2.1 Crit Flame Totem - Blood Magic - 91k DPS each totem, fast clear speed, Atziri viable

Interesting take on a classic theme.

Here's the build I'm using in Warbands - also dual totem BM crit. It's a dual curse variant, but you can spec out of the 4 passives used to get dual curse (in my view, dual curses is easily worth the 4 passives), and take another 80% crit chance instead.

Take a look at this, I think you'll find it interesting and with greater scope for valuable nodes from lvl90-100 (if you're that way inclined).



P.

Thanks for your suggestion. Dual curses is an option, and I know a lot of people extend to shadow area as well. However, my decision is not to go those routes because:

- Before the boss, I rarely have to use even 1 curse, let alone 2. The reason is that totem damage is already so high, stopping to cast curses instead of constantly drop totem, move forward, drop totem... might actually result in a slower clear speed for me. The only time when I feel the need to use Flammability constantly is in a high map with Elemental Equilibrium + Monster resist Fire + Monster Life all together. I can only recommend 2 curses if it's for pure defensive purpose (if you play Hardcore).

- Shadow area sure is good for damage with lots of crit nodes. However, the pathing there is filled with Int nodes (which in the end, as long as you have enough to wear gear, will not be useful). Secondly, many prefer the Templar/Marauder area because of very high life regen. If you have 5k life with your tree, it is only 50 HP per sec (just about 1/3 the cost of 1 totem). In low regen or burning/desecrate map, the struggle and pot reliance are real. That's why I have been running with 3.8% life regen for a while and happily changed my tree to 5.6% at the cost of only 2k damage loss.

- Totem placement speed is independent of cast speed and can only be speed up by the nodes or jewels as far as I know. That's why for both speed and safety, I highly recommend taking Shamanistic Fury and Totem mastery.

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Taxi_Driver wrote:

Thanks for your suggestion. Dual curses is an option, and I know a lot of people extend to shadow area as well. However, my decision is not to go those routes because:

- Before the boss, I rarely have to use even 1 curse, let alone 2. The reason is that totem damage is already so high, stopping to cast curses instead of constantly drop totem, move forward, drop totem... might actually result in a slower clear speed for me. The only time when I feel the need to use Flammability constantly is in a high map with Elemental Equilibrium + Monster resist Fire + Monster Life all together. I can only recommend 2 curses if it's for pure defensive purpose (if you play Hardcore).

- Shadow area sure is good for damage with lots of crit nodes. However, the pathing there is filled with Int nodes (which in the end, as long as you have enough to wear gear, will not be useful). Secondly, many prefer the Templar/Marauder area because of very high life regen. If you have 5k life with your tree, it is only 50 HP per sec (just about 1/3 the cost of 1 totem). In low regen or burning/desecrate map, the struggle and pot reliance are real. That's why I have been running with 3.8% life regen for a while and happily changed my tree to 5.6% at the cost of only 2k damage loss.

- Totem placement speed is independent of cast speed and can only be speed up by the nodes or jewels as far as I know. That's why for both speed and safety, I highly recommend taking Shamanistic Fury and Totem mastery.

Cool, appreciate they're slightly different builds thematically. For me, I don't feel lacking in life regen because I'm not using a lot of life to cast - totems are only recast once every few seconds. Also, I find dual curses is a massive bonus - think about the bonus you get from, say, Assassins Mark and then decide if you'd normally take 4 passives for that bonus (the answer is a clear yes). Same applies for Enfeeble or Vulnerability. Again, just my opinion though!

Also, the curses cast *so* quickly with a cast speed stacked build, that there is literally about a tenth of a second required to cast a second curse (my cast speed is about 10/second) - it's completely not noticeable in actual gameplay.

In terms of direct tree comparison (using https://github.com/EmmittJ/PoESkillTree/releases), the key differences between our two trees are:

- I get dual curses (and faster, longer curses)
- You get two extra jewel sockets
- You get 5.6% life regen, I get 1% (see above)
- Our % life increases are almost identical, although you get a bit more life from higher strength (its not that much though and I get a little more ES bonus)
- I get an extra power charge and an extra 4% spell damage per power charge - so that's 4%x7=28% more spell damage (and 50% more crit chance)
- I get 240% more crit chance than you (that includes the 50% from the extra power charge)
- I get 76% more crit multiplier than you
- I get about 8% more elemental/fire damage than you (pretty negligible)
- My totems get 17% faster cast speed
- Net, I get 10% more spell damage (including the power charge benefit described above)
- You get 68% more totem damage than me
- You get beefier totems (51% more life and a bit better resistances)
- You get 31% faster totem placement speed

That's straight numbers from the tree - anyway, interesting food for thought and thanks again for posting the build/gear etc!

P.

How does Incinerate or Ice Spear work when AB takes away damage from all non totem spells?

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PrayFor wrote:

How does Incinerate or Ice Spear work when AB takes away damage from all non totem spells?

It triggers the "Generate power charge on non-crit" aspect of the Romira's Ring, and since it deals zero damage, it's not going to crit, for easy charge building as I understand it.

It's why you need to run something else that generates PCoC if you don't use Romira's.

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It triggers the "Generate power charge on non-crit" aspect of the Romira's Ring, and since it deals zero damage, it's not going to crit, for easy charge building as I understand it.

It generates it on non-crit, not on non-damage...

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It's why you need to run something else that generates PCoC if you don't use Romira's.

Yes he suggested Ice Spear-GMP-PCoC-Inc Crit but that wouldn't do any damage either..

Video pls.

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PrayFor wrote:

"

It triggers the "Generate power charge on non-crit" aspect of the Romira's Ring, and since it deals zero damage, it's not going to crit, for easy charge building as I understand it.

It generates it on non-crit, not on non-damage...

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It's why you need to run something else that generates PCoC if you don't use Romira's.

Yes he suggested Ice Spear-GMP-PCoC-Inc Crit but that wouldn't do any damage either..

The power charge from PCOC is generated when you crit, regardless of the damage (even if the damage is 0).

Playing in Tempest, I dont have GG gear like double Void or 6l Mantle. Is the build still viable without these items or will you simply lack crit chance without the crit nodes from the shadow area? I feel like it's almost impossible to get BM, shadow crit and enough life nodes for Hardcore.

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ToxDwarf wrote:

Playing in Tempest, I dont have GG gear like double Void or 6l Mantle. Is the build still viable without these items or will you simply lack crit chance without the crit nodes from the shadow area? I feel like it's almost impossible to get BM, shadow crit and enough life nodes for Hardcore.

Mantle gives 100% crit chance. Add in another 100% from totem node and I don't think you will lack crit anyway.

You can ignore all the power charges nodes and go for straight up crit from gear. By going no power charge, you lose some damage, but instead gain more HP. Truth is, without dual Void or at least 1 Void, PCs is not really that powerful. You could also use shield + rare wand instead of dual wand for even more HP and cap your resists if you still haven't.