[Strongest Solo Variation: Projectile Madness Spectres] LMP/GMP Ice Spear 2x Totem 2x Curse 3x Traps

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hypershatter wrote:

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Twoshay wrote:

Yeah I was thinking that too. If iron will just doesn't work that well with dual totems, it shouldn't even be in the guide right?

facepalm when did i say it doesnt work with dual totems. it just doesnt affect the traps.

Sorry for my poor word choice. Instead of "doesn't work", I should have said something like "less efficient".

Read OP and the last 10 or so pages, seems to be many variations on this build. The statement "3) you dont need gear" seems to suit what I want to do with my witch.

Would a dual totem witch be good for IIQ/IIR farming? If yes, which kind?

Getting mixed impressions from people in the thread since some says it got a problem with dps which leads me to be doubtfull since I'd sacrifice a lot of stats for IIQ/IIR.

Got my witch at 30 for now with no spent points (gogo silverbranch psnarrow). I do want to try some sort of witch for farming, just not sure if it'll be with totems. Any answers/linkbuilds would be much appreciated.

Can I get a "poll" of what users "paper DPS" is for their ice spear totems? Right now I'm at lvl 63 and my DPS reads 350 (obviously it's higher with multiple spears/stacking shock dmg/etc.) and I'm able to solo stuff a bit lower than me. What I'm worried about is running maps in a few levels. I've already really picked up all the damage nodes I can grab, so I'm not expecting my damage to go up much more except for continuing to level Ice Spear...

Let me know what anyone 70+ is looking like.

Also, I'm using GMP + Crit Multiplier + Faster Cast

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Lysithea wrote:

Read OP and the last 10 or so pages, seems to be many variations on this build. The statement "3) you dont need gear" seems to suit what I want to do with my witch.

Would a dual totem witch be good for IIQ/IIR farming? If yes, which kind?

Getting mixed impressions from people in the thread since some says it got a problem with dps which leads me to be doubtfull since I'd sacrifice a lot of stats for IIQ/IIR.

Got my witch at 30 for now with no spent points (gogo silverbranch psnarrow). I do want to try some sort of witch for farming, just not sure if it'll be with totems. Any answers/linkbuilds would be much appreciated.

What is your goal? If it is to burn through mobs as fast as possible, then this build isn't for you. Pick a ranger. This is more of a Crowd Control build that is great in groups or great to solo with. I will give you the down and diry of my experience. Here is basically all you do: You place two totems and sit back curse the groups and throw traps on mini bosses. The totems freeze and kill the mobs. Rinse and Repeat. That's it.

I am doing the pure CI build, without CI picked. I am level 63 and have a bit over 2k ES, so i could take CI. Just about all of my passive tree is the same (fer a couple minor deviations - 3 points in ele resists and the older tree build in the beginning that has cast speed selected). I am in Act 2 Merciless and i am doing fine. I stay out of the zones that have Flicker mobs and Chaos induced damaging mobs. If i am in a zone where i do get hit with Chaos damage i am quick on Life Flasks, but if you aren't quick you will get rolled quick. Just back off the screen and drop totems closer to the mobs so they target the totem instead of you. If they kill it, drop another one. My gear is meh and i still don't have my chest all linked so i can add faster casting/reduced mana. To me this is the hardest part.

With all this being said, i solo a lot and farm fellshrine (like everyone else) with no issues. I do not die much at all to regular mobs, unless i get a lag spike, get careless, etc. Speed boots do help to run from fast chasing mobs, drop a totem, traps, collect loot. It is more of a strategy of placing totems down (none really, drop them down, sometimes close together, sometimes spread apart depending on the situation, refresh them as needed) and running around to avoid getting hit. A lot of times i run right throught the middle of them and all around, but my run speed is over 30% which helps out. I can solo Brutus, Merveil the Siren and others without dying on Merciless level (probably isn't saying much). There are some i get rolled on and i need a group. That could be to my poor playstyle or whatever but i do see how it would be possible to solo them. Oh and to mention DPS, if you think about it.. you are attacking and killing 6-10 or more mobs at one time instead of one by one by one by one. This build isn't all about DPS, but controlling the mobs by freezing them, converting them to help you, etc. While others have to run from groups getting overwhelming.. you can go right in the middle and control them. Pretty cool to do in action.

So find out your playstyle. If it doesn't sound fun for the above, then pick a different build. Does this build still work...yes it does. Is it gear dependant....no, but in any build it does help. You have 30 points, now pick a build and get to spending. If you STILL can not decide between a couple of builds, what i would do is compare the 2 build passive tress and pick the skills that are the exact same. That way, whichever tree you go with you know you haven't wasted any points in a wrong area. Hope some of this helps... i just threw it all down as it came to mind. Good luck!

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mcurtis wrote:

[Lots of useful input]

Main goal for my witch would be to go through mobpacks with as high IIQ/IIR as possible to hopefully get more drops over time compared to a ranger going full out dps. I got a LA ranger built similarly to nugi and it feels ridiculously op, wouldn't be surprised at all if they nerf some aspects about it. Sometimes I just want to go and kill stuff and get those huge lootpiñatas exploding on screen. Totems just seemed practical since I would, hopefully, be looting most of the time rather than spending time dpsing mobs due to the nature of fire and forget of the totems.

Guess I just have to test it out, hopefully the increased amount of drops will outweigh fewer mobs being killed. But then again.. maybe that's useless unless I can do it at maps and higher for the really good stuff. Maybe I could get good enough defensive capabilities to survive higher maps and be a controller of sorts in maps.. with maybe a weaponswap with powersiphon linked with rarity and quality. PS's built in culling strike then taking last hits for my gears purpose to work... but that would mean I'd be stealing all the flask charges from my party which might not be great for the rest of the group. Ugh.

Maybe the increased drop might be enough since it should drop way more currency as well.
So many 'if' and 'maybe'! I just have to test it out. Now to figure out which spec could work with what gear..

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Lysithea wrote:

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mcurtis wrote:

[Lots of useful input]

Main goal for my witch would be to go through mobpacks with as high IIQ/IIR as possible to hopefully get more drops over time compared to a ranger going full out dps. I got a LA ranger built similarly to nugi and it feels ridiculously op, wouldn't be surprised at all if they nerf some aspects about it. Sometimes I just want to go and kill stuff and get those huge lootpiñatas exploding on screen. Totems just seemed practical since I would, hopefully, be looting most of the time rather than spending time dpsing mobs due to the nature of fire and forget of the totems.

Guess I just have to test it out, hopefully the increased amount of drops will outweigh fewer mobs being killed. But then again.. maybe that's useless unless I can do it at maps and higher for the really good stuff. Maybe I could get good enough defensive capabilities to survive higher maps and be a controller of sorts in maps.. with maybe a weaponswap with powersiphon linked with rarity and quality. PS's built in culling strike then taking last hits for my gears purpose to work... but that would mean I'd be stealing all the flask charges from my party which might not be great for the rest of the group. Ugh.

Maybe the increased drop might be enough since it should drop way more currency as well.
So many 'if' and 'maybe'! I just have to test it out. Now to figure out which spec could work with what gear..

Forgive me for my noobness.. IIQ/IIR? To kind of work off what you typed, i have read/watched some of the others solo maps and seem to have no issues. I am curious on this personally, because my higher level ranger friend runs maps and says how much trouble he has and how hard they are. Maybe some of the higher up more veteran players can chime in as far as what issues, if any, they run into, how they do on maps, etc? The nice thing is i run rarity gear, which has helped delivered 2 portal gems, 6 uniques and a shit ton of rare gear. I don't know if that is what you are after, but it is a nice farm machine build IMO. Because you are not the direct input to your damage, you can change out your gear to be more rarity type gear and still be fine... meaning it is not as dependent on having the best stuff in place. Now in certain cases, you may have to switch it back out, but i haven't and won't unless i have too :)

I think someone much higher than me would be helpful if they jumped in and gave their input. All i can really speak of is my experience, which i will tell you the damage is slower, but safer and i can hit more mobs than my ranger friend. Hope some of this helps.

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mcurtis wrote:

Forgive me for my noobness.. IIQ/IIR?

Increased Item Quantity, Increased Item Rarity.

Not sure what sort of build your friends is running if they got trouble in maps as ranger. If the mobs isn't particularly nasty (see multiprojectile, chaosdmg) I could tank most of them while LA'ing the packs. La+lmp+chain+wele+lifeonhit is stupidly good.

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Lysithea wrote:

Main goal for my witch would be to go through mobpacks with as high IIQ/IIR as possible to hopefully get more drops over time compared to a ranger going full out dps. I got a LA ranger built similarly to nugi and it feels ridiculously op, wouldn't be surprised at all if they nerf some aspects about it. Sometimes I just want to go and kill stuff and get those huge lootpiñatas exploding on screen. Totems just seemed practical since I would, hopefully, be looting most of the time rather than spending time dpsing mobs due to the nature of fire and forget of the totems.

Kill speed will be much slower, and you won't be able to spare links for IIQ/IIR gems if that was your plan. I find it much easier to stack IIQ/IIR on my arc/summon witch than on my totem spammer. She kills faster too, I mostly just like the totem spam for parties - I have triple curse, and freeze everything, which makes me a favorite in party play.

For solo grinding, this is probably one of the slowest builds there is. Don't do it for that. The only thing slower is probably pure summon.

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with maybe a weaponswap with powersiphon linked with rarity and quality.

Culling strike doesn't work because of ancestral bond, so you won't be getting the kill with power siphon, and thus the rarity and quality linked won't help.

What do you guys feel about going for inner force? Since I run purity, clarity, and disc.. seems like it could be useful. Having only ~500 mana after everything reserved is kind of a bummer tho.

Also I'm gear-stuck on str and dex on my gems...maybe pick up +30 dex/str nodes on the way until I get better gear?

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ChuChuTrain wrote:

What do you guys feel about going for inner force? Since I run purity, clarity, and disc.. seems like it could be useful. Having only ~500 mana after everything reserved is kind of a bummer tho.

Also I'm gear-stuck on str and dex on my gems...maybe pick up +30 dex/str nodes on the way until I get better gear?

I used to run purity but now I cap everything with gear. Which solved all my mana problems. ;-) So no, I wouldn't take inner force with only 2 auras.

For the passives : I had to take the 2 bigs stats nodes on the upper left (a few nodes under static blow), as I didn't have enough dex/str in the end game (only wearing a +20 all amu). Gives me 124 str 134 dex, which is enough and allows me to focus on resists/rarity/ES for my gear. Would be impossible to find good pieces if I had to keep +dex and +str too!

The irony is it would allow me to take inner force quite easily. ;)