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

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omgitskae wrote:

This is the most frustrating build I've ever played. With 2.2k ES, 77 lightning/cold resist and 46 fire resist using Solaris Lorica and running 5 auras (everything except purity of fire), I get one shot by basically everything. I wanted a build to MF with that wouldn't be super expensive but I'm at 66 and I've died probably 40 times just this level. Everything one shots me and my totems die easily. If I have to fight a pack that aoes my totems down they just kill my totems and run me down.

For me to make this build viable I feel like I have to spend all of my currency to buy defensive rares which will cost all my MF gear and thus defeating the entire purpose of the build. Is there something I'm missing?

Edit: I should add this is in the Docks, 4 levels below my current level.

First things first. Throughout my advice given over pages and pages, I have promoted defence first. That means, if you are going to do content close to your level, you need capped resists, and you need to be at the level of passive tree that matches the content. If you advance too fast, your totem dmg/survivability won't match the content you are trying to tackle - and you and your totems get one-shot. You will also not have the super important gem levels and quality you NEED.

At the very least, you should have great exp in The Crypt (L1 and L2) while you farm the Chaos Unidentified recipe. ID only pure ES helms and shields. These will be necessary upgrades throughout your progression. Have 2 sets of gear; Grinding gear, and farming gear. you should be grinding your ass off till level 72-75 because you won't need to buy a thing then till then. Plus you want to get to maps asap.

Secondly, if you can't cap all resists, you should be grinding Fellshire (forsake all resists) or Crematorium (can only cap fire resists).

After the Crypt, max your FR and grind out a couple levels in the Crematorium. Then, when you are level 68-70, park yourself in docks. By this time, you should have an ES shield with over 200 ES on it, and a helm with over 150ES.

Lastly, if you don't follow my guide step-by-step and try to surpass it in terms of content, playstyle/ability or just not keeping a set of grinding gear, you will die LOTS. This build is not gear dependent - it is level dependent. If you thought life was amazing when you a) Got your first totem as your main skill, b) got the second totem, c) got on the Low-life kick... you won't believe how good life is when you can max/quality your gems. Once you are level 80-ish and your gems are starting to all reach level 19 with quality, you are going to smoke through maps.

There is a time to grind, and a time to farm. You are at the level where you can finally do both in The Crypt or Fellshire. Take advantage of it because after that, you will be seeing a lot of Docks soon.

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omgitskae wrote:

Yeah I'm using AA, but no purity of fire. Not sure why I'm not, just the frustration getting to my head I guess. Even with Purity of Fire I don't think it would even matter that much because my totems just get run down instantly and I get stunlocked, not able to drop anymore totems. I read in a different guide to just farm City of Sarn until you can do piety safely and it's going better, even if I get very very little exp per run there's nothing that can melt my totems before they do anything.

This is all because your totem gems are not matched to the level of content you are facing. Whomever gave the advice to farm Sarn, is full of it. Fellshire -> The Crypt -> Crematorium -> Docks -> The Catacombs -> Maps. Its that easy. Crypt and Catacombs is a gear/resists/gem level check. This build is perfectly aligned to level against these zones. Once you hit level 72, you are doing the 66-67 maps listed below.

Also, don't run anything higher than level 1 AA with 20% quality. Your Clarity and Discipline should be running off Blood Magic, and at the level your BM and Reduce Mana gems should be at, you should only have about a level 12 Clairty gem and a mana pool around 900 - certainly not enough mana regen for any level of AA beyond 1 or 2. AA level 1@20% is only for the extra move-speed, and the frost trail to slow down chasing mobs to give you room to drop a totem in their face while you get away.

Once you are level 72 and ready for maps, do Piety and then Dominus right after you level and grab the 2 passive points and the free rare map. find a group and don't even go low life until the very end (activate clarity to low life cull)

Here is your list of maps (when you get there by level 72)
Crypt Map
Dried Lake Map
Dunes Map
Dungeon Map (Skip Boss)
Grotto Map
Orchard Map (Skip map/boss)
Overgrown Ruin Map
The Coward's Trial
Crypt Map
Tropical Island Map
Arcade Map
Arsenal Map
Cemetery Map
Mountain Ledge Map
Sewer Map
Thicket Map
Wharf Map
Ghetto Map

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Kiedel wrote:

you can still use magic find on gear, but neither MF nor damage is something to write home about.

This is all I needed to read. I don't mind people come here to criticize the build, or outline their challenges. But don't come in here and troll me on what this build "could do".

You my friend, are in the wrong thread. There are plenty of Mara Flame totems and Incinerate builds made for doing dominus runs and maps that don't have a hint of ele reflect or -regen.

My build puts out 464/69 MF, 28,000 dps dual shotgun, 4300ES and run 7 auras. If I take off 40 Rarity, I boost damage to 38,000 dps. Only 2 bosses I don't do is the EK spider boss and Merivel. Everything else is a cake-walk.

Yeah, this is a terrible build. I just had this crafted with the currency my terrible build has afforded me:

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cyuansheng wrote:

Hey guys,
I'm running this build in Garena's POE so I cannot link my gears and stuffs here.
I have 3500dps on my flame totem with iq/ir gemes.
With flask my mf is about 148/500 ( switched out the belt to golden obi because of resistance issue )
Only 3400 ES right now rip lol
Shield is also swapped to legacy prism guardian and my resist lands nicely on 81%/82% haha.
I'm running 4 purity, clarity, disc, haste and herald.

I just want to ask if it is viable to swap flame totem to arc totem instead by using
spell totem > arc > lightning pena > faster casting > ir > iq
and spec the tree to lightning damage instead.
is this gonna be weak?

The short answer: Weak? yes.

My flame totem uses a 4-link to support it's damage. The other two links are for R/Q gems. Arc would not only lose a socket to Spell Totem, but it would also lose a second socket as you make up for the loss of 30% cast speed from Spell Totem (by using faster casting).

The other reason, is that lightning skills are strong because they can shock stack - which can only be applied via critical strike. Since this build does not support any passive points that could be re-allocated to crit, it would throw the build dps and survivability out.

Flame totem is also the fastest main skill out there with a base cast speed of 0.2s, you scale it to 0.1s with the cast speed passives and support gem. Nothing is better for culling, unless someone can 2-shot a map boss.

Little bit of build history: This build originally started out as an effort to resurrect the dual spark totem build that died a couple years ago. R.I.P Sporker.

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Slayter34 wrote:

Almost to 80 with the build still no real issues if I stay within the "limits" of the build. IE not biting off more than I can chew in maps/map-mods. I've had a lot of success with the build pulling sometimes 5-10 Uniques a play session. Last night I played in a public group and pulled out 6 uniques including a Hegemony's Era. Not to mention the currency I've made.

For all the people saying the build is bad, or hard to play etc etc. Maybe the build isn't for you then. Each build encompasses a certain type of play style. The play style behind this build is all about hiding behind your totems, and quite honestly taking things slow. That does not mean per-se you can not go faster, it's all about how you play it.

Thanks again Fri3dchick3m :)

You are very welcome. You bring up a very important point that will help quite a few people.

1. You should be nowhere near the fighting. Aggro range is relative to your distance.
2. Leapfrog totems as you explore. Place them in front of doorways (before you open the door), and inside rooms before you enter. Wait till they stop casting before you enter and clean up the loot.
3. Lightning warp is your best friend. Strongboxes, fenced areas, Rogue Exiles.. Nothing is faster to get away - not even whirling blades.
4. Hide behind EVERYTHING. When you are out of LOS, you are out of aggro, and they will flock to your totems.
5. Totems are like trees. They block phys/magic projectiles for you, and give you cover in open areas.
6. Drop them in the face of the biggest threat. Book-end a boss and he won't know which one to kill.
7. Strafe (circle around) large packs dropping totems like breadcrumbs. When mobs are trying to catch up to you, they can't shoot. You could be rounding up 100 of them and they all drop like flies as they run past the totems you are dropping along the way.

Just watch any of my videos and see how I use terrain, totems, range and movement to provide one of the best defense mechanics we can have.

From the OP:

(added 01-09-14) General strategy for totem placement - Level 75 Plateau ***New***

maybe I should clarify what I meant. Your build is not well balanced and therefore not suited to level up fast due to the the slow clear speed and the regular rips.
Your guide is also dishonest: your "defensive skills" are more "movement skills" - defensive skills are a high-lvl AA or codt or mom or sth like that. You never mention once that this build is very rippy, not viable in hc leagues, not lategame-oriented, difficult to level due to lack of balance and very grind-based.

The build is cheap and easy to gear, I give you that. But you don't mention its shortcomings - rather, you praise it as the best thing since sliced bread. A pros and cons-section, a "reguired gear / gems", other ways to approach the general intention / passive and gearing sidesteps, ... lots of things you can improve if you like.

Take it as honest criticism or don't.

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Skua99 wrote:

Thanks for the great build. I normally try to play something that is very tanky, so this is not in my normal comfort level. But with your guide it has been fairly painless. During the course of this adventure I have come up with a couple of questions.

I am currently at level 63 and have the following equipped:

Spoiler

1) With running my auras my life drops to 227 from 742 which I believe is about normal. My issue is that my 'Clarity' gem is only at level 6 and I would like to start raising this. My question is that as I raise the 'Clarity' level and my life starts to go down, when should I stop the leveling? My current ES is at 2.8K and I don't seem to dip into the life pool at all (I normal die if I get down that far). Bottom line is how far down can I let my life pool get to?

2) As a level 63 I am sort of lost at what I should be farming next. Normally at this stage I would start running a few low level maps and 'Piety' while finishing up the content. I have been having some issues with the bitches in 'Piety' so that is out for the moment and I have just been running the 'Docks' and the 'Crematorium'. Just a little lost on what to do next.

3) I would like to set up the standard CoDT gems but am a little worried about the 'Enduring Cry' gem and the way it taunts the monsters. I see other people running this setup in this thread, but it just seems a little counter intuitive. My question is, is it worth trying to come up with a RRRR just to run CoDT?

You are the man Fri3dchick3m and thanks for the time you have spent documenting this build.

1) Put Discipline in place of purity of elements and raise Clarity as far are you have the unreserved hp will let you. I have 100hp free after maxing out my config:

As long as your life doesn't go below '1', max out your clarity. Moving Purity of Elements to your mana, also gives you more unreserved mana for casting totems - chain casting them when your glove setup reaches a high enough gem level.

If you are wearing the Solaris Lorica, your target ES will be 3400. I have mapped safely to level 72 maps using that setup, before I bought my Shavs.

2) Check my reply above to "omgitskae" where I outline the progression: Fellshire -> The Crypt -> Crematorium -> Docks -> The Catacombs -> Maps. While you are in Docks, start working on your Unidentified Chaos recipe to save up for your next upgrade: Doryani's Catalyst (4-6ex)

As I mentioned above, follow this progression and only do Piety+Dom when you get level 72. By this point, you will have optimized your gear, gem levels and the bulk of the key passives. Most people have problems with Piety and Dom (even myself at that level), so I turn off low-life (de-activate Clarity)in a group setting and use the extra hp as a buffer till the boss is at 15% life. Also, against the Piety Miscreants, this is invaluable:

Honestly, all you really want is the two passive points you get from the Piety quest reward and then you can jump into maps. I still haven't claimed my 'free' rare map from Dominus (Although I've killed him many times). Skip him if you don't care about achievements.

Your ES/DPS and your gem levels will tel you when you are ready for the next level. Look for upgrading your ES helm/shield to help you grind out content at a safe level.

I used that CwdT when leveling until I felt comfortable with my tactics and ehp buffer. Some have used Icewall, but what also works is CwdT+Spell Totem+Summon Skeletons+Blind.

There are many variations. Play around with a couple setups in Lunaris (Normal difficulty) to see how effective it is.

You've got a really good start on your helm/shield. If you are overcapped in your resists, get a set of Sadima's Touch for the extra dps/ES and quantity.

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Kiedel wrote:

maybe I should clarify what I meant. Your build is not well balanced and therefore not suited to level up fast due to the the slow clear speed and the regular rips.
Your guide is also dishonest: your "defensive skills" are more "movement skills" - defensive skills are a high-lvl AA or codt or mom or sth like that. You never mention once that this build is very rippy, not viable in hc leagues, not lategame-oriented, difficult to level due to lack of balance and very grind-based.

The build is cheap and easy to gear, I give you that. But you don't mention its shortcomings - rather, you praise it as the best thing since sliced bread. A pros and cons-section, a "reguired gear / gems", other ways to approach the general intention / passive and gearing sidesteps, ... lots of things you can improve if you like.

Take it as honest criticism or don't.

You want to offer me 'honest criticism" yet, you open with;

"this build is actually very bad - neither the totems nor the character is in any way able to take damage."


Then you throw up a path of life passive tree using the same totem passives, telling me my totem structure can't sustain damage? Then you accuse me of being dishonest and being misrepresentative in my guide.

Let me be clear with you. You obviously live in HC world where there is only one way to play. Guess what? There is more than one way to play. Someone once asked me a few pages ago if this was HC viable. I told them that it suffers the same risks as any low-life build does. I also told them to play it in SC to get the play style down and make the mistakes there. Where have I misrepresented myself?

You write factually that this build is "very rippy, not viable in hc leagues, not lategame-oriented, difficult to level due to lack of balance and very grind-based." without even any basis for these inflammatory comments.

This thing levels like a champ. Ask the racers why they use Firetrap? Or why You gotta do something really crazy to "rip"? I didn't die once until I was careless in a level 71 map. I played through all of Merciless with negative cold and lightning resists. How many builds do you know that can do that?

And, it's not 'grinding' when you have 87/542 MF with flask :p

Being from hardcore, your approach to a fight is about prep and doing the right things. This build is way more versatile than most builds out there (also detailed in the guide if you bothered to read), for more damage, resists, ES.. etc with a couple gear swaps.

In your mind, you need a defensive 'mechanic'. Anything else isn't defensive. I grew up in an age where people actually had to have skill to play and succeed in a game, not learn "Alt+F4".

If you even read the guide at all, you would see my leveling detail outlines my choice of Fireball and Trap skills right from level 1, was to help people new to the sport develop the play style and "reflexes" needed to be successful in mapping content with this build. If people chose to follow the guide step, by step, they will be successful. It's that easy.

And because I outlined a work around for not using any "IWIN" passive keystones, you tell me it's not balanced or defensive - and I am purposefully leaving out a Pro's/Con's section for those who couldn't be bothered to read the guide? No thanks. I reward those who take the time to read and ask questions, not point at some stats and say "that won't work", and then turn up your nose. And if you read the guide. I have both the premium and economical setup with gems and gear comparisons.

My second point for you, is that this is a niche build. Like many others, they are tailored to a specific function. This one is to accumulate wealth, while not being dependant on 5 other spam-bots to clear challenging content for you, and split the loot 6-ways.

The premise of this build is;

+ To stack as much BiS MF gear - no matter what its composition is.
+ To provide a great deal of scalable damage all the way from level 21 to level 85.
+ To be able to be successful on a budget of 5-10ex
+ To have the flexibility to overcome leveling plateaus.
+ To not be "another boring totem build".

The passive tree you thought would be better, fails in almost every category.

I don't know.. maybe I should remind you once more that this isn't supposed to be a map 78/79 clearing machine, but a build that you can relax and farm any map at your own pace, or steamroll mid-70's maps if you like.

I like this build , to live on the edge of danger with good MF and DPS

prob was hard to get max res

anyway started making a char with your guidelines

Can you do DOmi & piety solo runs with ease ?

what aura's do you run normally ? ( do you run all the purities or switch on demand ?


how would you rate my build



http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMBDXwQWBDMEVAXLxmKGo8bJRzcHRQdTx2qKPoqEyqNK7YsnCynLR8tgzW5NthBh0SrRnFJG0rES65VrlXWV8lY5VnzWitca2TnZp5tGW-ecLtyqXvXf8aApIIQgseDCYRIh2WMRo9Gj6aP-pMnlSCXBpuhm7Wio6PypwinK6eUrJisqq-3tAy3PriTwBrBxcHzwzrDbcSixq7KStH92Vvfit-w4YjpAuoY6rrr7uwY7FXxbPau9tr3MvfX-JP46_no-tL7CTeDpussppDW4vcBb4t62t3w1UlRkFVJsgLjB6U=

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mopzi wrote:

I like this build , to live on the edge of danger with good MF and DPS

prob was hard to get max res

anyway started making a char with your guidelines

Can you do Domi & piety solo runs with ease ?

what aura's do you run normally ? ( do you run all the purities or switch on demand ?


how would you rate my build

The small changes look pretty good. I had issues getting enough strength for max reduce mana gems (109str I think), so you might get away without the +30 str node if you can support it with your gearing. I would also recommend getting Arcane Vision from the witch area. It's tough to see in the dark :)

With respect to resistances, my tree takes the enhance aura nodes to beef up the Purity, Discipline and Clarity auras. It will make more sense towards the end of the tree when you start mapping and try to get more performance out of the build. Chain casting totems, running L20 Clarity, more ES, higher max resists all go towards survivability in the end game. Swapping these out for more dps (spell damage nodes) may or may not help you.

My current level 85 with 1 Andvarius ring on, I have the 4 purity auras, clarity, discipline and level 1 Arctic Armour(20%). If I drop the Andvarius ring for an all resist ring, I can run Haste aura.

I can do Piety really easily - please check my video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4Mq68rlPyc&feature=youtu.be. This was done at level 74 with 1700 ES. The hardest part was getting there on such low ES and facing magic packs of machine gun Miscreants. Eye of Chayula makes this 100x easier than without.

Dominus mini bosses and phase 1 Dominus are even easier than Piety. Phase 2, you should have a couple granite flasks and position yourself on one side of him (just inside his protective bubble), and your totems should be on the opposite side of him right in his face.