Stress-Free PoE! RIGHTEOUS GOLEMS (RF): No Required Items! 1-Button Play! SSF League Start-End! 3.14

hi there! i've been really enjoying the build so far, up to 90 and doing early red maps. thanks for the excellent guide! i haven't played since (i think?) beta, so a lot of the new stuff gets overwhelming quickly.

i've swapped out a few things, made room for some cluster jewels etc. main things:

added a cluster with burning bright and a socket for a cluster with life % and sage (saving up for one with fettle).

swapped out ball lightning for tempest shield. i'm already doing a touch of lightning damage elsewhere with cyclone hits, so i figured i'd be fine with keeping EE up, and wanted just a tad more block. my block is still pretty low, but anything helps.

swapped purifying flame for molten shell, again just wanted that sweet, sweet damage mitigation, and molten seems to pop a respectable amount of damage out every once in a while.

i'm not certain about the tempest shield or molten shell swaps as i just did that yesterday. i do feel a little squishy still, but i think it helped a tad. opinions? what would be a better option?

going into red maps i definitely feel pushed to pump up the different layers of defenses, what would be the best way to do this? i was going for armor and block with those swaps, but is there a better way? i know i could definitely use some new equipment, but everything gets so hard to find at this tier. i'm also not sure i'm looking at PoB right, it says i should have about 20k EHP vs phys and about 50k for the rest, 62k for fire. i don't feel like elemental/chaos is a problem with these huge resists (83/78/78/75) but physical really seems to hurt.

i also experimented with a jewel i found that 'conquered by vaal' a bunch of nodes, giving me access to divine flesh, but those experiments didn't go so well ;)

any end game tips? thanks again for the great guide!

"

Mneten wrote:

Spoiler

hi there! i've been really enjoying the build so far, up to 90 and doing early red maps. thanks for the excellent guide! i haven't played since (i think?) beta, so a lot of the new stuff gets overwhelming quickly.

i've swapped out a few things, made room for some cluster jewels etc. main things:

added a cluster with burning bright and a socket for a cluster with life % and sage (saving up for one with fettle).

swapped out ball lightning for tempest shield. i'm already doing a touch of lightning damage elsewhere with cyclone hits, so i figured i'd be fine with keeping EE up, and wanted just a tad more block. my block is still pretty low, but anything helps.

swapped purifying flame for molten shell, again just wanted that sweet, sweet damage mitigation, and molten seems to pop a respectable amount of damage out every once in a while.

i'm not certain about the tempest shield or molten shell swaps as i just did that yesterday. i do feel a little squishy still, but i think it helped a tad. opinions? what would be a better option?

going into red maps i definitely feel pushed to pump up the different layers of defenses, what would be the best way to do this? i was going for armor and block with those swaps, but is there a better way? i know i could definitely use some new equipment, but everything gets so hard to find at this tier. i'm also not sure i'm looking at PoB right, it says i should have about 20k EHP vs phys and about 50k for the rest, 62k for fire. i don't feel like elemental/chaos is a problem with these huge resists (83/78/78/75) but physical really seems to hurt.

i also experimented with a jewel i found that 'conquered by vaal' a bunch of nodes, giving me access to divine flesh, but those experiments didn't go so well ;)

any end game tips? thanks again for the great guide!

Awesome post Mneten! Thanks for the great feedback on your changes and opinions. I appreciate the honesty. I'm glad you're having such a good time and thanks for the thanks!

So, in regards to physical damage mitigation, it'd require a decent investment to have the mitigation consistently. In my experience, RF for the Elementalist and the Trickster are quite similar; they are more movement-oriented than tanky. But to try and make it work here, Fortify and Infused Channelling work really well. Same with the physical damage mitigation options in the Pantheon (choose the ones that match your natural playstyle). I'm honestly not a huge fan of Cyclone though, so make sure you choose a movement skill you like. (A physical channelling skill will keep Infused channelling.) Playing with Enduring Cry will give you some Endurance Charges. Those add up even if it's only three. I find Enduring cry a little clunky without Call to Arms (on the tree), but that's preference. Granite and Basalt flasks can help too. Those are some minor changes that can be made without making too many changes to the build. Also, consider Steelskin or Immortal Call (if you're using Enduring Cry) instead of Molten Shell as we don't have big armour numbers for Molten Shell (you may though).

In terms of endgame, I like to focus on the long run.
- Play for fun.
- Expect to see the content again, and again, and again. So don't worry about wasting opportunities to try things. Just do it.
- Invest in all your maps. Over time, you'll see the return.
- If you're new to a boss fight, stay close to it. You may not succeed your first time, but I find staying close to a boss and not running around has really helped me learn different boss mechanics quicker than trying to live the first time/every time.
- It's ok to be picky with map mods.

Hopefully, this wasn't too generic of a response for you. Thanks again for your kindness. Ask whatever you need to, anytime.

Hopefully everyone is doing well. I had a fun (but interrupted) PoE session last night and I'm looking forward to tomorrow for another one! hazaa!

"

Mneten wrote:

any end game tips? thanks again for the great guide!

I'm in tier 14+ maps now and have been doing some similar things to what you mentioned. I see you already did the Tempest Shield instead of Ball Lightning for a simple boost to block, and you can also run a Rumi's Concoction flask if you like. I'm running a regular Granite with anti-curses instead, but sometimes it's worth switching when you don't expect curses to be an issue.

Once you have some cash, if you can afford boots with Fortify, that lets you run both Inspiration and Life Gain on Hit with your Cyclone. Warning: good ones are priced in exalts.


An amulet with a Golem's Blood enchant is great, too. Costs two golden oils to do it yourself, but you can sometimes get lucky if someone finds a talisman already enchanted and sells it fairly cheap.


A Quartz Flask is a good cheap way to help stay alive in "there are a ton of things trying to kill me" situations (like Ultimatums), if hitting it regularly isn't a difficulty for you.

That's about all I've done beyond what's listed in the build. I agree with Wrecker that learning the fights so you can move appropriately is the best defense. I'm not great with that myself, but I mostly survive. (Except Sirius, I'm terrible at that fight. So screw that guy.)

Finally, in some very specific situations, it may be better not to use Righteous Fire. Swap your 6-link to Spell Totem-Scorching Ray-Controlled Destruction-Burning Damage-Elemental Focus-Efficacy. This lets you drop a totem that will do all your damage while you run around and stay alive. It's not gonna be as fast as RF, and it takes practice to learn when/where to resummon the totem for best effect. But with RF off, your life regen is so high that you basically just have to avoid getting one-shot or nailed with poison/bleeding, and the totem (and golems) will eventually kill the boss. I've used this on Al-Hezim, who is a royal pain in the butt to stay close to. This also works if you need to run a no-regen map for some reason, but it's very slow clearspeed, so I don't recommend it.

"

ineffablebob wrote:

Spoiler

I'm in tier 14+ maps now and have been doing some similar things to what you mentioned. I see you already did the Tempest Shield instead of Ball Lightning for a simple boost to block, and you can also run a Rumi's Concoction flask if you like. I'm running a regular Granite with anti-curses instead, but sometimes it's worth switching when you don't expect curses to be an issue.

Once you have some cash, if you can afford boots with Fortify, that lets you run both Inspiration and Life Gain on Hit with your Cyclone. Warning: good ones are priced in exalts.

An amulet with a Golem's Blood enchant is great, too. Costs two golden oils to do it yourself, but you can sometimes get lucky if someone finds a talisman already enchanted and sells it fairly cheap.

A Quartz Flask is a good cheap way to help stay alive in "there are a ton of things trying to kill me" situations (like Ultimatums), if hitting it regularly isn't a difficulty for you.

That's about all I've done beyond what's listed in the build. I agree with Wrecker that learning the fights so you can move appropriately is the best defense. I'm not great with that myself, but I mostly survive. (Except Sirius, I'm terrible at that fight. So screw that guy.)

Finally, in some very specific situations, it may be better not to use Righteous Fire. Swap your 6-link to Spell Totem-Scorching Ray-Controlled Destruction-Burning Damage-Elemental Focus-Efficacy. This lets you drop a totem that will do all your damage while you run around and stay alive. It's not gonna be as fast as RF, and it takes practice to learn when/where to resummon the totem for best effect. But with RF off, your life regen is so high that you basically just have to avoid getting one-shot or nailed with poison/bleeding, and the totem (and golems) will eventually kill the boss. I've used this on Al-Hezim, who is a royal pain in the butt to stay close to. This also works if you need to run a no-regen map for some reason, but it's very slow clearspeed, so I don't recommend it.

Hey ineffablebob!

Good advice across the board for sure. Especially about the weapon swapping. I'm thinking of trying to add weapon swapping options for all my guides at some point going forward. I like the quick button option for a change of pace.

Good suggetions.


Hopefully everyone is doing well. I'm loving the core aspects that 3.14 brought to the game. So I'm having a great time on standard. I'll be back on Thursday to see if anyone needs anything. See ya!

good advice here :) i made a few more changes, and i'll probably never stop making changes (builds are the best part of PoE imo!)

started running a few flasks that helped, mainly being a decent survival help. i had tried to stay away from playing the flask piano, but eventually had to give in.

the biggest change was going for the golem horde setup after picking this up



added in the anima stone and two primordial eminence jewels to get up to 9 golems, swapped a cluster over to a primordial bond cluster. if my math is right, and i'm understanding how it should all work, this should be 550% increase to golem buffs, making a level 22 chaos golem (5% phys mitigation) do 27.5%. is that correct? after the swap i feel a bit tankier, right at home in t13/14 and less threatened in t15/16's, but it's close enough that i'm wondering if i'm missing something and it's a placebo effect...

having level 23 PoF on the amulet also frees up a gem slot for me to try to level an enlighten and get malevolence into the build, so i'm working on getting that done now but it takes forever to level so... it'll be a bit.

running the cyclone + life on hit + fortify + infused channeling setup, cyclone is just mainly for phasing through packs is handy, but the added survivability while spinning is definitely noticeable. with the increased buffs from ice golem i'm noticing it crit and trigger elemental overload all the time, so i was thinking of swapping some CwDT to CoC, but haven't experimented with it yet. also still serving as a great EE proc with some added lightning or cold damage to attacks, or at least i assume it is? does EE show a buff on your bar? i haven't been able to see one, but i figured i wouldn't since it's technically a debuff on the enemy. it's hard to tell in the heat of battle with everything going on. need a training dummy in the hideout or something...

i haven't played with enduring cry / immortal call. i haven't been able to find a better shield so i've been running for the fire res, so i've steered clear of charges so as to keep that max res. i have been considering swapping over to steelskin from molten shell, though, as it looks like it's just a bigger number, flat out. i had been a little excited about the touch of extra dps from molten shell's ignites, since we're already stacking fire dot, but it hasn't really been noticeable.

@wrecker, thanks again for the build! been enjoying the podcast, too, btw. :)

"

Mneten wrote:

Spoiler

good advice here :) i made a few more changes, and i'll probably never stop making changes (builds are the best part of PoE imo!)

started running a few flasks that helped,

mainly being a decent survival help. i had tried to stay away from playing the flask piano, but eventually had to give in.

the biggest change was going for the golem horde setup after picking this up

added in the anima stone and two primordial eminence jewels to get up to 9 golems, swapped a cluster over to a primordial bond cluster. if my math is right, and i'm understanding how it should all work, this should be 550% increase to golem buffs, making a level 22 chaos golem (5% phys mitigation) do 27.5%. is that correct? after the swap i feel a bit tankier, right at home in t13/14 and less threatened in t15/16's, but it's close enough that i'm wondering if i'm missing something and it's a placebo effect...

having level 23 PoF on the amulet also frees up a gem slot for me to try to level an enlighten and get malevolence into the build, so i'm working on getting that done now but it takes forever to level so... it'll be a bit.

running the cyclone + life on hit + fortify + infused channeling setup, cyclone is just mainly for phasing through packs is handy, but the added survivability while spinning is definitely noticeable. with the increased buffs from ice golem i'm noticing it crit and trigger elemental overload all the time, so i was thinking of swapping some CwDT to CoC, but haven't experimented with it yet. also still serving as a great EE proc with some added lightning or cold damage to attacks, or at least i assume it is? does EE show a buff on your bar? i haven't been able to see one, but i figured i wouldn't since it's technically a debuff on the enemy. it's hard to tell in the heat of battle with everything going on. need a training dummy in the hideout or something...

i haven't played with enduring cry / immortal call. i haven't been able to find a better shield so i've been running

for the fire res, so i've steered clear of charges so as to keep that max res. i have been considering swapping over to steelskin from molten shell, though, as it looks like it's just a bigger number, flat out. i had been a little excited about the touch of extra dps from molten shell's ignites, since we're already stacking fire dot, but it hasn't really been noticeable.

@wrecker, thanks again for the build! been enjoying the podcast, too, btw. :)

Awesome Mneten!

I agree. This game is all about constant tweaking.

I love your modifications and comments. Good stuff. In terms of your questions...

Golem buff math: I don't know the exact number, but any increases to golem buffs REALLY stack up. When I was testing the first version of this build ages ago, I was blown away as to how much the buffs were increased with such little investment. So any investment into golem buffs is 100% worth the price...especially for physical damage mitigation.

EE shows up underneath the enemy. It's hard to see. It's like a turquoise colour if I remember correctly? Buffs are hard to notice when there are many enemies.

Thanks for your kind praise :). I really appreciate it.


I hope everyone is doing well both in life and in PoE. Feel free to leave any suggestions. See you all on Monday.

hey Wrecker - just wanted to pop into the thread and thank you for this build and guide. I'm ticking along on my PS4 account nicely and it's been great having such a non-stress build to play for when I want to chillout on the couch with some PoE. Also managed to get a mate playing the same thing and he's hit levels he's never achieved before, so it's pretty cool.

I don't often get time to play recent leagues so there's been a lot to learn and this has been a pretty pain free way to do that.

So thanks, and hope you're doing well.

"

ualac wrote:

Spoiler

hey Wrecker - just wanted to pop into the thread and thank you for this build and guide. I'm ticking along on my PS4 account nicely and it's been great having such a non-stress build to play for when I want to chillout on the couch with some PoE. Also managed to get a mate playing the same thing and he's hit levels he's never achieved before, so it's pretty cool.

I don't often get time to play recent leagues so there's been a lot to learn and this has been a pretty pain free way to do that.

So thanks, and hope you're doing well.

Oh awesome ualac!

That's great to hear. Thanks for taking the time to be so kind and encouraging! I'm glad you both are doing so well and experiencing new heights. I'm glad it's been a relaxing experience for you too. Thanks for the great message!

Also, how did you come upon your sweet PoE profile picture!?

Just levelling this build now, few random notes and adjustments that I think make it quite a bit better:

1) As other people have said, lit/cold to attacks is definitely the go for keeping EE up if you're using cyclone. Much more reliable than ball lightning and will free up a gem slot

2) With said gem slot, taking a guard skill is way more important for defence than tempest shield. I'd recommend either molten shell or steelskin so you can have your curse at max too. If you're going molten shell, then try and get pure red bases for the two RRBG links and red/blues for the chest and BBBR link. Only go MS if you're using flasks and have a granite flask.

3) I tried both purifying flame and flame wall for levelling, I think flame wall is much better. It scales off the *exact* same stuff as RF and does a lot of damage. You can just straight swap the RF gem for it without changing anything else in the build. It's a tad clunky, but still slightly smoother than purifying flame IMO. If there's a better option I'd love to know it.

4) The scion life regen nodes are absolutely terrible value for the 3 points they cost. Unless you're right on the border of sustaining RF and need that 1% regen, I'd use those points elsewhere. Or, another option is to only spec 2 of them for the 0.7% regen and take the connected jewel slot for 1 point, which is much better. I'd also take the jewel slot on the way down to shaper/constitution since it's worth the cost for 1 point even with a crappy jewel.

5) I'd recommend running an unset ring with flame dash in it. Shield charge is clunky as hell and cyclone should be way more consistent at proccing EE and EO as well as keeping fortify up. Infused channelling is a pretty underrated defensive layer too. Especially since you have to be in melee range for RF anyway so you're not even trading off mobility for the extra defence.

6) Another option that might be worth considering is running a second unset ring with a guard skill on left click, that way you can have tempest shield too. I'm not sure it's that great though since vermillion rings scale both defence and damage, and left click guard skills aren't quite as good with cyclone because you have to remember to stop spinning to keep them up. I'm probably not going to do this but it's an option.

"

KitavaBeard wrote:

Spoiler

Just levelling this build now, few random notes and adjustments that I think make it quite a bit better:

1) As other people have said, lit/cold to attacks is definitely the go for keeping EE up if you're using cyclone. Much more reliable than ball lightning and will free up a gem slot

2) With said gem slot, taking a guard skill is way more important for defence than tempest shield. I'd recommend either molten shell or steelskin so you can have your curse at max too. If you're going molten shell, then try and get pure red bases for the two RRBG links and red/blues for the chest and BBBR link. Only go MS if you're using flasks and have a granite flask.

3) I tried both purifying flame and flame wall for levelling, I think flame wall is much better. It scales off the *exact* same stuff as RF and does a lot of damage. You can just straight swap the RF gem for it without changing anything else in the build. It's a tad clunky, but still slightly smoother than purifying flame IMO. If there's a better option I'd love to know it.

4) The scion life regen nodes are absolutely terrible value for the 3 points they cost. Unless you're right on the border of sustaining RF and need that 1% regen, I'd use those points elsewhere. Or, another option is to only spec 2 of them for the 0.7% regen and take the connected jewel slot for 1 point, which is much better. I'd also take the jewel slot on the way down to shaper/constitution since it's worth the cost for 1 point even with a crappy jewel.

5) I'd recommend running an unset ring with flame dash in it. Shield charge is clunky as hell and cyclone should be way more consistent at proccing EE and EO as well as keeping fortify up. Infused channelling is a pretty underrated defensive layer too. Especially since you have to be in melee range for RF anyway so you're not even trading off mobility for the extra defence.

6) Another option that might be worth considering is running a second unset ring with a guard skill on left click, that way you can have tempest shield too. I'm not sure it's that great though since vermillion rings scale both defence and damage, and left click guard skills aren't quite as good with cyclone because you have to remember to stop spinning to keep them up. I'm probably not going to do this but it's an option.

Awesome KitavaBeard!

Thanks for the great suggestions and feedback. I agree with everything. Flame Wall is amazing to level with. The Unset Rings and jewel suggestions I'd encourage as well. Same with Lightning/Cold on Cyclone.

I appreciate it tons. Thanks! I hope you're having a good time and great job with your build!