[2.6] Quad Ethereal Knives/Bladefall Totem Hierophant (A Conversation)
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Introduction
You know, Billy started, I tried so hard to make my Ice Crash Life-Based Hegemony’s Scion strong enough to take down Shaper, but being slow and short-ranged made the fight maddeningly difficult. I’m sick of Life builds and melee—I want to try something different, but I just don’t know what. I can help you with that, responded Jane, I have the perfect build for you—how about an Ethereal Knives CI Totemer? If we can get your DPS high enough, you could take out Shaper from a relatively comfortable distance! What do you think? I don’t know—I feel like I’d need a seven thousand word guide in order to wrap my head around the intricacies of such a creative and ground-breaking build. Well you are in luck, because if our resulting conversation were transcribed, it would probably be just about that long! Cost
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Billy looked downcast—he did not want to reroll a new character just to beat Shaper. Couldn’t he instead spend all his savings on a dozen more Shaper sets and try until he finally won? No, that would be even less fun than trying to start from scratch. What would this build of yours cost me? inquired Billy.
I’m not going to lie; it’ll be expensive compared to what you’re used to. I’d estimate about 10ex in Legacy Standard, but if you try this build in a league without easy Skins of the Loyal, it’d probably be closer to 15ex. Well that’s steep, but hey—anything to remove this unbearable sense of failure that has been CRUSHING ME SINCE MY FAILED SHAPER ATTEMPS BLAAAARG- Quick Summary (TLDR)
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Okay, here’s the plan: we grab the Hierophant Ascendancy, we dual-wield Void Batteries, wear a Skin of the Loyal—hit 9,000 ES and a whole bunch of Life Regen with Zealot’s Oath. No leech, no Poison, no meta. What do you say?
Let’s do it! responded Billy in hysterical glee. But wait, what if I attempt this build in a league that does not allow easy access to a Skin of the Loyal? Oh you can use any old ES armor, you’ll just be trading some DPS for more tankiness. Good enough for me, let’s go! Videos
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(As little Billy records and uploads more end-game fights, this section will be updated.)
Shaper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C15TwvJB6ng Chimera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov8XUEctGmg Phoenix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef4ELK-C_YQ Xul Breachlord: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HchY7r3YiFQ Bladefall vs Phoenix, tough map mods: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGTpxmgjgcc&feature=youtu.be Theory
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Goals
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The first part of any POE plan is to plan the plan in POE Planner, illuminated Jane with perfect clarity (the word, not the aura).
How about we break your alliteration and use Path of Building so we can see actual DPS numbers? Perfect! So, your primary goal is to defeat Shaper. What do we need in order to do that? Let’s see, we’d like to hit a million DPS vs Shaper when buffed, and we’d probably want to have at least 9,000 ES with some reliable regen. What about Mana? Spell Totems on a six-link get pretty tough to maintain. Yes, we’ll want enough Mana or Mana Regen to sustain all our totems. And please, no Flameblast. I can’t bear the thought of becoming one of a million mindless Flameblast Totem drones. Okay, no Flameblast—but please be nice and try not to offend anyone who may be listening to us for some reason, answered Jane. Ethereal Knives
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I have to ask—why on Wraeclast did you pick Ethereal Knives? inquized Billy.
Because it’s fun! With the Ring of Blades threshold Jewel it fires in a nova and it’s not too hard to scale up the Damage. It’s a Physical Projectile Spell—how many times do you get to work with that? We won’t have to worry about Opal Rings or Steel Rings or anything like that, we just have to grab some increased Phys Damage, some Spell Damage, and a whole lotta’ Crit! But what about Bladefall? That’s a Physical Spell too. Yeah but Path of Building has a hard time estimating Bladefall Damage numbers which plays on my deep-seated insecurities. Jane shuddered. Bladefall can hit the same enemy multiple times, so it might be better for big bosses, but it’s very hard to say. I scoured Google trying to find some data on which is better, but nothing was conclusive. You scoured Google? Oh no! Please tell me someone Eternaled it beforehand! Jane stared at Billy blankly. She decided not to acknowledge what she was hoping was a joke, and continued, slowly, Just make sure you use Concentrated Effect to increase your chances of hitting the same target multiple times. In fact, Bladefall would probably be easier to use in a Vaal Regalia since you’d need fewer Green sockets. I would even go so far as to say that if you replaced every future mention of the words “Ethereal Knives” with “Bladefall,” and then made the necessary minor adjustments, the following guide I mean our following conversation would still make perfect sense. Ascendancy
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Okay, that’s fair, but why the Hierophant? Everyone likes Inquisitors and the Occultist gets +1 Power Charges and better ES regen, and even the Assassin can get better Crit stats. Why is the Hierophant any better than them?
Well, the Hierophant helps us tremendously to meet our stated goals. Having 4 Totems at a time greatly increases our DPS and he has the best Mana management by far. I’d say that his Ascendancies makes Mana a complete non-issue after Uber Lab! He also gives us a big boost to our ES—it would be impossible to hit 9,000 ES with our gear setup if we went with the Inquisitor or Assassin. That’s fair, but the Occultist gives us ES, a Power Charge, an additional Curse, and better ES regen stats too—why not go with her? Because I’ve already played a Witch and I’m sick of hearing about her and her clutter! Well, that and she’d probably be best as a standalone EK user—totems don’t really do anything for her other than lower her DPS. Trust me, the Hierophant is the way to go! Don’t you want to see 4 simultaneous EK Nova Totems? Yes. Yes I do. Then let’s continue. Life Regeneration
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What about survivability? Sure we can get a decent ES pool, but without any leech how are we going to survive tough encounters?
If we grab Zealot’s Oath and a decent amount of Life Regeneration, we should be able to sustain ourselves in the heat of combat while we wait for our ES regen to kick in. Here’s a breakdown of the kind of Life Regeneration we can expect to get by the time we hit our final form: Passive Tree: Mana & Life Regen (Templar Starting Area): 1.2% Sanctity: 1.0% Growth & Decay: 2.0% Sulphur Flask (Consecrated Ground): 4.0% Ideal Boots Enchantment: 2.0% Total: 10.2% Life Regeneration As you can see, that’s no small amount of Life Regen! Having decent Regen with Zealot’s Oath feels great with CI, and this should be enough that we don’t feel like we need to use Vaal Discipline or invest heavily into ES Regen/Delay. Gear
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Let’s talk gearing. You’ll need a Void Battery or two, obviously, and as I’ve already mentioned a Skin of the Loyal is a great offensive choice. Brinerot Whalers are amazing boots for this build, and you could even throw on a Physical Doryani’s Belt if you needed more resists.
For your amulet, of course you’ll have to go with an Eye of Chayula. We’ll try to get one with +all attributes as the implicit since we’ll have a tough time hitting our stat requirements. What about a Dream Fragments ring so we don’t constantly get frozen? interjected Billy. No! We need both Ring slots open for stats/resists/ES, and we can ignore Chill entirely by getting a Sulphur Flask of Heat. It’s spammable and will also heal us, you IMBECILE!... I mean, good question little Billy. Anyway, that’s about it for uniques in our gear. We’ll want some good DPS flasks of course, but we’ll get into that later. Oh yeah, don’t forget a Jaws of Agony shield. Having it equipped in your off-hand allows you to switch to it when you need Power Charges and generate some quickly. I have no idea why GGG allows for such an item to exist, but let’s not complain too loudly! Late-Game Gear Acquisition
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I can’t help but wonder how tough it is going to be to gear this character correctly. How would you approach it? Yes, I agree—playing this character will be easy but gearing it will be hard. Of course you’ll need to cap your resists and get enough Strength and Dex for your gem requirements (111 Strength and 155 Dex), and then scrape by as much ES as you can get. Here’s how I’d do it. Start with the helmet—a Hubris Circlet, of course. Buy the cheapest one with a 40% EK enchantment and then grab some Deafening Essences of Woe. Keep throwing Essences at it until you hit at least 300ES, but really you should try to get more. Any resistance is a plus. Or I could just buy a decent one? asked Billy. Yes, yes, you can always just buy one, Jane waved her hand dismissively. Anyway, next you’ll want to get some Gloves, but make sure they have a good amount of Dex on them. Try to get some with ES around 200 if possible, and as much resistances as you can get as well. These are hard to craft, so definitely buy them. And Fingerless Silk Gloves are the best, right? asked Billy. Technically yes, but that will get expensive very quickly. A pair of Sorcerer Gloves will do just fine. Jane answered. Also, I wouldn’t bother trying to enchant them in the Lab—since we use Ancestral Bond, only a few enchantments can actually do anything positive. Otherwise they just clutter the screen with fancy spell effects that are incapable of doing Damage. For your Belt, I’d recommend starting with Doryani’s but switching to a good Crystal Belt when you can. A decent Crystal Belt should have at least Tier 2 ES and good resists. Weapon Elemental Damage, Life, and Armor do nothing for our character, so we should be able to pick one up for 1ex or under. We’ve saved the toughest for last: your two Rings will need to fill in all the rest of your stats and resistances. There are two approaches here—you can either search for rings that meet your needs with %ES already crafted on them, or you can find and buy good rings with an open Prefix and craft %ES yourself. Either way, you should expect to spend at least 1.5ex on each ring. In the next patch, won’t %ES be impossible to craft onto Rings? That’s what they say, but we’re living in the NOW, so craft away! What about Jewels? Can’t they finish out our build? Well, you’re only getting one, maybe two Jewels other than your Ring of Blades to work with, so we’ll only be able to get a little bit of what we need from them. I’d look for Stats or Resists, then 8% ES and some form of Damage or Crit Multi. Okay, but most of the time I’ll be mapping with a Shield and not two Void Batteries, right? So can’t I fill in my Resistances that way? Of course not you daft child! You’ll need capped resists when you take on harder bosses that require dual-wielding. That was a dumb question and you should feel bad for asking it! answered Jane. Gem Links
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I will now list out for you my ideal set of Gem Links. Hopefully my talking will put in you a mental image something of an organized list that is easy to follow:
Ethereal Knives – Empower – Spell Totem – Controlled Destruction – Pierce– Faster Projectiles/Crit Multi Frenzy – GMP – Curse on Hit – Projectile Weakness Orb of Storms – Power Charge on Crit – Increased AOE/Critical Strike Chance Hatred/Haste – Discipline – Clarity – Enlighten Vaal Lightning Trap – Vaal Haste/Vaal Discipline/Phase Run – Increased Duration Flame Dash – Faster Casting CWDT – Lightning Golem (Off-Hand) Ice Trap, Cluster Trap, Multi-Trap There, that wasn’t so hard. Let’s go over them. Ethereal Knives Cluster
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This is a pretty simple EK Totem setup. The only tough decision is whether to use Faster Projectiles or Critical Strike Multiplier. Crit Multi will give us much better DPS in the lategame, but Faster Projectiles with Pierce can clear entire screens of mobs with ease. It really comes down to whether you want to be better at mapping or Boss killing.
Wait, this can be so much simpler. Can’t you do what everyone else does and swap Faster Projectiles for Slower Projectiles for tough bosses? Have you ever tried to use EK with Slower Projectiles? Your effective range becomes practically nonexistent at higher levels! If you want to bother trying to squeeze four totems snugly next to enemy bosses, you may try, but believe me, none of you will be very comfortable. Hmm, well could I compromise and just buy a Skin of the Loyal with a White socket to swap between Faster Projectiles and Crit Multi? Sure you can! But if that’s not available, just go with Crit Multi. At least when you’re getting ready for the Guardians. Frenzy Cluster
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Okay, this one confuses me. Why Frenzy—isn’t that a melee skill? Why rely on it to apply Curses? Why Projectile Weakness? What about our Accuracy? We’re not investing in Accuracy, are we?
That’s a lot of questions. How about you just trust that I know what I’m talking about and it would not be worth my time to fully explain every aspect of how this build works? Just answer the questions. Fine. Frenzy is ranged since we’re using a wand, and Accuracy isn’t a problem because we’ll still have about a 50% chance of hitting in the endgame even without any investment, which is FINE for our purposes. All it needs to do is hit often enough to keep up our 3 Frenzy charges and occasionally apply Curses on our targets. Projectile Weakness is the best Curse for us because it gets us the most DPS and also a little knockback to keep us safe. Sure you could go Vulnerability, but it’s not as large a multiplier. Wait, what about Assassin’s Mark? Couldn’t we use that to keep up our Power Charges and increase our Crit stats? Well, Assassin’s Mark would be good for Crit, but remember that we’re not actually doing any killing—our Totems are. We can’t proc any “on kill” effects at all, so we’d get no Power Charges from using Poacher’s Mark! That was a dumb suggestion. What are you, stupid? Billy? Orb of Storms Cluster
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This one is pretty straightforward. Since we can’t use Assassin’s Mark or the Blue Dream to get our Power Charges up, we’ll have to use Orb of Storms with Power Charge on Crit. The third socket can be used with Increased AOE or Increased Crit Chance depending on the situation. AOE is better for mapping, of course, while Crit Chance is probably better for single-target bosses.
Wait wait wait hold on there, said Billy in a very annoying manner, couldn’t we just use Orb of Storms with Curse on Hit, Projectile Weakness, and Power Charge on Crit? Then we could put Faster Casting and GMP on Frenzy or Accuracy or something! Yeah I guess that’s true, conceded Jane, but keep in mind that we don’t get any AOE from our gear or Passive Tree. But since this is your character, go ahead and do whatever feels best. Having finally asked a sensible question, Billy pushed his luck okay, well how about this? Instead of Orb of Storms, why can’t we use Ball Lightning or Ice Spear to get our Power Charges? Better yet, we could put Power Charge on Crit with Frenzy and get both our Power Charges and Frenzy Charges from spamming the same attack! Now you’re taking it too far! Jane snapped. I’ve tried it all! You can’t put Power Charge on Crit on Frenzy, your accuracy is about 50%--remember that the game checks your Accuracy twice when determining Crits. If you have a 50% chance to hit, 50% chance to crit, and 50% chance to gain a Power Charge on crit, you’re looking at a (1/2)^4 chance of actually getting a Power Charge, or 1/16. It’s just not consistent! Ball Lightning is only marginally better and Ice Spear works okay, but they require so much spamming that it’s completely not worth it. Better to drop the Orb of Storms and go on your way. Jane proceeded to yell and deride poor stupid defenseless Billy for the next 20 minutes, before continuing with their discussion. Aura Cluster
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Billy spoke timidly I don’t want to question every decision you’ve made, but does Hatred even work with spells? I thought it only affected melee physical.
Oh don’t worry, Hatred works for any kind of Physical Damage, regardless of if it’s melee, ranged, or a spell. Herald of Ash and the Taste of Hate are the same way. That makes sense, but why do you list Haste as an alternative? Wouldn’t the DPS loss be tremendous? Haste is a great Aura to swap in and out of (it and Hatred are both green gems), and the Cast Speed increase actually gives us a significant DPS increase. Not as much as Hatred, but still pretty noticeable. Keep in mind that we use Cast Speed, Attack Speed, and Movement Speed in this build, so having Haste will make you feel much faster and smoother all around. It’s great for general mapping and the Lab, but of course Hatred will be best for the end-game bosses. Hatred always is. Hmm, I get Discipline but do we even need Clarity in our setup? Clarity always helps! Just make sure you use a Clarity gem that isn’t leveled too high, and throw in an Enlighten. I bet a level 10 or so Clarity, when combined with your Hierophant Ascendancy’s amazing Mana buffs, would be enough to let you spam all the Totems you could ever desire without having any Mana problems at all. Buff Cluster
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Your Buff Cluster looks fine, but why rely on Vaal Lightning Trap to shock? Wouldn’t it be better to use Vaal Discipline for defense and a Vinktar’s to shock enemies?
That’s certainly an option, but c’mon—how far do you want to stretch your budget? That and it requires you to be close to enemies to keep them shocked, and of course the Leech does nothing for us. Our Totems might like it, but they’re soulless objects so their feelings are not a priority. Fine. Oh, cheer up—the fun part of this setup is Vaal Haste and Phase Run. Using Phase Run is amazing for mapping and the Lab, especially since we’ll be getting our 3 Frenzy Charges up easily during every fight. Just imagine—activate Phase Run, pop a Quicksilver, and run past everything! Of course you’ll probably want Vaal Haste instead for Boss Fights, but don’t underestimate the utility of good Movement Speed. Flame Dash Cluster
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You keep talking about wanting to do stuff that’s different and fun, but then instead of going Lightning Warp you jump straight to boring old Flame Dash. What gives?
Don’t you make assumptions, Billy—you have no idea how hard I tried to make Lightning Warp work! But at the end of the day, it takes up an entire 4-Link and is still slower than Flame Dash. It just wasn’t worth it, and I have become a slightly more bitter person as a result. Golem Cluster
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I don’t mean to call you lazy, but CWDT with just one skill, and a Golem at that? C’mon, even you have to admit that’s pretty lame.
I hate casting Golems. If you want to self-cast them, go for it. Just don’t come crying to me when you realize you forget to recast it and have been mapping for the last hour without your 9% increased Cast Speed. Yeah I wanted to talk to you about that—why a Lightning Golem? Wouldn’t the increased Crit and even the Accuracy of an Ice Golem be preferable? And you keep talking about wanting Life Regen stats with Zealot’s Oath, why not a Stone Golem? Both are fine options, but keep in mind the Stone Golem’s regen is not based on % so it’s less effective for us ES users. And the Lightning Golem, like Haste, Vaal Haste, and Onslaught, affect both Attack and Cast Speed, which is nice for us and our Frenzy spamming. At the end of the day, though, just go with whatever you like. Ice Trap Cluster
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And you use that trap setup to generate Power Charges with your Jaws of Agony. Any further explanation necessary?
Nope, I get that one. Passive Tree/Bandits
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Okay, now let’s get into the good stuff! Let’s see how our Passive Tree should look at level 92.
Why did you pick level 92? Why not 90? Is it because you’re so starved for points that a tree at level 90 looks incomplete and you didn’t want to present that? Are you really so insecure? So here’s how it looks at level 92! http://poeplanner.com/AAcAAPklEAB6TwRDyFugp1V8DmjyPO8YXa3xwGZFRzLR6-58g6eUXl3R_acI2CQ2xYPzTq6xNq4Si3oBb-L3hEhca8Ntj0YdFI5k96a2-vrS98FmnrcxjHYWQIV9WOUqE1oro_IRLSycBUJBltD1rrNMsy0fHU81uacrEVBtGdlbGyVLrukClSDB86KjD8Q7fLjKIG5QMNte0B_v63_G7BgsvxXXhq5WY4_66_XDCbmT8h3w1UlREZYOSF3yKgtwUisKES8DHh9B44QbyM_d8YoN0WND62O1SNRChG9Ffg5cavq3MOhaJoiVLgceaFoEUToWhoIrJgOadSpxYgAAAAAA Okay, that’s kind of ridiculous. First things first, you’re only grabbing two Jewel sockets and one is way on the Shadow side while there are plenty of easier options—what gives? Remember that we need to use the Ring of Blades Jewel for our build, and, well, this was actually the easiest Dex-based socket we could get to. Luckily it’s also nearby a Power Charge, so it’s not a total waste. Fair enough. But wow, your Stat Points are abysmal! You have practically no Dex or Strength. How are we going to use our gear? This is an ideal tree, assuming you can meet your Stat Point requirements with your gear. It’s not the end of the world if you have to grab a +30 Dex node or two. STOP JUDGING ME- And what about Totem Health? You have no increased Totem Life or Resistances—what are they, expendable or something? Well yes—with the Hierophant’s Ascendancy stats, our Totems are spammable and expendable. Their Mana cost is negligable and we get enough Totem Placement Speed that we’re not stuck in place constantly summoning them. I’d say a 20% quality Spell Totem Gem is a definite priority for the 10% to Totem Placement Speed. Speaking of Totems, you’re right next to the Totem Mastery wheel but you don’t grab it—what gives? Don’t we want to be a Master of Totems? Again it comes down to DPS. When we plug it all into Path of Building, we can see that our DPS per point in that wheel is much lower than many other available options. Even though we would love the increased Totem Placement Speed and other stats, it can’t hold a candle to the DPS increases we can get through Crit nodes. Even if we had more points to spare, another Jewel socket or a Faster Casting cluster would be better for us. Alright, fine—I’m still not convinced, however, of investing so much into Life Regen. Wouldn’t it be better to go with Essence Surge and quit all that Regen stuff? You could, I suppose—here’s what that kind of tree could look like: http://poeplanner.com/AAcAAPklEAB6wGZFRzLR6-58g6eUXl3R_acI2CQ2xYPzTq6xNq4Si3oBb-L3hEhca8Ntj0YdFI5k96a2-vrSZp63MYx2FkCFfVjlKhNaK6PyES0snAVCQZbQ9a6zTLMtHx1PNbmnKxFQbRnZWxslS67pApUgwfOiow_EO3y4yiBuUDDQH-_rf8bsGCy_FdeGrlZjj_rr9cMJuZPyHfDVSVERlg5IXfIqC3BSKwoRLwMeH0HjhBvIz93xig3RY0PrY7VI1EKEb0V-Dlxq-vndN0drrNteHNyPGohCHdlDVPRxwcVcQFS9Fe2Wi9W5aFoEUToWhoIrJgOadSpxYgAAAAAA This tree will have higher DPS at the expense of the whole Life Regen/Zealot’s Oath setup. I couldn’t tell you how this one works, however, as I have not experimented with it. Hmm, okay well I think I’d be open to trying the Zealot’s Oath route. What about Bandits? Even though I can clearly see what you have selected from poeplanner, I still must have the Bandits listed here. Yeah yeah: Normal: +1 Passive (Kill All) Cruel: +1 Passive (Kill All) Merciless: +1 Power Charge (Help Alira) But you keep making a big deal about how important Cast Speed is, why wouldn’t you grab some from the Bandits? Well, 5% isn’t a huge amount and I love having a ton of points for my Passive Tree, but you can do whatever you like. I suppose to some degree it boils down to personal preference. Flasks
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Okay, it’s time to talk about Flasks and how OP they are.
Billy rolled his eyes. Here are the flasks I’d use: Sulphur Flask of Heat Diamond Flask Chemist’s Silver Flask Quicksilver Flask Atziri’s Flask Taste of Hate (Optional) Vinktar (Optional) Sin’s Rebirth (Very Optional) Ruby Flask of Dousing (Situational) As you can see, they’re all pretty much DPS flasks. You’ll want a Quicksilver while leveling and mapping, of course, but otherwise all your flasks should be chosen to max out your Damage output. What about a Rotgut? Couldn’t that take the place of the Silver Flask and the Quicksilver? inquired Billy somewhat intelligently. I guess, but you can only use it once and the Onslaught will only last 6 seconds at its max. I think a Chemist’s Silver Flask that can be used twice is preferable. Hmm, well of all the flasks you listed, why did you specify that the Sulphur Flask needs to be ‘of Heat?’ I already answered this question earlier—pay attention! Since we’re going CI, we’ll be getting chilled and Frozen unreasonably often without a Dream Fragments ring or a spammable flask ‘Of Heat.’ If you had a Chemist’s Sulphur Flask of Heat, you could use that thing 4 times without needing to recharge it, so it’s definitely the best option! Leveling
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Billy felt like the conversation with his frightening mentor Jane was enough to get him started. Even though he knew he ought to wait until 3.0 to drop before starting a new character, he was too excited to wait and purchased his first item for the build, a 3G 2R 1B Skin of the Loyal. He didn’t shell out for a Seven League Steps, however, out of stinginess. This mentality was good, as his finances weren’t great and he knew he’d have to make a lot of big purchases later.
Here was Billy’s lvl 60 Passive Tree, for reference: http://poeplanner.com/AAcAALElEABWTwRDyFugp1V8DmjyPO_AZkVHMtHr7nyDp5ReXdH9pwiPRh0UjmT3prb6-tL3wWaetzGMdljlKhNaK6PyES0snAVCQZbQ9X_G8NVJURGWDkhd8ioLcFIrChEvAx4fQeOEG8jP3fGK62O1SLcw6FomiJUuBx7wH6IABLMYXdrdhTKXLUlPvKrUQoRvK3gfxy2LbRki9GwLkycc3I8a74j5N9fPSbFoWgRROhaGggAAAAAA Billy started to gain levels and exited the starting area via the Life and Mana Regen nodes. He then went straight for the Mind Over Matter cluster, pausing only to grab the Precision node for the Movement Speed and Dexterity. Once he had MOM, he found Mana to be a complete non-issue, which was great combined with his starting six-link. He then decided to head straight across through the Witch area into the Shadow in order to grab the Jewel socket that would allow him to use his Ring of Blades. He then grabbed Fangs of the Viper for the Dex and Movement Speed, and proceeded to head up to Ancestral Bond. Once he had it, he of course switched to Totems and enjoyed getting used to the Totem playstyle. After that, he grabbed whatever he wanted whenever he wanted to. He went for hybrid Life/ES nodes and a little crit too. He also took several +30 Attribute nodes in order to meet the Stat requirements of his Gems, although of course he would respec them later. The game itself was fairly simple and nothing gave him much trouble. He took on Cruel Lab shortly after getting into Merciless because he hungered for quad Totemage, but Cruel Izaro did him in on the first attempt. His second death came when he fell asleep at his monitor, and his third death via Strongbox, when he laid down his Orb of Storms four times instead of putting down four Totems. Did I mention this was his first ever Totem build? When Billy reached Merciless Dried Lake, he farmed for a while and begun to grab Power Charges on the Passive Tree. When he acquired all three of them, he started wielding the mighty Void Battery for the first time, and fell in love. He probably should have done that sooner. At level 79, Billy was able to equip his Crystal Belt, which was his cue to move to CI. Up until that point, Billy did well with MOM and even considered keeping his build a hybrid. But he was curious how CI with Zealot’s Oath and Life Regen would feel, so he pulled the trigger. Billy continued to use a Spirit Shield in his off-hand and didn’t bother with Merciless Lab for a long time. He used a Reduced Mana Gem in his 6L setup instead of Empower, and he kept MOM and its Mana nodes as well. He started trying red maps and found them fairly simple—this build ended up far better at mapping than he expected. At level 86, Billy decided it was time to take on Merciless and Uber Lab, and he defeated them both without much difficulty. He also noticed that ES is massively OP and GGG is right to be nerfing it. This is not a very popular opinion, but don’t hate me, hate Billy. Billy started to wonder if he should ever switch to dual-wielding Void Batteries. Nothing seemed to survive long under the assault of his four mighty EK nova Totems. He came to the conclusion that Shaper and some of the Guardians might be the only enemies powerful enough that dual wielding would be preferable to the ES of a good shield. The Labyrinth
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I hear you’re doing well. I’m curious, how was the Labyrinth for you? inquired Jane.
Surprisingly simple, answered Billy chipperly. When I switched to CI, I found traps completely harmless. I think I could stand on top of those spike traps indefinitely without dying. Using a combination of Phase Run, a Quicksilver, and a Silver flask, I was able to traverse huge portions of the Labyrinth like a Pathfinder! The only tough part was Izaro. Yes, that was what I was wondering—how did you fare against him? Well, Vaal Lightning Trap was useless since entering the Aspirant’s Trial areas removed all Vaal souls and charges, which was unfortunate. I also forgot that Jaws of Agony exist and had to generate all of my Power Charges with Orb of Storms at the beginning of the fight. Jane rolled her eyes. But it wasn’t too bad. I just waited until I had all my Power Charges up before I went all-in with my Flasks. Until that point, I’d just dodge, Frenzy, and lay down Orb of Storms to get ready. Even with an ES Shield and Haste as my main Aura, he didn’t last long. I’ve never played a build that trivialized the Labyrinth to such a degree! The only real hard part was that my GAME KEPT CRASHING AFTER THE SECOND ASPIRANT’S TRIAL WADHGDFHJRTYRESAWET until I turned off multithreading. I don’t even know what that is. Threats
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It’s great to hear that things are going well. Tell me, what kinds of enemies have given you trouble, and are there any maps you haven’t been able to complete?
Most mobs don’t pose a threat, I’m happy to say! Some Beyond monsters and Invasion Bosses have enough AOE that they kill my Totems quickly, but as long as I hang back and keep summoning Totems in their faces, I’m usually okay. Volatiles and reflect enemies are a non-issue, which is a big relief after playing a close-quarters melee character for so long. I can handle most map mods—far more than I’m accustomed to. Elemental Reflect, No-Leech, and Vulnerability maps don’t give me any trouble. Sometimes I avoid Temp Chains and Physical Reflect maps just because of how inconvenient they are to play through (Physical Reflect maps kill my Totems after only one or two volleys, so although they’re possible to complete, it takes much longer than I like). Elemental Weakness is also pretty manageable since all I need to do is switch my ES Spirit Shield to one with high resistances. The only map mods I actively avoid are Chaining enemy attacks and No Regen. Other than those, I’ve been able to complete pretty much every map I come across with little difficulty! Jane was pleased to hear this good news, but she knew that the ease of completing maps would only make little Billy overconfident when it came to facing his biggest challenge: Shaper and his Guardians. The Guardians
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Billy hit level 90 and decided it was time to take on the Guardians. He had defeated them all before with previous characters, but each Guardian fight was challenging and wrought with deaths. Would a Totem build and its built-in safe playstyle keep him safe?
The Phoenix
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Even though historically he found the Phoenix to be the most challenging, he attempted him first. Much to Billy’s surprise, he defeated the Phoenix without any deaths!
Billy prepared for the fight by equipping his second Void Battery and swapping in Hatred over Haste. He also used Crit Multi in his main EK setup, as his experiences with using Slower Projectiles went the way Jane warned (that is, very poorly). He would continue to use this setup for the rest of the Guardians. Billy also grabbed a Ruby Flask of Dousing to protect him from the Phoenix’s insane Fire Damage and Burns. The fight itself was fairly simple. Billy kept far away from the Phoenix and made sure to place Totems in between the two competitors. When the Phoenix seemed like he was staying put for a couple of seconds, Billy would throw a Lightning Trap and activate his flasks. Luckily, his Totems were killing the random enemy spawns quickly and efficiently, which kept Billy’s flasks charged. The Phoenix defeated with little trouble, Billy was feeling pretty good about himself. This was about to change. The Hydra
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Billy has a mental block against the Hydra. She kills Billy. She kills Billy a lot. Billy is not sure if it’s the constant Frostbolt projectiles or her incredibly strong Barrage attack or that he gets distracted by her feminine qualities (it’s not that one) but Billy flat-out sucks at the Hydra fight. He was hoping his new build would solve this problem.
It did not. Billy had his Taste of Hate and went in totems-blazing, but he kept running into Frostbolts and dodged the Hydra’s attacks poorly. Perhaps he would have to speak with Jane about proper Hydra strategy, although he expected she would simply berate him for his incompetence. After his first death, Billy realized he had forgotten to put a portal at the entrance to the arena and had to walk all the way back. This did not help his mental state. Billy realized he needed to put more emphasis on dodging and trust his Totems to do the hard work for him. Even stopping to fire off a Frenzy or two felt like he was putting himself in imminent danger, so he relegated his role in the fight to dodging, dropping Orbs of Storms, and resummoning Totems. He also started to wonder if relying on a Flask of Heat was really so intelligent—perhaps he should have swapped in a Dream Fragments ring just for this fight. The Hydra was eventually defeated the same way a body of water erodes a rocky outcropping. Billy needed a morale boost, so he decided to take on the Guardian that always gave him the least amount of trouble next. The Minotaur
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Ah, the Minotaur—an all-melee boss in a large, circular arena that was practically designed for kiting. What could go wrong?
Billy was discouraged when a rogue Minotaur tunnel attack essentially one-shotted him. He wanted to complete the Minotaur deathless, as he had been able to do with his tankier melee builds. After getting tagged by the ridiculous hitbox of a lightning wall and murdered shortly after, he acknowledged the fight was getting out of hand. He would have to play it very differently from what he was used to. Billy finally settled on a routine of staying very far away from the Minotaur and summoning Totems between the two of them, and only throwing a lightning trap after the Minotaur performed his powerful tunnel attack. The Minotaur’s big AOE hits destroyed his Totems (with their paper-mache-like defensive capabilities) but quantity would win out over quality. When the fight was over, Billy couldn’t help but feel like Lightning Warp would have been appropriate to use over Flame Dash due to the lightning walls’ deceptively large hitboxes. The Chimera
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The Chimera was something of a mystery to Billy. He had only attempted him once before and found it to be an odd fight (please research what the “smoke phase” is before you try to fight him). How would a Totemer handle things?
“Not bad at all!” Billy thought as the Chimera fell. The fight was simple, and apart from one death during the Smoke Phase (Billy foolishly substituted his Quicksilver Flask for DPS on his first attempt), nothing was particularly challenging. Upon revisiting the Chimera, Billy found the fight almost relaxing in its simplicity. This time he used Phase Run and a Quicksilver to end the Smoke Phase as quickly as possible, and the rest was history. Why couldn’t all the Guardians behave as nicely as the Chimera? Summary
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Billy’s rankings for the difficulty of the Guardians seem to go against the common grain. He would rank them, from hardest to easiest:
Hydra Minotaur Phoenix Chimera With all the Guardians down, Billy again started to feel confident and was hopeful to defeat Shaper for the first time. As has been the case every time Billy has felt this way, he would soon run head-first into a brick wall called reality. Shaper
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So, how did Shaper go? asked Jane expectantly.
I did it. I beat him. Billy answered. But his voice was different. It was…deeper, raspier, and tired. He had bags under his eyes and his hair was unkempt. Which was weird because he was bald. Just kidding. Or am I? You don’t know Billy. He could be a woman. How would you know? Well what’s the matter then? Jane pushed, curious of what horrors had befallen poor, successful Billy. I was hoping it would be easy. I thought this build would trivialize him, but it didn’t. Beating him was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in POE. Maybe in any videogame. Well you told me you didn’t want meta, that’s what happens! Yes, but I didn’t think it would be that hard, even with a million DPS! Buffed DPS, yes. Well that was the problem! I relied on my Flasks too much, and when they went empty my DPS was pitiful. When I had no way to Shock him, no Vaal Haste, no Flasks, he just wouldn’t die. So I had to switch up my strategy. I dropped the Alchemist nodes— Jane gasped. —and I let go of some of my Life Regen too, and then I put all those points into Force Shaper. It greatly increased my non-buffed Damage. And that’s what did it? No, it still wasn’t enough. I eventually went all-in glass-cannon and dropped the entire Unnatural Calm wheel. I picked up Alchemist again and put even more investment into DPS. Jane looked relieved. What about strategy changes? Any adaptations you needed to make? Yes, actually—quite a few. I ended up forgoing Vaal Haste for the first two thirds of the fight so that I could use Phase Run between Shaper phases. I used all of my buffs to take down those “Unshaped” guys as quickly as possible, and then spent as little time as I could to recharge my Vaal skills and flasks before jumping back into the fight. Speed was the key. You do realize you can take your time after the Unshaped guy goes down, right? That’s when Shaper stops regenerating Health. Billy did not look happy to hear this. And what part of the Shaper fight itself gave you trouble? THOSE HORRIBLE WHITE VORTEX BALLS! Blargh are they the worst! The third phase was ridiculous—they spawned so quickly that they filled up the entire arena by the time I’d get the Shaper down to a quarter of his health. I mean, I get that they want the fight to get more and more hectic as time goes on, but that was just ridiculous. And they keep coming even during the bullet-hell phase, when you’re required to stand in the little Zana bubble. What gives? As soon as the ground starts getting full of vortexes, it becomes impossible to summon Totems—you end up being unable to fight back. So there’s a time limit before you hit a wall and the fight’s pretty much over. Everything up to phase 3 was a cakewalk, but man does he get tough by the end. Sounds like you had a tough fight— Five fights Billy interrupted. —but you did it! The build worked and you beat Path of Exile! Wasn’t it worth it? Yeah, these gloves look pretty cool I guess. The End. Last edited by rut on Jul 11, 2017, 9:39:19 PM Last bumped on Mar 26, 2018, 5:33:39 PM
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I uploaded the Shaper kill! Is it a great example of superior, intelligent play with a build that trivializes all end-game content? Nope!
As I (or Billy I guess) explained in the guide, Shaper was a tough fight and I ended up respeccing out of some ES and going all-in with DPS for him. I actually think the ES nerfs won't hurt this character's Shaper viability in 3.0 since it's fairly easy to avoid damage. Everything about how the fight is structured screams "DPS check" and "fight knowledge." With my Shaper setup, I hit about 1.3 million DPS on Path of Building with all charges, flasks, and Vaal skills active. However, I will say that in a previous attempt, keeping with the higher ES and regen, I managed to get Shaper down to culling range (but forgot Culling is a thing). A better player could certainly have succeeded with that more "defensive" variant of the build (which is what I would call the intended variant). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C15TwvJB6ng | |
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I love the way you wrote this up and am going to try it out. I always mess around with my own versions of things, and they end up not working, so before spending a ton of regrets after not following your build religiously, could you post a Path of Building pastebin link?
Thanks again for the entertaining write up and for a build I think I can get into! |
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" Hey there! Glad to hear you enjoyed the guide and are thinking of embarking on the build. I don't know if I'm doing this 100% correctly, but here's the exported Path of Building link: https://pastebin.com/rtqVbDQt Hopefully that helps! | |
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The pastebin link worked perfectly! Thank you! That saves me a lot of time plugging things in. I'm still kind of figuring out Path of Building. It doesn't always make sense to me. I like the look and feel of PoE Planner better, but Path of Building seems much more robust in the information it gives, especially damage numbers.
I found it easier to go with Freezing Pulse for leveling, especially since the jewel node to socket Ring of Blades is so far from the Templar starting point. You can socket a First Snow jewel very early on, boosting clearing speed tremendously. In fact, with two Axiom Perpetuum sceptres (lvl 10), a Karui Ward amulet (lvl 5), an Asenath's Mark helm (lvl 8), and a Tabula, I mowed most everything down right into Dried Lake merciless! Not deathless, but I'm doing it in softcore. I haven't even gotten the ascendancies yet and I'm farming Dried Lake, freezing and shattering almost everything except for higher level uniques, and even they are slowed considerably. A Tasalio's Sign ring (lvl 20) or two increases damage and freeze even more. All of these items are CHEAP. I want so badly to make a hybrid life/ES character work with MoM that I'm going to attempt that as well, since it seems to fit so well with the ascendancy and may be better for 3.0, but I'm not sure it will work, and I hate trying to get chaos res on gear. Freezing Pulse is working so well right now that I think I'm going to keep going with it instead of EK. I'm also going to mess around with Ball Lightning with Call of the Brotherhood rings, but so far when I've tried it they don't freeze things the way I expect they should. Like I say, I like to mess around with build ideas. I love having a working EK/Bladefall totem idea to fall back on if none of this works, though! Love the synergy with Brinerot Whaler boots, too. Seeing you do Shaper and Guardians is what convinced me to try this build at all, otherwise I never would have started it. Thanks again so much for this entertaining write up and guide! |
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I hope you make more builds, just so I can see this type of presentation again. Well done bra
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" Thanks for the kind words! I'll definitely do my next guide in this fashion--it was way more fun than just writing stuff up normally. For 3.0 Billy will be attempting a late-game viable Glacial Hammer Mjolner build, much to the chagrin of Jane, I'm sure... | |
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Addendum: Bladefall
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After playing the world's most mediocre Lightning Arrow Deadeye for the 2 wk Mayhem league, little Billy started to long for his competent and powerful Hierophant. Needing an excuse to jump back into Legacy, Billy decided he ought to give Bladefall a good try.
Billy purchased a lvl 20, 0% quality Bladefall gem and a new Skin of the Loyal with the right colors for a good Bladefall setup: He bought a Conc Effect gem from Siosa and thought he'd jump right back into things by fighting some Guardians. He had a blank Phoenix map in his stash, and feeling adventurous he successfully Alt + Regaled a mild map. Then he Vaal'd it and... uh oh! Enfeeble, Ele Weakness, Faster Monster Movement, Attack Speed, and Cast Speed, not to mention added Fire Damage! So Billy checked out POE.Trade to see how much he could sell this suicidal map for, but before he could pull the trigger, he imagined he heard the nagging voice of Jane: Coward! What, you can beat Shaper but you can't beat beat a Phoenix with a couple extra map mods? Billy went home and cried for a few hours, but then returned with hardened resolve, and tossed that *%#@er into the map device! The crowd cheered as he valiantly fought his way through the meaningless trash mobs that blocked his path! And then he died 4 times to the Phoenix. But then he won! Here is the video of his triumphant fight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGTpxmgjgcc&feature=youtu.be Of course little Billy was an idiot and forgot his Ruby flask at the start. And he forgot to respec out of projectile damage and the useless Ring of Blades jewel, not to mention he was still using Projectile Weakness as his curse... Anyway, Billy found that general mapping was slower with Bladefall, but it felt very similar when fighting tough bosses. Bladefall has better range than EK without Faster Projectiles, and all the gear associated with Bladefall is much cheaper (the 40% damage enchant Hubris costed 15c for Bladefall, while Billy paid 1.5ex for his original EK one). Billy would recommend Bladefall as a completely viable and budget-friendly alternative to EK. Billy will continue testing Bladefall and perhaps give Shaper another go if he's feeling adventurous. Last edited by rut on Jul 12, 2017, 11:12:53 AM
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omg! i need more of Jane and Billy! Do you write in your free time? Anyway, your stuff is amazing and I'm looking forward for more in 3.0. I feel u r on to something here. It another perspective or flavor to guides on PoE content. I wouldnt mind reading guides on Flask, certain mechanics of the game, boss fight, unique item analysis, patch notes analysis, certain maps for farming or farming guides or just general PoE stuff if it is done this way. Sign me up and take my moneh!!
P.S. I was wondering isit possible to do this build with a pathfinder with full elemental damage conversion + Elemental Overload? P.S.2 If the mention above doesnt work just a life build with elemental conversion? im still very new to the game. Only played pathfinder and manage to level a raider to 50+ in the 2w Turmoil challenge league. I planned to play bladefall totem/immortal golem MF build in Harbinger League during 3.0 Last edited by Slyvanus on Aug 1, 2017, 4:44:08 AM
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Thank you for the kind words!
I'm not a writer--kinda the opposite actually (accountant). But I have a nine month old kiddo at home so I've been trying to spruce up my creative writing lately. I'd like to be able to present some educational materials in a way that won't kill a child's innate love of learning... I definitely want to do this at least one more time for a new build in 3.0. I hadn't thought about writing more generalized things in this style, but I'll definitely start thinking about it! I really believe people learn better (and enjoy the learning) when material is presented as stories or dialogues instead of just flat info (...which is what this post is). To answer your questions, I've never played a Pathfinder (too "meta" for my tastes!) so I can't say if it would be possible or not. I'd worry that you're starting as far away from Ancestral Bond as humanly possible, but so long as you're patient in leveling I think you could make that work. I'd be worried about getting enough Damage out of EK or Bladefall without going crit, but I can see how you could get some good numbers by converting all the Damage into Elemental and then getting some resistance penetration and Elemental Overload. I think with Elemental Conversion, the trick is to convert all or most of your damage into one element only, so that you can get maximum effectiveness out of a Penetration Gem, Wise Oak, and/or Curse. I suppose you could grab the Winter Spirit nodes to get 40% conversion to cold, and then grab Hrimburn gloves to get 90% conversion--that's probably enough to scale Cold stuff pretty well! I'm sure there are other ways (Avatar of Fire route?) to do so with other elements if you so choose. I also see people going Inquisitor and going full Elemental Conversion, but then scaling crit of course in order to max their Elemental Penetration. As far as going Life instead of ES, I think that's definitely a possibility! Especially with ES nerfs and Mind Over Matter getting buffed for 3.0, hybrid or just flat-life might be the better choice. I've really come to appreciate how varied Path of Exile is with viable builds. The only thing I'd warn about is to make sure you have a goal in mind. It's common to make a build that can trivialize red maps but then be completely incapable of killing Shaper, and there's nothing wrong with that. So long as you set your expectations right, your build will be a success! Good luck! |
