3.2 Zul's Shockback (Shockwave) Totems

Hey all,

Welcome to my first handmade build. I've played the game for nearly 3k hours, and this is the sole build that has been successful to any extent. It is easy to play, utilizes a couple neat mechanics (primarily Empire's Grasp and Shockwave Totem's innate knock back chance), and is pretty forgiving currency-wise. I've done many t16+ maps with it (all mods except no mana-regen) and I've found it to be one of my favorite ways to farm uber-lab.

Enjoy!

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Strengths:
- Totem build: no deaths to reflect and easy to gear.
- Decent clear speed and viable for t16+ maps.
- Budget friendly but possesses a very high gear cap.
- Via Empire's Grasp, knockbackable bosses are nullified (especially when swapping in knockback support). They cannot escape.

Weaknesses:
- Not good vs. mobile bosses immune to knockback or bosses that simply move too fast.
- Gem swapping Inc AoE for Conc Effect when it comes time for bosses (sometimes).
- No regen maps are an absolute pain.

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Gem setup:
Damage 6-L Chest


Defense: Helm/boots/gloves


Vaal Skill & Curse (boots / helm / gloves)


Mobility (weapon / shield 3L)


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Passive Tree / Bandit:

Alira is my go to bandit for this build. The spicy mana-regen, elemental resists, and global critical strike multiplier is too much to pass up.

My current lvl 94 skill tree*:

*The far right side uses Intuitive Leap, Viridian Jewel to access five different nodes.

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Ascendancy: Heirophant

Two different paths can be selected.

The first is much tankier with the increased effect of Mind over Matter, + maximum mana, and chance to create endurance charges without need of Enduring Cry:


The second is squishier, but provides more Shockwave Totem damage and more Area of Effect. It also makes you immune to elemental ailments:


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Gear:

The gear for this spec is largely interchangeable. The two main uniques it requires are 'Empire's Grasp, Goliath Gauntlets' and 'Essence Worm, Unset Ring'.

Empire's Grasp gives your shockwave totems their vacuum-like action. You have four totems. Base knockback per pulse is 25%. When you have four of these pulsing every .25 seconds (may vary with gear), you can see how a reverse knockback would be cause for excitement. Bonus points for getting elemental weakness on hit.


Essence Worm makes your Hatred aura free. This means you can use a Clear Mind jewel and MoM without any sort of downside.


Below are my recommandations for every other gear slot:
Helm: Defensive piece but it really needs a lab enchant (but it is cheap because Shockwave is not popular)
Rare or Unique, it is preferable that this piece has a lab enchant for 10%-15% increased Shockwave Totem Cast Speed or 25%-40% increased Shockwave Totem Damage. Cast speed is better for knockback / survivability. % Damage is better for... damage.


Weapon (dagger / sceptre): Offensive piece
Cast speed - Gain x% of Physical damage as extra (fire, lightning, cold, or chaos) damage - Spell Damage - Increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells


(Spirit)Shield: Offensive piece with + Maximum Hp
Spell damage - Increased Critical Strike Chance for spells - Cast Speed - Maximum Life


Amulet: Hybrid Offensive and Defensive
Spell Damage - Cast Speed - Maximum Life - Resistances


Rare (Diamond) Ring: Hybrid Offensive and Defensive
Cast speed - Maximum Life - Resistances


Rare Belt (Rustic Sash): Defensive Piece
Maximum Life - Resistances


Rare Boots: Defensive Piece
Maximum life - Movement Speed - Resistances


Unique Jewels:
1x Clear Mind (for Spell Damage and Mana Regen)
1x Spires of Stone for Unstunnable Totems and Totem Life
1x Intuitive Leap (Right Side of skill tree, primarily for Farrul's Fur)

Rare Jewel Priorities:
% Increased Maximum Life - Filler Resistances / Damage - Totem HP and/or Ele Res - ?% Chance to Knock Enemies Back on Hit?

Body Armor: Defensive (low budget) or Offensive (high budget) Piece
For a rare body armor, look for Maximum life and High Resistances. Like so:


If you're feeling frisky and want to spend a ridiculous amount currency buying it and ridiculous amounts of chromes (or jewelers) coloring it, go for Farrul's Fur.


Both chests work, and rare body armor does allow for more flexibility in jewelry stats (i.e. you can go more offensive with jewelry if you have a more defensive body armor). Farrul's Fur, on the other hand, forces you toward more defensive stats on jewelry, but you get free power charges, frenzy charges, increased critical chance, and increased cast speed (the aura reserves no mana, and thus adheres to the same principle as Essence Worm - Hatred).
This body armor allows for more diversity in your Ascendancy. You can stay the same Power Charge / MoM talents for 'ultimate' tankiness (bonus: power charges from Farrul's Fur procs Endurance charges). OR You can go the Arcane Surge route for more damage and cast speed, immunity to Elemental Ailments, and Increased AoE.

Flask Notes:
You do not need anti-elemental ailment flasks if you go Arcane Blessing ascendancy route.
Diamond Flask is very good because it boosts damage and you can roll Anti-Curse and Increased Duration for curse-modded maps.
Atziri's Promise is a cheap but massive DPS boost.


Current Gear:



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Leveling:
General skill tree advice:
Use Tabula Rasa and get to Ancestral Bond as quickly as possible. Fill out the rest of the tree from there.

Ability progression recommendations:

Level 1: Magma Orb > Arcane Surge > Onslaught Support

Level 8: Magma Orb > Arcane Surge > Onslaught Support > Added Lightning Damage > Increased Critical Strikes

Level 12: Firestorm > Arcane Surge > Onslaught Support > Added Lightning Damage > Increased Critical Strikes

Level 18: Firestorm > Arcane Surge > Onslaught Support > Added Lightning Damage > Increased Critical Strikes > Faster Casting

Between Level 20 - 28: (Ancestral Bond) Change Arcane Surge Support for Spell Totem Support

Level 28: Shockwave totem > Increased Critical Strikes* > Faster Casting > Physical to Lightning > Inc Aoe/ Conc Effect > Added Fire Damage

Skill trees:


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Videos:

Showing my excellent skill while maneuvering through traps, the builds consequent survivability, and a lvl 75 Izaro kill:


Showing build damage and knockback capabilities on Coves Map:


Showing build damage and knockback capabilities on Promenade Map:


Acid Lakes Twinned w/ Rare chest armor and unoptimized Skill Tree (no Farrul's Fur):

Weaknesses:
-Shockwave's make your eyes bleed
-chest costs more money than you farmed all season

The Tree you posted is not optimized for dps. This is the meta crit totem tree with some variation and points to play with. The crit multi is very important for scaling your damage. You seem to be going crit but avoiding all the crit multi nodes in the tree you posted.

poeurl.com/bTde

Farrul's Furr is also incredibly expensive and you need 4 off colors for your build, which you didn't mention and chrome calc's out to 2400 chromatic orbs, which adds multiple exalts to the pricetag. Soul mantle puts out similar numbers if not more dps and is 3.5 exalts for a 6l vs 19 exalts on bestiary league for an offcolor furr.

Can we get a current gear list, also no flask's mentioned, let's see this reverse knockback eye bleeding gameplay.

Working on it! I'll have more vids up later today. Also, the gear I linked is the gear I have, but I'll compile it all into one place. Will see about doing a video with rare chest rather than Farrul's.

Also your skill tree changes are great, I'm going to try them out later.

Seb, you gain the power charges from the ascendancy, and the frenzy from Farrul's Fur, if you have one.

Any chances of you update the skill tree? Thanks! :D

Hey there,

This is what my new tree looks like (use remaining points with Intuitive Leap Jewel on far right side):

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.4.5/AAAABAUCAAQHBFEEswVCBx4I9AthDkgPxBDMES0RlhZvFr8byBzcHRQi9CaVKgsqEyu2LJwy0TbFOhY6WDt8PAU8LT1fQZZDyEVHRZ1JT0lRSbFMs06uTwRSU1NSVUtVxlorW6Bd8l5dYeJmnmhaaPJqQ2wLbRlwUnX9fA58g35Zf8aBj4Kbg1-D24PzhG-FMoaCidOMNoxGjmSPGo9Gj_qTJ5Uuly2XlZrgnj6iAKKjo_KnCKdVp5SuEq6zrv2u_69ssTa2-rjKuZO8qrzqwGbDCcMTxq7P3dD10f3VptfP2CTa3eNq44Tr7uv17C7vfO-I8B_w1fGK8h33pviT-Tf60g==



If you have any more questions, feel free to leave them here. :)


- Zul

I m interested in shockweave totem build in 3.6, what you think should change now
( after HUGE BUFF in patch notes )?