(Retired Thread) Wallach's Hierophant Freezing Pulse Totems

As a new player I never thought I would be a huge fan of totem builds but have to admit I quite like the efficiency of this build, it just smashes mobs in seconds

thankyou for the in depth guide too it really gives a lot of info for newbies like me to understand the idea behind the playstyle and the levelling tips were a HUGE bonus too :)

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0nyX wrote:

As a new player I never thought I would be a huge fan of totem builds but have to admit I quite like the efficiency of this build, it just smashes mobs in seconds

thankyou for the in depth guide too it really gives a lot of info for newbies like me to understand the idea behind the playstyle and the levelling tips were a HUGE bonus too :)

Thanks, I've tried to make the guide as comprehensive as possible for that very reason (and I plan to try and improve it further with the 3.8 update).

And yeah, I hear a lot of people say that they don't like the "totem playstyle", but I do wonder how many have tried a really solid Hierophant totem build. The Hierophant does wonders for making totems much faster & smoother for second-to-second gameplay, and paired with the right skill like Freezing Pulse I really think it is a competitive build for just about any task in the game.

Just back from 3 weeks of vacation.

I login, cleanup my stash, look at my atlas "oh well I have 1 guardian then an U-Elder waiting for me".

Just killed him deathless for the first time ever. Did not feel very hard either, I realized I know the patterns pretty well, so just dodged while my totems destroyed them.

Thanks again for the great build :-)

So the new Blight league looks to be tower defense based...

I've trained for this my whole life. Long have we waited - totems activated.

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Wallach wrote:

So the new Blight league looks to be tower defense based...

I've trained for this my whole life. Long have we waited - totems activated.

Can't wait to use your build for the new league! Always loved totems, just got back to PoE a month ago and missed out on this lovely guide.

I am also going to roll this as my 3.8 starter. It looks absolutely perfect for it. Also your guide is gorgeous man, very well made and the videos are good too. Love it.

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Can't wait to use your build for the new league! Always loved totems, just got back to PoE a month ago and missed out on this lovely guide.

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Dmillz wrote:

I am also going to roll this as my 3.8 starter. It looks absolutely perfect for it. Also your guide is gorgeous man, very well made and the videos are good too. Love it.

Thanks! I'll definitely be updating both my totem guides for 3.8 once we have patch notes in hand, so if you or anyone else has any suggestions or requests for improving them, this is a good time.

I'll be going through the guide and PoB over the next few days to look for optimizations and keeping my eye on the teasers so I'll let you know if I see anything!

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so if you or anyone else has any suggestions or requests for improving them, this is a good time.

I'm interested in what notables you think would be best for anointing on your amulet. The crit multi nodes seem like the most obvious choice, but there are tons of interesting choices.

Also, thanks for the really well-written guide. This build looks like perfect league starter material in 3.8.

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TheNaajj wrote:

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so if you or anyone else has any suggestions or requests for improving them, this is a good time.

I'm interested in what notables you think would be best for anointing on your amulet. The crit multi nodes seem like the most obvious choice, but there are tons of interesting choices.

Also, thanks for the really well-written guide. This build looks like perfect league starter material in 3.8.

I think for anointing amulets, the frontrunner for damage is probably Throatseeker or Heartseeker, yeah. Heart of Ice is also pretty comparable damage-wise even if we can't make use of the ES leech, so maybe that is a good choice if the oil combination is noticeably easier to get. Flash Freeze in the Ranger area is another decent option; much less raw stat damage but another 20% Projectile Speed which is another form of damage gain for Freezing Pulse (and it has a bit of Chill Effect improvement to boot). Spiritual Aid is another idea if you want to get even more fiddly with your gearing considerations to fit more minion damage into the build, but I think it seems like a lot of hassle compared to taking one of the other straightforward damage choices that are already very strong.

Defensively I think Soul of Steel is probably up there with Constitution since we get a nice defensive boost without impacting our life-to-mana ration consideration for Mind Over Matter (though Constitution would still certainly be strong). Herbalism would be another strong defensive node for life and stronger life flasks (especially so in the Coward's Legacy setup combined with Panicked flask).

Whispers of Doom is also a pretty obvious target, but it is going to surely be one of the most sought-after oil combinations and likely the most expensive in the league. It will also be a little tricky to build a second curse into the build without trading it for Cold Snap + Bonechill in the second CWDT setup. I think I'd be more inclined to sell whatever oil is the big one for anointing Whispers of Doom and then use that currency elsewhere in the build probably.