[3.11] TrollErgoSum's ARCANIST BRAND BALL LIGHTNING NECRO | A crazy, cheap, and fun A8 viable build

Main Damage Dealer - SOCKET IN GLOVES

ARCANIST BRAND + SWIFTBRAND SUPPORT + BALL LIGHTNING + CONTROLLED DESTRUCTION

We will be socketing these into the glove slot where it will also pick up Slower Projectiles and Faster Casting Support, as well as the +1 AREA OF EFFECT GEMS bench craft. And if you're lucky, the 16% more cast speed mod from the Essence of Insanity as well, more on that in the gear section.

CWDT setup #1 - KEEP GEMS AT OR BELOW VALUE SHOWN

CWDT(level 1) + DESECRATE(level 7) + VOLATILE DEAD(level 8) + DETONATE DEAD(level 10) + SPELL CASCADE SUPPORT(level 1)

This setup exisits for the sole purpose of consuming as many corpses in a 5L as we can. Desecrate will only create 10 corpses but we get another 5 from Unearth in another setup. Volatile Dead will consume 9 corpses and Detonate Dead will consume 3. If you do happen to have a 6L at your disposal, then I see three options for the 6th link:

FIRESTORM(level 8) - This would be the choice if your chance to ignite is low and need more to drive the CWDT setups
CULLING STRIKE(level 17) - This would be the choice if your ignite chance is good, you have a nice Conductivity on Hit wand, and you want smoother bossing
BLADE BLAST(level 7) - This would be the choice if your ignite chance is good but you do not have a Conductivity on Hit wand

CWDT setup #2 - KEEP GEMS AT OR BELOW VALUE SHOWN

CWDT(level 1) + UNEARTH(level 8) + CREMATION(level 4) + GREATER MULTIPLE PROJECTILES(level 15)

Here is where we generate the other corpses needed as well as consume a 13th corpse with Cremation. Cremation with GMP also produces a large number of potential ignites, helping to drive the CWDT process faster.

Auras and Buffs - SOCKET IN HELM

WRATH + HERALD OF THUNDER + VAAL RIGHTEOUS FIRE + ENDURING CRY

Socket these in the helm so they can benefit from the +1 Area of Effect Gems craft. Wrath and Herald of Thunder are obvious choices, Vaal RF gives us a 29% more spell damage boost for 4 seconds, great for pushing DPS against bosses, and Enduring Cry gives us a great boost of healing and Endurance Charges on demand.

Trigger Wand - SOCKET INTO A WAND WITH THE "TRIGGER A SOCKETED SPELL WHEN YOU USE A SKILL" BENCH MOD

WAVE OF CONVICTION + BONE OFFERING

Wave of Conviction is used to proc Lightning Exposure and Bone Offering we use to stay alive. There are two options for the 3rd link depending on the rest of your gear:

CONDUCTIVITY - Use this if you do not have a good Conductivity on Hit wand
BLADE BLAST(level 7) - Use this if you DO have a good Conductivity on Hit wand. Recommend keeping this at or below level 7 in case you want to move it into the 6L CWDT setup down the road.

Movement

FLAME DASH + ARCANE SURGE + SECOND WIND SUPPORT

With the high cast speeds obtained with this build, Flame Dash feels like regular Dash but with 4 charges, allows for maximum manual dodging and quick travel through maps.

Required:

Eye of Innocence amulet - The cornerstone of the build's mechanics, self damage on ignite drives the CWDT setups. Use 20 Turbulent Catalysts to push the fire damage taken mod to 120, this will make the CWDT setups 20% more efficient. Recommended annointment is Command of Steel which gives 75% increased damage for this build, although if Dexterity is an issue you can annoint Utmost Swiftness.

x 2
Ngamahu's Sign ring - At least one of these rings is required but two is highly recommended, a perfect 30 life gain on ignite roll will completely recover the damage we take from the Eye of Innocence amulet. TWO of these rings will allow the build to actually heal for 30 life every time we ignite an enemy, which can be over 35 times a second. The ring also offers some fire resistance, the flat fire damage to spells we need to be able to ignite, and ignite chance which we need quite a bit of to make the build feel good. Turbulent Catalysts are also recommended here to boost the ignite chance although Fertile Catalysts will work as well.


Shaper influence gloves with SLOWER PROJECTILES and FASTER CASTING SUPPORT - While technically these are not required to make the build function, the difference between having them and not is so night and day they might as well be required. Thankfully the mods are not rare at all and the gloves can be very cheap to trade for. Try to get a pair with enough life and resistances as needed, as well as an open prefix so you can craft +1 Area of Effect gems. If you have currency you want to throw at the build then you can go for the Insanity version of these gloves and get the 16% more cast speed thrown into the mix as well. If you hit Slower Projectiles with an Insanity essence slam then you can deterministicly craft Faster Casting with Harvest. Details on that crafting process below.

That's it for the required gear, ~10c of jewelery and a special pair of gloves. For the rest of the gear:

Body Armor: Inpulsa's Broken Heart recommended, any rare life/res 5L/6L will work. Unlike other builds, the difference between a 5L and a 6L is not a huge damage boost but rather only a bit of quality of life gain, this helps keep the costs of the build down and makes something like Inpulsa MUCH more obtainable.

Belt: Any rare life/resistance Stygian Vise, flat damage is wonderful with the build and a Stygian Vise lets us slap an abyssal jewel in for some nice flat damage.

Boots: Any rare life/resistace/movespeed boots, get yourself some Tailwind too if you're feeling fancy

Weapons: Two rare wands with as much flat lightning damage to spells as you can get, also look for +1 to all/lightning spell gems, Curse with Conductivity on Hit, and % increased lightning damage. One wand will need an open suffix to craft the "Trigger a Socketed Spell when you Use a Skill" mod. Shade of Solaris can also be a great choice for the build.

Helm: Ideally a rare life/resistance helm with the 24% increased Ball Lightning Area of Effect enchant. There is a breakpoint at a total of 90% increased AoE where ball lightning can get in an additional hit against a stationary enemy which is like a ~25% more damage multiplier. Slap a +1 AoE gems craft on this as well if you can, mostly for the 10% increased AoE that comes with it. If you have the currency to spend then you can go for the Crusader "Nearby Enemies have -9% to Lightning Resistance Mod" as well. This mod is VERY easy to craft with Harvest, details below.

Jewels: A Thread of Hope with a Very Large Ring is recommended as it will save 6 points on the passive tree as well as give access to 13% worth of additional life nodes, great bang for the buck. If you want to get a Watcher's Eye then the only mod to look for is "Damage Penetrates % Lightning Resistance while affected by Wrath". For the other jewels, get flat lightning damage abyss jewels with +life. Also look for a regular jewel with % life and knockback chance. The knockback helps to keep enemies away and also will cause them to be pushed back with the Ball Lightning orbs increasing damage output.

Cluster jewels: The Supercharge node is a ton of damage for this build. If you can get a large 8 node cluster with 3 notables, and one of those notables is Supercharge, then go for it regardless of what the other two notables are. For a medium cluster, I like Brand Loyalty and Holy Conquest.

Harvest Crafting S Tier Gloves:
I recommend buying a pair with level 20 Slower Projectiles and any level Faster Cating on the gloves already, get one with an open prefix if you can so you can craft +1 AoE gems. Other than
that, if you want to go for the big daddy S Tier gloves, here's how you do it.

STEP 1) Get a pair of ilvl 84 or higer Shaper influence Fingerless Silk Gloves - if you're going to sink currency into an item, go for the best base.

STEP 2) This is actually the hard part, we need to spam Essence of Insanity on the gloves and hit level 20 Slower Projectiles

STEP 3) Now we need to get two open suffixes, or only one open suffix if you hit the "% chance to Avoid interruption from Stuns while Casting" mod.

STEP 4) Use Harvest crafting to ADD A CASTER MOD, if you get Faster Casting then congrats, you win. Otherwise:

STEP 5) If you got fire/cold dot multi instead, remove them with a remove fire/cold harvest craft. If you got "Socketed Spells deal % crit multi" you can remove this with a remove crit mod craft.

STEP 6) Try STEP 4 again, thankfully Faster Casting has a high weighting and should not be hard to hit. The hardest part will be step 2 and 3.


Harvest Crafting S Tier Helm:
This one is much easier to do, you will probably need a Crusader's Exalted Orb to do it however. A Bone Helmet is the obvious choice but it can be a rare/expensive base to find.

STEP 1) Get an ilvl 85 or higher helm with the 24% Ball Lightning AoE enchant, the item must have no influence or Crusader's influence only. If the helm already has Crusader Influence then skip to STEP 4

STEP 2) Roll the helm with some good life and resistances, no open prefixes, and one open suffix.

STEP 3) SLAM with that Crusader Exalt and hope for "Nearby Enemies have -9% to Lightning Resistance", if you don't get it then:

STEP 4) Hit the helm with high tier life essences or craft normally until you have these three things: A high life roll, lightning resistance, no open prefixes, at least one open suffix.

STEP 5) Since the only remaining Lightning suffix that can be hit is "Nearby Enemies have -9% to Lightning Resistance" all we have to do it Harvest craft with an add lightning mod craft and we're done!

See the PoB file for multiple tree setups as well as some example leveling trees.

Special notes, if you need more AoE to get to the 90% increased AoE threshold discussed earlier then you have easy access to the Amplify and Blast Radius clusters. And if you needmore dexterity then there is easy access to the Practical Application and Agility nodes for 65 additional Dexterity at the cost of 3 skill points.

Ascendancy
Commander of Darkness
Plaguebringer
Corpse Pact
Mistress of Sacrifice

Pantheon
Entirely up to preference, I like Brine King for to help with block recovery and stuns and Gruthkul since we are constantly being 'hit' by the amulet this is pretty much a fixed 5% phys damage reduction.

I have not leveled this build from scratch yet. I converted my VD Spellslinger instead and it was a very easy conversion. I believe leveling with either self cast Unleash Arc/Ball Lightning or a Spellslinger setup of your liking would work just fine. Once I get the time to level this build from scratch I will update this section with some specific leveling tips.