[3.5] Ghostly Quad Totem HOWA. 10k ES, 77% Evade, 1.9 Mill Shaper DPS

Small observation on gear choices:

It is *really* important to ensure that STR is higher than DEX, as ignites are a bitch, not so much about the damage as about them preventing ES recharge. Several map mods inflict almost continuous ignites.

In order to make this happen, one should have a combination of:
- avoiding INT/DEX Jewels (probably the most important)
- ensuring the cyclopean belt has a low DEX roll
- ensuring tha Sin Trek has a low dex roll

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load231 wrote:

Thanks for this awesome build! It's the first build I'm using thats late game relevant without having to buy super expensive items. Have you ever tried using faster attacks support on your totem? Are all the listed gems better DPS-wise? Seems to me like faster attacks would be a good option.

The worst gem in the setup is lightning penetration, against shaper it gives +34% more damage with wise oak or +39% damage without. Against normal mobs without resistance its down to +28%. It can be swapped for Ruthless which gives +39% damage in in all situations that your totems actually get to attack 3 times. Faster attacks gives +22% damage which is considerably lower, in most builds faster attack gem is worse then one of the damage multiplier gems.

I spent quite some time on the build and as far as I can tell any deviations from the tree or gear will result in lower dps and ES but Its nice how this game does encourage people trying their own thing and there is potential that something was missed

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Flapdrol wrote:

Small observation on gear choices:

It is *really* important to ensure that STR is higher than DEX, as ignites are a bitch, not so much about the damage as about them preventing ES recharge. Several map mods inflict almost continuous ignites.

In order to make this happen, one should have a combination of:
- avoiding INT/DEX Jewels (probably the most important)
- ensuring the cyclopean belt has a low DEX roll
- ensuring tha Sin Trek has a low dex roll

If I didn't have higher Str then Dex then yeah I would certainly change my immune to curse flask into an immune to ignite one. I didn't find it that challenging to do though. Cyclopean doesn't have a dex roll perhaps you mean the claw?

4 of my jewels give Str and Int while 2 give Dex and Int which put my Str 20 higher then dex. If I change my claw and sin trek into the highest possible dex rolls then Str is still a few points higher then dex

I think the takeaway is that from your 9 jewels make sure that you have 1 or 2 more that give Str then Dex as it will save you a flask affix

I'm optimizing my gear (high rolls, 21/20 gems etc), so all my jewels give pure Int (as Int is vastly more important than STR or DEX). If you do that, high DEX rolls on claw (correct!) and boots will put your dex over your str. If you take STR/INT jewels this will also help.

An ignite flask is clunky on maps with often/always ignite: besides that it will require me to give up my +evasion% on my Jade Flask.

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Speaking of optimizing, would it be possible to sneak in Empower in the Helmet (and put Purity of Elements somewhere else), if:
- you have Enhance level 4 in the helmet and if necessary another Enhance 3?/4?) for the Purity
- the three mana reservation nodes near Sovereignty and Influence
- if necessary the additional mana reservation node near Leadership
- if really necessary Skyforth? Or some other trick I haven't thought of?

With level 21 gems and a level 4 Empower this would give you a potential Wrath and Discipline level 26....and a sink for my currency :)

Hey, nice build. What are the changes we can make if i want to do this on standard?

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Flapdrol wrote:

An ignite flask is clunky on maps with often/always ignite: besides that it will require me to give up my +evasion% on my Jade Flask.

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Speaking of optimizing, would it be possible to sneak in Empower in the Helmet (and put Purity of Elements somewhere else

I have my flasks up whenever I'm killing but I agree that making a few Int/Str jewels for immunity is an easier solution

Most efficient way I can see of adding empower would be
Helm - Discipline - Wrath - Enlighten lvl 4 - Empower lvl 4
Elsewhere - Purity of elements - Enlighten lvl 4
2 skill points on mana reservation nodes

Value of that increase minus the value of if those two points went to deep thoughts
5.6% dmg - 1.4% dmg = + 4.2% dmg
2.9% ES - 3.1% ES = - 0.2% ES

So you'd be buying a lvl 4 empower and two lvl 4 enlightens in order to get 4% more damage which seems a bit much.

Once I had 6-linked the chest and taken down all the guardians the build was starting to feel kinda "done" to me so I've moved on to a new project returning and reworking my old whispering Ice build that this build originally spawned from. I'm pretty optimistic about it and on paper at least it seems like it should be stronger

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bababiad wrote:

Hey, nice build. What are the changes we can make if i want to do this on standard?

No real changes for standard league. The endgame version of the build doesn't use Abyss jewels but good normal ones are probably more expensive over in standard. Possibly can get legacy rings for better dps and ES over there but also probably expensive

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WaffleT wrote:

So you'd be buying a lvl 4 empower and two lvl 4 enlightens in order to get 4% more damage which seems a bit much.

Fully agreed.

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WaffleT wrote:

Once I had 6-linked the chest and taken down all the guardians the build was starting to feel kinda "done" to me so I've moved on to a new project returning and reworking my old whispering Ice build that this build originally spawned from. I'm pretty optimistic about it and on paper at least it seems like it should be stronger.

Would be much interested (s there a link?). It is probably an easier league starter as well, as the Hands take a few days to appear and a few more days to become affordable.
Also. Whispering Ice only needs to be 6S and not 6L?

In the mean time, I'll take this build to a further extreme (L21 gems etc.).
Thanks about the Ruthless tip: if you have the lightning pen Watcher's Eye, the case for Lightning Penetration becomes even weaker.

Hey

Nice build so far. I have taken every int and ES nodes allready and my ES is at 3.3k with aura. Where can i get the missing 6k ES ?^^

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Flapdrol wrote:

Would be much interested (s there a link?). It is probably an easier league starter as well, as the Hands take a few days to appear and a few more days to become affordable.
Also. Whispering Ice only needs to be 6S and not 6L?

In the mean time, I'll take this build to a further extreme (L21 gems etc.).
Thanks about the Ruthless tip: if you have the lightning pen Watcher's Eye, the case for Lightning Penetration becomes even weaker.

Oh those numbers were with a lightning pen watchers eye, I forgot to remove it. For people without one then probably add +5% damage to all those numbers which makes the comparison to ruthless closer

Sure, here is a pastebin link https://pastebin.com/7nfafBqD

Pros

- Cheaper as yes staff only needs to be 6 socketed
- More dps? (I'm pretty sure, icestorm is calculated on average bolt damage not dps)
- More evasion (20% more chance to evade when not on full ES)
- 30% faster start of ES recharge from trickster+shavs
- Significantly faster clearspeed. Spell cascade > Increased AOE and starts doing damage faster
- 80% Fire/cold resistances
- 8% less damage taken from weave the arcane
- Lightning warp with enough cast speed to be faster then shield charge

Cons

- Its noticeable that you don't have 4 totems blocking and attracting damage sources
- About 1k less effective HP. Although higher potential after a clarity = ES watchers eye
- Spell echo roots you to the ground for a third of a second which makes dodging trickier
- No fortify
- Lowlife, may need a removes poison flask for chaos dot
- Unlike totems cannot do ele reflect, monsters poison on hit maps
- Ugly as hell skill tree

Whispering Ice trees always look so weird, they get flat damage, % damage and base duration from INT so its just more important to stack then with the claws

Its possible the safer version is a vaal pact scion that I also marked up, it has about 17% less damage but leech is more reliable then full recharge. I played it for a while but was very unimpressed by the pre vaal pact leeching rate. Also I've always wanted trickster to be best as the ascendancy kind of embodies the evasion/ES thing that I've been enjoying

I haven't died since I hit maps but some of the Abyss cracks got closer then I would like with their spammy attacks. I think I'll need to improve defence somewhere just for comfort or possibly swap back to scion

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Zeros wrote:

Hey

Nice build so far. I have taken every int and ES nodes allready and my ES is at 3.3k with aura. Where can i get the missing 6k ES ?^^

+1500 Santuary of thought
+2200 Chest
+200 Another 5 levels on discipline
The other 2-3k is from the rest of the int from the tree (There is still alot more Int from the tree to get), jewels and better rolled gear. Almost all your gear is really low rolled and so upgrades when you can afford them will give better ES.

I would buy some cheap +flat ES jewels with hopefully some Int on them to increase that total until you can get the rest of your tree and gear up to par

Hey, the build looks interesting but I have a question. Maybe you answered it, I'm not sure. I know this build isn't a good league starter b/c of all the uniques, but lets say you plan on going this build eventually. What do you do while waiting to gather all these items together? When do you transition into the final form of the build?

Edit: Also, do you think an Incandescent Heart is a good substitute for the Atziri's chest?

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generalchaos wrote:

Hey, the build looks interesting but I have a question. Maybe you answered it, I'm not sure. I know this build isn't a good league starter b/c of all the uniques, but lets say you plan on going this build eventually. What do you do while waiting to gather all these items together? When do you transition into the final form of the build?

Edit: Also, do you think an Incandescent Heart is a good substitute for the Atziri's chest?

This build was my first character in Abyss league. Its not good for day 1 of a new league but its fine after that and I started playing day 2 so by the time I was looking all the items were in the market just at a higher cost that gradually goes down. I think I spent 7c on my claw instead of the normal 1c cost but its not unusual for things to cost a bit more early in a league for any build.

One hardcore player said they played as generic flameblast totem until late game when they had all the gear and then transitioned over. I just played with HOWA from the start and bought items whenever I could afford them.

Assuming a max ES and damage rolled Incandescent Heart you gain +13.2% DPS and lose 11.7% ES and 7% Evasion rating. Thats not a great deal since damage is easier to find then ES.

You also lose 22% all resistances. By the time you've covered those resistances on jewels or in the tree you'd probably have lost more then +13% damage anyway. The 25% less elemental damage taken is neat but I don't think its worth taking that hit to ES total and evade chance