[2.2] Voltanxic - well rounded Voltaxic Champion | almost any map mod combination capable

This guide is a work in progress

For my personal taste I potentially found a build with a good ballance of decent damage while being tanky enough to deathlessly deal with most ( hopefully all ) content in game running maps unidentified without a sweat.

Tanky Voltaxic Champion aka Voltanxic



Pros :
- Can do almost ( no leech is impossible ) any map mod combination without big sacrifices with regards to offense and defense including Blood Magic ( still need to test this ), No regen, Reflect, etc
- Maintains high survivability without sacrificing too much damage
- No unwanted knockback

Cons :
- Sadly cant compete with the damage output of a Coc but who can seriously
- Probably ( slightly ) less damage than a crit Voltaxic even though that might be subjective due to shatters and crit sounds or a result of superior gear
- Has to use Frenzy instead of Blast Rain as single target to maintain charges ( which actually didnt feel like a disadvantage as long as I played the build )

Passive Features ( theoretical maximum based on a level 100 build ) :
- around 188% increased life ( 5k+ HP at level 90 )
( with life on jewels or in exchange for one, as you prefer )
- Permanent Fortify
- 20% Chaos resistance
- 71% increased Attack Speed without buffs
- 400%+ increased damage
- 2-3 Jewel Sockets
- 6 Frenzy charges

Additional Features :
- Blood Magic map mod capable threw Essence Worm
( Furthermore Essence Worm gives this build a pretty big unreserved mana pool - 198 at level 90 - despite running Wrath, Herald of Thunder and Arctic Armour as well as a nice damage boost )
- Reflect Proof threw Voltaxic
- 22.5% Physical damage reduction threw Lightning Coil
- 12% Physical and Fire damage reduction threw Arctic Armour
- 100% increased Damage threw Drillneck
- 62% increased movement speed with 30% movement speed boots
- No degeneration from Blood Rage ( unless Vulnerability or reduced life recovery mods are active ) threw Stone Golem
- Grants increased damage and movement speed to allies ( including Golem and summoned weapons from Decree of War )

Core uniques of the build :
Voltaxic Rift
Drillneck
Essence Worm
Static Electricity
( potentially to be replaced by a GG jewel )

Build Tree :
Passive Tree at level 100


Bandits :
Oak +40 life
Kraytin +8% attack speed
Kraytin +1 Frenzy charge

Ascension :
Fortitude - 4 points
Inspirational - 2 points


Current Gear :


Current stats ( level 90, some gems including Frenzy ( lvl 10 right now ) itself are rather low level due to 20q reset recently, these stats will improve heavily as I get the remaining Frenzy charges and a 6L which adds another 40% more damage to Frenzy ) :

HP : 5047
Armour : 2210 - 18% reduction
Evasion : 4822 - 32% chance to evade

Unbuffed, Aura + Herald only :
6l Lightning Arrow : 34801 DPS
5l Frenzy including non Tooltip Poison : 32476

Buffed ( Blood Rage + 4 Frenzy charges atm )
6l Lightning Arrow : 47281 DPS
5l Frenzy including non Tooltip Poison : 47820

Levelling :
Level 1-9 - Silverbranch + Split Arrow & Barrage
Level 9 till end of cruel - Storm Cloud + Split Arrow & Barrage / Blast Rain
Beginning of Merciless till Voltaxic - Good Elemental bow with high Lightning Damage & Attack Speed + Lightning Arrow + Blast Rain / Frenzy

For early levelling Hyrri's Bite is an ideal Quiver because it gives stats and life gain on hit since life leech at lower levels is not really useful.
Furthermore for levelling it is better to skip Spirit Void & Vitality Void and to take Essence Sap instead which provides mana gain on hit.

Passive Tree at around level 30

Passive Tree at around level 40

Passive Tree at around level 50

Links for used attack skills while levelling ( in order of acquisition ):

Skill + Added Lightning + Added Cold
Skill + Added Lightning + Weapon Elemental Damage + Added Cold
Skill + Added Lightning + Weapon Elemental Damage + Pierce

5th and 6th link would be Void Manipulation and Elemental Focus as soon as available.

A viable skill to use while levelling starting at the end of Act 3 normal is Tornado Shot. It actually can be used as end game main skill as well which also opens the option to use a Kaom's Heart as chest. Links for levelling would be

Tornado Shot + LMP / GMP + Added Lightning + Weapon Elemental Damage + Lightning Penetration

If you prefer Tornado Shot over Lightning Arrow + Frenzy in the final build I recommend to not pick up the Frenzy charges ( since Tornado Shot can not sustain Frenzy charges against bosses, you would still use Blood Rage to benefit from the attack speed buff and the 3 Frenzy charges against trash mobs ) and pick up more life or damage nodes / jewel sockets. End game links with Voltaxic would be :

Tornado Shot + GMP + WED + Pierce + Void manipulation + Elemental Focus

A strong endgame viable and cheap chest is Lioneye's Vision. It has high life, high armour and a free 7th link pierce support so that the chest can be used as a fake 5+ link with only 4 linked sockets or even as a 7 link adding another multiplier.


Maximisation / Enchantments :
- Drillneck with Adds an additional Arrow Corruption and switching to LMP for more Lightning Arrow damage
- Getting Labyrinth enchants on gear, preferably :

Lightning Arrow hits 2 additional targets on helmet
Decree of War on gloves as DPS buff
8% chance to Dodge Spell Damage if you've taken Spell Damage Recently on boots

Explanations :
- A huge chunk of damage comes from 100% pierce chance enabling the use of four support gems providing more multipliers ( instead of having to use e.g. chain ) : Pierce, Void Manipulation, Weapon Elemental Damage, Elemental Focus
- Elemental Focus : Poison is not an elemental status ailment and reliable 40% more damage is better than a possibility of shocking low hp mobs. It adds way more damage than Added Lightning for this build since as a non crit build almost every single piece of gear already adds lightning damage.
- Essence Worm allows the build to still run Wrath ( which is a Voltaxic build's major damage source ) on Blood Magic maps.

Final Notes :
This build is not easy to gear ( but also not harder to gear than a crit build using Maligaro's and Rat's Nest ). Essence Worm, Drillneck and Lightning Coil make capping resists hard ( especially capping for elemental weakness ). However since this build has so many defensive mechanisms ( Fortification, Arctic Armour, Armour, High life pool ) it should be possible to play with a different chest like Belly of the Beast until one can compensate for the resistance penalty of a Lightning Coil.

When I start doing really difficult content I will decide if the build should go for Acrobatics to get some spell damage avoidance.

Hardcore viable : Most likely ( I didnt die once running unidentified maps a lot, the only time I died was in a full party in a malformation and the only other person who entered the Piety fight with me had a Cwdt + Frost Wall which locked me in place and made me waste my flasks in panic even though the beam didnt actually hurt me much, plus I had enough time to log but prefered to look for a tp scroll to die instead ^^ - pls dont use Cwdt + Frost Wall if you dont want your teammates to die, Arctic Breath is a mate friendly alternative )
Blood Magic viable : to be verified
Atziri Viable : to be executed, should be easy even though it will be my first time
Über Atziri Viable : Possibly - I might try it once maxed ( 6L bow, level 20 gems and a few more levels for all 6 Frenzy charges )


Final appeal to GGG - Please make Blood Rage and Frenzy buffs elemental build viable by changing physical attack damage to attack damage.

I am honestly surprised with the amount of damage you deal without any crit at all. I only managed to get ~16k LA unbuffed even though I have specced into crit.

"

reThenok wrote:

I am honestly surprised with the amount of damage you deal without any crit at all. I only managed to get ~16k LA unbuffed even though I have specced into crit.

A crit build can definatly get as much and maybe more LA tooltip DPS. It is more gear dependant than this build though because chain hurts its damage a lot. A crit build requires Elemental Damage and crit chance / multi on as much gear as possible while this build mostly gets good tooltip DPS with just added lightning damage on gear which can even be crafted ( weapon elemental damage doesnt do much since this build already gets 500% increased damage from Tree and Drillneck ). Also it is 6 linked tooltip DPS ( yet it is a lot higher now since I got my 6 Frenzy charges and I will update the stats once I got me a 6L Voltaxic ).

If you want to get more DPS you will probably have to invest in good jewelry / quiver - did you look at Mathil's Voltaxic crit build guide ? That might help you finding out how to improve your gear.

Is elemental focus really worth it compared to let's say added lightning? While ele focus gives more dps, it's also taking away 20% chance to shock from lightning arrow no?

No Lioneye Fall + getting Destroyer/Wrecking ball?

Going to the shadow start for 26% chaos damage and 12% attack speed feels a bit wasted when you could get that.

"

Keyen wrote:

No Lioneye Fall + getting Destroyer/Wrecking ball?

Going to the shadow start for 26% chaos damage and 12% attack speed feels a bit wasted when you could get that.

Physical damage does basically nothing for the build ( its just a bonus to the chaos damage on the shadow nodes ) so the nodes you mention are almost useless - loosing 9% attack speed, 26% chaos damage plus a jewel with stats like 6% life, 10%+ damage, resists and / or stats for just 16% attack speed which this build already gets plenty. It wouldnt be efficient I think since it would require more than the 5 points used in the shadow area plus the "wasted" jewel.

"

Druft wrote:

Is elemental focus really worth it compared to let's say added lightning? While ele focus gives more dps, it's also taking away 20% chance to shock from lightning arrow no?

With my gear Added Lightning adds only a small amount of damage ( with a +2 Essence Worm Wrath, Herald of Thunder, Static Electricity and added lightning damage on gear the added lightning gem falls off a bit - diminishing returns ) and it is only a slim chance to shock. So it is almost 40% more damage instead of a chance to shock for 50% more damage that doesnt work in a lot of scenarios ( in parties, against bosses ). I prefer to deal reliable high damage instead. It is solid for a crit build though - crit builds usually dont get as much base added lightning damage as this non crit build since those rather get crit chance and / or crit multiplier on gear so that they dont suffer those diminishing returns as much plus crit builds have a way higher chance to shock.

How gimp would a champ version be over say deadeye? Anyone with exp?

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shahmat1972 wrote:

How gimp would a champ version be over say deadeye? Anyone with exp?

Basically the Voltaxic build you want to play depends on what feels good to you I think. You need to outweigh advantages / disadvantages. This build's main advantage is the permanent fortification. Other versions will potentially reach more damage but less defense ( and Evasion hurts a lot when you get hit ). Personally I dont like Assassin builds because they have problems maintaining power charges against bosses and dont reach really high crit still. I did a crit LA / Blast Rain Champ build which felt quite nice - see Mathil's build guide for something like this :

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1550827

His build got a lot of attention and thus you can get lots of support there I suppose.

As for Deadeye - I dont see enough advantages to outweigh the defense loss doing this build as Deadeye, but have no experience at all with a Deadeye build.

I am not pushing this build anymore for now because grinding maps is super boring IMHO. I did an Atziri run together with someone else ( he did Atziri alone though ) which was a breeze ( trash, vaals and trio ) at lvl 90ish ( most likeley way earlier - but it was my first Atziri run ever, so I was a bit hesitant ).