3.5 BROTEMS brand-totem hybrid Hierophant | proactive totem build | Uber Elder

SICKPAW IQ150 Hierophant
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2302750
3.5 BROTEMS brand-totem hybrid Hierophant
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2300354
3.5 4x recovery VD PP Occultist
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2290698
3.5 Archetype Cold DoT Occultist
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2274340
3.5 Indigon PP Crit LL VD Hierophant
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2255866
3.4 NO SOCKET miner-PF Ascendant
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2247804
3.4 Pugilist/Rigwald unarmed Consecrated Path Trickster
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2242641

The first incentive to combine both totem and brand is obviously GGG adds most of the brand nodes directly onto totem nodes on passive tree out of inexplicable reasons or just pure laziness

And to conveniently cripple the potential abuse of this, the new brand Keystone counteracts with totem

Then the question is which overweighs the other

Do we need another totem build?

After the nerf of the totem ascendancy and the introduction of the new support gem

Hierophant is not anymore the go to Ascendancy for totem for max totem number. Instead, with the new brand ascendancy, brand needs to be included to compete with other Classes


For comparison. a God gear (Void Battery + Atziri's Reflection + Coward's Legacy) Low Life pure Ice Spear totem build could have 0.6m dps per totem * 6. This build with average gear already has 2.2m before 120% enemy damage taken (currently unavailable in POB) and recovery with leech. You choose

The new skill type, Brand, can be seen as a Damage over Time that hits with aoe/chain. The default number of brand an enemy can have is 1 and can exclusively be increased by the Keystone to 2. So brand is good at clearing but inherently terrible at single target with the low ceiling
Looking at other competitive DoT builds - Fire (Righteous Fire + Scorching Ray + Elemental Equilibrium) Chaos (Essence Drain + Contagion + Blight + Wither) Cold (Cold Snap + Vortex + Arctic Breath + Elemental Equilibrium) https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2274340 - they all need multiple support skills/mechanisms to actually work. And for Brand, naturally the support comes from totems

Between the two brand skills, Armageddon Brand deals aoe damage, while Storm Brand chains to 3 targets with a focus on single target but low damage / damage effectiveness. I think Storm Brand is designed to replace Orb of Storms as a utility skill from the beginning


There is no competitive Fire spell for single target except for VD, so we have to switch to other elements. Revamped Ice Spear gives the highest single target damage in the "second form" with insane built in stats assuming all projectiles hit
But before transforming the skill has to travel a preset distance reducible only by Helmet Enchantment, and if the projectile hits in the "first form", it has no extra stats and can't pierce to transform. And with the latency between a totem is placed and it starts shooting, the full power of the skill can't be realized at all times in combat, especially in narrow indoors like xx Crypt, xx Temple, xx Sewer, and Research and Fortification Syndicate and the worst, Proximity Shield. That's when brands come in and save the day

Again the validity of hybrid explained

Ice Spear

From top to bottom damage contribution high to low. Depending on the 4th off color you can get on Soul Mantle, Immolate can be compromised to support a Cold skill

Armageddon Brand

Again extra support choices for socket color complication. It would be easier to switch the places of two skills if not for Soul Mantle

Auras


Movement


CwDT

You can hardly beat Soul Mantle's 7 link +1 totem with Shav LL or Spells have +1.5% crit chance. It has two drawbacks - a rather low ES off a low lv base, and curses. Out of the 4 ways to counter curses (curse flask, Kikazaru, Watcher's Eye single curse mod, Atziri's Reflection), a flask is clearly the most viable and effective. Picking the cheapest and most durable flask Stibnite and a flask focus belt, you have close to
half a minute of curse immunity to get any flask charges

The most Crit Multi you can get from rare is 63% from Shaper staff or 38% + 38% from dual wielding
From unique, however, you can have say 60% + 60% while putting up with crazy degen from Shimmeron, or a conditional 60% + up to 75% from Duskdawn


Duskdawn has always been one of the best crit caster weapon with a defensive synergy and ignored. Before the somewhat meme around part of its vendor recipe recently, it has sit with a shameful price of 20-30c. I just didn't bother looking for potentially better rare given that. It really needs some Mathil love
In addition, other gear to get Crit Multi are amulet and jewels

Get any of the Uber Lab helmet enchant with some ES. If you happen to come across a cheap god craft Molten Strike Elder 7 link helmet, place Armageddon in it and try Void Battery or other weapons

We have 0.5% Spell damage leech from ascendancy, which may not feel enough. Then Warlord's Mark is needed. (Sarcastically a Str curse is extensively used by casters) You can use Warlord's Mark + Blasphemy/Curse on Hit/CwDT support, but an Elder ring is what everyone eventually settle for
Warlord's Mark also provides leech and Endurance Charge, the only charge for totems. At 3 charges totems have resistances capped and physical damage taken halved, becoming less expendable in stationary fight like Delve nodes
With an Elder ring at hand it's hard to resist throwing in Mark of the Shaper. But pay attention to this ascendancy

In combat it gives huge increased damage that diminishes the seemingly big 105% increased Spell damage from Mark of the Shaper (easily over 60 * 6% in Delve https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqBwe_1fG6s), so it's not as perfect as it looks
Instead, Shavronne's Revalation in left slot gives 125 flat ES, 12-15% increased max ES from Int and huge mana regen that eases the huge cost of totems less annoying before combat. We only leech ES anyway

https://tinyurl.com/y76uux6z


Only passives that benefit both skills are allocated, namely general increased damage, crit and cast speed, in addition to what's needed for survivability
This tree is balanced for my specific gem use and gear stats, the lowest damage nodes giving +2.0% dps per point. With any change in gem setup or char stats, the priority of increased damage/crit/cast speed will change, so use POB to adjust for your gear

Bandits
Alira

Pantheon
Major God - Brine King to prevent stun lock
Minor God - Abberath for burning ground immunity

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2286846