[3.15] Fire Burst Elementalist - Use (almost) any skill (or none) in the game.

It seems most top fire burst players are running a different setup which include a crafted bow(+2 support & fire to chaos as extra) +kaom's heart, usually with elder blashepers' gloves setup

From playing around a bit with the skills my main issues are weak bossing and running blighted maps. Also I wonder how this compare endgame wise to armaggedon brand/firewall setup

But definitely fun for clearing and good for ultimatums

a crafted bow is WAY cheaper, thats usually why many run it. Plus you get the quiver for extra life and resistances since we use unique rings and sometimes unique boots.

However, a staff is going to be MUCH more damage (bossing), even on the cheaper end. Also, if you go the block route instead of golems the staff can give you 18% block which is huge.

Also, to make use of Blasphemer's you are going to need a lot of specialized gear which is going to be RIDICULOUSLY expensive for not a huge amount of increased benefit. The life bonus from a full-elder setup is not huge and the multipliers are not as big as just simply getting gloves with fire damage to burning enemies + fire dot.

Kaoms vs rare is something I'm still wrestling with...I think thats also a matter of preference: kaoms will cause you to die less, but if you have 5000+ life without kaoms and you don't care much about the odd one shot, then a rare opens up many more possibilities with skills, buffs, double curse, etc.

in terms of blighted maps: this build is one of the best I've found apart from oldschool pre-nerfnerfnerf minion builds.

The difference is you do need to run around the blight map rather than standing in place. Just let your HoT strike a pack here and there and you can clear entire lanes. But because its DoT, if you wait until the end then bosses won't die fast enough.

Thats why im confused, not a single build i tried was so weak as this one. Argus 1shot me each and evvery time as slow run speed is part of the death. Aspirant boss one shots with sweeping hit and those long range explosions. Whatever does corpse explosion or something similar to that = 1shot death. Thats why im asking about what layers of protection talking about and what have i missed as all my auras are on except ring that heals for 30hp per ignite(but that doesnt protect from one hit death) So would be cool to understand - what layers of protection you mean?

@quickbot: your characters are still private so I can't see how to help you specifically...

BUT

looking at the original pastebin for this build: (mind you, he has really really bad gear in this pastebin...)

-max attack block + 35% spell block (without glancing blows)
-"oh shit" instant life flask
-decent chaos resist
-at least 5000 life
-endurance charges
-flame dash + phase run

Thats quite a bit of defense, especially since this build is passive damage so you only need to focus on defense and dodging while playing. It certainly is not enough defense to faceroll everything. But this build is not a faceroll build nor was it ever meant to be.

What you could add to that:
-on chest, get the mod "phys damage taken as x element"
-run Taste of Hate flask
-more life on gear
-defensive curse. Instead of flammability, maybe use enfeeble. You don't really need the added dps at some point.
-guard skill. throw in immortal call or steelskin or something on your lmb

So, I love this build but am getting smacked around and one shot on harder maps.

Can someone take a look at my elementalist in Ultimatum league and tell me what I can do to beef up my defense?

Unless you go very high life I find the original post one here never feels terribly defensive. If you're not great at dodging (like me) its going to result in one shots or quick degen deaths.

I definitely recommend moving to the Golemancer version. You can check my character or go back some pages for a good explanation of one. They key is the high regen from the golems plus Divine flesh plus max chaos res clusters. You need to swap gear around for Chaos res but its definitely worth it. Im running around with like 4k health and still feel very tanky.

https://pastebin.com/mRKwC4UD for an example one. Still has some crappy gear (like my staff) but I've killed everything except The Feared and Maven with it. And Maven is mainly because I suck horribly at the memory game.

I agree with Chen93, the MOST tanky version I've seen of this build is the Divine Flesh / golem version. However, the tradeoff is considerably lower damage and life. Plus, you are just as vulnerable to physical damage as the non-divine golem version (moreso because you lose a TON of life nodes).

IMHO: Since physical damage is the primary source of deaths in harder content (except perhaps lowered max resist / ele weakness map mods), I find the sacrifices to max out chaos resist in that version is simply not worth the loss of dps.

Of course that is completely my own opinion!

But I do find that this build is a LOT more fun when you add in golems. However, this comes with an exorbitant price increase. Only problem is our golems are really really fragile (3.14 nerfs?). My golems die all the time

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ZionHalcyon wrote:

So, I love this build but am getting smacked around and one shot on harder maps.

Can someone take a look at my elementalist in Ultimatum league and tell me what I can do to beef up my defense?

I'm going to link my PoB from my take on this build which was posted on another page in this discussion with a bit more updates. Use this for some reference to maybe help some of the points I will discuss. - https://pastebin.com/yn2taMdF

So there are many ways to go about this, if tankiness is the main focus that you're looking to get with no idea on how much currency you have to invest i'll just have to suggest a bunch of ways.


1. Gear - Your chest has pretty low life, and is an ES base. Getting heavy armor base for physical damage reduction would be more ideal. Suggestion would Hunter 6-link Astral plate with many white sockets as the base and craft from there.

Try to replace Astramentis for something that has somewhere in the realm of 65+ life, 70+ dex, and some resists to round out some of the gear resist requirements. I suggest an elder amulet with non-chaos as extra chaos dmg with said other mods if possible.

Ngamahu's Sign - good ring, but you can opt out for something like Storm's Secret if you can get elemental/fire damage leech from Doryani's Lesson on your large cluster jewel. (This is something I did and it works out well, and further automates the build for endgame bosses like sirus/maven.)

Belt - Your belt is the definition of very basic good. like 1-2c, I'd say get one very much like you have but with 1 open suffix to craft % cooldown reduction. You can further upgrade it with an hunter (or Hunter/shaper for very expensive) stygian vise for % maximum HP and built in cooldown reduction which will further upgrade tankiness and damage output rate.

Boots - Upgrade these to a Shaper (or shaper/hunter) two-toned boots with 30-35 movement speed, life, res, cooldown reduction. If you can hit faster ignites would be best (hunter only if you go the double influence direction).

Gloves - Life, Dex, more resists. If you can go more expensive i'd say hunter apothecary gloves for % fire damage over time multiplier.

Abyss Jewel in belt, only has 3 mods that actually do something and they're all on the weaker end. fix your resist with other gear, fix your dex/life and get some Quality of life from the abyss jewel. I suggest Dex (or Dex/Str), life 25+, and maybe phasing if you can (i forgot which mod is prefix/suffix on it so sorry if i'm wrong that all 3 can or cannot fit.) rest of mods can be damage if possible.

On the note of abyss jewels, get more jewel sockets in your passive tree to apply more jewels for more stat/hp fixing. i will go more into detail in a bit.

Flasks, you have 2 freeze flasks, I would 100% say to swap out the quicksilver for anti-curse.

Corrupted blood jewel with %life of any sort will be better than what you have.


2. Passive tree - Yours is pretty good but you could easily become more tanky with very little damage output loss.

small changes to your skill tree.

Remove explosive impact and the nodes leading to it, 4 points for 6% dmg is really weak. sink that back into life by heading toward life brick or jewel nodes.

Small node under Holy Fire can be removed for more wiggle room for getting bigger nodes. Like arsonist.

remove unwavering stance and opt for getting a new cinderswallow with chance to avoid stun during flask effect, abyss jewels with 20% chance to avoid stun, and/or uber lab boot enchant for avoid stun if you killed recently for 100% chance to avoid stun. Grab Arsonist node for more life regen/dmg.

Think about removing Rumi's Concoction and picking up Glancing blows, may help you sustain if you rebalance block and put more points toward the life brick or filling out life/chaos resist nodes. if you do this opt for a normal granite flask with %increased armor

Picking up The Red Nightmare jewel and placing it on far left jewel socket can give you endurance charge generation for clearing/ultimatums.

I use Militant faith with Avarius for increase shock effect, reduced duration of elemental ailments on self, and gives a large amount of armor (about 4.5K)
at the cost of losing Vitality aura. But with so much base regen/leech (if you get doryani's lesson), the vitality is little to no loss really. ***This is not a Best in slot, its just something I found myself and works well for me***

3. Skill Gems - Not much to say here, swap Combustion from Wave of conviction for possibly arcanist brand, you apply combustion already from Fire Burst. This alone will provide you much more Quality of life as you can drop the brand and resume running.

Test out Frost Blink vs Flame dash, I opted for frost blink as its instant and can be used while casting a brand.

Test out Immortal call, Steel skin, or Molten shell (only if you pick up more armor).

Rest is all upgrading levels and quality of gems, getting more awakened gems where you can and look into alternate quality gems if applicable.

4. Conclusion - In a nutshell the more you invest in these suggestions the more tanky and more damage output you'll get.

Different amulet - number 1 priority.

Focus on Armor and HP, physical damage reduction will be your biggest way to survive.

Doryani's Lesson and swapping Ngamahu's sign for storm secret for automated Hearld of thunder during boss fights and boss fight sustainability.

New corrputed blood jewel. period.

https://pastebin.com/Y5tdTNey - Your PoB with a few changes while still retaining your level requirement in mind. small HP increase, more HP regen, more DPS, 2 jewel sockets. you can swap 1 flask from Rumi's to anything else, either basalt or granite flasks. swapped one skill gem for arcanist brand for more mobile playstyle.

Dude, that is an awesome breakdown - thank you!

Looking through the breakdown again. Looks like aside from some minor tree changes, the biggest change that sets the rest in motion is getting Doryani's lesson on the large cluster.

Seems that needs to come first.