Perfect 6 spot Arc / Perfect 5-6 spot SRS

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1453R wrote:

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Natharias wrote:

I've found a tabula is superior to a rare chest because of the two extra sockets. But then again, I'm almost always playing a build that needs the gems more than the rare chest.

As you said, "dead" is the best method of control. Those two gems can help increase DPS and thereby help you kill enemies before they hit you.

However, if one were to use a Tabula Rasa, I would highly recommend they get a +1 to all gems so that their gems offer more. This is especially true if you have an Empower and use it in the Tabula.

Buy a white 5L chest for one chaos, transmute it.

Alt/aug it until you get two worthwhile mods. Generally life and a resist.

Regal it, hope you get something good. If you do, awesome. If not, you can 'meh' it or scour the thing and start over, provided you have the alts/augs.

Once you're done with the Regal step, mastercraft something onto it. Preferably a defense booster - +[X]% Armor for Armor chests, +[X]% Armor/ES for armor/ES bases, so on and so forth. Or get a resistance if you still need those.

Once you get something you're willing to wear, chrome it a few* times to get workable colors. Hopefully. provided you don't need a lot of off-color nodes. if you do, maybe adjust the type of 5L you buy.

Or just find a half-decent 5L rare on trade sites for five chaos.

Bam. 5L chest you can use that actually has defenses and stats and mods and all that good stuff, for a (relative) handful of scrap currency (or five chaos). It may not be great, but it'll be worlds better than trying to map in a Tabby. That really is just all kinds of bad idea. If a build just absolutely, positively cannot work on anything less than a 6L, then you're probably not playing the right build for you if you don't have the budget to get a proper 6L to run the build in.

Yeah. And chroming non-tabbies is a bitch. Especially if you use gear and gems that generally don't mix.

Or, in my case, you like swapping out your abilities. This is especially useful when you use an equally potent attack/spell item, like Doryani's Catalyst.

There is no "better" option. It's about what people prefer. I've never and will likely never enjoy a rare chest with life and resistances on it. But I'm not saying a Tabula is better.

Thank you, of course, to everyone who has (or will take) time to reply. I appreciate the time out of your day.

To help fram things a bit better, "ItBurnses" currently lvl 64, Templar, besides being a crotchety 'ol bastard is not one of my min/max get things perfect, hone to a fine edge, killing machine characters. He is one I made to explore and learn SRS and to have some fun with.

I am already 1/2 way though act 3 merciless and not having any significant issues.

I'm just curious on some alternate ways I could be doing things and playing with some ideas.

My 79 Ice Witch Khenetic is my DPS machine for Prophecy.

Removing chain was certainly the right call. It was not functioning as I had thought.

I have heard a whole lot of what not to do with Arc.

Does anyone have any thoughts on what a "perfect" 5/6 slot (with or without totem) would be? How would you do it to mow down the legions? Cold/Fire/Elemental gems prefered.

From the lack of anything said about gemming SRS does that mean I have the one true perfect mix? There has to be more that can be done.

To the person who commented about Ice Bite/Hypothermia : ya, I have been thinking the same thing. Unless I start casting it direct those do seem to be under performing.

Thanks again all and please do post your thought and ideas.

Arc is a lightning spell that has two distinctions: It is near impossible to increase in any manner of "area of effect", meaning that you have to focus on your damage, and the second is that it can bounce from targets to another target, hitting a target more than once. If memory serves, it must bounce from A to B, then to C, then it can bounce back to A. It has to hit two other targets before it can return to a target it just hit.

As such, certain effects like Spell Echo and Faster Casting are required. Other likely supports would include Controlled Destruction, Elemental Focus, Lightning Penetration, Added Lightning Damage, Empower, and Iron Will. And the crit support gems if you're going for crit.

As for Summon Raging Spirits, there are two main choices. Are you self-casting or using totems? Besides the use of Spell Echo and Spell Totem, the setup is the same. Empower should be your first choice (third gem in series, after the SRS and Spell Echo/Spell Totem) since it bolsters SRS so much. Minion Damage is second. Minion Speed third. Melee Physical Damage fourth. If you aren't using Empower, this is where you would use either Multistrike or Added Fire Damage. This is one of the very, very few scenarios where there is no superior setup.

But that's if you're going for damage, which is the usual thing to do.

If you're using Arc for support, Spell Echo and Faster Casting are required in order to make use of Culling Strike, IIQ, IIR, Blind, Knockback, and other supports.

SRS is inefficient for a non-damage setup. The time it takes minions to get out you can cast other spells a few times for immediate effect.

Haha well it kind of sounds like you want two very different things at the same time. Arc for non-min-max-SRS explore and learn is a very different beast than "perfect" Arc in general, because the way POE is designed, each Support socket grants the highest potential damage boost in the game, either by a constant multiplier or better skill coverage. So the "perfect" 6L any gem is very likely to be full damage, with 1 or 2 notable exceptions.

There are a lot of options for 6L Arc IMO, that I can imagine.

Self-cast Arc as I would do it:
Arc - Controlled Destruction - Spell Echo - Lightning Penetration - Empower - Elemental Focus

A lot of these could he subbed. Elemental Focus would be OK to remove if you wanted to make use of Shock (i.e. for crowd clear), which you could replace with:

Faster Casting for some kiting (the lower increased cast speed you have from other sources, the better a choice F. Casting is),

Increased Critical Strikes if you are a crit build

Added Lightning Damage for a bit better Shock duration.

Spell Totem for a +max totems build

You could also commit to Mines or Traps or both instead, in which case Spell Echo and any supports of your choice can be replaced with Remote Mine, Trap, Trap and Mine Damage, Cluster Trap, amd/or Minefield.

Use Call of the brotherhood if you want to do cold damage with arc. It is much better than the other options available. Otherwise, you would be better off using a different skill to deal cold damage IMO. Herald of Ice, Added Cold Damage Support, and added cold damage to spells (on your weapon) will help, but not enough IMO.

If you use 2 call of the brotherhoods then you can use cold penetration and get some proper chilling going on.

I just have the one:

I do have it on this character though :)

I can see where 2 would be pretty nifty for a hybrid electric damage engine. Or would that be a cold fusion power plant?

The cold makes it a super conductor though, right?

Sorry at work and the end of a day that somehow seems to have been dimensionaly enlarged.

I play staff Arc, but only Arc. For leveling you will need dagger with shield though. You will die few times with staff vs shield gives you more protection.

That ring is best solution I found for Arc. Along with Curse on Hit with Herald of Ice + curses you need; Herald of Ice rises your chances to Freeze due to higher Cold damage. More damage can freeze bosses.

Another good item to help freezing enemies. Warlords Mark as curse linked to your Curse on Hit for mana leech covers mana costs.

If you want staff look for something like that with similar gems. I heard people are using instead of Faster Casting Controlled Destruction. Elemental Ailments along with Critical Chances works better in my case. Cold Penetration support is a must.

If you are HP based take Lightning coil and switch later to ES when you can afford Shavrones Wrappings.

Played up 'ItBurnses' some more.

Found a Vaal Haste Gem.

Have any of you seen 3 Arc totems and 50 children of the flame on Vaal Haste?

It is scary.