How to Use Elemental Invocation - Path of Exile 2 Guide
In Path of Exile 2, one of the most exciting new additions to the game's ever-expanding skill system is the Elemental Invocation mechanic. This powerful tool allows players to invoke the raw forces of nature, manipulating elemental powers in a way that can significantly enhance their build's performance. For players familiar with Path of Exile 1, elemental skills and the elementalist archetype were already a dominant force, but Path of Exile 2 introduces a deeper, more flexible system for managing elemental powers.
In this guide, we'll dive deep into how Elemental Invocation works in Path of Exile 2, how to utilize it effectively, and how it can become a core part of your strategy whether you're focusing on offense, defense, or a hybrid build. Whether you're new to the game or a seasoned player preparing for the challenges ahead, understanding this mechanic is key to optimizing your elemental builds. By understanding these mechanisms, it will help you get POE 2 Currency more easily.
1. What is Elemental Invocation in Path of Exile 2?
Elemental Invocation is a system in Path of Exile 2 that allows players to summon and control elemental forces (fire, ice, and lightning) for a variety of purposes. At its core, Elemental Invocation is about tapping into the elemental energy of the world around you and channeling it to either deal damage, support your allies, or provide utility.
2. How to Unlock and Use Elemental Invocation in Path of Exile 2
To use Elemental Invocation, players must first unlock the relevant skills and nodes on the skill tree and through quest progression. Elemental Invocation is generally activated through gems, passive tree nodes, or item mods, and understanding how to access these will ensure that you're maximizing its potential.
1. Unlocking Elemental Invocation Skills
Elemental Invocation abilities can be accessed in multiple ways, but most importantly, they are often unlocked through skill gems. These gems are found as loot drops or earned through specific quests and will grant you the power to invoke elemental abilities during combat.
Fire Invocation: This skill often triggers flame-based attacks, such as fireball, fire trap, or molten strike, and may also provide burn effects. Players using Fire Invocation will find that their damage over time (DoT) scaling is significantly improved.
Ice Invocation: The cold element often emphasizes crowd control by freezing or slowing enemies. Skills like Frostbolt or Ice Nova might be part of this invocation, offering both offensive and defensive utility. When invoked, ice-based skills might freeze or slow enemies, adding extra layers of control during boss fights or tough mob encounters.
Lightning Invocation: Lightning skills are often designed around chain reactions and critical damage scaling, such as with skills like Arc or Chain Lightning. Lightning Invocations tend to have high burst damage potential, great for quick eliminations in fast-paced combat scenarios.
2. Passive Skill Tree Integration
The Path of Exile 2 passive skill tree has undergone significant changes from the previous game, and the Elemental Invocation system is deeply tied to how you spec your character. The passive tree contains numerous nodes that will increase the effectiveness of each element:
Elemental Damage Nodes: These nodes will scale your overall elemental damage output, and depending on your focus (fire, cold, or lightning), you can tailor your build to boost the power of specific elements.
Elemental Mastery Nodes: These nodes provide buffs to all elemental types or offer increased effectiveness when you specifically focus on one type of element. For example, Fire Mastery could increase your elemental burn effects, while Cold Mastery could boost your freeze duration.
Elemental Resistances: Elemental Invocation can be incredibly useful in increasing your defense, as it can be linked to your elemental resistance nodes. These nodes provide defensive bonuses like fire resistance or cold resistance.
Channeling or Invoking Passives: Many specialized nodes exist to further empower your Elemental Invocation abilities. These may reduce the mana cost of invoking certain elements or increase the duration and effectiveness of your elemental effects.
3. Gear and Item Modifiers
Like most mechanics in Path of Exile 2, Elemental Invocation can be significantly boostedby certain gear and item modifiers. The best gear for Elemental Invocation will depend on the specific element you're focusing on, but common gear for maximizing its potential includes:
Weapon Mods: Items with elemental damage bonuses or flat elemental damage are crucial to maximizing your invocation skills.
Amulets and Rings: Certain amulets and rings may increase the effectiveness of elemental damage types, providing extra fire, cold, or lightning damage. Other useful mods could include elemental resistances, increased critical strike chance, or increased damage per invocation.
Elemental Damage Mods: Armor with specific elemental damage boosts or modifiers that affect fire, cold, or lightning resistances will significantly impact your damage and survivability.
Invoking-related Unique Items: Some unique items may come with specific mods that directly affect Elemental Invocation skills, such as reducing the mana cost or increasing the elemental damage output when invoking these powers.
3. Elemental Invocation Playstyles
The great thing about Elemental Invocation in Path of Exile 2 is its flexibility in catering to multiple playstyles. Depending on your build, you can use Elemental Invocation to enhance your offense, defense, or support capabilities. Let's break down how to approach each playstyle:
1. Offensive Elemental Invocation
The primary use for Elemental Invocation is to boost damage. Here, invoking elemental powers can deal devastating blows to enemies, especially when paired with specific elemental synergies like Elemental Overload or Elemental Focus. Some core tactics for an offensive Elemental Invocation build include:
Elemental Skill Spam: Focus on high-damage elemental spells like Flameblast, Fireball, or Arc. These skills become exponentially more powerful when combined with elemental invocation, allowing you to launch massive AoE damage on groups of enemies.
Burning Effects: Many elemental builds rely on damage over time effects like burning, freezing, or shock. Fire Invocation can cause burning effects to stack and deal continuous damage, whereas Cold Invocation can slow or freeze enemies, setting up higher critical strikes.
Chain and Crits: Lightning Invocation has fantastic synergy with critical strike builds. The ability to chain lightning and trigger high-damage critical hits in a fast-paced combat environment makes it perfect for aggressive elemental builds.
2. Defensive Elemental Invocation
Elemental Invocation isn't just about damage—it can also be used for defensive purposes, where players use elemental powers to enhance their defense, crowd control, and survivability. Some key ideas for defensive builds include:
Elemental Shields: Invoking elemental powers might increase your elemental resistances or shield regeneration, reducing incoming damage. This can be extremely helpful in higher-level content where enemies hit hard with elemental damage types.
Freezing and Slowing: Cold Invocation is particularly good at freezing or slowing enemies, allowing you to control the flow of battle. Slowing or freezing enemies gives you more time to react, and it can also help you avoid damage while setting up your own elemental attacks.
Elemental Proliferation: Certain nodes or items that grant Elemental Proliferation can cause status effects like burn, freeze, or shock to spread to nearby enemies. This creates a snowball effect, reducing the number of enemies that can reach you while ensuring that your defensive elemental powers work across a wider area.
3. Hybrid Builds (Offense and Defense)
Many players prefer hybrid builds that combine both offense and defense in a balanced way. Elemental Invocation fits perfectly into this approach, as it can be used both to damage enemies and to keep them at bay. To do this effectively:
Elemental Resistances + Damage: Focus on increasing your elemental resistances to increase your survivability while still maximizing your elemental damage output. This ensures that you can sustain damage while dealing it back effectively.
Status Ailments + Buffs: Combining freeze and shock with high elemental damage can enhance both offensive and defensive aspects of your build. For example, freezing enemies in place and applying shock to increase damage taken by enemies will allow you to destroy opponents quickly while remaining protected.
4. Best Elemental Invocation Combinations
To create a powerful Elemental Invocation build, consider experimenting with the following combinations:
Fire and Lightning: Create a high-damage, fast-paced elemental build that combines lightning for fast critical hits and fire for DoT-based burns.
Cold and Fire: Freeze and burn enemies for sustained damage over time while controlling the battlefield with freezing effects.
Lightning and Cold: Chain lightning to multiple enemies while freezing the most dangerous ones in place, ensuring they can't escape your elemental onslaught.
5. Conclusion: Mastering Elemental Invocation
Elemental Invocation in Path of Exile 2 opens up a wealth of possibilities for players looking to build powerful elemental characters. By unlocking elemental abilities, integrating them into your passive skill tree, and utilizing the right gear and items, you can create devastating or supportive builds that capitalize on fire, ice, and lightning. Players can also make you stronger through Poe2 trade.