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

I'm leveling this build (@level 52) and so far it's great fun. I've some customizations in mind and would appreciate your expertise on those.

Lets start with my customization plans:

A) Self-cast Immortal Call: (for the charges I would like to rely on Bringer of Rain)
Immortal Call + Inc Duration + Vaal Grace (+ Faster Casting)

B) Curse setup:
Reckoning + Curse on Hit + Ele Weakness/Assasin's Mark/Enfeeble + Poacher's Mark/Temp Chains

C) Power charge generation: (has to reliably max charges even without Assassin's Mark)
Riposte + Power Charge on Crit + Culling Strike/Inc Crit Strikes

D) Auras:
Hatred + Haste + Reduced Mana

E) Movement:
Sadly this leaves me no room for movement skills. I would like to have Whirling Blades + Faster Attacks + Lightning Warp but it seems I have to rely on Movement speed + Haste


Now my questions:
1) At least in one video it seems that that you're using Voll's Devotion + Romira's Banquet. Is this correct?
In an other video you hardly get Power- and Endurance charges. Here I assume that you rely on Bringer of Rain and Reckoning to generate charges. Is this correct?

2) Is Bringer of Rain enough to keep you at max Endurance charges?

3) Is Reckoning enough to keep you at max Power charges?

4) Why Herald of Fire? In your videos I see hardly strong burns. Would Haste not provide more damage?

5) How viable (incl Atziri) is this build without a Whirling Blades setup? Do you think the increased movement speed from Haste is enough?

6) Most of the time in your videos your at full life even during boss fights. When you actually get damaged your back to full life in no time. Have you considered swapping Inc Crit Dmg for Melee Damage on Full Life? Would this be a damage boost?

7) Approximately how many Stones of Lazhwar did you corrupt to get the additional curse?

Thanks a lot for your insight and also for sharing your build!!!

Hi! Thanks for posting:

1) I was using what I call the quad-defense version of my build. Yes that is correct, I have a link to this version of the build at the top of the front page.

Sorry for the confusion but my videos are showing the 3 different versions of my build:

a) Base build - this is what I show in my 1.3 Overview video - no power charges, almost no endurance charges. I use LS + WED + MS + ICD. You can swap ICD for PCOC if you want more consistent crits for shock and freeze.

This led to...

b) Power version - instead of taking out ICD for PCOC you can generate PCs using Reckoning + PCOC if you have a high crit weapon and the Rumi flask (since Reckoning procs on block). In this version you seem me running Blood Rage to take advantage of leech with Acuity (instant leech on crit), this gives me some frenzy charges making my attack speed even higher.

c) Quad-defense version - this version I only show in my latest Uber and Vaal Temple vids. I made this version after I got frustrated trying to do Vaal Temple map. You generate Endurance Charges using Romiras + Voll's + PCOC linked to LS. You can remove PCOC from LS but you will not get ECs very quickly which can be dangerous. This allows you to have permanent Immortal Call since you can generate 4 ECs in a fraction of a second. It is also different from the other permanent IC builds because I grab Dodge, Spell Dodge, and then run Saffell's Frame for Max Spell Block and high +max res. It is very defensive, but more expensive gear. I recommend this version for those who want to be able to farm Vaal Temple and Uber Atziri maps.

2) No unfortunately BofR is not reliable to generate ECs - because you have to block first and only once you block it has a small % to generate EC. It is nice to have, but you cannot rely on BofR for ECs.

3) Yes Reckoning is enough to keep me at max PCs only on Atziri map. The idea is that you only generate PCs when you block, so if you are not blocking a lot (i.e. not in much danger) then you will not need PCs, however when you have a lot of mobs attacking you then you will start blocking a lot which will give you PCs and boost your damage since you will crit more.

For me this usually only happens on Atziri map and maybe Jungle Valley boss map, because any other map I destroy the enemies too quickly for it to matter.

4) Herald of Ash because it gives % of physical damage ADDED as fire damage. This build is all about stacking physical damage because all our damage is derived as a % of our physical (this is why taking 3 Shadow phys nodes gives more DPS than taking the 3 nodes for Arcing Blows).

The proliferation on Herald of Ash helps a lot for AOE clearing. AOE is not that great on LS so HoA + prolif helps significantly.

HoA will give more DPS than Haste and also reserve less mana so you have easier time with low mana regen maps.

5) Yes you can do it with just movement speed but you will most probably need Haste. It is definitely possible, however the fight will take longer because you will have to disengage from attack sooner and run, vs continuing to attack and then whirling out at a later time.

It is not too hard, but you will need to have good timing to pull it off.

6) Thanks this is a really good suggestion, I will test it out and let you know my DPS and how it feels. It will reduce my AOE because it does not affect my projectiles, unlike ICD, but I will test it out.

7) Hmm - I think I bought it a while ago. It is a rare corruption so I would not try to corrupt. It is not really necessary unless you are committed to using 2 curses on bosses. With BofR you have so few links so you can put it in Reckoning, or I use weapon swap for curse on hit with dual curse on quill rain. I think most people don't even use it, to be honest it only really helps against high resistance bosses like Dominus, Atziri trio, and Atziri.

If you need I have other corrupted Lazhwar stones with 8% attack speed, or 4% block etc that I do not use so PM me (Tiurakh) and I can give you in game.

Thanks!

it seems they did not channge the lightning strike projectiles...they still stop on every obstacle on the ground....kinda sad to be honest.

however the ice golem is realy nice if you are going for a crit melee build. it has decent life and some mobs (i have seen bosses do it more often) will target the golem instead of you.

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azamantes wrote:

however the ice golem is realy nice if you are going for a crit melee build. it has decent life and some mobs (i have seen bosses do it more often) will target the golem instead of you.

In my experience, I found ice golem too much of a nuisance. Did you spent links on it? I did not spent any links on it, and if I entered too dense packs it would most likely die, and I would have to resummon it every so often. I havent tried fire golem, but I think it would be a better alternative.

Thanks for your detailed answer to all my many questions.

Yesterday my toon riped for the first time @lvl 58 because I was too confident and stupid and didn't read the mods on a rare devourer which exploded at death and one-shot my toon with close to 3k hp :-( I'm playing standard so no big deal but this doesn't mean there is no challenge to never die.

Regarding your power-version. What's the reason for using BoR? Assuming you're using legacy Rumi's and Saffel's then even with the worst possible rolls you get at least 24+15+30 = 69 spell block. With perfect rolls you can go up to (24+40)*1.2 +30 = 106 which is way over cap. The block chance from BoR is not necessary anymore. The only reason I can see is for the very short time Rumi's is not up. Also the usefulness of blind from BoR and Ondar's in my opinion go way down. In my experience the biggest component form attacks (projectiles included) is physical and this version is basically immune to physical. Using a normal chest should increase damage since you can use 20/20 Faster Attacks and 20/20 Melee Phys. The additional 4L can be used for stuff like Molten Shell, Vall Immortal Call or a Ripost with leech, curses or charge generation. (I'm not criticizing your builds I don't have the experience, I'm just wondering and theory crafting)
I'm even wondering how a low-life version of this would do...

What is a realistic price for a +1 curse Stone of Lazhwar? Sorry for the stupid question but so far I have played self-found. The one exception is Voll's Devotion which I traded because without I couldn't try coc Discharge. Luckily I have found all the other gear required for the different versions of your build and it's all legacy as well :-) I'm still missing Atziri's Promise and Taste of Hate but both are not really required. I could also use a better dagger but so far I have found not a single Eternal hence crafting an end-game dagger is more or less impossible and I'm not willing to waste Exalts.

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fae76 wrote:

Thanks for your detailed answer to all my many questions.

Yesterday my toon riped for the first time @lvl 58 because I was too confident and stupid and didn't read the mods on a rare devourer which exploded at death and one-shot my toon with close to 3k hp :-( I'm playing standard so no big deal but this doesn't mean there is no challenge to never die.

Regarding your power-version. What's the reason for using BoR? Assuming you're using legacy Rumi's and Saffel's then even with the worst possible rolls you get at least 24+15+30 = 69 spell block. With perfect rolls you can go up to (24+40)*1.2 +30 = 106 which is way over cap. The block chance from BoR is not necessary anymore. The only reason I can see is for the very short time Rumi's is not up. Also the usefulness of blind from BoR and Ondar's in my opinion go way down. In my experience the biggest component form attacks (projectiles included) is physical and this version is basically immune to physical. Using a normal chest should increase damage since you can use 20/20 Faster Attacks and 20/20 Melee Phys. The additional 4L can be used for stuff like Molten Shell, Vall Immortal Call or a Ripost with leech, curses or charge generation. (I'm not criticizing your builds I don't have the experience, I'm just wondering and theory crafting)
I'm even wondering how a CI low-life version of this would do...

What is a realistic price for a +1 curse Stone of Lazhwar? Sorry for the stupid question but so far I have played self-found. The one exception is Voll's Devotion which I traded because without I couldn't try coc Discharge. Luckily I have found all the other gear required for the different versions of your build and it's all legacy as well :-) I'm still missing Atziri's Promise and Taste of Hate but both are not really required. I could also use a better dagger but so far I have found not a single Eternal hence crafting an end-game dagger is more or less impossible and I'm not willing to waste Exalts.

Hi thanks for asking. For the power version I don't use Saffell's I use Rathpith. You mean for the quad version? Well you see I also take Dodge and Spell Dodge so this has penalty on my block which reduces my block->spell block conversion.

But when I use Saffell's I have 0% block so I can only rely on evasion and dodge for elemental attacks (physical attacks covered by IC ofc). So you can do 2 things here - you can either try and stack a lot of +max resistance with Purities and flasks to overcome the elemental attacks. OR you boost your evasion with blind and Jade.

Blind is a BIG BIG boost to your evasion and helps a lot. It will be even more valuable now that they have nerfed Ondar's Guile so elemental projectile attacks we will have to worry about just like regular elemental attacks.

The elemental attacks are the weak spot of the quad version.

Using a normal chest even with 20/20 gems will give almost the same DPS as BofR (maybe a little higher) because BofR is adding the 20-30 phys damage which is a lot of damage.

But if you like you can take off BofR and use Abyssus - this will boost your damage by a lot and you do not have to worry about the downsides since you have permanent IC.

Yes and then you can do a 4L with something like curses or another Vaal skill set-up or something with CWDT.

You will not have blind so again you need to be careful about where there is RISK of takign elemental attack damage:

- Vaal smash
- Dominus smash
- Atziri trio fire guy
- Piety ice arrows (without Ondar's)

As long as you are aware of each type of damage in the game and your weaknesses from your build then you can prepare/anticipate accordingly and will have less problems with changing the build to what you like!

PS - I'll be online later today so feel free to message me I have some gear I don't use

Ah OK, now I understand. Sorry for making a mess with the different versions of your build.

I've hit level 68 during the weekend and am now using BoR, Rathpith Globe and Rumi's. It's insane, BoR doubled my dps (currently at 30k) and with all these defense mechanisms I can facetank Merci Dom.
I have quite a hard time maxing my resists though. The best I could manage is all elemental 71+ but no chaos. Also life could be better, I'm at 3.3k right now but I had to compromise for resists. The biggest problem I have right now is mana. With the additional "links" form BoR I do run out of mana even in melee-range when I can leech. I also need accuracy, currently my chance to hit is at a low 85% but I have not yet taken any accuracy cluster. Now I have to level a bit and find better rings and gloves and boots (currently using Rainbows).

So far I have a blast with this build.

Once I have leveled to 80+ and have better gear I want to try the your quad version


Thank you for your generous offer to sell some of your gear. I will stick to self-found (except for build enabling uniques) and self-craft even if this means that I will probably never be able to do uber.

Got one-shot with close to 3500 life, Rumi's and a Jade up in a 73 map. Also there is no way to beat Spinner of False Hope (lvl 72 Jungle Valley Map Boss). I know my chaos resists are non-existent but I hoped with all the evasion and block it could be doable. I was also not able to beat dual Mervil the Reflection (lvl70 Graveyard map). The Ice Storms are just slowing me down too much and once I run out of potions there is no way to continue the fight. Maybe my dps (~34k) is too low or my potion management is bad. But generally as soon as I run out of potions within boss fights I'm in big big trouble.

Do you not get one-shot with 4k life?

Even with max block and blind evasion seems too sketchy. I can understand now why you came up with the quad version.
I started wondering about another build variant with Iron Reflexes and Aegis Aurora. Maybe something like this

- A +4% block Stone of Lazhwar, Rainbows plus the additional block nodes results in 60% block, 42 spell block unbuffed. Rumi's allows max block (even without the +4 Lazhwar).

- With Rumi's and a Jade Flask up it's easy to get 15k-20k armour which then provides a 600-800 ES refill per block (legacy Aegis).

- The above tree using Aegis and Rainbows nets around 750 ES.

Since we can't evade anymore we actually do block a lot, meaning we also proc counter attacks a lot more and constantly refill the ES buffer which also gives a 50% stun avoidance.

- Reckoning + PCoC + Endurance Charge on Melee Stun + ICS/MeleePhy/Cull should keep both Power- and Endurance charges up.

- If damage from Reckoning is too low to proc stuns an alternative setup is Reckoning + PCoC + ICS and Riposte + ECoMS + MeleePhy + addedFire/LifeLeech/IncCritDmg.

- The Magnate allows a 100% uptime of all Surgeon's Flasks even during boss fights. (I already tried this on my coc toon and it's working great). Of course if resists allow for it.

Obviously the weak part is that ECoMS will not work on map and act bosses. Here we need a manual setup or fall back to Romira's + Voll's.

This variant provides a bit more life (131% vs 123%), a constantly refilling 600-800 ES buffer and some resistances but sacrifices dps (60% accuracy, 70% inc phy and 12%as) and I don't think that the additional procs from Reckoning (and Riposte) can make up for it.

What do you think, might that actually work? Could this be an alternative for people that don't own Saffel's, Romira's and Voll's? Have you tried something similar already? What are your thoughts?

Hi fae, sorry to hear you are having trouble.

For Jungle Valley map: this has always been a hard map for this build. The boss' EK is a spell with high phys and some chaos damage. So without any physical mitigation and with low chaos res then you can get 1-shot if you do not have enough life.

Evasion and blind do not really help in the boss room. This is because entropy counter is shared by all the mobs and the boss. What this means is that you are guaranteed to take hits very quickly and very frequently. I've always hated this aspect of evasion, but seems the majority of PoE users like it this way.

Unfortunately if you have only 1 Rumi's and average dps then you will not be able to maintain your block up.

So I suggest you try this:
- Using Enfeeble curse on CWDT or Reckoning
- Using Vaal Grace linked with Inc. Duration -> I always use this when I am in tricky situations
- Try standing with your back to one of the walls so you limit the number of enemies surrounding you. If you are struggling to clear the adds look into improving your pierce chance with quality LS or Projectile Weakness curse which will help a lot


For Graveyard Merveil - I haven't tried this fight in quite a while but I will revisit this map to see how the boss has changed. Are you using Whirling Blades? This will allow you to avoid getting slowed too much.

Also you can "lock" onto a boss by holding your LS attack button on the boss and then everything you do will be targeted to the boss. i.e. LS for me is on right click so just hold right click and target the boss at the start and then just KEEP HOLDING right click - even if the boss moves or teleports offscreen (i.e. Piety) you will continue to track it with your attacks. You can keep holding right click and use Whirling Blades and it will move you towards the boss.

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No I rarely get 1 shot on 4K life. I only get 1 shot on things like Palace Dominus smash (if I don't move out the way / evade / dodge / block), Atziri Vaal smash, Uber Atziri etc.

Of course if I run maps with mods like -max and extra elemental damage then I increase my risk of taking very high damage.

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I think 34k dps sounds a bit low (you should be around 80k with average weapon). Yes if you can't kill fast enough then you will run out of pots and be in trouble - it is the same problem for many builds.

The Aegis Aurora idea is a good variation if you prefer that kind of style (i.e. mitigation vs. avoidance). But you mention your problem is 1-shots so how will Aegis regeneration help?

About the quad variation - it was made specifically for doing Uber Atziri and Level 79 Vaal Temple bosses reliably. It is too expensive and overkill to use this variation on level 78 maps and below so I would not look to it for comparison.

Immortal Call duration has also been SEVERELY nerfed by GGG in beta so it may not even be viable in the next expansion.

Do you mind linking your weapon and passive tree? I understand you are self-found but the DPS is limiting what you can do.

I run my own version of the themes of your build, claw-based and no uniques, that doesn't scale nearly as much damage as yours. I haven't died yet up to level 73, but my life globe completely empties out about every 10 minutes it seems. I'm only at 3.5k life and I haven't done any maps over 69 yet. I can't imagine my goal of 4k making a major difference as I push up to higher levels. All I know is I've been using enfeeble for the first time since Nemesis.

Physical damage is the main culprit. It's a little strong and they might drop it over the course of the beta. If not, I'll have to push for 5k life instead. I almost never get stunned with my live characters, but with this damage it seems every little hit stuns me despite Heart of Oak's best efforts.

I'm using an ice golem currently, but I'd rather not. I've slapped greater and lesser projectiles and blind on him and that works pretty well, but as soon as I get the gems I want and the proper sockets he's gone.

I'm not too impressed with Abyssal Cry. The shout radius is incredibly small and the things it kill were going to die pretty quick anyway. However, Rallying Cry has been pretty fun. It only gives "increased" damage, so if you've already piled a lot of that off the tree the effect gets watered down. However the majority of my damage, and I think this will be true with yours as well, is mostly attack speed, crit, flat physical on gear, and elemental that scales off of physical. The effect is a lot bigger that way. Using it on just one monster boosts my damage by about 5%. But it's got a very large radius and a room full of monsters have given me up to 20% extra damage.

While leveling up, I played around with Innervate and Ice Bite as well. Innervate gives the linked attack 10% chance to shock and grants onslaught when you kill a shocked enemy. Possibly due to a bug, it doesn't trigger on shattered enemies right now though, and with hatred running that's a no go. Ice Bite gives a 10% chance to freeze and a chance of a frenzy charge on killing a frozen enemy. With the new updated frenzy charges, it was a nice boost. I could easily rework my build to cap out at 6 charges. But I'd still be wasting a support slot (and four passives) for an inconsistent 24% more damage and increased attack speed.

All three of these skills are powerful against large groups of enemies, but are pretty weak against bosses. As it is, I'll probably work rallying cry into my final build, but the others don't really synergize enough with what I have.

While Lightning Strike still gets blocked by obstacles, it and arctic breath were mentioned when glacial cascade's changes were made. It's still probable that'll change over time.

Also I always had a trick for the Jungle Valley boss, though it might not be enough for the new 74 version. I'd just find a little indention in the wall and put my back into it. Only two or three spiders can get to you at a time that way and the burst damage drops quite a bit. As long as the new version doesn't kill me in one hit anyway.