VIDEO:

https://youtu.be/DiFYOWeKH7s





Introduction:

Spoiler Hi, this is a fast clearing self-cast Spark build intended for leveling to max. I called it the Vaal Spark Spark build because some of my friends whom I played with asked if I was playing Vaal Spark, but I renamed it because it caused some confusion. The build can do some bosses but not all of them. While mapping it is quite safe, I didn't die at all from level 99 to 100 while playing recklessly. The only map mod I'm not running is Cannot Leech, also Elemental Reflect can only be ran with the according sextant. It's very possible to start this build out on a low budget and farm a lot of cash which is what I did.





Path of Building Pastebin:

Spoiler https://pastebin.com/f6vfU6wD

Updated 9-11-2017. Added enchantments and corrected a small mistake.

Updated 9-11-2017. Added enchantments and corrected a small mistake.



Skill tree @ lvl 99:

Spoiler www.poeurl.com/bxh2

The last point is spent in either life/es at Melding or the Spell damage node at the Witch Power Charge.

The last point is spent in either life/es at Melding or the Spell damage node at the Witch Power Charge.



Current gear:

Spoiler





The +1 Curse Bisco is not needed at all, I ran the exact same link setup with a normal Bisco until level 99. Only a lvl 19 Wrath is needed and any level of Shield Charge is fine. I was just leveling random lvl 19 wraths and any shield charges to 20 and vaaling them, happened to have both of them at 20 when i hit 100 and both got 21, LOL!

Upgrades would be Chaos resistance instead of the accuracy on helm and intelligence on shield as well as higher es and life rolls on gear and slightly different mods on jewels.

The +1 Curse Bisco is not needed at all, I ran the exact same link setup with a normal Bisco until level 99. Only a lvl 19 Wrath is needed and any level of Shield Charge is fine. I was just leveling random lvl 19 wraths and any shield charges to 20 and vaaling them, happened to have both of them at 20 when i hit 100 and both got 21, LOL!Upgrades would be Chaos resistance instead of the accuracy on helm and intelligence on shield as well as higher es and life rolls on gear and slightly different mods on jewels.



Stats:

Spoiler 6177 Life, 1852 ES @ lvl 100. Spark tooltip 138k, all buffs without Headhunter.

Hideout tooltip with Golem Heralds Aura 59k.

I recently crafted a helmet which would have bumped my es to 2.1k, but I never got to replace my boots before I finished because I would have needed Fire and Cold resistance on them instead of Lightning+Cold for the new helmet.



Links:

Spoiler Body Armour: Spark, Pierce, Faster Projectiles, Spell Echo, Increased Critical Strikes, Controlled Destruction(6th)

Helm OR Boots: CWDT (lvl 1), Warlord's Mark(lvl 5), Immortal Call(lvl 3), Increased Duration

Helm OR Boots: Wrath, Herald of Ice, Curse on Hit, Poacher's Mark

Gloves: Shield Charge, Faster Attacks, Fortify, Blood Magic

Shield: Herald of Thunder, Curse on Hit, Assassin's Mark

Weapon: Vaal Haste, Summon Lightning Golem, Increased Duration









Rough Progression Guide for newer players, includes more detailed leveling trees:

Spoiler

Spoiler

Clarity, Flame Dash



12: Firestorm, Added Lightning Damage

Level up Spark gem in your weapon swap.



14 points tree:



15: Herald of Ice OR Thunder



18: Firestorm, Concentrated Effect, Elemental Focus

Get a +1 Fire Gems Sceptre as soon as you can with the Vendor recipe.



27 points tree:



31: Shield Charge, Fortify

After completing Library quest make sure you got Spark, Pierce, Faster Projectiles, Controlled Destruction, Increased Critical Strikes and Herald of Thunder in your weapon swap for gem leveling.



34: Summon Lightning Golem



38: Firestorm, Concentrated Effect, Spell Echo

Herald of Ice, Curse on Hit, Assassin's Mark

Cast When Damage Taken (Level 1), Warlords Mark (Level 5), Immortal Call (Level 3), Increased Duration as soon as you have the links.







46 points tree:

10: Spark, Added Lightning Damage (Pierce if you can get it from someone else)Clarity, Flame Dash12: Firestorm, Added Lightning DamageLevel up Spark gem in your weapon swap.14 points tree: www.poeurl.com/bxg2 . After 14 points wait until you get 4 more unspent points, then spec into Mind over Matter and Inspiration behind it.15: Herald of Ice OR Thunder18: Firestorm, Concentrated Effect, Elemental FocusGet a +1 Fire Gems Sceptre as soon as you can with the Vendor recipe.27 points tree: www.poeurl.com/bxg9 31: Shield Charge, FortifyAfter completing Library quest make sure you got Spark, Pierce, Faster Projectiles, Controlled Destruction, Increased Critical Strikes and Herald of Thunder in your weapon swap for gem leveling.34: Summon Lightning Golem38: Firestorm, Concentrated Effect, Spell EchoHerald of Ice, Curse on Hit, Assassin's MarkCast When Damage Taken (Level 1), Warlords Mark (Level 5), Immortal Call (Level 3), Increased Duration as soon as you have the links.46 points tree: www.poeurl.com/bxha



Level 39-75

Spoiler

65 points tree: www.poeurl.com/bxhf



Level 76-90

Spoiler

Level 76 tree:



Around level 85-90 you should be able to afford all the basic unique items including Intuitive Leap and a 5-linked the Covenant, finally transitioning into the endgame build which looks like this at lvl 90:

Around level 75 you can transition into crit and Spark with the final Gem links provided below, not using the Wrath Aura to still have Mana for MoM and casting. The first few items should be both Hazardous Research Jewels, Tabula Rasa, Bisco's Leash, Vessel of Vinktar, Kiara's Determination, Call of the Brotherhood, basic rare items. After that Berek's Grip. Spark Jewel spots are at Witch and between Witch and Templar.Level 76 tree: www.poeurl.com/bxhF Around level 85-90 you should be able to afford all the basic unique items including Intuitive Leap and a 5-linked the Covenant, finally transitioning into the endgame build which looks like this at lvl 90: www.poeurl.com/bxhv (includes Overcharged and Melding from the Intuitive Leap Jewel).

Level 1-38Level 39-75Level 76-90



Bandit, Ascendancy, Pantheon

Spoiler Bandit: Alira. If you got godlike gear and can cap resistances without needing to use an additional resistance roll you can go for two skill points instead. This will require near max resistance rolls on all gear pieces.



Inquisitor Ascendancy: Instruments of Virtue, Righteous Providence, Inevitable Judgement. Uber: Augury of Penitence



Pantheon: Soul of Yugul, Soul of Lunaris



In terms of the Ascendancy Point order you can either choose to rush Inevitable Judgement or you can get Instruments of Virtue first for the additional utility. Augury of Penitence from Uber Lab.

Merc Lab can be done pretty easily with Firestorm, but I recommend getting a service or a friend for Uber Lab. Spec out of Vaal Pact and use a Life Flask.



Inquisitor just provides an incredible amount of damage and utility for this kind of build, not only can we ignore elemental resistances but we also get a ton of raw stats, specifically attack and cast speed, crit multiplier, elemental/spell damage, and a 16% more multiplier for close enemies.



Yugul is the first choice for a lot of builds because of the reduced reflected damage taken. Lunaris provides several defensive buffs and a small amount of movement speed. Since we are using Kiara's Determination, Soul of the Brine King is not needed.

Upgrading all Pantheon Powers fully is pretty great, you may need some help at the Lair Boss.





List of Gear, Keystone & Skill Choices:

Spoiler The Covenant unique Body Armour



Berek's Grip & Call of the Brotherhood unique Rings



Hazardous Research & Intuitive Leap unique Jewels



Vessel of Vinktar & Kiara's Determination unique Flasks



Bisco's Leash or Headhunter unique Belt



Brightbeak





Eldritch Battery



Mind over Matter



Vaal Pact



Overcharged notable





Spark



Poacher's Mark, Assassin's Mark



Warlord's Mark, Immortal Call



Wrath, Herald of Ice, Herald of Thunder



Shield Charge



Vaal Haste, Summon Lightning Golem





Explanation:

Spoiler This build uses a combination of Blood Magic, Eldritch Battery and Mind over Matter to not be limited by Mana constraints and the ability to recharge Energy Shield without being interrupted by spending resource to use a skill.

Eldritch Battery and es recharge is a great option compared to a hybrid build because only 30% of the incoming non-Chaos damage will deplete the es pool, thus reducing the amount of recharge needed to sustain by 70%. Also it enables instant leech from Vaal Pact immediately upon taking damage because a portion of it will always deplete life.



Berek's Grip, Vessel of Vinktar, Labyrinth Enchant on Boots and Warlord's Mark provide leech. Call of the Brotherhood reduces incoming damage greatly by freezing monsters and preventing on-death effects with shatter.

Brightbeak is used for an insane speed multiplier on Shield Charge, also the additional resistance opens up the possibility to cap Chaos resistance.



The Belt slot is used for clear speed buffs, either Rampage from Bisco's Leash or monster affixes from Headhunter. Note that at least one dexterity roll is needed on gear when using Bisco's Leash, as well as Strength or Dexterity from gear and passives on lower levels in general.

Rare Hybrid Life/Es items are used on all other slots and a Bisco's Collar if you want to use it, with the ideal base types being Hubris Circlet, Fingerless Silk Gloves, Sorcerer Boots and either Titanium or Fossilized Spirit Shield depending on personal preference.



I chose to allocate Overcharged with the Intuitive Leap Jewel for Hexproof maps and to prevent not being able to gain charges from curses while having a Curse on Hit-buff from a slain rare monster, as well as providing additional Charge generation which I value greatly.

Poacher's Mark on Herald of Ice is mostly used to sustain the Flask Charges needed for Kiara's Determination and Vessel of Vinktar.

Assassin's Mark on Herald of Thunder is used to provide additional Power Charges and damage from the curse. This may be foregone to prevent it from overwriting Cast when Damage Taken Warlord's Mark, particularly when facing few enemies or elemental reflect.



Immortal Call+Warlord's Mark on Cast when damage taken level 1+Increased Duration. Cookie cutter defensive CWDT setup.

Vaal Haste is great for this build since it lasts 8.8 seconds with a perfect Increased Duration Gem combined with the 45% Skill Effect Duration from the Skill tree.



The Skill Effect duration and the Projectile Speed from Faster Projectiles Support and Passive nodes will counteract the penalty from the unique Hazardous Research Jewels and enable the Sparks to hit the maximum range of 150 units. Two jewels and a helmet enchantment with 3 additional projectiles will increase the total number of projectiles to 14, granting dense screen coverage.

A Pierce Support Gem is preferable over Voidwalker Boots because rare ones provide Life and Resistances, the Pierce from the Gem is permanent and other Support Gem options will only increase the damage negligably.





Experience per hour, which maps to run

Spoiler

Lvl 99 exp:

Shaped Racecourse 1 white Sextant no boss: 18-19mio

Beachhead T15 full clear: 24-25mio



I didn't do Shaped Shore or Primordial Pool but I think it's a lot better for exp. I didn't want to invest much into rolling maps and in Racecourse there are zero obstacles for Shield Charge.

During lower levels I did a lot of Dunes and sometimes Mesa. Dunes is generally better for most builds and there's more return from more monsters, due to the nature of the build the exp is about the same in Mesa though. This is because even with low damage the extreme shotgunning at the walls will clear everything with 1 cast. Mesa and Racecourse bosses can be done easily, Dunes not so much. Generally this build will perform well in all indoor maps with a lot of walls because any Spark bouncing off a wall is able to hit a monster which has already been hit by the same cast, thus greatly multiplying the damage.





P.S.: I may share my profile in the future but I'm not really looking for any ingame whispers currently. Feel free to post any reasonable questions in this thread though. P.S.: I may share my profile in the future but I'm not really looking for any ingame whispers currently. Feel free to post any reasonable questions in this thread though. Last edited by jimyyoo on Sep 27, 2017, 11:02:11 AM Last bumped on Oct 15, 2017, 4:39:06 PM