[On Hold] Glacial Cascade Totems [ALL Content in the Game]

I think you're missing my point Monti. I followed this build very closely and it worked for a while, but survivability has always been an issue and that is why I was trying different defensive links to try and get better results. I'm not saying if you're a super wizard POE player, you can dodge like a madman and make any build "capable," but the fact is that this build requires a lot of extra effort and currency to do the same tasks other builds can do with ease. It seems great for racing/starter, but pushing end game is NOT it's strong suit for sure.
I think there is also a lack of people who have pushed this to end game as well and that is why you keep only seeing people in red tier maps asking how to enhance their survivability.
The good thing about this game is there are all kinds of tweaks and things to do, so maybe someone can suggest a real game changer or maybe new enchants that will allow for improvement.
I am up for the challenge though and will probably continue to stick with it even though every bone in my body is telling me to abandon ship now while I can.

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DolphinCarpet wrote:

I think you're missing my point Monti. I followed this build very closely and it worked for a while, but survivability has always been an issue and that is why I was trying different defensive links to try and get better results. I'm not saying if you're a super wizard POE player, you can dodge like a madman and make any build "capable," but the fact is that this build requires a lot of extra effort and currency to do the same tasks other builds can do with ease. It seems great for racing/starter, but pushing end game is NOT it's strong suit for sure.
I think there is also a lack of people who have pushed this to end game as well and that is why you keep only seeing people in red tier maps asking how to enhance their survivability.
The good thing about this game is there are all kinds of tweaks and things to do, so maybe someone can suggest a real game changer or maybe new enchants that will allow for improvement.
I am up for the challenge though and will probably continue to stick with it even though every bone in my body is telling me to abandon ship now while I can.

This is my first time with this build and I have not reached red maps yet, but one thing that I did so far for this build and for a previous spectre build, which has a similar play style and uses MoM, was to use a shield that has the mod "Recover X% of your maximum life (or mana) when you block". However, with the spectre build I also used the Anvil and extra block passives ... so that would be a bigger hit to dps if used with GC, but maybe the shield alone would be just enough to help with the ability to survive and not lose too much dps. *shrug* ... I at least wanted to throw it out there since you were asking for ideas.

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DolphinCarpet wrote:

I think you're missing my point Monti. I followed this build very closely and it worked for a while, but survivability has always been an issue and that is why I was trying different defensive links to try and get better results. I'm not saying if you're a super wizard POE player, you can dodge like a madman and make any build "capable," but the fact is that this build requires a lot of extra effort and currency to do the same tasks other builds can do with ease. It seems great for racing/starter, but pushing end game is NOT it's strong suit for sure.
I think there is also a lack of people who have pushed this to end game as well and that is why you keep only seeing people in red tier maps asking how to enhance their survivability.
The good thing about this game is there are all kinds of tweaks and things to do, so maybe someone can suggest a real game changer or maybe new enchants that will allow for improvement.
I am up for the challenge though and will probably continue to stick with it even though every bone in my body is telling me to abandon ship now while I can.

Let's agree to disagree.

I can only comment on your gear right now and can't quite make out any major defensive measures you took. You rather don't use the ones inherent to the build, like freezing. I don't see the reason to get fancy with anything setup wise as it works quite well. You definitely don't need to be "a super wizard POE player" to make this build work. too. I think I am proof of that, as I consider myself not to be a great player. Stick to the plan, it worked for many players already!

Further, I have to disagree on the budget part. Totem builds are known for being cheap and easy late game pushers. The "mandatory" uniques are easy and cheap to come by. The rest of the gear has no special requirement, except maybe dex if you want to get fancy with your free sockets. The plethora of crafting options available this league, have made good gear more accessable too. I have no idea where that "extra effort and currency" you are refering to comes in.

I think the reason not many people are showing off their end game gear is that totems got nerfed and there are a lot of new skills working out great. Totems just aren't meta right now. On top of that, Arc and Ele Hit are the prefered spells for totems for 2 leagues now. Even if someone wants to play totems, GC most likely isn't going to be their first choice. Again, I don't think that is the builds fault.

Until now I have invested maybe 50c into my gear. I am churning through red 8 mod maps, regardless of any map mod, on 3.6k life. I don't have a 6L, I don't have shaped gear and Hatred eats up half of my mana pool. Heck, I even skipped on Fortify because I really like Phase Run. The only things killing me, are off screen 1-shots by transportation archers, but I guess that's fair given my gearing. This is in no way the build's fault, it is just me being lazy with gearing. I could have easily taken the 30c (iirc) I payed for one of my weapons and invested into life on gear and I am sure I would be fine. I really hope you find solutions for your issues, I am not quite able to relate to.

PS: Off the top of my head, a few more ways you can raise your survivability, on top of the already good defensive capabilities the totem play style provides: Taste of Hate, Wise Oak with balanced resists, "% damage taken as *elemental*" on helmets, Enfeeble, "damage taken gained as mana" veiled mod, a focus setup

I'm ok with agreeing to disagree, but to say there aren't totem builds out there (in 3.5 that is), that are much easier to get off the ground with little hiccups and much less aggravation would be silly. I like doing all map mods, but you really don't have to walk on eggshells with anything post T15.
Don't get me wrong, I will keep working at it and there are so many tweaks and new things to try and make any build explosive, but it will require much effort and currency.
It seems everyone that played this guild rushed to use this as a starter and switched to another build before encountering the problems that I am.

That being said, has anyone been able to test out removing one Kika ring to put a Essence Worm Ring/Hatred and keep self flag?

I don't notice the debuffs with two Kika, but removing one and adding hatred would not only boost damage but boost MOM with less mana reserve.

Any people pushing this build past guardians/shaper please do post your goodies!

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DolphinCarpet wrote:

I'm ok with agreeing to disagree, but to say there aren't totem builds out there (in 3.5 that is), that are much easier to get off the ground with little hiccups and much less aggravation would be silly. I like doing all map mods, but you really don't have to walk on eggshells with anything post T15.
Don't get me wrong, I will keep working at it and there are so many tweaks and new things to try and make any build explosive, but it will require much effort and currency.
It seems everyone that played this guild rushed to use this as a starter and switched to another build before encountering the problems that I am.

That being said, has anyone been able to test out removing one Kika ring to put a Essence Worm Ring/Hatred and keep self flag?

I don't notice the debuffs with two Kika, but removing one and adding hatred would not only boost damage but boost MOM with less mana reserve.

Any people pushing this build past guardians/shaper please do post your goodies!

Do whatever you want with the build, just stop doing shit to break the build and then ask people why it isn't working well and then argue with them and do your own thing anyway. Seems like a loop and a waste of time when you could be coming up with cool new ideas to handicap yourself in game instead of posting here.

This is my third league playing and I started out the league with this build. It felt great and I loved it. It did all content fine for me with the exception of maps that have both Elemental Reflect and No Regeneration. My biggest gripe with this build is curse management -- even with two curse flasks, tougher boss fights were very butt clenching relying on me either running around to dodge or simply just dying.

I've just finished killing Shaper Guardians and Shaper himself with particularly mediocre gear (see spoilers):



This build does things fine; I played it mainly to kick off the league and build currency for other builds but it exceeded more than I thought it would. Considering my lack of skill, some boss fights with certain mods were hard to handle (i.e. increased life for Shaper Guardians so lesser skill people like me should reroll those mods). It's a very cheap build but does content great for its price.

Some personal thoughts:

I loved Phase Run since low attack speed Whirling Blade felt meh to me. Combined with a 30 MS boots, you got around maps fine walking and the visibility let you not get hit.

Multiple Totems feels nice although it's hard choice to pass up another damage support gem. I liked using it to spam totems, run around and kite more difficult mores without the worry of having 3 totems die. Additionally, it help clear more areas.

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Diemian wrote:

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DolphinCarpet wrote:

I'm ok with agreeing to disagree, but to say there aren't totem builds out there (in 3.5 that is), that are much easier to get off the ground with little hiccups and much less aggravation would be silly. I like doing all map mods, but you really don't have to walk on eggshells with anything post T15.
Don't get me wrong, I will keep working at it and there are so many tweaks and new things to try and make any build explosive, but it will require much effort and currency.
It seems everyone that played this guild rushed to use this as a starter and switched to another build before encountering the problems that I am.

That being said, has anyone been able to test out removing one Kika ring to put a Essence Worm Ring/Hatred and keep self flag?

I don't notice the debuffs with two Kika, but removing one and adding hatred would not only boost damage but boost MOM with less mana reserve.

Any people pushing this build past guardians/shaper please do post your goodies!

Do whatever you want with the build, just stop doing shit to break the build and then ask people why it isn't working well and then argue with them and do your own thing anyway. Seems like a loop and a waste of time when you could be coming up with cool new ideas to handicap yourself in game instead of posting here.

Definitely not doing anything to "break the build," I might be the most active poster this season for the build, but doesn't seem too popular for several reasons and it's hard to get any feedback or anyone post guardians/shaper giving their experience. I'll post positively or negatively based on my feedback and leveling its great, but struggles as you push end game. It just does...in comparison to MANY other builds, but that's ok, I like the challenge.

One thing in particular is confusing and I know this build can be played many different ways, but someone out there must know.
Between 2 Kika Rings, Self Flag, Curse Potting, Essence Wurm Ring etc etc, what is the best option at the end of the day? I personally love the Self Flag gem, but I could also replace that gem + 2 kika rings to get a lot of boosts.

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UUCyberSteve wrote:

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DolphinCarpet wrote:

I think you're missing my point Monti. I followed this build very closely and it worked for a while, but survivability has always been an issue and that is why I was trying different defensive links to try and get better results. I'm not saying if you're a super wizard POE player, you can dodge like a madman and make any build "capable," but the fact is that this build requires a lot of extra effort and currency to do the same tasks other builds can do with ease. It seems great for racing/starter, but pushing end game is NOT it's strong suit for sure.
I think there is also a lack of people who have pushed this to end game as well and that is why you keep only seeing people in red tier maps asking how to enhance their survivability.
The good thing about this game is there are all kinds of tweaks and things to do, so maybe someone can suggest a real game changer or maybe new enchants that will allow for improvement.
I am up for the challenge though and will probably continue to stick with it even though every bone in my body is telling me to abandon ship now while I can.

This is my first time with this build and I have not reached red maps yet, but one thing that I did so far for this build and for a previous spectre build, which has a similar play style and uses MoM, was to use a shield that has the mod "Recover X% of your maximum life (or mana) when you block". However, with the spectre build I also used the Anvil and extra block passives ... so that would be a bigger hit to dps if used with GC, but maybe the shield alone would be just enough to help with the ability to survive and not lose too much dps. *shrug* ... I at least wanted to throw it out there since you were asking for ideas.

Didn't want to forget about responding to you, I appreciate your idea! I have seen people use those for different builds, it doesn't seem efficient for this build as much because you aren't taking many hits. I will look into it though!

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DolphinCarpet wrote:

Finally someone other than Choco puts down something to see so we can learn and get new ideas. Thanks!

I have to say I have no clue how people get rid of their self flag jewel. That bonus is just insane especially against bosses I'll stack like 7-8 curses before the fight starts.

Also Choco...I see you have one kika ring and other ring is Essence worm. Are you still able to withstand the curses with the one ring fairly easy? If so, I'm going to drop one ring for Essence wurm, but I would think it's not worth it?

I’m actually using a regular rare ring with Essence worm and atziri’s reflection. I did try 1 kika without the shield but it all depends on map mods I Guess.

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DolphinCarpet wrote:

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Diemian wrote:

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DolphinCarpet wrote:

I'm ok with agreeing to disagree, but to say there aren't totem builds out there (in 3.5 that is), that are much easier to get off the ground with little hiccups and much less aggravation would be silly. I like doing all map mods, but you really don't have to walk on eggshells with anything post T15.
Don't get me wrong, I will keep working at it and there are so many tweaks and new things to try and make any build explosive, but it will require much effort and currency.
It seems everyone that played this guild rushed to use this as a starter and switched to another build before encountering the problems that I am.

That being said, has anyone been able to test out removing one Kika ring to put a Essence Worm Ring/Hatred and keep self flag?

I don't notice the debuffs with two Kika, but removing one and adding hatred would not only boost damage but boost MOM with less mana reserve.

Any people pushing this build past guardians/shaper please do post your goodies!

Do whatever you want with the build, just stop doing shit to break the build and then ask people why it isn't working well and then argue with them and do your own thing anyway. Seems like a loop and a waste of time when you could be coming up with cool new ideas to handicap yourself in game instead of posting here.

Definitely not doing anything to "break the build," I might be the most active poster this season for the build, but doesn't seem too popular for several reasons and it's hard to get any feedback or anyone post guardians/shaper giving their experience. I'll post positively or negatively based on my feedback and leveling its great, but struggles as you push end game. It just does...in comparison to MANY other builds, but that's ok, I like the challenge.

One thing in particular is confusing and I know this build can be played many different ways, but someone out there must know.
Between 2 Kika Rings, Self Flag, Curse Potting, Essence Wurm Ring etc etc, what is the best option at the end of the day? I personally love the Self Flag gem, but I could also replace that gem + 2 kika rings to get a lot of boosts.

Running ele focus for general content has you lose the big point of using this build over arc totems or whatever else: freezing.
Grats on posting a bunch in someone else's build guide.
You don't see much endgame feedback because most players don't make it to endgame.
All of those options are viable. Try them and see what you like. I have different gear sets for different things, and switch out accordingly. Most content I'm in movespeed/general gear. Uber elder and other end game bosses I use OP's soul mantle build. At the end of the day the best build is the build you have the most fun on, a shitty build you like playing will get you further and earn you more currency than playing an op meta build you don't like and end up burning out.