Elemental Archer

http://youtu.be/p-tfzZWj85M

So, this is pretty sloppy. It is also a good example of this build's strengths and weaknesses. It's great at zipping through maps and clearing trash fairly efficiently. But, once I get to the boss, it's terribly arduous working him down. Only through copious use of blink / mirror arrow do I finally kill him. A good single target skill would be helpful, but I'm rather our of sockets right now.

This build takes its cues from other popular elemental builds (buzzsaw, et al.) by scaling elemental damage on the tree, running multiple elemental auras, and using gear with either flat elemental damage or weapon elemental damage on it. Pair this with high attack speed and the ability of Tornado Shot to hit the same target multiple times and you have the potential to do some serious damage.

I run Anger, Wrath, and Herald of Ice and Thunder as well as clarity to provided a huge chunk of my damage. My weapon is a tri-elemental thicket bow which I bought for 5 chaos. Elemental bows seem to have fallen out of favor somewhat so a pretty decent bow can be had for pretty darn cheap. I then used Vorici to 5 link it. The rest of your gear you're looking for more flat elemental damage or weapon elemental damage - either one works great. The passive tree provides nearly 200% increased elemental damage so a little flat damage can go a long way. My current tool tip DPS is about 5200 (I'm at level 84 right now) using GMP with auras at level 18.

As I right this, this damage is just ok. I have a few more damage nodes to take, my auras to level up, and gear to greatly improve - so there's some room to grow yet, but this is no one shot the screen crit build. I have no problem clearing maps with it but it can get a little dicey trying to take down tanky bosses with it. I gave an Atziri run a try, too, and the DPS was just not quite "there" yet. I ended up using up all my portals dying to the trio as I just couldn't kill them fast enough to keep myself out of trouble. I'm hoping that with a few more levels I can start to clear the Apex of Sacrifice effectively.

Defense is handled through a combination of armor and and arctic armor. It is not a great set up but evasion takes too much passive tree investment and MoM (though cloak of defiance) is out of the question as I don't have the mana pool for it. Thus, a couple thousand armor, and as high a level of arctic armor as I can get will have to do. I'm currently sitting at about 4200 life with a bit of room to grow here, too, as I have another life node to take and some pretty low life rolls on a few pieces of gear.

My gear is currently thus....


You're looking for armor for defense and ES to convert into mana to provide you with your mana regen for AA as well as the mana pool you need to run all your auras. My jewelry, especially, needs some work but I've been having a hard time finding the right combination of life, resists, mana regen, and accuracy that I need to make it work. The Doryani's belt is not necessary, and you give up a good chunk of life using it, but I wanted a little bit of leech. The lightninig version might be better as well but they cost twice as much so, for the sake of experiment, I'm trying the fire belt for now.

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgYABLMKmw18D6sWbxa_Fy8YXRmKGjgabBqPG_Ec3B2qJKomlScvKPotRy2DNuk870PIRXxFnUZxRtdJsUp9TwRQQlM1U1JVS1XWVylXyVfiW6Bh4mTnZp5noGjycLtxhXfleOt8Dn11fll-x3_GgKSCHoKbgwmHdohCjDaMdpBVkyeWdJcGl5ea4Ju1na6ePKIApwinVbFCtAy0OLaGuJO748AawcXEotN-18_audrd2wvhc-GI42rjn-UZ5YvnCuq66-7sGOw47SDveu-I8B_22vk3-tL7Cfv1_MX-ug==

I have a few levels to go before I hit this tree exaclty, but this is my goal.

Starting as a Shadow, you'll want to level all the way through normal difficulty using elemental spells. I used the popular combination of fire trap and lightning tendrils but one skilled in the art will see the numerous other options available to them.

Once I hit Cruel difficulty I took Tornado Shot as the Enemy at the Gate quest reward and I made the switch. The easiest way to get going is to buy a Stormcloud bow as your beginning elemental weapon. They're dirt cheap and provide excellent early game DPS for this build. Make sure you have a 4L available somewhere on your gear and set yourself up with TS - WED - LMP - Added Lightning. With a 5th link I added Faster Attacks but Added Cold could be a good option too - I just liked the feel of the high attack speed.

In terms of filling out the tree I began through the Shadow elemental nodes then went down through blood siphon and coordination. I then went to the melding and quick recovery hybrid life wheels for more survive-ability. After this I did a bunch of "traveling" getting myself set up to take a bunch of the aura nodes in quick succession. Once I got to cruel I took many of the aura nodes on the right side of the tree and went down through the Ranger section, taking life, accuracy and attack speed nodes. The Ranger section is a bit of a compromise - I need a lot of Dex and I don't get enough without spending some points in the Ranger section. The route I took seemed like a good way to get a chunk of dexterity as well as a bunch of other good nodes. A thinking man, though, could probably find equally efficient ways to get their dex requirements met.

I took Eldritch Battery at some point late in cruel and then spent all of Merciless and end game filling out the Templar section of the tree. It may well be easier to level as a templar but the lack of dexterity early in the tree, and the fact that you don't get a lot of the gems you need as quest rewards makes this unfeasible as an early league character. Later in the league, though, it might be ideal.