Overview
This Lightning Warp Witch leans on the Lich ascendancy’s power-charge engine to turn a teleport spell into a full clear-and-kill loop. The headline trick is “Flicker Warp”: by stacking enough increased Culling Strike threshold, normal enemies become cullable at 100% life, so Lightning Warp can be cast on any pack to instantly teleport-kill it. The result is a character that flies across maps at a pace the creator rates faster than his previous Blood Mage version from patch 0.3.
Damage comes from an automated Cast on Critical setup feeding Ball Lightning and Spark, with Lightning Warp casting off the triggered Ball Lightning projectiles for an effectively infinite loop. For single target, Archmage and a Low Life conversion roughly triple damage output, letting the build delete pinnacle bosses despite being built around speed.
This is a deep-endgame project, not a starter. It wants Headhunter, a corrupted Maw of the Misunderstood, and around 6,000 mana before it comes together, but the payoff is one of the fastest mapping playstyles in the patch.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Extreme map speed — teleport-culls full-life white packs with a single Lightning Warp cast
- Near-automated clear: Ball Lightning and Spark trigger from Cast on Critical, so very little manual casting
- Huge boss damage once Archmage and Low Life are online (creator reports obliterating pinnacle bosses)
- Headhunter synergy: a fast build stacks rare buffs quickly for snowballing speed and damage
- Vaal Righteous Fire turns increased-enemy-resistance map mods into an advantage
Cons
- Very gear-gated — needs Headhunter plus a corrupted helmet to reach the 186%+ cull threshold
- High mana requirement (~6,000 mana, ~500 mana regen) before Archmage is sustainable
- Power-charge tech relies on 90%+ crit on Lightning Warp to keep mana flowing — fragile if undergeared
- Complex setup with several trigger gems, cull-threshold math, and a Low Life transition
Key Skills
- Lightning Warp — primary movement and kill button; teleports and culls enemies under threshold
- Ball Lightning — auto-triggered via Cast on Critical; Lightning Warp loops off its projectiles
- Spark — added to Cast on Critical (cheaper 70-energy trigger) to reliably generate power charges
- Archmage — roughly doubles spell damage at the cost of nearly doubled spell cost
- Vaal Righteous Fire — inverts enemy resistances for boss damage and resistance-mod maps
Gear & Anointments
The build is a low-life mana-stacker. Key uniques are Headhunter (buffs, speed, projectiles), Maw of the Misunderstood (corrupted to ~121% increased cull threshold), Atziri’s Communion in Archmage to reserve life instead of spirit, and an Absent amulet granting a free Cast on Critical. A Heart of the World crimson jewel supplies +25% cull threshold; the Bounty Hunter cluster covers another 40%. Chaos Inoculation is dropped so life can be reserved into Low Life, enabling Pain Attunement. Specific rare-item rolls should be confirmed against the source video and the creator’s written guide.
Endgame Notes
Tuned for fast mapping and pinnacle bossing. Vaal Righteous Fire makes increased-enemy-resistance maps a damage boost rather than a penalty. The creator considers the build essentially finished at high investment; further upgrades (a Voices, an Adorned diamond) are extremely expensive luxuries.
Credits & Source
Build credited to Lexyu. See the source video for the full build’s gameplay footage and voice commentary: THE FASTEST FLICKER WARP SPEED! Lightning Warp Lich Build Guide.