(Updated!) [1.2] EE Ball Lightning/Ice Spear Build with AA/MoM (Cloak of Defiance)
" If you want to go the Curse on Hit route... I recommend trying out Projectile Weakness. It gives pierce chance which will let Ice Spear phase 2 pierce enemies, Knockback Chance for both Ball Lightning and Ice Spear to keep enemies away/in Ball Lightning more often, and Increased Damage for both Ball Lightning and Ice Spear. I think I'm going to try that out when I get a good 4L for Ball Lightning and see if that's better than Inc AoE/Knockback. The big disadvantage to Curse on Hit is that if you're in a party and someone else is running a curse you'll be fighting for cursing, which sort of negates 2 of your Ball Lightning links. Last edited by Svenn on Aug 23, 2014, 3:18:23 PM
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Heya.
Im now L67 with around 3k life, 2.2k mana and 2.4k dps on icespear. I am still lacking the cloak of defiance, but besides that the build is really comming together. I am on Rampage. The best investment for maps i made was ball on spell totem. Not just because its awesome, but it is singlehandedly my best ability for survival. When entering new rooms ill drop one totem to gather up the mobs, cast 1 spell and they will die if its normal mobs, if its tougher mobs ill cast 1-3 ice spears for a guaranteed freeze, place the totem behind me so it cant shoot anywhere but the direction i am shooting, and its working out extremly well. MNy clearspeed on 66-67 maps is fast, and the only maps i do not enter is anything slowing me down, as this build is easy to kite with (not that ive had to yet). Most bosses do not move before they are dead once they get the initial freeze, and im running a Vaal Cold Snap to help out with that. I tried out echo instead of faster casting, but i prefer faster casting, i saw no noteworthy performance difference, and i still dont have life leech, but im searching like a mad man for that 5-6L cloak of defiance! ;). | |
" Glad it's working for you! I'm still torn on Spell Totem. I kind of like self casting, but I'll need to try with a higher level spell totem. Unfortunately, I lost this character last night in the DDOS attacks so I'm going to have to re-level it. Out of curiosity, what's your cast time on Ice Spear with Faster Casting? Faster Casting goes from 20-39% increased cast speed versus the 50-69% MORE cast speed on Spell Echo. When I died at level 54 I was at about 0.42ish cast speed. | |
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I am not ingame right now, but last time i checked i could cast 2.05 casts pr. second. I am currently leveling an echo (when i tested my faster casting was 8 lvls above) to see how the damage, mana usage and freeze changes, and will get back to you when im done sometime tonight :).
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I'm back up to level 32. Testing at this level with level 1 Faster Casting/Spell Echo I get more DPS on Spell Echo (106.5 vs 124). That might change with level, so I'm going to keep leveling them both up and compare.
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I'm 54 right now on Rampage with this build and I'm finding Ball lightning, faster casting, spell totem, and LMP is working great for keeping up EE on everything. I tried self casting the balls, and I just have to waste too much time that could be spent casting more Ice Spears. I was also using slower projectile for a while but found faster casting got me more consistent up-time on EE when combined with LMP.
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Hi, I liked this idea and am running a variation of it, its a lot of fun but I have some questions.
Are you using ball lightning as an actual source for dmg? If so why havent you taken any lightning nodes? if not, do you only use it to proc EE? and if so why not invest some points into trying to get it to shock more often such as static blows. I was going to try to have ball lightning accomplish 3 things for me. 1, curse application. 2, EE procs. 3, shock the mobs. I wont be caring about dmg on BL so I thought GMP would be better than LMP. Im coming back after a long break from POE so I'm not sure if my ideas here are misinformed. |
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" If you are using Spell Totem, then Slower Projectiles is not necessary because it's repeatedly casting anyway. My main problem was that the totem either died quickly or wasn't sending balls where I wanted them. I like self casting, but you are right that it feels like you are wasting some time casting the Ball Lightning fairly frequently. I feel like there are 2 variations of this build that work: Spell Totem and go for solely procing EE or self cast and try to use Ball Lightning as an actual source of damage as well. " Your ideas are pretty much on target. :) As I mentioned above I think there are 2 ways to run this. If you are going Spell Totem then ignore damage for Ball Lightning and simply try to get it to constantly proc for you (GMP should work great for that). If you are self casting then try and up the damage on Ball Lightning some so that it's both procing EE and acts as an additional source of damage. As for shocks/curse... shock would be nice but it would require quit a bit more investment into crit (or taking some of the shock specific nodes in the tree). I haven't tried this yet. Curse is also nice, but has a few drawbacks. It reduces the damage on Ball Lightning and if you are in a party then someone else might be running a curse in which case you're fighting them for cursing mobs. My suggestions: 1) If you want to run curse, then grab a Pledge of Hands and run Ice Spear in that. Then get a 5L+ chest and run Ball Lightning there so you have enough room for supports. Also, I want to test out running Curse on Hit with Projectile weakness still as that has added damage AND knockback which will cause Ball Lightning to stay on a mob more often (and make it safer for you) 2) If you are going for damage, then run Slower Projectiles and Increased AoE. For a fourth support you could try Knockback to keep the ball on the mob (I'm going to be testing this when I re-level) or maybe Lightning Penetration for added damage. As for why I didn't take any lightning nodes... I was trying to take as much generic spell/elemental damage as possible to apply to both Ice Spear AND Ball Lightning. I took some of the cold nodes specifically for the freeze but otherwise I was trying to avoid any specific type of damage in favor of the generic damage. I'll update the original post soon with some of the possible variations of this build and some of the things I've found in my tests. I want to get up to map level (I was 54 before dying to the DDOS on Beyond, so I have to re-level) so I can do more testing. My current character is IlyriaEthir if anyone wants to contact me. :) Last edited by Svenn on Aug 24, 2014, 7:47:53 PM
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Thank you for the reply, I woudl love to get my hands on a pledge of hand but they are damn expensive, I think I might go for a taryn's shiver instead. However I am toying with the idea of taking some of the shield block nodes around the witch area such as mind barrier, spirtual guardian and sanctuary whihc will limit me to a shield and one handerbut I think I will invest in some lightning nodes first like breath of lightning and static blows to see if I can get consistent enough shocks. ALso, my source of crit is coming from power charges, I will have 7 by end game so im not sure if that will be enough but I will be following the thread to see how you progess :)
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Did a little more testing. First of all, Spell Totem is much better with Faster Casting linked. It's nice to have a constant stream of Ball Lightnings flying around. Unfortunately they do very little damage that way. The main problem I have, though, is that the totems die too easy to certain mobs/bosses forcing me to either ignore them or recast it frequently. Anyone have any suggestions on how to get around that? I wonder if a leveled Spell Totem gem will provide enough HP (it's currently on level with me right now, but it's only level 3).
I also tested Knockback. For selfcast, I really like this. It helps me control crowds a little more and keeps them in the Ball Lightning for longer which is really nice. Also pushes the mobs back to Ice Spear second form range sometimes. So, I'm torn now. I like both Spell Totem and self cast, but they each have their downsides. I like the idea of self cast better, but it does feel like it slows me down a little to have to re-cast Ball Lightning every couple of casts. |
