[3.20] Indigon Smite Champion

Patches, Chief Mad Bad Scientist of Team Focus and rank 1 Champion on SSC, presents his Indigon Smite Champion Concept.

While this is a showcase of several niche mechanics working together in harmony, it is not an optimized build that I would use to push ubers on day 2 or to clear T16 100% Deli maps. This is meant to be a fun demonstration of these mechanics and it turned out to actually be a very fun build to play. This is just a foundation/template and can be used with an assortment of attack skills but I wanted to try Vaal Smite and already had a Champion leveled..

Video Showcase:
https://youtu.be/Mka7AORKLRQ

How the build works:
Smite, Arcane Cloak, and Sigil of Power all grant flat lightning.
Indigon grants increased spell damage based on mana spent recently. Arcane cloak spends most of our mana and we scale our smite cost multipliers as much as we can without griefing our playstyle.^1
Battlemage's Cry grants a buff that works like Crown of Eyes, granting the player Attack damage up to 150% of the increased spell damage.^2 It also gives crit, which we are using for sustaining Elemental Overload.^3 This buff persists even after you use your exerts.
When Battlemage’s Cry exerts an attack it triggers linked skills. A Conductivity, Hydrosphere, and Sigil of Power are cast automatically as we attack, basically turning you into your own Arcanist Brand.
Mana is sustained via leech > regen > mana flask (all scale with mana recovery rate) with a Vaal Clarity just incase things get sketchy!
Adrenaline is always up as long as you can push your mana flask.^4 Indigon makes your mana flask recover life. Life reservation is set just above 50%, when your life goes above 50% petrified blood adds a life cost to your skill bringing you below 50%, therefore triggering 'First To Strike, Last To Fall' whenever we use a skill and adrenaline is not already up.
Eternal Blessing gives us a free aura if we have no MANA reserved. Champion gives us a free arrogance banner and effect. Prism Guardian reserves auras against life, not mana, allowing us to continue using Eternal Blessing. This means we have Grace, Determination, Defiance Banner, Clarity and Petrified Blood without ever reserving any mana.
Petrified Blood, approx 50% Mind Over Matter, Fortify, Adrenaline, auras, and max res scaling all stack up to be quite a nice defensive character even if we don't get spell suppression.

Path of Building Link:
https://pobb.in/wZBycN0Py37E

How the build came about:
A casual side comment made in the Team Focus discord about how no one uses 'Eternal Blessing Support' lead to this entire spiral.


Disclaimers:
I don't make good builds; I like making interesting builds. Toying with niche mechanics lends itself very well to my role in Team Focus.
Yes, there are a million other options and optimizations and ascendancies I could have made this with. I chose smite because… shiny new vaal skill.^5
DO NOT LEAGUE START THIS. THIS IS NOT A GUIDE. PLEASE. FOR THE LOVE OF KADUKU.
It's a showcase on a few hours of crafting gear after work. Yes, I know there are holes in the defenses.
Impossible Escape/Timeless Jewel tech is amazing. Two of my preferred timeless jewels were yoinked before I could get to them and I wanted to move on.
Awakened Gems? Just drop them. Ez really.
Blood Rage bricks the build because 4% of your life degen is always > than the mana from enduring flask


Special Thanks To:
Team Focus Leadership (SPL, Broox, and Llew) for supporting my obsession with obscure mechanics and knocking me back on track when I go too far down the rabbit hole.
Content Creators (Octavian and Neato) for inspiring an inquisitive mind.
My wife for smiling and nodding whenever I excitedly explain random ass PoE mechanics and why they are broken.


Footnotes:
1 - Multistrike will not allow skills to be exerted, therefore bricking the build.
2 - I believe the 150% limit is scalable with warcry buff effect, similar scaling verbiage to my miner aura support build. Technically, you can get +X% warcry buff effect in current game on unique monsters, even higher if you only try hard for pinnacles.
3 - There is a different version with Precise Technique that works as well but you have to get a lot more gear or change auras.
4 - This will be the case during clear, if bossing, your tree would need to be updated to include mana flask generation. Several options for this.
5 - Yes, Default attack viable with some other tech. smile

I'm trying your build out right now. It's my fourth build this league and I wanted to try out Vaal Smite after leveling another build with Smite. Are there any other weapons that you would use in place of Paradoxica? Would you want to use a crafted weapon and if so what base? Thank you for putting in the time to create the build.

Healthy Mind is really tempting here, it's like 25% more damage...