News Tag: POE Spark Trickster

This is a top tier league starter for POE 3.21 Crucible League. It is speedy. It is tanky, and it has proven itself in the last Gauntlet Spark Tricksters. I’ve heard about all the players to discover it’s pretty bad now right turns out it isn’t and here’s why.

Changes In POE 3.21

First, Spark lost one early-on projectile on paper. This looks bad, but if you understand that, this build shreds through bosses even while leveling in the Gauntlet. You know that losing one projectile doesn’t make a real difference in the regular game.

Second, the skilled space projectile speed was also lowered and while you were probably noticing the nerf with other Ascendancies, Trickster has access to so much projectile and action speed that you will barely notice this.

But we don’t have access to a 25% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency for Grace. This makes the build unplayable, right? It doesn’t. Because we now have access to 12% global reservation efficiency on the new Mana Mastery, which is a net gain of one percent unreserved Mana in this build.

But doesn’t the nerved Molten Shell will let you die all the time? Good catch, but no. While other builds reach shiny defensive numbers and PoB only by abusing Molten Shell, this build already has a very decent defensive baseline and only relies on Molten Shell for emergencies.

How Does It Work?

Let’s look at how the build works and what it’s good for. It’s pretty simple, even a bit dull. You can’t spark maybe even precasted in boss encounters. Fill the area with Sparks and everything dies.

Tornado and Sniper’s Mark are your best buddies here because they let you produce much more projectiles easily with a lot of clear speed, projectile speed and skill duration you produce as many projectiles as possible while also keeping them alive as long as possible.

Why is this important? Because when a Spark projectile bounces off an obstacle, for example, a wall, you can hit your target again, producing something like a Shotgun effect. Other than that, you also slap on a bunch of auras.

What Is The Build Good At?

Now, you got yourself a pretty decent league starter, but what type of content is it good for?

Obviously, you want to have a good build for the type of content you want to engage with. Spark Trickster is an extremely good mapper and a decent buzzer.

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However, it really shines in mapping and narrow map layouts. If you plan to play content that synergize with these layouts, for example Abyss, Harbinger, Ritual, Blight or Expedition, start with this build. Me and my friend are planning to abuse a party variation of it as we’ve cooked up a very spicy Delirium Abyss and Breach strategy.

The only thing I don’t recommend this build for is if you want to farm Legion as you want to be farming Legions in very open layouts, which both characters usually clear much better.

Leveling

There’s not much to say about leveling except that you want to be using Stormblast Mine in the very beginning and swap to Spark as soon as you get it in Act 1.

The leveling skills and also step-by-step leveling trees can be found in the PoB. And if you want to level up faster, using your POE Currency will be a good choice. Once you’ve reached maps, there are a couple of Unique items that you can abuse to boost your experience early on.

There are two items that are particularly powerful: the Singularity Sceptre and the Karui Ward Amulet. The first one grants a ridiculous amount of damage and the second one makes you and your Spark projectiles even faster.

If you feel like you need more sustenance, you might also be giving the Immortal Flesh belt a try. And me and my friend will abuse the Soul through spells early on for our strategy.