Lightning Strike Raider Build Guide (PoE Ultimatum 3.14)

April 15th, 2021, 16:01

Introduction

The Raider Ascendancy from the Ranger class is one of the best choices when you decide to build any Elemental-damage oriented attack build. With the 3.13 buffs, it is even more desirable, both as a singular Ascendancy, as well as an Ascendant option.

For this particular character we choose to dual wield One-Handed Swords, as they currently represent the strongest and most versatile option out of any dual-wieldable bases in the game.

If you follow along with this guide, it should be fairly easy to roughly mirror my setups, as I will be league-starting this particular build as well, making every item I list in this build a “realistic” option to acquire for you during a league start as well. I play exclusively solo, with no group play to speak off.

Build Summary

The build does not require any build-enabling items, as I am setting it up as a league starter. We will be making use of the recently buffed Lightning Strike ability. For the gear pieces, we are looking for Evasion bases with as much Life as possible.

You’d like to get yourself a The Pandemonius as soon as possible, as it provides a large amount of defensive and offensive capabilities. Furthermore, getting ONE Call of the Brotherhood, with a 20% increased Elemental implicit (using Turbulent Catalyst s on it), will be extremely worthwhile and is HIGHLY recommended early (mid-tier maps) on. Having Rings with decently-rolled flat Physical amount added to attacks is likely going to be ideal.

Our optimal weaponry setup will be a main-hand Paradoxica and an off-handed The Saviour. Of course, these will be the absolute end-game options and aren’t required. Some more budget options are Ichimonjis or Beltimber Blades. Rare Weapons should focus on primarily pDPS, Attack Speed, and Crit Chance. Jewelled Foil bases will be your best option, when it comes to crafting your own Rare weapons.

Pros & Cons

Pros

+ Easy to follow along with a high ceiling
+ Amazing scalability due to being a league starter
+ Absolutely ridiculous clear speed and fun mapping
+ Decent defensives with Evasion-capped Raider + Dodge and Wind Dancer

Cons

– Potentially awkward scaling, due to multi-elemental scaling
– Expensive to max out entirely, due to rare Uniques being BiS
– Bad-mediocre Bossing damage, depending on your budget and setup

Map Modifiers to be Avoided

The build cannot do Elemental Reflect. Other mods that should be avoided but CAN be finished (with some hardships): Cannot Leech, No Regeneration.

Playstyle

Mobility wise, you will want to use Leap Slam and potentially (based on personal preference) Smoke Mine to get around the maps; both abilities allow you to cross chasms and other environmental objects, allowing for a very fast traversal. If you DO opt into the Smoke Mine, make sure pick up a “Divergent” alternative quality version of it, as it will also permanently give you a free 10% attack speed bonus!

Offensively, you will want to keep your distance from enemies, as you do have some range on the abilities and standing near enemies in Path of Exile is oftentimes a fairly bad idea. Try to keep up your Blood Rage permanently for the increased Lifesteal, Frenzy Charge generation and overall attack speed steroid it provides.

Additionally, you will be able to place down an Ancestral Protector in order to vastly improve your attack speed against tough monsters or bosses, as it applies its attack speed increase to any friendly targets nearby.

If the gem-slots allow, we might also consider adding a Vaal Double Strike in order to call in THE BOYS for some additional burst potential for the odd tough monster or map boss. You can drop the CWDT setup for a 4-link BOYS setup, if you don’t think you will require the additional defenses (not generally advised).

Defensively, you will have to keep up your Fortify Support using your Leap Slam in order to permanently reduce incoming damage by a considerable amount.

We will also be making use of a couple of defensive flasks like a Quartz Flask, in order to further emphasize the Dodge/Evasion playstyle. Additionally, our CWDT setup coupled with a maxed-out Steelskin will keep us fairly healthy throughout the general mapping period.

For playstyle, you will first want to Leap Slam into a pack of enemies, to:

A: stun the enemies and generate Endurance Charges through the linked Endurance Charge on Melee Stun Support
B: obtain or refresh your Fortify Support, every 8~ seconds, roughly and
C: get around the map faster.

It is better to use more Leap Slamming on enemies rather than too little, as it is IMPERATIVE to have the Fortify buff up AT ALL TIMES.

Outside of those specific situations, you will want to mostly keep your distance from enemies, as Lightning Strike is the ONLY true-range melee ability in the game, providing you with unparalleled safety and ranged capabilities, compared to every other melee ability. The best Defensive in the game is to simply not be near the damage sources. This is what Lightning Strike excels at, thanks to its high range.

Passive Skill Tree, PoB, and Gem Links

This is the the Endgame goal. We focus on picking up all the efficient Sword and Crit nodes along the way, as well as a ton of health, some defensive clusters, as well as all the relevant Keystones (Call to Arms, Wind Dancer, and lastly Point Blank).

You can find a more detailed breakdown, as well as a leveling-tree example and an in-depth Path of Building link in the page linked below, along with all the Gem Links in the build.

Passive Skill Tree & Gem Link Page

Ascendancy, Bandits, and Pantheons

Our Ascendancy, Bandit, and Pantheon Power page goes into detail about all the choices you need to make in these regards.

Ascendancy, Bandit & Pantheon Power Page

Gear Summary / TL;DR

These items provide a good balance between offense and defense and should be moderately easy to acquire throughout the first few weeks of the league and will carry you to most of the endgame.

Our recommendation:

Item Slot	Item Name
Head	Rare Helmet
Amulet	The Pandemonius
Chest	Rare Body Armour
Gloves	Rare Gloves
Boots	Tailwind Rare Boots OR Atziri's Step
Belt	Rare Belt OR The Nomad
Rings	Rare Ring + Call of the Brotherhood
Weapon	Ichimonji -> Paradoxica OR Jewelled Foil
Weapon	Ichimonji -> The Saviour

For more detailed breakdowns and explanations on potential alternatives, as well as affix priorities, we have prepared an in-depth Gear sub-page, which you can find below.

Gear, Jewels & Flasks

Leveling

Focus on moving towards the right side of the tree as early as possible, while picking up the nearby minor nodes. Aim to acquire “Point Blank” at around level 40 or so, as it’s a HUGE damage upgrade for the build. Once you have “Call to Arms”, make sure to get yourself an Enduring Cry from Act 3 and put it on your Left Mouse button, to use as a movement button. It will trigger on cooldown, keeping you healthy over the course of your playing.

Focus on getting all the attack-speed, Dexterity and Intelligence upgrades first. Make sure to check with the 4 different PoB leveling paths provided (like this one).

After that, move on towards the other nodes that haven’t been picked up yet. Leave the majority of the Crit nodes for later in the run.

Specific Leveling Advice

Try to focus on any sources of “flat added damage” of any kind for your support gems. Added Cold Damage Support is usually a great choice for the early start.

Try to keep your Smite Smite buff active at all times. Once you switch out to Lightning Strike, simply keep it as a 1 or 2-link setup (with Faster Attacks Support) and use it as a 4-5 second burst buff, whenever you need it.

Once you clear the “Siren’s Cadence” quest in Act 1, you will be able to acquire the Lightning Strike gem, which will likely be our main gem for the remainder of the game.

Gem Link Setup for Early Leveling

The gem setups listed here, will be listed in order of importance from top to bottom. If you do not have the required amounts of slots, simply drop the lowest ones on the list first. Whenever a level is mentioned after a gem, it denotes the acquisition level of the gem, aka., at which level you should be able to get it.

Level 1-8

Useful Leveling Unique Items

As you begin a new character, there are few unique items that can boost your power exponentially. Tabula Rasa allows you to have a 6-Linked skill as early as you get the gems. Wanderlust gives a decent movement speed, which will make your leveling that much more efficient. Goldrim Goldrim provides a lot of elemental resistances, this will let you worry less about gearing when approaching certain Act encounters.

If you are a new player (or if this is your first character for the league, just as it is mine), then note that obtaining these items will be very difficult, if not impossible. They are rare drops, which you can otherwise only acquire if you have saved up currency, so do not focus on them too much, and instead simply look for items that match the affix priorities listed in the gearing section above.

FAQ

How to Deal with Mana Problems?

During single-target fights (usually bosses), make sure to apply your Poacher's Mark in order to sustain your Mana, as the leech provided by the jewel will not be enough to sustain you.

Outside of bosses, the one Mana leech node on the tree should suffice to sustain your Mana. If this is not the case, drop a few levels of your Precision gem.

Conclusion

This is a character to deal with all the content in the game and offer a great amount of scalability for the players that don’t want to start over with a new character every 2 or 3 days.

The Lightning Strike Raider excels at dealing Elemental-based Damage and makes great use of the innate conversion features of the Call of the Brotherhood Unique, in order to deal a ton of cold-based damage, which, coupled with The Pandemonius, provides a large amount of survivability as well.

Gear, Jewel & Flask Page