{3.0} Charged Dash Guide and Build

The Arcane harbinger effect is now known. It increases spell damage every 8sec for 4sec which is great for this build with Hubris Circlet, the unshattered will also gives you a similar buff while channeling that makes you more defensive.

The skill gem reads: "Channel to project a mirage forward in the direction you're facing, based on your movement speed. Release to teleport to the mirage dealing area of effect damage multiple times along the way. Travelling further applies a bonus to the damage as well as dealing damage in larger areas. Faster attack speed and lower movement speed will both cause damage to be dealt more frequently along the path."

It grants 40% more attack speed and phys to lightning conversion. Attack speed really seems like the obvious way to go, but wait there's more to this than meets the eye. If you build straight up Raider pushing attack speed to it's limits you get a ton of attack speed, but you actual speed with this attack is based on your movement speed.

The faster you move the faster your ghost moves, the faster they get to the end of the 60 unit skill and the faster you get your 100% damage bonus. So, movement speed becomes your real attack speed and attack speed acts as a shotgun if and only if you can overlap the explosions.

I believe this build has the optimal, mathematical combination of the two. Because of the increased area of effect we pick up, when using the increased area skill gem for general clearing, our AoE means our last blast almost overlaps with our origin point. This means that you can get all 4 explosions on one enemy and that you have several hundred square units where this perfect overlap exists. This means that while the reported damage of the skill with increased AoE is 67k if you calculate you having a four explosion overlap you actually have 79.8k clearing DPS, +8% DPS per enemy killed in the last 4 seconds (Occultist). Substituting concentrated effect gives you a ton of sheet dps, but it makes the sweet spot smaller and makes it so that it only includes 3 explosions at best. Giving us an actual dps of 87.6k, +8% per enemy killed recently. Which is good, but not as good as PoB reports (PoB reports over 50% increase to damage, when it's closer to 9% more) It still seems to be the best choice regardless of the over reporting of damage.

I also chose not to use elemental focus because our first hit from our storm cascade should cause shock before we jump in and do damage which should be better than that small boost in comparison.

First, let's get the two elephants out of the room. Trickster and Inquisitor.

So Trickster really seems like the wrong class for this IMO. People go, "OMG free movement skills and 20% attack speed! I'll go Trickster" Two problems with that. Attack speed can be really deceiving for this skill. It's good, don't get me wrong but it leaves much to be desired (better to go fast movement and high damage per hit). Second, if you 6 link the skill it's only about 15 mana to channel which is somewhat high but for perspective 2 Elreon rings makes it free and --again IMO-- I'd rather lose two ring mods than 2 ascendancy points that give me little actual damage. (and that really only matters when you really want to have a free skill). Second there just aren't that many good nodes at the start for this build along with the energy shield leech problem. You will have more total ES if you go this route but... meh I like occultists regen better.

Inquisitor, the obvious choice for any and all elemental builds. Since Charged Dash is not instant but instead just very, very fast you actually always count as near any enemy you are attacking. So you get a sweet 16% damage all the time. Instruments of virtue is where this build would really shine. The automatically cast Storm Cascade is technically a spell and charged dash is an attack so you get the full benefit of the nodes all the time... pretty OP. Righteous Providence gives you crit chance crit multi and 20% effect of shock. Finally, the reason everyone is going Inquisitor now and forever you get free 10% MORE damage and can run any elemental resist map without even caring. The inquisitor is good, too good. You do have to change a few things to make it work. 1. Remove CI; 2. Pick up a bunch of life nodes; 3. Feel bad that your basically cheating using a class that needs nerfed so bad because there's no reason to play any other build if you have any elemental damage at all.

Okay, guilt trip aside the Occultist actually has better clear speed because of how we build this character. Malediction isn't that great for boss killing, but it makes your clear speed so satisfying. Malediction/Vile Bastion is such a great speed clear combo. The more enemies you kill the more ES you regen. The more enemies you kill the more damage you do as chaos which isn't that common of a resit. Malediction is NOT a good node if you go chaos damage or have any chaos conversion. Because you gain 4% of your NON-CHAOS damage as extra chaos damage per curse, and because CD isn't instant but just fast you always kill non-hexproof enemies with at least 2 curses up; it's more or less just an 8% damage per enemy killed buff. You can jump into a pack and kill 10 mobs giving you 80% extra damage and regen 5% of you ES per second. The faster you go the faster it stacks and the easier it is to survive. So while the inquisitor is definitely better at boss killing the occultist trades a small amount of boss potential for some super fast maps. You can even get whispers of doom and grab a third curse via a unique (there are a few options there) to make a build that is just a good map farmer if you need currency early in the league.

A Note on Other choices:

The PoB link shows what I believe to be the best in slot items for boss clearing and decent clear speed (mostly provided by Malediction). You can trade out one of the rares for a unique with an extra curse and an pick up whispers of doom for more clear speed but it won't really change your boss clearing. Because the PoB link is the BiS items for every slot it is obviously going to be expensive to get EXACTLY what I linked, but much of the damage comes from the skill tree and just some basic good modifiers can go a long way. More information on how to build while you look for these BiS items in the budget section.

PoB:

Skill Tree:

Gems:
Main Setup: Charged Dash(g)->Increased AoE(Concentrated Effect)(b)->Damage on Full Life(r)->Elemental Damage with Attacks(r)->Faster Attacks(g)
Curses: Conductivity(b)-assassins mark(b)->blasphemy
Aura: Discipline
Golem: Lightning or Ice (Lightning has higher dps, slightly. Ice adds more crit which means more lighting bolts)

So to make the build work on a budget my recommendation is to find a good ES shield and any one hander and try to max out your attack damage until you get up to 69 when you get hubris circlet.
This item is the most important piece to the build. Conversely you can just use any generic or lightning spell for the first 68 levels if your into that sort of thing. Once you hit 69 you can try to buy the two new unique items or you can start farming harbingers and harbinger maps for the shards. If you can't get the shards you should be able to save up enough currency for them eventually, and I recommend the sword first as it is the second most important item. Choir of the Storm and Auxium are mid priced items (usually I have no idea about in this league) that you can get at any time, but I would prioritize Hubris and Rippling Thoughts. Then just pick up flasks and as always try to craft some good ES pieces along the way (hopefully they'll be cheaper in the "Life Meta") You can use steel rings or as a budget any resist rings or diamond rings. (remember lightning resist = crit chance).

This is very much so a hit and run build. You want to charge up your attack and aim to have you enemies at the center between you and your ghost. This will (roughly, usually) maximize your damage. You can visualize your attacks here: https://www.desmos.com/calculator/cmnwc3vaky.
The Occultist playstyle is interesting and makes essence surge really interesting as a character option if you are having trouble with defense. These two play into each other. Charged Dash moves you around quickly and Occultists want to avoid damage to keep regenerating their shield. So you basically just run around like a weirdo then you must STRIKE ANDO STRIKE! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGiMO44xjis