Hierophant Qaud SRS Totem/Tanky Build

I've been running this build since the release of 2.2 and it has worked very well, so I thought I would share it with the community.

The inspiration came simply due to the fact that I really wanted to run a quad dual totem build.

This is a fun build to play with and in my opinion would make an excellent HC build, although I don't myself play hardcore. The DPS is very good; I'm not going to claim that it would be Atziri viable as I have not tested that yet and or do I ever really do Atziri runs.

Here is the passive skill tree up to level 80.




GEAR:

This is a pretty cheap build. I started it in Standard league so I already had the unique's that I planned on using.

Main Weapon: just any rare wand/scepter that gives good cast speed, Mana and Mana Regen.

Boots: Bones of Ullr - 4 link

Gloves: Good A/C, Mana, Resists, life.

Chest: Any Chest that gives you the most links, A/C, life, Resists.

Helmet: Skullhead

Shield: Daresso's Courage

Neck: Sidhebreath

Rings: Resists, Mana, Mana Regen, Life.


Bandit's:
Norm - Kill Oak
Cruel - Kill all three
Merc - Kill all three


I'm in the middle of Merciless now and am steam rolling through the content. The DPS is very good.

The Hierophant passive skill Ritual of Awakening gives penalty on "totem damage" so by casting SRS; the penalty is negated. You still get the 50% damage reduction for casting SRS from a spell totem, but the Minion passives more than make up for that.

By using 4 totems, I am able to get 50 raging spirits out very quickly; while my 4 totems acts as a perfect shield wall protecting me from any incoming ranged.


---- the common argument I've been seeing on the forums against Ritual of Awaking Quad Totem ---

1. Why use 4 totems when you can just not use Ancestral Bond with Ritual of Awakening and just use 2 totems and self cast? - Answer - Again, SRS isn't affected by the penalty. By going quad totem, you are staying away from reflect damage. You also don't have to worry about taking up the time to cast a main attack spell. It's pretty difficult to put down totems, cast desecrate, flesh/bone offering, curse and then attack with a main spell. It's much easier and safer to just worry about the totems. You also are able to spit out 50 raging spirits very quickly and the totems acts as a great shield.


The Specter's of choice are the Stygian Revenants. I run 3 of these on a four link. They never die and they do awesome damage.

I summon 9 zombies and link them to my 6 link chest. They never die and do decent damage.


I also have selected Necromantic Aegis: This along with Daresso's Courage give my minions alot of extra protection. By also using the unique helm Skullhead, my minions have even more defense.

This is a life build; I currently have around 2500 life and I expect that to increase by the time I start running maps.

By selecting the Hierophant's passive skill Divine Guidance and the passive skill Mind over Matter, I've got a good little life buff with %40 mana taken before life.

As far as defense and DPS - if you want to make your zombies a little more tanky, switch out a melee support for Fortify.

That's about it.

Again, this has been a really fun build so far and I totally expect to be able to do maps with it. It is a very safe build but has really decent clear speed.

If you were looking on the best way to go quad totem, look no further. Roll yourself up a Quad SRS Hierophant today!

Not entirely sure about that, but IIRC, max raging spirits are tied to gem, not player. So You could possibly use totem SRS + selfcast SRS for a max of 100 specters at a time. Imagine the deeps!

looks cool.
wat kind of gems do u use? especially support?

So how's your build progressing in Merciless and maps?

2500 life is way low. How have you been able to scale it up so far? I assume you're mapping by now?

do you have any suggestions for this now that srs has changed