[2.4] Four Flame Golems Elementalist - EE and dual/triple curses - PvE/vP build

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I've been playing PoE for many years, testing many builds ; some funny, some boring, some glasscannons and sometimes also some alternative nonsens things... I finally specialized myself around ES casters, or all kind of possible non melee/non ranged builds using the north of the tree with ES gear. I can say I'm now able to build by myself something viable using the whole game mechanics and even if needed provide advice for that.
There is two-three months ago I decided to try a summoner based on... good old zombies ! But even with appropriate key gear this try was really not as I excpected. Zombies were still pretty slow because of low melee attack rate and also too easily killable. After loosing myslef in sadness and alcohol I saw a divine shining light which said to me : use your brain, think about golems ! Golems are probably the tankiest summons, they all have AOE and a decent range to kill things fast enough, and there is many interesting passives and key gear to make this choice a good choice ! So fucking yeah, let's do that !
Now, after many tests and managements with the build (using each golems, switching between Elementalist and Summoner subclasses, for exemple) I now can talk about a final version ; an unique summon specialization I'm glad to share with you !

PROS :

- Affordable : 1-2 ex around for decent gear. Key gear worth nothing.
- Very safe : four unkillable guards + curses + decent amount of ES
- Except for blood magic, all maps mods are doable. End tiers maps doable too.
- Three elemental golems so three possible armies, depending on which colour on the screen you want to see the most. It only costs two chroms to change your setup. :)
- PvP fun and viable using full mechanics. And people are sometimes very surprised !

CONS :

- ...But depending on how much ES you want. Very high ES gear can be expansive, especially for high ES 6L chest and and decent helm with the "30% inc temporal chains effect" enchant.
- Not the fastest build for rushers : summons need sometimes a bit more reactivity, even using Convocation and Flesh Offering.
- Golems cooldown. It can be painfull on PvP against physical builds when you need to warp away and wait to summon them back.

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This build is focused around three main aspects :

The first one is obviously the summon part. You want golems, you want dps, so first of all you need to get the more golems as possible !
Initially you can have one active golems. In this build I'm using two Clayshapped maces. Each one allows you to summon one more golem, for a total of 3. The last one comes from the Elementalist subclass of the witch. There we have 4 golems.
Possible managements :
It's also technically viable to equip a shield and play with only 3 golems, or eventually take the Summonner subclass. With a summonner you lose the golem immunity to elements property but you can rely on a bit more damage and the chaos plague effect when they die. It only depends on preferences. But if you want to test in on PvP, trust me that this elemental immunity is really helpfull considering that 50%+ of the builds are elemental. :)

KEYS are :
- Summon Flame Golem
- double Clayshapper maces
- Liege of the Primordial, Elementalist passive
- Minion Instability, passive on tree (very usefull on PvP)

The second part is about curses. This kind of build has an interesting advantage, you don't need a lot of "dps" passives on tree to make it viable, so you have enough points to heavily invest into ES nodes (enough to reach 10k+ without a shield) and even in curses !
Actually I'm playing only with 2 curses : temporal chains and enfeeble, both linked on a 4L with Arc and Curse on Hit. Sometimes I switch enfeeble for flammability. If you are a rich player for sure don't hesitate to take a +1 curse amu. Then you can place it on a CWDT setup, for exemple.
Temporal chains can also be optimized with an unique "30% increased temps chains curse effect" on a helm.

KEYS are :
- Whispers of Doom, passive on tree
- Extra +1 curse amulett
- Extra "30% increased temporal chains curse effect", enchant

- The third aspect concerns Elemental Equilibrium, applied with the Arc curses setup.
There is a great thing, golems doesn't toggle EE buff/debuff and fully benefit from it, so you can have a constant -50% resistances on your target. For those who have any doubt about that, here is the EE mechanics : http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Elemental_Equilibrium
Possible management :
If you want to play with Lightning Golems, you just have to use any non lightning spell instead of Arc.

KEY is :
- Elemental Equilibrium, with a spell different than the elemental type of golems you're using

If you want to build a char from the beginning :

1 - Start planning on a classic undead/SRS summoner build. Take life/ES passives, and all minions damage and life.

2 - When you finish act 4 on normal mode or enter the cruel mode, you can start use Clayshapper and manage your golems links on a chest or a 4L minor piece (Summon Flame Golem - Minion Life - Spell Echo - GMP). Run Anger linked with Generosity for more damage and pick up Elemental Equilibrium. Use a spell to apply it and help your minions to focus the right target.
For now you are able to summon 3 golems. You can still raise a flesh of zombies, spectres or SRS for more safety.

3 - When you start Merciless mod, switch life nodes for pure ES and grab Chaos Innoculation (unless if you plan to build on a life/ES hybrid build. It's also possible)

4 - Around lvl 60-65 you should be ok on both summons and ES on tree, so you can now manage for curses and auras. Personnally I only took 3 passives for auras, those under Chaos Innoculation.
Grab Oath Zealoth too. I think it really helps for bleeding or burning things, even with less than 1k ES regen/s.

5 - Run the labyrinth, choose Elementalist for the fourth golem (Liege of the Primordial), or Summoner for a different playstyle. As I said before, both can be viable.

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Current skill tree (lvl 85) :



Final skill tree (95-96) :

Just grab some remaining ES passives on the scion node, those under the CI key passive, and grab a last jewel slot for 3 more passives on upper right side, at the left of CI.

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Bandits rewards :

Normal : kill them all for +1 passive skill tree
Cruel : kill them all for +1 passive skill tree
Merciless : kill them all for +1 passive skill tree

Considering a summon based build we don't need any passive reward from the bandit quest in each diffuculty. So it makes 3 more free points to invest in ES, minions, curses or auras.

Gear I'm currently using :



Jewels :

I use one unique jewel : "Energy From Within" to convert life to ES, placed on the right side of the witch/scion tree.
Rare ones need to focus on minions damage, ES, and optionnally cast speed or STR/DEX requirements.

About stats requirements :

Unfortunately Clayshapper has a very high STR requirement, so you have to manage your stuff (stats, mastercraft and/or jewels) in order to reach this amount.
Think about DEX too for the GMP support. For a gem lvl 20 you will need 111 DEX.

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Gems links :

* Summon Flame Golem setup on :
4L
Summon Flame Golem - Minion Damage - GMP - Spell Echo
5L :
Summon Flame Golem - Minion Damage - GMP - Spell Echo - Fire Pen
6L :
Summon Flame Golem - Minion Damage - GMP - Spell Echo - Fire Pen - Elemental Focus

* 4L Curses :
Arc/Ball lightning - Curse on Hit - Temporal Chains - Enfeeble/Flammability

* 4L Movement setup :
Lightning Warp - Faster Casting - Reduced Duration - Portal

* 3L Golem support setup :
Convocation - Flesh Offering - Increased Duration

* 3L Anger aura setup :
Anger - Generosity - Enlighten
Notice that it's important to quality your Anger and Generosity in order to save increased aura radius passives on tree.

* 4S/L personnal aura + CWDT setup :
Discipline - Enlighten / Cast When Damage Taken - Frost Wall