Level 11 Elementalist^3.21

Notes

Deez Notes:

Levelling Section:

You can find an example item progression at different level ranges in "Item Set" drop down menu, as well as detailed trees to follow along in the tree menu.


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ACT 1
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Colours to look out for: BBB, BB, R, BGR.

Currency required: 7-9 Wisdom Scroll. Sell most rare items unidentifed to get lots of Orb of Transmutes for later (look out for iron rings and identify rare Boots and Wands ms + dmg).

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After killing Hillock, enter town and look for good coloured items (mainly BBB) and a magic wand with any flat damage to spells.  

Pick up Rolling Magma (quest reward), and link it to Arcane Surge (you already own this).  

Tips on using Rolling Magma: This ability bounces, so if you place it correcly, it can hit a monster twice. Make sure to place your Rolling Magma slighty infront of the Boss, so it can bounce overlap.

-> Look for a BBB item from the vendor and Movement Speed Boots.

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After The Mudflats and Tidal Island, pick up the follwing gems:

Quest rewards: Flame Wall (quest reward) - Frostblink (quest reward) 

Vendor Gems: Holy Flame Totem 

Links in order of priority ( /+ means link only if you have the colours otherwise put at random): 
Rolling Magma + Elemental Proliferation /+ Arcane Surge
Frostblink 
Flame Wall 
Holy Flame Totem

Also if available, buy two Goats Horn wands from the vendor for that juicy flat fire damage to spells.

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Drop portal at Submerged Passage stairs and make your way to the lower prison. Use Rolling Magma as your main damage ability, and drop Holy Flame Totem and Flamewall (projectiles of both HFT and Rolling Magma that travel through Flame wall
gain additional fire damage) when needed.
Take the waypoint back to town and go though TP: enter The Flooded Depths to kill the Dweller of the Deep.

Afterwards, go back to town and pick up the following gems:

Quest reward: Combustion;

Switch out Arcane Surge with Combustion;

If possible, link Arcane Surge to your Frostblink.

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Make your way through The Prison and kill Brutus. Always pick up as many rare items as possible and sell all useless ones unidentifed.
(It helps to have two mana potions, so you dont go oom)

Quest reward: Flame Dash

From level 10 exchange Frostblink with Flame Dash.		

On to the Cavern of Wrath, doing the Fairgraves skillpoint along the way. 

Quest reward: pick any Green gem for the Iron Ring into Topaz Ring recipe.
(iron ring recipe: Sell an Iron Ring with Green, Red, or Blue Gem to get either a Topaz, Ruby, or Saphire ring.

Final Act 1 Links:

Rolling Magma + Elemental Proliferation + Combustion 
Flame Dash + Arcane Surge 
Flame Wall
Holy Flame Totem


You can always make sure before going through Cavern of Wrath and onto killing Merveil to pick up:

1-2x Sapphire Ring cause she deals tons of cold damage (remember Iron Ring recipe)
1x Greater Life Flask if you dont have a good one

Makes your life at Merveil alot easier.



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Act 2
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Colours to look out for: BBB, BBG, BGR 

Currency required: 1x Alteration, 1x Ruby Ring. 
Continue to gather Transmutes by selling useless rares unidentifeid (if you have around 8-10x Transmutes, start indentifing items and sell for Alterations instead)

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I usually start by going right into The Old Fields, doing The Den to get our second Quicksilver Flask.
Always pick up rares to sell unidentified for Transmute Shards.

After Killing Fidelitas in Chamber of sins pick up Heralds;

Quest reward: Herald of Ash

Vendor: Herald of Ice

After that go left to the Western Forest and Kill Weaver

Quest reward: Elemental Focus

Kill All Bandits, Alira last to pair it up with "The Way Forward" Skillpoint quest. 

You should be around level 18 now and your link setup will look as follows:

Rolling Magma + Elemental Proliferation + Combustion 
Flame Dash + Arcane Surge 
Flame Wall
Holy Flame Totem
Herald of Ash
Herald of Ice

If you have extra Alterations pick up : Wave of Conviction + Desecrate

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Now we do the Labrynth Trial in The Crypt. Pick up and equip a Ruby Ring if possible, because the next zone, Vaal Ruins, has an excessive amount of fire damage.

Kill Vaal Oversoul (Before reaching the Act 2 boss you wanna be at least level 21).



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Act 3 onwards
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4 Links to look out for: BBGG / BBBR / BBBG / BBBB / BBGR / BGGR. 

We are also looking for a shield, ideally with a GR link for Shield Charge after The Libary.

Currency required: 3-5x Alteration 6-10x Transmutes.

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In Act 3 resistance becomes pretty important. I usually pick up a variety of rings so I can always adjust depending on the damage mods of the zone.

If you have found a four link already, you can add a link to your Rolling Magma, either Cruelty or Arcane Surge, depending on your socket colours.

At level 24 we can pick up Flammability as a quest reward.

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Level 28: swapping leveling setup to Armageddon Brand / Cremation.

Armageddon Brand + Combustion + Elemental Proliferation + Cruelty
Cremation + Elemental Focus + Arcane Surge +/ Lesser Multiple Projectiles +/ Fire Penetration
Flame Dash
Wave of Conviction
Desecrate
Flame Wall
Heral of Ice
Herald of Ash
Flammability

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Boss Rotation:

Cast 3x Cremation after creating corpses for them with desecrate undearneth the boss. Cast Armageddon Brand and place Flame Wall on top of your Cremation geysers, apply Flammability and spam Wave of Conviction 
until you have to recast your Cremation again.

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With your new skill gem set finalized we head into the Libary, to grab the remaining skill gems:

Quest rewards: Fire Penetration

Vendor gems: Faster Attacks, Shield Charge, Determination, Anger, Haste

Our link setup after Libary will look like this:

Level 28-38

Armageddon Brand + Combustion + Elemental Proliferation + Cruelty
Cremation + Elemental Focus  + Arcane Surge +/ Lesser Multiple Projectiles +/ Fire Penetration
Shield Charge + Faster Attacks
Flame Dash
Wave of Conviction
Desecrate
Flame Wall
Flammability
Haste / Anger 
Determination

When it comes to auras, at level 28, we will only have enough mana to choose one. For speed go Haste, for damage Anger, and for defence Determination (you can keep Herald of Ash around if you want).

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At level 33, we will have picked up enough aura reservation efficency to be able to run two big auras. 

The most efficient thing would be to run Haste and Determination while running through the campaign zones, and swap Haste with Anger for more single target on Bosses.
Swapping is quite minmaxing gameplay, you will still have more than enough damage if you don't do it. You can just go with whatever aura combination of your choosing. 
I do recommend using Determination though, since it makes you die a lot less or not at all.

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After finishing Act 4, we will pick up the last support skill gems until we swap over to ignite in maps.

Quest reward: Immolate

Vendor gems: Ignite Proliferation (if you have enough Alchemy Orbs, you can also pick up Greater Multiple Projectiles)

If you want some additional defence, you can always equip a Steelskin in Act 1 and put it on left click.

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This is your final gem setup until you transition into Ignite:

Armageddon Brand + Combustion + Ignite Proliferation + Cruelty
Cremation + Elemental Focus  + Immolate +/ Greater Multiple Projectiles +/ Fire Penetration 
Shield Charge + Faster Attacks
Flame Dash
Wave of Conviction
Desecrate
Flame Wall
Flammability
Haste / Anger 
Determination

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Leveling Pantheons: Brine King (stun reduction) + Ralakesh (bleed reduction, especially good for Lab).

Gems you should be levelling in the offhand in preperation for your ignite swap:

Grace
Arc
Flameblast (As many Flameblasts as possible, we need to use all Vaal Orbs to corrput them into a Vaal Flameblast)

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Gear Section: 
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In the dropdown menu of the items section, you can find level appropriate gear examples that I usually have while going through the campaign on leaguestarts.

There is also a Useful Uniques item tab that shows uniques that greatly improve your levelling experience if you come acrosse them, or find an early chaos to buy them.

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Gearing for starting maps:

The bases that I use in the item section "lvl 67 mapping example" are carefully chosen.

The basetypes are chosen to make sure you have to use as few chromes as possible to get the socket colours you need.

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I'm going to list a couple of thoughts as to why I choose some basetypes or items and give you some idea what to look out for and alternatives:

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WEAPON
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Void Sceptre: The sceptre implicit is the most damage for ignite. 
						
						Stats to focus on: 
						% Increased Fire Damage 
						Flat Fire Damage to Spells 
						+1 to Level of All / Fire Spells
						Fire Damage / Damage Over Time Multiplier

Alternatives: More important than the scepter base ar its Suffixes and Prefixes, so any well rolled scepter will do. There are two sand alternatives that are also decent: Demon Horn and Tornado Wand.

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SHIELD
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Honestly any shield will do. The reason I choose Battle Bucker / Crusader Bucker is the 9% Movement Speed implicit, which is really nice for Shield Charge and early mapping speed, as well as it being a pure evasion base.
Pure Evasion bases have an easier time rolling Spell Suppression than hybrid bases.

						Stats to focus on: 
						Suppression
						Life
						Resistances

Alternatives: Use the best shield you have available, especially if you already have another base with suppression.

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HELMET
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I use a pure Energy Shield base, simply because it is easy to coulour 3B 1R, and it also provides some ES that helps us with the Divine Blessing cost. 

						Stats to focus on:  
						Life
						Resistance
						Dexterity / Strength

Alternatives: Use whatever base you want, as long as you can get the coulours you need, and you end up with at least 400 ES will all pieces equipped.

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BODY ARMOUR
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Here I use a T1 armour / ES base like Saintly Chainmail. It provides some nice defenses with armour and enough ES to sustain our Eldritch Battery cost. 

						Stats to focus on:  
						Increased Armour and Energy Shield
						Resistances
						Life (optional as you can run the 15% Increased Life mastery if your body armour has no life stats on it)
					   
Alternatives: An evasion / ES base like Sadist Garb. Instead of armour you get evasion, and if you're lucky you can get suppression early on. It is harder to get the colours you want, and you might have to adjust gems
					 and run Deadly Ailments instead of Cruelty.

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GLOVES
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Again I use armour / ES bases. Easy colours for Arc or VFB. 

						Stats to focus on:  
						Life
						Resistances

Alternatives: Anything with the right colours will do. Pure ES or evasion / ES. Samy applies though for colours as with the body armour. You might have to adjust some support gems.

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BOOTS
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Here we use full armour base. The main stat I focus on here is a high Movement Speed roll. 25+ MS feel important for both running and Shield Charge speed. 

						Stats to focus on: 
						Movement Speed
						Life 
						Resistances  
						Dexterity / Strength

Alternatives: Armour / ES or armour / evasion works best colour wise.

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AMULET
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This slot depends on your attribute requirement. Citrine Amulet is best, because you will need both strength and dexterity. 

						Stats to focus on: 
						Life  
						Dexterity / Strength
						+ to All Atributes
						Resistances
						Damage Over Time Multiplier
						Cast Speed (Quality of Life)

Alternatives: Anything that has a lot of dexterity / strength will do, just make sure you can run all your auras and equip all gems.

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RINGS
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We need one Unset Ring to fit all the skill gems and my other choice would be an Amethyst Ring for some early well neeeded chaos resistance. 

						Stats to focus on: 
						Life  
						Dexterity / Strength
						+ to All Atributes
						Resistances
						Cast Speed (Quality of Life)
			
Alternatives: Unset is pretty mandatory, but you can use any ring with good stats for your mapping start instead of the Amethyst Ring. I do recommend to get your chaos resistance close or over 0, since nowadays maps have 
					a lot more sources of chaos damage.

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BELT
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Leather Belt has the best implicit. 

						Stats to focus on:  
						Life 
						Resistances 
						Strength

Alternatives: Heavy Belt, this one is pretty good when you still need to get strength for your gems.

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FLASKS
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Life Flask: Eternal Life Flask will change your life, trust me bro. Unlike an instant life flask, it works wonders against damage over time and is my prefered mapping life flask. You don't have to spam it upon taking damage, just use it once.
				 
						Ideally roll it with either % Increased Recovery Rate or % Increased Life Recovered / 10% Removed from Mana

Utility: Silver / Granite / Quartz / Quicksilver. 

						Stats to prioritize while rolling your flasks: 
						Curse Effect Reduction
						Chill Effect Reduction
						Increased Armour
						Cast Speed

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General Tips:

Obviously this is all just recommendations and if you have, for example, good ES boots and a great armour helmet, just change things around, change gem socket locations etc. This is just what I focus on while gearing during the campaign
to make my transition into maps as smooth as possible.

At the end of the day, you should just focus on having all your gems socketed, being resist capped, and having enough ES for Divine Blessing.

A character that I enter maps with will usually have the following stats:

3200-3600 Life
400-600 Energy Shield
75+ Elemental Resistance (ideally 20+ over capped)
0-20+ Chaos resistance

A good way to gain chaos resistances quickly is to craft hybrid Ele/Chaos res unveild from Betrayal on open Suffixes.

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Ascendancy Choice:
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Normal Lab:

Usually I start by picking Shaper of Flames as my first ascendancy. This is a comfort pick, because it gives us 100% Ignite Chance, increasing the clear of your Armageddon Brand, and making you pick up more exp along the way.
Also due to the 100% Increased Damage with hits against Ignited Enemies mastery, we get full uptime of that at all times.
It doesn't increased single target significantly, but this levelling build does not require more at this point.

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Cruel Lab:

For the second Lab, since I focus mainly on Hardcore, I go with Shaper of Winter. Everything you attack will be chilled, which reduces the enemies action speed, meaning you get hit less often and they move slower, allowing you to dodge
better. 
Alternatively, you can pick up Bastion of Elements at this point.

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Merciless Lab:

Here I go with Bastion of Elements. This is a very powerfull shield that mitigates elemental damage. Super usefull for early mapping against very dangerous mobs like Sparkers, Cold snappers, Skelly Mages and other sources of overtuned 
elemental damage.
Since we only have very low spell suppression upon enetering maps, this in combination with Tempest Shield makes for some very sold elemental damage mitigation.

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Uber Lab:

Shaper of Storms is my uberlab of choise so that all of our hit damage will shock enemies. It is very helpfull for both clear and single target. We are also investing into non-damaging ailment effect, which increase both our Chill and Shock.
I prefere this over Mastermind of Discord, since it can take quite some time until we get fire exposure on gloves implicit via eater currency. As soon as i hit the implicit, i will respec it to Mastermind of Discord and get shock through a suffix ring craft
More about this in end-game PoBs.

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Softcore oriented Lab Choices:

In no way you have to follow my ascendancy order. If the occasional death doesn't concern you, then you can go with the following ascendancy choices:


Shaper of Flames > Mastermind of Discord > Heart of Destruction > Bastion of Elements  -> Bastion I would still recommend, since it is simply a very strong defensive layer.


If you say fuck defences, 6 portals are my defences, go for:

Shaper of Flames > Mastermind of Discord > Heart of Destruction > Shaper of Storm