Part 2 - Crackling Lance Archmage League Start Test 3.25

Segments | Completed | No 1. Up to Lab 1 (Lab 1 = lvl 33) 2. Up to Lab 2 (Lab 2 = lvl 55) 3. Up to Lab 3 and Kitava (Lab 3 = lvl 68) 4. Lab4 and 50 Atlas (Lab 4 = lvl 75) 5. Infinite Hunger, Black Start, and 65 Atlas 6. Eater/Exarch and 80 Atlas 7. Maven ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *References* * Palsteron's guide for BL as major framework for rolling magma start and initial skill tree structure - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRzgay9ekqo * onemannaleft's guide for BV and mjolner archmage for more skill tree structure and mana stacking archetype info and skill/support gem chocies - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzRoKXh_c6M * Various poe.ninja build snapshots from early days of 3.24 for skill gem and passive tree analysis: https://poe.ninja/builds/necropolis/character/%EC%95%84%EC%BA%AC%EC%9A%94/AkyaTheBeekeeper?type=exp&timemachine=day-2&i=0&search=allskills%3DCrackling%2BLance%26class%3DHierophant%26timemachine%3Dday-2%26sort%3Ddps https://poe.ninja/builds/necropolis/character/chaos4776/Arcmage_SB?type=exp&timemachine=day-2&i=1&search=allskills%3DCrackling%2BLance%26class%3DHierophant%26timemachine%3Dday-2%26sort%3Ddps https://poe.ninja/builds/necropolis/character/%EC%82%AC%EC%97%B0%ED%95%98/NecroPolis_SayMoon?type=exp&timemachine=day-3&i=2&search=allskills%3DCrackling%2BLance%26class%3DHierophant%26timemachine%3Dday-3%26sort%3Ddps https://poe.ninja/builds/necropolis/character/%EC%82%AC%EC%97%B0%ED%95%98/NecroPolis_SayMoon?type=exp&timemachine=day-5&i=8&search=class%3DHierophant%26allskills%3DCrackling%2BLance%2CArchmage%2BSupport%26timemachine%3Dday-5%26sort%3Ddps ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SUMMARY: -Rolling magma leveling is great to start and could carry the campaign if need be -Swapping to crackling lance ASAP should probably wait until you have a 4-link and the Dreamer and Shaper notables allocated to sustain mana more comfortably -By act 6 squishiness starts to become obvious and will remain so until late into mapping until proper gear is obtained and crafted -Power is great throughout the campaign and into early mapping, but getting as much character levels as possible are needed to be competitive for T16's, especially if they are going to be juiced in any way -All the boss fights before Maven did not feel particularly challenging, so the build feels capable to be a league starter up to that point -Maven 10-way invites for splinters proving quite a challenge with certain boss compositions absolutely wrecking the build -In a trade league some of the problems noted in this PoB would be much more easily resolved ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NOTES: Pt 1 -Level with maxroll rolling magma loadout, grab gear with right sockets, not too worried about resists or other mods but will generally use them as identified **There is no "Part 1" for skills or items in this PoB, see Palsteron's guide linked above for those details** Pt 2 -Swap to Crackling Lance + Archmage upon a 4-link all blue - took until just before the end of act 5 before this showed up -In a more optimized league start build for this, one should probably wait until grabbing the Dreamer branch of mana wheel and Shaper notable before swapping to crackling lance as mana costs are fairly steep and mana flask button mashing is constant until then -Getting squishy part way through Act 6 and definitely in Act 7, life only at ~1,400 so that is part of it, resists doing great though (chaos damage, who got time for that?) -With more gem levels single target feels better, trash mobs get evaporated, magic and rare enemies can tank some hits so more damage is always helpful -Clarity + Arrogance makes mana sustain more comfy -Overall, build is coming along fine for both damage and survivability (try not to dive directly into mob crowds) Pt 3 -Squishiness was in full effect -Experimenting a bit with supporting gems on crackling lance, e.g., unleash, intensify, inspiration (this will continue into mapping to determine what helps dps the most for faster progression) -Same story as before with magic and rare mobs not being immediately evaporated, play carefully as to not get overwhelmed and killed -Damage is still reasonable Pt 4 -Maps generally felt good, just don't dive headfirst into dangerous mobs and squishiness is manageable -Orb of storms with supports good bonus to help against tankier mobs -Cast speed becomes important, find some wands (profane for its implicit, plus an explicit is nice) with them and any damage mods are a plus -Did little crafting of gear other than some essence slams and got lucky with resistance rolls for the few times I used them -Got *really* lucky on ritual, twice, once for a five link ES chest I deferred and picked up later, the second for a fractured T1 life heavy belt! Have not worn it yet as still need to craft some relevant mods on it to replace current belt -Got a lucky pair of veiled boots that unveiled with 26% MS and 100% chill avoid -Overall, squishiness is improved with MoM taken, more ES, more mana, a bit more health, and switching to arcane cloak -Got a Malachi's loop to drop, but did not see a good reason to swap based on PoB testing at this point -Also got Kalisa's Grace gloves to drop, would have been great to use for faster casting mod as a 5link for crackling lance IF I had the room to reorient the rest of my gear to make wearing them acceptable - would have lost resistances and that was annoying - I did not elect to use them as I had a 5-link chest Pt 5 -Not much more to this part, reoriented some gear for better use of auras -Could have played Black Star and Infinite Hunger better, but there's a reason we have multiple portals...right? Pt 6 -This was fairly stratight forward, from the point of part 5 into this it was a matter of getting all the encounters to earn the invitations and managed to get through both with minimal issues Pt 7 Build at this point is squishy to T16 mobs with any meaningful map mods applied to them, e.g., making a rare map with things like extra crit, chaining skills, etc., and the maven 10-way invitations with certain bosses are just speed running 6 portals -The main limit for *me* at this point is to farm up the gear and crafting materials that would better build defenses up and lend some more dps where available, mainly increasing mana, intelligence, strength, and life -If I were to continue it would really only be a matter of time to witness less dangerous bosses until a proper maven invitation was farmed, along with improving gear along the way -Testing this in SSF is another factor in certain upgrades are harder to come by that would probably be cheap in a trade league -Improvements to look forward to for the build would include a stygian vise to slot in gems with +mana at a minimum, 6-link chest, and possibly Shaper gloves, Prism Guardian shield, Ivory Tower, and Atziri's Foible. -A better build maker could probably identify some immediate improvements here, so hopefully this PoB and the notes herein are useful to that end -Overall, build is viable given enough time in an SSF environment and is probably easily helped along by a trade league, but like other mana stacking builds on a league start, it is squishy until it can really scale up mana, ES, and add some evasion or armor, etc., with some better gear that manages dangerous mobs a little better -Was fun participating in this project and learned a lot! **Update to Part 7: Farmed up a Maven invitation, made it to the last stage but succumbed to the cascade of pain attack and couldn't heal back for another hit. Given that performance, the build at this point is definitely capable of defeating Maven with a bit more careful play, but better gear and DPS would definitely help. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~Thanks to sirgog for putting this on!~~ Thanks to sirgog's discord community for great discussions and just overall being great to lurk in YouTube links: Part 1: https://youtu.be/JsS52-e5nos Part 2: https://youtu.be/6xrG5bfdWig Part 3: https://youtu.be/yViqdxWCcjk Part 4: https://youtu.be/vXV4VPqknkM Part 5: https://youtu.be/pcmgW_jRCIw Part 6: https://youtu.be/rqwJ2aYkV38 Part 7: https://youtu.be/Gt7rpRvTSnU