Icarus's Spellblade & Energy Blade - Lightning Conduit Trickster - Excellent Sanctum Build (CHEAP)

https://pobb.in/lID4nSDHl-FJ

Shavronne's Revelation



Coruscating Elixir



Brutal restraint


Ghostwrithe & Presence of Chayula



So far our core of the build has cost, lets say... 4.5 divines rounded up.
now i know that might sound like a lot if you a newer player but you will be able to get there and make back much more once you can run those sanctums.
Additionally i would recommend that Presence of Chayula be purchased last, as it is the most expensive part and the build can still function well with another amulet instead.

There is one more important part of of the built and that is the belt, as it hold important affixes for sustaining your flasks, such as reduced flask charges used increased flask duration. If you are struggling to sustain flasks you can choose to only use 2 flasks, or path towards the "Careful Conservationist" flask node on the tree (you will need to cut some other skills to do this). With that being said you should be able to sustain 3 flasks with decent enough gear.

This is my belt. It is very good. It cost 4 Divines.

YOU DO NOT NEED A BELT THIS GOOD TO PLAY THE BUILD!!!

The important modifiers here are again the reduced flask charges used and the flask duration modifier. You craft your own using chaos spam or purchase a cheaper one on a different belt base, but a crystal belt with defense catalysts is the end game option.

Some notable mods:
- We are cursing with conductivity on our other ring slot. This was a delve fracture and cost me 50c.
- In order to use all of our auras we are using a shaped shield with 30% increased efficiency of socketed gems.
- We don't fully sustain this quicksilver flask but we don generate extra charges in combat, you can fully sustain a quicksilver that has increased charges gained.
- Taste of hate, this provides cold resist and reduced cold damage taken, but most of all up to 15% of physical taken as cold. This is an optional flask that doesn't provide any damage increase but it does increase the value of a armor investment by re-allocating some a chunk of the damage.
- We utilized a watchers eye with wrath and determination, but any watcher eye with relevant affixes for for grace, wrath, determination, discipline or clarity will be strong here.
- Note the abyssal socket on the weapon. if you get any one handed weapon that has an abyssal socket (it doesn't matter it will be replace when we use energy blade), that weapon even after transforming will keep the socket. this is a free slot for another jewel. I'm using a random jewel that gives life and ES but this can be improved upon.

For auras We are using:

- Wrath
- Grace
- Discipline
- Determination
- Clarity
- Defiance Banner

To fit these all in we are using:

Determination -> Grace -> Discipline all linked in the shield with 30% increased reservation efficiency to socketed gems


Defiance banner -> Wrath -> Arrogance -> Enlighten


And on boots we have clarity, along with our flame dash for movement, and two free slots to link cast on death portal, because why not :) Its useful when learning


After increased reservation efficiencies from the skill tree we are reserving 90% of our mana and 92% of our life. If you don't have access to enlighten gem you can choose to not include the defiance banner.
I wanted this build to feel very comfortable against all content so i chose to make what investment i could in amour with defiance banner and determination. If you want to completely forgo any amour you can choose to substitute Determination for Zealotry, for even more damage. If you do this you may want to choose a different flask that to taste of hate.
lastly i have not included any helmet enchantments, so if you are struggling for aura reservation you could get any of the helm enchants that increases reservation efficiency for Grace, Discipline or Determination/Zealotry.

- Flame Dash (mentioned above)
Good movement skill

- Cast on Death portal (mentioned above)
Because Whynot?


- Energy blade
This is the core of our build and where all our damage comes from.
It replaces our main hand weapon in exchange for half of our energy shield and creates a sword with increased amounts of lightning damage based on how much energy shield we have (in our case a lot).

Steelskin
- This is a guard skill that reduces the incoming damage from enemies by 70% and instead takes it from Steelskin's capacity up-to 2209 damage at max level. If you allocate this skill to left click it will automatically cast the guard skill as you move around. you could choose to activate this skill manually to be more efficient with its usage but this is more convenient.

If you haven't used it before lightning conduit is a skill that deals damage in area to any monster that have been shocked. It only deals damage to enemies if the are shocked and greatly increases the damage depending on the effect of the that shock. Specifically 20% more damage per 5% of shock. When lighting conduit hits that enemy the shock is then removed and another shock must be applied before lightning conduit can be cast again. By default the maximum shock effect is 50% but with the lightning mastery this can be raised to 65%, providing to total increase of 260% more damage to lightning conduit.

The best was to apply a shock is either by placing an orb of storms on the ground and then casting lighting conduit. With enough shock chance, the orb of storms will damage and then shock all nearby enemies every time a lighting skill is used, such as lightning conduit, guaranteeing a shock for each cast.
This is great for clearing maps but requires you to be nearby enemies, we can tank the damage but it less ideal for bossing and not great for sanctum as we want to avoid losing resolve.

If you want to use orb of storms i would link:

- Orb of Storms -> Spellblade -> Overcharge -> Increased Area of Effect
(orb of storms does not deal area damage but is much more comfortable to use with increased area)

In our build we are using Storm brand, when cast the brand attaches itself to an enemy and repeatedly damages the monster for a duration, this activation frequency increases with cast speed) with slightly more cast speed on storm brand (Self cast lightning conduit benefits from our 8% incr. action speed while storm brands activation freq. does not) we can guarantee a enemy is shock every time between casts of lightning conduit. Just cast storm brand first on an enemy and the lightning conduit until the duration runs out or until their dead and then repeat).

We are also proliferating these shocks to nearby enemies to clear much faster, either using the lightning mastery or the eldritch implicit on gloves.

We are linking:

Lightning Conduit -> Spellblade -> Elemental Focus - > Energy Leech -> Lightning Penetration -> Arcane Surge

And for our shock effect we are using:

Storm Brand -> Spellblade -> Overcharge -> Lightning Penetration


- Spellblade is a must, we receive a crazy 135% of our energy blades damage as base added spell damage.
- Elemental focus, Lightning conduit consumes shock effects an cannot shock itself so this is the most damage we can get from a support gem.
Awakened Elemental Focus is not necessary but is only ~75c and provides a useful chance to apply lightning exposure.
- Energy Leech, since we are a trickster we have crazy strong energy shield leech and will always be leeching in combat, providing 24 % more damage and we will quite often be on full energy shield providing a further 14% more damage.
- Lightning Penetration, provides effect damage especially against bosses with large resist values.
Awakened Lightning Penetration again is not necessary but is useful and only costs 10c
- Arcane surge support, Decent damage link and provides useful casts speed and mana regen, this build has not gotten arcane surge from any other sources so its good here as a main link

For Strom brand, Spellblade and lightning penetration increase the damage and thus the resultant shock for the same reasons as above.

- Overcharge, this is a must for shocking enemies.
This skill is only a 4 link so the damage is not very high as it could be in a 6 link but still provides very strong shocks. With overcharge we deal 25% less damage but shock as if we are dealing 700% more damage which is huge for our purposes.

Trickster - He is a fan of energy shield :)

Polymath -> Escape Artist -> Soul Drinker -> One Step Ahead

You can choose to go Escape Artist -> Soul Drinker then Polymath,
as the over-leech from soul drinker is our most important ascendancy however while leveling the damage increase from polymath will probably feel best.

If choosing to spec into spell suppression you could replace one step ahead with spellbreaker, just be aware that while shavronne's revelation a core item in this build you will not be able to utilized the ES recharge from this ascendancy.

I won't go into to much detail about the skill tree as you can see the specifics in the POB but we are focusing on ES, life, Evasion Lighting damage, shock effect, aura effect, aura efficiency, cast speed, some mana regen and leech effectiveness. Because we are a trickster ascendancy, multiple different types of masteries allocated benefits us in more % damage and % ES on kill, so we have taken a variety were possible.

- Anoint Tranquility on amulet go grant Transfiguration of soul
- For budget alternative you can anoint cloth and chain for evasion and resist

* important note, this build survivability relies heavily on its its energy shield leech of which we have a maximum leech of 34% per second, and 10% of each leech we apply to be instant. With our large base energy shield even after the energy blade we this is some massive recovery as long as we attacking relatively often in combat.

Notable keystones:
- Pain attunement
30% more spell damage on low life
- Ghost dance
ES gained when hit based on evasion
- Ghost Reaver
Doubles our Energy shield leech rate
- Elemental Overload
grants 40% extra elemental damage for 8 seconds when we crit with a skills but prevents bonus damage from critical hits.
Since we attack so fast we with 8% crit we quite consistently proc this effect.

- Don't Forget about the abyssal jewel on the weapon, its a free jewel slot
- Effectiveness of shocks is very important for the builds DPS don't neglect the stat
- If you cannot sustain flasks yet specifically the coruscating elixir DO NOT reserve you life bar. Use either use the ghostwrithe or an ES/Evasion chest such as a sadist garb until you can sustain flasks and fully reserve life.
- level 83 sanctums can be bought as cheap as 10c and often reward 1 or 2 divines per run, its seriously worth doing this league.
Even sanctums that don't reward divines can output lots of chaos orbs, awakened sextants and vaal orbs which are all still valuable.
There are lots of great guides for how to run sanctums but just know this is a good build for doing so. It may take a few runs to get so decent relics to help you out but once you do its quite easy to succeed.
I personally use relics the grant maximum resolve on boss kill and fountain usage as they're my strongest relics. Relics that provide Inspiration per floor and when an affliction is gained are also great and can make it easier to get boons and buffs from the accursed pact by sacrificing maximum resolve.
- I'll try to answer any questions about the build if people have any.

https://youtu.be/BdEdXpJVu34

Added mapping footage and conqueror boss kill in standard.
* Note this build uses the Prism Guardian shield for fitting maximum auras, it has less max ES but allows for determination and zealotry to be included.
Will make updates to the build including prism guardian as next league starts.

* Also I've been having overheating pc problems so its not the smoothest gameplay but hopefully this displays the build's power.