The most fun I've had in quite a while.

Since 1.1, As my post history will attest to, I've been.... fairly miserable in game. I've tried a few things to shake the feeling of frustration, but I just haven't been able to.

Ambush hasn't been as satisfying as Domination was, even with getting to mapping a lot faster than I had in Domination, with a better build. I haven't had any of the "ZOMG!" moments with boxes, I chose poorly in classes (Ranger quest gems suck for anything not bow related, including spectral throw), and it's just been failure of something or another since.

Or at least it had been failure of something or another since, until Sunday night. I just wanted to start over, and forget about my frustrations with things. I hit the character selection screen, and grabbed a shadow. I'm staring at it, wondering. What am I going to play? Well, Besides a shadow, I've never really done much with Lightning. So..... Lightning it is.

BEHOLD! JEGGAWATT! was born.

So, I cruise through, grabbing some gems, having some fun, and before I knew it, I was done with A1. Sweet! A2, rolling by pretty pleasing, and I realize, I'm doing something I haven't done in quite a while.

I'm having fun playing path of exile.

My drops are still garbage. I've still not seen a strongbox that makes me say "WOW!" I've still seen more Whetstones and Armour Scraps than I ever thought I would. I still don't have a lot of gems to "do" what I want to do.

But, I'm shocking everything in my path. And I'm having an absolute blast.


Level 27 Next time I log on, I'm going in to talk to Oak, and get my 40 HP.

I'm not 100% sure what I want to do with the build.

This Was a mid 70's build I had sort of bantered around in my head.

The tree has some flaws. Not a lot of Ele Resist is one. No real "Defense" is another. I plan on using Hybrid EV / ES Gear, and trying to milk EB for all it's worth, but I haven't really decided on what to do with that, except Clarity + Arctic Armour. (A Combo I've never really messed with)

So far, My Skill Setup is pretty simple.

I'm using Arc as My "main" attack, and Storm Call as my AoE. Conductivity is my curse of choice,

For Strongboxes, I've been dropping lightning Traps, trying to have my Vaal Spark Charged, Clicking the Box, Smashing Vaal Spark, and then Spamming Storm Call. Even Exiles haven't lasted long.

I know at some point, I'm going to have to trim down the number of skills I have. My Current through is:

5L (chest): Arc - Faster Casting - Lightning Pen - Life Leech - Inc Critical Chance
4L: (Head): CWDT - Conductivity (or Temp Chains... not decided) - Enduring Cry - Shockwave Totem (My preferred "Decoy" Totem currently)
4L: (Gloves): Storm Call + Lightning Pen + Inc AoE + Conc Effect
4L: (Boots): Clarity + Arctic Armour + Haste + Reduced Mana
3L: (Weapon): Vaal Spark + Lightning Trap + Lightning Pen
3L: (Shield): Conductivity + Lightning Warp + ?

I'm not sure really, this is all just spitballing. At the low level I'm at (27) things are melting to my Arc. I had an Arc Spamming SUmmoner pre-anarchy (Shock Stacking), but the Arc was Level 1, and just used for shock stacking. I have ZERO idea on how Lightning Works out at higher levels. I do know that Ball Lightning is in the works for "soon", but I don't want to wait on that to level.

I even thought my "fun" was because I had banked some gear. And then I realized: I had nothing in terms of caster gear prior to running this char. I had sold / vendored / given it all to guildies.



Definitely not OP gear.


SO Here I am Shadow Boards. I'm hoping someone out there can give me some direction. Help me make sure that this fun isn't squashed soon, simply because I'm not well versed at a lightning (or shadow) Caster.

hey,
if you are planning to use storm call u should go on faster casting, because once the first storm call triggers the others will aswell... therefore if u cast 5x stormcall for 100 dps within 5 secods u will deal after 5secs 500dmg... now lets say u can cast 8 instead of 5 and they "just" do 80 dmg... 8x80=640 so it should be more effectiv to go more faster casting but that should be calculated... xD

Another part is that i wouldnt use eldrich batterie, because the shadow lacks defense.
if u dont use mom (mind over matter) i think its gonna be really rough...

Gem Setup:
Arc + faster casting + lightning pen + pcoc (not if u use spell totem) + mb spell totem (just for shock stacking) / empower (as dmg source)
storm call + faster casting + lighting pen + concentrated effect + increased aoe
lightning warp + faster casting + reduced duration (for mobility)
reduced mana + clarity + dicipline + conductivity
arc + culling + iir + irr (for mf lasthits)
Arc + faster casting + lightning pen + pcoc (for more dps)

the setup really depends where u wanna go :D

That would be my tree:

More ES / less life / faster casting (faster shockstacking) / higher crit chance / more mana

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgYA3nfVTxXn8Gtzs4w2pJFd8nDVcFIOSJ2qYqzWnfPqFr-H22HiEZaP-kk7Nnu0o3C72RMvb-wYw22nXElRJDxabcHFiELyHSepf8aioxzc8XYvnRbzJjyTJ9xXVUsmlW17HpSsP7QMRnHhiB2qgwnB820ZO-Hi96crLR-PplJTPV9MswQHHwJ-r3YRLJw2xdgkpwiPRtDQz2VVxhZvi3oI9HkDMYjAVJ2j_Kte-riT6-56qprgRZ2iLpuhZ71Eq1WuUEITnlAw44RjQ4hrtvcRL9te

I have to say, I did something along the same lines and had an awesome time playing with Arc and Glacial Cascade for giggles.

I built lots of crit chance for Glacial Cascade and arc isn't actually that great with crit chance but its fun as hell :3.

I am now merciless and though Arc is still raping everything in my path but I die so frikkin easily :( need to get MoM and some mana regeneration for AA. Hopefully I will have better luck then.

Arc is so satisfying and it sounds like something from star wars, whats not to like...

Thanks for the suggestions. I will take a look at all of them, save the MF suggestions. I can't even begin to explain how much I loathe, hate, and detest MF, or how much I would rather see it absolutely obliterated from every single piece of gear in the game.

But that's a discussion for an entirely different type of thread.

Did some work on the build. I realized it would be far easier to just run it as a CI build. That will seriously increase the cost of gear, but It shouldn't be an issue. I also realized that sporting a 25% chance to shock from passives, + a 10% on Arc (scaling with quality) + 10% on Conductivity (that scales as the gem levels), Cast Speed, is in fact the far superior Shock Stacking Stat as opposed to Critical Strike Chance.

So, as CI, and stacking Cast Speed until my eyes bleed, I have a new 96 point build in mind This is probably what I'm shooting for.

a total of 296% ES (from passives + Int)
A little armor to make popping granites as a defensive measure more effective
A little bit of passive resist
197% Increased Lightning Damage from Passives
38% Increased Cast Speed
And some crit, and crit multi.

This, is the build for me.

My plan at this point, is going to be Passive in Norm, Cast Speed in Cruel, Passive in Merc

With that in mind, I should be ~75 when I complete this tree. From there, I have left myself with plenty of options.

12% Cast Speed over 4 points
18% ES over 3 points
Plenty of Raw Spell Damage close by (I could add 92% More Lightning Damage from here with 8 points)
Or I could build for 7 points, and end up with double perma curse as an option.

I'll leave that portion of the build as a "plan to figure out" down the road.

EDIT: Fixed a drastic blunder in the tree.

hey u should take steady hands so you wont be interrupted that much... how is it going?
did i helped u?

STeady Hands will probably be something added later on in the build, after the "initial" build phase is completed.

I'm now level 35, and headed to kill Graviciouss. One of my main complaints about Ambush, is that you overlevel content incredibly quick, due to the corrupted areas, and strongboxes. I have a feeling I'll be pushing 40 by the time I get to Dominus. (Gravicious, Piety, The garden, the Library, and SoG)


I spent the passive refunds + 2 regrets I have found on the char (being self sufficient at this point is how I'm approaching it) and I've specced into This I'll be focusing on upping my survivability (ES) before my showdown with Dominus.

So, I'm going to say I'll probably be 39, + 2 points from killing Piety will give me 6 more points. That means, I will be Here When I get to Dominus. Considering I could pick up a little more ES by waiting to 40, I might do that. We'll see how I feel about the way things are progressing at that point.

My Gear


It has improved 10 fold from where I was when I made the first post. I leveled up, and into things that I had sitting in my stash from my previous leveling in Ambush, and I've found some nice drops along the way as well.

The build is still kicking ass. I killed Vaal (right after the last post) in under 5 seconds thanks to the unbelievably OP combination of Lightning Traps + Vaal Spark + Conductivity. MELTED. It started out with the "summon adds" casting animation, and it never finished that cast before it was dead.

I will probably continue to update this as I go along. I think that I've finally found soemthing that I enjoy, and that I can pilot to considerable success in Ambush.

I think my previous frustration was with trying to create something that I had already had so much success with, as a different class.

We'll see how this works out.

ANd I figure I will let you see some of the goodies I have sitting around to use as I level. Not sure I will use it all, as I'm not sure what I'll find a long the way, but some stashed junk that I had, that now has a possible purpose.






Nothing amazing (well, the +2 Fire wand is pretty amazing for a fire build), but decent leveling crap. The nice thing is, the zathendus is high enough ilvl that if I were so inclined, I could try and get to 5L, and it does have the added effect of coming with enough CR that I could use it until I'm ready to swap to CI, which seems to be about the only use for it.

Just have SoG to go now, and the build is showing great signs of life as the gear improves. Almost died to Piety, because I tried to ignore the adds for too long, and almost got overwhelmed.

I will hit 40 before I get to dominus. I hit a nice streak of corrupted areas, and I'm always hoping to hit the "lucky" one that gives me sacrifices I don't know why I try, I haven't seen a sacrifice in weeks.

I was pleased to be able to get my resists fairly close to cap while wearing the unique ES chest.

As currently constituted.

You really ought to consider picking up Elemental Adaptation as well. It will help you enormously with reflect and thorns mobs.