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

"

yan623 wrote:

quick question - do we actually need to add cold/lightning damage in the items to trigger Elemental Overload?

Elemental Equilibrium, not Overload.

Yes. And you can NOT have any fire damage... Otherwise you're shooting yourself in the foot.

"

theguardian1953 wrote:

I'm aiming for sanctum and mapping, not too much into bossing. I don't have a relic rn (prev build was pretty dog so never did sanctum oops), and I have 5 divs rn, some more waiting to get off selling items. Currently I just feel like my dps is kind of mid and survivability is low. Thanks!

You've got flasks and a jewel missing in your POB, so i pulled your current one to try to piece together what you might have. I noticed that you've upgraded the gems to 20/0 or 5/0 in your given POB, so I'll assume you have those too. You've dropped Grace for Malevolence, and I'll also go with that.

Here is what I'm working with: https://pastebin.com/wn03aJgK

Attack Rate: 2.07
EA Duration: 1.353s
Fuses: 16
Accuracy: 94%

Ignite DPS (mapping, with Flammability on hit): 16.8M
Ignite DPS with Combustion, Convergence, Flammability: 23.6M

Life: 3,073
Ele Res, Chaos Res: 75/75/75/28
Armour (%PDR): 12,111 (53%)
Evasion (%chance): 12,088 (59%)

Caveat: I've upgraded all your gems based on your current loadout, and these stats are based on that. Without Malevolence (you've got purity of elements now), you'll only hit 13 fuses, so keep that in mind. Also, there's one free jewel socket unused.

1. Flasks. Double bleed-immunity isn't necessary. Also, you can augment your Quicksilver flask for a prefix.

2. Bow craft. Remove your crafted DoT multi and replace it with "Gain (14-16)% of Fire Damage as Extra Chaos Damage" for 3% more damage.

3. Blizzard Crown. Aim for an elevated mod (-12% fire res) for 2.3% more damage. You won't need a double influenced helm since you're on Dyadian Dawn, but if you got one with "Ignites you inflict deal Damage 15% faster", you damage gets a further 8.6% boost.

4. Fire DoT implicit on gloves. Same deal with my previous posts -- you're using an implicit that gives 7% DoT multi over ignite prolif. If this is replaced with prolif and your EA is linked with 5/20 awakened Deadly Ailments, your damage shoots up by 20.8% to 20.3M mapping. Even if you got the max tier on fire DoT multi (20%) for your gloves, your damage with ignite prolif on gem would be 17.5M.

5. Suppression at 85%. You'll need this at 100%, or you'll face random 1 shots often. Not a problem if you're just mapping and don't care about exp, but it gets gnarly if you pop a few altars or have higher pack size with nasty monsters.

6. Low Defences. Your armor and evasion are both on the low side, even with Enduring Cry active. Since you mentioned that you're not bossing, this isn't a huge issue, but if you want to upgrade this department, you can try to get your auras in so you benefit from Grace. Also, Cinderswallow Urn shouldn't replace defensive flasks until you've got your bases covered.

7. Watcher's Eye. Your current one has blind with Grace, and mana recovery with Clarity. The other that your POB includes has phys as extra lighting with Wrath and faster ignite with Malevolence. I assume it's the very last mod that you're interested in. I feel that Watcher's Eyes are a trap unless you're clear about what you want. Unless you get one with at least 2 mods that you want, they're often worse than getting a good rare jewel. In your case, a jewel with attack speed, % life, and a damage mod would be way stronger.

8. 3,073 Life (78% increased). This is risky especially with low armor and evasion. If you're mapping and have an occasional death with your current loadout, then it's completely fine. However, if you're trying to gain a level and face toughness issues, then we can spend 2 points on Purity of Flesh to get it up to 3,323 (93%).

9. Fuse count, Accuracy. Even with Malevolence, your attack speed isn't quite enough to get enough fuses. If you're not bossing, then this might just work, but I imagine even rare monsters would take some time to burn down if you don't get enough fuses for a good multiplier. This is where I'd prioritise your upgrades. Aim for more than 2.45 attack rate and your explosions will be more potent. While you're shopping, look for items with better base accuracy. With golem up, you're missing 1 in 20 hits. With it dead (as it often would be), you miss more than 2 in 20 hits. This hurts your damage significantly since your attack speed is already low.

10. Lethal Pride. Yours gives armor, fire resistance, 4% life and 20 strength, and this is really not maximising the use of a jewel slot. I've made a post recently on how to look for better ones, so you can try and get this upgraded.

Once you start spamming some sanctums, you'll get a useful relic soon. Post it when you get something useful, and we can see how to work around it. Your 5divs should be sufficient to get upgrades for attack speed and suppression higher for now, but with a few more sanctums, you should be able to get a double influenced helm to pad your damage. A few more sanctums after that, and we're looking at attack speed precision plus ignite faster malevolence watcher's eye.

Good luck.

"

limevan wrote:

"

theguardian1953 wrote:

I'm aiming for sanctum and mapping, not too much into bossing. I don't have a relic rn (prev build was pretty dog so never did sanctum oops), and I have 5 divs rn, some more waiting to get off selling items. Currently I just feel like my dps is kind of mid and survivability is low. Thanks!

Spoiler

You've got flasks and a jewel missing in your POB, so i pulled your current one to try to piece together what you might have. I noticed that you've upgraded the gems to 20/0 or 5/0 in your given POB, so I'll assume you have those too. You've dropped Grace for Malevolence, and I'll also go with that.

Here is what I'm working with: https://pastebin.com/wn03aJgK

Attack Rate: 2.07
EA Duration: 1.353s
Fuses: 16
Accuracy: 94%

Ignite DPS (mapping, with Flammability on hit): 16.8M
Ignite DPS with Combustion, Convergence, Flammability: 23.6M

Life: 3,073
Ele Res, Chaos Res: 75/75/75/28
Armour (%PDR): 12,111 (53%)
Evasion (%chance): 12,088 (59%)

Caveat: I've upgraded all your gems based on your current loadout, and these stats are based on that. Without Malevolence (you've got purity of elements now), you'll only hit 13 fuses, so keep that in mind. Also, there's one free jewel socket unused.

1. Flasks. Double bleed-immunity isn't necessary. Also, you can augment your Quicksilver flask for a prefix.

2. Bow craft. Remove your crafted DoT multi and replace it with "Gain (14-16)% of Fire Damage as Extra Chaos Damage" for 3% more damage.

3. Blizzard Crown. Aim for an elevated mod (-12% fire res) for 2.3% more damage. You won't need a double influenced helm since you're on Dyadian Dawn, but if you got one with "Ignites you inflict deal Damage 15% faster", you damage gets a further 8.6% boost.

4. Fire DoT implicit on gloves. Same deal with my previous posts -- you're using an implicit that gives 7% DoT multi over ignite prolif. If this is replaced with prolif and your EA is linked with 5/20 awakened Deadly Ailments, your damage shoots up by 20.8% to 20.3M mapping. Even if you got the max tier on fire DoT multi (20%) for your gloves, your damage with ignite prolif on gem would be 17.5M.

5. Suppression at 85%. You'll need this at 100%, or you'll face random 1 shots often. Not a problem if you're just mapping and don't care about exp, but it gets gnarly if you pop a few altars or have higher pack size with nasty monsters.

6. Low Defences. Your armor and evasion are both on the low side, even with Enduring Cry active. Since you mentioned that you're not bossing, this isn't a huge issue, but if you want to upgrade this department, you can try to get your auras in so you benefit from Grace. Also, Cinderswallow Urn shouldn't replace defensive flasks until you've got your bases covered.

7. Watcher's Eye. Your current one has blind with Grace, and mana recovery with Clarity. The other that your POB includes has phys as extra lighting with Wrath and faster ignite with Malevolence. I assume it's the very last mod that you're interested in. I feel that Watcher's Eyes are a trap unless you're clear about what you want. Unless you get one with at least 2 mods that you want, they're often worse than getting a good rare jewel. In your case, a jewel with attack speed, % life, and a damage mod would be way stronger.

8. 3,073 Life (78% increased). This is risky especially with low armor and evasion. If you're mapping and have an occasional death with your current loadout, then it's completely fine. However, if you're trying to gain a level and face toughness issues, then we can spend 2 points on Purity of Flesh to get it up to 3,323 (93%).

9. Fuse count, Accuracy. Even with Malevolence, your attack speed isn't quite enough to get enough fuses. If you're not bossing, then this might just work, but I imagine even rare monsters would take some time to burn down if you don't get enough fuses for a good multiplier. This is where I'd prioritise your upgrades. Aim for more than 2.45 attack rate and your explosions will be more potent. While you're shopping, look for items with better base accuracy. With golem up, you're missing 1 in 20 hits. With it dead (as it often would be), you miss more than 2 in 20 hits. This hurts your damage significantly since your attack speed is already low.

10. Lethal Pride. Yours gives armor, fire resistance, 4% life and 20 strength, and this is really not maximising the use of a jewel slot. I've made a post recently on how to look for better ones, so you can try and get this upgraded.

Once you start spamming some sanctums, you'll get a useful relic soon. Post it when you get something useful, and we can see how to work around it. Your 5divs should be sufficient to get upgrades for attack speed and suppression higher for now, but with a few more sanctums, you should be able to get a double influenced helm to pad your damage. A few more sanctums after that, and we're looking at attack speed precision plus ignite faster malevolence watcher's eye.

Good luck.

Thanks you so much!

I've now gotten awk deadly ailments to replace ignite prolif. I'm going to replace the watcher's eye with a rare jewel, but should I do that with lethal pride too? Out of all my gear, which one should I look to replace the most? Also regarding the golem, would it be better to use arcanist brand flame surge? Finally since I've never done much sanctum, will what I currently have be sufficient enough to complete it? Thanks once again!

Get a watchers eye with as while using precision.

My turn for the character evaluation carousel! :)

https://pastebin.com/3eVcSN0b

Im looking at sanctum and bossing but I'm not too interested in the uber duber duber bosses.

My pob tells me I've hit the DoT cap so more survivability would be great.

I have my relic added to the custom modifiers (just a bit of cold damage) as well as ancestral bond since i added it to my relic. I also added 30% attack speed since the mod on my bow only has it when rare or unique enemies are nearby but I cant find where I can check that in the config section.

I need to recolor by bow and change the blue socket to a red to add in awakened ED. Any advice on best way to do that? I assume Vorici now that harvest crafts are gone.

I'm currently sitting on 12 Div so I have a bit to play with.

I'm actually having a pretty good time mapping and all. I just want to see what things I can work on to min/max my defenses now.

So, at what point does it make sense to switch from Bastion of Elements to Shaper of the Storms. The latter seems to add a lot to my damage, at least on POB. How much does Bastion really help? Is it at all essential?

"

Averil62 wrote:

So, at what point does it make sense to switch from Bastion of Elements to Shaper of the Storms. The latter seems to add a lot to my damage, at least on POB. How much does Bastion really help? Is it at all essential?

I asked the same question some time back. My advice would be to simply spec into it and see how it feels for you. As is the way with PoE there is a tradeoff between survivability and damage output.
The only part of that acendancy that even maters is the shield you get. The immune to reflected damage is useless as its the totems that do the damage, not us.
It really becomes more and more unneeded the more you can stack life, resists and other forms of defense.

"

Zuuule wrote:

"

Averil62 wrote:

So, at what point does it make sense to switch from Bastion of Elements to Shaper of the Storms. The latter seems to add a lot to my damage, at least on POB. How much does Bastion really help? Is it at all essential?

I asked the same question some time back. My advice would be to simply spec into it and see how it feels for you. As is the way with PoE there is a tradeoff between survivability and damage output.
The only part of that acendancy that even maters is the shield you get. The immune to reflected damage is useless as its the totems that do the damage, not us.
It really becomes more and more unneeded the more you can stack life, resists and other forms of defense.

My advice is:
When wanting to level up, use Bastian of Elements.
When you hav finished getting to whatever character level you want to reach then do as Zuule says and try it out and see what you prefer.

Sounds like good advice. I will leave it as is until I hit the next level and then try it out.

I've done some work on my toon and gathering some questions. Note that I just started this league a week ago and I haven't played since 3.13. I've also just started leveling some awakened gems.

My POB: https://pastebin.com/TxHKwYGf
@limevan sorry to solo you out :P

If anything looks completely off please let me know, but here are the questions I've come up with while I try to farm.

1. When do you stop focusing on damage and sacrifice big damage increasing mods for attack speed? Is there a breakpoint between duration and APS I should be looking at? Example being elemental damage with attacks mod on quiver removed for attack speed.

2. Have I committed too much to mana reservation efficiency? I'm running Grace, Malevolence, Determination, Dread Banner, Precision (~4ish), and Clarity for my Watchers Eye mod.

3. In conjunction with the above, I can go down to about 7 mana unreserved. I can't afford Empower so I'm using Inspiration Support which has all my skills free except EA which costs 1 mana. I'm dedicating 2 suffixes and a Watchers mod to this, though I can't afford anything better at the moment. Is Empower worth restructuring my build around?

4. Master skill points. Sovereignty seems powerful, but over the Ash, Frost and Storm wheels 40%? How important is the Acrimony duration node? I also have 3 nodes dedicated to mana reservation, not including clusters. I feel like all this could blow up when I'm able to afford Impossible Escape or Enlighten. What should be the priority?

5. Should I consider Ignite Proliferation support (don't want to recolor bow yet and no white sockets) or Rain of Splinters (can't afford) or will the AOE and mapping seem pretty marginal?

6. My weakest point? Where should I focus my next upgrade path? Impossible Escape, Enlighten, Empower, expensive rare items (quiver, amulet, ring).


I'm not able to entirely make sense out of the POB numbers and translating it to what my real time damage is (Ignite DPS caps at 35M) and if I'm routinely hitting my 20 stages, so I've been confused on what to save for.

I'm also saving for an Atlas rework. Currently on Dunes, Alva, Essence, Eater of Worlds and some mapping stuff. What do you guys run with this build for farming? Delirium and Beyond?

Thanks! Sorry for the novel