Lightning Warp Blood Mage Endgame Build

Introduction

This guide has been fully updated for The Last of the Druids, Fate of the Vaal League (Patch 0.4.0).

The Infinite Lightning Warp Blood Mage Witch is an insane speed-farming build, capable of destroying entire screens of enemies while flying through maps. Lightning Warp teleports you to Ball Lightning projectiles and enemies in culling range. Cast on Critical triggers Arc and additional Ball Lightning projectiles to create a gameplay loop of infinite Lightning Warps. Lighting Warps and Arcs deal devastating damage, capable of deleting Max difficulty pinnacle bosses in seconds without needing any skill swaps.

Once you have the starting version of the build functioning, check out the Lazy Spellslinger Technique Section for a more advanced setup.

Patch 0.4 Update: The newly added mechanic for Lightning Warp, allowing it to be cast on enemies not under the Cull threshold to apply a debuff that will cause its normal warping behaviour automatically if the enemy falls under the Cull threshold while the Debuff is active, can cause some issues. Lightning Warp now prioritizes targeting enemies instead of Ball Lightning projectiles, even if the target is not within Culling range. The workaround is to aim Ball Lightning projectiles at the sides of enemies and increase Lightning Warp area to hit from further away. We recommend waiting to play this build until a patch resolves the interaction.

This build guide assumes you have reached endgame maps around Level 65. If you have not yet completed the campaign, follow the Arc Leveling Build Guide. For an endgame build that starts with more damage on a low budget, use the Ice Nova Comet Endgame Build Guide.

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Strengths and Weaknesses

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Build Mechanics

Infinite “Mana”

Mana is a primary concern for the typical spellcaster. The Mana costs of Skills continue to grow as you increase skill gem levels, and most support gems multiply costs even further. To achieve enough Mana sustain for these high costs, a considerable investment must be made to gain Maximum Mana and Mana Regen using Skill Points and gear affixes.

The Blood Mage Ascendance node, Vitality Siphon, enables Spell damage to be leeched as Life to provide an endless source of Life sustain. This enables the Blood Mage to utilize Blood Magic, removing mana entirely to only pay skill costs with Life.

Life leech by default occurs over 1 second, but Atziri’s Acuity grants instant leech from Critical Hits. This effect is crucial for keeping your Life pool full, especially during boss fights. Without these gloves, your Life pool may not recover fast enough to keep up with the rate of triggered spells, causing you to lose casts.

Life is also recovered by Life Remnants, granted by Sanguimancy. These life globes spawn primarily from killing enemies and can overflow Maximum Life to 1.5 times the normal amount. Continue to absorb Life Remnants while clearing groups of enemies to become nearly invincible.

Survivability

The Blood Mage ascendancy nodes, Grasping Wounds and Crimson Power, significantly boost survivability. Equip a Chest Armor with up to 1,200 Energy Shield to gain as much Maximum Life.

Once Rathpith Globe is obtained, the highly stacked Maximum Life also scales Critical Hit Chance and Spell Damage. Spells that reach 100% Critical Hit Chance are effective for instant leech when combined with Atziri’s Acuity .

In addition to the instant Life Leech, Life Regeneration Rate is granted by Sacrifice of Blood, unlocked by an Undying Hate Timeless Jewel with Tribute to Tecrod. Sacrifice of Blood regens 25% of the life cost of skills over 4 seconds, and is further enhanced by other nodes in the passive tree, including Sanguimantic Rituals. Zealot’s Oath is allocated to apply the excess life recovery to Energy Shield, so Energy Shield Recharge effects are not necessary.

Damage

Rathpith Globe is the first key unique item to obtain to scale damage from Maximum Life. With this item providing Critical Hit Chance, along with Sunder the Flesh, Blindside, and nodes in the Passive Tree, 100% Critical Hit Chance with Lightning Warp can be obtained. Stack as much Critical Hit Chance as possible, up to 75% in the detail sheet of Lightning Warp for the Blind tech to reach the cap (Critical Hit Chance against Blinded Enemies is not reflected in the tooltip). A high Critical Hit Chance ensures consistent activation of Cast on Critical.

Cast Speed is a priority stat for smooth gameplay and to increase damage output. Stack Cast Speed on your Wand, Amulet, Rings, Glove sockets, and nodes in the Passive Tree to spam Lightning Warp faster.

A high Cast Speed also benefits Spellslinger, which generates Energy based on the base Cast Time of the Spells you cast. Spellslinger (optional) is unlocked by equipping a Dueling Wand, and Ball Lightning is socketed for another trigger that can be cast on demand. The Spellslinger Ball Lightning is supported by Vilenta’s Propulsion, which grants Projectile Speed from the high amount of Cast Speed stacked in the build. This is the fastest traveling Ball Lightning to use for speeding through maps.

Infinite Lightning Warps

A gameplay loop is created for infinite Lighting Warps. Lightning Warp requires an enemy in culling range or Ball Lightning projectiles to cause an explosion. A manually cast Ball Lightning is required to initiate Lightning Warp, and then additional Ball Lightning projectiles and Arc are automatically triggered by Cast on Critical.

The energy generation for Cast on Critical is modified by the amount of damage dealt on a Critical Hit, so scale Critical Hit Chance and increase damage for more triggers. A Skill Gem with a higher level increases the energy generation. The power and number of enemies hit also affect the energy generated. Most importantly, ensure you have enough Maximum Life and Life Recovery to pay the casting costs. If Life is not available to spend, the socketed Spells do not trigger.

Arc applies Shock with 50% increased magnitude, and it is empowered by Lightning Infusions created by Lightning Warp to deal 3 times more damage and chain additional times. The chaining Arcs hit enemies at a further distance.

Triggered Skills cannot generate Energy for more triggers. However, a Lightning Warp explosion still generates Energy even when exploding a triggered Ball Lightning Projectile or an enemy put into culling range by a triggered Arc.

Once Cast on Critical starts triggering Ball Lightning projectiles, Lightning Warp can be spammed indefinitely as long as enemies remain to be hit. Spellslinger also gains Energy to cast faster Ball Lightning projectiles on demand when needed.

Life Cost Management

The default setup in this guide is designed to help players get started with the build without encountering resource issues. You need enough Maximum Life to rapidly cast skills, and damage needs to be high enough to leech the Life Costs back. Therefore, suggested supports don’t have big cost multipliers. Increased Cost Efficiency is an option if necessary.

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Skill Rotation

Follow the basic skill rotation below to clear groups of enemies in maps:

1. Cast Ball Lightning supported by Multishot II and Unleash to fire multiple projectiles.
2. Cast Lightning Warp on Ball Lightning to teleport to them and cause an explosion. Damage dealt by Lightning Warp explosions generates Energy to trigger Arc and additional Ball Lightning projectiles from Cast on Critical. Continue to hold down the Lightning Warp button to jump on Ball Lightning projectiles and enemies in culling range.
3. Once the gameplay loop is started, activate Spellslinger to continue triggering Ball Lightning projectiles without a cast time. The button for Spellslinger can be spammed by holding the button down. Check the Lazy Spellslinger Technique section for more details.

Execute the steps below to optimize damage against bosses:

1. Cast Sigil of Power from a Chiming Staff equipped in Weapon Set 2 to buff damage.
2. Switch back to Weapon Set 1 (can be set to automatically swap) before casting Elemental Weakness to reduce the Resistance of the boss. Elemental Weakness can be pre-cast before a boss spawns if supported by Cursed Ground.
3. Cast Frost Bomb to apply Elemental Exposure.
4. Cast Ball Lightning supported by Multishot II and Unleash to fire multiple projectiles.
5. Cast Lightning Warp on Ball Lightning projectiles to teleport to them and cause an explosion. Damage dealt by Lightning Warp explosions generates Energy to trigger Arc and additional Ball Lightning projectiles from Cast on Critical. Continue to hold down the Lightning Warp button to jump on an unlimited supply of Ball Lightning projectiles. Bosses with large hitboxes can cause Lightning Warp to fail if targeted instead of Ball Lightning projectiles. Try standing further away from bosses and aiming Ball Lightning to the side of the boss.

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Video Guide

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Skill Gems, Spirit Gems, and Support Gems

The Infinite Lightning Warp Blood Mage utilizes the following Skill Gems, Spirit Gems, and Support Gems. Gem Sockets are listed in order of priority.

Equip a Chiming Staff in Weapon Set 2 to unlock Sigil of Power, which provides a damage buff against bosses. Ensure you set all your other skills to only be used with Weapon Set 1, so you automatically swap back.

The Skill Gems for Ball Lightning can remain as low as Level 11 to reduce its Life costs, since it is not relied upon to deal damage. All the other Skill Gems should be leveled as high as possible.

Perfect Jeweller’s Orb priority on Skill Gems: Lightning Warp > Cast on Critical > Ball Lightning > Frost Bomb.

Rakiata’s Flow is the final upgrade and is not included in the Skill Gem setup below. After you obtain Rakiata’s Flow, replace Deliberation or Magnified Area II supports for Lightning Warp. You should also remove Elemental Weakness and Frost Bomb entirely, as they are no longer needed to lower enemy resistances.

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Ascendancy

Blood Mage is the recommended Ascendancy for the Lighting Warp Witch. The chosen Ascendancy can be switched within the base class by repeating your highest trial completion.

Allocate the Ascendancy nodes for Blood Mage in the following order:

1. Sanguimancy and Vitality Siphon — These nodes need to be allocated together to be able to sustain the Life costs of Skills with Spell Leech.
2. Sunder the Flesh — Sets the base Critical Hit Chance of Spells to 15%.
3. Grasping Wounds — The delayed damage taken drastically improves survivability against getting one-shot by allowing you time to recover Life.
4. Crimson Power — Energy Shield granted by your Body Armor also provides Maximum Life, which can amount to 1000+. The Maximum Life also scales damage output when Rathpith Globe is equipped.

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Passive Skill Tree

In the Passive Skill Tree, utilize attribute nodes to fulfill any Intelligence and Dexterity requirements, and then allocate the remaining points to Strength for Maximum Life.

Starter Passive Tree Setup

The following Passive Tree is the starter setup that prioritizes Critical Hit Chance, Critical Damage Bonus, Spell Damage, and Energy Shield nodes. Energy Shield recharge rate and start delay nodes are necessary for survivability when spending Life to cast spells. The starter setup assumes you do not yet have any key unique items.

Final Passive Tree Setup

The Passive Tree below is the final setup after you obtain an Undying Hate Timeless Jewel with Tribute to Tecrod (souls number value does not matter). Insert the jewel into the socket next to Chaos Inoculation to convert the keystone to Sacrifice of Blood. A portion of Life spent is regenerated, and Zealot’s Oath allows the life regeneration to recover Energy Shield. This setup offers the most survivability without requiring any Energy Shield Recharge nodes.

The final setup is optimized with the assumption that you equip Rathpith Globe for a massive amount of Critical Hit Chance and Increased Spell Damage, which diminishes the value of nodes with those stats.

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Gear

The preferred gear for the Lightning Warp Loop Blood Mage is listed below with affixes ranked in order of importance. Prioritize Rare Items with the correct base stats and beneficial explicit affixes. Recommended Unique Items are listed below the Rare Item table.

Rare Items

Equipment Slot and Base Stats	Affix Priority	Notes
Wand — Dueling (optional)	1. Level of all Lightning Spell Skills 2. Spell Damage with Spells that cost Life or Spell Damage 2. All Extra Damage types with a priority on Lightning and Cold 2. Cast Speed 2. Critical Spell Damage Bonus 3. Critical Hit Chance for Spells	Sockets: 1. (Expensive) Hedgewitch Assandra’s Rune of Wisdom for +1 to Level of all Spell Skills 2. (Cheap) Greater Glacial Rune for 10% Extra Cold Damage
Focus (replaced by Rathpith Globe)	1. Level of all Spell Skills 2. Critical Spell Damage Bonus and Critical Hit Chance for Spells 3. Spell Damage 5. Maximum or Increased Energy Shield	Sockets: 1. Any Rune that grants Resistance if not yet capped. 2. Owl Idol for 10% Increased Cooldown Recovery Rate
Helmet — Energy Shield	1. Maximum Life 2. Resistances, Attributes, or Item Rarity 2. Maximum or Increased Energy Shield 3. Critical Hit Chance	Sockets: 1. Any Rune that grants Resistance if not yet capped. 2. Idol of Eeshta for 10% Increased Cost Efficiency
Body Armor — Energy Shield	1. Maximum and Increased Energy Shield (prioritize the highest total Energy Shield) 2. Resistances or Attributes	Sockets: Greater Iron Rune
Gloves — Energy Shield (replaced by Atziri’s Acuity)	1. Maximum Life 2. Critical Damage Bonus 2. Resistances, Attributes, or Item Rarity 2. Maximum or Increased Energy Shield	Sockets: 1. Any Rune that grants Resistance if not yet capped. 2. Kurgal’s Gaze (limit 1) for 40% increased effect of Arcane Surge 3. Fenumus’ Rune of Spinning for 8% Increased Cast Speed
Boots — Energy Shield	1. Movement Speed 1. Maximum Life 2. Resistances, Attributes, or Item Rarity 2. Maximum or Increased Energy Shield	Sockets: 1. Any Rune that grants Resistance if not yet capped. 2. (Expensive) Farrul’s Rune of the Chase for 5% Increased Movement Speed 3. (Cheap) Farrul’s Rune of Grace for 6% Reduced Movement Speed Penalty from using Skills
Amulet — Gold	1. Level of all Spell Skills 2. Maximum Life 2. Percent Maximum Life 3. Percent Maximum Energy Shield 4. Cast Speed 5. Resistances, Attributes, or Item Rarity	Anointment: 1. (Expensive) Patient Barrier 2. (Cheap) Barbaric Strength Quality: Flesh Catalyst or Sibilant Catalyst
Ring Slots – Pearl	1. Maximum Life 1. Cast Speed 2. Resistances, Attributes, or Item Rarity 3. Skill Speed	Quality: Flesh Catalyst or Sibilant Catalyst
Belt — Heavy	1. Maximum Life 2. Resistances or Attributes 3. Flask Life Recovery Rate 4. Charm Effect Duration 4. Stun Threshold	–

Unique Items

The following recommended Unique Items for the Lightning Warp Comet Blood Mage are listed below:

• Rathpith Globe (recommended) provides a massive damage boost that scales by stacking Maximum Life.
• Atziri’s Acuity (recommended) is helpful to instantly leech Life from Critical Hits to sustain rapidly triggering Spells, especially during pinnacle boss fights. Without the instant leech, Life can become completely drained, causing you to lose triggers.

Jewels

The beneficial affixes for Jewels are listed below, ranked in order of importance. Prioritize Rare Jewels with two prefixes and two suffixes.

• Prefixes
  1. Increased Energy Shield
  2. Energy Shield Recharge Rate or Faster Start (if not yet using Zealot’s Oath)
  3. Magnitude of Ailments (works with Chill and Shock) or Magnitude of Shock
  4. Area of Effect
  5. Spell Damage or Elemental Damage
• Suffixes
  1. Critical Damage Bonus or Critical Spell Damage Bonus
  2. Critical Strike Chance or Critical Strike Chance for Spells
  3. Cast Speed

In addition to the Rare Jewels, a Prism of Belief Unique Diamond with 1-3 Levels of Lightning Warp is a priority to increase damage output.

Campaign Buffs

Quest rewards during the campaign offer a selection of buffs to your character. Choose the following buffs for the build:

• Valley of the Titans Altar: 30% increased Charm Charges gained
• Venom Draught: 30% increased Elemental Ailment Threshold
• Trial of Ngkanu: Resistances
• Goddess of Justice: 20% increased Life Recovery from Flasks
• Seven Pillars: +5% to Elemental Resistances

For more details, check the guide on Campaign Difficulties and Permanent Stat Bonuses.

Flasks and Charms

Prioritize the following Flasks and Charms:

• Health Flask
  • Prefix: Increased Life Recovered, Remove Life Recovered from Mana when used
  • Suffix: Increased Charges
• Mana Flask: not used
• Charms
  1. Thawing Charm: Increased Duration
  2. Stone Charm: Increased Duration
  3. Silver Charm: Increased Duration (The Fall of the Axe Unique Silver Charm preferred)

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Lazy Spellslinger Technique

The Lazy Spellslinger technique is enabled once enough Increased Cast Speed and Increased Projectile Speed are obtained in the original version of the Infinite Lightning Warp Blood Mage build. Casting Lightning Warp generates energy for Spellslinger, which triggers Ball Lightning for an endless loop. With proper investment, gameplay can be automated by simply holding down the Lightning Warp and Spellslinger buttons. Watch the Lazy Spellslinger video guide for the gameplay footage.

Damage and survivability is traded for a faster and more straightforward playstyle, so ensure you already have decent gearing. Make the following changes to the original version of the Lightning Warp build to enable the Lazy Spellslinger playstyle:

• A Duelist Wand is needed to enable Spellslinger. Use the Support Gems outlined in the original version of the build. A Level 20 Spellslinger unlocks the 5th Support Gem Socket for Energy Retention, but it is not required.
• Swap Deliberation or Magnified Area II for Rapid Casting II in the Lightning Warp setup.
• Undying Hate with Tribute to Tecrod is required to unlock Sacrifice of Blood to maintain casting costs. Move the unique jewel to the socket next to Blackflame Covenant, and use the Passive Tree shown below. A character level of at least 91 is needed to obtain the most important nodes for smooth gameplay.

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Changelog

• December 10th, 2025: Guide updated for The Last of the Druids League (Patch 0.4).
• September 12th, 2025: Guide created for the Third Edict League (Patch 0.3).