[1.2.3] Sid's Ball Lightning - EB/Crit /2 Curse on hit/ 4 Auras with Herald of Ice

This makes perfect sense to me. I didn't realize you cleared so fast it was overkill, that's awesome. How fast does this setup clear map bosses? I'd love to see videos of your setup if you could!

one short video added - some pier map with irrelevant mods. boss kill and curse on hit performance

im testing herald of ice + curse on hit setup (plus some unrelated flame totem concepts)

About crit multi - i believe in moderation. both irl and in games. dmg i deal currently is 'enough' to do stuff i want to be done without creating a risk of me dying to off-screen double reflect.

ball lightning crits once per ball. and once released there is no way of stopping it. i prefer to be careful

current observations about curse on hit: it works and ice nova freezes are nice bonus but inability to put curse non-point-blank is irritating. there is no spell that can replicate what curse does (and no - firestorm is not one) and that is: place instantly large are of 'curse' far from the player. if it was possible to put two curses with one key - i would use it instead. effectiveness from Curse on Hit is hardly noticeable.

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current observations about curse on hit: it works and ice nova freezes are nice bonus but inability to put curse non-point-blank is irritating. there is no spell that can replicate what curse does (and no - firestorm is not one) and that is: place instantly large are of 'curse' far from the player. if it was possible to put two curses with one key - i would use it instead. effectiveness from Curse on Hit is hardly noticeable

BL with CoH and some AoE nodes comes very close to it and is working like a charm for me.

tried several new skills and have to agree

Ball Lightning + Curse on Hit + Conductivity + Assassins Mark

this setup stays. Sadly this means -2 to sockets and as such cuts my single target and im really really torn over that

will update OP after further testing

so far build works great and Herald of Ice with this does wonders

Yup, just tried HoI for the first time, as it has finally caught up to my lvl and I'm surprised by how well it freezes. I might drop conductivity for ele weakness to benefit HoI. I have a small chance to shock anyway, from the tree.

And I swapped Ass Mark for Warlord's mark. The leech is just a dream to work with!

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Quakespeare wrote:

Yup, just tried HoI for the first time, as it has finally caught up to my lvl and I'm surprised by how well it freezes. I might drop conductivity for ele weakness to benefit HoI. I have a small chance to shock anyway, from the tree.

And I swapped Ass Mark for Warlord's mark. The leech is just a dream to work with!

HoI starts to REALLY work wonders once your cold dmg is enough to trigger 'shatter' on crit. youll notice serious difference in how it performs in docks and lvl 70+ maps. mine is currently lvl 17 and im contemplating replacing my main link added lightning with added cold..

there is a lot of unexplored potential in herald(s) - ash wont work that well due to BL being lots of small hits so the overkill is rather meh.

life leech is not needed once one has Catalyst plus Atziri' belt. but before that mark - Warlords Mark is amazing (free endurance charges are a nice bonus too).

I'm wondering though, since I'm quite partial o Warlord's Mark - for the other curse, should I stick with ele weakness, or does ass mark become the more efficient choice at some point?

Plus, don't forget that WM gets you a whopping 7% LL!

im just fine with 2% leech from belt and mace, that life on kill now and then also helps. this includes reflect maps (but then i stock on topaz flask)

Assassins Mark grants power charges - this is its main use for me. extra damage is nice, but i use it for power charges

same with conductivity - i use 95% lightning damage so it makes little sense to use ele weakness (esp that i do not have any high q one) for me

the only curse im debating and testing is poachers mark (for frenzy charges -> cast speed). my build has very little cast speed so ~15% increase means a lot

still testing.

btw - replacing added lightning > added cold didnt work out.

Hey, I'm thinking on running this build in rampage and I have a couple questions. First, How would you go about leveling this up, and like which skill would you use till what and where would you go in the tree? Secondly how well do you think it'll preform from basically nothing. I'm sorry for asking nooby questions but I just really like to get all the information down before I start something. Thank you in advance!

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Raths wrote:

Hey, I'm thinking on running this build in rampage and I have a couple questions. First, How would you go about leveling this up, and like which skill would you use till what and where would you go in the tree? Secondly how well do you think it'll preform from basically nothing. I'm sorry for asking nooby questions but I just really like to get all the information down before I start something. Thank you in advance!

hi

ive dropped the 'leveling' section (it is still available at the very end of first post) because due to mana cost changes a lot had changed related to mana requirement etc

ive leveled as pure ball lightning char from lvl ~40 up to 85, never using any other main skill and it was a breeze

in 1.2 it should be even easier due to significant reduction of mob resists. even in maps frequently just one curse makes them 'vulnerable' while pre-1.2 it wasnt that easy

so i think that you can
a) level with +2 lightning weapon with inc aoe and added lightning (or knockback for added safety)
b) level in 4Link with BL + AOE + added lightning + knockback

previously 5th link was 'lightning penetration' but due to resist changes it is no longer mandatory. it is required for end game tho.


if you want to level with this very build your priorities are AOE nodes and crit nodes. this also works (and is cheaper) as non-crit however i have no personal experience with how it works post 1.2 (shock change, mob resist change, mana cost change, new very powerful curses - these do change A LOT. curses change alone made it VERY worthwhile to go multicurse..)

leveling is made very easy with Warlords Mark that simply provides all the leech/healing you need. i think that ggg went way overboard with it but hey, it is there to be used

as for the gear:

- crafting benches will solve most of your mid/early-late game issues (i do not think these are worth it early on). by the time you get to 70+ jewelry with +1 lightning damage leeched as life shall be easily available (lvl 6 zombie-witch-master crafts these)

Atziri flask that i consider VERY useful for this (or any btw) build should be cheap as well

the only expensive and i think more or less mandatory item is carcass jack, 5Linked. this is not going to be available early on for cheap but - again - due to crafting its price never will be higher than slightly over 150 fusings. fusings that you can farm yourself (and it goes fairly quick once one learns to pick all blue jewelry (1x1 stash space, most efficient alt source)

for a damage - 2 moonsorrows will provide you all dmg you need in a non crit build, for a crit build most of the spell crit chance youll get from power charges anyway

in all - i consider this build (but have no personal experience in 1.2) as possible to level 'as' without any issues.