[3.16] Enki's Archmage Hierophant - a beginner-friendly Lightning Caster

+ easy to gear
+ decent survivability
+ good single target damage
+ amazing clearspeed later on
- clearspeed relies on an item
- not made for facetanking
- lacks layered defenses
- not made for SSF

‣ Mana: This build revolves around stacking mana to gain damage, survivability and sustain through several sources.

The Archmage Support Gem gives us damage based on unreserved mana, Arcane Cloak adds even more damage and increases our hitpool based on our mana for a duration. The Mind over Matter Keystone redirects 30% of damage we take to our mana, which gets further increased through our Ascendancy and equipment to up to 60%. The Agnostic keystone takes care of life sustain by healing it for 20% of our mana per second until it's full.

Because of this, mana is our primary stat to invest into with our passive tree and equipment. We do that through maximum mana and increased maximum mana modifiers to raise our manapool, and mana regeneration rate and mana recovery rate to sustain mana.


‣ Lightning Damage: One of the three Elemental Damage types in this game. It has the biggest damage range with both the highest maximum and lowest minimum damage, therefore its damage output can be very inconsistent. We circumvent that for most of the part through Archmage and Arcane Cloak, which both add a flat amount of Lightning Damage without any range and make up most of our base damage.


‣ Elemental Overload: This keystone applies a 40% more elemental damage multiplier for 8 seconds to a skill after it lands a Critical Strike, but removes all critical strike multiplier for Hits and Ailments. The damage potential is lower compared to scaling crits, but it takes much less investment in comparison which allows us to invest more heavily into mana.

No, but it's one of the many solid starters. There is no such thing as "the best" in Path of Exile.
Everyone plays this game differently. If you can't play a build properly or don't like playing it, then it won't be the best for you no matter how good other people think it is.

That's why I always recommend new players to try out many different build archetypes. This will teach you about the game and its mechanics, and you'll learn which playstyles you like to play.

Here's a small collection of generic advice for newer players:

‣ Information: Knowledge is a strong skill in Path of Exile, and it helps to know where to find it. First there's the ingame Help Panel, which you can reach through its icon next to your skillbar.
The Path of Exile Wiki should be your first stop for further information, poedb for plain data.
If you prefer video guides, Zizaran has an informative video series called PoE University that contains information about most aspects of the game.

‣ Lootfilter: You will soon realize that there's lots of redundant loot in this game, a good Lootfilter reduces screen clutter and highlights potentially valuable or important drops. Neversink's Filter is always a good start and you can further customize it at Filterblade.

‣ Flasks: Unlike most ARPG's, this game is directly balanced around using all of your flasks.
This goes beyond the typical life & mana flasks that you're probably used to from other games, during your act progression you'll gain access to various utility flasks which grant buffs. Flasks can also be crafted, but it's not needed until maps so i've kept it for their own section. For now, focus on keeping your life & mana flasks updated, get all utility flasks from quests when mentioned and try to get a feeling for your flask usage.

‣ Crafting: Gear can be enhanced through crafting and recipes, while the latter can also create currency used for crafting. You outlevel gear pretty quickly during act progression, so it's not advised to invest too much at this point. Limit it to a couple of Orb of Transmutation, -Augmentation, -Alteration, -Binding, Chromatic Orbs and various Essences you may find for now,
use Jeweller's Orbs and Orb of Fusing only on useful gear you've looted. Try to focus on intelligence-based gear for an easier time to get the right colors.

‣ Crafting Bench: After unlocking your first hideout, you'll gain access to the Crafting Bench.
This can be used to craft a targeted affix on gear, if it isn't already there and has a slot open.
Use it to craft any damage affixes, Life, Mana or Resistances missing on your gear.
Recipes need to be found first, the Crafting Bench tells you all undiscovered recipe locations.

‣ Trading: You can freely trade with other players if you have a Lv25+ char and aren't in SSF. Path of Exile's trading site is good for buying gear, poemap is convenient for bulk map trades.
If you want to sell something, you either need premium stash tabs, set up a shop in the trade subforums or use Acquisition. For pricechecks, look for similar stuff on the trade site, check poe.ninja or use Awakened POE Trade.

‣ Stash Tabs: The default stash space is pretty limited, if you like the game and are able to, consider buying more stash tabs. Getting a Currency and Map Tab is highly recommended, Premium Tabs make trading easier and if you want, a Quad Tab for extended storage.
Purchased tabs are account-wide and won't be lost when temporary leagues end.
There's also a stash tab sale weekend every three weeks if you're not in a rush.

Your journey through the ten acts can be seen as an extensive tutorial, slowly confronting you with the majority of game mechanics and increasingly more difficult enemies to learn to counter.

This section will help you while playing through the ten acts and shows the recommended
passive tree progression, gem setups, quest progression and exp farming zone for each act.
The passive tree goals are just a pointer, it's not a big deal if you're over- or underleveled.

Keep in mind that this section includes major storyline spoilers, if you care about that.

______________________________________________________________________

Spark -> Ball Lightning
+ Arcane Surge -> Lightning Penetration
+ Added Lightning Damage -> Archmage
+ Spell Echo

Orb of Storms
+ Onslaught
+ Archmage
+ Chain

Arcanist Brand
+ Wave of Conviction -> Hydrosphere
+ Sniper's Mark

Arcane Cloak
+ Arcane Surge
+ Increased Duration

Frostblink -> Flame Dash

Clarity

Herald of Thunder until Archmage


Life Flask
Mana Flask
Mana Flask -> Amethyst Flask
Quicksilver Flask -> Diamond Flask
Quicksilver Flask

Kill Kraityn - Kill Oak - Kill Alira to gain +2 Skillpoints from Eramir

Act 1 Passives
Act 2 Passives
Act 3 Passives
Act 4 Passives
Act 5 Passives
Act 6 Passives
Act 7 Passives
Act 8 Passives
Act 9 Passives
Act 10 Passives

Passive Trees

‣ Early Mapping w/ Low Budget Gear
‣ Level 80 w/ Medium Budget Gear
‣ Level 90 w/ Medium Budget Gear
‣ Level 100 w/ Medium Budget Gear
‣ Level 90 w/ High Budget Gear
‣ Level 100 w/ High Budget Gear

To change the Templar starting nodes, put two Skillpoints into the +10 Intelligence nodes first, then remove the 10% Elemental Damage and 12% Damage nodes.

Masteries

‣ Crackling Speed - Non-Projectile Chaining Lightning Skills Chain +1 times
‣ Deep Thoughts - Recover 10% of Mana over 1 second when you use a Guard Skill
‣ Prodigal Perfection - 10% of Damage taken Recouped as Mana
‣ Dynamo - Clarity has 100% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency
‣ Asylum - Corrupted Blood cannot be inflicted on you

‣ Conviction of Power (Normal): Raises our maximum Power- and Endurance Charges by 1 and minimum by 4. Simplified, this means that we have 4 of each up at all times.

‣ Divine Guidance (Cruel): Grants us extra Mana, 10% Damage Taken from Mana before Life that adds to Mind over Matter and Transfiguration of Mind, which gives a damage increase based on 30% of total Mana% modifiers.

‣ Arcane Blessing (Merciless): Triggers Arcane Surge when we hit an enemy with our spells and increases its effect by 50%.

‣ Illuminated Devotion (Eternal): While Arcane Surge is active, this gives us some Area of Effect, Leech for our Spells and reduces the effect of non-damaging Ailments on us by 50%.

Non-corrupted Lv20 Gems can be upgraded to Lv1 20% by vendoring them together with a Gemcutters Prism. Do this with all gems that are marked with a *

All gems are worth corrupting at Lv20 20%, for the ones not needing quality just do it at Lv20.

______________________________________________________________________

Ball Lightning - Archmage - Spell Echo - Lightning Penetration - Slower Projectiles - Elemental Focus

Ball Lightning* is our single target skill. It's an AoE projectile spell that damages enemies within its radius every 150ms, which we build around for great damage potential.

Due to its behaviour, it can gain additional hits depending on its AoE radius and the enemy hitbox size. Important tresholds for us are 11 hits at 28 radius, which the build reaches with relatively low investment, and 12 hits at 31 radius respectively 13 hits at 33 radius at high investment.

Anomalous Ball Lightning is an endgame option to gain additional cast speed.

Archmage* is the backbone of this build. It increases mana cost and adds flat lightning damage based on mana cost, in this case at 50% value because of Ball Lightnings damage effectiveness.

Spell Echo* substantially boosts our cast speed and repeats each skill use without consuming mana for the repeated cast, all at the cost of a minimal damage penalty.

Awakened Spell Echo is a very expensive option that adds a 25% chance to deal Double Damage to the final repeat.

Lightning Penetration* is a hidden damage increase - it doesn't affect our tooltip damage, but rather acts as a dynamic more multiplier by reducing the enemies lightning resistance during damage calculations, and can even drop it into negative values.

Awakened Lightning Penetration is an endgame option for maximum penetration.

5th Link: Slower Projectiles* gives a damage multiplier and reduces projectile speed, which translates into enemies staying within our Ball Lightning AoE for a longer time.

6th Link: Elemental Focus* gives a huge damage multiplier but prevents us from inflicting elemental ailments with the skill it's linked to.

Awakened Elemental Focus as endgame option raises the damage even further.

______________________________________________________________________

Orb of Storms - Archmage - Lightning Penetration - Chain - Onslaught - Elemental Focus

Orb of Storms* is our clearing skill. It's an AoE spell that, once placed on the ground, damages enemies within its radius until its duration runs out. Casting it again while there's still an active Orb of Storms will replace it at your current location.

If we use a lightning skill, such as Ball Lightning within its radius, it unleashes additional bolts to provide additional single target damage.

Divergent Orb of Storms is an option with lots of cast speed at the cost of skill duration.

Archmage*, Lightning Penetration* and Elemental Focus* do the same as above.

Chain* amplifies our clearspeed by adding two additional chains at the cost of a damage penalty. It also allows our bolts to chain between an enemy and Hydrosphere, which effectively doubles its damage output during bossfights.

Awakened Chain takes this even further by adding another chain. Together with our Lightning Mastery, this also allows each bolt to hit three times during bossfights with Hydrosphere placed.

5th Link: Onslaught* has a chance to grant us the Onslaught buff upon killing an enemy or hitting a rare or unique enemy, which grants us a significant mobility and cast speed increase.

Divergent Onslaught can be used to let the orb gain even more cast speed.

We don't necessarily need the 6th link here, keep it at low priority.

______________________________________________________________________

Arcane Cloak - Arcane Surge - Increased Duration - Vaal Haste

Arcane Cloak* spends a percentage of our mana and temporarily grants us a damage absorbing buff and flat lightning damage based on mana spent. This is great for extra burst damage during bossfights or to soak up some incoming damage.

Divergent Arcane Cloak is an endgame option to maximize its effect.

Arcane Surge grants a temporary buff after spending a certain amount of mana, which grants a more damage multiplier and mana regeneration rate. Since Arcane Cloak spends lots of mana, we can proc a max level Arcane Surge which overrides the Lv1 version from Arcane Blessing.

Divergent Arcane Surge can be used to gain extra duration for the high level buff.

Increased Duration* increases the linked skills duration.

Vaal Haste is a Vaal Skill that temporarily grants us extra mobility and cast speed. It requires souls to be used, which are primarily gained by killing monsters or at certain tresholds during bossfights. After being used, it goes into Soul Gain Prevention for some time during which it can't be charged up for another use.

We don't use the regular Haste aura that it grants!

______________________________________________________________________

Cast when Damage Taken (Level 1) - Frost Wall (Level 10) - Flame Dash - Clarity

Cast when Damage Taken triggers linked spells upon reaching a treshold of damage taken from hits. The amount of damage it takes to trigger as well as the maximum required level of the linked spells it can trigger depend on the gems level. We keep it at Level 1 to keep the treshold low.

Frost Wall* places up to three walls between us and the enemies, which blocks their movement and most projectiles. This helps us to prevent getting rushed by large packs of monsters. It's the only spell we want to trigger with Cast when Damage Taken, so we need to keep it at Level 10 to be within the trigger conditions.

Flame Dash* is our movement skill. It has three charges which replenish after a cooldown, casts instantly and allows us to cross any gaps. It also prevents us from taking damage from damaging ground effects while dashing through them, which is very helpful in many endgame bossfights.

Clarity is an Aura that grants mana regeneration to help our sustain. Unlike most other auras, it reserves a flat amount of mana instead of a percentage, which doesn't hurt as that much.

Don't use Vaal Clarity, it would remove all damage granted by Archmage!

Anomalous Clarity is an endgame option for more recovery from our Mana Flask.

______________________________________________________________________

Arcanist Brand - Hydrosphere - Sniper's Mark - Increased Duration

Arcanist Brand* casts a Brand that, once attached to an enemy, triggers linked spells in sequence. We use it to keep up the following buffs/debuffs without having to manually cast them.

Hydrosphere debuffs enemies with Exposure for a 10% Lightning Resistance reduction.

Sniper's Mark* is a Mark curse that makes the enemy take increased damage from projectiles, such as our Ball Lightning. It also gives us additional Life- and Mana Flask charges while hitting, which is extremely good during bossfights.

Keep it at whatever level your Dexterity can support.

Increased Duration* increases the link skills duration.

‣ Rare item names are randomly generated out of a gearslot-tied wordpool and meaningless

‣ Rare items can have up to six Affixes, split into three prefixes and three suffixes

‣ Item Level decides which affixes can roll, and up to which tier

‣ Socket color probability is tied to attribute requirements: Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence

‣ Quality increases the probability to hit the maximum number of sockets and links

‣ Corrupted Items can't be modified outside of socket amount, -links and -colors

‣ Affixes saying "attacks" don't affect Spells, flat damage on weapons only if it's "to Spells"

‣ The Crafting Bench can add powerful affixes for cheap, which is especially helpful to create
Life + Mana gear. Use poedb to figure out open affix slots

This set of gear is only meant for low tier mapping and should be replaced as soon as possible, therefore we keep it pretty basic and cheap here.

___________________________________________________________________

Weapon

Any 5L Staff with 100%+ Spell Damage or Lightning Damage, 100+ Mana and Cast Speed is enough to get started. You can farm a base through The Flora's Gift Divination Card, once you get a non-Warstaff base use a Screaming Essence of Woe and finish it with your Crafting Bench.

___________________________________________________________________

Body Armour

Were not picky here either, any 5L Intelligence or Intelligence + Dexterity base works as long as it has 70+ Life, 40+ Mana and some Resistances.

___________________________________________________________________

Helmet

Look out for any Intelligence base with 60+ Life, 40+ Mana and Resistances. We don't care about enchantments yet since it's only a temporary helmet.

___________________________________________________________________

Gloves

Once again, Intelligence base with 60+ Life, 40+ Mana and Resistances.

___________________________________________________________________

Boots

All we need here are Intelligence boots with 60+ Life, 40+ Mana, Resistances and atleast 20% Movement Speed. We don't aim for an enchantment here yet either.

___________________________________________________________________

Amulet

Here we're looking for 40+ Life, 40+ Mana with any Spell Damage %, Lightning Damage %, Cast Speed or Mana Regeneration Rate. Get an Onyx Amulet or Citrine Amulet if possible, otherwise you may need some Strength and Dexterity somewhere.

Anointment - Mind Drinker is really good and cheap enough to justify anointing it here.

___________________________________________________________________

Rings

Rings are a good place to get lots of Resistances together with 40+ Life, 40+ Mana and maybe some Mana Regeneration Rate, any base is fine.

___________________________________________________________________

Belt

Ideally a Leather Belt with 70+ Life, 40+ Mana and Resistances, but any base works.

___________________________________________________________________

Jewels

Abyss Jewels with Mana and Cast Speed should be easy to get, if you can even get Life on top of that they're good enough to keep into endgame.

___________________________________________________________________

Flasks

Divine Life Flask - We need any reduced Amount Recovered/Instant Recovery when on Low Life prefix here! This will fully heal our life upon flask use whenever it goes below 50%.

Eternal Mana Flask - Here we want any increased Charges per use/increased Amount Recovered prefix to keep up with our mana consumption.

Amethyst Flask, Diamond Flask, Quicksilver Flask - Ideally we want any increased Duration prefix on each. Since we're not elemental ailment immune yet, we need the of the Deer, of the Conger and of the Urchin suffixes on our flasks. These can be crafted with the Menagerie and can be on these flasks on any order.

Don't forget to scour each flask and apply 4x Glassblower's Baubles before crafting!

This is what most people who like the build will end up with. Some pieces can be a bit expensive but it's still very reasonable and will make the build ready for the majority of content in this game.

___________________________________________________________________

Weapon

Pledge of Hands is our endgame staff. It comes with lots of Spell Damage and Mana, and grants Greater Spell Echo to socketed skills. This adds two additional repeats as well as 30% more Damage and 50% AoE per repeat, which synergizes perfectly with our Ball Lightning setup.

Another advantage is that it helps mana sustain, since we get 4x casts of Ball Lightning while only spending mana for one. Be aware that this also locks us in place for longer when casting!

It can only drop from Uber Atziri.

Harvest Enchantment: Grants 1% increased Elemental Damage per 2% Quality

___________________________________________________________________

Body Armour

Cloak of Defiance provides a ton of Mana and Mana Regeneration, saves us a passive point for Mind over Matter and adds another 10% of Damage taken from Mana before Life.

Harvest Enchantment: Grants +1 to Maximum Mana per 2% Quality

___________________________________________________________________

Helmet

Same as before, we aim for 60+ Life, 40+ Life and Resistances but this time also care about the enchantment to improve our single target damage.

Enchantment: 24% increased Ball Lightning Area of Effect

___________________________________________________________________

Gloves

Asenath's Gentle Touch are absolutely insane! They don't just have good Life and Mana, they also curse enemies with Temporal Chains on hit and provide corpse explosions, which improves our clearspeed massively and removes dangerous on-death effects, such as from Porcupines.

Their downside is that they're usually pretty expensive and require a source of You can apply an additional Curse to not collide with our Sniper's Mark, which raises the cost even more.

___________________________________________________________________

Boots

Here we also want something similar to before, so 60+ Life, 40+ Mana, 20%+ Movement Speed and Resistances, but this time ideally on Fugitive Boots for some Chaos Resistance.
We also care about the enchantment now, which unlike the Helmet enchantment is reasonable to farm in the Eternal Labyrinth.

Enchantment: 35% increased Mana Regeneration Rate if you've cast a Spell Recently

___________________________________________________________________

Amulet

Atziri's Foible gives lots of Mana and Mana Regeneration while also lowering any attribute requirements in our setup, and is just absolutely massive for the build. Prioritize Fertile Catalysts here to augment its effects further.

Anointment: Whispers of Doom (w/ Asenath's Gentle Touch), use Mind Drinker until then

___________________________________________________________________

Rings

Our first ring should have 50+ Life, 50+ Mana, Resistances and optionally Mana Regeneration Rate, preferably on Amethyst-, Paua-, Cerulean- or Vermillion Ring base.

Doedre's Damning can be used in its place if you have Asenath's Gentle Touch but can't afford Whispers of Doom yet. It provides You can apply an additional Curse but not much else really.

Essence Worm is our second ring. It allows us to run an aura inside it for no Reservation Cost but increases the cost of other auras, which isn't too terrible with Clarity's flat cost plus its Mana Mastery. We use it to run Purity of Elements, which grants us some Elemental Resistances and more importantly full Elemental Ailment Immunity, one of the strongest stats in the entire game!

___________________________________________________________________

Belt

Here we want 80+ Life, 40+ Mana, Resistances and Mana Recovery Rate, which requires either Shaper or Redeemer Influence. Best bases would be Stygian Vise or Leather Belt, the former would require using a Redeemer's Exalted Orb to gain her influence on the belt.

Enchantment: 15% increased Area of Effect while you have Arcane Surge

___________________________________________________________________

Jewels

Just like before, an Abyss Jewel with Mana and Cast Speed, having Life on top is great.

Thread of Hope allows us to allocate Passives within its ring radius without being connected to our passive tree, at the cost of resistances. There are four different sizes, we need Medium Ring to allocate Divine Judgement and Arcane Capacitor, and later also Runesmith and Sanctum of Thought.

It can only drop from Sirus, Awakener of Worlds.

Watcher's Eye comes with some Life and Mana and up to three aura-related affixes. Most important one for us is increased Mana Recovery Rate while affected by Clarity, the following affixes are good additions if you can afford that:

#% of Damage taken from Mana before Life while affected by Clarity
+#% to Chaos Resistance while affected by Purity of Elements
#% reduced Reflected Elemental Damage taken while affected by Purity of Elements
#% of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Cold Damage while affected by Purity of Elements
#% of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Fire Damage while affected by Purity of Elements
#% of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Lightning Damage while affected by Purity of Elements

It can only drop from the Elder (2-Affix) and Uber Elder (3-Affix).

___________________________________________________________________

Cluster Jewels

Clusters Jewels can be socketed into Large Jewel Sockets around the outline of the passive tree to expand it in a customized way. There's three sizes - Large, Medium, Small - which all have their own affix pool.

Our Large Cluster Jewel needs to be Lightning Damage based and shouldn't have more than 9 added Passive Skills, peferably 8. We want Scintillating Idea here, and it needs to be either the left or right notable when it's socketed.

Good additions are Prismatic Heart, Storm Drinker, Thunderstruck and Widespread Destruction, or Cast Speed on the small passives.

Our Small Cluster Jewel needs to be Mana based, doesn't matter if it has 2 or 3 added Passive Skills. We aim for Openness, Clarity of Purpose or Mindfulness are also decent.

___________________________________________________________________

Flasks

Divine Life Flask - We still need reduced Amount Recovered/Instant Recovery when on Low Life as prefix, but this time with any Grants Immunity to Maim/Hinder for # seconds if used while Maimed/Hindered suffix.

Eternal Mana Flask - The increased Charges per use/increased Amount Recovered prefix is still important, now we also add any Hinder nearby Enemies with #% reduced Movement Speed for 4 seconds if used while not on Full Mana suffix.

Diamond Flask - Any increased Duration prefix together with increased Cast Speed during Flask effect suffix is what we aim for here.

Quicksilver Flask - Once again any increased Duration prefix with any reduced Effect of Curses on you during Flask Effect suffix.

Atziri's Promise replaces the old Amethyst Flask. It adds up to 8% of our damage as extra chaos damage, the other parts aren't relevant to us.

It can only drop from Atziri.

soon™ (check POB in the meantime)

This section is here to answer the everlasting "What to upgrade next?" question.

It's based on the assumption that you have no gear and have reached maps, if you haven't then you shouldn't even be reading this part of the guide yet, stick to the first part for Acts.

___________________________________________________________________

‣ Low Budget Gear

‣ Medium Budget Gear (5L Pledge of Hands & Cloak of Defiance)

‣ Jewels & Cluster Jewels

‣ Asenath's Gentle Touch

‣ Whispers of Doom Anointment

‣ 6L Pledge of Hands & Cloak of Defiance

‣ Fertile Catalysts

‣ Alternative Quality Gems, cheap Awakened Gems

‣ High Budget Gear, Awakened Spell Echo & Chain

This section provides trade links to Low Budget Gear that gets you started. They're currently set to Scourge, change that to your current league if needed.

I will not provide any trade links for higher end stuff here!

Take it as a tutorial about equipment and planning. Import your character into Path of Building, check potential upgrades on the trade site, import them to your character in Path of Building and check poedb to see which craft you can add with your Crafting Bench, while keeping the affix rules mentioned in Basic Information about Gear in mind.

___________________________________________________________________

‣ Weapon: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Scourge/v4Y7vg9TE
‣ Body Armour: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Scourge/e2b3DQ9IL
‣ Helmet: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Scourge/DjPrnWVT5
‣ Gloves: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Scourge/nb05Dgzu0
‣ Boots: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Scourge/e2b3DO4IL
‣ Amulet: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Scourge/ZYdOEGYtQ
‣ Rings: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Scourge/jbQEREkTX
‣ Belt: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Scourge/YaGX2lbhY
‣ Jewels: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Scourge/pmQr8WI0

Mapping

Before you start mapping, make sure that your Elemental Resistances (Fire, Cold & Lightning) are capped at 75% and you have atleast 3k Life and 4k Mana.

Your first maps shouldn't be an issue with this build, just keep on progressing through the Atlas. Read up on monster mods and map mods to understand what everything does and how they may affect enemies or yourself.

Orb of Storms has fairly good coverage with Chain and should be enough to clear, especially once you have Asenath's Gentle Touch. Just remember that you can only have one Orb of Storms active at a time, and that its casts happen on set intervals depending on your cast speed. Ball Lightning should only ever be needed while clearing for the occasional tanky rare enemy.

Aside from that, use Arcane Cloak and Utility Flasks while facing enemies and keep your Flame Dash and Quicksilver Flask for moving between packs. Once you have Vaal Haste, use it whenever it's up and you're not just backtracking through the map.

Enemies usually give visual cues to react and often lock target on the position you're at during their animation start, so in that case simply move to avoid all damage. Sometimes you can also use the environment to block enemies from getting to you or preventing damage from their skills.

That said, there's many things in this game that aren't meant to be tanked in the first place,
and may kill you if you try. There's lots of trial and error involved to figure them out.

As a general rule, remember: Standing still for too long is a death sentence in this game!

___________________________________________________________________

Bossfights

Bossfights are all mechanical, going in circles around the boss usually works well. You only want to gain distance for a few skills such as AoE slams, explosions or burrow attacks.

Same as above, keep Arcane Cloak up at all times! Put Arcanist Brand on the boss, cast Arcane Cloak and Orb of Storms, then start the fight and burst them down with Ball Lightning whenever it's safe to do so. Move to dodge skills or replenish mana and repeat until the boss is dead.

Beware of any iteration of Atziri! She has an inherent 2% damage reflection, use Soul of Yugul together with a Watcher's Eye with #% reduced Reflected Elemental Damage taken while affected by Purity of Elements or Sibyl's Lament to be safe.

___________________________________________________________________

Mapmods to look out for

No Regeneration - can't safely run this, skip

Elemental Reflect - equip a Sibyl's Lament and use Soul of Yugul, or skip.

Soul of the Brine King (Major) - Prevents stunlocks, which can happen with our life pool.

Soul of Shakari (Minor) - Limits poisons on us to 3 and halves their duration. Its upgrade reduces chaos damage we take.

Soul of Yugul (Minor) - Mitigates reflected damage. Its ugprade reduces curse effect on us.

Soul of Gruthkul (Minor) - Gives additional physical damage reduction when hit. It's upgrade slows enemy attacks after hitting you.

‣ 28th October 2021: updated POB
‣ 28th October 2021: updated Endgame Passive Trees
‣ 28th October 2021: fixed Flask Suffix names for Menagerie crafts
‣ 28th October 2021: removed The Front Line, it was too risky for us
‣ 28th October 2021: fixed Thread of Hope description
‣ 28th October 2021: replaced Sigil of Power with CwDT + Frost Wall
‣ 28th October 2021: updated Flask prefixes & suffixes to new tiers
‣ 28th October 2021: added Masteries
‣ 23rd October 2021: added active Orb of Storms limit
‣ 23rd October 2021: added Orb of Storms + Hydrosphere chain interaction
‣ 23rd October 2021: updated trade links to Scourge & renamed to Low Budget Gear
‣ 23rd October 2021: updated Life & Mana Flask prefix names
‣ 23rd October 2021: removed outdated information about Vaal Arc
‣ 22nd October 2021: updated for 3.16
‣ 22nd October 2021: cleaned up Changelog
‣ 22nd July 2021: Guide created