[LLD PvP] The Pantsless Elemental Bower

I played alot of pvp towards the start of S1, but trailed off after the holidays ended and real life started happening again. However, I did manage to net a good number of demi's, mostly from FFA events. I was only able to play in one swiss event, but I went 7-1 in that event and ranked 5th.

As we all know, gear is basically the most important part of a pvp build. Admittingly, my gear isn't super-optimal, but works pretty well.



Available swaps:

Barrage is a very interesting swap-in for nado shot. It has the power to 1-2 shot almost anyone. However, it is very slow and hard to land. The only good time I can think of to actually use it is against a molten-striker who's trying to all-in you. You can get an easy kill for one round. Any decent player will figure out how to dodge it though, so I don't recommend continuously using it.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgUABLMJqhhdGjgnLzKJRtdXKVfiWfNo8nGFcql35XzZgpuLjJBVogCsqq3xsULAGsBmwJrZ_OFz7DjtIPAf8xH3Mvnd

In general this build is pretty straightfoward and you have two main abilities: Tornado Shot and Blink Arrow. My typical approach is to cast 1-2 auras. Run up, and namelock the opponent. I generally move using "bullet hell" principles: don't move unless you have to. If they seem to be hitting you fairly hard, or they're throwing traps at your feet, move a little bit. A little bit of movement can mitigate alot of damage. This build can simply all-in most opponents, but for those that it can't, blink arrow is the best way to mitigate damage. Don't bother with tricks like bear traps or mirror arrow too often, though I do keep them around. Just rain down constant heavy damage onto your opponents with nado shot until they die.

Against a melee character, the best thing to do is to avoid EVERYTHING. This is primarily done by well-timed blink arrows and the occasional mirror arrow. Smoke mine should always be down and one should always be in line of sight of it. A single flicker->cyclone can kill you.

Against another bower, you may be able to just all-in them. If not, there's not a whole lot you can do besides more blink-mirror tricks.

Against a caster, you also may be able to just all-in them. The exception to this is a freeze-pulser who wants to flicker/leap in for heavy shotgunning. If this is the case, do NOT let them close to you. Always be ready to blink around and smoke mine.

Elemental Weakness: As you may have noticed, I don't run elemental weakness. This is mainly because it was way overkill against people I don't need it against, and didn't do anything against people I needed it against. Temporal chains is a much safer and surer choice. I have tested extensively using a CoH Mali's, but in the end, I decided that it wasn't useful.


Armor: I was young and foolish when I crafted my armor set. I believe evasion gear would have been much better, but alas, I couldn't afford to craft new gear, so I stuck with armor.