Ah ok. Hopefully that’ll be the case. It doesn’t say that on the amulet but that does seem like it would make sense.
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.
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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.
Mike confirmed in discord that AA will work with mana guide + focus. You will just get locked in place.
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I was just watching this video on youtube of Mana Guide build for 1.2.
Maybe you can draw some inspiration from it: Giga Stacker Focus Autobomber Mage
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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.
Hello,
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)
but im new to this so if im way off let me know
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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.
Great survivability and damage combined.
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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?
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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.
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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.
Here is my bare bones build with just the really needed equipment.
https://www.lastepochtools.com/planner/QDJ42Kwo
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?
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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.
Ok wasn’t bad, here’s my character link. Don’t laugh, I didn’t play for 5 years…just a week.
https://www.lastepochtools.com/planner/owxD84kA
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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.
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Guys, just wanted to share I found this gem after posting yesterday - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzYu5s_zrTI . An absolute wild twist on this item. Blew my mind.
Yup, that’s what I’m slowly working through. It’s a slight change on this build.
It’s definitely a cool concept and clearly it worked out for him, but I tried it and I just found it too awkward to be fun. The clear skill is nice, but it doesn’t scale with the str, the single target swap does. So you need to randomly start putting dex on your gear as you move up in corruption so it keeps doing damage for AoE and the single target skill swap + combo setup is just enough friction to not be fun for me. He made an update later that showed a variant that used the same skill for clear and AoE which scaled off the str, but that variant doesn’t let you just run around in focus and deal damage. You only really kill things when you do your flame rush to proc the skill then you have to wait for the cooldown. (Not long, but just long enough to not feel great.) Plus flame rush feels super jank. Sometimes I completely overshoot the target and it gets stuck on random stuff while trying to zip around.
It does as the weapon matches the Int to the strength.
Edit: ahh, you meant the damage scaling from the chest. I have one in my stash, ireally should equip it.
Personally I’m using a spec’d 15 mana cost Lightning Blast so you get clear from that and single target from RI/Flame Rush.
oh yeah. The more damage. The int increase is ok but I’ve definitely noticed it not carrying it’s weight even at 400-500 corruption if you’re not taking advantage of the chest scaling.
What did you drop? I like frost wall the least but it seems like the main thing that lets the single target go crazy.
Er, Flameward. Frostwall is nice since it’ll cast Lightning Blast for you if the boss mechanics are being a pain (or your gear sucks balls like mine does so you need yo move around more).