Summary

triggering LW + spells, on a sabo because of its CDR and generically ok synergy otherwise. Its a mobility map farmer with style, not a bosser. short video of map clear below.

Proof of concept, low gear level. Day 1-2 SSF gear only

video 2 min map clear Sorry video quality is a bit potato!

pob - not very minmaxed, starter version

Background

So many folk's favourite build was the old lightning warp + Arc poet pen build. If you read nostalgia threads like - what was your favourite build that got deleted - theres always a couple of boys in the bottom saying this build. Myself included. i see you!

Poets pen used to trigger each wand simultaneously. This let you put LW in one, and arc in the other, or etc. They changed it to alternate one wand triggering at once, so you needed LW in both (and effectively lose trigger an Arc), or it would have half the rate and feels like ass to play. Because of the nature of the build - its entire identity was around mobility and speed - if that component was lost the build lost everything that was good about it.

So simply - this build is to maintain the speed and mobility of old poets pen by using sabo CDR (+ gear CDR further on) and spellslinger. Having mobility and smoothness occur immediately - i.e during levelling in SSF - and not needing uniques and gg endgame gear. Focus on clearing, and feeling smooth at mapping.

What the build is, what it is not

SSF run up to the 2 practice eldritch bosses. did t16s. comfort zone farming zone at this gear/levels was around yellow-low red maps. (since i had to migrate an expired league to record didnt have my map pool). Fully fresh start / self farmed on that character, no trade or gear from stash etc.

• It did not blast alched high red maps in this state! If your baseline for balance is EA or explode totems you will not manage
• I did it in softcore, and am a softcore player. That being said as SC builds go it was pretty safe
• Do not go kill ubers with it, and frankly don't do any bosses with it if you can
• Arc is weak for damage (and freshly nerfed!??! a classic GGG moment), and is chosen because it clears well. If the damage sucks its because its better suited to lower tier content
• Spellslinger makes any build smoother but weaker. This means it will be smooth & fast in easy content, and weak + underpowered in harder content. Its more suited towards doing something like MF
• SSF viable - it will work during levelling, it will push into low reds, and you will have to stop and farm. I wouldn't recommend plan to do any t16 content without very good gear.
• Not fully min maxed, tweak the tree and etc is valid.

I'm really trying to get across the identity of the build is to do relatively easy content - very fast + efficiently, smoothly, fun. Thats its core niche.

Gear/setup explained

spellslinger triggers are Arc + Lightning Warp + Hydrosphere. Using essence modded items for pseudo 5 link gloves - cuts down reservation costs and makes it smoother for SSF pre 6 link.

Lightning warp is for mobility, simply less duration is enough to have it hit minimum duration. (it has a set minimum travel time you cannot reduce it past, 0.05 as i understand it?). Possibly with helm enchant for LW duration you could drop the tree nodes. The triggerbots and Lightning Warp - i believe it does repeat the skill but it moves as if you only cast it once. So it feels fine

Arc - could be swapped to any skill. However arc autotargets which is good for triggering many skills. It also chains + clears all the trash very smoothly. IF you chose to do Bomb Specialist (ascendency) you would swap it to a skill that did area damage instead.

Hydrosphere helps to do exposure (both cold and lightning i believe?), and the power charges for PCOC being automated gives a lot of discharge damage. During levelling, and poor gear, absolutely drop this link, because it also burns a lot of mana additionally and doesnt really do that much. Arguably endgame it could be dropped but hes a good boy.

Herald of ice is just too much fun. Technically it should be dropped. But if your not blasting packs with this build and enjoying it, youre building it wrong! Also because of Explosives Expert (ascendency) you want some cold damage somewhere which this helps proc the chill. Later move it to gloves for crit and 3L arc is sufficient, probably (shared increased crit support with arc and HoI + essence crit glove mod + calamitous visions if doing this route)

curses - in hindsight i would (probably?) go back down to 1 curse. For damage reasons you absolutely should take the double curse. However this is a bad idea IMO because a) you cannot use mark-on-hit really because socket starved, or would be a lot of gem swaps, b) it is better suited to be a blasting build, that stopping to double curse just feels too slow. In different words - if you need to double curse - youre not really doing the right content. That being said the double curse if you have to do some bossing/progression will help a lot.

divine blessing zealotry does a lot. However because there is a good amount of less duration scaling its quite annoying. There is an argument to swap it out to mark-on-hit setup that will do more in practical terms, or free sockets for something else. The CDR for something whacky like void sphere instead could be an idea

Discharge could be swapped to many things. Discharge feels good because a) plenty of charges are being generated, and those generators are low damage relatively to its fine to lose the charges... b) the CDR on Sabo also helps smooth it to be okay to cast often. Being a tri element skills is good because easier to craft weapons or jewels as counts as cold or fire skills additionally

Alternatively Vaal storm call would be an option which does about double the damage of 1 discharge, but is gated behind souls and is easier to miss (+ phased bosses). Having the less duration nodes specced anyway, and its just a sexy AF skill - when i remake this build next league i'll be using it. But sort of build you go with whatever you have the helm enchant for, or whichever you prefer. You could also drop some charge scaling which discharge needs, saving a few points.

VSC version roughly

Ascendancy

CDR node is mandatory to make it feel good. You can roll CDR lowered maps to feel what it would be without, and it feels like ass!

Born in the shadows is amazing, discussed in defences below. mandatory

Explosives Expert and Perfect Crime are the filler nodes.

Perfect Crime is like - well - if i'm going to be playing this build, imagine not taking this node!! Boosts clear speed and fun - downsides is no single target and much higher mana costs + slightly lowered shock/chill values.

Explosives expert is just good stats. Use lightning from lightning spells, cold from herald of ice + maybe ice bite or added cold, and you only needed a 1 fire damage somewhere to ignite. With how spellslinger pulls damage from your weapon (added to attacks or added to spells) its relatively easy to fill these criteria and make a good weapon of any type also. Having a good amount of cold damage for freeze and corpse removal is great too.

bomb specialist is a possibility, but for mechanical (can't see any area damage skills that clear as well as arc)) and consistency (i.e speed) reasons don't see it being viable for this sort of setup.

Defences

is tough because mana... can't run any aura (excluding Aul's and etc).. So the Sabo Blind (Born in the Shadows) is amazing because its effectively a psuedo grace. Think of it as a ~20% more evasion rating effectively + the other effects. So with flasks on (mapping build so valid) 16k evasion, is like a 20k normal build which is pretty solid baseline evasion. And thats with bad gear, i.e rare corrupted chest. Could get it up towards 25k+ (including flasks) with better gear

Scaling blind effect and the blind mastery for crit chance would be great, but its a difficult pathing issue. Silent steps may be a low key very good annoint

Spell suppression can near cap with some suppression points at Inveterate, Reflexes, masteries, then lucky mastery if needed.

Ideally some phys taken as element + endurance charges on kill to help with some big phys hits into higher tier maps.

unironically best defence = good offence = near 100% crit to freeze and kill things and keep the ball rolling. high mobility is an amazing layer

Mana

mandatory to use EB - because its tons of mana to use, you need about 1k ES with current setup. The mastery 20% increased ES recovery rate if havent been hit recently) is amazing - because it is active most of the time and keeps it really healthy. Without it it drops down pretty fast, and you burn through the most when moving across terrain (aka not being hit). Wheels like Instinct are great because of the recharge rate. I also had 1 -mana cost ring

Single target rotation

Have charges generated from mob kills (power from pcoc and frenzy from Frenzy skill + ice bite optionally) > cast divine blessing zealotry, cast ele weak, cast assassins mark, discharge, repeat.

I also have the lightning warp spellslinger link on a usable button so for certain fights can toggle stop warping around if needed. (old poets pen days you would weapon swap instead)

Progression path broadly

• CDR on belt and boot implicit
• Woke gems/ 21 gems
• helm enchant - spellslinger CDR ideally, spellslinger reservation - secondly LW duration, storm call duration, arc chains, discharge damage etc.
• boot enchant added lightning damage or damage penetration if havent killed recently for single target, or for mapping added fire damage if killed recently, or avoid stun if killed recently.
• Better evasion scaling on gear, phys-taken-as-element if possible.
• endurance charge on kill ring for mapping defence and higher discharge damage
• crit chance and crit multi jewels
• min-max mana usage + ES recharge rate
• generally min max the build (clusters, tree, gear, support gems, alt qualities, etc)
• Trade league things - many options... forbidden jewels of Swift Killer or Deadly Infusion (or any assassin) i think.Because you need CDR and the blind from shadow i think you always go Sabo, unless you prefer glass cannon with just sabos CDR from the jewels
• Calamitous Visions + herald of ice scaling perhaps
• Various uniques i.e badge of the brotherhood, circle of fear, etc
• cluster jewels - stacking self fulfilling prophecy perhaps