[2.0] Kato's Maelstorm Sphere [Ball Lightning, Lightning-Cold Damage, LL, MoM, 7k+ DPS]

Hello
Welcome to my LowLife Ball Lightning build thread. I currently enjoy this build so much and thinking to share and ask bout your opinion and tips for this build

Background
I used to play BL before 2.0. With the new patch, somethings goes beyond imaginably good so i decided to give it a shot again. Quite lost to begin the build, i surf the forum and come to see Norec's LL Arc build (thanks for the reference!). So i decided to tweak the skill tree and stuff for this build


Details

I. Build Breakdown

The build focus on using the skill Ball Lightning for utilizing damage. Ball lightning has low flat lightning damage compared to other lightning spell skill and very low dmg efficiency (holy cow its only 20%).This low dmg efficiency is probably because the BL "Sphere" dmg is by ticking every 200ms (which is in 1s its all the same as 100% efficiency).
To understand more about Ball Lightning you can visit


The Build revolve around using LowLife stat. The LL give us the ability to get more damage (via Pain Attunement). Getting into lowlife mean we can reserve some of our life for aura/buff. The build uses two Heralds (Lightning and Ice), three Aura (Wrath, Discipline, Clarity), and one self buff (Arctic Armor).

Another thing around the build is using the unique "Call of the Brotherhood" ring. The ring converts 50% of lightning damage into cold damage, enabling us to chill and freeze enemy. The ring also gives 100% shock against frozen enemies.

Summary of the build :
- Good DPS
- Decent Survivability
- Good clear speed
- Additional manual dodging (BL can be single casted and let it do the rest of the job)
- Can tackle most maps
- Fun to play!

Cons :
- Possibility of doing high end content isnt as big as other build
- Squishy without right gear and/or good experience/observation on enemies
- DPS isnt something you call "Superb"
- Even at max chaos res, chaos damage can still pose a threat

II. Passive Skill Tree

At level 87, this is my current skill tree



Skill tree breakdown
The skill tree focuses on getting both defense and offensive capabilities. I took many spell/elemental/lightning damage as it boost the base damage of BL and furthermore boost the cold damage via Call of Brotherhood. I took MoM to help mitigate damage, though it leaves much to be desired as my current unreserve mana is very little. Pain attunement is another node that must be taken as this is lowlife build. Ghost Reaver is taken to help against reflect mob or just simply adding survivability I have done same balancing to get more defenses. further improvement is possibly either defenses (life,es,mana) or dps (crit especially)


III. Gear

My Current gears are

Spoiler


I have done some saving to be able to get prism guardian. The uniq does greap help on fulfilling elemental resis need and the ability to run more aura. By using it i am able to get more dps (via Wrath-more on that later). But it has come with drawback-im losing quite a lot of ES. Later on, i will try to get boot with better ES to substitute for the ES loss. The addition ring, Lori's Lantern help quite a lot with res, chaos res, some movement speed, light radius (which for us are pretty low cause of lowlife) and the property "enemy are unlucky when attacking you". The rest of the gear are still the same.

Previous Setup

Spoiler
Spoiler


As for much testing at higher level content, i dropped dual wielding wand and use balanced shield (decent dps and defense). The damage drop is not really noticeable, as u can still clear map fast. Survivability going up greatly as i am now about to reach 5k es (need more though).
Vertex is used for aura and buff, linked with enlighten for less reserve.
At the current condition, i am lucky enough to get some evasion through gear (helmet, body armour and ring) which is great in helping to get more layer of defense.
Beside the unique, the gear is focused on getting more es, resis, chaos resis, life and mana



IV. Gem Setup.

The BL Setup should be
BL-ECHO-INC AOE-SLOWER PROJECTILE-ICEBITE-LIFE LEECH

BL Gem Breakdown
Spoiler
Bl ticks damage every 200ms. So having the enemy inside the BL AOE for longer time gives MUCH more damage. This we do by using slower projectile and in aoe. The drawbacks for slower projectile is that you cant hit further enemy, so u have to cast the BL much closer. Icebite is used for the chance to freeze and chance to generate frenzy charges.Life leech is used for the leech of course. With Ghost reaver on, im getting better survivability against higher level mob


On the vertex helemt, i use Herald of Thunder setup, HoT-Curse on Hit-Warlord Mark-Asssassin Mark. This ensure steady supply of power charge, endurance charge the help with some leech from Warlord mark.

Gem on Prism Guardian are Wrath-Discipline-Arctic Armour. Wrath on 2.0 are just OP for spells. It gives 20% MORE lightning damage which basically almost the same as using Pain attunement itself.

Glove are used for CWDT setup (CWDT-Immortal Call-Molten Shell-Enfeeble)

Boots used for Herald of Ice, Clarity, Chaos Golem-Minion Speed. Im using Minion Speed for my golem to get into fight faster.

Lightning Warp-Less Duration-Faster Casting used for mobility

V. Tooltips

Spoiler


Spoiler


VI. PlayStyle

PlayStyle
You DONT WANT TO BE PLANTED CASTING YOUR SPELL!!!!! Cast once, then move (Warp or just run) to choke points, cover or just MOVE!. let the enemy shatters by the power of the spheres! If u are bold enough, and have good defenses, cast BL then warp to the middle or back of the enemy, so the enemy will stay inside the BL AOE for longer time.

With the current setup i have succesfully clear most map under lv 76. The only map i have done in lv 76 is residence map and it was with a friend.

REMEMBER : Even with max chaos resistance, you will still have hard time agains chaos damage bosses (Quarry boss, that poison spitting snake, Spider etc) and Poison Cloud from zombies can kill u quickly. i advise getting an Atziri's Promise flask to help against chaos damage.

Reflect mob isnot really a problem thanks to life leech and ghost reaver.

for bandit, i do Skill point- Skill point- Power charge


VII. Video

It's only a simple lv 72 underground sea to show how the build is doing
Will be posting more later
Sorry for the bad quality


VIII. Budget Build Section

If u dont have that much of currency to buy 6l, or even not enough to buy Call of Brotherhood ring, here is alternative how to tackle to build

Breakdown

No Call of Brotherhood? No problem. No 6l? Eh, that doesnt really matter. You can achieve decent dps (4k-ish) decent amount of es (3.8k, more) with the setup like above. If finding good wand/dagger with spell dmg, flat lightning, crit etc is hard, moonsorrow is cheap quick alternative. The shield can be whatever rare you find with the best defense possible. The chest can be 4l/5l with just-decent amount of es (4L you can drop aoe). Head can use Geofri's Crest (Broken Crown unique can also be used). the rest is just rare to help with ES, ele res, chaos res, life, mana and attribute.

For budget build, currently u wont be able to run Wrath. but that wont be very noticeable. Because no Call of Brotherhood, using ice bite or whatever cold gem/item/node is useless. But u wont have much trouble shocking enemies. On the Herald of thunder curse setup, you can get frenzy/power/endurance charge depending on what curse you are using. the rest is still the same


DefenseTooltip


OffenseTooltip


Video

The video isnt much, only lv 69 Thicket map. It shows that u can get decent dps and survivability for lesser budget
https://youtu.be/wNSBzxgu4P4


IX. Summary

This build is fun to play. It can tackle most content of the game. And from my experience, its not the kind of the "spam skill and you are good to go" (we dont have the best defense, so manual dodging and movement helps the def). With that in mind, it still dont have the "wow" factor many build have. And of course, it can do better with improvement (looking at you shav!)

Sorry for the mistake, bad language, bad judgement or whatever mistake you found here. Feel free to inform me about more improvement or if u ever has a question, feel free to ask.

Thanks!!

See you around!



Credits
GGG for the AWESOME game!
KharonJaeger for all the cooperation, suggestion and frankly being a friend!
Norec for creating that LL Arc build which inspired me
And all of u fellow PoE gamer!
IGN: JagdGard, Gisena, Reivelt, ManamiKato

The only limitation to you is in your head
Last edited by Azmizaqi on Sep 2, 2015, 3:40:48 PM
Reserved
IGN: JagdGard, Gisena, Reivelt, ManamiKato

The only limitation to you is in your head
Update

Added Budget build section
IGN: JagdGard, Gisena, Reivelt, ManamiKato

The only limitation to you is in your head
nice build dude!, keep up the good work!
IGN: KharonJaeger
If you use Shavronne Wrappings you can no longer fear chaos dmg.
And ofcourse you forget to use "arcane vision" passive it will give you the light radius.
Last edited by pro_zealot on Sep 18, 2015, 1:01:04 PM
"
pro_zealot wrote:
If you use Shavronne Wrappings you can no longer fear chaos dmg.
And ofcourse you forget to use "arcane vision" passive it will give you the light radius.


Yes, im currently saving up for shavronne, getting the 5l will give me tons of new possibilities.
About the light radius, i dont think investing there would be beneficial as the node isnot on the path of the skill tree as i will need at least 3 skill point to get there.

Thanks for the advice!
IGN: JagdGard, Gisena, Reivelt, ManamiKato

The only limitation to you is in your head
I'm checking out builds for my recently attained 6L Pledge of Hands.
Will Pledge of Hands work with this build?
It's kind of ironic that I stumbled onto this thread, because I got the idea of using the Call of the Brotherhood ring that I had found in Warbands and had never gotten around to it until now. I came up with a build that is really close to yours before I saw this thread, although mine is slightly different as I use a Shavronne's Wrappings and don't take Mind over Matter.


Gear:
Spoiler


Tree:


I wouldn't quite call it perfected, but I deal 7k dps with charges and 8.4k dps with Atziri's flask. It feels pretty good too as far as survivability with all mobs being frozen. I literally just put this character together over the last day or two, so I'll post when I come up with further improvements.
Still in the alpha stage, but at least build diversity isn't an issue: https://wolcengame.com/home/
Quick update:

I piddled around with some different items and because I still need dexterity from my amulet, I stumbled onto this while looking for a substitute for Atziri's Foible.



Looks rather amateurish until you look more closely at its stats:

Projectile speed counters the Slower Projectiles gem, making my Ball Lightning casts travel further (which inherently makes the "chaining" of the balls more efficient when I'm relying on the Herald of Ice to proc Elemental Weakness and Assassin's Mark.

The movement speed is very useful because combined with the 10% from the Windscream boots and 6% from the Lori's Lantern, my movement speed is actually pretty good with the Karui Ward.

The dexterity is of course useful for getting the dexterity needed for a high level Grace (I can run a max level Grace with it equipped without grabbing the additional +30 dexterity node).

The strength would be useful if I weren't using a +30 strength node already (I could drop that node ultimately to save an additional skill point).

I think that using a corrupted version of the Karui Ward with +1 additional curse would be very useful, as it could replace the Windscream boots and allow for a nice pair of rare es boots to take their place, but for this rather inexpensive setup, it's working very well. I'd be happy to make a video if anyone would like a demonstration. I would just need a suggestion/instructions on what software to use and how to upload it.

As a side note, the two Vaal Discipline gems on Increased Duration are excellent for those "oh shit!" moments, but I'm considering swapping them for manual curse Elemental Weakness and Assassin's Mark linked with Reduced Mana for bosses. The one downfall of the build that I have run into is that when I reach a boss, the boss seldom gets cursed unless there is a mob directly around it.

Still in the alpha stage, but at least build diversity isn't an issue: https://wolcengame.com/home/
I wonder why do you even put the Slower Projectile gem in in the first place if you're just gonna void its effect by using that amulet?

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