Full lightning damage newbie

Hello all,

I'm a long time ARPG player and have recently decided some of the older games I play just aren't fresh enough for me. PoE seems very promising but I'm curious if the kind of character I'd want to build is even possible/viable? Generally, I prefer playing melee characters which specialize is high elemental/lightning/storm magics.

I've seen a few videos on some builds and it looks like the templar has a build or version of itself that might work for this play style? Has anyone tried it or would there be another class people would recommend that can jump into the action and start swinging while doing loads of lightning damage?

Think Thor and you basically have what I'm looking to do. :P

Thanks!
Last bumped on Aug 15, 2017, 8:54:39 AM
Welcome!

Yeah, you can definitely do this in a number of different ways. Classes are very flexible in PoE, but for a lightning-based melee character (or elemental attack skills in general) you'd usually want to look at either Templar or Ranger. That said, you can go about what you want in a few different ways. For example, for a straight melee attacker you could either stack lightning damage, e.g. (hover over the items):



Or stack physical damage and then convert it to lightning damage, e.g.:



There are also short range lightning spells, and weirder builds that do lightning-y stuff that might interest you. Speaking of which, if you're thinking Thor...



Hope I haven't scared you off! As you may be noticing, character customisation and the sheer variety of build possibilities is one of PoE's great strengths...

Have you done something awesome with [url=http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Sire_of_Shards]Sire of Shards[/url]? PM me and tell me all about it!
Last edited by viperesque on Jun 17, 2017, 11:06:31 PM
Shadow and Witch would also do fine as lightning based melee, although Witch would be a bit awkward for a new player and Shadow's most intuitive approach is glass cannon, which is, of course, always ddifficult for someone new to a game. But I wouldn't discount those two either :p
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This is awesome info. Thanks!

I was mostly looking for a place to start as there is so much to learn about the game. I will give a templar a go and see if it suits my needs. Thanks!
Gonna necro my own thread here... yikes!

Now that the new expansion is out are these recommendations still valid? Not sure how much changed with the new release...
Yes they are still valid.

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