InsaneMfB's Shock and Thaw - Ball Lightning Build (Glass Cannon)

This build has been very successful since the level 60's, and the scaling of gem levels as well as incremental gear upgrades have only pushed the boundries of what this build is capable of.

Weapon:


Stats you want:
- Spell Crit
- Spell Damage
- (bonus) Cast Speed

Shield:


Stats you want:
- Life
- Spell Crit
- Mana regeneration
- Lots of ES
- (bonus) Resists

Chest:

Stats you want:
- 6 Links on a chest. Tabula Rasa is currently the cheapest 6link available.
- Although this build works perfectly fine with a 5 link, a 6link is highly recommended.

Helmet:


- Three dragons is what makes this build work. No other helmet fits here. More info in the "mechanics" section

Gloves:

Stats you want :
- Anything. I added a crappy Life/Lightning resist glove as this was the only resist I didn't have capped. Really any stats here help, but a rare with high life is recommended.

Boots:

Stats you want :

- Life
- Resists
- Movement Speed

Belt:


-Doryani's belt mainly for the lightning leech, the nice resists and finally the 10% chance to shock on flask usage. More info in the "mechanics" section.

Ring1:


- Pyre ring is another one of the items that make the build work. You need this ring. More info in the "mechanics" section.

Ring2:
Any good caster ring.
- Good stats include Cast speed, Lightning damage, Life, Resists, Mana regeneration, Crit chance
- I broke my other rare ring I had with a vaal orb, So im in the process of buying a new one, so no picture here -_-

Amulet:


- Any good caster amulet would do.
Stats you want :
- Crit multiplier
- Cast Speed
- Life
- Mana regeneration
- Stat points
- Resists

6 Link (Main Spell):



- Quality is highly recommended on Elemental Proliferation as it increases both freeze and shock stack duration
- Getting quality on all other support gems further skyrockets the output of ball lightning and Herald of Ice

4 Link (Curse on hit 4 link):



4 Link (CWDT):



4 Link (Herald of Ice Setup):

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgUABLMFQgVbBx4HYw5IEQ8RlhOeFE0Wbxa_GjgabCSqJpUpTyycLR826TlSOlg8BT1fQZZG10lRTLNQMFJTVUtVxlgHXcZd8l8qYeJjQ2SdcFJw1XRVeC9-M35Zfq9_xoIegziD24V9idOLjIw2jRmOZI9Gj_qQVZUglS6XlZuhna6f36IAoqOkkacIp4SsmK6ztQS2-rw3wfPLvdD12V_a3dsL217djOAS4XPjauQi6_XsOO0g73zwH_DV8h33pvfX

This character really switches up the Lightning, Fire and Cold Damage to do entirely different things than they usually do, by combining the use of Three Dragons and Pyre ring.

This is how it works :

1. Light Damage Freeze :

First your main attack, Ball Lightning can now Freeze mobs instead of shocking them. Due to the fast hitting nature of ball lightning combined with a lot of critical strike chance and crit multiplier, those "little" small hits add up quite fast and tend to permafreeze everything on the screen.

2. Cold Damage Shock :
Second, now that you freeze everything with ball lightning, your Herald of Ice procs a lot, and I mean a LOT. But wearing three dragons means that the cold damage will ignite, and since we have no passives for the ignite mechanic, we would much rather get shock. This is why we use the Pyre ring. The pyre ring turns the cold damage from Herald of Ice into pure fire damage, which can then shock due to the three dragons mechanic.

In short :

Light Damage Freezes;
Cold damage is turned into fire, which then shocks;

If you take the cast speed of ball lightning and combine it with the inherit fast hits, you get a very efficient way of spreading Freeze and Shock across the entire screen.

"Why don't you just leave out Three Dragons to shock with Ball lightning and freeze with Herald of Ice like everyone else?!"

- You need a LOT of upfront cold damage when you enter end game and start running maps. The x-x cold damage added by Herald of Ice is simply not enough to ensure a reliable freeze.

I have recorded some footage in a lvl 73 Canyon Map, together with a few act boss kills, but I really suck with video editing and don't really know what I'm doing. I will post a gameplay video to youtube soon(tm).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nQDuPaaRVA