[3.7] Storm Brand Elementalist. League Starter, Deathless Uber Elder.

Chill and shock both have a base duration of 2 seconds. Higher damage increases their effectiveness, not the duration.

I just wanted to pop in and say a quick thank you for this build.

I'd run the whole league (and gotten as far as I'd ever gotten) w/ Enki's self-cast Arc w/ LST in gloves, but just couldn't get Uber Elder down. I came across this build and realized that it slotted in with the ascendancies I already had.

I respecced and due to Malichai's Artifice, had to get new gloves and boots to fix my resists (for wise oak) but kept literally all the same gear for all else. I didn't even bother getting new jewels. I changed the bear minimum and tried to do it cheaply.

I killed Uber Elder for the first time ever, 3 sets later. I repeated it on my next set.

I'm in awe.

I felt like I was getting nowhere before I switched and it was night and day using your tree so...my sincere thanks for your simple and clear guidance.

Congrats on your uber elder kill.

Yeah the trouble with self cast arc (self cast most things) is you have to stand still to deal damage (and potentially even get animation locked if you're using spell echo). Brands are really amazing for uber elder because you can spend almost all of your time just doing the mechanics. With self cast builds you're always trying to time a window where you can push damage, and if you time it wrong, RIP.

Thanks again for this guide as well as your help! I looked at stormbrand to test out and burn some excess currency to end the league and had a blast in the process. Fast ez leveling through the story and an easy transition to maps. I was already running at t11 before finding this guide and switching over to it. Even with the 6l inpulsa this build isn't too spendy. That and boots where the only thing I had to drop more than 10c on. I had to resort to crafting experimentation to burn of my ex and I'm still ending the league with more than I'd like thanks to some lucky finds the last couple of days.

I might still run a cwc whispering ice ci occult again but it probably depends on currency, last league I had unnatural instinct drop on me in act 6 so I hit maps with a lot to spend. I can't expect anything like that this time so until I get to the typical currency farms I need something fairly easy to build cheep and I think I have my head around this one.

Thoughts on the crit nerf incoming?

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tragic_nate wrote:

Thoughts on the crit nerf incoming?

I guess the idea is to make elemental overload and controlled destruction have anti-synergy?

The 120% increased crit if you haven't crit recently labyrinth boot enchant should be enough to put ele overload uptime in fine shape. Probably doesn't hurt us much end game. While leveling / early game it means we can't use both controlled destruction and ele overload, which is annoying, but not a dealbreaker. Just use a different support until you get the boot enchant I guess. You could also get a single spell crit roll on one of your wands if you need a different boot enchant (leech or whatever).

Apparently we're also getting a nerf to storm brand damage. I guess we'll find out how severe that is tomorrow. If it is just something like 10% less damage, the build will be just fine. If it is more severe, then potential sadness.

I'm planning to build around one of the new skills for my 3.6 league starter, but once the new skill tree is out and PoB is updated with it, I will update the guide for those who want to start the league with storm brand (assuming they don't gut it).

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tragic_nate wrote:

Thoughts on the crit nerf incoming?

run second SB setup on swap to proc it w/o CD if you dont want to stop. Or orb of storm+ increase crit should work too, but you need to stop.

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Lightning Spire Trap
Now deals 14 to 43 Lightning damage at gem level 1 (from 17 to 51) and 195 to 585 Lightning damage at gem level 20 (from 217 to 652).
Now has an added damage effectiveness of 70% (from 85%).
Storm Brand
Mana Cost at gem level 20 is now 21 (was 20).
Now deals 2 to 7 Lightning damage at gem level 1 (from 3 to 8) and 75 to 225 Lightning damage at gem level 20 (from 97 to 290).
Now has an added damage effectiveness of 30% (from 35%).

So with this we lose about 10-15% dmg? It seems not to bad for me

Storm brand and lightning spire nerfs are both simple numerical adjustments, without a change to underlying mechanics. The build is still fine.

Storm brand lost ~22% base damage, and ~14% damage effectiveness. It stings, but you'll still clear packs with one brand recall with decent gear. You'll lean a bit more on lightning spire for bosses.

The advantages of this build have always been mechanical, rather than numerical. The damage was never breaking the bank compared to what other builds offered. With the mechanics of the build unchanged, it would take a pretty severe numerical nerf to kill it. This nerf is not that severe.

Once PoB has the new passive tree stuff I'll update the guide.

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magicrectangle wrote:

Once PoB has the new passive tree stuff I'll update the guide.

Be sure to record the numbers before and after the update. I heard someone mention that despite the direct nerf, there was an indirect buff somewhere else. Still need to go through the tree and other options to find where that might be.