It's STILL Smooth, Indeed! Arc Blood Mage Infusion -- Day 1 Build Guide Update [PoE2 0.3 Build]

***IMPORTANT*** make sure you start with the scepter version. acquire all gear from the scepter version first before upgrading to the focus version. Upgrading to the focus is one of the last steps in gear progression. you don't need Whispers of Doom until after you start Spellslinger + Elemental Weakness --- Gear Progression (in order) --- - (assuming you are starting with a budget) - start with scepter variant & rares that get you res capped - craft +4 wand & +3 amulet - Buy cheap 35% boots - buy From Nothing (blackflame) - buy Atalui's - craft a high es body armour (life / hybrid es as 3rd prefix) - Craft crit chance helmet - Buy / Craft gloves with "[10-15]% chance to gain arcane surge on hit" (desecrated mod) & life & resistances - Upgrade all your rares - focus on t1 life & getting your chaos res capped - Buy a heart of the well with "25% chance for lightning damage to be lucky" - Craft 2x rings with T1 (21-24%) cast speed (start with a magic base with life and cast speed -> essence resistance and desecrate resist+chaos) - Buy a Tecrod Undying hate - Craft the Socket Effect Boots - Get the boot + wand runes If progressing to Focus - (You must now acquire 90 spirit from chest and amulet) - craft chest with spirit (t1 flat ES, t1 % ES, and spirit) - craft amulet with spirit (t1 life, +3 all gems, and spirit) - craft a Focus. - start with a magic base with 90% or more increased lightning damage. - augmentation orb -> greater essence of sorcery for %inc spell damage. - perfect essence of sorcery + suffix omen to force deterministically remove the bad suffix and add +3 to all spells - (the rest is RNG) - greater exalt omen (x2 omen) + homogenenesis exalt omen + suffix omen + greater exalt - desecrate prefix until you get aoe/mana. --- How-to crafting guides from me --- (i show how to craft specific gear boot crafting video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4ca_TSU1Ojw amulet crafting video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NvEAdGNJO8Q wand crafting: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vDrBvBCY_kE --- Leveling Tips for Newer Players --- The biggest leveling tip is to check vendors frequently. They do sell good gear and good crafting bases for gold (not the gamble vendor but the armour vendor) and they reset almost every time you level up. - Look for boots with movement speed. - Early on, the biggest stat you want on armour pieces is resistances. - The sooner you get your resistance up, the easier your experience will be while leveling. - If you check the vendor and see a piece of gear with more resistances than the piece you're currently wearing, that is an UPGRADE. - After resistances, the next stat you want is life --- if the two pieces you are comparing have a similar amount of resistances, the one with the higher life is an UPGRADE. - Throughout the campaign you'll want to upgrade your gear - As the game progresses, the mods on items get better --- 10% movepseed is the highest in act 1 but by act 3 you can get 25% movespeed. Mod values go up as you progress. - Vendors reset every 2 levels or so. For early leveling, you won't have access to any high spirit cost auras, so, you won't want a scepter until act 3 --- Until you start running blasphemy + temp chains acts 1-3 use a focus and look for mods like: - "increased lightning damage", "increased spell damage", "level to all spell skills", "level to all lightning spell skills". Alternatively, instead of a focus, any shield with resistances would do as well. This is for your offhand until you swap to scepter in act 3 when you turn on blasphemy + temp chains. If you already have currency, I'd recommend buying a +3 lifesprig. You shouldn't need to spend currency on much else for leveling. Just shoot for rare/magic items for everything else. --- SKILL ROTATION --- (Versus Boss) - get close to boss - pick up any remnants (lightning / fire / life / mana) - drop 3x orb of storms around boss - cast 1x ball lightning - get distance from boss, maintain vision, and dodge mechanics - cast 3x arc, moving inbetweeen shots - repeat from beginning (Versus blue/white mobs) - spam orb of storms while running until you meet a pack - cast 1x arc - keep running (Versus rare) - If you have lightning infusion: - your arc should 1 shot the rare - Alternatively: cast 1 ball lightning at close range --- DEFENSIVE LAYERS --- Overflow --- Max life becomes up to 1.5x its initial value - 4k life becomes 6k, situationally Leech --- From ascendancy, we leech life after dealing any spell damage, up to 25% of max hp per second - 1000 life gained per second if 4000 hp - we take overleech, so this is always up (fast metabolism annoint) Recoup --- Regain a percentage of damage received over 6 seconds. - My build is at 80% recoup - By itself recoup is meh, but when combined with Grasping Wounds, its STRONG. - It effectively turns the node into "take 25% less damage" - Even with the other defensive layers, we still take this to completely mitigate the downsides of Grasping Wounds Grasping Wounds --- 25% of damage taken is prevented, then lost over 4 seconds - when you can recoup the prevented damage before its lost, this node becomes 25% less damage taken. TECROD --- 1 life regen per second, per 8 life spent, for a duration of 8 seconds - this regen does not stop when life reaches full. - Game constantly keeps track of how much life you've spent in the last 8 seconds -> if you keep casting, regen stays high - Tecrod completely mitigates life costs. -> Don't have to worry about unaliving ourself. --- Useful Uniques --- (only take 1) Soul Tether - Makes use of our ES pool, adding another defensive layer Choir of the Storm --- Trigger lightning bolt on crit - Adds to both single target and clear. Looks cool and is very fun. - Only use with lvl 20 bolt - supports for lightning bolt: elemental focus, concentrated effect, cooldown recovery II, lightning mastery, deliberation Headhunter