"Feed a storm with savage intent and not even the strongest walls will hold it back."

Elementalists deal in all things elemental. They have access to conditional but powerful element damage bonuses, some granted periodically or with a skill requirement.

This build uses Blade Flurry as the main skill. It's still fine for clearspeed. It's not your clear 2 screens with one massive projectile skill clearspeed, but with enough attack speed you can just WB>hold for half a second and move on. Overall better defenses than Blade Vortex.

 

Pros & Cons

Pros

• + Can clear all content without much effort or crazy expensive gear
• + Clear up to 3 screens in one tap
• + Rather cheap to get going, can still progress though maps without Inpulsa
• + Overall better defenses than Blade Vortex (easy access to leech and life gained on hit)
• + Decent league starter

Cons

• - Beacon of Ruin is laggy as hell
• - Not the most beginner friendly build out there
• - Needs a few semi-expensive items to reach maximum potential
• - Is not nerf proof

 

Skill Tree

Ascendancy

Shaper of Desolation > Beacon of Ruin > Pendulum of Destruction > Mastermind of Discord

Bandits

Kill all

Pantheon

• Soul of Arakaali (Capture Arachnoxia)
• Soul of Shakari (Capture Terror of the Infinite Drifts)

Passive Tree

 

Gems Setup

6l Blade Flurry - Elemental Damage with Attacks - Added Lightning Damage - Hypothermia - Lightning Penetration - Increased Area of Effect/Concentrated Effect

For 5l drop Lightning Penetration

4l Herald of Ice - Cold to Fire - Ice Bite - Innervate

4l Cast When Damage Taken - Immortal Call - Inscreased Duration - Vaal Haste

3l Hearld of Thunder - Culling Strike - Onslaught

3l Shield Charge/Whirling Blades - Faster Attacks - Fortify

Summon Lightning Golem Blood Rage Herald of Ash

Note: Drop Herald of Ash until you get your uber lab.

 

Gear

Simple Overview

Weapon

We don't need much on a weapon.

The most important stat here is Increased Attack Speed, we really want a VERY fast weapon (>2.0 attacks per second is optimal), then you want a bunch of flat elemental damage. We don't need crit at all since we are Elemental Overload.

You can also use a Vagan weapon with high attack speed, so you can replace your Lycosidae with a shield with attack speed, life and resistances or even an Esh's Mirror.

Jewels

You're looking for: flat life > high flat elemental damage for claws > Effect of Shock. Abyss jewels are a BIG part of this build.

Note: Getting good abyss jewels when respeccing to Blade Flurry is really important. You don't have to hunt for gg jewels right away, if they're not yet available in early league, or you can't afford them. Here you can find a poe.trade search for good jewels you can get to help you climb the atlas. Before browsing though, click 'show search form' on top and make sure correct league is selected.

If you want to craft them yourself, alt-regal some ilvl82 Murderous Eye jewels (you could try a Searching Eye too, but only if you really need one for Tombfist, Murderous Eye is easier to roll for flat damage).

Boots

For rare boots you just want your usual life + resistances + movement speed, if you don't need resistatnces, Atziri Step is a solid choice. Kaom's Roots are just so good for Uber Elder.

Amulet / Rings / Belts

What to look for on rare amulets and rings - life, flat elemental damage, elemental damage with weapons and resistances.

Belts - life, elemental damage with weapons, resistances, flask duration/charges used.

Core uniques

 

Leveling

We strongly recommend levelling with Blade Vortex to at least Blood Aqueduct. Start with Freezing Pulse linked to Arcane Surge and Onslaught (if you can ask someone to buy it for you or get it yourself on another character, as witch can't get Onslaught in act 1).

At level 12 you can start using Blade Vortex. Priority links are - Added Lightning Damage, Arcane Surge (make sure you keep it low level enough so it activates), maybe Added Cold and later Controlled Destruction if you have a 4l/Tabula. At level 16 you can add Physical to Lightning (replace Added Lightning Damage if you're not using a Tabula).

At level 38 your links should be Blade Vortex - Physical to Lightning - Efficacy - Controlled Destruction - Increased Duration - Increased Area of Effect/Concentrated Effect (drop last two for a 4l).

Remember to buy and level your other gems before switching to Blade Flurry.

Note: This levelling will cost you 12 respec points to switch to Blade Flurry (not a big deal, you can get all the points for free from quests).

 

Expectations