Is it viable to start using totems at level 31 with only a 4 link? If not what kind of set-up should I be using to level until I can get my hands on a Tabula Rasa?
Is it viable to start using totems at level 31 with only a 4 link? If not what kind of set-up should I be using to level until I can get my hands on a Tabula Rasa?
You can level with Flame totem 3 linked with lmp/gmp and added lightning if you can spare one chaos/fuse/alc to buy a Karui ward for the proj speed. Tabula is absolutely not neccesary.
I'm GreggZaun and this is the build I used to get level 100 in the 1 Month HC League. It can be built super cheaply, only requiring a Tabula Rasa and a Three Dragons to play, and can do substantial damage from early on making it a good choice for early in a league. Late game presents several higher priced options, such as 6L Searing Touch + Kaom's or dual Void Battery + 6L Infernal Mantle.
Update: Included 1.2 skill tree. Witch and Marauder are very close now although I think Witch is slightly better because I don't want the flat life node at the start of Marauder.
Update: Included 1.3 skill tree. Witch is quite a bit better than Marauder now. I suppose I should be posting this in the Witch forum now.
Why play this build?
- Extremely cheap to play and very easy to start off with in a new league (Tabula Rasa + Three Dragons only required items)
- Substantial damage (5k per projectile early on, can get 25k+ per projectile with endgame gear, x5 GMP, x2 totems, then include shock stacks and crit weakness curse)
- Very safe (totems take the hits or just kill things before even getting close, you are rarely in danger)
- Easy to play / Noob friendly
- Can clear any map mod, especially Blood Magic maps which are free quantity (Elemental Reflect is doable but very painful and I recommend avoiding elemental reflect maps as it just takes too long to be worthwhile)
- Can kill Atziri in Hardcore (refer to the video at the bottom and comments in this thread, courtesy of Tyranastrasz)
Generally you want to focus on crit nodes for damage and avoid taking increased damage nodes. Fire damage nodes are also not great since ~30% of your damage is chaos damage.
The lowest value points I feel are the 0.4% life regen nodes, and the nodes to the left of Spell Power in Shadow. You could drop them and get several more crit nodes including the Intense Zeal cluster. I ended up valuing survivability more once I was very likely to finish top 5.
Gear (6L Staff Setup)
Note: currently missing my lightning warp setup inside my helm (Lightning Warp + Reduced Duration + Faster Casting), and an Added Chaos Damage gem inside the Searing Touch
Gear (6L Infernal Mantle Setup)
You can also choose to get rid of all the Power Charge passives if you're just soloing or playing without a Conduit player and feel too lazy to cast Ice Spear. In solo play the Power Charges arguably slow you down more than they help, but they definitely shine in a group setting especially if you have someone feeding you charges.
Gear Decisions
Early on in a league you want to prioritize getting your Tabula Rasa + Three Dragons so you can run your 6-link: Flame Totem - GMP - Faster Casting - Faster Projectiles - Increased Critical Damage - Added Chaos Damage
As you can see I have a 6L Searing Touch + Kaom's but that's not necessarily the best way to go. A well rolled 6L rare staff will beat a Searing Touch in damage, but it's a lot more practical to get a 6L Searing early in a league. Searing Touch is pretty mediocre for this build.
Chest options are Lightning Coil / Kaom's / 6L Rare Chest for higher survivability and Infernal Mantle for maximum DPS. The Infernal Mantle downside is made irrelevant by Blood Magic keystone. Maligaro's Gloves are the best DPS option here also.
The rest of your gear will be rares w/ life, resists, and cast speed / crit multi.
Gem Decisions
You have some flexibility with how you set up your auxiliary skills after your Flame Totem 6L, but I'll list what I feel are the necessary secondary links and suggested configurations:
Enhanced Critical Weakness is huge - as it more than doubles your crit multiplier and is also easily castable once you drop your totems.
Faster Casting is preferred in the Ice Spear link since Spell Echo rolls crit chance for both casts at once - so if you were to gain a power charge with the first cast, the second cast's chance to gain another power charge wouldn't reflect this.
With the high damage potential of this build you have the ability to drop Faster Casting and Added Chaos Damage for Elemental Proliferation and Added Lightning Damage. If running Herald of Ice (You can do this by taking Mortal Conviction and using a Level 21 Reduced Mana), you can proliferate Shock, Ignite, and Freeze. Ultimately I don't feel it's really necessary since the damage is already high enough to blow everything up.
I wanted to share that I managed to kil atziri with a slight variation of this spec on beyond.
I used a Saffels for Double Vaal and Atziri to be extra safe while having 9.3k tooltip dps with 5.6k life and Trio with 5.1k life and 13.6k dps.
The Only hard part of the Apex is the Split phase where with bad rng you need to be able to dodge decently for a good amount of time but after some practices on standard with 4.2k life I managed to get the hang of it.
Concerning the build i specced out of the power charges for more life/Damage without having to stand still for ice spears. I feel for solo play or in small groups this is superior as ice spears slow you down if every mob dies instantly anyway.
So bottom line, This build is Atziri viable, but more vulnerable to mistakes.
kids https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbFE90QKJIw
vs
adults https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzysxHGZCAU
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