[2.2 Video Guide] Beginner's Build: Dual Flame Totem, Blood Magic Chieftain [Atziri & HC/SC Viable]

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txd wrote:

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scenzah19 wrote:

Hey bois, i made a IRR dualflamer,
i have some questions:

1. do spell cast on totem, attack speed used by totems affect flame totems? i see no increase in dps

2. is apeps rage rly worth it? i have the currency and im thinking buying a rare wand or apeps..

3. also critical power on spells do affect totems? just saw my dps dont increase either there

thx for reply, sorry for bad english

edit. 4.increased Critical Strike Chance with Fire Skills also affect totems?

Cast speed affects flame totems, attack speed does not.

Apeps is bad, use a rare

Critical strike chance with spells and multiplier both affect flame totem

Critical strike chance with fire skills affects totems since flame totem is a fire skill

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damelon wrote:

So right away I can tell you that while you may or may not go crit, consuming dark is in no means necessary to do crit with this build. I had a very high DPS before going that route (Around 29k) so I can assure you that you don't have to make drastic changes like the ones I just did recently like going full chaos to dip into crit and reap some of the DPS benefits from it.

Lets start with what you have. A lot of people make the mistake of going a super high spell/fire damage weapon with not much else on it. This is a misconception of where you totem damage comes from. Cast speed, and flat spell damage added are more valuable than flat spell damage on your weapon. I had a sceptre that gave me around 120% combined fire/spell damage and it wasn't close to another sceptre I had that had half that. Find a 19-22% cast speed item, with at least 50+ added damage to spells (fire nets you the most bonuses overall) and around 50%+ total spell/fire/elemental damage. It doesn't need to be super high to make a big difference. Also look at wands, as there are many more of them with these stats. It is an added bonus if you get crit chance or multiplier on the weapon, even if it is a low roll.

Also, you did start as a marauder, so your life/armor choices will lose you some offense overall. It is the most defense starting class. Witch and Templar all have pure damage nodes to start with. So you will be behind a little because of that choice offensively.

From there your tree is specced very defensively. You even have a +15% all resist node, you want to dump that ASAP and get that on your gear. Try to find more int and get rid of the +30 int node. I'd spec out of all nodes above Cruel Preparation and quick recovery, and finally the 5% node above heart of the warrior. Those can net you 11 nodes.

Now you have options. Your rings are average. You spent a lot of nodes on life and resists but your rings have fire damage instead of high life and resists. that 11% is a single node elsewhere in your tree. If you want damage on your ring, get diamond rings with crit chance, or rings with cast speed. Fire damage is nice if you get a perfect ring with it, but 70+ life and T1 resist rolls are much more important. If you get those your life will scale up so much more with those bonus nodes. Your helm has awesome armor but no resists other than chaos. You can add a resist to your gauntlets from crafting. Resists should always be on gear if possible. Nodes with resists are costly and damage nodes in your tree are cheap!

So what to do with those nodes. Well, 1 or 2 jewels with life / damage / cast speed or any combos of them are good. Any combination of damage. added damage, fire damage, spell damage, projectile damage, totem damage works. 7% max life is excellent always on a jewel. 4% cast speed is great. Look for rare jewels with 3 of those stats on them in combination. IMO, they should always have a 7% life mod on them, but that's just me.

If you want your damage to really scale up you need to invest a little in crit. You don't even need to go chaos. Just Shaman's dominion (right side) and Annihilation help immensely with damage. Add in crit chance or multiplier on rings/weapon/amulet and it REALLY scales up.

All of your gems may be level 19, but none have quality on them. Faster Casting and Faster Projectiles have big bonuses with quality in this build. Flame totem isn't that necessary. Fire Pen, Added Chaos, and Iron will will also all net you bonus damage with quality. Even a corrupted lv 21 flame totem will jump your damage quite a bit, and is much better than a 20% lv 20 flame totem, but it just costs money.

And lastly you can upgrade your clear mind jewel. If you look often enough you can find some amazing deals on them. I've probably purchased 6 60% jewels for 5c or less in this league, but you have to be fast to find them. 57-58% jewels sell for 20c almost all day though otherwise.

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Damerae wrote:

Damelon, Thank you very much for the thorough response.

I'm slowly dissecting your recommendations and making changes.

I'll definitely be in contact and follow up with how it all turns out.

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Shangetsu wrote:

I'm also wondering if I run an infernal mantle, the side effect is that when I'm low on mana I take 100% more damage from spell. Since I use the BM keystone and have 0/0 mana, am I always considered low on mana?

Thanks guys