3.6 | p4ttch's Body Bomber Elementalist | (Detonate Dead / Cremation) + Ignite

Hey Exiles, This guide is now offically ready in version 1. It is still a work in progress as i update it, fix typos , add more tips and items as i learn more about the build. I have enjoyed playing this build, as it has a faster clear and a slowr safe version, just by chaning out 2 gems.

Table of contents

Introduction
Pros / Cons
Skill Mechanics - (WIP)
Game Play & Videos
Gear
Leveling
Bandits
Skill Tree
Gem links
Setups - (WIP)
- Mapping
- Bossing

If you have any questions or advice on how to improve the guide please leave a comment here in the thread :)

Introduction / Story Time

A rather tanky build with decent clear speed that has a setup for bossing which feels very safe and smooth to play.
Detonate dead for mapping will 1 shot packs with a very satsifying explosion, and end the bosses life with vaal detonate dead (also good for beyond bosses)
Cremation makes uber lab and hard phase bosses much safer and easier due to it lasting 8 seconds, which gives plenty of time to dodge attacks.

Story Time

I have been playing POE for a really long time.. Sinse closed beta on and off. Been a pretty casual player for the most part. But started to get a bit bored of the game and following all the meta builds and having the best league starts i could get. I wanted to play something super old school again, from the days before ascendancies where even a thing.
Detonate Dead / ele prolif Ignite
I have been wanting to play this for a while now and after reading the patch notes i couldn't pass up the opportunity.
So i planned a budget start up elementalist build and when i was looking for good items i remembered a the Nycta's Lantern scepter.. I gave it a test on standard and was pleasantly surpised at the dps.



The scepter gives us +2 to fire skills, supported by fire pen AND adds flat fire damage.. It basically feels like a 5L chest, and this scepter can be used all the way into yellow maps. But more about that later..

This build was breezing through content at a comfortable pace, but i was getting worried about single target for bossing. I dont really like clunky boss killers that need combo skills to do damage repeatedly. (the fights can drag out which leads to my noob ass making mistakes)

First answer. Vaal Detonate dead, that was a lot of fun. Being able to desecrate / spell cascade 15 corpses, and vaal detonate dead them with a 2 click combo that instantly kills any single phase boss

Second answer : Cremation
A short way through my play through of story mode i came across the cremation skill gem and had totally forgotten it existed . I remember trying it for like 30 seconds when it was released and didn't like it.. Dropped it on the floor and never looked at it again. But this time, playing a build synergiesed for DD.. i thought i would give it a 2nd try. The skill was a bit meh for clear speed, but the damage was ok… until i started using it for fight multi phase bosses.. This skill is AMAZING and seriously underrated.
I have played a lot of totem builds recently as league starters, but totems can die and get stunned.. And that means no dps. Cremation is like if Armageddon brand and Caustic arrow had a baby. A ground targeted / AOE Damage over time ability, but you can gain life from it, and it cant be killed so the damage cant be stopped.

I did start to struggle with defenses which is when i thought of testing out another very budget scepter

Balefire scepter..


The main reason for this was the life and mana again on kill. Killing a pack with DD basically brings us back to full life.

This build does take getting used to, and i have been making adjustments as i have played. Fixing pain points along the way. Adding Cast when damage taken with immortal call / warlords mark and desecrate for auto corpses was huge quality of life.

When i eventually got all my trials done for uberlab done I went in with the mindset i would test to see how far i could get, but using cremation for the run and playing carefully.. It was 1 of the smoothest runs i’ve ever had. To the extent that i thought of it as a valid uber lab farmer, but will do more runs and document how it goes.


Pros
- Cheap to get started
- Satsifying explosions with detonate dead
- Elemental Reflect immune
- This build is so off meta i forgot this skill even existed
- cremation doesnt have life like a totem does, so it will always do it's damage
- Cremation has a very safe play style for hard bosses. (Becomes DoT play style similar to Caustic Arrow)
- Vaal Detonate Dead instakills single phase bosses. (or 1 phase)
- Durable, this build is rather tanky, and has good regen

Cons
- Can feel awkward and clunky to play at times
- unearth skill doesn't always leave a corpse if it collides with a wall or goes over the edge.
- not the fastest mapper. But this depends on the map and play style.
- this build is not for everyone.

Skill Mechanics

This is still work in progress as i learn more about these skills
Detonate Dead:

This is an interesting skill and has 2 main parts to it.
A flat damage spell part (this is effected by spell damage and reflect)
A corpse explosion part ( this is NOT effected by spell damage and not effected by reflect)

The very old legacy version of Detonate would use a lvl 1 DD (Detonate Dead from here on). The corpse used to do i think 8% of base life as damage. And was scaled by elemental and fire damage , and then with -resists.
8% * 300 elemental damage = 32%
32% * -100% fire resist = 64% (in theory)
so that 8% would chunk the monsters life by 64% and the ignite damage + proliferate would finish off the kill.

But p4ttch why are you bringing up old infomation from 3 years ago?
This is important for theory crafting purposes as to which part of the skill we really want to focus on.

*buffed in 3.6
Now deals 15 to 22 Fire damage at gem level 1 (from 10 to 14) and 798 to 1197 Fire damage at gem level 20 (from 823 to 1235).
Now has an added damage effectiveness of 160% (from 100%).

The extra 60% spell effectivness is absolutely insane. It means if you have a weapon that has for instance added 1-100 lightning damage to spells, it now adds 1-160 flat damage


Cremation:





Game Play & Videos

T7 Yellow Shore map / Using Detonate Dead

Normal Atziri run with Cremation



Gear

Current Gear at lvl 84





Leveling

League starter

This is for people starting from scratch with no currency.

I started off with trying out a few spells to level with, but it really doesnt matter you can pick which ever. Right now you can get to act 3 with basicaly any elemental spell as elementalist and be fine if you stick to the tree.

lvl 15 tree

the things that help are
"+1 to socketed fire skills" vendor recipy. which crafts a wand or scepter . We prefer scepters because it also opens means we can use daggers if we find a good 1.

flat elemental damage added to spells.

when we get to act 2 kill the bandists quest. I personaly helped Alira. for the resist all, and mana regen i also wanted to stay open to possibly changing to crit at some point.

Otherwise take the 2 skill points and kill all

Act 3
Once you kill Gravicious you can get cremation. And at this point it should be easy to do the first Labrynth.

When you hit lvl 42 , you should have found enough currency to buy <insert name> scepter. This is the only item you really need to do enough damage for all the way till maps. The added flat fire damage gets a 1.6x multiplier for detonate dead because of it's spell effectiveness. The +2 fire skills is amazing.

And then just focus on defences and getting the right sockets and resists on gear.


Leveling Gear

If you have access to leveling gear from friends or your own. I'm going to assume you've already made it to maps at least once. so ill just list the most helpful gear i've found so far.

- Tabula Rasa (the obvious leveling armor choice)
- Gold Rim
- Wanderlust
- Ngamahu's Sign ruby ring
I read about this in another ignite guide and would use this ring if i had to level again.

any combo of bereks rings for the extra spell damage

possibly Nycta's Lantern scepter.. This thing is really this good that i would switch from tabula and get extra defence for act 6 - 10



Bandits

I helped Alira.
This was my league starter so the resist all, and mana regen makes life easier. I also wanted to stay open to possibly changing to crit at some point.

Otherwise kill all and take the 2 skill points


Skill Trees


20 points

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.6.2/AAAABAMAAALjBLMHpREtLJwy0UVHRZ1JslNSakN8g4IQmuCiALzqwGbfsOvu8B8=



40 points

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.6.2/AAAABAMAAALjBLMHpQj0ES0aOBzcJy8snDD4MtE62DwFRUdFnUmyU1JWSGobakNtGXyDghCCm48akFWa4J_fogCnCK7_vOrAZtWm2CTfsOvu73zwH_6z


60 points

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.6.2/AAAABAMAAALjBLMHpQj0EFgRLRJpFm8XHBo4Gmwc3B0UJKonLyj6LJww-DLRNuk62DwFRUdFnUmyU1JWSGjyahtqQ20ZcXl8g4IQgpuHZY8aj0aQVZrgna6f36IApwiu_7EFuJO40LzqwGbVptgk2jra3d-w42rr7u988B_-sw==



80 points

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.6.2/AAAABAMAAALjA3UEswelCPQQWBEtEmkWbxccGjgabBzcHRQkqicvKPosnDD4MtE1kjbpOtg64TwFPV9Bh0VHRZ1JT0myUlNTUlZIXwRo8mobakNtGXF5fIOCEIKbgseFModljxqPRpBVly2XlZf0muCdY52un9-iAKcIrv-xBbc-uJO40LyqvOrAZtWm2CTYvdo62t3fsONq6-7vfPAf8kX56P4K_rM=



103 points

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.6.2/AAAABAMAAALjA3UEswelCPQQWBEtEmkWbxccGjgabBzcHRQkqicvKPosnDD4MtE1kjbpOtg64TwFPV9Bh0VHRZ1JT0myUlNTUlZIXwRo8mobakNtGXF5fIOCEIKbgseFModljxqPRpBVly2XlZf0muCdY52un9-iAKcIrv-xBbc-uJO40LyqvOrAZtWm2CTYvdo62t3fsONq6-7vfPAf8kX56P4K_rM=



Current tree lvl 84

https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAMCAALjA3UEBwSzB6UI9BBYES0SaRM1Fm8XHBekGdgaOBpsHNwdFB8YIAYkqicvKPosnDD4MtEzbDWSNuk6WDrYOuE8BT1fQYdFR0WdRlJJT0myTLNN41H7UlNTUlXGVkhZ818EXypmVGjyahtqQ2t6bRlxeXGFcg98g4IQgpuCx4PbhTKHZY8aj0aQVZRvly2XlZf0muCdY52un9-hI6IAplenCK7_rxi3PriTu928qrzqwGbEzsi_zRbQH9QH1abYJNi92rna3dyN37Djauvk6-7vfO_r8B_yRfno_Ez-Cv6P_rM=?accountName=p4ttch&realm=pc&characterName=Engineered_Explosives



Gem links

The 3L for scepter (I was sticking to this till i had a 6L because it will always do more damage than a 5L)
Detonate Dead > Controlled Destruction > Combustion
Cremation > Immolate > Combustion

6L . I used a +2 AoE gems Skin of the loyal here. my colours are (blue blue red red green green) so i will list a bunch of gems that can all work for this skill in different colours incase you cant get matching colours but you need at least ( Green, blue, blue , red ) for
Detonate dead / Cremation (g)
Combustion (blue)
controlled destruction / immolate (blue)
Fire penetration (red)

Other good gems :
(Red)
empower
burning damage
life leech
stun

(Blue)
spell cascade (1 click, 3 casts, can kill trash in maps with a lvl 1 detonate dead and spell cascade)
concentrated effectiveness
increased area of effect
elemental focus (Some people use this for cremation for non-ignite builds / cant use immolate)


(Green)
hyperthermia (the elementalist has good chill spread with a bit of added cold damage. this gem can buff our damage a lot)
greater multiple projectile (cremation gem)
slower projectiles (cremation)
onslaught (DD/Cremation)(this increases clear speed a lot for mapping)
ice bite (DD/Cremation)
Mana leech (DD/Cremation) quality of life

I dont often use Cast when damage taken set ups but this build takes great advantage of it.
4 Link
Cast when damage taken >
imortal call (helps vs porkupine birds)
Desecrate lvl 1 ( our damage is spell damage focused, so a lvl 1 is fine, this also automates corpse generation against ranged foes)
Warlords mark (Defensive curse that you perfer can be used here. I like war lords for the leech , it helps with life and mana recovery which is just a big quality of life.. and the endurance charges are nice too for immortal call )

4 Link
We need a way to trigger elemenal overload reliably but we can also take advantage of this spells reach and use curse on hit
Orb of storms
2Lincreased crititcal strike chance
or
4L curse on hit + flamability or elemental weakness

Desecrate >
spell cascade
(depends on your play style. but might as well get max 15 corpses with 1 click , This is also part of the Vaal Detonate Dead 2 click dead boss combo.)
faster casting (this is just quality of life, and speeds up setup time. Speed = clear speed)
arcane serge / portal gem (arcaine surge if you need the extra damage . keep it lvl 8 or 10ish. I use portal gem because im lazy to buy portal scrolls)

3L
unearth
faster casting (this is our bread and butter for normal trash. because desecrate has a cool down it becomes a bottle neck for clear speed)
flame dash (our move skill for jumping rivers and getting over ledges. Quality of life but hihgly reccomended)

3L when using a 6L armour
stone golem (for regen, reccomended for doing Labrynth)
lighting golem (for cast speed and lightning damage buff.. which can trigger shock)
herald of ash or decoy totem (damage or Labrynth safety SPECIALLY for Argus. it's 1 socket that changes that fight from panic to taking another sip of coffee)

chaos golem and fire golem are also nice options

optional 1L
Malachies ring
with lightning golem. This is a clever trick i found in another guide. (will link soon)
it gives our golem elemental equalibriam which means his attack givse - 50% fire and cold res. which is huge bonus damage for us.
I'm still testing this out . and need to re balance my resistances

Other skills worth mentioning
Herald of Thunder . i have been toying with trying to fit this into the build to get more shocks
i do like the open mana for the moment tho


Setups


Mapping

For mapping we use Detonate Dead, and controlled destruction in our main 6L or Nycta's Lantern.
We also use Herald of Ash. for the overkill


Bossing

For bossing or Uberlabs we use Cremation . and swap out controlled destruction with Immolate
We also use decoy totem instead of herald of ash. This gives us extra mana for MoM and well.. A decoy to make the fights a bit safer.


Last edited by p4ttch on Mar 25, 2019, 5:40:54 PM
Last bumped on Mar 25, 2019, 5:43:31 PM
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