[2.3] LIGHTNING KINETIC BLAST PENETRATOR

THE LIGHTNING KINETIC BLAST PENETRATOR

BUILD OVERVIEW:
This is THE most versatile PVP/PVE wander build to date.
It trumps even my precious Volley Fire Barrage Wander build: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1513844
Credit for finding the amazing synergy of Kinetic Blast, 100% Pierce, and Frost Wall goes to Rupenus a.k.a FanonFlower. Rupenus and I pitted this build against the blood twined LA build. Both have very unique advantages, similarities, and differences.

VIDEOS:

Some more gifs:

A brief sarn video. (more to come)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5uX_jpUQIw&feature=youtu.be

DOMINATE RANGED COMBAT:
+ This build outranges Lightning Arrow and Explosive Arrow in Sarn arena.
+ This build can snipe sparkers in 1vs1 maps.
+ Superior range, better than the Inquisitor

DOMINATE MELEE COMBAT:
+ With frost wall and pierce mechanic, no melee can come close.
Lightning Penetration:
+ 58-65% lightning penetration translates to 90% combat effectiveness in both pvp and pve.

LIGHTNING KINETIC BLAST? Isn't KB physical?
Yes, KB is a purely physical attack.
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Kinetic_Blast


WHAT'S WRONG WITH PHYSICAL ATTACKS?
In pvp, immortal call is a hard counter that negates physical.

WHY GO LIGHTNING?
+ Lightning shocks!
+ Shocks increase damage taken by 50%. This is not a mere 50% increased damage buff. The target literally gets the shock status ailment and receives 50% increased damage taken. A BIG difference.
+ Penetration! Penetration ignores all the overcapped resists of top tier players in sarn. Think of this as the ranger version of the inquisitor's inevitable judgement.
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Penetration

FINALLY, WHY KINETIC BLAST?
+ Because KB is OP as a motha.
+ With GMP, the KB explosions can overlap
+ Wide area coverage for ranged combat. The way the explosions spread is similar to a cluster bomb. You're literally carpet bombing sarn.
+ With 100% chance to pierce, the explosions are consistently set of on Frost Walls. This mechanic was nerfed twice already by GGG. You do not set off additional explosions, but simply create a trigger-point for the explosions to concentrate on. Against melee, you create a focal point of explosions. You decide on the killzone!

OK, HOW DO I MAKE THIS LIGHTNING KB PENETRATOR WORK?
STEP 1: PHYSICAL TO LIGHTNING
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Physical_to_Lightning


STEP 2: TEMPEST BLAST
In addition, wanders can use the Tempest Blast passive node on the passive tree, which adds 30% additional lightning damage:


STEP 3: LIGHTNING PENETRATION
Finally, lightning penetration is the third missing piece.
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Lightning_Penetration


STEP 4: VESSEL OF VINKTAR

http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Vessel_of_Vinktar
Of course legacy is GG, but even after the nerf, you need at least 2 of these on your belt slot to maintain the massive leech. Alternatives are the lightning version of Doryani's heavy belt for the additional leech.

STEP 5: KINETIC BLAST + GMP + PIERCE
OPTION A) You need 100% Pierce. You can attain this pierce through a number of ways.
If you're life-based, you should use lioneye's vision + the pierce support gem.
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Lioneye%27s_Vision
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Pierce_(support_gem)



OPTION B) If you're CI or low-life, you should use the pierce support gem in combination with the passive pierce nodes near ranger.


The rest of the Kinetic Blast build is standard.
Please refer to the existing amazing guides by amazing players such as LiftingNerdBro, Anders515, Oos, and of course ZiggyD. Chris also gave a good explanation of Kinetic Blast featured on Build of the week S4E6.

SKILL TREE
My CI tree for Ranger is the following:


GEMS AND LINKS
MANDATORY SUPPORTS:
KINETIC BLAST + GMP + PIERCE + PHYSICAL TO LIGHTNING + LIGHTNING PENETRATION
For the 6th support, I prefer aoe. You can also go with Faster Projectiles for more range, Faster attacks depending on your wand type, or even Physical Projectile Attack Damage.

JEWELS:
+3 ES on hit
Projectile Speed
Area Damage
Physical Damage while using Wands
I wear 7 jewels on my tree.


WANDER MOBILITY:
Lightning warp is fine with reduced duration and faster casting.
But, do you want a perma-quicksilver flask with zero cooldown?
Phase Run + Increased Duration + Faster Casting + Enhance = up to +62% movement speed (at level 21).

MY GEAR:

(reserved)

(reserved)

Seems like an awesome guide! Going to try it out :)

very high aoe, insane clear speed, definitely T1 pvp build which can deal with every abusive thing in the meta.

i pestered/bothered you, insisted on you a lot to make you join pvp, im glad that you've done such great build in the end.

i've tried to introduce many people to pvp, i failed with every one of them, but winning one player means a lot!

"

Rupenus wrote:

very high aoe, insane clear speed, definitely T1 pvp build which can deal with every abusive thing in the meta.

i pestered/bothered you, insisted on you a lot to make you join pvp, im glad that you've done such great build in the end.

i've tried to introduce many people to pvp, i failed with every one of them, but winning one player means a lot!

RUPENUS FANONFLOWER
TIME TO TAKE DOWN SOME SPARKERS!

If you're going for penetration why not just go Templar? You would get a bunch more freezes and shocks by using Taste of Hate + added cold.

Also why ESGOH on jewels?

"

MatrixFactor wrote:

If you're going for penetration why not just go Templar? You would get a bunch more freezes and shocks by using Taste of Hate + added cold.

Also why ESGOH on jewels?

Templar spreads your tree too thin.
You can absolutely go templar inquisitor, and use 20% lightning conversion flasks instead of penetration flasks.

However, it's very difficult to cap crit chance with inquisitor. Most trees and gearsets allow you to reach 60-65% crit chance. This bottleneck in crit also bottlenecks your effective dps as you need to crit in order to bypass resists.

With the penetrator build, all of your hits penetrate.

Energy shield gain on hit was for reflect buffer. But after trial and error, you are right, you don't need that affix on the jewels.

"

Castablanca wrote:

"

MatrixFactor wrote:

If you're going for penetration why not just go Templar? You would get a bunch more freezes and shocks by using Taste of Hate + added cold.

Also why ESGOH on jewels?

Templar spreads your tree too thin.
You can absolutely go templar inquisitor, and use 20% lightning conversion flasks instead of penetration flasks.

However, it's very difficult to cap crit chance with inquisitor. Most trees and gearsets allow you to reach 60-65% crit chance. This bottleneck in crit also bottlenecks your effective dps as you need to crit in order to bypass resists.

With the penetrator build, all of your hits penetrate.

Energy shield gain on hit was for reflect buffer. But after trial and error, you are right, you don't need that affix on the jewels.

Using Skyforth, I don't see why you're afraid of using PCs to cap crit. this would let you hit 90-91% crit with 6PC and Facebreaker or 95% with Malis.

you're right, i hate to admit it but I think i have to level an inquisitor now.
however, inquisitor might get nerfed.

The only situation where i see deadeye penetrator coming on top is if you stack double curse (ele weakness + conductivity). against enemies in pvp that don't overcap resists by much, it will do a lot more damage.