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

viable please?....

viable in 3.0?

Although Lifting has not updated this thread in a while, you can rest assured, Flame Totem Chieftain is still viable in 3.0.

A few new Unique items have been introduced since and others have been upgraded recently: Tukoham's Fortress, arguably the best shield for this build but ridiculously expensive. Ahn's Heritage is quite a nice shield too (decent armour, life, block chance) and with two Fragility jewels it permanently grants Onslaught as well as +3 to maximum resistances. Trusty old Lioneye's Remorse can now have up to 220 life, very nice. Hrimnor's Resolve now grants chill/freeze immunity if you have used a fire skill recently, simply the best helmet. The Wise Oak is a pretty cool new flask which gives up to 20% penetration (make sure uncapped fire resistance is highest).

Of the new gems Immolate looks good on paper but Flame Totem only has 25% effectiveness of added damage so Elemental Focus is still stronger but the Totems cannot ignite. If you don't want to miss out on the 35% Ngamahu ascendancy bonus versus burning enemies, you can pimp your Flame Golem with Spell Echo, GMP, Chance to Ignite, making it a formidable igniter.

My flame totemer is now lvl 98. Pretty tanky with 10.5k HP and tons of life regeneration. My Profile is public if you want to check the skill tree.

Thanks for the info, tomay. I can't use Shield Charge. I figured this was the case due to Ancestral Bond, but I wondered what the purpose in slotting this was?

We use Shield Charge as a movement skill and no, it is not affected by Ancestral Bond but it cannot be used with a wand so you'll need a sceptre or a dagger in your main hand. Although we cannot deal any damage we can trigger Fortify with movement skills like Shield Charge/Leap Slam/Whirling Blades as Fortify only requires a hit but not damage.

Derp. Thanks, tomay. I probably should've understood that already. I have a lot to learn about this game.

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tomay wrote:

My flame totemer is now lvl 98. Pretty tanky with 10.5k HP and tons of life regeneration. My Profile is public if you want to check the skill tree.

Just want to say you really helped me out. Yes, the build still works, it just has less resistance than before so I will likely need to spend a few points on the tree for that. Frankly I still prefer flame totem over other builds, just because the playstyle is smoother for me than the likes of RF totems.

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VallenChaosValiant wrote:

Just want to say you really helped me out.

You're more than welcome. ;)

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VallenChaosValiant wrote:

Yes, the build still works, it just has less resistance than before so I will likely need to spend a few points on the tree for that.

I finished the Harbinger league on level 99. Can't say that I had problems with elemental resistances, with only a few % from the Barbarism cluster and Cruel Preparation I was able to have all resistances nicely over-capped to counter maps with Elemental Weakness. My only "regret" was not having pushed my Fire Resistance to be the highest (uncapped) which ruled out using The Wise Oak.

I ended up with a whopping 10.6k HP and 10k armour rating, regenerating about 2.5 k life per second which, combined with totem leech, pretty much healed even the biggest hits almost instantly.

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VallenChaosValiant wrote:

Frankly I still prefer flame totem over other builds, just because the playstyle is smoother for me than the likes of RF totems.

Well, non-crit Flame Totems will never be "DPS monsters" but FT makes for a very relaxed play style and will get the job done... eventually. ;)

With Empower 4 and level 21 gems my Tooltip DPS shows 30k (per projectile), fully buffed it goes well beyond 50k. This is before Penetration, Flammability, and some ascendancy goodies that don't show in the Tooltip (such as increased damage vs burning enemies or enemies near the totems). On paper surely nothing to write home about but enough to take on all content, even The Shaper (a fight which IMO is just a stupid DPS race) although he can no longer be taunted.

If you want moar DPS still you can easily switch to Spell Totem + Incinerate. This works with the same tree but you will have to sacrifice a bit of life from rare jewels which need to be replaced with Rain of Splinters (for the extra projectiles) and Spire of Stone (required for totem stun immunity). Incinerate Totems benefit from increased cast speed on gear even more than Flame Totems as they will reach the final stage faster.

I basically play Self Found, so I am still working on getting a level21 Flame totem gem.

On a semi-related note, I found out that my hard drive had been dying for the last year, and that explained the massive lag issues I was getting. Now that it got replaced the game is far more playable now. I basically quit for two months when the lag became unbearable. Flame totem was the only build that kept me alive when I can barely see what I needed to kill.

As far as resistances go, I am aware that your build overcaps resistance just fine. It's just that with the previous patch I was able to wear a few pieces of Magic Find gear, while I had to take off the Andvarius for now with the 3.0 changes. Being self-found, I don't buy maps and as such had to be careful about getting the most out of each map.

Once again, your build is great, I just miss the good old days before 3.0.

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VallenChaosValiant wrote:

I basically play Self Found

Basically but not strictly? ;)

In this case it's probably better to switch to Incinerate totems, much easier to ramp up the damage damage output. I'd go with:

Spell Totem + Incinerate + Faster Casting + Controlled Destruction + Fire Penetration + Immolate

If necessary, use a Flame Golem with Chance to Ignite, GMP, Echo, to ignite enemies.

Also get an Essence Worm Ring with Anger.