[2.0] Low Life Kinetic Blast Wander (for the upper middle class)
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85k+ average ||| 110k+ with Blood Rage ||| 170k+ fully buffed Kinetic Blast GMP 6L
6k+ ES ||| 4 x 50% auras + Discipline + Herald of Cho(ICE) Updated July 23rd for 2.0 Awakening! Shout out to enDb0ss and Steezbattalion for their continuous suggestions! Coming soon™: Character sheet screenshots, higher map reviews Low Life + Wander + reasonably affordable? Yep, you read that right. A long time ago I wanted to make a hybrid low life Power Siphon wander, but lacked the currency to do so properly. A day after I finally acquired my final wand, my first and only mirrored item too, Kinetic Blast was annouced. I struggled hard to make a build without the remaining appropriate gear from other massive DPS wander builds such as most up to date Steezbattalion's 2.0, Skyforth's 1.3 and Lawyne's 1.3 low life wanders. So this is what I did. I scratched Pros:
However that opened up a new variation with an often overlooked unique item: Prism Guardian. Pros:
It's hard to say how much I spent overall, since I found or crafted some of the items myself. For a rough estimation of my gears worth, check out the "Gear" section below. This build guide aims to offer a variation of the known and proven top-end guides of Steezbattalion (2.0), Skyforth (1.3) and Lawyne (1.3). If you belong to the nouveau riche, just dropped a Shavronne's Wrappings or found an insane wand and are now looking for a low life wander build I'd suggest checking their build threads for an overall first impression of what you can achieve. This build is not as expensive, but also not as powerful and safe as those mentioned above. In general I wouldn't recommend building a character like this from scratch since there are still quite some investments to make. There are builds that have more damage at a lower cost but, as mentioned above, I wanted to take on a different approach at the possibly most expensive (and for me definitely most fun) build in the game.
Requirements
A high level Witch, Scion or Shadow is crucial for this build to function. Those classes in descending order offer the best pathing to the core skill tree.
The only mirrored item in my build. It's the #2 physical wand by Steezbattalion with no mirror fee. If there is one thing worth mirroring it's the wand! This is the wand I made and used before. With this wand equipped I deal about 40% less damage overall, which is still decent damage but requires more mana leech or a more frequent use of the mana flask.
Reserving auras on life. We don't stack chaos resistance and aim for 34% reduced mana reservation in the passive tree just to barely run 3 50% auras and one herald on life.
The cheapest and easiest way to reserve auras on life.
Another cheap and easy way to sustain the mana cost of our attack.
Yet another cheap unique that saves us the 15 skill points travel to Unwavering Stance. Gaining at least 15 skill points makes up for the loss of damage and defensive stats on a rare amulet.
We won't be using the Pierce gem in our main setup as 15% chance to pierce from Poacher's Aim is enough for packs with Vaal auras. Kinetic Blast doesn't have any problems with clearing packs due to the aoe nature of the skill. Bosses on the other hand are harder to approach. The removal of the Pierce gem allows us to incorporate another damage gem helping against single targets. Poacher's Aim is available for every character from the "Through Sacred Ground" side quest in Cruel difficulty. The rest of the gear should aim for these stats in order of priority:
Gear
Gear breakdown, step by step with estimated worth in brackets:
Mentioned above it is the most important item in your build and should be the first item to mirror, if any. A pure physical wand scales best with Hatred, which in combination with Herald of Ice provides us with insane shattering potential. (1 Mirror of Kalandra = ~260 Ex) The Prism Guardian is the single item to put 3 of our most expensive auras in. It offers good resistances, needed dexterity and a + 2 to level of socketed aura gems boost. (~2 Ex, ~10 Ex for legacy version) Shavronne's Wrappings is crucial for reserving as much as you can on life and not dying to chaos damage. Going low life can be done without it, but for our purposes it is a must-have and the build-enabling item. (6L = ~50 Ex, 5L = ~30 Ex) A lucky Chance Orb's result. The resistances give flexibility to aim for other mods on the rest of the gear. I recommend using a helmet with more energy shield and accuracy, but for now it serves my needs. (~20 Ex) Maligaro's Virtuosity are great damage gloves. A + 1 to level of gems corruption is perfect for our empowered Discipline and Wrath setup. (~4 Ex) Very similar to Maligaro's Virtuosity Shadows and Dust provide increased critical strike chance and multiplier. I tried using these instead of Maligaro's initially because of the small amount of mana leech, but stayed with them for the fun side effect of the Rampage bonuses. (~12 Ex) The rampage bonus does not apply since patch 2.0.0G. It seems to be a bug and hopefully gets fixed soon. A typical stat-filler slot in my case. Self-crafted with some additional dexterity and whatever resistance was needed. High energy shield and movement speed should be the priority on these. (~4 Ex) The Auxium provides us with much needed mana leech and the highest boost to energy shield on a belt. (~2 Ex) The Eye of Chayula is the cheapest and most bearable option to become stun-immune. (~10 chaos) A great ring given by a friend. (~20 Ex) An absolute bargain providing just the amount of needed stats with self crafted ES on it. (~3 Ex) The ring slots usually offer a great damage boost. Unfortunately, they are also the hardest items to get without sacrificing accuracy, resistances and stats. Looking for a combination of these will inevitably lead you to mirrored or mirror worthy gear. Especially Diamond Rings, which I prefer to use to get close to the 95% critical strike chance cap, with good stats are hard to come by. What we'll want on the rings: accuracy, increased elemental damage with weapons, % energy shield, flat energy shield, flat physical / elemental damage, resistances, stats The best base for the rings would be a Diamond Ring (20%-30% increased global critical strike chance). As they can be very expensive, it is perfectly fine to use resistance rings instead. The Standard economy favours crit-based items, and in general I experienced a massive gap between crit and non-crit items' price range. We can't possibly have all those mods on our rings (not even on mirrored gear), so we have to compromise and adjust to what we have and need the most. Great mobility for easy mapping. (~10 Chaos) Excellent flask for incoming physical damage. Basically a better Lightning Coil with extra damage. Useful in boss fights. (~8 Ex) Damage, leech and chaos resistance boost in one. It offers additional leech for reflect packs and is useful in boss fights. (~2 Chaos) This flask lets you open boxes and pass through monsters safely. (~2 Chaos) Useful in boss fights and times where we don't have enough power charges. (~2 Chaos)
Current Gear
Passive Skill Tree, Bandit Rewards & Jewels
Witch lvl 90:
PathofExile.com Scion lvl 90: PathofExile.com Shadow lvl 90: PathofExile.com Currently Scion lvl 97: PathofExile.com Bandit Rewards: Normal: passive Cruel: passive Merciless: + 1 power charge (Alira) Jewels: Poacher's Aim grants a minimal chance to pierce, which is sufficient for packs guarded by Vaal auras. Using the jewel instead of the Pierce gem evens out the discrepancy between pack and single target effective damage, as we have more initial damage instead of a higher chance to pierce. The interaction with Frost Wall roughly stays the same. My current jewels are far from ideal, but serve my needs for the moment. Two unique jewels that I've yet to aquire may be interesting for this build, potentially outclassing rare jewels: Mantra of Flames and Static Electricity. Best stats on our jewels: Prefix: 14%-16% increased Physical Damage 4%-6% increased Attack Speed while holding a Shield Suffix: 10%-12% increased Projectile Damage 8%-10% increased Damage 3%-5% increased Attack Speed 2%-4% increased Attack and Cast Speed 8%-12% increased Global Critical Strike Chance 6%-8% increased Global Critical Strike Multiplier[/u] Cobalt specific prefixes: 14%-16% increased Physical Damage with Wands 6%-8% increased Attack Speed with Wands 6%-8% increased maximum Energy Shield Viridian specific prefixes: 0.2%-0.4% of Physical Attack Damage Leeched as Mana Crimson specific prefixes: 0.2%-0.4% of Physical Attack Damage Leeched as Life All in all jewels are a great additional means to compensate for anything else that our gear is lacking.
Auras & Heralds
Mikelat's aura spreadsheet for this build
4 x 50% auras - 35% Discipline - 1 x 25% herald Anger + Hatred + Haste in Prism Guardian Wrath + Discipline + Empower in a 4L Herald of Ice + Curse on Hit + Assassin's Mark + Blood Magic in a 4L List in order of priority:
Hatred and Herald of Ice let's us chain shatter fractured packs. One of the most satisfying things you'll experience in PoE.
Gem Links
Main attack:
6L KB + GMP + PCoC + LL + WED + CritDmg 5L KB + GMP + PCoC + LL + WED Power Charge on Crit has made its way back to the core setup (after only relying on our HoI CoH setup for generating charges in 1.3). We heavily depend on Power Charges with Auxium to have enough mana leech to sustain our attack and therefore need a more reliable source that is independent from monster kills. Life Leech is an absolute necessity with the overall changes to the leech mechanics and Blood Rage. I advise to never run reflect maps in higher levels as the appearance of an additional Thornflesh pack can easily kill your character. I have had no problem with reflect rares and Thornflesh packs in levels up to 76. Further levels are yet to be tested as this particular Bloodlines mod is very rare. As suggested by Steezbattalion, if you still want to tackle reflect maps you can exchange the Increased Critical Damage gem with an Added Chaos Damage gem. Herald of Ice Curse on Hit setup: 4L HoI + CoH + Assassin's Mark + BM Choose the curse you like the most! It is a very convenient way of taking advantage of curses. Warlord's Mark for additional leech, Poacher's Mark for Frenzy Charges and Assassin's Mark for the additional crit multiplier and chance, which disregards the 95% cap, are all solid options each with a means to help refill our mana pool.  Auras on mana + 1 gem of choice: 4L Discipline + Wrath + Empower + Summon Ice Golem The empowered Ice Golem grants us increased accuracy unmatched by any node in the passive tree and increased critical strike chance to get close to the 95% cap. 4 gems of choice: 4L Vaal Discipline + Blood Rage + Flame Dash + Faster Casting Blood Rage can be used as an additional boost to attack speed and leech during boss fights. It is bearable to run all the time, but requires a fast paced and efficient playstyle. It is fine to use while running high level maps or content that requires your dedicated attention. Flame Dash finally offers a means to move and overcome obstacles quickly at the maximum expense of two sockets. It is a nice to have, but the most expendable gem setup. Auras on life (Prism Guardian): 3L Anger + Hatred + Haste Haste can be easily swapped out with Grace if needed. Unlike Unwavering Stance, the Eye of Chayula does not prevent our character from evading attacks, thus Grace is a very nice defensive alternative. A level 21 Grace in a + 2 to level of aura gems Prism Guardian with 54% aura effectiveness, 26% increased evasion from the passive tree and 160 dexterity alone grants us over 7k evasion rating. 3 gems of choice: 3L Vaal Haste + Frost Wall + Increased Duration Vaal Haste is great for a faster paced playstyle while clearing maps and a useful boost in boss fights. Vaal Grace is just a good option for a more defensive playstyle. Frost Wall procs all explosions of Kinetic Blast, helping with leech and damage when placed on top of a boss. These skill-combinations complement my playstyle and are exchangeable for different situations. I will update and extend the post as needed with more explanations, information, variation, and videos as soon as I find the time to do so! If there are any suggestions or questions, please leave them here or message me ingame: IGN: Closer_to_God Thanks for stopping by! IGN: Yookikoo | CET Last edited by Divina#3564 on Jul 23, 2015, 2:57:58 PM
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just curious, have you ever tried this kind of set up with a dagger?
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Good call, haven't tried it yet. But I think it's hard to say if it would work the same way. Wand skills scale very well even if or maybe because the weapon itself has such a low base damage.
I'll check if I or a friend of mine can test it and see if there's potential. IGN: Yookikoo | CET
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Pre 1.3 and KB, my low life wander used Prism.
I also found that (even after the CoE nerf) CoE was still my best option, no SD on shield, sure, but the small amount we picked up on the tree, the witch SD per PC node, the implicit SD on the wand and a SD roll on my ammy was WELL worth it. There also was the great benefit from the mana and life leech and the accuracy along with what is not bad ES on CoE. Post 1.3 and KB, it is much easier to go CoE and Spirit shield, as per Lawyne's build with whatever concessions you need to make for not having mirror gear. The gap between mirror wanders and us peons was MASSIVELY reduced in 1.3. Have a play about, you may well be surprised. " Pre 1.3 I made a LL blood magic dagger thrower with Bino's, CoE and Prism, based on, no.. bastardised from (haha) Fyndell's. What's more, I did it on an 88 Templar just because I had a spare Templar. At only lvl 88 and with the first 5 points completely wasted and used solely to GTFO of the 1.2 Templar start area -_- he was surprisingly effective. Casually casual. Last edited by TheAnuhart#4741 on Feb 25, 2015, 5:51:34 PM
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Thanks for the input! I finally got to do some gear biased testing (my resources are finite) and updated my thread with a rough comparison between the Prism Guardian and Crown of Eyes setup.
tl;dr: CoE has more potential, but it still requires more investment into other gear. That is no big news and I think for me it would require just a better shield, ring and belt. But I think Prism Guardian still offers a good alternative on the way to finally getting there. Especially when it comes to min-maxing, or even such a dreadful thing like capping resistances, I find it a lot easier to handle. IGN: Yookikoo | CET
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This build needs more attention. The concept is great: I always wanted a physical wander. It is expensive (as stated in the title), but that provides upper-middle-class players a set of solid achievements for end-game.
Atm I only have a 5L Shav's. It will be a long journey, but this looks promising! :D IGN: DylanRyder
The Crit Philosopher: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/960124 Dominus Split Runs guide: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1212404 |
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i got lucky in the 1month SC league to get some good deals so i could put this build together on a "budget". I respecced into this at 68 where i could equip the shield and had 4800ES which is decent enough to level in 66-69maps, even with a 4L shavs.
my gear:
Spoiler
The mask is a very good option imo if you dont have +1 rainbow or maligaros. I also got a belt with some chaos res, so in total i got 52% which helps a bit with the blood rage degen. current tree: I think getting the mana nodes is better than some attack speed, what would you say? Could you comment on my gear/tree and what to improve next? I'm far from being crit capped, what could I do ? What should I focus on first in the tree now ? RIP King of the Forest view-thread/1738625
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Love the idea for LL KB. I'd classify myself as a middle class player (no mirrored items accessible).
Would running the following items be viable? Also, i've played a bit of Kb and notice it really struggles with single target damage. What do you suggest for boss fights?
Spoiler
Thanks IGN: Standard League - Dark_Captain Last edited by lDantonl#7148 on Apr 8, 2015, 2:31:48 PM
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Hi there cmphx, I think your gear is superb for 1MSC. Especially your jewellery will be hard to upgrade just because you already have all the desirable stats on them. The Vertex is definitely a good option, especially at this point in the league. Though if you are later on struggling with resistances or your chance to hit, I would recommend using a rare energy shield helmet with resistances and/or accuracy instead. Having resistances there and on other gear would give you the freedom to use Diamond rings, which in turn helps you reach your critical strike chance cap. But it requires a lot of fiddling, and due to the limited resources of a temporary league, gear wise you're on a great spot I'd say. If you are really looking to upgrade something, then maybe you could start looking for boots with more energy shield. Your Damnation Spiral Ruby Ring has another open suffix for a potential resistance mod which may help to upgrade your boots.
Your tree looks well thought-out. I noticed you took the increased mana node instead of the spell damage per power charge node to get to the outside highway over the witch starting area, which is a nice optimisation! I'll respec into this pathing asap. Also taking the mana nodes instead of the attack speed nodes at the scion starting area seems absolutely fine. I'll fiddle around with that too later. Come to think of it, losing 13% increased attack speed while gaining 24% increased mana and a passive point (since I take the 20% mana regeneration node either way) may very well be worth it. Nice observations there! Depending on your current status, you could go for the rest of the Eagle Eye cluster, then Vaal Pact to counter reflect and maybe afterwards head towards Unwavering Stance. In higher level maps I feel it's just too important not to take. For now I'd suggest heading to it, getting the strength nodes on the way, which in turn may free up a mod on your belt for example. However if you are fine not being stun immune, then you could focus on your critical strike chance (Eagle Eye cluster, Depth Perception, the two nodes behind Assassination) and mana regeneration to level up Arctic Armour. As for reaching the critical strike chance cap, I think it would be hard to do since you would require Diamond rings and critical strike chance on your amulet. Acquiring those in a temporary league with the desired mods may be close to impossible or at least very costly. Since the Eagle Eye cluster is right next to the pathing of the tree, it's a good opportunity to raise your critical strike chance. Depth Perception may also be an option, only it requires two more nodes, so five in total, to reach, but also offers 40 dexterity, which may again free up a slot on your rings for resistances. --- Hey lDantonl! Your gear seems fine so far, only the lack of flat accuracy and mana regeneration on your jewellery may be a little restricting. I would definitely suggest either leaving out WED or CritDmg in order to take in Additional Accuracy to make up for it. Your jewellery pieces really have some juicy mods on them, but sadly we also require accuracy and mana regeneration since the amount we can get with a single mod on our jewellery, and helmet in the case of accuracy, exceeds anything we can get on the passive tree with a single node. Especially in higher level maps you will feel the need to have a decent level Arctic Armour to mitigate some incoming damage. As for the single target I previously ran a Frenzy setup with PCoC, CritDmg and LL. Power Siphon is also an option, but I decided to use Frenzy instead for the increased attack speed. For me it worked out like that, but I know of people doing workarounds for boss fights. Self-cast or spell totem Frost Wall with Kinetic Blast makes all your projectiles hit the wall and trigger the explosions, instead of only one projectile hitting the boss. If it's a big boss you're facing then a gem switch should also do the trick, either with Frenzy instead of GMP or Power Siphon instead of Kinetic Blast placed into your main attack link setup, GMP and pierce swapped with FA and PPAD or Frenzy. --- Didn't notice it became such a wall of text. Sorry for that. :P IGN: Yookikoo | CET
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" woops, yeah, i should have toldyou :D sorry, forgot about that. " I'm asking myself how much mana i actually need to run a 20 or 21 AA. do you have some numbers there on how much %regen and %mana one needs to reach the mana regen with inner force? and how much regen would i need to sustain a 6linked KB with no leech on gear? at the moment i use a 5Link which is easy to sustain with just regen for me , but it might change on the 6th link. Getting just enough mana/mana regen is definetely something one should min/max for endgame, because it takes up quite some points in the tree and suffixes on rings/amulet which in turn cant be used for resist or crit/accuracy. " Hm, I would probably need a 37%increased crit (11.something chance to crit) wand to reach the cap with diamondrings. Depth perception seems really good, i totally forgot about the extra dex! if only the tree wasnt so tight and so much is already needed, indeed a high level scion would help me alot... How much accuracy is enough accuracy? For TS rangers you usually stop at around 1800, but thats because you need ondars to be reflect safe. would you say 2000accuracy is a good mark? " NP, i really appreciate your help, thanks so much! Your experience with this build and your suggestions help me a lot, and your guide is what made me start all this :p RIP King of the Forest view-thread/1738625
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