StrayYoshi's Quad Totem Flame Surge AB Hierophant

GUIDE NOT YET COMPLETE

For 3.0 I'll be playing a Warchief variant of this build with a completely different skill tree. Bleed damage multipliers are the key for amplifying total damage output. From Bloodlust and Melee Physical Damage to vulnerability's double dipping and Kondo's Pride offering the 50% dmg modifier on bleeding targets, these bleed modifiers add huge amounts of damage and feel very similar to the damage output of my Flame Surge build on beta. The build is very bleed focused, more details soon. So far normal Atziri down and T15 map clear capable. Uber Atziri attempt in beta was a failure, just too squishy.

Totem life changes are very tricky to comprehend, it may be easier to just play it out in game and find out manually. From what I understand different damage sources deal different damage percentages in 3.0. It feels like a slight nerf to totem survivability, but that will have to be tested out.

This build will not be affected as severely as many other builds by the proposed ES changes. ES looks a little less attractive and hybrid looks much better though. Using MoM to add defenses and switching off of Illuminated Devotion to Sanctuary of though simultaneously addresses defensive and mana issues.

Hey guys, this is a very in-depth build guide for the character I've been using for the past year almost. A basic summary of the build would be: a critical strike Ancestral Bond Hierophant using 4 spell totems. After several seasons of changes and tweaking I unexpectedly ended up using Flame Surge as a primary skill.
While my personal choice has always been elemental skills because of the elemental status effect granted by crits (main source Shaman's Dominion), the build is flexible enough to change your main skill gem for several others. I'm always in awe when I see so few players choosing Hierophants and a virtual non-existent use of the powerful Ritual of Awakening passive, which I have been using since Ascendancy was released.

There's a very brief TL;DR section at the end of this post.
This guide is quite long, you have been warned.



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Pros:
• No reflect deaths
• Great single target DPS and massive AoE
• A true budget build - no required special uniques or rares. 5/6L not mandatory.
• Can clear all map mods, including reflect/no mana or ES regen
• Customizable: variations of this build are very open - Don't like fire? Swap active skill gem to any of the other listed skills.

Cons:
• High mana costs per totem
• Low base movement speed
• Proximity shield is very annoying
• Depending on your build (life/hybrid/ES) it can be difficult to gear your character.
Some end-game items may be expensive or extremely rare/non-existent.
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Videos
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8 Minute Uber Lab run: https://youtu.be/03BoWpymFZs
4 minute Atziri run: https://youtu.be/doFcqWWIT18
T16 Deathless Double Beyond + Hydra Kill: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/140653995
Deathless Chimera fight (strategy vid): https://youtu.be/El54ehyvXyQ
Vaal Temple madness: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/142217457
Monstrous treasure run with Double beyond and sextants. Abaxoth spawn and several dozen unique spawns.
Shaper attempt: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/140326877
Reached 3rd phase. Can you kill Shaper? Probably. Should you use this build? There are better builds for Shaper killing. Run it with a supporter if you absolutely must. This is my 2nd ever attempt, I may try again with a different setup. Portal phase minions give me trouble, Zana dies a lot.

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General

What can this build do?
I've used this build primarily as a reliable budget Uber farmer for the past 2 seasons. In Legacy I was running Uber labs on a 4L for longer than I'm proud to admit. End game content this build can do reliably includes:

•Uber Lab
•Atziri
•Phoenix/Chimera/Hydra/Minotaur (easy to difficult order)
•All unique maps except HoG
•Rigwald 87+
•Breachlords (Not Chayula viable, too slow)
•Pale Council

•NOT Uber Atziri viable
•NOT Shaper viable
•NOT Chayula viable (too slow, boss fight uncertain)
Use an aura support to do Shaper and Uber Atziri if you must.

I don't consider it an exaggeration to say this character is a beast Uber lab farmer, it can farm lab on any day/phase/layout. The build can handle Uber Atziri and Shaper map mini bosses, but can run into trouble in the final phases. Maybe it's because I suck, who knows.

I've considered using a dagger for WB movement, but the cast speed is far too important factor for DPS increase. To compensate use a 25%+
This is a mandatory item you may have to self-craft. Surprisingly, just this flask alone puts you at about equal movement speed to most characters using movement skills. Aim for 27%+. Running out of QS charges is a real pain I'll admit.

Damage
Flame Surge is your primary skill at all times. It clears any white mobs in 2 hits or less at level 20, but a level 21 Flame Surge will usually 1 shot even T16 mobs with extra life. For anything else, make use of the Flame Surge bonus damage against burning enemies. I like to apply ignites with Firestorm, just click a totem and near the target and worry about Flame Surge totems. Scorching Ray also applies a burning debuff, but leaves you vulnerable standing still and has a short duration.

Tooltip damage is extremely deceptive here. Several damage modifiers (as far as I know) aren't calculated in the DPS numbers. They include:

1. The DPS calculation is based on a single totem. I believe the actual # is multiplied by the number of active totems, 4, which could hit a max total of 6
2. Flame surge's bonus damage against burning enemies
3. Enchantment 60% increased Flame Surge damage against burning enemies
4. Fire penetration sources
5. Curses and curse effect

Right now I'm optimized at
or just under 1.2 mil DPS with all 4 totems

Add an aurabot and I can hit several million DPS. Haven't checked for a maximum DPS potential yet. The real DPS is currently unknown, as neither Path of Building or Tooltip DPS account for having 4 totems active at once.

Enchants are very straightforward, look for anything Firestorm/Flamesurge related. All 3 Flame Surge enchants are great as well as Firestorm enchants while leveling or starting a new league. I personally prefer the 60% increased Flame Surge damage enchant, as it works on all but a handful of ignite immune bosses or map mods.

Background
How the build evolved, in case you care. Skip if you just want the build guide


Gear
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Gear links:

Life/ES hybrid without armor. I've done a life version, ES version and hybrid versions with and without armor. They all have their strengths/weaknesses, but I really like this version for Uber lab. Depending on your build, HP, hybrid, or CI, gear may have different bases. The mods will all be similar though.
Weapon: Unless you plan to make a variation of this build, use a cast speed 1-hander with at least 60% spell damage. Aim for 16% or more cast speed and you should be fine. Try to get your hands on one with adds xx fire damage to spells mod. Any base will work, but Sambar Sceptre, Opal, and Profane wands are the best.
The ideal weapon looks like:

Spell damage (80%+)
Cast Speed (20%+)
Adds 25+ fire damage to spells
Increased global critical strike chance 80%+
Increased Fire damage 23%+

You'll find the first 2 mods are common to find and affordable, while the last 3 can be added as Catarina crafts. There's nothing wrong with using a scepter other than the higher strength requirement. Starting from the best, use a: Sambar Scepre, Profane wand, Opal, Void sceptre, or any other 40% elemental or spell damage 1-hander. Daggers may work, but find a way to make up for the 20%+ cast speed somehow.

Helm: Life/ES resist defense
Boots: Life/ES resist defense
Belt: Life/ES resist. Reduced flask charges. Crystal belts are amazing.
Chest: Many options. For my hybrid build I chose a Vaal Regalia with high life. Armour/ES is also great for hybrids, Saintly Chainmail and Saint's Hauberk are the best bases and are often very affordable. Choose based on your HP type. A Belly of the Beast or Beast Fur Shawl are also great choices.

Shield: Base depends on specific build needs, armor/hybrid/ES are all great bases and should all be master crafted with the 8% increased cast speed craft from Catarina. Make sure to level up Catarina early in a new league in case you need to re-roll this craft. Keep in mind cast speed on shields is a suffix, so you give up a resistance mod or % block for it. You can get additional damage by getting a spell damage/crit shield if you choose to go ES. When buying a shield to craft keep this in mind: most players will craft a third resist on any shield that would have room for the cast speed master craft mod. They want to sell the item for the maximum possible value, but you want to remove this master craft mod, never forget removing resistances from a shield requires Haku level 7 to remove the mod. Searching for the perfect shield with an open suffix can be a nightmare.
The main reason we can't get block on this build is because of the important suffixes on shields: resists, block, cast speed. You can only pick 3...

Rings: Best available ring would be an Essence of Anger crafted 84+ Opal ring with cast speed. Settle for a nice Diamond/Coral/Moonstone or resist ring if you can't afford or find one.

Amulet: Talismans have huge potential (Ashscale/Rotfeather), but don't rely on getting one. Anything with crit and attributes here is nice. Go for an Anger crafted Jade/Agate/Onyx/Citrine.

Flasks: I don't recommend my setup at all except for Uber labs and very high (T15-16) mapping, where they will keep you alive and prevent substantial loss. That's all I've done this season, I need the life flasks because I've gotten used to using them. Normally, swap 2 flasks for an Overflowing Chalice and maybe a Vinktar if you have flask effect.

Save up for a nice weapon and shield very early. They make a huge difference and are worth overpaying for.
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Skill tree
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Bandits
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Normal: Oak or skill point. Life for HP builds, otherwise skill point. Mana is a possibility for some.
Cruel: Help Alira (Cast speed)
Merciless: Help Alira (Power Charge)
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There are many ways to increase Flame Surge totem damage, in order of effectiveness they are:
•Fire Penetration*
•Cast speed
•Totem damage and totem modifiers (totem cast speed, totem placement speed)
•Spell damage
•Fire damage/Elemental damage
•Crit (depending on how much you invest)
•Area damage and AoE

*Up until a certain breakpoint. However, if dual cursing investment may not be necessary at all, the ele weakness/flammability combo covers over 75% of elemental resistance negation.

Every tree will have the same totem nodes and different keystones, it mostly comes down to how high spell damage your weapon is and what cast speed you can afford.

The Ancestral Bond, Shamanistic Fury and Shaman's Dominion nodes are mandatory, reaching way down to the Totemic Zeal node is inefficient unless you go HP. Considering you will be dropping totems more than any other action, you'll appreciate the benefits of faster totem placement speed. Totemic Mastery is neighboring a jewel slot and is close, so it's worth it until high levels.

Cast speed: The more you have the more damage your totems do. No increased mana costs, unlike manual casting. There's no cap you should hit for your totems, more is better and adds tons of damage even with diminishing returns.

Flame surge has a very tiny range without AoE, Flame surge is not even close to viable on totems with no AoE while using concentrated effect.

Whispers of Doom is a great node that's very efficient at increasing damage. Since you'll be using Scorching Ray to apply the debuff anyway, link Cast While Channeling and add the 2nd curse, Elemental Weakness.

Jewel sockets. Get as many as you can get efficiently. Getting 3 useful mods on a jewel is very easy to come by. Prioritize jewel slots, they outscale several smaller nodes by far.

Because each totem has a mana cost of over 100 mana at around level 19 gems, you instantly deplete your mana pool when dropping 4 totems with more than 2 auras. A mana flask is highly recommended. You could use a high level clarity instead, but that would require additional mana reservation which would also require more investment into mana.

After these nodes you can pick whatever is most efficient along the route. Dexterity is important to pick up on the tree when nearby. You only need enough for a level 20 culling strike (111), dexterity investment is always a tradeoff; you either lose skill points on the tree or powerful affix mods on gear, the choice is yours. Get Precision and Agility if you need them early on in the league and refund them later.

Block nodes are powerful, but mostly too far away. Apart from Mind barrier and Sanctuary, there are no nearby block nodes worth getting.

Don't invest in burn/ignite damage nodes, Flame surge cannot inflict ignites, end of story.

Spending skill points on the Endurance and Stamina nodes for HC builds work well, but take up a skill slot for enduring cry. What you drop to fit it in is up to you.

Ascendancy class

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Hierophant. The chosen Ascendancy class is mandatory, only the Hierophant offers +2 to total totems (Soul Mantle, Tukohama's Fortress & AB can make it 6 total with a life version) available for the player.

You might be asking: "Why not Inquisitor?". The answer here is that with the combined fire penetration of a Fire Pen gem, Flammability, Elemental Weakness and Scorching Ray, you can surpass the maximum possible elemental penetration (75%) from the Inevitable Judgement Keystone Ascendancy by nearly double (144%). Shaman's Dominion is also a great answer to the Inquisitor's Righteous Providence. The Hierophant has 2 special Ascendancy nodes that many many players overlook and are extremely powerful:
Illuminated Devotion: Here's the node that really offers variations to this build. It reads:

"Skills from your helm penetrate 20% of elemental resistances.
Skills from your gloves have 20% increased area of effect.
Skills from your boots leech 2% of damage as life."

At the beginning of a new league these abilities allow you to go without the need for a 5/6L. The basic concept is that each of your 4 socket slot items have a support gem effect added. The most powerful of the three effects for this build is the helm effect. 20% elemental penetration is great for any element, but in particular this is great for a single powerful spell.
For this reason we get as many totems as we can safely get. I tried out the Soul mantle version of this build and it leaves you far too vulnerable on defenses to stay alive, not HC viable at all and even has trouble staying alive in Softcore.
Gloves give you 20% increased AoE, which pairs well with gems that rely on concentrated effect. I put firestorm in the gloves, it does enough damage to clear monsters and covers most of the map. The boots effect isn't important for this build.

The other critical Ascendancy node is easily the most often misunderstood and overlooked Ascendancy node in the game in my opinion:
Pursuit of Faith: "4% increased damage per enemy killed by you or your totems recently. 8% increased attack and cast speed while you have a totem."
The word phrase to look at here is per enemy. That's right, every single enemy slain adds a 4% damage stack with no limit (4s CD). Think of it as a mini headhunter buff. Even killing a small pack of 20 monsters grants gives 80% increased damage. Tooltip DPS really doesn't help us here, all I can say is that your DPS goes up dramatically per totem as you clear larger packs. The idea is that clearing faster increases damage x4. This effect is important because it consistently negates the "-8% damage per totem" downside from Ritual of awakening. As long as you keep killing packs and moving quickly you keep your damage from decreasing by up to -32%.

Conviction of Power is the final Ascendancy to choose. Make sure to get the Spell Damage per Power Charge node in the Witch area and help Alira for 5 total power charges with minimal investment. Endurance charges are also a great option for life versions of this build.
Void Battery has caught my attention, I haven't tried it yet.
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Skill Gems
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The 3 crucial gems are:
•Flame surge
•Firestorm
•Spell totem

Firestorm is your leveling gem, even at low levels it does solid damage and has decent AoE without relying heavily on cast speed.
Flame surge is your single target DPS spell. Apply ignites from firestorm by going crit. Ignite damage or duration isn't important on this build. Monsters rarely live long enough to survive the full duration of ignites.
Spell totem carries the totem tag. Totems have a set duration before they disappear and need to be recast. Totem placement speed is very important for this build. You need to be able to place at least a set of 4 totems in under a second, which I find requires somewhere near 50% totem placement speed. Anything slower and your totems likely will die before every shooting a spell. You also have to cover the mana cost of dropping 4 totems in a row, on average about 450+ mana.

Ritual of Awakening's downside will lower your damage by 28% with 4 active totems, skills that rely on small hits are heavily penalized by this. Aim to use Flame Surge with a high spell damage weapon first, then focus on cast speed. Even a plain high spell damage wand will work early on in the league. Flame Surge and Firestorm both have AoE tag, so invest a sufficient amount in area nodes; I always get both Blast Radius and Amplify keystones as they increases totem range indirectly for flame surge. This season I also got the lesser known Explosive Impact keystone north of the Templar. If you're looking for something different you could also use these skill gems by making minor skill tree changes:

•Arctic Breath (laggy)
•Bladefall Viable, incredible clearspeed, poor single target.
•Fireball (AI aiming issues) skill tree is different
•Glacial Cascade (lacks range)
•Icestorm (lagfest, but powerful) the skill tree is very different

Firestorm does everything well, but is honestly laggy and very harsh on the eyes. It has great AoE and damage and can focus most bosses as well.

Ancestral Warchief requires massive changes in both gear and the skill tree but results in damage very similar to Flame Surge totems:
Will try to get this done before Harbinger!


Now that we've decided to use Flamesurge/Firestorm (or maybe you liked the others) you have the task of finding what goes where. If you can't afford a 6L, putting your main spell in the helmet does comparable damage. For maximum damage, a 6L does the best job though.
Assuming Flamesurge goes into your chest, you can choose to put firestorm in your helmet for the fire penetration and damage, or into the gloves slot for AoE. I like to put firestorm in the gloves because I link Item Rarity and Culling Strike for one-click culls. Your boots offer no bonus, put auras and curses in your weapon shield slots and any left over support skills into the boots.

Make sure to add defensive and offensive supporting skills. Back in the day, Frost Wall and Decoy totem were great, but nowadays it seems dual cursing and auras are the way to go.

The Flammability /Scorching Ray combo is a must. Dual or tri-cursing is strongly encouraged for this build. Ancestral Bond does not negate the Scorching Ray effect of lowering elemental resistances even if you do no damage with it. I'll make that clear: you can apply the Scorching Ray debuff even if you use Ancestral Bond. Supporting curses with Blasphemy is strong discouraged, with enfeeble and TC being the exception for HC players. You don't want to ever force yourself to close in on enemies to do more damage. A CWDT Immortal Call setup is important for preventing stuns from big hits, I've enjoyed a low level 3-5-6 setup which prevents combo hits almost entirely.

Your hotkeys with this build require Flamesurge totem, Firestorm totem, Tempest Shield, and a movement spell. What you put in the last 3 spots is up to you. I don't use golems because they're a pain to recast and there's no room in your gem slots for linking them to minion life.
Make sure to level up a clarity gem and keep it in your stash/inventory for tough boss fights or no regen maps.

Based on my needs I used the following setup:
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Tactics
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Line of Sight issues are can cause problems as well as help you with this build. There's nothing more infuriating than spamming totems and having nothing happen. Open maps are what this build plays, any narrow path or indoor maps are dangerous to play with this build. Most of your deaths with this character will be in narrow areas or maps. To counter LoS issues I use totem formations that keep me safe:

Line
The most common way drop your totems for fast clear speed. It's also the safest tactic for preventing ambushes from monsters like Devourers or Plumetting Ursas.

Semi-Circle
Mana efficiency formation. Use a single set of 4 totems to clear a 1.5 screen area of monsters:
This placement blankets the widest coverage of a screen, while also keeping totems in range of any monsters that walk up to you. Drop the 4 totems and move on to the next screen while the totems continue to fire.

Cluster
For cramped indoor tilesets and maps with doorways as well as for bosses, the cluster formation is the best. The idea here is to trap movement in any way possible by placing totems together to block movement completely. For indoor layouts, blocking doorways completely is highly effective and lets you gather monsters to power up the Pursuit of Faith effect dramatically.
For bosses, place totems in all 4 directions around the boss to pin them in and prevent movement. This will often keep monsters from going after you.

If you play melee or have never used totems before, you need to be aware of the patch change back in 2.0.0 that changed monster AI vs minions to be lower priority than that of players. If you drop a totem between you and a monster, the monster will almost always run past the totem and go for you.

Keep in mind that map mods most considered to be re-roll material can easily be done with this build. Two map mods worth discussing are chain and no mana regen. Chain can cause your own totems to send chained projectiles toward you even in a safe spot. Either place totems at maximum distance or avoid chain maps.

For enemies that can actually survive more than a few seconds use 1 firestorm and 3 Flame Surge totems, once Firestorm applies the ignite drop another Flame surge to remove the lone Firestorm totem.

When your totems are dying too quickly because of a single yellow/boss, abuse monster AI by hiding behind a wall. If you've played first person shooters or stealth games, you're probably already familiar with the word "cover". Simply hide out of sight of the enemy while your totem is in their vision. In cramped tilesets make use of monster vision to place totems out of vision range of yourself, stick totems as close to walls or seal doorways to prevent movement and cause enemy AI "resets".
It won't work in open type maps obviously. The best example of this is easily demonstrated in the Hall of Grandmasters map.
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Jewels
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The list of available tags is extremely generous and allows easy access to damage from many sources. Depending on your specific tailoring of this build these tags will appeal to you:
Totem damage
Cast speed (with shields, with fire, etc)
Attack and cast speed
Area damage
Damage
Critical strike chance/multiplier (with fire skills, elemental skills, spells,
Spell damage (with 1 handed, with shields, with fire, etc)
Fire damage

It's very easy to find jewels for this character, early in the league I strongly recommend regaling your own jewels. Crimson and Cobalt jewels both work, but Cobalt has less available attack mods. Defensive jewels with life/ES block are also nice, but not needed.
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Any other questions about the build, just ask. There's always room for improvement, this build continues to be a work in progress since Talisman league. There are still many unknown changes that will happen until Fall of Oriath comes out, nerfs to totems are certain to never happen. Keep in mind my build was based around a hybrid life/ES. This is my first ever build guide, I look forward to improving it and receiving advice on all sections.
If you plan on playing or are playing a life version using Tukohama's Fortress, I'd love to hear some feedback from you.

TL;DR Version:
Crit based AB Hierophant Quad totem Flamesurge with Firestorm. Flame surge kills anything, ignite and repeat for anything that survives. Rolls over Uber Izaro, Atziri, Guardians. Videos just below the start.

Skill Tree:

Gear/Links: