Elementalist Explosive Arrow 2.3 (New take on an old build) H/C viable
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Old time player here.
My first ever character was an explosive arrow many years ago when the game was still in its infancy. Now with 2.3 I'm experimenting and looking to bring a new perspective to the tried and true explosive arrow. Please do keep in mind that while I have tested this build, I'm still theory crafting as we go (since 2.3 isn't out yet at time of writing) and of course can still be improved. **Update** 10/6/16 - Been playing this build on hardcore prophecy league to quite a bit of success lately, I really believe this has huge potential and in my opinion so far playing this is a better option than blood magic EA (which I have also played extensively in the past) - Made updates to skill tree, items of choice and choice of ascendancy Traditionally there are 4 main problems with EA: 1. Single target dps 2. Sustaining EA (very difficult without BM) 3. Reflect (instant death without really high fire res) 4. Poor damage mitigation - while BM EA has high life there are very few good options for damage mitigation. We will effectively combat both all these issues in this build. Why NOT blood magic?
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Pros: (over BM)
- Blasphemy: We run dual curse blasphemy - offering huge power and versatility. Something that BM EA cannot do. - Massive AOE buffs double dips. EA benefits greatly from inc AOE and so does blasphemy. - Tankier: High life pool (218% max life + 4 jewel sockets), MoM/EB + Enfeeble (~60% damage mitigation) with 25% (up to 55%) block chance makes us very tanky. - Reflect Immune: Paragon Node + flasks essentially solves the EA reflect problem - Better DPS: We take advantage of Elementalist - huge dps modifier. Shock (50% more damage) on every pack and >200% increased elemental damage. +1 golem allows us to run a stone golem (to help sustain EA - 210 life regen/second) and fire golem (80% increased damage). Cons: (compared with BM) - More expensive and item dependent - Not newbie friendly - Switch into EA occurs later than BM In summary, over BM EA: - We got a tankier, higher DPS, safer, more versatile EA than BM EA. The downsides being the leveling process and cost of gear which is higher. How does this build work?
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This is a non-BM, non-RT EA build. We utilise MoM/EB for: 1. Damage reduction 2. A way of sustaining EA With this build we will end up with +167 flat life (from tree), 218% increased max life, 186% increased ES with 4.8% ES regen + 204 flat ES regen (stone golem/ZO). This not only gives us quite a high EHP but also allows us to easily sustain the high mana cost of EA. Additionally, we can use skills such as Enduring Cry/Vaal discipline as 'ES flasks' if we take a big hit. The aim is with decent items we will reach approximately ~7k Life with ~3-4K ES at end game. With: - Up to 55% block chance - ~60% flat damage mitigation -> not estimated damage reduction (as with armor)** Also: - We get 95% (up to 120%) inc AOE on EA. Re: AOE is like a more multiplier for EA as the explosions will shotgun. - We get 170% (up to 195%) inc AOE on blasphemy which comfortably off-screens enemies **As im sure we're all aware, armor/evasion are unreliable at absorbing large damage - this is a huge problem for BM EA which typically has a high life pool but no real ways to mitigate large amounts of damage at end game. On the other hand, MoM is really good at absorbing big hits. As long as one has sufficient ES, MoM essentially has 30% flat damage reduction of ALL damage types. Bear in mind a Lightning Coil mitigates 22.5% physical damage (assuming 75% lightning res). Items Explanation:
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1. Weapon - Quill Rain 5/6L - This is a no brainer. No other bow really works. Don't bother with +3s as quill rain is better. 2. Chest - Kaom's Heart (BIS) or Carcass Jack - Kaom's Heart: obvious reasons. - Carcass Jack is second best. Adds decent life and resist while providing increased AOE which double dips on our EA and our blasphemy. 3. Heretic's Veil (BIS) or The Vertex - In this build it beats Devoto's - Good base ES, allows us easily run multiple auras 4. Deodre's Damning OR +1 curse amulet - Dual curse is the power of this build. While BM EA can run Haste with an Essence Worm, it cannot run blasphemy auras. 5. Quiver - Rearguard (BIS) or Rare (life/ES, res) - Why Rearguard? 25% to essentially entirely mitigate an attack. Couple this will rainbow stride and a Rumi's flask brings us up to 55% chance to block. That's insane, remember this is on top of a high life pool, 30% mitigation from MoM, 30% mitigation from enfeeble. 6. Boots - Rainbow Stride (if rearguard) or rare (movement, life/ES, res) All other items are ideally rare hybrids: +life/ES with res. Full End-Game Skill tree
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Links
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1. Main: EA, GMP, Less duration, Fire Pen, Inc AOE, Slower Proj (Empower if LV4) (in that order) 2. Faster casting, spell echo, frost wall, vaal discipline/vaal haste/grace etc 3. Helm: Blasphemy, Warlord's Mark, Enfeeble, Discipline 3. CWDT: Frost wall, Stone golem, Fire golem OR sub out one of the golems for immortal call (recommended if hardcore) Leveling and Ascendancy:
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I wont lie, leveling wasn't easy. A lot of travelling is required and you'll have to switch to EA as you enter into merciless difficulty. I would recommend Fire trap, Flame totem and/or Firestorm/Flameblast for leveling. Make the switch to EA when you have completed cruel Labyrinth as you'll need Liege of the Primordial to properly sustain EA. Ascendancy (In Order) 1. Conflux - no brainer. Shock = 50% damage multiplier. This node is nuts. 2. Liege of the primordial. This node is nuts too. 2 golems with 100% effect buff = 200 ES regen/second + 80% increased fire damage. Absolutely insane node. 3. Paragon: You'll be taking this as you enter into maps, where reflect will pose its biggest threat. Absolutely necessary before entering into mapping. 4. Pendulum: Even though its taken last, its still a great node. 100% increased damage 40% of the time, and 25% inc AOE that again double dips our EA and blasphemy. Single Target
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We have dealt with sustaining EA and reflect. Final issue, is single target. Traditionally EA has a few methods: 1. Frost wall 2. Ignite 3. Single target setup 4. Shot-gunning using terrain All the above are viable with this build. Personally I use frost walls + shot gunning. Bandits
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Life, Attack Speed, Passive (or Frenzy) More to come later Last edited by beith on Jun 9, 2016, 10:07:33 AM Last bumped on Sep 15, 2016, 9:41:22 AM
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I'll try this build with my Whitch
Looks interesting. |
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Updated Post. Happy to say that now having tested this build in hardcore, it has a lot of potential. I have updated the skill tree and items of choice.
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Can you make your characters not private? Thanks!
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Are you sure that Liege of the primordial doubles the Stone Golem buff? I can't test as I haven't ascended enough times, but Stone Golem has no elemental tag and LotP specifically states elemental golems. Under this logic the Stone golem will also still take elemental damage. It's probably still the BIS golem with flame golem, but not as good as you state in the OP.
EDIT: Also how are you finding single target? Specifically frost wall + EE interaction. I've found that Frost wall is great and EE is great, but they don't work together very well, as when its up you aren't hitting the boss/rare with your arrows and aren't proccing the EE debuff. Or more correctly, you are just constantly buffing their fire res with the explosions. Think I'm going to drop Frostwall and try a second setup for single target. Last edited by AgentKay on Jun 10, 2016, 7:26:45 AM
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I've tested and the stone golem doesn't grant the double buff bonus which is a shame.
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" You guys might be right on that one. But either way you still need Liege to run both stone and fire golemns. The fire golemn is still 80% increased damage. With a level 19 stone golem i've had no problems sustaining a 6L EA with ~3k ES. Just make sure if have enduring cry/vaal discipline handy when needed. Single target is fine. I don't use EE anymore, i think it takes away from single target if you're using frost wall, but EE is better if you're using ignite setup. The tricks is to have frost wall with spell echo and you want to cast it on the target as opposed to next to it (like you would for LA or kinetic blast). If the frost walls can overlap and enclose the target then even better. I've had no problems with single target doing this. Last edited by beith on Jun 12, 2016, 1:54:55 AM
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How are you procing elemntal overlaod?
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EO is proced by EA alone. Simply by not picking up RT and even with the low crit chance of Quill Rain, I have EO up most of the time just by the sheer number of arrows it fires. If you really need a reliable proc, then just use the usual orb of storms, crit chance, PCOC combo.
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