[3.15] Elemental Hit Ballista Totem Hiero | Budget Friendly | League Start to Endgame

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Meexs wrote:

Definitely looks like my starter for 3.13.
Thanks for well written guide!

One question - what about flame wall? Is it worth to use it?

Thank you!

Elemental Hit has a very high base fire damage already through all the conversions so Flame Wall doesn't really add much more DPS. Flame Wall might be Ok if we link more support gems to it but we are very tight on gem slots due to using Kaom's Heart so it's not really an option.

As for using it during our leveling with Holy Flame Totems(HFT), I personally haven't test it, but I think it might be helpful for boss encounters. For normal enemies, since they die pretty fast and Flame Wall has to be placed in front of HFT for it to affect HFT's damage, I don't think it's too useful in those situations.

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Vei wrote:

Elemental Hit has a very high base fire damage already through all the conversions so Flame Wall doesn't really add much more DPS. Flame Wall might be Ok if we link more support gems to it but we are very tight on gem slots due to using Kaom's Heart so it's not really an option.

As for using it during our leveling with Holy Flame Totems(HFT), I personally haven't test it, but I think it might be helpful for boss encounters. For normal enemies, since they die pretty fast and Flame Wall has to be placed in front of HFT for it to affect HFT's damage, I don't think it's too useful in those situations.

Thanks for answer!

After watching twitch I assume we should expect some changes to Hierophant ascendancy. We need to wait for patch notes to see what exactly they did.

They already have a picture of the new Hiero Ascendancy online. Don't entirely know, what think of it.

Taking "Summon two totems instead of one" away from Ritual of Awakening surely seems like a stinker - for both leveling and endgame. I hope there will be another way to get this.

https://web.poecdn.com/protected/image/echoes/screenshots/Panel10/Screenshot2.jpg?key=oYoAKmA8WJffVUZM0t-Kqw

That does stink, however they also gave:
- 100% increased totem placement speed instead of 50%
- Permanent 4 power and endurance charges
- 5% more damage per totem instead of 3 (so that's 12% more damage for 6 totems up)
- We lost 10% attack speed while a totem is up (sucks)
- We lost increased damage per enemy killed recently (I think we don't really care)
- Permanent arcane surge without traveling to a stinky node if you play spell totem (irrelevant for this build, but still)

Globally I'd say it's not bad, but the QoL hurts that's for sure...

Doesn't the 100% increased totem speed make up for the loss of being able to place two totems at once? In the end it will cost more mana. Maybe I'm wrong though since I don't know the math behind it.

I saw the preview of the new Hierophant Ascendancy. For those who didn't, it's at the announcement Page, I'll put a preview here for easy references for those who haven't seen it



"Summon Two Totems instead of one" from Ritual of Awakening is definitely the biggest reason why we choose Hiero for this build. The next biggest reason is +1 to Maximum Totems which is still there. As for the rest(Minimum Power/Endurance Charges, etc), let's just say it's fine whether we have them or not, not dealbreakers.

Without the "Summon 2 Totem instead of one" ability, Hierophant is definitely not as attractive and special now. I will be open to other Ascendancy as possible options for this build.

Tomorrow(it's ultra late here) I'll update the announcement section with my comments after a more thorough thought and probably some testing.

welp, there goes my starter for 3.13 :(

I have wrote my detailed thoughts for this build base on the Hiero info we got yesterday.

Check it out here:

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3005581/page/1#p23724378

There's a TLDR at the end.

Thanks for the analysis Vei, it all then really depends if they add this multiple totem support on normal tree or not. If not, maybe we could gemswap with multiple totem support for mapping ?

What other ascendencies do you think could be as good/better/different then ? Chieftain ? Scion hiero + chieftain ?

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thomzon wrote:

Thanks for the analysis Vei, it all then really depends if they add this multiple totem support on normal tree or not. If not, maybe we could gemswap with multiple totem support for mapping ?

That maybe might be a possible option for some by replacing Elemental Damage with Attacks Support Gem.

According to POB, DPS(9 Totems Up With Multiple Totems ) is around 65%+ of the original DPS(7 Totems Up)

I am not sure how that will fare on normal T16 but I don't think it would be that nice on 100% Delirium Maps... I mean when I imagine myself doing the T16 Tropical Island 100% Delirium Map(Ahewaz Video) with 65% of the DPS... XD

I think Damage probably makes more sense for harder content like 100% Delirium Maps while easier content, not sure if T16 is "easy" enough, might be Ok.

Overall, this option don't really appeal to me but it might be workable for some players for easier contents.

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thomzon wrote:

What other ascendencies do you think could be as good/better/different then ? Chieftain ? Scion hiero + chieftain ?

Base on the info that is available as of this post, potential alternatives will be:

Ascendant, Chieftain, Deadeye, Raider

Ascendant combinations

1st Choice
Chieftain

2nd Choice
Slayer
Deadeye
Raider
Pathfinder


There's still a lot of things(Patch Notes, Other Ascendancy changes, etc) not revealed yet so let's see how things develop in the coming days.