Jihoko's "Elemental Dominator" (Low-Life Dom Blow) Safe & Quick Boss Kills! w/vids

The inspiration for this build came from the elemental animator builds. I'd seen dominating blow builds before, but the only ones I had seen focused on scaling the physical damage and using the minions more as meatshields than a main DPS source. I thought it would be pretty fun (and effective) to scale the damage using elemental damage auras (wrath/anger). That way, I wouldn't be dependent on the mob's base damage. They could be pitiful skeles and still hit like trucks if they're getting buffed by boosted wrath/anger, haste, and my gems (minion damage, faster attacks, multistrike, etc.).

I first did the build on Invasion, using eldritch battery to support the insane mana cost. I had 500 mana/sec on that character and it was a lot of fun, but eventually I ripped due to carelessness. I decided to reinvent the build on standard, selling a bunch of valuable gear from previous HC leagues to obtain a 6-link shav's and a soul taker in standard. That way, I could do the build as low-life, run a bunch more auras, have higher eHP, and get the blood-rage bonus among other things.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgAABkkIZw48DkgQexEvEZYTbBRxFSAXLxg8GYYZihpsGo8c3B0UHaodviSLJ-0o-imlKk0rCizpL288jj0PPydCo0NjRnFHBk4qVdZXyVj1WW1Z81uvXIpfal-YY0Nk52aeb55wu3FNcql2CHzZf8aApILHgwmIQIhrj0aTJ5M6mZqaz5u1na6dxJ_LoqOmrKcIrEesqrQMtMW297cxuJO9J746wBrBAMHzwuzDOsT2ykrT-9kT2xrdDeGI44TqGOq66yzrY-vu8Xby4fPd9Uv22vcy98H46_no-tL7CQ==

As you can see, we grab every reduced reserved aura node, zealot's oath, iron reflexes, unwavering stance, some minion nodes, a solid amount of %ES, and resolute technique. I am very happy I was able to fit as much into the build as I did considering the variety, and can't really imagine changing a thing. Sure, I don't have "all" the aura nodes (missing a couple aura effect nodes) but that is a sacrifice I had to make in order to fit everything.

MF Gear/Alternate Gear:


Fun facts:
A surprising amount of this gear is self-found. I crafted/found the gloves, unset ring, belt, coral, and ammy myself. Most were from alchs that I then exalted. I alch a LOT of gear :).

The Shavronne's color combination actually isn't ideal. I'd like to have RRRRRB or RRRRBB, but I decided after hitting 5 off-color that it was close enough. If I could, I'd probably swap out faster attacks for weapon elemental damage, minion speed (an extra 60% movement speed is pretty sick for clear speed), or even try out 20/20 added lightning for shock stacks.

Q: Can this build do Atziri?

A: In its current form, probably not. I did not design the build for Atziri, I designed it to have a ton of fun and to explore the limits of dominating blow. Due to the skill's nature, it probably wouldn't work for the final Atziri fight. I am sure I could take down the first and second bosses very easily by gathering an army in the connecting zones, but the Atziri fight is so long due to the animations that the army I'd built up would likely expire before the fight was over. I don't think the random miscreations in the add phase would be enough, but they could be! Now that I've reached my first goal of making a build that can take down any map boss in the game, I'll start working on how to tailor it for Atziri soon :). I have a few ideas...

Q: Can this build be used for MF?

A: Yes! In fact, I had MF gear on in at least one of the boss videos. I swap out rainbows for wondertraps, and my WED jewelry for MF jewelry. Since my main attack's DPS is unimportant for the most part (just takes a bit longer to get things rolling, but after that it's irrelevant) and my minions add a lot of survivability, it's still very effective even with MF gear on. I can fairly easily get 100 IIQ and 200 IIR.

Q: You have a 6-link Shav's and a Soul Taker. Why waste time with dominating blow when you could be running *insert OP low-life build*?

A: Because dominating blow is a lot of fun. Also, while other builds can do more DPS, the minions add a lot of tankiness and utility that some of those *insert OP low-life build* lack!

Q: Does this prove anything? Wouldn't any build do well with a shavronne's and a soul taker?

A: Not really. Anyway, as I mentioned above, I first did the build on Invasion as a life/EB build. Was it *as* powerful? No, but it was still very good. Dominating blow is a powerful skill if you scale the minion damage with wrath/anger, regardless of whether you have a Shav's and Soul Taker.