3.5 Imperial BallFinder - Elemental Molten Strike (Fast "Melee" Mapper and Endgame Annihilator)
 Introduction: This is a guide to the build that I played to level 100 in the Betrayal League, whilst farming Uber Elder. This build is a respectably fast mapper but excels at killing bosses. If you have any questions or are in anyway unsure about something i've said, feel free to PM me ingame @Emperor_Ballfinder. Ive also streamed most of this characters life at twitch.tv/Emperor_of_Salt feel free to call me stupid or whatever there. Part of the 3.5 update included a "nerf" to molten strike - reducing the total number of projectiles but raising the damage effectiveness to a rather ridiculous 163% at gem level 21. This basically means whilst overall damage may have been reduced, it is still capable of dealing with any and all content. You can start this build on a small budget (or as a league starter) but I would recommend that newer players perhaps gather some currency together before trying this build as it will scale and play much nicer with a small amount of investment. Pros • Pathfinder Flasks (more powerful, last longer and easier to sustain) • Insane endgame damage whilst maintaining strong defenses • 100% chance to hit! • Scales extremely well with currency • Claw Life Gain On Hit • Natures Boon + Wise oak\Loreweave mitigates a lot of elemental damage • Acrobatics + Phase Acrobatics Cons • Requires a baseline of currency to feel good (should at least have lycosidae to start with) • Crit can feel inconsistent without sufficient gear • Playing a melee skill can be uncomfortable to Boss with • No easy source of stun immunity (personally I feel this is one of the weakest aspects of the character, big hits that stun can be scary) • Cant do Elemental Reflect maps • Expensive to minmax: Good abyssal jewels and a helm enchant almost mandatory for Endgame • Whilst I could see how it could be adapted for Hardcore I would NOT recommend it playing this as Pathfinder - I believe Ascendant with Slayer overleech would be superior. Videos
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T16 Maze of the Minotaur https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfB1_W8MFdQ Shaper https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxckQolBfA8 Uber Elder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxtSjPlRfW8 WHAT AND HOW BUILD DO  Path of Building Info
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https://pastebin.com/8KVDJ3hP
My Current Gear
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For this build, you want a claw with solid amount of physical damage persecond, im guessing around 350 would be sufficient. Trying to get a claw like mine will be difficult unless you craft it yourself since hybrid physical/elemental weapons arent usually a thing - however the T1 lightning damage I have is extremely cost effective (when I compared it to a 560 pdps claw, the 560 was only a 4% damage increase). Attack speed and critical strike chance should be high priority; crafted crit is acceptable but it will feel inconsistent unless you get more crit somewhere else. Likewise flat elemental rolls can also be fine, just make sure they are either T1 or T2. The abyssal sockets are wholly unnecessary - I was able to easily do many Uber Elders without them. It is merely an example of one of the ways to maximise this builds potential. Body Armour
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For the Chest Slot, I Personally swap between and It is not necessary to have a chest swap, either chest is completely viable for all content. Loreweave is the all round better option, and what I would recommend to play with if you had to choose. For general mapping however, Daresso's Defiance is what I preferred - the onslaught effect and uptime make it the faster option. An interesting interaction to note is that despite the unique modifer: "You lose all Endurance Charges when Hit"; if the hit in question would proc a Cast When Damage Taken skill gem linked to Immortal Call, the immortal call will consume those charges. Essentially this leaves us with an extended periods of physical immunity when Immortal Call does proc, and onslaught when it does not. Flasks
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The Flasks are unfortunately not very flexible. I only experimented with CinderSwallow when I had very little/no experience to lose - and my conclusion was that if you are able to get immunity to corrupting blood on a jewel and do not place high priority on a life flask - it will give you a lot more damage and sustain - BUT you will not have health on demand. WHY I DONT USE DYING SUN I valued a triple balanced Wise Oak far more than +2 projectiles. You could use it, but it is a nightmare to balance around having a resistance flask. Jewels
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Abyssal Jewels are EXTREMELY good for damage, with the added damage effectiveness of molten strike being so high - these are your most effective and easiest source of damage. Since we do convert 100% of physical damage to elemental - physical rolls are acceptable, but flat elemental will be the more powerful if you can get them. WildFire is the necessary threshold jewel for us, and a good place to get desirable quality of life corruptions. I also own a rather expensive Watcher's Eye. Again, this is not needed. Also in most cases - a good 4 stat abyssal jewel will be stronger and cheaper than a single mod for hatred on a Watcher's Eye. Gem Links
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Single target set-up This is pretty simple and are in order of importance. Damage on Full Life is the only real choice you have here: When you are on full life (which we are often are thanks to life gain on hit and the amount of projectiles we have) it is 1005 the best damage gem. However if the unreliable nature of this sort of damage does not appeal to you, I would recommend a Immolate Support gem as the next best damage option. Ancestral Call is also an option if you are familiar with its interaction with Molten Strike (standing slightly out of normal range with the skill will summon an ancestral clone to attack the boss, whilst some of your attacks will also strike the target) General Clear Again pretty simple stuff here, with only Increased Critical Strikes being the interchangeable one. You could use Immolate Support or Concentrated Area of Effect instead of it if you feel your damage is lacking. Increased Area of effect can also be used if your damage is high enough. Mobility Skill I used Shield Charge because it feels amazing with Pathfinder Quicksilver but Whirling Blades is also an option if you prefer. Defensive utility Cast When Damage Taken + Immortal Call for assistance with burst physical damage. Enfeeble is the strongest defensive curse, but Elemental Weakness can also be used for a bit more damage. Mana Reservations Hatred because since we are physical based - it will combine with the notable on tree "Winter Spirit" to make cold our highest elemental damage. Herald of Ice + Curse on Hit + Assassin's mark to generate power charges whilst mapping, helping even out critical strike chance consistency. Now for some fancy stuff So, I swap this out for Herald of Ice when im doing some serious content - also incoming paragraph. So, the reason for this is that it is a Offensive and Defensive damage boost. The defensive portion im sure you can understand, take less physical damage while stationary: check. However, what you may not know is that Arctic Armour's chills have fixed values. This is very important for the Bonechill effect: Enemies Chilled by Supported Skills have Cold Damage taken increased by Chill Effect. What this means, is that if an enemy is affected by Arctic Armour's chilled ground (10%) - it will take 10% increased Cold Damage. And when enemies hit you - they are chilled by 30% for 0.5 seconds. Thus taking 30% increased cold damage for that duration. It might be strange to wrap your head around but since cold is our highest damage type, we will essentially have brief but constant periods of 10/30% MORE cold damage, which is a significant increase of damage. This does not show up in path of building nor is it reliable, but having used it in many a poorly rolled map - I firmly recommend this for any encounter you are even slightly spooked by Leveling Infomation
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Rough Tree progression guide WORK IN PROGRESS https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.5.1/AAAABAIDAABeBS0ILg2NF5YZji5TN0xDMUz_Tipbr3Ttdct_gIGsjX6bjZ63qXm3tr6nx53Tb9N-2sHkaumY6mLtg-4O73rxbfzF_xA= https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.5.1/AAAABAIDAABeBS0FtQguDY0V_ReWGY4j9i5TMHw3TEMxRfRHfkp9TP9Nkk4qUUdbr2SvZU107XXLePl-3X8rf4CBrITZh3aKOI19jX6NuY2_m42et6OKqXm0xbe2vTa-p8Lsx53Tb9N-1CPWB9rB5GrpmOpi7YPuDu968W38xf1u_xA= https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.5.1/AAAABAIDAABeBS0FtQguDY0RLxX9Fr8XlhmOI_YmlSoLKwouUzB8Nj03TEMxRfRHfkp9TP9Nkk4qUUdVS1uvXfJh4mKsZK9lTWyMcFJ07XXLePl-3X8rf4CBrITZh3aJ04o4jDaNfY1-jbmNv5uNnaqet6OKqXm0xbe2vTa-p8Lsx53Tb9N-1CPWB9rB5GrpmOpi62Ptg-4O73rxbfzF_W7_EA== https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.5.1/AAAABAIDAABeAdwFLQW1CC4NjREvFf0WvxeWGY4j9iaVKgsrCi5TMHw1kjY9N0xDMUX0R35KfUz_TZJOKlFHVUtbr13yYeJirGSvZU1sjG87cFJ07XXLd-N4DXj5ft1_K3-AgayE2Yd2idOKOIw2jX2Nfo25jb-SgJOQmhebjZ2qnrejiqluqXm0xbXyt7a9Nr6nwBrC7Med02_TftQj1gfYvdrB5GrndOjW6ZjqYutj7YPuDu968W38xf1u_xA= Bandits and Pantheon
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Bandits Take Alira unless you are over capped on resistances with very good gear, then 2 passive points will probably give you more. Pantheon Largely personal preference here, as most of them can be utilized effectively I used fully upgraded Soul of Solaris for defense in bossing situations. Upgraded Soul of Yugul is best for Uber Elder/Elder/Shpaer due to the cold damage mitigation. Upgraded Soul of Shakari is my preferred choice for general mapping as it allow you to ignore poison. Last edited by 7thHarbinger#1837 on Feb 18, 2019, 7:49:08 PM Last bumped on Feb 18, 2019, 3:34:57 PM
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cumlord
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I see bosses getting REMOVVVVEEEDDD!! with this build :D <3
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set up my pathfinder with this, was hoping you'd finish the guide completely sometime soon though, been using your character as reference for the most part.
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