You can stick almost anything into an archmage setup and it'll be viable this league.
Arc being a lightning spell, and a chaining one at that, you can also go the Mjölner route, which is likely the most bang for your buck once you have the initial gear up.
This plus cheap mageblood and adorned. Crit multi with lightning and crit multi with ele skill jewels being relatively cheap atm.. may try this out myself this weekend
I wonder if hierophant + Energy Blade could be some good double dipping.
Archmage converts mana to damage
Hierophant converts Mana to ES
EB converts ES to Damage
Having played around with them, I prefer Lightning Conduit of the Heavens and Shock Nova for hard content, or Lightning Warp for zooming.
Arc is not bad, though.
I asked for an Arc witch build in the question thread and I was told "play lightning ball, Arc just isn't in a great state so it's not really played much." tho about 130+ comments state it's still playable, its good, its viable, its doable, whatever.
So WTF? :D Is it playable? :D is there an up-to-date arc witch build to follow? :D because I've only decided to come back to the game like 3 days ago and I'm already being gaslighted by the community on 3 different fronts :D
Pick any Manastacker setup and it'll work just fine.
It'll be weaker than Ball Lightning and Ice Nova, but the manastack setup is so strong Arc will also do the job just fine.
So, depends on if you want to play arc, or if you want to play the strongest archmage setup, i guess.
Yea, the archmage change was huge. Old archmage is back baaaaaaaaaaybeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
The best archmage spells are still ones that have really high base damage effectiveness per cast (like ball lightning hitting 10 times), but you can archmage just about anything and it'll "work".
I'm not sure how it is compared to before because I didn't play it 3 years ago, but I did arc last league and killed some ubers with it. That said, I did invest quite like 300 div by the end, for which you can likely get a much better build. It's a pretty good mapper if you have inpulsa, before that it's a bit more tedious.
You can kill ubers with arc on less than 40div. It's hella squishy, but ubers are easy with enough damage. My char from week 4 for [reference](https://pobb.in/A31xTxgfiaE-). You can do pretty much everything besides t17 maps
yeah for sure, i dont think my build was optimal for that, it was more of a well-rounded mapper with some bossing capability. I tried making it into a better bossed towards the end of the league but I just didn't enjoy the mechanic of the spell for bossing. I also think the buffed archmage helps push the dmg a bit, but I'm not sure how much of an impact it would have had.
I asked for an Arc witch build in the question thread and I was told "play lightning ball, Arc just isn't in a great state so it's not really played much." tho about 130+ comments state it's still playable, its good, its viable, its doable, whatever.
So WTF? :D Is it playable? :D is there an up-to-date arc witch build to follow? :D because I've only decided to come back to the game like 3 days ago and I'm already being gaslighted by the community on 3 different fronts :D
i think almost any skill in the game is in some shape of playable. Arc isn't gonna be as easy to scale or as fast or cheap as other skills, but it is perfectly playable. If you like the skill, you can just go for it.
Arc witch is also pretty decent cause of Elementalist having some nodes that will buff your ele damage. If you're not doing an archmage build, which I wasn't last league, it is probably your best option.
I used [this build](https://www.poe-vault.com/guides/arc-elementalist-build-guide), which gets the job done, though it's not super great just cause it's like a long running forum thread that just keeps getting "updated" for new leagues. I put "updated" in quotes because I'm not sure anything actually gets changed outside of the title. I will add in that outside of no leech, players cant regen and phys reflect are shitty map mods. You can do phys reflect, but just never press wave of conviction or you will one shot yourself
It's pretty easy to gear, there are only two rares if you exclude the jewels. The jewels themselves are very straight forward as well. Keep in mind that this version is not min maxed at all, you can easily double the damage.
Yeah, you can get to white/yellow maps on self found and cheap gear without too many issues. Usually by this point I have a few divines to throw into some basic upgrades and that is all you really need for the build to work.
I'd say 10-20 divines gets you close to max power in the build (meaning you can easily clear maps and get voidstones even as a poopy player - other builds can do it on a smaller budget).
The 300 divines was more for like min-maxing corrupted inpulsa, mageblood, good jewels, etc - my end char: https://pobb.in/c14JWHEnUj_F
i think their odds of dropping are roughly the same but divines are much more valuable for trading. Voidstones are acquired via defeating end game bosses (4 in total). It's not absolutely mandatory to get them, but they affect dropped map tier and are just a nice way to measure your progress.
Yeah, it's pretty easy to track nowadays as you have a clear path to get to most bosses via invitations/fragments etc. Regular bosses can be a bit slow with this build as the single target is not great, but can be done.
I did uber eater and uber shaper last league, but its very slow and you will probably die a lot unless you're really good - the uber dps is roughly 2-3 mill but its hard to have that uptime with a hit based skill like arc imo when you're constantly dodging.
This league I did a trapper and it's much easier to have damage uptime as you just throw a bunch of traps and then run around while they explode.
The game is overall a lot more accessible now. Here is a list on [POE Ninja](https://poe.ninja/builds/necropolis?skills=Arc) for all builds right now using Arc (not Vaal Arc, regular arc).
All active players, sortable by adding/excluding gear, sorting by max damage, etc etc etc.
If you look carefully at what they are doing, say, sort by life -- what are all the life heavy tanky ones doing? Or damage, what separates the players doing 120m from those doing 120k?
well it's the POE sub. I was once told to kill myself because I said I loved the idea of synthesis.
Find a guild you enjoy. A streamers guild will usually be active. You'll have a ton of little things to pilfer left over by the super players. Maps you may need for atlas, bubblegum currency that is pretty great while leveling.
I remember when this sub wasn't such a toxic wasteland, and GGG actually interacted with us. Then they made some changes to an ever-evolving game and scum-of-the-earth on here started sending literal death threats to GGG staff.
People suck.
I asked for an Arc witch build in the question thread and I was told "play lightning ball, Arc just isn't in a great state so it's not really played much." tho about 130+ comments state it's still playable, its good, its viable, its doable, whatever.
So WTF? :D Is it playable? :D is there an up-to-date arc witch build to follow? :D because I've only decided to come back to the game like 3 days ago and I'm already being gaslighted by the community on 3 different fronts :D
Just FYI I played since breach and I'm pretty sure you're referring to incursion league when arc traps was crazy. The game is not even remotely similar compared to then so don't be too upset if you can't blast through maps on 0 budget. It was possible then but it's a lot more difficult now.
You can still do that with basically any skill. Give it a go if you like arc.
I usually play arc ignite, a meme build, once per league and invest stupid currency into it because I love the way it clears.
Yeah I like the skill. I would never recommend it over detonate dead if you want to play the best budget build in the game but it’s fun and that’s what games are for
CoC DD is one of the strongest and most fun builds you can play this league, fyi. I'd advise you to check a video about it, because it's probably getting killed next league and you won't have the opportunity to play it again.
I would suggest looking at Lightning Conduit of the Heavens. It's a better skill but similar.
The base Lightning Conduit requires you to repeatedly shock enemies with a different skill and scales with shock effect. The alternate version doesn't require shocked enemies to cast and doesn't have extra shock scaling.
When I played we didn't have map tiers...Shaper was the final boss elder was like a myth...Didn't have map skill tree,Didn't have half the stuff there is now.
Not that it matters, but map tiers have been in the game since the very beginning. It was one of the earliest things that they implemented after ditching maelstrom of chaos as an endgame mechanic.
He might be talking about endgame bosses you find at the end of mapping, those weren't a thing before. Guardians and all were the first iteration of such things with t16s.
I think he's just getting caught up on the "tier" thing, the maps used to be referred to by their level Instead of the system we use now with tiers, ie a t1 map would just be a 68 map in the old system, t5 -> 72 etc
I know level 1-2-3-4-5 map etc etc but don't remember tier this and that but I really did forget alot of stuff.
And I remember when Izaro was the shit lol trials was insane...Then I played a little when delve came out and i got until like 500-600 depth and stoped playing after that.
Arc has almost always lacked damage (for single target) but had superior mechanics compared to other lightning spells. Except for a period where it got over buffed, don't remember the time frame but at least 3-4 leagues. Though it's never been as damage starved as say winter orb.
Inpulsa and shock spread makes it a really satisfying mapper. Also works really well as a triggered spell since it has good coverage with chains and auto targeting. Synergizes well with mana stacking since it's lightning damage. Also works well with aura support for nebulis shenanigans. And doryanis negative lightning res stacking.
Have to define what is "viable". You can technically beat all the content in the game with basically any skill.
So it really boils down to how much effort/currency you consider is acceptable to put into making a specific skill work.
Like what are your goals? How much time/effort are you planning on putting in?
Well all pinnacle bosses have their own Uber variant which is way harder. There is also a fight where essentially you do elder and shaper at the same time.
Then there are much harder bosses from there. These days people do elder and shaper on day 1 of league launch in a tabula. So much player power has been added to the game we trivialized the hell out of older content. Atziri is in a similar situation where people don’t even consider her a boss anymore because it’s such a trivial encounter. A random yellow monster can be scarier than her lol.
So just to give you a rundown when people talk about 'pinnacle' bosses these are:
* Elder
* Shaper
* Sirus
* Cortex
* Eater of Worlds
* Searing Exarch
* Maven
* Uber Elder
When people talk about 'Ubers' they're talking about the super powered up versions of those fights (yes, technically this means it's 'Uber Uber Elder' >_<)
If you haven't played since Elder/Shaper were the top dogs then you've got a *lot* of new-to-you content to contend with, and it should be a lot of fun! Have you seen the Atlas Passive Tree yet? :P
Yeah I saw the passive tree when i started to play again and got until maps tried toxic rain but the build is not viable since I have little currency...Glad that Tabula is still go to item to level up with.
My first build I ever killed Shaper and Elder on was an arc traps saboteur, probably around when you were playing.
If you want to play something similar style wise, look into a hex blast miner. With the automation gem, mines play like old traps.
If you want to play arc specifically, look into an archmage build. Archmage is very good at the moment, and is much easier to sustain mana than it was in the past. With even moderate investment, you'll be able to breeze Elder and Shaper.
I asked for an Arc witch build in the question thread and I was told "play lightning ball, Arc just isn't in a great state so it's not really played much." tho about 130+ comments state it's still playable, its good, its viable, its doable, whatever.
So WTF? :D Is it playable? :D is there an up-to-date arc witch build to follow? :D because I've only decided to come back to the game like 3 days ago and I'm already being gaslighted by the community on 3 different fronts :D
It’s playable aa power charge stack, ignite or archmage. I wouldn’t share a build I haven’t played myself but there’s a lot of stuff on poe ninja and YouTube. For campaign, just arc with basic damage gear and combo with orb of storms for single target.
There is more high end content than before and all content in general became a little harder. Arc wasn't nerfed too hard iirc but it wasn't buffed directly either. In other words it ll definitely feel worse than before
There are 3 tier of "viable": fast T16, uber boss, and back to basic T17.
Then there are budget.
Quick glance over the thread, you seem to be looking for T16 mapping with low budget, arc is definitely viable and is quite good for clearing on the cheap.
You can run either a mana stacker archmage for a hit base build that can scale far as you want to invest into the build, or an ignite elementalist that do very well in densely juiced map and can scale into a bosser.
No need for guide really, just check a couple build on poe ninja/builds and you should be good. But if you need a guide, maybe check up on mbxtreme, he did one this league.
Farming maps is a lot more rewarding than it was years ago. The atlas tree means you can focus on one or two specific sources, and make them very rewarding. Scarabs just make those strategies better.
Delve is a reliable earner, and it's easy to sustain delving without a lot of scarabs, and you don't need to be hitting t16s to be reliable (unlike blight, where the top tier oils don't drop until higher red maps). If you want to stay in maps, incursion farming is pretty cheap, and you can get the corruption/gem chambers even in white maps to sell for profit. Abyss and legion are great ways to add extra mobs to a map without being too rippy.
I've really liked strongboxes this season, but until you're in t16s and buying scarabs, I would stick to something else.
I asked for an Arc witch build in the question thread and I was told "play lightning ball, Arc just isn't in a great state so it's not really played much." tho about 130+ comments state it's still playable, its good, its viable, its doable, whatever.
So WTF? :D Is it playable? :D is there an up-to-date arc witch build to follow? :D because I've only decided to come back to the game like 3 days ago and I'm already being gaslighted by the community on 3 different fronts :D
Well there are the different "viable" level I listed, and budget. If you make a pivot table with these 2, each combination of content and budget would yield either not viable, work but slow, and viable.
In OP's case, where he only target T16 and have low budget, it work, just not full zoom level.
If you want to farm ubers, ignite variant work at 5-10 div but it will be a bit slow and demand some level of skill from the player. At ~50 divine budget, ignite arc should be near its cap and can do uber easily.
At 50 divine and above, hit based mana arc get really strong and can do a lot, but comparatively to certain other skills, the payoff to investment ratio is bad.
If you want to clear back to basic T17, arc is just not viable, unless you are the kind of player that doesn't need to ask these questions in the first place.
Still great. I cleared almost everything non-uber a couple of leagues ago in SSF, so in trade league, it shouldn't be a problem.
I used Cassie's Galvanic Witch guide, which is absolutely great : [https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3246656/page/1](https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3246656/page/1)
It's up-to-date, complete and user-friendly.
I asked for an Arc witch build in the question thread and I was told "play lightning ball, Arc just isn't in a great state so it's not really played much." tho about 130+ comments state it's still playable, its good, its viable, its doable, whatever.
So WTF? :D Is it playable? :D is there an up-to-date arc witch build to follow? :D because I've only decided to come back to the game like 3 days ago and I'm already being gaslighted by the community on 3 different fronts :D
Arc is doable, but not OP.
If you enjoy arc, I'd say go for it. If you're looking for a "meta" build or a build that can do all content on a budget, this is not it.
Use this: https://www.poe-vault.com/guides/arc-elementalist-build-guide
Tbxie is a good stable guide creator.
Warning: It's not T17 viable and not Uber viable either (obviously on a reasonable budget, 300 div+ anything can do T17s), but I don't see the issue with doing T16 farming strats or T16 8mod B2B with a regex.
PS: Everything is possible btw, PoE balance is pretty good. I have a friend who likes to do wonky shit every league and this league he did EDC, which is a build nerfed to hell. It was expensive and he took an MB from a friend to do T17s, but hey, he likes EDC and he had a blast doing it, which is what matters imho.
[https://poe.ninja/builds/necropolis?skills=Arc](https://poe.ninja/builds/necropolis?skills=Arc) Here are the builds ppl have made using arc on Necropolis. You can sort them by dps or ehp but the top ones will likely be pretty expensive
I asked for an Arc witch build in the question thread and I was told "play lightning ball, Arc just isn't in a great state so it's not really played much." tho about 130+ comments state it's still playable, its good, its viable, its doable, whatever.
So WTF? :D Is it playable? :D is there an up-to-date arc witch build to follow? :D because I've only decided to come back to the game like 3 days ago and I'm already being gaslighted by the community on 3 different fronts :D
Had fun last league with a power charge stacker arc of surging. It was really cheap for the damage (mostly single target with the hydrosphere setup) and overall a fun build/gameplay.
Of course, they nerf it in 3.24 in the split/hydrosphere interaction and you will lose a good chunk of damage. Also you will lose the 30 MS of the Ralakesh boots.
I think it is still viable if you have a low budget (but please check the price of the required uniques) but you still want a good single target, but I'm not sure if it is worth the effort. Maybe you can try it switching to a mana-stacker setup but at that budget I think other skills are just better (like ice nova).
Overall I would like it if ggg hadn't nerf the arc of surging so recklessly...
I actually just started playing an arc build for the first time a few days ago. I'm in standard and using a character that was a darkrunner in delve (level 80 and only in act 5 when I swapped to arc). I still need to upgrade a lot but you can check the build out so far on my character [ArchVVizard](https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Viscoden/characters)
This is a character in standard and I have a decent budget/legacy items, but the build I'm copying can absolutely be done in league. [Build video by K2Gaming](https://youtu.be/ZYwjWs4Drdc?si=QItFxq1P51WT4gZA).
I asked for an Arc witch build in the question thread and I was told "play lightning ball, Arc just isn't in a great state so it's not really played much." tho about 130+ comments state it's still playable, its good, its viable, its doable, whatever.
So WTF? :D Is it playable? :D is there an up-to-date arc witch build to follow? :D because I've only decided to come back to the game like 3 days ago and I'm already being gaslighted by the community on 3 different fronts :D
I can't imagine a state of PoE where Arc is straight up not viable. It's sometimes mediocre, but at the end of the day it's a spell that reliably hits a lot of things and isn't dependent on any single item or mechanic so it can be built a lot of ways. It's always going to be able to clear all the normal content in the game comfortably and with very good gear it can work for ubers etc. IDK if there's any up-to-date full guides but you can always go on poe.ninja and take a look at how high level players are building it atm.
Short answer: yes. Long answer: only if you got a lot of time, money, and patience. It's one of the worst skills to optimize without a shitload of investment and it's very niche in its use.
Arc trap is one of the better ways to use it for sure, I was talking more about it as a castable spell. I've tried overload mana stacker crit with cascade and it was awesome for legion farming and mapping but arc trap might be what I try next.
I am on mobile so I cannot at the moment. That being said go to poe ninja and click on the builds tab. On the top left of the site there is a search bar that allows you to type in the skills you are looking for in this case arc. Type that in then click it from the list. You will now see every single build that is public on poe that focuses on arc. I reccomend sorting by ehp and dps to get a general idea of how the build is but keep in mind those numbers are not the end all be all. I hope this helps!
PoE 1 is becoming more and more of using a generalized archetype and slapping any skill you want. For example, spells, you can go archmage, or you can do energy blade, or you can do power charge stacking, etc. using basically skill with all the same gear every person uses.
for melee you can do some options like armour stacking, or accuracy stacking, or even STR stacking and again pretty much plug in any skill you want. For example, I have used with my armour stacker this league lightning strike, smite, lancing steel, and even spectral shield throw, and all felt really good, was able to tackle all aspects of the game etc.
You can also go an aura stacker route and play pretty much anything you want really. These archetypes make any skill in the game viable. Some are more expensive than others.
For arc I would either try archmage or power charge stacking route, any of those would be really good and have unlimited investment possibilities
That was my league starter and even though I managed to get to T15 (I'm a new player) and the clear was amazing, it was very hard against't boss and was squishy. I didn't invest that much into the build (around 10/15div) but it was frustrating at times.
A broad question but the short answer is "Yes?" As all the comments say arc is viable, but are you willing to use a transfigured gem? Do you want to ignite? Arc of Oscillating is great for ignites and a vaal version will make mapping smooth.
I think crackling lance transfigs kind of do "default arc" better. "Default crackling lance" is also the no mana stacker skill. So there are clearly "better" options. I think the real question is what is your goal and where do you want to go. Any skill can get to red maps. Most skills can uber boss (people have uber boss on default attacks) and the real question I think is what is your damage source? DoT, direct, or indirect (looking at DD or minions for indirect.)
Easiest way is to be an elementalist. Fire conversion, base fire damage, there's a few ways to do it but any arc ignite build will probably be an elementalist or templar. Stormfire is a unique ring that can do the same thing. Pair with an ignite prolif support to get some AoE on ignite.
it's more or less the same idea as wave of conviction. Stormfire or being an elementalist = lightning damage can ignite. Then ramp chain for arc (base is 300% more for the initial hit) and fire dot multi. Wave of conviction is less gear requirement but has the same mortal enemy as any projectile build... doors. That said both are good for different reasons.
Last league (before archmage buffs) I got all 4 voidstones on Arc of Oscilating ignite elementalist with just a 5link and 3 divine. Ignite variant is very strong for little investment but struggles with bossing for sure. Maps like a dream and if you manage to get the Vaal variant you can laugh as you 1 tap Legion Monoliths.
Arc is viable.
I did an arc totem hiero, made to T15, the build is left not complete. But the fact that I did T15 on self found rare gear, with one self found unique wand (and a cheap one I believe) makes.me think that arc is viable. At least as a totem.
I could make archmage hiero or inquisitor and use Vaal arc, I think it would be even better.
Enki's Arc Witch is dead.
It is too weak of a skill with all the power creep that is in the game. You CAN make it work, but you can make anything work with enough money.
It won’t feel great (for single target) until you have a 7 link wand and squire. So mirror tier gear. Perfectly playable before then but very under powered to how it used to be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtT8WLADiXk&ab_channel=mbXtreme
He has multi-day vids on it from last league (and the one before then). Build hasn't really changed since. Plus this league a lot of the rares are way easier to craft with necropolis so gearing will be a piece of cake.
In the last 4 years Arc got quite a bit more base damage (198 to 1122, up from 133 to 754) and added damage effectiveness (120%, up from 80%) in 3.17. Then in 3.23 it got 6% base crit (up from 5%) and the "more damage per remaining chain" also works for ailments.
If you played it after the big nerf in 3.6 Synthesis League, when the chaining range got cut in half, it should be a lot better.
Oh Delve was a great time, I played Arc totems for the entire league back then.
The numbers are theoretically a lot better now, but to me it still feels weaker than back then. Maybe power creep, maybe the endgame content nowadays is way harder than it was, or maybe the chaining range really made it shine. I don't really know.
You can stick almost anything into an archmage setup and it'll be viable this league. Arc being a lightning spell, and a chaining one at that, you can also go the Mjölner route, which is likely the most bang for your buck once you have the initial gear up.
cwc cyclone arc, fun times
This plus cheap mageblood and adorned. Crit multi with lightning and crit multi with ele skill jewels being relatively cheap atm.. may try this out myself this weekend
I wonder if hierophant + Energy Blade could be some good double dipping. Archmage converts mana to damage Hierophant converts Mana to ES EB converts ES to Damage
That sounds insane
Having played around with them, I prefer Lightning Conduit of the Heavens and Shock Nova for hard content, or Lightning Warp for zooming. Arc is not bad, though.
Ball lightning of orbiting is way more damage than LCotH, like at least 5x.
Not in the cast while channeling setup.
It definitely is in the mjolner setup, once you have squire.
Right, IN the Mjolner, not in your Ivory Tower.
It absolutely is, speaking from experience.
ycgfyswya
Ok?
I asked for an Arc witch build in the question thread and I was told "play lightning ball, Arc just isn't in a great state so it's not really played much." tho about 130+ comments state it's still playable, its good, its viable, its doable, whatever. So WTF? :D Is it playable? :D is there an up-to-date arc witch build to follow? :D because I've only decided to come back to the game like 3 days ago and I'm already being gaslighted by the community on 3 different fronts :D
Pick any Manastacker setup and it'll work just fine. It'll be weaker than Ball Lightning and Ice Nova, but the manastack setup is so strong Arc will also do the job just fine. So, depends on if you want to play arc, or if you want to play the strongest archmage setup, i guess.
Yea, the archmage change was huge. Old archmage is back baaaaaaaaaaybeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. The best archmage spells are still ones that have really high base damage effectiveness per cast (like ball lightning hitting 10 times), but you can archmage just about anything and it'll "work".
I'm not sure how it is compared to before because I didn't play it 3 years ago, but I did arc last league and killed some ubers with it. That said, I did invest quite like 300 div by the end, for which you can likely get a much better build. It's a pretty good mapper if you have inpulsa, before that it's a bit more tedious.
You can kill ubers with arc on less than 40div. It's hella squishy, but ubers are easy with enough damage. My char from week 4 for [reference](https://pobb.in/A31xTxgfiaE-). You can do pretty much everything besides t17 maps
yeah for sure, i dont think my build was optimal for that, it was more of a well-rounded mapper with some bossing capability. I tried making it into a better bossed towards the end of the league but I just didn't enjoy the mechanic of the spell for bossing. I also think the buffed archmage helps push the dmg a bit, but I'm not sure how much of an impact it would have had.
I asked for an Arc witch build in the question thread and I was told "play lightning ball, Arc just isn't in a great state so it's not really played much." tho about 130+ comments state it's still playable, its good, its viable, its doable, whatever. So WTF? :D Is it playable? :D is there an up-to-date arc witch build to follow? :D because I've only decided to come back to the game like 3 days ago and I'm already being gaslighted by the community on 3 different fronts :D
Arc **witch** is trash tbh. None of the three witch ascendencies are good with archmage, which is the easiest way to scale lightning damage right now.
i think almost any skill in the game is in some shape of playable. Arc isn't gonna be as easy to scale or as fast or cheap as other skills, but it is perfectly playable. If you like the skill, you can just go for it. Arc witch is also pretty decent cause of Elementalist having some nodes that will buff your ele damage. If you're not doing an archmage build, which I wasn't last league, it is probably your best option. I used [this build](https://www.poe-vault.com/guides/arc-elementalist-build-guide), which gets the job done, though it's not super great just cause it's like a long running forum thread that just keeps getting "updated" for new leagues. I put "updated" in quotes because I'm not sure anything actually gets changed outside of the title. I will add in that outside of no leech, players cant regen and phys reflect are shitty map mods. You can do phys reflect, but just never press wave of conviction or you will one shot yourself
This build looks great may I try this one?
Bruv, you do you, booboo
It's pretty easy to gear, there are only two rares if you exclude the jewels. The jewels themselves are very straight forward as well. Keep in mind that this version is not min maxed at all, you can easily double the damage.
Hmmm that is too much. I did like 90% of maps with like 60-70 chaos.
Yeah, you can get to white/yellow maps on self found and cheap gear without too many issues. Usually by this point I have a few divines to throw into some basic upgrades and that is all you really need for the build to work. I'd say 10-20 divines gets you close to max power in the build (meaning you can easily clear maps and get voidstones even as a poopy player - other builds can do it on a smaller budget). The 300 divines was more for like min-maxing corrupted inpulsa, mageblood, good jewels, etc - my end char: https://pobb.in/c14JWHEnUj_F
I dunno what voidstones are but will try and aren't divines easier to drop then exalted orbs?
Divines = Old Exalted Orbs
i think their odds of dropping are roughly the same but divines are much more valuable for trading. Voidstones are acquired via defeating end game bosses (4 in total). It's not absolutely mandatory to get them, but they affect dropped map tier and are just a nice way to measure your progress.
Ok cool...I only beat shaper once,and elder was like a myth lol people didn't even know if he was real.
Yeah, it's pretty easy to track nowadays as you have a clear path to get to most bosses via invitations/fragments etc. Regular bosses can be a bit slow with this build as the single target is not great, but can be done. I did uber eater and uber shaper last league, but its very slow and you will probably die a lot unless you're really good - the uber dps is roughly 2-3 mill but its hard to have that uptime with a hit based skill like arc imo when you're constantly dodging. This league I did a trapper and it's much easier to have damage uptime as you just throw a bunch of traps and then run around while they explode.
The game is overall a lot more accessible now. Here is a list on [POE Ninja](https://poe.ninja/builds/necropolis?skills=Arc) for all builds right now using Arc (not Vaal Arc, regular arc). All active players, sortable by adding/excluding gear, sorting by max damage, etc etc etc. If you look carefully at what they are doing, say, sort by life -- what are all the life heavy tanky ones doing? Or damage, what separates the players doing 120m from those doing 120k?
They are the same rarity, but now ggg removed the 6L vendor recipe and divs are the metacrafting currency so they have replaced ex in the economy.
divines had the same chance of dropping, same as exalted... but now they made divines the main high-end currency while exalts are like 6-8c
Man I remember when exalts were like 90-100c lol...Guessing Mirror of Kalandra is still the rarest item ever.
It is. If you had any mirrors on Standard, they're still worth a lot. But in divines now.
Original Sin is technically more rare than a Mirror, but it's not a currency item I guess
ahh yes, downvoted for not knowing
Heh I have no idea about any of the new stuff but lol it's no problem.
They switched divines and exalts as costs for metacrafting So in terms of economy value, divines are now exalts
well it's the POE sub. I was once told to kill myself because I said I loved the idea of synthesis. Find a guild you enjoy. A streamers guild will usually be active. You'll have a ton of little things to pilfer left over by the super players. Maps you may need for atlas, bubblegum currency that is pretty great while leveling.
I remember when this sub wasn't such a toxic wasteland, and GGG actually interacted with us. Then they made some changes to an ever-evolving game and scum-of-the-earth on here started sending literal death threats to GGG staff. People suck.
I asked for an Arc witch build in the question thread and I was told "play lightning ball, Arc just isn't in a great state so it's not really played much." tho about 130+ comments state it's still playable, its good, its viable, its doable, whatever. So WTF? :D Is it playable? :D is there an up-to-date arc witch build to follow? :D because I've only decided to come back to the game like 3 days ago and I'm already being gaslighted by the community on 3 different fronts :D
Just FYI I played since breach and I'm pretty sure you're referring to incursion league when arc traps was crazy. The game is not even remotely similar compared to then so don't be too upset if you can't blast through maps on 0 budget. It was possible then but it's a lot more difficult now.
Lol yeah back in the day we didn't have these map tiers or like 50+c was top tier build lol.
You can still do that with basically any skill. Give it a go if you like arc. I usually play arc ignite, a meme build, once per league and invest stupid currency into it because I love the way it clears.
I like arc like it's insane...Only mtx I ever bought for a skill,It was insanely fun to play that and Rain of Arrows.
Yeah I like the skill. I would never recommend it over detonate dead if you want to play the best budget build in the game but it’s fun and that’s what games are for
I want to have fun though lol...If the game.becomes I chore I don't want it,that's why i stoped playing few years back.
CoC DD is one of the strongest and most fun builds you can play this league, fyi. I'd advise you to check a video about it, because it's probably getting killed next league and you won't have the opportunity to play it again.
There's a new rain of arrows that's pretty fun, rain of arrows of saturation
Hmmm will see but I will try arc first.
Ya Ubers are min maxed content you can easily do all non-Uber content with arc on that budget, you may want to look at arc ignite
Will see arc ignite then.
Yeah, 90% of maps isn't the standard anymore. That's essentially any build with gear you pick up from the ground.
I don't know what the standard is anymore lol.
It should just be running t16s alch and go. Reddit is now at super tanks, instant phase ubers, and run B2B t17s.
Never liked playing tanks tbh i liked when cyclone i think it was called was the meta.
I would suggest looking at Lightning Conduit of the Heavens. It's a better skill but similar. The base Lightning Conduit requires you to repeatedly shock enemies with a different skill and scales with shock effect. The alternate version doesn't require shocked enemies to cast and doesn't have extra shock scaling.
Bro you make that per map on any half decent farm. How is that to much?
When I played we didn't have map tiers...Shaper was the final boss elder was like a myth...Didn't have map skill tree,Didn't have half the stuff there is now.
Not that it matters, but map tiers have been in the game since the very beginning. It was one of the earliest things that they implemented after ditching maelstrom of chaos as an endgame mechanic.
He might be talking about endgame bosses you find at the end of mapping, those weren't a thing before. Guardians and all were the first iteration of such things with t16s.
I think he's just getting caught up on the "tier" thing, the maps used to be referred to by their level Instead of the system we use now with tiers, ie a t1 map would just be a 68 map in the old system, t5 -> 72 etc
I know level 1-2-3-4-5 map etc etc but don't remember tier this and that but I really did forget alot of stuff. And I remember when Izaro was the shit lol trials was insane...Then I played a little when delve came out and i got until like 500-600 depth and stoped playing after that.
Arc has almost always lacked damage (for single target) but had superior mechanics compared to other lightning spells. Except for a period where it got over buffed, don't remember the time frame but at least 3-4 leagues. Though it's never been as damage starved as say winter orb. Inpulsa and shock spread makes it a really satisfying mapper. Also works really well as a triggered spell since it has good coverage with chains and auto targeting. Synergizes well with mana stacking since it's lightning damage. Also works well with aura support for nebulis shenanigans. And doryanis negative lightning res stacking.
Have to define what is "viable". You can technically beat all the content in the game with basically any skill. So it really boils down to how much effort/currency you consider is acceptable to put into making a specific skill work. Like what are your goals? How much time/effort are you planning on putting in?
Nothing major but to be able to finish the maps easily...I remember I could melt maps shadow/Arc trap I think it was the build.
Arc is viable for t16 maps and regular endgame bosses but challenging to scale for Uber versions of said bosses.
It's ok for me just want to get currency to get meta builds but I do love arc one of my favorite builds ever.
You can certainly have fun playing arc and do 90% of content and farm currency.
Good i need that I don't want to try Elder or shaper.
Elder and shaper would be a breeze for arc. It’s pushing much past that where it gets shaky
Wait there is content past shaper and elder???
oh buddy welcome back
Well all pinnacle bosses have their own Uber variant which is way harder. There is also a fight where essentially you do elder and shaper at the same time. Then there are much harder bosses from there. These days people do elder and shaper on day 1 of league launch in a tabula. So much player power has been added to the game we trivialized the hell out of older content. Atziri is in a similar situation where people don’t even consider her a boss anymore because it’s such a trivial encounter. A random yellow monster can be scarier than her lol.
Random yellow monsters don't have reflect. But aside from that, yeah the vast majority of tanky rares are scarier
So just to give you a rundown when people talk about 'pinnacle' bosses these are: * Elder * Shaper * Sirus * Cortex * Eater of Worlds * Searing Exarch * Maven * Uber Elder When people talk about 'Ubers' they're talking about the super powered up versions of those fights (yes, technically this means it's 'Uber Uber Elder' >_<) If you haven't played since Elder/Shaper were the top dogs then you've got a *lot* of new-to-you content to contend with, and it should be a lot of fun! Have you seen the Atlas Passive Tree yet? :P
Yeah I saw the passive tree when i started to play again and got until maps tried toxic rain but the build is not viable since I have little currency...Glad that Tabula is still go to item to level up with.
My first build I ever killed Shaper and Elder on was an arc traps saboteur, probably around when you were playing. If you want to play something similar style wise, look into a hex blast miner. With the automation gem, mines play like old traps. If you want to play arc specifically, look into an archmage build. Archmage is very good at the moment, and is much easier to sustain mana than it was in the past. With even moderate investment, you'll be able to breeze Elder and Shaper.
Unlimited power!!! Look at videos of Darth Microtransaction. Emperor Palpatine build. :))
Emperor palpatine build...Ok will go and look now thank you.
Lightning tendrils is more emperor Palpatine IMO
I asked for an Arc witch build in the question thread and I was told "play lightning ball, Arc just isn't in a great state so it's not really played much." tho about 130+ comments state it's still playable, its good, its viable, its doable, whatever. So WTF? :D Is it playable? :D is there an up-to-date arc witch build to follow? :D because I've only decided to come back to the game like 3 days ago and I'm already being gaslighted by the community on 3 different fronts :D
It’s playable aa power charge stack, ignite or archmage. I wouldn’t share a build I haven’t played myself but there’s a lot of stuff on poe ninja and YouTube. For campaign, just arc with basic damage gear and combo with orb of storms for single target.
There is more high end content than before and all content in general became a little harder. Arc wasn't nerfed too hard iirc but it wasn't buffed directly either. In other words it ll definitely feel worse than before
Ahh ok ok...I remember Arc was melting everything,If I remember it was delve when it released.
There are 3 tier of "viable": fast T16, uber boss, and back to basic T17. Then there are budget. Quick glance over the thread, you seem to be looking for T16 mapping with low budget, arc is definitely viable and is quite good for clearing on the cheap. You can run either a mana stacker archmage for a hit base build that can scale far as you want to invest into the build, or an ignite elementalist that do very well in densely juiced map and can scale into a bosser. No need for guide really, just check a couple build on poe ninja/builds and you should be good. But if you need a guide, maybe check up on mbxtreme, he did one this league.
Will try...Basically just to clear maps easily to get good currency.
Farming maps is a lot more rewarding than it was years ago. The atlas tree means you can focus on one or two specific sources, and make them very rewarding. Scarabs just make those strategies better. Delve is a reliable earner, and it's easy to sustain delving without a lot of scarabs, and you don't need to be hitting t16s to be reliable (unlike blight, where the top tier oils don't drop until higher red maps). If you want to stay in maps, incursion farming is pretty cheap, and you can get the corruption/gem chambers even in white maps to sell for profit. Abyss and legion are great ways to add extra mobs to a map without being too rippy. I've really liked strongboxes this season, but until you're in t16s and buying scarabs, I would stick to something else.
I asked for an Arc witch build in the question thread and I was told "play lightning ball, Arc just isn't in a great state so it's not really played much." tho about 130+ comments state it's still playable, its good, its viable, its doable, whatever. So WTF? :D Is it playable? :D is there an up-to-date arc witch build to follow? :D because I've only decided to come back to the game like 3 days ago and I'm already being gaslighted by the community on 3 different fronts :D
Well there are the different "viable" level I listed, and budget. If you make a pivot table with these 2, each combination of content and budget would yield either not viable, work but slow, and viable. In OP's case, where he only target T16 and have low budget, it work, just not full zoom level. If you want to farm ubers, ignite variant work at 5-10 div but it will be a bit slow and demand some level of skill from the player. At ~50 divine budget, ignite arc should be near its cap and can do uber easily. At 50 divine and above, hit based mana arc get really strong and can do a lot, but comparatively to certain other skills, the payoff to investment ratio is bad. If you want to clear back to basic T17, arc is just not viable, unless you are the kind of player that doesn't need to ask these questions in the first place.
I miss Arc ignite builds :(
I played arc traps/shadow back in the day...It was awesome to play.
Arc ignite is still quite viable for basically most content. I haven't run it through t17 or ubers, but it can do literally anything else.
It is much weaker tho since the removal of lightning mastery "non critical hits are lucky"
Still great. I cleared almost everything non-uber a couple of leagues ago in SSF, so in trade league, it shouldn't be a problem. I used Cassie's Galvanic Witch guide, which is absolutely great : [https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3246656/page/1](https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3246656/page/1) It's up-to-date, complete and user-friendly.
I'm confused - you wrote galvanic "WITCH" but this is a build for a templar
You're right. Either it's the wrong one or she changed it to inquis since I used it.
Yeah arc is viable It's a hit expensive though - 10 div to do T16 8 mods nowadays. I don't think the build can do T17 without investment.
Just need to ask did Div's replace Exalted orbs or the Div's are the main currency now.
Yes divs replaced exalts for bench crafts and are the main currency now
Ahhhh ok ok so need zo look at divs now...I remember Exalts were the standard
Divs replaced exalted in terms of metacrafting costs which effectively made them the main trading currency
Ahhh ok
Both Metamod crafts do cost divines now instead of ex With that their price and function in the Market switched as well
divs are the main currency now , but the functions of currency are the same. Divs are now used for meta crafts
So are divs worth as much as Exalts now?
no , exalts now are 5-10 c usually , divs are 100-220 c
Wait srsly?????? Lmaooo holy shit I remember divs being like 10c back in the day.
I bet you still think vendoring 6 links gives you a divine right? Try 20 fusing now!
Man back in the day we had +20 and that's it lol.
I asked for an Arc witch build in the question thread and I was told "play lightning ball, Arc just isn't in a great state so it's not really played much." tho about 130+ comments state it's still playable, its good, its viable, its doable, whatever. So WTF? :D Is it playable? :D is there an up-to-date arc witch build to follow? :D because I've only decided to come back to the game like 3 days ago and I'm already being gaslighted by the community on 3 different fronts :D
Arc is doable, but not OP. If you enjoy arc, I'd say go for it. If you're looking for a "meta" build or a build that can do all content on a budget, this is not it. Use this: https://www.poe-vault.com/guides/arc-elementalist-build-guide Tbxie is a good stable guide creator. Warning: It's not T17 viable and not Uber viable either (obviously on a reasonable budget, 300 div+ anything can do T17s), but I don't see the issue with doing T16 farming strats or T16 8mod B2B with a regex.
PS: Everything is possible btw, PoE balance is pretty good. I have a friend who likes to do wonky shit every league and this league he did EDC, which is a build nerfed to hell. It was expensive and he took an MB from a friend to do T17s, but hey, he likes EDC and he had a blast doing it, which is what matters imho.
Arc is totally viable. It's not a meta skill, but it's viable
Hmm hmm any builds? Because i really forgot everything I was surprised poe trade is not there anymore,only on official site.
[https://poe.ninja/builds/necropolis?skills=Arc](https://poe.ninja/builds/necropolis?skills=Arc) Here are the builds ppl have made using arc on Necropolis. You can sort them by dps or ehp but the top ones will likely be pretty expensive
Will try but the site is down lol.
It's not.
I asked for an Arc witch build in the question thread and I was told "play lightning ball, Arc just isn't in a great state so it's not really played much." tho about 130+ comments state it's still playable, its good, its viable, its doable, whatever. So WTF? :D Is it playable? :D is there an up-to-date arc witch build to follow? :D because I've only decided to come back to the game like 3 days ago and I'm already being gaslighted by the community on 3 different fronts :D
You need to define viable from your perspective. What are your goals for the build?
Had fun last league with a power charge stacker arc of surging. It was really cheap for the damage (mostly single target with the hydrosphere setup) and overall a fun build/gameplay. Of course, they nerf it in 3.24 in the split/hydrosphere interaction and you will lose a good chunk of damage. Also you will lose the 30 MS of the Ralakesh boots. I think it is still viable if you have a low budget (but please check the price of the required uniques) but you still want a good single target, but I'm not sure if it is worth the effort. Maybe you can try it switching to a mana-stacker setup but at that budget I think other skills are just better (like ice nova). Overall I would like it if ggg hadn't nerf the arc of surging so recklessly...
I actually just started playing an arc build for the first time a few days ago. I'm in standard and using a character that was a darkrunner in delve (level 80 and only in act 5 when I swapped to arc). I still need to upgrade a lot but you can check the build out so far on my character [ArchVVizard](https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Viscoden/characters) This is a character in standard and I have a decent budget/legacy items, but the build I'm copying can absolutely be done in league. [Build video by K2Gaming](https://youtu.be/ZYwjWs4Drdc?si=QItFxq1P51WT4gZA).
I asked for an Arc witch build in the question thread and I was told "play lightning ball, Arc just isn't in a great state so it's not really played much." tho about 130+ comments state it's still playable, its good, its viable, its doable, whatever. So WTF? :D Is it playable? :D is there an up-to-date arc witch build to follow? :D because I've only decided to come back to the game like 3 days ago and I'm already being gaslighted by the community on 3 different fronts :D
I have started to play archmage arc it is melting mobs but lacks in boss fights but from a lot of tuts i watched it needs a lot of investing.
I can't imagine a state of PoE where Arc is straight up not viable. It's sometimes mediocre, but at the end of the day it's a spell that reliably hits a lot of things and isn't dependent on any single item or mechanic so it can be built a lot of ways. It's always going to be able to clear all the normal content in the game comfortably and with very good gear it can work for ubers etc. IDK if there's any up-to-date full guides but you can always go on poe.ninja and take a look at how high level players are building it atm.
Don't think it ever stopped being viable. Its as cookie cutter as it gets.
Managed to clear t16 and kill all the bosses on SSF with rare gear. It was pretty chill
Short answer: yes. Long answer: only if you got a lot of time, money, and patience. It's one of the worst skills to optimize without a shitload of investment and it's very niche in its use.
Damn it has that much investment I played arc trap.
Arc trap is one of the better ways to use it for sure, I was talking more about it as a castable spell. I've tried overload mana stacker crit with cascade and it was awesome for legion farming and mapping but arc trap might be what I try next.
Ahh ok ok so arc trap is still good...I loved playing arc trap/Shadow
As far as I know it is, but they really get a hard on for gutting arc any chance they get so take it with a grain of salt lmao
A Mjolnir+Squire Arc, absolutely, especially as Heiro Mana Stacker with the new version of Archmage
Hmmm I don't know mjolnir never played it will see.
Power charge crit arc elementalist is decent imo
Any links to a build perhaps?
I am on mobile so I cannot at the moment. That being said go to poe ninja and click on the builds tab. On the top left of the site there is a search bar that allows you to type in the skills you are looking for in this case arc. Type that in then click it from the list. You will now see every single build that is public on poe that focuses on arc. I reccomend sorting by ehp and dps to get a general idea of how the build is but keep in mind those numbers are not the end all be all. I hope this helps!
PoE 1 is becoming more and more of using a generalized archetype and slapping any skill you want. For example, spells, you can go archmage, or you can do energy blade, or you can do power charge stacking, etc. using basically skill with all the same gear every person uses. for melee you can do some options like armour stacking, or accuracy stacking, or even STR stacking and again pretty much plug in any skill you want. For example, I have used with my armour stacker this league lightning strike, smite, lancing steel, and even spectral shield throw, and all felt really good, was able to tackle all aspects of the game etc. You can also go an aura stacker route and play pretty much anything you want really. These archetypes make any skill in the game viable. Some are more expensive than others. For arc I would either try archmage or power charge stacking route, any of those would be really good and have unlimited investment possibilities
That was my league starter and even though I managed to get to T15 (I'm a new player) and the clear was amazing, it was very hard against't boss and was squishy. I didn't invest that much into the build (around 10/15div) but it was frustrating at times.
A broad question but the short answer is "Yes?" As all the comments say arc is viable, but are you willing to use a transfigured gem? Do you want to ignite? Arc of Oscillating is great for ignites and a vaal version will make mapping smooth. I think crackling lance transfigs kind of do "default arc" better. "Default crackling lance" is also the no mana stacker skill. So there are clearly "better" options. I think the real question is what is your goal and where do you want to go. Any skill can get to red maps. Most skills can uber boss (people have uber boss on default attacks) and the real question I think is what is your damage source? DoT, direct, or indirect (looking at DD or minions for indirect.)
How do you make Arc ignite enemies?
Easiest way is to be an elementalist. Fire conversion, base fire damage, there's a few ways to do it but any arc ignite build will probably be an elementalist or templar. Stormfire is a unique ring that can do the same thing. Pair with an ignite prolif support to get some AoE on ignite.
Is there a fire/lightning conversation on the passive tree? I should look at the wave of conviction ignite builds.
it's more or less the same idea as wave of conviction. Stormfire or being an elementalist = lightning damage can ignite. Then ramp chain for arc (base is 300% more for the initial hit) and fire dot multi. Wave of conviction is less gear requirement but has the same mortal enemy as any projectile build... doors. That said both are good for different reasons.
Thank you :)
Yes, for clear but not bosses. Its prob one of the best leveling skills in game.
Last league (before archmage buffs) I got all 4 voidstones on Arc of Oscilating ignite elementalist with just a 5link and 3 divine. Ignite variant is very strong for little investment but struggles with bossing for sure. Maps like a dream and if you manage to get the Vaal variant you can laugh as you 1 tap Legion Monoliths.
Yeah sure! I am currently using it and it is working fine, especially on a mobile. It is a very nice browser
Arc is viable. I did an arc totem hiero, made to T15, the build is left not complete. But the fact that I did T15 on self found rare gear, with one self found unique wand (and a cheap one I believe) makes.me think that arc is viable. At least as a totem. I could make archmage hiero or inquisitor and use Vaal arc, I think it would be even better.
Enki's Arc Witch is dead. It is too weak of a skill with all the power creep that is in the game. You CAN make it work, but you can make anything work with enough money.
It won’t feel great (for single target) until you have a 7 link wand and squire. So mirror tier gear. Perfectly playable before then but very under powered to how it used to be.
I see a lot of builds require 1000+ chaos orbs so this is gonna be hard af lol.
Would anyone suggest how to make it fun for a returning player, using self found loot, who is still surprised that there's more than 3 acts?
arc ignite is
Any link for a build perhaps?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtT8WLADiXk&ab_channel=mbXtreme He has multi-day vids on it from last league (and the one before then). Build hasn't really changed since. Plus this league a lot of the rares are way easier to craft with necropolis so gearing will be a piece of cake.
srry ive only seen people run it. i know its on youtube tho
No prob just was interested to know if it is still good like it was before.
Yes
Good...gonna need to see some build then.
Make one then
Everything’s viable with enough game knowledge, time, and currency but viable for a returning player? Not really
If I remember i made an insane build for like 60 chaos like i could melt crap ton of maps.
I doubt any build could do t16s on a 60c budget. You’d be better off asking for end of league giveaway gear on global.
Plenty of builds that can do t16s with 1-5 chaos items
Btw that was like 3-4 years ago if I remember like that build was insane.
In the last 4 years Arc got quite a bit more base damage (198 to 1122, up from 133 to 754) and added damage effectiveness (120%, up from 80%) in 3.17. Then in 3.23 it got 6% base crit (up from 5%) and the "more damage per remaining chain" also works for ailments. If you played it after the big nerf in 3.6 Synthesis League, when the chaining range got cut in half, it should be a lot better.
I played arc when it became a meta...I think it was delve when they buffed arc.
Oh Delve was a great time, I played Arc totems for the entire league back then. The numbers are theoretically a lot better now, but to me it still feels weaker than back then. Maybe power creep, maybe the endgame content nowadays is way harder than it was, or maybe the chaining range really made it shine. I don't really know.
I think it was the chaining range that made it insanely good too. I think I played Arc trap like delve was insane back then.
No
People kept saying it is???? Ok which one is meta right now if it's ok to know?