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

I'm here to help.
I only read stuff on this last page here because I don't feel like reading through 8 pages of stuff. So forgive me if any of this has been mentioned. I see a lot of talk about min-maxing the DPS, but little talk about the obvious holes in these trees that need to be dealt with.

EB/MoM Build:
1. You don't need so many shock nodes. Since there is no more shock stacking, it's not important to shock an enemy more than once. Just using an ele prolif gem will help greatly with shocking groups and will save you some points.
2. This build actually doesn't have much in the way of mana. Not enough to make MoM really worth using or sustain a high level AA. You have only 60% mana increase and have picked up 0 ES nodes despite relying on EB for your mana pool. You should path through some ES nodes while travelling. Also, consider picking up those life + ES nodes between the witch and shadow areas.
3. No Auras. Auras have been rebalanced slightly in 1.2 so it's harder to use 4/5 of them at the same time. However, this build would have trouble running 1 or 2, which almost certainly would be a problem. At the very least you would want to run a clarity and a discipline to increase your mana pool and regen. Probably a vitality or purity as well for survivability. Pick up a few of the aura nodes you are passing right by.
4. Cannot take sustained damage. Even with AA and MoM, this build would have a hard time if it had to sustain damage over more than a few seconds. Without better regen, some flask nodes, or something like Vaal Pact + life leech, you are going to die due to the fact you can't quickly patch up your HP when you take damage. There is also the new Battle Rouse node over by Vaal Pact which would convert 3% of the damage you take into mana. I'm not sure if that conversion happens before or after the MoM takes effect, but either way it seems like a pretty good option for this build and it's right next to Vaal Pact!

Hybrid Build:
1. Unless you are part of the 1% of PoE players that can afford a Shavronne's, hybrid builds don't work. You'll die to the first significant bit of chaos damage you encounter. Yes there is the solaris lorica, but you'll be gimping yourself out of a wearing a decent chest by relying on it. I guess if you are in a softcore this doesn't matter that much, but I'm not and I think the idea of playing a build that is basically guarrenteed to get popped around level 52-55 is silly. Hybrid simply isn't viable for the average player, especially one that might be playing in the new 3month leagues. Or at least not for a spellcaster build.

CI Build:
1. Of the 3 builds here, this one is the best IMHO. But, it has some room for improvement.
2. You don't need 322% increased ES. 160-200% is sufficient for 7.5-9k ES easily even with crap gear. Any more then that and you are basically wasting points that could be used to make your build more versitile.
3. No mitigation. Even with 10k ES, you're going to get shit on by everything without any mitigation. The cheapest route would be to travel down the tree and grab IR, get a few aura nodes, and run grace. That would easily give you 45-60% armor and give you the option to further improve that with EV/ES gear. As well as letting you combo a jade/granite and become a brick wall to physical with tens of thousands of armor points.
4. No ES regen. You should either pickup the ES recharge nodes (get them all or get or use Ghost Reaver + life leech. Otherwise you are going to spend a lot of time waiting for your ES recharge to kick in. I wouldn't suggest Zealots Oath as it's not really worth it unless you can pickup a ton of life regen nodes which I'm not sure you could do on this build efficiently.
5. Auras. You should pickup some of the aura nodes. Auras are still great in 1.2. And to run a decent CI build you need to be able to run Discipline (and grace thbo, but I mentioned that).

EDIT: Easy way to get DPS increase on BL is Added Chaos. Try it.

as talked in my non-crit guide: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/969630 Added Chaos gives more 'dps' but less utility than added lightning

for a non crit build it is better to a) have extra chance to shock from Q gem b) have shocks at all by evening out the dmg spikes. both added lightning and BL have 1-XXX damage and adding two narrows the 'tunnel' where most hits will land. this works in practice as good as in theory. for a crit build added chaos is better, sometimes. btw - there are now less 'spell damage' nodes on the tree and added chaos is harder to scale that way (thanks Crown of Terribalance!)

BL is an unique spell. ways of scaling it that work for 'single impact spells' like FB or Arc are not good enough

you have to scale 'zap hit', area, number of hits - at the same time. most people go for 'faaaaster caaaasting' and then cry that BL needs a buff. sure it deals no damage when one scales only one of 3 vectors that are there to be exploited. adding cast speed - unlike normal spells - doesnt do very much. sure, it allows for more duds to be cast but that dud is still a dud.

my current build have cleared anything ive have had thrown at me and with incoming 20% buff i know that BL shall quickly become FoTM because it already is very strong. for people that knew how to do build for it.

btw - no matter what build: storm call supplements BL PERFECTLY for a single target if someone needs separate skill for that. both benefit equally from the tree.

according to my math i can get upto 50% crit rate from tree +2x divinarius+ voidbringer.

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sidtherat wrote:

you have to scale 'zap hit', area, number of hits - at the same time. most people go for 'faaaaster caaaasting' and then cry that BL needs a buff. sure it deals no damage when one scales only one of 3 vectors that are there to be exploited. adding cast speed - unlike normal spells - doesnt do very much. sure, it allows for more duds to be cast but that dud is still a dud.

Cast speed scales this spell exactly the same as any other.
If by 'dud' you mean spend time casting at dead enemies, then the solution is be less bad, not skimp on faster casting/spell echo.

your skill selection in your thread is fine. Your reason for disliking cast speed is unclear.

Come up with this is an end result: http://tinyurl.com/o8yvh7z

Seems ok however mitigation leaves something to be desired.

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BovineIntervention wrote:

"

sidtherat wrote:

you have to scale 'zap hit', area, number of hits - at the same time. most people go for 'faaaaster caaaasting' and then cry that BL needs a buff. sure it deals no damage when one scales only one of 3 vectors that are there to be exploited. adding cast speed - unlike normal spells - doesnt do very much. sure, it allows for more duds to be cast but that dud is still a dud.

Cast speed scales this spell exactly the same as any other.
If by 'dud' you mean spend time casting at dead enemies, then the solution is be less bad, not skimp on faster casting/spell echo.

your skill selection in your thread is fine. Your reason for disliking cast speed is unclear.

cast speed increase when nothing had been done to the ball dmg itself - and doing ONLY that results in balls dealing little, very little damage

it is the least powerful scaling vector available for this spell. 50% faster casting is only 50% more damage. adding 4 hits or 5-6 hits with AOE+Knockback to initial 2-3 is EASY 200%+ MORE damage. this is then multiplied by number of mobs hit (due to +aoe) - easily another MORE damage dealt

and yes - cast speed IS an increase but it has lowest cap and replacing ANY gem from my setup with both FC or ECHO resulted in worse clear speeds. cast speed there and there doesnt hurt, but it is best to exploit other vectors before using this one. these do multiply and not add up.

dps for this skill is not important

note: this might change with change to shock (90%->50%) as shocking is another vector. this might change my stance on added lightning - but until i know details of mana management in 1.2 (EB/AA) i do not want to plan any trees and approach theorycrafting with clear mind.

Imo ball lightning has never been really good. The best thing about ball lightning was how easy you could apply a triple shock stack. However, the shock stack change absolutely destroys ball lightning. Ball lightning is getting a 20% buff, but loses about 40% damage from the shock stack change. This means you lose 10.53% dps from an already pretty weak skill compared to how it is currently.

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Meraxas wrote:

Imo ball lightning has never been really good. The best thing about ball lightning was how easy you could apply a triple shock stack. However, the shock stack change absolutely destroys ball lightning. Ball lightning is getting a 20% buff, but loses about 40% damage from the shock stack change. This means you lose 10.53% dps from an already pretty weak skill compared to how it is currently.

this is not how math works in this case. shocks are just one of many multipliers this skill has and because BASE is increased by 20% i consider this to be a huge buff

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twubbles wrote:

I'm here to help.

Thanks for your feedback! :)

As for the CI build:
I ditched some ES/EV nodes for the CI version for 3 more mana+mana regen nodes at witch start, which are best from the ones that are in range. I really believe mana should not be a problem now, since mana costs of skills have been reduced. But we'll have to wait and see.

Mitigation for CI: I plan to use armour/ES gear, not pure ES only :) also, flasks are a good source of mitigation, especially since I take the flask nodes at witch. +13% ele resistances, a decent amount of armour with a granite, etc.

I will probably go for Ghost reaver and try and get gear with elemental leech (hopefully through the masters' benches).


As for the EB MOM build:
not so sure why you're convinced this build will have trouble with mana :/ I have quite a lot of mana and mana regen nodes. I did run this build in standard for the last few weeks, and although the tree is, of course, different, it had absolutely no mana problems. It seems to me you're neglecting the fact that every EB MoM AA build has a ton of mana and mana regen on gear. Take a look at my current gear on my standard witch.
I did change the start though, so that I get more mana ES and mana regen. But I really think more than that would be unnecessary and a sacrifice for other good things on the tree.

As for sustain: again, I suggest taking a look at the gear. 2% life leech from belt and from mace. Probably additional life leech on gear from masters crafting. Tested, and it works out fine, you can even sustain your life and mana just with 2% life leech against reflect mobs.


Thanks again for the input! :)

just one question about your CI build, how are you suppose to keep yourself alive with no damage mitigation and no ghost reaver+lifeleech?