Level 90 CI Vaal Arc Elementalist^3.28

Notes

-----------LEVELING------------------
This written guide has been adapted from earlier variants of the build to be modern for 3.29 and I have tried to change all outdated references, but if you notice any weird discrepancies it's probably just because I missed something
This variant of the guide will level with Wave of Conviction, but feel free to stick with odler POBs that go straight to Arc, nothing wrong with that.
Watching the videos can help explain the thought process. (YouTube: BuffaloBaron https://www.youtube.com/@buffalobaron)
Note that 3.29 changed socket colors in a major way; now most sockets are white, any gem can go in any socket even if they are colored sockets
Matching gem to socket color gives a +10% quality bonus to the gem

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Act 1
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The change to how socket colors work make this very easy now, most of my old act 1 advice was on how to get the socket colors you need or make do with others.  

The skill tree is a pretty standard Act 1 Witch, path up through the elemental wheel to Cruel Preparation while also taking Heart and Soul. 
If you don't mind respeccing in Act 2 now that gold makes early respeccing cheap, you can path through Frost Walker for now, then respec to Lightning Walker in Act 2.  
Otherwise you can just go through Lightning Walker now, it will only be like 20-30 in game minutes until it becomes useful.

Gems we are aiming for this act:
Main leveling skill for Act 1 is Freezing Pulse-Arcane Surge-Added Cold Damage (Volley used to go in this setup, but FP now has built in projectile count)
Secondary Damage, can work at same time as Freezing Pulse: Holy Flame Totem-Volley-Summon Phantasm 
Debuffs and Damage Boosts: Frost Bomb 
Blink/Teleport skill: Frostblink or Flame Dash, your choice.  Frostblink has instant cast, Flame Dash has longer range and 3 charges.
Optional quality of life: Clarity for mana regen and Vitality for life regen, don't level too high or they reserve too much of your mana

Don't forget to upgrade life and mana flasks as they become available.  Can 3:1 vendor to get the next level up.
If you get a quicksilver flask use it constantly to run between packs
Always look for boots with movement speed
Early game you can dual-wield wands or sceptres for more damage, but eventually we need a shield in our off-hand
In Act 1 a weapon with any kind of spell damage, elemental damage, flat added damage to spells is desirable.
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Twilight Strand (Beach) 
 Fireball and Arcane Surge are automatic scripted drops to teach you about skill gems and supports. 

"Enemy at the Gates" quest 
Take Freezing Pulse as quest reward, replace Fireball with Freezing Pulse, link with Arcane Surge 

"Mercy Mission" quest
Take Summon Phantasm Support as quest reward.  Can level it in an empty slot but not needed yet.
Can optionally purchase Elemental Proliferation Support or a second copy of Summon Phantasm Support for FP if you have a 3-link 


"Breaking Some Eggs" quest
Take Frost Bomb as quest reward, socket (no links needed) and use as debuff against harder enemies as long as you are using Freezing Pulse.
Take Frostblink as a quest reward.  No links needed.  Use as mobility speeding time between packs and manually dodging danger.
Purchase Holy Flame Totem and use as a secondary damage source and distraction against tougher targets.  If you have a second three-link for it, use Volley and Summon Phantasm Support
Optionally purchase Flame Wall as a damage boost and try to place it strategically so that Freezing Pulse and Holy Flame Totem fire their projectiles through it.  No links needed.
Eventually purchase and level Shield Charge and Faster Attacks Support (which we can now purchase as of 3.29), but just level for now, it is a travel skill but feels slow until higher levels.


"Dweller of the Deep" quest
Awards Skill Point, don't skip this

"The Caged Brute" quest
In The Lower Prison do not miss the first "Trial of Ascendancy" which you need to ascend in Act 3 or 4.  You will have to come back if you miss this.
Take Added Cold Damage Support as quest reward to put in your FP 3 link, consider buying Added Lightning Support and Combustion as well and level in off-hand  

Purchase Combustion Support and level it, but don't use it yet.
Optionally for mana issues can use: Clarity.  Do not over-level, this is one of the rare auras where leveling = more mana reserved.
Optionally for life regen can use: Vitality.  Same as Clarity, do not over-level,another aura where leveling = more mana reserved.
Any levels shown in gem section for Vitality/Clarity are only suggestions, play this by ear for your needs

"The Marooned Mariner" quest
Awards Skill Point, don't skip this

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End of Act 1 in Cavern of Anger (quest "The Siren's Cadence")
Buy the now-available "Flame Surge" and level it if you have a slot for it, but do not use yet.
Buy at least one copy of Arc and start leveling in offhand, eventually in early maps we will want to try to Vaal our own gem

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Act 2
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You will likely start phasing out Holy Flame Totem soon since you'll need those gem slots for other things
But feel free to use HFT as long as it feels useful and you can fit it in.
Should start looking for weapon with % lightning damage, % spell damage, flat added spell damage of any element.
+1 lightning spell skill gems, +1 fire spell skill gems, +1 physical spell skill gems or +1 all spell skill gems would be a great bonus, but hard to find.

"Intruders in Black" quest: 
Take Herald of Thunder as quest reward and activate it for now.
Purchase and add Wave of Conviction (WoC) as your main damage skill.  Stop using Flame Wall if you were previously.
WoC main links should be Arcane Surge, and Added Lightning
Consider purchasing and leveling (but not activating) Herald of Ash as well if you have the currency
If your mana reservation pool can handle it, buy and activate Summon Skitterbots
Buy and level Tempest Shield in an empty slot of a weapon swap, but do not activate yet.
Don't forget to open the seal then travel back to ACT 1  to get your Skill Point, don't skip this. (only time you'll need to go to a previous act to get a reward)
Following this quest you have unlocked a HIDEOUT with a crafting bench in it.

The crafting bench is crucial and lets you add a single modifer to gear as long as they have an open slot for it.
Magic items have up to 2 (one prefix, one suffix) rare items up to 6 (3 prefixes and 3 suffixes)
You'll mostly want to add a Life prefix to gear with good resistances, or add a Resist or Attribute (Dex,Int,Str) suffix to gear with life and at least one other good suffix.

"The Great White Beast" quest.  
Optional but encouraged, especially if you don't have a quicksilver flask yet.  Take quicksilver flask as reward.
Even if you already have one, you can use two and alternate back and forth to get more uptime

"Through Sacred Ground" quest
Awards Skill Point, don't skip this
In The Crypt Level 1 do not miss the second  "Trial of Ascendancy" which you need to ascend in Act 3 or 4.  You will have to come back if you miss this.

"Sharp and Cruel" Quest: new support gems become available
If you have a friend, ask them for Physical to Lightning Support for our WoC setup since Witch can't get it yet.
Take Controlled Destruction  as reward and buy Deadly Ailments Support + Cold to Fire Support to level in spare sockets or weapon swap but do not link to anything yet

"The Root of the Problem" quest
In the Chamber of Sins Level 2  do not miss the third  "Trial of Ascendancy" which you need to ascend in Act 3 or 4.  You will have to come back if you miss this.

"Deal With the Bandits" quest
We will eventually take the Skill Point for killing all 3 bandits
But you can respec to that later if you temporarily want the 8% movement speed for leaving Kraityn alive, the 40 base maximum life from Oak or the 15% ele resist from Alira.


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Act 3
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Start being on the lookout in vendors and monster drops for 4-Link items, very important for your main skill's damage.
WoC 4 link would be WOC-Arcane Surge -Added Lighting - Controlled Destruction
Optionally be on the lookout for a sceptre to use instead of a wand.  Sceptres can also roll caster modifiers like wands, unlike other melee weapons.
In a little while we will get access to a skill that acts as a temporary buff but only if we are using a melee weapon.
Mods you will want on any weapon you find (wand or sceptre) from now on until deep into endgame maps should be combinations of:
% lightning damage, % fire damage, % elemental damage,  fire damage over time multiplier, damage over time multiplier, any flat added damage to spells, +1 lightning spell skill gems, +1 all spells
Up until Act 7 we can also make use of modifiers for spell damage and cast speed


"Lost in Love" quest
In The Crematorium do not miss the fourth  "Trial of Ascendancy" which you need to ascend in Act 3 or 4.  You will have to come back if you miss this.
Curses and Auras become available
Take Elemental Weakness as quest reward
Buy and level (but do not use) Flammability and Malevolence  
(Use Flammability after allocating Whispers of Doom on tree while having Shaper of Flames, use Malevolence when using Shaper of Flamesafter 2nd Lab and when mana res efficiency allows) 

"Victario's Secret" quest
Awards Skill Point, don't skip this

"The Ribbon Spool"
Take whichever amulet has the attribute you are most lacking.  Likely either Amber for Strength or Jade for Dexterity.

"Sever the Right Hand" quest 
In The Catacombs do not miss the fifth  "Trial of Ascendancy" which you need to ascend in Act 3 or 4.  You will have to come back if you miss this.
Many new gems become available but we don't use any in this leveling setup

"Piety's Pets" quest
Awards Skill Point, don't skip this

"A Fixture of Fate" (Library Quest)
In the Imperial Gardens outside the Library do not miss the sixth  "Trial of Ascendancy" which you need to ascend in Act 3 or 4.  You will have to come back if you miss this.
***Bring vendor currencies with you to Siosa, needs to be in your inventory to purchase from Siosa***
Take Burning Damage Support as reward, do not use yet
Purchase Physical to Lightning Support and replace Added Lightning Damage with it in your Arc setup.  
Purchase Determination aura.  Activate if needed for defense (may need to deactivate skitterbots/herald to do so)
Purchase Molten Shell and Cast When Damage Taken, be careful not to level too high.  
Purchase and level Inspiration, include it in main damage setup whenever you start having mana problems.
If possible link those with Purifying Flame in a R-R-R.  Start with CWDT lv2, MS lv8, PF lv12 and upgrade if you get tankier.  
Optionally buy Smite and use as a temporary buff (only works with Sceptres)
Because of Smite try to prioritize equipping sceptres instead of wands from here on out.  Not mandatory if a wand is better than any sceptre, but go sceptre if you can.
If currency is available, buy and level (but do not use) Purity of Ice.  Low priority but will need way down the line when we transition to Chaos Innoculation.  


"The Sceptre of God"
Optional: this is the earliest you can choose to ascend, but since I'm having us take Liege of the Primordial first and golems aren't available until Act 4, this won't do you much good 
(Unless you have a friend to give you golem gems)
The Labyrinth is a "mini-hardcore", sending you back to the entrance and slightly reshuffling the layout if you die.  
This means dying is a big waste of time.
Bring a life flask, preferably one with bleed immunity on it, lots of the traps inflict bleed
Activate Vitality and Determination to counteract life loss if still having problems avoiding traps
If you still can't beat the Lab with all that, wait until you get more levels into Act 4 or 5 and try again.




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Act 4
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 "Breaking the Seal" quest
Take a golem as quest reward, purchase the others.
Include Flame Golem, Stone Golem, Ice Golem, Lightning Golem.  They do not necessarily need to be linked or together
Now is the time to do the Labyrinth if you haven't yet, and make sure you have Golem Commander on the regular skill tree.

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POST-LABYRINTH: GOLEMS
When you first beat the Lab at a specific area level, you get two Ascendancy points.
But there are small travel nodes between all the major named Ascendancy points, so in effect 1 lab=1 major node

Main damage aura will be Wrath for now instead of Malevolence
Curse will be Conductivity (still Elemental Weakness as secondary if you get Whispers of Doom)
You can still acquire and level in off-hand any ignite related skills and supports
On the tree target Golem Commander, Breath of Lightning, Stormweaver

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"An Indomitable Spirit" quest
Awards Skill Point, don't skip this

 "The Eternal Nightmare" quest (after accessing Belly of the Beast area)
Take Immolate for quest reward, it is sometimes a useful link for the ignite setup, you can always test it in POB to see if it is the right choice
Buy Ignite Proliferation from vendor and level for later
Same with Arcanist Brand,  Flame Surge, and Flammability, any of them you don't already have. Buy and find room to level them.
When you start using the brand (whenever you have more than 1 debuff to cast):
Be sure to aim the Brand so that it lands in the middle of the monster pack or near a boss to maximize coverage of the debuffs.

Before completing The Eternal Nightmare with the Act 4 final boss, this is the latest you should take your first Lab/Ascendancy.
If you haven't yet, do it now before the boss.

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Act 5
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If you have been slacking on life and resists, now is the time to really focus on those
Between Acts 5 and 6  (the halfway point of the campaign) you will will suffer a permanent -30% to all elemental resistances, so try to be as close to 105% as possible, since the max is 75%

"The Key to Freedom" quest
A utility flask is offered as a reward
My preference is Granite for Armour and to use it when in dangerous combat situations, overwhelmed by many small hits.
This will become more important in endgame maps, and we will have ways of automating flask use at that point

"In Service to Science" quest
Awards Skill Point, don't skip this

"Kitava's Torments" quest
Awards Skill Point, don't skip this

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Act 6
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If you haven't yet, go to the crafting bench and do everything you can to boost life and resistances.  
If your resists are under 50% you're going to have a bad time, and 75% is really worth working for.
By now you have likely allocated Whispers of Doom on your passive skill tree, letting you apply an additional curse.
I prefer to apply Flame Surge and the curses Elemental Weakness and Flammability/Conductivity all by linking them to Arcanist Brand (conductivity before Shaper of Flames, Flammability after)

"Fallen From Grace" quest
Technically optional, but realistically mandatory.  Awards 2 passive respecs and unlocks Lily Roth as a vendor to purchase ALL normal skill/support gems.

"Essence of Umbra" quest
In the Lower Prison do not miss the first new  "Trial of Ascendancy" which you need to ascend in Act 7 or 8.  You will have to come back if you miss this.
(the next two Labyrinths only require 3 trials each, not 6 like the first one did)

"The Father of War" quest
Awards Skill Point, don't skip this

"The Puppet Mistress" quest
Awards Skill Point, don't skip this

"The Cloven One" quest
Awards Skill Point, don't skip this

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Act 7
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"Essence of the Artist" quest
In the Crypt do not miss the second new  "Trial of Ascendancy" which you need to ascend in Act 7 or 8.  You will have to come back if you miss this.
In the Chamber of Sins Level 2 do not miss the third and final  "Trial of Ascendancy" which you need to ascend in Act 7 or 8.  You will have to come back if you miss this.

"The Queen of Despair" quest
Awards Skill Point, don't skip this

"The Master of a Million Faces" quest
Awards Skill Point, don't skip this

"Kishara's Star" quest
Awards Skill Point, don't skip this

Around now you can consider going to your Second Labyrinth and taking Shaper of Flames 
Notice that the Lab layout now has a higher area level and slightly more rooms, making it both harder and a bit longer than the first one
This is also when the Skill tree needs a bit of a respec, spec out of Heart of Thunder, bypass Lightning Walker to go around outside for fewer points, and start speccing into Acrimony and Breath of Flames
You will also need to change your support gem setup to prioritize ignite and proliferation.
Wave of Conviction-Ignite Proliferation-Burning Damage-Swift Affliction (sub in Inspiration if mana is dire)
Be particularly careful not to leave in Physical to Lightning Support, since that would brick your fire exposure.(shoutout YouTube viewer @mateusz54pl for pointing out I accidentally left that in)

Swap out Ice Golem for Chaos Golem


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Act 8
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"Love is Dead" quest
Awards Skill Point, don't skip this

"Reflection of Terror" quest
Awards Skill Point, don't skip this
In the Bath House near this quest do not miss the first  "Trial of Ascendancy" which you need to ascend at the end of Act 10.  You will have to come back if you miss this.

"The Gemling Legion" quest
Awards Skill Point, don't skip this

End of Act 8 is the latest you should be doing your  ^xAF602Second Labyrinth, get it before final act boss if you haven't yet.
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Act 9
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"The Storm Blade" quest leading to "Queen of the Sands" quest
Awards Skill Point, don't skip this

"The Ruler of Highgate" quest
Awards Skill Point, don't skip this
And give the feather to Irasha unless you are a monster

"Recurring Nightmare" quest
In the Tunnel do not miss the second  "Trial of Ascendancy" which you need to ascend at the end of Act 10.  You will have to come back if you miss this.

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Act 10
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"Vilenta's Vengeance" quest
Awards Skill Point, don't skip this

"An End to Hunger" quest
In The Ossuary do not miss the third and final  "Trial of Ascendancy" which you need to ascend at the end of Act 10.  You will have to come back if you miss this.

I recommend doing your Third Labyrinth before facing the final boss of Act 10.  
If your mana regeneration is painful, go with Mastermind of Discord.  If its manageable, go with Shaper of Storms for more damage.

You're about to get another resistance debuff and the Lab will be easier if you go now
It will also help in that final boss fight.
You will notice that the lab is once again harder and a bit longer than previous labyrinths.  You may start getting legitimately turned around/lost between rooms.
Be sure to check the map item when entering each new room to understand how many exists the room has.  Some exits are dead ends.
After beating final boss don't forget to talk to Lani to receive your two Skill Points as a reward

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Entering Maps
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If you have been slacking on life and resists since Act 6, now is the time to really focus on those again
After the campaign you will will suffer **another** permanent -30% to all  resistances so they start at -60% instead of 0, but in maps 75% is basically mandatory.
This means that each elemental resistance will need to total up to 60+75=135% between gear and skill tree.
Get Chaos Resistance where you can but do not overpay for it or compromise other things for it.  We will soon enough switch to Chaos Innoculation.

Purchase a Singularity Sceptre on trade, easy DPS upgrade that lasts a long time.

4-link setup would be Wave of Conviction-Ignite Proliferation-Physical to Lightning Support-Swift Affliction (sub in Inspiration if mana is dire)
Vaal Arc should be cheap at this point, and it's worth acquiring on trade, otherwise start Vaaling arcs you've been leveling.  The Vaal Arc buff helps a lot against tough single targets.
Once you have the "Influence" wheel on your skill tree and the Mana Mastery for 12% Mana res efficiency you should have enough spare mana to activate Tempest Shield
This does require equipping a shield to have active, but you already should have had one for Shield Charge.
Don't allocate Glancing Blows on your tree until you have taken some other block nodes on the tree, activated Tempest Shield, and gotten a recovery-on-block shield
Ideally that mod will come from Aegis Aurora

Adjustments above are aiming for 500k+ damage for early maps

Prioritize advancing your Atlas by completing different map layouts, it's smoother now with no individual layout items, just find a map token and run an incomplete map.  Easy.
If you need assistance making Chaos Orbs or Divine Orbs to trade for gear upgrades, see my Currency Farming guide here: https://youtu.be/-c0qS9quBI4?si=K_gPjlrzZLrT5U8O

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Endgame 1: Low Budget
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By tier 7-10 maps you might encounter a random Labyrinth Trial in maps,and if you complete it you get an "Offering to the Goddess", entry token to the 4th and final lab.
You can even just find an offering in fragment chests in Heist or Expedition, or buy one from other players.  The Labyrinth Trial is totally optional for this last lab, you only need the item.
You will take Mastermind of Discord with your final Ascendancy points.

These are your gear priorities once you have 3,000 life and 75% to all elemental resistances:
	*6-Link body armour for Arc
			*Corrupted 6 links are often cheap on trade.  Try to get one with a decent amount of life and resistances, hopefully with some Armour value on it
	*Two Call of the Brotherhood unique rings, ideally with 20 Turbulent Catalysts applied to each if you can afford it.
			Applying those catalysts increases the amount of lightning damage we convert to cold.
			Therefore they increase the amount of damage we get from Cold to Fire Support, which we should now use.
			New socket setup is B-B-G-R-R-R to include Inspiration support for mana issues.  (Arc-Unbound Ailments-Swift Affliction-Cold to Fire-Burning-Inspiration)
			Cruelty shows more damage than Unbound Ailments but it's hard to calculate because it depends on the strength of the initial hit, bosses might resist it.
	* Gloves with Eldritch implicit mod "Apply Fire Exposure on Hit" (and optionally the other mod for Ignites Spread so you can take prolif out of your links)
	* Take Wave of Conviction out of your build when you get that exposure mod
	* Eye of Malice unique helmet, and if versions with corrupted implicit modifiers are cheap, finding one with 90% mana res for socketed skills is one of our endgame options.
	* Do not take Eye of Malice untill you are applying exposure on every hit with Eldritch influenced gloves or Master of Fire cluster notable.
	* Good flasks, ideally with "gain 2-3 charges when hit" prefix.  Remember duplicate suffixes do not stack, so get a variety of suffixes.
			Flask recommendations are Divine Life, Granite, Basalt, Silver, Quicksilver
	* Enough instilling orbs and glassblowers baubles to use the flask automation recipes at the crafting bench
			I recommend "use when full" instead of "use at end of effect" but it's personal preference.
	* Small cluster jewel with 2 passive nodes and "Enduring Composure" for endurance charge generation

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Endgame 2: Initial Swap to Chaos Innoculation
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DO NOT DO THIS without planning it out in POB first.  Understand exactly which attributes, resistances, mana res efficiency, and energy shield numbers you need.

We need a 6L Incandescent Heart body armour and an Aegis Aurora shield.  

We also need ES base type gear at gloves, boots, and potentially helmet, you should play with it in POB to be sure you have enough.  
I wouldn't consider switching over until I could be sure I would have 3,500+ ES with Discipline active and Stone Golem up
The need for Discipline makes our mana tight.

We may need to temporarily switch away from Eye of Malice to a rare helmet with mana res efficiency on it, unless Eye of Malice with mana res corruption is cheap
Last but not least we may need Enlighten support gems, which can be expensive.  
I rarely if ever build to require Enlighten lv 4 which is usually prohibitively expensive, but even level 3 can be a little steep.

When all of that is prepared and your planned POB confirms you will have 3,300+ES and over 100+ mana unreserved pull the trigger


Incremental upgrades you can make at the CI stage regardless of whether you have gone to Melding/Nebulis yet or not:
* 	Quality up your support gems and golem gems. 
* 	Get a 20/20 vaal arc. 
* 	Get a good roll on your incandescent heart's damage mod and get a good corruption. 
* 	Get an amulet with +1 lightning skills. 
* 	Upgrade to awakened support gems if the cost is reasonable. 
* 	Use cinderswallow urn or Atziri's promise flask or even both. Oriath's end can come later on for clear speed. 
* 	Good boot implicits for damage, ailment immunity, or both 
* 	Runegrafts for offense and defense: Fortress for global defenses and Gemcraft for +1 to level of all support gems
* 	Lethal Pride to take pressure off Strength requirements and get faster ignites/%increased burning damage
*	Cluster Jewels: Prioritize things like Sadist, Snowstorm, Prismatic Heart, Astonishing Affliction, Overshock 
*	Followed by things like Smoking Remains, Inspired Oppression, Blowback, Cooked Alive, Vile Reinvigoration, etc, lots of cluster options


We are shooting for 3mil+  unbuffed Arc DPS, 9+mil Vaal Arc with buffs up, and vastly improved tankiness with this upgrade.
If you take most or all of the damage recommendations above, your damage will be even higher than that.

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Endgame 3: "Cruising Altitude" Melding/Nebulis/90% All Res
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Whenever we go to the Nebulis setup we will also need more sources of max cold res, either base jewels or cluster jewels with Winter Prowler
The tight mana from incorporating  Purity of Ice means we will need Charisma anointed on our amulet, an expensive anoint at 2 golden oils and 1 opalescent
Alternatively, two ilvl 84 mana res small clusters, only lvl 84 can roll the 35% increased effect mod which we need.  This allows us to anoint whispers of doom for second curse (assuming Mercenary is not providing extra curses).
Make sure you have an amulet you want to keep a while before investing that into it, hopefully either Replica Dragonfang or +1 lightning gems, a variety of needed stats, and space for -7 mana cost craft
We will also need 1 or more small cluster jewels with some reservation efficiency modifiers even if anointing Charisma, just don't need the expensive ones until you want Whispers of Doom

Your main goals in order to make this upgrade:
* Get the mana reservation efficiency to include Purity of Ice
* Get to 85%+ MAX resistances (and preferably 90%) even after the penalty from Melding of the Flesh
* Get to 85%+ Base resistances (and preferably 90%) even after the penalty from Melding of the Flesh
* Acquire Nebulis, preferably  with Lightning/Cold rolls totaling up to at least 38% (20%/18%, 19%/19%, 19%/20% etc, obviously 20/20 is best)
* Don't worry about Nebulis implicit unless you have currency to spare
 
Things you can take now if the price is right (and/or upgrade to piecemeal throughout the phase after going Nebulis): 
replica dragonfangs flight, 
pact of beidat, 
greater chain support, 
runegraft of the fortress, 
runegraft of gemcraft, 
20/20 vaal arc, 
stormshroud 
100% shock avoidance (boots+abyssal jewel is often a cheaper option than boots alone) 
cinderswallow urn, 
possibly oriaths end if explosions feel necessary for clear.      

   
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Endgame 4: High Budget Pre-Mageblood 
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The last stop before Mageblood.  Any of the "get this when you can" updates listed in the previous stage can come now.  

You can also try for a red nightmare+fire res tattoo setup and Rumis concoction to go for pure block instead of glancing blows.  

Speaking of Tattoos, we have an excess of intelligence so we can pick up energy shield tattoos to beef up our defenses a bit. 

You can try for an improved Nebulis depending on price, same with aligned colors on your sockets for quality bonuses anywhere you didn't have them before.

Base jewels are still hard to improve since you don't have Mageblood freeing up so much maximum cold res, but you can consider modest improvements to have more useful mods (administrative mods like resist and attributes if needed, otherwise %ES, DOT multi, fire DOT multi, ailments faster, % increased fire/cold/light).

No particular order, play with POB settings on your actual build to see which of these would have the highest impact, and weigh that against cost
Always remember to double check what a change will do to your resistances and available mana

	* Corrupted Eye of Malice with 80% mana res, if you don't already have
	* Nebulis with Ignite speed implicit if you didn't already have
	* Oriath's End Bismuth Flask for explody effect.
			Keep the POB box for this unchecked so you don't fool yourself thinking your resists are higher than they are
			Flasks fall off, especially during boss fights, and you wanted maxed resists WITHOUT this
	* Watchers Eye with 1 offensive and 1 defensive mod.  
			Offensive mod: either of the Malevolence damage mods.  
			Defensive: most of the Determination ones work.  I like reduced damage from crits.
	* Good Large Cluster Jewels with 3 good notables, or two good ones located on the sides of the jewel for pathing purposes
			Top nodes are Sadist, Prismatic Heart, Overshock, but many work well
	* Lethal Pride+Impossible Escape shenanigans (see tree+jewels video)
	* Stormshroud and shock immunity boots for full ailment immunity
	* Call of the Brotherhoods with good corruptions (Bleed Immunity, Malevolence aura effect) preferably with pre-existing quality
			* If no quality, have to roll the dice with Tainted Catalysts, normal catalysts don't work on corrupted items
	* Incandescent Heart with +2 duration corruption or +1 all gems corruption (ultra endgame option has both)
	* Enough scattered mana res efficiency to allocate Whispers of Doom instead of Charisma on amulet and save those passive points, or spend on something else if Merc is giving the bonus curses

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Endgame 5: Mageblood and Beyond 
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The final rework, this is for ultra budget chasers only.  

Mageblood+sapphire flask with 95% increased effect allows us to drop most of our other sources of max cold res, shock avoidance on flasks lets us do whatever we want with our boots, and the fat stack of armour it gives us makes aegis recovery better.  

The freed up jewel space from max cold res can be used on base jewels with faster ailments+DOT multi and a watchers eye
Anything you didn't do with jewels in Endgame 4 is available now.

Other high budget upgrades could include: 
	* 21/20 vaal arc, 
	* An aegis with the new +2 cold corruption (lol good luck), 
	* Corrupted rings with bleed immunity, or aura res efficiency, or DOT multi, 
	* A Heist amulet with some combination of +4 or more to Arc (via all skills and lightning gems) and/or DOT multi.  Mageblood enables this by loosening resistance issues, letting you get dexterity on more suffixes which dragonfangs may have previously been propping up.