Leap Slam of Groundbreaking Elementalist - Path of Exile 3.24

Projectile-based attack skills have dominated Path of Exile for several leagues now and you are probably tired of the same old meta. Fortunately, Grinding Gear Games added a new class of gems called Transfigured Gems in Patch 3.24 to shake things up.

One of the Transfigured Gems that we are going to talk about today is the Leap Slam of Groundbreaking. When used with the Elementalist, you can just move around the map and see enemies explode thanks to Ignite along with some item and gem interactions.

If you are tired of mapping with a projectile-based character in PoE, then try this build out! This is our ultimate build guide for the Leap Slam of Groundbreaking Elementalist!

Basics

The Leap Slam of Groundbreaking Elementalist is an interesting build in Path of Exile because it utilizes a travel skill to decimate enemies. The transfigured version of Leap Slam has more damage effectiveness and covers a wider area than the original. However, this comes at the cost of a slightly slower attack time and shorter travel distance.

Aside from being able to move from one point to another, the Leap Slam of Groundbreaking always stuns enemies that are on full life. This is great not only for offensive purposes but for defense as well.

Now, you are probably wondering where the bulk of the damage comes from, considering that this transfigured version of Leap Slam is not necessarily known for dealing huge amounts of damage. Well, that is where the Elementalist comes in.

This ascendancy class allows you to ignite enemies using damaging skills. Because of this, you just leap around the map and when you land on the ground, enemies will be affected by Ignite, causing them to take fire damage over time.

To ensure that your Leap Slam and Ignites will eliminate enemies, you are going to equip the Voidforge. This unique Infernal Sword has a modifier where you gain more than 750% of weapon physical damage as extra damage of a random element.

Thanks to the said weapon, every time you deal damage with your Leap Slam, you inflict the "Shock" status effect on your foes. This makes them take more damage from all sources!

Now, it is important to note that this build is primarily made with mapping in mind. The Leap Slam of Groundbreaking Elementalist is capable of clearing juiced-up maps without any problems. Although you can defeat bosses with it, you will find that it is not the most efficient in this regard.

Anyway, here are the mods that you should look for if you want to improve the damage of the Leap Slam of Groundbreaking Elementalist:

• Added Physical Damage
• Increased Physical Damage
• Fire Damage Over Time Multiplier
• Damage Over Time Multiplier
• Increased Area Damage
• Increased Elemental Damage

Playstyle

The Leap Slam of Groundbreaking Elementalist has a very straightforward playstyle. When you are mapping, you simply just leap around the map and see the enemies explode!

When you are facing tough monsters or bosses, you will use Arcanist Brand to apply a couple of curses to improve your damage. Then, use Leap Slam of Groundbreaking until the target is dead.

Ascendancy

For this build to work, you must choose the Elementalist. This ascendancy class is the only option, mainly because it gives you a comfortable and reliable way to inflict Ignite on monsters.

Shaper of Flames is a core part of the Leap Slam of Groundbreaking Elementalist. This essentially allows your attack skill to Ignite enemies, causing them to take fire damage over time.

Shaper of Storms is a great complement to Shaper of Flames. This ascendancy node causes all of your attacks to inflict the Shock status effect. If you do not have any "increased effect of non-damaging ailments" modifier on your gear, this notable passive skill ensures that your enemies take at least 15% more damage when they are Shocked.

At some point, you will wear a self-crafted pair of gloves that can apply Fire Exposure on monsters. To maximize that, you will take Mastermind of Discord. This improves Fire Exposure by applying an extra -25% to the affected target's fire resistance. If you haven't caught on, this is another way to boost the build's damage output. The mana regeneration effect that Mastermind of Discord provides is just a welcome bonus.

Heart of Destruction is just a nice way to cap things off. This enables you to gain a buff called "Convergence" when you hit a unique enemy. Convergence grants 30% more elemental damage and lasts for several seconds. This gives you some much-needed oomph, especially if you are fighting the pinnacle bosses in PoE. How about when you are not taking on bosses? The good news is that Heart of Destruction greatly increases the area of effect of your Leap Slam of Groundbreaking, which aids you in clearing maps quickly and efficiently!

Gear

If you think that this build is expensive to put up, you are gravely mistaken. The Leap Slam of Groundbreaking Elementalist is actually one of the most affordable builds in Path of Exile, with only the Voidforge and Aul's Uprising being the most expensive mandatory pieces. Of course, we at RPGStash will provide you with information on what upgrades you can get to take this build to a whole new level.

Weapon

To make this build as deadly as it can be, you will equip the Voidforge two-handed Infernal Sword. This grants you a ton of extra damage of a random element, which is based on the weapon's physical damage.

That's not all! The Voidforge also comes with other useful mods, including life, attack speed, and increased area of effect.

Body Armor

Another integral part of the Leap Slam of Groundbreaking Elementalist is a self-crafted, double-influenced body armor with the "explodey" mod on it.

The general idea is to merge two body armors - one with a Crusader influence and the other with a Hunter influence.

The process of making the "explodey" chest is lengthy. However, you can read our ultimate crafting guide to learn the step-by-step procedure.

Helmet

The helmet for this build is another crafted piece of equipment. Grab an item level 85+ Nightmare Bascinet or Pig-faced Bascinet and spam it with Deafening Essence of Loathing to guarantee the suffix, "10% Increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills". This modifier is mandatory since you are going to activate quite a lot of auras on this build.

Use the said essence until you get spell suppression, some life, and elemental resistances.

For the implicit modifiers, spam the helmet with Grand Eldritch Ichors to get "% Increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills" and Grand Eldritch Embers for "% Reduced Mana Cost of Attacks". If you are struggling to activate all of your auras, you can try and elevate the mana reservation implicit by using an Orb of Conflict.

Gloves

Mastermind of Discord enhances Fire Exposure to further reduce the fire resistance of affected monsters. That said, the way you inflict Fire Exposure on the Leap Slam of Groundbreaking Elementalist is by wearing a pair of self-crafted gloves with the Fire Exposure implicit modifier.

You can refer to our comprehensive crafting guide so that you will know how to craft the damage conversion gloves. This is to sort out all of the needed explicit modifiers for the build.

Now for the implicit modifiers. The first thing that you want to do is spam the crafted gloves with Grand Eldritch Ichors to get "Inflict Fire Exposure on Hit, Applying -13% to Fire Resistance". For the Searing Exarch mod, use Grand Eldritch Embers to obtain "13% to Fire Damage Over Time Multiplier"

Boots

A self-crafted Dragonscale Boots are the preferred equipment to use for this build. That is primarily because these boots allow you to get a veiled movement speed prefix, as well as spell suppression, some DEX, and the chance to avoid elemental ailments mod.

So, how exactly do you craft this pair of boots? Do not worry, we have got you covered! Read the "Onslaught Boots" section of our ultimate build guide to learn more.

The only difference here is that you will be spamming the Dragonscale Boots with Grand Eldritch Ichors for that elemental ailment avoidance implicit and Grand Eldritch Embers for the mod, "41% Chance to Avoid Being Shocked".

Amulet

Since the Leap Slam of Groundbreaking Elementalist can be considered an "aura stacker", you are going to use some items to help you activate all of the necessary buffs for the build to function as optimally as it can be.

The Aul's Uprising is a unique Onyx Amulet that allows you to activate an aura for free. Having said that, this amulet has several different variations, but the one you should purchase from the trade website is the "Grace" variant for some DEX, evasion rating, and increased flask charges gained.

For the anointment, you can go for Inveterate (Golden Oil, 2x Black Oils) for some spell suppression or Charisma (Opalescent Oil, 2x Golden Oils) for additional mana reservation efficiency.

Rings

Polaric Devastation is a great ring that you should definitely wear for the Leap Slam of Groundbreaking Elementalist. This unique Opal Ring gives you some crit chance, fire/cold resistance, and increased duration of ailments on enemies. But more importantly, if you put it on the left ring slot, you cover enemies in ash after igniting them, which causes them to take 20% increased fire damage as a result.

For the other ring, you can wear a self-crafted Amethyst Ring with some accuracy, elemental resistances, mana, and life. Use Harvest Reforge Attack until you get these mods. Just leave a prefix slot open so that you can bench-craft the non-channeling mod.

Belt

Ryslatha's Coil is a pretty awesome belt. When you look at its mods, you might be scratching your head, figuring out what its unique effects actually do. But, it is very quite simple, really. You see, this unique belt increases the damage range of your attacks. Basically, the higher the increments of damage there is, the better your overall damage output will be.

Now, to make your damage more consistent on the higher end of the spectrum, get a Ryslatha's Coil that has "40% More Maximum Physical Attack Damage" and "30% Less Minimum Physical Attack Damage".

Despite the wording (physical attack), the belt's unique modifiers actually affect Ignite damage as well.

Flasks

• Granite Flask
• Jade Flask
• Quicksilver Flask
• Amethyst Flask
• Cinderswallow Urn

The flasks that you will use are the usual ones you will find in most other builds in Path of Exile. The only major difference is that you are going for the Cinderswallow Urn for the final slot. This is so that Ignited enemies take up to 10% increased damage during the flask's effect.

If you are going to buy one from the trade website, get a Cinderswallow Urn that has the mod, "Recover 3% of Life When You Kill an Enemy During Effect". This is so that you do not have to worry about your HP while you are moving around.

When you have saved up enough PoE currency, you can replace the magic Amethyst Flask with Progenesis to vastly improve your survivability.

Flask Mods

• 60% Increased Armour (of the Armadillo)
• 60% Increased Evasion Rating (of the Impala)
• 65% Reduced Effect of Curses on You (of the Owl)
• 14% Increased Movement Speed (of the Cheetah)

Jewels

Aside from a few rare clusters and two unique jewels, the rest of the jewels that will be mentioned in this section of the build guide are optional. We are just going to include them here so that you know which jewels you can buy later on to elevate the damage of the Leap Slam of Groundbreaking Elementalist.

The Watcher's Eye provides a ton of value for this build. Get one with the any of the following modifiers:

• Malevolence

  • +% to Damage Over Time Multiplier (Best)
  • Damaging Ailments You Inflict Deal Damage % Faster

• Grace

  • +% Chance to Suppress Spell Damage
  • % Increased Movement Speed
  • +% Chance to Evade Attack Hits

• Precision

  • % Increased Attack Damage
  • % Increased Attack Speed

• Determination

  • You Take % Reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes
  • + to Armour
  • % Additional Physical Damage Reduction

Being affected by elemental ailments, such as Chill, Freeze, Shock, and Ignite can lead to catastrophic results. That is why you should aim to achieve full elemental ailment immunity. One way to do that is by using the Stormshroud. This jewel changes the mod, "Chance to Avoid Being Shocked", to also apply to all elemental ailments. Make sure to wear the self-crafted boots mentioned earlier to maximize the effect of this jewel.

Cluster jewels give tremendous value to the Leap Slam of Groundbreaking Elementalist. You will use at least one of each (large, medium, and small) to get some notable passive skills that can benefit the build.

Let's start with the Large Cluster Jewel (fire damage). Use Harvest Reforge Fire until you get these:

• Burning Bright

  • 25% Increased Burning Damage
  • 8% Increased Area of Effect

• Cremator

  • 30% Increased Fire Damage
  • Ignited Enemies Killed by Your Hits are Destroyed

• Widespread Destruction

  • 6% Increased Area of Effect
  • 20% Increased Elemental Damage

On the Medium Cluster Jewel (burning damage), use Harvest Reforge Fire to get these notable passive skills:

• Wasting Affliction

  • 20% Increased Damage with Ailments
  • Damaging Ailments Deal Damage 5% Faster

• Fan the Flames

  • Ignites You Inflict Spread to Other Enemies within a Radius of 1.5 meters

The notable passive skill "Burning Bright" can also roll on the Medium Cluster Jewel. With that said, if you are going to use two Medium Cluster Jewels on the passive tree, put one with Fan the Flames and the other with Wasting Affliction. Burning Bright should be present on both to improve Leap Slam of Groundbreaking's area of effect.

And, for the Small Cluster Jewel (increased armour), use Harvest Reforge Defense until you get Enduring Composure. This notable passive skill is a must to give you a reliable and consistent way of generating Endurance Charges. As to why you need Endurance Charges in the first place, it will be explained later in the "Gems" section of the build guide.

With the important jewels out of the way, it is now time to talk about the jewels that you can get to elevate the build's damage. Take note that the jewels that will be mentioned from here on out are optional, so don't feel pressured to take them, especially if you still do not have some PoE currency.

Now, if there is one jewel that you can buy when you have the budget for it, we definitely recommend That Which Was Taken. Introduced in the 3.23 Affliction League, this unique Crimson Jewel can roll with amazing Charm modifiers; some of which are pretty hard to pass up for the Leap Slam of Groundbreaking Elementalist. Speaking of which, here are the mods to look for when you are shopping for That Which Was Taken:

• Recover 2% of Life/Mana/Energy Shield on Kill
• Damage Penetrates % of Enemy Elemental Resistances
• Exposure You Inflict Applies an Extra -% to the Affected Resistance
• Banner Skills Have No Reservation
• (14-20)% Increased Accuracy Rating if You've Dealt a Critical Strike in the Past 8 Seconds
• (6-8)% Increased Effect of Your Curses
• (130-160%) Increased Critical Strike Chance Against Enemies on Full Life
• (71-100)% Increased Critical Strike Chance if You Haven't Dealt a Critical Strike Recently
• Critical Strikes Have Culling Strike
• % Chance to Gain an Endurance Charge When You Are Hit
• +% to Critical Strike Multiplier against Burning Enemies
• % Increased Critical Strike Chance Against Shocked Enemies
• Grants Armour Equal to % of Your Reserved Mana to You and Your Nearby Allies
• % Increased Area of Effect if You've Killed Recently
• Magic Utility Flasks Applied to You Have % Increased Effect
• Every 4 Seconds, Regenerate 20% of Life Over One Second

The last set of upgrades comes in the form of Grand Spectrum Jewels. The reason why we recommend that you purchase them if you have the currency is that they cost dirt cheap in the 3.23 Affliction League. But make no mistake, these jewels grant incredible bonuses that can certainly be helpful. Purchase Grand Spectrum Jewels with any of these modifiers:

• % Increased Maximum Life
• % Increased Elemental Damage
• +1 to Minimum Frenzy Charges
• +% to Elemental Resistances

Gems

The gem setups that will be outlined in this section of the build guide have been optimized for damage and survivability. You can copy all of the gems mentioned here as is. However, there are certain pieces of gear where you can replace some gems with the ones that you prefer using.

Weapon

• Leap Slam of Groundbreaking
• Awakened Swift Affliction
• Awakened Deadly Ailments
• Awakened Elemental Damage with Attacks
• Ignite Proliferation Support
• Volatility Support

The bulk of this build's damage comes from the Ignites that you inflict upon your enemies. Hence, Awakened Deadly Ailments and Awakened Swift Affliction are the primary support gems for the Leap Slam of Groundbreaking. This is primarily because they increase the damage over time multiplier of your Ignites, making them even more devastating.

Because you are using the Voidforge as your primary weapon for the Leap Slam of Groundbreaking Elementalist, you will insert Awakened Elemental Damage with Attacks as well. This is due to one of the weapon's unique effects where you effectively deal no non-elemental damage. This support gem's role is just to capitalize on that fact by boosting the elemental damage of your Ignites.

Ignite Proliferation is a support gem in PoE that causes your Ignites to deal more damage. The "10% Increased Fire Damage" modifier is just an added bonus. You can avail of this by increasing the gem's quality to 20% with Gemcutter's Prisms.

And lastly, Volatility Support is just similar to Ryslatha's Coil in that the damage range of your Ignites is increased considerably.

Body Armor

• Herald of Ash
• Herald of Purity
• Malevolence
• Determination
• Precision
• Enlighten Support (lvl 4)

As mentioned earlier in the build guide, the Leap Slam of Groundbreaking Elementalist is an aura stacker because of the number of buffs that you have to activate.

Herald of Ash emphasizes the concept of the entire build. Since Ignites basically deal burning damage, this buff increases that by 40% at gem level 21. Besides that, Herald of Ash grants 15% of your physical damage as extra fire damage, which is a pretty nice bonus indeed.

Malevolence is a crucial aura for this build mainly because it provides a "more" damage over time multiplier. In case you do not know, "more" damage multipliers in PoE are calculated multiplicatively instead of additively. In other words, it gives significantly more damage compared to any "increased damage" mods in the game.

Since the Leap Slam of Groundbreaking Elementalist relies on an attack skill to inflict Ignites, you have to make sure that your hit chance is at 100%. For this reason, you are going to use a Level Precision aura. Better yet, corrupt this aura gem with a Vaal Orb to level it up to 21 for better results!

Herald of Purity grants you 12% more physical damage at level 20. Remember that Voidforge takes physical damage into account for its unique effect, so the inclusion of this aura is a no-brainer.

Determination is the only defensive aura in this setup. This gives you a considerable boost to your armor, which helps improve your survivability.

Helmet

• Arcanist Brand
• Flammability
• Elemental Weakness
• Flame Surge

Whenever you take on tougher enemies, use Arcanist Brand to automatically apply Flammability and Elemental Weakness. Doing so activates Flame Surge as well.

When Flammability and Elemental Weakness are used together, they significantly reduce the fire resistance of cursed targets, making them a lot easier to deal with.

Flame Surge has a nice synergy with Ignite in that enemies hit by the surge of flame will create a Burning Ground under them. This Burning Ground deals fire damage per second to ignited enemies within its area of effect.

Gloves

• Immortal Call
• Cast When Damage Taken Support
• Grace
• Dread Banner

While most melee builds in the game gravitate toward Molten Shell for defense, that is not the case for the Leap Slam of Groundbreaking Elementalist. That is because this build only has a small amount of armor to work with. For this reason, you are going for Immortal Call instead.

Immortal Call significantly reduces the elemental and physical damage you take when the guard skill is active. Moreover, the duration of this buff is increased depending on the number of Endurance Charges you have. This is the reason why you use a Small Cluster Jewel with Enduring Composure so that you can reliably gain Endurance Charges when you are hit.

Grace is just a means of improving your chances of survival by giving you a noticeable boost in evasion. You can activate this aura for free by wearing the Aul's Uprising unique amulet.

Dread Banner is just there as a way to impale enemies for even more damage.

Boots

• Leap Slam
• Faster Attacks Support
• Inspiration Support
• Seismic Cry

You are probably wondering why there is another gem setup for Leap Slam on this build. Well, if you can remember what we said earlier, the transfigured version of Leap Slam has a very short travel distance. Hence, it is utilized for offense.

With the normal Leap Slam, you can traverse the map much more quickly, especially because it is linked with Faster Attacks Support.

Inspiration Support reduces the mana cost of Leap Slam, so you can comfortably use the skill without worrying about mana.

To finish the "Gems" section of the guide, you are going to use Seismic Cry. This particular warcry improves the area of effect of your Leap Slam, both the original and transfigured versions. You can bind this on the left mouse button so that it gets activated just by moving around the map. Do not worry, things will be smooth because you are spending a point to take the "Call to Arms" keystone passive.

Now, if you do not need another Leap Slam in the build, you can replace it with either Flame Dash or Frostblink. The last gem slot can be used for any gem that you have in mind.

Secondary Ascendancy

Grinding Gear Games introduced a new mechanic in Patch 3.23 where you can choose a secondary ascendancy class that works on top of your main one (this being the Elementalist).

Having said that, the only real option for the endgame is the Wildwood Primalist, particularly because it allows you to use three different Charms. Charms are new items in the 3.23 Affliction League that come with amazing modifiers. If you are asking us what mods you should look for when buying Charms from the trade website, here are the ones that we highly recommend:

• Culling Strike
• (130-160)% Increased Critical Strike Chance Against Enemies on Full Life
• +% Chance to Suppress Spell Damage
• Gain % of Physical Damage as Extra Damage of a Random Element
• Melee Hits Have % Chance to Fortify
• Damage Penetrates % of Enemy Elemental Resistances
• % Increased Effect of Non-Damaging Ailments You Inflict with Critical Strikes
• Gain % Increased Attack Speed for 20 Seconds When You Kill a Rare or Unique Enemy
• 1% of Attack Damage Leeched as Life and Mana if You've Killed Recently
• Banner Skills Have no Reservation
• +% to Critical Strike Multiplier Against Burning Enemies
• Gain Adrenaline for 4 Seconds When You Reach Low Life

Passive Tree

POB

Leap Slam of Groundbreaking Elementalist

Final Thoughts

The Leap Slam of Groundbreaking Elementalist is a fun mapping build in Path of Exile that can quickly destroy enemies in an explosive manner. It utilizes the transfigured version of Leap Slam to inflict Ignite on your enemies, causing them to take fire damage over time.

This build can clear maps within a few minutes thanks to the interaction between Flame Surge, Flammability, Elemental Weakness, and Fire Exposure. And oh, you can thank the Elementalist's Mastermind of Discord as well.

Even though this is not made as a bonafide boss killer, you can use it to eliminate bosses if you want to. You just have to keep Arcanist Brand up to apply all of the curse spells just mentioned.

Now, you might think that because this is an effective mapper that it is quite expensive to put up. Well, the opposite is actually true. The items that this build uses are pretty affordable, with only Voidforge and Aul's Uprising being the most expensive.

Of course, you can choose to invest more currency into it if you want to take this character's damage potential to the next level.

All in all, we can confidently recommend the Leap Slam of Groundbreaking Elementalist. Be sure to give this a try and let us know of your experience with it!

With that said, good luck in your adventures in Wraeclast, Exile!

PROS

+One of the best mapping builds in the game that does not use any projectile-based skills

+Move around the map and see enemies explode

+Although it relies on Ignites to deal damage, enemies die relatively quickly thanks to the interaction between certain curse spells and Fire Exposure

+Items that are needed for this build are pretty affordable

CONS

-Not as tanky as other builds

-May require a bit more time to eliminate bosses

-Reliance on damage over time mechanics may put off some players