[3.0] CI HOWA Lightning Strike/Blade Flurry Trickster

Credit for this build goes to Minted who I copied the build from after seeing him reach 100 on the Harbinger Hardcore ladder. HC viable btw




Pros
+ Very good clear speed
+ Shaper viable
+ Very defensive with 9k+ ES, 60%+ evasion, Fortify, and Vaal Grace
+ Scales well with currency
+ Can run almost all map mods

Cons
- Lightning Strike projectiles get stopped by anything, which means you can only clear really fast in open maps.
- Can't run elemental reflect maps
- Have to hold 'attack in place' key or use the num lock trick with Lightning Strike



Ascendancy
Trickster gives us:
Up to 56% increased attack speed
Frenzy and Power charger generation
No mana cost on Shield Charge
Evasion, Energy Shield, and movement speed

Walk the Aether -> Swift Killer -> Ghost Dance -> Shade Form

Bandits
Kill all

Pantheon
Brine King for stun resist and stun recovery.
Yugul for reduced reflect damage.

Gear
Helmet: Rare ES, Resists
Enchant: Reduced Grace, Discipline, or Wrath reservation

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Body: Incandescent Heart
This chest is amazing. Decent ES, leech, extra chaos damage, and the 'elemental damage taken as chaos damage' is equivalent to +6% max res to all elements for CI. Refer to the table on the wiki.

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Gloves: Shaper's Touch
Fills out our accuracy through int. Also provides Evasion and ES.

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Boots: Sin Trek
ES, Evasion, Movespeed and int/dex.

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Amulet: Astramentis
Attributes for HoWA and Shaper's Touch

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Rings: Rare Resists, ES, Int, Flat Lightning, Weapon Elemental Damage.
Opal Ring base if you have the currency for it.

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Belt: Ascent From Flesh
ES, Evasion, Phasing, dodge, Movespeed

Bated Breath is another good option
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Weapon: Hand of Wisdom and Action
Increased attributes and a lot of flat lightning damage

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Shield: Rare ES, Resists

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Flasks: Utility flasks for survivability in maps.
With Wise Oak you want to balance your resists to take even less elemental damage. At the very least, have your lightning resist highest for the penetration.

For end game bosses you can swap some utility flasks for Vinktars (Added lightning and lightning Penetration variants are about equal with the former being slightly stronger) and Atziri's Promise for the extra damage
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Jewels: In order of importance
Prefixes
- Attack Speed with Claws
- Attack Speed while Holding a Shield
- Attack Speed with One Handed Melee Weapons
- Lightning Damage
- Maximum Energy Shield
suffixes
- Damage
- Attack Speed
- Intelligence
- Attack and Cast Speed
- Projectile Damage (Area Damage for Blade Flurry)
- Dexterity, Strength
- All Resists


Auras
Discipline, Grace, and Wrath

You need either an Enlighten lvl 4 or a helm enchant + Enlighten lvl 2 to run all 3 auras.
If you get a helm enchant + Enlighten lvl 4 you can drop a reduced reservation node on the left side of the tree and grab the aura effect node instead.

Helm enchants are reduced Discipline, Grace, or Wrath mana reservation.

Gem Links
6L 2R 1G 3B: Lightning Strike - Elemental Damage with Attacks - Elemental Focus - Damage on Full Life - Added Lightning Damage - Lightning Penetration

Drop Lightning Penetration for 5L

4L 1G 3B: Grace - Wrath - Discipline - Enlighten (level 2+)

4L 3R 1G: Shield Charge - Faster Attacks - Fortify - Endurance Charge on Melee Stun

4L 3R 1G: Cast when Damage Taken (Level 1) - Immortal Call (Level 3) - Increased Duration - Vaal Grace

3L 3B: Orb of Storms - Curse On Hit - Conductivity

2L 1R 1B: Cast when Damage Taken (Level 14) - Summon Lightning Golem (Level 16)

1L: Ancestral Protector

Leveling
I leveled with Essence Drain until about 75. I would recommend not switching to CI until you have all the ascendancy points and can equip HoWA, Incandescent Heart, and Shaper's Touch

Blade Flurry
I swap to Blade flurry for hard bosses, T16, Shaper, or for maps that Lightning Strike is not effective on, which is every map with a lot of obstacles or indoor maps.

Swap Lightning Penetration with Increased AOE/Conc Effect.

The 5 pierce nodes on the right side of the tree can be replaced if you plan on using Blade Flurry a lot or don't mind spending the regrets. I normally put those points into Retribution and Precision near the Templar start.
BF Tree Level 93

Num Lock Trick
Make sure Num Lock is on
Keybind "Attack in place" to a number on your keypad
Hold in which ever key you bound it too and turn Num Lock off while still holding down


PoB
Level 93 Blade Flurry
https://pastebin.com/cyHVWgsC

Level 93 Lightning Strike
https://pastebin.com/j94c2d0X

Videos
T11 Racecourse + T12 Mud Geyser + T13 Bog: https://youtu.be/afkrrh2cFR0
Shaper with Blade Flurry: https://youtu.be/mceRu_oKy1k

Last edited by Mmhumm on Sep 15, 2017, 7:34:03 PM
Last bumped on Sep 23, 2017, 1:44:35 AM
Hey. Look nice

Is there defense good for maping and boss with tier 1 - 12 ?
What is evasion rating? Is there good level withought Acrobatics?

What is a tree for blade flurry version?
Last edited by greguuu85 on Sep 18, 2017, 8:23:59 AM
Build looks like a lot of fun. Few questions: How do you deal with stun? is the pantheon enough by itself?

Is dealing with rubble blocking your lightning strikes enough of a hit to quality of life to push you from playing this build?

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