Updated for Patch 3.17
The Best Crafty Guides by Odealo
Guide notes | |||
February 03, 2022 -Build created February 05, 2022 -Added gameplay video |
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Build overview | |||
Tags: [TOTEM] [ELEMENTAL] [IGNITE] [LIFE] [STARTER] | |||
Budget: Defenses: |
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Boss DPS: AoE: |
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An Explosive Arrow is a Bow Attack that sticks the fired Arrow to an enemy and after a short delay of one second, or after it reaches the maximum of 20 stacks of Arrows attached to a single target - it explodes dealing AoE Fire Damage, and all the remaining Explosive Arrows are consumed. The more stacks you have, the higher the damage of the Final Explosion is, so prioritizing the rate at which you can Attack is very important. The usual way to achieve it is to get more Attack Speed, but for an Elementalist, the most efficient way is to Attacks via multiple Ballista Totems. What you have to keep in mind is that you have to apply 20 Stacks of Explosive Arrows before they Explode automatically - usually after one second, but that can be modified with Duration modifiers or Gem Quality itself - the regular Quality increases the Duration, but Divergent Quality reduces it (it's actually preferable because it also increases the number of maximum stacks by 0.2 per 1%). The Explosion Hit Damage is not important because it's an Ignite build that relies on Damage over Time caused by the aforementioned Explosion.
Elementalist is the go-to Ascendancy for Ignite builds - you have massively increased Ignite Damage and Chance to Ignite by Shaper of Flames, Mastermind of Discord, and Heart of Destruction. The Passives you want to allocate on your Passive Skill Tree are all over the place - you need Ancestral Bond on the top left, Dirty Techniques with Panopticon on the bottom, and Watchtowers on the bottom right. These will increase the Maximum number of your Ballista Totems. Allocate Keystones such as Elemental Overload and Elemental Equilibrium (you can't have added Fire Damage to Attacks). Get some generic defensive stats such as Life, Armour, and Spell Suppression. To get more Damage look for Attack Speed and Fire Damage over Time.
You can also check our other Path of Exile builds right over here Odealo's Crafty Guides - Full List
Use your Totems to deal Ignite Damage, there is a small delay as you have to wait for Totems to start shooting and then for your Arrows to Explode. Apply a Flammability Curse to lower Fire Resistance with a Hextouch Gem, it can be linked to a Trap which is also used to generate Frenzy Charges and trigger Elemental Equilibrium. To apply Combustion against more resilient opponents use Traps that don't deal Fire Damage - for example, a Lightning Spire Trap. Use Auras such as Precision for more Accuracy Rating, and Defiance Banner with Determination for Armour. Malevolence increases your Ignite Damage.
Full gameplay video:
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PROS |
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CONS |
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Starting with a Fire Spell would be wise as you can quickly get some Passives to help you with Leveling. Start to specialize in Fire Damage over Time after the first Lab. Pick a Fire Spell such as Fireball, Armageddon Brand, or Purifying Flame. At level 28 you will be able to use Explosive Arrow, get some Fire Damage, Maximum Life, and Damage over Time. Quickly allocate Ancestral Bond and start using Totems, then look for more Attack Speed and Accuracy Rating. Be sure that your projectiles don't Pierce targets, Arrows have to stop at the first enemy.
Suggested leveling Gem setups:
Detonate Dead setup | |
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Explosive Arrow - Start using it as soon as you can and link it with Ballistas after allocating the Ancestral Bond |
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Ballista Totem Support - Explosive Arrows are fired by Ballistas |
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Additional Accuracy Support - if you need additional Accuracy use this Gem |
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Faster Attacks Support - Faster Attacks Support Gem is one of the best ways to increase your DPS |
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Multiple Projectiles Support - more projectiles are used for wider coverage and to Hit more enemies |
Auras, Curses, and Flame Dash setup | |
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Flammability - Curse that lowers Fire Resistance of your enemies |
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Precision - Precision is great early on when you lack Accuracy Rating |
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Flame Dash - instantly teleports you over a short distance |
Bandits:
Kill all three bandits for two additional Skill Points
Leveling Skill Trees:
21 Points Passive Tree
Head for the Fire Damage Cluster as shown to pick some Maximum Life and other useful stats
44 Points Passive Tree
Go for the Ancestral Bond Keystone and allocate the nearby useful nodes
50 Points Passive Tree
Take Acrimony and Elemental Overload, respec Fire Walker and nearby nodes for they are no longer good with Attacks
87 Points Passive Tree
remove more points from the upper part of the tree to get to the Panopticon and Dirty Techniques, pick Elemental Equilibrium and Deadly Draw on your way there
Recommended leveling items:
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Adds 1 to 4 Physical Damage to Attacks +(10-30) to all Attributes (10-30)% increased Damage (10-30)% increased Rarity of Items found +(10-30)% to all Elemental Resistances |
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+(30-50) to Evasion Rating 10% increased Rarity of Items found +(30-40)% to all Elemental Resistances Reflects 4 Physical Damage to Melee Attackers Level Requirement reduced by 100 (Hidden) |
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Item has no level requirement and Energy Shield (Hidden) Item has 6 White Sockets and is fully linked (Hidden) |
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+(12-16)% to Fire and Lightning Resistances Adds (20-25) to (30-50) Fire Damage to Spells and Attacks (25-30)% increased Lightning Damage +(30-40) to maximum Mana When you Kill a Shocked Enemy, inflict an equivalent Shock on each nearby Enemy When you Kill an Ignited Enemy, inflict an equivalent Ignite on each nearby Enemy |
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(8-12)% increased Spell Damage +1 to Level of Socketed Spell Gems (20-28)% increased Spell Damage (5-8)% increased Cast Speed +(15-20) to maximum Life +(15-20) to maximum Mana Regenerate (6-8) Life over 1 second when you Cast a Spell |
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+(10-20) to Dexterity 100% increased Physical Damage 100% increased Attack Speed +2 Mana gained for each Enemy hit by Attacks (50-100)% increased Projectile Speed +(25-50) to Accuracy Rating 30% less Damage |
Final Skill Tree:
116 Points Final Passive Tree (doesn't include Cluster Jewels)
116 Points Path of Building (PoB) link
Ascendancy points:
Preferably in that order:
Pantheon:
Major God: Soul of The Brine King: 1% You cannot be Stunned if you've been Stunned or Blocked a Stunning Hit in the past 2 seconds
Minor God: Soul of Abberath: 60% less Duration of Ignite on You
[DPS] Explosive Arrow setup | |
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Explosive Arrow - The primary damage source - it fires an Arrow that attaches to an enemy or a wall and then Explodes dealing Fire Damage and causing Ignite. |
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Ballista Totem Support - It makes you summon a Totem that uses linked Attack instead of you using it |
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Multiple Totems Support - you can summon two more Totems to stack the Arrows faster |
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Elemental Damage with Attacks Support - one of the best ways to increase your DPS is to simply increase the Elemental Damage with Attacks |
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Swift Affliction Support - gets you more Damage over time, but less Skill Effect Duration so it requires you to have some Attack Speed already |
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Deadly Ailments Support - it's the best-in-slot Gem for a higher Damage with Ignite, you deal less Damage with Hits - that's not an issue |
Situational Support Gems | |
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Inspiration Support - Skills cost less Mana and have increased Elemental Damage, use it if your Attack costs too much Mana |
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Burning Damage Support - Buring Damage is increased, one of the best Gems to increase your DPS, use it if you have an Awakened Version |
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Efficacy Support - increases Skill Effect Duration of DoT effects and the Damage of it, use it you have low Attack Speed |
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Ignite Proliferation Support - it spreads the Ignite you caused to nearby enemies so it's useful when clearing maps, use it if you're not satisfied with your clear speed |
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Empower Support - it's an expensive Gem, but one of the best ones to increase the Damage, use it if you can afford it |
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Lifetap Support - Skill cost Life instead of Mana and deals more damage if you use it often - great if you have no Mana and good enough Damage |
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Faster Attacks Support - use it when can't get all the 20 stacks on a single enemy before they explode automatically, or when you can't get off-color sockets on your Bow |
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Additional Accuracy Support - use it if you have a very low Accuracy Rating or you can't get off-color sockets on your Bow |
[UTILITY] Mana-reserving setup | |
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Precision - Depending on how much Accuracy Rating you already have, keep it between Level 1 - 20 |
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Determination - increases your Armour which is undoubtedly important |
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Defiance Banner - more Armour and Evasion Rating, enemies are less likely to Hit you with Critical Strike |
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Malevolence - increased Skill Effect Duration and Damage over Time |
[UTILITY] Flame Dash setup | |
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Arcane Surge Support - Keep it at a low level, it increases your Mana Regeneration Rate |
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Flame Dash - Flame Dash is used for mobility, but it also grants you Arcane Surge |
[UTILITY] Combustion setup | |
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Lightning Spire Trap - You have to cause ignite indirectly - due to Ancestral Bond you can't deal damage by self-casting, and you already use Totems. Lightning Spire Trap seems to have good AoE, it doesn't deal inherently Fire Damage, and should easily Ignite enemies. |
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Charged Traps Support - (optional) increases Trap Throwing Speed and generates Frenzy Charges |
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Combustion Support - if you Ignite an enemy with a linked Skill its Fire Resistance gets reduced by 10% |
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Cluster Traps Support - (optional) you throw Traps quicker and more of them to Hit enemies with greater efficiency and to generate Frenzy Charges faster |
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Hextouch Support - Curse is applied via Hit with a linked Skill |
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Flammability - Curse that lowers Fire Resistance of enemies, definitely the best one you can use |
[UTILITY] Molten Shell | |
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Molten Shell - mitigates a portion of incoming damage when active; it is more effective the more Armour you have, which you should have around 20k of |
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The base duration of an Ignite is 4 seconds, you should apply a fresh Ignite every one second or so, so don't be hesitant to reduce the Ailment Duration or to make it deal Damage Faster, it's hard to make it less than even two seconds. Your primary objective is to get a 100% Hit Chance with enough Accuracy and enough Attack Speed so that 20 Arrows can be stacked in one second. After that look for Fire Damage over Time and Elemental Damage with Attacks. Do not add Fire Damage to your Attack - it will ruin your Equilibrium as the Arrows deal no Fire Damage, only the explosion they cause do. Instead, get a small amount of added Cold or Lightning Damage that can be found on many gear pieces and Jewels. Maximum Life, Armour, and Spell Suppression are your main lines of defense. Additional Gem Level affixes now can be found on non-influenced Amulets - that's great news because the damage scales really good with the Level of Explosive Arrow so try to find one that fits your budget. If you need more unreserved Mana you can lower the Gem Level of Precision - you can go as low as level 1 given that you source a significant amount of Accuracy from your gear.
Our recommended items will:
Stat priorities on items:
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Min. requirements: +60 to maximum Life +60% to Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: Dexterity Armour Accuracy Rating Ignites you inflict deal Damage faster Nearby Enemies have -9% to Fire Resistance |
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Helmet enchantments: Explosive Arrow has 15% increased Attack Speed Explosive Arrow deals 40% increased Damage |
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Min. requirements: +2 to Level of Socketed Bow Gems +15 % To Fire Damage over Time Multiplier (can be crafted) 9% increased Attack Speed Optional affixes: increased Fire Damage over Time Accuracy Rating increased Damage over Time +1 to Level of Socketed Gems |
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Min. requirements: +60 to maximum Life +15% to Damage over Time Multiplier with Attack Skills 30% increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills Optional affixes: increased Attack Speed Accuracy Rating Elemental Resistances Bow Attacks fire an Additional Arrow |
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Has no Sockets (20-40)% increased Fire Damage +500 to maximum Life |
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Min. requirements: +80 to maximum Life +180% Total Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: Strength chance to Suppress Spell Damage increased Maximum Life +1 to Level of Socketed Active Skill Gems Armour |
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Min. requirements: +50 to maximum Life +60% Total Elemental Resistances 20% increased Movement Speed Optional affixes: Armour chance to Suppress Spell Damage Ignites you inflict deal Damage faster |
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Min. requirements: +60 to maximum Life +60% to Elemental Resistances +300 Accuracy Rating Optional affixes: Fire Damage over Time Multiplier Dexterity Armour |
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+(25-35) to Strength +(70-85) to maximum Life +(20-40)% to Fire Resistance +(20-40)% to Cold Resistance 1% of Attack Damage Leeched as Life against Chilled Enemies Ignites you inflict with Attacks deal Damage 35% faster Deal no Physical Damage |
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Min. requirements: +70 to maximum Life +60% to Elemental Resistances 35% increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills Optional affixes: Armour increased Maximum Life |
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Min. requirements: +50 to maximum Life +50% to Elemental Resistances +15% to Damage over Time Multiplier Optional affixes: +1 to Level of all Fire Skill Gems +1 to Level of all Dexterity Skill Gems Non-Channelling Skills have -7 to Total Mana Cost (crafted) |
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Recommended Anointments: Searing Heat Prismatic Skin Explosive Impact Arsonist |
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Min. requirements: +60 to maximum Life +60% to Elemental Resistances +200 Accuracy Rating Optional affixes: Curse Enemies with Flammability on Hit Fire Damage Leeched as Life increased Fire Damage Non-Channelling Skills have -7 to Total Mana Cost (crafted) |
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Recommended affixes: |
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(50-30)% reduced Totem Damage Totems fire 2 additional Projectiles |
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(4-6)% increased maximum Energy Shield (4-6)% increased maximum Life (4-6)% increased maximum Mana <Two or Three random aura modifiers> |
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Recommended affixes: 1 Added Passive Skill is Fan the Flames 1 Added Passive Skill is Wasting Affliction 1 Added Passive Skill is Blowback 1 Added Passive Skill is Burning Bright 1 Added Passive Skill is Exposure Therapy |
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+50% to Fire Resistance 20% less Fire Damage taken (125-150)% increased Charges per use (60-40)% less Duration (10-20)% increased Area of Effect during Flask Effect Skills fire 2 additional Projectiles during Flask Effect |
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Onslaught +90 to Maximum Charges Recharges 5 Charges when you Consume an Ignited corpse (175-200)% increased Charges per use Enemies Ignited by you during Flask Effect take (7-10)% increased Damage Veiled Suffix <One of the three modifiers> |
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Suggested Flasks:
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If you have any other build requests please leave that in the comments below. We are always open to suggestions and constructive feedback.
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