It's that time again! The week before the next Path of Exile League where I contemplate what build I'm going to run and start hyping myself up to play again. Even though I'll likely only play for two weeks, it's still fun and I enjoy the planning process.
First of all though, because I've played this game for 650+ hours over the past couple of years, I decided to finally fling some money at GGG for some skins! In the past I've bought a couple of stash tabs for currencies, uniques, the divination cards, fragments and Blight materials, and last League I finally bought a premium stash tab so I could sell stuff myself instead of getting my partner to sell things for me. This time, for what will likely be my only cosmetic purchase due to their very restrictive pricing, I scoured everything with a magnifying glass and mixed and matched a bunch of things and came up with what I think looks like a pretty cool skin.
Then I applied it all to my Witch from the Sentinel League and took the fancy-arse screenshot that serves as my header image.
She's wearing most of the Rogue Stalker Armour from the new Lake of Kalandra Supporter Packs, a different hood that I felt looked much better than the rogue stalker one, shiny wings, and a lavender weapon effect because I didn't have enough coins remaining to get the vibrant purple one. xD
I like it! Can't wait to run through the game with my new amazing-looking character instead of my old dreary and colourless character.
With that out of the way, it's time to PLAN!
During the Sentinel League I followed someone else's build for the first time ever. It was cool and all, not having to think for myself, but overall I didn't notice much difference in damage output or playing experience whether following his build or doing up my own. I think that for this upcoming league, I'd rather think for myself and create something for myself. It's more fun this way.
After reading the patchnotes for the upcoming League I've noticed a few things:
- Added a new Intelligence Skill Gem - Lightning Conduit: Lightning strikes all Shocked enemies around a targeted location, then removes Shock from those enemies. Shocks cannot expire on enemies in range while casting this spell. Cannot be supported by Spell cascade or Unleash.
- An undesirable change to Mana Reservation Efficiency -_-
- An undesirable change to Shock -_-
- New Lightning passives in the Passive Skill Tree ^_^
- Divine Orbs will be worth more than Exalted Orbs — which is what I thought when I very first saw a Divine Orb. Now it's reality! </ul
- Tempest Shield > Chain Support > Elemental Proliferation Support
- Shock Nova > Cast on Damage Taken > Arcane Surge > Elemental Proliferation Support
- Storm Brand > Concentrated Effect Support
- Conductivity > Blasphemy Support (so it becomes an aura)
- Wrath - Zealotry - Herald of Thunder > Enlighten Support
- Lightning Conduit > Innervate Support > Lightning Penetration Support > Lightning Damage Support > Arcane Surge > Spell Echo </ul
- One hand weapon: Singularity > adds lightning damage to spells, deals extra elemental damage, reduced mana cost of skills... sounds good!
- Shield: Hoping to just find a super decent yellow with high block and some resistances, mana regen would be super too. The Aegis Aurora would be amazing, but is highly expensive.
- Amulet: Impresence > adds lightning damage, all attributes, regens energy shield, and best of all "Conductivity has no Reservation if Cast as an Aura"
- Rings: Valako's Sign > adds lightning damage, increased damage against shocked enemies, life leech against shocked enemies. Second ring can be a decently resistance'd yellow.
- Belt: Another decent yellow with high resistances would be great.
- Chestpiece: I like Inpulsa's Broken Heart but it's horribly expensive. Might just have to go with a decent 6-link yellow. Which will also be expensive, just, less expensive.
- Boots: Decent yellow boots with movement speed.
- Gloves: Thunderfist > socketed gems are supported by lvl18 Lightning Damage, increased duration of shock, increased attack speed and energy shield. Not entirely fussed though. I feel as though a decent yellow would be fine.
- Helm: A decent yellow will be fine, I think.
- Astonishing Affliction > For my lovely Shock and dealing more damaged to Shocked enemies
- Conjured Wall > Increases spell damage and chance to block spell damage
- Conservation of Energy > increases energy shield and energy shield leech
- Inspired Oppression > increased effect of shock, more elemental damage, increased mana regen if I've shocked an enemy recently!
- Mystical Ward > block spell damage, regens energy shield, and energy shield leech
- Overshock > increases shock and lightning damage
- Prismatic Heart > for resistances
- Sap Psyche > increased spell damage and mana regeneration, regenerate energy shield if I've cursed an enemy recently
I was originally thinking of tweaking and perfecting the last build I was trying to make, the Flameblast Corpse Explosiony Goodness Build. But thanks to the new Lightning Conduit gem, I kind of want to make a Lightning Elementalist. I just need to work around the undesirable changes to Shock and Reservation Efficiency. There's a lot of chatter on Reddit and the Path of Exile forums at the moment concerning the new Lightning Conduit gem, so I dove in and read everything people were saying so I could get a better idea of what to expect and how to utilise it for myself.
Unfortunately Path of Building hasn't been updated for 3.19 at the time of writing this, Lightning Conduit isn't even in the list of skills yet, so I'm just fiddling around right now and will adjust it before League start. From my understanding, they'll be moving a bunch of lightning related things elsewhere, so this is mainly to reacquaint myself with what is possible.
SO!!! I'm thinking:
When I go into the Elementalist Ascendency all of my hits will shock with Shaper of Storms, so that'll be a big help.
I think this looks pretty solid, to be honest. I'm mostly concerned about Mana and the new Reservation changes they're making but we'll see how it goes. Hopefully the Enlighten Support makes all the mana issues I'm anticipating a bit easier to deal with. Just need to be super duper lucky and find one, or buy one for an exorbitant price. The only time I've ever seen one drop was in a Heist, and then I went and died like a noob.
When Path of Building has been updated properly, I'll be able to dive in and work out a nice little path to take in the passive tree. But now, onto gear!
I was browsing through the Cluster Jewel notables as well and there are many that could work for me. I won't need to decide for quite a while at least, but I'm thinking:
I've checked on poe.trade for the current league and a lot of these are pretty expensive, but I'll have plenty of time to pick and choose what I would like. At this point in time, I'm thinking the Inspired Oppression because I feel as though mana is going to be a big deal for me, and either Conjured Wall or Mystical Ward so my Tempest Shield can proc a bit more, or Prismatic Heart in case I can't get enough resistance.
Overall I feel as though this is looking pretty good!
Of course we'll see when the League starts if Lightning Conduit is even any good, but it seems like it could be fun. If not, I feel as though it's an easy swap out for some other sort of lightning ability without changing too much. I think I'm all ready to go! :D
Until next time! :)
All screenshots in this post are courtesy of me, 
Posted from Kaelci Games with Exxp : https://kaelci.games/2022/08/14/preparing-for-path-of-exile-3-19-lake-of-kalandra-league/