[v1] Ultos Ascended, bringing forth a storm! (Elementalist Primal Strike build)

With many changes done to Demolitionist to make the mastery strong. The elementalist combo makes a solid combo that can be both serve as a Tank and DPS toon. Take note that I just started making this toon so I will prioritize leveling first.

Current Status: Revised (just needs videos)

Table of Contents

[list=I]
[li]Skill Build, Pros and Cons[/li]
[li]Skill Explanation[/li]
[li]Devotion Guide[/li]
[li]Gear, Components, Augments (Part 1) (Part 2)[/li]
[li]Basic Strategies[/li]
[li]Leveling guide[/li]
[li]Videos and Conclusion[/li][/list]

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Build w/o Bonuses
Build w/ Bonuses

Pros:

  • High Damage
  • Decent Sustain
  • Does well while looking for endgame gear

Cons:

  • Sometimes when you get hit, you get hurt bad!

Here’s a list of the skills used in the build and why there going to be used in the build and how much points they should have.

Demolitionist

  • [li]Flashbang[/li]Recommended Rank: 11
    Flashbang is a really nice skill. Aside from the Defensive Ability Debuff, it also has a chance to confuse enemies, which is useful since we don’t have any other form of CC other than Vindictive Flame (which only has a 33% chance to stun on hit BTW). Leveling this is necessary, especially for the large AOE it has.
    [li]Flame Touched[/li]Recommended Rank: Maxed
    Flame Touched is nice because of the lightning damage and offensive ability. It’s highly recommended to max this, but you will be leveling this in-between high priority skills.
    [li]Temper[/li]Recommended Rank: 1
    You’d be surprised how useful Temper is even with a few points. Unfortunately, we can’t really invest too much into this due to higher priority skills, but as I said, you’d be surprised how useful one point is, especially with gear.
    [li]Vindictive Flame[/li]Recommended Rank: At least 14
    Total Speed, retaliation-like proc, and health regen. This skill has a lot going on. Try getting this over Rank 16 to fight the degeneration of Hungering Void. This helps out early game because of being able to get around areas quickly, which makes questing faster, which makes gaining exp faster.
    [li]Blast Shield[/li]Recommended Rank: Maxed
    This skill is so good, that’s it’s practically a necessity in any build with Demos. Get this maxed.
    [li]Thermite Mine[/li]Recommended Rank: 11
    This skill will always be useful to you because of the fact that it should be near you when used. A maxed out Arcane Mine, maxed out Raging Tempest, and a rank 12 Thermite Mine can give you -120% lightning resistance, so leave Thermite Mine at rank 12 so that you can prioritize other useful skills and modifiers.

Shaman

  • [li]Primal Strike[/li]Recommended Rank: Maxed
    This is our main damage dealer, so it’s a no-brainer that this is being maxed. Make sure you also have the Thunderous Strike Transmutor to spam Primal Strike.
    [li]Torrent[/li]Recommended Rank: Maxed
    You get a free chain lightning everytime you whip out a Primal Strike. This is the first skill you max out (followed by Primal Strike) as you level because you get fairly decent damage and AOE in the early game without additional energy costs.
    [li]Storm Surge[/li]Recommended Rank: At least 1
    This helps improve your damage output, but then again, so do elemental debuffs. Just put a point on this and let bonus skill points do the rest.
    [li]Wendigo Totem[/li]Recommended Rank: Maxed
    While This skill is obviously counter-thematic to the build. There is no doubt that this is the Shaman’s best melee sustainability skill in the game. When you max this and get bonus skill points from gear, the waves can heal you for a total of about 10% of your health! Max this by Act 3 in the first difficulty. The damage increase between Act 2 and Act 3 (when playing Veteran) is whack.
    [li]Blood Pact[/li]Recommended Rank: 1
    Helps out with your sustainability via more lifesteal. It’s kinda weird though how there is always some kind of delay before the buff activates.
    [li]Wind Devil[/li]Recommended Rank: 1
    This is guy is meant to be our debuffer. Just make sure you have pet attack in your skill bar to make the thing attack your target as it wanders off sometimes.
    [li]Raging Tempest[/li]Recommended Rank: Maxed
    This must be maxed out to get the most out of our debuffs.
    [li]Stormcaller’s Pact[/li]Recommended Rank: Maxed
    Get this maxed. The random boost damage is fairly good, but rank 20 gives you additional 62% Critical Damage. When added with Falcon, you’ll get 70% Critical Damage and Kraken will then boost it up to 85%, giving you the most out of your crits.
    [li]Mogdrogen’s Pact[/li]Recommended Rank: 1
    This adds not only health regen, but energy regen as well, but one point is needed because end-game gear can get you +3 skill points to shaman and you already have vindictive flame giving you so much sustain.
    [li]Heart of the Wild[/li]Recommended Rank: 7
    Adds HP to the elementalist, Going above Rank 10 is a waste of skill points as the bonus HP scales poorly after rank 10.
    [li]Oak Skin[/li]Recommended Rank: at least 1
    Only put a point or two to cap your pierce resistance to 80%.
    [li]Brute Force[/li]Recommended Rank: At least 1
    The flat lightning damage scales fairly well; however, due to higher priority skills, this is where you will dump the very few remainders of your skill points.

Follow this devotion guide as this will allow you to get all the important devotions without much respeccing.
I advise reading this guide to get devotion points ASAP.
I based this devotion set-up from Jajaja’s savagery build but I’ve done some modifications to it as primal strike can’t make itself stronger like savagery AND I was able to find a way to get BOTH Dying God and Spear of Heavens.
Now updated to 1.0.0.8

  1. [li]Eel[/li]Put a point into the Primordial Star and then you’ll be able to get Eel. Just put all points into Eel. Eel is pretty much one of the least useful constellations you’ll have, but 3 devotion points for 5 primordial is pretty handy. We’re getting this for Behemoth, Widow, and Kraken.
    [li]Scholar’s Light[/li]To get this, remove a point from the primordial star unto the Eldritch Star and then complete Scholar’s Light. Scholar’s light is a temporary constellation because this and the eldritch star provide the quickest way to get to Kraken without much respeccing.
    [li]Kraken[/li]Kraken should be available after following the first two constellations. This is a no-brainer for 2-Handed builds as the stats on it are amazing, getting this will also open up chaos affinities, giving us the opportunity to get more useful constellations.
    [li]Behemoth[/li]Put a point into the Eldritch Star, and then Behemoth should be accessible. First get the Giant’s Blood Skill in the constellation and then complete the rest of the constellation. Behemoth offers A LOT of survivability, which is needed for Ultimate. This will especially help you out later on as you use Hungering Void from Dying God. At early game, just attach this to Vindictive Flame. I later on attached this to Mogdrogen’s Pact because I felt it was more thematic that way.
    [li]Hawk[/li]To complete this, remove a point from the eldritch star and two points from Kraken unto Hawk. Once Hawk is done, remove everything from Scholar’s Light and put two points back to Kraken and a point on Widow. Hawk is ultimately, the constellation you’ll want for the rest of the game because of it’s OA and crit damage.
    [li]Widow[/li]If you’ve done everything right, then all you’ll need to do is complete Widow. Arcane Mine from Widow stacks with Thermite Mine and Raging Tempest, giving Primal Strike the much needed boost in damage. Ultimately, you’ll want this skill attached to Oleron’s Might from Oleron’s Blood Component as the skill has an 85% chance to activate Widow, which will always activate on your main targets (assuming they’re still alive of course).
    [li]Jackal[/li]Should be available. Just complete the Constellation. This is a pretty good constellation to have for a lot of reasons.
    [li]Revenant[/li]With Jackal complete, Revenant should be available, This constellation doesn’t have to be completed, only aim for the attack speed node. Revenant is very useful for some of it’s defensive and sustainability stats (read: lifesteal) getting to 6% lifesteal really helps out the Primal Strike Elementalist, especially since blood pact can boost your lifesteal to at around 20% if you have the proper gear.
    [li]Dying God[/li]This constellation should be available. Start putting points into Dying God. You’ll only want to put enough points to get Hungering Void. The other node is useless for you. Dying God, just like Wendigo Totem, is counter-thematic but very useful for Primal Strike. You get to hit VERY FAST, and combined with the bonus critical damage from Rank 20 Stormcaller’s Pact, Hawk, Kraken, Spear of Heavens, your lowest critical multiplier will become x2.35! One of the nice aspects of Hungering Void is that the cooldown starts ticking THE MOMENT THE SKILL ACTIVATES! This means without CDR, you’ll have a 10-second DOWN TIME with Hungering Void. In my case, I have 25% CDR from the pieces of my Ultos Set, making my down time 2.5 seconds! On top of that, Dying God gives you a lot of OA. Since Hungering Void automatically activates on attack, you’ll want this on Primal Strike to get the buff as soon as a fight STARTS!
    [li]Sailor’s Guide[/li]Just complete this. Sailor’s Guide gives you some freeze and physical resist, as well as move speed. We went with Eel first because it had the least amount of points needed to complete, but this is also taken for Spear of Heavens.
    [li]Spear of Heavens[/li]By completing Sailor’s Guide, you should have access to Spear of Heavens, so put points into everything except the skill. Spear of Heavens offers good bonus critical damage, Aether Resistances, lot’s of OA, lot’s of lightning damage. The skill isn’t really helpful so I wouldn’t bother completing the constellation.
    [li]Aeon Hourglass[/li]Assuming you can maintain 6% lifesteal via gear and not revenant, you can than reallocate everything from revenant unto Aeon Hourglass. The proc isn’t going to do much, so you won’t bother completing it, but Hourglass has a LOT of defensive stats.

Here’s a list of gear that makes the Elementalist open some heavy cans of whoop-ass. It could take a while to get these, but it would be all worth it. Besides, there’s trading in the game. :smiley:

  • [li]Weapon: Ultos’s Stormseeker[/li]Component: Oleron’s Blood
    The goal is to complete Ultos’s Storm set. The proc from the weapon isn’t so bad, but what makes this weapon useful is its high conversion, attack speed, and CDR, which makes skills like Hungering Void and Blast Shield even better. We’re using Oleron’s Blood because not only does it have good Single Target Damage, it also reduces the damage of enemies hit.
    [li]Head: Ultos’s Hood[/li]Component: Sanctified Bone
    This helm is pretty good when in terms of survivability and damage. Sanctified Bone will give you some nice chaos and vit resist.
    [li]Shoulders: Ultos’s Spaulders[/li]Component: Scaled Hide
    Decent offensive stats. Scaled Hide is a component you should be using when you don’t have any issues with your resists.
    [li]Chest: Ultos’s Cuirass[/li]Component: Kilrian’s Shattered Soul
    There’s sort of a trend that majority of the end-game gear is going to focus on Offensive stats, but this is because we’ll have a few amount of gear that will provide resists SO HIGH that it’s possible to focus on high damage output while having good resistances. This allows us to get away with stuff like completing the set, and equipping some offensive components. Kilrian’s Shattered Soul really helps get our Attack Speed up.
    [li]Hands: Light Defender’s Gauntlets[/li]Component:Antivenom Salve
    These gloves are strong. The attack speed and cast speed do wonders for this build, and it even comes with a 15% chance on attack to throw a lightning bolt at an enemy. It even has decent defensive stats to boot. Antivenom salve helps you with more regen and poison resist.
    [li]Legs: Stonehide Solael Sect Legguards of Nature’s Bounty[/li]Component: Scaled Hide
    These legguards have decent stats, and are pretty much the only legs that provide lifesteal. With the affixes mentioned, you’ll be able to spec out you’re gear for some additional offensive and defensive capabilities. Nature’s Bounty will greatly help out in cancelling out the degeneration of Hungering Void. Scaled Hide gives you more armor absorption.
    [li]Feet: Golemborn Greaves[/li]Component: Mark of Mogdrogen
    These are very solid boots because of how much defensive stats the boots offer and the fact that it can be equipped as early as level 50. It has a pretty sweet defensive proc that buffs all armor for more up-close and personal fights. On top of that, it gives +3 to temper, increasing damage output and armor. Mark of Mogdrogen offers good amounts of health and health regen. You don’t give a shit though about the bonus move speed because you have many bonuses for that.
    [li]Amulet: Ultos’s Gem[/li]Component: Focusing Prism
    Amazing Amulet. The +2 to Primal Strike and %Physical to Lightning Conversion are pretty golden. Focusing Prism will improve our Critical Damage as well as reduce our energy costs more.
    [li]Ring: Glyph of Kelphat’Zoth[/li]Component: Corpse Dust
    This is a good ring that gives +2 to Stormcaller’s Pact, letting you get more critical damage. This also has a skill that gives additional lightning damage as you’re fighting and has a 5 second downtime. Corpse Dust offers a lot of health and regen as well as giving decent vitality resistance.
    [li]Ring: Charged Cronley’s Signet of the Hurricane[/li]Component: Corpse Dust
    This is a nice farmable ring that gives decent attack speed and pierce resistance. With flat lightning damage for its affixes, you’ll be able to get more damage out of your Primal Strike. The Hurricane Suffix even gives you a lightning bolt on attack for additional damage as you fight. Corpse Dust will be used for more health and regen.
    [li]Medal:Badge of Mastery[/li]Component: Attuned Lodestone
    The ideal bonus you’ll want on Badge of Mastery is +3 to Primal Strike, as it will max out Primal Strike, a perfect bonus will give you +2 to Wendigo Totem as well, as Wendigo Totem scales really well with skill bonuses. Attuned Lodestone will give us more crit damage.
    [li]Waist: Ulzuin’s Torment[/li]Component:Antivenom Salve
    Has a lot of offensive stats to really boost your damage. The best part about this belt is that it gives skill points to all Demo skills, so you can remove points and add it to Storm Surge and Brute Force. Poison can be really annoying, especially if fighting Log, so use antivenom salve.
    [li]Relic: Eye of the Storm[/li]This is a no-brainer since we’re focusing on lightning damage. Gives +1 to all shaman skills, reduces skill energy cost, and gives an AMAZING AURA that improves our lightning damage. Be sure to roll +1 to Torrent and +1 to Raging Tempest to improve the damage output even more.

Here are some tips you should know on how to gear as you level:

  • Whenever you start a new difficulty, if you haven’t gotten Ultos’s Stormcaller, always start looking for Hevill’s Greatsword. You can find this very early in the game way before you get to the rift portal near the reanimator in the first quest. The conversion and stats of this item get better for each difficulty, so be sure to get this. You can always find this in the same spot.
  • Be sure to get skinner’s ring as you level up. The ring not only provides flat physical damage, it also provides Health as well. Follow this map to find him and then TELL HIM ABOUT DEVIL’S CROSSING.
  • Having lifesteal gear goes a long way of helping you live until you get high level Wendigo Totem. When combined with your wendigo totem, you’ll be a force to be reckoned with. Hollowed Fang, and then eventually, Haunted Steel, makes the leveling experience better. Use these whenever you can until you can use Oleron’s Blood.
  • 2-piece bonus from Explorer’s Garments makes Early-Game FUN! With vindictive flame, it’s easy to get capped at 135% Move speed. Make sure you’re wearing the footpads when using the 2-piece bonus. That’s the MVP for the bonus. Move Speed really helps to get to areas quickly, especially for solo leveling.
  • Use Ectoplasm in your accessories until you can use Arcane Spark in your amulets and medals. These components really help out with the Energy issues that come with Primal Strike.
  • Bristly Fur is so good early game. Just keep using those until you can use better components.
  • Once you get to level 35 AND you’re respected with Kymon’s Chosen, get Chosen Headguard. This is a nice helm that gives really good offensive stats. The elite version gets even better obviously, so you can use this while looking for ultos’s hood.
  • Once you get to level 40 AND you’re honored with Homestead, get Thundering Gem. This will improve your damage output with Primal Strike.
  • Once you get to level 50 AND you’re respected with the Black Legion, get Legion Warblade. This is similar to hevill’s, but it already rolls attack speed (which means higher DPS). It’s also recommended to get the elite version of this if you haven’t gotten the axe yet. The only time hevill’s can outdo Legion is if hevill’s rolls with of Alacrity.
  • Make sure you side with the Outcast. Anasteria can provide you with resistances on your weapons while you’re looking for your proper gear. In addition to that, she can also help you out with cold resistances, which you will find you will have lacking as you start gearing up properly.
  • Always equip 2-Handed weapons with higher DPS. This is given, but it’s especially important since Primal Strike will be a spammable skill. Keep doing this until you have Ultos’s Stormcaller.
  • Zealot’s Gauntlets and Rhowari Handguards go a long way of increasing your DPS early to mid-game. The latter does a better job though, so get that ASAP.

I highly recommend using these augments at end-game:

Here are some basic strategies to use this build to it’s fullest potential:

  • The trick to using Flashbang properly is having a clean line of fire! Even with a one second cooldown, This isn’t something that should be constantly spammed as this eats a lot of energy, especially considering you already have Primal Strike, Flame Touched, and Vindictive Flame.
  • Use your mobility. 130% move speed lets you travel faster, lets you in and out of fights faster, get to better positions faster, and clear quests faster.
  • Only use Thermite Mine at close range. This will let you get the most out of the mine’s debuff.
  • Always determine when to attack confused foes. Since you have torrent, you don’t need to attack them directly. An easy example as to knowing when to attack confused foes is if the non-confused foe has reflect.

Here’s a guide on how to level up the elementalist. This is still WIP because I just started leveling this toon. This build will assume that you don’t have the end-game items just yet. Once you do have them, adjust accordingly.
Note: To know what your devotion set-up should ideally look like by the end of each difficulty, look for After completing Hidden Path on x. Ideally in this case means that you had found ALL the shrines in Veteran and Elite.
Now updated to 1.0.0.8

  • [li]Level 11[/li]The goal early on the game is to complete the Primal Strike Tree
    [li]Level 14[/li]Complete Torrent first because you get a lot of damage and AOE without any additional energy cost. #OPOpies
    [li]Level 19[/li]After completing Torrent, complete Primal Strike so you can hopefully do a lot better in later acts to come. Put on some Ectoplasms if you have Energy Issues.
    [li]Level 23 [/li]Put a point into the Shaman Mastery Bar, and then start putting points into the Demolitionist mastery bar until you can put a point into Vindictive Flame.
    [li]Level 28[/li]Max out Vindictive Flame first for move speed and sustainability.
    [li]Level 32[/li]Max out Wendigo Totem for more sustainability.
    [li]Level 44 [/li]Max out the shaman Mastery to get to Stormcaller’s Pact right away.
    [li]Level 51 After completing Hidden Path on Normal/Veteran[/li]Start spending as much as possible to get the demolitionist mastery to level 31.
    [li]Level 57[/li]Use the point you get from Kasparov on the Demolitionist Mastery bar to get it to level 32. Max out Blast Shield.
    [li]Level 63[/li]Max out Flame Touched.
    [li]Level 69[/li]Put points into Pact of Mogdrogen and Oak Skin, and max out Heart of the Wild
    [li]Level 75 After completing Hidden Path on Elite[/li]Get a point into Wind Devil and then use your skill points (including the one from hidden path) to max out Raging Tempest.
    [li]Level 79[/li]Use points from leveling and Kasparov to get Thermite mine to level 9.
    [li]Level 85, Includes Devotions, and additional skill point After Hidden Path on Ultimate[/li]Max out Flashbang. You can honestly do whatever you want with the last skill point from the hidden path quest. If you’re fine with sustain, you can just put the point in brute force; otherwise, go with Blood Pact

This is reserved for future updates.

wowwwwww :smiley:
can’t wait

Hey guys added some content to the guide. The thread is still a WIP but I hope you guys enjoy what I added. Feedback is also welcome of course. ;D

What’s the plan for attributes? Would they all go into physique, or would you get something like 10 cunning or spirit?

The stat distribution is in Grim Calc, but basically they’re all put into physique because you’ll have enough spirit for amulets and rings. You can do what ever you want really because you need 970 physique for high level heavy armor.

Hey guys, I’ve updated the guide so far and my toon just cleared all the content in act 1 elite. Hope you guys enjoy reading what I’ve added so far. :smiley:

Do you think the new Light of the Defender set will work for this build?

I don’t know for sure, but I’m convinced that Light of the Defender is a retaliation set.

I don’t think so. That item set has huge bonuses to stun jacks and storm totem.

Hey guys, I’m about to modify my build like this. With bonus skill points from end-game gear, it goes something like this. What do you guys think about my skill choices and devotion set-up? I could really use some feedback to finalize both my character and the guide.

Hey guys. I just finalized my build. That means that I have decided what skills, devotions, gear, components, and augments this build should use. I also finalized on how to level up the character. The only thing missing in the guide are videos (which will take time due to my studies). So I hope you guys enjoy the guide and tell me what you think about it.

How does this compare to jajaja’s savagery 2h elementalist? I didn’t read it all, but i see your devotions are different at least.