Level 89 Wave of Conviction Elementalist^3.26

Notes

> MERCENARY <
It's pretty hard to know exactly how Mercenaries will play out before actually playing the patch, but some potential options for your Mercenary:
- Leer Cast(gives generic increased damage)
- Kaom's Binding(effectively gives phys mitigation)
- Legacy of Fury(Scorch and explosions, huge damage boost)
In general it's really hard to predict what will be useful though, so do experiment and check out what other people are using to find what's useful for you.

> PLAYSTYLE <
> Clear <
For clearing you use your Wave of Conviction, this will cause a wave to appear that proliferates an ignite in a large area. For particularily tanky rares like essences you have a Vaal Flameblast button you can press which nukes down almost any target.
While clearing you want to use Obliteration, as this greatly increases your clearspeed through EXPLOSIONS.

> Bossing <
For bossing we rely on getting a big ignite with Vaal Flameblast, and then extending that ignite with Defiled Forces and our Arcanist Brand curse setup.
To charge up our Vaal Flameblast we'll have to use Wave of Conviction, so your damage at the start of a bossfight will be low.

> LEVELING <
For leveling we use the tried and tested Rolling Magma into Armageddon Brand + Cremation.
While you can technically level with Wave of Conviction all the way from normal lab, this is significantly slower than the method recommended in this guide, but if you really want to feel free to go for it.

Try to focus on getting flat damage to spells and % fire damage over getting spell damage, spell damage isn't bad, but the other 2 stats are just better because they also affect your ignites.

> FAQ <
> Should I use Wave of Conviction of Trarthus if I get it? <
The Trarthus variant of WoC has significantly less damage and doesn't apply exposure. Unless we're missing something about it this definitely doesn't seem worth using at all on this build.

> My Elemental Overload uptime is really bad <
This is unfortunate but expected, we pick up Elemental Overload because it's still worth the points, but it's not something that'll always be up on your Vaal Flameblast.
You can somewhat aleviate this issue by getting a bit of (spell) crit here and there, like on your weapon or one of your flasks.

> I cast Vaal Flameblast, but after like 4 seconds the ignite is gone and I have to recharge it all over again <
We pick up Defiled Forces on the tree, this causes cursing an enemy to extend your ignite.
With our Arcanist Brand setup this means an enemy keeps getting cursed and thus the ignite keeps refreshing.
So if you run into this issue make sure you have Defiled Forces picked up, and your Arcanist Brand is on the boss you're trying to kill.

> I'm having a lot of trouble capping my spell suppress, question mark? <
Try to focus on your spell suppress on gear over almost any other stat except resistances. Don't forget the Entrench or Inveterate anoint either.
When we switch to Lightning Coil capping suppress is going to be really hard, but not impossible. If you can somehow get an Elder helmet with some suppress on it that's an easy fix.
Otherwise you'll need some T1 suppress rolls.

If you don't have 100% chance to suppress at any point, pick up the "Chance to Suppress Spell Damage is Lucky" Mastery on the Suppress wheel with "Instinct" on it. This will at least make you survive most of the time...

> How do I generate Endurance Charges? <
The Veiled version of +1 Minimum Endurance Charges on rings and amulets gives % chance to gain an Endurance Charge on kill. This should be enough to keep your Endurance Charges up while mapping.
For bossing we don't have a reliable way to keep up Endurance Charges.

> GEAR CRAFTING TIPS <
- If you have a non-influenced shield with filled suffixes, and only an open prefix, you can use a Hunter's Exalted Orb on it to guarantee % maximum life!
- Once you have a rare amulet with just "+1 to all skill gems" on it, you can craft: multimod + cannot roll attack mods + prefixes cannot be changed. If you use the Harvest craft to add a fire modifier and remove a non-fire modifier at this point it'll guarantee you a +2 amulet
- If you have a rare amulet with just "+1 to all skill gems" and "+1 to all fire skill gems" on it, you can craft prefixes cannot be changed and use the Harvest craft to reforge chaos. This will guarantee chaos resistance!
- If you want to create a ring, roll 3 good suffixes first. Now you can craft "Suffixes cannot be changed" and use a Veiled Orb. Craft mana before unveiling to almost always guarantee a life unveil.