[3.12] Elemental Hit Wander (Assassin) | 40mil+ DPS | Durable | Screenwide Clear

Recent Edits
-My 3.13 Raider Wander - https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3040753
-Added a Video section (thanks fremoq!)
-Added a note on 3.12
-Updated pros/cons to remind people this isn't a great league starter

3.13 Updates?
Harvest is back which is great for the build, so most of the crafts are back on the table and affordable. Assassin lost all of its move speed though, which sucks. If I were to play this build in 3.13, I'd probably play Raider and go the Onslaught/Phasing path and ignore frenzy charges until late late game. If I get a few +1 frenzy charges on gear and a wand trigger craft for wave of conviction exposure, I would then respec the phasing path to the frenzy charge path in the Raider ascendancy.

I'm not going to change the title to 3.13 because I haven't fully looked at the build and updated it minmax wise to 3.13, but I might do so later in the league. We will see. It should still be very strong in its current state as a Raider, with potentially some minor tweaks to account for with the introduction of Maven's orb and the like.

Since I made this build, curses have been reworked. If I were to play it again, I'd probably drop ele hit from templar gloves, and instead just self-cast sniper's mark on bosses. Sniper's mark is a supremely powerful boss killer for a build like this, and great for Maven multi-boss encounters.

3.12 Updates?
3.12 nerfs assassin a bit, and Harvest is gone. Both these are going to hurt, but the build is still fairly strong. The assassin nerfs are going to result in a loss of ~7-8% total damage.

Harvest gone means our rares are not going to be as minmaxed for so cheap. This means slightly worse rares, and worse cluster jewels. So if you want to league start this, expect it to be a bit more expensive, a bit harder to minmax, and a bit more expensive at the top end. The good news is we didn't rely on Harvest at all, we don't "need" minmaxed rares and the build utilizes a lot of unique options.

Still going to be a strong build that can get going on a budget provided you know how to play ranged characters with low health pools (positioning is very important when starting out or playing on a budget).


Introduction
Hey guys, this is my build guide for an Elemental Hit based Wander. Very powerful, very smooth, very tanky, very fast. Great all around character that scales well with gear, but can be played cheaply at a baseline level.

This build has done pretty much all content in the game quite easily. You kill conquerors in 2 seconds at most, and phase Sirus in a similar amount of time. Mapping feels very fast and safe, with projectiles clearing multiple screens.

This is a fire based ele hit build, we convert all our damage into fire, and scale that to obscene levels.

Why Ele Hit?
I'm generally a melee player but figured I had to try wander, always an archetype that I've wanted to do for a long time. However, I wanted a cheaper wander that was easier to build, and that's why I settled on elemental hit. The gear is fairly straightforward and most of your damage comes straight from the gem itself.


Pro's & Con's
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+Giga boss killer - Killed Sirus, Uber Elder, and Shaper with ease. Still need to know mechanics (you can't afk tank), but they are fairly easy.
+Screenwide Clear and Beyond - This is a projectile build with GMP + Chain, the entire screen pops, and then some. Very satisfying.
+Extremely high damage - My final damage was around 48 million. Easily reaches 20 million with baseline gear, scaling up depending on how much more you invest.
+Several Defensive Layers - With around 4k life + 2k ES (depends on gear/levels) with Elusive, Wind Dancer, Acrobatics, Phase Acrobatics, and Blind, our defenses are strong. Can add Fortify on Shield Charge if you want and drop Dash + Second Wind, but I found that to be overkill as I prefer dash. Rarely die. TAKE THIS WITH A GRAINT OF SALT, however, we aren't a Chieftain with 9k hp and 9 endurance charges, so survivability will always vary based on individual player.
+Well rounded tackles all content equally well - bossing/mapping/harvest
+Scale-ability - Scales extremely well with gear, can be played on a budget.
+Easy to play - Like I said, I'm a melee player, so I wanted to build a wander that could just shoot and destroy the entire screen, nothing too complex.

-Cannot do ele reflect maps.
-Struggles with no leech maps. - Can be done with a mana flask swap in or mana gained per hit/kill somewhere, but annoying.
-Occasionally gets stunned.
-Need to be extra careful on in between phases of Sirus. - Because of Soul Tether, won't have an ES pool while waiting for him to come down. We phase him extremely quickly, but just be careful of apparition abilities as you wait for storms to move.
-Level dependent - Both passive tree level and Gem level. Need around 80-85 points for this build to really start to feel strong, and make sure your Ele hit gem is at minimum level 20, but ideally 21 (most of ele hit's damage comes purely from the gem level).
-Not a good league starter - We rely on a lot of unique items, albeit cheap ones, they aren't going to be readily available day 1 and 2. I'd definitely play something else and transition to this build later, or just roll this as a second character.


Path of Building Pastebin
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Minmaxxed: https://pastebin.com/vqqGfVBD
Budget: https://pastebin.com/9dMai4Sc

Bandits: Kill All or Alira.
Pantheons: Arakaali + Shakari (two chaos ones)


^^ NOTE: This PoB uses the fork by local1dentity, not sure if it works with standard PoB. Highly recommend downloading the fork.

Also note that in the budget version with Farrul's you can opt to use aspect of the cat over aspect of the avian because it's free. It doesn't really matter, just pick your preference. We use farrul's as a budget option primarily for the frenzy charges on bosses.


The damage multiplier tagged onto my cluster jewels is to reflect damage increases we have that PoB does not recognize. Culling Strike is effectively 12% more damage, and Eye to Eye is effectively 35% increased damage against bosses and other nearby enemies. We have to manually add those in.


A Note on Tankiness
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Our Min/Maxed Defensive Tally:

-~4k HP
-~2k ES
-Vaal Pact Life Leech
-Quick ES refill that is also boosted by Vaal Pact, thanks to Soul Tether
-Overleech thanks to Soul Tether
-Wind Dancer (20% less damage on most hits -- we don't get hit often)
-8% Reduced Damage (Mistwalker)
-10% Reduced Damage Conditionally (Opportunistic)
-No Crit damage taken (Mistwalker)
-58% attack dodge
-48% spell dodge
-16% block chance
-54% Evade Chance
-Immortal Call CWDT for extra mitigation
-The option to use Shield Charge + Fortify (I chose not to)


This is what I mean when I call the build tanky or durable. It's not tanky in the sense that we are a 9k HP Chieftain with 9 endurance charges that can afk in a map with no hands on keyboard. You still gotta play, attack, move. However, we have SIGNIFICANTLY more defensive layers compared to your average build.

You also have the option of dropping Dash - Second Wind for Fortify - Shield Charge - Faster Attacks. I hate Shield Charge and found Fortify to be overkill, so I opted not to. If you find yourself dying though, use shield charge + fortify.


Our healthy pool of combined life + ES, our near instant refill, and our dodge/evasion combined with all of the flat damage reduction we have for any hits that manage to get through make for a fairly durable and "tanky" build.



Skill gems
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6L Bossing (Chest):
Elemental Hit - Inspiration - Elemental Damage with Attacks - Elemental Focus - Hypothermia - Barrage

4L Clearing (Gloves):
Elemental Hit - Chain - Greater Multiple Projectiles - Inspiration

Auras (Shield):
Summon Skitterbots - Enlighten (4) - Anger

Weapon (Wave of Conviction Trigger):
Wave of Conviction - Combustion - Precision (low level)
Note: Our wand triggers Wave of Conviction.

Movement + Utility (Boots):
Dash - Second Wind - Blood Rage - Lightning Golem

Helmet (Defensive):
Immortal Call (3) - Cast when damage taken (1) - Vaal Haste (20) - Increased Duration


Passive Tree
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http://poeurl.com/cXnm


Gear
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Our amulet is not linked here, but it is XOPH'S BLOOD. The two combat focus jewels are so we convert all our damage to fire, and scale fire damage to obscene values.

Notes about Gear
I've gotten a few questions asking - why spell damage on gear?? The answer is that we take the wandslinger node on the skill tree which allows Spell Damage to apply to attacks. This turns spell damage into one of our best %damage increases.

Some of the gear is malleable, some of it is luxury/high-budget. The watcher's eye is worth a lot of damage, but expensive, not completely necessary. Skin of the Loyal is our chest of choice for the +5 to ele hit gem (NOTE THE MOST IMPORTANT PART ABOUT SKIN OF THE LOYAL IS THE DOUBLE CORRUPTION +2 PROJ +2 AOE and the socket colors, the corruptions are worth 30% more damage) if you want to sacrifice single target damage for clear.

If you opt for a wand without trigger socketed spell, just drop Aspect of the Avian and use spellslinger with wave of conviction.

The corruption on Hands of the High templar is important. We ideally want Ele weakness, +2 projectile, +2 AoE for maximum Ele hit damage for our 4 link. Everything else is a bonus.


Piscator's Vigil is a great, powerful budget wand for this build. So if you don't want to worry about crafting or dropping big bucks on a wand, use Piscator's.

SEE CHESTPIECE DISCUSSION SECTION AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS GUIDE, FOR MORE DETAILED EXPLANATION ON POSSIBLE CHESTPIECE OPTIONS.



Budget Gear
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Check the budget pastebin (linked here again for convenience): https://pastebin.com/9dMai4Sc

Basically, we traded down some gear pieces.

-Cheaper Hands of the High Templar
-Swapped out Awaken Gems for Regular Gems
-We dropped the Watcher's Eye, dropped anger, and dropped trigger on wand
-We added spellslinger wave of conviction thanks to our new reservation from dropping Anger, and then leveled precision to near max as well.

Now the big one, CHESTPIECE. This one is up to you. There are 4 good options for chestpieces for this build. Skin of the Loyal with +2 AoE +2 Proj, Shadowstitch with either +2 AoE or +2 Proj, Farrul's Fur, or an Explody Chest + Frenzy Charge on hit. Go with whatever your budget can afford. All 4 are solid choices, do note that if you use Farull's fur, you MUST drop aspect of the avian for aspect of the cat to benefit from the free frenzy charges it provides.

As you can see, this version is significantly cheaper, and the dps is still over 20 million.

SEE CHESTPIECE DISCUSSION JUST BELOW, IMPORTANT.


Chestpiece Discussion
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This is a list of the possible chestpieces you can use. The order of listing doesn't matter here, I didn't consciously list from best to worst, the description of each will be more telling in terms of how good the option is.

Skin of the Loyal with +2 proj AND +2 AoE - This is my preference. Highest damage.

Skin of the Loyal with +2 proj OR +2 AoE - Ok option. Not too expensive.

Shadowstitch with +2 proj +2 AoE - Second highest damage and comes with some life, ES, and utility - very expensive.

Shadowstitch with +2 proj OR +2 AoE - Very affordable. Solid damage, adds some Life/ES and utility as well.

Farrul's Fur - Very affordable. Note you MUST drop Aspect of the Avian for Aspect of the Cat in this setup to benefit from the free frenzy charges it provides on bosses.

Explody + Frenzy Rare Chest - Fairly affordable this league, good balance between damage, clear, and life.

Tabula with +2 proj or +2 AoE - Most affordable, but also weakest.


Videos
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These two videos are from fremoq, who posted them in this thread, big thanks to him!

Clearing (while looting): https://youtu.be/NULHI5K_8F8

A8 Sirus video deathless: https://youtu.be/JssZO0zUXFI


*Feel free to give me any formatting tips or ask any questions.
Last edited by Anbokr on Feb 5, 2021, 4:35:44 AM
Last bumped on Mar 7, 2021, 4:14:46 AM
Cool guide, wanted to try ele hit since I saw a reddit video about it. What kind of budget would you recommend for anyone looking to try?
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LilUglyPolo wrote:
Cool guide, wanted to try ele hit since I saw a reddit video about it. What kind of budget would you recommend for anyone looking to try?


I think you need at least 3-5ex to get started, and you can invest much more from there. While my gear is BiS, there are some nice budget options like going with a corrupted Tabula instead of skin of the loyal, and opting for a cheaper Hands of the High Templar. Also going more budget on rares, just getting solid ones with resists and not necessarily maxed out stats like mine in their end state.
POB seems not working? (just fixed, need to paste the pob link else where and copy and paste again could solve)
going to start this build =]
if possible to upload some video?
Last edited by nglengjai on Jul 10, 2020, 1:23:41 PM
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nglengjai wrote:
POB seems not working? (just fixed, need to paste the pob link else where and copy and paste again could solve)
going to start this build =]
if possible to upload some video?


Unfortunately, I got bored of the league and sold some of my gear to do a quick meme build before quitting, so I can no longer make a video. Decided to post this after I had finished playing the character as a league wrap up for anyone that wants to try it because I had so much fun with it.

I wish I had taken a video, but the PoB reflects everything the build puts out and videos of other ele hit builds will showcase the playstyle. Sorry :(.

I don't think anyone that tries this will be disappointed unless you straight up don't like how ele hit feels/sounds or do not follow the gearing.
Hi! i'd love to try this build but i dont know how to level it and where to start on the tree . can you give me any pointers?
Hi!
Build looks really fun!
Is it possible to get a video of a few boss fights and a map clear as well? Thanks :)
My builds :

CoC Volatile Dead Assassin - https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2742649

Vaal Spark Pathfinder - https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2302486/page/1
Hello, and thank you for this guide :)

I think I will try it, just a question: What node do we want with the timeless jewel? (sry if it is in the guide and I overread it)
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ZidaneFFIX wrote:
Hello, and thank you for this guide :)

I think I will try it, just a question: What node do we want with the timeless jewel? (sry if it is in the guide and I overread it)


You want glorious vanity, doryani.
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Anbokr wrote:
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ZidaneFFIX wrote:
Hello, and thank you for this guide :)

I think I will try it, just a question: What node do we want with the timeless jewel? (sry if it is in the guide and I overread it)


You want glorious vanity, doryani.



No I meant what passive node will pain attunement become? is it supposed to be wind dancer?

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