Lightning Strike Champion Build Guide - Path of Exile 3.24

The Lightning Strike Champion is a build that has been revised a lot for so many leagues now. In fact, Grinding Gear Games has implemented a lot of changes to the game in Patch 3.24 and yet, this build has survived all of that!

With the new league just around the corner, you might be looking for a build that you can confidently use well into the endgame.

If that is the case, then read further. This is our build guide for the Lightning Strike Champion in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League!

Basics

As a league starter, you can make the Lightning Strike Champion work with self-found gear. Just utilize any essences you may find during the campaign or use the Horticrafting Station to craft your early equipment. Once you have enough PoE currency, however, you can transition to using Doryani’s Prototype.

This armor gives you a significant boost to your damage by making your enemy’s lightning resistance on par with yours. For this reason, you want to reduce your lightning resistance as much as you can. This is possible with things like Melding of the Flesh, Ventor’s Gamble, and Thread of Hope, to name a few.

What's more, Doryani's Prototype prevents you from dealing damage types other than lightning damage. That is why you no longer have to convert your physical damage to the said elemental damage type because this unique body armor takes care of that.

Now, there is a major downside to wearing the Doryani's Prototype in that your lightning resistance is equal to zero, meaning, you will die easily when you take lightning damage from enemies. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to address this.

First, you are going to equip the Mahuxotl's Machination unique shield. This thing grants you the effects of six keystone passives, but only one of them is worth paying attention to and that is Divine Flesh. Thanks to this keystone, half of the elemental damage you take is converted into chaos damage. On top of that, your maximum chaos resistance is increased by five. So, instead of 75% max chaos resistance, you will have 80% because of Divine Flesh.

With Mahuxotl's Machination taking care of 50% of the lightning damage you take, how can you address the remaining 25%? Well, you have Tempered by War for that. This is a keystone passive that is only available when you put a Lethal Pride on the passive tree with ..."warriors under Rakiata", as the modifier.

When combined with the said unique shield, you will not take any cold or lightning damage. Instead, they are taken as either fire or chaos damage. Hence, you will only focus on these two resistances when you start putting your gear together!

Anyway, the base Lightning Strike skill gem has gotten a lot better in the 3.23 Affliction League. This version has been modified in that you now fire four projectiles rather than two like in the previous leagues. You are going to utilize the "Vaal"; portion of the skill as well to help you with clearing maps faster.

If you want to improve the damage of this build even further, here are the mods that you should look for:

• Added Physical Damage
• % Increased Physical Damage
• % Increased Lightning Damage
• % Increased Elemental Damage
• +% to Critical Strike Multiplier
• % Increased Attack Speed

Playstyle

The Lightning Strike Champion's playstyle is pretty straightforward. All you have to do is use your preferred movement skill to traverse the map, then just zap your enemies with Lightning Strike. Activate the Vaal portion of the skill whenever it is available to help improve your map clear speed.

Even though the skill gem itself fires multiple projectiles at the enemy, you will still be in melee range. Thus, positioning is key to maximizing your damage potential. The rule of thumb is to be at least two units away from your intended target. Firing from this position allows you to utilize the melee aspect, as well as the projectile aspect, of Lightning Strike to great effect.

When fighting bosses or tough monsters, drop your Ancestral Protector and Ancestral Warchief totems to give you an extra oomph in damage. Don't forget to activate Blood Rage for some additional attack speed, as well as the ability to gain Frenzy Charges on kill.

Ascendancy

There are only a couple of ascendancy classes that can utilize the Lightning Strike Gem to a great degree. They are the Raider and the Champion. The Raider is great for offense, but we are not comfortable recommending it because it is not as tanky as the Champion.

The Champion comes with notable passive skills on its ascendancy tree that perfectly complements the Lightning Strike skill gem.

The aptly named First to Strike, Last to Fall is a great node to take as it takes care of your offense and defense. For one, it permanently intimidates enemies that you hit when they are on full life. This means that they take 10% increased damage from your Lightning Strike projectiles. First to Strike, Last to Fall gives you some defense thanks to Adrenaline as well. You not only get a significant boost to your attack damage but you also gain a 10% physical damage reduction, which helps improve your survivability immensely. As an added bonus, ailments like bleed, ignite, and poison are all removed when you gain the Adrenaline buff.

Unstoppable Hero is the second-best notable ascendancy passive to take after finishing the second labyrinth. This node provides you with buffs when you gain the "Fortified" status, such as 20% increased attack speed, 500 armor/evasion rating, and stun immunity.

After that, you are going to get Unstoppable Hero's next two connecting nodes to get to Fortitude. This needs no introduction; it simply raises the maximum Fortification stacks you can have to 20. More importantly, you gain "Fortified" status all the time, which makes you take advantage of the Unstoppable Hero node from earlier. Thanks to this notable ascendancy passive, you take 20% less damage from hits when at max Fortification stacks!

Last but not least, you will take Inspirational for the final notable ascendancy passive. This enables you to activate the Defiance Banner without using mana to do so. Additionally, it increases the effect of non-curse auras from your skills by 30%. Since you only deal lightning damage on this build, you naturally have the power to inflict the "Shock" status effect on your enemies. This makes affected monsters take additional damage based on "Shock Effectiveness" which is why Inspirational is a great passive to add to your build!

When you have enough PoE Currency, you can purchase Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh jewels with either "Bane of Legends" or "Brutal Fervour" as the matching modifier. These two nodes are from the Slayer ascendancy tree.

Bane of Legends gives you a considerable damage boost. Brutal Fervour, on the other hand, not only increases your maximum recovery per life leech, but you take 10% reduced damage while leeching life from monsters as well.

Gear

The early pieces of gear for this build are a mix of armor and evasion so that you have a chance of rolling spell suppression. You can spam them with essences or avail of any of the crafting options from the Horticrafting Station.

If you transition to Doryani’s Prototype, you have to reduce your lightning resistance as low as you can to maximize its unique effect. This can be done by using certain pieces of gear, which will be outlined in this section of the build guide.

Weapon

The best weapon that you can use for the Lightning Strike Champion is a self-crafted Imperial Claw with the veiled modifier, "Attacks with This Weapon Penetrate 15% Elemental Resistances".

You can refer to our crafting guide to learn the basics. But essentially, you purchase an ilvl 85+ Imperial Claw, preferably with a T1 fractured flat lightning damage prefix. Spam Deafening Essence of Zeal until you get either crit multi or crit chance.

Once you have at least one crit mod, you lock your suffixes and use Harvest Augment Critical to get the other crit mod. Then, lock suffixes again and use a Veiled Chaos Orb or put an Aisling veiled prefix. Before you unveil, put "% Increased Physical Damage" from the Crafting Bench.

Talk to Jun and unveil. You should have a high chance of unveiling the mod mentioned earlier. On the off-chance that the desired mod did not appear on the list, repeat the process by locking your suffixes again and using a Veiled Chaos Orb/Aisling Veiled prefix.

For the budget claw, get an ilvl 82+ Gemini Claw or Imperial Claw and spam it with Shrieking Essence of Wrath (Lightning Damage) until you get T2 added cold damage, attack speed, accuracy rating, and critical strike chance.

Bench-craft any modifier that you still need for the build and you should be good to go. Of course, when you have the currency, start crafting the endgame claw as soon as possible.

Shield

In the early game, grab any evasion-based shield and use Screaming/Shrieking Essence of Spite (INT) until you get life, spell suppression, and elemental resistances. Use this shield until you have enough currency to buy Mahuxotl’s Machination.

Mahuxotl's Machination is the perfect complement to Doryani's Prototype, especially since it addresses the said body armor's downside.

Now, this unique shield is relatively expensive, so if you do not have the PoE currency yet to purchase it, you can opt for an evasion-based shield in the meantime. Spam it with Essence of Envy (Chaos Resistance) or Essence of Greed (HP) until you get modifiers that can benefit the build. Just remember to not roll lightning resistance.

Body Armor

During league start, you can use any armor/evasion-based equipment and spam it with Harvest Reforge Chaos until you get chaos resistance, some life, and elemental resistances.

Whenever you have a good supply of Deafening Essence of Envy (Chaos Resistance), you can craft a much better rare body armor. Refer to our guide to learn how to craft the elemental ailment immunity chest.

In terms of the implicit modifiers, you spam the armor with Grand Eldritch Ichors for "Determination Has 27% Increased Aura Effect" and Grand Eldritch Embers for "14% Increased Effect of Non-Curse Auras from Your Skills".

While the elemental ailment immunity chest is a great piece of gear, you have to wear Doryani's Prototype to truly elevate this build's damage to new heights. This body armor significantly increases the damage you inflict on monsters thanks to its unique effect, where nearby enemies have the same lightning resistance as you.

For this reason, you want to capitalize on that by making your lightning resistance be as low as it possibly can. The other complementary items that can help you achieve this will be discussed in greater detail shortly.

Helmet

Since you will be activating several auras in this build, you need a lot of mana reservation efficiency to make that possible. One of the pieces of gear that can help with this is the helmet.

Get an ilvl 85+ Pig-faced Bascinet and spam it with Deafening Essence of Loathing until you get T1 spell suppression and fire/chaos resistance. Then, lock your suffixes and use a Veiled Chaos Orb.

Go to the Crafting Bench and put, "% Additional Physical Damage Reduction While Focused". After that, go to Jun and unveil. Look for the mod, "+2 to Level of Socketed AoE Gems, (8-10)% Increased Area of Effect".

Head to the Crafting Bench one last time and put "8% of Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Fire Damage". Fill the last prefix slot with an Exalted Orb.

For the Eldritch implicits, spam the helmet with Grand Eldritch Ichor to get "9% Increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills" and Grand Eldritch Ember for "(23-24)% Reduced Mana Cost of Attacks" If you have the currency, you can try and elevate the mana reservation efficiency mod by using an Orb of Conflict.

Gloves

Get a pair of ilvl 85+ Dragonscale Gauntlets and spam it with Deafening Essence of Zeal until you get spell suppression and fire/chaos resistance. Lock suffixes by adding the metamod, "Suffixes Cannot Be Changed" from the Crafting Bench, and then use a Veiled Chaos Orb.

Before unveiling, interact with the Crafting Bench and put "% of Physical Damage Converted to Lightning Damage" and then go speak with Jun to unveil. Look for the AoE veiled modifier in the helmet section.

Once you have the desired prefix, go to the Crafting Bench again and add "43% Increased Damage While Leeching" or "28% Increased Damage During any Flask Effect". Use an Exalted Orb if you still have an open prefix.

Next, spam the gloves with Eldritch Ichors until you get "Projectiles Pierce 1 Additional Target" and Grand Eldritch Embers for "Gain 1 Rage on Hit with Attacks".

If you can purchase several Orbs of Conflict, you can try and elevate the Eater of Worlds implicit mod so that you can hit two additional nearby enemies in return.

Boots

Achieving full ailment immunity on this build is pretty doable, provided that you craft a pretty good pair of boots. Go to our ultimate crafting guide and read the “Onslaught Boots” section. Use Deafening Essence of Loathing to craft these.

For the implicit modifiers, spam the boots with Grand Eldritch Ichors until you get “23% Chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments” and Grand Eldritch Embers for “5% Increased Action Speed.”

Amulet

Because you do not scale the INT stat on this build, you will only have a fairly limited amount of mana to work with. For this reason, you are going to wear Aul's Uprising so that one of your auras will require no mana to activate.

Having said that, if you are looking to purchase one from the trade website, be sure to get the version that says "Wrath Has No Reservation". This is so that it comes with the mod, "Hits Against Nearby Enemies Have 50% Increased Critical Strike Chance" which greatly enhances your damage with Lightning Strike's projectiles.

For the anointment, we recommend that you put Discipline and Training (Black Oil, 2x Silver Oil) on the amulet to gain a considerable boost to your maximum HP.

Early on, when you do not have a high enough crit chance yet, you can shop for the Voice of the Storm on the trade website. This unique amulet gives you a huge boost to lightning damage, as well as an increase to your maximum mana and attributes – all of which contribute to the success of the build.

The anointment you should put on the Voice of the Storm is different from Aul’s Uprising. Instead of “Discipline and Training,” you will go for Arcing Blows (Silver Oil, 2x Clear Oils) for lightning damage and lightning penetration.

Rings

With the mana changes GGG has implemented in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League, the veiled modifier that grants reduced mana cost to attacks is even more appealing now than ever before.

To craft this, get Amethyst Rings (Chaos Resistance) and use Essence of Rage (STR) or Spite (INT) until you get chaos resistance, and another elemental resistance. After that, use a Veiled Orb and bench-craft "Adds # to Fire Damage, Adds # to Cold Damage". before you unveil.

When presented with the list, look for the mod, "+55 to Maximum Mana, 7% Reduced Mana Cost of Skills". The one with the "7% of Damage Taken Recouped as Mana" is a good alternative as well.

Bench-craft the non-channeling mod and use an Exalted Orb if you still have an open prefix. Be sure to use Fertile Catalysts to improve the mana modifiers on the ring for maximum benefit.

When you transition to Doryani's Prototype, you can focus on STR and INT, as well as fire or chaos resistance. The process of crafting this ring is the same; only the suffixes are different.

Belt

The best-in-slot belt for the Lightning Strike Champion is none other than the Perseverance unique Vanguard Belt. This thing increases your attack damage by 1% per 200 based on armor and evasion rating, whichever defensive layer is the lowest.

Let's say you have 40,000 armor and 38,000 evasion rating. In this example, the latter will be used to calculate for that damage increase. If you calculate that, you will get exactly 190% increased attack damage, which is pretty insane!

Because Perseverance is quite a cheap unique belt, purchase a lot of them from the trade website and corrupt them using Vaal Orbs. Doing so will enable you to obtain some amazing implicit modifiers, such as "Wrath Has % Increased Aura Effect" and "Grace Has % Increased Aura Effect"./p>

Flasks

• Jade Flask
• Granite Flask
• Basalt Flask OR Amethyst Flask (if not yet chaos res capped)
• Quicksilver Flask
• Bottled Faith

Flasks Mods

• 60% Increased Evasion Rating (of the Impala)
• 60% Increased Armour (of the Armadillo)
• 17% Increased Attack Speed (of the Dove)
• 65% Reduced Effect of Curses on You During Effect (of the Owl)

Jewels

Whether you are using Doryani’s Prototype or not, a Watcher’s Eye unique jewel will always be a good fit for this build. Purchase a Watcher’s unique Prismatic Jewel from the trade website with any of the following mods:

• Wrath

  • % Increased Critical Strike Chance (Best)
  • Damage Penetrates % Lightning Resistance
  • % Increased Lightning Damage

• Determination

  • % Additional Physical Damage Reduction
  • + to Armor
  • You Take % Reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes

• Grace

  • % Chance to Suppress Spell Damage
  • % Chance to Evade Attack Hits
  • % Increased Movement Speed

• Precision

  • +% to Critical Strike Multiplier
  • % Increased Attack Damage
  • % increased Attack Speed

To maximize the unique effect of Doryani's Prototype, you want to reduce your lightning resistance to as low as you can. This is possible by using a number of jewels, such as Melding of the Flesh and two pieces of Thread of Hope.

Melding of the Flesh can reduce your elemental resistances by 80%! This is the reason why you should only focus on fire/chaos resistance when crafting your own equipment.

Thread of Hope can also reduce your elemental resistances, albeit at a much lower rate of only 15%. However, this unique Crimson Jewel serves another purpose. It allows you to allocate passive skills in its radius without being connected to your tree, thus saving you a ton of points in the process.

That said, get two of these (affects passives in Massive and Large Rings) because there are notable passive skills that you need to take to elevate the damage of the Lightning Strike Champion even further!

Another unique jewel that you need to get your hands on is Lethal Pride, specifically one that has the mod, ..."warriors under Rakiata". When you insert this in the jewel socket just above "Fervour", it will turn the Acrobatics keystone passive into Tempered by War.

Tempered by War practically solves your survivability issues pertaining to cold and lightning resistance. This works in tandem with Mahuxotl's Machination in that the cold and lightning damage you take is converted to either fire or chaos damage instead.

If you are still not ailment-immune but you have your spell suppression sorted out, you can use the Ancestral Vision unique Viridian Jewel as well. This basically provides you with a 50% elemental ailment avoidance when you have 100% chance to suppress spell damage.

Get a couple of Large Cluster Jewels (dagger/claw damage and lightning damage). On the dagger/claw damage jewel, use Harvest Reforge Attack until you obtain these notable passive skills:

• Fan of Blades

  • Attack Skills Fire an Additional Projectile While Wielding a Claw or Dagger
  • 20% Increased Projectile Attack Damage with Claws/Daggers

• Wind-up

  • +15% to Critical Strike Multiplier with Claws or Daggers
  • 10% Chance to Gain a Power Charge on Non-Critical Strike with a Claw or Dagger

• Martial Prowess

  • 20% Increased Attack Damage
  • 6% Increased Attack Speed
  • 15% increased Global Accuracy Rating
  • 20% Increased Damage with Ailments from Attack Skills

For the lightning damage Large Cluster Jewel, use Harvest Reforge Cold until you get Scintillating Idea, Doryani’s Lesson, and Stormrider. The only passives you really need from here are Stormrider and Scintillating Idea, but if you have enough points, you can allocate them all if you want.

Lightning Strike projectiles deal even more damage when they critically hit the enemy. That is why you will gain great benefits from using two Medium Cluster Jewels (critical strike chance) with Pressure Points and Basics of Pain. Utilize Harvest Reforge Critical until you get both of these notable passives.

Gems

The gems that the Lightning Strike Champion uses are pretty much set in stone. The only things you can change that will not break the build are the movement skill and Precision. Otherwise, the gem setups that will be outlined in this section are cut and dry.

Body Armor

• Vaal Lightning Strike
• Awakened Elemental Damage with Attacks
• Awakened Added Lightning Damage
• Nightblade Support
• Volatility Support
• Awakened Multistrike

Lightning Strike is your main attack skill for the build. The "Vaal" portion of the skill aids you in clearing maps faster or destroying bosses quicker.

Nightblade Support is interesting because it grants you the "Elusive" buff when you critically hit enemies with Lightning Strike projectiles. When Elusive is active, you gain more crit chance and crit strike multiplier to help you deal incredible amounts of damage to the enemy!

Volatility Support also increases your damage, except that it has another way of doing it. This support gem basically widens your damage range, allowing you to deal more damaging hits compared to not having this gem included in the setup.

Awakened Elemental Damage with Attacks and Awakened Added Lightning Damage are self-explanatory. They, well, increase your damage output. The latter deserves a special mention because it increases the level of your Lightning Strike gem by one, which is a nice bonus.

Awakened Multistrike lets you attack a few times with a single press of a button. But more importantly, you deal even more damage with subsequent hits.

Keep in mind that in the budget/early game version, you can safely use the base versions of these support gems. However, it is recommended that you purchase the awakened gems as soon as you can.

Helmet

• Determination
• Purity of Fire
• Grace
• Vaal Molten Shell

Determination and Grace should be activated to maximize the unique effect of the Perseverance belt. Purity of Fire is also needed to give you a huge boost to your fire resistance.

Molten Shell is the preferred guard skill for the Lightning Strike Champion because of your naturally high armor. The "Vaal" portion of the skill is just your panic button, which you should use whenever you are in a bind.

Gloves

• Wrath
• Defiance Banner
• Arrogance Support
• Empower Support (lvl 4)

Wrath is quite a useful aura for the Lightning Strike Champion, primarily because it provides a considerable boost to lightning damage.

Defiance Banner increases your armor and evasion. Thanks to the Inspirational notable passive from the Champion ascendancy, you gain 40% of the stages of your Placed Banner whenever you activate the aura. So, if you are fond of putting the banner down, then this aura is great for you and for the build!

Now, you are probably wondering why Arrogance Support is included in the setup even though Defiance Banner and Wrath do not use mana on this build. Well, that is because this support gem increases the effect of these auras by 25%, making them more potent. Empower Support just adds to that by raising the level of these aura gems by three.

Boots

• Vaal Ancestral Warchief
• Ancestral Protector
• Multiple Totems Support
• Precision

Drop your Ancestral Protector and Ancestral Warchief totems whenever you encounter a tough enemy to crack. You can place both of these totems at the same time thanks to Multiple Totems Support.

At the start of the "Gems" section of the build guide, we mentioned that you can replace Precision with any gem of your choosing. Well, that is true! The only reason why we've added Precision in this setup is to take advantage of the Watcher's Eye mod.

However, if you do not need Precision because you do not have any Precision modifiers on your Watcher's Eye jewel, then you can safely swap this for something else.

Weapons

• Assassin's Mark
• Mark on Hit Support
• Lifetap

You want to be able to critically hit monsters with your Lightning Strike projectiles for maximum damage. That is why you will use Assassin's Mark as your mark skill for this build. This particular gem increases your crit chance and crit strike multiplier against cursed enemies.

To automate the process of applying curses on monsters, Assassin's Mark is linked to Mark on Hit Support. Since you do not have a lot of mana to work with, adding Lifetap in this setup is a must.

Shield

• Blood Rage
• Berserk
• Flame Dash

Blood Rage is a temporary buff that increases your attack speed by 20% and grants you the ability to leech life from your enemies. It gives you a chance to gain a Frenzy Charge on kill as well.

Berserk is a great addition to the build as it boosts your damage, attack speed, and movement speed when it is active. But, this can only be utilized if you have the Searing Exarch mod on the gloves. If you went for another Searing Exarch implicit, you can change this to Shield Charge instead.

Flame Dash is your typical movement skill for this build. However, if you replaced Berserk with Shield Charge, you should also swap this for Faster Attacks Support to make your mapping experience a whole lot smoother!

Tattoos

We know that the removal of the Wildwood Ascendancies in Patch 3.24 is hard, but the good thing is that GGG has brought back Tattoos from a couple of leagues ago. Although some of them have been readjusted, there are certainly those that work perfectly for the build. Here are the ones that we recommend:

• Tattoo of the Tasalio Scout

  • 4% Increased Effect of Your Marks

• Tattoo of the Ramako Scout

  • 6% Increased Evasion Rating

• Tattoo of the Ramako Shaman

  • +2% Chance to Suppress Spell Damage

• Tattoo of the Ramako Fleetfoot

  • 2% Increased Movement Speed

• Tattoo of the Ramako Archer

  • 2% Increased Global Accuracy Rating

Passive Tree

POB

Lightning Strike Champion

Final Thoughts

The Lightning Strike Champion has survived the myriad of changes GGG has implemented in Patch 3.24. Unlike other builds, this one does not suffer from any mana issues at all! In fact, the damage of this build has remained consistent, whether we are talking about the league start version or the endgame version with Doryani’s Prototype.

Speaking of which, the interaction between Doryani’s Prototype, Mahuxotl’s Machination, Melding of the Flesh, and Thread of Hope is pretty interesting, especially considering that they are responsible for the bulk of your damage and survivability.

This build is a competent league starter that allows you to get into mapping even with budget gear. On top of that, the Lightning Strike Champion is able to take down even the toughest bosses in PoE thanks to its amazing ability to survive even the most damaging hits!

So, if you want a good league starter that is able to clear maps efficiently and kill the hardest bosses in the game with enough investment, then the Lightning Strike Champion is definitely a worthy contender.

With all of that said, good luck on your journeys in Wraeclast, Exile!

PROS

+Great league starter

+Scales damage pretty well, especially with enough investment

+Pretty tanky thanks to multiple item and jewel interactions

+Able to defeat even the hardest bosses in the game

+Has survived the changed implemented in Patch 3.24

CONS

-Upgrades are a bit expensive