[3.4]Max block/ Max spell block Insanely Tanky Elementalist Blade Vortex 2.5-3M shaper dps

I was planning to play a max block BV elementalist in 3.4 for a while now. The changes to spell block did not change my mind... You will find out that reaching max block can still be done.

This build is an attempt at making the most tanky BV possible without losing the famous elementalist ascendancy BV clear speed. If you want to taste the tankiness of the max block builds while still having millions of dps instead of being a 50k dps omegalul gladiator then this is for you

Pros and cons:

Pros

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1-Incredibly tanky and with multiple layers of defense: Fortify, permanent endurance charges while mapping, basalt+rumi+iron skin suffix, possibility to use Enfeeble since we are double curse, cwdt+immortal call, hypothermia in our main link so we can freeze/chill all day long, max block and max spell block... and of course above 6k life

2-We reach 2.4M mapping dps while still using Spell echo and inc duration in our 6link. At the end, this build has 12.49 seconds bv stacks duration and 5.5 cast rate which makes it a lot more confortable and enjoyable than your regular 5 seconds BV that is impossible to sustain without wasting so much time

3-only 3 rare items in the entire build + 1 slot for rare abyss jewels. It means you can gather your BIS equipment a lot faster since most of the stuff we use are uniques

TLDR: Easy to collect gears + Tons of damage + ridiculously tanky + as much comfortable and quality of life as BV can get


Cons
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1- Not cheap, especially early. But you dont have to be max block and 6 link in day 1 of the league anyway... Upgrade as you gain more currency

2- Not beginner friendly because we rely on a lot of mechanics and interactions, but you can just follow the build and understand stuff as you play if you are new to the game. The gameplay itself is 2-3 buttons...

3- You are now an enemy of GGG because you decided to roll max block on a non-gladiator. If ggg bans you, do not come cry to me.



Questions and answers:

What are your dps numbers ?

The most important part of any build of course... 2.4M mapping dps, we do not use conc effect and we use spell echo + inc duration. It means we give up damage for quality of life...
Shaper setup can reach 2.5m-3m dps because it uses 2 more gems and a conc effect. This PoB is bullshit-free, there is no Vaal RF turned on or buffs that you cannot have 100% with uptime

Why max block?

Max block in an extremely strong defensive mechanic. The biggest drawback is the need to sacrifice a lot of damage to get there. But since BV has massive base damage and clear speed scales so nicely with inpulsa and Elementalist ascendancy.

Wait... Wasnt max block caster nerfed to oblivion?

It was changed, but it does not mean it is exclusive to gladiators either.We use:
1-Rumi for 10% spell block
2-Rathpith for 15% spell block
3-Lazhwar for 15% spell block
4- 4 reckless defenses for 16% spell block
5- Witch and Templar block clusters for 17% spell block
This takes us to 73% spell block. 2 points shy from block cap.. Investing to get 2% block is no longer worth it at this point

Why double curse?

Because of multiple reasons:
1- we are a triple herald witch. It means we can use herald of thunder + curse on hit + curse to instantly apply curses. Herald of ice and ash do not really work well with an Inpulsa because it just steals most of the kills.
2-we are using a dirt cheap amulet, so might as well go for the +1 curse corruption to make it more of a real item and not just a waste of slot

How much do I expect to spend to get to reach best in slot?

About 25-30ex will get you perfect items everywhere except your main hand. We use a rare main hand, and just like any build that uses a rare weapon, the price has no limit... However 25-30ex will be enough to get you every item + cover for a really good weapon


Skill tree, Bandits, Pantheon

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Tree: Just follow the tree from PoB https://pastebin.com/RzqV77CN

Bandits: Alira or Kill all. +7% total damage vs +200 hp. You choose

Ascendancy: Pendulum of Destruction -> Mastermind of Discord -> Shaper of Desolation -> Beacon of Ruin

Pantheon:
Major: Arakali with life recovery since we use CWDT+IC.
Solaris for a near permanent +8% extra phys reduction and avoiding critical strikes
Minor: Shakari. Get poison immunity


Gem links

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For single target aka bossing
Blade Vortex + Hypothermia + Controlled destruction + Concentrated effect + Physical to lightning + Efficacy
While mapping, aka most of the time. This is a mapping build first
Blade Vortex + Hypothermia + Conteolled destruction + Physical to lightning + Spell echo + Increased duration We use Spell echo and Inc duration because this is the most smoothest setup to play BV .
Using 1 duration cluster in the tree + helm enchant will let you have 12.5sec duration on the BV stacks, with 5.5 sec cast time and spell eho. This means we can keep 10 stacks while mapping and we need to stop 1 second for every 12 seconds to refresh.
Using other gems will result in you being unable to keep more than 4-5 bv stacks which will end up in considerably less damage. If you get to deep in delve and you think you can use extra damage at the cost of slower clear speed then go for it.


Orb of Storm + Arcane surge lvl 8 + Herald of Ice Self explanatory. You want to keep arcane surge at a low enough level to proc from one single use of Orb of Storm

CWDT + Immortal call More tankiness never hurts... This build is designed to survive in the most hostile environments

Vaal Righteous fire
No... This is not activated in PoB to increase damage... You will use it whenever you reach a mini boss or a pack of super beefy monsters

Shield Charge + Fortify + Faster attacks

Herald of Ash

Herald of thunder + Curse on hit + Assassin's Mark + Elemental weakness. Replace Ele weakness by Enfeeble if you reach a point where you need even more tankiness.
To explain the reason why we use Herald of Thudner : Herald of Ash and Herald of Ice will only proc the curse if they land the last hit on the monsters. Inpulsa seems to get almost all of the last hits so it leaves Herald of Thunder as the only effective curse proccing ability we use.


Gears:

Spoiler
Weapon
Spoiler
You need a dagger here, stats in order of importance are:
Critical strike chance for spells
Shaped/Elder mods that give damage as bonus elemental damage
Critical strike multiplier
Elemental damage
Spell damage
added spell damage to spells
Elemental penetration
I got this one for 4ex last league in the first week



Offhand
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We use the unique Rathpith. Aim for maximum block chance for spells +15%... The rest is not that important. It is a dirt cheap item so you should aim for a good corruption.

Order of importance of corruptions:
1- Spell block. The new spell block corruption introduced in 3.4 adds +5% spell block allowing us to use a rare jewel instead of one of the reckless defenses
2-take 20-30% reduced damage from crit , we are using reckless defense after all...
3- +%maximum life
4- +1% maximum block

Once you are rich, you can look for a really powerful shaper item.
1- At least 12% spell block
2- 5% maximum life when you block.

If you do not manage to get a good shield with max life on block then do not bother, this is the only mod worth going shaped shield for. It will make you immortal.


Gloves
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+Crit corruption is a serious damage boost


Helm

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Starkonja with Inc duration on BV optimally. Buy those early as their price will skyrocket later on... It will go from 2ex first week to 10ex 3 weeks in the league


Body armour
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Inpulsa... +1 corruption if your father is an Emir


Boots

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Good old Kaom roots because we do not need more gem links and we pick +50% all ele res from the tree... Get 0.6% leech, this is mandatory as we are not using warlords mark and therefor have no way to gain mana other than regenerating it naturally.


Amulet

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Stone of Lazhwar with a +1 curse. It is a 1 alch extremely common unique. Getting +1 curse wont be difficult, at most 1ex


Rings

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+

1Elder ring. Most likely a two-stone ring, so not really expensive, used just to cover for the resistances


Belt

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Life and remaining resistances.


Flasks
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1-Perfect roll Rumi's concoction
2-Diamond flask + Bleed removal
3-Sulphur flask + Warding
4-Atziri
5- Either a life flask if you play HC or A fifth flask of your choice because this build is already ultra tanky, you can play without one in softcore
Best choice IMO: Basalt flask + Iron skin
Other options include:A life flask if you are in / Taste of hate / Sapphire / Quartz if you want to be phased


Jewels
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1- Red nightmare, check PoB for the placement
2- Green dream because frenzy charges are good and I cant be bothered to refresh Blood Rage nor do I have a free gem slot...
3- 4 X reckless defenses. 3 if you can get the corruption +5% spell block on your shield
4- 1 Abyss jewel for your belt

Abyss jewel mods in order of importance:
1-Life
2-Physical damage to spells
3-Any critical strike multiplier that works for the build
4-Any form of increased damage




Path of Building

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https://pastebin.com/RzqV77CN


Leveling

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Will be added next


Videos:

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Might be added at some point


This build is still open for suggestions and changes. Please let me know if you have any questions regarding the build/gears/skills...etc or if you have any suggestions to improve the build
Last edited by Foreverbr0ke on Sep 7, 2018, 9:36:22 AM
Last bumped on Oct 21, 2018, 5:58:07 PM
Reserved
For mapping, does Elemental Focus not hinder with clear speed? Wouldn't it be better to replace it with sth like efficacy for HoI+inpulsa proc
This looks absolutely beautiful. I'm probably going to copy and alter this for HC delve.
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tmls56 wrote:
For mapping, does Elemental Focus not hinder with clear speed? Wouldn't it be better to replace it with sth like efficacy for HoI+inpulsa proc


Absolutely, it was supposed to be efficacy in the 6 and controlled destruction in the 4 link. Fixed that, thanks

"
This looks absolutely beautiful. I'm probably going to copy and alter this for HC delve.

cheers
Last edited by Foreverbr0ke on Aug 31, 2018, 10:18:05 PM
REally want to try this build, i liked my previous triple herald witch but it was not tanky enough.

Apart from that, do you think you could add in Tempest Shield?

And could this build be viable with Static Strike / Charged Dash? Or would it change too much stuff in it.
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Igolac wrote:
REally want to try this build, i liked my previous triple herald witch but it was not tanky enough.

Apart from that, do you think you could add in Tempest Shield?

And could this build be viable with Static Strike / Charged Dash? Or would it change too much stuff in it.


If you have room for tempest shield go for it. I had it in but scrapped it because i ran out of sockets.

Static charge or shield dash wouldnt work really, but getting max block on them wouldnt be too difficult either. Just find a good build for them and start taking off the least impactful points and get 2 block clusters on them. However, you will not even have half as much damage as this build because blade vortex has super high base damage, this is why you can stack desense and still have millions of dps
Thank you for your build. I didn't play Ele BV before and had a good start following your suggestions.
To all fellow players who try this build: consider the new herald gem as fourth addition, it adds physical damage and a good amount of tankiness with the minions. Especially if like me you cannot afford the more expensive defense layers, the gem helps a lot.
Good luck everybody!
i am checking both in game and pob chance to block attack damage value and something is not right. I Beleive PoB counts chance to block spell damage nodes as chance to block attack damage as well(chance to block spell damage nodes on path to sanctuary passive skill node,plus count +4 more chance to block attack damage from holy dominion for some reason) so with that i end up 43% witout rumi's flask. Can someone tell me what im a doing wrong ? cuz chance to block spell damage is working fine.
"
Birckhoff wrote:
i am checking both in game and pob chance to block attack damage value and something is not right. I Beleive PoB counts chance to block spell damage nodes as chance to block attack damage as well(chance to block spell damage nodes on path to sanctuary passive skill node,plus count +4 more chance to block attack damage from holy dominion for some reason) so with that i end up 43% witout rumi's flask. Can someone tell me what im a doing wrong ? cuz chance to block spell damage is working fine.

PoB counts it as block because of red nightmare jewel. It is actually counting the all elemental resistance node as block and not the spell block node.

With red nightmare and perfect 20% rumi you will hit cap

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