Introduction

Hey,

I made a post on the main Reddit a while ago and people were interested in the build, so I figured I might as well eventually make a post about it.

So this is a build I invested a lot of time into in 3.17, and of course, it will work in 3.18 as well. It's definitely not a league starter, at least not in the way that I made it. I min maxed it a loooot, so definitely don't expect the inflated numbers you see in the PoB which I was able to achieve.

Pros:

• can get decently tanky by swapping malevolence for determination and increased duration support for molten shell
• good dps
• solid clear
• pretty much all content viable (this depends on your definition of "viable")
• certain key items very cheap due to low demand
• it's hipster

Cons:

• very expensive to get good dps
• you'd get far, far better results with the same amount of money on a different build; only play if you have a dying urge to be different
• playstyle maybe isn't your thing
• difficult to cap res + get attributes

Profile (character's name is "Lavril_Avigne", the only raider I currently have):https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Dorylian

POB (both the same, choose the one you want more):
https://pobb.in/TAlV57Sd4F3N
https://poe.ninja/pob/6DE

Tankier version with 100% spell suppression, also very high budget:
https://pobb.in/Hmzr6b_8FAVA
https://poe.ninja/pob/6Du

"Budget" version I came up with pretty quick (a lot worse, i know):
https://pobb.in/o5mSVEnkXSOI
https://poe.ninja/pob/6DH

Videos:
Maven (1 death because I'm a dumbass who sucks at memorizing and managing mechanics):
https://youtu.be/40jdxfdVoU8

Drox + Map Showcase:
https://youtu.be/v0O4JBf91L0

Al-Hezmin + Map Showcase:
https://youtu.be/40CI72WGShk

Playstyle

The playstyle is fairly similar to blade vortex, where you throw out a bunch, run around, throw out some more, etc, except this requires you to constantly stop and cast them in a rhythm-like fashion to make sure you always have a burst queued up for the next monster pack. It sounds awful but you get used to it, I didn't mind it at all once I figured this out and got into the groove. Voltaxic burst causes things that it hits to explode when killed, and anything that doesn't get exploded will receive a bunch of spreaded poisons from Master Toxicist from Pathfinder.

When bossing, replace less duration (good QoL) support with an empower if you have a god chestplate like mine, or cruelty/spell echo if you are a normal person. You definitely don't need to gem swap for map bosses, you should have enough dps to manage. It's preferable to queue up a bunch of casts before you enter boss range, and then you plop down sigil of power + a couple of wither totems, hit a flask (any one of them, doesn't matter), and use focus.

Leveling

I leveled with ball lightning + ele damage/life on the tree. I made it up as I went. If you're doing this build, you probably have plenty of money and a good idea of what to do to get to maps anyway. There are definitely lots of good leveling guides out there you could probably use. Shouldn't be too much of a chore.

Bandits - Kill All (do people even make this section any more?)

Pantheons - Soul of Brine King for freeze immunity, Soul of Abberath for burning ground immunity

Gear

Voltaxic Rift - Main hand weapon, used to convert the rest of your lightning damage to chaos. It also lets your chaos damage shock up to 100%, which is very doable even on pinnacle bosses, given the shock scaling you can get.

Soul Strike - Off hand quiver, used for dex, es, and es recharge. Get one with spell suppression corruption implicit, as all other implicits are useless.

Helmet - Any rare (preferably hubris circlet) with good ES + res, and an open suffix for ailment duration focus craft if you can. Try to get the 3% damage per 0.1s duration enchant, as this can get you upwards of 90% increased damage easily. Go for ailment duration + temp chains/despair curse effect eldritch implicits. If you want to be tankier, get the #% of phys taken as chaos eldritch implicit.

Incandescent Heart - Chestplate with decent armor + es values. We're going CI, so this essentially makes us take 25% less ele damage. Go for the highest es you can find, alongside a good #% of ele damage as extra chaos roll. Don't worry about implicits unless you're mega rich or mega lucky.

Doedre's Malevolence - I was able to find a double corrupted one with +1 frenzy and temp chains on hit for about 1ex. I believe it can drop from the new vaal temple map, but I'm not 100% sure. These things are in very low demand, so it shouldn't be super duper difficult to find. Look for one with decent es values and a decent seal gain frequency roll. Despair on hit also isn't bad, I have it as a gem so I can scale it better.

Boots - Any rare boots (preferably sorc boots) with good es + movespeed + resist should do just fine. The enchant isn't a huge deal, but I use added lightning for bossing. Look for %increased action speed + poisons deal damage faster eldritch implicits.

Amulet - Look for es and attributes. It might be really hard to find one with the attributes you need, so spread out the attributes on rings if you can't find a good one. Ideally, you'd have a +1 to level of lightning skill gems on it too, and/or a +1 to level of all skill gems, but that's where things start to get super pricey. Anoint it with Sovereignty.

Rings - Use two-stone rings if you need res, or iolite/opal rings if you don't. Look for es, res, and %increased mana regeneration rate (important!!), as this build burns through mana quite quickly. Try to have an open prefix for the -X to mana cost of non-channeling skills craft. You can use fertile catalysts to make these mana modifiers better (recommended), tempering catalysts for better es, prismatic catalysts for better res, or noxious/turbulent catalysts for better chaos/ele damage modifiers.

OLESYA'S DELIGHT (very very important) - Transforming frenzy charges into affliction charges allows you to get up to 50-60%-ish more damage. However, because of voltaxic rift, our chaos damage can also shock, not just poison! This means that affliction charges ALSO scale our shock effect. Look for a corrupted one with +% to all res if you're having trouble with res, shouldn't be too hard because this belt is next to worthless. Also look for good cold res + eva rolls. Ideally, you'd get the wither belt enchant to decrease chaos res, but other enchants are decent (not great) if you fail to find it 20 times in a row like me.

Flasks - Granite + Stibnite + Jade + Quicksilver. Look for reduced curse effect and/or ignite/shock immunity. Bleeding/corrupted blood immunity is mandatory if you don't have that anywhere else. You can either use another utility flask or an atziri's promise, which gives you damage and nothing else.

Forbidden Flame/Flesh - Look for "Master Toxicist" jewels, which give you more damage and better clear. These were very cheap for me (~1ex ea).

Watcher's Eye - Get one with phys damage reduction with determination if you're using that. ES recovery rate with discipline is good, and obviously so are DoT multi + faster damaging ailments with malevolence.

Thread of Hope - Look for one with a "large" ring. There's a very good spot above the witch starting area that gives us access to 5 very good nodes for us (Mental Rapidity, Lightning Walker, Arcane Focus, Essence Surge, Static Blows, and Blast Radius for AoE [optional; doesn't increase DoT]).

Cluster Jewel - Look for an 8 passive large one with Overshock + Prismatic Heart + any other notable.

Other Jewels - Look for es, res if you need it, attributes if you need them, chaos damage/multi, lightning damage, ele damage, or shock/poison chance if you need them.

Gem Setup

Main Damage (Body Armor/Weapon):
Voltaxic Burst (Anomalous or Divergent) - Inspiration (preferably Divergent, which is expensive) - Awakened/Regular Unbound Ailments (scales damage and shock effect) - Awakened/Regular Void Manipulation - Unleash (preferably anomalous for cast speed) - Empower/Cruelty/Spell Echo
Swap Empower/Cruelty/Spell Echo for Less Duration Support for QoL for mapping. It's also worth noting that voltaxic burst scales hit and ailment damage with the number of casts you have queued up, so for max dps you have to stand still and hold your damage button (as per usual).

Auras (Body Armour/Weapon):
Discipline - Herald of Agony (MUST BE DIVERGENT) - Defiance Banner - Grace - Malevolence - Enlighten (only lvl 3 required)
You can replace malevolence with determination to get tanky.

CWDT:
Purifying Flame (lvl 1, Divergent) - CWDT (lvl 1) - Hextouch - Despair

Wither:
Wither - Spell Totem - Multiple Totems - Faster Casting

Additional Utility:
Flame Dash - Sigil of Power (Divergent) - Enhance - Increased Duration
Replace increased duration with molten shell (bind to left click; Anomalous if possible) if you want to be tanky. You may not be able to cast sigil of power if you do not have enough unreserved mana, which is very possible, so allocate the discipline mastery and/or empty your pockets for a lvl 4 enlighten. It's worth noting that Divergent Sigil of Power with Enhance gives you shock chance. Without this, your shock chance is low, which doesn't matter for mapping but absolutely does for bosses.

Conclusion

This build is a solid mapper and boss killer if you're willing to cough up enough money. It's absolutely not the best build out there, even with mirror tier gear, but if you make it, you'll get to flex on your friends or something for being hipster, idk I don't have friends who play PoE :,)

I'll see if I can't answer any questions about the build or take any advice, either on the build itself or on writing build guides, this is my first one ever.