[Top 5] Path of Exile Best Elementalist Builds That Wreck Hard!

Updated:

13 Feb 2023

[Top 5] Path of Exile Best Elementalist Builds That Wreck Hard!

In Patch 3.17, Arch Nemesis league, we saw a resurgence of spellcasters due to the massive increases to base damage and added effectiveness of spells. As such, many old or less viable builds came back to being the flavor of the month, and here are my updated choices for that!

5 – Maw of Mischief Chaos Ignite Golem

Maw of Mischief's explosions against Sirus

This whacky build revolves around a unique item that will kill your minions and make them explode, dealing a portion of their life as AoE damage. And we make use of that damage by igniting enemies and proliferating it across the screens and melting bosses in instants.

What the Maw of Mischief Ignite Golem Excels in:

Very Tanky.
Can melt any bosses on a relatively low budget.
Easy to play and can do all content.
SSF and League Start viable.

Maw of Mischief Ignite Golem full details:

The build revolves around a unique item called Maw of Mischief, a helmet that grants the spell Death Wish. When channeling it, you will instantly kill your minions and deal a portion of their life as an explosion around the minions. And because Ignite scales off high base damage, we try to scale our minions’ lives the highest possible.
We do that through a few items. Ashes of the Stars, which grants up to 30% Quality to all active gems, boosting our Stone Golem’s life, combined with Empower, Enhance, and Minion Life, all in a Skin of the Lords to boost our damage further, combined with a strong Despair and Withering Step for easy application of Wither Stacks.
For better clearing, we use Berek’s Respite, with its amazing ignite proliferation mechanic, and since we’re going for the Chaos Theme (monsters tend to have less chaos resistance, making it easier to scale our damage) we use the Blackflame Ring, making so enemies ignited by us to take Chaos Damage instead of Fire Damage from ignites.

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3247488

4 – Detonate Dead Ignite Elementalist

Dedonate Dead being blown up.

In a similar vein to the previous build, this one is ignite-based using the life % of a monster. It was actually a FotM build in Scourge League and sustained some heavy nerfs, but it has persevered and it’s still insanely strong!

What the DD Ignite Excels in:

Massive base damage without heavy investment.
Super tanky, block capped with Aegis.
League Start, SSF, and HC Viable.
Good clearing with prolif.

Detonate Dead Ignite full details:

After the nerfs that Desecrate and Spectres received, cutting down on their maximum life as well as QoL nerfs, this build changed to incorporate the highest level of Phantasmal Unearth as possible, in order to scale corpse level as high as possible, since we deal damage based on the corpse’s life.
We achieve that by equipping a +5 Hands of the Templar together with Empower and Enhance, to further boost the Unearth’s level and quality, and with a +5 Corpse Level Unearth helmet enchant, we can reach level 90 corpses!
While this is still a great League Start build, you need to invest a lot to become a monster at deleting bosses. It can reach, however, upwards of 20 million Ignite DPS.

For a full breakdown, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3209608

3 – CantripN’s Crackling Lance Permafreeze

Crackling Lance Fully Intensified

One of the skills that got most buffed in 3.17’s patch was Crackling Lance. Together with a ton of extra cast speed added to the core mod pool made the skill saw a resurgence. And this build takes that to the extreme, capable of freezing anything and anyone, indefinitely!

What the CantripN’s Crackling Lance Permafreeze Excels in:

Freezing the entire screen.
Tanky with high EHP and armour.
Can do all content.
Easy 50~60% Shock, with high bursts of Damage.
Relatively cheap to League Start, can do SSF.

CantripN’s Crackling Lance Permafreeze full details:

With the new Influence mods, we get easier access to both shock and freeze proliferation, as well as % Elemental damage leeched as life, saving us a ton of money and effort into getting cluster jewels.
The most important stat for Crackling Lance is cast speed and Gem Level, and as such, that’s what you should aim for in weapons. You can dual wield two +2 wands or daggers, combined with a +2 Amulet for a massive boost in damage, since CL, like most spells, scales supremely well with levels.
You’ll want to scale in your gear or passive tree as much %Ailment Effect, and through that, we can shock for 50 to 60% effect and permafreeze bosses, especially with high Freeze Duration.

For a full breakdown, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3229590

2 – Omniscience Armageddon Brand

Armageddon Brand while Mapping

With the new Pinnacle Bosses, came new overpowered uniques, and Omniscience is one of the most broken uniques ever made. An item that gives you 120% or more Triple Elemental penetration as well as over 120% All Resistances, at the measly cost of your attributes, sounds too good to be true, and yet, that’s the new normal.

What the Omniscience Armageddon Brand Excels in:

It’s an Omni build, so free resists means easy to gear with.
Insane levels of damage for pretty low investment.
Quite tanky, high armor, and high Max Res with Brass Dome.
Can do all content in the game.

Omniscience Armageddon Brand full details:

Crystalized Omniscience works by converting any attribute you have into Omniscience, and for each 10 Omni, you get 1% Elemental Penetration and 1% All Elemental Resistance. As such, we try to get as many attributes as possible on both gear and passive tree, easily getting 1200, but 1,600 being more than possible with good gear.
We also make use of this extra amount of Ele Res by using yet another new OP Unique added to this league, The Annihilating Light, which literally triples any of our elemental damage at the cost of reducing how much Res we have. So we have massive penetration and 200% more damage on just two items.
For our defenses, besides killing everything before we are touched, we have easily over 40k Armor with a strong Molten Shell and 80% Ele Res, making us quite extremely tanky against even the strongest of hits, combined with a high Block chance.

For a full breakdown, click here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3259338

1 – Explosive Arrow Ballista Ignite

Explosive Arrow Ballistas against The Maven

Undeniably the most played build in 3.17, calling it a Flavor of the Month build would be a euphemism. Able to clear any content on a 5L and white weapons, this build can take you from the start to the endgame in no time and seemingly no effort!

What the Explosive Arrow Ballista Ignite Excels in:

Insanely high single target Ignite Damage.
Clears reasonably well.
Can do all content.
League Start, HC, SSF viable.

Explosive Arrow Ballista Ignite full details:

The single most important stat you want is Attack Speed. As such, you’ll want the quickest bow possible to be able to stack 20 EA Fuses, increasing your damage exponentially.
Since our ballista attack by themselves, we can focus on dodging and avoiding enemy damage. Unlike most attacks, EA scales extremely well with Levels, and as such, you’ll want at least a +3 bow with extra stats, preferably attack speed and fire dot multi.
Our defenses come in the form of 100% Spell Suppression and lots of Evasion, as well as having our ballistas taunting and absorbing part of the damage we take instead.

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3229979