[1.1.2] Ultimate Self-Cast Arc Tanky Witch / 21k dps x 5 (with a Video)

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Eelbrook wrote:

Hey velkor.

As we chatted about..
here is my build. had to take some big str and dex nodes. cause lack of str and dex in my items. to have determination and haste..
And had to take some more mana reserved nodes instead of effects on auras atm.. i will undo them ofc.

Spoiler

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgUBAuMEBwSzBVsHpQ5IEZYTnhRNFecWbxbzFy8aOB0UHwImPCepKU8snC0fL502xTrYQZZDY0bXSbJMs03YUDBVxlXWWPVdxl3yXypgbWKsY0Nk52aeZ71tGXBScNVxTXOzdhF-M35Zfq9_xoCkgW-CEIIegpuDOIV9iEKLjIw2jHaPRpBVms-boZ2AnaOdqp3EnjyiAKKjpJGnCKeEtzHAGsBRwbTB889l0NDVT9ad2CTa3dsL217d895337Dhc-OE5Ozr5Ow47SDub-988B_wa_Id-tL8qw==

My items is.

and i know i need more armour and life. but hard to get after a HACK.

Spoiler

the last gems i gotta lvl up.

and i miss power charge on crit atm. none sells it

1. First of all, you need a chest with Armor and Energy shield (try to aim for 1000+ armor). I also highly suggest to get a high Armor helmet (700+) and high armor belt (300+). Currently, you have more Evasion than Armor. You only have 563 base armor which is not nearly enough. Yet, you spend 10 passives + 1x60% aura to boost it. Sorry, but its not going to work. Until you get more armor, drop Determination, its not worth it. Btw, I have base 2472 armor (not counting Molten Shell) and I consider it the bare minimum for end-game.

2. You spend 6 passives for Power charges and you don't use them ? If you offer 2 alchemy orbs for a Power Charge on Crit gem in Trade chat, you'll get flooded with whispers. If it doesn't work, contact me, I'll set you up. What's cool with Power charges is that once you have them, they boost both Arc and your other skills. And it boost both your dps and your chance to shock. Also, it has a low mana multiplier so it doesn't suck your mana as much as most other support gem, such as Added Lightning damage (which is heavily penalized by the 50% dmg effectiveness of Arc btw).

3. If you want to follow my build, your main skill is Arc, not Storm Call. So Arc goes in the 5L or 6L, not Storm Call. If Storm call was your main spell, your build would be very different : You'd have more Increased Radius passives and you'd have a way to prevent monsters from moving (Temporal chains or Cold Snap comes to mind). So, Storm call is definitively your secondary skill, not your first. And its Optional. You can use Spark instead. I actually find that Spark works much better than Storm Call for most bosses. Another option is Vaal spells.

4. Your rings and amulet don't have any life on them. Change them. And just in case you didn't know + flat lightning damage doesn't increase spell damage. If you can get Crit damage on your amulet, its not a bad idea, its gonna boost your dps more than anything else, even spell damage. Ideally, you'd get both though.

5. I'm not sure what level you are but you linked a 107 points passives tree which usually mean level 90 or so. Yet, some of your gem level are very low. Level 14 Arc ? Level 10 Molten Shell. Level 8 Devouring totem. Level 8 Haste (btw, don't use it until its at least level 17. Otherwise, its just not worth it). So, until your gems are much higher level, you are gonna have to level them up in lower level areas. You want your Arc gem to be at least 18 and ideally 19 or 20 before maps.

Well, that's it for now. Sorry if it sounded harsh, but you need to tweak many things before being able to attempt high level content solo. But if you are patient and determined, you'll get there. You can contact me in game for additional tips.

Good luck !

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computertech82 wrote:

I don't get (why) anyone (would use) Arctic Armour. The reduction is a joke compared to damage done my monsters (well beyond 5,000 hp by some yellow bosses). 100-200 hp is not going to make a difference. Or i'm i missing something?

Yes, you are missing something. First, you exaggerate the damage done by monsters. Usually, its something like 200-500 damage for weak hits. Somewhere around 1000 physical damage for normal hits. 2000 for heavy hits. 3000-5000 for very heavy hits.

So, lets say you have 50% damage reduction thanks to Armor/Endurance charges and 200 flat damage reduction thanks to Arctic Armour (AA) :

Weak hits will deal : 100-250 damage without AA. 0-50 damage with AA. (85% damage reduction from AA)

Normal hits will deal : 500 damage without AA. 300 damage with AA. (40% damage reduction)

Heavy hits will deal : 1000 damage without AA. 800 damage with AA. (20% damage reduction)

Very heavy hits will deal : 1500-3000 damage without AA. 1300-2800 damage with AA. (9% damage reduction)

And I'd day 90% of the monsters deal Weak or Normal hits.

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computertech82 wrote:

I don't get (why) anyone (would use) Arctic Armour. The reduction is a joke compared to damage done my monsters (well beyond 5,000 hp by some yellow bosses). 100-200 hp is not going to make a difference. Or i'm i missing something?

Like Velkor explained, the reduction is hardly a joke. The 7% movement speed bonus on a 20% Quality gem is icing on the cupcake.

I struggle to keep str/dex up with this build. Haste is stuck at lvl 6 and I don't got a clue when I'll be able to start leveling it again. Guess it's just a matter of finding the right gear...

If there was a way for a lvl 70 character to farm for ilvl 79 stuff that would be great too. I would love to start working on a saintly chainmail or archon kite but I don't want to mess with the ilvl 70 ones that I'd get from scepter/corrupted zones.

Also this shield is a bummer, but it was the best way for me to pick up some extra armor and it just cost me an alc. It's managing to get me about 20% damage reduction buffed (which is surprisingly noticeable) but I lost about 100% crit from swapping out my old spirit shield. Can good caster mods even spawn on the str-based shields?

Regarding armor choices... you suggest focusing on armor, but with the intense mana requirements of this build, how do you get away with using pure armor? Also, the armor/ES pieces have way lower armor than the straight armor pieces so this is a tough choice when working towards a higher mana pool.

Have you thought about curse on crit? I've been using that + conductivity instead of fast cast/lightning penetration and it's allowing me to keep mana up. This probably won't be as effective with a greater mana pool but it's an option for lower mana regen builds, I guess.

Anyway, loving the build overall. It's working out a lot better than my previous glass ES build (having 2k ES doesn't seem to mean anything when it's dropping instantly every time). And still working on respeccing the last points into more life/armor, but I'll probably hang onto the elemental resists until I get both the +8 resist all from the templar side.

Hey! i just had a quick question about this build, as i am currently leveling a witch according to it. Power charge on critical and Increased critical damage are from the same quest, and i dont have any extras due to this being my first Ambush League character. So i was wondering, which should i grab first? which has a higher priority?

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kluuvin wrote:

Hey! i just had a quick question about this build, as i am currently leveling a witch according to it. Power charge on critical and Increased critical damage are from the same quest, and i dont have any extras due to this being my first Ambush League character. So i was wondering, which should i grab first? which has a higher priority?

Well, both Power Charges on Crit and Critical Damage start giving good results once you start having a decent amount of base crit chance from either passives or gear.

If you already have close to 20% crit chance and at least 5 Power Charges, I suggest Power Charges on Crit because it won't increase your mana consumption as much as Critical damage. If you don't have at least 5 power charges, Critical Damage will get you better results.

If you are at 10% chance to crit or less, I suggest to pick up another support gem for now. I recommand Lightning Penetration, Faster Casting, Increased Critical Chances and/or even Increased Lightning Damage.

Hi, Velkor!

First of all, I'm trying your build, and at the level 48, i'ts impressive. It kickes asses and is not really weak.

The only thing I think is hard, it's to have good stuff that gives Str and Dex, to equip the armor and etc. But I just started, so maybe I'll find these items.

Also, that could be nice to post a "walkthrough", I mean, to show a passive tree with 25 skills points, 50, 75.. Only to give a good idea of the progression. Only to say which nodes are useful early, and etc.


But seriously, your post is very understandable, clear, etc. You did great work. Thanks !

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FDru wrote:

I struggle to keep str/dex up with this build. Haste is stuck at lvl 6 and I don't got a clue when I'll be able to start leveling it again. Guess it's just a matter of finding the right gear...

Yeah, this is one downside to the build. You need lots of Dex and Str. The Optimal passive tree only provide 74 strength and 14 dexterity while the gems/equipment require 153 str and dex. Ouch. That means you'll need 79 str and 139 dexterity !!! from gear. The 79 str isn't too hard. You can easily get 79 str on your belt alone. The 139 dexterity is much more trickier. Basically, you normally have 4 equipment slots that can provide dex : Gloves, Ring 1, Ring 2 and Amulet. Those 4 items, together, must provide an average of ~35 dex per item. The amulet is where you can get the highest amount of dex : 30 from implicit and up to 50 dex from a single mod, so a potential of 80 dex just on the amulet. Rings and Gloves can also roll with up to 50 dex each. Personally, I cheated. I use Dex/Str boots with +35 dex. My amulet provide +69 dex. And I get the missing 35 dex from a ring. For a total of exactly 153 dex. An easier and ideally temporary solution is to pick up 30 dex passives from the tree. There are 2 of them easily available for a total of 60 dex. If its still not enough, you can pick the 20 dex + 3% cast speed nod in the Shadow Area (Its called Coordination). For a grand total of 94 dex from passives. Even with those 3 passives, you'll still need to get 59 dex from gear.

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FDru wrote:

If there was a way for a lvl 70 character to farm for ilvl 79 stuff that would be great too. I would love to start working on a saintly chainmail or archon kite but I don't want to mess with the ilvl 70 ones that I'd get from scepter/corrupted zones.

Also this shield is a bummer, but it was the best way for me to pick up some extra armor and it just cost me an alc. It's managing to get me about 20% damage reduction buffed (which is surprisingly noticeable) but I lost about 100% crit from swapping out my old spirit shield. Can good caster mods even spawn on the str-based shields?

Sadly, no. Caster mods can't spawn on Str or Str-Int based shield. Not even mana regen.

You can use this google sheet that I put together for details : Mod Compendium

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FDru wrote:

Regarding armor choices... you suggest focusing on armor, but with the intense mana requirements of this build, how do you get away with using pure armor? Also, the armor/ES pieces have way lower armor than the straight armor pieces so this is a tough choice when working towards a higher mana pool.

You definitively want a chest with both Armor and ES. The first reason is you'll have a very hard time rolling 5 blue gems on a pure Armor chest. The other reason is you can get high amount of ES on the chest, important for your mana regen (Read Arctic Armour). So, the chest is key. Unfortunately, that also mean you can't get a 2k armor from chest. You can compensate by getting armor on Helmet (you can get as much as 1k from helmet). You could even decide to get a very high armor shield such as the Lioneye's Remorse. You can certainly live without caster stats on shield : they are far from being mandatory. Depending on how much ES/mana you can get on your chest, you may need to get additional ES/Mana elsewhere though. Overall, I estimate that you need close to 700 ES or Mana from gear to be able to sustain level 20 Arctic Armor.

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FDru wrote:

Have you thought about curse on crit? I've been using that + conductivity instead of fast cast/lightning penetration and it's allowing me to keep mana up. This probably won't be as effective with a greater mana pool but it's an option for lower mana regen builds, I guess.

Curse on hit you mean ? You mean that you use Arc + Curse on hit + Conductivity ?

If you really don't like to manually cast curses, I guess that's an option. Its certainly not optimal though. Another option is to Link Conductivity to Cast when damage taken.

But if you really want to abuse Curse on hit, get yourself a pair of Windscream boots and use this set up : Firestorm + Curse on hit + Conductivity + Elemental Weakness.

With one cast of Firestorm, you'll reduce lightning resistance of monsters by up to 119%! Not to mention increase chance to shock by 15% and increase shock duration by 22%. As an added bonus, it will cost you 6 mana (level 1 Firestorm) instead of 68 mana for Conductivity.

Personally, I simply link conductivity with reduced mana and cast it manually on any pack of monsters I fight.

Also, if you have mana problem, I suggest to use Lower mana multiplier support in your Arc set up, such as Power Charge on Crit or Critical Chance%. The other option is to use mana leech support. But in any case, I highly suggest to support Arc with Lighting Penetration as soon as you can. Its the single most efficient gem in term of real life dps.

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FDru wrote:

Anyway, loving the build overall. It's working out a lot better than my previous glass ES build (having 2k ES doesn't seem to mean anything when it's dropping instantly every time). And still working on respeccing the last points into more life/armor, but I'll probably hang onto the elemental resists until I get both the +8 resist all from the templar side.

Glad to hear that. And if you have any other questions, comments or suggestions, don't hesitate ! Good luck !

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StormBoy0007 wrote:

Hi, Velkor!

First of all, I'm trying your build, and at the level 48, i'ts impressive. It kickes asses and is not really weak.

The only thing I think is hard, it's to have good stuff that gives Str and Dex, to equip the armor and etc. But I just started, so maybe I'll find these items.

In my previous post, I answer very much the same question by FDru. You should find the answers you're looking for.

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StormBoy0007 wrote:

Also, that could be nice to post a "walkthrough", I mean, to show a passive tree with 25 skills points, 50, 75.. Only to give a good idea of the progression. Only to say which nodes are useful early, and etc.

Yesterday, I updated the original post with a passives choice progression section. It should give you a pretty good idea.

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StormBoy0007 wrote:

But seriously, your post is very understandable, clear, etc. You did great work. Thanks !

Thanks and good luck !

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Curse on hit you mean ? You mean that you use Arc + Curse on hit + Conductivity ?

Yes, that's what I meant. It's very hard to maintain Arc spam with fast cast + lightning pen (nevermind trying to run arctic armor), but it became manageable after I broke 1800 mana or so.

I have one more quick question. In your mod spreadsheet it lists the highest mod lvl for ES/armor pieces to be 78, but in the wiki they are listed as 79 for shields and armor (crit/block recovery). Which one is correct? (Ultimately I want to know what ilvl items to look for if I intend to craft my own)

btw, thanks a lot for the detailed responses!