Enki's Arc Witch Memorial Page

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OnlyRipper wrote:
The main reason we use shield instead of another wand is bonus % Mana regen?


The primary reason is absolutely the chance to block. Arcane Guarding and Mistress of Sacrifice are big buffs when using a shield, and both synergize perfectly with this build. Take that away and you've got almost zero damage mitigation. And really, most of the important damage mods on wands can already be rolled on spirit shields, 150+ mana and influenced weapon affixes being the main exceptions:


(I would kill to be able to horticraft a t1 mana roll on that!)

Plus the shield gives us another place to put life and resistances. Admittedly, you can get those on weapons, but at that point you'd just be screwing yourself out of all that damage mitigation for a comparatively insignificant gain in DPS.
Last edited by WorderMostFoul on Aug 14, 2020, 1:13:47 PM
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Xevus77 wrote:
For some reason I've decided to try BL. The difference in damage output with default Arc is insane, especially on bosses. Do i miss something, but why doesn't this build use BL instead ?


Well, the most honest answer is that this always has and always will be a guide for self-cast Arc. Enki has been clear that the flavor of Arc is intrinsic to his vision of the build, which he has been reworking and refining and fundamentally uprooting every league for many years. He is taking a very well-deserved break from constantly monitoring the thread and answering all questions this league, but he's still the mastermind of this build, the primary purpose of which is to provide an accessible, in-depth learning experience for newer players while maintaining a fun, interesting, and relatively straightforward one for more experienced ones--not to make the build as overpowered as possible (that's what the rest of us are for!). It would simply be a different build if we dropped Arc.

I'd still pick Arc over Ball Lightning for clear speed, but you're probably right about single-target DPS. It'd require some retuning to maximize DPS, though. I'd imagine you'd want to use Pledge of Hands and drop one of the support gems for Greater Multiple Projectiles (mapping) or Slower Projectiles (bossing), and then you'd tweak the skill tree to support staff block chance instead of shield block chance. It wouldn't be as nimble, but the raw damage output would probably be very good. Maybe I'll tinker with it in PoB later.
Last edited by WorderMostFoul on Aug 14, 2020, 1:28:25 PM
Ok so, so far the build has been very strong and it's nice to change from cold to lightning. But there are some things that i still not understanding. For example, shock, do we shock with this build? The gem called Elemental Focus removes this ability but the tooltip says we shock. And then the "activate skill when you attack" mod. I'm using the Poet's Pen wand because i couldn't use my Kitava Helmet because of resistances. But the Desecrate skill (i'm at ACT 6) only activates when i use a normal attack and not when i attack with ARC. I'm using dual wands because i don't have a shield right now.
You get shock from corpse pact (ascendancy).

Trigger socketed spells when you use a skill is different than poet's pen, because using a skill can be any skill but poet's pen says "when you attack with this weapon".
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Viktranka wrote:
You get shock from corpse pact (ascendancy).

Trigger socketed spells when you use a skill is different than poet's pen, because using a skill can be any skill but poet's pen says "when you attack with this weapon".


Err, so, my ARC in on a Tabula Rasa, so, ARC is being cast by Tabula Rasa? wat?
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phosTR wrote:
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Viktranka wrote:
You get shock from corpse pact (ascendancy).

Trigger socketed spells when you use a skill is different than poet's pen, because using a skill can be any skill but poet's pen says "when you attack with this weapon".


Err, so, my ARC in on a Tabula Rasa, so, ARC is being cast by Tabula Rasa? wat?


Attacks are different from spells. Arc is a spell.
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Xevus77 wrote:
For some reason I've decided to try BL. The difference in damage output with default Arc is insane, especially on bosses. Do i miss something, but why doesn't this build use BL instead ?


Well, the most honest answer is that this always has and always will be a guide for self-cast Arc. Enki has been clear that the flavor of Arc is intrinsic to his vision of the build, which he has been reworking and refining and fundamentally uprooting every league for many years. He is taking a very well-deserved break from constantly monitoring the thread and answering all questions this league, but he's still the mastermind of this build, the primary purpose of which is to provide an accessible, in-depth learning experience for newer players while maintaining a fun, interesting, and relatively straightforward one for more experienced ones--not to make the build as overpowered as possible (that's what the rest of us are for!). It would simply be a different build if we dropped Arc.

I'd still pick Arc over Ball Lightning for clear speed, but you're probably right about single-target DPS. It'd require some retuning to maximize DPS, though. I'd imagine you'd want to use Pledge of Hands and drop one of the support gems for Greater Multiple Projectiles (mapping) or Slower Projectiles (bossing), and then you'd tweak the skill tree to support staff block chance instead of shield block chance. It wouldn't be as nimble, but the raw damage output would probably be very good. Maybe I'll tinker with it in PoB later.


Having looked at this a little more, and keeping in mind that I'm not an expert on the spell, I do NOT think this build is a good vessel for a Ball Lightning swap. BL might get you 20%-30% more theoretical single-target DPS, but the tradeoffs are too high. I'm just talking about it as a relatively simple swap within the scope of this particular build's archetype and not as an absolute, of course.
Last edited by WorderMostFoul on Aug 14, 2020, 11:34:51 PM
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Xevus77 wrote:
For some reason I've decided to try BL. The difference in damage output with default Arc is insane, especially on bosses. Do i miss something, but why doesn't this build use BL instead ?


Well, the most honest answer is that this always has and always will be a guide for self-cast Arc. Enki has been clear that the flavor of Arc is intrinsic to his vision of the build, which he has been reworking and refining and fundamentally uprooting every league for many years. He is taking a very well-deserved break from constantly monitoring the thread and answering all questions this league, but he's still the mastermind of this build, the primary purpose of which is to provide an accessible, in-depth learning experience for newer players while maintaining a fun, interesting, and relatively straightforward one for more experienced ones--not to make the build as overpowered as possible (that's what the rest of us are for!). It would simply be a different build if we dropped Arc.

I'd still pick Arc over Ball Lightning for clear speed, but you're probably right about single-target DPS. It'd require some retuning to maximize DPS, though. I'd imagine you'd want to use Pledge of Hands and drop one of the support gems for Greater Multiple Projectiles (mapping) or Slower Projectiles (bossing), and then you'd tweak the skill tree to support staff block chance instead of shield block chance. It wouldn't be as nimble, but the raw damage output would probably be very good. Maybe I'll tinker with it in PoB later.


Having looked at this a little more, and keeping in mind that I'm not an expert on the spell, I do NOT think this build is a good vessel for a Ball Lightning swap. BL might get you 20%-30% more theoretical single-target DPS, but the tradeoffs are too high. I'm just talking about it as a relatively simple swap within the scope of this particular build's archetype and not as an absolute, of course.


Do you think there are any changes that we can make to make BL viable without having to scrap everything? I already read up on some gear/gem swaps I can do, nothing crazy, but i wonder if the skill tree is where most changes would have to happen. I've enjoyed playing this build and have reached level 94 but definitely want something with just better boss/single target DPS.
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Having looked at this a little more, and keeping in mind that I'm not an expert on the spell, I do NOT think this build is a good vessel for a Ball Lightning swap. BL might get you 20%-30% more theoretical single-target DPS, but the tradeoffs are too high. I'm just talking about it as a relatively simple swap within the scope of this particular build's archetype and not as an absolute, of course.


Thanks. This is my first league in PoE, so my perception is far from perfect, but what are those tradeoffs, since i couldn't find any ? The only thing i did is swapped Arc for BL and use slower projectiles instead of controlled destruction. This has improved my overall DPS, clear speed and especially time to kill boss.
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Xevus77 wrote:
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Having looked at this a little more, and keeping in mind that I'm not an expert on the spell, I do NOT think this build is a good vessel for a Ball Lightning swap. BL might get you 20%-30% more theoretical single-target DPS, but the tradeoffs are too high. I'm just talking about it as a relatively simple swap within the scope of this particular build's archetype and not as an absolute, of course.


Thanks. This is my first league in PoE, so my perception is far from perfect, but what are those tradeoffs, since i couldn't find any ? The only thing i did is swapped Arc for BL and use slower projectiles instead of controlled destruction. This has improved my overall DPS, clear speed and especially time to kill boss.


i'll replace arc with BL and take it for a spin for 1 sirus spawn cycle, without swapping controlled destruction for slower projectiles.

i'll update here.

1st few maps impression: arc has a cleaner map clear due to the zig-zag/auto-seeking nature. with BL i've had more a few stray mobs.

More maps impression: missing vaal arc is quite a pain in the ass when daing with legion. Missing a big dps burst.
Location: Singapore GMT+8
Last edited by CliffAhead on Aug 15, 2020, 8:05:30 AM

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