2.3 Elementalist Lazy Speed Clearing / New Herald Non-Bomber

Hey all, I probably won't be making a comprehensive guide about this, so if anyone want to take the concept and run with it, you are more than welcome. It was just something i thought of, so i threw something together in standard with a respec, but it doesn't require any legacy items.

So this is what the Herald Bomber builds always wanted to be, i guess - Just without the bombs!

The advertising one-liners:
- Cool concept
- Clearing speed? Well how fast can you move? I leveled from 77-81 with over 200 mill xp/hour, without whirling blades/shield charge/vaal haste.
- Don't want to cast spells? Clear maps with just 2 casts of flameblast. 1 to proc HoT and 1 to speed up the boss kill.
- Budget build? yeah probably, i don't know haven't tried, but i would say under 3ex with current prices.
- Unfinished build - Do you want to try and take this to it's fullest potential? Be my guest, i'll be happy to discuss the theory.


This build relies on keeping up Elemental Conflux and a PUMPed up Herald of Thunder constantly while you zoooooom through content, not bothering actually casting anything.

Normally Herald of Thunder can't proc itself since it can't shock, which is why the old Herald Bomber builds relied on Herald of Ice to shock.
But to proc HoI, you would need to freeze and kill mobs with HoT and it all got a bit convoluted.


The work-around to shocking mobs is with this lovely flask

With Vessel of Vinktar up, you just run through mobs while HoT does all the killing. The flask shocks the mobs and HoT procs itself.
With the Elementalist Ascendancy notes Shaper of Desolation and Beacon of Ruin (everybody should know the power of these by now) your HoT will ignite everything you run past.
Yep... for better or worse, burn prolif is back.

Which brings me to damage scaling.
We only want to use elemental damage and general damage as scaling. This is because they "double-dip" and scale both your HoT damage and the ignite damage. Don't waste time on lightning or fire damage and least of all spell damage as HoT isn't a spell.
Yep - herald of thunder isn't a spell, so there aren't many supports that work with it. I just threw it in a +3 sceptre with empower and added lightning, but the duration support gems will work as well. The added lightning should really be a lightning penetration, but i was lazy and didn't want to find one, and it hasn't slowed me yet.


The skill tree: It doesn't really matter, as long as you don't start taking the wrong damage notes. The tree could be much more optimised as a LL/CI character, but i didn't want to go through the hassle of figuring out the leech/gearing just to test it out.




This is the gear i threw together to test this.
I use flameblast for the very first HoT proc and as single target for map bosses, but it doesn't really matter what skill you use
The other thing of note are the flasks. A long lasting grounding flask is a good idea and I put in the silver flask just for the onslaught movement speed.
I cycle through the 3 flasks every other pack i meet, keeping up the movement flasks all the time.



Ending notes:
- The build cleared tier 7 maps just as fast as Dried Lake, haven't tried anything above, but at some point you are gonna need more damage than what i had in my setup to reliably zoom through the maps.
- Perhaps you can work around not having Vessel of Vinktar... If you can keep up Elemental Conflux you could use flame dash as a means of shocking, but i'm guessing it could get akward.
- Elemental Equilibrium could be interesting, since you are igniting with lightning damage, and the burn isn't a hit.
- I respecced the character at lvl 77, did cruel Izaro and leveled to 81 so i haven't thought about how to level it at all.
- Don't use my skill tree. It's not optimised.


If you've read this far - Thank YOU!
Please just ask if there's anything you are wondering about. If you message me privately i will probably copy paste it to the thread and answer it here.
All thoughts and comments are most welcome.