[2.3] Elementalist: The Sire of Ignites - LL Ball Lightning Trapper, guide & videos

Recently i decided to revisit an old build idea that i originally saw Hegemony use: Sire of Shards + Ball lightning traps. This combo creates many Ball Lightings which can target the same mob if they come from different traps, hence causing an effect similar to shotgunning. Back then Multitrap was used, but now we have an interesting support gem called Cluster Traps... more Traps, more Ball Lightnings, more shotgunning!

Let's see this in action -VIDEO: Killing two Wasteland Volls while being enfeebled: https://vid.me/5pRW

VIDEO: Springs with Beyond clear...with terrible fps
https://vid.me/wwUR

PLease Note: The above videos were recorded before picking up Mastermind of Discord, thus lacking 25% lighting penetration.

You want more AOE? You want screen-wide one shots? Here's what happens when we use Multitraps instead of Slower Projectiles:
https://vid.me/dF3p

Strand is too easy you say?
Same setup in a Village Ruin with Monster Damage, Enfeeble, Ele weakness, minus max res

https://vid.me/eufD

So where exactly does the damage come from?
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BUILD MECHANICS
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Spoiler



1) Shotgunning: Sire of Shards adds 4 Projectiles, Cluster trap gives us 4 traps with each skill use, so we get 4 traps x 5 projectiles = 20 projectiles. Not all of these projectiles can or will hit the same enemy, but having so many makes sure that everything in range gets hit many many times despite Ball Lightnings inherent "cooldown" (One Ball can target an enemy only once every 200ms - Balls coming from different traps do not share this cooldown).

2) Witch Ascendancy: We use the Elementalist Ascendancy nodes Shaper of Desolation and Beacon of Ruin. Shaper lets our Ball Lighting cause ignites (besides shock and chill) and Beacon will proliferate these ignites to nearby monsters. Warning: You have to use Southbound gloves to trigger Shaper of Desolation with traps.

This is the base principle, but there's more. Now we have a skill that hits a gazillion times and can cause an ignite each time... Of course we should use the Emberwake Ruby Ring!



3) Emberwake:
This Ring means that we can ignite each enemy many times at once, and monsters can proliferate those stacked ignites to each other, effectively multiplying the number of ignites on every monster in a pack. Emberwake does take away our Crit multi, but thanks to the Elemental Overload passive node, this is not a problem anymore. No points for guessing the next ring;)



4) The Taming:
This Ring makes ideal use of the many stacked ignites by turning them into increased damage for us. Not mandatory, just very very good.

5) Resistance lowering/Res Penetration: The build uses Conductivity, Elemental Weakness and Lightning Penetration for maximal damage effectiveness. On top of that, we use Mastermind of Discord for even more Resistance Penetration.

Ele Weakness = -45% res
Conductivity = -44% res = 89% res reduction
PLUS
Lightning Penetration = 37% pen
Mastermind of Discord = 25% pen = 62% res penetration
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... the 5 points listed above are the core of the builds damage.

One last thing on the builds mechanics: I decided to make a "grenade thrower" style trapper, meaning that i use the Sunblast Belt (80% reduced trap duration, traps trigger at the end of their duration) and two Cheap Construction Jewels (10% reduced trap duration each) so my traps explode immediately and without being triggered by an enemy.

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GEM LINKS
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Spoiler
6L : TRAP - CLUSTER TRAP SUPPORT - BALL LIGHTNING - LIGHTNING PENETRATION - SLOWER PROJECTILES SUPPORT - TRAP AND MINE DAMAGE SUPPORT

The gems other than Slower Projectiles should be obvious, but in case you're wondering about Slower Proj: Yes it does reduce the AOE we cover, but it also means that the Balls spend more time close to a target and will be hitting it more often. On top of that it comes with a nice damage multiplier.
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6L : ICE SPEAR - GREATER MULTIPLE PROJECTILES SUPPORT - CURSE ON HIT SUPPORT - CONDUCTIVITY - ELEMENTAL WEAKNESS - INCREASED CRITICAL STRIKES SUPPORT

This is a utility setup that serves three purposes: Firstly by critting with Ice Spear (which has a very high crit chance), we trigger Elemental Overload and secondly it dual curses on hit. Ice Spear partially Pierces, so it works reasonably well for cursing packs when used with GMP. Lastly Ice spear is the cold skill that triggers the Ascendancy skill Mastermind of Discord for an additional 25% lightning penetration.
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4L : DISCIPLINE - HERALD OF THUNDER - EMPOWER - ENLIGHTEN [Or low level Clarity]

Ideally these links should be in a +1 to socketed gems item, such as The Vertex helm. This way you can run lvl 26 Discipline and HoT. If you don't want to use a Mana Flask, run Clarity.
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4Link: WRATH - BLOOD MAGIC - [ENLIGHTEN - ARCTIC ARMOUR or HERALD OF ICE ->read explanation below]

IF YOU CAN GET BOOTS OR SOUTHBOUND GLOVES WITH a +1 to socketed Gems CORRUPTION
, then a Level 3 Enlighten and a lvl 20 Blood Magic allow you to run ARCTIC ARMOUR (or HoI) on life. Alternatively you can use a lvl 4 Enlighten and lvl 21 Blood Magic without the +1 corruption.

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[OPTIONAL] 2 or 3 Link: LEAP SLAM - FASTER ATTACKS SUPPORT - FORTIFY

OTHER OPTIONAL GEMS, to be placed where/if you find room:

VAAL DISCIPLINE - INCREASED DURATION SUPPORT
HERALD OF ICE, GOLEM


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A NOTE ON CONFLUX AND TRAPS
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Spoiler
Currently one has to wear Southbound gloves in order to reliably proc Conflux, because only kills you get with a Damage over time effect will be counted as your kill when using a trap.
Since we are using Lightning damage, we actually do not have a DoT before Conflux activates, so how to bypass this? The easiest solution i found is to use a Mantra of Flames Jewel (it adds Fire damage to spells). There may be another solution to this problem - drop me a comment if you know of one.


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CURRENT GEAR
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This is the gear i currently use for a low life version of the build - but it could be easily turned into a cheaper life based or CI version, which would be tankier at the cost of having less damage.

Spoiler


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BANDITS, JEWELS AND PASSIVE TREE
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Bandits: kill all-kill all-kill all

JEWELS:
2X Cheap Construction
1X Mantra of Flames
1x Energy from Within (in the socket next to Melding)

Passive Tree at lvl 93 with 8 ascendancy points:
My 2.3 Build Guides:
Oro's Crit Flicker Assassin: view-thread/1691639
Sire of Ignites Elementalist: view-thread/1703646
Low Life CocSpray Occultist: view-thread/1711959
Last edited by EvilChomsky on Jul 29, 2016, 5:22:47 AM
Last bumped on Jul 27, 2016, 7:48:24 PM
CHANGES:

-More Videos Added
27.7: Updated Links and Passive Tree with a setup that allows us to run an additional 25% Aura.
Flasks added to gear section.

29.7: Updated Passive Tree and Gem Links
My 2.3 Build Guides:
Oro's Crit Flicker Assassin: view-thread/1691639
Sire of Ignites Elementalist: view-thread/1703646
Low Life CocSpray Occultist: view-thread/1711959
Last edited by EvilChomsky on Jul 29, 2016, 5:20:34 AM
Nice build!

How is the damage with 5 links? How is the damage without taming? That ring is nowhere to be found in prophecy league. How is the damage without pain attunement/going low life? How is the build for leveling? Which items are mandatory?
Last edited by kompaniet on Jul 23, 2016, 4:40:57 AM
Hi, glad you like the build. I can run a test setup on 5 links/without the taming and record a video so you can see the damage. Due to the high amount of res reduction and lightning penetration of the build, the damage should still be decent. It it well possible that without the taming, emberwake becomes questionable too. Not having to use these rings has also some advantages: the build becomes tankier because you get more es & resistances out of your ring slots.

Mandatory items:

The absolute minimum is Sire of Shards.
Links in order of Importance (I will test a 4L setup, but i would strongly recommend using at least a 5L)
Ball lightning
Trap
Cluster Traps
Lightning pen
Slower projectiles
Trap and mine Damage

You'll also want to use Southbound gloves and the Mantra of Flames Jewel so you can trigger Elementalist's conflux ability (in a life based version the southbounds fit in much better anyway, since they provide you with a good amount of hp).

The remaining items are not strictly mandatory (except a Shav's if you want to go low life, obviously). I like to use the Sunblast belt and the Cheap construction jewels, but the build would still work without them if you pick up the clever construction passive node.

In a Life based Version you could use basically any helm and boots you want - the +1 to socketed gems that the Vertex provides is primarily needed to boost the Discipline aura in ES versions of the build.

Leveling:


For the very early levels i recommend leveling life-based (pick up some life nodes and spec out of them later with the refund points from quest rewards). The skill choice is up to you; look at some general leveling guides for casters if you're not sure what to use... stuff like Fire Trap, Lightning Tendrils or Firestorm should carry you a long way - especially if you find a +1 to Lightning or fire gems and use fire/lightning penetration.

During the Low levels, your passive tree might look something like this (43 points):


Adding another 30 points:


Later of course it depends on what variation of the build you would like to play; life based? ES? Es&low life?
My 2.3 Build Guides:
Oro's Crit Flicker Assassin: view-thread/1691639
Sire of Ignites Elementalist: view-thread/1703646
Low Life CocSpray Occultist: view-thread/1711959
Last edited by EvilChomsky on Jul 23, 2016, 5:29:22 PM
Yes a video with budget gear is always helpful unless the build is not meant to be played with budget gear.

This is on my list of builds to attempt in prophecy. But without the taming and shavronne :)
Last edited by kompaniet on Jul 24, 2016, 9:10:46 AM
I recorded a video running a 5L, not going Low life and without wearing the Taming (ES is very low because i forgot to run discipline):

https://vid.me/5HXW
My 2.3 Build Guides:
Oro's Crit Flicker Assassin: view-thread/1691639
Sire of Ignites Elementalist: view-thread/1703646
Low Life CocSpray Occultist: view-thread/1711959
This is just a great build! I sold my gear from previous toons on Prophecy sc league and now trying this. I really like setups where every item serves a purpose, great job.

Im just level 62 and just equipped all of the gear required - about 5100 ES. I dont quite understand how you get that 7700 ES, but I guess high level discipline + more ES% on the tree helps out with this.

Ok, so things I'm curious about. How would temporal chains work with this setup, why not use instead of increased critical strikes on Ice spear - is this gem needed to get enough crit? This would obviously include having a corrupted +1 curse chayula, expensive stuff.
Last edited by Harmster on Jul 26, 2016, 5:28:52 PM
Concerning the ES: The Level of Discipline and the Aura effect nodes on the passive tree are really important. The Vertex grants +1 to socketed gems, which double dips because we use an Empower (lvl 3 or 4 if possible). This means that we can run up to a lvl 26 Discipline Aura (lvl 21 discipline plus lvl 4 empower).

I do use a legacy Shav's, but what i gain there i lose again by using the not-so-great Rainbowstrides instead of boots with 200+ES. So in total the same ES is achievable without the legacy Shav's. I don't know if you use the Taming/Emberwake. The build works without them - maybe get rare rings with good energy shield mods until you have leveled up into the high 80s.

Recently i decided to drop the Essence Surge cluster and spec into Leadership instead. With these new Aura Effect nodes, i now have close to 8k es. You should consider picking up Leadership too, sooner or later - not necessarily instead of Essence Surge, but maybe instead of passives like Light of Divinity, Trickery or Saboteur?

Slightly Changed passive tree


Temporal Chains: You are right about the fact that the Crit Strikes gem is not really needed - although it does help make Ice Spear crit more consistent. My guess is that Temp Chains would be a good addition to the build especially if you use the Taming ring; while there are multiple ignites on an enemy you get a damage bonus, and temp chains would mean the ignites stay for a longer time... more time to stack ignites = more ignites = more damage.

My 2.3 Build Guides:
Oro's Crit Flicker Assassin: view-thread/1691639
Sire of Ignites Elementalist: view-thread/1703646
Low Life CocSpray Occultist: view-thread/1711959
Last edited by EvilChomsky on Jul 27, 2016, 3:18:49 PM
"
EvilChomsky wrote:
Concerning the ES: The Level of Discipline and the Aura effect nodes on the passive tree are really important. The Vertex grants +1 to socketed gems, which double dips because we use an Empower (lvl 3 or 4 if possible). This means that we can run up to a lvl 26 Discipline Aura (lvl 21 discipline plus lvl 4 empower).

I do use a legacy Shav's, but what i gain there i lose again by using the not-so-great Rainbowstrides instead of boots with 200+ES. So in total the same ES is achievable without the legacy Shav's. I don't know if you use the Taming/Emberwake. The build works without them - maybe get rare rings with good energy shield mods until you have leveled up into the high 80s.

Recently i decided to drop the Essence Surge cluster and spec into Leadership instead. With these new Aura Effect nodes, i now have close to 8k es. You should consider picking up Leadership too, sooner or later - not necessarily instead of Essence Surge, but maybe instead of passives like Light of Divinity, Trickery or Saboteur?

Slightly Changed passive tree


Temporal Chains: You are right about the fact that the Crit Strikes gem is not really needed - although it does help make Ice Spear crit more consistent. My guess is that Temp Chains would be a good addition to the build especially if you use the Taming ring; while there are multiple ignites on an enemy you get a damage bonus, and temp chains would mean the ignites stay for a longer time... more time to stack ignites = more ignites = more damage.



That makes alot of sense!
If you are really rich you could get a rare hubris with 450+ ES (preferebly with chaos resists) This means you lose the +1 to gems which you then have to get from corrupted southbound gloves with 2B2R colors.
So there is room for some gear progression, thats cool :)
Oh and I spotted another thing, you could use Energy from within at the "Melding" cluster just between witch and shadow for another 27% ES.

About the damage, I find it does just great, even on a 5link. The only issue I have is that ignites dont trigger when conflux is not up. Needless to say this is only a problem on bosses that dont spawn adds, and I heard its a general Elementalist issue.
I saw the author of the Hellfire arc build use 3 writhing Jar flasks?? (for palace dominus) to solve this.

I looked up head enchants, so there is alot of good ones - worthy of mention is:
30% increased temporal chains effect
45% reduced ball lightning projectile speed

Last edited by Harmster on Jul 27, 2016, 4:37:52 PM
"
If you are really rich you could get a rare hubris with 450+ ES (preferebly with chaos resists) This means you lose the +1 to gems which you then have to get from corrupted southbound gloves with 2B2R colors.


Yup I might do that - although i have other build ideas that i want to try, so it will depend on how long i will enjoy playing this one. One minor correction: The Gems currently in the Vertex are 3B1R (Discipline, Empower, HoT, Enlighten - Enlighten being optional).

"
Oh and I spotted another thing, you could use Energy from within at the "Melding" cluster just between witch and shadow for another 27% ES.


Yeah i was actually aware of that, but originally i was trying to pick up the clever construction/high explosives wheel, so it made sense to use the energy from whitin in the socket over there (since i can't run more than one right now, all other sockets are taken). Since i don't have the points to go to clever construction, your observation is correct: I can use Energy from within on Melding and drop the pure life nodes. As long as i still pick up some dex i can gain 26% spell damage and 10% movement speed, while only losing 100es - seems like a good trade.

The new passive tree would look like this:
My 2.3 Build Guides:
Oro's Crit Flicker Assassin: view-thread/1691639
Sire of Ignites Elementalist: view-thread/1703646
Low Life CocSpray Occultist: view-thread/1711959
Last edited by EvilChomsky on Jul 27, 2016, 7:57:26 PM

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