[2.2] King's "Jupiter Ascendant" - 4 curse hybrid/CI non-crit Occultist Witch [HC&Beginner friendly]

Is there a compelling reason to use ball lightning over Spark? Spark seems so OP :)

yup, but no problem in fact, just lacking a bit of mana during long monotargets, that aside, it's all good!

My variant of CI version of this build - HERE

You need Righteous Decree because CI has much less mana. Sanctity is also very good especially with Vile Bastion (ascendancy) and Stone Golem. Regen is phenomenal in maps.

Level 88 softcore using this idea. Since I'm SC, my tree is pretty different, but I'm up to ~33k paper dps with Arc, 4k ES, 3k life. Highest map I've done is T11 and it was pretty easy, would do higher but can't seem to get them to drop. Except for the cheese bosses (phantasmagoria, I'm looking at you) I haven't had issues with finishing any maps. Curse immune and reflect are impossible, but that's just a given.

I am enjoying it quite a bit. Figured you'd like to know :)

playing this build rn

level 48 in cruel act 2

I almost 1 shot everything, I can just run and gun each pack gets 1 - 2 shot.
And with faster casting blue packs feel super easy.


Spark feels like the superior skill for leveling btw for anyone trying this build out.

Looking at your CI build, it could stand some optimization. It takes way too many 6% nodes in a world where the Energy From Within jewel exists.

Compare this slight variation that I got by stripping five 6% nodes and redeploying:

+10 INT
-30% ES
+0.7% ES Regeneration
+2 Jewel sockets, one of them the one near Melding

In the Melding socket you use Energy From Within, gaining 23-27% ES depending on quality at the cost of 15% life, a huge benefit when playing CI since a few points of life's only benefit is negligible impact on the duration of stuns and freezes on you.

In the Shaper socket, you use a standard 6-8% ES + 1-2 useful stats jewel. (Or 3 useful stats if you are really rich, but looking at the typical case here.)

Total is:

+0.7% ES Regeneration
+1 to +7% ES (including 10 INT)
+1 or 2 useful stats (typically worth 12-13% damage each)
+5 mana (from 10 INT)

A significant offensive and defensive upgrade with no drawbacks apart from the cost of acquiring two cheap jewels.


Alternatively, for a more substantial defensive upgrade, pick up Growth and Decay rather than the Shaper socket, like this:

+2.0% ES regeneration
-5% to +1% ES
+5 mana

(Further mini-optimization for both; Don't drop five 6% nodes, drop four of them and the dangling 5% ES/8% armour left of Faith and Steel.)


HOWEVER, I can't help noticing that your CI version has significantly less mana than your hybrid versions, so I suspect mana will be a problem, in which case THIS will probably be the best for CI (still sticking to a 116 point build like the one you currently present for CI):

+1.0% ES regeneration
+10 INT
-1% ES

+32% mana
+12% reduced mana cost of skills

+10 STR
+12% armour
+8% elemental damage

Not only is it a more balanced approach, it has the benefit that if you turn out to need even more mana, you can pick up the nice 15% mana regen/0.4% life regen nodes right next to Sanctity.

...When you've got Zealot's Oath, you can never do much wrong by picking up extra life regeneration nodes. :D

"

Pi2rEpsilon wrote:

HOWEVER, I can't help noticing that your CI version has significantly less mana than your hybrid versions, so I suspect mana will be a problem, in which case THIS will probably be the best for CI (still sticking to a 116 point build like the one you currently present for CI):

Your skill tree version with Sanctity is very close to mine (posted above). But I don't see any point in keeping Arcane Vision and +1 Frenzy charge. You have better way to spend your precious skill points. And it is good to use Nimbleness + Practical Application so you don't need to use Chayula. With Vile Bastion and 70% avoid being stun while casting you are quite safe. You take 30% spell damage at the start of the witch tree but they don't do much anyway. You won't even notice the loss. Does it matter if you have 19k or 21k DPS? No. You can have an amulet giving you mana regeneration, ES , resistances and spell damage so you can make up for the loss and gain even more. And besides, you won't need much Dex and Str on your gear. And you are gonna need as much mana and mana regen as you can get .

"

Garfunkel wrote:

Your skill tree version with Sanctity is very close to mine (posted above). But I don't see any point in keeping Arcane Vision and +1 Frenzy charge. You have better way to spend your precious skill points.

I quite agree, and I wouldn't include them if I were to use this build myself. But I was trying to do minimal changes to the build that maintained the build's priorities but accomplishing them in better ways.

So, at the moment I'm in normal act 3 at about the end of the act, just hit level 34, and I've got a minor gear dilemma. Now I'm not using any daggers yet, partially because I've yet to find a good one, but also because right now I've got Lifesprig and Reverberation Rod, both 3L all blue slots. At the same time in my last attempt at the Lord's Labyrinth (failed due to a bug, of all things, inflicting heat-trap-floor damage on me while I was standing on the allegedly 'safe' upper platform. :|) I picked up this: Xirgil's Crank.

Should I make the switch to the staff for a while, or stick with my wands? Or should I be seeking out other gear entirely?

Skills I'm using ATM
Ball Lightning+Added Lightning Damage+Vaal Cold Snap (reverb rod)
Orb of Storms+Added Lightning Damage+Herald of Thunder (lifesprig)
Raise Zombie+Minion Damage, Conductivity (Armor)
Lightning Warp+Chance to Flee, Clarity (Helmet)

If necessary and if anyone can tell me how, I can try to give a more direct view of my character. But basically, how am I doing, what advice can anyone offer, and what can I do better?

P. S. This is my first character in the Perandus League, so assume if gear you're going to suggest is even moderately pricey, it's out of my price range for now. ^^;

"

KittenyKat wrote:

So, at the moment I'm in normal act 3 at about the end of the act, just hit level 34, and I've got a minor gear dilemma. Now I'm not using any daggers yet, partially because I've yet to find a good one, but also because right now I've got Lifesprig and Reverberation Rod, both 3L all blue slots. At the same time in my last attempt at the Lord's Labyrinth (failed due to a bug, of all things, inflicting heat-trap-floor damage on me while I was standing on the allegedly 'safe' upper platform. :|) I picked up this: Xirgil's Crank.

Should I make the switch to the staff for a while, or stick with my wands? Or should I be seeking out other gear entirely?

Skills I'm using ATM
Ball Lightning+Added Lightning Damage+Vaal Cold Snap (reverb rod)
Orb of Storms+Added Lightning Damage+Herald of Thunder (lifesprig)
Raise Zombie+Minion Damage, Conductivity (Armor)
Lightning Warp+Chance to Flee, Clarity (Helmet)

If necessary and if anyone can tell me how, I can try to give a more direct view of my character. But basically, how am I doing, what advice can anyone offer, and what can I do better?

P. S. This is my first character in the Perandus League, so assume if gear you're going to suggest is even moderately pricey, it's out of my price range for now. ^^;

Hi! To show your gear, you can click on your character avatar in upper left and use ctrl+alt click on your gear to automatically post it in your thread.

In terms of gear, I usually buy Lifesprig and Goldrim helm to help me cap res and that's about it. The rest of gear is anything I find along the way, just enough to cap my res. When you find a decent 4L, you can get rid of Lifesprig and play Ball lightning + Faster Casting + Spell Echo + Controlled destruction. When you reach merciless, around lvl 55 or so, you can start buying some gear and by the time you reach maps, you should have capped res and all links / gems you need.

Xirgil's Crank is great, but I'd rather use a dagger+shield combo for endgame. Xirgil's is better for some crit variation of this build, and some block because you can have 43% block (63+% with Rumi's), +1 socketed gems, crit staff nodes and Power Charge on block etc.

Don't worry about expensive gear, you can buy everything with only a few chaos, it will get you to lvl 75+ without a problem. Once you accumulate some currency, you can start upgrading your gear (mainly getting more ES and HP).

Hope it helps!