[2.2] Orcsalot's Ancestral Protector - Elemental Buzzsaw Totems

Hey everyone! THis is going to be my first ever forum post/theorycraft build so the formatting might be a little choppy but bear with me!

IF MY THEORIES ARE CORRECT ANCESTRAL PROTECTOR'S DAMAGE WILL BE CALCULATED SIMILARLY TO SIEGE BALLISTA - BASED FROM YOUR EQUIPPED PRIMARY WEAPON AND ANY AURAS WITHIN RANGE

So I'm super excited for the launch of Ascendancy and i've been thinking long and hard on how to make a fun build centered around Ancestral Protector.

So the idea of the guide is based off of LiftingNerdBro's dual elemental Siege Ballista build. The goal is to have up to 4 Ancestral Protectors up at any given time using the ancestral bond keystone and the new templar hierophant subclass. The next step is setting up both Hatred and Anger auras for the flat damage given and haste aura for the movement speed, cast speed, and attack speed.

AURAs



Skill Gems



SKILLTREE

This is my skill tree at 60



If at any point you're feeling squishy you can sacrifice attack speed or totem stats for straight life percentage which is easily accessible all over the tree.

GEAR



I want to work frenzy charges into the build as their damage and attack speed boosts should provide quite the bump to dps but I haven't figured a good way to do it besides running up to things and whacking them with frenzy (Which is a totally viable option I suppose)

So that's pretty much it for now! This is still VERY much a work in progress and also my very first guide so any suggestions or comments are greatly appreciated!

Once Ascendancy has launched and I've been able to put this build together with more detail (flasks, specific gear, etc) I'll probably take the reserved slot below this and update or just start a new thread.

Thanks for reading everyone!

Hey guys!

Now that Ascendancy has launched I've had lots of time to play around with my new favorite skill (Ancestral Protector of course) and I must say it's doing better than I ever could have hoped!

I'll be giving my current setup and my plans for the future as I make it into endgame content.

The gist of my build still holds true but I have a bit of a different setup at the moment.

As mentioned by CadeValentine DO NOT USE VICTARIO'S INFLUENCE it would cripple this build I promise

I've become a Hierophant Templar but as I've not yet beaten the merciless Lab I only have 4/6 of my Ascendancy points. I've decided to go with

Illuminated Devotion

Skills from your Helmet Penetrate 20% Elemental Resistances
Skills from your Gloves have 20% increased Area of Effect
Skills from your Boots Leech 2% of Damage as Life

and

Pursuit of Faith

4% increased Damage per Enemy Killed by you or your Totems Recently
8% increased Attack and Cast Speed with an active Totem

This works great because the totems annihilate everything in sight providing a huge damage boost and most of the damage they deal is elemental so the 20% Pen from the helmet is OP as hell.

I'm currently spinning the Anger and Wrath aura for some sick flat elemental damage, while also boasting it on every piece of gear I can.

For passive skills I'm currently using Ancestral Bond to keep myself out of the fight while I'm still kind of squishy from lack of gear/defensive passives. Ultimately I plan on either dropping Ancestral Bond and going with the 3 totem hierophant skill and testing that out with and without ancestral bond. W/o ancestral bond some strong skills to use yourself with this build are static strike, wild strike, ice crash, molten strike, or really any elemental melee attack. Feel free to mess around with this a bit because It's not really set in stone.

This is my current skill gem setup


The two uniques that truly make this build shine are



These boots are great for the 1-120 lightning damadge which is a HUUUGe boost to dps thanks to my...

wait for it...



That's right! Dual wield Brightbeaks!!! These hammers provide everything I could ask for, sick attack speed which scales PERFECT with all our flat elemental damage and they even have fire and lightning resists for great defense as well. (If one wanted to go HC with this build, which I probably wouldn't recommend, a shield would most likely be ideal)

Here are the pro/cons I've identified so far and I'm sure when this build is a little more fully developed I'll have a better idea.

PROS


CONS


So far at level 60 with Anger, Wrath, and flame golem, I'm able to get 7k tooltip DPS per totem. After applying Rallying Cry, Vaal Haste, and getting buffs from Pursuit of Faith, I can push it to 15k DPS per totem give or take a few thousand b/c of the finicky buffs.

My IGN is Slappy_Totem and i'm currently going to school but I try to find time to play late at night EST and on the weekends so feel free to see if I'm on and shoot me a message or leave anything else in the comments below!

Slap on my friends!

I think someone teste multistrike on that totem and doesnt work . Might be wrong tho . Even so their radius is very small and the less damage multiplier will kill your damage by alot.

Yeah Multistrike doesn't work on the totem. Similar to how spell echo doesn't work on spell totems.

Thanks for the update on the multistrike thing. Have a recommendation for a 4th support gem? I was thinking either increased elemental damadge or increased area of affect

4 Totems = 40% less damage per totem so you only get a little damage increase

4x 60% = 240% damage
3x 70% = 210% damage

Better drop ancestral protector and go Earthquake instead.

Just a heads up the totem build won't work with that unique. The totem gets it's damage from the player's weapon(s) and buff(s), so the auras have to effect the player as well. In turn the generosity lvl 1 support from the unique will negate the effects of auras on the player and thus prevent damage buffs on the totems. Also putting aura's on spell totems isn't viable either it seems.

Frankly, it would seem GGG really didn't want this totem to be anything more than a support totem. I haven't tried curse on hit with the totem and may be a viable option with melee splash. This would still only make it a support totem but would be a more suitable option for using it.

It was a nice idea for sure and would love to have seen a build like this in action.

Have you thought about using Split Arrow with all that +flat ele dmg? Seems like it'd lend itself well to this build and give yourself a sizable, safe DPS option

The totems use whatever weapons the player has equipped, so a bow wouldn't work! You can see LiftingNerdBro's Elemental Siege Ballista build if you want to go totem/bow or go with ranged totem link.

Link to LiftingNerdBro's post

Been wondering, wouldn't the Marauders Chieftain be a much better fit for this?
You Totems will taunt and also deal additional damage based on their life every time they are hit. They'll also get much more tanky since they'll benefit from your Armour.
And you get the enemies take increased damage near totems node, which is essentially a more multiplier.

EDIT: too bad you can't have both Hinekora and Tukohama... xD

Also, getting both Hierophant and Chieftain from Scion could also be really good.
Especially because you have alot more dex available from the Scion, and eventually you will want ot move on to weapons such as foils, giving you an easy 2.0 ApS while offering much more damage than brightbeaks.


Edit2:

Just played around with the Scion:

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAAAAL684q30xgnZRQrKRjXWIFkxnqZXTeP-jzWS2L218v4Kbqq3PkrIg8w_JzwtKk2DX8auAO4LYRDMLOmvbCu2hrMVIGjyjEbdDfAf-JNbr6IAFHUNjU4qBLPhc3fXyMyHdkz_wGbtIJo7Vvrvj-OfZ6BDMZRcV-KCm91G329KfdrBV5fMZnflY6cuU3TtEdVKmDKJEYHTbwUtY3CLjDrYeu9gQfndJy9AoL6nkFVeE2VNGjjvTr02WfNhUkd-cg-GYJRvZp4ir2ZU-tJY5ThTFy_DE3bnZOdaK1XWo_KApADBhFPv_d7cAAA=

2 totems with heavy scaling of elemental damage and just based on passives you'll have 19% Penetration for fire and cold damage. (3 Totems if you dare to take a Soul Mantle)
Having a flame golem would give you the usual bonus, plus an additional 30% inc fire damage from the Elementalist passive.
Life is pretty low, but if you take life jewels (4 slots) you should be in okay territory, for SC at least.

Alternatively, you could just scrap chieftain or elementalist (whatever you like better) and get the +1 totem from Hierophant.
Overall, this should perform pertty well, what do you think?