[2.5/2.6] Beginner's Elementalist Dual Flameblast Totems

hello, I'm not a new player but I'm trying out this build after respeccing my old elementalist in standard.
here is my gear:



you can see the gem links inside the gear.

now, some considerations I've made. The build feels smooth and pretty tanky for mapping, with a bit slower clearspeed than other ones but definitely safer. You can place the totems anywhere to deal with bosses, essence monsters, beyond and breach monsters while standing away from danger, can deal with elemental reflect mods just recasting often the totems and it's not mana hungry as the selfcast version. I tried the yoji's version before, I have to say that this one it's way more safer.
But I have to say that, sadly, the only problem which comes with the endgame is that this build is life based, precising that the author did an amazing work, the fault is of the current state of the game, which penalize mechanics like life, evasion and armor, making energy shield or low life the only way to farm endgame bosses deathless and safely.
My elementalist in standard is life-based and every time I respec her it's like a challenge for me, to demonstrate that life versions are viable for endgame, but each time I feel discouraged.
I'm playing an essence drain ES based occultist in league, with 14k ES (she could go for 20k but I choose to prioritize damage) and as you know, ES recharge mechanic is almost unbeatable with Wicked Ward ascendancy. I did more times the 4 guardians, rare and corrupted, killed the shaper and uber atziri, the breachlords, vaal temple, and corrupted T15 maps feel like dried lake in most of the cases.
Yesterday I tried to do the same with my elementalist, and did a rare pit of the chimera map with dangerous mods like extra damage, monster life etc. The damage output with dual totems is perfectly fine even with extra life or resistances, but her survivability is terrible. I managed to kill the chimera with 3 deaths, maybe sometimes I screwed up but I'm experienced with the guardians. The fight itself is pretty smooth, you spam the totems and keep moving away from adds with lightning warp, you don't even need to recast orb of storms or golems as the damage is fine anyway. I died because I took a couple of hits from the chimera while searching for her in the fog. Speaking about the game mechanics in general, life regeneration is very slow compared to ES recharge, you have to hit life pots too frequently and they will run out of charges, my witch had 6500 life but no way to leech and you have to take unwavering stance if you don't want to be permastunned by big ones (even if you have armor).
It seems that GGG doesn't want us to play life based builds for the endgame, I'm sure that going CI with dual flameblast totems I could have 10k ES and safely farm the guardians.
Again, the current state of the game sucks, while the build is great and well balanced.
I could try to fight again the chimera replacing the flame golem with a stone golem to speed up the regen, but it won't be fast and tanky like the es recharge.
My character tab is public so you can view my tree, do you have any suggestion to improve the survivability staying life based?

I'm having trouble with Merciless Ascendancy trial, what sort of defense/life etc do you guys recommend to get through it smoothly?

Best run I've got to the last stage but died at like 10%, and considering how long it can take to get there I'd rather prepare myself adequately first.

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VforVichard wrote:

I'm having trouble with Merciless Ascendancy trial, what sort of defense/life etc do you guys recommend to get through it smoothly?

Best run I've got to the last stage but died at like 10%, and considering how long it can take to get there I'd rather prepare myself adequately first.

speaking about the setting I use for uber lab farming, I would say stone golem,rumi's concoction, a basalt flask of staunching, a quicksilver flask of warding, a chaos golem just for some traps (-4% phys damage) to switch back to lightning golem for izaro.
like I said, the build struggles a bit versus heavy bosses like modded guardians and some t15, but I feel that it can do uber izaro full buffed or 3 keys, depending on the daily buffs (some can be very risky for life builds) and on the weapons that izaro is wielding.
it's not the safest or the fastest uber lab farmer build, but as long as you dodge the incoming attacks and you're familiar with traps and labyrinth mechanics, you could definitely do it.

ps: I have the insane idea to try out the soul mantle + kikazaru + self flagellation combo with this build.
the passive tree should stay the same (maybe with minor changes), dropping life to 5800, but you gain a tremendous dps more at full curses, adding even one totem more and freeing a chest slot for chance to ignite

First off.... Amazing guide. Im new and when i look up builds i get kinda lost. yours is very noob friendly and i thank you for taking the time to write everything out in detail.

i just have a few questions that i either missed or didn't see.

1. What flasks do you recommend and how do i find them? i see youtube players running very weird flasks and i cant find any minus the norms you can buy.

2. You say to run golems but the gem says you can only have one at a time. do you switch depending on the scenario or can you run two diffent golems at a time with either a passive or item?

also, if its possible can you look at my character and tell me how im doing so far. Thank you in advance. Have a good day!

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DethFrmDaShadows wrote:

2. You say to run golems but the gem says you can only have one at a time. do you switch depending on the scenario or can you run two diffent golems at a time with either a passive or item?

in Ascendancy Skill Points section:

"

Merciless Lab: Liege of the Primordial. This is a great node as it allows us to now have two golems and it also doubles the implicit bonus of the golems we choose to summon. This is why we selected Lightning Golem and Fire Golem. It doubles the cast speed benefit of the Lightning Golem and doubles the Damage boost provided by the Fire Golem. (Or the life regeneration if you decide to keep the Stone Golem.) We can not have two of a specific golem as the bonus will not stack.

Skill bonus:

"

Can Summon up to 1 additional Golem at a time

:)

Thank you! so i gotta wait lol dang D:

Hi. Love your build, it really is great for beginners. I'm just wondering, what do you think about the Mokou's Embrace ring and Apep's Rage wand uniques for this build?

Mainly, do you think the additional mana cost from Apep's Rage is worth it's boosts to damage and cast speed and if Mokou's Embrace is a good enough replacement for most cheap rare rings that check off the build's needs? Thanks :)

I like this build so far, but I'm just getting started at it. I did have one question though and maybe the answer is staring me in the face, but what sort of defensive stat do you stack with this build? AR? EV? ES? I am completely new to casters in this game at all and pretty new to the game in general so I could easily be overlooking something completely obvious. Thanks in advance.

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thebigreenmonster wrote:

I like this build so far, but I'm just getting started at it. I did have one question though and maybe the answer is staring me in the face, but what sort of defensive stat do you stack with this build? AR? EV? ES? I am completely new to casters in this game at all and pretty new to the game in general so I could easily be overlooking something completely obvious. Thanks in advance.

Have at least one item Armour based so you can get 4 x red sockets for the defensive setup (gloves, boots, helmet)

Try to get a mix of Armour, Evasion and ES as each one defensively will help mitigate damage.

My personal recommendation is Evasion and Energy Shield as avoiding the hit completely is much better than taking it.

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DethFrmDaShadows wrote:

1. What flasks do you recommend and how do i find them? i see youtube players running very weird flasks and i cant find any minus the norms you can buy.

I'm running with the following flasks:



3 Life flasks (2 instant) and one with fast recovery with a Quartz to dodge attack/spell damage while being able to phase through enemies and finally a quicksilver to get a speed boost.

Others may run with Basalt Flasks (for physical damage reduction) or a combination of unique flasks, however, as a start the above should get you into mapping no problem.