I'm trying to play a Heatshiver build 3.21. To apply the freeze effect of Heatshiver on pinnacle bosses, say Eater of World I need to freeze it. According to PoeDB it has 4,058,698 Ailment Threshold. And based on the number PoeWiki provided: Freezes with a duration smaller than 0.3 seconds are discarded, effectively requiring a hit of 5% of ailment threshold.
Question is: Is that mean if I do 4,058,698*5% = 202,934.9 cold damage in a single hit, Eater of World will freeze for 0.3s? And how much damage do I need to extend the freezing time 0.1s longer?

POB: https://poeplanner.com/b/DCH (this is a Jungroan Arma brand POB with tweaks to include possible new tech)
https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Expedition%27s_End grants permanent chill to nearby enemies, "all damage can freeze", and pseudo ailment threshold reduction with "Freeze Chilled Enemies as though dealing (50-100)% more Damage". This allows ANY ability that reaches the freeze ailment threshold to freeze unconditionally, with crit builds being an easy way to apply freeze. This is a chase item which is currently expensive and I suspect it will be VERY expensive in Crucible league due to the below reasons.
Glacial cage (top right tree by EB) grants 1% inc damage taken per second EVER chilled for an easy 10% on bosses.
Cold mastery grants 5% inc damage taken per second EVER frozen eventually hitting 50% inc after 10sec of total freeze time (hefty, but doable for pinnacle bosses/red map etc).
This is 4 skill points for 60% inc damage taken on a boss, and chill/freeze defensive layers at all times.

So after seeing some content creators making mana-stacking builds, it got me thinking about Essence Worm and The Hungry Loop.
When you put an aura in it, you get + 2 levels and the aura is free to reserve however you get the downside of not being able to use Blessing Skills and 80% reduced Reservation Efficiency of Skills.
I know that some people turn the 80% reduced Reservation Efficiency of Skills into an upside when playing Relic of the Pact, but aside from those people, wouldn't a Hungry Loop simply be better?
Let's take this week 1 profile for example. He has a lvl 20 Hatred equipped in his Essence worm, which becomes lvl 22 and has no reservation.
If you replace his Essence worm with a Hungry Loop that has: Eternal Blessing Support lvl 20, Empower Support lvl 3, Arrogance Support lvl 20 and Awakened Added Cold Damage Support lvl 5, wouldn't he have a lvl 23 Hatred with 38% increased aura effect, with no reservation?
I'm at work so I don't really have time to pob it but can anyone let me know if there's a mechanic I'm not seeing here? (aside from the hassle of buying and leveling the gems)
Edit 1: I don't have time to make a proper pob, so I used Palestron's Spell Totem league starter idea.
Here's the original pob: https://pobb.in/rZAk5XmB1l6qHere's the pob with Essence worm instead of his eternal blessing set-up: https://pastebin.com/VRHEY1WaHere's the pob with The Hungry Loop instead of Essence worm: https://pastebin.com/UKPM55xN
It's nothing insane, it's actually worse than his original pob, but it opens up 2 gems slots, to maybe have an overcharge set-up, a defensive set-up, or something else.
Edit 2: Let's pick another example. A recent character that is using Essence worm, so his ring slot is already taken by something without life, res, cast speed, etc.
Please note that I have no idea how to configure his pob so I'm simply taking what poe ninja is giving.
https://poe.ninja/challenge/builds/chaPureriku/Jiya_Sanctum?i=2&search=item%3DEssence-Worm
This is his pob with essence worm: https://pastebin.com/N9gUBJjU
This is his pob with Hungry loop instead: https://pastebin.com/FD8a3qrb
Here it simply seems better in all aspects.
​
Final edit: Turns out that awakened support gems don't give aura +1 level so it's not really worth it

Hi Guys,
I wanted to jump onto the Heatshiver Hypetrain and I love Divine Ire so I made this Build.
Disclaimer: This build is still work in progress and I know I can sink quiet some currency and time into this. (If I want to)
Here is my PoB -> https://pobb.inLangschl%C3%A4fer123/hv4ub6tF3Hyd
This build is using the following offensive mechanics:

• Converting most/all of Divine Ires damage from Physical to Lightning/Cold
  • Divine Ire -> 50% to Lightning 20%
  • Benchcraft Gloves -> 25% to Lightning
  • Eater Mod Gloves -> 15% to Lightning
• Convert 96 % of Lightning to Cold Damage with 2 Call of the Brotherhood Rings
  • Use Turbulent Catalyst to hit 48% conversion on each ring
• 41% Physical as exra Cold Damage
  • Taste of Hate provides 15% of Physical as exra Cold Damage
  • Hatred provides 26% Physical as exra Cold Damage
• If the enemy is Chilled what he pretty much should pretty much all the time we gain the extra Fire Damage based on the magintude of the chill (I set 20% in PoB)
• If the enemy is Frozen we gain 100% Cold Damage as extra Fire Damage
• The Freeze/Chill Mechanics
  • Close to or 100% Chance to Crit with cold damage
    • Increased Effect of Cold Ailments would be beneficial
  • Occultist Ascendancy: Frigid Wake
• Moving with Frostblink while channeling
  • Could be improved with alternate quality Frostblink
  • For map cleamobility a cast while channeling and Lightning Warp setup could be usefull too
• The Call of the Brotherhood Rings also provide 100% chance to Shock an Enemy if he is Frozen
• Badge of the Brotherhood provides max Frenzy Charges based on max Power Charges
• The Ralakesh's Impatience Boots provide permanent charges as long as Divine Ire is channeld and since this build does not "actually move" this means basically 100% uptime for max charges

​
And now to the defensive mechanics:

• Freeze and Chill basically all nearby enemies while mapping
• Flesh and Stone reduces the damage from attacks of all enemies which are not nearby
• The Infused Channelling Support provides us with 8% Less Damage Taken from Physical and Lightning Hits
• Arctic Armour provides us with 22 less Physical and 21 less Fire Damage Taken from Hits
• 4 Endurance Charges provide 16% Physical Damage Reduction
• Taste of Hate Converts 12% of Physical Damage Taken to Cold Damgage
• Chaos Golem provides us with ~11% Physical Damage Reduction

Possible Improvements:

• Adding the Eater Mod for Cold Exposure and craft the Syndicate Mod for 35% Lightning Conversion with Aisling Slam or Veild Chaos onto the Gloves
• Somehow get more Armour
• Get more Energy Shield
• Fix Chaos Res KEKW
• Medium/Small Clusters
• Drop Assassins Mark and get 5 Passive Points back
• Add better Versions of Forbidden Flame/Flesh for more Damage

​
This is one of my first own builds. Sure the Heatshiver Interactions are currently pretty wide spread but I think this is a pretty cool build and I want to work a bit more on this.
I am open for critisism, tips and ideas for improvement.But my currently biggest problem is that I am pretty low on currency to make big improvements
​
Edit-1:

1. replaced forbidden flame jewels with Firesong + reduced ignite duration jewels
2. replaced purity of elements with determination
3. replaced shavs with high ES Bodyarmour and Coruscating Elixir
4. Improved Cluster Setup
5. added armour flasks

Dps should be about the same but defences should be better

1. ~ 1.2k more ES
2. more armour

Edit-2:
Welp it seems i screwd up my res. But this is fixed if the Attribute mod on the body armour is replaced with fire and lightning res.
Edit-3:
Most likely will drop Golems now since without liege of the primordial they feel pretty terrible to play

After playing this game for 3 leagues, im still confused AF on how things work; the line from heatshiver that says ' Gain 100% of Cold Damage as Extra Fire Damage against Frozen Enemies ', if original sin convert all ele damage to chaos, how in the balls can people activate that 100% damage?

So I know assassin and elementalist are the go-to when it comes to autobombers, but looking at the hidden flesh/flame notable for Ranger, it seems like it would be awesome for a shock/freeze Autobomber.
https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Fury_of_Nature
Has anyone tried something like this? Expedition's end would guarantee huge freezes. Either Annihilating Light or Crest of Desire (maybe both for double herald?)
Could see it working on either raider or Pathfinder. Raider gets speed and elemental synergy. Pathfinder could get speed and possibly a boatload of crit from flasks.
Going to try some things in PoB, but would love to hear anything you've tried around this concept.

link: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Frost_Wall
description: Freezes enemies as though dealing 5% more Damage
coudlnt find an answer googling.
​
does anyone know it?
​
thanks! :)

https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Firesong
Is "reduced" ignite/ailment duration not as strong as "less"? I was under the assumption that having 100% reduced ignite duration would basically mean that if I were to get ignited, the duration would be zero. Did I accidentally get "reduced" and "less" flipped around?
ex. I ended up with 122% reduced ignite duration which applied to freeze/chill as well. Took off Soul of the Brine King pantheon, walked into a map, immediately got frozen for around 3 seconds.
I thought I found some sort of big brain solution to elemental ailments but it seems I have been mistaken.
EDIT: POB for those curious. I don't have any configuration toggled so it may look a bit odd. Just trying to figure out if I'm using this Firesong jewel correctly or not. https://pobb.in/pkE3HwChG0KE
****UPDATE: Its very, very likely that the main reason I've gotten frozen despite having around 122% reduced ignite duration is because of a rare monster mod that increases ailment duration. I'm roughly 95% certain, but I cannot pinpoint if it was a generic rare monster, expedition or eldritch influenced monster. Additionally, at the time, I had the cold mastery that gives 60% increased freeze duration. This may have also combined with a rare monster modifier that reflected ailments so there would have been some amount of math involved there that froze me.
****LAST UPDATE: The mod is "non-damaging elemental ailments you inflict is reflected on you" is from an Eater of Worlds (blue) altar. If you look at my POB, I'm playing a crit-based cold conversion Blade Vortex character with increased freeze duration as a mastery. So of course, I froze myself whenever this particular eldritch altar mod would come up and I forgot to read it. I've since solved the issue with 20c to purchase/craft boots with 100% to avoid frozen/chilled.
After all this, I think the Firesong jewel is kinda ass on an inquisitor with my tree. Perhaps with a different tree or ascendancy to utilize it better would be more prudent.
Thanks to everyone that commented and pointed out details. I learned a lot.

Disclaimer
The post is a guideline not a guide, feel free to experiment with your own ideas to fit into the build. I have been trying to form in a HC environment, I personally play HC trade outside of events like gauntlet. The guideline will not make you inherently love playing absolution style gameplay, some people hate it just like traps, totems and other minions. These guidelines will be for mostly experienced players, and will contain quite a bit of information.
TLDR Absolution bossing
Absolution requires you to apply many absolution casts on the boss for all the 3 absolution minions to spawn, they have a 25% chance with refreshing duration. Necro has extra duration, and you can get it on the tree. Using spell echo might feel too clunky for many players, getting more cast speed improves this.
I recommend using predator for bossing, when you are not actively attacking the boss with your personal spell. The absolution minions tend to idle, predator on boss fixes this a number of times.
PoB
https://pastebin.com/XTeScgDY (Necro)
https://pastebin.com/TKZR3Xjz (Guardian)
These are just templates for going into a league, if you do not get jinxed juju or algor you can switch to a rare with res/spell sup. You can alternate the build with speccing into more minion defense if that is a problem, more damage or other needed points. The tree is not set in stone, but I will follow this template myself. I will go Necro as a starter fyi
Mana sustain
Absolution with many supports will get hard to sustain in an endgame setting, I strongly recommend going for the Eldrich battery keystone. This will make you able to cast an aura with blessing (if you got enough energy shield) and sustain the mana cost from casting absolution. Other strategies will be to incorporate a lot of mana regen from gear and tree, also using clarity.
Early progression
https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Sidhebreath will make your early game with SRS very potent, usually I recommend going with SRS until you can get convocation (requires level 24). The amulet will start to fall off in the act 3-4, and you can switch to an Absolution build.
Valid links for leveling pred, faster casting, lightning pen, minion damage, elemental army, physical to lightning, spell echo, summon phantasms and controlled destruction.
https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/The_Jinxed_Juju really good amulet for level 48.
https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Reverberation_Rod pseudo 6-link from level 24.
I like picking up unholy might mastery early on for a quick chaos damage boost when levelling in acts.
Rolling early minion wands, bone rings and minion shields will boost your way to maps. Remember minion damage is very effective until you get a lot of it.
Eldrich battery + MOM
It is possible to get defenses from your energy shield with MOM, but at the cost of making your ES be susceptible to not recharging from damage taken. I strongly recommend you to get a way to fill your ES (regen %, energy leech from tree/flask, Regenerate # Energy Shield per second while a Rare or Unique Enemy is Nearby, Ghost dance keystone if you have sufficient evasion)
Minion defenses
The strongest minion defenses in my opinion is regen %, after you have capped their resistances. You can spec minion regen on tree if you feel your minions die a lot.
Getting your minion resistance can be achieved from purity of elements (I prefer 20% qual for aoe), minion shield and bone rings. Getting the minion mastery for +8% maximum resistances is highly recommended.
Early on you can link any minion skill to summon phantasms, taking the 5% recovery per minion death mastery. This should boost all survivability of your minions early on.
Getting consecrated ground, the 5% flat regen from this will be very big for your minions. You can get it through zealotry (not linked with generosity), flasks or conc path spell. You can also get it on your AG with https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Zahndethus%27_Cassock (having bone armor or shield on your AG will improve it a lot.)
Minion shields can roll flat phys reduction, which helps a lot against corrupted blood.
Minion defense mastery 30% max life is decent, since the increased life should make up for the loss in regen.
Convocation (always get it to high qual for CDR) must be mastered to get your minions out of kinky situations. Spot abilities/boss abilities that are dangerous to your minions, a quick convocation away can save them often. Keep an eye out on the minion health (especially AG in your peripheral vision)
Ghastly jewels can roll some very good defensive mods for minions (I recommend % leech)
Good defensive minion supports (elemental army, meatshield and minion life)
Animate Guardian
One of the most important stepstones for a good minion build. Building up your AG can make your minion build from a mediocre one to something in the top tier. Will list some items and uses.
https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Legacy_of_Fury + https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Gravebind (absolutely killer combo, making your clear improve on a new level. This is similar with RF builds) scorched effect can run up to 15% ele pen. https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Inpulsa%27s_Broken_Heart is a substitute for legacy of fury, but I feel the maven boots are superior.
https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Zahndethus%27_Cassock ( early regen with block from bone offering and other sources)
https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Bloodbond (decent regen/life early on)
https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Gruthkul%27s_Pelt (endgame option for regen)
https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Leer_Cast (50% inc damage, one of the best ones)
https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Dying_Breath ( inc damage and curse effect, strong with new curses)
https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Kingmaker (A lot of defenses, rarity,culling + crit multi, depending changes to item rarity, it might be too rare)
And many more check https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Animate_Guardian
You can get items with +1 curse and get the corruption of curse on hit, very powerful. There are a ton of ways you can go forward with building your AG to be both good utility and damage. Make sure he survives your encounters in Wraeclast.
Raise Spectre
Spectres can be powerful additions to your lineup, there are a few stars for absolution.
https://poedb.tw/us/Arena_Master (tanky, provides a cast/atk/movment speed aura)
https://poedb.tw/us/Primal_Rhex_Matriarch (decently tanky, provides 20% inc lightning damage on target)
https://poedb.tw/us/Ruins_Hellion (VERY squishy NOT RECOMMENDED, provides less damage taken and inc dmg)
https://poedb.tw/us/Baranite_Cleric (squishy, provides an small area with 30% extra phys as lightning)
There are a few spectres with +1 to curses, these might be good, but require more testing. They tend to be squishy, so you will need to invest in defense.
Valuable uniques
https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Legacy_of_Fury + https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Gravebind (it is hot on AG)
https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Windscream (aoe + 1 curse, can be good for getting enfeeble)
https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/The_Jinxed_Juju (aura effect, less dmg with spectre, chaos res)
https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Algor_Mortis (provides a ton of inc damage on target, sap, non-damaging ailment, might be BIS for many occasions) You need to use vortex (pref on left
click)
https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Ashes_of_the_Stars (very rare, improves many of the alt quals, reservation and +1 skills)
Minion crit
I do tend to go crit for endgame with absolution, the crit nodes are strong, brittle (from exarch on boots)provides base crit (more with non-damaging ailment stat). Crits will make the shock value higher on the target, and make it apply without shock %.
Kingmaker on AG provides 50% crit multi, WARNING might be very expensive.
Minion shields/Minion wands can roll very good crit related affixes for endgame. This is a good aspiration for endgame gear.
Ascendancies
For early progression in the league I recommend Necro and Guardian, Guardian got the best early acts progression, while necro gets your minion survivability up quickly. For the hipster approach you can play inquisitor (good survival with regen, almost useless uber lab), ascendant (can get strong in endgame), jugg/trickster strictly for defenses (you can sacrifice your own defenses for more minion damage and defense)
Softcore Approach
I usually do not play softcore, so my opinion might not be valid. For softcore I would still use many of the guidelines above, but you can get a 12 passive cluster jewel for more damage. Build towards a doriyani’s prototype version of the build (ghazzytv usually got a decent one in the making)
Getting less spell suppression, I do not recommend this, since not dying is comfortable for softcore and hardcore.
Alternate gem qualities
There are plenty of alt quals to improve your absolution build, here are a few.
Feeding frenzy (anomalous, 1% life on hit)
Animate guardian (anomalous, 60% aoe (works with legacy of fury boots) and divergent, 40% minion life)
Lightning penetration (divergent, 20% lightning effect)
Arctic armor (anomalous, 20% chance to freeze with 350 ms, very good if you can pick up arctic armor)
Raise spectre (anomalous, 20% inc life, hard to get gem to 21)
There are more you can incorporate, keep a lookout for good alt gems.
Doriyani’s prototype
I do not recommend this build for HC, the only way for me is to build with the Mahuxotl's Machination + timeless jewels approach. This is not an early league build, and will be very expensive. So it is not included in this guideline
Thank you for reading
I’m Lucious or Luc, you can check my absolution builds on hardcore trade over the last few leagues for inspiration. Will be responding to questions in the comments.

I have been testing out The Hidden Blade and I think there is a lot of hidden (hehe) potential with it, and I want to throw out what I've learnt and some ideas for theorycrafting.
Firstly, I want to clarify a few things about Unseen Strike (which is the unique skill from the Hidden Blade), since the wiki has a few major inaccuracies.

• The wiki states that "If using 2 weapons, it will alternate between each weapon every time you gain phasing". This is wrong, Unseen Strike only ever uses the weapon in your main hand. It never uses your off hand weapon. This was tested using a Mjolner in the main hand and Hidden Blade off hand, every hit from Unseen Strike triggers a socketed lightning spell. It is also wrong in PoB, where it incorrectly assumes that the weapons alternate hits.
• The wiki states "If triggering Unseen Strike on a different weapon, the game will check that weapon's support gems instead of The Hidden Blade". This is also wrong, Unseen Strike is only affected by gems socketed in The Hidden Blade, whether its in your main hand or off hand. If you have an off hand Hidden Blade and a different main hand weapon, socketing GMP in your main hand weapon will do nothing to Unseen Strike, GMP will need to be socketed in your off hand Hidden Blade.

With what we have learnt, I have been theorycrafting a few ideas with the Hidden Blade.

• Automated Shock Delivery for 1-button Lightning Conduit:

We use a MH Mjolner socketed with (anomalous) Shock Nova, Overcharge, and Unbound Ailments. We combine this with an Astral Projector for the Shock Nova. This will trigger Shock Nova almost every time Unseen Strike hits an enemy (there is a 0.25 s cooldown). We also get at least +1 chain from Mjolner, since it applies to Unseen Strike. Thanks to the Astral Projector, this will drop the Shock Nova right at the enemy's feet whenever they are hit with Unseen Strike, and Shock Nova guarantees a shock. Now all that is left is to self-cast Lightning Conduit. In theory, this should give us more damage compared to CwC LC setups (which is the other popular 1-button LC build), since we can dedicate a full 6-link to LC. Here is a very barebones PoB for the concept https://pobb.in/W0IKtdAVOI5m. I'm going Inquisitor to help meet the requirements for Mjolner, and go for crit based LC. Please let me know how this can be improved as I'm not good at making builds

• Cameria's Avarice Autobomber:

The main thing I'm trying to take advantage of here is that any global modifiers to projectiles affect both Unseen Strike as well as the projectiles from Icicle Burst from Cameria's Avarice. We can freeze everything with Expedition's End, Heatshiver for more damage against frozen enemies, and stack as much cold to fire damage from the support gem and Pyre (we already have 100% phys to cold from Icicle Burst). We top it off with Gloomfang for non chaos as extra chaos, and go elementalist to let it all ignite. This could be interesting with the new Nimis ring, as it will affect both Unseen Strike and Icicle Burst. I've tested with Vengeant Cascade and it does indeed work for both projectiles. Here is an even more barebones PoB https://pobb.in/z6aI_9TakWJP. TBH I don't think this is all that good, but just wanted to share the idea.
Some other ideas I haven't explored as much but might be worth looking into:

• People have used Mjolner + Ball Lightning as a delivery mechanism for Corrupting Fever
• Unseen Strike has a rather high Attack Damage and Added Effectiveness of Damage at 250%, which would be great for stacking flat damage or with high base damage (something with Rebuke of the Vaal or Paradoxica maybe?)
• Frostbreath might be good too, since we can guarantee chill from the mace mastery to always get double damage
• Might be some cool stuff we can do with the new Nimis ring, but also want to throw out Kineticism and Fury Valve as potential ideas (Kineticism would prevent fork, pierce and chain, but not split and return)
• Could do some traditional HoT autobomber stuff with Storm Secret and Shock Nova + Astral Projector + Mjolner

Hope that this gives some ideas to play around with. I'd be interested in hearing about any other potential use cases for Hidden Blade.
EDIT: Follow-up post with videos

(Edit: Cold Spells like Freezing Pulse and Frost Bolt also work)
For anyone who's never played Endless Delve before (like myself), you start Delving at level 1 which can be a little rough depending on your class and skills. Here's some advice to make it easier:
Start with claw and shield - Scar of Fate, and Remnant of Empires, respectively. (start with these regardless what your planned build is, then swap later). Put Frost Blades + Elemental Proliferation + Onslaught/Pierce (preference) in the claw for its 50% reduced mana cost. Alternatively use cold spells Freezing Pulse/Frost Bolt + Elemental Prolif + Arcane Surge. And don't forget to activate the level 20 Hatred aura from the claw.
Claw gives life gain on attack and spell hit, plus the level 20 Hatred aura, which is quite strong for a level 1 character. Elemental Prolif increases your chance to freeze and chill, which are useful defensives. Shield gives gives both Attack and Spell block, Life, Endurance charges, and Elemental Resistances, all strong defensives. Hatred + any Cold skill provides all the damage you need.
Only Witch, Shadow, and Scion start with both claw and shield, so if you're not playing one of those, create one first and put its gear into your stash. Then create your main character and use that starter gear. You can safely delete the prior character, the items will still be in your stash.
Edit: some other starter combinations that work, from the comments:

1. Marauder with Purifying Flame, then Holy Flame totem at level 4. A useful backup in case you run into Frostweaver Rhoas.
2. spark+pierce+onslaught + eventually from lvl4 onwards holy flame totem with whatever and some random oos setup, swap onslaught with added lightning - smooth sailing.
3. marauder with ashes of the sun and the endurance shield, fireball ignite with elemental proliferation and combustion as soon as possible.
4. splitting steel + 2 frenzy swords.
5. Smite is best starter with ancestral call, onslaught and 2 frenzy swords, fast as fuck and strong.
6. Raise Zombie and any Totem skills as your beefy tank buddies. ... As an extra you can get Consecrated Ground effect from either Holy Flame Totem or by using Purifying Flame for it.
7. Shadow, claw and the unique shield, cobra lash with volley, spec some on hit hp/mana/energyshield passives.
8. You can start with any skill you want, provided it hits multiple enemies at once. The main sticker is to turn off loot filteget a non strict variety, turn on auto equip, and grab strength armour items as they drop so you don't get merc'd when the inevitable swarm of spiders and wetas bite your ankles to death.
9. Ek [Ethereal Knives] with pierce and arcane surge, using the hatred claw

endless delve start starter

Greetings, fellow exiles. I've just finished playing the league and wanted to share the build I've been using. I have played most leagues since Betrayal and I enjoy creating off-meta builds and seeing how far I can push them, typically on the left side of the tree. This build is no exception.
Link to PoB: https://pastebin.com/fqRzDJcn
Summary
We're playing a Berserker using The Fulcrum to reflect elemental ailments back onto ourselves with Wild Strike as our 6-Link and a ton of life leech as our primary defense.
Overall, the build performed a lot better than I expected. The beginning of the league was a bit of a struggle for me as I experimented and figured things out, and I would not recommend this as a league starter as you will simply be a gimped wild strike build until you can spend at least 3 to 5 divines to get the prerequisites to be able to use The Fulcrum. However, once my unique items were all acquired, the build performed admirably. Move speed is fast and mapping is a lot of fun. I mostly ran alch and go, logbooks, delve, and some heist, but the build can do juicier maps and is surprisingly sturdy on bosses. Using this build, I killed Elder, Shaper, Maven (only the 2nd time I've ever killed her), Aul the Crystal King (first time, around depth 300), Uber Atziri, The Formed, and The Twisted. I didn't bother doing Exarch or Eater of Worlds as I was specced into the right side of the tree and I hate the Eater fight, especially as this build which will struggle during his damage-immune phase (no leech plus a growing degen field = bad times).
According to PoB I ended up at about 5m dps, 174% movespeed mod, 5k HP, and about 3.3k life leech rate.
Playstyle
Zoom zoom on maps, mostly. Ancestral Cry is instant and provides us with armor, rage, and clear speed. Hydrosphere is fun to yeet around the map, though you will probably only need it on tankier rares. Right click to unleash Wild Strike and watch stuff blow up. Big dps buttons are Berserk and Ancestral Protector, and once we're swimming in currency and have a level 4 Enlighten we can afford to run Defiance Banner which provides further defensive benefits, especially when planted near a boss or other tough spot. I run Flame Dash because I find its ability to dodge incoming attacks to be extremely valuable, but you could get away with running the move skill of your choice.
On bosses we literally stand on top of them and hold right click. As long as you don't stand in something like a shaper beam or other death mechanic, your leech will carry you through their attacks while you melt them.
Critical Items
We use a lot of uniques, but fortunately none of them are particularly expensive, you'll just need a bunch of them before the build really comes online which does give us a bit of a start up cost.
Inpulsa's Broken Heart
This is one of the most expensive uniques we use that is an absolute must-have to equip The Fulcrum, as it is the source of our shock protection. I think I paid 1-2 divines for mine and then 6-linked it myself.
Winterweave
This is what reverses the effect of chill on us, and is also 100% mandatory. It is, fortunately, very cheap.
Forbidden Flesh and Forbidden Flame with Tasalio, Cleansing Water
This is how we prevent ourselves from suiciding with ignite and is also 100% mandatory. It also provides the added benefit of a ton of Fire Resist and boosts our life leech. I spent 1 divine on each.
Large Cluster Jewel with Feed the Fury and Fuel the Fight
Not a unique item but necessary for the build all the same and probably one of the first things you'll want to get. The life and mana leech from this cluster jewel is what sustains us. Cheaper variants are easy to get. Once you go for an 8 passive, 3 notable version with Martial Prowess, you'll be spending a few divines.
The Fulcrum
This is what brings it all together, and once you have all of the above, you can equip it and watch the build fly. Aim for one with a high phys roll and decent ele rolls, particularly cold. Wild Strike will take care of the conversion for us, so we don't need to worry too much about the ele rolls, but I'd still check what PoB says. I think I paid about half a divine for mine.
Other Items
Atziri's Acuity These gloves are absolutely fantastic for us and while they aren't mandatory, I cannot think of a reason you would not choose these. They double our life leech, they give us a much needed intelligence boost, they have max life, critical strike, a ton of armor - literally everything about these gloves is steroids for our build. Bonus, they're cheap.
Ryslatha's Coil
This is particularly good for us due to the luck on shocked mod from The Fulcrum. A poorly rolled Ryslatha's will cost next to nothing. A well rolled one will cost a few divines.
Call of the Void
Very cheap unique ring for our 2nd slot that ensures we will be chilling and chilled all of the time, debuffs our enemies' damage, and deletes on-death effects like Toxic from the game.
Rare Items
Boots, Helm, and Amulet are our only rare items. You'll need to prioritize getting your dex and intelligence up to 155 or higher, getting your elemental resists capped, and good max life rolls. The Cannot Be Frozen craft for your boots is a must, but fortunately it only costs 1 ex and you can use The Brine King as your major god in a pinch. A nice but expensive boost can be had by getting boots with Onslaught as a synthesized implicit, which will allow you to ditch an onslaught flask and pick up Rumi's Concoction instead.
Nice to have Items
Medium Cluster Jewel with Astonishing Affliction and https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Eye_of_the_Storm_(passive_skill)
More dps, more chill and shock effect.
Watcher's Eye and Thread of Hope
Watcher's Eyes are kind of a no-brainer for any build, and you can get them as cheap or as expensive as you want. We make particularly good use of Thread of Hope (very large ring), hitting 5 strong notables with it and having Magmatic Strikes available as a 6th that I simply did not take in lieu of more max life.
Flasks
You'll want a life flask with immunity to corrupted blood and bleeding. Diamond and Sulphur flasks are good for us for dps, as is Silver Flask, but you can replace your Silver Flask once you get Onslaught implicit boots. I replaced mine with Rumi's.
Ascendancies
War Bringer, Defy Pain, Flawless Savagery, and Aspect of Carnage
I found War Bringer and Defy Pain to be the most critical for the build. Defy Pain in particular gives us a huge boost to armor and life leech, and with our decently high block chance, it won't hit cap too often.
Gems
Wild Strike - Fortify - Awakened Elemental Damage with Attacks - Anomalous Hypothermia - Increased Critical Strikes - Trinity
This is our main damage link. Anomalous Hypothermia gives us more chance to freeze which is just fantastic to see in action. Fortify is a bit of a dps loss over something like Increased Crit Damage or Awakened Melee Phys, but a big survivability gain. We want as close to a 100% crit chance as possible so we are always applying our ele ailments, so Increase Crit Strikes wins over Increased Crit Damage.
Phantasmal Ancestral Protector - Enhance Support - Culling Strike - Berserk
Enhance boosts the extra attack speed buff from Phantasmal Ancestral Protector and also boosts Berserk.
Divergent Herald of Ice - Precision - Anomalous Hatred - Enlighten
Alternate qualities give us more chill and more freeze
Hydrosphere - Elemental Weakness - Hextouch - Bonechill Support
Zip that Hydrosphere around the map onto your enemies for debuffs.
Steelskin - Cast When Damage Taken
Ancestral Cry, Defiance Banner, Flame Dash, Blood Rage
Standard CWDT defensive setup. Blood Rage boosts our dps and gives us frenzy charges. Defiance Banner is a later addon for when you get a level 4 Enlighten but it's a bit of a defensive boost. Ancestral Cry is how we generate Rage with War Bringer and I found the other boosts it gives to be extremely helpful.
Of note, Tribal Fury on the passive tree is also a nice QOL buff similar to Ancestral Cry and I would not recommend the build without either of them.
Closing
I was pleasantly surprised with this build's performance and ended up having a lot of fun with it. I think this is the longest I've ever played a league before getting bored. You'll have to deal with melee playstyle which isn't for everyone, but I felt it had a lot of survivability and a ton of clear speed, and the QoL provided by ancestral cry and tribal fury make it pretty smooth to play. You will get popped if you're running rippy content, but as long as you aren't actively trying to level it won't matter. You run super fast anyway and Paradise Lakes are a really easy way to gain levels if you're trying to progress through your 90s.
I hope some people find this build interesting and this guide helpful.
Enjoy.
EDIT:
Had some people ask for video, so I put some clips together. Nothing amazing, just a couple maps and a 326 depth delve. Hope it helps show the playstyle a bit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwMHFGiu8JA

TL;DR: Archnemesis mods would feel more interactive if they were tied more tightly to mob behavior and state. Additionally, mods that allow tactical counterplay feel much better than mods that always punish interaction, or that lean into mechanics that are difficult to mitigate.
After 5 months and tons of tweaks, we've seen GGG's dedication to keeping the AN rare system around (and to improving it). While that decision has caused a smidge of unrest, I'm not totally against it. I think the rares from the AN system could be better, or at least more interesting, than those from the old mod system.
However, AN is weighed down by some mod behaviors and designs that cause bugginess and frustration. I've tried to identify them, as well as behaviors I'd expect or prefer in their place.
Note that I've ignored the reward system. It'd consume a post of its own.

Mods aren't well integrated with mobs

Since mods are modifications to rare monsters, I'd expect their effects and activation to be tied to the rare's state. Right now, many aren't.
Some mods don't require their rares to be aggro'd on you before they activate, instead activating whenever their rare is alive, and a player is within a range from the it. Ice Walls from un-alerted Heist patrols, Deadeye marks from around corners, Obelisks from who knows where all fit that pattern.
Worse, some mod effects can persist not only outside of aggro range, but even after their rares are de-rendered. Permanent Deadeye marks and Obelisks in Delve are the most famous example of this. I've personally confirmed that you can kite Hexer pools indefinitely, and I'd be interested to know if there's any max Assassin teleport range (I assume there is, but you never know).
I would prefer effects from AN mods to only apply when their rare is both rendered and aggro'd (either on a player or their minions). Other conditions may be required on a case by case basis, but those two should be universal. In short, once you leave aggro/render range, you should have escaped your Archnemesis. Its mod effects should no longer apply to you.
There are other, less glaring integration issues that occur mid-combat rather than during engagement or escape. That plays into the next issue.

Uninteractive mod effects

Some mod effects present more like active skills than they do auras or stat boosts - See Rejuvenator auras, Storm Herald storms, and Corpse Detonator corpse spawns/detonations. I'd expect ways to prevent active skill use (e.g. stuns) to prevent these effects.
In practice, though, these mods behave more like effects than skills. Stuns will not interrupt or prevent active or intermittent AN mod effects; they'll occur despite their rare being incapacitated. Chill does not seem to impact how often or quickly they occur either. I haven't tested Temporal Chains's interaction with AN cooldowns; if someone has, please let me know.
That behavior leaves little to no way for players to interact with the mod beside killing its rare. I would prefer that active AN mod effects be converted from "effects with an interval" to "skills with a cooldown". Players could then apply tactics like interrupting, chilling, freezing, or cursing rares to delay or prevent those skills' activation.
Combined with tweaks to activation conditions, that change would hopefully help players feel less like they're fighting AN mods, and more like they're fighting AN rares. It's a slim distinction, but a vital one.
There are also a number of passive, stat based mods that lean into mechanics that players have few tools to mitigate - In particular, block (Sentinel) and regen (Rejuvenator, Consecrator). While they're decently integrated with their rares, these mods either get brute forced through, or pigeonhole players into very limited choices for mitigating their effects. That renders them pretty non-interactive for a lot of players.
Ground effects from mods present similar issues. POE doesn't have geomancer-style archetypes/skills that are centered around ground effects, so pretty much all builds are left with patchwork mitigation/immunization of ground effects.. Or regular games of "floor is lava".
I would prefer mods to leverage mechanics that players have interesting options to deal with. That can by accomplished either by changing the mod, or by adding more player tools.
There is a final class of interact-ability that deserves its own section.

Mods that punish interaction

This is where I get frustrated. If you go through the Archnemesis mod list, there are a lot of mods that trigger effects when hit or on-death. Since players have few ways to interact with most mods outside of hitting and killing their rares, these mods actively punish players for interacting with them. That feels pretty bad.
I would prefer that mods allow counterplay, or at LEAST counterbuilding, rather than solely being punishing.

• The Crystal Skinned mod could allow players to destroy its crystals by stepping on them before killing its rare.
  
• Incendiaries could not leave Burning Ground if they're chilled when killed, or on-death effects could be prevented by destroying corpses.
  
• Strider bolts could not be triggered when hit by a matching element.
  

And so on. Providing ways around punishment mechanics adds gameplay depth and decisions around mods, rather than having them be little more than "dodge this, don't stand there, and don't hit me".
That about covers my biggest frustrations with the AN system. The system itself isn't bad; there are mods like Mana Siphoner, Mirror Image, and yes, even Entangler (in its current state) that have actual counterplays and create interesting encounters. And stat-boost mods, while more mundane, allow players to use our normal tactics on them. But there needs to be an over-arching reevaluation of the remaining mods, and what their purpose is. Are they effects that have been imposed over rare monsters to make the game harder? Or are they modifications to rare monsters that create interesting encounters?
Ostensibly it's the latter. In practice, it's often the former. I hope GGG will fix that.

I'm looking at PoEWiki and it states

Freeze duration can be increased (and therefore, minimum hit damage decreased) by freeze and ailment duration modifiers.

.
However it doesn't say anything about generic duration modifiers like Increased Duration Support, or Increased/Reduced Duration from items like Timeclasp Ring

A pretty straightforward build revolving around the reworked Ralakesh's Impatience and stacking all kinds of charges for a ton of generic spell damage.
Mid-budget PoB: https://pastebin.com/yZu8bnEW

Core Mechanics:

• Use the boots for an easy way to generate all types of charges, without having to kill - Requires usage of a spell that hits instantly or snapshots damage on cast (I'm using Arc and Crackling Lance but other spells work)
• Badge of the Brotherhood and Slayer's Masterful Form to stack Power Charges and get 3 for the price of 1
• Malachai's Loop for +2 power charges and a bunch of spell damage, using Tempest Shield to become immune to its shock. You don't lose the charges since your minimum power charges = maximum
• Arn's Anguish for 30%+ chance to deal triple damage with Brutal Charges, also grants pseudo stun immunity all the time since moving doesn't get rid of Brutal Charges
• Inner Conviction (from Dominus's Militant Faith) to get 3% more per Power Charge, ignoring the downside since we get minimum Frenzies

Bonus Mechanics:

• Some ailment effect with Arn's Anguish triple damage bursts to max shock/freeze most bosses
• 30s Onslaughts from Rotgut with a bunch of minimum frenzies
• Eldritch Battery to run Blessing Zealotry + Frost Shield since our spell usually requires us to stand still, Frost Shield is a nice boost to survivability and damage, effectively turning 730 of our ES into 60% less hit damage
• Situational 100% Cooldown Recovery Rate from Badge of the Brotherhood lets us Dash around a lot, Phase Run on left click makes us go faster
• Slayer overleech to run RF for general mapping
• Forbidden Flame/Flesh for the (relatively) cheap Champion Conqueror gets us another -10% reduced damage stacking additively with Brutal Fervour and Soul of Arakaali for 30% total reduced damage from RF
• Basically no 'on-kill' buffs so you can loot leisurely

Budget:

Minimum Requirements:

• Ralakesh's Impatience, Badge of the Brotherhood, Arn's Anguish, Malachai's Loop = 80c~
• Bitterdream = 1c
• Rotgut = 1c

This gets you around 1.2m with Crackling Lance, 800k with Arc
Milestone Upgrades:

• Dominus's Militant Faith - 30% more = 40c
• +1 Power Charge Corrupted Helmet - 30% more = 20c
• Bitterdream -> Void Battery + 5L - 50% more = 2div~

Potential Upgrades?: Cast speed on rings, especially with Kalandra rings (Good for stacking Crackling Lance Intensity) Warlord + Corrupt Double Power Charge Helmet Enlighten 4 to squeeze in Herald of Ice Juicy Precursors for +Power Charges
Closing thoughts: I wanted a cheap league starter that would work well out of the box, and this has been running pretty smoothly, getting up to yellows with a Bitterdream (though I was hoping Ralakesh's Impatience would be a 1c unique). Slayer culling has made most AN rares unnoticeable until T16s but the build might be better off as another Ascendancy and dropping Arn's Anguish. Defences don't scale terribly well into the late end-game even with Grace instead of Heralds but the damage has been one of the highest I've played with this level of investment (My current PoB: https://pastebin.com/SAzaeZ6u), if anyone has any ideas to make it way tankier I'm all ears!

I won't get into the stat balance of defences or offense on archnemesis modifiers as I feel that isn't at the root of the long term problem. That is a problem in the short term, which is just numerical changes that should have been done right in the first place.
Rather I think highlighting the fundamental design issues that make archnemesis anti fun, reduce build diversity, and reduce immersion and depth is far more important.
Systems in path of exile be it crafting, itemization and the stat possibilities, build diversity and mechanics we utilize, skill trees, league content etc. have always been built with depth and complexity .I really think the current archnemesis is far too simple, it's arcade, it doesn't fit the rest of path of exile.
These are fundamental problems with the archnemesis system.

• Historically what set path of exile apart from competitors was the focus on the monsters, the modifiers enhanced the danger of the monster itself.
• Archnemesis shifts the focus and danger from the monster to the archnemesis modifier which renders the monster itself inconsequential. (this is affecting loot and combat).
• The majority of abilities granted by archnemesis modifiers are uninspired copies from other aRPGs, they are often bland/cliche.
• The abilities granted by archnemesis modifiers create repetitive monster templates just like diablo 3.i.e PoE temporal bubble + ice prison vs diablo 3 missile dampener + waller.
• The abilities granted by modifiers are a repetitive experience and often require one dimensional counters.
• Abilties aren't restricted to what in lore the monster is about or innately capable of doing.
• Some archnemesis modifiers restrict build choices and some require significant investment to overcome for a broad range of disabling or inhibiting mechanics.

In the What Happened with Items post: (https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3300117)

1. An adjustment to the average number of Archnemesis Modifiers on rare monsters to increase difficulty, justify the higher rewards and create more random interesting encounters that add variance to gameplay.

I take issue with specifically: "create more random interesting encounters that add variance to gameplay."The archnemesis modifier system is fundamentally the same as the affix system of diablo 3 due to the existence of the abilities associated with them.You give a monster affixes/modifiers which grant abilities which determine the experience of the fight.
The abilities couldn't be further from variance in gameplay.Once you see a temporal bubble, ice prison, lightning mirage or any other ability granting modifier in isolation you have already seen it all and the combinations don't feel new or interesting. I personally find it extremely boring to fight these abilities over and over and I don't feel like the fights differ at all, in fact I feel like there is less variation.
In the old system when monsters were the focus their movesets and combinations with eachother vastly outnumber the current amount of archnemesis modifiers and their combinations, especially the monsters abilties feel grounded and real as they are innate.
So how do you solve these problems?
Monsters in path of exile can innately inflict bleed, poison, freeze, ignite, entangle and all manner of other base path of exile mechanics. They don't need additional artificial abilities from archnemesis modifiers.Remove all abilities from archnemesis modifiers that aren't grounded in path of exile, and that remove the unique identity from monsters.
remove all on hit effect/on deplete/on death effects.

• Arcane buffers: "When Energy Shield is depleted, triggers a weak nova that knocks back and briefly stuns enemies (2.5 second Cooldown on players)."
• Sentinels: "Triggers a Delayed Reckoning when Hit (1.5 second Cooldown)"
• Flame Strider: "Trigger Inferno Bolt when Hit (0.5s global cooldown)" and "Rare Minions create Flame Beacons on Death"
• Frost Strider: "Rare Minions create Frost Beacons on Death" and "Trigger Snow bolt when Hit (1s cooldown, 0.75s global cooldown)"
• Storm Strider: "Trigger Lightning Mirage when Hit (0.75s cooldown, 0.75s global cooldown)" and " Rare Minions create Lightning Beacons on Death"
• Toxic: "50% chance to create a Toxic Volatile on death that chases the player, accelerating over timeToxic Volatiles create Caustic Ground after exploding"
• Magma Barrier: "When the Magma Barrier is depleted it explodes for massive Fire DamageBarrier returns 10 seconds after explodingPeriodically spawns Volatile Flamebloods that chases the player while within 70 units of a player, accelerating over time (9 second cooldown)"
• Crystal-Skinned: " Fires crystals under Players when they hit you (0.2 second cooldown)Crystals deal no damage and despawn after 12 secondsCrystals charge up and explode on death, dealing Cold damage "

Remove all build disabling abilities (why damage build diversity).

• Vampric: "Enemies Cannot Leech Life, Mana, or Energy Shield From you"

Remove these lines which add abilities that the monster is not innately capable of.

• Ice Prison: "Periodically creates a barrier of Ice around the player for 3 seconds (5 second cooldown, 5 second global cooldown)"
• Entangler: "Applies Thorned Vines to Enemies, which slows them and causes them to take Chaos Damage over Time (3 second cooldown, 2 second global cooldown)"
• Assassin: "Teleports to distant Enemies creating a Smoke Cloud (3 second cooldown)"
• Storm Herald: "Casts Lightning Storms targeting Enemies"
• Bombardier: "Periodically Fires a Nova of Fire Mortars (6 second cooldown)"
• Soul Eater: "Summons a Shackled Phantasm monster every 4 seconds"
• Permafrost: "Creates areas of vortex ground"

Only allow to roll on monsters which innately have these abilities to enhance them

• Entangler (already exists, just allow this modifier to roll on those monsters to enhance their abilities)
• Hexer (only monsters which can curse by default so now instead of 1 curse they can now do 3)
• Treant Horde (only allow on summoners/necromancers for extra minions)
• Necromancer (only allow on summoners/necromancers for extra minions)

Remove/Delete

• Mirror Image (periodic immortal image of monster)
• Rejuvenating
• Temporal Bubble
• Mana Siphoner
• Heralding Minions (on death totems)
• Heralds of the Obelisk (on death obelisks)
• Benevolent Guardian (applies immunity to damage)
• Final Grasp (immortal ghost of monster after death)
• Drought Bringer
• Empowered Elements
• Effigy
• Trickster

Finally limit what combinations can occur by categorising modifiers into defensive and offensive categories with a cap for each monster so that there isn't the spikes of insanely tanky/rippy rares.Or apply diminishing returns for multiple modifiers which affect the same stats.
I think with the above changes fighting archnemesis rares won't be repetitive and the removal of generic abilties will restore monster identity.
As for the loot, that is easy, don't tie the loot tables to the archnemesis modifiers.
Instead give each archnemesis modifier an individual multiplier to item quantity and rarity based on the tier of the archnemesis mod and the intended difficulty/rarity of that modifier which is independent yet addititive to the total archnemesis mod count on the monster.
I'll also leave you with this to compare.
https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Archnemesis_modifier
https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Monster_Traits_(Diablo_III))

Waggle recently tested a lot of carriers for LC (Hydrosphere, Crackling Lance, Exsanguinate, Storm Brand, Divine Ire, Orb of Storms, Shield Charge) etc, but his process was by no means exhaustive, and left out a lot of skills that could be equally viable. While I'm not set up to record vids to visually show the effects, I decided to be a bit more rigorous about testing spells as mapping shock primers for LC.
I'm restricting myself to spells because a) it's unlikely that you are wielding a bow and b) there are attack speed and accuracy issues involved with attacks. Off the top of my head, some attacks (Rain of Arrows, Frost Blades) would proc shocks well, but I'm not testing them here. Voltaxic Rift runners, look elsewhere!
TLDR is right at the very end.
Candidates
On first principles, you would want a spell with good coverage to be able to shock as many enemies as possible. Low cast time is a plus, but not fatal since most LC builds stack a good amount of cast speed anyway. Looking through the list of spells organised by cast time, and discarding those which Waggle has tested, traps/mines (to avoid double clunk), the following 12 candidates look promising:

• Winter Orb - has the promise of charging up once then running through enemies;
• Unearth - Low cast time, pierces all enemies, can use GMP for added coverage
• Glacial Cascade - Large area, knockback serves additional defence
• Freezing Pulse - Pierces all enemies, adds chance to freeze
• Bladefall - Large area, many hits
• Ball Lightning - Pierces all enemies, can use GMP for added coverage
• Purifying Flame - Hits more and more enemies as the map goes by
• Rolling Magma - Can use GMP for added coverage, can chain
• Firestorm - Large area, many hits
• Frostbolt - Pierces all enemies, can use GMP for added coverage
• Eye of Winter - Primary projectile pierces all enemies, can chain, can use GMP for added coverage
• Soulrend - Pierces all enemies, homing, can use GMP for added coverage, some ES leech for EB

Methodology
All tests were conducted with a lv93 Elementalist in Standard, with Heart of Destruction (so 60% Convergence AoE increase) and Shaper of Storms.
To check viability in various layouts, two areas were used: Blood Aqueducts (for closed layouts) and Imperial Fields (for open layouts).
As the gem setup for each gem differs, I'll be mentioning supports separately after each gem, but all tests have in common the gem itself and a Level 1 Elemental Proliferation to simulate the shock proliferation mastery. (Might be a bit off since the prolif mastery has a smaller radius and might not benefit from Convergence, but needs must.)
Winter Orb (GMP)
Winter Orb has a decently large hit area, but the irregular arrangement of its projectiles means it can sometimes miss stragglers at the back of packs. It also only targets enemies on screen. In Imperial Fields, it performed reasonably well since packs tend to appear all at once, but in Blood Aqueducts, where packs can sometimes be "strung along", this meant stragglers appeared more often.
The worst thing is the stop-start channelling requirement, though, which might make an already clunky build feel clunkier. Not my top choice.
Unearth (GMP)
Unearth is DoA even before heading out into the field, for a very simple reason. Unearth specifically targets your cursor, so you can't make use of GMP's cursor targeting to adjust the spread. This means that a) you're limited to hitting what you can see and b) you will leave stragglers around the sides of packs. It's not as bad a problem in Blood Aqueducts, but it will feel noticeably "short" compared to other skills. Definitely not recommended.
Glacial Cascade (IncAoE)
Hideout testing alone suggested a similar problem to Unearth: a fixed "reach" from your character, and a largely conical AoE that would miss stragglers. However, Glacial Cascade's cone is fairly wide, so it wasn't an obvious writeoff, and the knockback was attractive.
It did perform to expectations in Blood Aqueducts. The width did catch the whole of a pack from side to side, although the limited range meant there were stragglers at the back. There was also a slight propagation delay, which might cause some whiffs if LC came out faster than the wave propagated (although it's unlikely). But the test in Imperial Fields obviously doomed it; Glacial Cascade is hopeless when mobbed from multiple directions.
Freezing Pulse (GMP/FasterProj)
With only GMP, Freezing Pulse has a dissipation range of roughly from your character to the top of your screen. That wasn't very impressive, so I put in Faster Projectiles, which made the skill feel significantly better in terms of its reach and speed of shocking. Up till now, it's the best feeling of all the skills, although with the caveat of requiring a 3L which might be a steep cost to pay. Given the ability to adjust spread with GMP, it performed equally well in both Blood Aqueducts and Imperial Fields, and is a reasonable candidate if socket space is not an issue.
Bladefall (SpellCascade/IncAoE)
With Spell Cascade, Bladefall already hits a fairly impressive area, but it gets quite monstrous with Increased AoE. With proliferation, you're actually quite happy to space out your hits over a very large area, and that's what Bladefall allows you to do.
Tests in Blood Aqueduct were promising, but Imperial Fields revealed some weaknesses. First, Bladefall has a "hang time" or a bit of a cast delay, in that the blades take a while to fall after the cast. This means it can miss some enemies that are moving towards you quickly. Second, Bladefall still hits a roughly rectangular area in front of you, which means it can also miss enemies flanking you, although this is less painful than it was with Unearth or Glacial Cascade. Not a bad option, although I think for 3 sockets, Freezing Pulse simply feels better so far.
Ball Lightning (GMP/FasterProj)
Without Faster Projectiles, you can outrun your own Ball Lightning, even temporarily. The projectiles do have longer persistence than Freezing Pulse and will eventually catch up and zap, and it is playable without Faster Projectiles, but having it just feels snappier.
That said, in actual performance it blew everything so far out of the water. With persistence beyond half a screen and less "gaps" in between projectiles, Ball Lightning is superior to Freezing Pulse in coverage, and can even hit everything in a 180-degree frontal arc if cast just right next to the character. Certainly one of the stronger recommendations.
Purifying Flame (IncAoE)
This is quite an out-there pick relative to the others in the list, and initially I thought that the consecrated ground shockwave mechanic would mean that you could be somewhat lax with your aim, and you would still be able to hit stuff that ran over consecrated ground. Testing in Blood Aqueducts with slow enemies and a linear path showed that it had a tendency to leave stragglers at the edge of packs and you didn't really need to shock enemies twice. Imperial Fields didn't really help this conclusion, and it was unclear whether the visual effect of the shockwave accompanied an actual hit, so not that great a skill to use.
Rolling Magma (GMP/ChainFasterProj)
The first of our chaining skills, hideout tests showed quite a good deal of promise. Chain extends the range of Rolling Magma quite far, but even without it at least has a reach to match Freezing Pulse.
However, while it doesn't leave stragglers, its travel time is even slower than Ball Lightning, adding an additional element of delay to the build. This is solved by switching Chain for Faster Projectiles, which dramatically increases its travel speed and actually makes it quite a viable contender. Performance in both Blood Aqueducts and Imperial Fields was good, although it had a bit more gaps between projectiles compared to Ball Lightning and hence could sometimes rarely leave a straggler between projectiles.
Firestorm (IncAoE/SpellCascade)
"Gratuitously large" was the first thing that came to mind with Increased AoE and Spell Cascade together. Frankly, with Elementalist's Convergence, IncAoE was already plenty big, although it could somewhat frequently leave stragglers at the edge of packs. That is completely obviated with Spell Cascade, which makes it such that you have to try to miss.
Performance in Blood Aqueducts was good, and while the rectangular layout of Spell Cascade was a very minor issue, the fact that Firestorm had persistence in the form of small impacts meant that it also hit any enemies who ran into the AoE after your initial cast, saving you the need for recasting the priming skill. Definitely a strong contender, although visual clutter may be an issue, and I think it is slightly - just so slightly - weaker than Ball Lightning or Rolling Magma.
Frostbolt (GMP/FasterProj)
Without FasterProj, Frostbolt is quite slow, and as bad as Rolling Magma. With FasterProj, it's just about as fast as Ball Lightning without Faster Projectiles, which is an early red flag.
In Blood Aqueducts, while it didn't have a problem shocking whole packs, the speed was really bad and quite intolerable, because it was entirely possible that you could have completed a cast of LC before Frostbolt shocked the back half of a pack. In Imperial Fields, with its relatively small hitbox, the same issue as with Rolling Magma showed up: some monsters could pass between projectiles especially if GMP was "widecast". Overall, one of the weaker GMP primers, and I wouldn't recommend it.
Eye of Winter (FasterProj/Pierce)
Because GMP only applies to the final spiral, it's quite unnecessary for Eye of Winter. Instead, FasterProj is mandatory, since without it, Eye of Winter only travels about as far as Freezing Pulse and releases two spirals.
What let this down somewhat was the fact that while the main projectile has infinite pierce, the shards released do not. Therefore, letting it off into the midst of a mob means that the outside of the pack is somewhat insulated. Pierce solves this problem and makes it better in Blood Aqueducts, but the spread of the shards means that in Imperial Fields, even more monsters can slip between the shards compared to Frostbolt and Rolling Magma, so this isn't recommended either.
Soulrend (GMP/FasterProj)
The whole reason for me starting this in the first place was thinking that Soulrend's homing could be really good here. And indeed it was. While it also needed FasterProj to feel good, Soulrend alone never left any stragglers in Blood Aqueducts, and persisting over a screen and a half meant that sometimes enemies would run in already shocked.
That said, Soulrend projectiles still have a significant travelling time, so it's possible that you may have to wait for a pack to be completely shocked before casting LC. I'm not sure how bad this will be in practice but it might just be significant enough to be an issue at higher cast speeds.
Conclusion/TLDR
Of the 12 skills tested, I would consider the following viable:
Freezing Pulse (GMP/FasterProj), Bladefall (IncAoE/SpellCascade), Ball Lightning (GMP/FasterProj), Rolling Magma (GMP/FasterProj), Firestorm (IncAoESpellCascade), and Soulrend (GMP/FasterProj). However, almost all of them need 3 links to feel good, the exception being Firestorm which can get by fine on Spell Cascade or IncreasedAoE (at the cost of leaving some stragglers).
Having tested these against my previously preferred Vortex/Frostblink, I have to say that Vortex feels much poorer in hindsight, being restricted to your cast position. I would still retain Frostblink as a movement skill, but with Increased AoE being spare, I might actually plump for Hydrosphere (provided it isn't a candidate for shock removal), Firestorm, or Crackling Lance as a primer when socket space is at a premium. If I can free up links, I would consider one of the 3-link skills since I think they feel pretty good, and their spread is definitely wider than Hydrosphere's.
EDIT: What does anyone think about the idea of Herald of Thunder proccing Fire Burst for an autobomber-style shock delivery system?

https://pobb.in/wqryLZDt
https://pastebin.com/wqryLZDt
Quick note: I know you can just plug in something like Viper Strike + Multistrike or Spectral Helix and deal 2-3x the damage, but I just love the cyclone playstyle too much to not use it. Also fuck Spectral Helix, feels awful to play.
Specs:

• Level 90, hoping that the unreleased grand spectrums will be worth 6 passive points (+3 min Endurance Charge, etc.)
• 3.3k Life, 1.7k ES, 850 life gained per second, 350 ES gained per second
• Ghost Shrouds recover about 1.4k ES, immediately topping us back up
• 2m ~ 2.5m DPS excluding Plague Bearer DPS, 9 seconds to ramp Withered Stacks (can be shortened later with alt quality + lvl 21 gem)
• 87% chance to evade, 95% chance to evade if hit by an Attack recently
• 168% ~ 228% Elusive Effect (we're abusing Nightblade + Withering Step, because of course we are)
• 100% Spell Suppress, 53% of Spell Damage is Suppressed
• 13 Unique Mastery types for Polymath (would have got all of them anyway even if this node didn't exist)
• ES Overleech via Soul Drinker (Spellbreaker here is fine too, just swap ES Leech Support for Deadly Ailments)
• Crit immune
• Chill/Freeze/Temp Chains immunity and discount Temp Chains Aura via One Step Ahead
• "Only" 4 Uniques, 3 of which can be replaced with half decent rares and don't cost more than 1c ~ 5c (Ungil's Harmony is hard to beat, but again, is very cheap, even at league start)
• No alt-quality gems, no exceptional gems, no awakened gems
• No Determination (sorry, but this isn't Hardcore viable)
• over 100% bonus movement speed while channelling Cyclone, very zoom zoom yes

The gear in the PoB should be pretty obtainable and the Uniques are rarely ever expensive. If you do like 2-3 hours of Heist before maps, you'll probably be able to afford better gear than in the PoB. To handle ignites, later in the league you can buy the Sin's Rebirth Flask (~40c) for Unholy Might and ignite removal.
There's probably some Cluster Jewel setup that improves on the build, but I figured someone else could help me there if they wanted to.
For movement we're using a combination of Whirling Blades + Flame Dash, though Flame Dash isn't really necessary as we're so fast that walking around gaps might be faster than waiting off the Withering Step cooldown. As we have no armour our guard skill of choice is Immortal Call. To cap our crit chance where we need it, we're running Assassin's Mark as our curse with Mark on Hit. So most of this sounds like a lot of Mana and it is. But with the Life and Mana gain on Hit node and Cleaver Thief, we regain about 180 Mana a second which keeps up with Cyclones' massive 116 mana cost (~19.3atk speed * 6 Mana) while still being able to cast Assassin's Mark on hit.
​
Bossing is as follows; put Withering Step on left click, Convocation on right click, drop Ancestral Protector, Spin for 12 seconds, drop totem, repeat while holding left/right click the whole time.
For those who don't know Elusive can't be refreshed by a new proc of Elusive unless it's removed by Withering Step. So the effect never decays low enough to be a problem. 228% is the max effect that procs on crit by Nightblade. We lose 20% effect a second and after 3 seconds are at 168%. Then Withering Step comes off cooldown (3 seconds) and applies a weak Elusive. This Elusive is instantly removed if we cast Convocation (this skill is only here to remove Withering Step because unless you stop spinning, Cyclone won't cancel Withering Step and Convocation has the same Cooldown as Withering Step while also being an instant skill that doesn't stop Cyclone). After the Elusive is cleansed, we immediately get the powerful Elusive again because of 100% crit chance. This way we've always got a very powerful Elusive buff.
If you don't want to use Trickster, you can basically plug the same tree into an Assassin and get similar DPS. Though if you do that, you should probably just check out jungroan's Poison Spectral Helix.
PS. I wrote this at 5AM, please excuse any weird formulation or errors.

Up to date!

Introduction

This is a long post for everyone who is EXTREMELY interested in Overcharge support, Lightning Conduit and Shock mechanics.
Overcharge support at lvl 20 will make skills shock as if dealing 690% more damage. The support also has "25% less damage". What does all of this equate to in terms of your shock and dps? TLDR, sources, terminology and possible questions that could be asked are at the bottom of the post. I've added a lot of detail, and will answer questions and update the post if people are interested. Want concrete examples? I will try to make it happen :)

Shock effectiveness multiplier from this gem alone, according to the shock formula:

Shock formula source ^(1. (0,75 * (1+6,9))^(0,4) = 2,0373 ^(a.
What if you are REPLACING a support with Overcharge? Let's use an example of a support that gives 30% more damage, aka multiplies your damage by 1,3. When taking it away, we need to divide the damage by 1,3. I will use this number for the examples below.
((0,75 * (1+6,9)) / 1,3)^(0,4) = 1,83
What this means is that for a 50% shock you need to be able to deal a shock of 50/1,83 = 27,3. So if you are able to deal a 28% with a damage support, you will now be able to get a 50% shock. You'd need 55% with a damage support to get 100% with Overcharge..
When replacing a link with our example above: 27,3% shock -> 50%. 54,5% shock -> 100%. 63% -> 115%
Going from 28 to 50 is a damage increase of 150/128 = 1,18 or 18% more ^(b.. Going from 55 to 100: 200/155 = 1,29 or 29 more. 63 to 115: 31,9% more
Losing a damage support is not good, but the main skill will deal 18%-32% more damage! Also, main skill now doesn't need to shock so you could use something like Elemental focus. it's great as a utility support on a utility spell. The shocks having increased duration with quality means that you will be forgiven a bit for not being able to get peak damage every x seconds assuming you don't get rid of the shock with something like Lightning Conduit.

What's the maximum possible benefit?

Well, if we try to maximize our maximum shock effect by getting all sources of it... Voltaxic Rift +40%, Lightning Mastery +15%, Shock Nova +10% ^(e.a.... we get to 115%.
These all DO stack. Once again, I refer to question e.a.
To inflict a 115% shock we would need a shock of 63% with a damage support. Going from 63% to 115% is a damage increase of 215/163 = 1,319 or 31,9 more.

Interaction with Lightning Conduit:

So, with the updated^(c.b. Lightning Conduit giving 20% more damage per 5% effect of shock... going from 55% to 100% shock means to go from 220% more damage to 400% more. This is a damage increase of 500/320 = 1,5625 or 56,25% more. When taking into account the increase in shock effectiveness giving 29% more damage, this is 1,5625 * 1,29 = 2,02 or 102% more damage
63% to 115% shock is 240% more dmg to 460 more. 560/340 = 1,647 or 64,7% more. When taking into account the shock effectiveness, this is 1,647*1,319 = 2,17 or 117% more damage.

Multiple sources of "Shock enemies as though dealing y% more damage"

This is important enough to have its own little section. These work together in the best way possible. They are multiplied together, confirmed by Mark ^(2.. This means that getting multiple sources of the stat from items such as Voltaxic Rift, Brain Rattler, Painseeker and skills such as Lightning Arrow and Overcharge support will multiply the shock by (1+"Shock As Though More damage")^(0,4) for each source. These sorts of stats will also work with other ailments, such as chill and freeze (assuming that it's talking about ailments in general and not just shock OR it's chill / freeze specific such as Ice shot and Expedition's End body armour).
Also, keep in mind that Voltaxic Rift and Brain Rattler only affect attacks now! They used to work with spells in terms of this particular stat, but that was changed in the 3.19 patch notes.

TLDR

Shockwave is great as a utility support on a utility spell. It's not good on your main skill, as you lose out on a damage support.
Using 100% shock effect as a baseline maximum that can be achieved relatively easily, just the shock effectiveness multiplier getting us from 50% to 100% gives the main skill 29% more damage in the optimal case^(b. when replacing a link with Overcharge. With Lightning Conduit's 20% more damage per 5% shock effect giving 56,25% more damage on its own (when going from 55% to 100% shock), when we multiply these together, we get 102% more damage. Using Overcharge support to increase our shock effectiveness on a secondary skill can give us great results! Shock enemies as though dealing more damage multiplies with other stats with the same function and wording. Multiple sources are good :)
With a skill meant for shocking, your main skill doesn't need to shock so you could use something like Elemental focus. Or even a completely different damage type.
Increased shock effect should be used as well to get the most out of Overcharge's multiplier. These multiply together nicely, according to the formula.
With the different buffs and nerfs happening before the launch of Lightning Conduit.,, how much worse is Lightning Conduit? I explore this in detail in the question c.c. but short summary: "version 3" is still a buff compared to version 1, but a nerf compared to version 2. To offset the difference, you'd need over 5000 added damage from sources (so imagine added lightning damage support or archmage). That doesn't seem feasible, and probably isn't worth stacking that much added damage when you could instead go for "more multipliers" that don't have diminishing returns.
Version 3 is still a strong skill, but I wouldn't necessarily rely on it being the most broken thing in the world. Be cautious with your choices, as fun is the most important thing in the end.
​

Sources:

1. https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Shock#Mechanics The formula on the wiki is from the 3.9 patch notes (which was a while ago)
   
2. https://www.reddit.com/pathofexile/comments/e90zv4/comment/faigigj/?context=10
   

​

TERMINOLOGY: (will add more, if people feel like this stuff needs to be clarified)

T.a. Version 1, 2 and 3. Version 1 is the first version of Lightning Conduit shown, Version 2 was the buffed one, Version 3 nerfed it.

Questions / Notes / Possible points of confusion

(alpha. How are the questions marked / numbered, and why? In chronological order of me putting them in. This is so that any new questions will be able to be discussed with referring to certain questions. If I would change the markings everytime I add something in the middle, it would 1. take a lot of time and 2. confuse any person who would refer to a certain question in the comments (for example someone directing someone else to a particular question.) I want these to be useful :)
a. How does the formula work? How do I use the formula?
There are 3 things that get multiplied together to give you a shock value. There is a constant 1/2. If we are going up against a boss, we can't exactly change their ailment threshold (T). We can affect 2 things. 1. The damage we do (D). 2. The increased effect of shock (M). These work multiplicatively with each other. If we increase our damage to double, it doesn't increase the effect of the shock by double, as there is a "to the power of 0,4" in the formula. This effectively means that when we double our damage, we get 2^(0,4) = 1,32 times the shock effect. The stat "increased effect of ailments/shock" increases the shock value, but in a different place to the damage. This is why I speak of "more effect of shock", because it is a multiplier just not a linear one.
b. This is assuming that the monster doesn't have any other sources of "increased damage taken". This is a BIG assumption, as any extra sources will mean that shock's relative increase won't be a direct "more" multiplier, but rather something that needs to be added with other sources to see how it affects things. If you wish to suggest some amounts of increased damage taken for me to calculate this stuff further, I can do that.
( c.a. (This got overriden by a nerf, see c.b.) There was a recent post on the forums that had all new gems and stuff. It happened to buff some of the new skills compared to what they had shown before. https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3293941/page/1#p24697590 )
c.b. There was an even more recent post about how they are nerfing Lightning Conduit. I have taken it into account. https://www.reddit.com/pathofexile/comments/wqd6ud/changes_to_lightning_conduit_before_launch/
This is a buff compared to the original skill shown, but a nerf compared to their buffed version. I know, confusing.
c.c. How much of a difference is this compared to the buffed one (version 2)? It nerfs the base damage to be 35% less. It nerfs the effectiveness of added damage to be 13,7% less. However, it increases the damage increase from shock effectiveness from 15% to 20% per 5% shock effect. This works out to be 560/445 = 1,258 aka 25,8% more. So in reality the effectiveness of added damage is buffed by 8,65% at the very high end. To offset the loss of an average of 550 damage that was taken from the base damage, we would need approximately 5000+ added damage from different sources. After that, you'll be getting more bang for your buck from added damage than before the nerf :D However, it's probably better to just focus on getting "more multipliers" from supports and items rather than trying to chase such a high amount of added damage. This is just due to the diminishing returns from flat added damage. I don't think Archmage can even get to those numbers, but someone will probably prove me wrong.
d. Why not make it a level 21 gem? Honestly, it's not much of a difference at that point. I wanted to provide easily available numbers and I would suggest you worry about literally any other gem in the game before this one. I would even maybe go for 3% quality just for some extra duration, that's how useless the "10% more" is compared to the gigantic 690% more. These are additive when they come from the same source, if that makes sense.
e.a. Can Voltaxic Rift and Shock Nova be combined to increase the maximum effect of the shock? Yes. Here is a link to the exact post in the patch notes https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3293287#effectofshock
While GGG made it so that the maximum effect of shock is still global like before, they did wish to nerf Voltaxic Rift's actual ability to get high shocks with spells. The stat "Shock Enemies as though dealing 300% more Damage" is now limited to "Hits with this Weapon" rather than being global as well.
e.b. What does Voltaxic Rift do for spells? Voltaxic Rift for spells will still give you +40% maximum effect of shock, 60% lightning to chaos conversion and the ability for your chaos damage to shock.
f.a. Elementalist and Voltaxic Rift? The shock node with 25% more effect of shock only works when the highest component of your damage is lightning damage (you might be able to do more lightning than chaos if enemy has enough lowered lightning res / you have enough lightning pen). With 60% of lightning damage converted to chaos, going for super high shocks with that node is silly, at least without pen/reduced lightning res. Elementalist doesn't have much support for chaos damage, and thus the chaos conversion has negative synergy with the ascendancy. But I suppose you could get the golem nodes, primal aegis and the chill node in whatever order you like best.
This doesn't mean Elementalist is bad in general, just maybe not the best synergy with a particular item. And since Voltaxic Rift is necessary for the most maximum shock effect memes... yea.
f.b. What would be the best ascendancy? I have not looked into this yet. I might not add a definitive "best" to the post at all, since it's going out of the scope of this. I wish to make my own choices, and you should think about your own choices as well. Interesting ones to look at are of course these: Inquisitor for crits, Hierophant for mana / archmage, Occultist for curses and chaos damage / wither, Ascendant ((Occultist, Assassin, Raider)), Trickster for speed and defenses, Maybe I'm missing something.
z. The comma is used as a decimal divider in my country, so I will use it like that here as well. Hopefully that's not a big deal :)
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Updated for version 3 of Lightning Conduit, aka the nerf ot the buff.
Also added some sections about how version 2 and 3 compare to each other in the tldr and questions. Added the Terminology section.
Updated with math when REPLACING a damage support of 30% more damage.

FINAL NOTE: If you have a question / multiple, check the post and comments for it. Maybe you missed it before. Thank you!

Hello everyone,
I don't wanna rain on everyone's parade but I'm pretty sure that One step ahead won't make you immune to all slows (grasping vines, tar, delirium slows etc). Now you might already know that but it seems that I see this said everywhere on here and the main subreddit hence I'm making this post.
Now as to why this is the case:
Action speed acts basically as a more multiplier for attack/cast/movement speed. Right ? So the trickster node makes you immune to Temp chains, Chill and Freeze for example because these are debuffs to your action speed, so they can't affect you. Now in the case of these other debuffs, they are often not affecting your action speed, but your movement speed directly. So you still have your 108% action speed, but your movement speed is lowered. So let's say you have 100MS by default, it gets reduced to 80 by one of these debuffs, and then scaled back to 80 * 1.08 by your action speed.
Side note, you also see this difference by looking at the Jugg node (Unstoppable) which explicitly states that movement speed cannot be reduced.
Hope this hasn't been already said everywhere but it felt like I keep seeing this misconception so there you go.

Hi guys, Asmo here!
In this post I would like to offer a comprehensive guide to defensive mechanics in PoE. A lot of people are currently voicing their struggles with the Arch Nemesis mods and the current state of the game. This guide will give you a lot of examples of mechanics that are easy to add to your character without breaking the bank. I will start by explaining the basics of defence in Path of Exile, that will put everything in a greater context. If you want to skip the basics, you can jump straight to part 2, which will cover specific problems that your character will face and many examples of solutions to those problems. I will also provide you with an example budget build that utilizes the principles described in this guide, as well as a video guide and PoB for it. Enjoy!

Part I: The main layers of defence.

The main layers of defence can be separated into 4 different categories:
1) Avoidance - which is your character's ability to avoid damage - primarily from hits. Examples of avoidance include: Chance to block attack damage, Chance to block spell damage, Evasion, Spell Dodge, Chance to avoid Physical damage from Hits, Chance to avoid elemental damage from Hits, Chance to avoid ailments, Chance to avoid all damage from hits (Elusive).
As you can see there are a lot of forms of avoidance, but almost all of them will protect you exclusively from hits and won't help you against degeneration / damage over time effects. This is why it is important to incorporate multiple layers of defence into your character. If your character naturally has a lot of avoidance, it's a good idea to look into adding a lot of recovery to it, as they synergize very well. If your character isn't taking damage for a while but every now and then loses a lot of HP, you'll need an ability to quickly recover it, to avoid staying in a vulnerable position for too long.
2) Mitigation - is your character's ability to reduce the amount of damage taken. This includes Elemental / Chaos Resistances, Armour, Physical Damage Reduction, Spell Suppression, Immortal Call, Lethe Shade, Fortify and more.
Mitigation is the layer of defence which will stop you from getting killed in 1 hit and will leverage your health pool to protect you from more damage. If your character naturally has a lot of mitigation, it will make every point of HP you get worth much more, so make sure to increase your Health Pool as one of the priorities.
3) Recovery - is your character's ability to gain back lost Health/Energy Shield. This includes leech, gain on hit, regeneration, recovery, recuperation, recovery from flasks and other abilities.
Recovery is relatively easy to get while mapping but it is a much more scarce resource when bossing, however if you can solve that issue, your character will become a much better bosser. Recovery is also great when you pair it with high avoidance, such as Life/ES gain on block or Ghost Shrouds. Depending on your character's Health pool, you'll want to invest in flat regen (for example "54 life regenerated per second") if your character has low HP, and focus on percentage regen (for example "0.5% of life regenerated per second") if your character has a high HP value.
4) Life Pool - is the total amount of hit points you have, which includes Life, Energy Shield and possibly Mana. This is what people sometimes mistakenly call EHP (effective hit pool) - EHP is actually a much more complicated value which represents the combination of all your defensive layers against damage dealt to your character - you can check and compare this value in Path of Building, but it is not fully representative of characters survivability.
Your Life total is the most superficial layer of defence which is the first thing that people tend to notice, however you shouldn't be fooled by it because it is very easy to make a 4k hp character that will be twice as tanky as a 7k hp character. As with all the other aspects of defence, this is just one layer of it. That being said, the more you invest in avoidance, recovery and especially mitigation, the more value you'll get out of every single point of Life you add to your character.
These four main types of defence work best in combination. You'll never be tanky by just investing in one of them. It's the combination of many layers of defence that makes a character feel immortal. The more layers and defensive mechanics you add, the more return you'll get for each of them. Just like with damage scaling in PoE, the defence also goes up exponentially the more you put into it. Remember to always have at least one solid mechanic covering each of those defensive aspects.

Part II. What makes a good character

Making a good character is not just about damage or defence, it is about efficiently ticking off all the right boxes. The game progressively gives you new challenges and problems, and as a player you'll have to address them if you want to have a good time and smash all of the content.
An example of those challenges could be something like Act 4 - Belly of the Beast mobs that use Puncture to apply Bleed to you. You can choose to just run through them spamming your life flask and you have a good chance of surviving if you don't get too unlucky but you can also take this opportunity to address this issue for your character, grab a Colossal or Sacred Life Flask and Beast Craft a "of Sealing" mod on it, which will make you extremely safe against any bleed/corrupting blood in the future (You can find a list of bestiary mods on this page: https://poedb.tw/us/Bestiary_league#BestiaryRecipe just search for "Life or Mana"). You can also get a Steelskin Guard Skill and use that instead.
All right but how are you supposed to know all of the problems you're going to encounter ahead of time? The game usually exposes you to them over time, one by one, but here is a list that can help you with that:

• Physical Damage
• Elemental Damage [Fire, Cold, Lightning]
• Chaos Damage
• Attacks
• Spells
• Stuns
• Crits
• Projectiles
• Degeneration
• Elemental Ailments [Freeze, Chill, Shock, Ignite, Brittle, Scorch, Sap]
• Bleed
• Poison
• Curses
• Maim
• Grasping Vines
• Body Blocking

Here are some examples of efficient ways to tick those checkboxes for your characters - I'll try to stick to ascendancy neutral solutions that can be used by many different builds. Different ascendancies offer defensive mechanics that completely or partially tick a lot of those boxes, but regardless of which class you want to play, there are always things you can do:
1) Physical Damage -
One of the best ways of dealing with physical damage is adding Endurance charges to your character - here are some options for you:
-Enduring Cry on left click + Call to Arms keystone,
-Aggressive Bastion Notable from passive skill tree,
-Disciple of Unyielding Notable from passive skill tree,
-Minimum Endurance Charges on Rings and Amulet (Betrayal Unveil / Bench Craft),
-Enduring Composure Notable from Small Armour Cluster Jewel (You can use Defence reforges from harvest on item lvl 68+ small armour cluster or just spam alterations)
And more: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Endurance_charge
If you're generating endurance charges but don't stack armour, I also recommend using Immortal Call. Cast When Damage Taken Immortal Call pairs very well with Enduring Composure for example.
You can also stack armour. Pay attention to your item bases, their quality and get a Determination Aura. Granite flask with increased armour during flask effect can also offer a massive boost to your armour. Never neglect your flask setup. It should be one of the first things you invest into when you get to maps.
Many rare items can also offer modifiers such as "Additional Physical Damage Reduction" on body armour, or % of Physical Damage From Hits Taken As Fire/Cold/Lightning/Chaos - such as "20% of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Fire Damage" on the Cloak of Flame unique.
You can go to https://www.craftofexile.com/ and type "taken as" into the "search for an affix" field, to find possible ways of obtaining those mods on items.
2) Elemental Damage -
Elemental damage is very straightforward to deal with. Unfortunately many people still have the attitude of - "my resists are capped at 75%, why did I die?". Getting to 75% resistances is just a minimum requirement. These days it is very easy to go above the 75% resist cap and you should definitely take advantage of that.
-You can do it through passives on the skill tree, such as Crystal Skin, Prismatic Skin, Soul of Steel
-You can get Searing Exarch implicit modifiers for max res
-Max res modifier on shields
-Purity auras
-Melding of the Flesh unique jewel and more.
You can also take advantage of the "taken as" modifiers, such as "50% of Elemental Damage taken as Chaos Damage" on the Divine Flesh Keystone from the Glorious Vanity Timeless Jewel. Increasing your maximum resistance is more powerful than most people realise because every additional point you get, gets you more and more damage mitigation. This is true for most mechanics in the game. To illustrate this in an easy example, let's say you have 0% fire resistance and you're going to take a 100 damage fire hit to the face. If you get an additional 1% of fire resistance, you're going to now take 99 fire damage from that hit, which means you've reduced the incoming damage by 1%. Seems straightforward right? Now imagine you have 89% fire resistance. The incoming hit now deals 11 damage to you. If you get that additional 1% of fire resistance, it will reduce the incoming damage from 11 to 10. That is over a 9% difference! Which means at this point the same 1% of fire resistance is worth nine times as much in terms of reducing the damage you've been taking before. This works similarly with mechanics like block, evasion and other hard % damage reductions (such as additional physical damage reduction).
3) Chaos Damage -
Chaos resistance is one of the more neglected stats when it comes to easily available defences. Softcore and Hardcore players alike are constantly dying to chaos damage while simultaneously refusing to get any serious amounts of it. The game is not balanced around having 0% chaos res anymore, so if you're running with your chaos res value in the negatives, you're asking to get clapped by the Toxic Volatiles. Good news is that if you decide to invest in your chaos res, you're going to feel significantly more tanky and the Toxic Volatiles will barely tickle you.
-You can find chaos res on the implicit modifier of certain bases such as Amethyst Rings or Fugitive Boots
-You can force a chaos resistance roll with Essences of Envy
-You can also use the bench to craft 15% elemental + 15% chaos resistance on rare items (this can be further increased by Prismatic Catalysts on Jewellery.
-There is chaos resistance available on many passive nodes on the passive skill tree, including the Asylum and One with Evil wheels which also give you access to very powerful passive masteries that are worth taking.
-If you have at least 38% positive chaos resistance, you might consider the Cleansed Thoughts anointment which doubles your Chaos Resistance.
-There is also an option of crafting a Small Chaos Resistance Cluster Jewel with up to 8% chaos resistance which together with the base 12% per node and a 35% increased effect of small passives can provide as much as 75% chaos resistance for 3 passive points + the jewel socket. Even without going to that extreme, looking for chaos resistance on cluster jewels you're going to use anyway, is usually a good idea.
If you're looking for a good number of chaos res to aim for, I would recommend 40% positive chaos resistance + an amethyst flask which is going to take care of the remaining 35% as an easy solution.
4) Attacks -
To protect yourself from attacks, usually you'll want to invest in some form of avoidance. Evasion being the first and most obvious choice. You can stack evasion using the combination of your gear, passives, flasks and the Grace aura. Evasion is also increased by your dexterity so if your character naturally gets a lot of it, it's probably a good idea to invest in some flat evasion to boost up your defences.
If you're using a significant amount of Evasion then it is also helpful to incorporate Blind as a defensive mechanic. Blinded enemies will have a lower chance to hit through your evasion as well as give you a higher chance to hit them. You can blind your enemies by:
-picking up passives on the atlas tree, such as Dazzling Strikes
-the Claw Mastery
-or you can delegate this task to your minions and pick up an abyss jewel with a chance for your minions to blind enemies on hit.
Attack Block is another way of avoiding damage from attacks. It usually requires using a shield, staff or dual wielding. You can increase your chance to block through modifiers on your shield and passive skills on the passive skill tree. Glancing Blows keystone will also double your chance to block but I wouldn't recommend picking it up unless you also have some form or Life or Energy shield recovery on block that will justify taking the portion of blocked attack's damage. One of the most powerful examples of that mechanic is the incredibly strong Aegis Aurora shield.
Overall block is an extremely strong defensive mechanic which will drastically increase your EHP if you invest in it. It also has a lot of associated mods that can be found on unique and rare gear, ranging from increases to your block chance, to recovering a portion of your life whenever you block. As before I recommend heading to https://www.craftofexile.com/ and typing "block" into the "search for an affix" window to find out more.
5) Spells -
Damage from spells will be usually mitigated by your resistances or the physical damage reductions, but it is worth investing in another way of mitigating spells specifically - Spell Suppression. It's a stat that can be found on the passive skill tree as well as modifiers on Evasion and Hybrid Evasion bases of boots, body armours, gloves, helmets and shields. Spell suppression is especially effective against bosses, where you might encounter powerful single spell hits. Getting your Spell Suppression to 100% chance, will mean that every single spell hit you take gets reduced in half (or by 55% if you also take the Inveterate + Spell Suppression Mastery). If your character paths around the right/bottom part of the passive tree, it is highly recommended to utilise spell suppression. Spell dodge - which is now accessible through the Acrobatics keystone is only effective if you're specifically trying to mitigate a lot of smaller spell hits, where none of them have a chance of one-shotting you. Otherwise Acrobatics is not as good as relying on pure Spell Suppression.
6) Stuns -
Stuns are a very dangerous and often overlooked mechanic (You might be noticing a pattern by now - yes, most mechanics are overlooked and that's usually why people struggle). Especially for characters which base their recovery on Leech/Life Gain On Hit, because you can not attack while stunned. Without getting any health back, you'll quickly find yourself dead, because if the monsters are hitting you hard enough to stun you, that means you're in a seriously dangerous spot. Stun is based around the damage done by a hit, compared to your maximum life. The higher the percentage of life that you lose the higher the chance to get stunned and stun duration. Characters stacking a lot of life will get stunned much less frequently than characters focusing on energy shield or having low HP pools in general.
Here are some ways to deal with stuns:
-Soul of the Brine King Pantheon - which will stop you from getting stunlocked.
-Unwavering Stance (Only recommended if you have next to no evasion, for example while using Iron Reflexes) -Uniques such as Presence of Chayula and Kaom's Roots
-Boot Enchant which grants up to 70% chance to avoid stuns if you've killed an enemy recently
-Chance to Avoid Being Stunned crafts from the crafting bench as well as various modifiers on rare items (check https://www.craftofexile.com and search for "stun")
-Stun and block recovery modifiers which will reduce the duration of stuns on you
-Unwaveringly Evil Cluster Jewel Notable which will prevent stuns from interrupting your cast of chaos skills
7) Crits -
Crits are very dangerous for obvious reasons. Luckily it is possible to completely negate their effect in many different ways:
-Claw mastery "Enemies poisoned by you can not deal critical strikes"
-Viridi's Veil
-Sanctum of thought notable on passive skill tree
-Critical and Armour mastery on passive skill tree
-Belt of the Deceiver
8) Projectiles
Enemies fire 2 additional projectiles is a very nasty modifier to encounter, especially in maps with Eater of Worlds influenced "titty bitches" which fire those extra projectiles in a straight barrage, directly multiplying their damage and making them one of the most dangerous monsters in the entire game. Here are some ways of dealing with projectiles:
-Soul of Lunaris pantheon upgrades, wich give you 10% chance to avoid projectiles and 100% chance to avoid chained projectiles (very important when playing with minions)
-Flesh and Stone - less damage taken from enemies that aren't nearby
-Arrow Dancing Keystone
-Lioneye's Remorse
but above all, one of the best defences against projectiles is to continuously move around the monsters which will make them miss most of their damage.
9) Degeneration -
This one is causing people massive issues, especially with the new Arch Nemesis mods. Good news is, you can negate almost all of it in a very simple way. Most of the degeneration ground effects in the game currently come from two sources: Toxic Volatiles and Chilled Ground/Cold Snap. To deal with the first one, you can:
-Invest in chaos resistance as mentioned in one of the previous points
-Use soul of Arakaali upgraded pantheon for 10% reduced DoT damage taken and 40% Chaos Resistance against DoT's.
-Exposure Therapy cluster jewel notable which gives 30% Chaos Resistance against DoT's
And in order to deal with the Chilled Ground:
-Combine upgraded Soul of the Brine King which gives 50% reduced effect of chill on you with ring or glove bench crafts which give 40%/51% reduced effect of chill on you
-Pick up reduced effect of chill from the Anointed Flesh wheel on the passive skill tree
-You can also get 100% chance to avoid chill/elemental ailments which will stop the chilled ground from applying to you at all
Cold Snap will still deal damage to you, so a good amount of cold resistance and regeneration is what you want to mitigate it's damage portion.
In general the degeneration effects are quite obviously countered by regeneration. Many people neglect life regeneration rolls on gear but they do add up and help your character deal with the constant pressure on your health put by the enemies. The game always wants to kill you and it is never a bad idea to get a good amount of Life/ES regeneration. For example a T1 life regen roll on boots can give you up to 96 Life regen per second. That would require more than 150 mana reserved by Vitality. And speaking of Vitality, it is an extremely good aura for leveling and counteracting the effects of blood rage. If you're struggling with your mana reservation while using it, you can always pick the Life passive mastery for 100% increased mana reservation efficiency, allowing you to raise the level of your Vitality and get much more regen out of it. Regeneration is one of the most powerful defensive mechanics in the game because it is unconditional and works regardless of how many enemies are around you and whether you can attack them or not.
10) Elemental Ailments [Freeze, Chill, Shock, Ignite, Brittle, Scorch, Sap] -
Elemental Ailments are extremely dangerous and game changing, but also pretty easy to become completely immune to. If you don't take care of this step, every single other mechanic in the game will be more dangerous because of it. Degen will do more damage to you if you're shocked. More projectiles will hit you if you're chilled. Your regen won't be helping you when you're losing life due to ignite. They're all extremely deadly and it's best to just get rid of them all.
The simplest way to do that is to:
-Pick passives from the passive skill tree which give you chance to avoid elemental ailments
-Essence craft boots with Chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments
-Use Eater of Worlds Implicit on boots with Chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments
-Bench Craft Chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments on your Body Armour
-Use Soul of the Brine King
-Use Arctic Armour for freeze immunity
-Use tempest shield for Shock immunity
-Combine jewel implicits with chance to avoid being ignited/shocked/frozen with other passives to achieve 100% chance to avoid these ailments
You can reduce their duration, their effect or get a chance to avoid them. Pick whichever is most efficient and easiest to get for your build and do that before making any other major upgrades. You will die at least ten times less frequently than before if you successfully protect your character from elemental ailments. It should be one of your top priorities.
11) Bleed -
Bleed is a very straightforward mechanic to deal with. For most characters all you need to do is:
-Use a life or mana flask with bleed removal/immunity
-Take a mastery node on the passive skill tree for corrupted blood immunity or use a corrupted jewel with corrupted blood immunity implicit
-You can also use Steel Skin to remove bleed
-Soul of Ralakesh pantheon reduces the damage from bleeding drastically.
12) Poison -
Poison is one of those mechanics which you probably won't notice for most of your gameplay until you meet a monster that synergizes with it particularly well (Hunter influence monsters and Al-Hezmin for example), and then you'll suddenly die. High amount of Chaos Resistance and sources of Chaos Resistance against DoT damage mentioned in the Degen section will take care of poison completely. If your Chaos res is good enough, you will never need things like:
-Poison remove/immunity on utility flasks
-Unaffected by poison while affected by malevolence
-Maw of Conquest
Those extra poison protections are an overkill and only necessary for things like the Golden Rule Jewel builds.
13) Curses -
Curses - which include Hexes and Marks are extremely dangerous and should be treated with similar respect to Elemental Ailments. They will multiply the damage that your character takes and make many other mechanics much more dangerous. It should be one of your priorities to get a decent amount of "reduced effect of curses on you" early on. Here are some anti-curse mechanics you can take advantage of:
-Curse removal on utility flasks (this one is not recommended, and is pretty much useless)
-Reduced effect of curses on you during flask effect mod on utility flask (this one should be your go to suffix for one of your utility flask on most characters
-20% reduced effect of curses on you Masteries from the passive skill tree
-30% reduced effect of curses on you from the upgraded Yugul pantheon
-Viridi's Veil
-Asylum wheel on the passive skill tree
-25% reduced effect of curses on you Ring bench craft
-Consecrated Ground
14) Maim -
Maim is a very common effect which slows your character down and makes you more prone to receive extra hits. You can deal with it by:
-Picking a passive tree Mastery which will grant you immunity to Main as well as Hinder (the spell equivalent)
-Using a corrupted jewel with an implicit "You cannot be Maimed". This is a fairly common and inexpensive corruption to get.
15) Grasping Vines -
We all hate these, but depending on your usual mobility skills of choice you might not know that it is possible to instantly remove all vine debuffs from yourself by using a blink skill. This includes:
-Flame Dash
-Blink Arrow
-Dash
-Smoke Mine
Try to include one of those in your build, in order to combat this mechanic.
16) Body Blocking -
Lastly let me mention body blocking, which together with stun, belongs to the category of those "invisible" mechanics that many players might not notice, but they make your character get stuck and killed by a gang of angry monsters. The way to deal with this is naturally Phasing. You can get phasing from:
-Quartz Flask
-Searching and Hypnotic Eye Jewel mods
-Warlord wand/bow/quiver
-Elder quiver
-Withering Step
-Phase Run
-Multiple uniques such as Tinkerskin and Voidwalker
-Freedom of movement and Avatar of the hunt passive tree wheels
Phasing is a mechanic that adds a lot of quality of life to your character but for some builds I would consider it mandatory. Builds that should always get it include builds that have some sort of delay in their damage delivery such as:
-Toxic Rain/Caustic Arrow
-ED/Contagion
-Trappers
-Miners
-Heist Farmers

Part III: Build Example.

This concludes our checklist of problems and solutions. Hopefully it will help you better see what your character is missing, what to prioritise and what it takes to make a good build. If you want to see an example of a cheap starter build that performs well and ticks most of these boxes, I've just posted a guide for such a build here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PLs2I0_8pM
If you're just interested in the PoB, here it is: https://pastebin.com/dawammM3

Part IV: Other Defensive Mechanics.

Lastly, I feel like this guide to defence in PoE (which somehow became Asmo's Defence Bible by how long it is getting) would not be complete without honourable mentions of powerful defensive mechanics that deserve some more highlighting but they didn't fit any of the generic categories:
1) Molten Shell/Vaal Molten Shell.
If your character's defence includes a lot of armour, it would be a sin to not use this skill. The extra Health Pool granted my VMS, combined with an already tanky character can allow you to take to the face absolutely astronomical hits (for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCuNCvRVwCU&t=69s ). It is also very good when in combination with:
2) Cast When Damage Taken setups.
CWDT is a very good way to leverage your sockets and turn them into defensive power. Sockets are very valuable and you should always take advantage of any slots that your build doesn't need for the main abilities. Apart from guard skills you can also utilise CWDT setup with:
-Defensive curses such as Temp Chains or Enfeeble
-Frost Shield
-Cold Snap (for the chill and frenzy charge generation)
-Bone Offering (to remove corpses)
-Void Sphere for hinder and crowd control
3) Freezing/Chilling enemies
Freezing and chilling enemies is a massively effective way of reducing incoming damage. There is a reason why most hardcore boss race winning builds rely on chilling the bosses and slowing their action speed. It's just extremely effective. If your build doesn't do cold damage, there are always things like:
-Skitterbots + Unbound Ailments
-Arctic Armour
-Chill on block
4) Taunt
Having minions or totems taunt the enemies and direct their hits away from you is very strong. For summoners it is an additional layer of defence and can be accomplished by using "Minions have #% chance to Taunt on Hit with Attacks" mod from Ghastly Eye Jewels. For a Champion ascendancy - using totems that taunt combined with the Conqueror passive is a massive boost to their already strong defensive arsenal.

Part V: FAQ.

Q: How can I afford to spend extra passive points / items for defensive layers when my character already doesn't kill things fast enough? I need more damage!
A: Getting enough defence to dramatically reduce the number of your deaths is not very costly and will allow you to level up faster and reach higher levels which in turn will give you those passives back. Prioritising your character functioning properly over min-maxing your damage will lead to a much better feeling character in most cases.
Q: I'm using Grace + Determination + Defiance banner and I'm still dying. What is wrong with this game?
A: You shouldn't just copy a defensive setup without thinking about it. If you were playing something like a Champion, it's probably a great idea to run these auras, but otherwise you're probably not leveraging them both equally. Focus on one of them and add another layer of defence instead for a much better effect (for example Grace + Ghost Shrouds or Determination + Divine Shield/Aegis Aurora and Vitality instead of Defiance Banner)
Q: I can't afford an upgrade and my character keeps dying in T16 maps so I can't make the currency for defensive options and if I change my passives I'll lose too much damage!
A: Do lower tieeasier content and learn to farm your currency there. You can check this video for an example of how I was able to afford my Tornado Shot Omniscience build by running only T9-T10 maps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUCgfrRF-zs there are plenty of strategies that will allow you to farm up for your upgrades without the need to push corrupted T16's.
Thank you for reading and try to die... less than Zizaran XD <3