[3.10] Aziire's Kinetic Bolt Elementalist - Thor and the Golem Gang! | League Starter
 TLDR: Ideal Path of Building Link My Path of Building Link Videos: Video Build Guide How to Level with Kinetic Bolt End Game with Kinetic Bolt Build List: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2688401 Build Intro: Please read Latest Updates. These reflect changes which I have made, but don't have the time to neatly fit into the Build Guide yet. This is just below my social links in this Introduction. 3.10 Delirium brings us juicy new wand buffs and new notables through the Cluster Jewel system. One of the most enticing looking additions to this patch is the new Wand Skill Kinetic Bolts. Kinetic Bolts has some really good numbers with it dealing 175% of Base Damage as well as the unique line of increases and reductions to spell damage also apply to attack damage from this skill at 150% of their value. This alone makes the skill very nice to start with as a Witch as grabbing Spell Damage will be more beneficial to us. We also get to use it right after Hillock which is awesome! In order to get the most benefit we will be converting our damage as much as possible. By doing this we can greatly increase our total damage. We first stack as much flat and percent increased damage to lightning as we can. We will then be using two Call of the Brotherhood to convert this all to cold damage. This will give us a devastating shocking and chilling machine which will fork through the maps. We are picking Elementalist as we can gain so many buffs thanks to our Golem Boys. On top of that having cheap access to Heralds is a huge bonus, especially alongside some of the new notables in 3.10. This is looking to be a beast League Starter which should help you churn through the Atlas and fund future builds. There is a Levelling Cheat sheet with Gems and Gear recommendations at the bottom of the guide :) If you want to see the build in action, or prefer video build guides over written then the best place to do so is on my YouTube links above/below (my one moment to sell out). I also check this forum daily so if you have any questions, build related or not, just leave a reply and I'll respond fairly quickly. If you are big brain, 500 iq, and find someway to improve the build let me know, I'm not perfect :D. Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/aziire YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7vLIcfmXcyxst2uhc9woSg Discord: https://discord.gg/YTCjmwK
Latest Updates / Build Changes
Current PoB with my exact gear: Path of Building Link
I'm in Yellow Maps now and the build is working awesome still, with a few changes. I'm going to write up a quick update here about what I have changed personally in the build, as I currently don't have time to amend these all neatly into the build guide. Trying to get as far in the Atlas as possible. Will have a video uploaded showcasing hopefully Tier 11+ Gameplay. For the changes:
 Pros: - New Skill = New memes to test out. Always fun spicing things up - The damage numbers are pretty decent, and no need to have two skills - Converting damage is always op op and gives us the benefits of multiple Ailments - Golems are gangster and give us so many benefits, while also helping protect us Cons: - New skills can also be yikes, and there could be unforeseen issues - My builds usually aren't a 1c Awakening Level 8 Sirus killing Necro, so don't expect to be able to absolutely roll big end game bosses - Top tier damage is expensive Offense: - Kinetic Bolts has Crown of Eyes built into it, with a 1.5x effect - Barrage Support provides us both High Single Target + Clear Speed - Looking at just shy of 5 Million Shaper DPS with End Game Gear - Chill + Shock boosts our damage immensely - Heralds are very strong, especially with new Cluster Jewels Defense: - 5,000 Effective HP - +140% Life +30% Energy Shield - +500 Life Regen a Second as well as +900 Life Leech Rate - 40% Attack Dodge, 30% Spell Dodge - Immune to Elemental Ailments - Easier access to more life through Cluster Jewels  I've designed the build around Level 90, as that's what I aim for as a Build Guide Standard. I have a Level 100 Tree, which mostly just consists of extra Jewel slots and Life. If you are following the tree in Path of Building, then you can simply go to the bottom left to switch to the levelling trees I have created. Level 100 is purely Luxury but there just in case. I also have a Cluster Jewel Tree variant, and I explain which notables to look for below these trees. Bandits: Alira is our Bandit of choice. The Crit Multiplier and Elemental Resistance makes building far easier. We can grab much cheaper gear thanks to this. Eramir is also a super good choice this League as more skill points = more Cluster Jewels. Level 21 Tree: Click Here | Progressing through Act 2 | Help Alira Level 34 Tree: Click Here | Up to Dominus Level 45 Tree: Click Here | Up to Act 5 Kitava | Should have your first 2 Ascendancy Points Level 63 Tree: Click Here | Up to Blood Aqueducts | Should have 4 Ascendancy Points Level 75 Tree: Click Here | Up to Maps | Should have 6 Ascendancy Points Level 90 Tree: Click Here | End Game | Core Build Done, Should have 8 Ascendancy Points. Level 100 Tree: Click Here | Normal Tree | Grab last few little nodes and Jewel Sockets Level 100 Tree: Click Here | Cluster Tree | 20 Spare points for Cluster Jewels Cluster Jewels: TLDR: Huge range of good options. It's worth getting a good one.
Details
Cluster Jewels are one of the biggest additions to the game in terms of build making. While this is a small nightmare to trawl through as a build maker, it is amazing for content and diversity. If I was to go into detail about every passive that was good for us I wouldn't have enough forum characters. Instead I am going to make a Tier List for both Offense and Defense passives so it is easier to see what is best for this build. Tiers will go from S > A > B > C. For the most value try and aim for Jewels with S and or A tier Notables, if they are affordable.
Offense: Defense: S Tier: Feed the Fury Fettle Pressure Points Cold Conduction Heraldry Empowered Envoy Precise Commander Primordial Bond A Tier: Force Multiplier Sublime Sensation Martial Momentum Holistic Health Opportunistic Fusilade Aerialist Overshock Darting Movements Stormrider No Witnesses Snowstorm Natural Vigour Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Vengeful Commander B Tier: Martial Prowess Prismatic Dance Fuel the Fight Blessed Deadly Repartee Wizardry Repeater Winter Prowler Essence Rush Alchemist Blanketed Snow Endbringer Purposeful Harbinger C Tier: Furious Assault Skullbreaker Basics of Pain Burden Projection Prismatic Heart Unholy Grace Unspeakable Gifts
Image Versions
Offense:
 Defense:  Ascendancy: TLDR: Liege of the Primordial > Elemancer > Pendulum of Destruction > Mastermind of Discord
Details
With Kinetic Bolt you have a few options for Ascendancy. Previously Deadeye would be the go to choice for Wand skills as there are so many benefits to projectiles. Thanks to the ability to turn our Spell Damage into Attack Damage at 1.5x effect (thanks Kinetic Bolt) the options for other parts of the tree are now more viable. This plus some of the benefits we can get with Heralds on our Cluster Jewels made me decide to start with Elementalist.
Liege of the Primordial gives us +1 to maximum number of Golems, 25% increased Effect of Buffs granted by your Golems per Summoned Golem, 20% increased Damage per Summoned Golem and our Summoned Golems are Immune to Elemental Damage. This is the perfect point to grab first as it is when we can start using Golems. Being able to use 2 Golems with increased effect while levelling helps boost our ability to survive immensely. A Stone Golem and Chaos Golem for example would give us both huge Life Regen and some Physical Damage Reduction. Perfect for early game bosses as well as the next few Labyrinths. Elemancer grants us exactly the same as above as well as granting us 35% chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments per Summoned Golem. By the time we get this we can now roll out with 4 Golems. Damage and Defense gang rolling through Blood Aqueducts definitely isn't something to scoff at. These guys distract the hell out of Act 9 & 10 bosses as well as early maps, leaving us with focusing on spamming our Kinetic Bolt. Being Immune to Elemental Ailments is also a huge buff as we no longer have to worry about being Frozen (the deadliest of them). Pendulum of Destruction gives us a 75% increased Area of Effect for 5 seconds, and then 75% increased Elemental Damage for 5 seconds. These are consecutive. The Area of Effect portion of this point does absolutely nothing for us, and that is why we grab it third and not first. The increased Elemental Damage however is really nice, and by the time we get the Merciless Labyrinth point we should have solid amounts of Flat Lightning on some of our gear. Mastermind of Discord has our Damage penetrate 25% of Cold, Fire and Lightning Resistance while affected by either Herald of Ice, Ash or Thunder respectively. We also have a 25% increased Effect of Herald Buffs on us and a 25% reduced Mana Reservation of Herald Skills. This is the best point for us to grab. The Golems are incredibly important so we take them early however this provides us with so much quality of life it is unreal. Being able to rock multiple Heralds boosts clear speed immensely. These also give us a significant amount of Flat Elemental Damage which is great for our conversions and scaling. Anointment: TLDR: Prism Weave
Details
Always make sure you are getting a non-corrupted Amulet so that you can Anoint passives, as they are a huge dps boost. In order from best to worst here are some offensive Anointment's you should be looking at putting on an Amulet:
Prism Weave | Sepia Oil + Opalescent Oil + Opalescent Oil Primeval Force | Azure Oil + Violet Oil + Silver Oil Fangs of Frost | Sepia Oil + Sepia Oil + Silver Oil Ambidexterity | Amber Oil + Azure Oil + Black Oil I am a thot for dps. Always consider your situation and playstyle and consider getting a more defensive option instead if it suits you more. Great defense passives to anoint are: Constitution | Silver Oil + Golden Oil + Golden Oil Heart of the Warrior | Violet Oil + Silver Oil + Golden Oil These are far more expensive than offense, that is another reason why I usually favour the former. Pantheon: For your Major God you want to either choose Soul of Lunaris or Soul of Solaris. These are both super solid options and just depends on whether you want to be mapping or bossing more. If you think you won't fuck with bosses then take Lunaris, otherwise take Solaris. I personally use Lunaris as it helps when suicide running into packs like a lunatic, which I do frequently. For your Minor God your best bet is Soul of Shakari. Reduced chaos damage is a nice quality of life, especially once upgraded as you are then Immune to Poison. These are your standards and I never really choose anything else.  Kinetic Bolt is a fresh addition to fairly stale Wand Skill list. Not only is it new but it is coming in swinging. With big damage numbers and unique interactions with both Spell Damage and Projectiles it is a breath of fresh air. We still use a lot of the standard stuff like CWDT and Utility gems. I'll list the Gems in order of priority, with explanations in boxes below them. A side note for Awakened Gems. I have them listed, but these are not mandatory and are purely for squeezing out bonus damage. My gameplays are all without these. Kinetic Bolt > Barrage (Support) > Energy Leech > Inspiration > Awakened Added Lightning Damage > Awakened Elemental Damage With Attacks
Details
We are lucky in the fact that we can Level from the get go with Kinetic Bolt. This setup provides us with a bit of everything. Barrage (Support) allows us to kind of double dip by providing higher single target damage, which then does the normal Kinetic Bolt fork after the first hit. We gain the additional Projectiles for both the initial projectile stream, and the secondary forks from Kinetic Bolt.
Energy Leech and Inspiration are huge damage boosts disguised as Utility. We gain many benefits from these two as they are just pack full of bonuses. These bonuses are increased Critical Strike Chance, More Elemental Damage, reduced Mana Cost, More Damage while Leeching and More Damage while on Full Energy Shield. It helps the skill function better due to its lowered cost and leech, while also providing nonsense damage. Our final Gems are Awakened Added Lightning Damage and Awakened Elemental Damage With Attacks so that we can pad the attack with even more Damage. Once again the normal versions of these gems will function perfectly fine. We can also replace Barrage (Support) with an Awakened Added Cold Damage if we wish, this is subject to in game testing though. With how the skill is looking it doesn't feel like this will be worth it, but an alternative to consider nonetheless. Summon Lightning Golem > Summon Chaos Golem > Summon Stone Golem > Meat Shield
Details
The boyyyyssss. These are your bouncers. Protecting you from the world as you roll through maps. Thanks to Meat Shield these Golems will be all over the boss, and protecting your ass when you need it the most. The effects they provide us are also huge, with Increased Attack Speed, Life Regeneration and Physical Damage Reduction. Try your best to get this setup as early as possible, ideally as soon as you finish the first Labyrinth.
Herald of Ice > Herald of Thunder > Curse on Hit > Projectile Weakness
Details
Heralds are the bread and butter of any Elementalist. On top of that we also have more damage options with them thanks to Cluster Jewels. As we are mostly scaling Lightning and Cold we only really need to take two. Herald of Ice and Herald of Thunder both provide huge flat elemental damage which is perfect for us.
Most importantly they also provide us with an easy way to Curse while we map. By linking a Curse on Hit and Projectile Weakness any mobs that don't die the shatters and lightning rain will be knocked back and take increased damage from our Kinetic Bolt. Assassin's Mark is another S tier alternative to Projectile Weakness, I opted out of it as I have taken it in every build for the past few leagues. Though it would be a nice change using a different Curse. Wrath > Precision Lvl 3 > Summon Ice Golem
Details
We take Wrath for the absolute juicer amounts of Flat Lightning we can get from it. Even though Precision got heavily nerfed in 3.10, it is still worth grabbing as it improves our Accuracy which is fairly poor due to beign a Witch. We still keep it at a low Level as it isn't worth the Mana Cost at higher Levels. Summon Ice Golem is our damage Golem boy, which helps us with our Critical Strike Chance and Accuracy.
Blood Rage > Flame Dash > Faster Casting
Details
Blood Rage for Frenzy Charge generation, as well as Attack Speed and Life Leech. Perfect for mapping and easy to pop as we enter each area. Flame Dash is our best option for travelling as even though we are using an Attack we can't use Whirling Blades because we are Wand Boys.
Cast when Damage Taken Lvl 8 > Immortal Call Lvl 10 > Increased Duration > Frost Bomb Lvl 14
Details
The save your life setup. We have the Level requirements low on these for multiple reasons. Firstly the lower it is the more often it will trigger. I like to keep it at a third or a quarter of my total life so that its triggers a little easier. Secondly we don't have a huge amount of Strength, so keeping it lower means less searching for attributes on gear/the tree. I also added Frost Bomb to this setup as we had a spare link there and if the enemy does happen to be on top of us it will lower their defense significantly.
 This is the perfect League Starter in terms of gear. The entry level requirement gear is very cheap and can be easily farmed for in somewhere like Blood Aqueducts. On top of that there is huge room to increase damage with more expensive unique items like The Eternity Shroud which will explosively upgrade the build. For all the gear options I will embed a Path of Exile Trade link so that you don't have to go search yourself and you can instead just open the link for what you need. These are set to search in Standard Temp Leagues so if you are playing in a different League then change it in the top right. Using these when searching for Rares can be confusing at first as I use a lot of filters to find cheap but good gear. Read the section carefully and hopefully I have explained it well enough for people to find what they are after. Please respond to the forum if you have found anything confusing at all and I can explain in further detail. Recommended Gear:
Spoiler
Our first piece of gear, and some of the most awkward to find, are Rare Wands. To wade through the thousands of wands we use a mega weighted sum search. Click the link above and then click Sum. Buy what you can afford. If it is the start of the League and nothing is showing up, open up the Filters in the top right by hitting "Show Filters" and then lower the Minimum Number. Do this until you can find yourself a Wand that is within your price range. There are far too many mods that are good for this build but some of the ones you want to look out for are: %Elemental Damage, %Spell Damage, %Critical Strike Chance, %Critical Strike Multiplier, %Attack Speed, %Elemental Damage as Chaos. The ideal wand would be Shaped as well so we can gain benefits from our chest piece (will go into detail).
Crown of the Inward Eye is our Helmet of choice. This thing is so underrated it hurts. It doesn't calculate properly in standard Path of Building, and that is how it is able to fly under the radar. A well rolled one of these can provide us with over 300+ Life, 200+ Energy Shield, 150+ Mana as well as being one of the Top 3 for DPS in this slot. It has quickly become one of my favourite Helmets, and is borderline best in slot for most spell casters. The best in slot chest piece for this build is The Eternity Shroud. This is a fairly expensive chest piece however and is extremely sought after. Especially when you consider you need to have mostly Shaped Items in order to get the best use of it. At League Start something like a 5 Linked Incandescent Heart or even something as simple as a Briskwrap would work really well until you wish to upgrade to the big guns. A good pair of Rare Gripped Gloves is what we will want to hunt. Look to get as much Resistance as possible and some Maximum Life. It is usually cheaper to find one with an empty prefix and craft Maximum Life yourself. When entering maps don't worry about it being a pair of Gripped Gloves and instead make sure you have your defenses down pat. For mega end game look to be getting mods such as Chance to Intimidate Enemies on Hit and +1 to Maximum Frenzy Charges. Like above our boots fall under the same category, Rare Boots with Resistances and Life. 25% Increased Movement Speed is much cheaper than 30%. For end game mods look for things such as Chance to gain Elusive on Critical Strike and Tailwind if you have dealt a Critical Strike Recently. Even just one of these will boost the build significantly. Rare Amulets are what we are after, as they have all the juicy mods. Preferably Shaped, as these provide us more damage and usually have better modifiers on them. Don't worry about Resistances here and instead make sure you get enough Str and Dex through Attribute stats. Don't forego Maximum Life either, if you can't afford simply lower the Life requirements a little bit. Call of the Brotherhood are our ideal ring for both slots. With Catalysts we can convert 96% of our Lightning Damage to Cold, which is huge for %Elemental Scaling reasons. I understand that these aren't cheap but they usually sit in the affordable price range. Even having just one of these helps immensely, and you could opt for a basic Rare Ring until you have enough currency for both Brotherhoods. A Rare Stygian Vise is what we want to try and get for our Belt. Having the Abyssal Socket provides us with big damage, on top of the fact that the belt alone can get some hefty damage modifiers added. Focus mostly on Life and Damage modifiers here, look to get Resistances if you aren't yet capped. For Jewels we have a few options. Firstly we want to grab a nice Cluster Jewel to socket on the outer edge of the Tree. I go into detail about this near the top of this guide. Other than that we want to grab Rare Abyss Jewels and if you can afford one a Watcher's Eye. Any of the mods on these Watcher's Eye will boost your damage significantly, but also cost a fortune. For the Abyss Jewels sort by Sum and shop away. Last but not least are our pots. For our Non-Unique pots we want to grab a Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline, Diamond Flask of Warding and Seething Divine Life Flask of Staunching. Our Unique Flasks are Atziri's Promise and Cinderswallow Urn. If you are feeling extra ballsy and have a bigger budget you could swap out the Life Flask for a Dying Sun. This is a huge boost to our dps due to the Additional Projectiles and how Barrage (Support) works. The Gear I'm Currently Using: Levelling Cheat Sheet:
Spoiler
 Thank you for reading/following the build guide. Feel free to leave any questions/comments in the replies as I make sure to spend an hour every day responding to people. Also if you have made it this far, feel free to support me by Subscribing to my YouTube. Viewership helps me a lot, especially as someone who pours a lot of time into these guides. Have Fun :) Last edited by AziiRe#6350 on Jan 19, 2021, 6:54:49 AM Last bumped on Feb 5, 2021, 9:32:58 AM
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How do you keep your golems alive in late game?
Great guide, thank you. |
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This build is damn near almost perfect to what I wanted to play this league. However I wanted to use Spellslinger support. Which gem should I drop out of the 6 link and where should I add spellslinger support on my gear? Thank you in advance if you are able to answer this. Amazing guide!
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Thanks for the well writted guide. I want to use Ranger because I want to reroll to focus in delve late in the league. Can this build work with ranger? and which gear would you change? Ty!
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" i 2nd this |
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Wish there was a part about leveling / when to get gems but is still a really good guide without out it. I'll be starting off the league with this.
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" I guess we could take out the ice golem and precision and replace it with spell slinger and WoC I was hoping to find a 6L KB with like 3 4L SS as well just spell sling all the skills. Last edited by arpgaddict#1346 on Mar 12, 2020, 10:09:06 PM
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@WWJDualWield
This is something I will probably have to rethink through. I have never played an Elementalist, but it is looking like it might be annoying having to recast them constantly. I was hoping Meat Shield would be enough. Could work in like a nice Rare Minion Helmet or something similar. I'll work through this while playing. @WarbleWarble Thanks for the compliments! Yeah the guide took a while to make, and definitely tried to make it clean. The Tier Lists were my favourite part (although huge pain in the ass). For Spellslinger I would personally drop Flame Dash and Faster Casting and instead use Lightning Warp + Spellslinger. This way the Mana Reservation will be low while also having the fun aspect of it. Spellslinger doesn't have to be on the main links, as long as you cast a Wand Skill it will cast anything linked to it on any gear. If you were wanting all the damage from the 6 Link then you would probably want to drop Added Lightning and Elemental Damage with Attacks and instead add Spellslinger and your second Damage skill. Something like Kinetic Blast could be cool. It will be a fairly significant cost doing it this way though as you lose two big damage gems as well as needing to probably drop a Herald in order to manage the Mana. @Fedes The build would definitely work as Ranger. Going Deadeye with all the projectile bonuses would be nutty. Or Raider for Frenzy / Phasing / Onslaught. I love me a Ranger build, but I have never made a Witch so I thought now would be the best time. I honestly wouldn't even change a lot of the Gear. For Delving you could do something like take our Barrage and add in Added Cold Damage[ / Penetration or even Greater Multiple Projectiles. Then change boots to the Voidwalker Boots so you can get the Phasing goodness. They are super fun in Delve and focusing on Phasing / Visibility would be a fun way to keep scaling this builds Dodge like nature. @BarnacleMayo <3 @arpgaddict If I get time I will add a Gem section. We get the Gem straight after Hillock, and then I just add in whatever feels right as I level until Act 6. At Act 6 I try and buy as many of the Gems in the guide as possible and start using them asap. Something like Kinetic Bolt > Onslaught > Added Lightning Damage will be what I would use while Levelling. I usually don't get a 4 Link until Act 6, I have poor luck. To answer your Spellslinger comment. It would have to be a fairly serious investment with multiple Linked Spells. This would mean dropping one of our Heralds if not both, which is pretty brutal. Our Golem and Precision grant us a lot of Accuracy so even dropping this feels yikes. We will have to see throughout the start of the League. |
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this is my starting build expect im going with ss lw but thank you for making this cause if you hadnt i was just gonna use my awful tree that i made so thank you for saving me!
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Wow this build is well written and looks cool, i'll try it for starter + new spell why not !
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