1.2.4 - Durable self cast spark build
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This is a guide for a tanky, self cast piercing sparker. It fills large areas with high speed, long duration piercing sparks, repeatedly hitting and shocking packs over a wide area, or decimating mobs in enclosed spaces.
Why spark? Mostly because I love spark. This isn't a build that will change the way Path of Exile is played. It's not especially cheap for it's power. But it is a solid mapping build I've played solo to level 90, and ran high level maps with. Pros - Able to layer several defense types to make a well rounded, survivable character - Shocks packs effectively - Uses every skill duration node, vaal haste can reach over 15 seconds and often refills in less - Herald of Thunder with curse on hit means auto cursing, so less down time when engaging a pack - Cold snap with HoT can freeze and shock at the same time, for extra utility - Able to handle harder map mods to varying degrees Cons - Can't shock bosses, only shocks rares with proliferation or a lucky crit - Clear speed suffers against fewer, stronger enemies, and in open areas - Single target damage drops off sharply at range - Clear speed is modest, and boss fights are especially slow - Not cheap, the core item is the 5l lightning coil with 3 blue slots. Better have Vorici leveled - Reflect in large packs is dangerous, and long life of spark only makes this worse - Increased duration nodes slow down lightning warp. Leap slam or quicksilver flasks are the next best - Quality on spark is important for the projectile speed Passives
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http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgYAAx4D7gW1Bx4OSBEPEZYTnhSwFecWbxa_FvMaOB0UHb4fQSSqJjwmlSftKlsvnTBxM4c1kjY9Nok26TpCOlg8LUM2RXxJUUrIS3hMLU3jT69S7FVLVcZZbVnzXfJewF8qX5hh4mKsZp5nvWwWbIxuqnOzdFV59n4zfq9_xoIeg9uHGYhCiFqMNo0Zj0aQVZUul5eboZ2qoEKkkaeErJisqrQ4tMW18rc-wBrBxcLsxPbGrs8y1CPYvdlf2wvdjN2o4BLjauOE5Rnwa_DV9On31_rS-_X8S_4K_o8=
Bandits Oak, passive, passive Passives Priority
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- The build flows pretty well, leveling. You've got life and damage nodes scattered along the path with only a few long stretches without anything new. Pick them up as you work your way along. I'd prioritizes the projectile speed and damage nodes first, then on to the projectile pierce, and shock chance. All the while, filling in the life and damage nodes as appropriate. Pathing by the +30 strength and dex nodes early on, and stats from gear should cover you. Later on you'll get more of both as you fill in the strength side of the tree to get the skill effect nodes, and finally stretch down to get acrobatics. Personally I'd put that one off until after you've got a lightning coil, you'll need all the armor you can get before.
- I think I've taken the optimal path, for what I was trying to do on the tree. However, there are a lot of good alternatives to the nodes I've chosen. I've skipped crit, despite it being available, because I didn't think I could get enough of it without dropping links and gear I found otherwise important. That's definitely a way this could be worked in to a much more offensively minded build. Dual dagger, picking up dark arts would be much more dps eventually than the pierce/speed/duration scaling for spark I've gone for. Defense
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- Lightning coil has great synergy with this build. It frees us from needing armor to survive physical damage, so the downside of saffell's frame and acrobatics aren't so bad. Increased max lightning resist also doubles as extra physical resist as well.
- Saffell's Frame has a lot to offer. Increased max resists is strong all around. Spell block and max lightning resist greatly reduce reflect damage taken. The moderate spell damage is welcome as well. - Purity of lightning helps offset lightning coil's resist penalty, while also increasing max lightning resist. - Life leech provides a lot of sustain, and combats reflect. The various forms of mitigation make every point of life leeched even more valuable. - Cold snap benefits from almost all of the damage bonuses in this build, so long freezes are common. Herald of thunder means it can proliferate shocks as well, when you're lucky. - Immortal call on cast when damage taken helps take the edge off flurries of hard hits, like when you stumble in to a pack of devourers. It benefits from increased skill duration nodes as well. - Atziri's Promise helps against reflect mobs by adding additional leech, and some damage that is not reflectable. - Acrobatics greatly reduces incoming damage, with little downside as we're not using much armor or ES otherwise. - I carry enfeeble and warlord's mark for rough spots. Enfeeble for the usual reasons of reducing incoming damage. Warlord's mark provides additional leech, mana leech, sometimes stuns, endurance charges, and flask charges. - Just incidental bits of evasion add up, I've got 2000 evasion rating as I write this, mostly from lightning coil. This gives an estimated 19% chance to evade at level 90. That's not bad for no real attempts to stack it. Offense
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- Spark with spell echo, lightning penetration, and pierce is the primary damage source.
- Pierce lets the sparks hit more than once per projectile. Longer duration and higher projectile speed give each spark more chances to land additional hits. - Vaal haste gives a powerful boost to yourself and your party. It benefits from the skill duration nodes that we get for spark already. Fifteen second up time on vaal haste is often long enough to refill the skill before it wears off. - Warlord's mark provides enough mana leech to sustain vaal haste when constant casting would otherwise tap out your mana supply. It's also enough to sustain in 50% recovery maps, and possibly even zero regen maps. Extra flask charges for Atziri's Promise doesn't hurt, either. - Atziri's Promise gives a little burst of extra damage when needed, especially for high resistance mobs. - Shock stacks are fairly common, as spark hits a lot and we get shock chance on the tree. - Lightning penetration's value is fairly obvious, but it's worth mentioning that without it it's hard to shock resistant mobs. - Herald of Thunder does a reasonable amount of damage itself, as well as being linked to curse on hit to make cursing an automatic process. Generally conductivity, to keep the damage rolling. It also picks off the stragglers in a pack you might not otherwise want to take the time to finish off. Gems
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5/6 Link
Spark, Pierce, Spell Echo, Lightning Penetration, Life Leech. I haven't tested out a 6 link, so I'm only guessing that empower and faster casting would be the best options for the 6th. Empower's also an option as a replacement to life leech if you were feeling solid without it. At least partly I use this setup because getting more blue sockets on a lightning coil is difficult. Quality on spark is the top priority for quality gems, as the projectile speed helps land more hits. A small amount of quality on pierce is nice as well, 20/0 pierce caps at 59% and you get 40% from the tree. Using a moderate quality, low level pierce means not needing to get so much dex on the tree or gear, not needing to level the gem for as long, and being able to hit the cap (though 99% pierce isn't really that much worse than 100%). As I have a 6 socket 5 link, I use the spare socket for warlord's mark to manually cast. Enfeeble or temporal chains would be good options as well if it had been another color. I'd move that to my weapon swap if I were to get a 6 link. 4 Links Immortal Call, Cast When Damage Taken, Enduring Cry, Increased duration. A pretty standard setup there. Herald of Thunder, Reduced Mana, Curse on Hit, Conductivity/Elemental Weakness/Enfeeble. The lightning damage is nice, the auto cursing effect is nice, and the alternative ways to scale it mostly involve higher mana reservation which competes with our auras, so this is my preferred setup. I've kicked around the idea of using stun and blind as links as well, which would be nice in curse immune maps and also have no mana multipliers, but I haven't tested this myself, and the colors are very different. If you manage to vaal something with white sockets, this is where I'd use the white sockets, for curse changes. In curse immune maps or parties where you don't want to curse, I just remove curse on hit and use increased item rarity. It's not much benefit, but that socket's not doing much good if you're not cursing otherwise. Leap Slam, Faster Attacks, Vaal Haste, Increased Duration. This is less a 4 link and more two 2 links. The increased skill duration nodes kills lightning warp, even leveled with reduced duration support. Leap slam with a sceptre's my preferred alternative. Vaal haste and increased duration are a big part of your DPS in this build. It's strong when you sustain it, but unfortunately that means it does dwindle in effectiveness in long boss fights. 3 Links Purity of Lightning, Clarity, Reduced Mana. Clarity leveled to your needs. Remember that vaal haste will chew through your mana pool, warlord's mark on a few stray mobs can be enough to keep you filled up though. Possibly it could make clarity entirely unneeded, but that would mean giving up using offensive curses. Cold Snap, Cold Penetration, Elemental Proliferation. I've got this in a Doryani's Catalyst, so I'm using added cold damage as well. Gear
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Current Gear
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- I've already mentioned the reasoning for the lightning coil and saffell's. Rathpith would be a more expensive but better rounded alternative.
- Atziri's Foible provides a lot of mana and removed the need for stats on the tree for me, though dex on gear would work just as well. Still, removing mana and dex nodes and moving them in to other things was a nice DPS increase for a change in amulet, even if it doesn't directly give damage itself. Were I to sort out my gear differently, I think a stone of lazhwar would be a powerful option as well. A well rolled rare amulet could easily provide the needed stats and much of the same mana as well, so this is gear I'm using, but not defining for the build. - Doryani's Catalyst is just a strong choice for any elemental caster build, though it has some interesting trade offs in this build. Projectile speed is strong with spark, so I could be using a wand with similar or better damage rolls and projectile speed as well. I'm using a life leech gem, so the benefit of elemental leech, often it's best feature, is kind of wasted here. But increased duration nodes kill the speed of lightning warp, so having a strong sceptre means I can leap slam. Also the elemental proliferation support means I can use a 4l cold snap for even strong crowd control. It giving elemental rather than spell damage means herald of thunder's lightning bolts benefit from it as well. So it's a strong choice, but another place where a solid rare could easily replace it. - The boots, gloves, and helmet are just good places to get life rolls and resists. If you've gone with a wand, move speed will be especially important. The base types I've chosen to provide convenient link colors. I've also tried to favor evasion over armor, mostly, as acrobatics reduces armor and ES. Still I've got some armor for convenience, and I recommend getting some ES just for the mana. Eldritch Battery is in the build because I pass it, and have little use for ES in this build, so it's simply a very efficient mana node for me, not a build defining one. It's still useful to get that ES on gear, though, even at half value. - Rings and belt I've just been stacking resists, life, and some dex on. The dex is actually more than I need now, but that's an artifact of leveling and not having perfect gear. With perfect gear, I might not use atziri's foible, and instead use rings with mana regen rolls, and dex, plus a strong amulet. Leveling, I'd use dex on almost anything I could get it until I can run pierce and vaal haste at reasonable levels. Anyway, find some good rares that suit your needs for these slots. Leveling
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- I leveled as spark from beginning to end, though I enjoy the skill for it's own sake, I can't say it's the best way to level. If you do, getting fork early on will be useful for before you can get pierce up to a modest level and get the pierce chance nodes on the tree.
- Karui Ward is helpful for the stats, and the projectile speed, it's a solid choice to level with. A wand with projectile speed is a good choice in addition to the karui ward or as a replacement to it, up until you've got quality on spark. - I leveled this before herald of thunder was added, so I used herald of ice as a four link with the other auras leveling. I used lightning trap multi-traps against reflect mobs when I first leveled as well, since I couldn't just leech and flask through it the way I can now. - I played this on Rampage and have some tolerance for rough spots when leveling. I don't know if this is hardcore viable or not, but I wouldn't count on leveling this way being a good idea in hardcore Playing the build
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- Mostly, you'll just be spamming spark at things and cold snapping to initiate, with leap slam between packs. But you've got some flexibility.
- Enfeeble for dangerous mobs, either self cast or as your herald of thunder auto-curse. - Warlord's mark can quickly refill your life, mana, and flasks, especially helpful when you're using vaal haste continually. This also essentially turns low/no regen maps in to no curse maps. You ditch your offensive curse for warlord's mark, and you won't even notice the slower regen. - A topaz flask will have a lot of utility: plain lightning resistance, anti-reflect, and minor physical damage reduction, in addition to whatever else you roll on it. Still, don't forget to pick the flask for the job. A lightning resist flask won't save you from the Crematorium boss. You will have a fairly good chance against the Torture Chamber boss, though. Variations and Ideas
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This build passes by a lot of different good nodes I didn't choose to use. As such, a lot of variations are available that appear strong.
- I path near or right past a number of aura effect nodes. Clarity and purity of lightning could definitely be made stronger. Perhaps another aura could fit in the build in place of herald of thunder. - I path by a lot of mana nodes and use acrobatics. It's quite possible this could be done with Cloak of Defiance and arctic armour, as I'm already using eldritch battery. - At least two wheels of block nodes are already on the path I chose, which would be especially good with a rathpith and stone of lazhwar for an ultra-tanky version of this build. - I'm four points from double curse, or just one more unique. It wouldn't be hard to run herald of thunder without reduced mana, and have it double curse, or drop the curse on hit and manual curse. - I'm several nodes from the flask effect nodes, but they are powerful. The quicksilver, topaz, and atziri flask would all benefit greatly from the extra duration and effect. - Dual wielding would greatly increase the damage potential of the build, not only for having another weapon but also because I path right by Dark Arts, which gives great cast speed for the points spent, and some extra dex. It's a great cluster if you can use it. Gameplay videos
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Shock and Horror kill
http://youtu.be/5CA1tlVrIgI Double Piety Shrine http://youtu.be/q9yPv89BjEQ Last edited by Merkuto on Oct 29, 2014, 8:05:41 AM
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This would be much better with either crit or with a lot of block, all variations will also be better with cloak of defiance/AA and full strength granites instead of coil/acro with 50% granites.
new skill tree Like this you can use a rathpith's instead of a saffell's and a rumi's (which is really broken), you can even link tempest shield to life leech if you want as you already are a lightning spec so the leech will be substantial. Slap on rainbows and an Anvil and you're good to go, can also pick up the flask nodes which is an extra +3 max resist vs. reflect. Spark is a lot of small hits so block/tempest+LL/anvil work really really well with it. As a bonus cloak of defiance helps against reflected damage as well (and all other sources of damage that are not degen) and doesn't randomly get you shocked if you take a physical crit. edit: if you're not going for block nor pledge of hands you should be going for dual wand, 'dark arts' is conveniently close and those nodes are extremely effective and the ability to wield 2 wands with both having the 'faster projectiles' affix is also very helpful in boosting dps and clearspeed. Beyond league. Last edited by SEXYSUPERSATAN on Oct 28, 2014, 12:27:14 PM
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Vaal Stormcall can do some serious damage with the increased duration you have and all the light/elemental damage nodes. Also the 8 souls it needs make it usable very often.
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