[2.5] CI Spectral Throw Claw Raider, Hand of Wisdom and Action.

Build Summary

This is not a budget build, it takes about 2-3ex to gear it adequately for mapping. and has a ceiling of as much as you wish to spend on the perfect ES gear.

When creating this build I decided that I wanted to kill the Shaper and Uber Atziri, this specific version of the build is tuned to be able to tackle the toughest bosses in the game thus it focuses heavily on defenses, more aggressive versions of this build can work however I think this has more than enough damage and clear speed to feel nice while mapping and it is insanely tanky.

This build is not particularly beginner friendly as it has a fairly rough leveling experience and requires a decent understanding of what stats to look for on gear to gear for red maps and endgame.

Tooltip DPS, lets face it that's what you're really here to see.
Unbuffed GMP in hideout.

Fully Buffed GMP(7 Frenzies, Flasks, Ele overload, Onslaught.) NO VAAL HASTE.

Fully Buffed Slower Proj(7 Frenzies, Flasks, Ele overload, Onslaught.) NO VAAL HASTE


Character Sheet


The Linchpin of the build
This claw is absolutly rediculous, it at 1000 int the claw adds 100-600 flat lightning damage, and that is global not just on the claw. that means while dual wielding these monsters 200-1200 flat lightning damage is very easily achievable. That is an INSANE amount of top end damage
The most important rolls are 12% int, the WED is a nice bonus and the Dexterity doesn't really matter that much.


The Big Impact Uniques

Eye of Chayula!
Stun Immunity, no brainer. CI builds require a way to avoid stuns and while the stun evasion on boots is very strong it would not have good up time in boss rooms. The other options are Valyrium which I did consider however Valyrium isn't immunity therefore it is worse. Unwavering stance is the other option, but that removes an INCREDIBLY potent defensive aspect that is evasion from the build, I wasn't a fan of that either. I know Astramentis gives a large amount of stats however I don't think it's worth sacrificing eye of chayula over.


Vessel of Vinktar
This item is incredible, it is 13% lightning pen in a flask and the leech with Vaal pact makes anything you touch instantly put you at full ES. The shock is also a bonus for bursting down bosses quickly during Vaal Discipline and Vaal Haste.


Shaper's Touch!
All of the accuracy you could ever need in one item that also gives a very large amount of evasion scaling and a marginal amount of % increased ES. It's a perfect fit and I don't think i'd ever replace these despite the slightly low base ES for gloves.

Very well rolled rings and gloves can make this item redundant as there is no longer a need for such accuracy and the flat ES+Resists can end up being better than the evasion.


Problematic map mods?
Ele reflect map mod becomes more of an issue the greater your damage becomes, running Ele Reflect I feel fairly safe, however running Ele weakness or -Max resist maps as well as Ele Reflect gets a bit sketchier. Lone reflect mobs have never been an issue for me.

Temporal Chains ruins the feel of the build like it does many others, it's simply not enjoyable to play with.

No Regen really makes non linear maps a pain, maps with backtracking become a major pain due to not being able to whirl infinitely, I do not have much move speed in my personal version of the build so I rely very heavily on whirling.

No Leech is pretty much unplayable, leech is needed to sustain mana to make the build feel good, you can run No Leech maps but it's sketchy and takes a while.

DEFENSES! There's a lot of layers.
So the defense of this character is incredibly layered. Currently I have a large amount of evasion from Grace and jade flask, Dodge chance from Ascendancy points, stun immunity, instant leech, 10k~ ES and block chance from dual wielding.

A Vaal Discipline goes a long way acting as a temporary huge energy shield buffer, my current ES with Vaal Discipline up is 15k.

Cast with damage taken? I use a level 1 CWDT and a level 1 on all the other Gems involved except the duration.
CWDT - Warlords Mark - Immortal Call - Increased Duration.

JEWELS! THEY'RE IMPORTANT!
So two Fertile minds are mandatory in my opinion, one goes in the jewel just above the ranger start, and the second goes in the jewel to the right of shadow. These two jewels provide 84 int each with perfect rolls and that is a huge amount of int. A third fertile mind can be used in the jewel socket to the right of Rangers starting point.

Rare jewels I have mainly used to fix my resistances because gearing can be awkward to find all of the rolls on a piece of gear you may want to use while also having resistances and a large amount of ES.

The most important rolls on damage jewels are attack speed and lightning damage.

What to look for on gear?
Helm+Chest+Boots+Belt
High ES, Int, Resistances.
Rings
Resistances, WED, Int, Added damage, Strength, ES.

CURRENT GEAR!


SKILL TREES!


BANDITS
Skill Point, Attack Speed, Frenzy Charge.

ASCENDANCY TREE!

GUARDIAN KILLS!



Q & A

Q:Is this hardcore viable?
A:Yes, As long as you have the budget to support it.

Q:I have issues capping resistances.
A:Use Jewel sockets to fill in what resistances gear lacks, try to get jewels with +10% all res and +12% to two resistances as well as a damage roll or an attack speed roll.

Q:What's the 6L for ST?
A:Honestly i'm not sure if faster attacks or added lightning would be better and I do not have a 6l to test it, although either is definitely viable.

Q:Why is this build expensive?
A:Damn streamers popularizing the claws and the niche items they need!

Q:How do I level this build easily?
A:Level with Hand of Thought and Motion, Ewar's Mirage using either spectral throw or blade flurry. Alternatively level with a storm cloud+tempest with lightning arrow. Overgear the zones, overlevel the zones, don't forget to pick up life, get a CWDT setup as early as possible and cap resistances!
(I do personally think the easiest way is with Storm Cloud+Tempest with lightning arrow, but sometimes leveling with the endgame skill is fun.)

Q:How do I flask?
A:Be sensible with flasks, have freeze removal, shock removal and bleed removal until you get your last ascendancy point, at which point replace it with either a Quartz or Silver flask for Instant phasing.

Q:What's with the random gems in your gear?
A:Leveling gems, this build is not very link starved, I suppose I could add an additional CWDT setup but honestly i'd rather just level gems for my other builds. the additional CWDT setup would be CWDT lvl 1 - Vortex lvl 1 - Inc duration - Inc Aoe. Most likely.

Conclusion!
I reached level 92 with this character, it was a joy to map with and I thoroughly enjoyed playing it.

It managed to kill all of the guardians without too much trouble, however I was unable to kill Shaper in my attempt with my current gear, I feel like a 6l is probably needed for this version in order to kill the Shaper easily, or someone better than me at Fighting the Shaper as I only had one map and it was my first time :)

I would definitely still recommend this build even though it doesn't really trivialize the absolute endgame, it is very powerful for mapping and with the budget undoubtedly all content.

Hi. Been trying out your build and I still feel that the damage is a bit low. What would you recommend for the 6th link? Faster attacks or Inc lightning damage?

Is taste of hate really usefull on a full lightning dmg build?

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kimyew wrote:

Hi. Been trying out your build and I still feel that the damage is a bit low. What would you recommend for the 6th link? Faster attacks or Inc lightning damage?

6l could be faster attacks, slower proj or life leech. If you have life leech in the links you can cut all of the leech on tree and save 10 passives, Use these points to grab additional jewels or damage.

Picking up point blank on the tree for 2 points gives a huge multiplier to damage for face-tankable content.

Alternatively if you do not care about stun immunity you can go with the astramentis+valyrium route and gain a large amount of int, but at the cost of stun immunity.

"

HardKoar wrote:

Is taste of hate really usefull on a full lightning dmg build?

Basalt doesn't give cold resistance, Basalt is 40/60 charges w/o any mods which is only a single use where as taste is two uses in 1 full flask. Taste adds a small bit of damage. Really it's mostly a luxury and basalt works fine.

hi :) amazing build...i was wondering if you could post leveling passive tree because am kinda noob when it comes to tree....i have tabula and will but hand of thought and ewar's mirage to level so i hope that is good...if you could give me some tips it would be awesome. Thank you! :)

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Semberovski wrote:

hi :) amazing build...i was wondering if you could post leveling passive tree because am kinda noob when it comes to tree....i have tabula and will but hand of thought and ewar's mirage to level so i hope that is good...if you could give me some tips it would be awesome. Thank you! :)

Ewar's Mirage is pretty good for levleing, and the un-upgraded version of the claws are fine for leveling too.

As far as twink items go, Wake of destruction and Goldrim go a long way. If you are leveling on hardcore you should focus on just making it to level 68 so that you can make the swap to CI. Blasphemy Enfeeble is a very strong option for staying alive while leveling.

Along the tree there are multiple life nodes adjacent, just spec into these while leveling such as the life at ranger's start, the life to the left of the leech nodes "Golem's blood.","Blood drinker" outside shadow start. Do not grab any keystones until you are ready to make the swap to CI.

I do hope you manage to make the transition smoothly, unfortunately the build is very lackluster till level 68-70, but once you can make the transition to CI it is a very strong build. Just keep in mind this is not a budget build by any means, it probably takes about 3EX minimum to get going. good luck! :)

Thank you so much! I'll try my best :)

How did you spec ascendancies?

I am going to give this build a shot but this will be the second build I have tried ever in this game. Any other newbie tips?

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rawka wrote:

How did you spec ascendancies?

I am going to give this build a shot but this will be the second build I have tried ever in this game. Any other newbie tips?

Ascendancy Tree.


It's not really a beginners build, and if you've never played CI Before it'd be a good idea to find a well written guide on how to properly setup a CI character. I am pretty sure Pohx has one on his youtube Channel.