Updated for Patch 3.21
The Best Crafty Guides by Odealo
Guide notes |
April 23, 2023 -Build created |
Build overview | |||
Tags: [CASTER] [ELEMENTAL] [LIFE] | |||
Budget: Defenses: |
|
Boss DPS: AoE: |
|
It's a build that uses Lightning Tendrils Skill that has been significantly buffed in patch 3.21. This Channeling Lightning Spell is available at level 1, but the version used in this guide requires this Skill Gem to be of Phantasmal Quality to take advantage of the guaranteed Critical Strikes with Stronger Pulses. Lightning Tendrils consists of regular hits, but every 3 Pulses it releases an extremely powerful one which is the main damage dealer. It allows us to implement Controlled Destruction Support Gem and Marylene's Fallacy Amulet which severely reduces Critical Strike Chance but in turn, grants much more damage. A Critical Strike is guaranteed to occur every 3 pulses anyway. Although the offensive capabilities are impressive, it's the defensive layers that are the most pronounced. You can mitigate over 90% of every type of damage received on top of the over 50% Chance to Block Spells and Attack. It can reach around 200k of Effective Life Pool despite having less than 2k of Unreserved Life that is passively Regenerated over two seconds.
We've decided to use Doryani's Prototype Body Armour which makes nearby enemies have Lightning Resistance equal to that of our character. It can be reduced to -200% and that's the objective. Lightning Damage from Hits will be mitigated by Armour, but that's not enough. There's still Lightning Damage over Time that has to be accounted for. There are a few ways to mitigate it, all relying on redirecting Lightning Damage to be taken as some other type of damage. The cheap option is to use two Keystones - Tempered by War (from Lethal Pride) and Divine Flesh (from Mahuxotl's Machination). This way you will take no Cold or Lightning Damage at all, and half of the Elemental Damage will be taken as Chaos Damage, so you better have 90% Chaos Resistance. The second option is to use the Dawnbreaker shield, Sublime Vision for Purity of Fire, and one of the two keystones mentioned above. We recommend Divine Flesh from Glorious Vanity, as Tempered by War makes it much harder to dig deeper into the negative values of Lightning Resistance. This way you also need only a lot of Chaos/Fire Resistance, and Physical Damage mitigation.
You can also check our other Path of Exile builds: Odealo's Crafty Guides - Full List
As Lightning Tendrils is a Channelling Spell that's supposed to deal meaningful damage after two first pulses, it may sound like a very poor Skill to clear with. Fortunately, it can be easily improved with enemies' explosions on their death, there are numerous ways to achieve it expanded on later in the item section of the guide. To move around use Flame Dash. As you can accommodate up to three Golems, we suggest using Chaos, Lightning, and Stone Golems which will work as Auras. For your actual Aruas choose Wrath, Determination, and Discipline if you can. If you are limited only to one Aura because of Sublime Vision, use Purity of Fire with non-Aura Spells that Reserve Mana such as Petrified Blood and Arctic Armour. Tempest Shield linked with Arrogance Support will always reserve slightly over 50% of Maximum Life so that you're on Low-Life at all times. For a Guard Spell use Molten Shell and Link it with CwDT if your movement key is occupied by Vortex, which is probably the case if you're using Algor Mortis.
|
PROS |
|
CONS |
|
For leveling, you can use Lightning Tenrdrils, it's a great leveling tool as of patch 3.21. It can deal a lot of damage when combined with Orb of Storms. In Act 2, you can start using Increased Critical Damage and Controlled Destruction Support Gems to immediately benefit from guarantee Crits. Use items with a high Crit Multiplier, Crit Chance won't be important at any stage. The build deals tons of damage at the early stages of the game. In order to switch to the main setup all you need is a gear with no Lightning Resistance and Doryani's Prototype. After finishing acts your Resistances are -60% by default, so that's good enough for a start. You won't need to worry too much about dying often to Lightning DoTs, you'll be probably progressing up to level 90 or so, then you may lose too much exp to random Mana Siphoners and that's when gathering proper items will be needed.
Suggested leveling Gem setups:
Lightning Tendrils setup | |
![]() |
Lightning Tendrils - Great to level up with. Swap to the Phantasmal variant as soon as you can. |
![]() |
Added Lightning Damage Support - Adds Lightning Damage to each Hit. |
![]() |
Elemental Focus Support - Grants more Spell Damage, and inability to cause Elemental Ailments. |
![]() |
Arcane Surge Support - Arcane Surge is used for more Cast Speed and Mana Regeneration Rat. |
![]() |
Increased Critical Damage Support - Increases Crit Chance you deal with your stronger pulses. |
![]() |
Controlled Destruction Support - More Spell Damage and Less Critical Strike Chance. |
Orb of Storms setup | |
![]() |
Orb of Storms - The Orb is a supplementary damage and Shock source, as Tendrils with Elemental Focus won't be able to Shock. |
![]() |
Overcharge Support - Shock is much more effective causing enemies to take increased damage. |
![]() |
Increased Area of Effect Support - Increased Area of Effect for your convenience. |
![]() |
Innervate Support - Grants 20% Chance to Shock, adds Lightning Damage, and Innervate buff on Kill for more DPS. |
Other Gems | |
![]() |
Flame Dash - Recommended mobility Spell. |
![]() |
Conductivity - Lowers Lightning Resistance of Hexed opponents. |
![]() |
Wrath - Grants your Spells more Lightning Damage. |
![]() |
Clarity - Increases Mana Regeneration Rate. |
![]() |
Hydrosphere - Use it to cause Lightning Exposure and lower Lightning Resistance. |
![]() |
Sigil of Power - Stand in the circle for added Lightning Damage. After spending mana it adds more of it. |
Bandits:
We recommend killing all the Bandits for two additional Passive Points
Leveling Skill Trees:
31 Points Skill Tree
Get Maximum Life and Lightning Damage nodes. Cast Speed is good too.
72 Points Skill Tree
Allocate more Lightning Damage, Maximum Life, and nodes for Mana Reservation Efficiency or lower Mana Cost.
Recommended leveling items:
![]() |
|
+(20-30) to Intelligence +(80-120) to Accuracy Rating +(210-240)% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier +(80-100) to Evasion Rating (10-15)% increased Light Radius 40% less Critical Strike Chance Critical Strikes have Culling Strike |
![]() |
|
(20-30)% increased Mana Regeneration Rate +100 to maximum Mana (16-24)% increased maximum Mana (80-100)% increased Mana Regeneration Rate Items and Gems have 25% reduced Attribute Requirements |
![]() |
|
(10-30)% increased Damage +(10-30) to all Attributes (10-30)% increased Rarity of Items found +(10-30)% to all Elemental Resistances |
![]() |
|
(8-12)% increased Spell Damage +1 to Level of Socketed Spell Gems (20-28)% increased Spell Damage (5-8)% increased Cast Speed +(15-20) to maximum Life +(15-20) to maximum Mana Regenerate (6-8) Life over 1 second when you Cast a Spell |
Final Skill Tree:
99 Points Final Skill Tree (doesn't include Unique or Cluster Jewels)
121 Points Path of Building (PoB) link
Ascendancy points:
Preferably in that order:
Pantheon:
Major God: Soul of the Brine King: You cannot be Stunned if you've been Stunned or Blocked a Stunning Hit in the past 2 seconds
Minor God: Soul of Tukohama: 3% additional Physical Damage Reduction per second you've been stationary, up to a maximum of 9%
[DPS] Lightning Tendrils setup | |
![]() |
Lightning Tendrils - The only damaging ability that's used to deal Lightning Damage with stronger pulses. It's mandatory to use the Phantasmal version. |
![]() |
Added Lightning Damage Support - Adds Lightning Damage, we recommend the Awakened version for extra Level to Tendrils. |
![]() |
Controlled Destruction Support - Lowers the Crit Chance, which is insignificant, and in turn grants more Spell Damage. |
![]() |
Increased Critical Damage Support - Increases the Damage dealt with Critical Strikes. |
![]() |
Concentrated Effect Support - Lowers your Area of Effect but grants more Damage, which is usually a good tradeoff. If that's something you'd like to avoid, use ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
Empower Support - Empower is the best way to gain more Damage via increasing Gem Level. ![]() |
[UTILITY] Auras setup | |
![]() |
Wrath - It simply grants more Lightning Damage. |
![]() |
Determination - Adds and Increases your Armour to Mitigate Physical Hit Damage. |
![]() |
Herald of Thunder - Adds Lightning Damage to your Spells and strikes nearby enemies, making it great for clearing. Otherwise, it's not very efficient to run this Herald. |
![]() |
Enlighten Support - Increases the Reservation Efficiency for Linked Skills. |
[UTILITY] Alternative Auras setup with Sublime Vision |
|
![]() |
Purity of Fire - Purity of Fire is the only Aura you will be allowed to use with the proper Sublime Vision. It grants Fire Resistance and Maximum Fire Resistance. |
![]() |
Petrified Blood - If you're on Low Life, which you're supposed to be, it makes a portion of incoming damage to be taken as DoT instead. This DoT cannot be mitigated in any way, but it gives you time to regenerate it back. Use the Anomalous version for better effect. |
![]() |
Arctic Armour - Chills enemies on Hit, which is great with Hypothermia Support, leaves Chilled ground when Hit, which synergizes with Algor Mortis, makes you immune to Freeze, and you take less Fire and Physical Damage while stationary, which you are as you cast Lightning Tendrils. |
[UTILITY] Tempest Shield setup | |
![]() |
Tempest Shield - It simply grants a 26% chance to Block Spell Damage. use the Divergent version for an extra 2%. |
![]() |
Arrogance Support - Tempest Shield will Reserve slightly over half of your Life instead of Mana, allowing you to reap the benefits of Petrified Blood Skill and Pain Attunement Keystone. |
[UTILITY] Golems setup | |
![]() |
Summon Chaos Golem - Use it for 4% additional Physical Damage mitigation. With Anomalous Quality and two Elementalist's Keystones, it grows by 145% to mitigate almost 10% instead (on top of your Armour). |
![]() |
Summon Stone Golem - Stone Golem Regenerates your Life over Time much like Vitality. ![]() |
![]() |
Summon Lightning Golem - Increases the Cast Speed by 10%, which grows significantly with proper Keystones and Anomalous Quality. |
![]() |
Meat Shield Support - Minions have more Life and stay close to the character so that they won't die too often. |
[UTILITY] Flame Dash setup | |
![]() |
Flame Dash - A simple mobility Skill to dodge attacks and move faster. |
![]() |
Arcane Surge Support - Arcane Surge improves your Cast Speed and Mana Regeneration Rate. Keep it at a low level so that a single cast of Flame Dash will activate it. |
![]() |
Second Wind Support - Has a very high Mana Cost multiplier, and allows you to store one more Flame Dash charge. |
[UTILITY] Vaal Righteous Fire | |
![]() |
Vaal Righteous Fire - Righteous Fire grants more Spell Damage while it's active. You should be able to withstand its Life Drain with your extremely high Fire Resistance and Life Regeneration. Use the Vaal version for a temporary bonus. |
[UTILITY] Molten Shell setup | |
![]() |
Molten Shell - Mitigates a portion of incoming Hit Damage. It scales up with your Armour. |
![]() |
Cast when Damage Taken - Molten Shell is cast automatically after taking a certain amount of damage. It's optional. |
[UTILITY] Vortex | |
![]() |
Vortex - Vortex is another optional Gem. It creates a Chilling Area to Chill enemies if need be. |
[UTILITY] Enfeeble | |
![]() |
Enfeeble - It's the best defensive Curse - makes the enemy deal less damage to you. It can be found as the on-hit modifier on any pair of Corrupted Gloves. If you need more damage, use ![]() |
|
It's quite a unique build to assemble. Your focus is to reduce your own Lightning Resistance by 140%. You won't take any Cold or Lightning Damage so you won't need these Resistances. Instead, try to gather as much Chaos and Fire Resistance as you can. This includes Maximum Resistances which can reach up to 90%, that's a hard cap. On the rest of your Gear try to also acquire Armour, Maximum Life, increased Life Regeneration Rate, Dexterity, and Strength. The mandatory Unique Items are Doryani's Prototype and Marylene's Fallacy, but we recommend equipping more of them - Algor Mortis, Ventor's Gamble, and Immortal Flesh. Mahuxotl's Machination can be used in combination with Tempered by War from Lethal Pride. Note that Divine Flesh (which we recommend getting) will make Mind over Matter useless when combined with Eldritch Battery, as all damage will bypass ES, which protects Mana. Life Recoup is great with Petrified Blood - get it on Rings or from Vampirism Notable.
If you are looking for cheap PoE Currency, we would love to invite you to visit our PoE Market section that can be accessed via the menu bar on top of the page.
The recommended items from our list will:
Stat priorities on items:
|
![]() |
|
Min. requirements: 60 maximum Life 70% Fire/Chaos Resistance #% of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Fire/Cold/Lightning Damage Optional affixes: Dexterity Strength Armour increased Life Regeneration Rate |
|
Helmet enchantments: Lightning Tendrils Damage or Area of Effect |
|
![]() |
|
Min. requirements: 60% increased Lightning/Spell Damage +1 to Level of all Spell Skill Gems Optional affixes: increased Cast Speed +1 to Level of all Lightning Spell Skill Gems Global Critical Strike Multiplier Chaos Resistance |
|
![]() |
|
Corrupted Soul Divine Flesh Eternal Youth Everlasting Sacrifice Immortal Ambition Vaal Pact |
|
![]() |
|
+(10-20) to maximum Life (150-250)% increased Armour +(20-25)% Chance to Block -1% Chance to Block Attack Damage for every 200 Fire Damage taken from Hits Recently (10-20)% of Cold Damage taken as Fire Damage (10-20)% of Lightning Damage taken as Fire Damage (10-20)% of Physical Damage taken as Fire Damage Scorch Enemies in Close Range when you Block |
|
![]() |
|
(150-200)% increased Armour and Energy Shield +(60-90) to maximum Life Deal no Non-Lightning Damage Armour also applies to Lightning Damage taken from Hits Lightning Resistance does not affect Lightning Damage taken Nearby Enemies have Lightning Resistance equal to yours |
|
![]() |
|
+(50-70) to maximum Energy Shield +(15-20)% to Cold and Lightning Resistances (20-30)% chance to Sap Enemies in Chilling Areas Enemies in your Chilling Areas take (25-35)% increased Lightning Damage (15-20)% increased Effect of Non-Damaging Ailments |
|
![]() |
|
(15-20)% increased Cast Speed +(100-120) to maximum Energy Shield +(100-120) to maximum Life Sacrifice (5-25)% of Life to gain that much Energy Shield when you Cast a Spell |
|
![]() |
|
Min. requirements: 60 maximum Life 70% Fire/Chaos Resistance Optional affixes: Spell Damage Attributes Cast Speed Armour increased Life Regeneration Rate |
|
![]() |
|
Min. requirements: 50 maximum Life 40% Fire/Chaos Resistance 25% increased Movement Speed Optional affixes: Dexterity Strength Armour increased Life Regeneration Rate |
|
![]() |
|
+(20-30) to Intelligence +(80-120) to Accuracy Rating +(210-240)% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier +(80-100) to Evasion Rating (10-15)% increased Light Radius 40% less Critical Strike Chance Critical Strikes have Culling Strike |
|
Recommended Anointments: Charisma Heartseeker Crackling Speed |
|
![]() |
|
Min. requirements: 60 maximum Life 70% Fire/Chaos Resistance Attributes Optional affixes: increased Lightning Damage #% of Damage Taken Recopued as Life Adds # Lightning Damage against Shocked Enemies Critical Strike Multiplier |
|
![]() |
|
(6-15)% increased Rarity of Items found +(0-60) to maximum Life (-10-10)% increased Quantity of Items found (-40-40)% increased Rarity of Items found +(-25-50)% to Fire Resistance +(-25-50)% to Cold Resistance +(-25-50)% to Lightning Resistance |
|
![]() |
|
Min. requirements: 80 maximum Life 90% Fire/Chaos Resistance 50 Strength Optional affixes: increased Maximum Life Armour |
|
![]() |
|
+(25-40) to maximum Life +(75-100) to maximum Life Regenerate (200-350) Life per second Regenerate (8-10) Mana per second -(25-15)% to all Elemental Resistances -(50-40) Physical Damage taken from Attack Hits 40% increased Armour while not Ignited, Frozen or Shocked |
|
![]() |
|
Recommended Passives: 1 Added Passive Skill is Overshock 1 Added Passive Skill is Thunderstruck 1 Added Passive Skill is Widespread Destruction 1 Added Passive Skill is Doryani's Lesson 1 Added Passive Skill is Conjured Wall |
|
![]() |
|
Recommended Passives: 1 Added Passive Skill is Born of Chaos 1 Added Passive Skill is Antivenom |
|
![]() |
|
Commanded leadership over (10000-18000) warriors under Rakiata Passives in radius are Conquered by the Karui Historic |
|
![]() |
|
Bathed in the blood of (100-8000) sacrificed in the name of Xibaqua Passives in radius are Conquered by the Vaal Historic |
|
![]() |
|
Only affects Passives in (Small-Very Large) Ring Passives in Radius can be Allocated without being connected to your tree -(20-10)% to all Elemental Resistances |
|
![]() |
|
Recommended affixes: increased Maximum Life Attributes Critical Strike Multiplier for Spells Critical Strike Multiplier with Elemental Skills Critical Strike Multiplier with Lightning Skills |
|
![]() |
|
-(80-70)% to all Elemental Resistances Elemental Resistances are capped by your highest Maximum Elemental Resistance instead -(6-4)% to all maximum Elemental Resistances |
|
![]() |
|
(4-6)% increased maximum Energy Shield (4-6)% increased maximum Life (4-6)% increased maximum Mana <Two or Three random aura modifiers> |
|
![]() |
|
<Aura bonus modifier> | |
|
|
+35% to all Elemental Resistances (20-40)% increased Charge Recovery Enemies you Kill during Effect have a (20-30)% chance to Explode, dealing a tenth of their maximum Life as Damage of a Random Element |
|
![]() |
|
+35% to Chaos Resistance (20-10)% reduced Charges per use (-35-35)% increased Duration When Hit during effect, 25% of Life loss from Damage taken occurs over 4 seconds instead |
|
Suggested Rare Flasks:
|
|
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
|
If you have any other build requests please leave that in the comments below.
Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Grinding Gear Games.