$$$ Grave Intentions Flame Totem MFarmer: I'm Cheap 'n' Easy $$$

Currently leveling a character up from scratch on a sub account with this build. At 32 right now and I like it a lot, now that the first Totem is usable it is becoming a lot of fun. Gear is all self found so nothing special. Not having any real issues so far. If I run into any problems I can not solve pre-50/60 I will post.

Great build so far, thank you for taking the time to put it together.

Small question. Quality of blood magic doesn't matter right? It gives extra attack/cast speed, but that's only for the linked gems I guess?

Would be awesome if it applied globally though!

I started mapping yesterday. Found 5 uniques so that was all good, but also died quite a lot (I was stupid to take hard mapmods though...). Afterwards I did maps with easy mods and it went quite easy.
At the moment I have flame totem linked to LMP, faster casting and added chaos damage (don't have IIR yet). I feel faster casting is quite useful as you summon the totem faster, which helps survivability.

Also, how do you deal with the boss of the dungeon map? Maybe I was unlucky with mods, but there's so many mobs around with spark and totems just insta-died.

Any tips for culling dom? At just about every stage I can get one-shot. Especially last phase, even if I instantly hit my bleed flask I have no regen.

Should I take a shield with high spell damage (70+) or with high ES? With both is hard to find and expensive.

I'd go for ES. I'm finding that without proper ES chest, gloves and boots that my survivability is kinda low.

"

Slayter34 wrote:

Currently leveling a character up from scratch on a sub account with this build. At 32 right now and I like it a lot, now that the first Totem is usable it is becoming a lot of fun. Gear is all self found so nothing special. Not having any real issues so far. If I run into any problems I can not solve pre-50/60 I will post.

Great build so far, thank you for taking the time to put it together.

You are very welcome. There are 5 stages where you see a huge spike in damage and playability:

1. Fireball + LMP (Level 20)
2. You get Flame Totem (Level 35)
3. You go get your Ancestral Bond Keystone for the second totem. (Level 50)
4. You go Low-Life (Level 60)
5. You get a Doryani's Catalyst.

"

Waervyn wrote:

Small question. Quality of blood magic doesn't matter right? It gives extra attack/cast speed, but that's only for the linked gems I guess?

Would be awesome if it applied globally though!

I started mapping yesterday. Found 5 uniques so that was all good, but also died quite a lot (I was stupid to take hard mapmods though...). Afterwards I did maps with easy mods and it went quite easy.
At the moment I have flame totem linked to LMP, faster casting and added chaos damage (don't have IIR yet). I feel faster casting is quite useful as you summon the totem faster, which helps survivability.

Also, how do you deal with the boss of the dungeon map? Maybe I was unlucky with mods, but there's so many mobs around with spark and totems just insta-died.

If we tried to get benefit from the Quality Blood Magic cast speed bonus, we would need to grab a lot more life and life regen to sustain chain casting totems. Since we do not take any mana/mana regen nodes, there would be no passive points to move around to "make it so".

I can assume that you are around 75 since you are doing maps with mods. You got unlucky with the spark mages. You need to run in, drop 3 traps on them then run out and start dropping totems.

Dungeon Map Boss: I was able to get him at level 71 by using the following strategy.

Curses: Leveled Temporal Chains

Variant 1
Setup your Flame Totem 4 link as such: Flame Totem + GMP + Faster Casting + Fire Penetration.
If you are using a 4-link Fire Trap, set it up: Fire Trap + Item Rarity + Increase Burning + Concentrated Effect

The totems are trash clearing machines! They take care of most magic packs, and when the cages start to fall it makes ignoring everything but the boss easy. The Fire Trap is where you get your Boss killing damage from. You can either drop them behind you and kite the boss, or you can get more offensive and throw them at his feet. Of course, you will be circling the room as you do all of this.

Variant 2
The original dungeon clearing setup of Flame Totem, Item Rarity, Fire Penetration and LMP is a great distraction to the Boss. He'll Hook them and Shotgun himself. You don't even have to put the totems close to him. You would have to carpet bomb the skeletons when the cages drop with your Fire Trap + Increase Area of Effect + Proliferate + Increase Burning Damage.

The trick here is to throw the traps ahead of you. This does 2 things; It will clear a path for you to travel by clearing trash before you get there, and secondly, it leaves a burning path behind you for any chasing skellies.

I much prefer the first variant, but some people are lazy and don't care for gem swapping.

To the point of map mods: There is only 3 map mods that I try and achieve with my alterations. More rare, Increase Pack and Nemesis. Once I get one of those, I run the map. Don't be tempted early on, to run a rare map that is less than 10 levels below you. You are just going to incur greater risk for a small gain in reward.

At the very early start of your mapping career, run white level 66 maps. Make it easy for yourself and you will be able to faceroll them. You will actually see your map pool increase.

Still having issues with Maps? Keep running crematorium. It's like running a white dungeon map, without the boss.

"

Iplaywithsinged wrote:

Any tips for culling dom? At just about every stage I can get one-shot. Especially last phase, even if I instantly hit my bleed flask I have no regen.

For that very reason, this build is not a Dominus farming build. Mini bosses and Phase 1 Dom is a cakewalk, but that 2nd phase is real tough since there is very little armour to cut the bleed damage. The only solution is to have a high ES shield and your Redbeak equipped for Phase 2, and then at 10%, swap to your second setup (Heartbreaker/Stormsail)

Flask setup is pretty important too. Granites with the "Remove Bleed" property should fill at least 2 slots (if not 3).

If you are farming for Chaos recipe, farm Piety. She can still drop iLvl 68 items including Shavs, Mjölner, Soultaker, Kaoms...etc.

Small update:

I just found my leveling crown. It's perfect for this build when you aren't farming and need to gain exp.



It's got everything you need. :)

I also bought a second Solaris Lorica.



I'll save up to 6 Socket it, and then try for a 5/6L

When you get your first one, it should take no more than 100-150 Jeweler Orbs to 5 socket it. If you only reach 5 sockets, you could try for a 5L, but that wouild mean that item could never reach a 6L. So be careful when you link it to stop at a 4-link. I have mine setup with CWDT and Flammability

"

CrYFu12 wrote:

Should I take a shield with high spell damage (70+) or with high ES? With both is hard to find and expensive.

Waervyn is right. There are 4 equipment slots you can use to increase ES, before you get your Andvarius/Le Heup rings. The head, 2 rings and shield.

If you really have survivability issues, don't be afraid to drop a Stormsail shield for a high ES one, and put it on swap for bosses. High ES helms are in the same boat. Go for the stats you need before rarity, but hold onto your best rarity helm for when you can faceroll content.