[3.15] Elemental Hit Ballista Totem Hiero | Budget Friendly | League Start to Endgame

Hi guys, please refer to my replies below:

Thanks Vei,

I will try out the idea on the rings.

You are correct on the DPS, it was just a mouse hover over. To be honest, the only thing I really liked about the Scion was the amazing LL from the Chieftan. It is nice going to the Deadeye to get the free pierce. I think once the league merges today with standard & I have better gear, I will try other classes.

I missed the 2 passives on the Ranger. Thanks, I changed my tree.

10ex for 1 jewel though is a lot although the insane stats I got are definitely worth it.


I will wait for the patch notes to see what else got butchered before deciding.

Thanks,

"

Ahewaz wrote:

10ex for 1 jewel though is a lot although the insane stats I got are definitely worth it.

Spoiler

Yeah it's expensive but gives a pretty big boost, I paid 10ex for mine too XD

"

Ahewaz wrote:

To be honest, the only thing I really liked about the Scion was the amazing LL from the Chieftan.

Other than the LL, the Cover Enemy in Ash is also a 20% more Damage(Multiplicative) and that's a pretty big chunk of DPS.



So I fiddled around with POB for Deadeye to see how one that doesn't travel to the top left of the Passive Tree looks.

DPS is nice, and after considering all new upgrades of Deadeye, with the projectiles flying all over the screen, its is gonna be awesome.

However, Max Life with Kaom's Heart is only 5.2k, after taking all the available Life Passives within reach. It's a bit low for my taste. There is no Life Leech/Regen, just dodge and Evasion. Not sure if the new Gale Force, which can stack up to 30% less Damage(That takes 4 points in the Tree though) will be helpful enough since 1 hit removes all Gale Force and if one is unlucky and get hit consecutively for 2 times, it could be bad.

The best thing that could happen will be if Ascendant's Deadeye get some of the newly upgraded good stuffs. Then it'll be an easy decision ;)

"

Ahewaz wrote:

I will wait for the patch notes to see what else got butchered before deciding.

One more day!

GGG posted reworked ascendancy classes already.

Scion:
Chieftain is not changed at all.


For Deadeye:
Added
25% increased Effect of your Marks
You and nearby Allies have Tailwind

Removed
50% increased Global Accuracy Rating
Projectiles Pierce 2 additional Targets
Moving while Bleeding doesn't cause you to take extra Damage


Perma Tailwind should works on ballistas as well, but we lost extra pierce.

Is there anyway to get elusive buff to hierophant?

If totem crits, does it give elusive buff to a player if the player has gain elusive on critical strike mod?

Woke up halfway to do this, just to put it here so you guys have an idea what I had in mind

Base on the Ascendancy Tree Reveal, I kind of shortlist down to 3 Classes for this build(Not in any order of preference)

Ascendant(Chieftain/Raider)
Deadeye
Raider

Comments

1. For Deadeye and Raider which means Ranger Starting Area, there are 2 ways to go about the Passive Tree

A. Don't go to the top left of the Passive Tree for Ancestral Bond and Avatar of Fire

This one gives more total DPS with 5 totems, however HP is around 5.2k with Kaom's Heart. Pretty Glass Cannon

B. Passive Tree similar to Hiero(i.e. This guide)

A bit lesser total DPS than Point 1 with 6 totems but HP is around 5.8k with Kaom's Heart. A more comfortable amount and I think this is the more ideal choice.


2. Raider - I used my current POB to check how the Evade from Avatar of the Chase interacts with what I have and was pretty surprised to see max 95% Evade Chance!! Considering the new tree also provides 15% Dodge and Spell Dodge, pretty easy to reach 75/75 for Dodge/Spell Dodge. That's quite some defense with all these!


3. Ascendant(Chieftain/Raider) is pretty much the same as the Pastebin I put up 1-2 pages back, just need to optimize more


I must say I am a bit leaning towards Raider currently with a Passive Tree similar to the Hiero one. I mean think about dancing around the 10 bosses with those Dodge + Evasion ;)

Will comment a bit more tomorrow, after I look into things in more detail. I could be just seeing strange things since I am half awake, and maybe it's just me dreaming about dancing around the 10 Bosses. Maybe you guys will break me free of my dream with your comments after I woke ;)

"

Meexs wrote:

Perma Tailwind should works on ballistas as well, but we lost extra pierce.

I wrote about tailwind a number of pages back when thomzon asked about Deadeye so I'll just quote it here

"

Tailwind - not too helpful for us(See below), base on the info I saw when I looked around(As best as I can). Might be wrong so if anyone knows better, feel free to correct it.

- Totems doesn't activate the Tailwind buff when it shoots
- Totems doesn't get the Tailwind buff through Gathering Winds Ascendancy(even though Totems are considered Allies)
- Totems also doesn't inherit our Action Speed
- Tailwind does helps in our Totem Placement Speed

References
https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/8ljt10/discussion_tailwind_and_totems/

Since Totems doesn't get the Tailwind buff through Gathering Winds Ascendancy I think it might still be the same unless GGG changed/patched it.

"

decliff wrote:

Is there anyway to get elusive buff to hierophant?

1. Withering Step Gem
2. Redeemer's Boot with chance to gain Elusive on Critical Strike affix (You will have fire and crit the enemy, even though no damage is done due to Ancestral Bond)

"

decliff wrote:

If totem crits, does it give elusive buff to a player if the player has gain elusive on critical strike mod?

No it doesn't give the player the elusive buff.

@Vei

First off, I'm so glad to see you have your own post for this build. I really appreciated your work on the last thread and I hope you get the recognition you deserve for all your effort. I've benefitted from your write-ups a great deal. Thank you so much!


Regarding the new league, I'm feeling pretty uncertain about the build. Hierophant wasn't really the main choice so much for the power but for the comfort and quality of life. Even that was a bit lacking with the Uber Lab ascendancy points feeling meaningless.

It seems to be that another ascendancy is going to be mandatory now, and the choice for that is tricky. (I'd love to hear your thoughts on a Chieftain build. The changes to the Chief ascendancy seem to be positive and the points should synergize well.)

To me, looking into the other ascendancies, it's hard to justify keeping this build around. The pros and cons do seem to balance out most of the time, and the build isn't in a terrible spot. But if going with another ascendancy, it also seems like picking another skill can offer more for less. I'm not sure if it's worth forcing this build to work, square peg in a round hole style.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.
(I've also transferred this build into a Siege Ballista build a couple of times, after gaining currency with it to pour into dex builds. That is in an even worse spot now, and other classes have far more appeal. This is definitely steering my feelings on things.)

"

Cheshire3o8 wrote:

@Vei

First off, I'm so glad to see you have your own post for this build. I really appreciated your work on the last thread and I hope you get the recognition you deserve for all your effort. I've benefitted from your write-ups a great deal. Thank you so much!

Hey Cheshire3o8,

Those words really mean a lot to me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! ^_^

"

Cheshire3o8 wrote:

Hierophant wasn't really the main choice so much for the power but for the comfort and quality of life.

I agree with you, if not for the QOL I would have choosen Ascendant(Chieftain + something)

"

Cheshire3o8 wrote:

Even that was a bit lacking with the Uber Lab ascendancy points feeling meaningless.

Those 2 Small Passive definitely isn't some nice looking Notable, however those 2 definitely help with the Mana Regeneration(Both Before and After getting Chainbreaker). Just like you said Hiero is for the Quality of Life, without the combined Mana Regeneration Small Passive + Notable from the Hiero Ascendancy, it will be pretty bad and this is very obvious when we try to play a non-Hiero Class.

"

Cheshire3o8 wrote:

To me, looking into the other ascendancies, it's hard to justify keeping this build around. The pros and cons do seem to balance out most of the time, and the build isn't in a terrible spot. But if going with another ascendancy, it also seems like picking another skill can offer more for less. I'm not sure if it's worth forcing this build to work, square peg in a round hole style.

It's definitely not forcing the build to work.

Last league I played a Scion for sometime in Standard(Since I didn't play Heist) because to be honest, defense definitely isn't the strongest for this build so I want have an experience how a more tanky build feels like and also see if anything else can be improved for this build.

So I played the Scion for a while to try out the Chieftain Leech and I really feel good about the improvements to defense and didn't mind the 1 less totem per cast for the defensive benfits. That said, the change from 2 totem per cast to 1 totem, it definitely feel slower to setup the totems and need getting used to, however this doesn't RIP the build. I did find I have to adapt to the time required to deploy the totems.

The thing is we don't really need to place the max amount of totems in all situation. Say when mapping with my Hiero, I place 2 totems here, then move some distance and place 2 totems further. So same with Scion, I place 1-2 totems here and place another 2 further. The times when we need to place more totems are in those 100% Delirium Maps/Deep Delves and when fighting bosses. Its those times that we will wish it could be faster.

My friend played a Scion(I designed) in heist and she finds it great(She previously played Hiero in Harvest and Delirium), never complained about the 1 totem per cast, though she did say it's slower but the defense gained from playing Scion was fantastic and a good exchange for the QOL. In the end she say she think both Scion and Hiero has their pros and cons so she will go with whatever she decides to play in a new league, base on whether she prefers a more defensive or more offensive approach for the league.

Overall the 1 totem per cast isn't as bad as many people see it. It definitely feels bad going from 2 totems to 1 and I don't deny that. Though i think a lot of "R.I.P" reaction from people is more from not welcoming nerfs in general which I totally understand. No one like nerfs.


I give an old example. In 3.10 Delirium, this build could have max 11 totems. When 3.11 was announced and the max amount was nerfed to 7, everyone was like "R.I.P." the build they wanted to play and I definitely saw the drop in popularity of the build.

Fastforward to today, no one thought about that anymore, look at Ahewaz Video, the build performs so good there with the supposedly 3.11 "R.I.P.".

Basically, I try to see nerfs from an objective point of view and in this case it's that the mapping and clear is slower plus there are mana requirements to take care of but these doesn't kill a build.


The Core of this build is basically the Frostferno/Elemental Hit/Combat Focus/Rain of Splinter Setup, as long as that is not broken/touched much, all is still good(Fingers Crossed for tomorrow!). The Ascendancy choice basically gives this an identity and from there, expand on the Ascendancy's strength. That's how I see this build.

Anyway all this is just my opinion, ultimately I would say play the build if you still enjoy(Or in this case if it's working for you) it. Just like I play this build every league and wrote a guide for it because I really enjoy and love it. :)

"

Cheshire3o8 wrote:

(I'd love to hear your thoughts on a Chieftain build. The changes to the Chief ascendancy seem to be positive and the points should synergize well.)

So Chieftain has 2 buffs(The 3rd one is just moved from one notable to another), I'll give my comments on each

- 15% of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Fire Damage

This is definitely a good buff, makes the Chieftain Tankier.

A note that Non-chieftains can get 5% of this mod through the additional mod added to Notables by Lethal Pride(Akoya) in it's radius.

- 2% of Damage dealt by your Totems is Leeched to you as Life

Base on my understanding on how life leech works, this buff basically does nothing(Except very early on when our damage is low) because it is capped by the life leech instance mechanics

Example
- We have 6,000 life
- Our Totems does on average 200,000 damage(Using the numbers on my POB Pastebin)per hit(not per second)
- We have "1% of Damage dealt by your Totems is Leeched to you as Life"

Each Life leech instance can leech maximum 10% of our life(unless modified) which means the 200k damage originally will leech 2,000 life to us but it will be reduced to 10% of our maximum life(Due to the mechanic) which is 600

So the Chieftain buff of 2% means 200k damage will leech 4,000 life to us but it will be reduced to 10% of our maximum life which is 600

So technically there's only 1 buff to Chieftain, still nice compared to nerfs lol

I am not an expert in Leech though so if anyone sees any error please correct me.

I haven't played Chieftain before so my comments will be more of a general opinion base on looking at the current Ascendancy

Overall I think Chieftain Ascendancy is very balanced, the Ascendancy Tree offers both Offensive and Defensive Approach with the unique benefit of Totem leeching life to the player. That is a very strong reason to go for the Ascendancy, just like the "2 Totem per Cast" of Hiero.

Now that I looked at it more, I think I would add Chieftain in my above 3 shortlist for this build too.

Overall I think all of the 4 Ascendancy I shortlisted are viable, and it's up to a player to decide what Ascendancy/identity to give to the build and build around it's advantage and weaknesses :)


P.S. I should get back to sleep lol...

Hi all and thanks (specially to Vei) for analyzing all the incoming changes.

I really like the idea of going full evasion Raider, or Deadeye, but I'm wondering about the leaguestarting experience. League starting Hiero totems is really easy, even if not super fast, I have done it multiple times.
But I have no experience levelling a ranger, and I really dislike having to play something entirely different than the final build and massively respeccing at a certain level.

How do you think a ranger could be levelled to spec into this build when able ? I suppose Holy Flame Totems are not an option.

"

thomzon wrote:

Hi all and thanks (specially to Vei) for analyzing all the incoming changes.

I really like the idea of going full evasion Raider, or Deadeye, but I'm wondering about the leaguestarting experience. League starting Hiero totems is really easy, even if not super fast, I have done it multiple times.
But I have no experience levelling a ranger, and I really dislike having to play something entirely different than the final build and massively respeccing at a certain level.

How do you think a ranger could be levelled to spec into this build when able ? I suppose Holy Flame Totems are not an option.

That was a question for myself too, and I personally am a big fan of totems, just like crimsonraziel9 ;)

So I took a look at how to be able to use Holy Flame Totems for leveling, even though it's even slower than Hiero one due to 1 less Totem and taking longer to reach Ancestral Bond.

Create a Templar(Yeah)
Kill Hillock
Go into Town
Take Molten Strike from Tarkleigh
Take Waypoint of The Coast
Go kill Hailrake, Go Town, Get 1st gem Infused Channelling as reward, buy 2nd gem Summon Phantasm from Nessa for 1 Wisdom Scroll
Take TP to The Coast
Go Mud Flats break 3 eggs(Find and put the 3 Glyphs), and back to town and get 3rd gem Holy Flame Totem
Put everything in stash
Say goodbye to Long Neck Bald Head
Create Anime Girl(Ranger)
Kill Hillock Go to town and grab gems and start using HFT

Later Cage Brute Quest will reward us with Added Fire Damage as the 4th Gem to use

1) Holy Flame Totem
2) Summon Phantasm
3) Infused Channelling
4) Added Fire Damage

These 4 gem is actually enough for casual leveling as long we do the "Fire Damage to Spells Wands" at level 8(1 x wand) and level 20(2 x wand) craft + buy the 2 x level 40+ Wands

Unfortunately we won't have access to Combustion and Clarity until Siosa

So meanwhile since we have no Clarity, just use Mana Flask to sustain Mana for now. Later in Act 2 we will get Survival Secrets plus we will help Alira so these 2 will give us 8 Flat Mana Regen per sec which helps with HFT casting. Then when we reach Siosa we will buy Clarity and start using it.

For the remaining its mostly the same as in the guide just that Gems are shuffled around, some we have access to from vendor, some not.

For Passive Tree, we will head straight 1st to Ancestral Bond from Ranger Starting Area(Yeah super long boring start) then Avatar of Fire, then Acrobatics/Phase Acrobatics

For the remaining its mostly the same as in this guide.


Below is a very rough POB draft, even more rough than the Scion one I did for Raider for some references.

POB Pastebin for Raider: https://pastebin.com/pNk8mMPN

Dodge/Spell Dodge in the Pastebin is at 70/71 but will become 75/75 after the 3.13 update

Also it's missing the Exposure from Avatar of the Veil notable, can't seem to find a way to activate it, so DPS should be higher.

For those going Deadeye, can follow a similar Tree with changes to other areas as needed, like deactivate Onslaught and make some changes to Flask since Deadeye don't have immunity to Elemental Ailment which Pathfinder has.