Dominion's Hardcore Dual-Spark CI Witch - UPDATED for 1.0.1

A quick update for post 1.0.0 spark:



So, to extract from the above, assuming you were using CI and you did not change gear or passives from 0.9.9 to 1.0.0, the difference would look like:

17% less damage
57% reduced area of spark coverage
15% less party damage. (from shock stacks)
Lose 1 aura, gain a slight buff on the other 2 auras.

The practical result of these changes is as follows:

Early endgame (60s/70s): Spark requires more gear to begin usage. It is significantly harder to shock at the beginning - probably worth taking static blows to compensate, and I highly recommend using fire trap/bear trap to supplement damage.

Mid endgame (80s): Still noticeably slower, it may still be worth taking static blows temporarily as a result of the changes to supplement crit shocking.

Late endgame (90+++): Mostly untouched. With strong gear, the only noticeable difference is the reduced AoE. Rather than putting down 2 totems and running through 2 screens as the sparks extended across the screen killing everything, you need to place totems down every pack. Single-target via placing the totems directly on a mob is still one of the best sources of single-target DPS in the game.

Why use spark? Why not (ice spear/ethereal knives/incinerate/etc.)

Spark has several advantages. It deals very effective AoE damage, but it also does fantastic single target damage by placing the totem on top of a mob. On top of this, it has the capability to shock targets, causing them to take 40-120% more damage from both your attacks and those of your party. Ice spear is limited to ranged usage since it must travel a large distance before it transitions to second form and explodes on the target. Ethereal knives suffers from 2 significant problems: mana cost that is too heavy to be supported with CI and extremely slow cast speed (cast speed scales doubly on totems - the totems are placed quicker and cast more often). Finally, incinerate deals decent damage, but does not inflict useful status effects making it lacking for crit builds, something for which totems are very well suited.

Why use Chaos inoculation? Why not use life?

Chaos inoculation builds have several benefits: Chaos immunity, which makes itemization easier since chaos resist can be ignored. Fewer points are required for survivability (Good ES can be achieved through far fewer nodes than similar EHP life builds). ES pool regenerates passively when damage isn't being taken. Because the build can be played without entering the fray, it is easy to regenerate (you also have no need for life flasks, enabling extra granites, quicksilvers, mana, or resistance flasks.)

Why use lightning penetration? It doesn't increase my tooltip damage?

When fighting a mob that has curse immunity and 75 lightning resist, level 10 lightning pen will exactly double your dps (reducing the mob's resist from 75 to 50). If you do the same against a mob that is not curse immune, assuming you are using elemental weakness and conductivity, you will reduce it from about -25 to -50, causing the lightning penetration to increase your effective dps by 20%

These are the two extremes of the spectrum. Most of the time, you will increase your damage by somewhere between 20-100%. This is much more effective than something like added chaos, which merely adds a static amount to your attacks, and does not scale effectively as your gear improves.

How do you manage your maps?

66-67 Transmute
68 Chance or Alch
69-70 Alch (70 maps can be chiseled initially per personal preference)
71+ Chisel and Alch

Maps that I never run without Maze:

71: Temple and Arachnid Nest
72: Waste Pool and Torture Chamber
73: Cells
74: Maze
75: Necropolis
76: Crematorium
77: Shrine and Shipyard

Lower level maps that benefit greatly from maze:

68: Spider Lair, Vaal Pyramid
69: Overgrown Shrine


Mods to prioritize:

Maze or Area Size (These are mutually exclusive, maps capable of rolling maze can not roll area size and vice versa.)
Pack size, More magic monsters
More rare monsters

Acceptable quantity without above mods:

66-68: 30
69-70: 60
71: 70
72: 85
73 and above: 100+

NOTE: Between A3 Cruel and A2 Merciless, there are many different ways to continue the passives, as they depend heavily on gear. Ancestral bond can be taken when spark does roughly 100 dps, and CI can be taken when ES is roughly 2500. Because these are not dependent on progression and instead depend on gear, I can not give a generic passive tree for these levels, and instead opt to give the desired passives before progressing in A2 merciless.



NOTE: If you are having difficulty shocking at this point, take static blows before you invest in the damage nodes suggested in the level 80 version.