Path of Exile - 3. 19. Best Arc Lightning Build (league Starter. End Game)
Arc Lightning is arguably one of Path of Exile's most iconic spells. It provides us with great clearing speed while mapping and good single target damage while bossing. It's also great for carrying you throughout the start of any league with little to no investment. A week later, however, people tend to switch bells as spellcasters are generally squishy.
However, this changes today as we have managed to create the same hard-hitting 20 million damage arc build, but this time it's tanky. I'm serious half of all the damage we take is taken from mana before life, effectively doubling our total life pool. We also got 5 permanent endurance charges on top of that without spending any extra exalt.
Also, our damage numbers here are consistent, being able to maintain them without using something like bottled faith or virus fire. Now I know that some of you are looking at this article thinking that this is just another boring archmage build, but trust me, it isn't as usual. We begin with our ascendancy.
We are hierophants. This is mainly due to mana support. First, we begin with the conviction of power. This node is the best leveling ascendancy in the path of exile. Not only does it increase our maximum power and endurance charge count by one, but it also gives us access to four of them all the time, basically allowing us to be tanky and invest in crit early on.
Next we go for divine guidance. This note gives us transfiguration of the mind. Basically, it allows modifiers to maximum mana to affect global damage at 30 percent of their values. This node also increases our maximum mana, which we use both offensively and defensively in this build. From here we go for an arcane blessing.
This note increases the effect of the arcane surge on us by 50. Now I have set this build in such a way that we are always affected by a level 20 arcane surge buff, and that's without having it socketed in our main six links. This means that this node is basically a ten percent permanent damage boost alongside extra mana regen.
Last but not least, we have illuminated devotion. While less powerful than the previous note, the 0.5 percent spell life leech makes for a great source of life recovery. We also get 50 reduced effective chill shark brittle scorch and sound while affected by arcane surge. Basically all the time combined with pantheons, we became completely immune to some of them, like melee chill and shock, and that was it for our ascendancy.
Yes, you can get more damage by going with a different ascendancy like elementalist, but this one is perfect for when you are scaling mana, and scaling mana is arguably the easiest thing you can do in this game, and this becomes apparent with our passive tree. Here we focus on mana, life spilland crit chance, crit multi-lightning damage, and mana regen.
We also take every single power charge node available to us to take on the passive tree. After that, we expand into two large clusters of dual setups. They are here mainly to expand our sock arsenal. These add some powerful spills or lightning notables like scintillating idea or thunderstruck, widespread destruction, practice casting and sapsic, or really any other damage notable you like for mastery choices.
We've got chaining non-projectile lightning skills that change one additional time, which unironically only works with arc right now. We also have increases and reductions to maximum mana, which also applies to shock effect at 30 of its value. Let's talk about items. You might have noticed that we are stacking power charges in a mana build.
Well, we are dual-wielding to avoid batteries. This item is generally broken for any self-cast building as long as you are stacking power charges. There is no reason to use a rare one in this game as this one eclipses all of them in terms of damage potential, overall best in slot option for very little investment.
Next we got the Crown of the Inward Eye, a unique helm. This one is good for a variety of builds, but while not better than your well crafted rare helm, it becomes so once it gets a powerful corruption like plus one to maximum power charges, although that corruption is quite expensive and that's partially my fault due to the fact that I have been shilling it for the past five weeks.
Hence, you can use a cheaply crafted helm like this. If you are on a budget, just combine the plus one maximum power charge redeemer mod with 50 increased mana via an awakener's orb, then lock the prefixes and reforge crit for crit multi. It will give you the same exact damage but slightly less life.
Our next item is the Clock of Defiance. This unique chest gives us mind over matter for free, which saves us some passive points by not having to pat over it on the passive tree. Anyway, next we have the essence worm. This ring removes the reservation of any socketed gem, and since we utilize our mana defensively, we can't really afford to allocate it.
Hence, we suck at wrath here and call it a day. Our second ring is any ring you can afford with plus one to maximum power charges. This can be either rare or unique. It all depends on how much you are willing to spend on this slot. Our next item is a series of unique fireball amulets. This one is the best in-slot option for any mana stacking build.
It provides us with lots of mana and a huge regeneration boost. Make sure to annoy the disciple of the unyielding on your amulet for that extra boost to defense and damage. Next on the list we have a rare belt with increased mana recovery rate, life, and mana. A good resistance roll and increased lightning damage if possible.
For our gloves, we got live mana resistance. And any damage mod you can add via s-link binge or velvet chaos orb. Make sure to utilize eldritch currencies to add both the chance to unnerve enemies on head and lightning exposure once you are done crafting your gloves. Last but not least, we got a pair of boots with movement speed, life mana, and a good dexterity roll.
To keep things simple, you will have to get a tier 1 dexterity roll somewhere to be able to use most of your gems. It doesn't have to be on your boots specifically, but you will need to get it somewhere, and yeah, that was it for our items. Let's talk about the gems that go inside of them for our main six links.
We have level 21 arc awakened lightning penetration, power charge on crate, awakened spell echo, increased critical strike support, and increased critical damage. Feel free to use the non-awakened version of these gems if you are on a budget. Our next mandatory setup is e4link mana support. It includes: divergent arcane cloak level 20, divergent arcane surge increased duration, and enhanced support.
