[Arena 484][0.8.2]Bear’s Arcane Elemental Blast - 3 elements, 7+ ailments, 5k+ ward, up to 500k+ DPS

Ah cool, thanks for fixing that. Will do!

Intriguing build… gives me some incentive to level up my sorcerer…

Wonderful to see a full Unique Set being used in an end-game capable build for a change… really hope to see more of this in future…

All ward builds make we wonder if ward is eventually going to get a nerf of some kind… Facetaking Lagons attacks one after the other without moving is so OP its joyous to watch… especially after all the kiting around most builds have to do.

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The buildplanner has been updated for Lightning Blast. It is significantly stronger now with points shuffled into the Shattershock node. LB now deals about 3x more damage than previous at no cost to survivability or mana. Overall, the build is dealing almost twice as much damage now.

An interesting note is that when Lightning Blast is cast by Arcane Ascendance through channelled hits of EN rather than LB alone through AA, it seems to cost significantly less. Using LB to be cast through AA when you attack with EN makes your mana last longer than casting LB alone through AA.

My guess would be that when LB is channel cast through AA when you channel EN hits, it only takes an upfront mana cost and LB is mana-cost free thereafter. You’re essentially channelling EN + LB at the same time but only paying EN mana costs for it. I may be wrong though but as it stands EN + LB + AA is cheaper mana wise than LB + AA alone.

LB is dealing almost as much damage as EN and as a result I’m renaming the build to Arcane Elemental Blast in recognition of the three important parts.

Edit 2: In fact, I can confirm this. When LB is channelled through AA it takes an upfront cost of mana and experiences no channel cost. Every 2 seconds in line with the Superconductor node in AA there is a ‘tick’ that subtracts the initial cast cost of LB. You get the benefit of LB at the cost of initial mana and no channel cost when it is cast through AA.

Thanks for your interest!

Exactly the reason I tend to go for ward builds late game. It’s just so wickedly strong when you start to hit 5k+ ward pools that you can face tank most shots in the game. I’ve fallen out of love with HP + leech builds because you’re vulnerable to many more one shots if you aren’t dealing damage,

Do you have any loot filter to go along with that build and some ideas and where to start off with the build in terms of abilities

Yeah I can post my filter I use on my Mage. You might have to make some changes to fit what you’re looking for. It targets equipment and affix shards I was looking for which you might need to change for yourself.

In terms of abilities get EN and Focus first, then AA, LB and FW.

Mage.xml (19.0 KB)

Thank you !

Hello,

Just to say thank you, It’s my third build after a necro and a funny hammerdin (paladin / hammer / smite).
I’m only lvl 49 but it’s a real pleasure and seem really strong. is really nice to play :wink:

Thx !

So in the Arcane Ascendance tree, there’s 2 points in Slow Breathing (AA drains mana slower) to unlock Tranquility (global increase mana efficiency). Is Arcane Absorption (2% increased spell damage/cast speed when hit per hit, but also lose 2 mana per hit) not better, since Slow Breathing does nothing given that we’ve already taken Acuity (AA doesn’t drain mana)? Or is the fact that you lose 2 mana for every hit just too much of a downside?

The issue is you cannot regen mana, so when big hits happen they may overstack the very small available life pool killing you. That is why you will notice in the gameplay videos he is using focus to regain mana.

Hmm? The node doesn’t make enemy hits do extra damage, they just make you lose 2 mana per hit, but also when you get hit you get increased spell damage and cast speed.

Experiment with it, you may find something that fits your play style and gearing. Key thing is to have fun and every build will have slight differences due to RNG.

Yah absolutely, was more curious if he had tried it. Not gonna matter at my level atm, as nothing is getting remotely close to me lol.

Ah okay, yea that is a question for him. I was giving general answer based on the nodes and have a different EN blast build with similar yet no way near as tanky as this. I cannot stand the channeling aspect.

We don’t go for arcane absorption because cast speed has no impact on channelling, it doesn’t increase the tick rate of attacks. Also, the increased spell damage when hit would be basically non existent. You might cast AA for as little as half a second up to a few seconds until you run out of mana. In the best case scenario you may be in AA for a few seconds, take a few hits that would increase spell damage a bit but you wouldn’t feel it at all.

In general, not even to do with this spell, increased damage as a damage stat has little impact until you start to hit decently high numbers like 100%+ increased damage. You’re often better to go for base +x damage like +20 cold, +15 void, those kinds of stats. So the % increased damage you would gain while in AA would be so little you wouldn’t feel it.

Other than that, you also lose -2 mana per hit taken which isn’t ideal.

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Im only lvl 58 but I thought I would give this a try. How would you reccomend getting Stout Lagonian Idols. I’ve saved every Idol I’ve come across (through a lvl 75 blademaster) and this character and I don’t have a single one.

Also, is there a way I can farm for the other uniques? Would I do that just by going through monos? or replaying certain areas of the game?

Thank you

Sweet, hope you enjoy the build.

So, stout lagonian idols drop just like any other idol. The health affixes on them with good rolls can be relatively rare. It took me about 400 hours of play to get 8 of them with decent rolls. They’re a universal idol that works well just about any build (health is always an important stat) so I’d recommend picking them up on any character you play. If you don’t have those any other idol with ward retention or health will work. There’s 1x1 idols that drop commonly with ward + health.

Most of the uniques are random drops so you’ll get them through regular gameplay. Exceptions are Strands of Souls which is a 10% drop from empowered Abomination, and Last Steps of the Living which is a 14% drop from Frost Lich Formosus. Strands of Souls can be replaced by a regular belt with high health suffixes. Last Steps of the Living can be pretty easy to farm if you reset the boss (some googling will help you there).

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Thank you for the info

I respecced everything and it has been fun so far. A complete different playstyle than what I had before, which is what I wanted. Thank you for the build :slight_smile:

Ok so far everything is going well and I finally got my boots so I can wear them in a bit. The thing that confuses me is how come LB only shoots one small blast and then nothing. I watched the video and see it doing much more. Am I missing something ?

Need to make sure you have Insidious Conduction in LB so it’s a channelled ability. Then it’ll be constant when you use AA