[2.2.1] In need of evaluation/feedback; Elementalist Glacial Cascade Non-crit

Hey everyone.

So I have this Lv87 elementalist and it is the first time I get a character to this level. So far I've done maps up to tiers 11-12 and a few atziri runs without too much trouble and, having no prior experience, I was wondering how will the character hold up on tier 14-15 maps.

I use ghost reaver & vaal pact and also mind over matter for that extra bit of survivability. I run haste/discipline/clarity and when I'm facing something I have a feeling might oneshot me I turn haste off to have more mana available for mind over matter. I'm also experimenting with reserving clarity on my hp instead of mana since when I have all three of them reserved from my mana I only have something like 200-300 leftover.

Moreover I'm experimenting with two weapon setups. One is a 5link pledge of hands to serve as a poor man's 6-link and the other one is a wand and spirit shield. With the second setup I get something like 1200 energy shield more but my dps drops by about 2000. I use pledge to clear maps and I switch to the more conservative alternative for when I feel I need the extra life and block chance. In total I have 2800hp + 5600(staff)/6700(shield)es. All my resists, including chaos, are maxed out even with the staff. Shield & wand give some extra fire&cold resist.

I'm looking for constructive criticism on my tree and equipment. I'm pretty sure I've spent a lot of points in things that are not worth it but I have no idea which ones they are :) I'm also having a very hard time finding what points that I have skipped are worth taking. I haven't followed a guide, the build pretty much grew alongside the character so I grabbed every point that was near me that seemed good enough.

To keep mastermind of discord up I use flame dash, and I took shaper of desolation because I couldn't make the golems work (since I'm non crit I have no use for the ice golem) and I have no idea how to proc paragon of calamity. I think shaper of desolation has helped me a lot in clearing packs with its shock and ignite, though, and I'm very happy with it.

As far as my skills are concerned:

Main skill setup: Glacial Cascade - Spell echo (pledge of hands) - Controlled Destruction - Cold Pen - Life Leech - Added Cold Damage (only when I'm using pledge, otherwise its slot is taken by spell echo)

CWDT: CWDT - Increased Duration - Immortal Call - Frost Wall/Some Curse (Here I should note that I duo with a duelist that has a warlord's mark aura up all the time, so immortal call stays on me for a while when it procs)

Movement: Flame Dash - Controlled Destruction - Faster Casting

Auras: Haste - Clarity - Discipline - Enlighten / or clarity separately linked to blood magic


Glacial Cascade's tooltip dps is 14,600 - 16,200 (pendulum off/on) when I'm using pledge. Subtract 1,500 to 2k to get its dps when I'm using wand and shield. That number, though, is neither taking cold pen from gem & discord nor the permashock & perma ignite from mastermind of desolation into consideration. Even with all that it feels a tiny bit too low against some bosses. On the bright side sometimes I don't even notice I'm clearing a cold resist / ele equilibrium map.

My tree is this: https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAMCAAQHBLMHHgj0D6sQWBEPEVARlhZvFr8XVBpsHwIfxyKBIvQkiySqJNgmlSo4K3gsnDI0Nbk2xTbpOw08BT1fRKtFnUlRSbFMLUyLTLNQQlJTUzVTUlRHVUtVrlXGVkpd8l8qX2ph4mpDa3psC20Zfsd_xoIQgpuD24TFhTKFbYw2jjyPpo_6kPqTJ5UElS6XlZf0mjua4Ju1na6eoZ7En9-hL6IApr6nCKcrr5u-isBUwGbDOsi_0B_Q0NWB1abXz9gk323fit-w42rkIuWL6-Tr7u0870vvfO-I7-vw1fk3-ds=

On the northernmost jewel socket I have energy from within plugged in. No idea why it isn't showing up in the link.

And my equipment is this:


Please ignore the gems that are socketed in the wand & shield. They are there just to gain xp. Same thing with some of the gems socketed in the body armor. Whenever I switch from pledge to wand & shield the 5link setup goes to the body armor and I swap gems around so that the ones that are there just for the xp are resting in the staff on the secondary weapon slot.


So, what is your opinion on this build? Have I done a good job so far? Can it run endgame maps as it is? What should I try to grab next on the passive tree? Are there any important areas that have big problems? Is there a way to improve it without making too radical changes to it?

I'm looking forward to reading your feedback.
Thank you all in advance for your help.

Ok, so: the Energy From Within transforms all life nodes in radius to ES, when you mouse over the socket the jewel is in, you'll notice a big circle, that's the radius.

Have you thought about going CI? You have some nice ES gear.

I'd get Snowforged near the Witch area, probably drop Mental Rapidity. I'm really not a fan of the Vaal Pact, you're using a lot of points to get to it, so I'd drop the VP+Ghost Reaver thing and go only 'till Blood Siphon. You could use the 10 or so points to go a bit to the Scion are from the left side and get either a bit more damage with Ash, Frost and Storm or the ES nodes and maybe Path of the Savant, or Shaper if you miss the mana regen.

Also, get Elemental Overload if you're non-crit, it's amazing. It doesn't seem like much when you first look at it, but think of it like this: with EO whenever you crit, you dont just get the 40% increased damage for that hit, you get it for every other hit in those 8s.

Thank you very much for taking the time to review my build.

I went ahead and grabbed elemental overload with my next level and it is definitely worth it. I'm not sure if cascade crits per cast or per monster hit but I assume it is the second because overload is almost permanently up when clearing packs. It gave me a really nice dps boost.

Regarding CI, I really like it but I'm not sure if it is the best option to go grab it right now. You see I've spent a large amount of my currency to buy chaos resist equipment and it is sitting at around 80-85% in merciless. I also have no idea what's going to happen to stun/freeze resists etc. Right now getting stunlocked by things like cyclones, blizzards and firestorms is by far the most common reason for my deaths. I'd love to have a huge energy shield and not care about chaos at all though. Maybe I can start slowly gathering equipment up and, when I have everything I need, make the switch to CI.

In regards to dropping vaal pact and ghost reaver, if I don't leech and with potions not working on ES, what other ways of regaining ES are there? I mean apart from vaal discipline which can be used only once against most bosses.

Thank you again for providing me with your feedback.

I think a good solution would be simply to get more life nodes on the tree, it would balance your life/ES ratio allowing you to use life flasks more effectively, because right now you're depending on your ES to survive since 2800 life is pretty low and like you said there would be no way to recharge the ES without Ghost Reaver.

So what I would do is drop the VP+GR and use the points to get more life nodes, including the extra ones you skipped like the ones from the "Mana and Life", "Cruel Preparation" and "Discipline and Training". You can get the jewel socket under MoM to make up for the one near VP and probably get the 3 life nodes from Devotion (20 strenght, 20% max life, 3% inc effect of auras).

I think that would solve both the stun problem and give you a way to heal, using flasks.

So I should not go for CI and it would be better if I just stacked HP instead, right? Also, how about my damage output? Is it enough for T14-15 maps? The Celestial Punishment point at the templar side of the tree seems tempting but I'm not sure what stuff I could respec to reach it.