[Retired Thread] Wallach's Hierophant Holy Flame Totems (Old)

It sounds like the Synthesis bosses will be coming back through Zana unique map missions (similar to Untainted Paradise), which means there is a good chance Circle of Anguish comes back to the game. If so, while it will likely be expensive, this will be a great boon to this build restoring it to Synthesis league levels of potential.

"

Wallach wrote:

It sounds like the Synthesis bosses will be coming back through Zana unique map missions (similar to Untainted Paradise), which means there is a good chance Circle of Anguish comes back to the game. If so, while it will likely be expensive, this will be a great boon to this build restoring it to Synthesis league levels of potential.

Haha was just running here to check if someone had mentioned this...

Totems templars have been playing Tower Defense for 9 years. Move that gear up, boys!

.

I've played both the Freezing Pulse build and this Holy Flame build and have done all content.

I added my own twist but used these guides as a base.

Freezing Pulse


Holy Flame Totem


I would say I would easily recommend Freezing Pulse over Holy Flame Totem.

HFT is more aesthetic and does much more damage. It's easier to get started. I think it scales better as well the more currency you can throw at it.

But Freezing Pulse is much better because it freezes the entire screen and it's much easier to see what's going on, it also isn't that far behind damage wise.

In some of the tougher fights, it's nearly impossible to see the ground and the bosses movements when you have 4 juiced flame totems going on.

I have 0 deaths on my Freezing Pulse character. I look forward to playing it next league.

Hi there!

Thanks for the great guide :)

I have some questions regarding your build:

- how tanky and mistake forgiving ( i just done know some deadly attacks from specific monster ) is this build? Could you facetank some stuff?

- i think its a great and easy to gear league starter?

"

Enterich wrote:

Hi there!

Thanks for the great guide :)

I have some questions regarding your build:

- how tanky and mistake forgiving ( i just done know some deadly attacks from specific monster ) is this build? Could you facetank some stuff?

- i think its a great and easy to gear league starter?

To your first question, while I don't think this build is squishy by this game's standards (something like a bow build is far, far squishier) this is not the kind of build where you want to facetank stuff, no. You'll live through some mistakes but part of the advantage of totems is being able to move freely while your totems continue to attack. In that way it is a pretty good build for learning boss fights since you can focus a little more on reading boss tells and fight mechanics.

As for league starting, yes I still consider Holy Flame Totem a very good league start, though I do think Freezing Pulse totems are also good for that and I think is a stronger build overall. Holy Flame Totem is definitely easier to gear though, especially in a SSF kind of context since you don't really need any uniques or threshold jewels for the build.

Updated with some preliminary 3.8 changes to give people an idea of the changes while I work on the wider guide updates.

what about RF? no space in this build?

Im thinking also start with HFT or Freeze Pulse hierophant as starter.. but mines or traps can be good for that also, what do you think?

"

dfda91 wrote:

what about RF? no space in this build?

Im thinking also start with HFT or Freeze Pulse hierophant as starter.. but mines or traps can be good for that also, what do you think?

We do have room for Vaal Righteous Fire (which we use for the Spell Damage multiplier), but we can't deal damage ourselves with spells due to Ancestral Bond, so regular Righteous Fire is just basically a severe degen on yourself (monsters in the radius will technically be "burning" but for zero damage). Edit: Obviously base Righteous Fire also has a spell damage multiplier, but I don't think the drop in degen is enough to try and build around running it full time. I guess I could consider playing around with a different build setup that can sustain it and see if it's worthwhile, but at first glance I don't think it'll pan out that well.

As far as league starting, I think totem builds in general are always a strong league start. Either Freezing Pulse or Holy Flame Totem will make good league start choices in a trade league, though I think Holy Flame Totem might be a little easier to go for in SSF where it'll be harder to get together something like Soul Mantle plus two Kikazaru rings (though you'll still notice the lack of Rain of Splinters in Holy Flame Totem).

What are your thoughts on Body Swap totems now that they no longer need a corpse to explode from?