3.23 EXPLOSIVE ARROW BALLISTA ELEMENTALIST - League-Start to End-Game. Easy mode.

Hi!

First of all, thank you for the awesome build and everyone answering and helping out! I had my first mirror drop with this build which has allowed me to do content I could never reach before. But i have some questions since i am trying to minmax the build now.

1. How can You run Grace (lvl 21) + Malevolence (lvl 21) + Defiance banner (lvl 21) + Precision (lvl 1) + Determination (lvl 21) + Enlighten (lvl 4)?

(Even with the Evasion Mastery (Grace has 25% increased mana reservation efficiency) the POB still shows -7% unreserved mana.)

2. On the skill tree (users: Limevan and Krilovich) there are cluster jewels in the upper part without being connected to each other, how is that done?

3. I don't see life mastery (+50 to maximum life) picked, is this point worth more some where else?

4. I accidentaly bought +3 bow without attack speed on it, but the damage it gives is nice. Is attack speed MUST HAVE and I should get a new bow?

5. How can I improve my accuracy rating since i understand that 100% hit is MUST HAVE?

6. The Lethal Pride jewel seems like a good pick as well?

7. Any other tips or reccomendations are very welcome, since I most probably have missed something important.

8. When playing around in POB the fuses should be set to 18?

9. POB - https://pastebin.com/U0kFLdYc
"
MrWestons wrote:

1. How can You run Grace (lvl 21) + Malevolence (lvl 21) + Defiance banner (lvl 21) + Precision (lvl 1) + Determination (lvl 21) + Enlighten (lvl 4)?


If you're using lifetap on all skills, then we can afford to get mana close to 100% reserved; otherwise, you'll need to skip auras or invest more into reservation efficiency.

Usually a few ways to mix and match to get your auras to fit:

> the Passive Tree has "Grace has 25% increased mana reservation efficiency" (as you mentioned), and the same for Defiance Banner (100% efficiency under Armour and Evasion Mastery) and Determination (25% efficiency under Armour Mastery). The latter two are within the Lethal Pride duelist wheel, so you can path according to the jewel you have (we'll talk more about Lethal Pride under point 6 later).

> Helm, both implicit and explicit mods. if you're not using a blizzard crown, you can get mana reservation efficiency (3 - 10% from essence, 7 - 12% from eater implicit, 6 - 10% from incursion) quite comfortably. there's one mod from redeemer (4 - 10%) which you can get on an influenced blizzard crown, but this can be costly.

> Helm, lab enchant. Determination, Grace or Malevolence has 30% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency. probably only a great idea if you have enough damage or attack speed, since the enchants for EA are pretty good.

> Cluster Jewel. Small cluster with 6% efficiency, usually with Mortifying Aspect (Malevolence 50% efficiency, 11% chaos res).

> Amulet. Mod-wise, hunter influenced amulets can roll 40 - 50% malevolence efficiency. Not a great choice given how crowded the mods already are on the amulet. While anointing Charisma is possible, it's not recommended since it means we need to path to Watchtowers and that is a long route on the passive tree.

> Sanctified Relic. 8 - 12%.

There're definitely other sources that i didn't think of, but you can pick and/or discard parts from this list to fit your build. There won't be a SET combination because your accuracy depends on other pieces of gear, and this affects Precision's reservation and therefore your overall mana situation.

Most folks on poeninja seem to prefer going with cluster jewel on malevolence. With this, you need only one other source of efficiency (defiance banner/grace/determination on tree). For me, I prefer to get it from the sanctified relic (11%) with grace (25%) on tree.

"
2. On the skill tree (users: Limevan and Krilovich) there are cluster jewels in the upper part without being connected to each other, how is that done?


everything on my tree is connected, so it's probably a visual bug? are you viewing this on Path of Building? i recall the official site looking really wonky when it comes to clusters.

"
3. I don't see life mastery (+50 to maximum life) picked, is this point worth more some where else?


this is usually a great mastery node to pick, but it depends. if you have spare passive points, you can check on PoB to see where you can get the most mileage out of them. at the end of the day, your life pool is just an "effective hit pool" that you try to maximise.

to illustrate, with 100% increased life from tree, 50 life from the passive becomes 100 health points. this is a 5% increase if you currently have 2k HP, but only 2% increase if you're sitting on nearly 5k.
if you have very low total %increased life from tree (a lot of folks drop %max life from jewels to get more dps), it's definitely better to put this point in 5 - 6% increased maximum life.
from another perspective, if your armour is low, putting that passive in the aura mastery for 10% increase aura effect can easily outweigh the 50 flat life.

yet another perspective: you've enough life to tank most damage, but your dps is lacking (not being able to kill sanctum guards quickly means you're hurting, even though you might have a huge life tank). in this case, it's better to dedicate the passive point to faster ignites, etc.

"
4. I accidentaly bought +3 bow without attack speed on it, but the damage it gives is nice. Is attack speed MUST HAVE and I should get a new bow?


the way that EA scales with attack speed makes this stat super attractive. you can hold on to your current bow and work towards one on a good base (1.5aps base) with a good attack speed roll. getting +3 is quite deterministic, so unless you're going for mods like DoT multi or fire as extra chaos, it's probably way better just to recraft. i think maxroll's guide includes having elemental rolls for extra damage, but DoT multi and extra chaos gave better numbers on PoB.

"
5. How can I improve my accuracy rating since i understand that 100% hit is MUST HAVE?


You get accuracy from raw accuracy and % increase mods on helm, rings, amulet, quiver and gloves. you can also get % inc global accuracy from eater mod on gloves, and on jewels and sanctified relic. raw accuracy on frenzy charges is also available on eldritch mod on gloves, and on sanctified relics. belt enchant gives accuracy on onslaught too.

"
6. The Lethal Pride jewel seems like a good pick as well?


this is a great addition once you have spare passives. you can roll for really useful extra stats like ignite speed, burning damage, %max life, totem placement speed. depending on the jewel you have, you can adjust points on the duelist wheel to maximise it. if you have enough currency, use PoB's "Find Timeless Jewel" tool to look for nodes that match your needs. They can get quite costly (>50div) so don't go crazy on your search filter.


"
8. When playing around in POB the fuses should be set to 18?


pob calculates your "Maximum Sustainable Fuses", so you can just use that to estimate your single target dps. the actual number of fuses depends on your attack speed, ignite duration and fuse duration. there are calculators that various people have posted that you can use for a more accurate picture, but i think that's overkill. in those, you also have "correction factors" to take into account factors like Convergence only lasting for a limited time, etc.

"
9. POB - https://pastebin.com/U0kFLdYc


quite a few things to fix, but i think you'll probably revamp your gear with the mirror you've got, so we can look at everything again once you're done with that. for reference, you can check your fuse count under calculations. in your current PoB, this is 14, so you can try to improve your gear so it's nearly 20.
Last edited by limevan on Jan 10, 2023, 7:42:15 AM
Spoiler
"
limevan wrote:
"
MrWestons wrote:

1. How can You run Grace (lvl 21) + Malevolence (lvl 21) + Defiance banner (lvl 21) + Precision (lvl 1) + Determination (lvl 21) + Enlighten (lvl 4)?


If you're using lifetap on all skills, then we can afford to get mana close to 100% reserved; otherwise, you'll need to skip auras or invest more into reservation efficiency.

Usually a few ways to mix and match to get your auras to fit:

> the Passive Tree has "Grace has 25% increased mana reservation efficiency" (as you mentioned), and the same for Defiance Banner (100% efficiency under Armour and Evasion Mastery) and Determination (25% efficiency under Armour Mastery). The latter two are within the Lethal Pride duelist wheel, so you can path according to the jewel you have (we'll talk more about Lethal Pride under point 6 later).

> Helm, both implicit and explicit mods. if you're not using a blizzard crown, you can get mana reservation efficiency (3 - 10% from essence, 7 - 12% from eater implicit, 6 - 10% from incursion) quite comfortably. there's one mod from redeemer (4 - 10%) which you can get on an influenced blizzard crown, but this can be costly.

> Helm, lab enchant. Determination, Grace or Malevolence has 30% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency. probably only a great idea if you have enough damage or attack speed, since the enchants for EA are pretty good.

> Cluster Jewel. Small cluster with 6% efficiency, usually with Mortifying Aspect (Malevolence 50% efficiency, 11% chaos res).

> Amulet. Mod-wise, hunter influenced amulets can roll 40 - 50% malevolence efficiency. Not a great choice given how crowded the mods already are on the amulet. While anointing Charisma is possible, it's not recommended since it means we need to path to Watchtowers and that is a long route on the passive tree.

> Sanctified Relic. 8 - 12%.

There're definitely other sources that i didn't think of, but you can pick and/or discard parts from this list to fit your build. There won't be a SET combination because your accuracy depends on other pieces of gear, and this affects Precision's reservation and therefore your overall mana situation.

Most folks on poeninja seem to prefer going with cluster jewel on malevolence. With this, you need only one other source of efficiency (defiance banner/grace/determination on tree). For me, I prefer to get it from the sanctified relic (11%) with grace (25%) on tree.

"
2. On the skill tree (users: Limevan and Krilovich) there are cluster jewels in the upper part without being connected to each other, how is that done?


everything on my tree is connected, so it's probably a visual bug? are you viewing this on Path of Building? i recall the official site looking really wonky when it comes to clusters.

"
3. I don't see life mastery (+50 to maximum life) picked, is this point worth more some where else?


this is usually a great mastery node to pick, but it depends. if you have spare passive points, you can check on PoB to see where you can get the most mileage out of them. at the end of the day, your life pool is just an "effective hit pool" that you try to maximise.

to illustrate, with 100% increased life from tree, 50 life from the passive becomes 100 health points. this is a 5% increase if you currently have 2k HP, but only 2% increase if you're sitting on nearly 5k.
if you have very low total %increased life from tree (a lot of folks drop %max life from jewels to get more dps), it's definitely better to put this point in 5 - 6% increased maximum life.
from another perspective, if your armour is low, putting that passive in the aura mastery for 10% increase aura effect can easily outweigh the 50 flat life.

yet another perspective: you've enough life to tank most damage, but your dps is lacking (not being able to kill sanctum guards quickly means you're hurting, even though you might have a huge life tank). in this case, it's better to dedicate the passive point to faster ignites, etc.

"
4. I accidentaly bought +3 bow without attack speed on it, but the damage it gives is nice. Is attack speed MUST HAVE and I should get a new bow?


the way that EA scales with attack speed makes this stat super attractive. you can hold on to your current bow and work towards one on a good base (1.5aps base) with a good attack speed roll. getting +3 is quite deterministic, so unless you're going for mods like DoT multi or fire as extra chaos, it's probably way better just to recraft. i think maxroll's guide includes having elemental rolls for extra damage, but DoT multi and extra chaos gave better numbers on PoB.

"
5. How can I improve my accuracy rating since i understand that 100% hit is MUST HAVE?


You get accuracy from raw accuracy and % increase mods on helm, rings, amulet, quiver and gloves. you can also get % inc global accuracy from eater mod on gloves, and on jewels and sanctified relic. raw accuracy on frenzy charges is also available on eldritch mod on gloves, and on sanctified relics. belt enchant gives accuracy on onslaught too.

"
6. The Lethal Pride jewel seems like a good pick as well?


this is a great addition once you have spare passives. you can roll for really useful extra stats like ignite speed, burning damage, %max life, totem placement speed. depending on the jewel you have, you can adjust points on the duelist wheel to maximise it. if you have enough currency, use PoB's "Find Timeless Jewel" tool to look for nodes that match your needs. They can get quite costly (>50div) so don't go crazy on your search filter.


"
8. When playing around in POB the fuses should be set to 18?


pob calculates your "Maximum Sustainable Fuses", so you can just use that to estimate your single target dps. the actual number of fuses depends on your attack speed, ignite duration and fuse duration. there are calculators that various people have posted that you can use for a more accurate picture, but i think that's overkill. in those, you also have "correction factors" to take into account factors like Convergence only lasting for a limited time, etc.

"
9. POB - https://pastebin.com/U0kFLdYc


quite a few things to fix, but i think you'll probably revamp your gear with the mirror you've got, so we can look at everything again once you're done with that. for reference, you can check your fuse count under calculations. in your current PoB, this is 14, so you can try to improve your gear so it's nearly 20.


Thank You so much for the detailed answer. I suggest others, who want to have some detailed information check this out as well.

I palyed around in POB and for me the most reasonable steps would be to pretty much copy Your whole tree (without the cluster part at first) and then check what I can improve on my gear since I know exactly how much resists, spell suppress, accuracy and evade i get from the tree.

Revamping the tree gives me the accuracy I need (98% to hit), capped spell suppression and resistances with 80% chance to evade hits. Also giving me 700k more dmg with 14 fuses (although after re-speccing this might be higher?) and current gear.

What would You say is the weakest link in my gear so i know what to focus on?

And one last thing - Comparing Your bow with mine in POB I lose a lot of dmg wearing Yours, which is weird. Is the attack speed calculated somehow different or what am i missing here?

Thank You in advance!

Hello, kind of a unique situation here that I'm hoping someone can give suggestions for. I'm playing on console, and the prices for endgame gear are just too high for me to be able to progress. For example, the cheapest polaric devastation for anyone who's posted for sale in the last week is 12div.

I need to evaluate switching to something else, that is likely to have a smaller budget. Has anyone swapped to a different build that doesn't require too many high budget uniques or altered gems? I'll happily investigate anything at this point, because the price wall just can't be overcome without stumbling upon a lottery item I can sell.
Guys, does "+#% increased to attack damage" works with this build?

Totem EA is an attack damage skill, right?
"
jonykok wrote:
Guys, does "+#% increased to attack damage" works with this build?

Totem EA is an attack damage skill, right?


Yes it works, you can double check it in POB to make sure
"

What would You say is the weakest link in my gear so i know what to focus on?


Upgrading to a bow with +2 supported and chaos damage and putting empower instead of lifetap would increase your damage by quite a lot

Also you could easily get the same belt you have now but with malevolence aura increase for not way too expansive for a little boost
Last edited by krilovich on Jan 10, 2023, 10:37:10 AM
"
MrWestons wrote:
.. most reasonable steps would be to pretty much copy Your whole tree (without the cluster part at first) and then check what I can improve on my gear since I know exactly how much resists, spell suppress, accuracy and evade i get from the tree.


be careful not to use my tree or gear as reference -- i'm still learning this build so i've been changing things all the time to try to understand it better. you should take players with more experience (krilovich for example) as a model instead.

"
And one last thing - Comparing Your bow with mine in POB I lose a lot of dmg wearing Yours, which is weird. Is the attack speed calculated somehow different or what am i missing here?


i compared bows like you did, and you're right, the increase in attack speed didn't seem to reflect significant change in POB's ignite damage. with 1.69 attack rate, you're at 13 fuses on your bow. swapping to a bow with higher attack speed (i'm using mine to compare), we get 2.06 attack rate for 15 fuses. a difference of 2 fuses increases the MORE multiplier for ignite from 1200 to 1400. this is the basis of attack speed being OP for explosive arrow.
i'm awful at explaining, so check out Palsteron's video and it would prolly make a lot more sense.

the bow i'm using doesn't have the elemental damage that yours has, so it's losing out on that (since cold/lightning damage also ignites). i'm not sure if elemental equilibrium works against this portion of the damage though.
instead, extra chaos is just grabbing a bunch of fire damage that we have and getting a free chunk of that added to ignite.

"
What would You say is the weakest link in my gear so i know what to focus on?

i think getting a couple more passive points to fit a totem cluster would be super useful for you. permanent onslaught is incredible, and you can choose between snaring spirits (recommended in maxroll) to hinder monsters, or ancestral echo for 10% attack speed on summoning, which feels awesome.
"
MrWestons wrote:


1. How can You run Grace (lvl 21) + Malevolence (lvl 21) + Defiance banner (lvl 21) + Precision (lvl 1) + Determination (lvl 21) + Enlighten (lvl 4)?

[/b]


I was able to fit all 5 auras with only an enlighten 3, and have my presision at level 10. 10% helm implict, 9% helm explicit, 9% body armor explicit. I do have the 25% to Grace node and the reservation efficiency wheel.
Currently using this build:
https://pastebin.com/272ZRyfg

I'm kinda struggeling where to upgrade next.
Also i'm not sure if i did the right thing enchanting my bow.

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