[3.0] Wand’s Guide to Wanding – Comprehensive Overview of Wanders
I will not be updating / responding in this thread for the foreseeable future. If you have any questions, you can PM me in game @ "Wand". Thank you for all your support.
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Introduction: Any feedback on the guide or the builds featured, is welcome.
Some background information on me. I’ve been playing Path of Exile for over 4 years. I have played a wander in almost every league, starting from CI Power Siphon physical wander, to elemental wander in Domination, then poison wander in Warbands, and most recently, CI elemental wander in Legacy.
Wanders are one of the most in-depth builds available in Path of Exile, and 3.0 has only provided more options. This guide covers almost all viable ascendancies and items available to wanders in the current patch. Unlike other wander guides, all of the tests and numbers provided in this guide are realistic. No mirrorable gear is used, and frenzy charges are not added to boost DPS numbers when they are not available.
This guide is not meant to be ‘copy and paste’ build guide, although you can use it as such. It is meant to show you the many options, and let you chose how you want to build your wander. Depending on your gear and playstyle, the trees may not be optimal. For example, you may want to move 2 points from damage to Acrobatics, or take projectile damage instead of resistance at the Scion start.
*NOTE: I forgot to use Atziri's Promise instead of my basalt flask, and forgot power charges in all of these videos. If I used Atziri's Promise / power charges, kills would have been ~25% faster. I also don't have a +2 barrage helmet.
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Pros / Cons:
Pros:
-One of the fastest clearing builds in the game
-Incredible single target
-Very fast movement speed (200%+)
-Can be cheap
-Scales almost indefinitely with currency
-Can run almost all map mods
-Many different build option
Cons:
-Somewhat squishy with low investment
-Expensive jewels due to popularity
-Map mod “Monsters have 90% chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments” kills your clear speed
-Map mod "Cannot Leech Life from Monsters / Cannot Leech Mana from Monsters" kills you
-Map mod "Monsters reflect #% of Elemental Damage" will kill you without Sibyl's Lament equipped
Overall best ascendancy option. Provides the highest damage, good clear speed, movement speed, and defense. Free frenzy charges + phasing. Immunity to elemental ailments. Not much to say here, just an overall strong choice for ascendancy.
Best movement speed, approximately 15% more than Raider. Slightly lower damage and life than Raider. Requires you to sacrifice a jewel socket for Conqueror's Potency (to achieve 50% flask effect so you get an extra projectile with Dying Sun). Requires the most currency to make it effective. Immunity to elemental ailments and 8% reduced elemental damage taken.
Overall worst ascendancy choice for general purpose wander. However, Deadeye provided the best low budget clear speed of all the options. Endless Munitions gives a bonus arrow, accuracy, and extra AoE for our Herald of Ice and Kinetic Blast explosion. Far Shot increases your projectile’s damage as it travels, allowing to off-screen mobs with less damage. Powerful Precision gives 100% pierce nearby, bonus critical chance, and your projectiles return. Deadeye is a solid option for lower budget clearing, as you do not need Pierce in your Kinetic Blast 4L, along with providing bonus damage for clearing. The single target for Deadeye is the weakest of the 3 Ranger Ascendancies. It also has the lowest defense and movement speed.
With the recent buff to Ascendant in 3.0, Scion is one of the better options for wanders. Ascendant has similar DPS to Pathfinder. However, it is the tankiest of all the options. With easy access to the Scion life wheel, along with free 10% (or 28%) all resistance bonus, and an extra jewel socket, scion has much more life and free resistance. The ascendancy itself provides 50% reduced reflect damage, which when paired with the Soul of Yugul Pantheon, makes you effectively reflect immune without sacrificing a ring slot. With the free frenzy charges and onslaught, Ascendant is actually very strong. The free onslaught also allows you to save a link for Herald of Ice. Additionally, the 40 intelligence and 6 free skill points make Scion a very attractive choice for Ascendancy.
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Bandits:
Alira is best in almost all cases.
Skill points are an option late game, depending on build variation and gear.
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Pantheon:
Major: Soul of Lunaris (for maps) / Soul of Solaris (bosses)
Minor: Soul of Yugul
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Gear:
Helmets
Lab Enchantment: 2 additional Barrage Projectiles / Kinetic Blast has a 75% chance for an additional explosion
The Tempest's Binding
New helmet introduced in Harbinger League. Provides a 6L Kinetic Blast with Ice Bite and Innervate. Strong defensively; resistance makes capping resistance easier, and a good life roll (60-80). The summon from this helmet is useful, it shocks or chills all nearby enemies for 4 seconds, every 4 seconds. Allows you to use rare gloves instead of Thunderfist.
Starkonja's Head
Strong overall choice. Provides critical chance (25%), attack speed (10%), high life (80-100), and high evasion. Nothing too special here. Requires the use of Thunderfist.
Rat's Nest
Best helmet for DPS. Provides very high critical chance (60%-75%), attack speed (15%), good evasion, and movement speed (10%). Sacrifice life for damage here, not worth using in most cases in my opinion. Requires the use of Thunderfist.
Rare Helmet
Highest potential defense helmet option available. Cheapest helmet to get with +2 barrage, can have up to 132 life / good evasion / high resistance. Can also craft Increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills if a prefix is available (up to 12%), for additional damage. Additionally, should look for accuracy here if you choose to not use Lycosidae. Requires the use of Thunderfist.
Body Armour
Queen of the Forest
High evasion chest piece, that also provides decent life (60-70) and good resistance. This chest scales your movement speed based on evasion, allowing you to potentially reach very high MS numbers.
Yriel’s Fostering
Most offensively focused chest available. Provides critical chance (40%-60%), attack speed (10%-15%), movement speed (10%-15%), high life (90-100), and accuracy (300-400, only relevant if you opt to not use Lycosidae).
Belly of the Beast
Most defensive chest available. Allows you to reach 400-600 more life than any other option. Provides % life (30%-40%), and all resistance (10%-15%). Nothing too special here.
The Perfect Form
Solid evasion, life, and free Phase Acrobatics. Biggest thing is the free arctic armour. Very underrated defensive chest.
Rare Chest
Only recommended in budget versions of this build. Cheapest option available for a 5 or 6 link.
Gloves
Thunderfist
Required if not using The Tempest’s Binding. Link your Kinetic Blast in these gloves. Provide a 5L for your Kinetic Blast, give attack speed (10%), and flat lightning damage (1-100).
Rare Gloves
Only use if you are using The Tempest’s Binding. Gripped Gloves are the best base here since they give an implicit 18% projectile attack damage. Look for attack speed, life, and resistance here. Additionally, you need accuracy here if you choose to not use Lycosidae.
Wand
Piscator's Vigil
Very powerful for this build. Gives high attack speed to scale flat elemental damage, high accuracy, good critical chance, very high WED, and elemental penetration. Can be used well into endgame.
Rare Wand
To achieve the maximum DPS on this build, you would need a rare wand. A decent rare wand will provide about 10%+ more DPS than a Piscator’s Vigil. However, a good rare wand will cost anywhere from 20 exalt, into the 100s of exalts. There are many good mods for a rare wand. The prefixes to look for include; lightning damage (T2 at least), cold damage, fire damage, %Lightning damage, Elemental damage with attack skills. The 2 most important suffixes are critical chance and attack speed. Critical multiplier is just a bonus.
Shield
Lycosidae
Strong budget shield, gives you 100% hit chance, nullifying the need for accuracy. Also gives decent life (up to 60).
Rare Shield
Best endgame option. Requires around 1400 cumulative accuracy on gear to reach 95% hit chance. Look for high evasion (if using Queen of the Forest, even better), high life, and an open prefix to craft WED. The suffixes are very important, high accuracy and attack speed. A resist on the last suffix is ideal, but may be hard to find.
Esh's Mirror
Very powerful shield for mapping. Can stack the light damage boost to insane numbers with relative ease. Provides decent lightning resist and life. Also has intelligence, which can help depending on the version of this build you run.
Rings
Rare Rings
The best possible base is an Opal Ring, followed by Diamond Ring. For budget builds, just focus on life, resistances, and intelligence (need 212 int to equip Piscator’s Vigil). For endgame rings, look for life, WED, flat lightning, accuracy, and resistances.
Sibyl’s Lament
Use in your left ring slot to run elemental reflect maps. This is not necessary for Ascendant to run elemental reflect.
Belt
Rare Belt
Leather belt is the best base. Priority rolls are high life, and WED. If you need, get resistance here. Ideally you would not need resistance here, and you would get; flask effect duration, reduced flask charges used, and strength. The best possible belt would have the above listed mods, but crafted with an essence of Hysteria for 5% elemental penetration while a flask is active. If there is an open prefix on your belt, craft movement speed (just a bonus).
Headhunter
Headhunter is by no means necessary. But if you have one, use it. Does nothing for bosses, but is truly insane for mapping. Will greatly increase your clear speed. Should be the absolute last thing you purchase for the build.
The Retch
The Retch is probably the best belt available for clear speed. It gives insane flask duration, extra damage, life, and 15% movement speed. It's somewhat pricey, but it provides better clear speed than Headhunter in my opinion.
Boots
Lab Enchantment: Adds 1 to 160 Lightning Damage if you haven't Killed Recently / 80% chance to Avoid being Stunned if you've Killed Recently
Rare Boots
Just normal boots. Look for life, movement speed, and resistances. If there is a prefix open, craft WED.
Atziri's Step
If you don't need resistance on boots, Atziri's Step is a fantastic option. Very high evasion (really nice if using Queen of the Forest), 30% movement speed, decent life roll, and spell dodge to top it all off. Should be fairly easy to purchase a pair with lightning damage added to attacks enchant also, since they are unique.
Amulet
Bisco's Collar
Best amulet in the game to use while mapping. Gives an insane boost to currency and item drops. Look for as high of a quantity roll as possible, rarity doesn’t matter much. Useless against bosses. Recommened to have a rare amulet switch for bossing (Uber Atziri / Shaper).
Rare Amulet
Look for critical multiplier, WED, added lightning damage to attacks, and life.
Flasks
There are only 3 required flasks for this build: Diamond Flask
Preferably Experiment’s Diamond Flask of Staunching
Quicksilver Flask
Preferably Alchemist’s Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline
Basalt / Jade Flask
Only use Jade flask if you use Queen of the Forest, otherwise Basalt is much stronger defensively. Try to get an immune to curse suffix on this flask (of Warding).
The 2 other flasks are dependent on your funding: Vessel of Vinktar
Still the strongest flask in the game. Provide 20% leech, and tons of extra damage. Lightning damage added to attacks is the preferred variant. Somewhat expensive, but should be your first major flask upgrade.
Dying Sun
Very strong flask for builds that utilize barrage. Most expensive flask in this list. Should only purchase once you have most of your endgame gear finished, including a Vessel of Vinktar. This flask is extremely important in maximizing the damage of the Pathfinder build.
The Wise Oak
Best budget flask available. Try to balance all of you resists to maximize the potential. If you cannot balance your resists, at least ensure your highest resist is lightning, for the bonus lightning penetration.
Atziri's Promise
Cheapest unique flask, provides a fair amount of damage / survivability. In the Endgame setup, replace your Basalt / Jade flask for this during bosses (Shaper / Uber Atziri).
Jewels
Rare Jewels
Jewels for wander are very expensive this league. You're looking at 30c+ for 3 mod jewels, and 5ex+ for 4 mod jewels. On all your jewels you want life, since we already lack HP, the life is really helpful in reaching 6k total. Resistance is a fine suffix, very helpful if you're running a unique-heavy version of the build. The best damage mods available are critical multiplier and attack speed. Lightning damage / damage / projectile damage are all OK. Not the best, but they are decent. The perfect 4 mod jewel would be; life / attack speed with wands / global critical multiplier / attack speed, however a jewel like that would likely cost 20ex+ in HSC.
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Ultimate Endgame Gear - Items Worth Mirroring:
There are only 4 item types worth mirroring for this build; Wand, Amulet, Rings, Belt
Standard
In my opinion, there are only 2 (maybe 3) items worth mirroring in Standard for this build.
Foe Whorl Opal Ring
Insane ring. 6T1 Opal Ring, with T1 essence flat lightning. Absolutely nothing beats this ring.
Can be found here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1755533
Kraken Collar Onyx Amulet
Legacy onyx amulet (+20 all stats), with T1 legacy crit multi, T1 WED, T1 accuracy, T1 life, T1 flat lightning damage. Nothing can beat this amulet in DPS.
Can be found here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1114670
Corruption Tether Rustic Sash
Now, this belt's mods are 100% perfect for the build. However the base does nothing. At the moment, there is no double flask / ele pen Leather Belts on the market. So if you want to mirror a belt, this is the best option at the moment.
Can be found here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/773474
There is NO elemental wand worth mirroring in Standard at this time. If you're playing this build in standard, I would recommend just purchasing a GG elemental wand.
Harbinger Softcore
In my opinion, there are only 2 items worth mirroring in HSC at the moment.
Ghoul Scratch Imbued Wand
Not BiS for the build, but will almost certainly be the best wand available in league.
Can be found here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1989607
Morbid Finger Opal Ring
Best damage ring for the build in HSC, T1 WED / T1 Lightning / T1 Life / T1 Accuracy / T2 Res.
Can be found here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1997740
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Gems and Links:
Barrage (5L/6L Chest)
If you do not have a Dying Sun switch out Slower Projectiles for
Kinetic Blast (4L Gloves / Helmet)
If you're playing as Deadeye switch Pierce for either
Herald of Ice (4L/3L)
If you're playing as Ascendant with The Tempest's Binding, you can drop Onslaugt entirely.
Cast when Damage Taken (3L)
Vaal Haste (2L)
Power Charge Generator (3L)
Should only be used against bosses to generate power charges
Remaining gems can be socketed anywhere, no links required
*Second golem only needed if you're playing as an Ascendant
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Recommended Setups:
Endgame
Budget
All of this gear was purchased with 55 chaos is Harbinger Softcore
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Upgrading from Budget to Endgame:
Your first major upgrade should be a 6L chest. This will allow you to use your 6th gem, either Slower Projectiles or Lightning Penetration
Second, a Bisco’s Collar is very helpful for farming. You will need to make up for the lost intelligence on rings if you had it on your amulet.
Thrid, start trying to purchase jewels for the build. Look for 3 mod jewels with life / resistance, and damage. The resistance will help later when trying to upgrade jewelry.
Fourth, drop your Wise Oak for an attack Vessel of Vinkar. This will greatly increase your DPS and survivability.
Fifth, drop your Atziri’s Promise for a Dying Sun. The additional projectiles will increase your clear speed and single target damage greatly.
Sixth, look for rare upgrades. If possible, get diamond / opal rings. Elemental Damage with Attack Skills and high flat lightning damage are great boosts to DPS. Try and get a leather belt with high life, WED, and at least 1 flask mod (reduced charges used / flask effect duration). Boots with the ‘1-160 added lightning damage if you haven’t killed recently’ lab enchant will greatly increase your single target DPS.
At this point, gear upgrades will start to get much more expensive. The cheapest will probably be switching to The Tempest’s Binding and rare gloves, however some may choose to stick with Thunderfist.
After that, a rare wand will be your biggest upgrade. You should look for at least T1 flat lightning, and at least 250 elemental DPS with critical chance.
Next, I would look at dropping Lycosidae for a good rare shield (required stats outlined in the ‘Gear’ section). This upgrade will require you to get accuracy on your gloves/helm, shield, and rings. If you are using Yriel’s Fostering, this step will be easier, as the chest has a T1 accuracy roll on it already. You will need around 1400 total accuracy on gear to reach 95% hit chance cap.
Finally, get a +2 barrage enchant helm. This is a massive single target damage boost, but will be painfully expensive depending on the base you look for.
After that, it’s all just min-maxing. Try to find upgrades for your rares, such as opal rings with T1 life and WED.
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Example Setups:
NOTE: All of these numbers and setup are based on realistic situations. Vaal Haste is not included, as it doesn’t have much of an uptime. Also, Assassin’s Mark is disabled, as bosses will not be cursed with it.
Endgame
All endgame setups use my currency gear with some variations, to maximize their effectiveness. Set at level 95.
Raider
3,132,910 DPS vs Shaper
5,810 Life
203% MS with mapping setup (PoB does not count the 15% movement speed from Yriel’s Fostering) https://pastebin.com/sGSgas5N
Pathfinder
3,058,327 DPS vs Shaper
5,572 Life
216% MS with mapping setup (PoB does not count the 15% movement speed from Yriel’s Fostering) https://pastebin.com/SsrDPzVq
Deadeye
2,930,488 DPS vs Shaper
5,810 Life
171% MS with mapping setup (PoB does not count the 15% movement speed from Yriel’s Fostering) https://pastebin.com/tgFkeKQ8
Ascendant
3,028,180 DPS vs Shaper
6,138 Life
180% MS with mapping setup (PoB does not count the 15% movement speed from Yriel’s Fostering)
Reflect immune https://pastebin.com/wczU2zXa
Budget
All budget setups use the gear that I purchased with 55 chaos in Harbinger Softcore. Level is set to 85. All gems are set to level 19, 0 quality. NOTE: No jewel sockets are taken in these setups, because even 3 mod jewel are 20c+. Instead of the 4 jewel sockets, we take the frenzy charges / critical multiplier / lightning damage earlier.
Raider
629,123 DPS vs Shaper (or Guardians)
4,449 Life
174% MS with mapping setup https://pastebin.com/uqytsDbj
Pathfinder
507,244 DPS vs Shaper (or Guardians)
4,449 Life
179% MS with mapping setup https://pastebin.com/pFKdbayF
Deadeye
563,500 DPS vs Shaper (or Guardians)
4,449 Life
151% MS with mapping setup https://pastebin.com/5Sj6gbz2
Ascendant
556,039 DPS vs Shaper (or Guardians)
4,782 Life
149% MS with mapping setup
Reflect immune https://pastebin.com/sF7aX5A0
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Leveling
Level 1-28
Start out with Fire Trap / Freezing Pulse using 2 Lifesprigs. Switch to Lightning Arrow and Storm Cloud at level 12.
Level 28-65
Switch to Kinetic Blast with Storm Prison / Lycosidae. Other good leveling Uniques available here are; Thief’s Torment, Prismweave, Wake of Destruction, Tabula Rasa, Goldrim, Astramentis / Rare Amulet (Need lots of int for Storm Prism / KB levels)
*None of the uniques shown here are required, however they are very helpful in speeding up the leveling process.
Level 65+
Once you hit 65, switch to Piscator’s Vigil and your other gear as you go. At this point you’re coming to the end of leveling, and should be starting to enter maps.
Tree Pathing while Leveling
While leveling, go for all the life / projectile or wand damage / WED first. Should take the jewel socket left of Vaal Pact early, and socket Static Electricity for a good boost in damage while leveling. Try and take Point Blank as you start using Kinetic Blast. This builds the skeleton of the tree, so you don't have to do much traveling on the tree once you start mapping. Only take Vaal Pact when you reach level 65 and start using Piscator's Vigil, at this point you should have enough damage. Once that's done, go for the critical strike chance (Heartseeker / Wand crit nodes). Then focus on critical strike multiplier (Throatseeker), and lightning damage (Arcing Blows).
(1) Atziri's Step is a good alternative for the boots slot, especially when using Queen of the Forest and speccing into Phase Acrobatics. It's also budget friendly and can be bought with enchant.
(2) Greater Multiple Projectiles tends to outperform Slower Projectiles when not using Dying Sun.
Other than that, do you have any opinion on using Duelist/Champion as class/ascendancy? The position on the tree is quite good, the ascendancy provides nice bonuses to damage and evasion, and permanent Fortify should greatly enhance survivability with the typically limited life pool of life wander builds.
