Elemental Hit is an attack skill, executing a basic attack with added damage of a random element. An Elemental Hit may be performed with any weapon, or with no weapon equipped.

Quick Jump

• Pros & Cons

• Skill Tree 

• Gems Setup

• Gear & Stat Priorities

• Leveling

Pros & Cons

Pros

• + insane damage output
• + kill Uberelder as fast as a GC Miner
• + no 6-link required (easy to get started)
• + very great clearspeed (nearly the same speed as an ele wander)
• + cheap to get the build running (1-3ex - depends on time of the season)
• + safe way to play

Cons

• - expensive to min max (corruptions on items like kaom´s heart or frostferno)
• - no leech mechanic -> just life reg via totems (Hierophant Ascendency)
• - Totem playstyle is not for everyone

Skill Tree 

Ascendancy

Pursuit of Faith ->Ritual of Awakenin ->Conviction of Power ->get the 2 points with 20% mana regeneration

Bandits

Kill all bandits for the extra 2 points in passive tree.

Pantheon

• Soul of Lunaris
• Soul of Gruthkul

Note: capture all souls with divine vessels -> solid defence buff!

Keep in mind, that it is beneficial to swap the minor god on "Aul, the Crystal King (delve boss in v. 3.4) to: Yogul 

Passive Tree

Gems Setup

HELMET (4 link):

• Elemental Hit (quality grants more damage)
• Ranged Attack totem Support (quality grants faster summoning)
• Elemental Damage with Attack Skills Support (quality grants more damage)
• Combustion Support (quality grants more damage)

WEAPON (6 socket - 5 link):

5-link:

• Cast When Damage Taken on level 8 (quality grants faster casted trigger)
• Immortal Call on level 10 (quality grants increased duration / consumed endurance charrges)
• Increased Duration Support (quality grants more duration)
• Vaal Haste (more movement speed and attack speed (no quality needed)
• Vaal Grace (no quality needed)

1 socket left: Blink Arrow (to jump cliffs)

Important Note

Use the Haste aura (from Vaal Haste Gem) for mapping and better clearspeed. Use the Grace aura (from Vaal Grace Gem) for more survivability if needed. Since both are 50% mana reserve auras, you just can use one of them at a time. BUT: even if you use the haste aura, the vaal grace effect (due to increased duration in the setup) is your "panic button" and gives you at level 20 huge 34% plain dodge chance for 10 seconds. The perfect first defence layer... (see more in the defence layer chapter of this guide).

GLOVES (2-link):

There are two options for the link:

1st option (damage max):

• Increased Duration Support (quality grants more duration)
• Blood Rage (quality increases effect)

Blood Rage gives us over a period of about 20 seconds 20% increased attack speed, but during this time we have a life-degen. We compensate this debuff with the life-reg mechanic on our totems (due to the hierophant ascendency).

2nd option (movement):

• Increased Duration Support (quality grants more duration)
• Phase Run (quality increases effect)

With Phase Run, you gain a movement buff and it can be helpful while exploring the Delve. Make your choice, what suits your playstyle best...

BOOTS (4-link):

There are two different options you can choose:

1st Option:

• Blasphemy Support (quality increases curse effect) -> grants an aura to curse nearby enemies with the linked gems
• Flammibility (quality grants better value) -> lower enemies fire resists (huge damage buff -> you don´t see this on mouseover dps, but in Path of Building)
• Enlighten Support -> grants a mana multiplier below 1.0 to lower the mana revervation of th curse aura (minimum gem level 3)
• Enfeeble (quality increases curse effect) -->> second curse for narrow spaces -->> it debuffs enemies and is the most effective way to increase your toughness, because cursed enemies deal less damage and will hit less likely.

Important Note

You can only curse enemies with one curse at a time. Therefore we activate the curse aura we need in a specific situation (example: delve or bosses or mapping). Chose Flammability for maximum damage and Enfeeble for maximum toughness. With a corrupted Yoke of Suffering you are able to apply a seconds curse on enemies.

2nd Option

• Frenzy (quality grants additional attack speed)
• Greater Multiplier Projectiles Support (no quality needed) (GMP)
• Curse on Hit Support (quality grants better curse effect)
• the actual curse: Flammbility or Enfeeble

Note: the frenzy attack doen´t deal damage (due to the note "Ancestral Bond" in the passive tree), it just curses monsters or destroys baskets (clickables) in the map. Therefore we dont need a quality GMP gem.

DIFFERENCE EXPLAINED:

With frenzy you can curse the enemies from great distances, but you need to curse them yourself. With Blasphemy you can be lazy and the aura will curse automatically, but you need to get a bit closer to an enemy to inflict the curse (compared to the frenzy method)

Pick the way that fits your playstyle...

LATE ENDGAME

Option 1 (max damage)

premise: you have a "Yoke of Suffering " with +1 curse

• Blasphemy
• Flammability -->> first curse mechanic
• Projectile Weakness -->> second curse mechanic
• Enlighten (level 4)

Option 2 (max defence)

premise: you have a "Yoke of Suffering" with +1 curse

• Blasphemy
• Enfeeble -->> first curse mechanic
• Enlighten (level 4)
• Frost Wall (to keep monsters away from you)

AND: Corrupted Tombfist Gloves with: "Curse Enemies with Level X Temporal Chain on Hit" -->> second curse mechanic

GENERAL HINT: GEM COLORS AND SOCKETS:

The bow needs 3 off colors (red sockets), If you buy a six socket with 5 link, be aware that the 5-link is across the first 5 sockets. Than you can craft the 3 off colors (red) for 120 chromatic orbs with a Vorici Bench in your Hideout. The first 3 Sockets in the 5-link will turn red and since a bow is a dex item , the other sockets will most likely turn green.

The helmet has 3 off colors, since it is a evasion based helmet the sockets will most likely be green. If you produce your own frostferno (with the prophecy "A Vision of Ice and Fire" + a "Heatshiver" helmet in your inventory whlie killing the boss on the estuary map, you can craft off colors on the Vorici Bench by using the jeweler method. Watch a tutorial on youtube "poe crafting off color".

Gear & Stat Priorities

Move the mouse to see the bold equipment needed to affix

Helmet

Frostferno is the key. Since the Elemental Hit skill counts as lightning, fire, cold and projectile at the same time, this helmet grant +4 level on Elemental Hit. For more damage you can corrupt the helmet with a vaal orb.

Useful corruptions (in this order - best first):

• +2 level to socketed fire gems (boosts ele hit and combustion)
• +2 level to socketed projectile gems (boosts ele hit and ranged attack totem)
• +2 level to socketed cold gems (boosts ele hit)
• +2 level to socketed lightning gems (boosts ele hit)
• +2 level to AoE gems (boosts ele hit)

With a level 21 Elemental Hit and the right corruption you play with a level !27! skill. Way better than every 6-link could every be.

Keep in mind, that we use a corruption on the helmet, there is no space for an uberlab enchantment. The +2 corruption is very very very much better than the "+15% Elemental Hit attack speed" or the "40% increased Elemental Hit damage" enchantment on the helmet!!!

Until you have a Frostferno (while leveling):

any rare helmet with life, resists. Or a Starkonja, Rats Nest, Devotos Devotion

Weapon

Chin Sol (Corrupted) , Chin Sol (Corrupted)

The bow grants +100% increased damage at close range. And we put our totems near enemies. Boom - a ton of extra damage. The wall of totems stands between us and the monsters. We take fewer aggro, because monsters try to attack the totems - but they die trying :-)

Useful corruptions (in this order):

• +1 arrow
• +% increased attack speed
• +% (base) critical strike chance
• +adds elemental damage
• +adds physical damage

Quiver

Skirmish(Corrupted) grants us +1 Totem. This is a great damage buff.

Useful corruptions:

We want "Point Blank" on it. This is a further 50% damage increase at close range (100% from bow) -> total buff = 150% at close range.
Point Blank grants more damage than "+1 Arrow"

Body Armour

Kaom´s Heart(Corrupted) to reach a solid total life pool of arround 5.5k. The increased fire damage is a great buff for our ele hit. Get at least +35% on it.

Useful corruptions (in this order):

• +up to 50% increased damage
• +% increased life
• +reduced damage taken

NOTE: If 40 or 50% increased damage as implicit, isn´t that important. Main thing is to have the additional multiplier in the "damage multiplication chain". It is useless to have a low "increased fire" roll of about 20-25% and the corrupted implicit. At least it should have 35+% increased fire damage. Don´t buy crap for many ex...

Gloves

Tombfist (Corrupted), Tombfist

With 2 abyss sockets and a murderous eye jewel attached to the gloves, enemies are intimidated (take 10% increased damage). No other pair of gloves in the game deal more damage in our case. Up to 10% increased attack speed plus the intimidated mechanic + 2 additional jewel sockets - be(a)st gloves!

Useful corruptions (in this order):

• +% increased attack speed
• +% increased maximum life
• +Curse on hit -> Temporal Chains (!Only with a +1 Curse Yoke amulet!)
• +attacks have +% to (base) critical strike chance

Keep in mind, that enemies just can have one debuff (curse) at a time and we curse them with flammability. So we can´t use the "curse on hit" corruptions on the gloves.

The only possible way is, if our Yoke of Suffering amulet is corrupted with "Enemies can have 1 additional curse / Apply an additional curse" or you skill "Whispers of Doom" in the passive tree (not recommended!)

Boots

Gang´s Momentum (Corrupted) are the best in slot boots for maximizing our damage.

With ele hit and other items and passives in the skill tree we have a >100% chance to ignite enemies. And the boots grant a +40% damage buff agains ignited enemies. 

We don´t want curroptions on the boots, just an enchantment from the (uber)lab.

The only two enchantments (in this order):

• +120% increased critical strike chance if you haven´t dealt a critical strike recently (this buff is always on, because we never crit -> our totems do!!!)
• Damage penetrates +10% of enemy elemental resistance if we haven´t killed recently (buff is always on - we never kill -> our totems do!!!

Belt

A Stygian Vise is the best belt in slot

With the new Delve rolls, a belt can have up to +110% increased WED (short for: weapon elemental damage -> or = "elemental damage with attack skills").

With a double WED roll (80% max) (+50% elemental damage with attack skills AND +30% elemental damage or fire damage), the belt can only roll two resists. Keep that in mind with your resist cap!

Amulet

The Yoke of Suffering brings a huge damage buff due to the mechanic, that our fire damage can shock enemies. And we have a 100% ingnite chance, so we shock them all the time. Insane damage buff!

Important: You can´t see the damage boost on mouseover in the game, but you see the boost in Path of Building (PoB). There is no other amulet in the game with this kind of damage buff for this build!

Useful corruptions:
+1 curse on enemies (now we can run flammability + enfeeble at the same time -> read more about gems in chapter 07 "gem linking". Or even flammbility and elemental weakness for nuts debuff on enemies (the biggest damage boost of the build = double debuff curse)
+X% attack speed

Flask

Quicksilver Flask: for movement (aim for increased duration + increased movement speed during flask effent)

Life Flask (aim for instant recovery) or get a "Blood of the Karui"

Wise Oak: for up to 15% fire damage penetration during flask effect (NOTE: your uncapped fire resist needs to be the highest elemental resist to work. Don´t forget that in you resist planning!)

Silver Flask: grants Onslaught -> increased attack speed -> most beneficial to this build for damage

Quartz Flask: get 10% dogge and phasing during flask effect (aim for increased duration and immune to curses during flask effect). Note: you are up to 6.2 seconds immune to any kind of curses and during the flask effect you will recharge the flask by killing monsters. You are effective immune to curses all the time (example: temporal chains as map mod)

An alternative to the Quartz Flask is a Dying Sun (unique Ruby Flask) for 2 additional projectiles during flask effect. More projectiles = more AoE damage (Area of Effect). With a Dying Sun your totems will fire 5 instead of 3 arrows.

Leveling

Important hint: skill "avatar of fire" at the time you have both "combat focus" jewels & put the jewels in the exact same jewel slot like in the guide (because the jewels need some stats in radius to get active). I skilled it around lvl 50ish...

Level with "Smite" + usefull support gems until act 3. After the Quest "a fixture of fate" you can change to ranged attack totem + elemental hit. Or buy the gems on poe trade.

An Alternative:

Until you can get the "Ranged attack totem" & "Elemental Hit" skill you can also run "Spell Totem" + "Arc" + useful support gems (you can get the combo with level 12). So you can run Totems very early. Although we don´t stack any spell damage (arc scales with spell damage), it is more than enough damage to run until you can get the elemental hit combo.

When you have Elemental Hit, get a Quill Rain bow + Skirmish Quiver and level trough until you can wear a Chin Sol.

Decent level uniques: "Thief´s Torment" ring (in combination with the +100% increased attack speed of Quill Rain bow = easy leveling..

Get frenzy or barrage with faster attacks + LMP / GMP for AoE (learn more in the "gem linking" chapter -> ("curse on hit gem linking").

You won´t do damage with frenzy / barrage (due to Ancestral Bond note), but you apply curses (debuffs) on hit AND according to the "Thief´s Torment" rolls you get much life and mana on hit.

Play the "Elemental Hit Totem" 4-link (change combusion with lesser or greater multiplier projectile support for AoE) gem setup for ele hit (see under chapter 07 "gem linking") -> until you can afford (or produce your own) frostferno, try to get a cheap Tabu. Add "added fire damage support" and lesser or greater multiplier to the six link. stack life and resists on yellow leveling gear.

Try to get the combat focus jewels as soon as possible. get a splinter of rain (than you don´t need GMP anymore). feel free to skill "Ancestral Bond" when you want to start to play with totems. Then try to get as soon as possible to the very right side of the skill tree to get the very important "additional 2 targets piercing" note.

Get attack speed and ele damage and totem notes, last the crit and bow notes. always try to stay healthy with your life pool.

LEVELING GEAR GUIDELINES

Aim for the following rolls on items while leveling:

Weapon + Offhand:

You need a bow (don´t mind about using a wand) for "ranged attack totems" + "ele hit". Keep looking for rare bows with great attack speed and at least two flat elemental damage (fire prefered) rolls.

Get as early as possible the "skirmish" quiver for extra 1 totem, it will most likely be very cheap to buy, because it is a common unique item.

Other recommend item rolls

• Life
• Resists
• Attack speed (when you have elemental hit equipped)
• Flat Elemental damage (because of low itemlevel - ilvl - the percentage increased fire rolls or the WED rolls are not very high, it is better to use flat elemental damage)
• increased fire / elemntal damage

COMPACT INFO

start with smite (melee) or arc + spell totem (lvl 12).

• if you want to use totems very early on, get "ancestral bond" note fast (only skill it, when you play totems - because other skills wont do damage anymore).
• If you start with arc totem (spell based) use some spell damage gear until you change to elemental hit + ranged attack totem.
• be aware to use a bow + quiver when you start running with ele hit totem.
• get a "splinter of rain" jewel for passive tree to get more. projectiles (otherwise your totems will only shoot one projectile!)
• stack flat elemental damage during leveling (story mode).
• you will be able to do the story mode on a 4 or 5 link (elemental hit + ranged attack totem + LMP/GMP + elemental attack damage (on a 5-link faster attacks), very easily
• try to stay healthy with your life pool and your resists.
• after story mode - try to upgrade your gear piece by piece

MILESSTONES

• start running ele hit totems
• progress story mode
• force ele hit to roll only fire (combat focus jewels)
• get the recommended gear piece by piece

POB: https://pastebin.com/y7P0EZWA