[3.5][HCSSF] Storm Brand Hierophant | Tanky, mobile, beginner friendly, and fun

Not sure if you should rule out crit. Arc totems ca comfortably go crit aswell, and unlike those Brand gets the hiero leech node. Atleast for SC that should be enough, and freeze would be a good defensive boost for mapping aswell.

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Agarwaen88 wrote:

Is elemental overload still triggering when you have Controlled Destruction on storm brand ?

Yes, as long as you are critting.

I'm curious why you don't go for runesmith. Is it because it's off to the right by itself from the rest of your nodes? It seems like a strong node along with the additional rune.

Thanks for the guide! I'd been trying to piece together different totem trees to make something for brands. It's just such a fun skill!

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davc1234567890 wrote:

30k for endgeme is kinda low not ?

Path of Building is currently using a placeholder Orb of Storms, which does not take into account any of the brand-specific damage boosts we're getting. I'm expecting the final damage values to be significantly higher than that.

Orb of Storms isn't really an effective spell to use for damage. Putting arc in the same slot without changing any supports is netting me 83k, which is just as meaningless before PoB updates.

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Agarwaen88 wrote:

Is elemental overload still triggering when you have Controlled Destruction on storm brand ?

Yes. Controlled Destruction reduces your crit chance by 100%, but it has a lower cap of 5% crit chance. With 5% crit chance, Storm Brand hits more than enough to crit once every 8 seconds even when dealing with a single target.

According to quick and dirty math, a single storm brand without any cast or activation speed will crit once every 8 seconds 56% of the time. In reality, it's much better than that.

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Maloony wrote:

Not sure if you should rule out crit. Arc totems ca comfortably go crit aswell, and unlike those Brand gets the hiero leech node. Atleast for SC that should be enough, and freeze would be a good defensive boost for mapping aswell.

I'm ruling out crit for this specific build simply due to the fact that we won't get a massive benefit compared to using Elemental Overload, and the passive point investment into it is pretty major. I'm trying to put as many points into defense as possible due to playing HCSSF.

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Vytria wrote:

I'm curious why you don't go for runesmith. Is it because it's off to the right by itself from the rest of your nodes? It seems like a strong node along with the additional rune.

Thanks for the guide! I'd been trying to piece together different totem trees to make something for brands. It's just such a fun skill!

Similar to the problem with crit, I don't see the point investment paying off. We need 5 passive points to simply traverse to that place in the tree, and the only defensive passives on the way are health/ES ones. Being focused on HCSSF, I instead opt to go towards the Marauder area to beef up on armour and block.



To everyone that thanked me for the guide, thank YOU for reading it, giving feedback, and asking questions!

This build can be extremely crit focused due to both spell and totem/brand crit nodes all over templar, witch, and shadow areas. I actually see 3 of the most important stats for maximizing DPS in a softcore league with this build being: Crit Multi, Cast Speed, and Lightning Pen if not going Inquisitor.

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reciprocate wrote:

This build can be extremely crit focused due to both spell and totem/brand crit nodes all over templar, witch, and shadow areas. I actually see 3 of the most important stats for maximizing DPS in a softcore league with this build being: Crit Multi, Cast Speed, and Lightning Pen if not going Inquisitor.

Sure can, but the point investment to just get over the hurdle of being better than Elemental Overload is simply not worth it in my view for HCSSF purposes. EO is reliably procced by Storm brand alone, even with controlled destruction.

A softcore build could definitely drop some survivability, in particular the Marauder nodes, and instead go into the Shadow area. I'd even drop the brand nodes near the scion life wheel in that case.

for single target spire trap wouldnt go well in this build?

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leobre wrote:

for single target spire trap wouldnt go well in this build?

I'm only in act 5, but so far my 3 main spells in Arc Totems, orb of storms, and main skill of Storm Brand seems to be doing fine for current bosses. I think a better choice would be Vaal Storm Call on a 4L or pseudo 5L (shaper helmet with conc effect) and Vaal Righteous Fire for the more spell damage multiplier effect when having to deal with bosses with a lot of hp down the line.

And for Op, have u seen Pohx's video build on this? I figure it's very relevant for you since he's running it on HC SSF too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9sgHyrLC-s

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reciprocate wrote:

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leobre wrote:

for single target spire trap wouldnt go well in this build?

I'm only in act 5, but so far my 3 main spells in Arc Totems, orb of storms, and main skill of Storm Brand seems to be doing fine for current bosses. I think a better choice would be Vaal Storm Call on a 4L or pseudo 5L (shaper helmet with conc effect) and Vaal Righteous Fire for the more spell damage multiplier effect when having to deal with bosses with a lot of hp down the line.

And for Op, have u seen Pohx's video build on this? I figure it's very relevant for you since he's running it on HC SSF too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9sgHyrLC-s

I have seen the video and it looks pretty good! My build is more focused on overdoing defenses, which is more suitable for newer players and those that are still learning.

I have updated the passive tree a bit to shift towards more damage, I'm not having any tankyness issues in the late game despite not having all the defensive nodes I had planned.

I also updated the Storm Brand gem links, now that Path of Building is updated which helped analyze which were best.

Hi, I'm planning on a brand char as well! And thx for the guide.

One question, does the brand count as a self-cast, or is it similar to traps where they are not cosidered "cast by youself"?