ELE LIGHTNING STRIKE - ALL T16s, Shaper, Uber Atziri, HOGM, Chayula, Elder

Thank you so much for your detailed reply! I actually built a Duelist Blender recently and it made me realize how TANKY this build is. Now I have to decide which one I want to rush through the new leagues with haha!

Hi There,

I was wondering if I should grab the dodge nodes if I won't be able to afford a bringer of rain?

By the way this is the most fun I have had with this game so far. I've only been playing three weeks but man this is so much fun!

"

Kirielis wrote:

Bit of background: Got a level 77 dagger ranger doing this now, skill tree is mine, concept is OP's. Currently using both acro keystone and darkray vectors, though none of the nodes beyond acro. Skills are DS, splash, multi, added-fire in a Rain. Took her through some maps, though not the higher ones I usually host. That'll happen on the weekend.

Got some thoughts and experiences, would like some comments.

1. Running blood rage, did not see the need to use LoH gem.

2. I must've missed the actual math in your post on acro, but I would have thought 46% dodge is significant relative to 0% dodge, in terms of EHP, and increases in significance as chance to evade decreases? Supposing I don't manage to reach 50% displayed chance to evade.

Current gear

3. Tried it out with a 320dps claw too on a noncrit build. Worked like a dream, though dual claws cyclone still felt like faster killing. Maybe I'll offhand some other claw and try that out. Why not make a dual wield build? Not hard to reach 66% dual wield block. Offhand an Essentia and keep the LoH gem after all, that'll make max block on hybrid defenses...dang, I really want to play with the permutations of this.

4. At the number of aps I was putting out, capped mana leech was insufficient. Not a major problem as I spent some few seconds running between mobs and it recharged then, but still. (A note that my builds usually stack IAS like crazy and the weapons I was playing with have 1.8aps, so this is probably not an issue with most?)

And some general things.

5. Culling on flicker really necessary? Things die quickly enough anyway.

6. It's not a good idea to drop too many DPS nodes for HC play, because then there's insufficient damage. IMO. I got stabbed really hard by this one, one of the times. Also, I tend to think the best defense is a really good offense. Faster you kill them, less hits you have to take.

And a question!

7. This weekend I'll be throwing the similar gem setup on a CI crit character using Carcass Jack to try that out. Links are RRGGB. She's got no evasion to speak of, though. How do you do this build without evasion?

Hi Kiri, thanks for the comments. Here are my thoughts:

1. Life leech vs. LGOH - this will always be debatable and depends on your playing style. I prefer LGOH on this build due to the high APS. Our health pool is not massive, and so with life leech the downside is that you will easily be hitting the cap. Life leech works very well with slow heavy physical attacks and massive health pools. I tested both on this build and found LGOH with melee splash to give great survivability, when you combine this with instant life flasks - your life regen becomes extremely rapid - some examples of this include my Jungle Valley video and the Gorge map video I did.

If you prefer running Blood Rage for the frenzy charges - I recommend trying to use Frenzy attack to get your frenzy charges - I did this in the Gorge map with temporal chains vs. Kraityn. It takes a bit more micromanagement but once you have all the charges up, you just have to land 1 Frenzy hit occasionally to keep them all up.

2. Dodge works well when you do not have high evasion and high block. The aim of this build is to get to max block, I did the math at the bottom of the guide (2nd post) and with max block, dodge is overkill and adds very little to our damage avoidance. Dodge is also random (vs. evasion) and it is hard to get a lot of it (unlike block). I do like the Spell Dodge node (since the only other way to avoid spells is to block), however it is not worth spending 7 points trying to get to this node. I was a bit skeptical at first, however I removed all Dodge from my build and ran the level 76 Precinct map with vulnerability and did not notice any difference.

In order to determine whether you think Dodge is worth it for you, I recommend:
- estimate what your end game goals for Block (are you going for max block) and Evasion (are you stacking a ton of evasion (i.e. ~60%+), or just aiming for ~50%?
- calculate your estimated chance to avoid damage both with and without dodge (i.e. with evasion, dodge, and block vs. evasion+block)
- is the difference in damage avoidance worth the points you invest in Dodge (~6 points)
- do the same for spells - are you going for max spell block or are you happy running with ~50% spell block and switching to Saffell's for very hard spell bosses? I mentioned in a prior post that ~50% spell block is very strong, however you will need high regular block and high spell block for Shrine Piety. Not sure yet on the new Dominus boss, but likely to be a high physical high spell boss as well. Apart from these - ~50% spell block will give very strong survivability.

3. Interesting note on dual wield, I'm sure you can find a way to make it work well. I prefer sticking with the shields as you can get a ton of bonuses from them (resistances, life, evasion, etc)

5. I usually reserve Culling Strike for the high HP bosses (Oak, Vaal, General). It is not really necessary, but it is a fun skill, helps me get out of fights slightly faster, and scales well throughout the game.

6. I agree on this. People playing HC will have to find the right balance and see what they like between life and DPS as they level.

7. She has no evasion? Are you spec'd into Unwavering Stances - if not, I would incorporate Blind into the build (Smoke Mine or Flame Totem linked to Blind) and invest in both Dodge and very high Block. You will still have a much harder time than with evasion since Dodge and Block are completely random, and you may take more critical strikes than if you had good evasion, but it would still give you great survivability. If you have high armor - use the Aegis Aurora shield to benefit your ES regen whenever you block. Let me know how she works out!

"

JunKx wrote:

whoa whoa whoa whoa.
where was this post when i was struggling so hard with my build to figure everything out and work out all the kinks?

...

Question regarding your calculations on evade/block/dodge and the like: do you know the proper order of operations? My experience seems to suggest accuracy, evasion and dodge are calculated first and if something breaks through then it figures if its blocked or not.
I came to this assumption by standing afk in front of a melee statue while PMing a friend. He would obviously miss and miss and miss then when he did make contact it was blocked. He actually damaged me twice out of like 30 swings or something, but anyway i am curious on the order on which things are calculated.
This would effect on which end things have a diminishing return. Im not real concerned considering i do not have max block, and the max i'd spec for is 60% anyway (30% spell block) so i see the dodge chance as being very significant, as well as allowing my evasion chance to slide lower than 50% as it currently is.

Hi JunKx, thanks for the post and for sharing your build idea! Evasion and Dodge are both checked first, and then Block is checked last. Here is the info from the mechanics thread (https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/11707):

"

Hit & damage calculation order of effects
There are a number of steps involved in deciding whether an attack hits or not and how much damage is done:

1) Avoiding the hit:
- At this stage there is a chance to evade attacks (accuracy vs evasion)
- Any chance to dodge from acrobatics or phase acrobatics is also checked here

2) Avoiding the damage:
- Blocking is checked

3) Mitigating the damage:
- Physical damage reduction and resistances are applied

4) Taking the damage:
- Non-chaos damage is removed from energy shield until it's depleted.
- Any remaining damage (including all chaos) is removed from life.

It is unclear whether Dodge is checked after Evasion, or before - however I do not think it makes a big difference.

I think ideally you would want to have Dodge be checked before Evasion - this is because Evasion gives you a certain number of guaranteed misses before a hit gets through (the entropy counter), as such you want these guaranteed misses to not be used up very quickly - i.e. have Dodge create a miss first before having Evasion create a miss. This is very similar to using Temporal Chains on an evasion build because you are reducing the rate of enemy attacks so that your entropy counter increases very slowly.

Block has to be calculated last because you are essentially taking a hit (it is not missing), however you are avoiding all the damage and harmful effects (except stun) of the hit.

"

hellnhavoc wrote:

Hi There,

I was wondering if I should grab the dodge nodes if I won't be able to afford a bringer of rain?

By the way this is the most fun I have had with this game so far. I've only been playing three weeks but man this is so much fun!

Thanks for the question. Bringer of Rain gives the benefit of adding chance to Blind to your attacks. You can get the same effect by incorporating Blind in your build through Smoke Mine or Flame Totem. I highlight how to use these 2 strategies in the FAQ. I would run with the Smoke Mine / Flame Totem strategy without Dodge first and see how you like it. If you do not like using Smoke Mine / Flame Totem - then spec into Dodge and use Enfeeble instead. Enfeeble works very similar to Blind - it reduces enemies' chance to hit drastically (by lowering enemy accuracy).

Glad you are having fun with the build! Melee builds are very exciting to play, especially an evasion build.

It's a nice build but looking at the passives it looks like you use a lot of points in places you don't really need or on things you don't really need.

I changed it around a little and used the same amount of points but have given more Life, Attack speed and Resists.. Not sure if this has been suggested already as I haven't read all the replies to this thread. Hope this helps, Danny.

Passive Tree: http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgIBAtAEsQUtBukILgkhGNsa2xutIQMhYCP2JpUnYTB8MgEyCTWGOJY6sz3iPs9AoEd-SO5KfUxgUUdT31VLVvpY21pIW69gS2HiZU1l8WegbXtuaXSudO108XiueUh67311fyuE2YTvh3aH2419jb-QCpVmmSubJpuDm42dqp65nyemf6p_qrirxayvr-uxs7IZtUi3F7fTuc27fL2Bvea-p8OGz3rTftaK18vaPdtV3Q3e9ud055Ho1usU7UHuDu9O7_D5Y_zF_ro=

"

Motting wrote:

It's a nice build but looking at the passives it looks like you use a lot of points in places you don't really need or on things you don't really need.

I changed it around a little and used the same amount of points but have given more Life, Attack speed and Resists.. Not sure if this has been suggested already as I haven't read all the replies to this thread. Hope this helps, Danny.

Passive Tree: http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgIBAtAEsQUtBukILgkhGNsa2xutIQMhYCP2JpUnYTB8MgEyCTWGOJY6sz3iPs9AoEd-SO5KfUxgUUdT31VLVvpY21pIW69gS2HiZU1l8WegbXtuaXSudO108XiueUh67311fyuE2YTvh3aH2419jb-QCpVmmSubJpuDm42dqp65nyemf6p_qrirxayvr-uxs7IZtUi3F7fTuc27fL2Bvea-p8OGz3rTftaK18vaPdtV3Q3e9ud055Ho1usU7UHuDu9O7_D5Y_zF_ro=

Motting thanks for posting the alternative tree. I see you removed some of the nodes around Nullification which give Evasion and Energy Shield and resistances, a frenzy node, and the Dex nodes by the Duelist.

I really like the Nullification cluster as it gives a ton of evasion, ES (I mention in the guide how ES helps a lot by giving an inherent 50% chance to avoid stun), and resistances (Nullification gives +8% all resistances as well as Evasion and ES bonuses - compared to the Diamond Flesh node which just gives +12% all res). The Dex nodes by the Duelist area are to help easy access to the axe cluster nodes and Frenzy node.

You also don't really need the Crystal Skin node, the good thing about evade, dodge, and block is that you will avoid all damage and status ailments. The 15% chance to avoid status ailments from Crystal Skin would not really be necessary given the high evasion and high block of the build, the 15% chance by itself is also very small and you will need to stack a lot of it to have a meaningful impact.

Thanks for posting the tree though - I'm sure some might consider going across the bottom part of the Duelist area as you have done.

No problem I also have a similar build (Without Bringer of rain due to being poor) Which also relies on Block chance, Evasion (Currently Level 59). And I'm basically untouched in 63 areas other than increased accuracy rare mobs..

My passive: http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgIAAF4EsQUtBbUILgyNDUkY2xmOGtsbrR6BIWAj9iSdMHEwfDIJNYY4ljpCOrM94kBVQKBI7kp9S3hLjUxgTZJRR1b6Wkhbr2BLYlpnoG9XdEF07XTxd9d4rnrvfXV_K4d2jX2Nv5Vmm42dqp65qn-quLTFtxe307nNwuzGos3q037UI9aK18vdDd2o7YPuDu9O7_D8xf66_xw=

I've chosen Claw due to having low currency and not being able to use the most useful of items (Siege axe and Bringer of Rain) I rely on a high physical claw for leech incase I do take a hit or two...

I'm currently working towards the Duelist area for the attackspeed/ 1H passives/ Block nodes, then I'll finally finish up getting the Block nodes just below Shadow start..

Thanks for the really detailed guide. I wanted to do this as a duelist, and ended up with the following.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgQBAtAEfgSxBS0G6QguCSEV8BjbGtsbrSEDIWAj9iaVJ2EwfDIBMgk2PTiWOlg6sz3iPs9AoEd-SO5KfUxgUUdT31VLVvpY21pIW69gS2HiZU1l8WegbXtuaXSudO108XiueUh67311fyuE2YTvhxmHdofbjb-QCpVmmSubJpuDm42euaXLpn-rxayvsbOyGbVItxe307t8vYG95r6nwA_Dhs960k3TftaK18vaPdtV3Q3e9ud055Ho1usU7UHuDu9O7_D5Y_zF_ro=

Based on http://www.pathofpoe.com/builds/passive-calculator/ the difference between the Ranger build in your OP and this Dueliest variation is the following:

-32% increased maximum Energy Shield
-10% increased Energy Shield Cooldown Recovery
+1.5% of Life Regenerated per Second
-4% increased Evasion Rating
+32% increased Armour
+4% to all Elemental Resistances
+7% increased Attack Speed

Not 100% ideal for the precise optimization you've got laid out in the OP, but for now it's close enough for me to continue working on my Duelist based on your concepts. Maybe someone else may prefer this non-ES Duelist variation?

Hi again all,

If you don't mind I'd like to pick your brain. Without the bringer of rain you are losing 15% block. Even with that peranuds unique shield with 40% block I will cap out at 72% block with tempest shield. I assume it is unlikely my end game shield would have that much block (maybe mid 30's?). Do you think it would then be worth it to spend the 6 point and go grab those shield nodes at the top of the tree? I'm just not sure if it would be worth the dps nodes you would have to give up to go get them.