Witch - Ball Lightning, Death's Harp, Craghead gimmick build - actually good! - Forum

Ever since I saw Craghead I wanted to make a BL build with it. Finally biting the bullet I respecced a 78 witch into this dumb gimmick, with surprising results. The surprising part being that it actually rules.

Here's a very far from perfect 78 tree. This char wasn't made with the build in mind, so it doesn't have the optimal Oak-Alira-Alria for 7 power charges.

Build

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMAAuMEBwSzBUIHHgelDkgRlhOeFecWQBZvFr8Yaho4HRQfxySqJpUnLyt4LJwtHy2LNuk6WDwFPV9BlklRSbJMs1AwUlNVS1XGWAdd8mHiZJ1mnmjybRlwUnDVc7N4L3zlfjN-WX_GghCCHoKbg9uFfYnTjDaOZI9Gj_qQVZUglS6XlZo7m6Gf36IAoqOkkayYrrO2-sAawGbB89D11abbC9-K37Djauv17DjtPO988B_wa_DV8h33pvfX-tJjQw==

Now the gear. Death's harp is the only bow that has a global bonus that effects spells, which is why this build uses crit - if there is ever a caster bow released, expect this build to switch out of crits and into high cast speed and life.

Gear

The links are pretty generic: light warp, cwdt EC+IC, COH HoT, auras+utility AA. Assassins mark is an obvious choice for any crit build.
Now this less obvious choice is warlords mark, picked for both life and mana leech but ALSO the stun mods - which go great with craghead! Permastunning magic enemies is quite common and possible against rares with a crit.

Now then, why this build works:

SECRET

BL hits a random enemy every 0.2 seconds, moves at 36 units per second and has a radius of 12 units.
With craghead and slower proj, the projectile speed is lowered to 12 units per second. With 36% increased AOE, the radius is 16.
BL projectiles will keep moving at their proj speed until they disappear after ~3 seconds.
This means that within 3 seconds, the BL projectile will have moved only 36 units.
Assuming you are casting at a stationary target that is 16 units away, your BL projectile will be able to reach and hit that enemy from the start of its life until it is further than 16 units away, which means having moved more than 32 units.
Considering the speed of the projectiles, moving 32 units takes roughly 2.6 seconds.
This means that with proper positioning, a single BL projectile can hit the same target 16 times before it goes out of range and very shortly after expires.
Considering most enemies have hitboxes larger than 1 unit, this means that the above scenario is much more likely to occur. Thus, lotsa hits.

BUT WHAT ABOUT DEEPS?
My BL base damage is 27-535, average 281. Considering each ball can hit 16 times this gives a potential of 4496 per ball, pre-crit. Cast speed is 3.2 a second, so a rough estimate of DPS (5 hits per ball) would also be 4496 DPS, pre-crit. Lightning penetration also adds a lot vs non-resistant enemies, as do shocks.

With crit, I have a base of 29.8% pre-charges and without assassins, with charges 44.8 (could be 40.3 with alira charge). With 420% crit multi that's a 95% DPS bonus pre-charges, with charges 143%, again this is pre-assassins. I regularly switch between crit chance, pcoc and crit multi however.
Keep in mind I have no items at all with any crit bonuses! All this gear was just laying around, none of it made or bought with the intention of being used with this build.

Also, it looks kinda cool.

Anyway, I'm just happy that a gimmick build worked. Craghead FTW

IGN: Asser, AssDelver, Assphobic, AnointedAss, BetrayedByMyAss, CrackedAss, FracturedAss, FulcrumedUpMyAss, ImpaledAss, IncursionOfTheAss, WarForTheAss, UnleashTheAss, ScreamingAsshole, SwampAssKing, Yui

Last edited by Wooser69#4318 on Dec 23, 2014, 4:50:21 PM

Posted by
Wooser69#4318
on Dec 23, 2014, 1:38:38 PM

Quote this Post

Just posting to say I tried this on a free respec 68 witch I had in standard. Just played a level on it but very cool. I might try something similar next league. With knockback slotted in nothing can get to you either so it's only ranged attacks you have to watch for

ign: orosmoltenstrike
build thread: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/918546