At the moment I’m leveling a shaman. I have a general idea of what I want to do: I want to use the unique 2H mace Stormbringer with gathering storms to generate a bunch of storm stacks. I want to use Seeds of Ekidrasil, Wall of Nothing, and Vessel of Strife as a defensive combo to take advantage of attunement stacking giving a bunch of mana and HP regen as well as getting endurance threshold from various sources.
The thing I’m trying to figure out as I get to endgame: What precisely am I building around damage wise? Am I a melee build? A spell build? Both? Gathering storms gives spell damage based on melee damage, so at least getting flat melee lightning of my mace seems like a priority and obviously generic lightning and elemental damage are going to scale both, but beyond that, how should I value more specific affixes like increases to melee or spell damage, melee or spell crit, etc? Should I keep it generic? Should I lean into one or the other?
Here’s the current planner: https://www.lastepochtools.com/planner/A2xRwr9B
Also, for the idols, there are idols that increase the rate which I expend storm stacks and some which decrease it but give spell damage, which do I want if any? I’m also thinking Maelstroms per second or thorn totems on hit might also be good and then I spec more into the passives that give buffs based on having totems.
Also, if I got a good one, do you think an exalted amulet with the new Whirlpool champion affix that gives ward threshold and ward/sec per Maelstrom is good enough to replace the unique amulet?
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Unfortunately Gathering Storm is usually used as a background spell for other spells like Maelstrom, Tornado, etc, to cast the storm bolts instead. Gathering Storm is rarely ever used as it’s raw melee skill version. It’s just not great. I’d recommend going Tempest Strike instead if you want to build around a melee skill.
As for damage, Gathering Storm pretty much scales off spell damage due to the Storm Bolts acting as Spell Damage. The only way it benefits from your melee damage is with the Tempest Weapon node. PSA: This only applies to the storm bolt, not the actual melee hit.
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Forgot to say, this is my current build going for Storm Bolts: https://www.lastepochtools.com/planner/Bjvp7LyB
I use Swarmblade form to cast Tornados at a rapid pace with my melee hits. These tornados then cast Storm Bolt at nearby enemies. My Maelstrom, which is procced by Stormblade’s dive ability, also casts Storm Bolts. It’s pretty effective, but I use a dual-wield build.
Thanks. I got to 75 so far and working on finishing up normal monos. I actually recently tried speccing into Tempest Strike for the more storm bolt damage and it definitely seems a lot better. I specced out of all the tempests to just go for the storm bolts, but not sure if that’s actually correct or not. It works pretty well though. The mace means I always have a storm stack to spend and with the node that has a chance to give me back storm stacks I go positive. It’s noticeably more damage, although it’s gonna be harder to sustain the mana, especially once I put of Seed of Ekidrasil. It has some mana gen from Resurgence of the Land, but I lose out on the mana I was getting from the Tempest Form passive. I guess I could keep gathering storms on my bar to use as a generator in a pinch, but I always hate having to do that. Maybe with enough attunement I’ll have enough mana regen from Elemental Shrines. Although the node that’s consuming mana for more storm bolt damage is % based, so it might not actually get better since I’ll also be upping the cost.
There are so many skills I want to be running. It’s hard to decide what to fit in. Obviously need Gathering Storms, Maelstrom is important, Fury Leap specced I guess is not strictly required, but it’s very nice QoL. Warcry seems important for Maelstrom and crit chance buffs. Tempest Strike is going to be the melee attack I’m using now I guess, but then after that Thorn totems would allow me to auto summon more which would help with my resists, Tornado would be more storm bolt procs and a move and attack speed buff, and I’ve even pondered doing Summon Spriggand for the crit avoid, spell damage, and dodge. Although honestly my last build I tried using it as a buff stick it was kind of miserable once enemy damage was high enough to kill it.
Also question on skill stuff: Do the nodes that say Gathering Storms deals more damage apply to the storm bolts in general? Also do any damage buffs in any tree that procs the storm bolts apply to them?
Yes, any nodes that say Gathering Storms deals more damage applies to the Storm Bolts as well.
