PoE Elementalist Build 2019

POE Elementalist build

Table of contents

Elementalist advantages

Elementalist disadvantages

Passives

Equipment

Weapon

Helmet

Belt

Gloves

Boots

Armor

Amulet

Rings

Potions

Gems list

Skill tree

Let's get into PoE Elementalist build! The Elementalist is class based on dealing elemental damage, summoning elemental golems, and placing elemental ailments. This class is specializing in dealing mixed damage to minions and bosses. You can mix all kind of damage, for example, physical and chaos at the same time.

Because of that, some players call this class as elemancer. Her skill tree basically boosts elemental damage, elemental golems attributes and gives aliments like chilling, shocking or igniting. Because of that, she can build as a pure damage dealer or a summoner with golems. The golem build will be based on pure minion damage while other builds will focus on elemental damage from skills. The character is perfect for fast mapping and killing bosses like atziri or uber elder.

Also, her playstyle is very easy to understand so I recommend this class for newbie players. With proper gear which is pretty cheap and good skill tree, the class will be very enjoyable to play. If you are looking for great damage output, good currency farmer and perfect character to start the league, this class is perfect for you. In this build guide, I will explain the whole building process in detail and show some tips and tricks that can be used while playing such a class.

Elementalist Advantages

Easy to play - the build, as mentioned in the introduction, is based on elemental damage. You have to focus on maximizing your elemental damage because it is key to kill all game content. With proper gear, you can clear everything. Also, your spells are aiming minions on its own.

Very good aoe damage - this class deals insane about of aoe damage. Thanks to that, you will be able to mapping very fast.

One of the best currency farmers - thanks to her fast mapping, you can farm currency very fast in order to afford better equipment.

Nice survivability - thanks to Elementalist passive skills and gear, you will have a decent life and mana leech and also around 6k hp. It is a lot, especially when we decide to play a typical damage dealer.

Cheap gear - you don’t have to spend thousands of exalted orbs in order to enjoy the gameplay.

Elementalist Disadvantages

Mana regeneration - the build requires gear with high mana regeneration. Such gear is not that easy to be found, even on the market.

You cannot do maps with elemental reflect - because of the fact that the build is mainly focused on elemental damage, there is no way to make maps with such modification.

Vulnerability for damage - unfortunately even the best classes have their weak points. The Elementalist weak point is a vulnerability for physical damage. Be sure that you are always at some distance from enemies.

Her most useful passives are:

Liege of the Primordial: this passive is used to boost your elemental golems statistics. Thanks to this passive your elemental golems gain immunity to elemental damage. Additionally, you will be able to summon one more additional golem at the time. When you summon golems, your elemental damage is increased by 20% for each summoned golem. Also, buffs casted by the golems give you 25% more stats. Very good passive when you decide to play golemancer.

Elemancer: the passive is kind of defensive one. It makes you immune for getting ignited when you have flame golem summoned. Additionally, you are immune for getting shocked or chilled when you have lighting golem or ice golem summoned. Also, every golem you summon will increase its damage by 20%.

Shaper of Desolation: a buffing passive which gives you conflux buff. The Conflux is an amazing buff which boosts your damage for a particular element. To make it clear. If you deal 100 physical damage, 100 fire, 100 cold, the conflux will gather all of them and deal as particular damage. If you will activate shocking conflux, all damage will be converted into lightning damage. This buff is one of the most important in Elementalist passive tree.

Beacon of Ruin: this passive buffs your damage and make your crowd control spells more effective. Also, your elemental aliments from skills spread to other nearby enemies. Thanks to this passive, your chill spells always reduce at least 10% of action speed and shocks skills always increase damage by 20%. Additionally, you deal 20% more damage with igniting spells.

Paragon of Calamity: a defensive type of passive skill. It reduces damage taken by 8% for an element, you have been damaged recently. Also, it increases damage by 40%, for an element you have been damaged recently. This passive also gives you immunity for reflected elemental damage and gives you the ability to leech 0,5% of elemental damage as life.

Pendulum of Destruction: this passive increases your elemental damage by 75% when active. It lasts 5 seconds and activates when dealing damage. Additionally, the area of effect is increased by 75%.

Mastermind of Discord: a passive skill which increases your damage and effectiveness of heralds. It reduces mana reservation of herald skills by 25% and increases its effectiveness. Additionally, it boosts your fire, cold and lightning penetration by 25% when you have certain heralds activated. The herald of ash increases fire penetration, herald of ice increases cold penetration and herald of thunder increases lightning penetration. Very strong passive skill especially for bosses like atziri or shaper.

As you can see, every skill has different specific bonuses and for each build, you will need a different configuration. Now I will show you the most played build for witch Elementalist in Betrayal league. The build I have chosen is 3.5 Winter Orb Elementalist build. Such a build is based on elemental damage. The build is not expensive. It needs two mandatory unique items but they are affordable, even for newbie players.

Additionally, the build is easy to play, especially for beginners. I do recommend to play this build as a league starter because it deals a huge amount of damage, can clear uber lab without any problems and has very good damage against bosses like Atziri or Shaper. Below I will write about the advantages and disadvantages of complete build and show proper building path. Enjoy!

Equipment

At this point, I will focus on what equipment you should buy during your adventure with Winter Orb build. Since the path of exile is one of grinding gear games, you will need to change your eq very often. In this part of the guide, I present the best path to building your char, links to proper items and some tips to speed up the leveling process.

Weapon

For the first weapon, you should choose a wand called Lifesprig Driftwood Wand. You can use this item from the first level. It gives you more spell damage and more cast speed which is the most important factors, especially in the early game. You can use two wands and mix one with a spirit shield to maximize your damage output. When you reach level 10, switch your weapon for Axiom Perpetuum Bronze Sceptre. In the early levels, this weapon is amazing, because it adds elemental damage to your spells.

Also, it increases your critical chance with spells by 100% and casting speed by 5%. You can use this weapon until level 32. Then you switch for Bitterdream Shadow Sceptre. A perfect weapon with even more elemental damage and additional statistics for skill gems. The most important attribute is supporting by 10 levels added cold damage. It will boost your damage a lot, especially because you will use hatred skill gem. At level 41 you should start using Nycta's Lantern Crystal Sceptre. More elemental damage, resistance penetration and increased spell damage make this staff the best weapon which you can use in the mid-game.

You will use Nycta’s Lantern until you reach the endgame. In the endgame, you have to change your weapon for Doryani's Catalyst Vaal Sceptre. It gives you elemental proliferation which is a very useful skill that spreads your ailments like a chill or a burn among groups of enemies. Such a weapon gives you 100% more elemental damage, 30% for your spells to hit a critical strike and life leech based on 0.2% of your elemental damage dealt.

You can also look for a rare weapon with a high boost to your elemental damage but I recommend Doryani’s because it gives you everything you need in the late game. It will also cooperate with the rest of the build. Thanks to this weapon you will be able to clear even t16 maps and farm some currency to make your build better.

Helmet

For the first helmet, you should buy Goldrim Leather Cap. It boosts your resistances by 35%, so it is all you need for the beginning. You will be able to survive all bosses and minion fights until you reach the endgame. Another possibility is getting a rare helmet with resistances and elemental damage boost. Then at level 39, you should equip Doedre's Scorn Lunaris Circlet. Such a helmet is very cheap and significantly boosts your damage output.

It increases your elemental damage by 20% and adds 2 levels to your socketed curse gems. At level 59 you can equip Thundersight Solaris Circlet. It gives you even more elemental damage and increases your energy shield by 270%. In the late game, you should look for the helmet which will reduce enemies cold resistance and add cold damage to spells. You will need these attributes because winter orb spell is based mainly on cold damage. Additionally, look for a good amount of resistances (at least 35% of each res) and boost your maximum life. Here you have a good example of such helmets click.

Belt

For this build, you should consider a rare belt with high elemental resistances and also with added elemental damage with attacks. In the beginning, simple rare leather belt with 20% of each resistance is requested. During your adventure, you should focus on upgrading your belt with more resistances and more maximum life. In the late game, you have to wear Apocalypse Clasp Stygian Vise which significantly increases each of your resistance and gives you the possibility to add abyss jewel. Such jewel can boost your elemental damage and help to reach resistance caps.

There is also the possibility to wear Cyclopean Coil Leather Belt. The belt increases your Attributes by 15% which is a huge boost. Also if you know how to operate with your attributes, you can adjust them to belt requirements. If you are skilled enough you will be able to gain immunity for getting frozen, shocked or ignited. Additionally, you get a huge amount of health which is crucial in this build. You should get this belt only when you have required resistance caps.

Gloves

In the beginning, you should get simple rare gloves with 20% elemental resistances and evasion. It will highly boost your survivability. In the late game look for better rare gloves with more resistances and increased fire damage. You can also use Lochtonial Caress Iron Gauntlets if you are looking for damage and casting speed boost. While leveling you should focus on gloves which will increase your casting speed and resistances. At level 41 you should get Demon Stitcher Satin Gloves.

These gloves give you up to 20% of casting speed and increase your maximum life. Very good gloves for midgame. In the late game, you will need Command of the Pit Riveted Gloves. The main reason why these gloves are mandatory for this build is the Arcane Surge attribute. If you socket the gloves with proper eye jewel you will gain arcane surge buff on hit. Such buff will boost your spell damage and casting speed up to 20%. Very good especially when you are dealing single target damage.

Boots

For a perfect game starter, you should focus on boots with at least 20% of elemental resistances, strength and movement speed. There is also the possibility to wear Wanderlust Wool Shoes. You can wear them on the first level. Perfect boots for this build because it gives you mana regeneration rate and immunity of being frozen. In the mid game, you should look for boots with more elemental resistances and maximum health. When you reach the late game you have two options.

The first one is Windshriek Reinforced Greaves. These boots increase your elemental damage, elemental resistances, and movement speed. Additionally, such boots give you a possibility to apply the second curse on the enemies. Thanks to that you will gain high damage boost.

The second option is rare boots with a high amount of elemental resistances, maximum life, and movement speed. If you decide to wear Cyclopean Coil Belt, you should invest in rare boots which will help you to make up your resistance caps if not, Windshriek boots will be perfect especially for mapping.

Armor

In the beginning, just focus on a robe with proper sockets. It is very important because you will be able to lvl your main skill from early levels. A very good example is Tabula Rasa Simple Robe because of 6 linked sockets without specified type. Such armor is cheap so you will be able to get it in the early stage of the game. In the late game, you have 4 variants of armor from which you can choose the best for your playstyle.

There are two types of armors: offensive and defensive. The choice will be based on the rest equipment you have. If the rest have enough defensive attributes, you can afford offensive armor. If you are dying a lot, you should focus on a defensive one. First offensive armor is Shroud of the Lightless Carnal Armour. One of the most expensive armors for this build, but at the same time the best.

It makes socketed gems supported by elemental penetration which significantly boost your damage output. Also, the armor grants 20% to cast shade form when using the socketed skill. The shade form makes you immune to the damage for 3 seconds. The second option is Carcass Jack Varnished Coat which mainly increases your aoe damage and adds some survivability to your statistics. A perfect option if you don’t have enough currency to afford armor mentioned before.

When it comes to a more defensive type of armors, the first option is Belly of the Beast Full Wyrmscale. It grants you hard survivability thanks to the fact that it increases your maximum life by 35%, boosts your of elemental resistances by 15% and armor by even 200%. The second option is Queen of the Forest Destiny Leather. This armor is perfect when you want to make up resistance caps. Additionally, it increases your movement speed and maximum life by a certain amount. Perfect armor for mapping. Also, it is very cheap, even if you will try to buy 6 linked sockets in it.

Amulet

In the beginning, you will need amulet with high elemental resistances and life. The amulet which increases your all attributes is a very good choice, just to be sure that you will be able to level up your gems. In the late game, you should wear Impresence Onyx Amulet which will increase your cold damage (the blue one).

Thanks to this amulet we won’t have problems with mana in the late game. It also boosts your damage and survivability by adding cold damage and 55 to your maximum life. The second option is The Pandemonius Jade Amulet. It increases your cold damage by up to 30%. Additionally, it chills enemies when using your attacks ability and penetrates 20% of cold resistance on chilled opponents. There is no better amulet for this than the pandemonius, but it might be hard to afford because of the price.

Rings

In the beginning, you will need rings with high elemental resistances and elemental damage. You should also focus on attributes which you need to level your gems. In the late game, there is only one and the only right combo for this build. The first ring from such combo is Mark of the Shaper Opal Ring. The shapers mark is an amazing ring which increases your elemental damage and gives you a possibility to make a combo with an elder or a shaper ring.

I suggest you get an elder ring with high resistances in order to make up caps. Also, it cooperates with shaper mark and increases your spell damage.  In the elder ring, I suggest you have warlords mark curse. It will boost your mana and life leech which is very important especially in the late game when enemies hit hard.

Potions

Potions are pretty important when it comes to fighting with monsters. In many situations, potions can save you from sudden death or give you a huge boost to your dmg. In this version of the build, you will need very simple potions which are slightly cheap. The fastest way to obtain them is buying on pathofexile market.

For the first potion, I suggest is typical life regenerator. It is very important to find potions with mods like Instant Recovery and Immunity for Bleeding. You can invest in two potions like this. You will probably need them, especially when fighting with more advanced bosses like uber elder or shaper.

The second potion which is worthy of having is Dying Sun Ruby Flask. It is very expensive but totally worth spending some currency. It gives you two additional projectiles fired when you use your main attack ability. Additionally, such potion increases your aoe damage by even 25%. It is a huge boost which makes mapping faster. Also, bosses will seem to be weaker during flask effect. Mandatory potion in the late game.

The third mandatory potion is Quicksilver Flask. It increases your movement speed by ~60% and when your minion deals Critical Hit it recovers flask charge. It will help you to run maps faster and sometimes it will save you when minions get too close because you will be able to escape faster. I recommend buying potion like this: Experimenter's Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline

As a fourth potion, you should get The Wise Oak Bismuth Flask. It boosts all elemental remittances by 35%. You will need such potion to increase your survivability. Very useful potion since we will have hard times in making up resistance caps. Not mandatory potion but a very good one. You can replace it with Blood of the Karui Sanctified Life Flask when you have enough resistances from equipment.

The last potion for this build is Atziri's Promise Amethyst Flask. Since the build is mostly based on elemental damage, such potion will be very useful. It is all because of the fact that it converts 15% of your elemental damage into EXTRA Chaos damage. It makes your damage significantly boosted, especially if you choose proper passive skills. This potion is mandatory for this build.

List of gems

Armor - 6 linked sockets ( 3 blue sockets, 2 green sockets, and one red)

Winter Orb - your main attack ability. It creates an orb which covers enemies with projectiles and deals cold damage. Very good aoe spell which is based on stages. With the increase of stages, it boosts projectiles damage. It can be developed into 10 stages.

Infused Channeling Support - support gem for channeling skills which protects you from taking damage when casting winter orb. Additionally, such gem increases winter orb damage up to 30%.

Controlled Destruction Support - this gem supports attacks skills with more damage. It increases up to 44% of spell damage. Very useful gem for winter orb which significantly boosts its damage.

Greater Multiple Projectiles Support - a support gem which adds four more projectiles to linked projectile skill. Additionally, it boosts attacking or casting speed of supported skill.

Hypothermia Support - this gem supports attack spells with more damage. It increases damage against chilled enemies by 39%. Additionally, it boosts cold skills damage over time and adds 10% chance to chill enemy on hit.

Cold to Fire Support - support gem which increases supported skills cold and fire damage.

It also converts 50% of cold damage into fire damage which makes winter orb skill dealing additional elemental damage.

Weapon ( main hand -3 linked sockets - one red, one blue and one green)

Herald of Thunder - the gem adds lightning damage to your spells and attacks. Additionally, when you kill an enemy while herald of thunder is activated, it summons lightning bolts which deal additional lightning damage.

Herald of Ash this gem grants you a buff which increases your fire and burning damage. It reserves mana when active. Additionally, it significantly increases burning and spellfire damage.

Herald of Ice - the gem adds cold damage to your spells and attacks. Additionally, when you kill an enemy while herald of ice is activated, it explodes and deals aoe cold damage to nearby enemies.

Weapon ( offhand - 3 linked sockets - two blue and one red)

Flame Dash - the gem gives you an ability to make a teleport to the cursored location and at the same time damage opponents with fire damage. Perfect spell for fast mapping.

Faster Casting Support - a support gem which increases socketed gems casting speed. It can increase even 39% of cast speed.

Summon Stone Golem - a minion spell which gives you an ability to summon a stone golem. This golem grants you and our allies increased life regeneration. Additionally, the golem can be used as a tank thanks to his rolling skill that taunts nearby enemies.

Shield - use only when you have problems with making up elemental resistances (3 linked sockets - two blue sockets and one socket)

Flame Dash - the gem gives you an ability to make a teleport to the cursored location and at the same time damage opponents with fire damage. Perfect spell for fast mapping.

Faster Casting Support - a support gem which increases socketed gems casting speed. It can increase even 39% of cast speed.

Summon Stone Golem - a minion spell which gives you an ability to summon a stone golem. This golem grants you and our allies increased life regeneration. Additionally, the golem can be used as a tank thanks to his rolling skill that taunts nearby enemies

Gloves - 4 linked sockets (three red sockets and one blue socket)

Cast When Damage Taken Support (remember to keep it at level 1) - a skill which makes linked spell triggered when the player loses a certain amount of health. It is a perfect combo with Immortal Call because it will cast automatically, so you will be able to focus on slaughtering enemies.

Immortal Call (remember to keep it at level 3) - uses all endurance charge you have and makes you immune for physical damage even for 4 seconds (if you had maximum endurance charges)

Increased Duration Support - a support gem which increases the duration of linked skill gems by 64%.

Vaal Righteous Fire - attack aoe spell which sacrifice some amount of health and energy shield in order to create a magical fire which burns enemies dealing dot fire damage.
 

Boots 4 linked sockets (two blue sockets, one green socket, and red socket)

Orb of Storms - an attack skill gem that shoots electrical orb which deals lightning damage to nearby enemies.

Arcane Surge support - this gem makes supported skills deal more spell damage. Additionally,  it increases casting speed and mana regeneration for the user.

Increased Duration Support - a support gem which increases the duration of linked skill gems by 64%.

Culling Strike - it makes an orb of storms able to instantly kill enemies left with 10% of their hp or less.

Helmet 4 linked sockets ( three blue sockets and one green socket)

Vaal Blade Vortex - a spell which deals physical damage to the enemies by hitting with eternal blades that spin around the user

Physical to Lightning support gem which increases supported skills physical and lightning damage. It also converts 50% of physical damage into lightning damage which makes blade vortex skill dealing additional elemental damage.

Concentrated Effect Support - this gem increases skill area damage up to 54%. A perfect boost for blade vortex skill.

Controlled Destruction Support - this gem supports attacks skills with more damage. It increases up to 44% of spell damage. Very useful gem for blade vortex which significantly boosts its damage.

Elementalist Skill Tree (also viable in Synthesis league)

Skill tree for  Winter Orb Elementalist with the ascendancy

Bandits

You have to help Alira in order to maximize your damage and mana regeneration for this build.

Pantheon

main God - Soul of Lunaris - The best choice with this build because it reduces physical damage for each nearby enemy and at the same time increases movement speed.

minor God - Soul of Arakaali - gives you even more damage reduction and boosts your sustain. Additionally, it reduces chaos damage and increases health regeneration.
 

Jewels

In skill tree jewels you should look for:

• mana regeneration
• increased lightning damage
• increased cold damage
• increased spell damage
• maximum life
• resistances if you need to make up caps

In abyssal jewel (if you gonna use stygian vise) you should look for:

• maximum life
• increased lightning damage
• increased cold damage
• increased spell damage
• increased cast speed
• resistances if you need to make up caps