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

I know arc totems are fairly popular in the PvP scene currently. Why is Arc/Totem not commonly used for PvE? A Faster Cast - Chain - Dual Arc totems seems viable to me, what am I overlooking?

Nice concisely written guide dude thanks for sharing. I'm new to casters, what's the benefit of choosing a mace over a wand?

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Malefica wrote:

I know arc totems are fairly popular in the PvP scene currently. Why is Arc/Totem not commonly used for PvE? A Faster Cast - Chain - Dual Arc totems seems viable to me, what am I overlooking?

Here's my analysis of arc vs spark.

Arc totems are great in PvP for 2 primary reasons: They do instantaneous damage, and they do unavoidable damage. These traits are far less useful in PvE.

Arc and chain: Assume arc his for 100 average damage. Arc naturally hits 3 targets. That amounts to 300 damage in this example. If you add chain to arc, you incur a 50% damage penalty but hit 2 more targets. This means you will hit 50 average damage on 5 targets, that only amounts to 250 damage. Couple in the heavily increased mana cost, the loss of one of your links on arc, and the fact that you now only do half the dps to single targets and the decision becomes obvious.

Spark, on the other hand is extremely effective at damaging packs, and can also be placed on top of single targets to shotgun.

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TurgidLeafMan wrote:

Nice concisely written guide dude thanks for sharing. I'm new to casters, what's the benefit of choosing a mace over a wand?

There isn't one. I simply use a mace because I happened to find one with high spell damage, high cast speed, and mana/mana regen. Wands could be potentially better since they can roll projectile speed as well - but that's a luxury on this build - cast speed and spell damage have priority.

Hi, I'm Just wondering why you pick up so many shield nodes? is it because your unique shield that gives 50% of block chance to also work against spell? and does ES count as a shield defensive? then i quess i can see why. also 2 of your items are lacking ES, for the boots i Quess is because ES boots would prolly not be able to roll those socket colours anyways, And the belt? is it because of the flask duration increase or haven't you found anything better?

Thanks for posting your build. I have for a while tried to quess it, but I haven't even been close so far :D also why minion speed to spectre and zombies? spectres movement speed is capped allready, is it only for the zombies? for the zombies to be faster at protecting you? :p

anyways. long rant, and thx for posting.

EDIT: Would watch if you started streaming :D

a dual totem build, new and exciting !

You have almost no support passives spent on your minions, and it looks like you can only have 4 zombies and 1 spectre. Are you really okay with this? Also what will you do if GGG removes the ability to use both traps and dual totems in the same build?

What are your thoughts on CI. I've been telling people that it's a pretty conditional skill now. I haven't experienced much difficulty with chaos dmg so far but I haven't dont anything over a 68 map. You can save some points by going CI since you don't have to invest in so many life nodes and the amount of es compared to life on gear is dwarfing; however, do you think that just grace and determination provide enough reduction for you to survive? In my experience its the chargers and fast attacking/moving/critting swarmers/projectile shooters that kill you.

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Lachis wrote:

What are your thoughts on CI. I've been telling people that it's a pretty conditional skill now. I haven't experienced much difficulty with chaos dmg so far but I haven't dont anything over a 68 map. You can save some points by going CI since you don't have to invest in so many life nodes and the amount of es compared to life on gear is dwarfing; however, do you think that just grace and determination provide enough reduction for you to survive? In my experience its the chargers and fast attacking/moving/critting swarmers/projectile shooters that kill you.

CI is still worth using - it just isn't automatically better than life/es hybrids any longer (and it requires a much heavier investment in ES nodes). I'll try to elaborate on my decision to use CI with this build.

With double totems you're only 3 nodes away from Elemental adaptation, which is absolutely worth investing in for only 3 additional points. Add Purity (with inner force) to the mix and you're sitting at 85 all resistances. By using CI, you've now removed chaos damage from the equation and only need to worry about physical damage. Totems with a few summons up are great at intercepting fast physical mobs like rhoas/shield chargers as long as you keep the totems in front. Double body and soul nodes with a granite flask of iron skin/Quicksilver flasks of adrenaline put you at 16k armor and about 100% movement speed with inner force. This means you can pull back very quickly on top of being able to afford a few harder hits in the event anything slips through the cracks.


CI is still great, it just needs an investment in ES nodes that rivals the amount of life that has always been necessary for life based builds.

how do you get enough dex to use the bear traps? and are they your source of single target dps?

great guide btw. thanks.