[3.3][WIP] Fire & Lightning Melee Hit Raider

Build Overview

This build revolves around Elemental Equilibrium (EE) and Elemental Hit (EH). In short, EH can never repeat a damage type as of 3.3 which means it synergizes with EE naturally.

I’ve chosen to use one Combat Focus to eliminate Cold as one of the available damage types because it has the lowest DPS potential. It also means you can convert it to Fire through Unique items like Pyre and Heatshiver/Frostferno to boost your Fire hits. This works because EE has all three damage types, but only applies one at a time. For my build I use Pyre, but not Frostferno.

There aren’t a whole lot of options to scale damage because of the EE concept. The first thing that came to mind was Brightbeak and Crits. Since the build uses two damage types, converting weapon damage would be inefficient and using an elemental weapon would waste some of the damage because of EH’s limitation. Brightbeak’s ridiculous APS and Crit Chance makes it a great weapon for this build. You could craft or find a better weapon, but it would be very expensive. Brightbeak will carry this build well into yellow/red maps.

For ascendancy, I tried Elementalist first but rerolled as Raider. It was nice having Aoe, Heralds, and Reflect immunity, but I wasn’t happy with how it felt to play. Raider feels much better with the extra evasion on top of Acro/Phase Acro and faster movement. Inpulsa's Broken Heart makes clearing feel more satisfying and takes less effort. Without it, you can still clear fast just because of how fast you are in general.

TL:DR:
Use Ele Hit, spec Ele Equilibrium, equip Brightbeak, scale Crits/Attack Speed, and choose Raider to go super fast!

Disclaimer:
This is my first guide and the build is a work in progress! I've only gone up to Tier 15 maps and haven't gotten any expensive items to put into it yet.

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The Build

PoB link: https://pastebin.com/Ms5uQidU

Pros and Cons

Pros
+Low budget
+Fairly beginner friendly
+Very fast gameplay due to high attack speed and mobility
+Strong single target
+Can achieve 500k Shaper DPS on a 5L with one gem swap
+Can shred up to Tier 15 maps
+Melts regular Atziri

Pro/con/preference/doesn’t matter
~Melee gameplay with Ancestral Call/Ruthless gem swap for single target
~No Phys damage reduction; Evasion/Dodge based
~Just over 5.5k Life without Belly; can’t face tank
~Can run Labs, but can't tank traps or Izaro; must learn/know how to dodge

Cons
-Hard to min/max for later endgame content
-Can’t do ele reflect maps
-Currently untested past T15 maps
-Lycosidae might be expensive, depending on the economy
-Item colouring can be a bit annoying
-No fancy Herald explosions with MTX </3

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Current Gear




Gear Explanation

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Ascendency/Tree/Pantheon



Frenzy charges and Onslaught are what makes this build cheap and fast. Chase provides more DPS than Veil and also makes the build faster. When leveling, I'd take Way of the Poacher and Rapid Assault first to speed up the process. Merc Lab could be Avatar of the Chase if you want more Evasion, or Slaughter for speed and DPS.

Tree

Pantheon

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Gem Links

Ele Hit - Ele Damage w/ Attacks - Multistrike - Ruthless/Ancestral Call - Hypothermia -
Increased Critical Strikes

Even with just a 5L, you can get over 500k Shaper damage with Ruthless in place of Ancestral Call. I use the 6th unlinked socket for quick swapping. Hypothermia applies when another gem setup gets triggered or when you spam the trap setup for bosses. Increased Critical Strike is the final link.

Immortal Call (level 10) - Cast when Damage Taken (level 8) - Increased Duration -
Haste/Vaal Haste

Just a standard Immortal Call setup. Linked with Vaal Haste to make it last longer. If you’re starting the league, you can have an unlinked Haste until you get a Vaal version. You could use (Vaal)Grace instead if you want more evasion.

Shield Charge - Leap Slam - Fortify - Faster Attacks

I use Shield Charge as the main skill, and Leap slam to cross gaps and obstacles. You could omit Shield Charge and switch this with one of the weapon links if you don’t want to have two movement skills. I just prefer the higher speed of Shield Charging. Admittedly, the insane speed makes it a bit hard to control in tight spaces and around objects, so I find myself using both equally.

Summon Flame Golem (7) - Cast when Damage Taken (5) - Cold Snap (10) - Shock Nova (8)

I went with a triggered Flame Golem for a bit of a damage boost. Level 7 because that’s when the damage increment goes up by 1. Cold Snap applies Chill and increases the chance to gain Frenzy Charges. Shock Nova has a good chance to shock for Inpulsa’s explosions. Ailments make EH deal *more* damage as well as increases the AoE for the matching element.

Assassin’s Mark - Blasphemy, Ancestral Protector

Assassin’s Mark provides much needed Crit Chance. Ancestral Protector is just for its buff.

Ice Trap - Charged Traps - Cluster Traps

This is for gaining and refreshing Charges while bossing as well as applying Chill manually. Usually, Orb of Storms linked to Power Charge on Critical is used to generate Charges, but now there’s a way to sustain both Power Charges and Frenzy Charges. Just throw out a couple of clusters and that should be enough to reset the durations. I chose Ice Trap to trigger EE and for it’s MTX :)

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Thanks for reading! I'll try to answer any questions, but keep in mind the build isn't finalized and I'm still learning as I go. Good luck and have fun!

Reserved