[3.7] Ball Lightning Elementalist - Comfortable, safe, scales well. Simply enjoying your balls.

Optimistic, personal end goal PoB
Elementalist (lvl 90, Legion league): https://pastebin.com/3uwkrWzU

So far the build has begun for me. Current gear:



Few notes: I'm trying to get a 6L staff for the future. It is the reason I've specced into staff nodes.

Current stats:
3.2k health, 3k mana unreserved, 1k ES. A total of 7.2k EHP at level 83. No notable, reliable defences in play.

Right now the build feels to come around nicely, however I also feel squishy. The new rare buffs and the league mechanic really require you to kill rares fast and scoot around or have significant diminishing defenses.

Right now it's a matter of getting enough damage to punch rares down. I've yet to set up all my gems, like wave of conviction, unbound ailments etc. or even get level 20 gems. So the damage is easily going to double within the upcoming days/weeks. Tooltip wise I'm at 20k, while I killed shaper with 40k last league with ease. The damage potential is there.

Things I am debating:
1) Gem choices for the green slot (might recolor if I get the chromes to 4B1G for the time being). DO NOT use GMP. It's not worth it. The radius of a single ball lightning is huge and GMP might double your range, but lowers your damage. The issue is never the white mobs but the rare ones. Do not use GMP in my opinion.

2) The option to go back to weapon/shield. I feel like damage truely isn't the issue and we need stats and defences. This league hurts (in a balanced way mind you) and the staff might turn out to simply not be worth it)

3) I have yet to set up flasks. So there is that.

4) I've managed to get a Mind of the Council with 8% increased area of effect. Cute but .. jezus 8% increased area of effect truely does'n't do jack shit. So don't go crazy over these enchants. The damage one is worth it if you can get it though.

Ball Lightning isn’t an easy skill to determine exact values. Ball Lightning is a projectile that zaps the opponent every 150 ms. Path of Building only calculates a single zap, not a repeated zap. Ball Lightning does NOT benefit from Area Damage, but is very much affected by Area of Effect. Sadly, Path of Building doesn’t calculate that. It is affected by projectile speed. Again, Path of Building doesn’t calculate that. There is an old calculator that I will refer to later on that translates tooltip DPS into actual DPS. Still, it isn’t very reliable. I will attempt to do my own math. Do not worry to much about damage. It’s quite easy to break theoretical million DPS on any build. I don’t care about that. If you are allowed to stand still and spam spells, DPS is irrelevant anyway. I want to get a realistic determination of how much damage you can do.

Pros
+ 1 Main skill for map clearing and bossing
+ Affordable to start in a league, scales up well incrementally.
+ Has quite a bit of safety build. Easy to get over 7000 EHP.
+ Self casting has a nice feeling to it.
+ Can run all but a single map mod (Elemental Reflect).
+ Does not rely on a single unique/rare to function (offensively nor defensively).

Cons
- Still dies to elemental reflect map mod.
- For harder bosses it stills requires a single gem swap.
- Needs dexterity / strength from items.
- Tooltip does not show real DPS numbers. Hard to find true DPS.

In the introduction I wrote down 3 points that are required for my build to become a success. We use several unique pieces to acquire these goals.
1. It must be a safe, tanky build. No glass cannon mechanics. I’m not hardcore material and I like to level above 88 without taking forever! I want to do content without fear of 1-shots by white mobs.
To get a safe, tanky feeling I choose to opt into Mind over Matter in the tree. This node makes it that 30% of the damage is taken from mana before life. To expand on this node we strengthen MoM and build up a lot of mana. We essentially turn our mana pool into health. To do this we use the following items.
- Cloak of Defiance

This item adds 10% effect to MoM. We name take damage 60/40.
- Watcher’s eye: ‘10% of damage is taken from mana before life’
This item adds 10% effect to MoM. We now take damage 50/50.
When we take damage 50/50, our mana pool and health pool are entirely effective health pool (EHP). The only issue now is how do we ensure our mana pool becomes big enough to become effective. Of course we the tree, but we can also use:

- Grand Spectrum cobalt Jewel.
This item gives 30 mana PER jewel. Having 3 jewels, you get 270 flat mana. With 160% inc. Mana from tree and more from items, this translates in an easy 1k+ mana and thus EHP. The jewels are cheap even at the start of the league, which solves the issue of buying expensive jewels.

- Mind of the Council

This item feels odd to some, but it is the reason our build works. Mind of the Council gives you 3% of mana every time you shock an enemy. We are always shocking enemies due to using a lightning skill. With how often Ball Lightning hits (each ball 6,6 times per second) you are permanently at full mana. Full mana means full EHP. This item is the difference between having a big health pool and having that big health pool refill instantly. The item also gives increased maximum mana, which is basically health to us.

- Essence Worm

Allows us to use Wrath without reservering a huge amount of Mana. It does increase our mana reservation from Herald of Thunder, but it is far less significant, especially with our ascendancy reducing it. Wrath is a huge damage increase, so this ring is worth every penny. Not that expensive at all, even early on in the league.

2. Potential to scale up during a league. I don’t want to level a character just to gather enough wealth to unlock the potential for Ball Lightning. The build needs to be used to level with at the start of a league, all the way to Uber Elder.



All the above items are affordable quite early into the league. Cloak of Defiance does cost a few chaos, but it doesn’t make or break our build. It just adds defensiveness. Grand Spectrums are cheap and remain valuable up until Uber Elder. Unless you truly want to delete him, you could opt out of them for GG jewels. Mind of the Council is a niche item that is very affordable first week of the league. The Watcher Eye variant with MoM effect is not multi-exalt expensive. It’s one of the more expensive items for us to start of with, but again, it offers defensiveness. It doesn’t break the build to not have it.

3. Comfortable clear speed. No secondary itemswap, 3 gem swaps or sacrificing a full item just to be able to clear maps. Ball Lightning should be the main skill.
Ball Lightning has the natural AoE build inside. Using even no projectile gems, you usually clear packs with a single (unleash) cast. If you really want to ensure great clear, you can use any green socketed gem. Lesser Multiple Projectiles, Greater multiple projectiles or if you are using Dying Sun you get extra projectiles without gem swapping. I personally didn’t use any clearing gem to get to 92. I will discuss options further in the Gem Links section. All you need to do is cast Ball Lightning, the optional Orb of Storms for arcane surge/power charges and you can hop around with Lightning Warp. It’s comfortable. Only the toughest bosses require a gem swap. I did Shaper without it, because I was lazy.

Bandit: Alira (Crit, mana regen, resistance. Extra nice early in the league)

Path of Building: [Expect changes here]

Optimistic, personal end goal PoB
Elementalist (lvl 90, Legion league): https://pastebin.com/3uwkrWzU

Includes 6L new Pledge of Hands, Watcher Eye with MoM mod (no secondary mod), Omeyocan boots, no lab enchantment, Vessel of Vinktar (pen), Wise Oak and finally all gems level 20, no quality.
I didn't'configure Shock, as we don't fully shock. Only 30%. Also to calculate. Also add 22% due to Unleash not being calculated

Elementalist (lvl 92, synthesis league): https://pastebin.com/FXvrLANR (approximately 2.8m DPS)

Ascendancy


Order: Feel free to choose Beacon of Ruin first or Mastermind of Discord first. Personally I lean slightly towards Beacon of Ruin for that sweet shock multiplier.

1) Shaper of Desolation: Debuffing. Not a huge impact to us early on, but useful in calculating certain support gems later on. Especially useful due to the ability to reliably shock even Uber Elder.

2) Beacon of Ruin: The biggest damage increase in our build. This allows ‘when we shock’ for that shock to always apply 20%. See section about Shock Mechanics for explanation why this is huge. The spreading is a nice bonus and assists slightly in clearing.

3) Pendulum of Construction: Quite a significant node for us. Most Elementalists like the 75% increased elemental damage and dislike the node due to the Area of Effect not doing much. Area of Effect is a damage multiplier for Ball Lightning. This node isn’t a game changer, but absolutely a damage increase.

4) Mastermind of Discord: We only use this node for a single thing: Herald of Thunder. HoT now penetrates 25% Lightning resistance which is a big stat for Elementalists. HoT gets boosted itself, which is a nice touch. The mana reduction is important to us, especially as Essence Worm increases the mana reservation. Mana is health to us, so this node gives damage and health now.

We use several skills. Some adjustments are still to be made in the future as PoB isn’t final on gem links. PoB, like explained, does not take several things into account. I have to manually check what’s best.

Main skill: Ball Lightning + Unleash Support + Spell Echo + Controlled Destruction + Added Lightning Damage + Slower Projectiles

Take the following things into account:
Unleash: In theory not the highest DPS. However most fights that require high DPS have mechanics that force you to move. Even while clearing you aren’t chain casting for 3-4 seconds at a time. Unleash banks lost DPS and literally unleashes it when you can. In practice a much higher DPS support then PoB would tell you.

Swap option blue gems:
 Elemental Focus: Biggest support gem, but you can now only apply shock through Orb of Storms. This should nerf damage while clearing, but boost damage on bosses which you shock with Orb of Storms anyway.

Slower Projectile: You get a damage multiplier from the gem itself. But the most damage comes from 49% slower projectile. This multiplies are FINAL damage by 1/0,51 = 1,96. Pretty much double damage. So in grand total, you are looking at the biggest support gem for any build out there, period. Do not use this to clear.
 Swap options green gems: LMP, GMP, Onslaught support, Culling Strike, Volley, Faster projectile.

Currently favouring GMP or Onslaught. Experimental note: Ice Bite support.
Whatever amount of links you have: Always have that green socket. It’s your strongest one.


Supporting skills:
Orb of Storm + Unbound Ailments + Power Charge on critical support + Arcane Surge (lvl 5)

Unbound Ailments is to reach the full shock effect on bosses. Power charges for obvious reasons. Arcane Surge to get that extra damage in. Arcane Surge is one of the strongest support gems for Ball Lightning, but if you can proc it via Orb of Storms, you allow yourself an additional better link for BL.

Lightning Warp + Less duration + Faster casting + Swift Affliction
Near instant Lightning Warps. Yes, it’s an investment. Yes, it’s amazing. You could get some extra sockets by using Flame Dash instead. Your choice.

Lightning Golem

Wave of Conviction + Curse on Hit + Assassin’s mark: WoC gives 25% lightning penetration. Assassin’s mark increases critical strike chance and extra damage from critical strikes. Also gives power charges and health/mana while map clearing which is quality of life.

Optional: Swap out Assassin’s mark for Conductivity (-44% lightning res)

Wrath or Zaelotry: Place this in Essence Worm. Wrath adds more damage overall, but Zaelotry is slightly stronger on bosses due to the consecrated ground effect. Decide for yourself what you prefer. You can even swap later on, depending on what Watcher's Eye you can get.

Herald of Lightning: Make sure that it isn’t linked to anything that would cause mana reservation to be increased. Preferably leave it in a socket without links. If you have a spare socket and chaos, link this to Enlighten. You increase your EHP. It’s about 100 extra.

Clarity: To unlock the Watcher’s Eye MoM mod. I prefer to keep it at level 1. Mana regen isn’t an issue to us with Mind of the Council and Clarity won’t save us. You could level this 20 if you choose to use Omeyocan boots (see min-max options).

CwdT + Steelskin: Experimental. Depending on the numbers, you need to level CwdT as well, as steelskin values depend on the level. It’s not IC, but our defences are great. This just helps.

Options:
When using a staff, you could place Orb of Storms in your body armour. You could add an additional link: Blind support (defensive), Onslaught support (offensive), Culling Strike (offensive).

Vaal Righteous Fire: Offers a 28% more spell damage buff at the cost of 30% Life/Energy Shield.

Ball Lightning relies on a series of fast zaps to damage our opponents. Every 150ms each ball will individually damage all nearby enemies within it’s range. As such we won’t be dealing enormous hits that apply shock directly. This is an issue.

Luckily, Elementalists have Beacon of Ruin. When shocking, we always apply at minimum a 20% shock. We have plenty of shock chance on our tree, we are permanently critting and Shaper of Desolation ensures we always have shock on all of our targets.

However, this only applies 20% shock. The skill tree has the following 2 types: ‘’Effect of Shock’’ and ‘’Effect of non-damaging Ailments’’.

Our tree holds: 28% effect of non-damaging ailments and 50% effect of shock. Orb of Storms also has unbound ailments. This gives us another 30% and the reason we use Orb of Storm to apply the shock. This leads to a total shock multiplier of 41,6%.

With this current defensive build, we can reach a multiplier of 1,416, which is very significant. It’s not until you decide to use Inpulsa that you can near the 50% of maximum shock.

When you check the box in PoB, it applies 50%. Keep this in mind when checking the damage numbers.

The hardest subject of the guide would be the Area of Effect math. This game revamped Area of Effect some time ago and calculations are not entirely clear to me. Still I will make an attempt at it. First some facts:

Ball Lightning: radius of 22 (since 3.3.0)

Base Projectile speed: 48 units

Ball Lightning hit internal cooldown: 150 ms

Ball Lightning hits/second: 6,67 hits/second

Enemy radius: 2

You can increase Ball Lightning using those stats in two separate ways:
1) Increase the range in which a Ball can zap an enemy. The further the reach, the more zaps you will get.
2) Slow down the ball, so it will remain within it’s reach longer, granting more zaps.

For the coming calculations we look at point 1. If we add 49% Area of Effect (AoE support gem), we increase the radius from 22 to 26. Radius is the line from the centre of a circle to the edge. An enemy would be hit to the full diameter, including it’s own radius.

Original: 22 + 22 + 2 = 46
New: 26 + 26 + 2 = 54
Increase is 54/46 = 17,39% increase.

This offers a support multiplier of 1,1739. This is to low to consider Increased Area of Effect a valuable support gem.

Pendulum of Destruction offers 75% increased area of effect. This increases radius from 22 to 29.
New: 29 + 29 + 2 = 60.
Increase is 60/46 = 1,30 multiplier.

A final calculation of 30% increased damage.

Tldr: It’s not worth it to invest in Increased Area of Effect. The support gem offers 49%, which translates to a damage multiplier of 17,39%. Pendulum offers a 30% damage increase, which is quite a lot from an ascendancy node that is usually ignored.

To be filled in the future.

Poimu posted the following videos in his post below. All credits go out to him.
Shaper: https://youtu.be/gQOm7_cnH_8
Catarina: https://youtu.be/HVgl4wxAvjo
Elder: https://youtu.be/MbLB3NrLokI

The last goal that I set for the league is the ability to scale.

- Potential to scale up during a league. I don’t want to level a character just to gather enough wealth to unlock the potential for Ball Lightning. The build needs to be used to level with at the start of a league, all the way to Uber Elder.

There are several items you could chase to increase your damage:

- Choir of the Storm
This amulet scales well with our build. Added mana, lightning damage and even uses uncapped Lightning resistance. The amulet also has a Lightning bolt. In my Lvl 92 Elementalist version the amulet added 250k single target DPS. Compared to the 2,88m DPS, it’s a nice 9%-10% increase in damage. Quite some value from a single amulet.

‘’I am to rich’’ – Corrupt for 1 additional curse so you can use Conductivy / Assassin’s Mark

- Watcher’s Eye: Zealotry / Wrath or clarity
We use the Watcher’s eye for our MoM mod. However if you can get your hands on a Watcher’s eye that has a useful mod on top of that. You can increase your damage by quite a bit.

- Omeyocan, Carnal Boots
These boots are only great if you manage to get enough stats and resistances on your other items. These boots offer 20% Attack and Spell Dodge with our huge mana pool. They also grant permanent Onslaught to our build. The 30% movement speed and lightning resistance is nice. As we are flask starved, having Onslaught on boots is really nice. Completely depends on your ability to min-max other items though.

- Inpulsa’s Broken heart
We can sacrifice defences to up our offenses. Inpulsa is an expensive item. It however does increase clear due to shock explosions and it increases damage if you shocked an enemy recently (always). On top of that, we increase the effect of shock. Cloak of Defiance is pure defences. Inpulsa is pure offenses. Your choice.

- Rare Shaped ring with Assassin’s Mark on Hit
While not directly an increase in damage, it would save you two gem sockets. But it would have to be a splendid ring as you still need your resistances capped and you require dexterity/strength.

- Pledge of Hands, Judgement Warstaff
It’s still to early for us to tell, but 3.7 looks like Pledge of Hands, Judgement Warstaff is turning out to be BiS. The only potentially bigger damage increase might come from Dual Void Batteries or two amazingly crafted daggers. The staff allows you to add links to your Orb of Storms. However you do lose the wand/dagger and shield, lowering your defences. You get mana in return, but you need to get life/resistances elsewhere.