Ball Lightning

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DasDingAmKing wrote:

50% slower projectiles equals 100% more damage, 100% area equals another 100% more damage.

Wrong.
You have to account for the 200ms hard delay. It's a matter of getting another hit off before the target gets out of range, which depends on a whole lot of factors (speed, movement direction, RNGsus-desync,... for both you and the target). If the target gets out of range at 199ms the increase is nil. You increase your chances for more damage using slower projectiles and increase AE, tho.

That beeing said, im still not entirely sold on the skill. Using it for leveling atm the 4L (~lvl40, BL+FC+Lightning Penetration+Chance to Flee) it works, but the unlinked Arc works about as well. So far I prefer the range+flee over more hits with lesser range. Will try again later once Im high enough to use a leveled SP. Will try out the 3D mask later.

I'm having a lot of fun at the moment with the skill on a level 56 Templar lightning mage.

I use it with an Arc Spell Totem and Conductivity curse for maximum impact. The Slow Proj + Increased AoE + quality Added Lightning combo works very well for now and, as I have a lot of AoE I don't need lmp/gmp at all. Shock's really nice :)

Although I'm moving slowly and carefuly because of low res and not the best gear, and actually only one quality gem, I find it surprisingly fast and effective at killing groups.

I went for a lot of AoE in the tree, and I'm thinking I might go for Iron Reflexes but it looks very far. Would need 16 points with a few dexterity nodes I don't really need. I don't know, seems like a good idea for survivability...

I agree it is kind a weak as a primary skill, but I'm sure there are some good ways to maintain a good build.

i do not know what you people are doing different but this skill is very viable non-crit at lvl 17 with so-so gear

alch-n-go map with ele equilibrium with my stats. numbers DO lie a lot sometimes :)



also the survivability with knocback is amazing. ive died two times in merc. one to maker of rain (that i attacked having 84armor and no immortal call etc) and second to like 40 stacks of corrupting blood that i havent paid attention to. corrupting blood HURTS

i really wonder what people are doing differently. i hope no lmp as this is one of the worst ideas. im not sold on faster casting too as alternatives seem to work better. same with echo.

short clear speed demo

lvl71 map with 'curse immune' (meaning a lot less clear speed)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72AtCccntYI

Indeed, made a quick video aswell to show you some gameplay with a low gear low res level 60 Templar at Merciless Fellshrine.

I got about 1500 life, 300 armor, 45% fire and lightning res and 3% cold res lol and I don't die which is quite surprising considering. ^^

As you can see, it is quite fast at group killing and don't seem to me as bad as some people seem to see it. It is a lot of fun so far and I'm loving these shiny Lightning Balls !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5uGXFiV3ag

Thanks for all the tips and useful informations guys !

After leveling to lvl80 and that was the breeziest leveling ever i have this to say

Ball lightning is a very good skill.

What people are doing wrong (imho) is scaling it FIRST with faster casting and or echo. This wont work. If you have a tank youll not destroy it using small rocks being thrown in very rapid succession. You take a 10tonne boulder and finish the job.

Ofc fc/echo inflate dps but.. och well

Ball lightning 'size' depends on ability to hit many times. Standard ball hits i think 3 times if aimed precisely at the target. Not a lot of times..

You can scale number of hits with:
Knockback (chance based but can knock people away from the ball)
Slower projectules (flat)
AOE (flat)
Chance to flee (chance based. Least desirable due to rares being immune to fear)

Or any combination of these above.

My current setup hits a target ~8 times or if im lucky up to ten times.

Ive selected knockback and aoe as multipliers. As all multipliers one has to remember that this is not a linear effectiveness. So investung 'half-in' is worse than going full banana on one. My AOE increase is +100% and knockback chance 47% (iirc). It is around 75%+ inc aoe when it all starts to click togerher.

If i had colors (and DEX as currently it is a problem for me) id give Slow Proj another go. SP has the advantage of not knocking mobs AWAY from the ball. But it removes safety of the same very knocking away..

So if anyone wants to no longer hit tanks with wet blanket (rapidly) for no effect and instead wants to destroy that damn thing: forget cast speed. It looks nice but it is not the way to scale this spell.

First get 'hit count' multipliers. Doubling hit count means 100%more dmg. 70% cast speed is just 70% more and one can easily get that multi to 250%+ with aoe/knockback

If one insists on old tricks that worked with old spells.. well.. i wish him/her a good luck but it wont work. I saw people with 7linked staff taking ages to kill trash mobs in low maps. With that staff and correct setup this skill is insane.

People havent yet realized that this is first aoe-damage-as-hits-not-dot skill in poe and try to scale it just like all old 'point/instant' skills that in fact scale well with cast speed.

Maybe ill write a guide about it someday...

created a guide on how to use it:

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/969630


and have a new video of it in action - 73 gorge map. problem with phys dmg has been solved already - with cwdt setup so please ignore that. also soon after watching me play started using:
BL -> BL -> BL -> lightning warp -> BL ->... rotation instead of running. makes clears bit faster

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjzLeBxSnUc (it is best to skip to like 1:30 as i had serious issues with porcupine spikes and my health was going down like crazy so beginning is less than steallar. as said - this issue is already fixed with proper cwdt setup)

Ball Lightning ...

damage is very very very low

so low

I felt like crying...

the skill is a tragedy

The damage is so good, it's my fastest clearing character right now :)

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DjParagon wrote:

The damage is so good, it's my fastest clearing character right now :)

That just means your other characters are incredibly weak.

Buff BL please, doesn't even have to be raw damage, just change some mechanics about it to make it more interesting.