[2.5 Video Guide] Beginner's Build: Dual Flame Totem, Blood Magic Chieftain [Atziri & HC/SC Viable]

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fanwardemonhunter wrote:

sry guys if i asked a stupid question. I'm a newbie and so curious when following your build. all work quite well when i just have normal items. but in Passive skill tree when i used points on totem cast speed and totemic zeal i dont see the improvement of totem dps !!! can u expain for me . ty for much !!!

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Logikkus wrote:

I've always loved this build a lot, it's in my Top 2 favorite builds of my 2 years playing Path of Exile. When it was played as a Witch a few leagues ago in Talisman, it was the first character I brought over Level 93.

I like this Marauder version also, it's very safe and actually much tankier, which means perfect for mapping with all these new hard-hitting bosses that were added in 2.4. I've been playing around with my gear to try and find a way to bring the DPS as high as possible without sacrificing survivability, since T16 Bosses and the Shaper are pretty crazy and I felt my Flame totem Chieftain needed some kind of buff before I try them with it.

Now with a few costly tweaks, but pretty much the same skill tree, the DPS goes up to 122,000 (137,000 if you switch Faster Projectiles for Pierce but I don't recommend it), and it feels like a Top Tier build. I'm not publishing it as a separate build because it's definitely Lifting's Build with a twist, and credit is due where credit is due. It's nice to know you can go from being a total Noob to being an Endgame Mapping Menace with the same build. :)

The 6L Flame totem Setup becomes :

Flame totem + Faster Casting + Fire Penetration + Controlled Destruction + Empower (lvl 4) + (Faster Projectiles or Pierce)

+ Iron Will for a 7L which you get from the Repentance gloves.

Here's the DPS screenshot with Faster Projectiles :



Here's the DPS screenshot with Pierce :



Here's the list of late endgame, expensive tweaks I've made to bring this build's DPS to 122k. Some of these tweaks (like the +3 staff and Empower lvl 4) are pretty costly, but endgame refining always is :

Spoiler

• I use a 5L Belly of the Beast as my chest (no 6L needed).
• I use a 6L +3 Staff with the Vagan Blood Magic Mod and the Catarina Cast Speed mod. With Empower Level 4 and Flame totem Level 21, this lets us bring Flame totem to Level 28. With a +3 Level bonus to Fire Penetration as well, we gain 3% extra Penetration. Here's the guide to Craft the +3 Staff by Destiny.
• I switch the gloves for a good pair of Repentance Gloves.
• I use Astramentis as my Amulet so I can use the Gloves easily and still get a good HP bonus out of it. I love this Amulet.
• I take the Keystone Elemental Overload, which I proc using a 3L Setup with Orb of Storms + Faster Casting + Increased Critical Strikes.
• Since the Staff has Blood Magic, I respec OUT of Mortal Conviction and Blood Magic. With the now available nodes I take the Mana Reservation nodes north of Ancestral Bond (leading to Sovereignty).
• Now I can use 3 auras : Haste, Herald of Thunder and Blasphemy+Enfeeble, linked with Enlighten. This is a 5L setup which I put in the Chest.
• To bring the DPS higher, I use, of course, a Lightning Golem, Vaal Haste and Atziri's Promise.

Here's the resulting Skill Tree (Level 90 for now). I'll be taking life nodes from now on (and probably remove a couple damage nodes) to get around 6000 HP, which is my personal "safe zone" :

Spoiler

Current Skill Tree in 2.4.0

Here's the gear I'm currently running T15 maps with :

Spoiler

I hope this can be a useful contribution to this build! Lifting has made me enjoy Path of Exile a lot and I've learned tons using his guides, this is a simple way to try and give back.

"

couldbejohn123 wrote:

"

Logikkus wrote:

I've always loved this build a lot, it's in my Top 2 favorite builds of my 2 years playing Path of Exile. When it was played as a Witch a few leagues ago in Talisman, it was the first character I brought over Level 93.

I like this Marauder version also, it's very safe and actually much tankier, which means perfect for mapping with all these new hard-hitting bosses that were added in 2.4. I've been playing around with my gear to try and find a way to bring the DPS as high as possible without sacrificing survivability, since T16 Bosses and the Shaper are pretty crazy and I felt my Flame totem Chieftain needed some kind of buff before I try them with it.

Now with a few costly tweaks, but pretty much the same skill tree, the DPS goes up to 122,000 (137,000 if you switch Faster Projectiles for Pierce but I don't recommend it), and it feels like a Top Tier build. I'm not publishing it as a separate build because it's definitely Lifting's Build with a twist, and credit is due where credit is due. It's nice to know you can go from being a total Noob to being an Endgame Mapping Menace with the same build. :)

The 6L Flame totem Setup becomes :

Flame totem + Faster Casting + Fire Penetration + Controlled Destruction + Empower (lvl 4) + (Faster Projectiles or Pierce)

+ Iron Will for a 7L which you get from the Repentance gloves.

Here's the DPS screenshot with Faster Projectiles :



Here's the DPS screenshot with Pierce :



Here's the list of late endgame, expensive tweaks I've made to bring this build's DPS to 122k. Some of these tweaks (like the +3 staff and Empower lvl 4) are pretty costly, but endgame refining always is :

Spoiler

• I use a 5L Belly of the Beast as my chest (no 6L needed).
• I use a 6L +3 Staff with the Vagan Blood Magic Mod and the Catarina Cast Speed mod. With Empower Level 4 and Flame totem Level 21, this lets us bring Flame totem to Level 28. With a +3 Level bonus to Fire Penetration as well, we gain 3% extra Penetration. Here's the guide to Craft the +3 Staff by Destiny.
• I switch the gloves for a good pair of Repentance Gloves.
• I use Astramentis as my Amulet so I can use the Gloves easily and still get a good HP bonus out of it. I love this Amulet.
• I take the Keystone Elemental Overload, which I proc using a 3L Setup with Orb of Storms + Faster Casting + Increased Critical Strikes.
• Since the Staff has Blood Magic, I respec OUT of Mortal Conviction and Blood Magic. With the now available nodes I take the Mana Reservation nodes north of Ancestral Bond (leading to Sovereignty).
• Now I can use 3 auras : Haste, Herald of Thunder and Blasphemy+Enfeeble, linked with Enlighten. This is a 5L setup which I put in the Chest.
• To bring the DPS higher, I use, of course, a Lightning Golem, Vaal Haste and Atziri's Promise.

Here's the resulting Skill Tree (Level 90 for now). I'll be taking life nodes from now on (and probably remove a couple damage nodes) to get around 6000 HP, which is my personal "safe zone" :

Spoiler

Current Skill Tree in 2.4.0

Here's the gear I'm currently running T15 maps with :

Spoiler

I hope this can be a useful contribution to this build! Lifting has made me enjoy Path of Exile a lot and I've learned tons using his guides, this is a simple way to try and give back.

Looking at this actually looks so sick. I'm definitely gonna look to emulate this. I was a bit concerned about how the totem build would run in T15 but with this setup it looks great!!

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LiftingNerdBro wrote:

Thank you very much! If you record a video of some endgame footage I will be happy to add it to the guide!

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couldbejohn123 wrote:

Looking at this actually looks so sick. I'm definitely gonna look to emulate this. I was a bit concerned about how the totem build would run in T15 but with this setup it looks great!!

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Logikkus wrote:

...

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6aPMaJIeuKuH wrote:

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Logikkus wrote:

...

look`s good, BUT:

not beginner
standart league (lots of cheap items and insane amount of orbs)

on the league it`s may be done after 2-3 month///

no`life`men can do it faster.... but, not me.

• Elemental Overload requires only a 3 Skill point investment to reach from LNB's original Skill Tree. That's 40% MORE Flame totem Damage right away, and all it requires is a 3L somewhere for Orb of Storms + Faster Casting + Inc. Critical Strikes. That's also very easy to play, since you will constantly cast : Totem, Totem, Orb of Storms, Totem, Totem, Orb of Storms... You don't even need to do any of the other upgrades I've proposed to get 40% more Damage right now.
• You can get a 6L White staff on poe.trade in a temp league, make it +2 and craft Blood Magic on it for less than 3.5 Ex total, and the price comes down as the league keeps going (White 6L staves go down to 1.5 Ex in the second month). That's the Biggest investment, but you can keep it for last as well. When you're a new player, Exalted Orbs seem like something you're never going to see, ever, but they become available much more easily as you get to higher levels and make more currency just by playing.
• Repentance Gloves are 10 Chaos now in Essence for a 5% pair, that's not expensive for a potential 7L. If you play the original build and only have a 5L Infernal Mantle or 5L Rare Chest, well the gloves give you an effective 6L at a very low price. If you don't have Astramentis, take 1 or 2 +30 INT nodes on the Skill Tree, some INT on your gear and you should be OK. I used to do that when Astramentis was super expensive a few leagues ago.
• Astramentis is about 1 Ex so, it's expensive but not overly expensive. And it's totally worth the investment.
• Empower Level 3 (not 4) can be costly at the beginning of a League (right now 100 Chaos in Essence), so if you do have a 6L Chest or Staff, and you have the Repentance Gloves, you can use Pierce instead of Empower until you get it (29% more damage).
• Decent Jewels will be very cheap in a temp league, so you can find a bunch with a combined increased Damage, since there are many ways to scale Flame totem Damage.
• For the Aura setup, Belly of the Beast is optional, any other chest will do, you just need to get more life first from the Skill Tree. You can also skip Enlighten (since that can be expensive as well) and drop one of the Auras (Herald of Thunder), or simply put Haste in an Essence Worm ring and run the other Auras normally.

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Logikkus wrote:

"

6aPMaJIeuKuH wrote:

"

Logikkus wrote:

...

look`s good, BUT:

not beginner
standart league (lots of cheap items and insane amount of orbs)

on the league it`s may be done after 2-3 month///

no`life`men can do it faster.... but, not me.

Well, of course it's not a beginner upgrade, but for beginners the build as described by LNB in the original post is perfect, it's cheap and it's a good league starter. I would say the changes I've suggested are for players who have taken LNB's build to Level 85-90, have understood the mechanics around it, and are looking for a way to push efficiently to Level 95-100. The upgrade I've described has the best gear I could find, simply to show its potential. THAT BEING SAID... a large part of the upgrades can be done quite fast in a temp league.

• Elemental Overload requires only a 3 Skill point investment to reach from LNB's original Skill Tree. That's 40% MORE Flame totem Damage right away, and all it requires is a 3L somewhere for Orb of Storms + Faster Casting + Inc. Critical Strikes. That's also very easy to play, since you will constantly cast : Totem, Totem, Orb of Storms, Totem, Totem, Orb of Storms... You don't even need to do any of the other upgrades I've proposed to get 40% more Damage right now.
• You can get a 6L White staff on poe.trade in a temp league, make it +2 and craft Blood Magic on it for less than 3.5 Ex total, and the price comes down as the league keeps going (White 6L staves go down to 1.5 Ex in the second month). That's the Biggest investment, but you can keep it for last as well. When you're a new player, Exalted Orbs seem like something you're never going to see, ever, but they become available much more easily as you get to higher levels and make more currency just by playing.
• Repentance Gloves are 10 Chaos now in Essence for a 5% pair, that's not expensive for a potential 7L. If you play the original build and only have a 5L Infernal Mantle or 5L Rare Chest, well the gloves give you an effective 6L at a very low price. If you don't have Astramentis, take 1 or 2 +30 INT nodes on the Skill Tree, some INT on your gear and you should be OK. I used to do that when Astramentis was super expensive a few leagues ago.
• Astramentis is about 1 Ex so, it's expensive but not overly expensive. And it's totally worth the investment.
• Empower Level 3 (not 4) can be costly at the beginning of a League (right now 100 Chaos in Essence), so if you do have a 6L Chest or Staff, and you have the Repentance Gloves, you can use Pierce instead of Empower until you get it (29% more damage).
• Decent Jewels will be very cheap in a temp league, so you can find a bunch with a combined increased Damage, since there are many ways to scale Flame totem Damage.
• For the Aura setup, Belly of the Beast is optional, any other chest will do, you just need to get more life first from the Skill Tree. You can also skip Enlighten (since that can be expensive as well) and drop one of the Auras (Herald of Thunder), or simply put Haste in an Essence Worm ring and run the other Auras normally.

So yeah, these changes don't need to be implemented all at the same time, you can simply do them one by one, but each of them will make the original build significantly stronger, as you map and get more currency to invest in it. For Race events of some Temp leagues, I'll play LNB's Flame totem and the road to level 90 will be a breeze. But the toughest fights which have been added to the game in 2.4.0 (T15 Rigwald, the Guardians and the Shaper) require some serious DPS. You wouldn't try to mess with them if you didn't have the currency to upgrade whatever build you play.

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leeloo wrote:

Just a newbie question, but How much do you loose when you loose your critical strike multiplier...?
doesn't that lower your criticals damage not to much?