[3.6] Vowel's Crit Storm Brand Elementalist - Flaskless Uber Elder

Deathless Shaper Video

Simple Forge of the Phoenix Clear

Simple Lair of the Hydra Clear

Slower Clear. Less Defensive compared to Storm Brand. Damage is slower and less responsive. Damage is higher. But area covered is lower. Storm Brand does everything except damage better.

Super Fast
Very Tanky (enough to tank Shaper Slam)
Variety of ways to gear
Lots of ways to improve gear/build
Easy to start up on a budget
Very good Single Target DPS with Lightning Spire Trap
Excellent AoE DPS with Storm Brand
Brainless
Flexible

Storm Brand needs LS to help Single Target when not geared.

Lightning Spire Trap can sometimes not activate if a mob moves.

Not invincible

https://pastebin.com/a89peFib

Important to Note - does not calculate Storm Brands 50% more damage on branded targets , does not also take into account -9% Enemy lightning resistance for my Helmet.

Helm - I have enough Resistances everywhere. The only things I'm looking for are Life and Mana for Survivability. However with Fossil Crafting and using a Resonator and Metallic Fossil you can craft a helm just like mine. It gives you the chance at getting the Fossil Modifier "Nearby Enemies have -9% to Lightning Resistance. A major boost in damage if you're close all the time like we are. Other than this stat, again. You want to prioritize Life>Resistances>Mana>Everything else. Ideally - you also want to have a Storm Brand Enchant. I prefer the 18% Chance to Chain, but 12% Penetration works too. The Chain is better for clearing, and in some situations better in single targets. This build has enough Penetration so take the Chain one if you can. This helm can take as little as 2 chaos to 1 exalt to craft depending on your look plus the cost of the Enchant. it cost me roughly 40c in total (30 for the enchant early on in the league and 10c in crafting costs)

Amulet - I like survivability - the biggest stat to look for is an Incursion Suffix known as Of Puhuarte this modifier gives us +(46–48)% to Lightning Resistance and 0.4% of Lightning Damage Leeched as Life. I bought my Amulet for 1 Chaos - You want to look for Amulets with another Resistance, any Damage Mods (Cast Speed/Spell Damage/Lightning Damage) and ideally Life and Mana. If you don't have one of these mods, don't be afraid to just craft one of them to fill up the stats. it's difficult finding a good amulet but generally the most important stat is just Lightning Damage Leeched as Life.

Chest Piece - You don't need a Caracass Jack - A Tabula Rasa or Rare 5L/6L can easily get you to level 90. I went to level 88 before swapping out from my 5L (which cost 1c). I used a 4L storm brand until level 84. As far as chest pieces go, you can do whatever you want. If you want Damage go Carcass Jack, if you want Defense go Loreweave. If you have a really nice Triple Res 6L Chest go that instead. This is the most flexible slot. You could even go Cloak of Defiance. If you go for a Rare look for Life>Resistances>Mana

Gloves - I use a Pseudo-6L in my Shaper Gloves. This gloves cost me 1c. The important thing to note is not to be intimated. Trappers love gloves for the stat that gives +1 Traps Deployed, generally speaking, those gloves cost a lot of chaos. But because my gloves don't have that don't be afraid. You want to look for any extra 2L in stats that can supplement Lightning Spire Trap. Faster Casting and Trap and Mine Damage are really cheap to find in Combination, the next important stat of course is Life and Resistances. My resistances were capped so I craft Mana on mine. Again, these gloves are really cheap.

Boots - Nothing Fancy. You want Life and Mana and Movement Speed and Resistances. Prioritize Life>Movement Speed>Resistances (if you need them), otherwise Mana. For enchants get Leech if you've killed Recently or Penetration if you haven't killed Recently. Took me 20 Lab Runs for this Enchant.

Belt - Rare Stygian Prioritizing the Following. Life> Resistances > Mana - Any other stat is a bonus, if you can get Flask Effect/Duration/Reduced Charges used those are nice too. You Could even craft Movement speed. I choose to Craft mana for a larger effective health pool

Weapon - Prior to my current weapon I craft using Essences - otherwise get a Shaper Sceptre with Elemental-> Chaos damage and multimod for Spell Crit chance

Rings - Life > Resistances > Mana > Mana Regen - If you have sufficient Resistances and Mana Regen then Life > Resistances=Damage > Mana
For this reason I run a really shitty Opal Ring with Lightning Damage on it because I want to squeeze out as much damage as possible.

For my Shield I use a Magna Eclipsis - It gives +2 level of socketed gems. Using a level 7 brand recall and level 3 empower we now have a level 13 Brand Recall with a Cooldown time of 1.36 seconds. this makes the build faster to play in maps and helps with survivability a little. You can use Invictus Solaris or Vix Lunaris if you prefer not to bg ignited.
You can use a level 6 Brand Recall for 1.43 Second cooldown


For Abyss Jewels get More life. I run Onslaught on Kill for more Clear Speed. I run Phase on kill to move fluidly and survive more in Delves. I also use Hinder % chance on hit to slow mobs and bosses more easily.

As far as Abyss jewels goes - just get damage after everything else, like Penetration if you haven't killed, or % damage if you've killed, or added Lightning Damage to Spells.

Follow what's in my gear

Level with Freezing Pulse and get Frost Bomb at level 4 - smooth sailing until you get Storm Brand at level 12. While leveling you also to want to use another skill for more DPS against bosses - I recommend Blade Vortex.

Here's the tree for the first 47 Points

For Leveling you also want to pick up Flame Dash, Brand Recall and Arcane Surge ASAP in a 3L. This will help with mobility, mana regen and give you more damage overall. This is a permanent setup pretty much even deep into endgame until you get en Empower level 3. For Auras I just used Herald of Thunder and Wrath

At Level 28 you'll want to pick up a Lightning Spire Trap, helps single Target immensely. Run it in a 4L. More sockets you have while leveling more smoother this build becomes.

Links while leveling are

"

Storm Brand - Controlled Destruction - Elemental Focus - Added Lightning Damage

This is until level 31 where you get your Ascendancy first Ascendancy - Shaper of Desolation. At this point , replace Elemental Focus for Lightning Penetration. At level 38 you Replace Added Lightning Damage for Concentrated Effect.

Your new 4L at level 38 is

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Storm Brand - Controlled Destruction - Concentrated Effect - Lightning Penetration

If you can get a 5L or 6L (Tabula Rasa) - You can do

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Storm Brand - Controlled Destruction - Concentrated Effect - Lightning Penetration - Faster Casting - Added Lightning Damage

It's important to note this is the pure leveling setup. I personally take Hypothermia and Added Cold damage later on for survivability in maps.

Tree at 84 Points

This is pretty much the endgame tree. At this point you can decide what you want more, life, damage utility.

Eventually you'll respec to Crit.

This is the final Tree
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.6.0/AAAABAMCABzcEFiXLYPzCPRZ848arJeUb7zq323Q9WyMjmRMi8BmyL_DCSaVZlQC4_Id7-uhLyoTBLNVS4w2rhK1SK6zBUJJUcrycWlJsoUylS65Ar6KRZ1_xmaeGjiCmwQHpAXfsF8qES0-ZTLRkFVwUmHiB6Vd8h2DghDr7pMnHRQWb88avKpqQxa_RlLw1WKsbAuxNgbnLJww-FBC8B-J09WmwxN8g0yzQZYYXTBbZJ2P-uv1Jy_8TElPIvQ6WJ2qdhGu_zrYTq4fArmTRUf-szY9cg90pe9LEZafSJrg6-RtGZD6Bx6D2_rSU1LQH2t6ahtTjVorKgulZ_emrfFTNeNqVcY2xbb6ogA=






For Ascendancy take

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Shaper of Desolation
Beacon of Ruin
Pendulum of Destruction
Mastermind of Discord

In that Order

For Bandits - Kill all for the 2 Skill Points

For Pantheons I use Soul of the Brine King and Soul of Shakari for mapping