[1.2.] Serge's Ultimate Ball Lightning (3 Versions: EB-MoM-AA / hybrid HP-ES Crit / CI Crit!)

Tip for reading this guide: all the key terms and names of items are hyperlinked to the Path of Exile wiki. If you do not know what some of them are, you can click the underlined words to open the link and learn more about it.

Please, if you have any questions, do not send me private messages, but post your question here in the thread!


__________________________________________________________________________
**-- THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT BALL LIGHTNING MECHANICS --**
__________________________________________________________________________
I enquired into the mechanics of this skill when it was released, and got a reply from one of the GGG developers (Mark). This post can be found here:
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/960492/page/1#p8164387

Also, all important information are collected on the poe wiki:
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Ball_Lightning

I will emphasize the most important stuff here:
- Each cast of Ball Lightning (BL) hits each enemy within range once every 200 milliseconds. This means that you cannot shotgun with BL, meaning using Lesser Multiple Projectiles (LMP) or Greater Multiple Projectiles (GMP) will not result in more damage to a single target, only potentially in better Area of Effect (AoE), since all the balls gained from LMP/GMP count as one cast.
- Spell Echo counts as two separate casts, i.e. each ball has its own 200 ms cooldown.
- BL does no AoE damage, which means that the Concentrated Effect gem, as well as the "increased area damage" passive nodes do not affect the damage of BL.


~~~F.A.Q.~~~
1) How do you sustain with any of these builds?
- You get lightning damage leech. Since the Forsaken Masters 1.2. patch, you can craft lightning damage leech on gear for 4 chaos by getting Catarina's favour and crafting gear on the bench in your hideout.

2) How do you deal with elemental reflect?
- As any elemental damage build, you should treat elemental reflect mobs and maps with care. However, by should run Purity of Lightning and taking the Unnatural Calm passive node in the passive tree (which gives you +1 maximum lightning resist), you reach 80% lightning resist. With a topaz flask (which you should always have), you reach 90% lightning resist. With the flask nodes above the witch, you can reach 93% lightning resistance! Combined with life leech, this should be enough to keep you alive even against the biggest elemental reflect mobs.



__________________________________________________________________________
**-- BUILD #1: CHAOS INOCULATION CRIT BALL LIGHTNING --**
__________________________________________________________________________

Intro
This build utilises the huge buff Energy Shield (ES) nodes got in the 1.2. patch (the Forsaken Masters expansion), thus going for the Chaos Inoculation (CI) keystone which makes you completely immune to chaos. It focuses on gaining as much ES from the tree as possible, while also trying to achieve maximum critical chance for spells, with the maximum number of Power Charges.
It is not cheap, as CI generally requires some gear to work, like Eye of Chayula, the Auxium belt or at least the Dream Fragments ring, and gear with a lot of ES in general.


Video section
Video guide and introduction for this version of the build:
http://youtu.be/bJiKKj_V33I

The power of Vaal Spark:
http://youtu.be/Z5nyqD3ARNc :)

Doing an elemental reflect map without major issues (would have been a breeze if I only didn't forget to bring 2 topaz flasks instead of the usual 1):
http://youtu.be/F9JtwG5_2kg


PROS and CONS
+ Immune to chaos damage
+ Very high critical strike chance (435% from the passive tree + 350% with 7 power charges up)
+ High AoE damage and fast clear speed
+ Can do elemental reflect (if not on half regen map)

- Not cheap
- Cannot run no or half regen maps, blood magic maps


Passive tree
Version #1, recommended for everyone:


Version #2, going for Templar area, if you have the money to afford good armour/ES gear. This version also gives you overall 100% more spell critical strike chance (50% from nodes and 50% from an additional power charge):


Levelling tree before you spec into CI (you shouldn't do this before Merciless difficulty, preferably late-Merciless):



Gem Links
- Main skill:
6L: BL - Spell Echo - Power Charge on Critical - Lightning Penetration - Increased Critical Multiplier - Increased AoE

- Auras:
4L: Reduced Mana - Discipline - Purity of Lightning - Clarity (level it to 9 or 12 at the most)

- CWDT:
4L: Cast When Damage Taken (lvl 7) - Enduring Cry (lvl 9) - Immortal Call (lvl 8) - Enfeeble (lvl 9)

- Vaal Skill:
4L: Vaal Spark - Lightning Penetration - Spell Echo - GMP (WARNING! Do not use on an elemental reflect map or mob!)

- Curse + Vaal Discipline:
3L: Vaal Discipline - Assassin's Mark - Increased Duration

- Movement:
3L: Lightning Warp - Reduced Duration - Faster Casting


Gear
What you absolutely need for this build:


What your wand should look like:


What you can also get if you have problems with stun:


Another good, but not necessary unique:

also, in the same regard:





My current gear:



Bandits
Normal: Kill All
Cruel: Kill All
Merciless: Help Alira for +1 maximum power charge




__________________________________________________________________________
**-- BUILD #2: EB MOM AA NON-CRIT BALL LIGHTNING --**
__________________________________________________________________________

Intro
This version of the build utilises several things: the keystone Eldritch Battery (EB) which transforms all your ES to mana; the mechanic of Mind over Matter (MoM) which we attain from the Cloak of Defiance unique item; and Arctic Armour (AA).
This combination of keystones, items and gems gives you a huge mana pool which, thanks to MoM, is used to mitigate damage, as well as a lot of mana regeneration to be able to run Arctic Armour, which adds to your tankiness.


Video section
The power of Vaal Spark:
http://youtu.be/Z5nyqD3ARNc :)


PROS and CONS
+ Huge mana pool and mana regeneration
+ Quite tanky for a Witch
+ Can survive elemental reflect map mods and monsters
+ With the best gear, it's supper efficient

- Requires a unique item to run
- Cannot run No regen or Blood Magic maps


Passive tree



Gem Links
- Main skill:
6L: BL - Spell Echo - Lightning Penetration - Increased Area of Affect - Added Lightning Damage - Faster Casting

- Auras:
4L: Reduced Mana - Purity of Lightning - Clarity - Herald of Ice (you do not need Discipline because without it, you will have more mana unreserved than if you run Discipline. You only need Discipline if you have mana regeneration problems, which you shouldn't have)

- CWDT:
4L: Cast When Damage Taken (lvl 7) - Enduring Cry (lvl 9) - Immortal Call (lvl 8) - Enfeeble (lvl 9)

- Vaal Skill:
4L: Vaal Spark - Lightning Penetration - Spell Echo - GMP (WARNING! Do not use on an elemental reflect map!)

- Curses:
3L: Increased AoE - Conductivity - Arctic Armour (AA goes here since this is your only free slot)

- Movement:
3L: Lightning Warp - Reduced Duration - Faster Casting


Gear
The only absolutely necessary unique for this build:

Saves us the trouble of wasting points going to MoM on the passive tree.

Great additions, but not necessary:

(if 1-handed, i.e. not using a staff)
(a bit too expensive and not rly worth to buy imo, but if you have/get one, it's very good)
(perfect for a MoM build and for lowering the DEX and STR requirements of gems)

A rare +1 to gems, +2 to light gems staff with spell damage, something close to this: https://i.imgur.com/LhQFPM8.jpg
or a similar rare wand.

The Pledge of Hands unique staff is also great for this build. The downside is you lose some defences for not using a shield. However, you gain a lot of DPS and you are able to take a lot less mana nodes in the tree, since this staff gives you insane additional mana. Plus, it's a 7-link.

My current gear:



Bandits
Normal: Help Oak for +40 to HP
Cruel: Kill all or help Alira for cast speed
Merciless: Kill all




__________________________________________________________________________
**-- BUILD #3: HYBRID LIFE/ES CRIT BALL LIGHTNING --**
__________________________________________________________________________

Intro
This build uses both life and ES for damage mitigation, as well as critical strike chance for spells to get maximum damage.


Video section
The power of Vaal Spark:
http://youtu.be/Z5nyqD3ARNc :)


PROS and CONS


Passive tree



Gem Links
- Main skill:
6L: BL - Spell Echo - Increased AoE - Power Charge on Critical - Lightning Penetration - Increased Critical Multiplier

- Auras:
4L: Reduced Mana - Discipline - Purity of Lightning - Clarity (level it to 9 or 12 the most)

- CWDT:
4L: Cast When Damage Taken (lvl 7) - Enduring Cry (lvl 9) - Immortal Call (lvl 8) - Enfeeble (lvl 9)

- Vaal Skill:
4L: Vaal Spark - Lightning Penetration - Spell Echo - GMP (WARNING! Do not use on an elemental reflect map or mob!)

- Curses:
3L: Increased AoE - Assassin's Mark - Elemental Weakness

- Movement:
3L: Lightning Warp - Reduced Duration - Faster Casting


Gear
Very good item for this build:

also:
(but then you need a life leech gem linked to your BL, or at least a Doryani's belt)
How your wand should look like:


Gear is standard life/ES gear, with as much crit and mana as you can get.


Bandits
Normal: Oak
Cruel: Kill all or help Alira for cast speed
Merciless: Help Alira for power charge

I'm not sure if the increased projectile damage from slower projectiles actually buffs ball lightning damage. The impression I got from ZiggyD's video is that while the balls of lightning are affected by AoE and Projectile gems, the actual damage they do is lightning bolts which are neither AoE or projectiles (something like arc). Will have to test this after the patch hits.

Echo is questionable since it's less damage and each monster can only get hit every 200 ms, so casting lots of balls won't be that effective. Same for LMP/GMP.

Right now I feel like besides empower and lightning pen nothing else is incredibly useful to link to it, and it might be best to just stick ball lightning in a +1 gems helm like geofri's crest or a +1/+2 wand 3link even.

As for your passive tree, I would probably drop Instability and path through the spell damage nodes instead. Lightning Weaver is good but not great, if you get the templar nodes instead you can grab 40% mana regeneration as well. Also this one is more personal preference but I would path through the witch flask nodes instead of ES nodes, that extra 3% max res from a topaz flask will help against reflect.

I think Sovereignty is worth it to get if you want to maximize the effectiveness of MoM. With PoL discipline and clarity you won't have much mana reserved otherwise. A similar build I'm working on gets both Sovereignty and Charisma for reduced 31% mana reserved (but I grab MoM and IR keystones)

Just a bit of FYI, Ball Lightning's mana cost will probably be exactly like Arctic Breath (the only other non-aura/totem spell and you get it from the same quest. Meaning it will cost 34 mana at level 20, and 208 per cast with your current setup. Shouldn't be too bad with an EB build though.

"

hatoblue wrote:

I'm not sure if the increased projectile damage from slower projectiles actually buffs ball lightning damage. The impression I got from ZiggyD's video is that while the balls of lightning are affected by AoE and Projectile gems, the actual damage they do is lightning bolts which are neither AoE or projectiles (something like arc). Will have to test this after the patch hits.

Echo is questionable since it's less damage and each monster can only get hit every 200 ms, so casting lots of balls won't be that effective. Same for LMP/GMP.

Right now I feel like besides empower and lightning pen nothing else is incredibly useful to link to it, and it might be best to just stick ball lightning in a +1 gems helm like geofri's crest or a +1/+2 wand 3link even.

As for your passive tree, I would probably drop Instability and path through the spell damage nodes instead. Lightning Weaver is good but not great, if you get the templar nodes instead you can grab 40% mana regeneration as well. Also this one is more personal preference but I would path through the witch flask nodes instead of ES nodes, that extra 3% max res from a topaz flask will help against reflect.

I think Sovereignty is worth it to get if you want to maximize the effectiveness of MoM. With PoL discipline and clarity you won't have much mana reserved otherwise. A similar build I'm working on gets both Sovereignty and Charisma for reduced 31% mana reserved (but I grab MoM and IR keystones)

You make good points, mind linking the tree you had in mind?

"

hatoblue wrote:

I'm not sure if the increased projectile damage from slower projectiles actually buffs ball lightning damage. The impression I got from ZiggyD's video is that while the balls of lightning are affected by AoE and Projectile gems, the actual damage they do is lightning bolts which are neither AoE or projectiles (something like arc). Will have to test this after the patch hits.

Echo is questionable since it's less damage and each monster can only get hit every 200 ms, so casting lots of balls won't be that effective. Same for LMP/GMP.

Right now I feel like besides empower and lightning pen nothing else is incredibly useful to link to it, and it might be best to just stick ball lightning in a +1 gems helm like geofri's crest or a +1/+2 wand 3link even.

As for your passive tree, I would probably drop Instability and path through the spell damage nodes instead. Lightning Weaver is good but not great, if you get the templar nodes instead you can grab 40% mana regeneration as well. Also this one is more personal preference but I would path through the witch flask nodes instead of ES nodes, that extra 3% max res from a topaz flask will help against reflect.

I think Sovereignty is worth it to get if you want to maximize the effectiveness of MoM. With PoL discipline and clarity you won't have much mana reserved otherwise. A similar build I'm working on gets both Sovereignty and Charisma for reduced 31% mana reserved (but I grab MoM and IR keystones)

My understanding was that the cooldown was applied to each cast of ball lightning, similar to how spectral throw works where each throw has it's own cooldown.

@OP
Your setup seems a bit odd to me, you're using spell echo but you're not taking much/any cast speed nodes on the tree. You want more balls on the screen to do more effective dps as lightning has really high variability in damage. You're also not really taking any AOE nodes? IMO you would be better served by dropping LMP and slower projectiles and speccing into some AOE nodes.

Gem links I would probably try out something like:
BL - Faster Cast - Spell Echo - Light Pen - AOE - Empower

Or possibly dropping the faster cast for life leech. I think you're making a mistake by linking both spell echo and LMP to it. It can't shotgun at all, and the aoe looked pretty damn big already from the video, it's better to scale that up a bit and then focus on getting as many balls flying as possible to hit things multiple times.

EDIT:
I would maybe try the following tree:


I opted for a bit less life and raw damage in the tree in favor of a lot more cast speed, aiming to scale it up via spell echo, and overall getting more damage out of it.

Direct quote from ZiggyD: "lightning strikes once every 200 ms and each target cannot be hit by a lightning strike more often than this." To me that means that multiple balls cannot strike the same target more often than 200 ms, but will have to test it once the patch hits.

@Relidar here's my planned tree: http://poeurl.com/ySZqJOG . Still WIP, if projectile damage works with it I can grab ballistic mastery and maybe point blank.

"

hatoblue wrote:

Direct quote from ZiggyD: "lightning strikes once every 200 ms and each target cannot be hit by a lightning strike more often than this." To me that means that multiple balls cannot strike the same target more often than 200 ms, but will have to test it once the patch hits.

@Relidar here's my planned tree: http://poeurl.com/ySZqJOG . Still WIP, if projectile damage works with it I can grab ballistic mastery and maybe point blank.

My planned build is similar but it's a crit / power charge version. Do you think it would be a mistake to go crit with only 4% base crit on the spell, I haven't played any casters outside of DD so I'm not to sure

@Sojs

It is viable but you need GG gear to pull it off. Under ideal circumstances (dual void battery etc.) you can maybe get 40% crit chance with 8 power charges, which is passable with a bit of cast speed. But you'd have to sacrifice one of your links for PCoC or something.

Thanks a lot for everyone's input!

I've changed the tree up, this is the new version:


The reason I'm going for so much life and mana is I'd like to make it HC viable. That makes even harder to choose the best version of the tree imo, cause there's always so much things you could take, since you benefit from light damage, spell damage, elemental damage, life, mana and mana reservation... I've opted to go for Sovereignty though, seems pretty justified.


As for the links, the reason why I chose LMP is I think it will better clear big packs. The same reason is why I chose Inc. AoE as a gem, instead of wasting too much points on it in the tree. I know every target can be hit once every 200ms, but as I see it, having more balls (no pun intended) increases the number of targets that can get hit. If you have only 1 ball, wouldn't that mean a crappy clearing speed of large packs? Cause it's not like 1 ball can hit 20 targets at the same time, I suppose...

Single target is no problem, you can always add a single target version to a 4L, like Geoffri's or something.

The long forgotten Iron Will could be usefull for this spell.

Something like BL + Empower + Lightning pen + increased AoE + Iron Will + Life leech ?

Another way with BL + knockback + slow proj + lightning pen + AoE + life leech for more hits per ball...