[3.3] CI Wandcultist - League starter - Fast mapper - Guardians on a 5L - Shaper down

Like I said way back on page 7, I was determined to play this build for Incursion League, and that's exactly what I did. As a newbie witches, CI, and all things Energy Shield related, I thought I would write my trials and tribulations with the build, my own set of pros and cons, in case anyone reads this far into the thread (like I did).

Quick Look: https://pastebin.com/SYH9S1aC or http://www.poeurl.com/bZCV

Level: 93

Deaths: 135

Played: 141 hours

Challenges: 36/40 (fourth in a row)

Quick Notes: I did the entire league without a 6 link. I like to buy most of my gear, but try to 6 link gear myself. I had several Beast Fur Shawls and Incandescent Hearts that I would dump fusings into. This will come into play later.

Final Gear:







Wrap Up:

I'll try to keep this short and just go over the highlights that stick out in my head. If you can't tell already, this build is squishy af, or at least it is in the hands of a 'newbie' like me. Anything less than a master at the games damage mechanics will most likely find themselves dying as well.

Leveling was an ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE. I skirted the majority of mana issues by just playing with power siphon. Unless, before you get to maps and get a thunderfist, KB just didn't feel strong enough. Wait until you get some of the builds primary uniques before switching imo. But before you switch to CI, you're really just squishy as f***. You don't have the armor or evasion (or combination of the two) of other classes, and your energy shield isn't really up to snuff yet. Getting Vile Bastion helps a bit, but any chaos dots still go right through the shield and quickly eat up your low health pool.

After getting CI, VP, and Ghost Reaver, the build is MUCH most pleasant. Really fun actually. Mind you, it was still squishy as hell. Getting to 92 was a pain, and 93 would've taken much longer without a boss buddy (I would've quit at 92 actually).

During the course of playing, I had points in Tempest Blast, Wandslinger, and the starter spell damage nodes at one point or another. Tired of the squishyness, I switched out of Beast Fur Shawl and tried IH instead. My reasoning was that, although the Beast Fur has superior ES and ES recharge, it has zero armor and you take 5% increased damage. I switched to IH which bumped my physical damage reduction to 13%, converted 25% of elemental damage into chaos (which we're immune to), added ~1% more life leech, and added more damage. To compensate for the lower ES (switching from beast fur to IH), I moved points out of damage nodes and into Unnatural Calm. Before level 93, I also dropped Point Blank for awhile and just dpsed bosses from afar (but kept the 10 point dexterity node until I was ready to get PB again; that point could've gone anywhere).

I only had 2 exalted drop for me this league and I put both of them and 50 chaos into the Watcher's Eye. That was by far the most expensive item of the build. I got lucky and got the wand for 10c. Most everything else was less than 50c. I probably spent the most on jewels just trying to find the right ones.

Because I had the Watcher's Eye, I actually kept GMP on my Barrage setup. It's a shame I never managed to 6 link because I would've loved to see how I sustained with Barrage + GMP + Faster Attacks with my Watchers Eye that gave me ES on hit. As for my I decided to sink my wealth into the Eye, I just really wanted the added sustain to combat my squishyness and it seemed like a perfect fit for the build.

Tips:

When you get Arakaali's first upgrade, survivability goes WAY up. That's when the Blood Rage / Immortal Call mechanic really pay off. Coupled with Beast Fur, if a hit doesn't kill you (unfortunately a big IF), then your ES will go straight back up super fast. It's excellent while killing things or attacking with Barrage. PROBLEM: Freeze can get you killed. Boss immunity phases can get you killed. Hell, running out of mobs to kill can get you killed. You MUST put Blood rage on wand/shield so that you can TURN OFF Blood Rage by weapon swapping. Otherwise, if you get a bad burn at the tail end of a pack, while blood rage is running, but after your Vile Bastion buffs have dropped off, your ES will hit 0, and you'll die.

If you don't have a curse on hit on your Thunderfist (to go with your KB), then don't bother with Uber lab. Without the curse on hit, Profane Bloom will provide nothing. I had a Blasphemy support and Ele Weakness running for a bit, but gave it up once I understood that really the aura doesn't spread far enough to affect the enemies you're hitting with KB (and curses are meh on bosses). Honestly, any curse on the gloves will do, because you want to trigger Profane Bloom, although of course some curses are more desirable than others.

Movement is a HUGE pain with this build. Constantly. Even with Harrier and Quickstep (and admittedly "only" 25% movement speed on boots), the build still feels slow. We don't get to jump around with leap slam, or fly around with Queen of the Forest. I specifically made my Chemist Quicksilver Adrenaline Flask because I wanted to have at least 3 uses before needing to refill and I wanted the added movement. With the flask up, I got 105% movement speed. Which is OK for mapping, but if you have to backtrack without charges, you'll end up portaling back to your hideout to refill. I know Bristoling suggested smoke mines originally, but I didn't want the added mechanic of having to drop and detonate mines. I did end up using Phase run along with my quicksilver flask, which kind of helps when quicksilver is down, or in conjunction with the flask, to give me 154% MS. But trying to pop the flask and Phase Run in sequence, or use up my Frenzy charges, and even with increased duration and faster casting, it wasn't that reliable. When it was up with the flask, it did feel good, but I did find myself having to spam the flask + quick run combo to get it going.

A further note on movement: I highly suggest Lightning Warp (with at least Faster Casting). Getting stuck in this game sucks, and lightning warp was crucial for me to get out of tight spots and corners and around otherwise annoying ledges. It's not leap slam, but it's good enough.

What was really terrible was being Chilled or Frozen. It screw us over. A lot. First, the Chill slows down an already medium speed build. And being Frozen just gets you outright killed. My Ample Granite Flask of Heating was a life saver. Two uses meant I could pretty much get out of most situations, though maps with added cold damage mods, especially with cold bosses, were just painful. Made me miss Kaom's Roots or Jugg's Unstoppable. I ended up taking Yugul, including the power upgrade, to combat the freeze. It helps somewhat, but you should still be careful.



Final Thoughts:

It was overall a fun, but painful build. I'll give it some more time before Incursion ends. Hopes this helps at least one other newbie. Also, Bristoling is REALLY helpful as the build's creator and answered all of my questions and concerns. A MAJOR plus for the build for anyone new who wants to get started with a CI witch.

Well, i'm trying to min max this build as i'm thinking on how to mitigate most of my physical damage received since it's damn pain when t15 and t16 hits me.

Maybe getting Basalt and ToH will provide a layer of defence along with a Double Corrupt Apep's Supremacy.

Thanks for the write-up, it's really good for me to have a perspective from another side.
I think better flask play could help with some of the issues, and also the map choices - on linear maps there is no backtracking, so you shouldn't run out of Quicksilver or Silver flask charges. I've also warmed up a lot to Phase Run myself since the cast time buff this patch.
I think with Granite flask and Incandescent Heart, it is worth it to roll "of Iron Skin" on one of the flasks, with good roll it will double your total armor.
A 6-link is also terribly important since the more damage you do, the less time the monster has to kill you. Your leech is also improved since the leech stacks are stronger and you cap faster. Hopefully you will get one soon.
Anyway, congrats on getting to 36, that is an impressive feat :)


Myufumi, that is some impressive gear. I'm a lot more inclined towards Beast Fur Shawl since I originally wrote the guide but I respect people choosing Incandescent Heart. Personal preference.
I've seen you changed the tree in some respects, that is fine as long as you are happy with it. You do miss out on a lot of accuracy, however.
You can save 1 point by pathing under Eldritch Battery instead of underneath Alchemist. Art of Gladiator should be better then True Strike since you also get 8% extra movement speed due to wearing a chest and a shield, and from there it would be a mistake not to take Fury Bolts, which gives you dps but also strength. You could save another point by taking jewel socket by CI or by Point Blank instead of the one by Null and Void, this together with previous saved point will allow you to take Fury Bolts for 2 points (if you respec out of True Strike). With this added strength, you should be able to path through 2 intelligence nodes instead of strength/intelligence down to crit nodes in the Shadow area.
Since you are using Apep's Shield, you should reroll Staunching affix on your flask, not sure what though, maybe Shock immunity.

I'll have to say that I was trying to min-max my own character based mostly on what's in the guide, and I didn't plan much for Skyforth/Power charge on hit corruptions etc. I'd say you are a pioneer in this regard and godspeed to you.

The more I look at Apep's shield, however, the less I actually like it. Recharge barely comes into play since we use Blood Rage. 3% max res isn't really that much, I mean, you do lose out on more ES from other shields, but more importantly, you lose a lot of resists which you need to make up elsewhere. You can get higher dps, higher ES, but more importantly, a lot of resistances on your shield. I think with rare shield, high ES/resists Regalia, and regular corrupted Thunderfists you could be at 8.5k ES and a lot more dps.
Using a 5ex chest and 4ex shield (as well as Thunderfists, which I don't know atm how much they go for) I got this: https://pastebin.com/tez79gzH
That's of course if you do want to abandon your idea of Incandescent Heart and Apep's. More ES means better protection from physical damage since you have a higher pool, but less protection against elemental damage.

I'm a bit more "conservative" and resistant to change, that's probably why I don't trust Incandescent Heart as much as other players ;D Remember that I might be biased like everyone else, and sometimes I post while being sleep deprived.

Well, i've been asking earlier about scion viability with this build, but actually playing Occulits.
I've got about 2-3 hrs per day since working full-time. Lv82 atm, 6950 ES w/o Discipline aura
Here is my gear atm


Trying different options in POB to balance defence/offence. If i'll find something interesting - for sure ill leave its here.

I actually went back to fill out my atlas to 154/158, and you know, the build is pretty great, as LONG as you don’t care about random deaths. I was able to finish the rest of my corrupted red maps myself and it didn’t feel too bad.

But even better, I decided to switch tracks and turn my witch into a ghetto MFer for Burial Chambers. My quant and rarity are only 24/80, but it’s great fun and I already got lucky with one Doctor card.

I just fixed my skill tree ,feels good man.

Well getting around 1.5m-1.6m full flask on.

900k without flask.

I know this question will have little to do with this particular build but I'm trying a wander build using this wand.

Think of if as a 'Whispering Wand' build, biased on Whispering Ice or HoWA. Could such a build work or am I heading for disappointment?

"

I know this question will have little to do with this particular build but I'm trying a wander build using this wand.

Verified

Think of if as a 'Whispering Wand' build, biased on Whispering Ice or HoWA. Could such a build work or am I heading for disappointment?

You need 1,600 INT to outdps a Piscator, let alone scaling your flat ele dps to further increase your damage.

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streej написал:

Trying different options in POB to balance defence/offence. If i'll find something interesting - for sure ill leave its here.

Since I've started playing HoWA again after having a break from it since 3.1, I haven't been doing any more theorycrafting with this build, but if you find anything interesting, I'd be interested to have a look :)

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Chalk_Circles написал:

Think of if as a 'Whispering Wand' build, biased on Whispering Ice or HoWA. Could such a build work or am I heading for disappointment?

Could work with Shaper wand, that adds 1-5/6 Lightning damage per 10 Int. I was planning to add it at some point but then I thought, you will need a really good wand in the first place, and those are rare enough that I didn't think it was worth my time to theorycraft and really perfect another wanding setup.

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nomnaut написал:

But even better, I decided to switch tracks and turn my witch into a ghetto MFer for Burial Chambers. My quant and rarity are only 24/80, but it’s great fun and I already got lucky with one Doctor card.

Gratz :) I'm really impressed how you managed to get to 36/40 on a 5 link. I barely done 22/40 and pretty much have 2 fully equipped, end game ready characters.

"

Myufumi написал:

I just fixed my skill tree ,feels good man.

Well getting around 1.5m-1.6m full flask on.

900k without flask.

Can't check at this time how much ES you've got, but, you've beaten my dps numbers, and that's impressive in itself :>

Just wondering, outside "of heat" flask, how I can deal with chill/freeze, especially during boss fight? It's the only thing that kills me.

@edit

Thanks, will buy that flask :)