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

im planning to play this build in 3.18. can someone explain me where the benefit from lifetap on the brand is? is it only for being able to cast it due to almost all mana will be reserved?

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Moltion wrote:

im planning to play this build in 3.18. can someone explain me where the benefit from lifetap on the brand is? is it only for being able to cast it due to almost all mana will be reserved?

Exactly that. Our mana is reserved for auras.

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Prismaa wrote:

I'm trying to decide between this and champ version, I know champ is lots tankier, and I plan on playing basically in group SSF, and I would like build that can do pretty much all content, hopefully even the new uber bosses etc.

I would go Elementalist any day. Champion is good if you are HC and literally can not take a death, but it comes at a cost of harder gearing and lower DPS.

Champion will be harder to push end-game bosses IMO.

Elementalist has the DPS for end-game bosses whilst still having great defence.

So i built this in standard in prep for next league, havent played in a few leagues but this seems solid. My question is, i have a sick watchers eye with fire damage while affected by anger and chaos res with purity, i tried dropping determination for anger and it seems to be very strong..is this a bad idea dropping the determination?

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ThuperAwethome wrote:

So i built this in standard in prep for next league, havent played in a few leagues but this seems solid. My question is, i have a sick watchers eye with fire damage while affected by anger and chaos res with purity, i tried dropping determination for anger and it seems to be very strong..is this a bad idea dropping the determination?

Yes it's a very bad idea.

1) Anger deals fire damage so you no longer proc Elemental Equilibrium

2) Determination is a great defence.

So it will negatively affect both your DPS and defence.

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Prismaa wrote:

I'm trying to decide between this and champ version, I know champ is lots tankier, and I plan on playing basically in group SSF, and I would like build that can do pretty much all content, hopefully even the new uber bosses etc.

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Asag wrote:

I'm in same boat. Torn between elementalist and champion. I know elementalist can achieve much higher DPS (to be fair not sure tho how big the difference is) but with decent gear champ can have also good damage and later on I don't know If I would not prefer to be just more tanky.

Elementalist, no question. It's still stupid tanky. I played 6 builds this league, including the Elementalist variant of this. This was a lot more tanky than anything else I tried.

For reference, these are my builds this league...

- Level 92 Corrupting Fever Champion
- Level 90 Soulwrest Trickster (Want to clear a map in under a minute?)
- Level 98 this build, elementalist
- Level 95 Tornado Shot Deadeye
- Level 100 Lightning Strike Raider
- Level 97 Winter Orb Psion

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grimjack68 wrote:

Elementalist, no question. It's still stupid tanky. I played 6 builds this league, including the Elementalist variant of this. This was a lot more tanky than anything else I tried.

One of the most frustrating thing for me is when I run through map smootlhy and then boom, dead leaving me wondering whast the hell killed me.

Do you encountered alot of oneshoots while leveling/early mapping?

At what investment point the build feels good? Is the transistion from yellow maps to red tier smooth (ofc after some upgrades) or did you hit a wall at some point and had to farm more to upgrade gear before moving into higher tier maps?

I played a slight variant of this (with less auras so less tankiness) and never really had an issue. You would get the odd double beyond, perfect storm of mobs/mods and get crushed but overall I had no problem getting it to lvl 95.

I am 100% playing this as my league start (and possibly only build) this league.

My EA Hierophant (98lvl, can push to 100) was able to do almost all of the content (except simulacrum, was able to reach 26 wave) on SC SSF archnemesis league.

Can Elementalist show at least the same performance level? Im trying to decide if this build worth trying on SC SSF.

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Asag wrote:

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grimjack68 wrote:

Elementalist, no question. It's still stupid tanky. I played 6 builds this league, including the Elementalist variant of this. This was a lot more tanky than anything else I tried.

One of the most frustrating thing for me is when I run through map smootlhy and then boom, dead leaving me wondering whast the hell killed me.

Do you encountered alot of oneshoots while leveling/early mapping?

At what investment point the build feels good? Is the transistion from yellow maps to red tier smooth (ofc after some upgrades) or did you hit a wall at some point and had to farm more to upgrade gear before moving into higher tier maps?

Extremely smooth through the storyline and deep into maps. There's cheap uniques that work really well with this - if anything it was tough to remember, it's time to ditch those items and move up. I'm looking at you, Rain of Splinters / Skirmish Quiver / Storm Cloud! One shots were really rare - which is why a lot of folks were playing this in Hardcore.

This build grants you a lot of room to mess up and still live. Totems by their nature are good at keeping you away from high risk encounters. Add in all the defense layers, high DPS output, and it's tough to compete with.

If I had to pick where it's weak - it's not the fastest mapper. You're not going to clear maps in under a minute. Even so, it's still plenty quick, it's just not a true zoom-zoom build.

Put it this way... I used this build to do 40 challenges last league. (Except the level 100 EGG.) Many of the challenges - most of the hard ones - lots of folks were having serious troubles completing, and with this build, I didn't even notice the difficulty. A guildmate of mine was trying to do the Infinite Hunger challenge, and kept dying because he couldn't figure out the acid flow direction. I never even SAW that, the guy was dead too fast to flood the area.