[2.2] Aschere's Elementalist Crit Vaal Molten Shell (VMS)

* Insane AOE DPS and extremely fast. Regularly carry full parties in T10+ maps killing packs of mobs in milliseconds.
* For Solo/Two Person party you can clear T10+ maps using nothing but whirling blades.
* Can burn down single targets such as bosses extremely fast. Today I did a deathless T13 Excavation Twin boss (6 total bosses w/ Phylacteral Link), ~70% increased monster HP, 90% added cold damage, Monsters poison, Increased AOE, with Zana Onslaught
* Works on a reasonably low budget (~1ex of gear)
* Six link is completely unnecessary as 5-link destroys all content
* Reflect proof with some investment
* Can run all mods although blood magic is tougher and no regen requires flask change out.
* Tanky through many layers of defense. While this build is lower on health, it has IC up about 40% of the time, 4 endurance charges, fortify constantly up, massive leech due to Warlord's and huge crit damage, mind over matter, arctic armour, additional leech flask, and good armour (through VMS and rares).
* Colorful as you have three frenzy charges, six power charges, and four endurance charges.
* 28-second VMS
* VMS is not computer intensive like discharge is even though they look similar. The main lag you'll experience is from mass amounts of mobs dying at the same time, but thats not the fault of the build.

* Momentum based. You can't slow down and stop to pick up loot as you need to continually fuel your Vaal souls. Likewise you might have your party members telling you to slow down.
* Not suited for Atziri/Uber farming, although I'm sure you could easily run Atziri.
* Party members might hate you because they don't get to do anything other than pick up loot as they run behind you.
* Slow at first when you build up your initial souls
* Can have some downtime on maze-like maps in particular if you lack a Sacrifical harvest (not required but nice to have)
* Can have tough time on bosses if you didn't save your VMS for the boss.
* Not amazing options for soul gathering. Either you need to manage weapon swaps or use a four link.
* Requires level 65 to use required unique. Requires two ascendancies before it can reliably kill larger packs as it needs the elemental proliferation from Elementalist tree.

Like most VMS builds, this uses Scold's bridle combined with a fast casting spell (incinerate). Every individual cast of incinerate will "hit" your character which in turn procs VMS allowing you to spam out massive amounts of damage.

There are several ways to build VMS, each with advantages and disadvantages. This particular build is critical strike based such that you set up a scenario such that VMS will almost always crit. This in turn leads to massive poison stacks and very large proliferating burns that take out the remainder of the packs. Mobs all get shocked, ignited, and chilled thanks to your ascendancy.

This build runs warlord's mark/blasphemy which allows for constant life/mana leech along with four endurance charges. Combined with a CWDT/Increased Duration/Immortal call and skill tree nodes for increased duration I find that Immortal call is active about 30-40% of the time. With lower armour gear you'll actually self-proc immortal call through your own damaging abilities. As you gear up unfortunately it will stop self-procing but will commonly go off as you sprint into the middle of packs. When IC isn't up, you almost always have four endurance charges up.

For survivability it runs MOM, fortify, Endurance charges/ICs, high armour, leech, and optionally a chaos golem.

The general gameplay of the build is:
1) Gather initial souls using your preferred skill. I use firestorm, but there are many options you can use (see below under skill gems)
2) Try to have full (6) power charges up before casting VMS
3) Pop your diamond flask and cast VMS.
4) Whirling blades through packs killing everything
5) If high health mobs aren't dying by whirling blades alone, tap your incinerate button to dish out extremely high amounts of DPS
6) Drink a Atziri's flask for additional leech and damage when heading into a dangerous pack/situation.
7) Repeat steps 3-6

A scold's bridal is required for every VMS build that I've seen. This build is no exception. There is no substitution. This equipment is necessary to let you self-proc VMS.

While not required, it is advisable to pick up a pair of Consuming darks. They will allow you to play without worrying about elemental reflect. If you are running on a budget, you can increase your DPS even higher by running a good rare critical strike dagger but will need to be cautious of ele reflect. Even if you have consuming dark's you can run a good critical strike dagger setup in your weapon swap for even more damage... but I found it was completely unnecessary as the base build does enough damage even in 6 man parties.


The next item is one that many people question until they actually see the build in action. This amulet will outperform most critical strike amulets out there and allow you to generate power charges/frenzy charges without the need to worry about using another skill. Voll's/Skyforth/PCoC is often used for power charge generation which is fundamentally hard with VMS & incinerate as you will always be criting or never crit (see discussion on VMS below). Victario's will let you always stay topped off on power and frenzy charges. You will be killing and moving through the map so fast that you will rarely worry about them expiring except on the most maze-like maps. You lose out in the abilities on the amulet, but the charge generation is so powerful in this build. If you don't have or can't afford a Victario's, you will need to either manually generate power charges or not spec into power charges in the skill tree until you get one. You don't have to have full power charges for this build to work, but it makes it smoother to play.

Crit rings and armour based rares with life and resistances. Evasion works as well, but it is important to have some armour to negate any self-damage from scold's. Small hits are mitigated incredibly well from armour and you'll find that the self-damage is practically unnoticeable.

Energy shield is horrible for this build. Since you will constantly be taking damage (every time you whirling blades you hit yourself for ~1 health or so) your energy shield will never recharge. Avoid any ES pieces aside from the Scold's Bridle.

If you want an easier time rolling the sockets on your chest, you might want to get a hybrid armour/evasion based piece like the following:


Mana usually isn't a problem if you're running an unleveled incinerate. I do have a fair amount of mana regen on one of my rings, but it can be more viewed as life-regen for MOM. The build runs just fine without any mana regen on your rings though. Your unused mana pool is mostly just an additional life pool in this build.

x1 sacrificial harvest. I've tried the build with zero, one, and two sacrificial harvests and found one to be the sweet spot as it helps the build prevent any downtime. I played the build through many levels without any sacrificial harvest and it isn't required if you're looking to either try the build out or run it on a budget. However, you may sometimes have a little downtime in between packs if you aren't running a very linear map like Gorge.

x1 Vaal Sentencing. I highly recommend getting at least one. This will help push your VMS crit chance high enough that it will very rarely not crit.

For my third jewel I just run a 7% life/crit chance jewel

The diamond flask is extremely important for this build. See section on "Vaal Molten Shell Critical Strike". Apart from that I like to run 1 crit recharge health flask , movement, Atziri's for tough situations/added damage for bosses, and a bleed flask.

Primary skill 5 Link:
5-link
Vaal Molten Shell - Increased duration - Increased AOE - Increased Critical Strikes - Void Manipulation (if running consuming darks) / Added Chaos Damage

I found that a five link was more than enough damage for T15 map content in a full party but if you're looking for a six link then I'd probably put in added chaos damage. If you only have a four link, then drop void mani/added chaos.

Note, a quality vaal molten shell does not benefit this build due to the Ascendancy bonuses. I'm only using a 20%q one since I originally built this build up with the intent of going Occulist.

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Primary activating skill:
3-link
Unleveled Incinerate - Faster Casting - Quality Culling Strike

Incinerate is the fastest casting spell in the game allowing for the most scold bridle procs per second. Faster casting and culling strike improve the overall cast speed allowing for even more procs. Note that the culling strike needs to have quality in order to gain the cast speed increase. Echo, while increasing the cast speed, will not benefit this build here as the second echo does not proc Scold's bridle since the mana cost is 0.

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Movement:
3-Link
Whirling Blades - Fortify - Faster Attacks

Best movement skill in the game combined with the ability to grant near-perma fortify is amazing. You'll constantly be diving into the packs so fortify will almost always be active.

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Defensive:
2-Link
Blasphemy - Warlord's mark

4-Link
Lvl 1 Cast When Damage Taken - Increased Duration - Immortal Call - Ice Nova

1-Link
Arctic Armour

Warlord's mark will give you constant leech and endurance charges to help reduce the overall damage you'll sustain. Additionally, it will allow IC to repeatedly proc for close to 2 seconds. Ice nova is just a personal preference for some chill effect and entirely unnecessary. Feel free to stick what you want in for the fourth link. Do NOT use normal molten shell as it will override your vaal molten shell.

Arctic armour just helps as another layer of defense.

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Soul gathering:
4-Link
Firestorm - Spell Echo - Fast Casting - Conc Effect

There are many options you have for a soul gathering skill. You can either put the skill into your last four link as I did, or put it in a two-handed weapon swap. If you run it on the weapon swap you can run something with more links on a staff such as Sire of Shards or Pledge of Hands. I personally chose firestorm due to the AOE damage, allows me to stay reflect worry-free and helps with strong boxes. It's a bit bad for parties, but once you get your initial souls generated I rarely find myself casting firestorm.

Flameblast is another popular option, but mechanically I personally dislike due to the delay in pushing/releasing. Some people also use the same flameblast to proc scold's but I found incinerate to be much quicker and smoother feeling.

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Other
1-Link
Flame Golem or Chaos Golem

The effect of the golem will be doubled due to our ascendancy so its important to bring one. Both golems will increase the damage you dish out. If you want more survivability you can opt for the chaos golem, but since I run softcore I use flame.

I ran an Ice Golem when I was leveling through the 70s as I didn't have the best gear or great critical strike chance. However, you'll lose out on the added damage from your final ascendancy if you run an ice golem. I'd only recommend it initially as you build your gear and level up some.

https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAMCAQGRA-4EBwSzBUIHHg5ID8QRLRGWFr8YXRo4GoEc3B2-IG4mlScvKPopTyoLLJwtHy3SMtEzhzWSOtg7fDwFPV8_J0GHQZZEq0VHRZ1GUklRSshMs1AwUXRSU1NSVUtVrlXGWW1d8l-YYeJknWZUaPJremu3bqpwUnyDf8aCEIKbgseD24UyhXuFfYnTjDaPGo-mj_qQVZUglS6XlZf0mjua4J_fogCio6aZrfGus7Xytz64k7jKwGbB88i_zzLQH9D11AfVpti9217cjd-w6-7r9ew47TzvfO_r8B_w1fId8kX56PxM_go=

I will continue taking life nodes as I level up through the 90s.

Witch - Elementalist

Take Shaper of Desolation first for Shocking, Chilling, and, most importantly, igniting all enemies
Next take Beacon of Ruin for free elemental proliferation
Lastly take Liege of Primordial for added damage / survivability depending upon if you are running a fire or chaos golem.

Many people don't realize that VMS will either always crit of never crit. When you initially cast VMS it will roll for crit chance. Every proc during that skill duration (~28 seconds) will be based upon the initial roll. As such, when you cast VMS its important to try to have your power charges up and to always drink your Diamond flask.

This also means you won't be limited by a 95% crit chance since you only need to make sure to drink the Diamond flask every 20-30 seconds.

I'm currently sitting at 78% crit chance with my power charges. With a diamond flask that means I will crit 95.16% of the time. As I continue to gear up the chance will grow even further.

Normal - Oak for life
Cruel - Either Alira for cast speed or Skill Point. I personally took cast speed.
Merc - Alira for power charge.

I researched a variety of builds. I'm by no means the first person to run a Scolds/VMS/Consuming dark build as there are many builds out there using this combo of equipment. Credit goes to whoever originally came up with the concept (whoever you may be). I do think that this build differs from everything else I've seen in the way that I've setup the charges, layered defenses, and the fact that it's crit based so I hope it was an interesting read that has it's own unique flavor to it.