Enki's Arc Witch Memorial Page

I am thinking of running this in Abyss SSF, with the revamped orb of storms and lightning tendrils it should be even better and the chain arc looks fun.

Is there another ascendancy option? i get necro for the defensive bonus, it just seems odd to use with a spell caster and i don't want to particularly have to cast bone offering. maybe scion and mix inquisitor with necro?

*edit looks like damage will be very similar, but you lose a lot on block chance so necro is probably the way to go. you could add additional gem with defense setup possibly, i am still going to play around with it to suite my playstyle

*edit2 i may go consecrated ground inquisitor and do a tendrils + cwc arc type of build for the lols. i think inquisitor is a viable option with crit

Been using this build for a month or two now, and I see you just updated it for 3.1. I have a few questions, mostly about your gem setup.

Is having your curse as Cast On Damage Taken really better than linking it with Curse On Hit to your Orb of Storms like the old build had it? It seems like something you'd want up 100% of the time, instead of waiting til you take damage. Having to keep it at level 5 also seems likes a major penalty.

It looks like you removed Warlord's Mark from your gem setup, but you still have Whispers of Doom (+1 curse)? I am guessing that is one of the things you still need to fix. Should I redirect those points to the optional +mana branch, since the ones behind Mind Over Matter are getting a nerf?

You may also want to add a note about the socket order for Desecrate/Bone Offering, since I wasn't sure how cast order with CoDT works until I wikied it. I am assuming if BO is first and there are no corpses around it will fizzle so Desecrate needs to be first.

Finally, a gearing question. I got all excited when I got an Agenrod South drop and foolishly prophecy 5-linked it, but looking at Trade it seems a junk Pledge of Hands is dirt cheap. Is PoH superior enough to validate getting it and writing off that 5L Agenrod as a loss, or is Agenrod good enough to just use it until I can afford a 6L PoH?

Finally done with the 3.1 update! New version has an improved gem setup, passive tree, flask setup and some other small things here and there, while also simplifying things a bit more again.
This should hopefully improve survivability for everyone and reduce the need to keep up too many things at once, something i guess specially newer players got overwhelmed with.

There's still a few more things i have to test and potentially add at some point after the patch, i can already tell two of the teased new uniques will find their way into the build, and maybe even a better single-target damage setup. We will see.
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@Kasojus: If you corrupt a Lv20 gem, there's a chance it turns Lv21. Some gems such as Arc can also turn into a Vaal version so it's better to have a backup before corrupting.
The gem can't be modified in any way afterwards, so make sure it already has 20% quality before corrupting, if quality is needed on that gem.

@Dovan00b: You need Necromancer for this build to work, otherwise you'd lose half of your defense.
Both Ascendancies are actually even damage wise, Necromancer even takes the crown when using Flesh Offering.

@Slothrop1: Inquisitor is definitely still good, but you will probably need to go 1h + Shield and invest into some block nodes since the Consecrated Ground alone won't cut it.

@Scutilla: It's less reliable, but easier to play. Since it's just an offensive curse it doesn't matter as much, we don't really need it on trash and on bosses it's usually up. Most people go with Kitava's anyway, so this is really only a minor issue in SSF.

I'm not fully sure about the Desecrate order, when i've tested it back in the day the first cast seemed to not be able to proc an Offering regardless of the gem positioning, but i'll give it another test later when i got time.

Agnerods are a bit better damage wise, but Pledge gives around 800-1k mana. Check around in Path of Building how each affects your char.

Would it be much trouble to highlight the exact changes that were made in this build (and why) for 3.1? Especially with the skill tree.

Thanks

"

wendyy17 wrote:

Would it be much trouble to highlight the exact changes that were made in this build (and why) for 3.1? Especially with the skill tree.

Thanks

I can try.

‣ Biggest change is dropping Whispers of Doom and Warlords Mark, and using Life Leech instead.
This lets us finish the core passive tree faster and leech more reliably, since Hexproof and Curse Effectiveness can't counter it this way. It's a small damage loss, but when taking the four saved passives into account we can make up for it a little bit.

‣ Changed the gem setup for overall more automated casting even without Kitavas, which should be nice especially for SSF players. Also dropped Decoy Totem, tried to replace it with Frost Wall which kinda worked, but got really annoying in some higher tier bossfights. So now there is Vortex on CwDt instead to chill bosses.

‣ Improved flask setup, reflect is mostly gone so we don't really need the Topaz anymore.
Added a Sulphur flask to give us a big life regen boost, and added Vessel of Vinktar as choice for high tier content. This flask synergizes better with the build than the previous unique flask choices.
To get the most out of all these flasks we also take the flask nodes in witch section and aim for flask duration on belt.

‣ Changed the passive tree progression for smoother leveling, this should remove the issues some players got around Act8/9. Tested this myself in Mayhem and it worked well.

‣ Reduced single target choices to Ball Lightning and boosted its AoE a bit more.
I've killed Shaper with the setup, but it's still not at a satisfying level.
This might change if any new skill or support opens up something better.

‣ Added a new How to buy Cheap Gear section, and Pros/Cons section to make the guide more complete.

I think that's all, if i've missed anything it isn't that important to begin with.

"

Enki91 wrote:

I think that's all, if i've missed anything it isn't that important to begin with.

This is what I needed. Thanks so much!

That clears things up, thanks.

Looking at the completed guide update and trying to update my gear, I see one typo- your Bone Offering is too high level for Cast On Damage Taken, it needs to be level 8 max.

EDIT: I see my confusion now, you don't want BO to be linked to the CoDT setup. That would explain why my question about simultaneously casting Desecrate and BO seemed weird.

"

Enki91 wrote:

@Slothrop1: Inquisitor is definitely still good, but you will probably need to go 1h + Shield and invest into some block nodes since the Consecrated Ground alone won't cut it.

You bring up a good point and the more I think about my past characters the more I realize the highly defensive ones were more rewarding to play because dying is a pain in the ass.

I still don’t like the idea of the Necromancer ascendancy but I’ll prob end up playing your build for league start. I hope they refresh ascendencies a bit in the next update.

First off all, thanks for this build! I use it since quite some time now and it's really awesome.

I see that you removed warlords mark and the double curse. How do you sustain mana now? I always had trouble running hexproof maps because I would keep running out of mana due to no leech. I can't really imagine not running warlords and I'm kind of afraid to skill your 3.1 tree without the dual curse.

@Slothrop1: I seem to recall reading somewhere patch 3.2 is gonna bring an Ascendancy overhaul.

@load231: It's all mana regen and if used, a Hybrid Flask now. We get a bit more mana regen in the passive tree and saving some nodes on Whispers of Doom also opens the possibility to pick more.
Optionally the leech boot enchant and maybe some new item mods will help.
I'll also add in the option of Vaal Clarity, actually completely forgot about it.

Vinktar was also supposed to aid with mana in higher maps, but i forgot it got nerfed again and has no more mana leech now.