



Introduction: The Basics The idea behind every "Herald bomber" is to make your Herald of Ice and Herald of Thunder trigger each other, which, assuming your two Heralds deal enough damage, basically lets you run through maps without really worrying about monsters, which explode around you. This means that, as a non-crit Herald bomber, this build needs to get enough Chance to Freeze for Herald of Thunder to consistently freeze enemies in one or two hits, along with Chance to Shock for Herald of Ice to shock enemies and re-trigger Herald of Thunder . Once these two Heralds are consistently triggering each other, all we need to do is get enough damage for them to outright kill most monsters. With the right items and enough levels, the build becomes a clearspeed machine.

Pros and Cons: Why should you play this build?



Pros

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-Currency farmer once you start mapping

-Safe against most monsters

- Herald of Ice is the most satisfying skill in the game

-Leveling is pretty smooth, thanks to Lightning Tendrils

-a e s t h e t i c m o b g e n o c i d e (herald MTX) -Fast leveling-Currency farmer once you start mapping-Safe against most monstersis the most satisfying skill in the game-Leveling is pretty smooth, thanks to-a e s t h e t i c m o b g e n o c i d e (herald MTX)

Cons

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-Unsafe against tanky rares

-Elemental reflect-prone

-Some map mods can be dangerous

-Unique-reliant -Very low singletarget-Unsafe against tanky rares-Elemental reflect-prone-Some map mods can be dangerous-Unique-reliant

I built this character to be an effective currency farmer as a starting build in Abyss, and a fairly defensive character despite the low defensive investment on the passive skill tree. Our high chance to freeze and proliferation from the Elementalist Ascendancy help us deal with swarming monsters, and with enough damage, the clearspeed we can achieve is quite high.

Passive Tree: The Heart

Life

Elemental Damage (Cold damage works here almost as well)

Chance to Freeze

Increased Area of Effect



You can check out my character's tree via Path of Building's Import build functionality. In the Import/Export Build tab, click Import from Pastebin... and copy-paste this link: https://pastebin.com/MeTM91L9



Alternatively, if you don't have Path of Building, here's a link to the passive tree on the PoE website:



Reasoning

The Witch start is self-explanatory: you escape the start going through AoE nodes; these make your Herald of Ice larger and stronger, and also increase the range of Herald of Thunder . They also help Lightning Tendrils feel better earlier in the leveling process. The Templar area is full of elemental damage , along with some AoE and Chance to Freeze , which are crucial to the build. Heart of Ice and Breath of Rime at the top of the skill tree are our main source of damage and freeze chance, with the rest of it coming from Fingers of Frost near Ghost Reaver. Finally, we pick up as much life as possible around the top side of the skill tree without being inefficient. The only Keystone we are picking up is Elemental Overload (we are non-crit) to boost the damage of our Heralds by a substantial amount. It can be triggered with either Lightning Tendrils or your single-target Cremation .



Bandit Choice

As for bandits, there's really only one clear option: 2 passive points from Eramir (Kill all Bandits). None of the bandits help our Heralds do a significant amount more damage, and our passive tree is relatively starved for points in the first place. The passive tree involves picking up these core stats:You can check out my character's tree via's Import build functionality. In the Import/Export Build tab, click Import from Pastebin... and copy-paste this link:Alternatively, if you don't have Path of Building, here's a link to the passive tree on the PoE website: passive tree link The Witch start is self-explanatory: you escape the start going throughnodes; these make yourlarger and stronger, and also increase the range of. They also helpfeel better earlier in the leveling process. The Templar area is full of, along with someand, which are crucial to the build.andat the top of the skill tree are our main source of damage and freeze chance, with the rest of it coming fromnear Ghost Reaver. Finally, we pick up as much life as possible around the top side of the skill tree without being inefficient. The only Keystone we are picking up is(we are non-crit) to boost the damage of our Heralds by a substantial amount. It can be triggered with eitheror your single-targetAs for bandits, there's really only one clear option: 2 passive points from Eramir (Kill all Bandits). None of the bandits help our Heralds do a significant amount more damage, and our passive tree is relatively starved for points in the first place.

Ascendancy Tree: What brings the build together So for our Ascendancy obviously we need to go Elementalist. You'll note that I haven't picked up much chance to shock , and that's because we don't NEED to shock all the time, just once every so often to re-trigger Herald of Thunder . We'll get this from the rotating Shaper of Desolation buff, which is consistent and free, since we need to path through it to get to Beacon of Ruin . Beacon of Ruin is what really makes this build tick, as it proliferates freeze from one mob to the next. If Herald of Thunder kills the mob AND freezes it, the proliferation ensures that Herald of Ice can chain off the first kill, spawning more Herald of Ice explosions and quickly killing dense packs.



For our second fork of the Ascendancy tree we are going for Pendulum of Destruction , which occasionally gives us a large buff to AoE and Elemental Damage . This is a fairly simple choice. The last two points from Uber lab will be allocated into Liege of the Primordial . The two golems we run are Flame Golem and Lightning Golem , which both boost our Herald's damage by quite a bit thanks to Liege of the Primordial , along with the buffs that the golems give inherently.

Items: Your choices and mine

Mandatory Uniques The Coming Calamity : This unique chest piece is clearly mandatory for the build, so that your two Herald skills have fixed reservation. This means that no matter the mana multipliers of the support gems you link to your Herald skills and/or any mana reservation nodes you take, each Herald will always reserve 45% of your mana pool. This is why mana reservation nodes are not taken on the passive tree. It also adds levels to the Herald that you socket into it, which greatly increases the Herald's damage.



Call of the Brotherhood : This unique ring is what allows Herald of Thunder to freeze. You should use this ring as long as you have the money for it, as it makes freezing and shocking in conjunction extremely consistent. I run two of them in my build, as I have cold damage on my passive tree. The lack of elemental damage on the passive tree means that using these rings is very highly recommended, so that your skill points are more efficient.



Three Dragons : This hat falls under the "Mandatory Uniques" section ONLY IF you can't get your hands on Call of the Brotherhood . It's a significantly cheaper option that allows the build to function and has decent resistances, but you need to use it in conjunction with Cold to Fire for your Herald of Ice to shock consistently.

Recommended Uniques Taryn's Shiver : I use this staff because it was cheap and provides +2 to cold gems, along with the unique mod " Enemies frozen by you take 20% increased Damage . This mod is essentially a 20% more damage multiplier, since I assume the mobs I hit are always frozen. I socket Herald of Ice in the staff for additional levels, and many of the mods on the staff are very beneficial to our build.



Southbound : These unique gloves are a great addition to the build, as long as your Chance to Freeze is high enough. They add a significant amount of damage to Herald of Ice and have good life and high cold resistance, which make them a great glove all-round. To kill bosses and potentially rares you can't freeze, you can ignite them via any fire damage or hope that you get the Burning Conflux buff from Shaper of Desolation . I use Cremation as my single-target skill of choice, so I have no problems killing bosses even with Southbound s equipped.



Doryani's Catalyst : This unique scepter is pretty much a no-brainer. It provides an incredibly high amount of Elemental Damage , which buffs the damage of both of your Heralds. The leech it gives is nice for sustaining throughout a map, but don't expect it to help a lot when you really need your life back.

Potential Alternatives Rashkaldor's Patience : This is a nice budget option for an amulet because it gives us more Chance to Freeze and some passable life . However, your amulet slot will be sorely needed to fill out other resists if you run two Call of the Brotherhood s, so it's more of a starting option to get the build going. I highly recommend a rare amulet with Life , Resistances , and potentially Spell Damage over this amulet.



Tasalio's Sign : This ring can be hard to get, but if you have the budget for it and you want to smooth out your leveling experience, this adds a TON of flat cold damage to both your heralds as long as enemies are chilled, which is now easier to achieve than ever since the Chill mechanics change. Before you get high levels on your Heralds, this ring adds more damage than Call of the Brotherhood .

Once you've made your unique choices, fill out the rest of your items with Rares with as much Life as possible, making sure to cap Resistances as well. Good Shaped and/or Elder items with the appropriate support gems for Heralds and your main spells can be good choices, though +levels to your Heralds can outweigh one level 16-18 support gem. Items in this build are unfortunately quite rigid, because of how tightly-knit everything is. However, you can make some decisions based on your budget, such as your weapon and jewels. Here's a quick rundown of a couple of Uniques that help the build.Once you've made your unique choices, fill out the rest of your items with Rares with as muchas possible, making sure to capas well. Good Shaped and/or Elder items with the appropriate support gems for Heralds and your main spells can be good choices, though +levels to your Heralds can outweigh one level 16-18 support gem.

Skills: shooty shooty bang bang As you might expect, your two main skills are Herald of Ice and Herald of Thunder . I also run Lightning Tendrils and Cremation to supplement my damage, especially against Abysses and bosses.



**colours below purely based on gem colour**

4-link :

Herald of Ice - Innervate - Added Lightning Damage - Added Cold Damage

Herald of Thunder - Ice Bite - Added Lightning Damage - Hypothermia



Once you get access to 5-links, your first 5-linked Herald will be Herald of Thunder as it's more crucial to have it one-shot monsters - this makes the build feel a lot smoother.



5-link :

Herald of Ice - Innervate - Added Lightning Damage - Added Cold Damage - Hypothermia

Herald of Thunder - Ice Bite - Added Lightning Damage - Hypothermia - Added Cold Damage



If you 6-link your The Coming Calamity you can set up your Heralds like this:



Herald of Ice - Herald of Thunder - Ice Bite - Innervate - Added Lightning Damage - Hypothermia



Auxiliary Skills :

Lightning Tendrils - Cold Penetration - Controlled Destruction / Increased Critical Strikes - Hypothermia



Cremation - Hypothermia / Life Leech - Controlled Destruction - Greater Multiple Projectiles **make sure to run Desecrate as well



Playstyle: WTF does this look like? Lightning Tendrils . With two Call of the Brotherhood rings, Lightning Tendrils does enough damage to freeze rares as well, which greatly increases survivability. If you find yourself having trouble proccing Elemental Overload consistently, you can run Increased Critical Strikes in your Lightning Tendrils link. I use Cremation as a source of leech against bosses and Abysses.



There is a video guide on this build, including a quick map run and some other tips about the build up! It's in the media section. If you wanna get some more specific tips and help with your character or just to come hang out with me and watch me play my other builds, here's a link to my Twitch channel where I'll be streaming regularly:

If I'm not playing this build and you want me to show what it looks like, let me know in chat ;) Once you get the guts of the build fleshed out and items in place, you will blow through most low-mid maps without even stopping to cast. With tworings,does enough damage to freeze rares as well, which greatly increases survivability. If you find yourself having trouble proccingconsistently, you can runin yourlink. I useas a source of leech against bosses and Abysses.There is a video guide on this build, including a quick map run and some other tips about the build up! It's in the media section. If you wanna get some more specific tips and help with your character or just to come hang out with me and watch me play my other builds, here's a link to my Twitch channel where I'll be streaming regularly: twitch link If I'm not playing this build and you want me to show what it looks like, let me know in chat ;)

Media Video guide is up! Here it is: YouTube link

Update History: you don't actually care about this December 18,2017 - Build guide created

December 22,2017 - Added non-PoB link

December 23,2017 - Added bandit choice + short reasoning

December 25, 2017 - Added video guide!

December 26, 2017 - Fixed broken passive tree link Hi all, it's been a while since I've written one of these so bear with me. This was my starter build in War for the Atlas/Abyss League and it was a lot of fun - so here's the guide. noot Last edited by AznR4ge on Dec 26, 2017, 2:03:41 AM Last bumped on Mar 19, 2018, 10:45:45 AM