[3.2]Lightning Tendrils Penta Totem - 2M+shaper real DPS, fast clearing, cheap to gear, fun to play

While not required, the absolute best weapon setup for this build is dual wielding Shimmeron. These wands are just ridiculous and you do not get the downside of them with a totem build. Yes, they are better than dual void battery. However, if you check the video section, I’ve got a sick montage of me easily clearing yellow maps with two white driftwood wands and a 4L, so don’t consider these required. I used Apep’s Rage and a rare wand until I could get Shimmerons on day 3 or so of the league and was carrying Uber Lab runs with that setup and a 5L Soul Mantle.

For helmet, gloves, boots, belt, and amulet, focus on getting life and resists. You’re going to need to be slightly overcapped on resists because you will have resist-reducing curses on you (at 20% strength thanks to Kikazaru). Adding mana will indirectly also add to your life pool so try to get flat mana if you can. I found that getting enough dex to use Vaal Haste was somewhat challenging: you might want to try to get one item with added dex. Otherwise, do what I did and get dex on a jewel. For jewels, you want life of course, and anything crit multi, spell damage, lightning damage, or cast speed that applies to your setup. I have a 4-mod jewel that is basically perfect, sniped it for 90c. Others were self-crafted or a couple chaos.

You have to run a mana flask. It sucks but also doubles as a second life flask in some ways. Get “of dousing” or “of curing” on it so you can dispel ignites and poison (very annoying with MoM) and put the opposite mod on your life flask. I also highly recommend a diamond flask because you can have it up at basically all times and get a huge DPS boost from it. I have an Experimenter’s Diamond Flask of Staunching (dispels bleed and has extended duration) and I consider this to be the best possible flask in that slot. Quicksilver flask of adrenaline and another flask up to you (I recommend either Atziri’s Promise or a silver flask).

6L in Soul Mantle: Arc/Tendrils – Lightning Penetration – Controlled Destruction – Faster Casting – Increased Critical Damage – Concentrated Effect
Up to you which gems to cut out before you get 5 or 6 links. Conc effect was my 6th link so I could clear better early on in league, but it added 50% more damage when I finally got it. Only gem that you should absolutely definitely have in a 4 or 5 link setup is lightning pen.

4L – Flame Dash – Increased Duration – Arcane Surge – Faster Casting
It is important to monitor gem levels here so that arcane surge procs every time you flame dash. I keep Flame Dash at level 17 and Arcane Surge at level 9 so that I spend 51 mana exactly and proc the buff every time.
4L – Immortal Call – CWDT – Increased Duration – Vaal Haste

Aside from the 6L setup and the two 4Ls you have a lot of freedom with gems in this setup. Kaom’s Roots are viable and if you can balance your resists without boots, I recommend using them. Other random gems you will need somewhere are:

Conductivity
Wrath
Lightning Golem

I also personally recommend a culling strike setup but it’s totally optional. Fit in as much or as little as you like. Do NOT run extra auras, it will lower your eHP pool because we take Mind over Matter. You may even want to forgo or toggle off Wrath when you don’t need it.

Note that the PoB link is completely unaltered from Xanthochroid’s original. Just replace Spark with Arc.


Bandits: Help Alira.

Ascendancy order: Pursuit of Faith > Ritual of Awakening > Conviction of Power > Illuminated Devotion/Divine Guidance

I went with Divine Guidance to add a bit to MoM but Illuminated Devotion is viable as well. Your call.

Q: Wouldn’t Ball Lightning be better?
A: I think Ball Lightning is a pain in the ass, so not really. It requires different gearing, skill tree, and playstyle to some degree. However, it would be higher raw DPS.

Q: Wouldn’t Spark be better for clearing than Arc?
A: I was using Spark originally for clearing, but then figured out that level 16 Arc was clearing t14 maps better/faster/more comfortably than level 19 Spark, so the answer is no.

Q: wtf lightning tendrils
A: Linking the lvl 21 tendrils gem to friends when they ask what I’m playing is fun

Q: What are defenses like when flasks run out?
A: Run around in circles and hope you don’t die while life and mana regen. That’s why I don’t usually like regen builds but that’s how totems are.

Yellow maps with white driftwood wands and a 4L
https://youtu.be/3k2bdvzubBY
First Uber Atziri I’ve done in like 8 months
https://youtu.be/UZT4r-v6LhM