[1.1.3] Cabesi's OP CI Crit Arc Annihilator (Now with Video!)

End game continuation of the build now here: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/979360
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Hello!

Sick of people doing more damage than you in maps? Then try out this build and destroy their egos forever!

All you need is a very modest amount of currency and some sense of danger, hehe.

Yes, this build is extremely squishy... UNLESS... you kill everything first. Then you are da baws... Obviously.

Also, work in progress... Comments and tips are welcome, although will almost certainly be ignored :-).

Video of me clearing Tropical Island in 7:20 - http://youtu.be/eULAC4qTY9g



Skill tree at lvl 91:



Pretty straightforward, really. Getting Static Blows is not necessary as you already have 34% chance to shock (with lvl 17 Conductivity), plus every time you crit, plus you are using Elemental Prolif on Arc. Getting Inner Force might be an option/necessity, depending on your mana needs with a 5L/6L Arc. Other than that, you can either go for Body and Soul and later Faith and Steel for survivability or, for the same amount of points, go for Nullification and Void Barrier on the Shadow side.

Current skill tree at lvl 72:



You can possibly start as a Templar or a Shadow as well, but a Witch is prettier. Oh yeah, and the progression is much easier...

As always, only spec into CI once you have enough ES (~3.5k with Discipline).


Skills you will be using are:

4L/5L/6L: Arc + Faster Casting + Power Charge on Critical + Elemental Proliferation/ +Life Leech/ +Light Pen
- Use Arc+Faster Casting+Ele Prolif+Light Pen for lvling until you can get the Shadow crit nodes and some crit on your gear.
- Getting quality on Arc goes a long way
- Getting quality on Faster Casting is also very nice
- But getting quality on Power Charge is just unreal (Seriously, what were they thinking, quality on Power Charge is super duper OP)

4L: Reduced Mana + Clarity + Discipline + Purity of Elements/Purity of Lightning
- Standard stuff (or so I have been told), use Purity of Elements if you don't have enough res on gear, otherwise Purity of Lightning is better because of ele reflect mobs.

4L: Cast when Damage Taken + Molten Shell + Summon Skeletons + Cold Snap
- OP stuff, didn't die once since I started using all three (so far)...

4L: *Not sure yet :)*

3L: Lightning Warp + Faster Casting + Reduced Duration
- Handy

3L: Conductivity + Increased Area of Effect + *Something*
- Your main and only curse, although sometimes might not be worth the cast time as another arc blow would kill everything anyway

1L: Vaal Arc just for funsies


Gear!:



Nothing special going on here. You will be looking for:
- Spell damage
- Cast speed
- Crit chance/multi
- Mana regen
- Mana
- ES


Eye of Chayula is the only unique you might really want, although the Doryani's belt is really nice for this build. Void Battery would be godly.

Good thing is that you will be getting a lot of ele resists from the tree, so you might get some of your gear without it and therefore cheaper. You might even get to use a crit ring like I do!

As for flaks, get Granite and Quicksilver for obvious reasons, then Topaz against reflect mobs. Other than that, you have a free choice, although I like to use two Diamonds to make the charges getting/keeping a bit easier, and for special occasions when some boss offends you by not dying immediately...

Also, might be speccing into more Armor/ES hybrid gear, possibly, if I start to get too owned in the higher lvl maps.


Bandit rewards:
Normal: Kill All
Cruel: Kill All/Help Alira
Merciless: Help Alire for extra power charge



And so, how do you play this build, you ask?

EZ! You run in, cast Conductivity, pop a Diamond if you like to, get 7 power charges, then proceed to commit a bloody murder on everything as they are shock stacked and you are critting 36.2% of the time (well, with my gear that is).

My offensive stats at lvl 72:



My offensive stats with charges up:



You see? The shitty 4% base crit chance Arc is not so bad now, is it?

Of course, my defense is not that great. Eye of Chayula is pretty mandatory, otherwise you can get stunned from almost any source, get charged at, stun locked, and it's GG...

My defensive stats:



You kill everything practically immediately, so survivability isn't THAT much of an issue, but, fighting some map bosses or Exiles might be difficult. You can also get easily frozen (unless you want to invest into the Dream Fragments ring), so get Heat on one of your flasks. When fighting reflect mobs, pop your Topaz and take it slow, you won't one shot yourself. Lastly, I like to get 30% movement speed on my boots even though I am running Lightning Warp, just to be extra able to run away :-).

Map modes you can't probably do:
- No regen
- Blood Magic
- Elemental Reflect
- Some others (Hehe, will have to run more maps)


Well, that's it for now... Been doing 66-68 maps solo and in groups without much trouble, clearing extremely quickly solo and getting much love in groups thanks to shock stacking.

It might be that this build will end up being shit in extra late game, but honestly, who cares... Have some fun!


Oh, I will try to get a video of me running some maps later on, for the unbelievers...
EDIT: Some higher lvl maps + in groups soon...

nice character name

EDIT: Now with Video!

Really nice build :)

"

Thorinek wrote:

Really nice build :)

Thanks! Actually, I have increased the ambition and scope of this build significantly since I posted this guide. I will update it once I reach lvl90 (lvl89 atm). All I can say for now is: 60k dps arc coming ;).

"

Cabesi wrote:

"

Thorinek wrote:

Really nice build :)

Thanks! Actually, I have increased the ambition and scope of this build significantly since I posted this guide. I will update it once I reach lvl90 (lvl89 atm). All I can say for now is: 60k dps arc coming ;).

I will be apt to question the validity of this claim, and I request that you demonstrate the calculations which caused you to arrive at such a value as well as its situational practicality.

"

KuteKitteh wrote:

"

Cabesi wrote:

"

Thorinek wrote:

Really nice build :)

Thanks! Actually, I have increased the ambition and scope of this build significantly since I posted this guide. I will update it once I reach lvl90 (lvl89 atm). All I can say for now is: 60k dps arc coming ;).

I will be apt to question the validity of this claim, and I request that you demonstrate the calculations which caused you to arrive at such a value as well as its situational practicality.

Spoiler

e.g. I could sport a modest 9-12k tooltip DPS arc, but on a critless build with life leech, Lightning pen, Fastercasting/spell echo, and elemental proliferation, that results in practical and instant damage output that lets me consistently kill white mobs in 1 or 2 hits, not just a one-in-3 crit with a bajillion crit multiplier that results in wasted overkill damage or a powercharge-based build that takes a ton of arc pumping to build up the DPS. Basically, I'm saying if you want to throw out a DPS value, defend its practicality, as I am relatively skeptical of lightning-based crit builds given the loss of practical DPS due to the poor 4% crit chance.

You ask, and I shall deliver!

Double Void battery (9 power charges):
(avg per hit arc lvl24) 652,5* (spell dmg increase from gear and tree)7.13=4648.76 *(pain attunement multi)1.3=6043.388*(spell echo multi)0.9=5439 avg per hit

crit multi:5439*6=32634.3
crit chance: 46%

46*32634.3=1501177,6 + 54*5439=293706 == 17948 (avg per hit)*(cast speed from tree, echo, lvl20 haste) 3.53=63420 dps

That is the absolute end game version of this build with Shavs. (slightly) More reasonable version with only double Void Batteries, Voidbringer gloves and lvl24 arc in The Vertex is the same damage (you can get the cast speed you lose running haste with blood rage) minus the PA multi. Then, theoretically, if you get lvl21 arc and lvl4 empower, the dmg would be even better.

As to the reasonableness, I use ice spear+fast cast+gmp now to generate charges, so that's not a problem, except for the bother to remember to click a button once a 13s. The dmg is a slightly bit higher (ok, a LOT higher :-) than necessary for normal mobs, but solves the problem of arc not doing enough single dmg against bosses. Or lets just say a lot of dmg is fun :-).

Btw, for the demonstration check out Mathil's crit arc witch videos. His build is roughly similar to my current one, except for him using arc in a 5/6L instead of The Vertex.

EDIT: Oh, and for group play it might be possible (mana regen-wise) to get The Taming for EVEN MORE dmg. To be honest, I am inclined to get it, just to make a post saying: Crit Arc Witch OP Build - 1000% increased spell dmg, haha...

I am duly impressed (albiet not by the cost required to achieve such DPS, which could otherwise make an even higher DPS build using CoE + Shav) and patiently await your update. My only concern now, asides from the huge cost, is the defense mechanisms employed and how well this stands up to elemental reflect.

"

KuteKitteh wrote:

I am duly impressed (albiet not by the cost required to achieve such DPS, which could otherwise make an even higher DPS build using CoE + Shav) and patiently await your update. My only concern now, asides from the huge cost, is the defense mechanisms employed and how well this stands up to elemental reflect.

Theoretically, with triple shock stacks though, and The Taming shocking 40 mobs at once, it equals to about 150k AoE dmg, which is more than most CoE + Shav builds!

But seriously...

Yes, the defense isn't the strong suit of this build. I am not at all sure it could do Atziri, for example.

However, you are not completely squishy. With the aura nodes you have (21% reduced) + reduced mana gem (lvl20), you can run 2x60%+1x40% auras on your life pool. So that is Haste+Purity+Grace. With Grace, The Vertex and inc evasion nodes you'll have, you should have about 4k evasion. Plus you are running either lvl20 or lvl22 AA, depending on whether you chose to link it with another empower or rather run cwdt+something. Your ES with Shavs should be at about 6.5 at lvl90, depending on what nodes you chose instead of CI. That is not terribly impressive.

So yeah, pretty much your best defense is offense. But it works really well since arc is instantaneous and when you crit any mob simply disappears.

As for reflect, your aura nodes give you +1% on purity of lightning, so you are at 82 light res. With a topaz, you can kill any reflect groups with very little if any damage taken. So yeah, normal ele reflect rares, no problem. Reflect maps however are still pretty impossible, unfortunately.

Oh, forgot (again), you also run Vaal Discipline. That saves me a lot :-).

A lot of imaginary DPS numbers thrown about in this thread, 60k dps or 150k dps or whichever it is does not clear Tropical Island at that slow clear speed.

Nice attempt to lure new people into your guide with lies though.