Pre-Patch-Craft: Ultimate MF-Culling Aura Support build (9 Aura)

Here i've crafted the idea behind the ultimate build for insane party synergy. The idea is to have the best move for culling (hits per second and able to hit all screen easily), and the best aura setup to boost other players, or at least the best combination of both.

3 Auras boosted by Generocity (Wrath, Anger, Hatred)
6 Auras without Generocity (3xPurity Auras, Discipline, Clarity, Haste)

Ball Lightning GMP for culling.

Option for using totems with heartbreaker if one so desires.



Gearing

Required gear:

- Alphas Howl
- Solaris Lorica or Shavronnes Wrappings 5L+
- Prism Guardian

Heartbreaker is a very good weapon as well, BiS. It gives your spells culling, which allows you to replace culling strike in your ball lightning. Heartbreaker gives you additional options, such as using 2 totems by spending 4 passive points. It can allow you to use lmp, increased area of effect, faster projectiles or another support instead of culling.

Try to get 150+ ES on gloves initially, you really need the ES at first. Get ES on amulet, aim for 15%+, and heartbreaker which gives you 50 flat ES. You need another 80 all resistance from your remaining gear if using 2xAndvarius. Alphas howl, goldwyrm and shavronnes all got resistance on them.




Gem Setup

Chest: Ball Lightning, Spell Echo, Culling, GMP, Item Rarity, Faster Casting(6L)

Head: Haste, Discipline, Purity of Ice, Reduced Mana

Gloves/Boots: Clarity, Reduced Mana, Reduced Duration, Lightning Warp

Boots/Gloves: Purity of Lightning, Purity of Fire, Reduced Mana, Blood Magic

Shield: Anger, Wrath, Generosity

Weapon: Hatred, Generosity, Reduced Mana


It is important to have Lightning Warp, you need to be there to cull. Maybe another way would be arctic armour/enhance for simply moving faster.

If Generocity turns out to have a high multiplier, things need to be changed around. I can't plan that before i know the reduced mana cost of ball lightning in the patch, which also helps me know how high a clarity should be run.

I do not recommend manual curses on the MF-culler, it's better you spend time casting for more culls, and with your auras, who needs curses anyway.


Passive Skill Tree

In the passive skill tree you go for:

- All Aura points (excluding 12% radius)
- Unwavering Stance
- Energy Shield
- Cast Speed
- Inner Force
- Enough mana regen for spamming your spell (mana costs may be reduced)
- Enough Mana pool to run clarity (900-1000 mana)
- 20% projectile speed

You do not go for damage, it's better to grab more ES with additional points.

Just a quick build craft to get an idea, you want to create something similar on launch:

To load this 1.2 skill tree download the updated offline tree here: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/994393


It doesn't take so many levels to reach all the essential points, from like lvl 70 on it's just stacking ES and some cast speed.

How much increased mana you need from nodes really depends on how much mana costs are reduced, and how clarity we need to run, which again depends on the mana cost reducion in 1.2.

Other good points depending on your build/build/party role are all area nodes, pain attunement(and the es points next to them).


Additional information

It can reach over 5 casts/second. I estimated that to be a hit potential of up to 3-400+ hits per second if there are enough mobs for all your balls to hit. There won't be, but it can hit a lot. Hits/second is essential to effective culling.

Your damage is irrelevant, it may be to your advantage to have a level 1 Baal Lightning for mana costs and reflect when you are in a party. You just need to cull, you are a pure support character.

You need purity auras, clarity, discipline and haste yourself, so you should not run any of those with generocity. The reason you need haste is that you need to be there to cull, you already will have a hard time keeping up with whirling blades or whatever.

You cannot be Stunned, you cannot be Frozen.

Projectile speed makes you faster at hitting those far away, but less chances for a ball to hit the same target many times. Something to consider. You can get some on the wand and for 2 points in the skill tree.


When Soloing

You don't need the damage auras. You can go replace weapon/shield with something for damage, you can swap in max lvl clarity and ball lightning, and maybe grab a single target attack. If you like to solo i suggest taking pain attunement.

EDIT: Okay screw it, i just wrote a long passage about potential lag of ball lightning and replacement of it..

Went out and tested, 3.7 attacks per second, the build can reach 5.5 casts per second, and was using gmp and lmp. I didn't get a single lag, and i only have a decent computer. So yea, screw that, things are fine.

Have you considered going the old MF culling method of Incinerate Totems, GMP and heartbreaker instead of Ball Lightning? Totems just mean that you cover more area, Incinerate has a wide angle with GMP, hits rapidly and has a low mana cost. Flame totems would be more damage but I doubt it would matter very much when you consider that you cover less area for culling. Totems also tank some damage for the party and is a safer option for a fragile build. Perhaps Ball Lightning totems see some action, they should work to the same effect so long as the gap between each Lightning Ball doesn't leave blind spots where you are no longer hitting the mob.

The Generosity gem would give zero damage culling builds a better reason to join parties since they can buff the damage of other builds, hopefully it makes a positive impact on release. Good luck.

No, no i had not considered that. I don't like totems. Looking at it though i can see it is just as good, maybe marginally better, although i would still use ball lightning. I tested incinerate it is far inferior, judging from math. I'll incorporate your advice, thanks! Although 40% more casts may cause even more lag.

Now just spraying thoughts here.. if i use just heartbreaker, i can get lmp, increased area of effect or another gem.

Totem gives 2xtotems with 0.7 attack speed, that's 1.4 times amount of hit potential. LMP is 1.4 times more aoe potential, roughly even for aoe given cast speed, and not requiring skill points. Area of effect gives up to 45% more area, which makes your balls hit further away, it increases single target dmg by 45%(on average, there may be some breakpoints), so should also be roughly even. I think i would run heartbreaker and increased area of effect, tbh, that looks sweet!

There are some other safety advantages to running totems so provided it doesn't lag, it's probably best. So boring tho.

EDIT: NOOOO, i just realized i calculated something very wrong. :(! Major impact, dang. failure... good no one saw i forgot bloodmagic the 3 auras!.. well i'll just fix this..

prism guardian ? <_< >_> <_< ????

Yea im calculating with prism guardian now, trying to avoid too powerful a hit to the ES pool, but that shield was a big thing.

Okay so yea, i've updated it now.. I'm not entirely convinced it would be better to have 1 dedicated culler and 1 dedicated aura guy.. This here is a 80% aura guy 80% mf culler, i suppose it's actually quite okay...

Updated to new skill tree.

some new ideas?:) i think to use your build... :)

This is awesome, do you plan on updating it upon release?

I'm keen to play a Mf/Aura support character with a bunch of friends, so keen to see this work :D