R.I.P. [2.6] Explosive Arrow - Elementalist Build Guide (multi class + version, in depth theory)

As an Elementalist, do we run Purity of Elements, or Purity of Fire? I like the mtx of the elements and tbh i only use it for the swag visual :). I guess PoR would be even more beneficial against reflect?

We don't need any purity aura as an elementalist. You can use Purity of Elements if you really want but a rare ring will be much better for the slot as it provides life. Maybe you can use Purity of Elements for elemental weakness maps.

I would only recommend using Purity of ice for the Hydra guardian fight.

A single reflect mob is not an issue with elementalist unless you use 12 or more grand spectrum jewels and also in a -max map or on shocked ground or cursed with elemental weakness,...

I see thanks for the clarification.

So I noticed that you don't have a lot of accuracy on your gear. I was wondering how much accuracy you have right now at your level, or since EA explodes on terrain you're not worried that much about it? Seems that the accuracy you're relying on is just that from your passives.

If accuracy isn't important I'd really like to know your reasoning, nice build by the way! Thanks.

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Greengroove wrote:

We don't need any purity aura as an elementalist. You can use Purity of Elements if you really want but a rare ring will be much better for the slot as it provides life. Maybe you can use Purity of Elements for elemental weakness maps.

I would only recommend using Purity of ice for the Hydra guardian fight.

A single reflect mob is not an issue with elementalist unless you use 12 or more grand spectrum jewels and also in a -max map or on shocked ground or cursed with elemental weakness,...

I have 11 gs jewels and get absolutely wrecked by elemental reflect.

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LuciferMorg3nstern wrote:

So I noticed that you don't have a lot of accuracy on your gear. I was wondering how much accuracy you have right now at your level, or since EA explodes on terrain you're not worried that much about it? Seems that the accuracy you're relying on is just that from your passives.

If accuracy isn't important I'd really like to know your reasoning, nice build by the way! Thanks.

I'm not sure if this would be considered good or bad for this build but I have 846 accuracy and have no issues clearing any content. PvP can be tricky but I rely on the aoe to kill people anyways and there is enough terrain not to worry.

Sure.

I have about 78% chance to hit but I could use the Ice golem that would also boost the accuracy a bit (84%). Honestly it feels just fine even without the golem.

Accuracy is not that important for EA. Don't get me wrong, of course the more you have the better. However we do attack very fast. That means that if the first arrow doesn't hit the target, the second one will for sure. For reference I have 3.39 attacks per second without frenzy.

The second reasoning is that if the arrow doesn't hit the 1st target in it's path It will hit the second target. If it also misses the second target then it will still hit the wall and explode there. You can't miss the wall. :)

Of course that only applies to indoor maps and packs of monsters. But if you fight against 1 solo boss you still get to shoot a lot of arrows and some of them will hit the mob. In most cases 1 explosion is all you need. For tough bosses you need more explosions. Unfortunately you have to make a compromise somewhere. Can't have it all.

You could always go RT. This is a good option in some cases. Especially for a Berserker or if you really have insane damage (many Grand Spectrum jewels). Resolute Techique will make your arrows unavoidable, but this way you can't do critical strikes. So in that case you can't get Elemental Overload (40% MORE damage). This is another compromise.

If the tree pathing allows you can take some notable nodes such as Precision and/or Versatility.
In the end there's options. You can use a rare helmet and get accuracy resists and life there but my Devoto also has 40% increased EA damage so that's something I didn't want to pass on. I also tried to get a rare Quiver. In theory accuracy should be available in that slot but I just didn't find one that was good for me (unfortunately). The +1 arrow corruption adds more than you may think. I tried to go back from +1 to a normal quiver and I can say that +1 is just so much better. My gloves actually have a lot of accuracy. I could also get accuracy from rings. However I'd rather have a good opal ring with life and lot of damage. Accuracy would just be a bonus, but not a necessity.

Btw: as Liptus said for PVP we relly on aoe explosions. The set up should be different than the PVE set up. RT may be more appealing for PVP. I also released a PVP match on Youtube.

@Liptus: You shouldn't have problems unless you stack 5 arrows and there are other factors that influence the reflected damage such as shocked ground, resistance not capped. Also what is your life pool and how much over capped fire resist do you have in your hideout?
If you want me to have a look please enable the characters tab. or you can also link me the gear etc.

I'm definitely stacking arrows lol. 143% but it could be a lot higher. I swapped out some gear for other random stats and could easily revert it. I just enabled the tab, only really have one character on this account and forgot it wasn't enabled.

Well 1st thing I saw is that you don't use Elemental equilibrium. Your ring adds fire damage attack so with this mod you can't use EE. The flat fire damage on the ring also doesn't help you at all. I took EE myself but if you don't really understand how it works maybe best if you don't take it.

The rings are not the greatest in general. The boots are ok-ish but having an es base with 9 life is a bit of a waste. But ok.

Since you do already have a lot of damage I suggest you to use some rare gloves instead of the Winds of change.

You can still augment and quality up some of your flasks.

You can also drop beacon of ruin now and start using the Elemental proliferation gem and get Pendulum of destruction ascendancy.

When mapping you should rarely use more than say 3 stacks at once.

Please note that if you have 143% fire resist in your hideout and you are running a red map with elemental weakness mod you actually have -34% fire resist from the map mod. So you actually have 49% of fire resist in red maps. In addition if you stand on shocking ground you take 50% increased damage. And if you are additionally cursed by Flammability you loose even more resistance to fire. In that case it can go really bad really quick. Say you make a critical strike. If you don't have a LOT of life you can easily rip your self.

http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Elemental_Weakness#Elemental_Weakness_in_maps
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Shock

Some solution can be to use the Ruby flask or to not stack too much arrows if not needed.

Thanks for the criticism.

I've updated accordingly, but could probably still do better on the rings. I'm sitting at 240% fire resistance now though.

Edit: Changing gloves made a noticeable difference, reverted back for now. Stacked fire damage on rings. 200% fire res now.

Sounds good. There's a lot of things that can be done in general. I have invested a lot but even for me there's still room to grow.