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

For hc is it more preferable to use a shield with tons of es as opposed to a spell damage shield

I would try to get a shield with decent ES as it's a pretty big source of ES, but in the end you could use whatever you're comfortable with.

I started doing maps at 73 with 5k ES and 83% resist all. I took the extra grey ES nodes south of the area % buff before going down the damage line near the witch starting point. My totem DPS is 230 with a 5 link.

I'm sticking to 66 maps now and sometimes I get hit really hard. I've lost about 65% of my ES in 1 rolling attack from an extra damage golem. You might say, oh hey you can dodge those no problem but when you're dealing with literally 2 golem bosses, 5-6 regular golems and a necro with ranged skeletons everywhere and 20 FPS you're bound to take a hit or 2.

I've also taken at least 50% ES single hits by random other mobs too who were either champs or blue packs.

Off the top of my head I think I have:

200 on the helm
160 on the shield
240 on the armor
60 on the gloves
40ish from a belt + rings + necklace combined

That should give you a rough idea of how much base ES you need to reach about 5k ES with discipline up, probably a bit less if you went for damage before those extra grey ES nodes.

@NagiSoi - Critical Damage, Lightning Pen, Fork

@Renroval - I've discussed the concept of using EK totems earlier in the thread. The reason I prefer spark over EK: EK mana cost on totems becomes too expensive to sustain with CI/Mana. Because of the way armor functions into physical damage, EK will drop significantly more than the displayed penalty on support gems (-40% on spell totem, -30% on fork), as lower damage is more significantly reduced by armor. Additionally, endgame spark totem builds will shock stack virtually everything, causing you and your party to deal 40-120% more damage.

@Killuah - See DeltruS response, his answer is perfect.

@DeltruS - I'll test that leveling strategy next time I level a character. I do use frost nova when doing short races on witch and I can attest that it works fantastically through normal.

@Ecneralc - It would work with a few adjustments, though there wouldn't be any benefit to doing so.

@qbatronix - Cold builds kill more slowly and tend to survive through tighter control of the mobs. I find that they require more focus on summoning, so it would take some significant adjustments to make functional - I would recommend using a different guide if you are determined to use cold instead.

@Manu_333 - I decided to replace the 30 all attributes with a 30 dex node and a 30 strength belt with tri resist so I could remove the 4x nodes for 30% all resistances with a shield equipped.

@Mlindegaard - I plan on trying a 3L with Frenzy, power charge on crit, and faster attacks. It will not do damage, but it should give me frenzy/power charges, which would be a massive DPS boost.

@unkempt - good question, I assume it doesn't though I can't confirm.

@TheHeroYouDeserve - Life has a few trade-offs. You can gain some survivability, but you will lose very significant DPS.

@NemoSushi - Cast speed gives very -very- significant DPS when you have very little of it. Do not remove lightning pen for ICD though.

@Arkius - Granite before getting hit ideally. If I get punctured in a bad position, I will bite the bullet and pull back taking massive damage, then I put the totems between me and the mobs and wait for puncture to expire. If this fails, I occasionally log out.

@BigMacAttack - I have around 20k armor with a granite flask up.

@Arkius - Yes. Shields account for a huge percentage of your total ES. Sacrificing ES for damage on shield makes it very difficult to achieve enough survivability.

@Antelopesalad - You should be able to very easily improve your ES pool by upgrading your shield/chest. It should be reasonably easy to trade for a chest with 500+ ES and a shield with 300+ Additionally, I would suggest keeping granites up at all times when you're within range of being hit by a mob like a golem.

Fireknight / Dominion -

I first built a full summoner and got her to 75 and it was so difficult to do a lot of maps due to minion pathing so it sucked. She is semi-retired.

I started a Marauder - but like my first witch he dies a lot and he's around 53.

I read many witch builds on the forums, watched a lot of them on YouTube. Your post kept pulling me back so last week I started a witch, fully using your guide.

I do not have great gear. I'm 51 now and just completed Cruel without a single death. I defeated all the bosses by myself or with a friend the same level or for a couple of bosses in a public group. I'm currently working on filling in the defensive nodes since I just got Body & Soul so am filling in the shield block choices.

I've only got about 1100 ES with Discipline and don't have enough mana yet to run Purity, but am pretty happy with how it's going.

Unlike my other characters I can cast the totems into a room and let them clear it without taking any damage. It has been amazing so far. I really enjoy casting my totems across a pit or over a cliff and watching them do their work.

I've never traded for anything so everything I'm wearing is just stuff from quests or things that have dropped while playing.

So I just wanted to thank you, I'm really enjoying your build.

I have more of a crafting question I guess, hopefully maybe you(Dominion) or someone reading this can help me out? I've been trying to craft a good chest piece. I ended up 5L a ilvl 76 Vaal Regalia. I was going the Alteration/Regal/(eventually exalt) route and this is what I've
come up with so far.



Now my question is, how were you able to come up with 148% increased energy shield mod on your chest piece Dominion? From looking at the Prefix mods list on the Item Data page located here:
http://www.pathofexile.com/item-data/prefixmod
it shows that I had "Unconquerable" chest piece before I regaled it. But based off of that sheet, it tells me that the highest I would've been able to get as far as Increased ES is "120%".

Does this have to do with the itemlvl itself? Or am I missing something? Possibly reading it wrong? I am still new to the game, only about 1-1.5 months in now and this is my first crafted piece. Should I scour this chest piece and start over or continue on with exalting?

I read Invalesco's post on crafting also but just trying to understand the mechanics of everything.

Any help from anyone is appreciated to help me better understand and I'm appologize if this is unappropriate to post this question in your thread. I'm loving this build btw, put my static blows ranger on hold for this ^^

Thanks a bunch,

TRU

"

Tru_forever wrote:

I have more of a crafting question I guess, hopefully maybe you(Dominion) or someone reading this can help me out? I've been trying to craft a good chest piece. I ended up 5L a ilvl 76 Vaal Regalia. I was going the Alteration/Regal/(eventually exalt) route and this is what I've
come up with so far.

Now my question is, how were you able to come up with 148% increased energy shield mod on your chest piece Dominion? From looking at the Prefix mods list on the Item Data page located here:
http://www.pathofexile.com/item-data/prefixmod
it shows that I had "Unconquerable" chest piece before I regaled it. But based off of that sheet, it tells me that the highest I would've been able to get as far as Increased ES is "120%".

Does this have to do with the itemlvl itself? Or am I missing something? Possibly reading it wrong? I am still new to the game, only about 1-1.5 months in now and this is my first crafted piece. Should I scour this chest piece and start over or continue on with exalting?

I read Invalesco's post on crafting also but just trying to understand the mechanics of everything.

Any help from anyone is appreciated to help me better understand and I'm appologize if this is unappropriate to post this question in your thread. I'm loving this build btw, put my static blows ranger on hold for this ^^

Thanks a bunch,

TRU

The % increased ES on dominion's chest isn't from one affix. It's from the increased energy shield prefix AND the hybrid increased energy shield/block and stun recovery prefix (which is on the list you posted)

Thanks for the help. I understand now. I posted in the general forums too and got the same response. I appreciate it very much.

Where do you get the highlevel maps? Last time they (all not only highlevel) have come to an end faster than cumulative.

Means u must use a scouring :D

"

Fartuna25 wrote:

Where do you get the highlevel maps? Last time they (all not only highlevel) have come to an end faster than cumulative.

I'm not sure what you're trying to ask?

I'll give a generic answer, hopefully it covers what you were trying to ask:



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+