If you've played Path of Exile 2 recently and you're wondering why your stash is once again overflowing with loot, it's because we're back in that zone – that feeling where you blink, and you've already done a dozen maps, flickered across the entire screen, and somehow, you still want more. Welcome to Dawn of the Hunt, where builds are wilder, the pace is faster, and the flickering madness of Lightning Warp Blood Mage is worth your time.

Let's talk about this build that combines chaotic teleportation, cast-on-crit synergy, and absurd screen-clearing damage—all packed into a character that costs next to nothing to put together. It might not be your endgame pinnacle farmer, but it will make you say “Oh, that feels so good” more times than you can count.

What Is the Lightning Warp Blood Mage Build?

This is a fun-first, min-max-later build that's centered around Cast on Crit, Ball Lightning, and Lightning Warp, utilizing the Blood Mage archetype. The concept is simple: use health as your resource and flicker all over the battlefield with high-damage teleportation explosions. And no, this is not your average meta-approved, tanky juggernaut. This build is about blowing up everything quickly, before anything can even react.

“If he dies fast enough, the desync doesn't matter.” That quote sums up the essence of the build perfectly. There's so much speed and power packed into the movement and burst damage that latency and animations become a secondary concern. It's not about surviving hits—it's about never letting them happen in the first place.

How the Build Works

You're going to be running two Cast on Critical (CoC) setups:

1. Cast on Crit Setup #1 – Ball Lightning

· Ball Lightning (Lvl 11, becomes Lvl 16 with gear)

· Energy Retention

· Scattershot

· Wild Shards

· Acceleration

This setup generates energy and covers the screen in projectiles. Wild Shards makes Ball Lightning shoot in all directions, which means you're creating teleport anchors all around the screen. Why does that matter? Because your Lightning Warp setup lets you teleport to those exact spots, instantly repositioning and damaging enemies at the same time.

Ball Lightning is consistent, and thanks to Acceleration, your energy generation stays high. That means more flickers, more explosions, and more uptime.

2. Cast on Crit Setup #2 – Lightning Warp

· Two Lightning Warp (Lvl 21) gems

· Impetus

· Magnified Effect

· Considered Casting

This is where the chaos comes in. With two Level 21 Lightning Warp gems, you are doing nearly 91,000 average damage per warp. Add in Impetus for extra punch, Magnified Effect for larger AoE, and Considered Casting for energy synergy, and you've got a devastating one-two combo of Ball Lightning and Warp-triggered mobility.

The damage is explosive and flashy. Mapping with this setup feels like Aladdin discovering a whole new world—only you're the magic carpet zipping around nuking everything in sight.

Variant for Bossing and Pinnacle Content

Now, this build isn't originally designed for pinnacle bosses. If you try to take it into an endgame fight like Audience with the King, and you don't nuke the boss immediately, you're going to have a bad time. You're flickering too fast to dodge their big telegraphed attacks, so unless your damage is enough to erase them instantly, expect some random deaths.

However, if you do want to try this in high-end boss fights, there's a special setup:

Boss Variant – CoC Setup Changes

· Remove Energy Retention from the first Cast on Crit, add Voltaic Mark

· Remove Impetus from the second Cast on Crit, add a third Level 21 Lightning Warp

· Optionally swap Magnified Effect for Concentrated Effect or Deliberation

This triple-warp setup, combined with Voltaic Mark and Ball Lightning, syncs beautifully. Your energy regeneration becomes smoother, damage spikes higher, and your burst potential reaches the level needed to at least attempt pinnacle fights.

That said, this is still a high-risk, high-reward build for bosses. There's no “stop and dodge” option—you're locked into your lightning warps. If the boss isn't dead before their first AoE, you might be.

Gearing for the Build

Let's talk gear. This build isn't budget-intensive, but you still want a few key pieces for the experience to feel smooth.

Core Gear Highlights:

· Wand – boosts Lightning Warp levels

· Choir of the Storm Amulet – fits the build theme and gives bonuses

· Sacred Flame Totem – not a focus here, but still used

· Boots – aim for resists over speed; you're teleporting everywhere anyway

· Gloves (Ezomyte Gauntlets) – Aim for energy generation or crit

· Rings/Belt – fill out resistances and survivability

· Armor – anything that synergizes with life, crit, and energy

The author of this build, Anthony, even joked that he might swap out his old belt for a Headhunter one day—but the reality is you don't need to chase uniques. The build is solid even with modest investments.

And the best part? You get a crazy amount of clear speed and style for pennies. No mirror-tier gear required.

Playstyle and Feel

This is one of those builds where you jump in for 15 minutes, clear a few maps, and walk away thinking, “Yeah… that's still fun.” It's addictive. There's a flow to it—you cast, you flicker, everything explodes, and your screen fills with loot.

Mapping feels incredible. When there are multiple enemies close together, the flicker back and forth between them makes it feel like you're playing some high-speed action anime fight scene. It's that level of dopamine.

And the stashes? They fill up fast. You're killing so many enemies so quickly that loot just spills out everywhere. Path of Exile 2 Currency, fragments, boss loot—it's all there, and it happens in minutes.

Final Thoughts and Build Philosophy

At its core, this build is about fun over perfection. It's for players who want to enjoy a powerful, fast-paced experience without having to follow strict min-max guides. It's for players who don't mind dying now and then if it means they get to zoom across the screen, vaporize enemies, and laugh while doing it.