[3.5] Ghostly Quad Totem HOWA. 10k ES, 77% Evade, 1.9 Mill Shaper DPS

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WaffleT wrote:

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generalchaos wrote:

Hey, the build looks interesting but I have a question. Maybe you answered it, I'm not sure. I know this build isn't a good league starter b/c of all the uniques, but lets say you plan on going this build eventually. What do you do while waiting to gather all these items together? When do you transition into the final form of the build?

Edit: Also, do you think an Incandescent Heart is a good substitute for the Atziri's chest?

This build was my first character in Abyss league. Its not good for day 1 of a new league but its fine after that and I started playing day 2 so by the time I was looking all the items were in the market just at a higher cost that gradually goes down. I think I spent 7c on my claw instead of the normal 1c cost but its not unusual for things to cost a bit more early in a league for any build.

One hardcore player said they played as generic flameblast totem until late game when they had all the gear and then transitioned over. I just played with HOWA from the start and bought items whenever I could afford them.

Assuming a max ES and damage rolled Incandescent Heart you gain +13.2% DPS and lose 11.7% ES and 7% Evasion rating. Thats not a great deal since damage is easier to find then ES.

You also lose 22% all resistances. By the time you've covered those resistances on jewels or in the tree you'd probably have lost more then +13% damage anyway. The 25% less elemental damage taken is neat but I don't think its worth taking that hit to ES total and evade chance

Thanks for the response. What's a good chest to wear until you get an Atziri's? I play on HC and it would be a while before you see people do Uber Atziri. I'm guessing a rare ES/eva chest piece?

Have used Tabula from 1-74 :) Works well enough.

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generalchaos wrote:

Thanks for the response. What's a good chest to wear until you get an Atziri's? I play on HC and it would be a while before you see people do Uber Atziri. I'm guessing a rare ES/eva chest piece?

Skin of the loyal is probably your best bet, you can get one with an acceptable color roll for 1ex-ish. Shroud of the lightless is likely better than atziri's splendour anywho, so I would chase that instead this league.

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generalchaos wrote:

Thanks for the response. What's a good chest to wear until you get an Atziri's? I play on HC and it would be a while before you see people do Uber Atziri. I'm guessing a rare ES/eva chest piece?

You are correct. Until I could afford Splendour I was wearing a random 5-link ES chest I found while leveling. If a Spelndour is not in the market yet when you hit mapping I would be looking for any tri resistance 5-link ES chest which there should be plenty. Ev/ES hybrid is fine too but since its not unique you lose a large chunk of Int and so you want a decent ES roll

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Thukker wrote:

Skin of the loyal is probably your best bet, you can get one with an acceptable color roll for 1ex-ish. Shroud of the lightless is likely better than atziri's splendour anywho, so I would chase that instead this league.

I don't think Skin of the loyal is very good here. +1 to gems is great for spells but only gives about +4% damage to an attack based skill. Skin of the loyal is a unique so it gets the Int bonus but it has no base ES and the %ES isn't much for an Int stacking build. Its the same result as a 300ES chest and it'll be cheaper and easier to buy a 5-link chest with more ES and resistances

Shroud of the lightless is interesting and I had not considered it. For me it has +11% evasion and -12% ES. I don't know how effective that "50% reduced Visibility to enemies" is. Hopefully enough to make up for that -12% ES?
EDIT: "shade form 45 second cooldown" Whelp that makes it pointless, no longer matters if the reduced visibility is good or not

The deal breaker for me is the lack of resistances though. 1 Abyss jewel socket isn't going to make up that 22% all res that the build needs and several of your other jewels would need to be covering that slack.

If it was cheaper i'd be tempted to try it but they all cost more then I spent on my 6-link Splendour

Skin of the loyal was an excellent in-between for me, anyways. It's certainly no replacement for Atziri's, but it's a fair bit of ES and EV, it's 6l, and getting one with acceptable colors was only 50c.

I played with shroud a bit but it's really not anything special, other than an easy 6 link, which would be nice if it wasn't as expensive as a 6l splendour anyways. Gave it up for the extra es on splendour as well.

So I swapped to this build at 83. I have all of the gear but my resists are 70% to all. What's the best way to go about capping for ele weakness maps or is that even possible? My guess is +all res jewels?

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generalchaos wrote:

So I swapped to this build at 83. I have all of the gear but my resists are 70% to all. What's the best way to go about capping for ele weakness maps or is that even possible? My guess is +all res jewels?

The build includes a single jewel with +% ele resistances to hit the 75% cap. Alternatively you can pick up faith and steel but I prefer using a jewel with other good stats to cover it

I find overcapping for ele weakness maps a waste of resources, you lose alot of ES or damage potential for the 1 in 20 maps that roll with weakness when you can just bring a Bismuth or removes curse flask for the same result. If your clear is slower and you can't reliably have the flask up all the time then just bring both and alternate between them

Thx waffle for the build, been a blast, so relaxing play style.

Build is so defencive i got to level 90 with only 12 deaths (4 of them in maps), did corrupted hydra, mino and chimera w/o deaths, and now phoenix joined the party.
Tip for leveling, flat life regen (vitality) watchers eye, when u have around 1k+ es take zealoths oath, if u have good roll ull have around 200 es regen wich is huge when leveling.

I actually bought a watchers eye with wrath penetration and elemental weakness has no effect with purity of element so i dont have to care about ele weakness, it was cheapest pene watchers at the moment i bought it. No need for all res on other jewels if u have max res rolls on splendour and mirror and max level purity.

One of the rare cases where i look at a build and i get some form of poenerdgasm.

The whole gearing section is such a oddly satisfying synergistic mashup with highly and barely ever utilized (full) uniques, its so nice to look at for me :x On top a hierophant, really like it.

However its warchiefs (those slow windup animation) and i will probably never play it :x

For me its build of the week material

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DeGyrst wrote:

Thx waffle for the build, been a blast, so relaxing play style.

Hey thanks man, I also find the playstlye really relaxing and I like watching the totems wreck things

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Milkyslice wrote:

One of the rare cases where i look at a build and i get some form of poenerdgasm.

The whole gearing section is such a oddly satisfying synergistic mashup with highly and barely ever utilized (full) uniques, its so nice to look at for me :x On top a hierophant, really like it.

However its warchiefs (those slow windup animation) and i will probably never play it :x

For me its build of the week material

I really like good synergy and have tried to use as many good ones as possible. I have a scion version on the main page that uses all the same items but molten strike + any clearspeed skill that actually gets more damage but I had the other impression. I don't like using a different skill to clear then I use on bosses and I just like the totem style over molten balls filling the screen

I don't think this build is quite what they look for in build of the week but it would be funny :D