Timestamps:

0:00 - Intro and Nightmare Map

2:28 - Nightmare Map boss with CL of Branching

2:47 - Eater of Worlds

3:13 - SPEEEED

3:24 - Uber Cortex (bossing build)

~150 divine budget tanky PoB (better all-around): https://pobb.in/_0MlE_ye1fUB (DPS configured for Pinnacle bosses)

~500 divine budget glass cannon bosser PoB (6-portal defenses): https://pobb.in/gHPKQOOwBd3t (DPS configured for Pinnacle bosses)

Earlier in the league I wanted to try and build around the Acceleration shrine belt, but being a working Exile who couldnt afford an (at the time) 300 div belt I opted to try to throw something together that boosted action speed to provide an effective "more" multiplier for the giant cast speed boost that Corpse Pact gives. This cheaper build ended up being quite tanky and was solid all around, I got to level 97 through beyond + breach farming on Dunes. After farming exp (and a few lucky drops) I got bored and wanted to push DPS and cast speed higher. This led me to a glass cannon version of the build that uses the Resonating Shrine belt to push cast speed and damage much higher.

Crackling Lance of Branching is better for mapping and general play as you can spam it while maintaining good AOE. Can optionally swap to normal CL for higher bossing DPS. Would not recommend glass cannon build for anything outside of running uber bosses, it really will die to the slightest breeze in most other end-game content.

Two interesting bugs that impact the build:

1. CL of Branching does not appear to be impacted by changes to AOE. More / less / increased / reduced do not change the size of its hitbox. This appears to be a known issue from several years ago on the POE forums, but has never been fixed.

2. Critical strike chance provided by Nadir mode is not reflected in your tooltip critical strike chance. This means your tooltip may say 80% critical chance but you in fact could have 100% crit chance. Tested in-game with Shade of Solaris (Critical Strikes Deal no Damage) on Act 1 Coast. Was able to spam CL for several minutes on mobs without killing them with an 80% tooltip crit chance.

Shoutout to the best Crackling Lance video ever made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCmoHtk2ymI&t