(Updated!) [1.2] EE Ball Lightning/Ice Spear Build with AA/MoM (Cloak of Defiance)

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rusher21 wrote:

Hello,

you can't spam one Spell with EE (after your BL). because the Buff is Alternating and not stacking from another Element hit.

So once a mob got hit by Ice Spear it will have that +25% resistance buff.
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Elemental_Equilibrium

That's true, but it works in the case of Ball Lightning, since it moves slowly and hits 5 times per second. So the Ball Lightning is constantly hitting the target and applying EE.

Okay, so I'm level 38 now (in Beyond League) and I'm loving this build so far. Slower Projectiles is necessary for Ball Lightning if you are self casting it. I'm running Spell Echo on Ice Spear so my attack speed is really fast on Ice Spear and without Slower Projectiles on Ball Lightning I can get maybe 1-2 hits in before the Ball Lightning passes through enemies (even far ones). With Slower Projectiles it's a little bit better, but my Slower Projectiles is only level 2 right now.

So, what I'm thinking right now is this for Ball Lightning:
Ball Lightning->Inc AoE->Slower Projectiles->Spell Totem

This way instead of casting Ball Lightning every 3rd or so cast you can drop the Ball Lightning Totem in one cast then just spam Ice Spear. It'll pour out a stream of Ball Lightnings to ensure more EE procs. I'd like to toss in LMP or GMP to keep more of the screen in lightning, but I'll have to mess with it. Perhaps with the totem I could drop Slower Projectiles for LMP/GMP instead since it'll be tossing out a stream of them instead of needing 1 single projectile to proc EE for me. The main issue I forsee is not being able to control which targets the totem is shooting out (though with LMP/GMP and Increased AoE it should just hit most of the screen anyway).

As far as Mana... I don't have Cloak of Defiance yet but I do have AA. I've been pretty sturdy with just AA running a level or two behind Clarity right now with no mana issues. I'm waiting on EB until I get Cloak of Defiance and in the meantime just keeping the ES as extra life pool instead.

I'll update the main post with some more info as I continue to level up and test things out.

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patricklightsmith wrote:

Am enjoying the power of this build and its freezing locking mob ability. I have taken Oak and dont run any auras yet but thinking Herald Of Ash.

Herald of Ash only adds fire to physical damage, which you should be doing none of with this build. If you are doing EE then definitely don't take Herald of Ice as Ball Lightning will gain cold damage and you'll be forever at +25% resistance on mobs.

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Vultighjime wrote:

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rusher21 wrote:

Hello,

you can't spam one Spell with EE (after your BL). because the Buff is Alternating and not stacking from another Element hit.

So once a mob got hit by Ice Spear it will have that +25% resistance buff.
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Elemental_Equilibrium

That's true, but it works in the case of Ball Lightning, since it moves slowly and hits 5 times per second. So the Ball Lightning is constantly hitting the target and applying EE.

Yeah, the point of using Ball Lighting (especially with Slower Projectiles) is that it hits 5 times a second so it will constantly be proccing EE to give the -50% cold resist as you are spamming Ice Spear. It will hit far more often than you can cast Ice Spear as long as the mob is within the radius (hence the reason for Increased AoE as well).

is it ok to use fire trap to proc EE?

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crucialp wrote:

is it ok to use fire trap to proc EE?

I think that should work as well. Anything that ticks frequently is a good candidate for procing EE. I picked Ball Lightning because I like Ice and Lightning builds, and I had wanted to do both a Ball Lightning and Ice Spear build so I decided to combine them.

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Svenn wrote:

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patricklightsmith wrote:

Am enjoying the power of this build and its freezing locking mob ability. I have taken Oak and dont run any auras yet but thinking Herald Of Ash.

Herald of Ash only adds fire to physical damage, which you should be doing none of with this build. If you are doing EE then definitely don't take Herald of Ice as Ball Lightning will gain cold damage and you'll be forever at +25% resistance on mobs.

My mistake I had ment to write Herald of Ice and thanks for pointing out the HoI will add cold to the ball lightning making EE not work.

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patricklightsmith wrote:

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Svenn wrote:

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patricklightsmith wrote:

Am enjoying the power of this build and its freezing locking mob ability. I have taken Oak and dont run any auras yet but thinking Herald Of Ash.

Herald of Ash only adds fire to physical damage, which you should be doing none of with this build. If you are doing EE then definitely don't take Herald of Ice as Ball Lightning will gain cold damage and you'll be forever at +25% resistance on mobs.

My mistake I had ment to write Herald of Ice and thanks for pointing out the HoI will add cold to the ball lightning making EE not work.

No problem. I had the same idea at first before I realized that. You can use Herald of Ice while leveling before you pick up EE though for some extra damage. I used it for a bit.

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Vultighjime wrote:

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rusher21 wrote:

Hello,

you can't spam one Spell with EE (after your BL). because the Buff is Alternating and not stacking from another Element hit.

So once a mob got hit by Ice Spear it will have that +25% resistance buff.
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Elemental_Equilibrium

That's true, but it works in the case of Ball Lightning, since it moves slowly and hits 5 times per second. So the Ball Lightning is constantly hitting the target and applying EE.

I understand BL supporting this. Nice idea. So I eagerly looked at your passive tree.

My questions are:
-Why not "Breath of Rime" (more cold damage, more freeze)
3 extra points give: 5% + 5% Chance to Freeze, 10% + 10% Cold damage, 20% increased Freeze duration

-Why not "Frost Walker" (more Frost damage and elemental damage)
2 extra points give: 8% Elemental Damage, 18% Cold damage, 15% Cold Resistance.

A few other ideas 2to3 points nearby: "Freeze", "Fingers of Frost", "Arcane Potency" (due to high critchance of IS the multiplier would help alot?).

More personal question:
-I'm also considering Pain Attunement for Rampage-League(a big 1.3 modifier) which in danger could hep more than a few % life.

Thanks in advance.

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rusher21 wrote:

My questions are:
-Why not "Breath of Rime" (more cold damage, more freeze)
3 extra points give: 5% + 5% Chance to Freeze, 10% + 10% Cold damage, 20% increased Freeze duration

-Why not "Frost Walker" (more Frost damage and elemental damage)
2 extra points give: 8% Elemental Damage, 18% Cold damage, 15% Cold Resistance.

A few other ideas 2to3 points nearby: "Freeze", "Fingers of Frost", "Arcane Potency" (due to high critchance of IS the multiplier would help alot?).

Thanks in advance.

Most of these actually were in the original build when it was around 120 points (I really wanted Breath of Rime, and the plan is to take it in the level 80+ range). I was trying to cut it down to 90 points and only actually made it down to 100, which is still a lot (level 80-81 depending on what you do for the first bandit), but unfortunately it took cutting a bunch of those out to get down to a reasonable amount of points. I am using this in Beyond league so I was erring on the side of more defenses instead of more offense for now. When I hit level 70+ and can see how my mana/life are I can look into making some changes and potentially dropping some defense/mana for some of these other nodes.

I gladly welcome any suggestions as to optimizations to the tree. If you see any places where you think points could be dropped to pick some of these up, let me know! I've been looking for more efficient use of points where I can. I've found some since the original idea, but I don't doubt that there are things I'm missing that could be better optimized.

So, is there anything you would drop to take any of these instead?

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More personal question:
-I'm also considering Pain Attunement for Rampage-League(a big 1.3 modifier) which in danger could hep more than a few % life.

Honestly, I don't feel that low life nodes are worth it unless you are going for a low life build specifically. You never want to let yourself get to low life if possible, so that's mostly a wasted node.

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Svenn wrote:

So, is there anything you would drop to take any of these instead?

Good question. I didn't find optimization, i was just curious on what to prefer - you made it clear.

"Frost Walker" instead of "Freeze" would give +"3% increased Cold Damage" and 8% "increased Spell damage" for Lightning in addition (instead of only 8% increased Cold Damage) , but you lose 5% freeze.

By the way: "Fingers of Frost" would be bad considering a spammed Ice-Spell, correct?
(unfreezed mobs will become chilled)