[2.4] The Smashing Ascendant|1mio dps|3 ancestral totems|Facebreaker + Rigwald’s Curse|+Budget vers.

Concept:
This build originally started with the idea of using the Scion Hierophant Ascendancy with The Bringer of Rain, Facebreaker and Skirmish Quiver to have 4 heavy hitting, cheap 6-link Ancestral Warchief Totems. That version is definitely not bad on its own, but since I had some currency to spare, I went for a more costly, more dangerous, more interesting, more smashing version. I’ve swapped BoR for Abyssus, put on a 6L Armour and gone crit with Rigwald’s Curse. Skirmish got replaced by a shield to cap resists and provide more defense. To not let the extra totem from Hierophant go to waste, I took Ancestral Protector as a 4-link support. Keep in mind that the 20% more attack speed from Protector also affect your 2 Warchiefs and the more melee damage from your Warchiefs affects your Protector. This is a buff!

Playstyle:
Drop 2 Warchiefs, see them smashing everything into the ground. Protector is only needed for bosses. Evade hits while moving to the next pack. Very fast due to its high damage and aoe.

Video:
Crappy video demo of a Tier 10 Quay map:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDrjsS49wlk
It's something.

Numbers:

Mapping :
Elemental Weakness? Overcapped.
Temporal Chains? Still fast enough.
Blood Magic? Turn off your Auras.
Physical reflect? Swap crit for phys to lightning.
Elemental reflect? Swap added fire for fortify. Turn off Hatred.
Hexproof? When you have slain all your enemies, what is left to fear?
No leech? Who cares?

You can basically do anything.

T15 maps feel just like Dried Lake farming.

But chilled ground though.. reroll that. Seriously, it's disgusting.

Endgame:
Still doing the content, since this build is still fresh.
Atziri doesn’t live for longer than 1-2 seconds per phase. Safest runs I’ve ever had.
Gonna try Uber + Shaper later.

Update:
Tried Uber. Vaals were no problem. Failed at Trio because some random hit already oneshots you and I left T*ttyshooter for last, while she should be done first with this build.
Tried Minotaur. Even without damage mods, most hits oneshot you.
Conclusion: No Abyssus allowed in endgame. Gonna have to work out some endgame-alternative, I guess.


Skilltree (116 points):


Ascendancy choises:
Scion Hierophant Ascendancy gives you an extra totem when socketed in your helmet, mana, a little bit energy shield and power charge generation.
Scion Chieftain Ascendancy gives you more damage and life regeneration.
Take whatever you like more first. Last points from uber-lab are for the Marauder starting point, which saves you 2 travel-points.


Gear:


Gems:


Flasks:


Enchantments:
Helmet: Got a 40 % increased Warchief totem damage at my first uber-lab. Great success, very nice! Increased Enfeeble effect would also be nice.
Boots: Crit strike chance if you haven’t crit recently. The damage increase is bonkers due to your high base crit and you have 100% uptime. Got it after a handful merciless-labs. Lucky!
Gloves: Whatever.

Bandits:
Normal: Life
Cruel: Phys dmg / Attack speed
Merciless: Power Charge / Skill Point
Power charges are tedious to keep up with only your Hierophant-class, so you can just kill all bandits in merciless.

Budget version:
Lion’s Roar instead of Taste of Hate.
The Bringer of Rain instead of Abyssus. No 6-link needed anymore. Put Warchief totem into BoR.
Coral Rings or Iron Rings instead of Steel Rings.
Easy as that.

Thanks for reading and have fun!

Hi nice build
iam trying it atm. at its lot of fun :)
I was just wondering what jewel you use at what to aim for on jewels :)

Ty

"

Cold_Zero wrote:

I was just wondering what jewel you use at what to aim for on jewels :)

"

Jewels:
Get life, one general damage node and one claw specific. Weapon-restricted fixes aren’t as expensive and your Rigwald’s Curse lets you take advantage of claw modifications!

These are the ones I currently use:

You can get 4-5 jewel slots in total.

Edit:
I totally forgot about the unique Jewel Spire of Stone. It gives 3% increased Totem life per 10 Strength and most important, it makes your totems stun-immune. This should be pretty important in endgame.

perfect end-of-league build. cheers!

Great build so far! Your guide is clear, informative, and made me laugh several times lol. My gear certainly isn't optimal, and I've run into a few snags with a couple of map bosses (the Spider Lair boss appears to be a physical damage machine gun) but for the most part I'm smashing everything sufficiently.

I don't seem to be having a problem with mana at all running Hatred and Blasphemy/Enfeeble, so I'm not using Enlighten in my gloves. This leaves me with an extra gem slot in either my shield or gloves, both of which are red. Given this, I've been running Warlord's Mark in my shield (which links to Faster Casting) and it seems to be working out okay. Any thoughts or suggestions on what else to run instead? Or maybe something I'm missing with why you run Enlighten?

Thanks! :)

"

ILjXYZ wrote:

I don't seem to be having a problem with mana at all running Hatred and Blasphemy/Enfeeble, so I'm not using Enlighten in my gloves. This leaves me with an extra gem slot in either my shield or gloves, both of which are red. Given this, I've been running Warlord's Mark in my shield (which links to Faster Casting) and it seems to be working out okay. Any thoughts or suggestions on what else to run instead? Or maybe something I'm missing with why you run Enlighten?

Thanks! :)

I use Enlighten simply for the slightly bigger mana pool. This build doesn't have much mana regeneration and especially in -regen maps this becomes a bit annoying.

Warlords mark doesn't do much for this build. If you have a free gem slot, use Enduring Cry to generate some Endurance Charges.

small additions to your guide:

there are TWO essential items if you want to go crit:

facebreakers ofc
rigwald's curse

i levelled easily without the amu and just recently bought it in essence. it helps to have



equipped on one or 2 ring slots and



for boots before switching to crit, the damage compensates easily for the lack of crit up to tier 6-ish.

since i run this toon as a marauder, there are slight deviations from your path, naturally. ascendancy isnt too great since you get no additional totem and i doubt the "1% lifeleech from your totems applies to you" makes this build less squishy (since vaal pact is rather unattainable). i will probably take those nodes anyway and spent a few regrets just to check it out.

at lvl 74, this build is really comfortable with any map mod and can handle almost all boss encounters easily (aside from the ones that literally oneshit me, with 4300 life).

gear as of now:



cheers, and thanks again for taking the time to write it all down! this build is real fun for anyone who loves totem builds (and facerolling)!

also, consider "phase run" for either active cast or in a cwdt setup (substituting vaal haste).

30% melee damage and the effective "blind" on enemies plus the movement speed - sounds fine

"

ab_ wrote:

it helps to have

equipped on one or 2 ring slots and

for boots before switching to crit, the damage compensates easily for the lack of crit up to tier 6-ish.

The ring doesn't convince me. 30% reduced attack speed is huge and since your totems do all the work, you don't get any frenzy charges anyway. Steel rings already reach ~15-30 extra phys damage, have no downside and can have other mods.
The shield and the boots are maybe nice for leveling, but with all those uniques it becomes hard to get enough life and resistances.

"

ab_ wrote:

also, consider "phase run" for either active cast or in a cwdt setup (substituting vaal haste).
30% melee damage and the effective "blind" on enemies plus the movement speed - sounds fine

Interesting idea. Never even used that gem yet. Sadly, the extra melee damage duration is way to short..

i have no idea how you reach 365k, tbh. i am at 40k abouts. Looking at steel rings to increase the flat damage