[0.5] PhazePlays BALLCANO — Ball Lightning + Volcano Endgame Annihilator | Blood Mage

PhazePlays BALLCANO Build Guide for 0.5!

This brand new spellcaster build utilizes fire-infused Ball Lightning to destroy maps with screenwide ignited ground plus fire-infused explosions, and Volcano to annihilate bosses!

This is one of the strongest all-rounders this league. It has fantastic damage, great map clear, and a low barrier to entry — only requiring 1 low-level unique. Sire of Shards provides 360 degrees of mapping coverage with Ball Lightning, and it synergizes massively with Volcano for enormous damage!

Be sure to check out the attached Build Guide Video!

• LOOT FILTER HERE 0.5_Ballcano_MAPS_PZ // 0.5_EDC_Campaign_PZ
• LEVELING HERE

Mapping

• This is a 2-button build for mapping: Frost Bomb + Ball Lightning
• Frost Bomb with Elemental Equilibrium quickly creates 3+ fire infusions, then Ball Lightning consumes 1 infusion per cast
• Generally, cast Frost Bomb at a distance in the direction you're running and then run near any conveniently-placed fire infusions
• Then cast Ball Lightning every couple of seconds to blanket huge areas in burning ground and fire-infused explosions
• Each Frost Bomb cast will usually fuel around 3 Ball Lightning casts

Bossing

Maintain: Elemental Weakness, Frost Bomb, Sigil of Power

Main Damage Combo:

• 2x Volcano
• Flame Wall
• 2x Shockwave Totem
• Then 2x Volcano every 2 seconds

Occasionally, cast Ball Lightning to apply shock, or cast it a bit more if the boss is near a wall. Be careful with spamming this, as it can create a substantial amount of burning ground. Volcano is preferable generally

Bosses that Move Constantly or Kill Your Totems

For stationary bosses, damage should always be incredibly high. However, during early progression on lower gear levels, erratic bosses that constantly re-position or quickly kill your Shockwave Totem totems due to low strength can make things a bit trickier

Here's how to handle mobile bosses or bosses that kill your totems:

1. Maintain Elemental Weakness and Frost Bomb exposure
2. Alternate back and fourth between casting Volcano and Shockwave Totem on top of the boss, following boss movement

Optional: Remove Cursed Ground from Elemental Weakness

• Alternative Bossing Setup
• • Projectile Deceleration II on Ball Lightning
  • Shotgun bosses with Ball Lightning
  • Getting any Reduced Projectile Speed will amplify this further
  • Optional: Swap in a Reduced Projectile Speed Snakepit (vaal cultivated mod)

Lategame, damage should be high enough that this is rarely an issue

Help, My Damage Sucks!

• Always maintain Elemental Weakness and Frost Bomb
• Snakepit is huge for single target damage
• The best damage scalers are crit / critMulti / gemLevels
• Get +2 or +3 to level of all spells on your amulet
• Try to keep bosses stationary by circling around them in melee range
• Shockwave Totem can easily die if its low level (and it will be until you have a ton of strength)
• • To get around this, alternate between casting Volcano and Shockwave Totem once debuffs are up — this combo also great if the boss moves around a lot
• Runes in your Sire of Shards
• Place Sigil of Power before damage combos
• There is a bit of a skill cap to single target for this build, especially for mobile bosses — playing it well will more than double your damage

Build Mechanics

Check out the BALLCANO Video Guide for build mechanics as well

Ball Lightning

Ball Lightning is the bread and butter for mapping

Fire-infusions modify Ball Lightning Orbs in 4 ways:

1. They decelerate over time until stopping
2. They can stick to walls and terrain
3. They leave a trail of burning ground that ignites enemies — this has a large base damage and can crit
4. When they dissipate, they detonate for heavy fire damage
5. 1. These detonations can shotgun. In enclosed areas or against walls, this can massively amplify damage. Synergizes with Sione's Temper

Volcano

Volcano specializes at boss-killing. Here's how we scale it:

• Overabundance II provides an extra Volcano
• Projectile Deceleration II and Concentrated Area causes projectiles to travel less distance, increasing the number of boss hits
• Ricochet II causes projectiles to bounce off of the ground for more hits
• Sire of Shards causes each Volcano volley to fire 4 or 5 additional projectiles
• Flame Wall adds a decent chunk of flat fire damage to all projectiles
• Then, double Shockwave Totem plus Quill Rain causes Volcano to rapidly fire projectile volleys. Volcano expires after 10 slams, so be sure to regularly re-cast Volcano every couple seconds

Projectile Speed

Generally, Ball Lightning prefers increased/more projectile speed for mapping, while Volcano greatly benefits from reduced/less projectile speed for bossing

At lower gear levels, avoid running Projectile Acceleration III for more explosion overlaps while mapping

• For more of a single-target focused setup, spec Turn the Clock Back
• For more of a mapping-focused setup, spec Turn the Clock Forward
• • For a balanced setup, take neither
• A vaal-cultivated Snakepit also has potential:
• • Anywhere from 30% reduced projectile Speed to 30% increased projectile speed
  • The +1 chain does work for Volcano

Tips

1. For the amulet, +3 Projectiles is also solid but is slightly below +3 all Spells due to Flame Wall
2. Keep Frost Bomb at level 18 or 19 to save a bit of mana
3. Keep both Projectile Acceleration III and Projectile Deceleration II on you to swap between them for Ball Lightning, it may come in handy
4. Sire of Shards appears to be around ~40% chance from using an Orb of Chance on a Chiming Staff

Frequently Asked Questions

Weapon Swap Sets

Weapon Set 2 with Quill Rain — Assign Frost Bomb, Elemental Weakness, and Shockwave Totem

Assign all other spells to Weapon Set 1 with Sire of Shards

If you don't have the skill effect duration wheel (Preservation) in your main damage set, also assign Flame Wall to Weapon Set 2

Mana or Life Sustain Issues

• ( 1 - 2 )% Mana on kill jewel is huge — use a Liquid Disgust on a Sapphire
• Ensure you have both Arcane Remnants and Vigorous Remnants on the passive tree
• Idol of Eeshta in Helmet
• Tecrod's Gaze in Gloves
• Consider pathing by Blood Transfusion to the Elemental wheel
• Dialla's Desire on Ball Lightning reduces its mana cost
• Efficiency II or Lifetap utility skills
• Possibly grab Ether Flow or Efficient Casting on the passive tree
• If needed, run Efficiency II on Ball Lightning
• Lategame, Atziri's Splendour is big for mana sustain

Game Performance

• DX12 is highly recommended over Vulkan, specifically for this build
• Once you have decent gear: while mapping, trust the burning ground and fire-infused explosions, they'll almost always kill everything behind you
• Minimize casting Ball Lightning during bossing, prioritize Volcano
• Possibly drop the Preservation wheel from Weapon Set 1 to reduce the duration of burning ground
• As a last resort, dropping Wildshards II / Sione's Temper is an option

How do I get Sire of Shards ?

• It seems to be roughly around ~40% chance to get Sire of Shards from using an Orb of Chance on a Chiming Staff
• Otherwise, farming Ritual is probably the next best option

Hardcore Adjustments

Recommended adjustments for anyone looking to play this in Hardcore:

• Campaign as Lich Essence Drain / Contagion / Bonestorm
• • Alternatively, level with Plants
• Spec Zone of Control
• Grab more Energy Shield and faster ES recharge start on the tree
• Possibly run Rearguard with Quill Rain

Annoints

Heartstopping ( Ire / Despair / Paranoia ) is one of the better budget annoints, and the attributes are a nice bonus

Shredding Force / The Hollowkeeper / Remnant Attraction / Desensitisation / Acceleration / Blood Transfusion

Trade Search Links

• Heart of the Well: Trade Site Search
• Sapphire Jewels: Trade Site Search
• Grip of Kulemak: Trade Site Search
• • Snakepit is typically a bit better unless you get insane stats onGrip of Kulemak

These are just a starting point! Modify these as needed depending on your budget and gear level

• May 25 — Endgame Setup
• • Replaced Grip of Kulemak with Snakepit
  • Volcano: swapped out Ricochet II for Considered Casting
  • Replaced Ingenuity with a rare belt — if you want, upgrade it later to Headhunter or Mageblood
  • Further optimized weapon set swaps for additional cast speed
• May 27 — New Sections Added
• • Quest Rewards
  • Hardcore Adjustments
  • Legacy of Aldur Unique Extraction Options
  • Added a Leveling Setup
  • How to deal with mobile bosses that constantly re-position or bosses that kill low-level Shockwave Totem due to low strength
• May 31 — Build Updates
• • Added (1-2)% mana on kill Jewel to mana section (Liquid Disgust on a Sapphire)
  • Added Fiery Death to Ball Lightning, great for endgame juiced mapping, ritual, expedition, runes of aldur, abyss
  • Reworked passive tree — removed skill effect duration from main damage setup to save points and reduce the duration of burning ground
  • Removed Projectile Acceleration III from Ball Lightning, low prio unless going for maximum coverage
  • Swapped Blood Mage's Crimson Power to Whispers of the Flesh
• June 1
• • Changed Siphon Elements to Mana Remnants in the Lategame to make mana comfier while mapping
• June 2
• • Changed Magnified Area II to Vorana's Siege on Ball Lightning in the Endgame setup as it has no mana multiplier, saves a ton of mana
• June 4
• • Added the Breach Otherworldly Belt mod "(41—59)% increased Fire Damage if you've collected a Fire Infusion in the last 8 seconds"
  • Added an alternative bossing shotgun setup with Ball Lightning
• June 10
• • Added a new alternative endgame non-Volcano setup which instead uses Ball Lightning for single target and adds in Ember Fusillade for extra mapping clear. More reliable single target damage especially against mobile targets. Also runs a Spellslinger offhand
  • Changed Volcano from Rising Tempest to Ricochet II in the main endgame setup to lower mana costs