One of the potential build ideas that I’m interested in for the patch revolves around the new unique amulet that lets you move with focus and cast lightning blasts while doing so.
At the moment I have two general ideas for the build. In either case the goal is to make a very passive low button build, mostly just using focus and then occasionally using utility like Flame Ward or an unspecced Teleport.
I always need help with the finer details of how to balance out stats and stuff. So I could use suggestions/thoughts:
Variant 1: Auto Lightning Meteors: https://www.lastepochtools.com/planner/BOGd62GB
We use the newly craft-able Vilatria set to convert meteors to lightning and gain lightning damage, pen, and shock chance from int stacking. We just run around in focus auto casting lightning blasts, and Static from Stack Shell to proc the meteors from Harbinger of the Stars.
Variant 2: Coral Aegis with more of a focus on the lighting blast/static: https://www.lastepochtools.com/planner/QWJ549LA
Same idea with auto LB and static, but we run Coral Aegis to get more shock and get block chance from our shock. I’m not as sure about it, but Tribolectra gives us levels to our skills and a use of Static Orb on evade. Not sure how much I like that part of it since it’s not us just staying in focus, but it still only involves us doing an evade which we probably need to do sometimes anyway and we don’t have to actually press static orb. Plus it comes with some support for Lightning Blast with Fusion Blast for extra chains, Static Armor for Lightning Aegis which can get us more LB from the idol affix, and Charged Allies for more shock chance.
The biggest thing I’m never sure about with mage is specifically how to decide on defense. Ward vs Mana before Health, etc. I’d assume we want to lean more towards ward because of the amulet and because at least for the Vilatria version we’re gonna int stack anyway. But as a sorc mana stacking is always an option, especially if we’re gonna be casting some expensive spells.
That’s pretty much what I did, but Aftermath doesn’t recover mana from proc’d meteors, only directly cast ones. I also went with World Ender for automatic crits. I also went with 1 or 2 points in Blinding Light (Lightning Blast) to remove the need for any crit avoidance/reduced bonus damage from crits. I didn’t go with Stormchaser (Discharge) because it’s annoying having the charges decay and they never went “too low” while running around killing stuff.
Huh that’s confusing. The belt says “cast” and in other places they specify directly cast/used. If that’s how it works they should clear up the wording.
If you’re already building a lot of crit chance to make the meteors happen in the first place, is that still necessary?
Seems solid. I guess if I’m more focusing on Meteor I can take some points out of more damage in LB.
Gotcha. I guess it’ll just come down to feel. Are you saying you did this build this patch but without the focus thing? Maybe it’ll feel better if I can just keep moving around with focus. But idk if the charges stay up enough anyway maybe you’re right regardless.
Still not sure about some things and will likely go through some iterations after I can test in-game. This is a more basic version with things that should be easier to get early on. Idols are just kind of random, not sure on those yet either.
I’m curious about Arcane Ascendance. Can you run that while in focus? Do you think the amulet will let us move anyway or is it just for times you know you can plant your feet and need the extra damage?
I’m 99.9% sure the change in Arcane Ascendance is because of movement Focus. Sadly, it hurts other builds since you lose AA from using a movement skill which was the only way to reposition during AA.
I’ve also been theorycrafting Lightning blast (Runemaster and selfcast with Static+Frost Wall), IMO you really want Convergence for single target especially to maintain Static charges. My hope is that buffed double/quadruple cast, bugfixed spark nova and additional casts from Static+Frost wall can manage clear because swapping in and out of Convergence feels pretty awkward.
IMO they really should make Convergence a conditional effect with something like if you have cast Static orb recently. Or remove the nerf to Closed circuit which was the only way regular LB could somewhat compete with Convergence LB.
I’m not sure if it will work or not. I was playing with it and Flame Ward as options. The idea was that you would plant your feet and get some extra damage on a boss if needed. The amulet doesn’t say anything about giving focus the movement tag so I’m hoping it will just lock you in place and let you keep channeling focus.
That’s interesting. I haven’t really touched Runemaster at all because it just looks really complicated to me, but I might give that a go. I love builds where you can stack a lot of stats and defense and this looks pretty straightforward to play at least.
you should take a look at ascendance, you can run that with focus, you dont get to tele or dash or itll break ascendance but outside of that the uptime can double your damage and then some. (you would have to drop meteor or static orb, i dropped aegis for fragment of the enigma, to try it out its working fine
movement is slow as heck tryin to figure that out, i am running 4 idols with lightning dmg while lightning aegis is active (its always active) and lightning pen to fill it out (target goal would be pen with phys resist, as im hurtin bad)
Static is what makes this build work IMO, not meteor. Auto casting all the time. Massive ward, damage to mana with 0 mana cost on all skills, lightning blast upgrades, resist across the board, and a ton of reduced damage %. Flame ward specced to lightning, flame aura and passives from Runemaster. You just put Focus on right click and walk, teleport for more damage / wards, flame ward for more damage / wards. But you hardly need it: static and focus do all the work.
Hey, thanks for starting this thread. I got mana guide early and decided to run my entire char around it. I got the Vilatria set and pushed with it but I always missed the affix/exalted bonuses on weapon, offhand and helms. So I when I got tribolectra I was excited. Even more so when it got 50% spelldmg and 104% lightning dmg from nemesis. I tested this for several hours (https://www.lastepochtools.com/planner/oNKlvWWA not sure if this retains my then state as I now changed back to meteor) and was disappointed. The interaction between focus and dodge really kicks this in the nuts and it didn’t work for me. Maybe I didn’t give it enough time. Just wanted to share for everyone’s benefit.
Also, I see static shell been referenced as a core item by several people. I admit I am not utilizing static and just running with 200 stacks so I might try it. Thanks for all the input guys.
Lastly, I believe overcharge and hypercharge work with mana guide, as LB’s text says “when actively cast” but in my testing I confirmed mana guide casts are also considered active casts. It’s text says “while channeling focus you cast” which apparently works. Anyone using these as I dont’ see them in OP’s LB trees?
Here’s my work in progress (barely 77) https://www.lastepochtools.com/planner/QDJD7Dwo
Stacking mana and INT. Floating with focus, which does good damage so far, so i don’t feel need for more skills for autocasts. Maybe later i will try meteor with harbinger of stars unless damage from gloves becomes annoying. I use rings for more crit chance and some mana, but that may change. Set staff with good rolls like mine is really good for focus. Not easy to top that. Set helm may be replaced in the future for more mana/int with +4 to focus.
I keep disintigrate as experiment and leftover from leveling. I will try static here instead.
Fun thread, keep those ideas coming.
So far floating focus with mana guide is so fun that i wish it was enabled by skill node instead of an item.
I am running Harbinger now. It is good, but I need to get a full 9% chance one (just 6% now).
The “reduce damage when enemy has ” are great for Focus. I have a +3 Focus helm right now, so also have full + resists while channeling and a point in chill with the damage reduction. If you can get enough extra skill points I think the damage reduction can reach 20% from shocked, 20% from chilled, 8% from shocked/chilled/ignite while still having 35% to all resists while channeling (the 8% comes from Spellblade first tier passive). Damage to mana before health helps too, and there aren’t a ton of stats you need with the build so why not. Most of your damage comes from skills, and Vilatria’s Downfall helps a lot. Your Lightning Waves scale off of mana for base damage, which you can see with [ALT] over the passive node, but seem to be augmented as a normal spell would be once actually applied. As in it crits as far as I can tell, which is hard with all the lightning spam. At level 70 with absolutely crap gear my Focus DPS shows ~40k. Static flings Lightning Blast every second for the crit procs on Meteor.
One thing I’ve noticed is Meteor’s “Extinction” node seems to still make the large meteor fire, not lightning. Instead, go for the increased fall speed. Too bad, since we’re speccing crit to proc it to begin with.
Also, Teleport with Out of Body (% reduction in health for double the ward) is awesome for the build. You want movement, and it stacks ward at a rate comparable to Flame Ward. A tiny bit of leech from elemental or lightning spells and your health literally doesn’t drop.
Running it without Meteor feels about the same, you just get Flame Ward which could be better end game since you can replace Vilatria’s Downfall with something.
It’s good to see it’s working out. I ended up trying Frozen’s runemaster version, but it turned out a bit jankier than I expected. Is this a fairly smooth setup? Just focus and go? I might swap sorc to try it or something similar at some point, but I’d need to farm up some new gear since all of my stuff is str based. I’m guessing you go int/mana/spell crit/lightning damage wherever you can after getting defenses?
I wouldn’t say you just Focus and go, because Focus is slower than normal movement. You more walk then Focus whenever you see something, while teleporting pretty much on cooldown (with or without Focus).
It is all autocast except teleport. You move towards the cursor while focusing, so all you do is either hold down focus and click Teleport when you want, or move around freely and let Static do the light work while you teleport and just toggle Focus when you need to.
I’ll try to link my actual character later, if I can figure it out. I’m by no means well equipped, and the build can absolutely work with ONLY Mana Guide. In fact Mana Guide was the only item I started with, and I only swapped to meteor at about level 60 to try it out.
If it works it works. For what it’s worth I’ve been playing for a few years now and I’m still terrible at build stuff. I’ve been trying out some absolute stinkers with my last few characters lol.
