[3.0][SC/HC-viable][T15+] Tukohama's Ascendant [Chieftain] Sire of Shards Fireball Totems

Update for 2.5
Spoiler
Nothing much really, still viable with only Rumi's having a slightly nerf. Can't say much about viability in Breach League, probably a bit to slow but doable if you want to take it slow.

Update for 2.6
Spoiler
Passive Tree is slightly different, in the end it's a minor buff. It has room for an additional jewel slot, useful for a second rolling flames or just a good rare jewel.
AoE-changes shouldn't be that bad on paper, if it's not playable with just one rolling flames, take two instead. Used uniques are still the same, no buffs or nerfs, only rolling flames gives you one passive point for no need to allocate the attribute points. Good hunting for a legacy Kaom's Heart!

Update for 3.0
Spoiler
Good for us, the latest expansion for PoE hasn't invented the gamplay for totems anew, GGG only tweaked the sustain of totems a bit so they take 45% less damage while having 45% less life. Ignite damage got scaled a bit down, but doesn't matter that much, since this build mostly used ignites for the "dmg on burning/ignited enemies" scalings like from Ngamahu Ascendancy node or Celestial Punishment node. In the end it should be a positive outcome with the ability to finally ignite all Bosses(with the ailment rework apparently we can ignite/chill(without freeze)/shock any boss now in the game).
Content wise you can easily level through the new acts with the build on a 4-Link Sire of Shards(Fireball-Spell Totem-Concentrated Effect-Faster Casting), while having a 3-Link curse/EO setup (Orb of Storms-Curse on Hit-Flammability). Although Marauder still has little access to most of the gems we need for our setups, I highly recommend lvling as a 2H sunder build, because brutality just became my most favorite lvling support skill. All in all this build still holds up to this day!


Tukohama's Ascendant, the Fireball Chieftain with Sire of Shards Totems


Why Fireball?
Since the release of Atlas of Worlds, Fireball got a massive 50% more dmg multiplier on lvl 20, basically it's viable right from the beginning. People may have found love into Flameblast Totems, but imo Sire of Shards-Fireball has better clearspeed, because it scales from more sources rather than just from aoe (Spell, Fire, Projectile, AoE). It has also built in chance to ignite, which doesn't sound that useful, but is amazing for Chieftain. I tried some other spells as well, like Magma orb and Flame Totem, but decided to stick with Fireball, because it has the most satisfying clearspeed imo (Magma Orb is really clunky, can deal sometimes with mobs really fast, other times it's really slow, Flame Totem is not suited for this build, because it isn't aoe based, but I get the idea why people liking it so much, still not my cup of tea to spend a lot of dex just to make faster projectiles work).

How does it play?
It plays really safe, you and your totems are really tanky and with good placement you can also block off incoming projectiles (if they don't have pierce/chain). You have a good amount of HP (sitting at 5,7k without any huge hp-boosts from unique gear like Belly of the Beast or Kaom's Heart) and decent life regen as well (have currently 357 HP/sec). With Chieftain Ascendancy you're even tankier:
-1% Fire leech from totems applied to you
-enemies deal 8% less dmg near totems
-totems have 20% chance to taunt on hit (another 10% less dmg taken)
And Totems are tanky as well with fire immunity and 50% armor granted from your total armor.

Here's some gameplay footage (gonna add more soon):
Spoiler
T15 Dark Forest:
-Temporal Chains

T14 Palace:
-No regen
-108% extra dmg as lightning
-373/44% Crit mods
-Twinned

T13 Gorge:
-Updated gameplay for [2.6]
-Using 2 Rolling Flames instead of one


The build enabler (5L is also completely viable for most red tier maps):


And some other uniques I'm using, rather optional but helps for late game:
Spoiler

Pyre: It got nerfed down to 40% cold to fire conversion, but since we're using it for the early dmg boost anyway it doesn't affect the lvling process with Searing Bond.


Rumi's Concoction: After the nerf the possible rolls for block chance are 20% for block and 10% for spell block. Either way it's still a viable defensive budget flask, other options would be Forbidden Taste (basically a 100% seething life flask with dodge + phasing) and The wise Oak, although a bit more costly than the alternatives.


Essence Worm: The unique which enables the Blood Magic keystone, recommended must-have purchase while reaching mid-tier maps.

Kaom's Heart: Since most skill gems are rather optional and we want our 6L on our Sire of Shards anyway this is best in slot in terms of getting HP.



Clear Mind: Dmg output is good enough until T15 with a 6L, but you can use these over defensive jewels as well.


Pros:
Spoiler
-Damage scales really well into lategame (even with 5L without fire pen)
-good clearspeed
-HC viable due to tankyness (playing in SC myself though)
-budgetfriendly (most items selffound/cheap)
-Blood Magic with lots of regen (you can run without, but would need an extra mana flask)
-Immune to reflect
-Pretty safe against Detonate Dead (only with Pyre)
-can literally play all map mods...

Cons:
Spoiler
-...except some crazy shit like 174% quantity with crit, atk/cast speed, temp chains... you'll get the idea
-chain mod is the hardest to run, but still viable
-no regen maps also doable, but not preferable in high tier maps
-lacks a bit mobility with only flame dash and one quicksilver flask
-Uber Lab is a bit hard at first attempt, afterwards farmable, but...
-...can't farm Uber lab well (4 key runs almost impossible, because of to much AoE)
-slow at lvling until you get your Sire of Shards equipped (lvling as melee to this point is preferred and transition works well, since most early nodes benefits both caster and melee as well)




Skilltrees

Final Skilltree:
Spoiler
Lvl 90 Dmg-Version: 189% life, around 381% spell-dmg
Lvl 90 Defensive version: 223% life, around 285% spell dmg

Lvling Skilltree:


Bandits:
Kraityn (or +2 passive Skills)
We're running around a lot so the extra movement speed is optimal for the build as well as the extra cast speed. The small amount of dodge is also a small bonus for defense.


Ascendancy:
Preferred route:
Arohongui, Moon's Presence -> Tukohama, War's Herald -> Ngamahu, Flame's Advance -> Hinekora, Death's Fury

Arohongui is amazing after running your first lab, almost anything around your totems just deal 8% less damage, it's basically a smaller version of Fortify. The damage portion is a hidden more multiplier as well. Depending on playstyle you either want to grab Tukohama next or Hinekora after the next two lab runs. I mostly prefer my totems being immune to fire/reflect dmg and having more sustain for them as well, but if you prefer the leech + fire pen it's ok to rush for Hinekora as well, which is the more offensive route since Ngamahu is a decent dmg node without any amazing mechanic.



Main Links:

Spoiler
Sire of Shards 5L/6L RBBBB(R):
-Fireball
-Spell Totem
-Faster Casting
-Controlled Destruction/Fire Penetration
-Concentrated Effect (increased AoE until you have your Rolling Flames active)
-(for 6L) Fire Penetration

4L BBBB (Armor/ES base gloves preferred):
-Orb of Storms
-Curse on Hit
-Flammability
-Increased critical Strikes

3L RRR:
-Immortal Call
-Cast when damage taken
-Increased Duration

2L RR:
-Searing Bond
-increased Burning Damage

2L RB:
-Decoy Totem
-Minion and Totem elemental resistance

Single gems:
-Flame Dash (if preferred switch out increased Burning Damage with Faster Casting)
-Anger (Essence Worm)

Optional gems or gems before you get Kaom's Heart:

Spoiler
-Vaal Clarity (until you get Blood Magic easy mana sustain)
-Vaal Lightning Trap (better single target dps)
-Summon Stone Golem (only for farming Uber Lab, otherwise a pain in the butt)




General Gameplay:
Using Fireball totems with Sire of shards is rather easy, you can either place them inside mob packs or snipe them from afar and getting huge aoe bonus from Rolling Flames Jewel.
General clearspeed is decent, it's not uber-pro-like fast, but you can chill out while clearing maps, basically plays like Caustic Arrow builds: Run, Cast once or twice, run again. You might have to use Searing bond more often at mid levels, but once you get high level you only need it for tanky mobs and bosses. Decoy totem helps a lot with bosses as well.

If you should ask: Why is my dps so low?
this is not a tooltip-dps build by any means: With anger on I have like 8,3k dps without elemental overload. Why does it deal so much dmg you may ask? Because of chieftain and chance to ignite synergies:
-you get up to 70-75% chance to ignite with 20% quality fire ball
-your skills deal 35% (Chieftain Ascendancy) + another 25% (Celestial punishment passive) increased dmg to burning targets
-enemies near your totems take 15% increased fire/physical damage -> That is a hidden more-multiplier!
-you deal 30% (Pyre unique ring) increased burning dmg while lvling (that's also a straight dmg boost to searing bond)
Fireball also has two seperate dps calculations, one for the projectile itself and one for the explosion. You can only see the projectile dps while hovering above the skill itself, but not the explosion dps. That's why concentrated effect won't change the dps since it wont be applied to projectiles, but it still will be applied for the explosion (you can see the explosion dps with 3rd party sofware like Path of Building).
Those are some hidden dps scaling huge into late game, even without being able to ignite the 4 Guardians, you still deal a lot of dmg to them with a lot of fire pen.

What should I look for gear?
For unique gear you only need Sire of Shards, Rolling Flames and use them as early as you can, get an Essence Worm once you go for Blood magic and replace the Pyre with it(otherwise capping res would get quite annoying). Anything else just focus on life, res and armor (just get some armor/es gloves since they don't give a lot armor anyway and to make an orb of storms-crit/curse setup viable). For Flasks I'm preferring 2 HP-Flasks: one Bubbling Divine of Staunching, one Saturated Eternal of Curing. Utility would be a Basalt, Quicksilver and a Granite/Rumi's and craft those how you like (with at least one anti-freeze). To get the idea here's my current gear in Essence League SC:

Options for RARE Gear:
Spoiler


Flask Setup:

(Defensive) Jewel Setup:


Hopefully you guys enjoyed this build and feel free to ask away anything. I've been playing PoE again since Perandus and this is my most successful Spellcaster so far (First time I've got to Shaper myself) and still have a lot of fun playing it.
Last edited by Flavourius#1907 on Aug 6, 2017, 9:26:40 PM
Last bumped on Aug 6, 2017, 7:46:36 PM
Gonna be doing this build in EHC will update you with my thoughts as i progress with the build
I've played around with this build for a bit. I'm level 67 now and I have to say, leveling felt like a bitch. But once I was able to equip the Sire of Shards, clearspeed skyrocketed and it feels pretty good now.

However, my main concern is mana issues, and the need to carry a mana pot around. With Anger aura turned on, it seems like I'm out of mana after just a couple casts of the totems and Orb of Storms / Searing Bond. I don't see any way of remedying this though unless more mana was obtained from the tree / gear or perhaps using Rallying Cry.

I will have to also attempt to at least 5L my Sire before trying to compare to the flameblast totemer. Though so far it seems like it could scale pretty well into endgame, I'll have to try taking it further.

Got staff for 2c, was able to get it 6S in 100 jewelers and 5L in 30 fuse.
Will start with 5L and use another staff to link to 6L.
"
Corsica96 wrote:
However, my main concern is mana issues, and the need to carry a mana pot around. With Anger aura turned on, it seems like I'm out of mana after just a couple casts of the totems and Orb of Storms / Searing Bond. I don't see any way of remedying this though unless more mana was obtained from the tree / gear or perhaps using Rallying Cry.


That's why I went for Totem Duration next to the Scion rectangle, the mana costs I currently have are:
-152 Fireball Totem (on a 6L)
-109 Fireball Totem (on a 5L without fire pen)
-84 Searing Bond (3L)
-31 Orb of Storms
-47 Decoy Totem

I only have 373 mana with Anger turned on and only 16,2 mana regen. Currently I'm thinking about going for Mental Rapidity above EO, just to get more cast speed in particular.
It's a bit clunky, I'm aware of that, but that's also my playstyle with the mana management. I don't need Vaal Clarity that much, but if you want to clear maps fast, that's the go-to for mana sustain (you'll have it up again before it runs out, have 16 seconds of duration for it, you only have to kill one mob every second to keep it up which is easy to sustain).
"
commonjunks wrote:

Got staff for 2c, was able to get it 6S in 100 jewelers and 5L in 30 fuse.
Will start with 5L and use another staff to link to 6L.


That's exactly what I did, only that I bought a jeweller's touch for the first staff, because my rng was amazingly bad at the start of the league. Luckily I got the 40c again I used to spend to make it a 5L.

It's the main reason why this build is so cheap: Sire of Shards isn't meta (luckily).
I ended up speccing into the Blood Magic keystone. The build feels much more fluid now, even if I can't run any auras. The fact that I don't need to carry a mana pot and refill after every 2 casts is priceless. Maybe I will look into getting an essence worm later though, if more damage is needed. Even on a 6L it should be fine, since my life regen will be plenty healthy by the time I can afford to 6L (or if the build lives that long).
"
Corsica96 wrote:
I ended up speccing into the Blood Magic keystone. The build feels much more fluid now, even if I can't run any auras. The fact that I don't need to carry a mana pot and refill after every 2 casts is priceless. Maybe I will look into getting an essence worm later though, if more damage is needed. Even on a 6L it should be fine, since my life regen will be plenty healthy by the time I can afford to 6L (or if the build lives that long).



with how expensive the casts are it's most def worth doing it in blood magic since you literally get no mana regen nodes. with blood magic you can stack higher hp and run anger in essence worm. which is what I did. much better imo.
Last edited by Crims#8108 on Sep 19, 2016, 4:25:15 PM
Maybe I'll add a blood magic version of this build, but right now I'm comfortable with just using mana. Maybe I'll switch at some time to blood magic as well, gonna have to look out for some gear with more res then, which might be a little bit expensive.
I'm not sure how you are comfortable using mana, I basically had to pot after every pack / makes the build feel less playable. Not much really changed with my tree other than just grabbing Blood Magic right after Juggernaut. The quality of life is simply too good to give up IMO.

Report Forum Post

Report Account:

Report Type

Additional Info