[3.1][ALL MAP MODS]End-Game Lazy Chieftain Flame Totem Build

Updated. Added Uber and Core video.

I've done quite a few of these builds, but haven't tried it as chieftain yet. I'm hoping the taunt and leech are as good as advertised. Crit FT's never had a problem with damage and since they changed mob AI a few patches ago to focus more on the player, the chieftain ascendancy seems like a very strong option.

I've used the three dragons approach many times for the safety of freeze. Would you say that the taunt ascendancy is as good or better than the freeze from three dragons? Sometimes the freeze would save me from fast attacking mobs like leapers and also those exploding quill fuckers. Having a taunt against bosses also seems super strong.

Looking forward to leveling one of these. Thanks for the guide.

I am confused. This is from your first post:

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Lopi85 wrote:

Gem setup:

Spoiler

Flame Totem:

Movement:

Utility:

Golem:

CWDT:

Later you write:

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Lopi85 wrote:

Elemental Focus is the best damage support gem (better than Empower lvl4). If you want change try this gems:

Best = Elemental Focus, next Controlled Destruction/Incresed Critical Strikes. All other Gems be a bunch worse.

Why is Controlled Destruction not a part of your 6-l in your first post? Am i missing something here? :o

EDIT: I've got another question: If you do not have a good corruption on the facebreaker, what enchant for gloves would you recommend?

Because EF gives you the boost without any downsides as the ignite from totems pretty much does nothing unless you are specced into some burning spec. Meanwhile if you go for CD, as this is a crit build, your crit % will suffer. It's the very reason why EF surpasses CD in this build.

I highly doubt it surpasses a lvl4 empower however compared to lvl 24 vs lvl 27 totem. I've ran a non-crit dual flame totem with 52k non-buffed sheet dps, and Empower lvl 4 was always my biggest boost.

Anyways I'd say this is one of the best starter builds or any for that matter. It also combines everything many of the Chieftain builds lack of, crit and whirling blades. Im actually surprised this isn't on first page as it should be.

Hell I'd ignore any other FT build and always stick with this one, as running flame dash/lw is plain annoying and unreliable vs hard hitting bosses.

Also the way Op's tree is made you get dual totems on lvl 25/6, after Cruel lab and taunt, this build becomes super super safe and tanky. During Perandus I went till lvl 94 with non-crit, but hell i might as well go higher next league with this one.

Don't get fooled by the Templar's/Witch high numbers. Fire immune - taunting totems give u easy life and a lot of the dmg isn't on your tooltip, like the ascendancy buffs and the penetration.

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xecutable wrote:

Answer

Thank you for getting back to me, appreciated :)

I figure Controlled Destruction is better than faster projectiles if you only care about dps, then again, faster projectiles is a massive qol improvement, and you can swap in pierce for tough single targets. A good compromise I'd say.

Now, without having tested anything, and just pulling statements out of my ass without any good reason to do so: I feel confident that Controlled Destruction is better than lvl 2 empower. This is surely a given even with the slight nerf to crit? So, the question becomes, is Controlled Destruction better than lvl 3 empower also? I can see myself getting a lvl 3 empower eventually, but a lvl 4 is doubtful, so it would be nice to get some feedback on this :)

Also, is Fire Penetration hands down better for clearspeed compared to Controlled Destruction? I'm confident tooltip dps would be way higher with Controlled Destruction, but that is not what counts, is it ;)

You can easily calculate Fire Pen. Check your tooltip damage with CD. Then take CD out and then multiply the remaining damage by 1.xx (xx being the fire pen % at whatever level it is).

This will give you the dmg against mobs with fire resistance. Long story shot, there is a threat with math around here where fire pen proves to be literally superb vs 0 resist and twice as superb vs fire res mobs.

Flame Totem dmg was boosted after lvl 23 or 24, I'm not exactly sure. An Empower level two may not be that beneficial depending on your totem level.

I'd say that a lot of the support gems are personal preference. For example if you are using the flammability debuff Added Chaos Dmg kinda loses its value as your fire pen gets quite high 80%+ making every mob out there even those with fire resist take extra fire damage.

Since we wont be using wands, which roll with projectile speed, I'd say for a good aoe coverage we'd need that gem.

Increase Crit is pretty straight forwards. Perhaps before you get your hands on an Empower lvl4, early league around 12-14ex, ud probably wanna use CD.

High lvl Flame Totem scales insanely good. On a non crit I think it was 8k dps from 25 to 26. Realistically speaking very few will get that +1 corrupted, so for most lvl 26 would be max. With crit the scaling is even crazier.

I however get easily bored, but mostly because i was very unhappy about flame dash/lightning wap. I am gonna give it a shot with whirling blades, in a week unless I find something else immune reflect, that doesnt care about map mods and can do ALL end-game (not mines/traps) as it's all I did these 3 months.

Hi, really like the look of this build and thinking of running it as my league starter for the essence league, is there any chance of putting together a basic leveling guide for us less experienced players? even a list of notable's to get first would be great as i'm assuming ancestral bond is the first priority but after that i'm pretty lost as never played a totem build before.

maybe a silly question but can this build run uber lab effectively or will it need help?

As a side note, thanks for posting the build it looks like i might actually get the chance to run into the higher tier maps. appreciate the effort.

After your rush ancestral bond, you'd probably wanna go for Blood Magic to get rid of your mana pots and pick some hp nodes until you've reach around 1k hp. At that point you should go around for the totem damage nodes.

After that is balancing hp and damage, depending on what drops for your and how many links your totem has. I wouldnt pick the crit nodes early on as it would be not as beneficial as the dmg/hp nodes.

This build can do uber labs efficiently, however due to the nature of the totems, if you have lieutenants they might/will die thus you wont get all keys.

Would Emberwake + The Taming be viable with this build?

it might be a stupid question, but im new to this game so:

why do you use facebreakers? just for crit multiplier?