[3.2] CI ST/BF HoWA, still ass kicking! Shaper/Guardian/Uber/Elder etc

Can you run Incandescent Heart with this build? You might lose on some INT and ES, but in the end you get more damage through extra chaos than you lose and you take 25% less elemental damage. With the already good phys reduction through Endurance Chagres/IC it seem like a good item. Also gives some more leech

I honestly find it hard to justify Incandescent Heart. It's a good armour, don't get me wrong, but you lose a ton of ES if you want to use it. Damage increase is decent but won't be more then 5-8% over a 50 Int chest. The last problem is resistances, which will be very hard to cap without some on your Regalia's. You can try to get more resistances on your rings/amulet, but the price tag for those will be a lot higher, so you will have to sacrifice damage mods for them. This change will mean that you will actually end up with less damage then just using Regalia with 40+ int and resists.

It might be a good armour for more unique centered HoWA or a HoWA build that doesn't scale Intelligence as heavily (so only around 1k or so) and isn't near by Vaal Pact, but this build is much better with a rare.

Just checking in with my version of the build


- Originally inspired by dan https://www.twitch.tv/dirtydan79




https://pastebin.com/rVgQVY7C

Almost 10k ES with incandescent heart, and no clarity watchers eye
Having 100% stun avoidance from gear is nice for bossing too!

What do you think of the Elementalist node for the new Ascendant? Ele pen, bonus Herald damage (dunno if that beats out Wrath) reflect immunity. I was thinking of doing a conversion to lightning version of this build (using Inpulsa's?) But that means my ES is going to be pretty low.

I've been playing this build and absolutely having a blast, but I feel like my ES is a bit low (only about 6900). I've made it to Shaper guardians and t14 Elder, but I'm dying a pretty reasonable amount, and I'm not sure where to make improvements in my gear other than maybe my boots, or a "Mana as ES" Watcher's Eye which is squarely out of my budget range.



I was using a Wise Oak, but then upgraded my helmet and ended up with a huge surplus of Fire res, so I swapped it out for a Stibnite. The Enlighten in my claw is purely there for leveling (I've got five more and a Portal in my secondary weapon set, heh). My tree is https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAABAADBA5YF-Q18DkgRLxGWFHUVIBVQFfAZihm0GdcbyBzcHcIh0CPTJJ0nqSj6KU8qOCsKLL8s6S2DL28wWzLROrM62DsoRUdGcUmxTipSKVRHVeBWSFfJWFpbr13yX2pgQ2JaZlRuPW8ncLt1y3fle258u3_GgwmEU4TFhXuGs4w2jHaPGo9gj_qQCpMnlcyXBpchmmqbtZ48nsShL6TCpq-mvqcIrTOv67QMtQS1SLiTvoC-ir6nwGbBfMHFwzrEosrTz93Q0NN-1abXz9gk2RPdDd-Y44TkIufq6mLquutj6-7sGOw47T_ukO9674jv_fGK9qP5M_k3-WM=?accountName=Riphia&characterName=Riphion (I'm pretty new to using the forums, not entirely sure how to do all of this)

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Yaaaak wrote:

Just checking in with my version of the build


- Originally inspired by dan https://www.twitch.tv/dirtydan79

https://pastebin.com/rVgQVY7C

Almost 10k ES with incandescent heart, and no clarity watchers eye
Having 100% stun avoidance from gear is nice for bossing too!

This looks like Titan HoWA, completely different build to be honest :)

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Yaaaak wrote:

What do you think of the Elementalist node for the new Ascendant? Ele pen, bonus Herald damage (dunno if that beats out Wrath) reflect immunity. I was thinking of doing a conversion to lightning version of this build (using Inpulsa's?) But that means my ES is going to be pretty low.

If you want a second offensive option instead of Jugg, then Champion beats everything. It's pretty much almost 20% more dps. Being able to run Ele ref maps is cool, but another golem means you need another socket, Herald would probably be close to the dps increase of Wrath but you need Enlighten lvl 4 + another source of reservation reduction to keep Discipline, Wrath and Herald running. So you need to make some sacrifices for mana reservation and give up 2 gem sockets to get the most out of Elementalist. If you do that then Elmentalist will have higher dps then Champion, but unfortunately Enlighten lvl 4 isn't cheap, and lvl 3 will drastically reduce your options (you can have 5-6% unreserved mana with Discipline, Wrath and Herald linked with Enlighten lvl 4 + Influence node on the tree, but only 1% with Enlighten lvl 3 and Influence).

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Riphia wrote:

I've been playing this build and absolutely having a blast, but I feel like my ES is a bit low (only about 6900). I've made it to Shaper guardians and t14 Elder, but I'm dying a pretty reasonable amount, and I'm not sure where to make improvements in my gear other than maybe my boots, or a "Mana as ES" Watcher's Eye which is squarely out of my budget range.

I was using a Wise Oak, but then upgraded my helmet and ended up with a huge surplus of Fire res, so I swapped it out for a Stibnite. The Enlighten in my claw is purely there for leveling (I've got five more and a Portal in my secondary weapon set, heh). My tree is https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAABAADBA5YF-Q18DkgRLxGWFHUVIBVQFfAZihm0GdcbyBzcHcIh0CPTJJ0nqSj6KU8qOCsKLL8s6S2DL28wWzLROrM62DsoRUdGcUmxTipSKVRHVeBWSFfJWFpbr13yX2pgQ2JaZlRuPW8ncLt1y3fle258u3_GgwmEU4TFhXuGs4w2jHaPGo9gj_qQCpMnlcyXBpchmmqbtZ48nsShL6TCpq-mvqcIrTOv67QMtQS1SLiTvoC-ir6nwGbBfMHFwzrEosrTz93Q0NN-1abXz9gk2RPdDd-Y44TkIufq6mLquutj6-7sGOw47T_ukO9674jv_fGK9qP5M_k3-WM=?accountName=Riphia&characterName=Riphion (I'm pretty new to using the forums, not entirely sure how to do all of this)

After 3.2 changes to ascendancies, the old picture I have in the passive tree section might not be the best option after all. I've added a note underneath it.

Basically I think its now better to pick ES nodes by the Witch start. You can take all the major ones for 9 points if you unspec Melding cluster and that single branch that you have for Fertile Mind, to the right of Ranger start. You will lose a bit of damage but gain a lot more ES.

For upgrades, if it was my character, I'd upgrade boots first, look for something with 160+ ES. Maybe chest upgrade to go up to 550+ ES or just over 500ES but more resistances, so you can have more freedom upgrading your rings in the future. Then probably once you get all this upgraded (boots, chest, rings, maybe amulet?) I would get Shaper's Touch with Ele Weakness on hit, and only then start saving up for the Watchers :)

I was thinking Elementalist/Raider or Elementalist/Inquisitor (And picking up Zealot's Oath) and getting a Vertex socketed with lvl 3 Enlighten+Herald of Ice+Herald of Lightning+Curse on Hit+Ele Weakness. The Vertex being a 300+ ES hat should help. I guess the major downside is that not picking Raider or not getting Wrath vs 2 Heralds is a bad choice.

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therealkami wrote:

I was thinking Elementalist/Raider or Elementalist/Inquisitor (And picking up Zealot's Oath) and getting a Vertex socketed with lvl 3 Enlighten+Herald of Ice+Herald of Lightning+Curse on Hit+Ele Weakness. The Vertex being a 300+ ES hat should help. I guess the major downside is that not picking Raider or not getting Wrath vs 2 Heralds is a bad choice.

I forgot about Vertex +1 gem levels :) You could use Discipline Enlighten (3 or 4) Wrath Herald of Thunder and Elementalist, sure. Dropping Wrath completely to run Herald of Ice is a bad choice, I'd rather try my best to run both Wrath and Herald of Thunder if that's the case.
Since we use Elemental Focus you wouldn't be able to shock even as Elementalist sub-ascend, so I don't think linking Curse on Hit with Herald to be a good choice, and I also don't think that dropping Ele Focus in order to shock with our low crit chance is going to be worth it.

I would personally pick Raider over Inquisitor every day since Frenzy charges will run out on bosses otherwise, especially vs those that don't produce many adds or there is delay between boss and adds phase (Chimera, Shaper, Atziri, Elder, Elder Guardians, also it's harder to keep charges vs Phoenix, Hydra and Mino). Extra attack speed also helps with movement speed for Whirling Blades.
While Zealot's Oath is good it would mean sacrificing a few other nodes and dropping Vaal Pact, drastically reducing the leech cap. The build doesn't get as much passive life regen but if that is what you want to do, I can't force you not to :D As long as you are having fun you can make your own changes.

Nothing wrong with experimenting, I don't think you will break the build if you try your own changes :)

I've also been tinkering with elementalist ascendancy, the only problem I'm having thus far is the tree. Im trying to make it as a blade flurry character because I crafted a pretty nutty helmet with 40% bf enchant, shock effectiveness and high es. Could you possibly help with making a tree for it please? The main issue I'm having is getting enough int.

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Lavitz323 wrote:

I've also been tinkering with elementalist ascendancy, the only problem I'm having thus far is the tree. Im trying to make it as a blade flurry character because I crafted a pretty nutty helmet with 40% bf enchant, shock effectiveness and high es. Could you possibly help with making a tree for it please? The main issue I'm having is getting enough int.

If you cannot use path of building for whatever reason, let me know I'll try to add the tree in other way: https://pastebin.com/eR5h77jY

This is more or less what I would probably do if I chose Elementalist: picked Witch start, ignored some Scion starting nodes, ignored projectile nodes but still path on the right/bottom side since it has good synergy with extra evasion and you can convert dex->int more easily, since strength on the left side is usually included with life nodes that we want to ignore, while dex is usually paired with attack speed or accuracy which we don't mind.