[3.16 theory craft] Old Guy with a Lightsaber: Energy Blade Hiero Warchief

The basic idea of this build is similar to this HoWA Warchief build: https://poe.ninja/challenge/builds/char/ChildOfLigth/BonesBigBrain?i=0&search=class%3DHierophant%26skill%3DAncestral-Warchief
However, with the new Energy Blade gem, stacking lightning damage with ES is much easier and stronger.

A preliminary PoB: https://pastebin.com/V2W1WudS
Please note: I added the energy blade effect on Brightbeak.

Major changes:
1, have to switch to life/ES hybrid as Energy Blade come with %less ES.
2, No need to use HoWA. I would choose Brightbeak for its extremely high AS and resistance.

Masteries worth consideration

'Lightning Damage with Non-Critical Strikes is Lucky' in lightning mastery

A must-have in my opinion due to extreme large damage range of energy blade.

'Increases and reductions to Maximum Mana also apply to Shock Effect at 30% of their value' in lightning mastery

In this build it means 70-90% increased shock effect. It is huge with the new boss shocking threshold change.

'5% of Damage from Hits is taken from your nearest Totem's Life before you' in totem mastery

Can be useful as an extra denfence layer.

Major issues:

No life/ES leeching.
Once the energy blade is on, will the weapon type in your mainhand also change to blade?

As far as we know the skill completely replaces your main-hand weapon, keeping links and jewels though. If your using a one handed weapon on activation its always a one handed sword and a two-handed weapon on activation means that you always got a two-handed sword. So any weapon in your main hand on activation is just gone (until deactivation of course), meaning whatever stats it gives is nil. At least that's how I'm understanding the skill.

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erumi321 wrote:

As far as we know the skill completely replaces your main-hand weapon, keeping links and jewels though. If your using a one handed weapon on activation its always a one handed sword and a two-handed weapon on activation means that you always got a two-handed sword. So any weapon in your main hand on activation is just gone (until deactivation of course), meaning whatever stats it gives is nil. At least that's how I'm understanding the skill.

yep pretty much spot on, was already confirmed by mark on reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/q9ai7u/1h_and_2h_energy_blade_simulations_for_pob/ in case anyone is curious.

Go one handed and utilize Trolltimber shield for leeching