Enki's Arc Witch Memorial Page

First of all, thanks to WorderMostFoul and kali_h for all your help in this thread, and if I forgot someone then apologies and thanks to you aswell!

The next two weeks will be interesting, because they will decide about the future of this build. Should the current miserable situation continue or the build even get nerfed further by nerfs that weren't aimed at it, then i'll discontinue the guide, which will make atleast two very salty people on reddit that I won't name very happy.

Here's to hoping that GGG give us a proper Elementalist this patch, and maybe even realize that nerfing Arcs chain length while a much bigger & scalable chain length with TS builds that exist for years never seemed to be an issue was not the best approach.

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@iandylaw: If you want to play a proper Vaal Arc spam build, then this isn't the right base build for that. I know that mbXtreme made a Vaal Arc Pathfinder (Ranger) build, but not sure if there's any written guide for it. You should be able to find it on his stream or youtube tho.

Generally, expect it to get quite costly to craft such a weapon. The one you've linked is for Vaal Ice Nova, hence the Cold gained as Chaos. For a Vaal Arc build it should of course be Lightning/Elemental gained as Chaos, or simply another open prefix to benchcraft.

The key mod is reduced Soul Cost of Vaal Skills, you need it on both weapons. I've never really looked into Vaal Skill spamming builds so I may forget to mention something, but the concept is reducing the Vaal Skill Soul Cost as much as possible through two such weapons and a buffed Soul Catcher, which is why Pathfinder is the prime choice.

Now to the cost aspect. You need to use Bloodstained Fossils to get the key mod, which are currently around 200+ chaos each. Never crafted such a weapon so can't tell you how likely you are to get it, but looking at the price of such weapons it can't be too easy. You may actually are better off just buying them tbh.

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Enki91 wrote:

The next two weeks will be interesting, because they will decide about the future of this build. Should the current miserable situation continue or the build even get nerfed further by nerfs that weren't aimed at it, then i'll discontinue the guide, which will make atleast two very salty people on reddit that I won't name very happy.

Here's to hoping that GGG give us a proper Elementalist this patch, and maybe even realize that nerfing Arcs chain length while a much bigger & scalable chain length with TS builds that exist for years never seemed to be an issue was not the best approach.

I sure hope this guide isn't discontinued. Truth be told, I have personally not used this guide(not a big fan of arc) but I have redirected so many friends and new players here due to how detailed it is and it actually has "why you do x and y" and not "just do x and y because dps and hp, maybe qol". This was the first league in the last 3 leagues where I didn't play Elementalist, here's to hoping they buff it again.

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WorderMostFoul wrote:

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PaulMarch wrote:

And keep in mind that it's possible to obtain a better Hooks.

Wow, no easy tasking getting one (much less two) with Topotante's prefix and then managing to isolate it. What on Earth would be better than those? The only way I could imagine a better tiger hook for this build is if you happened to get a t1 global crit multiplier roll on top of the prefix and then somehow isolate both of those and multimod, which is so incredibly unlikely that it may as well be impossible.

Having played around with multimodded tiger hooks vs multimodded Shaper's profane wands, it seems like a bit of a wash to me. 12% additional attack dodge chance does make a bit of a difference, but so does losing a significant amount of damage and cast speed. The tiger hooks only seem like a clear winner to me if you have otherwise optimized your gear to the point that the DPS loss isn't noticeable against, say, Uber Elder...

Isn't this lightning dmg mod only applied to attacks? It should be " to spells" otherwise it's only for physical attacks...

It's part of single double suffix.
Adds x to x Lightning Damage and Damage Penetrates 15% Lightning Resistance.
You can totally ignore the first part, but second is pretty good. Fossil crafted Hooks can have only up to 10% of penetration.
p.s. But I can't sell none of those hooks even for 9ex :(

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Enki91 wrote:

First of all, thanks to WorderMostFoul and kali_h for all your help in this thread, and if I forgot someone then apologies and thanks to you aswell!

The next two weeks will be interesting, because they will decide about the future of this build. Should the current miserable situation continue or the build even get nerfed further by nerfs that weren't aimed at it, then i'll discontinue the guide, which will make atleast two very salty people on reddit that I won't name very happy.

Here's to hoping that GGG give us a proper Elementalist this patch, and maybe even realize that nerfing Arcs chain length while a much bigger & scalable chain length with TS builds that exist for years never seemed to be an issue was not the best approach.

I'm disappointed and not sure what to hope for next.

I am very much a Beginner and interested is SSF reaching into the endgame Maps. There is no way I can play this game as a Hardcore Gamer. Ultimately I have only finished Act 10 once and that was only possible by a huge abuse of resurrection to the last save point in the final Act 10 boss battle.

I may be an impossible RPG purist but witches and mages don't wear armor or use swords but wear robes and slippers and use wands and sceptres. I was hoping your witch would stick with spells with wands, intelligence, and energy shield using "witchy" gear. It doesn't appear now that "Beginner & SSF-Friendly" apply at all. Maybe "Beginner" in PoE means one has built a dozen builds and not 10 dozen yet? Tiger Hooks are swords requiring 119 in both strength and dexterity and no intelligence at all--that is not a witch.

I'm just very disappointed I still cannot find any successful direction for a real beginner SSF witch build that at some point doesn't turn out hardcore complicated.

Will Standard league characters get 1-time full respec points to start their passives over again or only coming from Legion league?? I too hope for a better witch build with [3.8].

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Ratsneve wrote:

I am very much a Beginner and interested is SSF reaching into the endgame Maps. There is no way I can play this game as a Hardcore Gamer. Ultimately I have only finished Act 10 once and that was only possible by a huge abuse of resurrection to the last save point in the final Act 10 boss battle.

You really shouldn't play SSF or especially HC in this game the first time through, it's just too complex now, and not balanced for HC play at all. Top streamers lose multiple characters every league. If you can't enjoy it without that, just move on. SSFHC is only for the masochists and the truly experienced players.

Elementalist is probably the weakest ascendancy in the game right now and in dire need of a revamp, which it isn't getting next patch either (though necro, another witch ascendacy, finally does).

You don't get any respec points when your character is moved to standard. But orb of regrets aren't that expensive once you've reached endgame currency gains.

@Ratsneve: That approach just won't really help you in this game. Sure, you can get things done with those self-imposed restrictions, but it goes directly against this games design and makes you miss out on powerful synergies.

I have to disagree that this guide isn't beginner-friendly, the amount of people who "get it" far outweighs those that don't. PoE simply has a harsh learning curve, and with all respect, if this guide is already too much then it may not be the right game for you.

That isn't to say that I couldn't improve things, so if you or anyone else reading this has some suggestions or wants something specific explained better, just let me know and i'll consider it if patch notes don't kill this build.

About the passive tree resets, each character gets one with each big patch, regardless of which league they're in. This is also mentioned in the patch notes.

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Ratsneve wrote:

e "Beginner" in PoE means one has built a dozen builds and not 10 dozen yet? Tiger Hooks are swords requiring 119 in both strength and dexterity and no intelligence at all--that is not a witch.

I'm just very disappointed I still cannot find any successful direction for a real beginner SSF witch build that at some point doesn't turn out hardcore complicated.

Maybe you should actually try playing all the way to end-game rather than making quick assumptions here? Because you can actually get away using wands FYI and mostly stick to int-based gear... The only gear that may stand out as not being int-heavy or required as a gear is your boots. I already asked about the Tiger Hooks and I found a viable enough alternative with Profane wands as suggested earlier. And I didn't even go the path of crafting these wands, I literally found them on maps and stuck with them. They may not be optimal but they were enough to clear the stronger encounters in the game and high level enemies in delve mines.

Aside that everything else can easily be heavily int-based. My own character pretty much is heavy on int gear as it is on the PS4, adding to that I was able to clear end-game content.

And I am not sure how much you've actually tested because Essence Drain / Contagion / Bane builds are pretty common league starters for the witch class that can get away with a full int-based gear (as you rely on energy shields). And none of these are even remotely complicated to gear up.

Frankly, the only way to really know how difficult a character is to gear up is actually playing on softcore and learning the ropes of the economy, there you'll see which gear are rare or difficult to come by based on prices. Alongside that is again actually experiencing end-game content and seeing how difficult / rare certain encounters are with the gear they drop -- meaning how attainable X / Y is for your build. You need to actually experience more plain and simple.

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Enki91 wrote:

@Ratsneve: That approach just won't really help you in this game. Sure, you can get things done with those self-imposed restrictions, but it goes directly against this games design and makes you miss out on powerful synergies.

I have to disagree that this guide isn't beginner-friendly, the amount of people who "get it" far outweighs those that don't. PoE simply has a harsh learning curve, and with all respect, if this guide is already too much then it may not be the right game for you.

That isn't to say that I couldn't improve things, so if you or anyone else reading this has some suggestions or wants something specific explained better, just let me know and i'll consider it if patch notes don't kill this build.

About the passive tree resets, each character gets one with each big patch, regardless of which league they're in. This is also mentioned in the patch notes.

Thank you Enki. It is true I was hoping by playing a witch I would not be forced to play out of bounds and ignored the obvious looking through your builds progression. And if only I had satisfied myself finishing Act 10 the one time and left or at least kept the character and stash to continue learning with a new character.

I haven't done any trading but it seems SSF is limiting and unnecessary. SSF or not doesn't change what you might find and pick up does it? Also, SSF doesn't mean crafting won't be essential at some point will it?

I keep trying to make the game simple for me while so many of you have largely patiently made it as clear as you can that there is no easy way with PoE. And this is also so clear when you look at the Trophy percentages on the PS4. You might be interested but probably already know that only around 30% kill Merveil and it drops steeply down to only 4.5% completing Part 2.

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Ratsneve wrote:

I haven't done any trading but it seems SSF is limiting and unnecessary. SSF or not doesn't change what you might find and pick up does it? Also, SSF doesn't mean crafting won't be essential at some point will it?

Crafting is absolutely essential in SSF. It's the only surefire way to get halfway decent gear for your build, you can't rely on items dropping with the right mods once you hit maps, the variance is too high.

It's a complicated game and the console releases have additional performance and trade issues with the much lower player base that make it even worse. It should never have been released to console, it just looks like a greedy move to sell more MTX.