Level 64 Lightning Strike Champion^3.25

Notes

CHANGE LOG:
24/07 - Added War Banner to act 1 & 2. This will be a good boost to damage if you drop it on bosses
24/07 - Changed levelling trees to add Grace in around act 5 for more defences
24/7 Double strike is rubbish now do not use
24/7 Dual wielding is weak Act 1 so I recommend going to hander until you get 2 useable one handed weapons. Guide, skills and other items have been updated to reflect this
14/7 Changed levelling to act 4/5 with spectral helix. Everyone hates the skill but it is so much stronger than LS before you get multistrike

Levelling Guide:
There are lots of different ways to level this build and this may not be the most optimal but it has worked for me in testing and was pretty quick. I think there are 4 different ways you can level this build:
- Different skill (Spectral Helix) until late campaign using 2 handed phys weapons
- Levelling with lightning strike using 2 handed phys weapons and taking advantage of the change in quality to weapons and using added fire to get elemental damage + Anger + flat lightning damage crafted on your gear.
- Levelling as above but dual wielding
- Levelling lightning strike with dual wielding but not focussing on phys damage much past act 3 and use elemental crafts + anger + % ele damage gems to get damage. 

IMPORTANT: If at any point you struggle slightly for mana swap elemental damage with attacks for inspiration. The damage difference is not too much and it will reduce your mana cost

Strength and Intelligence Requirements:
We need big strength and intelligence when we get towards the end of the campaign to make sure we can push the auras up that scale the damage.
Use the +30 STR & INT nodes if needed temporarily
Run an Agate amulet preferably with some sort of attributes on
Run a heavy belt

After 1st lab get used to using corrupting fever to proc adrenaline

Run every side area from level 12 as you may drop a vaal lightning strike gem

You need either ancestral call in your links OR +1 strike mastery to get lightning strike to double hit.

Use Heist later on to get your gear to progress to red maps. After level 50 start going to the rogue harbour every level and buying demolition contracts. The "?" chests in here often drop chaos & vaal orbs. If the contract is level 59+ you can also start using the items for the chaos recipe. Even if you hate heist I recommend you do this. You should only
be in heist for half an hour and you should leave with enough currency to buy the items needed to push straight through to red maps

Smite Aura:
The smite aura makes up a big portion of end game damage, but you should not have to use this until you get to higher tier red maps, but if you feel you want a burst of damage at boss just hit them once with smite. Later on you will get used to this and will probably keep it up through most of your maps. 

Single Target Rotation in Maps:
- 1 x Smite
- Pop Flasks
- 2 x Vaal Lightning Strike
- Attack enemy with lightning strike ensuring you get in position to double hit

Weapons:

In Act 1 you have to go 2 hander until the Lightning Strike Swap at level 41

Levlling TLDR
Mule a Marauder as we want heavy strike & Ruthless. This should also allows you to get 2 x iron rings straight away
Buy 2 handed sword
Buy Frost Blades
Early Links are heavy strike + Ruthless
Frost Blades + Ancestral Call
use Heavy strike for Bosses
Swap to Helix at level 12 and set up should be as per the skill set in the POB
Use War Banner for damage and decoy totem to stay alive

Two Hander Helix until LS Swap at level 41 where you will need 1 x one handed axe and 1 x one handed sword with elemental damage and then craft elemental damage onto them using the bench. Do not swap until you have these

When you get precise technique you should be fine to drop precision and then buy a level 1 gem from act 6 later on if you need a small boost. You should not need to do this until at least Act 7, but keep an eye out on your stats

Act 1 

Tips:

Flat damage is king in acts 1 & 2 and picking up a few items can double your damage and make these acts a lot more comfortable. Items you want to look out for or buy from vendors:
- 2 x Iron Rings
- 1 x Rustic Sash
- 1 x % phys damge (2 Hander) weapons (can be any one handed weapon). If you also find spare blacksmiths whetstones use these on the weapons as it should only take 1 to get to 20% qualitry which is 20% more damage. The same goes for if you find a weapon on the ground use a whetstone on the weapon if it has % increased physical damage
- Movement speed boots
- 3 link
- War Banner will give you a nice boost on bosses
You will get an essence from killing the dweller. If this is an essence which can add damage to a weapon use it on a base that requires item level 8 or more. Do not use it on the weapon you get at level 1. If it is something like a woe essence use it on a pair of boots

Get a sapphire ring for the merveil fight. You can either buy one from nessa or sell and iron ring and blue skill gem to a vendor

Vendor weapon recipe: 1 x weapon - 1 x magic rustic sash - 1 x blacksmiths whetstone

Lastly we need a LOT of transmutes so pick up every rare and sell unidentified to the vendor

Level 1 - 12:
Frost Blades - Ancestral Call - Added Fire (If 3 link)
 Heavy Strike - Ruthless 
Dash/Frost Blink
Leap Slam - Faster Attacks
Decoy Totem
Use Frost Blades for clear and Heavy Strike on bosses. 

Level 12: Drop Heavy Strike
Spectral Helix - Faster Attacks - Added Fire
Dash/Frost Blink
Leap Slam - Faster Attacks
Decoy Totem

Act 2: 

Take Blood Rage as your reward and buy Herald of Ice. Use both auras
Weaver reward do not take just let it level up in the vendors as neither of these will be better than added fire, however if you need a red gem cruelty is ok
Help Alira if you are worried about resists or help Kryton for movement speed

Links at end of Act 2:
Spectral Helix - Faster Attacksl - Added Fire
Dash/Frost Blink
Leap Slam - Faster Attacks
Decoy Totem
Blood Rage - Herald of Ice
precision (just for a few levels until you get the resistance and accuracy wheel

At the end of act 2 you will take precise technique. You need to make sure that from now on your acccuracy is always above your life

TIP: Find the corruption chamber in vaal ruins and use it on a lightning strike gem

Act 3:

You get access to added Fire & Lightning crafts on the bench midway through. Craft on your rings and amulet 2 x lightning damage 1 x fire damage
We can also buy anger from the town 3 vendor once we have defeated piety for the first time. Use Anger and drop herald of ice. 
DO NOT craft on weapon as we will be switching weapons in act 5

Links at the end of Act 3:
Spectral Helix - Faster Attacks - Added Fire - Cruelty or Elemental Damage to Attacks
Dash/Frost Blink
Leap Slam - Faster Attacks
Decoy Totem
Blood Rage - Anger
Precision (Drop when you get the accuracy mastery
Goals for Lab: 800 Life+ with Ele damage crafted on gear and as close to resistance cap as you can get. You can use the bench to craft resistances where you have not crafted flat elemental damage

Act 4: 

This is when we can pick up multistrike as a gem reward, but do not use it until you swap to LS as it is not compatable with Helixt. 

When you complete lab and get your first ascendancy go back to act 2 and buy corrupting fever. Slot this gem into your gear and see how much of your life it takes. This gem needs to take just over half your life as this is how you will proc adrenaline. You can buy lifetap from act 1 vendor if you need to boost
the life this skill uses (swift affliction can also be used as a third link if you still need more life to be taken). You need to look at this skill gem level carefully as you go along and do not instantly level it up each time it offers you the chance. If your adrenaline is procing just right click the gem to pause the level up. When the gem stops taking half
your life as you level up then up the level of the gem. Manage this gem so that it always takes just over half your life

Links at the end of Act 4:

Spectral Helix - Faster Attacks - Added Fire - Cruelty or Elemental Damage to Attacks
Dash/Frost Blink
Leap Slam - Faster Attacks
Decoy Totem
Blood Rage - Anger
corrupting fever - lifetap - swift affliction (use whatever supports you need to get to the right life amount)
If you run out of sockets you can drop banner and totem

You should no longer need precision once you pick up the elemental resistance/accuracy wheel and mastery. At this point you may also be able to run vitality gem if you want some life recovery

*** IMPORTANT *** When you get to Levelling Tree Part 3 you will be able to add Grace into your auras ready for the second half of the campaign. Remember to take the 12% mana reservation mastery in the mana wheel. 

Act 5 Lightning Strike Swap at level 41. 
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We respec 11 points here. If you have picked up all the respec points you should have 10. Use gold to refund the other point. Take your time here as this is where we swap to our end game skill. When you have:
1 x 1 handed Axe
1 x 1 handed Sword
You will also add in a snipers mark
You should also now be able to fit a grace aura in along with anger for defences

Links:
Lightning Strike - Volatilty Support (Act 2 Vendor) or ele damage with attacks (Act 2 Vendor) - Trinity (Act 2 Vendor) - Multistrike
Snipers Mark
Dash
Leap Slam + Faster Attacks
Anger + Blood Rage + Grace
Corrupting fever - Lifetap - Swift Affliction (use whatever supports you need to get to the right life amount)

Flasks to pick up in the campaign:
- Jade Flask (Act 5)
- Granite Flask (Act 7)
- Quartz Flask (Act 10)

Act 6:

We want to make quite a few changes to the setup here. If you have enough gem sockets getting all your links set up for maps is worth doing even if it takes 10 minutes. We also want to buy quite a few gems from Nessa and the act town vendors:
Mark on hit support from act 4 vendor (If you have an alchemy orb) and link this to snipers mark
Added Lightning, Wrath, Smite, inspiration, lightning penetration & Determination  (level all these gems in your offhands)
Buy Flame Dash and swap out Dash/Frost Blink
We need to start trying to pick up intelligence and strength to level up these gems so use the INT & STR nodes if needed and keep looking for good heavy belts and agate amulets.  
The only links you do not worry about at this stage are molten shell linked to cast when damage taken as we have so little armour it will not make a difference

Also use this time to craft more resists on gear or use any spare essences on bases you need to improve. You want to be as close to resistance cap as possible as the game starts getting harder

Final Links:

Lightning Strike - Volatilty Support or ele damage with attacks- Trinity - Multistrike
Snipers Mark - Mark on Hit - Lifetap (optional at this stage)
Flame Dash
Leap Slam + Faster Attacks
Anger + Blood Rage + Grace
Corrupting fever - Lifetap - Swift Affliction (use whatever supports you need to get to the right life amount)

Gearing up in Act 9

These are your links as you get towards act 8/9 when I recommend running a few demolition contracts to get around 30 chaos. You will also net a few vaal orbs so go to act 1 and buy lightning strike gems from nessa and use vaal orbs on them until one turns into vaal lightning strike. You now have much more boss damage. Run the second lab
and take inspirational as this is going to help a lot when we switch to ichimonjis. If you feel squishy take fortification instead

The currency you get from heist should buy you: 
2 x Ichimonjis
Prism Weave if you can afford to lose the strength
5 Link body armour
Rare gear if you need to up strength or intelligence

The reason I recommend doing this now is if you get set up properly with the attributes and resistances you can just push straight into early red maps on a 5 link without having to make any more purchases or worry about crafting gear

With your ichimonji equipped your can remove the mastery for wielding 2 different weapon types. Check the Ichimonji Loadout at the top of the screen to see the damage you can expect in act 9 which is more than enough for early to mid maps and will get higher and higher as your gems level up

Ichimonji Links (Level 60+):
(I would wait until you have all the reservation nodes as you can then run 3 x 50% auras comfortably)
Lightning Strike - Volatilty Support - ele damage with attacks- Trinity - Multistrike (If mana cost is too high swap inspiration in for elemental damage with attacks)
Snipers Mark - Mark on Hit - Lifetap
Flame Dash
Leap Slam + Faster Attacks
Anger + Blood Rage + Wrath + Grace
Corrupting fever - Lifetap - Swift Affliction
Smite + increased duration (You do not need to use this yet as is only good when the gem gets very high level)

If the swords are expensive or you do not need to swap yet just carry on with your old setup and follow the same tree. Purchase the swords as soon as you can!


Gem swap in maps:
Blast through the rest of the campaign and early maps and now aim for the gear, tree and skills in the early map loadout. When you hit level 78 buy perseverance belt and take onslaught nodes. When you pick up all the reservation nodes you can now run 3 x 50% auras and a low level precision if you need to. We are going to switch to a pure 
lightning build so swap trinity for added lightning. Your Auras will now be Determination (buy from act 3 vendor), Grace, Wrath & a low level precision just enough to get accuracy above life

Final Links are as per the setup in the early map loadout. Follow the progression for gear, trees and links from here on out


Areas when you need to respec points in the tree:

1st respec: Big respec at level 41 when we swap to lightning strike. Drop projectile damage nodes, two hander nodes and all the phys nodes to the left along with Master of the Arena.
2nd respec: Ichimonji tree sees a lot of respecs. Firstly drop the mastery for dual wielding 2 different weapon types. You will also remove all the ignite nodes. Take +30 INT & +30 Strength nodes if you need them to level up your auras
3rd respec: Early Map Tree. Drop the single leech node when you have taken the leech nodes at the top of the tree
4th respec: Early Red Map Tree. Drop the dual wield nodes and mana nodes and move the reservation mastery to the mana cost of attacks cluster on the left hand side