Spectral Throw of Materialising Trickster Showcase (ft. Vaal Flicker)

PoB: https://pobb.in/uze6dUjNPw3S

Video: Uber eater, Feared & some T17s: https://youtu.be/_rZ5MHJ7PVU?si=BGjnZ_x-D_ttNeQ5

Made this a few weeks ago and as many of us are, very much in wait-for-next-league mode, but thought I'd share as it was a fun thing to mess around with, and also given I seem to be literally the only person on poe.ninja using this skill gem at all! PoB and Video below.

The idea behind this build is to make Spectral Throw of Materialising work, which only does damage on the return. When I googled for ideas all I read was that it was 'mechanically irredeemable' as you literally do no damage and cannot leech for multiple seconds until the projectiles return (hence no-one using it I guess!) so I tried to build around its weaknesses.

Thanks to SaltedFish for inspiring me with the idea of manastorm spectral throw, this is very much a riff on your build.

Budget

Budget was MB+Adorned+around 1 Mirror (90% of which is the Amulet and Helm base, plus one of SaltedFish's claw 'fails'). Rest I crafted, no doubt it can be min maxed further (e.g. dead ring suffixes, adorned jewels, need ailment immunity via jewels + veiled orb boots) but I'm min-maxed out from my previous build and it does the job! The build did fine in T16s with leveling gear (I leveled to 95 using regular spectral throw + a 20C manastorm 70-97 with 1c uniques and hastily crafted rares), but T17s/Ubers need a bit of investment. Note this build is not an efficient use of currency, it is primarily for fun and making a 'bad' skill work.

The POB damage is a guide as it doesn't actually work like that from what I understand, as its based on the internal per-attack trigger rate of Spectral Throw. Eyeballing it it does more burst damage than my min-maxed CoC DD at 100M DPS. This is with Berserk turned off, and 50% shock (Ubers are reliably at 50%).

Build explanation

Offensively, the basic idea is to stack a lot of mana, and dump it all via a spell (in my case, Frostblink), which gives an incredible amount of flat lightning damage for 4 seconds (instantly recovering 10K mana for an always on buff). We then scale naturally high base damage from the transfigured skill gem (twice regular spectral throw) via supports that synergise well like volatility, and int stack via amulet/claw. We apply 50% shock, even to Ubers, making them melt. You basically fire the projectiles, blink through the enemies, and 'drag' them through the pack like a hot knife through butter.

Defensively, I focus on ES, evasion and massive recovery, plus bonus fortify/IC and the goal was to feel solid in T17 maps and ubers, be able to feel nice and safe in the middle of packs, and play sloppy and survive - some highlights:

• 10K-ish ES
• 93% effective spell suppression + some phys conversion / mitigation
• 77% evade + elusive
• CWDT Immortal Call, often with 3 endurance charges up
• 20 fortify stacks up most of the time for 20% DR (gained via vaal flicker strike)
• 6 sources of recovery to quickly recover from damage, even in no leech/regen/recovery maps or untargetable bosses with degen
  • When you hit: ES over leech 1K/sec
  • When hit: Ghost shrouds (recover up to 2K ES when hit)
  • All times: 600 ES regen via Shavronne's Revelation
  • On kill: Recover 1K+ ES on every kill (via taking 9 different masteries)
  • Every 5 seconds: 2K ES regen via Enduring Cry + Zealot's Oath
  • On conc. ground: 500 ES regen via Zealot's Oath (often up due to Watchers Eye + flask)

I've also focused on adding lots of quality of life / reliability in maps:

• Consistent charge generation in every situation within seconds of opening a map or boss: 3 Power (on crit + mark), 6 Frenzy (mark + vaal flicker strike), 3 Endurance (enduring cry)
• CWDT Warlord's mark to get full rage reliably in maps (and perhaps an endurance charge here or there)

Any suggestions or ideas let me know.

Enjoy and see you next league!