Elemental equilibrium?

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raics wrote:

EE requires a bit of fiddling but it kicks ass once you set it up right.

The idea is still focusing on only one element and using the other one to debuff via totem. A good debuffing skill is any that does a lot of small hits so EE is pretty much applied all the time, worthy examples are Sp0rk, Flame/Incinerate totem, Firestorm or GMP Freezing pulse.

Now, for the main skill you need some that is slow and does only one hit, that's important. If you stick LMP on Freezing pulse and use it as a main skill it will do the same damage every time you hit one enemy with all three waves, first one will to 50% more but the other two will do 25% less bringing you to a nice fat zero. Things like incinerate or firestorm will actually do less damage then without EE.

Other than that the keystone is really effective, works even on curse-immunes, and can also make crap skills borderline-viable, stuff like Ice Nova or Arc. Good main skills to use with it are conc/proliferation Fireball, Fire trap, Discharge, Shock Nova and elemental melee skills.
The strongest no-fiddling build that uses it is probably Explosive arrow templar.

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MonstaMunch wrote:

I'm slightly confused. When you say you have increased elemental damage from items and you're talking about using attacks and spells together, what items/mods specifically do you have that you're referring to?

Switching between two elements can be great, but switching between spells and attacks is a bit more complicated.

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hostilesinbound wrote:

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MonstaMunch wrote:

I'm slightly confused. When you say you have increased elemental damage from items and you're talking about using attacks and spells together, what items/mods specifically do you have that you're referring to?

Switching between two elements can be great, but switching between spells and attacks is a bit more complicated.

if I were to use auxium which gives 20-30% increased elem damage with weapons, would it even be worth using EE and exploding arrow, because exploding arrow is a physical attack that uses fire damage soooo...

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raics wrote:

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hostilesinbound wrote:

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MonstaMunch wrote:

I'm slightly confused. When you say you have increased elemental damage from items and you're talking about using attacks and spells together, what items/mods specifically do you have that you're referring to?

Switching between two elements can be great, but switching between spells and attacks is a bit more complicated.

if I were to use auxium which gives 20-30% increased elem damage with weapons, would it even be worth using EE and exploding arrow, because exploding arrow is a physical attack that uses fire damage soooo...

Ooof, look man, why don't you build a couple of more... straightforward builds before trying this stuff, some things aren't that obvious.

First, you have to understand how exactly Elemental Equilibrium works:
* one element
- You hit a target with any spell or attack that has only one element, for example fire
- Your target gets -50% to all elements not present in that attack, in this case lightning and cold, and +25% resist fire.
- So, if your next hit is also fire it will do less damage, not more. That's the caveat with multiprojectile-supported skills, even though it looks like they hit at the same time, they don't.

*two elements
- You hit a target with an attack that has fire and lightning present, for example fireball with added lightning.
- Your target gets -50% to cold as that's the only element absent but gets +25% to fire and lightning resist.

* three elements
- your target gets +25% resist all
- never have all three elements on your attacks when using EE

So that 'barrage' thing you are mentioning doesn't really work. If your next hit isn't of different element you are actually hurting your damage. So, EE is better suited for heavy hits then fast ones, it's easier for your debuff skill to slide between attacks.

Ok, now onto explosive arrow...
This skill works a bit different then other arrow skills. All attacks prior to explosion are just normal attacks with a special property to leave 'fuses'. If you stick only one it explodes after 1 second, every extra fuse you apply extends that duration an extra second up to a max of 5. Once target dies or fuses expire they explode dealing area damage.

There is a catch - explosion isn't an 'attack', so weapon elemental nodes don't apply, bow nodes either, it's just an explosion that deals fire damage only, it even has a different crit chance than your weapon. It isn't a spell either, the only things that work are fire nodes, generic elemental ones, area nodes and generic projectile nodes.The fact that projectile damage nodes affect the explosion isn't that intuitive but it's necessary for purposes of damage penalty in case of using LMP/GMP.

Now, normal attacks that apply fuses are just that - normal attacks, so they can carry any element your attack has. And that's the convenient part, you just need to have any element that isn't fire on your normal attack, be it some cold damage on a bow, lightning on your ring or wrath/hatred aura. So, once you stop firing, your target will still be debuffed to fire and once it explodes it's goodbye.

To maximize effect you need to debuff the surrounding enemies too, a good way is firing a chained split arrow into the throng prior to explosion, anything fast. Another good option is having a GMP/chain/Ice shot ranged totem that will fire ice shots all the time and leave ice on the ground to slow your enemies while debuffing them to fire too.

P.S.
- Equilibrium lasts 5 seconds.
- If you use any pierce skill on Explosive arrow (pierce, fork, chain), it will leave fuses only on last enemy hit, not on every pierce/jump/split.

So that's that. Just avoid having ANY fire damage on your normal attack and it will be fine.
Good luck.

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hostilesinbound wrote:

I understand. If I use fire storm FIRST as a way to weaken enemies of lightning resist I could use wrath/split arrow/chain and be effective? Also does iron will boost the lightning damage that wrath would give me?

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raics wrote:

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hostilesinbound wrote:

I understand. If I use fire storm FIRST as a way to weaken enemies of lightning resist I could use wrath/split arrow/chain and be effective? Also does iron will boost the lightning damage that wrath would give me?

You will spam split arrow, if you spam the skill you absolutely need a totem to shower enemies with firestorms simultaneously. Only if you use nukes like Discharge you can get away with casting an ice nova or something yourself before detonating it (it's still a huge hassle when things get thick). That's why explosive arrow is such a popular EE build, it serves both as a debuff and a main damage skill, saving you the hassle.

That said, elemental damage wrath or anger give you is not huge, using EE to boost it is a total waste of time. You use EE to boost skills that do significant elemental damage, either straight up like elemental spells or converted damage attacks like Lightning Arrow. Pretty much the only bow skill that works great with EE is Explosive arrow, Burning and Ice shot are so-so, LA is the worst candidate because of multiple hits per use.

What does Iron Will gem say?
'Strength's damage bonus applies to Spell Damage as well for Supported Skills'
Is damage boost by Wrath on your attacks spell elemental damage? No, you apply it directly with your weapon so it's weapon elemental damage.
So what gem do I need?
Weapon elemental damage, it's much better anyway.
And for applying strength bonus to physical portion of my bow attack?
Iron grip.
Is it worth the gem slot or the trip to the keystone?
Most of the time no, bow builds usually have too little strength to make it worthwhile, only if you happen to pass near the keystone.

I'll say it again and try to save you some time, don't try some off-key builds using Equilibrium until you study the behavior of each skill and game mechanics thoroughly. You will just have a hard time and it will eventually fail.

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hostilesinbound wrote:

alright im leaning towards explosive arrow now, what about detonate dead? does the fire damage count with EE?