[3.2] Penta-Totem Ball Lightning Hierophant (3M Shaper DPS)

CONSIDER ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING IN THIS GUIDE AS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AS IT IS TESTED AND FINE-TUNED THROUGHOUT THE LEAGUE. DO NOT CONSIDER THIS GUIDE AS BEING FINAL OR COMPLETE, IT IS STRONGLY A WORK IN PROGRESS.

Spent the last few days pouring over the hierophant changes and creating my 3.2 league starter that should be easy to get going, but also scale into being able to easily destroy the end game.


Pro's

Easy to get started.
Gearing should be rather easy and cheap. (Colors are also SUPER easy on our 6L)
Super relaxed playstyle.
Rather safe due to totem playstyle and pretty good regen and life pool.
Damage is ultra stronk.

Con's
Totems (Depends on person, I personally love totems)
Clearspeed isn't auto-bomber zoom zoom



Gearing
IMPORTANT: You need at least 50 or so Dexterity somewhere on your gear
Helm: Rare with Life and Resists (Starkonja is a good unique option as it gives life, Crit, and easy Dexterity that we desperately need for our Slower Projectiles and our Golem)
Gloves: Rare with Life and Resists
Boots: Rare with Life and Resists and Movespeed
Armour: 6l Soul Mantle (5B1G)(Can easily use a Tabula and Spell Totem support before you get your 6L.
Amulet: Life and Resists
Rings: Dual Kikazaru's
Weapons: Dagger, Shield for mapping, 2 Wands for Bossing

Mapping Gear affixes in order of importance.
Dagger: Spell Crit, Lightning Damage to Spells, Crit Mult, Spell Damage
Shield: Life, Spell Damage, Spell Crit, Lightning Damage, Resists


For Bossing: Weapon swap to your 2 Shimmerons (DO NOT USE FRENZY AGAINST BOSSES WHEN USING SHIMMERONS, AND DO NO USE YOUR MOVEMENT SKILLS NEAR BOSSES, IF YOU CRIT WITH THEM YOU WILL TAKE HEAVY DAMAGE)

(Early league options are Lifesprig>Tulborn>Moonsorrow, with Moonsorrow being the highest damage'early-league' option by a long shot)


Jewels: Self Flagellation, and then Rares with Life, Spell Damage, Lightning Damage, and Crit Multi

HELMET ENCHANT: Reduced Ball Lightning Projectile Speed (Both the 30% and 45% will cap our hits per second, so both work exactly the same.)
(THIS IS A MASSIVE DAMAGE BOOST)



Skill gems

6L Soul Mantle: Ball Lightning, Elemental Focus, Lightning Penetration, Controlled Destruction, Faster Casting, Slower Projectiles (Swap this for Pierce when clearing, we don't actually need the pierce because ball lightning isn't really a traditional projectile, it's just the next best green damage gem that isn't slower proj, because the proj speed is unbearably slow for mapping with both the helm enchant AND slower proj support)

4-Links:
Immortal Call (Level 12), CWDT (Level 10), Vaal Haste, Increased Duration
Flame Dash, Faster Casting, Arcane Surge (Level 9), Increased Duration
Wrath, Summon Lightning Golem, Minion Life, Minion and Totem Elemental Resistances
OPTIONAL 4-LINK FOR NON ANCESTRAL BOND SETUP:
Ball Lightning, Slower Projectiles, Spell Echo, Life Leech

3-Link for Weapons:
Mapping Dagger or Shield: Frenzy, Faster Attacks, Ancestral Call
Mapping Dagger or Shield: Shield Charge, Faster Attacks, Fortify

Bossing Wands: Conductivity

Ascendency: Pursuit of Faith>>Ritual of Awakening>Conviction of Power>Illuminated Devotion


Playstyle

MAPPING:
Shield charge around with your dagger and shield while placing your totems while occasionally cursing twice (need 2 casts to proc AS) to proc Arcane Surge, while occasionally tossing out a few Frenzy attacks to get your Frenzy charges up.

BOSSING: Put in your Slower Projectiles into your chest setup and switch to your Shimmeron Wands. DO NOT USE FRENZY ON BOSSES, AND DO NOT FLAME DASH DIRECTLY INTO THE BOSS, AS IT MAY CRIT AND CAUSE YOU DAMAGE. Curse boss with Conductivity twice, run around as your totems clear house.

Skill tree: https://www.pathofexile.com/build/wWjbfa

BUILD VARIANTS:
For a more tanky build but less damage, unspec out of the entire Ancestral bond wheel, and spec into Shamanistic Fury. Swap out Shimmerons for Void Batteries to avoid the heavy self damage when you crrit, and then use the 'OPTIONAL 4-LINK SETUP" in the gems setup.

Path of Building pastebin:
https://pastebin.com/WaNcc7mR

Perhaps it would help for some players if you link a skilltree instead of the pastebin :)

"League Starter"
and you are including Shimmeron or Void Battery...
You are a mad man.

"

Bekdesh wrote:

"League Starter"
and you are including Shimmeron or Void Battery...
You are a mad man.

Does over 1M shaper DPS with just 2 Moonsorrows or Lifesprigs; Shimmerons and Void Batteries are simply the BiS for maxing out damage as you get more currency. Could honestly kill shaper unarmed (900k DPS) if you really wanted to.

The idea is a starter that can clear the entire game on essentially nothing, but then scale into ludicrous damage the more currency put in.

Even with a Tabula and only 4 totems you can hit 1M Shaper DPS with 2 Moonsorrows.

Looks like a decent build, I might try this out. I've always wanted to make Spark totems.

What are your thoughts on using a shield for extra survivability with Doryani's Catalyst instead though?

"

Erevant wrote:

Looks like a decent build, I might try this out. I've always wanted to make Spark totems.

What are your thoughts on using a shield for extra survivability with Doryani's Catalyst instead though?

If I was going for a more survivable route I would probably just go for a Belly of The Beast and run with 4 totems rather than five. With a Belly, 6.5-7k health is achievable, while still being able to hit over 1.6M shaper DPS. The damage lost from not using 2 Shimmeron/Void Batteries is more than the damage lost from not using a pseudo 7l in the form of Soul Mantle.


The new Atziri shield could be nice, but not really the best for life based characters because a lot of life and res can be got from a shield slot and ring slots. Big defensive shield>2 defensive rings tbh.


Another great option would just be to Spec out of Ancestral Bond and keep Soul Mantle, and then just use the spell leech we already have from the Hierophant Asc. to get some leech for ourselves. Something like a self cast Spark with Spark, Life Leech Support, GMP, and Increased Duration would be great to throw out a few casts and have a sort of passive leech for a few seconds.

Tankiest possible would probably be Belly of the Beast with Shimmeron and a rare Life/Spell Damage/Spell Crit shield, with no Ancestral Bond, with the aforementioned self cast spark. By my calcs it would end up being about 6.4k health, with 665 life/second regen, and 1,267 health leeched per second on top of that. The damage in this setup falls off pretty solidly, but is still rather beefy with 350k Shaper DPS per totem, with 3 totems.

With the 4 points saved from Ancestral Bond branch I would go with Shamanistic Fury.

Here's a pastebin with this setup if you want to check it out: https://pastebin.com/ws7r6Zi3

"

Xanthochroid wrote:

"

Erevant wrote:

Looks like a decent build, I might try this out. I've always wanted to make Spark totems.

What are your thoughts on using a shield for extra survivability with Doryani's Catalyst instead though?

If I was going for a more survivable route I would probably just go for a Belly of The Beast and run with 4 totems rather than five. With a Belly, 6.5-7k health is achievable, while still being able to hit over 1.6M shaper DPS. The damage lost from not using 2 Shimmeron/Void Batteries is more than the damage lost from not using a pseudo 7l in the form of Soul Mantle.


The new Atziri shield could be nice, but not really the best for life based characters because a lot of life and res can be got from a shield slot and ring slots. Big defensive shield>2 defensive rings tbh.


Another great option would just be to Spec out of Ancestral Bond and keep Soul Mantle, and then just use the spell leech we already have from the Hierophant Asc. to get some leech for ourselves. Something like a self cast Spark with Spark, Life Leech Support, GMP, and Increased Duration would be great to throw out a few casts and have a sort of passive leech for a few seconds.

Tankiest possible would probably be Belly of the Beast with Shimmeron and a rare Life/Spell Damage/Spell Crit shield, with no Ancestral Bond, with the aforementioned self cast spark. By my calcs it would end up being about 6.4k health, with 665 life/second regen, and 1,267 health leeched per second on top of that. The damage in this setup falls off pretty solidly, but is still rather beefy with 350k Shaper DPS per totem, with 3 totems.

With the 4 points saved from Ancestral Bond branch I would go with Shamanistic Fury.

Here's a pastebin with this setup if you want to check it out: https://pastebin.com/ws7r6Zi3

What about Tukohama's Fortress for end game?

Gonna follow this one. Looks good.

I personnaly would use curse - Arcane - Increased area - Increased duration to proc Arcane Surge. Saves your Flame dash for the moments you really need it.

"

Erevant wrote:

"

Xanthochroid wrote:

"

Erevant wrote:

Looks like a decent build, I might try this out. I've always wanted to make Spark totems.

What are your thoughts on using a shield for extra survivability with Doryani's Catalyst instead though?

If I was going for a more survivable route I would probably just go for a Belly of The Beast and run with 4 totems rather than five. With a Belly, 6.5-7k health is achievable, while still being able to hit over 1.6M shaper DPS. The damage lost from not using 2 Shimmeron/Void Batteries is more than the damage lost from not using a pseudo 7l in the form of Soul Mantle.


The new Atziri shield could be nice, but not really the best for life based characters because a lot of life and res can be got from a shield slot and ring slots. Big defensive shield>2 defensive rings tbh.


Another great option would just be to Spec out of Ancestral Bond and keep Soul Mantle, and then just use the spell leech we already have from the Hierophant Asc. to get some leech for ourselves. Something like a self cast Spark with Spark, Life Leech Support, GMP, and Increased Duration would be great to throw out a few casts and have a sort of passive leech for a few seconds.

Tankiest possible would probably be Belly of the Beast with Shimmeron and a rare Life/Spell Damage/Spell Crit shield, with no Ancestral Bond, with the aforementioned self cast spark. By my calcs it would end up being about 6.4k health, with 665 life/second regen, and 1,267 health leeched per second on top of that. The damage in this setup falls off pretty solidly, but is still rather beefy with 350k Shaper DPS per totem, with 3 totems.

With the 4 points saved from Ancestral Bond branch I would go with Shamanistic Fury.

Here's a pastebin with this setup if you want to check it out: https://pastebin.com/ws7r6Zi3

What about Tukohama's Fortress for end game?

Less damage but more totems, so more damage overall:
300k shaper dps per totem, 4 totems

About the same life as a well rolled rare shield.

That setup would be 6l Belly, Shimmeron, Tukohama's, no AB.

However Tukohama's would only be more damage on the non AB version, as Shimmeron or spell shield will do more damage overall with AB.

Will probably try a few different combos throughout the league and will be updating the thread to be more detailed as I fine tune what works best.