[3.5] *The Perfect Storm* Shock Nova / Storm Call Elementalist

So, I'm now lvl 58, and besides the struggle I got with bosses I still enjoy the build. Do struggle alot with bosses though. Even when moving around. Lightning warp it too slow to quickly dodge still. Or I am bad at dodging :P

As a new player with my very first playthough of PoE, I struggle with finding gear. Especially gear with 5L for Staff and Body armor. I think that is part of why I struggle as I don't have the "important" gem links. (My profile should be public)

Can you advice how you got the staff and body armor you linked in your progress for only like 2c. (I think you said it was)

Been looking on poe.trade to buy some, but don't find as cheap ones that give close to what your gives with the right sockets. Any tips on how to get cheap gear with the right links? :D

Thanks for the build btw!

I'm lvl 70 now, started mapping and I have to honestly say I still don't get how this build is supposed to play vs. bosses. Right now in arid lake and the Roa just kills me in 2 hits with 4k life. Seeing how he's constantly charging I get at best 1 cast off every 2 seconds if I don't want to get hit. Sitting at 20k nova dps and 6.7k storm call per hit it's taking forever to take the boss down.

Playstyle and clearspeed vs. regular enemies is super fun, but on bosses I'm dead weight.

There is a basic lack of sustain for me against bosses since curses don't trigger.

Edit: On the other hand I just cleared a t5 map, Spider Lair, with ease, just because the spider boss had adds to fuel me.

Wat do.

Some bosses are a pain to fight with this builds, as i said earlier.
Did a Quay or now Port Map yesterday with all the nice mods one can want. Hexproof, +30 lightning resis on mobs, less crit effect on mobs, more monster damage and so on - How hard can it be, it´s quay, that was always easy.

First lesson on the way through the regular mobs: +30 resis is quite alot when you have barely any penetration and can´t curse.
Second lesson on the boss: 30 Resis on top of boss resist with added bosslife from 3.0 - this is gonna take a long while.

Bossfight went like this:
Cast Golems and see what happens
if boss engages Golems: Stormcall on boss as long as it seems safe
if boss ignores golems: Stormcall on your Position until boss comes close, dodge and repeat. Use room Layout to your advantage. In this particular case: cirle around the building in the middle, you can stormcall around corners and are save from the odd projectile that comes every few seconds.
Every once in a while: Recast Golems.
Bloody fight took me 8-9 Minutes to get all forms down.

For lightning warp: 4-Link wins the day quite often.
Lightning warp, faster casting, less duration and swift affliction.
Lightning warp consists of two phases, the casting and the time spent travelling.
While Faster Casting reduces the time you need to actually cast the spell, less duration and swift affliction reduce the time you spent travelling.
With the above mentioned setup you can dodge alot more easy. Swift affliction is optional, especially since we would need alot dex to level it higher. Even though Lightning warp feels smoother for me with it.

I've been using Decoy Totem to deal with bosses. Granted, I'm level 47 and have only used it on Act 4/5 bosses plus some Harbingers, but it seems to get the job done.

I am 84 right now with this build. Pretty new to all this, I'll try to link my current gear.

act 1-4 was very easy, didn't die once.
act 4-9 was fairly easy, besides for a hand few bosses that killed me 3-5 times.
act 10 was easy, but the last boss smashed me a good 5-7 times before I killed him.

Last time I put any real effort into PoE was when the game only had 2 acts. Started playing breach league but only for a week. So maybe I just suck haha.

I've played up to t12 maps. t12 shipyard map boss kicks me in the teeth, but the map it's self I can do. Clearing maps with this build has been fast and easy, until you reach current bosses. My dodging skills may need some work without question, but this build doesn't take a punch well. Gonna guess this will continue to happen on much harder end-game bosses. I had to get a Carry for Uber Lab.



My biggest problem is surviving boss fights while casting Storm Call. I feel this skill leaves me wide open and get's me killed more often than not. For Bosses I can not take many hits from, it's the skill I've been kiting with, instead of Shock Nova as the guide says. But some bosses have plenty of range attacks that can drop me in 1-2 hits in a blink of the eye. Also with Storm Call, I don't benefit from any curses when kiting, so that means no Leeching or Conductivity a lot of the time. Which puts me as risk of jumping in and dying so my can curses apply. That said, any boss I am able to Shock Nova/Leech goes down quick. Which isn't many.

My 2nd problem is being interrupted while using Shock Nova in a mass load of mobs or a boss. This doesn't happen all the time, but often enough to care. When it does happen, it's pretty much means I die.

The damage is great making clearing maps easy and fast. And it's a ton of fun to play. But I am a little lost at this point, I feel I NEED 6l Pledge of Hands and Belly. Right now my HP is 4k, Belly will bring me up to about 5k I think. Not sure if that's gonna be really enough to make the difference. I gotta wonder if it's worth the time and investment.

I am no builder, but most builds I've seen pretty much use 1 skill to damage with. If anything swap out a said skill for a single target get when fighting bosses. I am wondering if doing the same with Shock Nova and Storm Call would be a better, than use the 6L chest on something that can help us take one punch to the face without going to the hospital.

Any help or idea's would be great, thanks.

I'm now level 80 with that build and i agreed with you guys, map roaming is super fun you just instant kill all the screen and you'r really fast.

But there is some trick you have to wear : 4L curse on hit, warlods mark, conductivity and herald of thunder. Herald proc provide leech life and mana from warlods + debuff lightning resistance, the difference is very important if you don't proc curse a rare monster can take FOREVER to down instead with curse they all die in 0,1s.

Weapon Pledge is a must have 5L blue, 6L with empower is for rich people, just buy an 155+% spell damag it's very easy to put 5 blue linked socket on.

I'm not wearing a Belly so i only have 3k hp (with bad gear) and some boss can kill me if they have dot that suck your mana to 0, boss fight > 6s + no ennemi spawn so no curse proc... so you can"t just spam shock nova like a totem and regen full life with flasks instant between boss hit. Btw i think i will never do high map if i don't grow to 5k hp. Not wearing a tabula rasa too, but maybe i will do it's cheap and storm call 4L can deal more damage than shock nova, so with a 6L...

Golems are stupids if you stop attacking, they stop too. You can glitch boss between them and one map element you have to stay behind this element so you are out the vision of the boss and spam storm call near the boss location, boss will hit them forever. Typically the shit roa that 2 shot you, block him near a root with golems and spam max range storm call. But they are usefull for buff and alone you are just a free meal.

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xault wrote:

My biggest problem is surviving boss fights while casting Storm Call.

I'm 86 with this build now, clearing t14 pretty regularly and without too many issues. The biggest thing I've learned is that storm call is garbage. Instinct told me to try using it on bosses but I learned quickly it's a waste of time. Dodge and kite, shock nova and move. Uber izaro taught me this lesson the hard way. Once I stopped using storm call for anything but picking off stragglers and a few ranged here and there I had much more success.

I guess the question is, what could replace storm call in the build and work better?

A couple more lessons:

Picking up some cast through stun nodes helps keep me alive when those big packs get that lucky stun in.

Healing is mana first. Instant mana to get you casting again, and then a health pot if needed, goes a lot further than just spamming heath pots.

I think we could use that belt for this build because we are perma running the mooving flask
it cost absolutly nothing, one alch but it increase your dps by far x2. Before to go on monster pack, warp+flask = kaboom, even hard harbringer.
Mana recovery is useless, try to get the lower % possible for reduction flask duration and maximum life you can. https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Soulthirst

If shock nova deal 50k then with this belt it become 80-100k. There is no stats like str/dex so you have to get them on the ring/amulet slot. In fact in ~it add 30% dps with monster pack, it's fun fest on breach pack.

If you are aware of the boss strat and know he is difficult and never spawn adds it's a little waste of item slot, you can switch for another. But for roaming i really love this item.

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circuskid wrote:

"

xault wrote:

My biggest problem is surviving boss fights while casting Storm Call.

I'm 86 with this build now, clearing t14 pretty regularly and without too many issues. The biggest thing I've learned is that storm call is garbage. Instinct told me to try using it on bosses but I learned quickly it's a waste of time. Dodge and kite, shock nova and move. Uber izaro taught me this lesson the hard way. Once I stopped using storm call for anything but picking off stragglers and a few ranged here and there I had much more success.

I guess the question is, what could replace storm call in the build and work better?

A couple more lessons:

Picking up some cast through stun nodes helps keep me alive when those big packs get that lucky stun in.

Healing is mana first. Instant mana to get you casting again, and then a health pot if needed, goes a lot further than just spamming heath pots.

Yeah I agree, I am at the point where I've pretty much stop using Storm Call. I'd rather use another skill worthy of a 5l or 6l, but I'm not sure what that would be.

shame, Storm Call is what attracted me to this build in the first place.