Level 90 Death Wish Elementalist^3.24

Notes

FAQ:
Where can I find the PoB?
https://pobb.in/GXtFxTV5Ip1P

There's a portal gem in this PoB?
That is call-to-arms support. Get it to lvl 20/20.


How to farm the uniques/ empower for this build?
Maw of mischief can be farmed in Cemetery, Grave Trough, Graveyard via the Cursed Words divination card.
We will be using divination scarabs, ambush scarabs, ambush map device craft and investment into strongboxes from the atlas passive tree.
The strongboxes will significantly speed up your farm.
With this setup, it should take about 20- 30 red Cemetery/ Grave Trough/ Graveyard maps if you use at least one of the scarabs as well as the ambush map device craft on each.

Berek's respite has a divination card The Spark and the Flame which you have to farm in Atoll. 
We will farm it the same way we farm Cursed Words. 
You only need two copies and it's currently a fairly common card. It should take about 10 to 15 red Atoll maps.

Invictus Solaris comes from The Twilight Temple, a unique map. It cannot drop anywhere else.
We will be using Kirac scouting reports to roll for this map, as it is quite rare. Instructions on how to complete it copied from the wiki:
The map is a large indoor area, with the right side being daytime at Solaris Temple and the left side being night time at Lunaris Temple. (Sometimes it is swapped however, right is Lunaris and left is Solaris )
Each side contains 3 rooms with a button of the sun or moon in the middle. Walking over it triggers an ambush of monsters. 
The northmost area contains two buttons which activate a portal, leading to either Helial, the Day Unending on the sun side or Selenia, the Endless Night on the moon side. 
This portal cannot be changed once either boss is activated; you can kill either of the two bosses in a map.
Helial, the Day Unending will always drop Invictus Solaris and Selenia, the Endless Night will always drop Vix Lunaris.
See the picture below for how to activate the red portal (walk onto the red circle):
https://imgur.com/GEpdrkl

Core atlas passive tree:
https://poeplanner.com/atlas-tree/BAAQAGwAH8qH1A-kXz5M9ZzNvBCLLosV00kQrBmIORiEKuIHQL_-xV8pG8Sn4iFgMPop5DaslIOKErLFtWbOAMn9OIh9Wu7AjeoXuh195Pe3XYvhfZGbWDid3v7O2tcri3Oe2CucScRutgKuRVgpjWA5RZf6-AJrp3uzx-XIRyJnsOEQpW2lc2FPvEm1dxYkc5lOG8sXfmzYmCeFk3epH9XqxB-u73okE32RiaRlYMgYi8GvZEgLceXswkiP5QMwM8bRiolPtw_VaalD4z-1Y2Yfmq_wothP-1PpZ9AoFAAfiwgAAAAAAAADAwAAAAAAAAAAAA==
Our core atlas passive tree focuses on Kirac missions to farm Invictus Solaris and on map sustain, strongboxes, abyss and scarabs to farm the divination cards for Maw of Mischief and Berek's Respite.
I would generally not start farming for this until you have two void stones (Eater/ Exarch) and at least two favorite slots.

Empower is an exceptional gem and difficult and indeterministic to farm.  
Empower is a huge upgrade for us - a level 3 empower linked to our stone golem gem in Invictus Solaris gives us +4 levels to our stone golems. 
I don't think it's realistic to farm one without a lot of dedication so the base PoB does not use one.
If you do drop one, see the "all-rounder setup + empower" in the skills section.

What content is this build actually good at? What content should I avoid?
I have designed this build to be a decent all-rounder. When you farm maps with it, try to go for indoor layouts like Toxic Sewers.
The build excels at farming pinnacle bosses and Maven's invitations with the Destructive Play Keystone on the atlas passive tree.
It has amazing damage uptime if played correctly.
This build is not very good at Legion and Heist but it is passable in all mechanics.
It is not very good at large open layouts like Dunes. Our ignites and ignite prolif and Berek's Respite help us clear dense groups of monsters.
I haven't killed uber bosses with this build and I don't think I will be able to with any of the versions listed in this guide.
Someone more capable very well might though, especially with a setup that is more focused on damage. 
I may offer a PoB for this in the future but currently this is out of scope for this guide.


The pinnacle boss fight this build is worst at is Uber Elder when you don't have enough damage to instantly pop the portals.
That is the only fight where I sometimes run out of minions for a second or so. Not to worry though - you should be able to tag each portal with 
a minion explosion (stone golem or herald of purity) and that should do the trick. Just try to be conservative with channeling in the portal phase.

How to play the build?
Palsteron has a great showcase of how to play the build. The most important thing is to not overchannel, i.e. don't pop more than one minion per pack unless stuff isn't dying.
https://youtu.be/Bj90jl_GA50?si=-Um9uLPLVCxZ4ARV&t=351
Also remember to regularly activate your Malevolence - it lasts for about 20 seconds.
On pinnacle bosses like Maven you also want to summon skeletons 3 times (for a total of 8 skeletons), then cast your arcanist brand and beginn channeling.
You release the channeling right when the boss activates, i.e. when you can see its healthbar. 
With the higher damage gear set you can also run onto the boss to make it stand in scorched ground for some extra damage but don't get yourself killed.
You can also use the flask Atziri's promise to get some fire damage as extra chaos but don't worry about it too much, 
you should have more than enough damage for non-uber pinnacle bosses.

How does Deathwish Ignite scale damage?
minion life                               --> increased minion life, more minion life, levels for our stone golems
increased/more damage        --> increased fire/minion/elemental/burning damage, increased damage over time, increased damage with ignites, increased damage with damaging ailments
damage over time multiplier   --> fire DoT multi, DoT multi
fire damage as extra chaos    --> fire/elemental/non-chaos as extra chaos
faster ignites                          --> ignites deal damage faster, damaging ailments deal damage faster
number of exploded minions  --> 10% more damage per minion exploded up to 13 minions total --> we use skeletons for this on bosses
lower enemy resistance         --> curses (flammability), exposure, scorched ground, combustion support
increased damage taken       --> covered in ash, shock --> this PoB does not have modifiers of this kind


Why Invictus Solaris and not Magna Eclipsis?
We are not running Purity of Elements, so Invictus Solaris gives us ignite immunity. 
We get immunity to Freeze and some reduced effect of chill from our upgraded pantheon and immunity to shock from Tempest Shield.

How to craft the body armour?
Essence of loathing (screaming) on an armour/ES base, hopefully you find one with a good fracture.
Spam until you get a decent life roll and acceptable suffixes (res/ attributes).

What to do for the rest of the gear?
Rares with life, resistances and attributes where needed. Try to use the highest tier armour and energy shield bases where you can.
We would really like to get attack block as an eldritch implicit on our body armour since it's difficult to come by.
For attributes, we are missing a ton of dexterity (131) and a little bit of strength (41). 
For maximum efficiency, catalyze your belt with intrinsic catalyst (do it when it's a white == normal belt to save catalysts). 
Then try to craft it with essences to get T1 dex and T1 strength on it.

Which unique items can I easily slot into this build?
The Scourge            - this is about as good of a weapon as you can hope for. It's very close to best in slot. 
                                   If you get one, use it. It also allows you to spec out of Spiritual Aid and highly encourages you to run 12-passive minion damage clusters with 35% increased effect.
                                   This would of course massively change the tree and is beyond the scope of this guide.
                                  Don't forget to apply the harvest quality 1% increased elemental damage per 2% quality and set to 30% quality with Hillock.
Polaric Devastation  - use in your left ring slot, near best in slot for damage but no life or attributes.

Why not go for spell suppression?
It is not very easy for this build to get a lot of spell suppression since it needs to grab most of the good minion life nodes.
Later in the league you can definitely go for spell suppression with gear investment, I just find it easier to go for spell block and this build is close to the cap.
You can even take two extra points on the Safeguard wheel if you like - that will get you to the spell block cap of 75%.

Is this a realistic amount of damage?
The damage you see in this build has Convergence, Arcanist Brand and Malevolence active, so this is your bossing damage.
We also use Call To Arms Support - Infernal Cry which covers enemies in ash.
The minion explosion is set to 3 stages because even in the more hectic situations in boss fights you should be able to channel to explodes 3 minions.
With an ideal setup on a boss that is just spawning like Maven you can get that number up to 11 (3 golems, 8 skeletons).
For regular mapping it's about half of the damage which is still plenty. Just drop an arcanist brand when a rare or rogue exile does not die immediately.

Why not Elemental Overload?
It's very unreliable. This build used to not run Eldritch Battery but the reservation efficiency changes make it the best option in my opinion.
As a result we can no longer run Inspiration and that was helping us with elemental overload uptime at no other cost to our damage.

Why Unbound Ailments? Why not higher damage gems?
It's very comfy - your ignites will last about as long as your stone golems need to revive, even if you anoint Searing Heat which shortens their duration. 
This means in boss fights you will have amazing uptime.

Why not go dual curse?
This is an all-rounder version, so we want our mapping to be as smooth as possible.
Arcanist's brand really won't be up during mapping most of the time, so we'd rather have that extra damage from the passive points.
There is a dual curse PoB and gear set as well. It does not need the 6% mana reservation efficiency roll on the body armour.

Why not use Berek's Respite?
You absolutely should for mapping (See the gear section for the all-rounder clear setup). It does however usually put some extra strain on gearing because the ring itself has very low resistances/ life/ dexterity/ strength.

My map clear is clunky - what am I doing wrong?
Slow movement - get boots with 30% movement speed if you can. You can also spend two points on the passive tree for Spiritual Command to get better attack speed for your shield charge.
No ignite proliferation - get the correct implicit on your gloves
No Berek's Respite - farm the div card in Atoll

Slow channeling
getting stuck on packs - try only popping a single minion per pack, see "How to play the build". You might also want to invest into about 30% increased cast speed.

Not enough damage - check the gearset and make sure you have every single one of the modifiers listed on the gear pieces. For example it's easy to miss the fire exposure implicit on your gloves which makes up a large portion of our damage.

running out of ES/ 
not enough ES to cast Malevolence - even this base PoB has enough ES to cast Malevolence. 
Make sure you use the highest tier armour/ES bases where you can. 
If it still feels like you are running out of ES, you can spec into Faith and Steel, 
and the armour/ES mastery for armour increases/reductions apply to ES recharge at 20% of their value.
This might also be a playstyle problem, e.g. you might be casting your malevolence too often or you might cast too many arcanist brands.
1 Arcanist brand should be enough, 2 max.

What to anoint?
Depends on how much you want to farm blight. 
Searing Heat (silver oil)
     the best option but requires a silver oil. 
Deadly Draw (red oil) 
     the next best option but requires only a red oil which are fairly common.

What is Herald of Purity doing for the build?
It spawns a sentinel of purity whenever we kill a monster. This helps us a lot during mapping because it means we should always have minions to explode.

Why not run spectral wolves on the amulet?
I haven't tested them out and don't want to recommend something I haven't tested.

I got additional increases to minion life but my DPS doesn't go up in PoB - what am I doing wrong?
You need to go to configuration where it says "Enemy Corpse Life" and update the value with the life of your stone golems.
If you set Summon Stone Golem for your main skill it will show you the max life a golem has.

I changed my gear/ skill gems but my damage didn't go up?
Check if you updated "Enemy Corpse Life" to be equivalent to your stone golem max life.
If you added boots with the scorched ground implicit, you have to also tick "Is the enemy on scorched ground?" manually.
 

The "all-rounder setup with damage upgrades" setup doesn't look like it has that much more damage?
You have to update the "Enemy Corpse Life" to 88675. Tick "Is the enemy on scorched ground?".

How do I craft the endgame weapon?
Start with a level 68 void sceptre - that's the lowest possible drop level for the weapon base
0. Make the base 30% quality - with perfect fossils (optional).
1. Alt spam until you get +1 all skill gems
2. Regal orb
3. Annul until you are left with only +1 all skill gems
    You can use cannot roll caster craft here before every annul if the unwanted mods are not caster mods
     or prefixes cannot be changed annul if you have no unwanted prefixes
4. Multimod, prefixes cannot be changed, cannot roll attack mods, augment physical (harvest craft)
5. remove crafted modifiers, multimod, fire dot multi, minion life/ minion damage
6. exalt slam and hope to hit something good
7. harvest change the quality to "1% increased Elemental Damage per 2% Quality"
There is an alternate method that uses 3-socket resonators and corroded + metallic + shuddering fossils instead of steps 1 and 2 until you get +1 all skill gems.

How do I craft the dot multi rings?
Essence of delirium until you hit some good suffixes (res, attributes if you need them). Then suffixes cannot be changed, veiled orb, craft mana, unveil life.
This craft is a lot easier if you start with a good fractured ring base. Unfortunately we really care about the ring base type and would like it to be either a two-stone ring or an amethyst ring.
If you don't want to farm essences of delirium you can also try crafting minion rings with reforge life until you hit minion life and some good suffixes and then 
suffixes can't be changed, veiled chaos orb, craft mana unveil life. If you don't start with a fractured base here, you can also use the harvest craft to synthesize the ring after it's done crafting.
This isn't super high value so I wouldn't prioritize it but the regular implicit on minion rings does nothing for us.

I got the Pragmatism armour - is that any good?
Yes, you would run Stone Golem - Minion Life in your body armour. This also means you will run a rare shield with lots of life and better block chance. 
Ideally you also get recover life on block (armour bases or shaper bases) to make you a lot tankier in maps. 
Then you would also need to say goodbye to 4 skill gems so that's a lot of changes and beyond the scope of this guide.

I got the new stone golem of hordes gem, should I use it?
You can definitely run it but your first priority should be to get a level 21 stone golem gem of any kind. 
If you do happen to get a stone golem of hordes to level 21, that's amazing and you should definitely use it - it's quite comfy to have some extra golems.

What about the new specters in the current league?
During Affliction league we got access to Dark Marionette spectres which were far superior to stone golems. If this is the case in the current league I will try and update this portion of the guide.