[1.2.] Serge's EB-MoM-AA Ball Lightning

Tip for reading this guide: all the key terms and names of items are hyperlinked to the Path of Exile wiki. If you do not know what some of them are, you can click the underlined words to open the link and learn more about it.

Please, if you have any questions, do not send me private messages, but post your question here in the thread!


__________________________________________________________________________
**-- THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT BALL LIGHTNING MECHANICS --**
__________________________________________________________________________
I enquired into the mechanics of this skill when it was released, and got a reply from one of the GGG developers (Mark). This post can be found here:
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/960492/page/1#p8164387

Also, all important information are collected on the poe wiki:
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Ball_Lightning

I will emphasize the most important stuff here:
- Each cast of Ball Lightning (BL) hits each enemy within range once every 200 milliseconds. This means that you cannot shotgun with BL, meaning using Lesser Multiple Projectiles (LMP) or Greater Multiple Projectiles (GMP) will not result in more damage to a single target, only potentially in better Area of Effect (AoE), since all the balls gained from LMP/GMP count as one cast.
- Spell Echo counts as two separate casts, i.e. each ball has its own 200 ms cooldown.
- BL does no AoE damage, which means that the Concentrated Effect gem, as well as the "increased area damage" passive nodes do not affect the damage of BL.


~~~F.A.Q.~~~
1) How do you sustain with this build?
- You get lightning damage leech. Since the Forsaken Masters 1.2. patch, you can craft lightning damage leech on gear for 4 chaos by getting Catarina's favour and crafting gear on the bench in your hideout.

2) How do you deal with elemental reflect?
- As any elemental damage build, you should treat elemental reflect mobs and maps with care. However, by should run Purity of Lightning and taking the Unnatural Calm passive node in the passive tree (which gives you +1 maximum lightning resist), you reach 80% lightning resist. With a topaz flask (which you should always have), you reach 90% lightning resist. With the flask nodes above the witch, you can reach 93% lightning resistance! Compared with life leech, this should be enough to keep you alive even against the biggest elemental reflect mobs.


__________________________________________________________________________
**-- BUILD: EB MOM AA NON-CRIT BALL LIGHTNING --**
__________________________________________________________________________

Intro
This version of the build utilises several things: the keystone Eldritch Battery (EB) which transforms all your ES to mana; the mechanic of Mind over Matter (MoM) which we attain from the Cloak of Defiance unique item; and Arctic Armour (AA).
This combination of keystones, items and gems gives you a huge mana pool which, thanks to MoM, is used to mitigate damage, as well as a lot of mana regeneration to be able to run Arctic Armour, which adds to your tankiness.


Video section
To be updated.


PROS and CONS
+ Huge mana pool and mana regeneration
+ Quite tanky for a Witch
+ Can survive elemental reflect map mods and monsters
+ With the best gear, it's supper efficient

- Requires a unique item to run
- Cannot run No regen or Blood Magic maps


Passive tree



Gem Links
- Main skill:
6L: BL - Spell Echo - Lightning Penetration - Increased Area of Affect - Added Lightning Damage - Knockback
Explanation: this is, in my opinion, the best setup for this build. Knockback not only makes all situations a lot safer for you, it also makes you BL deal more damage because enemies are knocked back as the ball approaches them, which makes them stay in the AoE of each ball even longer.

- Auras:
4L: Reduced Mana - Discipline - Purity of Lightning - Clarity

- CWDT:
4L: Cast When Damage Taken - Enduring Cry - Immortal Call - Enfeeble

- Vaal Skill:
4L: Vaal Spark - Lightning Penetration - Spell Echo - GMP (WARNING! Do not use on an elemental reflect map!)

- Curses:
3L: Increased AoE - Conductivity - Elemental Weakness

- Movement:
3L: Lightning Warp - Reduced Duration - Faster Casting


Gear
The only absolutely necessary unique for this build:

Saves us the trouble of wasting points going to MoM on the passive tree.

Great additions, but not necessary:

(if 1-handed, i.e. not using a staff)
(a bit too expensive and not rly worth to buy imo, but if you have/get one, it's very good)

A rare +1 to gems, +2 to light gems staff with spell damage, something close to this: https://i.imgur.com/LhQFPM8.jpg
or a similar rare wand.

The Pledge of Hands unique staff is also great for this build. The downside is you lose some defences for not using a shield. However, you gain a lot of DPS and you are able to take a lot less mana nodes in the tree, since this staff gives you insane additional mana. Plus, it's a 7-link.

My current gear:



Bandits
Normal: Help Oak for +40 to HP
Cruel: Kill all or help Alira for cast speed
Merciless: Kill all

Have you tested Knockback or Slower Projectiles with Ball Lightning? Any thoughts on those 2 supports?

Thanks a lot!

Knockback works great and seems like a very nice addition if you want to be extra safe (although it shouldn't be necessary if you go MoM EB AA like this build).

Slower projectiles are kind of meh... Yes, they hit a single target closer to you more times, but very often, they don't reach the targets a bit further at all. Your choice, I guess.

complete waste of time. this would have been great and comparable to other spellcasters before spell echo but now pure casters do at least 40% more dps than they used to with it, and ball lightning doesnt benefit from it since one mob cannot be hit by multiple balls at a time.

GGG releases the long awaited caster version of a multistrike, along with an ability that doesnt benefit from it.....GOOD JOB GGG..fuckin brilliant.. not to mention that people have been begging forever for an ability that LOOKS like piety's instead they got an underwhelming little ball that doesnt even look cool.

P.S you're wasting 2 sockets using faster casting and spell echo. put in added chaos damage and added lightning, or at least remove faster casting for added chaos, its a huge boost. If you use slower projectiles you wont have to stand in place spamming a spell and getting hit, you just cast it once and move, cast again and move, rince and repeat.

You're completely uninformed on the mechanics of Ball Lightning, it seems.

First of, the 200ms cooldown does not apply to both balls cast from spell echo, but each ball has its own cooldown. Source: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/960492/page/1#p8164387

Second, faster casting makes you cast balls in faster ascension, which means more balls will overlap with their aoe over a single target, which means more dps per target. Take a look at this video from ZiggyD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2KxtC3Ks04

Also, poe wiki is your friend: http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Ball_Lightning

What is the actual DPS on your build?

The tooltip dps doesn't show the actual dps, like with many other similar skills. The reason is, it's simply impossible to "universally" determine it. That's why you look at your clear speed.

Fair enough.. how is maps working out so far?

Atziri viable?

Did maps up to 75, it was all fine. Even ele reflect is doable if there's no -max res mod.

I haven't tried Atziri, I doubt this build could do it at all, though. The only way I can think of is if you cleared enough mobs before the bosses to load the Vaal Spark, but even then, you'd have to kill the bosses with your Ball Lightning, which would be a pretty insane feat to pull off.

Uploaded a short demonstration of dps/clear speed on a 75 Plateau map.
http://youtu.be/MBxrQ8hNU0c