Introduction
With the update to Ulzuin’s Avatar set in 1.1.2, we revisit this set and set Cairn ablaze…with lightning! Using items, skills and devotions from Ulzuin and Ultos, we unify all of our damage into lightning. With double the deities, we double the destruction.
[1.1.4.1] <<GRIMTOOLS>>
[1.1.4.0] <<GRIMTOOLS>>
[1.1.2.4] <<GRIMTOOLS>>
Stats
All perm buffs and savagery up
8min cruci win
If you’re a better player than me and play Crucible of the Dead, I’m pretty sure you can get 7mins or less with this build.
Gear
Barrelsmith and Ulzuin set pieces are core. The rest are flexible.
Significant alternative choices:
Amulet: Shard of the Eternal Flame
Changing this slot has the biggest effect on how the build plays. The amulet reduces canister bomb CD to a very low 1.3s instead of 2.5s but now our CB pierce conversion is at 50% lightning and 50% fire instead of 100% lightning.
Also, losing Heart of Ulzuin means losing the Blast Shield skill mod and the extra skill points from the set bonus. The loss of +30% health regen is bigger than it appears at first glance. You lose 120hp/s with only Savagery up and 200hp/s with Savagery and Giant’s Blood up.
You can think of this choice as a transmuter that allows you to spam MOAR bombs for MOAR total damage in exchange for lower damage per bomb and less survivability.
Boots: Mythical Stormtitan Treads
Stormbearer was taken to reach the breakpoint on Maelstrom. If you don’t mind the slight loss of AoE (and this build already has massive aoe), take this for some extra stun res.
Gloves: Mythical Wyrmbone Handguards
Gives a boost to our BWC as well as extra cast speed and physique from the crafting bonus. If your fire to lightning conversion is at 100%, this is a nice alternative to take instead. Granted skill being 100% lightning is not too shabby either. (credit to mad_lee for the suggestion)
Medal, belt, pants, and relic you can mix and match how you like it.
Skills
Canister Bomb, Wind Devil and all the passive buffs are core. Aside from the massive front-loaded damage this build deals, its also quite comfortable kiting with 120K DoTs at its peak. And check out that electrocute duration. The shock from 1 blast of canister bomb can last for as long as 20s. However, there is plenty of room to tweak this build to your liking.
Since we are not a Purifier, I take BWC for the OA debuff and the -18 phys dmg redux. Extra bonus in that this skill deals 100% lightning dmg. Savagery is taken for the massive 100% health regen on Tenacity of the Boar as well as the added OA/DA. It is also is used to gun down survivors/focus-fire hard targets while our skills are on CD and it helps that our set gives us 45% WPS.
You can get rid of BWC and Savagery if you want some other skills to play with. Overcapped Vindictive Flames can also be trimmed down to 11/16 since this skill was taken mostly for the HP regen. Thermite mines and storm totems are excellent alternatives if it is to your liking. Personally, I feel adding these skills makes the build too clunky as you already open each engagement with wind devil, flashbang, BWC and canister bomb.
Imaginary Q&A
Q: Why not Purifier?
A: You can certainly play as a Purifier. However there are significant factors that I feel pushes Elementalist above Purifier and I believe this class combo is the best for this build. I will outline my reasons for why I feel elementalist is the superior choice.
Survivability
This build is a caster first (80%) and a gunner second (20%). As such I rely on health regen instead adcth for my sustain. For a kiting build, regen is a better sustain than Bat adcth (and I f(k!ng hate Bat on caster builds). You get +30% health regen from 10/10 Heart of the Wild and a massive +100% health regen from Tenacity of the Boar. Normal health regen is at 570hp/s, 800hp/s with Savagery and a very chunky 2200hp/s with Giant’s Blood and Savagery. This won’t come close to weapon damage-focused builds with high life leech but combined with 50% uptime on Blast Shield, this build can survive most of the pain that comes your way while standing your ground.
You do lose out on the awesome Word of Renewal line of skills as well as Censure’s -16 reduced enemy damage but thats why this build takes the transmuted BWC to compensate.
Damage
Stormcaller’s Pact has permanent +40% crit dmg as well as +33% chance of +394% lightning damage. Wind Devil has higher RR than Aura of Censure with the added bonus of Maelstrom at the 17/12 breakpoint. If cast on CD, you’ll have 2 WD out most of the time dealing their Maelstrom damage on a wider range of mobs. This is more than Deadly Aim and Censure combined can ever give you.
You could also factor in the Purifier’s WPS in its favor but this build is better if a lightning purifier gunner is more to your liking.
Q: Can this build do SR75+?
A: Yes!
If I could change the thread title I would.
Q: Why is there burn damage on the Canister Bomb?
A: This is unfortunately an artifact of the helmet’s CB phys to fire conversion. This now puts the conversion of internal trauma of Improved Casing at 50% fire and 50% lightning. The helmet is too important to be replaced. Since the build relies more on the initial damage of CB as opposed to the DoT, I am willing to make this trade off.
Attachment: SR80 Pass Elementalist Ulzuin.jpg
EDIT: In 1.1.4.0, The conversion on Ulzuin’s helm was moved to the gun. This is a big buff to the build as now, Canister Bomb is 100% lightning. Grimtools is updated to reflect the augment changes from 1.1.3.0 as well as the (undeserved) nerf to Maelstrom.