[3.1] The Laserbeam! Crit Ball Lightning build - Clearspeed & Bosskills!

@onlyjb

I made some more changes on the build.
Before, I thought the uniques you recommended were must-haves, but then I checked your build and tried to follow it.
The dagger is not the best, but it is good for what it cost. Same goes for the rings. And now I'm on 6-link too, not great, but good at least.
I focused a bit more on HP and changed some nodes on the tree to closer hp nodes. Now I'm with 6,3k HP + 880 ES. Lost a bit of ES, but gained a lot of life.

I feel much stronger. Still a glass cannon, but more cannon and less glass than before, that is for sure. Trying to get used to the new Vaal skills, but so far so good.
I compared to the gears you and Brize have, I guess I'm just loosing in some lower numbers.

Although they die faster, I still can't dissolve the bosses like on the videos. I don't know if I'm missing anything, but Dying Sun is the next thing I'm buying once I have the money.

Hi Brize, thanks for your response and feedback!

7.3k EHP is as you see (just added jewel #6 to my tree), can't think of anything special that I did, except that on my passive tree I didn't take the scion life wheel and preferred to get life elsewhere because it saves me the points of getting to the wheel, and it only averages to 5% per node, which I can already get on nodes closer to me (which have additional bonuses, e.g. chaos res, more ES/evade). Maybe if I ever make Lvl 95 I will run out of closer nodes and it will finally be worth it to take the central wheel.

You're right about the shield, I didn't even consider it with a life roll. That with ES might be better than dual VB. It's on my list to try. I guess that means I need to buy a decent rare dagger, too.

I do get one-shot sometimes. Another cost of the dual VB is that I can't run whirling blades, which means I can't use fortify. Vigilant strike might be an interesting alternative, possibly paired with The Vigil jewel if I'm often running out.

I've never tried guardians or shaper before this league, and I'd like to make a few more upgrades and get up to L92 before seriously going after all five (only minotaur is done so far).

My bad about spell echo, it was all the way on the left and my eyes just jumped over it.

I like LMP because my clear speed goes up on red-tier maps when compared to faster projectiles, and since I want a green gem slot to switch out slower projectiles when I'm not dealing with bosses, this seemed like the natural choice. Open to other ideas, as you're right, it's a bit superfluous with dying sun in the mix.

Arcane surge, I will keep practicing and try to get used to it, I guess I could take out increased crit dmg as per the guide, I don't want to go 6 blue gem slots because then I can't switch in slower projectiles.

I agree about vaal grace, my play speed is a bit clunky due to a mediocre laptop, so it helps me feel safe, but I do have a L20 vaal haste to switch in when I feel better at truly "dodging".

@moghat

Well, beside some numbers, you miss some things that have a big influence on the Dmg:
1. Tempest's headgear -> the Shock/Freeze of the Harbinger you can summon (20% more DMG for shock), also allowing Frenzy charges to occur and making your Orb 6-link)
2. 1-160 lightning DMG if you haven't killed recently enchant on your Boots -> Huge boost
3. 45% Reduced Ball Lightning Projectile Speed on the headpiece -> every ball hits more often -> strong damage increase
4. Inc Spell Dmg from Fingerless silk gloves or another enchantment
5. Bringing you skillgems to at least 20/20, Ball Lightning even 21/20 -> HUGE Dmg boost

6. VERY IMPORTANT: Get the right flasks AND USE THEM. Dying sun literally more that TRIPLES your damage (if your enemy is fat at least ;) )[EDIT: It doesn't, the main effect on bosses is the increased AoE which lets them hit more often, my bad], Onslaught helps a lot by creating more projectiles due to faster casting, Atziris hugely increases single Target DPS, Lucky crit chance helps critting etc. etc. Can not emphasise this enough, use them as much as possible (of course dont waste the charges so that you don't have any when encountering big groups)

I can't see your skill tree cause you have your characters hidden, but Jewels can also make quite the difference. If you work on all these things, you will start "melting" bosses.

Of course there is smaller things, like Opal Rings or a slightly higher base "Adds Lightning Damage to Spells" on your weapong or Elemental/Spell/Lightning Damage% that will increase your Dmg as well.

@moghat:

It is a rocky road to Dublin. But you are on the right road.

For the annihilation of higher bosses you still need a bit more power. Be aware that Brize and me got 20%q on almost all gems. Another big DPS improvment is lv21 Ball Lightning (about 8% tooltip for me).

Another huge improvement can be grabed in the labyrinth:
There are only 15 different boot enchantments, it is rather easy tho to get "adds 1-160 lightning damage if you have not killed recently". This will add 1-160 base damage to all of your damage sources, wich will scale up with your crit multi etc.

@ittarter:

Some interesting changes, a few seems strange to me.

LMP is obsolete with Dying Sun, you could try Culling Strike (10% extra cast speed, execute enemys on <10% life) or Onslaught (5% extra cast speed, get Onslaught on kill for 8 sec). I still prefer Faster Projectiles.

Double VB is a lot of damage, you loose about 25% blockchance and a lot of life on the other hand. When you go for guardians i would recomend to try a shield (specialy on Hydra/Chimera).

May this little critic help you and the voices in your head :)

@Brize:

Community manager Brize - good job as always. You carry this thread :P

@onlyjb and @Brize

Thx for answering.

I forgot to mention the gear lab 'buffs' as a difference from your builds.
And I didn't think that incresing quality on the gems would make a huge difference.
My bad for those two mistakes.

About BL lvl 21. That never even crossed my mind.
I'm a bit scared of corrupting mine since it is maxed out already.
And lvl 21 20% will be quite expensive.

Most of my gems are max or almost max lvl, I'm just a bit afraid of leveling CODT too much and dying more often.

And I guess now you will be able to see my tree. I made some changes from the guide and I am actually considering some new ones already.
And yes, I didn't do the last trial yet, me and my friends are saving to do it together, but that plan is not going too well. D:

"

onlyjb wrote:

LMP is obsolete with Dying Sun, you could try Culling Strike (10% extra cast speed, execute enemys on <10% life) or Onslaught (5% extra cast speed, get Onslaught on kill for 8 sec). I still prefer Faster Projectiles.

What about Point Blank? Could be interesting. Especially WITH slower projectiles, could be a crazy good boss killer. But would require 4B2G for that variant. I'll experiment and let you know.

"

Double VB is a lot of damage, you loose about 25% blockchance and a lot of life on the other hand. When you go for guardians i would recomend to try a shield (specialy on Hydra/Chimera).

I went ahead and invested in a decent shield, gives me an extra 900 EHP plus 4% spell dodge, 23% block, 60% spell damage, and some evasion. I lose about 35% of my damage, though. I'll probably just use it for guardians/shaper.

Nice build. I've been going back and forth between Storm Call and Storm Burst on my 87 Inquisitor but have recently hit a wall. DPS could be better and survivability I'm not happy with. I decided to throw in Ball Lighting (with added lightning damage, faster casting, increased critical damage, increased critical strikes, and spell echo) and am already seeing good results. I'll eventually grab faster projectiles along with the 40% enchant on the helm.

My only concern is how to adopt this build without making too many changes. All my gear was put together with MoM in mind and I'd like to keep it that way. How important is the Choir of the Storm? Not sure if I want to swap that out with my Foible. I have my gear linked below and passive tree is in profile. I'll also leave the pastebin in case you want to take a deeper look. Any feedback would be appreciated!





https://pastebin.com/ULGNHRpA

EDIT: I ended up buying a Choir of the Storm anyway and didn't take too much of a hit on mana. Still have 3,300 total with 1,156 unreserved. Also, shouldn't there be better alternatives to Arcane Surge if you could just proc AS through Orb of Storms?

This build looks very fun to play - will try it out!

Do you have a PoB pastebin? Can't seem to find one >< Thanks!

Edit: Don't worry about it, I entered your account name and retrieved the PoB myself xD

Pastebin for OP's build: https://pastebin.com/iWs54YHQ

Hello! Can you help me out?
https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Panboox/characters

I die quite easily in T8+ Maps. I don't know what I did wrong, been following the build as close as possible. Thanks!

"

Panboox wrote:

Hello! Can you help me out?
https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Panboox/characters

I die quite easily in T8+ Maps. I don't know what I did wrong, been following the build as close as possible. Thanks!

Your toon is lvl 74 so there's no reason to be in T8 maps. In tier 1 (magic not rare) you will level just as fast until you are ~L79, actually faster, because of faster clear speed and less dying. Make sure the map level is no more than ten levels above you, so that you don't take an experience penalty. Other than that, do what you can do easily and consistently.

1. Passive tree is good.
2. Gear needs work. Besides Choir of the storm, virtually every piece needs to eventually be replaced, as you have the funds for it. Your Vinktar flask is the wrong type. Your atziri flask is OK although 15% elemental would cost only 1c. You might consider a life flask (staunching) since you're dying a lot, replacing one of your dmg flasks. All flasks should be quality 20% and non-uniques should have two affixes! Your Doryani's belt is also the wrong kind! Pay attention to what you buy and the specific types recommended in OP's guide.
3. Continue to level to at least 90. You're still a low level and the build is not complete yet.
4. Most of your linking is good. For your main spell, get rid of faster projectiles for now and put in LMP (switch to slower projectiles if you're coming up against a difficult unique monster). When you get the Dying Sun flask, switch to 6 blue gem sockets and use increased crit strike/damage until you have much better gear.
5. You can buy 20%/lvl 17+ gems for a few chaos each. Make sure your main spell has good gems, when you can afford it. leveling to 20 twice is a long task. At the very least, buy a 20%/L17+ of the active skill gems, and just level the support gems.
6. You seem to only have one aura. Add Wrath asap.
7. Save for a six-link, corrupted if necessary, just search the colors you need on poe.trade and see what's around, usually 20-30c will net you a decent 6L for leveling. But only if you're not planning on changing from 5B1G to 6B or vice versa in the near future.
8. If you need currency, the chaos recipe is your friend. Also make sure you're selling items you find.
9. Eventually complete Uber Labyrinth, once you're able to complete mid-tier rare maps without dying you should attempt it, or buy a carry on /global 820 if you're impatient.

Hope this helps, good luck! If you pm me in-game, I'll give you a couple items to help you out.