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

I really think you're on to something here. While the Hierophant's ability to gain increased damage based on totem kills is fantastic for clearing whites I struggle with bosses. I'm up to level 73 now and I'm still using the brightbeaks... but I'm feeling the pain. The build would probably feel more successful with the scion setup. Chieftain would be a given ascendency as it fits perfectly and taking the hierophant ascend gives the extra totem when in the helmet without that AWFUL -10% damage per totem out that hierophant is currently plagued with. That would give you 3 totems all dealing 100% of their damage, plus all the chieftan bonuses and then all the pen from the tree added additionally.

The way I see it, the elementalist gives +30% FIRE damage and 5% pen per totem, while having an extra totem would just translate to 100% more damage (much better)

A few issues I see are a lack of Resolute Technique, trying to use physical to fire conversions in places (this build uses very little physical damage) using evasion as a defensive mechanic.

Because there are so many little swings going in so fast it's pretty important that every hit is landed without having to worry about accuracy. Another issue I faced was getting stunned which SUCKS but yaknow, not every build can have US.

Evasion also worries me as I find it unreliable. Luckily we can scoot over 2 points and take iron reflexes.

This build could work with a pain bassinet or even Kaom's Heart and whatever helmet you see fit and as I've experienced myself the build definitely works.

After reading your post I think I'm going to re-roll as a scion. I was sick of not having pants anyway.

If going the ele damage scaling route, might be worthwhile to use an Oro's Sacrifice. Pure fire damage, would scale the attack damage on the totems much higher. Not sure how the ignite/frenzy works on those totems, if it even works at all. I'd be interested in seeing how that works.

Edit: Also if using helm for the totem, maybe look at Bringer of Rain and go the physical scaling route, or phys/ele with Added Fire, Phys to Light, etc.

Oro's sacrifice might work. I'd have to see if the slow hard hits can out DPS a pair of really good dragoon swords or something of the like. There are thrusting swords that can get up to 2 attacks per second and have all three elements which are really nice. I was looking at pure lightning builds (with Hyaon's Fury as it has the highest "dps" of any 1 handed weapon) and pure fire is interesting too especially with the scion going into the chieftain node for those benefits.

The more I work with the build, the more I see the possibilities really are endless. I'm going to stick to my elemental buzzsaw style build for now, but there are definitely alternatives that may be even stronger. Test em out and get back to me boys and girls!

I was really just throwing out random ideas in that post and been tinkering with it over the past two days. This will probably end up as another chaotic post but bear with me xD

I've been going through all the different ascendencies and looked what else could work:

Genereally, Marauder seems really good:
Aside from the obvious Chieftain, you could also go Berserker and grab that ludicrous 40% more damage. Pair that with either 10% life/mana on using a Warcry or the 2% leech after a kill and you should be able to come up with some stupidly good defense.

I saw someone on reddit using using the Berserker Life leech with CWDT + Bladefall paired with Vaal pact and Warlord's mark to basically become unkillable. If you stack enough life% you could probably face tank alot of stuff while your protectors do the work.
Currently have this passive tree I am working on for Berserker or Chieftain
Berserker has the added benefit of Attack speed on the pathing nodes, while Chieftain get all the nice totem stuff :D


This also works with the Berserker node from Scion, although it only nets 10% more damage, not 40%.
The problem here is really just the pathing to Vaal Pact, since resolute technique is always available on the way to Ancestral Bond.
That's what I am currently sitting on with Scion, going for Berserker and Elementalist.

This is my basic template I made for Scion.


Generally, do you think the 3rd totem is necessary to make this work, or would getting more damage on 2 totems end up trumping the third one?
After all, not having the protector linked in helmet gives up to 2 extra links.

I feel that elemental conversion based on physical damage would ultimately be the best for this build, especially if you want to have the 3rd totem through Hierophant. Then you could grab a Bringer of Rain, which are surprisingly cheap in this league, and have a 7L Protector that also blinds enemies, increasing your own survivability.
Also Hatred and Herald of Ash are the most mana-efficiant was to gain elemental damage.
You might even run a Doomsower and go 2handed with that.



The Oro's Sacrifice thing might laos be super good, since totems get culling strike. You also have access to the Fireborn Jewel shenanigans in the duelist area, netting you a ton of damage and attack speed.
Spending way too many points again
Also if you go with Oro's then absolutely get Hinekora in the Chieftain tree, an additional 10% Fire Penetration is definitely better than the final Totem node. Even taking into account that you won't get the extra fire damage from recently killing enemies.

Have someone tried Southbound glove? I think they can provide some nice elemental damage addition paired with brightbeak

My logic for the 3 vs 2 totems using Ascendant subclasses is this.

Give each totem 100% base damage.

So we take Ancestral bond and chieftain, as both are necessary for the build. So we now have 2 totems dealing 130% damage each + 15% extra fire based on physical.

Going elementalist would give an extra 30% fire damage and 5% resist pen. Conflux is not helpful and the 4% elemental resist is nice but it's whatever. This would give us say 130% + 30% + 5% x 2 = 330% and that's if you were doing ALL fire damage which would by no means be ideal.

On the other hand, you take Hierophant and now have 3 totems. The mana boost is nice and the extra ES isn't useless. The power charges are pretty pointless as we're taking RT in almost every situation (unless there's shenanigans that can be pulled to convert charge types or whatever) but with the chieftain hierophant totems we'd be doing 130% x 3 = 390% and this doesn't restrict which element we want.

This of course isn't perfect math and I haven't tested it in game but logically it seems somewhat sound.

Now deciding between stacking flat elemental and attack speed or going physical to elemental conversion, the conversion may be stronger (especially with the benefits from chieftain) but that would all need to be tested and at the moment I don't have the time/resources to get a character to 80+ to really see the endgame results.

The 72 templar I have is being retired as I'm kind of hitting a DPS wall without buying some big expensive weaps and generally the scion has WAY more potential so I'm going that route atm.

Keep the discussion going guys, I want people to know that these totems do WORK and this build is actually pretty good and VERY entertaining!

Also looking how easy it is to get fire pen as a Chief - Elemental - Scion then going either Anger - HoA or Hatred - HoA that build could definitely do some damadge, especially if you can get two good 1handers with tons of physical - fire damage - attack speed. (That might run an ex or two each but could definitely pay out) and in this case I don't believe Oros would be the way to go. Kaom's Heart and abyssus on the other hand... god damn

Nice seeing someone is enjoying this skill. Keep us up to date with your progress. :)

I'd say Hierophant is only worth it if you go for Bringer of Rain. Otherwise the possible 6L in armour or weapon would be much better in terms of damage. You can gain alot of "more" multipliers that way.

The Berserker Ascendancy with it's inherent "more damage" is also pretty amazing. I am thinking of giving a Marauder with that one a try and if it doesn't work out, I'll just respec into Chieftain and go full physical conversion.

Keep me updated.

EDIT:
Forget everything I said, game told me to go Scion apparently xD

"BASED FROM YOUR EQUIPPED PRIMARY WEAPON"

interesting thread but for this part it's wrong,ancestral protector use based attack damages which is different.

for exemple , facebreaker works with it.