Path of Exile 3.25 Lightning Strike Build: Tanky Shield and Damage Boosts

The lightning strike build aims to enhance tankiness and damage using a new shield, gems, and gear alterations for higher-level content in a private League.

### Path of Exile Lightning Strike Build Theorycrafting for High-End Content
* ⚡️  The build aims to comfortably tackle **end-game content** like simulacrums, tier 17 maps, and Uber bosses, with a focus on both **damage and survivability**.
* 🛡️  A key addition to the build is a new shield with "**block is lucky**," significantly boosting block chance and providing a **unique spell trigger mechanic on block**.
* 🔥  The shield triggers a socketed Elemental spell on block, potentially enhancing damage with effects like **Flame Wall for projectile damage increase**.
* 💰  The build incorporates **expensive and rare items like Yoke of Suffering** and specific jewels to **maximize damage output and defensive capabilities**.
* 🧙‍♂️  The skill tree and gem setup are optimized for both **crit chance and damage**, with considerations for **unique item synergies**.
* 💊  One potential weakness identified is **passive life regeneration**, which may require adjustments such as using **specific unique gloves for life leech** or changing the **flask setup**.
* 🏹  The build also considers options for **additional target coverage**, with suggestions for **gem and gear adjustments** to **improve clear speed**.
* 🛠️  Various gear and gem configurations are discussed, with considerations for **different playstyles** and **availability of specific items** in a private league setting.

If you're still playing the lightning strike build, and you are looking how to take it to the next level, I think I have something here cooked up that could interest you. Bear in mind, I'm playing a private League. I'm quite far behind everyone else, and I don't have access to everything. So, this is a concept, and it's going to be what I'm working toward for the build in the PL. But I have been sharing this PO around, people have been asking questions about it, and I'm going to go into it today and explain what's happening and what I think it's going to be capable of. I want this build to be able to do simulacrums very comfortably. I want it to be able to do tier 17s and Ubers, and we will see. But here is the PO. So firstly, you're seeing damage looking really good, tree looking pretty different, but then the ehp is looking kind of unhinged. Bear in mind, this is full pob Warrior. We have our Immortal coal turned on, but I'm just kind of exploring the

limits of the build at sort of Max Max everything with the rage up and the Elusive and fortify and everything so we can turn some of that off. I've turned off the immortal coal turned off fortify uh we can turn off endurance charges we will have I think that's probably most of the stuff flasks we can I mean turn that off even then it's looking pretty juicy but how are we getting so tanky and this is where this comes in so spin this is a new shield from the league mechanic I think it drops from San the boss who sometimes invades your map device I don't know how expensive it is on trade but I got a perfect one from one of my guild mates thank you rob for this so what makes this Shield so good the line is block is lucky anytime you see Lucky in Poe what that means is it's like DND Advantage you roll twice and take the highest option so it's essentially just giving you a much much higher block chance currently Poe is

calculating my block chance at 82% with the shield. If I take it off though, it's, uh, let's put on a dawn breaker. It's quite a bit. Well, there it's 75, and my spell block is 40, but with this, it is much higher. So this Shield also has another interesting line: trigger a socketed Elemental spell on block with a 25-second cool down. So the idea is we're blocking a bunch, and this is massively improving our ehp, and then when we do block, we can trigger things like flame wall. This is a spell that puts a wall of fire on the ground, and then we can shoot projectiles through it, increasing their damage. So that's why I have this turned on: projectiles travel through flame wall. This is giving us increased damage. I also tried to use Smite before someone pointed out you can't use Smite with claws. So I looked, and I thought, how about like a hydrosphere? I want to test this so we can see, maybe we can go with a

hydrosphere in that third link. And then just the blood rage is just in there, but it's not going to be proing by itself. So this Shield I think is insanely good, and it's going to make us very tanky. It also gives us a bit of Ward on top of it. So shield, and then as for the rest of the gear, this is just a claw that I found on the trade site. It's like an 800 edps claw. You could get higher. And we got the helmet. So most of the implicits I'm going to be going for on these gear pieces are defensive. So things like fizz taken as Lightning, Max lightning res, and then the mods are like everything we need: int, life, strength, all of those things, chaos res. Same with the chest. This is kind of an upgraded version of the existing chest I have in-game: fizz taken as fire, Max res, chimer scale gauntlets, projectiles Pierce, and also rage on melee hit. I might, I probably

will change this to strike skills. Target one nearby additional enemy and then also keep it on on the tree. But this uh, this lethal Pride I happened to get didn't have rage on hit. So, if you have rage on hit, you can rather have it on your lethal pride and free up that implicit on your on your gloves. Then boots, it's just the same thing: life, chaos res, strength, intelligence. This should have to be crafted, unveiled, and then suppression chance to avoid Elemental elements. I'll get into and then Max Fire Res and then yoke of suffering. This is something that I I've strangely just overlooked the power of. I I know it's so good, it's so obviously great, but with this we can be we can get just an obscene amount of damage out of it. So we can pop that on. Let's just see. It's gr has 43% increased damage. So for each type of Al we've inflicted on them, we gain an extra 10% increase damage. And with this version of the build because of Avatar.

of the Wilds. We can reliably apply ignite, freeze, shock, and then also poison and bleeding which we get on the tree. Over here we can get one point of bleed like this. This is 10% chance to cause bleeding. You can also get a tattoo which is chance to cause bleeding on hit, but the only problem with this is you need to apply to a strength node on the tree and we are already pretty stretched for the strength that we need. So you can, if you can fit this in, you could go with something like this, but otherwise just an extra point and then you can rather take the point here which is just a 10% chance to bleed. Then the poison we're getting from this wheel over here, and this is something I've put in my current version of the build which is chance to poison on hit with attacks and then also attack speed, but this is the main benefit of this which is this delicious poison Mastery over here. Enemies poisoned by you cannot deal critical strikes so we're probably

we are mostly crit immune. It's not as good as having like 100% reduced damage taken from crits, but it's effectively crit immunity. So, this pairs really nicely with our yoke, and we're getting just absurd damage of it. This is not a super cheap item; it's also pretty rare. You get it from tier 17 Fortress bosses. I've done about seven, still no luck yet, but we'll get there. As for the taming, keeping that in and then just a ring with life resistances, chaos res, Elemental damage with attacks, and minus Mana cost. As for the belt, I think perseverance is maybe going to be the best here. This is where some testing comes in. It's either going to be perseverance or a stigan, or we can go with a darkness in thron. If you get a Darkness enthroned, this is a belt that drops from one of the Abyss bosses. You can get 100% increased effect of socketed Abyss jewels, and then there is a node on the tree where you can

actually get some six mod Abyss eyes so that's a bit trickier to do in SSF because is you have to farm those Abyss Jewels with six mods. And those six mods can be good, but this is something to bear in mind if you do play this build. If you can find some nice six mod Abyss jewels on the trade site, you could even go Darkness Enthroned, or maybe even the Micro Distillery would be really good just to push up our armor even more. But we can also look at the tree. Most of the tree on this side is fairly similar. However, we've dropped the Lethal Pride from up here down to here. This all hits a ton of good stuff. Most of this is the same. We've got this poison thing that I've taken here. Also, we're rather going for this Primeval Force with the Invert Mastery here instead of grabbing the Force of Nature just to save a point. And then further down, it's all looking the same. But then we hit this. What is this? So this is a very large ring thread.

of Hope and this hits over here disciple of the unyielding. So we're getting Ur charges on kill. And then also disciple of the slaughter. I don't know how high value this is. I guess apent increase damage for frenzy charge. We have four frenzy charges and four endurance charges. This large very large ring used to be insanely good. But G very sneakily moved some stuff around on the tree. So now it doesn't hit the stuff it used to hit. It used to hit Rampart this over here. So you could get very nice fortification effect. But now it is just Out Of Reach so that doesn't hit it. Also used to hit Hatchet Master which grants onur on kill. That is now moved over here. So I'm not 100% sure if this is the right move. This very large thread. It does also hit Spirit of War which has 15% reduced Mana cost of attacks and some life nodes at the top. But the other thing it does hit is testudo which is really big for this build if we uncheck.

the ehp drop off is fairly significant because of the line recover 30 life when you block. So if we are just constantly blocking, we're getting a lot of Life recovery from that. It also has 10% chance to block attack damage while holding a shield. If we take this off, a block chance dips quite a bit, but I think this is going to be worth it and I'm going to give it a shot. I am open to other ideas though. This is a bit of a theory craft, so if you have something better, let me know. But over here, another thing that's great is deflection chance to block attack damage while holding a shield and chance to gain an endurance charge when you block. So our endurance charge generation is going to be really good with this. And then this block Mastery 1% chance to block spell damage per 5% chance to block attack damage. So we take that off, that drops quite significantly. But now how are we getting our spell block up to

76% my head has been in the way. You can see it over here block chance 82% spell block chance 76%. We take that off goes down to 64. There is a trick and that is in the form of a gem swap, which is we are using Tempest Shield. So instead of going for flesh and stone or Arctic armor, I think opting for temp Shield is really good because this gives us 25% chance to block spell damage while holding a shield. If we take this off and I move my face, you can see our spell block with this on is 76%. With it off, it's 45%. With this off, it drops down to 28%. So just by going this block Mastery and then popping in the Tempest Shields, we're getting a huge, huge boost to Our Spell block chance. And that's because it's being scaled by this Spen Lucky Block chance. So I think this is the play. As for the rest of the gems, it's mostly pretty similar because we have

such good endurance charge generation. We can use Immortal Call. This is giving us just a huge amount of EHP. And then the rest is pretty much the same except over here for our Mark. Because of our textures being so ridiculously good and giving us such massive crit chance. We could even use a Sniper's Mark instead of an Assassin's Mark. So like that does actually give us a little bit more damage with the Sniper's Mark. But bear in mind then we are going to not get power charges. So if we take off power charges and Assassin's Mark, we are still crit cap. So maybe Sniper's Mark is actually the play. Also, the projectile splitting toward additional targets is super nice for just clear and everything. So maybe we go Sniper's Mark, maybe Assassin's Mark. I'm not 100% sure yet. But the rest of the gems: Clarity, Arrogance, Precision, this is still the same. The Whirling Blades is the same. I don't even think we need to use Life Tap with this. My Mana cost was zero and then

as for the gems, same thing. Lightning strike awakened added lightning damage. Or you can use awaken added cold damage depending on whichever works best for your Trinity. I mean if we're going all in on this we could go for like an awaken multi-strike. Why not let's just show you what the potential is over here. So rest of the gems returning projectiles night blade. We could start thinking about doing something like nimus and then dropping this for an awakened Elemental damage with attacks but I I leave that in your hands. If you can fit it in and make it work, go for it. But otherwise, I'm just leaving it like that for now. Jewels pretty much the same. We're going ancestral Vision. You can use a storm shroud instead. And we got the thread of Hope and lethal Pride. There was something else that we can look at. There is an absolutely exceptional thread of hope that I've used in a few builds in the past but this massive ring Uber thread of Hope. I'll just show you what it looks like.

but let's, uh, let's just copy this tree so we don't Crick it. Uh, massive thread, pop this in this massive thread of Hope is so good because it hits so much wonderful stuff. So firstly, P the hunter getting projectile damage accuracy, racing also up here. It's hitting life, we can get that also. 8% reservation up here, blood siphon for strength. Max life over here, crit chance we can hit that. We can hit forces of of nature. I'm probably, I don't know, I might be missing something down here. Aspect of the links for more crit also gets hit by our lethal Pride weapon Artistry, super good hit by lethal Pride, melee strike range and down here, quick step. This, this is just like the most insane massive threat. It's really excellent. Apparently, these are not super expensive and this might be better than going down here, but I would, I to math it out. Like I said, this is a bit of a theory craft, so we'll see if that does work, but I'm going to

stick with this for now. As for melee strike range, this is something I think I partially overlooked before. My friend Turtle came into chat yesterday and said, You need to maybe get a bit of extra melee strike range. It just improves the feel of the build, lets you stand back a bit, and still get those hits off on the enemy. So, 2 melee strike range. You can get this on your gloves as a Bench Craft. Instead of the Pierce double two, two pierces minimum is probably fine. But we could also upgrade this to Exquisite or Perfect and get another two pierces just from the implicit. If you have enough Pierce and you don't have any melee strike range, maybe opt for this. But if you have the nonv strike skills target one nearby additional enemy, you could also then on the tree instead of going for this, go for the melee strike range Mastery. But again, my friend Turtle reckons nonv strike skills target two additional enemies. So let's say you have this on your heir and on your gloves.

you get your gloves up to Exquisite or perfect. You can get nonv strike skills Target to nearby additional enemies. He reckons that's actually really exceptional for clear so if you can get that give it a shot. It's pretty hard to see what it's doing because of all the all the projectiles flying out but he reckons it's absolutely Worth to get more than one nonv strike skills Target in additional nearby enemy. I think there is one other thing that we need to talk about on this build and that is that I think this build has an Achilles heal currently so that defense might look insane of course when everything is turned on your Immortal coal has proed but recovery we have ridiculously good active recovery in the form of life leech but in terms of passive recovery as in when we're not hitting something a life regen is terrible and we don't really have the life pool to sustain you know standing in a serious storm or a blob on the

ground. It's not going to like kill us instantly because we do have a decent amount of life. Not a huge amount though. So how do we solve this? And I've been thinking there's a couple of ways. And either what we need to do is anoint, not anoint, flash, flame, master, surgeon and then get some good recovery out of spamming our life flask and then having a watch's eye. We can get a watch's eye with want to gain a charge on crit with Precision something like this just to improve our FL sustain could also go with like something weird with energy Shield burden of Truth or the Cirus belt for Supreme decadence something like this could work however maybe something a little bit simpler would be using over Leach with offering to the serpent which are gloves that drop from venarius the guy in cortex something like this is worth testing I think I saw these on trade these exact ones for two divines excuse me uh I would I would go out and buy them too many gems I think

everything still fits. It's actually a really good pair of gloves because it has attributes, it has armor, it has attack and car speed damage while leeching, and also life effects are not removed when unreserved life is filt. Now, if you do go offering of the serpent, do bear in mind that your spell suppression is now not going to be capped because this Mastery 15% chance to suppress spell damage of body armor helmet gloves and boots all have evasion rating. This does not have evasion rating unless maybe you could get one with an evasion rating implicit, but I don't think so. These implies are randomly re are randomly rolled when they drop, so you could get like a really good one or a really bad one. I think this could be good, but now if we do remove this because we go these gloves, we could instead go either for something like lucky suppression. I think this is probably the play, just go for Lucky suppression, and then you still have like a 94% chance and you've got a huge

amount of block chance spell block chance. So if you go to the gloves, go that way, and then the other thing. The other downside of this glove is reduced maximum recovery per leech, so just bear that in mind. There is a nice leech thing over here that could maybe help with that, but I don't know if it's actually. It's one of those things I'm going to have to play with, feel, and see what it looks like. So think about those gloves. If you have any other suggestions, do let me know. I'm pretty excited about this version of the build. It's like a big goal to work toward and see how it feels. I would like this to be able to do tier 17s. Uber is very comfortably without dying. So I will link this pob in the description. This is full pob, full pob Warrior mode active and yeah, it's possibly a little bit unrealistic, but I mean the up time on things like fortify should be pretty good with our perseverance if we don't.

use perseverance we could get the uh chance to fortify on melee hit from The Ether imp place it on chess there's a lot of stuff let me know what you think think this is pretty pogies you're going to give it a shot do let me know. I will be streaming and you can tell me what you think about this version of the build if you do res spe into it. It's going to take me a while to get to this stage so I will update you when I get there but otherwise yeah let me know have a wonderful day everyone stay safe catch you in the next video and goodbye divine power divine power it's branching Exile you're making me nervous.

Lightning Strike Warden Endgame Build Theorycraft | PoE 3.25

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Building a Tanky Lightning Strike Build for Simulacrums and High Tiers

The player is working on a concept for a Lightning Strike build in a private league, focusing on being able to comfortably do simulacrums and tier 17s, using a new shield from the league mechanic to massively improve their effective hit points (EHP) and trigger elemental spells.

The build also prioritizes defensive implicits and mods on gear pieces, aiming for high survivability while dealing increased damage.

Optimizing Gear and Skills for Increased Damage

Consider adding rage on hit to the Lethal Pride jewel to free up the implicit on the gloves.

Craft and unveil the boots for life, chaos resistance, strength, and intelligence, with a chance to avoid elemental elements.

Utilize the Yoke of Suffering for a significant damage boost, especially when combined with the ability to reliably apply ignite, freeze, shock, poison, and bleeding.

Additionally, consider options like Perseverance, Stygian, or Darkness Enthroned for the belt, and prioritize finding a six-mod Abyss jewel for maximum effectiveness.

Adjust the skill tree to optimize for the changes in gear and focus on maximizing damage output.

Optimizing Shield Usage for Endurance and Spell Block

Utilizing a large skill tree node for shield bonuses and endurance charge generation can significantly impact life recovery and block chance.

The strategic use of Tempest Shield gem can provide a substantial boost to spell block chance, compensating for the drop caused by the skill tree node adjustment.

This approach offers a significant improvement in spell block chance and is worth considering for the build's optimization.

Optimizing Gem and Jewel Selection for Enhanced Build Performance

Immortal Call provides high endurance charge generation and significant increase in EHP.

Consider using Sniper's Mark for more damage or Assassin's Mark for power charges.

The build's gems and jewels remain mostly the same, but there is potential to incorporate Awakened Elemental Damage with Attacks and Uber Thread of Hope for significant bonuses.

Improving Melee Strike Range and Build Defense

Consider adding 2 melee strike range for a better feel and the ability to stand back while still hitting the enemy, which can be obtained through Bench Crafted gloves.

Alternatively, upgrading to Exquisite or Perfect can provide additional pierces from the implicit.

Adding non-vigil strike skills to target nearby additional enemies, either through gear or the tree, can significantly improve clear and is worth trying for improved build performance.

The build currently has a weakness in passive recovery, which can be addressed by anointing Flash, Flame, and Master Surgeon, using Watch's Eye for life sustain, or considering unique gloves like Offering to the Serpent for testing.

Analysis of Gloves Attributes for Gaming Build

The gloves offer a combination of armor, attack, car speed damage, and life leech effects.

Choosing the "Offering of the Serpent" may leave spell suppression uncapped, so opting for "Lucky Suppression" is recommended.

The gloves also have a downside of reduced maximum recovery per leech, but this can be managed with other available options.