Chain Lightning has been buffed greatly in 1.1.1 and it opens up a good number of ways to play it.

I made this Chain Lightning core build through the popular Frost Nova that I find most comfortable to play. It requires less brain power to run than the Thor Conjuration build. But it instantly deletes Elites 30 levels higher before they can even react.

This build can stagger boss super fast and nuke bosses in 30s that are 30 levels higher. It auto aims and wipes enemies 360 degrees around you, too. Finally, it has Infinite Mana and 0 Ultimate Cooldown.

If you are using the Thor Conjuration build, it only needs minimal gear and skill changes, as a lot of the synergies are shared. You can save a lot of Diablo 4 Gold by doing this.

I will cover the skill tree, gears and the Paragon Board one by one in this guide.

Infinite Mana

First, a short recap for achieving Infinite Mana.

The Recharging Aspect in 1.1.1 makes it recover Mana whenever the Chain Lightning bounces, instead of just bounces off you. With the Aspect of The Unbroken Tether that makes Chain Lightning bounce more, it is even easier to cast infinite Chain Lightnings.

From my testing, with the lowest 1.5 Recharging, the Unbroken Tether, 25% Crit Chance and 7% Mana Cost Reduction, I have no trouble throwing unlimited Chain Lightnings, as long as I run around to collect the Crackling Energy, which recovers 12 Mana.

So, don’t forget to move around to get Infinite Mana through this finger muscle work out.

Skill Tree Walkthrough

The skill tree is very similar to the Thor Conjuration build. If you are using it, just move points from Hydra to Frost Nova and Hoarfrost and you are good to go, and skip to the next section.

For the full skill tree walkthrough, first, no basic skill is used. So, put 2 points in whatever basic skill you like.

Then, put 5 Ranks to Chain Lightning as it is the Main DPS skill.

And make sure to use the Destructive Chain Lightning, don’t use the Greater Chain Lightning. I will lay out the reasoning in the next section.

And put skill points to Teleport and Frost Nova and get Vulnerable for Frost Nova. One point to Elemental Attunement is enough.

Then, pick Precision Magic for 15% Lucky Hit Chance, Ice Blades for further Vulnerable State and Cooldown Reductions, and Ice Blades Enchantment to synergize with all Cooldown Skills. This is just like instant 4 Ice Blades at the beginning of a Boss Fight For 100% Vulnerable uptime and 0 Cooldown Ultimate.

And then, pick Lightning Spear for Stable Stun and Conjuration Mastery for a 42% Global Damage Boost as we have on average 7 concurrent conjurations when the Ultimate is active.

Then, we pick Mana Shield for an extra 21% Damage Reduction and Protection for 100% Barrier Uptime.

Next, put 2 Ranks to Ball Lightning as it is the main AOE DPS. We use it in the Enchantment only since this build focuses on Crit Chance. A single Teleport can sometimes trigger 3 static Ball Lightnings for insane AOE damage. It also generates Crackling Energy for Infinite Mana.

And, we pick Static Discharge for further Crackling Energy and Invigorating Conduit to enable all Crackling Energy to generate 12 Mana (which is the main source for Infinite Mana.

Next, we put 3 points into Hoarfrost for an 18% damage boost to Frozen enemies since we run Frost Nova and 9% damage boost to Chilled enemy since we run Ice Blades (Correction Ice Blades doesn't chill).

Finally, we add points to the Ultimate, Unstable Currents and Coursing Currents for more Crit Chance. What's more, we pick Electrocution for another 15% Damage Reduction and Overflowing Energy to enable Crackling Energy to reduce Skill Cooldowns.

Destructive Chain Lightning VS Greater Chain Lightning

I tested using the Greater Chain Lightning in this build, but the Mana is not sustainable. Because I have the lowest value Recharging Aspect and basically no Mana Cost reduction.

After comparing the pros and cons, I end up choosing the Destructive Chain Lightning for 2 main reasons:

One, I don’t need Mana related stats on gears and I don’t need to run another Mana Aspect, like the Prodigy on top of the Recharging. This means that I can use this build on day 1, and can use full damage stats and aspects on gears for more overall damage.

Two, and more importantly, I lose more than 80% Crackling Energies if I choose the Greater Chain Lightning. Without the Crackling Energies, I lose a lot of Cooldown Reductions, that I cannot continuously Teleport to engage or disengage and I cannot cast the Ultimate freely to largely boost my damage.

So, I recommend picking the Destructive Chain Lightning over the Greater Chain Lightning 2 Gear Versions.

2 Gear Versions

For gears, I made two versions: one is the All-Rounder version, and the other is the Full DPS version.

In the All-Rounder version, I put Chain of Disobedience at the Amulet for an extra 27% damage reduction and use the Esu’s Heirloom for a 10% flat crit chance boost and 30+% crit chance boost after using evade. It will be more balanced between damage and tankiness, so that it will be a smoother experience leveling up.

In the Full DPS version, I put the Choker of the Unbroken Tether at the Amulet and have one more offensive aspect, the Control aspect, for another 35% damage boost. It will have higher damage numbers, but the survivability can be an issue after level 65 if you don’t have good gears.

Both versions use the Barber heart as it is the most important damage amplifier in the build. From my calculation, it at least doubles my farming speed.

Good news is that a hotfix has been deployed that greatly increases the Wrathful Invoker drop chance. I got 7 Diablo 4 Items of this type after running a few Tier-64 Nightmare Dungeons.

So, don’t wait on a perfect Amulet or Ring before committing your Barber heart. Use it on a decent one to double your farm speed first and you may find another Barber heart before you find a better Amulet or Ring.

Many people are also curious about what seconds is best for the Barber heart. From my research, the sweet spot is 3+ seconds.

I will then quickly scan through each piece of gear and put the Stat Priority on the left side. The higher the stat is on the list, the higher the priority it is.

One important note is that I replaced the Control Aspect with the Storm Well Aspect in this build because Frost Nova makes all enemies Vulnerable Instantly. So, it has 100% uptime for normal monsters, Unstoppable monsters, and bosses while the Control Aspect only has uptime for Stunned or Frozen monsters and Staggered Bosses.

Paragon Board

For the Paragon Board, I created one board designed for level 70 with non-level 15 Glyphs; one for level 85 with some level 15 Glyphs; and one for level 100 with all level 21 Glyphs. Use them according to your current status.

The glyph upgrading order will be Destruction, Exploit, Control, Elementalist, Tactician and Enchanter. Upgrade them one by one to level 15 first and then upgrade them to level 21, following the same order.

Skill Rotation And The Burst Window

This build is pretty flexible in terms of Combat Style, where you can fight enemies both Melee and Ranged. On top of that, I have 2 tips that may help you further enjoy the build.

First, cast the two conjurations, Teleport then evade right after Teleport, use Frost Nova and spam Chain Lightning. At the point of using Frost Nova, all enemies are stunned that they take the damage to Stunned Enemies bonus and frozen that they take another 18% more Damage from Hoarfrost. And since we used evade, Esu’s Heirloom gets us another 30+% Crit Chance in this window. And all conjurations and Chain Lightning benefit from this burst moment that Elites are instantly wiped.

Second, there will be many static Ball Lightnings on the ground. You can teleport to pull enemies into them, triggering massive damage Ending.

I like this build because everything is direct: the instant Crowd Control from Raiment Teleport and Frost Nova, the direct damage from Chain Lightning and Ball Lightning and every enemy is wiped with ease.