Warbringer Shockwave Totems: 250k+ dps mapping / 350k+bossing. Easy T16s & Bossing. (Video)

Note: Guide and video were orginally posted before any +7 two handed weapons were on the market. Numbers updated to reflect newly available gear.

Warbringer dual wields +7 melee skills 2H maces using Giant's blood, +2 gloves, +3 Amulet, resulting in a lvl 39 Shockwave totem at full build. On the tree I am using, when they are all summoned they will be doing around 66k dps each mapping and around 93k dps each bossing

Shockwave totem level scales at a rate of a little over 15% per level, with no diminishing returns that I have observed. The difference between dual wielding the second +6 mace and using a shield is approximately 140% more dps. The remaining gear caps out all rezzes, including chaos, and runs a little over 6K armour for defense (character sheet phys reduction is 56% at lvl 89). Tanky enough for a hit or two, which is all it usually ever needs to take.

The damage feels spectacular. The build will literally walk through a T16, at +2 map levels, one shotting everything except rares, which may take 2-3 seconds. Bosses get stunned and taken down very rapidly. The biggest problem is paying the summoning cost in a way that allows for smooth gameplay. I solve this by going blood magic, linking inspiration to reduce the cost by 40%, and linking Life Bounty, which provides 100% increased flask charges gained. Combine with an Ultimate life flask with reduced charges used and either increased life recovered or faster life recovery and the sustain is actually excellent while mapping, Just summon a totem or 2 or 4, depending on the situation, hit the flask and roll away while your enemies die.

Skill Tree:

Recommended Ascendancy Order:

Key Skills, Links, and Annoint

Video with lvl 82 area Walkover, Bossfight & Gear:



Leveling Advice: [spoiler] Offensively, you are always looking for +level to melee skills on any piece of gear. Early leveling even a +1 makes a big difference. A total of +4 was enough to cruise through to the end of the acts. The +17 shown in the build wasn't reached until late endgame. The nice thing is that every bonus level you are able to improve from 1-19 will feel significant. Defensively, prioritize getting resists to at least 40 or so during the campaign (though more is always better if possilbe). POE2 is calibrated very differently from POE1 in this regard--you don't need capped resists until you are heading toward T6+ maps, or later if you find it comfortable. However you DO need to prioritize chaos res along with the rest of them, as POE2 is unforgiving in that regard. Other than rezzes, look for life and armour while leveling. Later you will also want attributes on gear to meet the 3x requirement for making use of Giant's blood.

A note on the Giant's blood gear: The cost of a +6 (+7 now) two handed mace varies dramatically depending on its strength requirement. You might think you need to spend a fortune to get one with a base cost of under 100, but this is not the case. There are two soul cores that will convert 20% of the strength requirement to either dex or int (or both, since a 2H weapon can slot two runes or cores) These are only an ex or two each. Do the math and you may be able to make do with a +6 (+7) weapon that has a somewhat higher strength requirement by making good use of those soul cores, since you will want some amount of int and dex anyway to make use of lingering illusion, which I highly recommend as an extra defensive layer added to your dodge roll. I definitely noticed a difference when I started using it.

For your anoint, Initiative (Greed, Ire, Envy) is disproportionately powerful on an attack totem build, since the totem does not count as us attacking. It is not a very expensive anoint, and I recommend picking it up for your amulet even while leveling if you can afford to.

Finally, On the tree, start by making a beeline for both totem clusters that provide you an extra totem (which will naturally take you through a totem cluster that doesn't--you will respec the pathing later) Next the fourth totem cluster. After that I recommend focusing on AOE, then branch out toward whichever piece of the tree appeals to you as you fill in the rest. Take resolute technique when you see your chance to hit start to dip toward 90%. Go blood magic when you start to feel the cost of summoning the totems become too much for your mana pool to comfortably handle. Don't take Giant's Blood until you are well into the endgame, already have the stat problems solved, and have at least 4 out of 6 sockets so you can use inspiration. 5 out of 6 for inspiration and life bounty will be more comfy. Dual wielding one handers is fine for the majority of the game, as these go up to +5, with many inexpensive +4 options. +8 is likely more than you will need to get through the campaign.

Late game, when you want to become tankier, I have two recommendations:

1. Get enough life and strength on gear to get up to about a 3k life pool--I found this to be a reasonable target.

2. Focus on improving maximum ele res through the two clusters on the tree and the seven easily available jewel slots.

When I got my char to 92, I began to be frustrated with my frequency of dying in hard-rolled maps. I hit those two goals and felt much tankier and began breezing through them again.


I'll check back in to answer questions if there are any. Otherwise I hope some of you decide to try it out and have as much fun as I have.

Good Luck,
Orion

Is there a link to your passive tree sir?

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HappyH0ur#1611 wrote:

Is there a link to your passive tree sir?

For leveling trees you can use the totembringer guide I posted a few days before this one.

I have added a passive tree to the guide.

Best,
-O

https://maxroll.gg/poe2/passive-tree/

try this one to link it. Should help

Too bad shockwave totems don't scale off of your own weapon damage.

at what point of the game you think its worth to drop Hrimnor's Hymn Oak Greathammer for a +skills one?

Tbh I think it's a benefit that we dont scale off weapon damage. I think we get more power with a higher ceiling -because- the gem level contains the base flat damage rather than our weapon.

On another note, I just hit 90 and ancestral spirits got another open socket. I am running an experiment now moving life bounty onto ancestral spirits and adding heavy swing onto the totems. Since so much of the flask recovery comes from rares and the ancestral spirits are culling, my thought is that this may provide enough sustain and let me squeeze out another 20%+ damage or so. I'll report back findings.

Tried out conc effect first--I can say for sure that conc feels terrible and is in no way worth the extra damage.

-O

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snoop1337#6449 wrote:

at what point of the game you think its worth to drop Hrimnor's Hymn Oak Greathammer for a +skills one?

So this one is straight math. Hrimnor's is providing, effectively 100% more damage. since the gem levels are providing a hair under 16% per level, I would look at it this way, approximately:

1 level=16% more
2 levels=34% more
3 levels=56% more
4 levels=81% more
5 levels=110% more+
6 levels=140% more
7 levels=162% more

So it is worth trading for a +5 weapon or better.

-O

"

Orion72#3803 wrote:

On another note, I just hit 90 and ancestral spirits got another open socket. I am running an experiment now moving life bounty onto ancestral spirits and adding heavy swing onto the totems. Since so much of the flask recovery comes from rares and the ancestral spirits are culling, my thought is that this may provide enough sustain and let me squeeze out another 20%+ damage or so. I'll report back findings.
-O

So I'm going to say that this failed for mapping--sustain was not nearly as comfortable as just keeping life bounty on the main skill, and the extra dps contributes nothing to mapping at this point. I might try keeping heavy swing and conc effect slotted in the mace attack just for convenience and consider swapping one or the other in for bossing. (conc only for very immobile bosses).

-O