Wow... Lightning Spear / FO build rocks

So im able to facetank Hoard level 8. And I can do PIT 117 in under 8 minutes with relative face-tankiness approach. Which I think is good because our class needed an S-tier that was achievable instead of a bugged firebolt build (that was impossible to achieve because you needed the BiS perfect gear to get it)

There are some good templates out there from maxroll and Acruid (links below). Here is a couple things about those builds:

  • you can still use both tal rasha and ring of starless. You don’t need to chase down a special orange ring with LS spear cooldown and attack speed. Sure its great if you can, but not necessary
  • Obviously you want to emphasize critical strike damage and crit strike chance on your gear
  • you don’t need to use Charged glyph. Until they get it so that your dog can pick up the charges, it’s not worth it to go after this
  • You don’t need Unleash glyph if you’re using starless
  • The glyphs im using are elementalist, tactician, Reinforced (for DR), control, conjurer, destruction, exploit, flamefeeder.
  • I invested heavily into health: 25K now. Mostly from pants, staff, and helmet.
  • Im using tyreal for chest for extra DR
  • Unlike these builds, Im not using Tibault. Im using regular pants with Concentration aspect for 100% uptime of extra 25% DR. Supposedly Tibault is better for damage because of the supposed diminishing returns on INT, but I prefer survivability.
  • chance for extra FO projectiles > chance for LS projectiles. Why? More active conjuries.
  • Im in agreement with acruid that unstable currents is not necessary. You can get more active conjuries at more uptime without UC.
  • Enchantments should be IB and FO. Not firebolt.

maxroll.gg/d4/planner/g2ebo0wz#2
maxroll.gg/d4/build-guides/lightning-spear-sorcerer-guide

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I just got a double GA WAND that might be good for LS build. GA on Critical Strike Damage and Intelligence.

Anything better than that other than a triple GA?

What’s the bug? I skipped S4 so not aware of it.

Yah, I prefer the staff instead of a wand because you cant get crit damage on focus. Currently im a triple GA on INT, Crit damage and Health. And I masterworked on Crit damage and Chance for frozen orbs

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What’s the bug in Firebolt. I am using Firebolt and wanna make sure I am not unintentionally activating it?

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I dont recall the exact nature of the bug but it was fixed in S5. So you have no worries about using it. And even if you were using it, that is not youre problem. Its the developers job to put out quality code and test to ensure output matches intentions. It is not our job as players to review their code and understand if something is working as it’s supposed too.

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That’s good to know. I get what you mean.

i don’t rly get why do you need starless cuz it’s not that hard to get ring with x3 ls cdr and with ga in crit. Also it is possibly just me but i don’t think that you should invest in hp, cuz no one is rly hitting you. Yeah overall dmg input won’t be that much cuz of deminishing, but i really don’t see any points for investment in HP tho.

Also i wanna try it with GA raiment, but still havent time for that.(maybe here investing in HP would be priority, but idk for sure)
But overall build is Op a little bit sad that it is kinda boring, but at least finally it is a real S tier.

Starless is good for crit, mana, damage, and attack speed.

More attack speed = more conjurations.

Hp is optional but helpful in T8.

Some people swear by raiment but they also say they memorize all of the mechanics of the bosses in pit and hoard so they can avoid the death traps. So you have to have near perfect play for raiment in t8. Large HP and good Dr avoids the death traps and need for memorization

Lastly, getting GA difficulty (ie: ‘good’ rng) varies from account to account from one season to the next. So if you play an eternal account consistently, youre probably going to have bad rng. If you play in season, you will have great RNG

I’ve always played on Eternal and I get GAs and even triple GAs all the time but the problem is that the combinations almost always suck and I don’t think the game’s bad luck protection accounts for that. As far as the algorithm is concerned you’ve gotten your fair share of GAs, uniques, and even mythics because it doesn’t care that they aren’t the ones you wanted, lol.

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One thing I noticed in the build you posted is the lack of the Icefall board and its legendary node. I guess you can’t have it all, but that 25% multiplicative damage (50% to frozen) was juicy.

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The meta of LS is use staff, to double the damage of splintering energy. This is actually not LS build, is splintering energy build. Put one point in LS and pick the second and 3rd passive.

Can anyone confirm if Shock Crit Damage works to increase the damage of Splintering Energy the same as normal Crit Damage?

Build guides all seem to say normal Crit Damage, but I hate that the manual it’s on is only a 1/4 for something good and 1/4 for Vulnerable which I guess is an ok booby prize. I whiffed on several items trying to put this together.

At least with Shock Finesse you have 3 decent affixes, SCSD would be ideal if it works but Shock Crit Chance is also important and worst case you get Lightning Damage which is at least on parwith Vuln from Worldly Finesse.

So do the guides say to go for normal CSDbecause it’s the only one that works or because it’s just as good as SCSD but a better chance to get it so if aiming for perfect gear it’s the best bet?

Thanks.

I think it refer to the Critcal strike damage in your character stat. If after you pickup the shock cri dmg and it does not increase, means it has no effect.

im almost BIS, killing t8 Bosses in 25 sec if i play full offensive:)

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Lighting Spear + chain Lighting + Harlequin + Tyrael + Starless Sky is even better…
Enchantments: Firebolt + Lighting Spear.

With this combination I am doing Horde 8 and Pit 140 (in 6 minutes)

Masterwork as is… no resets at all.

Can you elaborate on this? How does Chain Lightning factor in? I was really excited when I saw all the posts about a “Lightning Spear” build because I love that spell only to be disappointed when I realized it relies on the stupid Frozen Orb amulet. I absolutely hate how Frozen Orb looks and can’t stand to play a build that has you endlessly spamming it and it going off like cheap confetti all over the screen.

I tried to work Lightning Spear into an Axial Conduit build hoping that the LS enchantment would generate enough spears from the Crackling Energy orbs but even with an endless supply of them it doesn’t because the proc rate is just too low.

Can you post a link to your build?

I agree with most everything -I was just going to post something about unstable currents in this build. I find it lacking-I know most folks are running flame shield in the build, and if you take out unstable currents, what skill are you supplementing it with?

Also I’ve gone back and forth with FO/Blades/CL as my passive.Also- without hydra on your bar, and needing it for burning in the case of no fire bolt enchant, dont you think you’re losing out on devouring blaze most of the time? Anyone figure out which works the best?

already bricked two weapons because CD wont roll. got stuck with ultimate four times in a row. I love tempering.

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@ DarthTalon

Right now I’m aiming for the following gear:

  • Harlequin Crest
  • Tyrael’s Might
  • Tibault’s Will
  • Esu’s Heirloom
  • Fractured Winterglass
  • Tal Rasha’s Iridescent Loop
  • Ring of Starless Skies
  • Gloves: Storm Swell Aspect
  • Staff: Aspect of Splintering Energy

And am looking at both these builds:

Rob2628: h ttps://d4builds.gg/builds/f7ed15f1-f4ce-4937-9b23-62506749518f/?var=0
Maxroll: h ttps://maxroll.gg/d4/build-guides/lightning-spear-sorcerer-guide

Out of the two what one would you recommend? they both look similar apart from the Paragon Tree.