[0.4] ABYSSAL Lich Projectile Speed Twister - Endgame Build Guide

Lineage Support Gem Purchase Priority is Rigwald's Ferocity for Attack Speed (Movement Speed) on Whirling Slash (make sure this is a Level 1 Skill), Rakiata's Flow for Twister, Garukhan's Resolve again for Twister, Uhtred's Exodus for either Skeletal Sniper or Skeletal Cleric, Uhtred's Omen for whichever Minion Skill you did NOT use Uhtred's Exodus in (make sure to accompany this with Minion Mastery, and finally (not necessary) Dialla's Desire for Herald of Thunder.

I'll quickly explain the Level 26 breakpoint for Minions! Before Spirit Cost Reservation the minions have an inherent spirit cost, at level 26 we reach a breakpoint that enables us to use an additional minion. With Skeletal Sniper we corrupt for +1 Level of Skill Gem and on the Skeletal Cleric we opt for a Minion Mastery support to accompany Uhtred's Omen. Remember that this is all made possible with our Ancestral Tiara +2 Level of All Minion Skills Suffix! The Skeletal Sniper for example has 21 Levels from Level 20 Skill Gem + our corrupt of +1 Level, 2 Levels from our Ancestral Tiara, and the last +3 from Uhtred's Exodus. The next breakpoint for a reduction in inherent Spirit cost is at Level 31 so we can ignore this!

Whirling Slash [Weapon Set I] is at LEVEL 1, if you have Mana issues this is not at LEVEL 1!

This skill works alongside Twister and benefits the "Consumes Whirlwinds to create an additional twister and deal 80% more damage per Whirlwind stage". There is NO circumstance where we are using Twister without THREE Whirling Slash stacks! Whirling Slash also circumvents the need for Twister to travel over Shocked Ground, this is the reason we use Wake of Destruction. The entire time you are playing you are holding down your Whirling Slash button so I recommend Right-Click as the bind! The skill follows your cursor and it will take an adjustment period before you are able to freely navigate without smacking into walls!

Rigwald's Ferocity coupled with Rage III, Rapid Attacks III, Weapon Set I points in tree, Dance with Death, and a Skysliver make for a VERY fast moving character! Exploit Weakness removes Broken Armour from Bosses and has gives you another 1/5 chance at getting an additional Frenzy Charge! This rarely gets utilized but it is best in slot!

Twister [Weapon Set II] is a very simple skill. It is always paired with Whirling Slash (3 stacks), Barrage, and 3 Salvo Stacks (you can see these on the icon of your Ability bottom right).

We use Armour Break III because Resonance in our tree turns the Endurance Charges from Broken Armour into Frenzy Charges, enabling us to use Barrage to its fullest potential. Subsequent "Repeats" from Barrage do 50% Less Damage but this is not an issue once the Critical Hit is Snapshot (I'll explain later). Anticipation in tree implies that it only works for Unleash but it conveniently benefits Salvo as well (they are the same gem essentially). To better optimize the synergy between Barrage and Salvo we use Anticipation and make sure that Barrage is on Weapon Set I to utilize all of our Skill Speed (namely Dance with Death). Critical Hits are the primary source of Single Target Damage for our character so this is why that previously mentioned "% to Critical Hit Chance" mod on our Flying Spear is so important. Critical Hits with Twister are SNAPSHOTTED at the POINT OF ATTACK! In other words they are either ALL going to deal Critical Hit Damage or NONE of them are. This is the reason we use Garukhan's Resolve for time saving. If you don't care/can't afford/don't want to use Garukhan's Resolve then Prolonged Duration II is your best bet and feels great for mapping! If you do not get a Critical Hit, Barrage and Twister until you do! You are either going to 1 shot the boss or Barrage + Twister until you do. Projectile Acceleration III is the build enabling support and the entire reason we play Abyssal Lich, this is our Skeletal Sniper Projectile Speed synergy enabling support. Without Projectile Acceleration III we basically have fast moving twisters that deal very little damage. Additionally faster moving twisters make the existing projectiles more likely to deal damage multiple times, Twister has an inherent 0.66 second unscalable delay between projectile hits. In other words after a projectile has dealt damage it cannot deal damage again until the 0.66s timer has expired. The faster the Twister Projectiles move and the longer their Skill Effect Duration the more damage they deal! Gaining Frenzy Charges in the Boss Room is not worth the investment (or the headache)! For a better visual understanding you can refer to https://github.com/NathanVegetable/PoESparkDPSCalculator just ignore all the numbers and pay attention to the simulator examples!

Barrage should always be ready before you have Maximum Salvo stacks and you are always inside of a Stage 3 Whirling Slash with a Lightning Empowerment from Wake of Destruction. All of this sounds complicated but I'll outline my button combination for clarity.

I am holding right click and pointing where I want to go (Whirling Slash)

I am pressing R when I have 3 Salvo Stacks (Barrage, the more Frenzy Charges the better)

I Left-Click (Twister)

Whenever I am near an Abyss I drop a Vulnerability just to get a bit extra Area of Effect from Rupture the Soul!

Barrage [Weapon Set I] consumes Frenzy Charges

These are generated with the aforementioned Armour Break III + Resonance interaction! The more Frenzy Charges you consume the more Barrage repeats the Twister Attack. Remember that this works alongside Salvo so the support gems for Twister are pseudo-final!

Herald of Thunder [Weapon Set II] needs no explanation

Dialla's Desire however does give it additional stacks! We use Magnified Area II instead of a damaging support to hit monsters on the far side of an Abyss Pit.

Herald of Ash [Weapon Set II] is instead of 1 extra Skeletal Sniper, if you have a breakpoint in which you could have 2 extra Skeletal Sniper you can test without Herald of Ash. The extra Area of Effect is nice for Abyss Pits!

Skeletal Sniper [Weapon Set II] the entire build is revolving around this Skill. Projectile Acceleration III turns all of the +15% Increased Projectile Speed into Increased Projectile Damage. This is not a CONVERSION, you get the Speed AND the Damage! Every single Skeletal Sniper is +21% Projectile Speed after the Projectile Acceleration III multiplier of 1.4! We have not tested if the multiplier works before or after the Increase Damage but we err on the side of after and we do not benefit from our TOTAL Projectile Speed, but instead the value BEFORE the multiplier! The Spirit breakpoints are important as is the Level of the Skeletal Sniper so refer to the gear section, specifically the Ancestral Tiara (+2 Level of all Minion Skills and Idol of Ralakesh), Vile Robe, and Solar Amulet (don't forget Lord of Horrors anoint). We aim for Level 26 and we get there with +1 Corrupt, Level 20 Skill Gem, +2 Levels of all Minion Skills from Ancestral Tiara suffix, and an extra +3 from Uhtred's Exodus. Remember these Minions should not be on your screen but instead at the top in the buffs section.

Skeletal Cleric [Weapon Set I] give you an incredible amount of Energy Shield Recharge Rate. 35% per Skeletal Cleric and we have 18+. These also have a breakpoint at Level 26 for a lesser inherent cost. You do not need to corrupt +1 on the Skill Gem because we use Minion Mastery and Uhtred's Omen to get to our breakpoint. Whenever you are in danger use Whirling Slash in a safe direction and you'll receive 5,000-8,000 Energy Shield per second. The start of your Energy Shield Recharge is not impacted by your weapon set and it begins the moment you STOP taking damage. In other words Chaos Inoculation to remove poison and bleed from our gameplay loop and Dousing Charm to get rid of ignite. Running out of Dousing Charm stacks and getting ignited is essentially the only way you can die if you have Skeletal Cleric.

Vulnerability is just for Abyss Pits and it works decently with Rupture the Soul, you can swap this for an Enfeeble or Temporal Chains. The support gems are important just press the button on the hole and forget about it.