Where's the Love for Elemental Attack Builds?

Elemental attack builds, and I'm talking about ones that focus on elemental and not physical nodes (especially ones that require both Anger and Wrath to do worthwhile damage, such as elemental Cleave or original Buzzsaw), are in a crappy place in comparison to physical and spell builds.

The Problems

1) Lack of elemental leech. In order to leech life with your elemental attack build, you need to use the Life Leech gem, equip a unique item like Doryani's Catalyst or Doryani's Invitation, craft a specific type of elemental leech onto your weapon, or corrupt a weapon, amulet, or quiver. Mana leech pretty much requires the gem (or help from Elreon accessories and/or Clarity) since physical damage tends to be so low with these builds. This makes survivability harder than it is for physical builds, which have plenty of leech crafting options and can easily get leech on the tree, gloves, or accessories, and it makes surivability hard for multi-elemental builds, which may not be able to survive on leech from one element alone, like spell builds usually can.

2) In order to deal with mana problems, you need mana on the tree, Elreon accessories, Mana Leech, and/or Clarity... or you could say "screw it" and use a Blood Magic gem. This is really the same for all builds, except that elemental attack builds already have the problem of life leech AND they can't boost their damage with physical or spell nodes, so they have to rely on single-element nodes, attack speed nodes (which make mana issues even more prominent), and pure elemental nodes, which are rather spread out. When elemental attack builds focus on ways to generate mana from the tree (like EB or mana nodes), they tend to miss out on damage and suffer in a way that physical and spell builds don't.

3) Aura nerfs. The nerfs to Wrath and Anger were a big blow to multi-elemental attack builds.

4) Crit. Don't even get me started on good ways to make crit builds with most elemental attacks. You just can't compare to physical bow or dagger builds.

5) Too many monsters have the elemental resistance mod. It's one thing to make a monster resistant to a specific type of elemental damage, but resistance to ALL elemental damage is overkill and painful for multi-elemental builds, even with the Elemental Weakness curse. With physical builds that I've used, the physical resistance mod on an enemy is a joke. Elemental resistance, however, is not funny.

Solutions

How about the ability to craft x% elemental attack damage or weapon elemental damage leeched as life/mana on gloves and accessories? Some elemental leech nodes on the tree?

Other comments? Suggestions? I just have a hard time seeing why I should run an elemental attack build over a physical or spell build.
Dreamfeather Elemental Cleave Ranger: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1087616
Last edited by Tempada on Oct 21, 2014, 12:30:57 PM
Isn't spell builds have exactly same issues with leech?
IGN: MsAnnoyance
"
qquno wrote:
Isn't spell builds have exactly same issues with leech?


Yes, which is why I don't say that elemental attack builds have it harder than spell builds in that respect, except in the case of multi-elemental attack builds. Spells focus on one type of element so it's fine to use something like Doryani's Invitation for leech, but that leech is probably not enough for a multi-elemental attack build.
Dreamfeather Elemental Cleave Ranger: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1087616
Warlord's Mark says hi.


There's your answer, for now.

The char I linked this from is my arcer. She uses 2 arcs, one for DPS and the curse on hit one you see in the chest. With Warlord's Mark and my 1% ele leech on wand, I can take on reflect mobs.

It does a lot of work in general too. Just selfcast the thing if you need some leech.

There's also this ring:
Theorycrafter/Build Creator for PORTAL guild
@BlightScourge -> guide @ view-thread/1382667 (Retired till Mjolner is fixed)
Lvl 94 Crit Mjolner Marauder
twitch.tv/savagewolves
"
zSavage wrote:
Warlord's Mark says hi. There's your answer, for now.


Right, Warlord's Mark is an option, but I hate that decent life leech comes in the form of a curse. I frequently roll maps where enemies are curse immune. I'm not a fan of situational leech!

"
The char I linked this from is my arcer. She uses 2 arcs, one for DPS and the curse on hit one you see in the chest. With Warlord's Mark and my 1% ele leech on wand, I can take on reflect mobs.


Ah, but you're a caster. Tell me about a better lightning attack build that doesn't rely on physical nodes.

"
There's also this ring:


This ring makes me sad. Giving up a ring for those bonuses is a big deal.
Dreamfeather Elemental Cleave Ranger: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1087616
Last edited by Tempada on Oct 16, 2014, 11:06:03 AM
never actually had mana issues - it takes usually one +max mana and one +mana regen node to supply typical 5link. ofc this along collecting gear with +mana and maybe mana regen.

duelist starting mana node is amazing, scion also has very good mana supply and marauder can utilize VERY powerful -mana cost

life leech is another issue. but to be honest weapons (except for Oros Sacrifice that one should not use anyway) have physical base that offers enough leech to support oneself.

other than that it is simply easier to scale elemental via phys.. added fire, hatred and herald of ash + WED + maybe one WED cluster are simply cheaper and more effective

not to be ignored is abysmal craft potential from masters. ele affixes are very low and %wed ones are both expensive and helping phys/conversion builds as well
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sidtherat wrote:
it is simply easier to scale elemental via phys.. added fire, hatred and herald of ash


I'm concerned about builds that can't do that (well, they can, but the physical damage is so low that those gems would be pointless).

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not to be ignored is abysmal craft potential from masters. ele affixes are very low and %wed ones are both expensive and helping phys/conversion builds as well


Agreed.
Dreamfeather Elemental Cleave Ranger: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1087616
Imho, they (GGG) thinks elemental damage should not have the huge leech advantage, like physical builds have. And im pretty sure they'll stay at this route.

If you look arround, pure elemental damage builds are mostly ranged builds (ST Crit, Buzzsaw, old SA Thicket builds), while the melee builds are are usually pimped by "added x%" or "converts x to x" and then scaled up with WED.

If you take away the advantage of physical melee (leech, no res on mobs), im sure you would kill a lot of build diversity...since no one will do it anymore, because ele damage is just so much easier to scale up.
Welcome to the greatest of arenas, Duelist. God is watching you.

Their fear is providing SPELL builds with leech, which is why they aren't attempting to buff or add more elemental leech at all, since spells are among the top builds and have many variations, including CoC.

In reality its very simple to buff ele leech so ele melee can be, you know, viable. All it takes is specific wording, which is the problem as GGG are lazy/shy when it comes to adding actual new terms/mods. 3% of fire weapon damage leached as life. 2% of lightning WEAPON damage leeched as mana. 1% of cold WEAPON DAMAGE leeched as life. So yah I agree, they need to wrap their heads around the situation already. Elemental attack damage wording can be used as well.

A unique or keystone/node with the actual wording "1-2% of elemental attack damage leeched as mana/life" would be sweet (Not doryani's, it needs to be a non-weapon/shield), but again GGG can't comprehend that, and also they wouldn't be able to implement it until a passive tree reset, for the node route.

"
Astarte911 wrote:

If you take away the advantage of physical melee (leech, no res on mobs), im sure you would kill a lot of build diversity...since no one will do it anymore, because ele damage is just so much easier to scale up.


ele melee wouldn't be more prevalent then physical, have you seen physical's dps numbers compared to any ele melee builds numbers in recent patches? 45k ele cleave? ok, how about 150k lightning strike or 90k physical cyclone. On top, ele melee that uses more then 1 element, which is 80% of them, have to deal with multiple resist, and usually always are forced to run and rely on aura's and aura reserve nodes, hence most ele builds forgo the crit, as getting life/ES, mana sustain, attack speed, elemental nodes, defensive/buff nodes, and aura nodes becomes too great a burden on available passives.

Also build diversity? Have you seen the build of the week videos and all the builds in forums? CoC, Tornado, SRS, MF Flame totem, phys crit, spell crit, Herald of Ash, RF thrown on everything for atziri...that's literally every build offensively. Ele weapon leech wouldn't kill anything, it only makes it more viable and not a diamond in the rough it currently is, meaning it raises build diversity. I wanna make my Rainbow Cyclone build already dammit :p
-[2.0] Tokyo's CoC Hybrid Damage Frostblader ---> view-thread/1401907
-[2.0] The Samurai (2H Crit Katana Wild Striker) ---> view-thread/1368690
-[2.0] Dyadus Elemental Wild Strike - Cheap and Beginner friendly! ---> view-thread/1394595
well..

with elemental damage one has to be wary of.. WANDS. any buff to melee elemental means YET ANOTHER buff to already uber powerful wand builds

note: wands already have 'mixed' attack damage nodes. elemental included

currently elemental builds are not easy to scale. few %wed affixes on gear and 4 randommply placed clusters add up to ~200% inc wed?

physical nodes are much easier to find and.. added fire/hatred/herald etc phys->ele scalars are just as powerful

how much ele from weapon one can get? remaining ele dmg has to be found on 4 slots (rings/amu/gloves) competing for life/resists and attack speed that is pretty much mandatory for ele builds

and another issue: 2+ aspd weapon is pretty much mandatory. it isnt fun knowing that 3 T1 ele rolls on 1.1aps weapon -> vendor..

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