[1.2.4] 11 Aura Low Life Support Culler - Steroids Edition Revamp

UPDATE April 1, 2014 -- SotV 1.1 -- Version 13

Hi Pls, could you (pretty) please add this "Tips for Leveling" section to your guide. ;-0 I believe others will find it helpful. Thanks !

I've leveled a Scion from level 1 to 82 following the skills verbatim (yes, verbatim) as I wanted to know _exactly_ how good / bad it was to level. (Ok, maybe I was a little _too_ masochist, but it was all in the name of Science =P ) Anyways, it _is_ possible to speed up leveling this build and remove some of the monotony of grinding -- even with a Tabula Rasha! But I'm getting ahead of myself ...

= Leveling =
As you level up make a beeline for every node that "Reduces Mana Reserved." This will help you run 4 auras off mana until you get to Level 68 and can use your Prism Guardian where you sustain even more auras with Blood Magic.

Info: At level 68 you can realistically sustain 7 auras until your Reduced Mana gems are leveled all the way up. Recommended auras with level ~17 Reduced Mana Gems for an all spell caster party are (since Anger, Hatred, and Wrath only benefit melee not spells or minions):



Once you start doing Piety runs with Melee you will want to add in these one at a time when you can sustain them ...



The astute reader will notice that Clarity is missing from the list. I found that one of the other party members can usually run a higher level Clarity, and should already be taking care of their mana regen/leech issues. Hey, you're providing all the resists! ;-) If another party member can't run Clarity then you can always swap out of melee auras above (such as Hatred or Wrath) and run a level 3 to 15 Clarity.

Depending on your party another real nice combo is Grace + Determination since some Melee will most likely already have Hatred.



This will let you run 10 auras with a level 11 Clarity instead of Anger.

Note: A red socket in your Prism Guardian will let you cast 2 auras slightly cheaper. This is how to snapshot your 2 other auras such as Haste and Discipline with a Reduced Mana Gem.

* Enter your instance
* Link your "Reduced Mana" gem with your 2 other auras in your Prism Guardian
* Cast those 2 auras
* Swap the Reduced Mana gem with red gem aura
* Cast that aura.

With Level 17 Reduced Mana Gems this is what I did with 70 Life, 286 Mana remaining.



You will need 4x Reduced Mana gems; with 5 being optimal. I leveled them up along the way so don't worry if they are all level 1 when you start.

This is the order of the skills I took as I leveled my Scion:



TIP: I recommend not taking Arcane Vision until you have some ES gear. You will need it once you start adding your Blood Magic auras around ~ 68+. I took it after all my "Reduces Mana Reserved" nodes were done.

I then recommend taking Influence, as all those "Aura Effect" with their "increased effect of Auras" skills will help to really make your auras shine! There are also 2 by Sovereignty, and 1 at the very far bottom left of the Marauder tree which is adjacent to the "Reduced Mana Reservation".

Around Level ~75 you have some interesting choices. Do you spend the

* 10 points to get "Whispers of Doom" (for an extra curse) or
* do you make your way to the Templar tree to take "Vaal Pact" and ES, or
* Finish off the Witch nodes for more ES, ES regen, Mana, and Mana regen, or even
* Take some chaos resist nodes (if you don't have Shavronne's or Solaris Lorica yet)
* Spend 10 points to "Iron Reflexes" (The extra armor will help in 72+ maps)

If you are undecided about the 2nd curse, you can always try out the Windscream boots to see if the 2nd curse fits your play style.

Going deep into the Templar tree will give you more ES and Resists which I found wasn't really needed if you have a good ES armor (such as the inexpensive Infernal Mantle.

The Chaos Resist nodes adjacent to Method to the Madness, and Purity of Flesh are extremely valuable until you have your Shavronne's Wrapping.

There is a bit of debate on end-game mapping and it taking Iron Reflexes is worth it. A few higher level mappers are saying "Definitely". I'm in the process of making my way to it and will provide more feedback once Season 7 is over.

This was my skill tree at level 66: (PoE 1.0)


This was my skill tree at level 79: (PoE 1.1 SotV)


Leveling up solo will mostly be an exercise in patience / extreme pain* until you can get to Cruel Act 3 -- by then you will have two totems doing damage so it won't too bad for DPS. Highly recommend you group with a party for (faster) leveling.

* Also check out the excellent Rathik's Power leveling guide for ALL class and builds. HC compatible


So how do we actually kill things with this build? Believe it not we CAN solo Merciless Catacombs 67 when we are Level ~64. Use a combination of 4 things:



Someday I'll write the "Art and Science of Totem Trapping" but here is the general idea:

* Place your 1st totem out in front -- this will be your "decoy" to pull the mobs.
* Place your bear trap about 3 ft in front in between your totem and the mob(s).
* Curse the mobs (Flammability)
* Place your skeletons in between your traps and totem.
* Place your 2nd totem
* Spam traps and skeletons as needed until the mob(s) are dead.

Tip: Kill those necros (Death Bishop) that summons skeletons by placing your totems on either side of him and bear trap him. You will have to juggle moving in/around his summoned skeletons but killing him ASAP is your first priority. Once he falls, it will be relatively easy to kill all the summoned skeletons.

These are the skill gems I used while leveling ... if I were to do it again I would switch to Flame Totem much sooner.

= Normal =
Levels 1 - 31. I used Spectre Throw -- grab the highest DPS 2H weapon you can use.

= Cruel =
Levels 31 - ~ 50: I used the classic Spork build -- a 4L chest is all you need with gems in this order: Spark, Fork, Spell Totem. Optionally add: Lightning Penetration, LMP/GMP, Added Critical Strike, Added Critical Damage. Swap out Crit's for "Added Chaos Damage" and/or "Reduce Mana" if you want higher totem DPS or more efficient mana usage.

= Merciless =
Levels 50+: My guild-mate (Thx Parker!) coined it my "Blowtorch Flame Totem." What the heck is that you ask!?



Yeah, Flame Totem has high mana costs :-( Swap out the " Greater Multiple Projectiles" or "Fire Penetration" for a "Reduced Mana" gem if the totem cost is too high, or do what I did: only run 3 auras instead of 4 until you have enough of a mana pool / mana regen rate until you finalize on all the auras.

= Recommended Leveling Jewelry & Gear =



In the Standard league, the Infernal Mantle can be bought for 1-3 chaos without 6 sockets. For the most part you don't care about the 10% Increased Spell Damage. That is just gravy if you are using Flame Totem. What you do want is a high ES. I would say anything 220+% is preferably for Piety runes. Buy the cheapest one you can afford; it is relatively inexpensive to get 4 socket and 4 link on it.

A super sexy chest armor is the Solaris Lorica. What makes this 1-4 exalt armor so nice until you get your Shavronne's? it has the one mod: Chaos Damage does not bypass Energy Shield ! Your ES will probably drop down to ~2.5K ES, but hell, at least you shouldn't have to worry about chaos damage killing your low life build now. Dump skill points into the passive resist chaos nodes and you are on your way.

A very nice helm is Alpha's Howl for its +2 to Level of Aura Gems. It's CBF (Can't Be Frozen), and 25% Avoid Being Chilled is super sexy.

= Bosses =

Bosses you will run into trouble with:



= Mapping Tips =

I didn't start mapping until late 70's. Some quick tips ...

* Avoid maps that give "X chaos damage per second"

* Good map mods ...


* If you don't have a Shav's use a Solaris Lorica 4L.


Hope this helps out other what I term "Auradins" :-)

Edit.1 Fixed grammar for necro.
Edit.2 Level 68 and 7 auras
Edit.3 Fixed order of cruel and merciless, added amy Atziri's Foible
Edit.4 Added 7 primary auras at lev 68
Edit.5 Added recommended leveling jewelry & gear
Edit.6 "Blowtorch Flame Totem."
Edit.7 Added note about Anger, Hatred, Wrath for spell caster party.
Edit.8 Arcane Vision
Edit.9 spoilers for lev 68 recommended auras, and bosses.
Edit.10 Added Infernal Mantle, Alpha's Howl, Piety.
Edit.11 Added Solaris Lorica, Rathik's Power leveling guide, optional Determination + Grace, snapshotting Prism Guardian auras.
Edit.12 Added note about 10 points towards Iron Reflexes
Edit.13 Quick mapping tips

Thanks a lot Michael, I added it to the guide :- )

"

Pls wrote:

Thanks a lot Michael, I added it to the guide :- )

np! Glad to have helped.

This is a sweet build to have ~ 80% elem resists, ~240% IIR, ~40% IIQ at lev 68 running 2x Andy rings + 1x MF ammy! :-)

I -was- able to actually have all 10 auras at lev 68 -- life was at 20 and cleared catacombs with a guild mate. Yes, 20 life. Did it for the LOLZ. Can't wait till all my reduced mana gems hit level 20 :-) I dropped back down to "only" 7 auras that I listed in the leveling tips section.

I added a new mini section "Recommended Leveling Jewelry & Gear", and fixed the order of the Cruel and Merciless (since I keep confusing/swapping difficulty order) so if you could update the text that would be much appreciated! I promise no more changes for a little while. ;-) Last revision is Edit.9.

Thanks again for the initial guide! Only building upon a great foundation. :-)

did anyone manage to get a good setup to even give charges to your party ? i could give up some default auras like hatred, vitality or haste.

i already tried to use a good wand with as much accuracy as possible and frenzy, powercharge on crit, lmp, chain and culling strike, but didnt manage the created mana problems.

For pure culler/support what would you recommend as the best culling strike spell?
I think last patch changed it and now AOE spells can cool too.
Is incinerate better than flame totem? And if yes why?

I am just struggling to cull monster with really fast party :<
Maybe with recent changes some aoe spell would be best? What do you think?

"

bel07 wrote:

For pure culler/support what would you recommend as the best culling strike spell?
Is incinerate better than flame totem? And if yes why?

Incinerate = cheap mana cost, minimal damage
Flame Totem = expensive mana cost, high damage

For culling in a group you don't need high dps so Incinerate is usually the more popular choice.

"

I think last patch changed it and now AOE spells can cull too.

Sounds interesting -- has anyone else confirmed this?

Hello,

First of all, nice thread, exactly what i was looking for. Currently leveling a Witch to try this build out.

I can't afford a shavs so will have to go with a 5L Solaris Lorica. What would be the optimal gem distribution in Solaris 5L? I plan to play in a 3 man party mostly and i play on standard so can use IQ gem. incinerate or flame totem?

Thanks in advance for replies.

Once you have specced into Zealot's Oath, should we retain Shaper?

- plenty of Mana regeneration already (often too much to use the Flask)
- the 1% ES regeneration (with ZO) is unnecessary as:
- ES regenerates itself quite quickly when you are out of action, the 1% will not really help
- in Chaos Damage maps (where ES does not regenerate), Vitality already gives us about 3% (about 180 / sec)

So why should I retain Shaper and the Int node leading to it? Am I missing something?

"

Gully wrote:

did anyone manage to get a good setup to even give charges to your party ? i could give up some default auras like hatred, vitality or haste.

i already tried to use a good wand with as much accuracy as possible and frenzy, powercharge on crit, lmp, chain and culling strike, but didnt manage the created mana problems.

Tried it too:
- if you use a wand, you must sacrifice either Heartbreaker or Prism Guardian. Neither works very well for me, with no Heartbreaker you must use Culling Strike in your totem setup, with no Prism Guardian you lose serious auras and 50 ele res.
- if you keep Heartbreaker, you must melee, and that is unwise with this build. Melee tends to receive a lot of physical damage, and with 0 armor that is no fun.
- if you use low-level frenzy in Heartbreaker, it is cheap enough to generate frenzy charges, but unfortunately your accuracy is low, so you will miss often.
- if you attach a PCoC to Frenzy in Heartbreaker, you will have 7% for a crit on your Heartbreaker and with a 20/20 PCoC about 70% to generate a crit, so you will generate a power charge every 20 attacks. Attaching a 20/20 ICS as well may get this to once every 7 attacks. Still not good enough, as your attack speed is low. And with all the uniques, your gear has little room for other crit modifiers *and* MF.
- you can use Enduring Cry for Endurance Charges, either by itself, or by linking a level 1 EC to a level 1 CWDT, so it autocasts everytime you get hit. Both work, but not very well.

So I gave up on the whole Conduit idea. Just like Leer Cast, it sounds good until you try it.