PVE/PVP - Elemental Equilibrium Bow Templar - with Iron Grip / Iron Reflexes.

After Receiving a few praises in how efficient my build was, I shared it with a few players and they suggested I post it to the Build of the Week forum.

I saw BOTW #7 and thought it was a great idea but felt it could be improved a fair amount (My opinion anyways). The only character I've been making since I've started playing has been the templar, I've really been trying to find his roll and his strengths throughout my time with POE. As a projected Melee/Caster hybrid he has access to 2 Keystones close to him, lots of Elemental Damage (With weapons also), good access to Life & Resistances - And a signature dual totem notable passive.

So with the huge 50% Elemental Damage with weapons cluster (Catalyze) & 3 more elemental damage on his INT path, I figured I would start with his strength - Elements.

Since Resolute Technique isn't too compatible with elements - Status Ailments can only be affected with critical strikes or nodes that give %X chance to inflict ailments - I looked towards Elemental Equilibrium.

Past experiences with E.E. have been quite interesting, love the mechanics, love the idea. I've found there is limited play styles attached with this skill.

1 - Hit a target with 1 element then alternate between a different element and the previous. I found this method a little slow for my liking, it requires lots of management and focus to make sure targets are hit by the alternating skills so you may receive the damage bonus.

2 - Hit a target with 2 elements (EG: Cold to fire, Wrath aura with Glacial Hammer, etc.) dropping the last element's resistances to -50%. This was my choice when building this character, I figured "Why not use the keystone to its full potential?".

Which brings me to my build.

Elemental Equilibrium Bow Templar.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irq-u9WXHvs&feature=youtu.be

With lots of synergies and tons going on behind the scenes, this build took me well over 2 months to plan and figure out how to get my survival, damage, etc. on an acceptable level for end game and PVP.

Uses Elemental Hit and 2 Elemental Hit Totems to take care of targets. Both are linked with Chain which wreak havoc on 2+ targets (Great vs. totem users in PVP). For Single bosses, 2 Diamond flasks are equipped and used to inflict shock stacks (Which go up quickly due to 6 arrows being fired simultaneously) and other status ailments. I have been able to drop Vaal Oversoul in merciless before he is even able to summon his first round of minions.

Note: I believe this will be fixed soon if it is not intended - when elemental hit is supported with chain, the arrows change element every time they leave the previous target. This creates mayhem in terms of resistance penalties with a possible 24 Chains in one given moment.


Passive Tree - Kill all bandits.

Level 1-31 - Going directly for E.E. first.


Level 61


Level 68 - Current level, updated often.


Keystones & Function of Stats

Strength : This provides bonus projectile damage, all important Life and helps meet requirements on certain gems.

Dexterity : This provides accuracy for PVE aswell as 1% Evasion per 5 Dexterity. This also helps meet equipment & requirements.

Intelligence: This provides mana, since skills used are mana heavy there can never be too much. However I've built this character around having just enough INT to level gems to maximum level.

- Elemental Equilibrium: After hitting the target with 2 elements the following hit - if it is the off element - will effectively deal 200% more elemental damage against a target with 75% resistances.

- Iron Grip: This applies all your strength bonus to projectile damage, which includes elements. Strength provides a 1% Bonus per 5 points - after all is said and done, this build sits around 200 strength points (Including gear) providing a 40% Increase to projectile damage for a single node.

- Iron Reflexes: Since there is a large life buffer, damage reduction was chosen in favor of evasion. Iron reflexes was 5 points away from where the build was going while being planned. I figured since evasion pieces are quite alot more abundant than high armor pieces I chose this passive. This also allows for a good amount of flexibility when choosing equipment, since defense type is no longer AS important allowing more focus on the actual modifiers.

Unique Items for the Build & Skill Setups

Note : DO NOT get any elemental damage mods other than lightning damage on gear - This will mess around with elemental equilibrium.

Weapon & Totems



Death's Harp is ideal for PVE as it provides a 100% Critical strike multiplier and a VERY important extra arrow. It has a perfect amount of attack speed as too not over drain the mana pool.

PVP/Swap : I haven't quite found one yet, but will be equipping Lioneye's Glare on swap. With it's 100% chance to hit and great attack speed will make ideal for PVP.

Elemental Hit supported with ranged attack totems, chain & faster attacks. Eventually I will be adding Weapon elemental damage when a 5L is achieved.

Chest Piece & Main attack



Since hybrids just received a boost I tried looking for a good 5L EVA/ARM since Iron Reflexes was taken.

Here I have added a Quality Additional Accuracy to my 5L to increase elemental ailments being inflicted by critical strikes. I also have it supported with Mana leech to help support the 80 mana cost per shot.

Boots & Auras (I)



Windscreams provide a perfect set of mods for the build aswell as being armour. 10% Elemental damage, 1X% Elemental Resistances and a very important ability to cast 2 curses on a target allow for great survival & damage.

Grace adds evasions which is converted to armour.
Clarity adds important Mana regen to the character - Depending on gearing stop this skill at level 10 - 15. Make sure you have enough of a Mana buffer..

I've been playing around with my aura setup, swapping out clarity for determination at the moment to allow me to face-roll white mobs while looking for maps.

So far Mana leech with Chained Elemental Hit holds very well and keeps me attacking constantly - Also determination's Mana cost becomes less than Clarity's after level 9 (With a Lv.16 Reduced Mana Cost support).

Gloves & Auras (II)/Phase Run


Wrath - a necessary skill for the build, this provides the potential -50% resistance on hit aswell as guaranteeing shock stacks when a critical strike lands. It also adds substantial elemental damage after all the increases.

Phase run... we'll leave it at that.

Jewelry



Dream fragments was a tough one, but it provides resistance, a very important 20% Mana & 50% Mana regeneration.


Helm & Curses


Elemental Weakness in conjunction with E.E. drop enemy resistances to a potential -100%, this causes the target to take a potential 400% more elemental damage.

Temporal Chains is used to slow tougher targets & bosses to a crawl while they are quickly picked apart.

Off-Hand & Belt


Flasks



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So this is my Bow Templar, I've been working on it quite some time and am glad to see it turning out even better than planned.

Sorry for the wall of text, but this is something that took me a good chunk of time and I'm proud of it! If you have any suggestions, feedback, constructive criticism or questions I'll be more than happy to take note, debate, learn and help as best I can.

I'll be editing the build as I go & as other player's throw me feedback/suggestion/criticism.

Thanks!

Suorouta

Here is a quick overview on what to look for on gear, I will split this into PVP & PVE.
Also you will find my original post Edits under gearing.

*Disregard resistances as item mods if you are fully capped.

PVP Gloves : Life, Attack Speed, High Defense, Resistance(s), Lightning Damage, Mana.
PVE Gloves : Life, Attack Speed, High Defense, Resistance(s), Accuracy, IIR/IIQ.

PVP Helm : Life, Resistance(s), High Defense, Mana.
PVE Helm : Life, Resistance(s), High Defense, Accuracy, IIR/IIQ, Mana.

PVP/PVE Boots : Windscream Unique Greaves.

PVP Chest : Life, High Defense, Resistance(s), Mana, Reduced Stun Duration.
PVE Chest : Life, High Defense, Resistance(s), Mana, Reduced Stun Duration.

PVP/PVE Belt : 30% Weapon Elemental Damage, Life, Resistance(s), Reduced Stun Duration, Mana.
*Either the Leather Belt or the Cloth Belt have been my preferences, however a Heavy Belt would work just as while due to Iron Grip.

PVP Ring : 30% Weapon Elemental Damage, Life, Resistance(s), Attack Speed, Mana Regeneration.
PVE Ring : 30% Weapon Elemental Damage, Life, Attack Speed, Mana Regeneration, IIR/IIQ.
*Dream Fragments for both PVP/PVE to stop from freezing & to support Mana Costs.
*Swap out the rare ring suitable to resistance needs.

PVP Off-Hand : 30% Weapon Elemental Damage, Life, Attack Speed, Crit. Chance, Lightning Damage.
PVE Off-Hand : 30% Weapon Elemental Damage, Life, Accuracy, Crit. Chance, Attack Speed.

PVP Amulet : 30% Weapon Elemental Damage, Life, Crit. Chance, Lightning Damage, Attack Speed.
PVE Amulet : 30% Weapon Elemental Damage, Life, Crit. Chance, Attack Speed, IIR/IIQ
*Try to aim for a Paua (Mana Regeneration) amulet.

PVP Bow : Lioneye's Glare.
PVE Bow : Death's Harp.



If anyone has suggestions/criticisms/feedback/questions about gear let me know!

Edit 05/12/12 - Patch 0.9.13i

-Added passive tree walk-through upon request & reposted old link due to passive tree reset.
-Currently working on aura selections (Swapping out Clarity).

Edit 07/12/12 - Patch 0.9.13i

-Fixed skill tree links.
-Included which course to take for the Bandits quest.
-Included when to stop leveling certain skills.

Edit 19/12/12 - Patch 0.9.13i

-Added a video of the build in play as requested.

Amm.... Elemental hit adds 3 different elements to your attack which ends up in "An attack carrying all three Elemental Damage types does not trigger Elemental Equlibrium."

And 1 off-topic question: A physical fire skill linked with Cold to Fire damage will deal only Fire damage if we're running Wrath aura which adds cold damage to all skills or there will still be cold damage on the skill? I suppose it does not convert 100% of cold to fire...

"

hellzer wrote:

Amm.... Elemental hit adds 3 different elements to your attack which ends up in "An attack carrying all three Elemental Damage types does not trigger Elemental Equlibrium."

And 1 off-topic question: A physical fire skill linked with Cold to Fire damage will deal only Fire damage if we're running Wrath aura which adds cold damage to all skills or there will still be cold damage on the skill? I suppose it does not convert 100% of cold to fire...

Only one of the elements of elemental hit is applied - it is randomly choosen... so using ele hit you get only 1 elemental damage type per shot (from ele hit, there can of course be other elemts from jewelery etc.)

"

- Iron Grip: This applies all your strength bonus to projectile damage, which includes elements.

No. it applies bonus damage only to projectiles which is the standard attack made by elemental hit , the added elemental damage is only affected by Weapon elemental damage mods and elemental damage mods ,so if you want to focus just on elemental damages you don't even need to carry about projectiles or bow damage.

"

hellzer wrote:

Amm.... Elemental hit adds 3 different elements to your attack which ends up in "An attack carrying all three Elemental Damage types does not trigger Elemental Equlibrium."

And 1 off-topic question: A physical fire skill linked with Cold to Fire damage will deal only Fire damage if we're running Wrath aura which adds cold damage to all skills or there will still be cold damage on the skill? I suppose it does not convert 100% of cold to fire...

Elemental Hit adds 1 of 3 random elements to the attack. This skill supported by Wrath (Which adds LIGHTNING damage) allows the potential -50% resistance penalty to occur.

Cold to fire is NOT a 100% conversion.

"

Sony_Black wrote:

Only one of the elements of elemental hit is applied - it is randomly choosen... so using ele hit you get only 1 elemental damage type per shot (from ele hit, there can of course be other elemts from jewelery etc.)

Correct :D.

"

Graiok wrote:

No. it applies bonus damage only to projectiles which is the standard attack made by elemental hit , the added elemental damage is only affected by Weapon elemental damage mods and elemental damage mods ,so if you want to focus just on elemental damages you don't even need to carry about projectiles or bow damage.

This is a misconception.
Iron Grip applies your 1% melee damage per 5 points to ALL projectile ATTACKS. This includes arrows. Since Elemental Hit is in the form of a 'projectile attack' that selects a random element upon being shot, the projectile in its entirety is affected.

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/13702/page/11

CNKalmah : How does Elemental Hit work with "Increased Projectile damage" ?

When used with a bow is the attack itself considered a projectile or just an elemental damage, is the arrow the only thing counted as a projectile in this scenario?

Mark_GGG : The damage was dealt by a projectile and is therefore projectile damage.

Belive me , i tested it the projectile damage of elemental hit is subdivided in 2 parts , the weapon damage and the added random elemental damage. if you increase projectile damage it will only increase the weapon damage part. do as you wish.

"

Graiok wrote:

Belive me , i tested it the projectile damage of elemental hit is subdivided in 2 parts , the weapon damage and the added random elemental damage. if you increase projectile damage it will only increase the weapon damage part. do as you wish.

Well, I'd like to believe you but I can't really take your word over one of the developers'.. Also you just contradicted yourself and proved my statement is true. I actually provided you with a link to the forum where I personally asked Mark how elemental hit works with Iron Grip when fired with a bow.


As you said - "2 parts, the weapon damage and the added elemental damage [from elemental hit]".

Here's how it actually works.

Elemental hit adds a randomized element and damage figure to our attack - In this case our attack is a projectile. Like you said the projectile is divided into 2 parts, the bow's physical damage & the added elemental damage (Also wrath if we want to count that aswell).

So since elemental hit is flying through the air in form of a projectile both the physical and added elemental aspects are affected by Iron Grip.

Thus, Iron Grip does work with elemental hit when fired from a bow.

If you still disagree the link is on my previous post, you can ask Mark (or any other Dev.) how it works.

Could you make a short video with this build?

"

hellzer wrote:

Could you make a short video with this build?

I'm actually hoping GGG will select this build for BOTW.. but I won't count on it too much :P.

My specs are terrible and the game sits at < 20 FPS with all graphics turned to minimum, I'm hoping to get a new computer sometime soon.

I may video my laptop with my phone and post it to youtube - I'll try it out and post a link!