[3.12] Elementalist - Selfcast Firestorm UNLEASHED

I rerolled this build as an inquisitor, and rewrote the guide here:

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2951023

Overall it is more damage and better survivability, so I would highly recommend it over Elementalist.


Spoiler
Overall, I'm still progressing, but it has been really fun.
Must have uniques: Martyr of Innocence.

Current POB: https://pastebin.com/NhriGRZh

Basic stats:

7k life
11k Armour with granite up
76% all resist (77% fire)

Skills:

MAIN: Firestorm - Controlled Destruction - Arcane Surge - Conc Effect - Fire Pen - Unleash
Spoiler
I know I'm going to take some flak for Unleash, but while playing I just don't think anything else feels better.

Unleash causes your cast to repeat 3 *additional* times. Since you can only have 3 firestorms up at once, I'm pretty sure that means the first cast gets deleted. Each of those re-occuring casts is affected by a 12% less damage multiplier, which means all 3 of your firestorms are penalized with 12% less damage.

HOWEVER, if you compare this to Spell Cascade, it's really not that bad. Spell Cascade penalizes you with 21% less damage AND it doesn't overlap as well. Unleash casts all 3 firestorms at the same spot at the same time.

Please let me know if you have better suggestions. I've considered immolate, but like I said, it just feels better to cast once, and then be free to move or cast other abilities.


Armageddon Brand - Combustion - Culling Strike - Increased Critical Strikes
Spoiler
Use Armageddon brand on bosses or big rares to proc combustion, Elemental Overload with crit, and Culling Strike. Then bring down the hammer with firestorm.


Infernal Cry + Second Wind
Spoiler
Infernal Cry is really nice for us for legions and general map clear. . It applies Covered in Ash to help our damage. It also helps clear big packs in heists through doorways. Warcry right when the door opens, then throw in a brand or a firestorm and the entire pack explodes.


Leap Slam + Faster Attacks + Fortify
Spoiler
We need all the defense we can get, so get fortify.


Herald of Ash

Flammability self cast until we can get it on hit with a ring.

Blasphemy + Temporal Chains = more defense.

Decoy totem for those bottle necked areas in Heist that can one shot you.

ALSO use decoy totem to protect your heist partners while they work without having to kill or run around in circles. Works well.


Ascendancy:

Mastermind of Discord

Paragon of Calamity

Shaper of Desolation

Pantheon
I would probably go with Soul of Lunaris for the projectile avoidance, chain avoidance, and little bit of dodge.

And then either Soul of Gruthkul for physical mitigation or Soul of Shakari for chaos mitigation. Probably lean a little more toward Gruthkul though.


Videos

Ghosted double boss kill:

https://www.twitch.tv/seedersj/clip/ArtisticSlickBisonTheThing

Uber Izaro:

https://clips.twitch.tv/ClearPrettyOpossumFloof

Escaping a Heist:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/747163357


Legion Clear with Infernal Cry:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/746675627
(this was the first time I realized how effective it was, so I didnt play it too well because I was so surprised.)



LEVELING:

Level 1 I started using freezing pulse. It's a great ability early game, even if you dont spec for it. You can use firewall to give it extra damage. Frost bomb is good too (especially useful for Oak who now regenerates health). I would just play with whatever spell you like until you can get firestorm and armageddon brand.

If you have a few chaos I would recommend picking up a couple lifesprig wands which will carry you to end game.

Defenses are also very important since you are a self cast character. Firestorm and Armageddon brand have a slight delay so you will be getting hit often. Use your decoy totem, consider picking up a shield, and try to look for armour/energy shield bases.

Last edited by Seeders on Sep 26, 2020, 11:18:08 PM
Last bumped on Oct 27, 2020, 1:00:11 AM
Yeap, My bad, Wasn't using the community fork, Ty for the help :)

BTW Why no more skitterbots? not worth it? or did you just substitute with blasphemy+temp chains as a better option?
Last edited by hishmo on Sep 22, 2020, 9:08:18 AM
"
hishmo wrote:
Hey can you double check the POB link? It's not working for me


hmm worked for me. Are you using the community fork?

https://github.com/PathOfBuildingCommunity
Updated POB.

Added more life and armour by changing up the tree.

Got another +1 max all resist, and another +1 max fire resist.

Also added Temporal Chains and a Decoy totem to reduce chance of dying in Heist.
how does the single target damage feel? thinking about making this my second character
Only level 42 with this build but so far it works great and Unleash is helping tremendously with clear speed. Also loving the addition of Armageddon Brand for bosses or really tough enemies.
"
passportyu wrote:
how does the single target damage feel? thinking about making this my second character


It just dumps on anything I've faced so far. Metamorphosis, ghosted bosses, etc. Especially if you can group up some monsters to infernal cry for the extra explosions.

With armageddon applying combustion, flammability curse, fire penetration on firestorm, and Covered in Ash from infernal cry, it melts any resists they could have.
Last edited by Seeders on Sep 21, 2020, 2:13:27 AM
Hi decided to make your build which i'm in love but i have some concerns in the new PoB,your old one are far better than this current because you spended a lot of points in crit chance/crit multi in the new one which is easily solved with the amulet ungil's harmony rolled in 350% crit or near that instead of spending
a lot points to give less crit chance coming with crit multi which is useless for us because of elemental overload.
Just an FYI to anyone who wants to try this as a league starter:

I started with a selfcast firestorm assassin and I gave up on it after a weekend of smashing my head against the wall. I'll switch to armageddon brand as that will require the least amount of re-speccing I can think of.

My conclusion is I just don't like the rework, and I really tried to. The main issue is the 3 storm limit. It puts the skill in a very small box of ways that you can scale it and use it.

I agree with the author of this guide that even though unleash basically deletes your base cast, it still is the best feeling support gem/way to play self cast. That said, getting "additional seals" is completely pointless. I also tried intensify and fire storm just required way too much repositioning to make use of it.

Without those 2, my idea was basically to scale cast speed and have a bunch of first meteors hitting and then have this continuous overlay of 3 fire storm small meteors hitting. The reality is that it's just too unreliable, and most targets are not stationary for you to really take advantage of the skill.

It just feels bad, and it felt extremely terrible in Heists. I think Firestorm might be ok once you get gear, and it will probably be a decent skill against endgame bosses because of their much more stationary nature. I just hate it as a league starter, and I just can't stand the 3 storm limit. It's entirely too small. It makes you feel bad for scaling your character in any way other than Damage and Crit.

The one positive that I like about the rework is that it feels much better for moving around the map and clearing. It gets its damage on the target much better and faster than before.

Another suggestion would be to give this spell the projectile treatment similar to rain of arrows. It would be great to be able to scale projectile speed.
Last edited by Sevis on Sep 21, 2020, 11:06:54 AM
Why in the updated POB there is that small cluster of crit multi? Does it do anything for this build?
IGN: Vipu

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