chromatics to get the correct colours.


Video
Double Boss T11 Academy Map run @ Lvl 90. This video is better, I have 60% projectile speed here.

Random Canyon Map run @ Lvl 86. Made this video back when I was still figuring out this build and before I discovered Winds of Change gloves existed.


"
Passive Tree
The passive tree to aim for at 105 points. Get more mana if your unreserved mana pool/mana regen is not enough to cast spells.

My passive tree at Lvl 90.

Bandit Rewards:
Normal: Help Oak (+40 Life)
Cruel: Kill all (+1 Passive Point)
Merciless: Kill all (+1 Passive Point)

Leveling and Passive Tree Progress
This is just a general guideline for what you should aim for in your passive tree as you level, of course feel free to take any nearby jewel sockets or alternative routes whenever.

24 Points
42 Points
60 Points
90 Points

You can level using Essence Drain + Contagion and can switch to Bladefall supported by Poison at Lvl 28, either works. Since the passive tree has quite a bit of chaos and physical damage increases, these skills naturally work well for leveling. Make sure to carry some Ball Lightning gems to level so you can switch over to it when you are high enough level to equip your Voltaxic Rift.

Ideal leveling setup support gems for Essence Drain are: Void Manipulation, Controlled Destruction, Poison, Rapid Decay

Ideal leveling setup support gems for Bladefall are: Spell Echo, Poison, Controlled Destruction, Void Manipulation.


Jewels
The jewel socket at the top of the tree above the Witch starting area should be socketed with Eldritch Knowledge which gives up to 35% Increased Chaos Damage with this build. Other jewel sockets should have jewels with Increased Shock Duration since it really helps shock high level mobs, with any other mods that you lack or have a hard time reaching (such as Increased Maximum Life %)



"
Gear
My Gear






Gear to look for

Must have uniques:
Weapon: Voltaxic Rift (bow) - This unique bow converts 100% of lightning damage into chaos damage and is the only way to achieve 100% conversion of lightning to chaos in the game.

Useful uniques:
Body Armour: Belly of the Beast (AR/EV body armour) - since it can be difficult to find life passives in the caster sections of the tree, Belly of the Beast is useful for its huge boost to maximum life and it scales all the flat life you have from levels and gear.

Rare gear stats to look for:
Quiver: As much dexterity as possible, life and elemental resists. Since this build sits around the caster area its dexterity is not high enough to equip Voltaxic Rift normally (requires 212 DEX) therefore we need as much dexterity from gear as we can get.

Helmet: Life, elemental resists. Dexterity if possible.

Gloves: Life, elemental resists. Dexterity if possible.

Boots: Movement speed, life, elemental resists.

Amulet: Cast speed, mana regeneration, life.

Rings: Life, mana regeneration, elemental resists. Dexterity if possible.

Belt: Life, elemental or chaos resist.

Make sure you have enough Dexterity to equip Voltaxic Rift.



"
Gems

My current setup
Ball Lightning: Spell Echo, Poison, Void Manipulation, Controlled Destruction

Vaal Storm Call: Spell Echo, Poison, Void Manipulation, Controlled Destruction

Wither: Spell Totem, Faster Casting, Increased Area of Effect

Herald of Thunder: Poison. Wrath, Clarity in the same equipment slot.

Cast when Damage Taken: Temporal Chains, Arctic Breath, Increased Area of Effect

Blink Arrow (in spare socket).


Main skill: Ball Lightning
The support gems are listed in order of priority.

Support Gems: Spell Echo, Poison, Void Manipulation, Controlled Destruction, Faster Casting

Simply put, the support gems aim to maximise Ball Lightnings chaos damage and poison damage and aims to deal as many hits as possible.

Supplementary damage skill: Vaal Storm Call
The support gems are listed in order of priority.

Support Gems: Spell Echo, Poison, Void Manipulation, Controlled Destruction, Added Chaos Damage

Vaal Storm Call is useful for bosses or rare mobs as it continuously strikes them with consistent hard hits (unlike most lightning skills, Storm Call has very consistent damage) while applying high damage poison stacks. Of course you can use Ball Lightning while Vaal Storm Call is in effect too to deal even more damage and apply even more poison stacks.

Wither totem
Wither
Support Gems: Spell Totem, Faster Casting, Increased Area of Effect

Wither increases the chaos damage dealt by Ball Lightning and Vaal Storm Call but also the poison damage these two skills deal. It also has good defensive properties slowing enemy movement speed.


Auras/Buffs
Clarity
Needed to cast skills, lol.

Wrath
Multiplies lightning damage, thus our chaos damage is multiplied.

Herald of Thunder
Optional Support Gem: Poison

Herald of Thunder adds a boost to our overall chaos damage and when shocking things the on kill lightning strikes deal a lot of damage to anything that approaches you, even more so if you have enough mana reserve to support it with Poison.


Blink Arrow
Blink Arrow
Support Gems: Faster Attacks, Blind, Greater Multiple Projectiles

Blink arrow is a good mobility skill and the clone left behind has a small chance to blind enemies it hits, useful for protecting you somewhat.


Curses (if you have the sockets)
Blast Rain
Support Gems: Curse on Hit - Temporal Chains and Vulnerability

Temporal Chains helps defensively slowing mobs down and offensively since it extends the duration of poison. Vulnerability helps your poison deal more damage per second.



Stat screenshots

Life/ES/Mana


Ball Lightning Damage


Vaal Storm Call Damage


Herald of Thunder Damage



FAQ
Q: Why not use Lightning Arrow instead?
A: Why is it so hard to understand this is not a bow build but a caster build?

Q: Why this build at all?
A: It's just a fun concept I put together, not a serious mad dps uber killer build. I'm enjoying playing it.

Q: Why not use Spark or Arc instead?
A: I simply don't like the playstyle of these two skills and prefer Ball Lightning.

Q: Why not use Frenzy to generate charges?
A: I'm not specced into Frenzy charges at all and stopping to generate 3 charges, which isn't much, is not really worth the hassle. I would if I was really specced into it.

Q: Does Drillneck increase Ball Lightnings damage since it has inherent 100% pierce chance?
A: No. Drillneck states arrow pierce chance therefore only arrow pierce chance and global pierce chance works. Supporting Ball Lightning with the Pierce support gem will give you an increase in damage with Drillneck however.
"so you can see who has more PvPenis" - Chris Wilson
"Everyone can at least be exposed to Leo's PvPenis" - Chris Wilson
Last edited by Kenzorz#6970 on Jan 20, 2016, 12:27:14 PM
Added a video!
"so you can see who has more PvPenis" - Chris Wilson
"Everyone can at least be exposed to Leo's PvPenis" - Chris Wilson
Updated FAQ
"so you can see who has more PvPenis" - Chris Wilson
"Everyone can at least be exposed to Leo's PvPenis" - Chris Wilson
"
CaptainWARLORD wrote:
I have done a Chaos Damage Ball Lightning build before, but long ago. The Poison setup is not worth it, imo.

Very low overall defense and not really much utility. Poison scales with both Physical and Chaos Damage, thus Ball Lightning is not a good choice.

I suggest you make a CI version of it with focus on Chaos Damage and not Poison.

Alternatively, I can make one for you, should you like that.


I'm interested in seeing your chaos damage focused build actually. My build really isn't that focused on poison damage, I just take mainly chaos damage and it double dips into my poison and I've avoided DoT nodes since they do nothing for my base damage.
"so you can see who has more PvPenis" - Chris Wilson
"Everyone can at least be exposed to Leo's PvPenis" - Chris Wilson
Last edited by Kenzorz#6970 on Jan 1, 2016, 5:00:43 PM
"
CaptainWARLORD wrote:
Here you go:


CI version with:

> 124% increased Elemental Damage
> 184% increased Chaos Damage
> 100% increased Shock Duration on Enemies
> 127% increased Lightning Damage
> 25% Chance to Shock
> 15% increased Radius of Area Skills
> 30% increased Area Damage
> 102% increased Spell Damage
> 348% increased maximum Energy Shield (With 2 perfect Energy from Within jewels)
> 15% more maximum Energy Shield
> Immune to Chaos Damage
> +21% to all Elemental Resistances

Hope you like it. If you want a more Aura focused/Cast Speed version, let me know. Also, I suggest you use Slower Projectiles, as Ball Lightning has a set intervall of 200ms where it hits.

Cheers.


Looks pretty solid but I was wondering:

Where do you get mana/mana regen from with this build? Wrath and Herald of Thunder are big boosts to my build's damage and it's even better with your build since you have so much more ele and lightning damage and without some mana increases it will be difficult to have enough mana to cast Ball Lightning. Your passive tree has gave me some ideas on how I could optimise my build though, don't really feel like rerolling another char at all so I won't be going CI.
"so you can see who has more PvPenis" - Chris Wilson
"Everyone can at least be exposed to Leo's PvPenis" - Chris Wilson
Last edited by Kenzorz#6970 on Jan 1, 2016, 11:25:20 PM
No need, after playing around with your passive tree it's actually kinda easy to alter for cast speed, mana etc.

I came up with something similar but for life based:

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwYAsNhFfKLZyBT1b2qMFr8PqyaVJIth4sM6VUuJ4BmKm7WMNuZY-wmExVRHkx_22qa-SRMaj57EXfIOSCsKEZYRL3_GBx7rY5MnlS61SDY9bAvviPDVnaoi9Pk3j_pJUWyMbRnXz1xAYqyX9Aj0SbGHy1JTwFSnm5eVPV-86mpDdZ5Ms88V0B8EB-_r6-SD2x8CXypVxjI0Oljk7KyYdhH31xEPEFhSr36vTC0snLtNtYWNGRSwVa7dX-9Q4BKCHkSrZ_zBtNlf9OmPpi193Yw2iYIQZ73fsOaBy70=

Respecced to ^ and it's overall better than my previous tree.
"so you can see who has more PvPenis" - Chris Wilson
"Everyone can at least be exposed to Leo's PvPenis" - Chris Wilson
Slightly changed my tree, respecced out of double curse and specced into Projectile Speed since I discovered Winds of Change unique gloves exists. Ball Lightning feels much better to play now that it travels so fast and can start killing things before I'm even in their aggro range.

Also new DPS with respecced tree:

I have a T11 map run I have recorded too, will upload soon.
"so you can see who has more PvPenis" - Chris Wilson
"Everyone can at least be exposed to Leo's PvPenis" - Chris Wilson
Last edited by Kenzorz#6970 on Jan 19, 2016, 8:21:19 PM
Uploaded T11 map run Double Boss T11 Academy Map run @ Lvl 90

Remember this is just a for fun build.
"so you can see who has more PvPenis" - Chris Wilson
"Everyone can at least be exposed to Leo's PvPenis" - Chris Wilson
why do you have so much proj speed? it's bad for BL as it hits less times.
"
HenriqueGs wrote:
why do you have so much proj speed? it's bad for BL as it hits less times.


BL reaches mobs faster and travels further. I also gain a lot of bonuses to my projectile damage (which increases both my chaos damage and poison damage) from the same passives/unique.

Keeping the projectile speed low for "more hits" is pointless if it takes forever for the BL to reach the mobs in the first place.

This build's clear speed is faster since it can begin clearing packs faster and safer since it can off screen mobs with projectile speed than without.
"so you can see who has more PvPenis" - Chris Wilson
"Everyone can at least be exposed to Leo's PvPenis" - Chris Wilson
Last edited by Kenzorz#6970 on Feb 3, 2016, 1:17:46 PM

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