Build for Power Siphon + GMP + Chain + CoC + Arc + Ice Spear

I originally had this character as a Barrage CoC Fireball + Ice spear, but I'm wanting to experiment a little with Power Siphon. It should be capable of switching out Power Siphon with Barrage and replacing Chain with PCoC.

This is the build I've come up with, Witch starting point. Keystones it covers:
Eldritch Battery
Mind over Matter
Vaal Pact
Shaper (not really a keystone, but an indication of the route taken)
Elemental Equilibrium

I've managed to pick up all the +1 max power charges nodes too.
148% max life

My main concern is it may not have enough crit chance. A lovely area of the old tree between the Witch and Shadow is missing a ton of crit nodes, so I can't respec exactly into my old build. It has dagger crit nodes now, which doesn't help as I'm going wand.

My crit chance is 130% from this tree. Is that enough? I'm having doubts. The other thing is, will this build be tanky enough? If not I need to drop the Templar area and possibly pick up a lot of shield block nodes.

The tree:

https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgMA34rfsIIQj6ZEq1WuLJwFQkGWrrNMs1Aw214tH5UgwfOCHtsLf8aioxGWSVHw1ZUuBx4OSGND8uFd8nDVidNwUioL8-rfhELDjDYC_su9B2NVS2HiJpUWv7iTzfp8gxEtg9sEB1XGOlhfKuvkKPrr7pit-eiCx2pDwFS86msXCPS3PkGHNZLYvf4KKjipbrXySshuqhUgKk0_Jyzp3Q1KfYd2Z6D8xRjbW6-FMnTxGmydrqcI42o26SSqFm-FfSlP5CIWQIKb376FxUJLKw3Q9Q==

Ideas? Suggestions?

Bump. Looking for feedback please

^^

About the crit. chance, with 7 power changes (alira merc.) you will have 350% additional crit. chance, and, with 130% from the tree, you will have 58% crit. chance with charges up and a 10% crit. wand. I believe that you should stay with barrage, because it has a really high attack speed. Power Siphon will probably have a low number of casts per attack and the dps will not be constant.

I'm guessing this is the case, however with chain, power siphon will be hitting a lot of targets if you're hitting a large group, and each hit has a chance to proc.

I feel it would be situational, I'll probably use barrage a lot still.

Long story short, if the end result isn't a high chance to crit on the first attack, I would not do it.
You only do dmg. on crits and you only get charges to enable those crits when you kill. That paradox will strangle the build. Romiras does not seem like a nice way to overcome it.

True strike, depth perception, crit nodes on top of wand wheel. I would not touch the build with a medium pole without.
If going for vaal pact, perhaps eagle eye.
Also, I'd wait for trying the build until I had at least a 5-link Cloak of defiance.

My take on the build would involve Herald of ice, since the build would use both attacks and spells, it seems like a nice addition. With PS 125% Efficiency and the fact that wand phys dmg would not matter, I'd use Piscator and Wrath and WED instead of chain, also switch arc to a projectile, Fireball likely.

A quick attempt at a build:



Witch might be a better start, Ranger might be an alternative with EV + life + dodge + ondars in mind. Needed points = Wand crit, spell crit, elemental / projectile dmg. (for nodes that boost wand ele and spell + HoI dmg), accuracy, defences and Aura nodes for HoI, wrath, clarity, perhaps grace.

Your build as a Witch:

https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgMARKuPpoIQ37AsnFWuh2UQWK-b0PVBlgVCUDBMs66zBAdfKuvkVcaD2y0fWbz2W8UowfOVINsLgh4UsL7uyUTHypphCaBs5z9zznC4yjt8D8SioxGWf8ZJUfDVlS4HHo_68h1knev1L2_ZE3C77BhjQw5IXfJwUonTcNXz6ioLtUgfQQYjFr8DHmHiJpXLvQdjjDZVS5u1UzUPqxqP9tr7CRmKxKKXBi2DgwlvnspKwzp3B4cTnKTjhMCcpzQ2PWyMnaq5fIwL7LBirN-K

79% life
Practically zero other defense nodes

That's just not going to work. Even my 148% life build in the OP I think would be a bit fragile. I'll probably spec some evasion, and head to Ondar's Guile. I'm only 4 nodes away anyhow, so I might as well. I was considering getting a lot more block nodes, and maybe some shield nodes (those 30% and 60% shield nodes are really good for getting high ES, or in this case, high mana with your Eldritch Battery. Yes, having a Cloak of Defiance would be great, but even with a Cloak, 79% life is too low.

You're also specing a lot of wand nodes and spell crit nodes, but neither are going to help cast on crit triggering. Pure crit chance will help a lot more. The only concern as you mention is the initial power charges, however you could have GMP Ice Spear + PCoC as a separate attack if you hit a wall.

I did consider Eagle Eye, but the nodes already spread very thin. Maybe if you get to lvl 90 it's worth going for, but otherwise, all you're getting is 32% crit for 4 nodes. Yes you get some accuracy too, but consider other standard crit node areas you're getting 40% or more crit chance with 2 nodes... Eagle Eye just doesn't seem like it's worth those 4 nodes.

The problem I've noticed (especially where chain is concerned) is that, well, if you're using GMP + chain to proc spells, your spells attack power is going to be very low. This is why I'm thinking about perhaps using Ice Spear with Arc on the CoC links. Yes neither will work with chain, but to my knowledge, neither have their damage reduced by chain either. You hit a large mob with GMP + chain, that's a potential 15 instant casts of Arc. Any close-range mobs will be melted.

Single target could be a problem that would need to be solved by barrage or perhaps self-cast Ice spear.

Here's an interesting route I've picked: https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgMA34rfsIIQj6ZEq1WuLJwFQkGWrrNMs1Aw214tH5UgwfOCHn_GoqMRlg5IY0Nd8nDVidNwUioL8-rfhELDjDYC_su9B2NVS2HiJpUWv4PbBAdVxjpYXyrr5GpDwFS86msXCPTdDUp9h3ZnoPzFGNtbr4UydPHfvoXFQksrDdD12wtW-nfXfyvWijB8jX1NkiP2PeK309fLo4rTfniuSO7-un11xKK74y2DlwabtRmKD6tTNRut2j0i6gkhG5dSDWyMnao2PW1sYqz_HEuNHoG0xQ==

This is "Path of block nodes" gaining 24% extra block, and sacrificing a few other things.

You lose:
lose 16% life
lose Elemental Equilibrium
Lose Shaper (40% less mana regen)
Lose a power charge
Lose Vaal Pact

You gain:
24% extra block
Ondar's Guile
Heart of Oak (30% change to avoid stun)
Finesse (attack speed)
Ballistic Mastery (incidentally, do Fireballs and Arctic Breath count as 'missiles'?)

By far the largest loss is Vaal Pact. This is basically keeping us alive with elemental reflect, however this can possibly be corrected with Rathpith Globe (good shield for this build anyway) and Stone of Lazhwar.

So you're looking at about 54% physical block chance, and 90% of that in spell block. So 48% spell block. With Berek's Grip ring, you should have a degree of life steal that could be enough to counter reflect. I'm not sure if you could run a reflect map, but it could be enough to save you against that 1 reflect mob you didn't notice and blindly fired a few shots towards.

I can't help a lot with trees, since most of my trees are really shitty and only work in softcore, but I can help with the reflect problem that a lot of people are mentioning. In my experience running a similar character, a Ice Spear/Barrage/CoC/Added Chaos Damage setup does a very good job of pinpointing reflect rares and getting rid of them; especially since Ice Spear has pierce in its first form. Running across unexpected reflect might still be an issue, though, so you're going to want enough defensive measures in place to be able to go "oh shit, that's reflect" and start spamming the chaos setup.

Otherwise, the only issue I see is that you take Vaal Pact, but don't seem to have a source of damage to leech from since your mentioned gem setup is a 6-link without the LL gem. I might just be missing something, though.

I think for me, providing a defense against reflect entirely is not something I'd want to focus on. The largest cause of deaths is monsters who deal extra crit dmg and 1-hitters like Kole, or stupid bosses like map Piety (low lightning resist lol) If I want to run an ele reflect map, I'd switch to Ethereal Knives as the primary spell, and fireball as secondary (Arctic Armor takes care of a lot of Fireball's reflect)

As for normal maps, I just need enough to avoid 1-shotting myself against an unexpected reflect pack. The Vaal Pact was a recommended node for reflect in another CoC guide, but perhaps it's not mandatory.