Arcanist Brand: A Comprehensive Guide to PoE's Powerful Brand
The Arcanist Brand, a keystone in Path of Exile's passive skill tree, is a powerful tool for anyone seeking to maximize their damage output, especially for builds focused on utilizing elemental damage. It allows you to summon and control powerful elemental spirits, channeling their energy to amplify your attacks.
This guide will break down everything you need to know about the Arcanist Brand, covering its benefits, drawbacks, and strategies for building around it.
Arcanist Brand: The Basics
What it does:
- The Arcanist Brand keystone allows you to summon up to 3 elemental spirits (Fire, Cold, and Lightning) at a time.
- Each spirit empowers your attacks with its respective elemental damage type.
- When you attack, the spirits release a burst of their elemental energy, dealing additional damage to your target.
Benefits of using Arcanist Brand:
- Increased damage output: The spirits significantly boost your damage output, making it ideal for builds focused on high-damage potential.
- Elemental versatility: The ability to summon all three elements provides great flexibility to adapt your build to different situations and enemies.
- Unique gameplay: The spirits add an exciting layer of strategic depth to your gameplay, requiring you to manage their positioning and utilize their abilities effectively.
Drawbacks of using Arcanist Brand:
- Requires a specific build: Arcanist Brand works best with builds that prioritize elemental damage and utilize skills that can benefit from the spirits' power.
- Spirit management: Keeping track of your spirits and maximizing their effectiveness can require some practice.
- Requires investment: To fully utilize the potential of the Arcanist Brand, you will need to invest a significant number of passive points into surrounding nodes, which might limit your options in other areas.
Building around the Arcanist Brand
Here are some key elements to consider when building around the Arcanist Brand:
- Elemental Damage: Choose skills that scale well with elemental damage, such as elemental hit skills, spells, and bow attacks.
- Spirit Synergy: Consider skills that can benefit from the spirits' presence, such as attacks that trigger on hit, or spells that are enhanced by elemental damage.
- Support Gems: Utilize support gems that enhance your elemental damage and the spirits' effectiveness, such as Elemental Focus, Increased Critical Strikes, and Faster Casting.
- Passive Tree investment: Allocate points into the surrounding nodes that enhance your chosen elements, elemental damage, and the spirits themselves.
Popular Arcanist Brand Builds:
- Firestorm Occultist: This build utilizes the power of Firestorm and the Arcanist Brand to unleash devastating fire damage.
- Ice Nova Elementalist: This build uses the Ice Nova skill with the Arcanist Brand, focusing on cold damage and using the spirits to amplify the skill's potential.
- Lightning Arrow Deadeye: This build combines the power of Lightning Arrow with the Arcanist Brand, leveraging the spirits to enhance the attack's damage and pierce.
Tips for Utilizing the Arcanist Brand:
- Maximize Spirit Synergy: Position your spirits strategically to maximize their effect on your chosen attack skills.
- Use Spirit Buffs: The spirits also provide various buffs, such as increased damage, elemental resistance, or reduced mana cost. Use these buffs strategically to your advantage.
- Experiment with Different Element Combinations: Explore different combinations of spirits and their effects on your attacks.
- Keep Moving: Remember that the spirits are not invulnerable and can be killed by enemies. Stay mobile and avoid exposing your spirits to danger.
The Arcanist Brand is a powerful keystone in Path of Exile, offering a unique and rewarding playstyle. By understanding its strengths, weaknesses, and building around it strategically, you can unleash its true potential and become a formidable force in the game.
