3.23 EXPLOSIVE ARROW BALLISTA ELEMENTALIST - League-Start to End-Game. Easy mode.

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TpbDenko wrote:

Hey all,

Fairly new to POE and completely new to EA Ballista Elementalist. I'm having issues with Elemental Equilibrium not proccing. I feel like I've read every POE forum, reddit thread and watched every video. I still can't understand why EE isn't working or at least I think it isn't.

Spoiler

Why I don't feel like it's working:

1) I don't see a debuff icon on enemies at all. No exposure of any element. Am I supposed to be seeing a debuff on the enemies? Understand it may be flipping back and forth quickly, but I would think I would see a consistent debuff of some kind.

2) Went into the same "normal" map and dropped totems to test the time to kill. It was 14 seconds without added fire damage to attacks and 15 seconds with it. I feel like there would be a larger difference if I was missing exposure.

3) Removed all gear except my bow and a ring with added lightning damage to attacks and enemies were not debuffed with exposure.

4) Tried removing "Ancestral Bond" to see if I could trigger the exposure with "Frenzy" attacks that have added elemental damage and enemies were not debuffed with exposure.

This game is complex and I'm positive that I'm missing something simple, but I've been reading through threads and watching videos to no avail. Hoping I can get some help. I believe my profile is public, but happy to message/talk on discord if anybody is willing.

Howdy, here is a test I did a few days ago on this. Try comparing the debuff icons with what you see.

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Did a quick check.

Elemental Equilibrium: "Adds Elemental Damage"


It appears that "Adds # to # Cold Damage" alone from Blizzard Crown is enough to trigger EE.

PS: I didn't take into account polaric devastation's "covered in ash" as a factor here, but since it affects all damage given that everything ignites, it should apply to all test conditions and wouldn't affect the results here.

If they don't look like this, can you get an image (or a short footage, which would be way clearer)? We can discuss further from there.

that cold dmg is enough to trigger EE right? i swapped my blizzard crown for a devotos helm. that extra mov speed is nice for sanctum

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Lyutsifer665 wrote:

that cold dmg is enough to trigger EE right? i swapped my blizzard crown for a devotos helm. that extra mov speed is nice for sanctum

yes

doing more testing on divergent EA now.

the default quality on EA increases its skill duration (ignite chance too, but we disregard this), up to 20% increased skill effect duration at 20qual. the "unusual" EA alternatives we have are anomalous (inc. crit chance, which isn't much use to us) and divergent. the latter reduces the skill effect duration (a LESS multipler), but allows for more fuses to be attached. at 20qual, we get 40% LESS duration, but get to attach up to 24 fuses.

earlier in the league, i went straight to 21/20 divergent to see if i could make up for the loss of duration by stacking a bunch of attack speed while taking as much skill % increase effect duration (DoT mastery, exceptional performance wheel) as i could. unfortunately, the 40% LESS duration was difficult to compensate for, and it was nearly impossible to approach 20 fuses (let alone 24). this meant that i wasn't getting any improvement in damage and had a very short fuse to stack for. with all of this, i was neglecting the actual ignite DPS so i abandoned this project entirely.

i switched gears after a week and decided to chase a lvl 21 divergent EA with less than 20% quality. the crux was to balance attack speed, skill effect duration and extra fuses. i went on to buy as many low quality divergent EA gems as possible and checked against my POB to see where i can get higher fuse counts while still comfortably stacking at least 20. too bad there isn't a method that we can reduce quality on gems (vaaling for lowered quality means needing to double corrupt, and that's too iffy for me).

earlier today, i did a few more corruptions on 10% qual gems and landed a 21/10. this was within the range of my current skill effect duration, and meant that i could stack up to 22 fuses. of course, it's is under POB's calculations of maximum sustainable fuse count, so it's only truly do-able when we pre-stack against bosses. however, this is exactly one of the scenarios that we do get to pre-stack and have all ballistas in range of the target, so it's relatively accurate.

this might be a good time to talk about ignite duration and convergence. while ignites don't stack (only the highest damage instance is active; the rest of the ignite instances lurk in the background until that highest one expires, then the next highest becomes active until its own expiry), having around 4s of ignite duration is useful. this is because convergence snapshots on application, so when the very last fuse that has convergence explodes, that ignite will likely be the strongest (if the fuses that cause the explosion are at max count). with around 4s of ignite duration, this strong ignite will expire just before convergence's downtime (conveniently also 4s) is over, restarting the cycle.

with convergence, flammability and flame surge active, an Uber Pinnacle Boss is expected to take 23M ignite DPS. this is still running on lifetap, so there's no need for a mana flask, making no regen a non-issue for invitation and cortex.

on Guardian/Pinnacle Boss, we're back to getting 35M capped ignites with just 16 fuses (without needing convergence, flammability or flame surge) and it takes less than 1.2s for this.

to make use of this alternate quality gem, make sure to aim for quality in multiples of 5: 5/10/15/20 qual increases fuse count by 1/2/3/4; though as discussed, it would be tough to make use of 23/24 fuses without overcompromising elsewhere.

POB: https://pastebin.com/jCjxZ1pi

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Did a quick check.

Elemental Equilibrium: "Adds Elemental Damage"


It appears that "Adds # to # Cold Damage" alone from Blizzard Crown is enough to trigger EE.

PS: I didn't take into account polaric devastation's "covered in ash" as a factor here, but since it affects all damage given that everything ignites, it should apply to all test conditions and wouldn't affect the results here.

"

If they don't look like this, can you get an image (or a short footage, which would be way clearer)? We can discuss further from there.

Hey there, appreciate you reaching out. I've uploaded a video at the link below. Gear is the same as in my profile. I flip the elemental damage type added to attacks on the rings to test. I do notice the mini icons flipping differently, but I don't see the big exposure debuff on the enemies or a big difference in damage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wczo71EZ9M

Thank you!

"

TpbDenko wrote:

Spoiler

"

Did a quick check.

Elemental Equilibrium: "Adds Elemental Damage"


It appears that "Adds # to # Cold Damage" alone from Blizzard Crown is enough to trigger EE.

PS: I didn't take into account polaric devastation's "covered in ash" as a factor here, but since it affects all damage given that everything ignites, it should apply to all test conditions and wouldn't affect the results here.

"

If they don't look like this, can you get an image (or a short footage, which would be way clearer)? We can discuss further from there.

Hey there, appreciate you reaching out. I've uploaded a video at the link below. Gear is the same as in my profile. I flip the elemental damage type added to attacks on the rings to test.

I do notice the mini icons flipping differently, but I don't see the big exposure debuff on the enemies or a big difference in damage.

Yup, the icon shows weakness to lightning when you have fire damage proccing EE. After the swap, the icon switches to the boss having weakness to fire instead. It's definitely EE at work because the weakness to fire swaps to resistance to fire on every fuse explosion, and when the next fuse lands, the weakness is restored.

I agree that it doesn't seem to be a huge increase in damage, especially when we're looking at 25% from EE and another 25% from the Mastermind of Discord. Unfortunately, there's no easy way to test that damage.

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Yup, the icon shows weakness to lightning when you have fire damage proccing EE. After the swap, the icon switches to the boss having weakness to fire instead. It's definitely EE at work because the weakness to fire swaps to resistance to fire on every fuse explosion, and when the next fuse lands, the weakness is restored.

I agree that it doesn't seem to be a huge increase in damage, especially when we're looking at 25% from EE and another 25% from the Mastermind of Discord. Unfortunately, there's no easy way to test that damage.

Regarding the exposure debuff icons, is there a UI option I'm missing? In your video I see the large 29% debuffs under the enemy. When I throw the lightning trap I will sometimes see this large debuff icon, but other than that I never see anything except for the small ones shown in my video.

Just a bit difficult to tell if it's working as intended or I'm bricking my build without being able to easily tell.

Appreciate all your help!

"

TpbDenko wrote:

"

Yup, the icon shows weakness to lightning when you have fire damage proccing EE. After the swap, the icon switches to the boss having weakness to fire instead. It's definitely EE at work because the weakness to fire swaps to resistance to fire on every fuse explosion, and when the next fuse lands, the weakness is restored.

I agree that it doesn't seem to be a huge increase in damage, especially when we're looking at 25% from EE and another 25% from the Mastermind of Discord. Unfortunately, there's no easy way to test that damage.

Regarding the exposure debuff icons, is there a UI option I'm missing? In your video I see the large 29% debuffs under the enemy. When I throw the lightning trap I will sometimes see this large debuff icon, but other than that I never see anything except for the small ones shown in my video.

Just a bit difficult to tell if it's working as intended or I'm bricking my build without being able to easily tell.

Appreciate all your help!

resistance icons are the small ones right below the monster's health bar. further down are ailments, and those are probably the ones you are looking at. i apply both chill and shock, and the effect of each is shown as a percentage on the bottom of the bigger icons.

@limevan i hope youll make a guide next league. whatever you write here is very informative ! thank you

Just hit level 95 and got my unnatural instinct. I think I'm nearing the end now. Any suggestions or thoughts? I still need some gear upgrades.

https://pastebin.com/06Mry4Rg