Well , i’ve kind of duped this post (I have a similar post up in builds). I thought i was having trouble with my fluffy squishy build, but i just fired up my level 68 elementalist and it’s having a rough go of it also. A dark shrine unloaded 2 heros on me and i died about 3 times. I’ve died 5 times in a row to cabraxas and gave up. can’t kite it because it just chases me at what seems like 100% movespeed (may I say that super movespeed for bosses is a really cheap game mechanic).
so now i’ve got two builds, both getting beat up badly.
clearly i’ve either biffed the builds (likely) or the last patch did something that’s screwing me over (unlikely), or i’m under-geared(most likely). or some combination thereof. The elementalist was a strong build and now every single fight is a bunch of work.
HELP ! i basically can’t progress at this point on either character. Well, i can, but it’s absolutely no fun whatsoever.
I am no expert on Lightning Builds but some hints may help:
Get Viper for Eel. You have to refund some Devotion Points but you would get more RR and more OA: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/RZROkn9N (I hope, I haven´t missed any source of RR so that Viper won´t stack but you still will get the OA)
Resistances. You are in Ugdenbog, right? And your Poison Resistance is really low. Do you have the Blueprint for Ugdenbog Leather? Use it.
Armor: Yes, you are a Caster and your armor is low. But only 70 % Absorption combined with low Armor? Hurts.
Why so much points in Mogdrogen´s Pact? Make it a 1 pointer and e. g. invest in Shaman Mastery Bar and get your 1st point in Stormcaller´s Pact (I think, you want it later, right?).
This is probably your biggest problem on the Elementals. You’re in Ugdenbog. LAND OF POISON.
Also, refund the arm node in Giant’s Blood so you can take the Celestial Power for it instead. Bind it to a buff. And if you don’t have Ugdenbog Leather then at least slap some Antivenom Salves on some of your armor pieces. Plus it appears you aren’t using any AUGMENTS. At level 70 you should have access to some simple ring/amulet/weapon augments at the very least. A few of those also can add poison resist as a stop gap.
And keep putting more points in Raging Tempest. In fact, I’d spec back points from Stun Jacks, Shield Blast and Mogrodgen’s Pact to their soft cap points and put those in RT. When you’re leveling soft caps are almost always good enough and you can use the extra points to buff other things.
u/Rhylthar is absolutely spot on about getting Stormcaller’s Pact as soon as you can.
oh. yeah. i guess 27% is kind of low. oops. time to rummage through the stash and see what the vendors have.
RR=Reduction Resist, right ? OA. Oh, i think my lack of game mechanics knowledge is showing. OA applies to spell casting too doesn’t it ? I forgot about that and have been completely ignoring it. One of the many things that’s been going wrong is that my damage has definitely fallen off. Now I know why.
Could you expand on that ? I take it my armor should be much higher ? or do i need to look for armor with absorbtion bonuses ?
Well that’s a good question. it provides regen, so I figured more was better…Now that i look at the additional bonus from points invested, it doesn’t seem to be a very good investment.
I’ve got the point allocations and devotion changes done. Now to work on the gear.
Thanks very much for the help ! I really appreciate it, I’m pretty stuck right now so it’s really great that I at least have some thing to try.
RR=Resist Reduction, yes…and OA applies for anything, Spell or “normal” hit.
For your Armor:
You can´t do much, because caster armor is always low. But you can get more percentage Absorp. Just put a Scaled Hide on your pants and —> 84 % Absorption.
And: Get some Augments. Anything helps. Enjoy your ride on Cairn.
ok. i took on caraxas again with about 60% poison R, just to see what would happen.
sure enough i watched the indicators carefully and saw poison , bleed and something that looked like a smashed shield.
even at 58% things went better, but still tough.
capped poison resist and went back in. it was still difficult,but whereas i was dying immediately, this time i could at least kite him.
then, after leaving that area, i ran into a chthonic hero of some sort that killed me 3 times in a row. lmao. i couldn’t quite tell what damage it was doing, but i don’t have the bottom line capped, so i bet it was bottom line related damage. capping all of those resists sure is a PitA.
Things are definitely going much better. I still need to farm a bit. i went back to some fort ikon quests and faction quests and just that slight drop in the monster level made things much better. my damage still seems weak (now with stormcall pact), but i don’t die at all.
humorously i have neither ugdenbog leather or scaled hide recipes. i did have ancient armor and was able to buff damage absorption that way. i’m finding the way armor works to be a bit confusing, i’ll keep reading the wiki
Thanks very much ! I as I said, things are already going better.
Scaled Hide can be crafted by blacksmith from the very beginning. You dont need a Blueprint for it. Just put 2x of those on your gear and enjoy improved tankiness.
Seems you have no way to heal beyond health pots and no protection beyond 4 seconds of Blast Shield. Your character is not that tough. Seems you got 3 options:
Get tougher defences
Get recovery/protection devotions and items
Kill faster
Get them Antivenom Salves on your armor. Forget dmg till you got your res covered - imbued Silver/Purified salt on both weapons. Lose that Harmonious Ring of Whatever. You need resistances on every piece. It will get better once you get reputation in factions and can buy armor augments.
Also, Stun Jacks suck for beginners. They don’t heal. But get Bat devotion and bind it to Jacks. Forget Reckless Tempest. Try to get Ultos. It will heal you some id you got Attack Damage Converted to Health (adcth).
But honestly, until you get full Cyclone set and all the needed gear your elementalist will suck shite no matter what you do. If you don’t have time for a brand new char I’d get GD Stash just to change the mastery: demo to inquisitor. Vindicators never die.
well’ that’s distressing, lol. isn’t that true for any build. I’ve been looking through the forum posts and it’s looking like elite ~ level 70 is a bit of a sticking point for a lot of people. One thing i don’t know is how i can even farm gear. i don’t have crucible expansion, so i’m assuming i should probably try shattered realms ? anyway I’m still reading up on exactly how you go about farming good gear. Honestly at this point I’m not even exactly sure what constitutes “good” gear…
Thanks very much for the suggestions. I know that capping some resists and making a few modest changes to the tree have made things a lot better already.
I sure wish I could find the build that i was following for this, the basic idea was stun jacks + storm totems. I’m really lost on what my devotions should be, so i’ll definitely check out your suggestions.
I can start a new character, but I want to play demo + something. I’m taking suggestions
I exaggerate a bit. You’ll clear the game no problem on an elementalist. In endgame however you’ll struggle to achieve good performance and consistency outside the Cyclone set. So if you wanna get there I’d recommend starting over a new char that would allow you to get in endgame-farming shape easily, and then get back to your elementalist once you collected enough gear.
For an easy mid-level endgame farmer I recommend an infiltrator with Silver Sentinel and Chillhearts. It’s squishy but if you don’t play hardcore it’s ok. It’s superfast and real easy to gear. Silver Sentinel set drops all the time, Chillhearts are guaranteed drops, medal and amulet are faction craftables. Check my guide Silvie the Squish for some gearing options (the melee version especially - and for rings I recommend Nightscorns or blue Alkamos, the purple Alkamos are almost impossible to get)
