[2.2] King's "Jupiter Ascendant" - 4 curse hybrid/CI non-crit Occultist Witch [HC&Beginner friendly]
 (Image by Anna Steinbauer) If you're not sure what to play in the new Perandus league, you might want to start with this build. It is very strong, both in defense and offense, and very cheap option for end-game. It's based around witch Occultist ascendancy class which enables us to cast 4 curses on monsters and boost our survivability and damage sky high. This is a lightning witch, so there are several options to go for in terms of main damage skill! Main skills I'll use are Ball lightning for damage, Orb of Storms for applying 2 curses and Herald of Thunder for another 2 curses. You can use Arc, Storm Call and Spark if you don't like Ball lightning! There is a new node called Elemental Overload which gives you 40% more damage, but removes your crit multiplier. It lasts for 8 seconds (once you crit), so having 14% crit on Orb of Storms (Ungil's Harmony gives 100% inc crit chance, Platinum Cris gives 80% global crit) and 10% crit on Ball lightning (100% increased from Ungil's, Platinum Cris gives 80% global crit and 100% reduced from Controlled Destruction) will be enough to maintain it all the time. I really like this buff, especially for early game spell damage. Highlights: 185% Increased Life, +225% Increased Energy Shield (315% CI version), 4 Endurance and Frenzy charges, 4 curses, 265% spell damage from tree, Life and Mana leech, 40% increased effectiveness of curses, 2 jewel sockets etc. You can skip some life or es nodes and take more damage if you'd like!
Gear
Only 1 item is sort of required , and it's Doedre's Damning. It enables us to have 4 curses. Helmet Rare helmet with 150+ es, life and res- Doedre's Scorn is a great helmet for boosting damage. With 4 curses on enemies you get 60-100% increased damage from helmet alone. Downside is no life roll, no res and low energy shield. Rime Gaze is a great helmet for our single target attack - Storm Call! Only use it if you're playing ARC! Body armour Rare armour with 400+ es, life and res is a way to go. Gloves Rare gloves with 120+ ES, life and res. Boots Blood Dance boots would be nice for generating Frenzy charges and extra ES regen, but rare ES boots with 20% MS, life and res are enough to start with. Weapon My first choice for HC would be a rare dagger with spell/lightning damage and cast speed. The ideal base would be Platinum Cris for 80% increased global crit (so we can crit more often and proc Elemental Overload. Wielding dagger also enables us to use Whirling Blades skill which enables very fast movement and evading stuff. Moonsorrow is another great option. Nice damage and Blind. Blind is a debuff that lessens the chance to hit of the affected target by 50%. Eclipse solaris is also a valid choice. You loose a bit of damage, but get perma blind and some extra crit chance to help procing our Elemental Overload. Another good cheap option. Shield Rare shield with 200+ es, life and res. Spell damage would be nice. Rings Doedre's Damning and a rare ring with res, life, es... Amulet Ungil's Harmony finally found its use. Since we have no crit multi, but need some crit chance, this is ideal. Belt Rare belt with life and res. ES would be nice, too.
Skill tree
BALL LIGHTNING OR STORM CALL HC Hybrid end-game skill tree ARC or SPARK HC Hybrid end-game skill tree Tons of defense, good amount of damage, 4 curses...
CI Variation
You can easily go CI with this build. All you need is highest ES gear possible for your budget, like 500+ es chest, 200+ es helmet, 200+ es shield, 100+ es gloves and boots etc. 315% Increased maximum energy shield! 15k es without a problem.. CI skill tree
Low-life version
Low-life skill tree Use or Solaris Lorica, otherwise Chaos damage will kill you. Eye of Chayula and Dream Fragments/Auxium for stun and freeze immunity.
Gems
6L Body armour: Ball Lightning + Spell echo + Lightning penetration + Slower Projectiles + (5L Controlled Destruction) + [6L Faster Casting / Innervate / Added Lightning Damage] Arc + Spell echo + Lightning penetration + Controlled Destruction + (5L Added Lightning damage) + [6L Faster Casting / Innervate / Life Leech] Spark + Spell echo + Lightning penetration + Pierce + (5L Controlled Destruction) + [6L Faster Projectiles / Added lightning damage] Storm Call + Spell echo + Lightning penetration + Less Duration + (5L Controlled Destruction) + [6L Faster Casting / Added lightning damage] 4L Gloves: Ball Lightning / Orb of Storms + Curse on Hit + Temporal Chains + Conductivity 4L Boots: Herald of Thunder + Curse on Hit + Warlord's Mark + Enfeeble 4L Helmet: Discipline + Arctic Armour + Stone Golem + Minion Life 3L Wand / Dagger: CWDT + Immortal call + Increased duration 3L Shield: Lightning Warp + Less Duration + Faster Casting (or if you're using a dagger go - Whirling Blades + Faster Attacks + Blood Magic)
Bandits
Normal: Oak Cruel: Kill all Merciless: Kill all OR Kraityn if you plan on using The Blood Dance boots Last edited by kralj87#7793 on Mar 9, 2016, 5:54:46 PM Last bumped on Apr 7, 2016, 11:17:41 PM
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Just from casual reddit browsing, I could of sworn people are saying that the interaction with Orb of Storms and Empire's grasp is a negative one. You're considered the center point and things are "vacuumed" to you. Maybe I misread, but definitely something you should double-check. Think ZiggyD checked the interaction, maybe he has it on a stream/vod.
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skill trees seem consistent, the 4curse idea is interesting as well, keep it up.
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With 85% reserved, do you feel like you'll have any concerns with mana?
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" There shouldn't be any problems with Mana since the build uses Warlord's Mark (Life and Mana leech) |
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Hi! First of all, thanks for the nice guide.
Looks really solid, always loved playing Arc on my old character (coming back from a longer pause and not even sure if I can really invest time now :/). Just a quick question: with the nerf to Profane Bloom, do you still see enough damage output for highest tier maps? Chance being lowered to 25% hits this specific build quite a lot. Although the increased damage per curse still is 40% - which is huge - the 50% chance to cause explosions was really great. Another question: as we are quad-cursing, would Skittering Runes (near Scion) be worth a pick-up? We would not make use of the 10% cast-speed but 20% increased effect sounds pretty good to me for 3 points. We can drop one node at the Heart and Soul circle and then drop the two points at the extra endurance charge (near Templar) or just take them from the Scion life-wheel. Or just level up higher... Last edited by Mithrandil#3778 on Mar 3, 2016, 6:01:23 AM
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" Hi! Glad to see people are coming back to PoE, last 2-3 patches really made a game significantly more enjoyable! I'm pretty sure the damage won't be a problem. Profane Bloom is more like a cherry on top. I'd say this build should do end game quite well. It might be a bit slower than some other builds (CoC, mac crit stuff etc) but defensively outclassing a lot of spell caster builds. Skittering Runes was a big part of my initial idea, but completely forgot about it in the process.. Thanks for the reminder! I'd just skip some Scion life wheel nodes and take all aura effectiveness nodes in our area (40% total). |
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Do you think Orb of Storms could be enough to maintain Ele Overload without Ungill's Harmony?
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" I'm really not sure. My guess is it should, but I'd really have to test it first. |
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what do you think about elemental focus?
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