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

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zegri wrote:

Hi!

I started this league with EA elementalist.
I am not sure how I feel about it, I think I am missing something or even more things at the moment.
I have no problem with T16 maps but with unique bosses like guardians and above I keep dying (like 3 times yesterday against the phoenix guy with 4000 wisps and a tormented spirit on it) and I do not think there's a huge problem with my defences (grace, determination, 97% suppress) think I die because i cant kill them fast enough and a crit catches me eventually.
If I import a random EA elementalist from the top of the ladder to POB, I see their ignite DPS for 1 fuse is much higher than mine - I'm at 220k and them at 1m+.
I am running 5 auras at the moment - Grace, Determination, Malevolence, Haste and Defiance Banner.

I'd appreciate your comments on what could be my next steps to address this.
Onslaught feels like a miss for sure, but touching my charms I'd lose one of the 50% auras.
Here's the POB:
https://pobb.in/sk17nEZGbVna

Many thanks!

What i can see from the PoB is that your phys max hit is really low, so you really can't tank hits.
Then, you're at 97% spell suppr and you gotta be 100.

Imho : Get rid of haste, take precision instead. You could then swap out both your charms and get better things instead, like the enemies covered in ash and onslaught.
Then you'd be able to replace our polaric devastation ring.

Generally speaking you can upgrade your gear. Considering you're not planning on going DD, that would mean hyrri's ire, double elevated blizzard crown etc.
Catalyst your belt. Well first get another one cause this one's corrupted.

Right now your ignites don't spread. Get implicit on gloves.

You have phase run and increased duration, but you already get phasing while mapping due unnatural instinct. Are you using it for bossing ?
There are other setups.

Rework points on clusters, widespread destructio isnt opti. That is 2 points back. Depending on currency, you can get a nice lethal pride on bottom of the tree or allocate on any better nodes.

Etc etc. Example here of a first improvement. I haven't changed much gear, was too lazy to. Apart from 6L hyrri and lethal pride, the upgrades are not expensive at all.
https://pobb.in/5IF1zWLoNLE2

etcetc

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Brian9824 wrote:

Snagged that last night, I figuire that should proc flammability when arrows explode, but ignites aren't hits right?

Figure that is good enough and free's up 3 slots for me to remove flammability and focus on something more defensive.

Don't do that. on hit ring is 17% when aura real curse is 36 (if i remember correctly) + flame surge dps. The rings used to be good but they were nerfed leagues ago.

I mean just open pob, deactivate the flammability setup and see the global dot dps collapse.

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Brian9824 wrote:

Snagged that last night, I figuire that should proc flammability when arrows explode, but ignites aren't hits right?

Figure that is good enough and free's up 3 slots for me to remove flammability and focus on something more defensive.

It will proc flammability on the initial arrow hit(fuse), but curse on hit rings use a lvl 1 curse so it's very weak compared to casting it yourself. Meanwhile, you have LST/Combustion which only lowers fire res -10%. You're talking about getting rid of flame surge, which is an extra 25% of your ignite damage as burning ground, and your flammability gem which lowers fire res by 36-37% (vs 17% on ring).

If anything should be on the chopping block, it's LST/Combustion. You also have frenzy and blood rage socketed at the same time, but if you're mapping you really only need blood rage and if you're bossing then you really only need frenzy.

Aside from all that, I don't think you're going to get any great defensive layers with 3 gem slots since you already have a Molten Shell setup.

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Dromlin wrote:

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Brian9824 wrote:

Snagged that last night, I figuire that should proc flammability when arrows explode, but ignites aren't hits right?

Figure that is good enough and free's up 3 slots for me to remove flammability and focus on something more defensive.

It will proc flammability on the initial arrow hit(fuse), but curse on hit rings use a lvl 1 curse so it's very weak compared to casting it yourself. Meanwhile, you have LST/Combustion which only lowers fire res -10%. You're talking about getting rid of flame surge, which is an extra 25% of your ignite damage as burning ground, and your flammability gem which lowers fire res by 36-37% (vs 17% on ring).

If anything should be on the chopping block, it's LST/Combustion. You also have frenzy and blood rage socketed at the same time, but if you're mapping you really only need blood rage and if you're bossing then you really only need frenzy.

Aside from all that, I don't think you're going to get any great defensive layers with 3 gem slots since you already have a Molten Shell setup.

Ok ill tweak it tonight, really trying to save 1 click because i need the room, i'll remove frenzy as its my least used one. I was playing with using enduring cry on left click as I move but the stutter from the casting of the spell is really annoying and hard to deal with so i wish it was smoother

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Dromlin wrote:

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marixalijustice wrote:

t3+ cold/lightning/chaos damage, dot multi, or elemental damage for around 5 divs on average

The bow that Headtourist crafted back on page 290 will probably be better and only cost about 1-2 divs more.

Don't hope that something is better, test things out in PoB first.

Edit: Missed your edit earlier, but if you got that bow in 4 zeals then I'd say you used up all your luck this league. The chances of getting +1 socketed gems and T1 ele damage with attacks is extremely low.

For some reason, no matter what I change on PoB, the DPS seems to be barely change. I'm assuming Headtourist's bow is (15% fire as extra chaos) is better than T1 elemental damage with weapons? Since 15% fire is a more modifier, while EDWW is an increased modifier).

I could sell my bow then craft Headtourist's bow if it's better! I enjoy crafting items quite a bit.

EDIT: Next option is dropping flammability on hit ring for flammability curse, I didn't know the on-hit rings had reduced curse effectiveness haha

I also calculated I could craft Headtourist's bow for around 6 divs (the main cost is 5 divs into crafting 3 crafted modifiers twice + cannot roll attack mods), the base + shrieking essences + annul orbs should cost pretty much nothing. With a fractured base, chance of success should be pretty much immediate

EDIT 2: Honestly, all the information here is so useful, I should compile it into a document somewhere.

This has been extremely helpful, I'll get to it right now.
Thanks!!!

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marixalijustice wrote:

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Dromlin wrote:

Edit: Missed your edit earlier, but if you got that bow in 4 zeals then I'd say you used up all your luck this league. The chances of getting +1 socketed gems and T1 ele damage with attacks is extremely low.

For some reason, no matter what I change on PoB, the DPS seems to be barely change. I'm assuming Headtourist's bow is (15% fire as extra chaos) is better than T1 elemental damage with weapons? Since 15% fire is a more modifier, while EDWW is an increased modifier).

I could sell my bow then craft Headtourist's bow if it's better! I enjoy crafting items quite a bit.

Nah, there won't be that much of a difference no matter what since you hit T1 ele damage. At best maybe only a few percents. Don't bother.

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Headtourist wrote:

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marixalijustice wrote:

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Dromlin wrote:

Edit: Missed your edit earlier, but if you got that bow in 4 zeals then I'd say you used up all your luck this league. The chances of getting +1 socketed gems and T1 ele damage with attacks is extremely low.

For some reason, no matter what I change on PoB, the DPS seems to be barely change. I'm assuming Headtourist's bow is (15% fire as extra chaos) is better than T1 elemental damage with weapons? Since 15% fire is a more modifier, while EDWW is an increased modifier).

I could sell my bow then craft Headtourist's bow if it's better! I enjoy crafting items quite a bit.

Nah, there won't be that much of a difference no matter what since you hit T1 ele damage. At best maybe only a few percents. Don't bother.

Hell yeah! Dang, I now have capped resistances whether I remove purity of elements or defiance of destiny, so I should probably dump one of them. I have like 180% fire, 140% cold, 130% lightning and 52% chaos, maybe I'll switch my amulet for a lightning/chaos, life, and +1 all skill gems eventually

Also two charm sockets free since I hit spell suppression with the Watcher's Eye, hmm

EDIT:I wonder if I can stack 2 50% summon two totems for a guaranteed chance to summon two. That'd be nice haha. Or maybe get avoid elemental ailment boots + 3 avoid elemental ailments while phasing charms, then get a way to have permanent phasing so I can drop Purity of Elements

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marixalijustice wrote:

For some reason, no matter what I change on PoB, the DPS seems to be barely change. I'm assuming Headtourist's bow is (15% fire as extra chaos) is better than T1 elemental damage with weapons? Since 15% fire is a more modifier, while EDWW is an increased modifier).

Sorry if I was confusing when I was talking about the other bow, but really the main appeal to the bow on page 290 is not needing any specific fractured base. I see now that good fractured bases are cheap enough to open up other options for crafting that may be more cost effective. I also confused myself with your original post, but I realize now that you did still metamod the +1 gems on there and included that in your price estimate. As Headtourist said already, the T1 ele damage with attacks gives about the same damage as the fire as extra chaos.

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Dromlin wrote:

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marixalijustice wrote:

For some reason, no matter what I change on PoB, the DPS seems to be barely change. I'm assuming Headtourist's bow is (15% fire as extra chaos) is better than T1 elemental damage with weapons? Since 15% fire is a more modifier, while EDWW is an increased modifier).

Sorry if I was confusing when I was talking about the other bow, but really the main appeal to the bow on page 290 is not needing any specific fractured base. I see now that good fractured bases are cheap enough to open up other options for crafting that may be more cost effective. I also confused myself with your original post, but I realize now that you did still metamod the +1 gems on there and included that in your price estimate. As Headtourist said already, the T1 ele damage with attacks gives about the same damage as the fire as extra chaos.

I see, thank you! Another change I'm making is swapping from a large cluster jewel of: Corrosive Elements, Disorienting Display, and Prismatic heart -> Calamitous, Marital Prowess, Tempered Arrowheads, realize it's cheaper too. Just wanted to let people here know that the Maxroll guide recommends another large cluster jewel that's more expensive, but actually does less damage

EDIT: The Mageblood sets up feel pretty amazing, I can see Durahal is cooking. I don't know what the DPS is on his build, but the 76% all res, 81% chaos res, 40% reduced physical/chaos, 50% elemental taken as chaos is kind of insane. I wonder how much DPS he sacrifices from losing the Dawn belt + Hyrri's Ire, but he's probably unkillable.