[3.22] Lightning Warp Totems Ascendant | Off-meta, fun mapper

To provide smooth mapping experience the LW requires reduced duration and high cast speed. The duration is responsible for a delay after being cast and reducing it should not be a problem - we have to keep it in a reasonable value.
The duration of Lightning Warp is depended on a distance between a starting point and destination - longer jump = longer skill duration. Maximum distance is 7.5 meters which can nearly cover the full screen. Totems however always choose the closest target so it's not harmful if you don't have minimum possible duration. Then how much will we reduce it?

With aboluetely nothing but a skill itself we can get ~0.33 duration modifier from a gem level and a Phantasmal quality. Our cast time should be around 0.35s with 200-250% increased cast speed in proposed setup. According to the duration formula this will allow us to use our full cast rate at the disctance of ~3.5m - sounds like enough!

TL;DR: Don't bother to reduce LW duration unless you scale Cast Speed very high!

To be fair, LW isn't known as top tier DPS skill. We'll make our totems deal quite a bit damage by:
• Raising gem level very high (over 35) as it's base dmg scales very well
• Using 9 power charges: 100% crit chance with 400-500 crit multiplier
• Increased shock effect, applying exposure
and of course scaling Cast Speed as much as we can afford.

It's quite hard to scale a specific defensive layers is this setup, so I've managed to add more different mitigations:
• Just some evasion (10k, 50% chance), some suppress (50%, 75% with lucky)
• Progenesis
• Curse immunity on Consecrated Ground
• 90% reduced shock effect
• No extra damage from critical strikes
In addition we can't benefit from leech or similar so we have to rely on a minimum of regen. Remember - 6 portals are also a defensive layer! Grab some popcorn and watch your flying totems from a safe distance!

Quite self-explanatory: huge gem level and damage buff. It's worth to have a double corrupt with +3 or +4 to level of LW. The issue here is off-color - you may need 6 white sockets or color a corrupted one with Tainted Chromatic Orbs as those ignore attribute requirements.




This new amulet gives us 1 more level to LW than a classic double +1 as well as some reservation eff and reducing attribute requirements. That allow us to fit a tattoo on every possible node. I've also used the tattoo anoint trick to get a bonus +1 max lightning res: just path to any +30 int notable, use the Honoured Tattoo of the Storm (+1 max power charge, +1 max lightning res), then refund these passives and anoint the +30 int with a tattoo!




It's not the mandatory unique, however +1 to max Power charges on it is still cheaper than a Synth one. Avoid the MoM mod and use Kalandra's Touch if needed.




+1 to max totems is crucial. Use other mods to fill missing defences or attributes if needed. You can also block prefixes and use harvest reforge critical for a guarantee Crit Chance.




Focus on +1 to all Spell Gems/all Lightning Spell Gems (or both ofc) and Cast Speed, then Spell damage and crit mods. Set quality to 30% and Elemental dmg Harvest enchant.




Another +1 max power charge. LW Cast Speed is the best enchant. Fill the affixes with defences.




Craft Lightning Exposure and Unnerve as the Eldritch implicits. Fill the affixes with defences.




Double elevated boots with increased effect of non-damaging ailments.




Look for high-roll max life, cast speed and crit multi Abyss jewels.
Mageblood is an option ;)




Focus on cast speed on a Quicksilver. Instant Corrupted Blood life flask highly suggested. You don't need the Diamond Flask in this setup.

• Use 3 Grand Spectrum with +1 to minimum power charges. This is the only true 100% charges uptime :) 9/9 fits perfectly with our max charge value.
• Best mods for Watcher's Eye are Wrath lightning res. pen. and Zealotry cast speed.
• Disorienting Display + Prismatic Heart + Overshock is the best for Large cluster.
• Use Unnatural Instinct and Timeless Jewel combo next to the Ascendant's starting point. This fills dexterity requirement and provide a ton of useful stats.
• On Medium cluster Sleepless Sentries is a source of Onslaught - make sure to keep it up.

Phantasmal Lightning Warp - Spell Totem - Multiple Totems - Increased Critical Strikes - Empower - Faster Casting

Focus on scaling LW level wherever possible. For current setup it's 37 gem level in total which gives enough reduced duration as well as tons of base damage. +X to LW level sources are Bronn's Lithe (+5), double corrupt (+3/+4), Empower (+3), amulet (+3), wand (+1/+2).

Enlighten - Wrath - Zealotry - Vaal Clarity

Aura setup is focused on damage. We need Clarity to maintain the high cost of our totems. Try to keep unreserved mana as high as possible - don't try to match it with totem cost.

Conductivity - Empower - Increased Duration

CWDT - Immortal Call - Increased Duration

Movement skill of your choice - doesn't have to be the Lightning Warp ;)

Phase Run + inc. duration on left click is a QoL.

None of the tattoos is mandatory to make the build works, however even with no attribute mods on any item you can fill the entire passive tree with them. I suggest to allocate the following:
• 5x Tukohama Shaman (15 life per sec., STR nodes)
• 10x Rongokurai Turtle (yes, THIS turtle, 10% reduced extra crit dmg, INT nodes)
• 6x Valako Scout (15% reduced shock eff., INT nodes)
• 4x Hinekora Deathwarden (6% reduced curse eff., INT nodes)
• 1x Valako Makanga (1% max light. res, INT node with max 1 connected)
• 1x Ancestral Tattoo of Bloodlines (2% inc. life & mana recovery per Tribe, any node)
• 1x Honoured Tattoo of the Storm for the anoint.

Fill remaining nodes with attribute convertion (+4 to all) or resistances if needed. Check what should be allocated in a range of the Warrior's Tale. Ancestral Tattoo of Bloodlines effect is doubled and affected by ~5-6 different tribes which gives us about 25% more regen. Remember about 2 nodes in a range of Unnatural Instinct :)

If you'd like to give this build a try without spending that much on it, there are some suggestions where you can save some divs:
• +1 to max charge ring & Kalandra's touch are the most expensive items. You can try to lower your power charges to 6 only by replacing a rings - cheaper Precursor's Emblem should do the job. Use the Honoured Tattoo of the Wise to get 1 more LW level and replace 1 Grand Spectrum with another type - Elemental dmg or life.
• Get cheaper body armour with only 1 corrupt, but don't get too low with LW level as it would massively reduce your DPS.
• Use items with lower tiers crafted and replace crit multiplier with crit chance if needed. You can also get crit chance on a Watcher's Eye.

On the other hand you can put ever more currency if you wish - sky is the limit :) Current version is not min-maxed on purpose to keep the total price below a mirror:
• Mageblood, as mentioned before. If you'd like to keep Progenesis and life flask you can use a corrupted 3-flask. You can switch some of the tattoos if you move curse or shock immune to MB. However for me switching belt for MB was not as a massive power spike as I get used to on any other build - It'll improve overall feeling, but for this investment buying min-maxed abyss jewels might be a better choice.
• Corrupts on jewels: Corrupted Blood immune, reservation eff. and similar fancy endgame implicits
• Chaos res/freeze immunity - You can get freeze immune from Aisling prefix on boots of from Pantheon if you can sacrifice some chaos DoT survivability.

During mapping pay attention to number of your totems and try to keep it 6/6. As totems are moving all the time they aren't vulnerable to direct hits but can be easily destroyed by AoE effects. Also do not spam with them due to high mana cost. Try to keep your Onslaught up (as well as a buff from Totem Mastery) by casting LW every 4 seconds - despite of that just keep the safe distance, cast Conductivity and watch the show :)