PoBs for those who don't want to read my rambling: https://pobb.in/eR7CArbBUj9d

Included (all PoBs adjusted for elementalist nerfs):

• Evasion based League Start
• Earlyish 39 no flask Armour
• Midgame
• Low Life Ele and Occultist
• Aegis LL Occultist

For comparision: Smokie's Adjusted PoB for elementalist nerf + no convergence custom

Context

Early on I saw Smokie_777's video I decided to play this Glacial Cascade of the Fissure mines. Full credit to her for the build, I just yoink people's builds these days and try to suit them to my needs.

Reading random comments about her league start video and seeing others recommend it, I wanted to provide my own PoB as well as address common questions I've seen. For context, I play group SF with most of our gear being self farmed.

Early Archdemon's Crown 6-link

An archdemon's crown with 1 essence of horror + benchcraft aoe is the same as a 6 link. I think this is much easier to get than a decent 6 necrotic without the tree. It also allows you to run a much better necrotic for cheaper. Also allows us to run a 5 link arcanist brand and add a curse.

As a general note, a lot of my dps changes have only increased single target and are conditional so mapping will feel worse. I still think it's enough to farm T16s with. Feel free to adjust, but the dps in general will be lower. I'd also suggest High Voltage annoit early because it's cheap and only -2% vs Fervour.

Lack of Defences

The biggest problem I think everyone has with the build is the defences, or lack thereof. I would like to offer two different solutions to this. Another thing not included but to consider is running Stone Golem of Safeguarding instead of Ice Golem as you lose 6% DPS for a pretty nice defensive layer.

Evasion

You might think the PoB lacks dps compared to the original, but the DPS loss is mostly from dropping herald of purity. In return, you get 11k more evasion. The pathing also does double duty and allows you to be much more lenient on your dex requirements. Due to the archdemon's crown, I have buffed the necrotic a bit as well. In my opinion, this should be a lot more comfortable to map with.

Armour

I kinda PoB'd the armour pobs for fun because I really like the interaction between Energized Armour and Prospero's but won't get Energized Armour in SSF. No flask 39k armour on a witch with this little investment is really cool in my opinion. You also get a capped molten shell to CWDT / press. Going armour also lets us drop evasion gear and go full ES.

The biggest downside to running this combo is you are very very suffix starved especially when running Doedre's or switching to self chill (winterweave + arkhon's). Arkhon's makes you both drop strength and make up for 60 res somewhere, Winterweave will take your other ring slot. I think it makes most sense to switch when you have a Brutal Restrant due to free dex, but you might as well go Low Life at that point.

Low Life/Midgame

I think there's a much bigger argument to dropping evasion and running flesh and stone after you get blast freeze / freeze prolif. 37/39 block should be fine enough to map with at that point. I will say if you're planning on killing Uber Eater, I would build some evasion though.

Common FAQs

Q: How bad is the Elementalist nerf? Is it still the best ascendancy?

A: For context, the elementalist nerf is

• -50 life regen
• -20% critical strike chance
• -14% damage
• -10% area of effect
• • 5% attack and cast speed
• -9 mana regen

which isn't bad at all. I would say for league start, it is still the best. Golems solve so many early problems and RF leveling is comfy. Elementalist is still the most burst damage with great clear due to Covergence. Occultist is much tankier and stun immune.

I would say Saboteur has a lot more defences early (blind, dr, regen) but will have less damage. Pick your poison, both should be fine. I think Trickster is worse these days, especially as we aren't running a Lich Circlet, but you can go suppress > block which will feel better for pure bossing. I didn't have time to properly look at Shadow so there's some potential there.

Q: How consistent is 3 overlaps? Is Creeping Frost better?

A:

Ok in all fairness, I haven't actually seen this one asked but I have seen Ruetoo claim it's 50% more dps and tell people to play Creeping Frost. There's 3 problems with Ruetoo's testing and PoB.

First, he didn't test on the same radius as smokie tested on nor try very hard at finding the sweet spot. In PoB, tick convergence and make sure than your Glacial Cascade radius is 1.8m, he was testing at 1.6m.

Second, he doesn't run Hatred at all, which is literally a 50% more damage multiplier. I think if you don't want to run Hatred at all, don't play GC sure, but it benefits from all our level scaling very well so it makes perfect sense.

Third, creeping frost clear is much worse. The aoe is horizontal which is worse for clearing packs and the projectile itself is slower. I don't think it will be nearly as enjoyable as glacial cascade. But tbh you can make up your own mind about this one, go check out Skybreaker's post for a clear/bossing.