Scorching Ray Elementalist; 400k dps, 12k ES, regen
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I created this build on Path of Builder, so all of my data is coming from that. I am aware not all numbers will be calculated perfectly, but I think it's a very good idea of what it will look like. I am currently leveling it and would love some input so I can make my first creation a success.
BECAUSE OF THIS^, I DON'T RECOMMEND NEW PLAYERS TO FOLLOW THIS UNTIL I HAVE FULLY TESTED IT. Overview: Scorching Ray + Flame Surge (CwC), with CI, EE, EO, and Zealot's Oath for sustain. Features insane cast speed, and great dps combined with insane fire penetration. (Sr, Flammability) I am using CwC because I think it synergizes extremely well here. SR acts as TWO support gems for FS, since it lowers resists by 25%, and causes burning (FS deals 50% more damage to burning targets.) No support gem can provide that much damage while STILL dealing great damage! This negates the mentality people have of "Just use a 6L setup for one skill and have more damage than a double 4L setup on CwC" I think this can be HC viable endgame. The defenses look pretty standard to me for an endgame build, the regen is great, and since I made this with a SC mindset, I'm sure there are a ton of minor improvements you can make that will enable it. (maybe drop flammability for enfeeble endgame? I'll see how it goes.) Final note before we start, this build is pretty cheap. You can literally use nothing but rares that have ES and Resistances to be map viable, and then transition into better stuff as you get rich. If you invest in ES early (maybe grabbing a few extra nodes than my tree does; I simply skipped like 50% that you can refund later), you can run Tabula Rasa for mapping. Stats on Builder with this tree and items:
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-12k ES -Easy to cap res since we can ignore Chaos (meaning the rares aren't TOO expensive, just ES and res is needed) -1k ES regen (gets higher if I focus more defensive, 1.5k without sacrificing much dps) -188k SR dps with buffs and factoring in enemy resistance piercing, etc. (I don't think it sims most of the Elementalist ascendancy either, as they are rotating buffs) -160k FS dps. Flame Surge average hit (with buffs, etc) is 58k. CwC gives about 3 per second at level 20. -13% chance to crit with FS and Orb of storms (my curse on hit). Meaning we should easily maintain EO with zero crit investment in gear/passives. -121% cast speed for a very fast moving SR that stacks to 8 quickly, also making stutter stepping during bosses way easier. Also, we move around the map fast! Class/Ascendancy
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I went Elementalist because it provides amazing offensive capabilities. Fire pen, better golem buffs, elemental damage, everything we grab is useful. Nodes to take:
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Liege of the Primordial, Pendulum of Destruction, Mastermind of Discord, Paragon of Calamity I think this is the best order. Paragon is last, because reflect isn't a thing until you hit endgame. I don't think Mastermind of Discord is useful until we start mapping, as levelling will consist solely of SR stutter stepping/sweeping across rooms with large packs. So the first two can be done in either order really, though I find the Golem buffs to be incredibly strong. Primoridal provides an exceptional amount of dps, via multiple %damage buffs, and free cast speed via the second Golem. (Not to mention they will tank for you a little as you head into Cruel where the damage begins to scale up a bit.) Occultist is my next choice. This is a more tanky set up (Tons of ES, crazy regen) while providing more utlity with a 3rd curse. I think I would run this if I went low-life, as LowLife provides more dps at the cost of defense. Not to mention, Everything around you explodes thanks to the Occultist tree and your curses. You can easily be Shadow(Trickster) or Templar(Inquisitor) using the same tree! (Or scion, of course) Templar's Hierophant is a viable totem build for either of our active skills, but would require dropping Cast While Channeling from the setup, which defeats the purpose of my build. Skill gems:
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Damage: Scorching Ray Flame Surge Empower Controlled Destruction Cast while Channelling Elemental Focus -These supports seem best to me, as they all support both active skills equally, meanwhile Empower+gear gets both skills to level 27 on an ideal setup. Empower becomes INSANELY good here. Alternatives: -Fire penetration boosts FS damage, but not SR. -Increased AoE could be nice for FS. -Increased burning damage boosts SR, but not FS. It does affect any ignites you proc from FS hits. There may be some wonderful synergy with this gem and Emberwake ring. Further testing needed. (You would have to get rid of Elemental Focus.) Curses and EO proc: Orb of Storms Curse On Hit Flammability Temporal Chains Alternative: Run Enfeeble for defense, Vulnerability for extra burn damage. Occultist is a fantastic alternative to Elementalist because of this setup alone. Movement Lightning Warp Faster Casting Less Duration Survival Cast when Damage Taken Vaal Haste Enduring Cry Increased Duration Auras Enlighten Discipline Clarity Vitality Options: Arctic Armor? Would need to drop Vitality for it, but the slow and defenses would be welcomed. Golem/Buffs Flame Golem Lightning Golem This gets you tons of damage and cast speed thanks to being an Elementalist. I'm sure there is more we can do here, but I haven't worked that into the build yet. Suggestions? End game, we would ideally have a +3 fire bow with 6L, so we can do this to our chest: Orb of Storms 20/0 Increased Critical Strikes 20/0 Curse On Hit 20/0 Temporal Chains 20/0 Summon Flame Golem 20/0 Flammability 20/0 Possibly Inc AoE instead of crits, since I think it's consistent either way. Then, we just move the movement gems to the helm or other piece, and our damage set up belongs to the bow. Passive trees and Bandits:
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Bandits:
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Kill all in Norm and Merc. In cruel, help Alira. Kill all is good too, if you aren't as crazy about cast speed. Passive Tree around 95:
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Note that a lot of these points aren't mandatory. We can have full ES and lots of damage when we start mapping, and then invest points into jewels and some less important damage nodes post 70. (Though the jewels give ES as well. Grab jewel nodes whenever you find a good one.) Roadmap: First, get the starting string of ES nodes (all 10 or so at the start of tree). -Head left to Zealot's Oath. Don't put the last point into it until your ES is higher than life. (This may take awhile) -Around act 2 or three, it should like something like this:
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From here, I set myself up for grabbing CI, along with any other node I want, by getting all the ES nodes in our finished tree. Grab CI whenever you feel comfortable. Watch your ES as you are playing and if you rarely take Life damage, it's probably safe to take CI (especially if chaos damage is an issue). Upon completing Normal difficulty, It should look something like this:
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Anywhere along the above path, if you feel like your damage is a bit lacking, you can take a few damage nodes. Just don't go too crazy, ES is extremely important. Once the ES is done, you can take other nodes as you please. Get the second curse passive whenever you have the 4L on a decent piece (I plan to get it around merc, as earlier than that cursing doesn't feel necessary to me.) You can also put points in the ES nodes I didn't take. You get plenty of free refunds to move those points into damage when you please. Gear
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I will update this with more specific examples when I reach that point. The passive tree really lacks Strength and Dexterity. This shouldn't affect the gear you equip, but it will affect the levelling of any gem that isn't blue. Keep it in mind when gearing. It's very easy to overlevel your off-colored gems with this build if your levelling gear has a lot of Str/Dex. Weapon
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Ideal setup uses a +3 bow and Soul strike. 'Til then, any High ES shield and a Damage boosting 1H weapon works. OR use your favorite staff. It really doesnt matter, just get damage, sockets aren't an issue really (3L+1 is map viable with a 6L chest)
Body armor
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I'm levelling with a Tabula. Easy to get at level 1 if it isn't your first character. Otherwise, just stack sockets on an ES base for your damage set up. I will transition out of Tabula as soon as I find a 5L with decent stats, as I only lose Fire Pen with that, and I think the defenses outweigh that damage. For your 6L I think a rare is going to be BiS, but honorable mention to Infernal Mantle. Infernal Mantle can be used as a 6L with +2 fire gems eventually, and its a nice alternative to the +6 bow. This could be better on defenses than the bow setup, at the cost of 1 level to your FS and SR. I think I would run Xirgil's Crank with this, as you can get solid block chance with it (helps when you are channelling) which also starts your ES recharge! Other armor pieces
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Currently I have all rares, maximizing on pure ES and resistances. Suggestions appreciated for uniques you think would work. So far, a few uniques have caught my eye, but not enough for me to value them over the rares. If we get out defenses covered here, we can get TONS of damage output from Rings/Ammy late game. Rings/Amulet
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Damage, cast speed, ES, resistances. Opal/Moonstone ring and Marble amulet are probably the best bases. LOTS of people run Eye of Chayula for their amulet slot, as it grants stun immunity. Alternatively, they run Valyrium on their ring slot for the same reason. I am personally going to attempt the build without either unique first, as the stats on rares are much better, and I have 70% stun resistance in the passive tree. Jewelry
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Rares/Blues 1. ES 2. Damage (fire, ele, spell, all) 3. Cast Speed Cast speed may end up being stronger than damage, but since it's only 4% I think you would need multiple well rolled cast speed jewels to notice it. ES is absolutely the best mod. You can roll 8% (more than most ES nodes on the tree) while still getting a bunch of damage to go with it! The unique Jewel, Energy from Within, will do excellent on the jewel slots near Mind Over Matter, and Pain attunement. This really helps push the build to peak performance, imo. I think that's about it. I would love to get input from some veterans, as this is my first attempt at creating a build without help from another guide. Anything you would like me to add, feel free to ask. I will try to get videos, screen shots, and gear examples once I get going, assuming this build is a success. Last edited by mebell333 on Dec 6, 2016, 12:54:14 PM Last bumped on May 31, 2017, 8:29:15 AM
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I don't believe fire pen works with scorching ray, as there has to be a hit and SR only applies a burn. It may still work out as the best option, but unfortunately it doesn't work with both spells.
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" Updated to reflect this, thanks! | |
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Currently attempting this build, currently level 51 and soon be getting several up grades around 55-60. My ES was lacking as I am using Tabula/Goldrim. It's working out pretty well so far. Great work! Ill update once I hit Yellow/Red Maps.
~Cheers, Reflexium |
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Quick update:
I switched from Flamesurge to Firestorm for a much easier AoE clear speed. ~Cheers Reflexium |
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the cwd skillset won't work: enduring cry is no longer a spell and vall gems are no longer triggered.
flammability is less interesting than vulnerability because the qualities of flammability (increase ignite duration) doesn't work with SR I'm currently using BL with SR+CwC so I can proc easily EE and it works rather well (a little less maybe than firestorm but not sure). For curse, I use blasphemy+vulnerability and discipline aura. For the cwdt I use tempest shield and frost wall, I will change that for the classical IC(+FW) when I get my 6 link weapons for the 6links, I'm going to try a SR+CwC+BL+Firestorm and some support that will be used by all three spell (CD+EF maybe) | |
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The skill tree is broken now, would appreciate if you could update it
egg
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