[3.4 HC Chi/Slay] Totems of Agony: Ele Hit totems+Herald of Agony 6k-7k+ life gain/second [videos]

After reading patch notes, very hyped about starting with the jugg version of the build for 3.5. The QR nerf kills the toxic rain variation, but it doesn't touch the version using ele hit. Multi-totems support gem looks like a huge buff to our clear, which was already quite good. And the change to herald of agony looks to be slight and not affecting this build at all (though I need to verify that through playtesting).

Also, with the amount of whining going on that QuillRain is dead, shouldn't be too hard to pick one up cheap early. Hope you have fun with it. Would be happy to read about your progress here.

-O

I haven't been keeping track in the past few days-- QR nerf? The Chi/Slay Ele Hit build has been left untouched, though?

Even a slight nerf to Herald of Agony might be offset by the increased dps of support gems?

I'll let you know about my progress. I will probably use this as a leaguestarter and then try out a few other builds as well.

It seems that this build doesn't take a massive wallet, so I might spend my wallet on another build after, but I'm pretty keen on trying out a bunch of totem builds this upcoming patch. I have always wanted to try a strong end-game boss farming totem berserker or chieftain, but it seems like most of them are not HC viable?

QR nerf mostly affects toxic rain--it went from 40% less weapon damage to 40% less damage. This has no impact on the totem part of the scion chi/slay +HOA build.

Nerf to herald of agony -looks- like it has no impact on the way we use it, but I wont know for certain until we start playing.

My understanding is that Beraerker is challenging right now to make hc viable. Chieftain certainly can be, and I believe there are numerous solid chieftain totem builds out there.

As far as wallet required for build goes, it depends on how you look at it. Definitely quite cheap to get from start to yellow maps. Any random +2 level minion gems helm will go a long way until you get a 5 or 6L QR and a frostferno. At some point though, as you head for the endgame content, your wishlist may include:

1. Kaom's heart that will run from a few to several ex, depending on the market.
2. 6L QR that may be a few ex.
3. Well rolled thief's torment can run up to an ex or more, depending on the meta.
4. Top end elder gloves with both faster attacks and poison can be 2-4 ex. (Likely cheaper to fossil craft these on a decent elder base using pristine>shuddering>corroded, but may take several tries to get the rolls you most want)
5. Frostferno may range greatly, again depending on the meta from 40c-4 ex. Maybe more for one with a good double corruption.

But you definitely don't need all of that gear to get well into maps.

-O

if you don't mind me asking here, what do you think the best current HC chieftain totem build is, regardless of wallet?

Re: Best chieftain totem build.

I don't want to cop out on this one, but it's honestly hard for me to say since I haven't actually played a chieftain build in a while. But here goes.

If I were to run chieftain totems in 3.5, given the stat stick and ele hit nerfs and the totem support gem bluffs, I would look hard at a dual-nebuloch vaal ancestral warchief pure fire conversion build. Chieftain can get enough regeneration to mitigate the downsides, damage on those is excellent and was not nerfed for 3.5, and the new support totem gem should add decent clear to that type of build. Don't know if this particular idea has been written up yet, but you can take inspiration from folks who have written up how to best use nebuloch and look at some of the ones that have written up warchief totem builds. Who knows, I might even try it myself somewhere during the league. :)

-O