[3.6] Wave of Conviction / Holy Flame Totem Hierophant | 4.5m Shaper DPS


You too can look this cool with this build *

*: Also with extensive microtransactions.

Wave of Conviction is a high-damaging physical conversion spell released in 3.6. Its interesting in that the more your cast it, the less range you have, while your damage skyrockets. So, I figured totems would be a good way to make up for the lack of range seeing as how I can create the origin point of the spell wherever I want, and boy does this shit hurt.

Pros/Cons

Spoiler

Pros:

+ Over 900k DPS per totem (5 totems), with very high gear scaling that can push it extremely high
+ Holy Flame Totem with Faster Projectiles clears out trash with little investment as it benefits from all the things Wave of Conviction does
+ Holy Flame Totem instantly removes all curses from Soul Mantle, negating the need for even a Warding flask
+ Lazy totem playstyle means you sit back while things are destroyed unless its the Syndicate who instantly teleport on you because that's fun
+ Almost 5k life, 2k MoM mana, and ~2k energy shield mean you can actually take a hit.


Cons:

- Wave of Conviction starts with a large AOE, but rapidly shrinks as it casts repeatedly, meaning its only for single target not clear.
- Sometimes you might have 50 curses on you before you step into the Consecrated Ground of a Holy Flame totem and sometimes you might explode because of that. So, not very Hardcore viable


The Build

Spoiler

Path of Building: https://pastebin.com/NxR9hyMU
Bandit: Alira
Pantheon: None specific to the build. Phys damage reduction is nice.
Ascendancy: Hierophant



Pursuit of Faith -> Ritual of Awakening -> Divine Guidance -> Sanctuary of Thought



Gems / Links

Spoiler

Main six-link in Soul Mantle (with Spell Totem support built in):

Wave of Conviction + Added Fire Damage + Controlled Destruction + Elemental Focus + Concentrated Effect + Faster Casting

Five-link in Shaper gloves

Faster Projectiles (Shaper Mod) + Holy Flame Totem + Added Fire Damage + Infused Channeling + Elemental Focus

Flame Dash + Faster Casting + Arcane Surge

Immortal Call + Cast when Damage Taken + Increased Duration + Vaal Righteous Fire

Herald of Ash and Zealotry can go wherever. If you have an Enlighten, awesome, more effective HP for you.

I also Self-cast Assassin's Mark because totem users are among the few that can actually self-cast curses without damage loss.


Gear

Spoiler



The new Circle of Anguish with Increased Herald of Ash buff effect is an insane boost of damage, nearly 20% more.

Other than Soul Mantle there are no required uniques for this build.

A Shaper Shield with +1 totems will be a huge boost to your overall damage, but it won't affect clearspeed much so its not completely necessary.

Things to look for:

- Gain Physical damage as extra (anything)
- Elemental penetration
- Spell crit chance
- Cast speed
- 120% crit until you crit yourself Lab enchant (We don't crit, our totems do)



Playstyle

Spoiler

For clear, run around dropping Holy Flame totems everywhere and occasionally run over the Consecrated Ground it creates to cleanse all your curses from Soul Mantle.

For single target, drop all five Wave of Conviction totems right on top of the target and curse with Assassin's Mark for extra crit damage.

Remember your totems can actually die, so don't throw them directly in front of bosses like Shaper who will beam them out of existence. Place them behind / use your brain.

If you find yourself dying, disable Zealotry to drastically increase your effective health with Mind over Matter. You'll still do a shit ton of damage.

Updates:

3/21/2019: Guide first added, still leveling / gearing.
Last edited by SoupJoond on Mar 21, 2019, 5:29:47 PM
Last bumped on Apr 25, 2019, 11:40:25 AM
What was your budget for the listed gear roughly?
Was roughly 5-6ex. Most expensive parts were the +1 totem shield and the HoA Buff effect ring. Linked the Soul Mantle myself so it was cheap.
Just starting new character, trying this build, well I'm following this guide. I was wondering if I could just kill all the bandits for 2 more passive skills and potentially get more dps. Also noticed no leveling guide, would going to the left and getting "Ancestral Bond" first better than going right? I'm guessing left first. Also Could I do the same build but on a scion? and Get more defenses and dps?
Your Build is very Solo self found friendly but when I see it I really think your Min max is very bad
Your Build is focused around (On-Hit Damage , non Ignite, phy conv, Some crit,Wave of conviction anti boss is a very good concept)
But to be honest your supporting and wave clear skills is very lacking

Main skill is wave of conviction
Soulmantel (single cast WoC totem 5 times) very good vs single target boss with long animation and stays still like shaper and uber lab not so much elder and shaper guardians (Effective ones hotting from safe distance unlike those Discharge COC builds(Cost more BTW)).Looking the super mobile ones that chase u like mad and add debuffs that chase u.

This makes that, if for instance 5 totems die from boss aoe (always happen unless u are cheiftan Trust me on this) and u get cursed 5 times and as always Human reaction is slow u cant drop a flame totem to clear the debuffs u are kina of screwed big time (non hardcore viable)

Since u are running crit with high base damage of WoC(totem crit like u said)I am guessing u are not running ELE Overload right?
then I guess u are not Criting for the ignite but for the on hit mixed damage(mostly fire conv from phy with some Lightning and choas)
This mixed focus is very good for on hit for set up for dealing with bosses with many kinds of resists but it greatly makes supporting the damage very tough cause of the many damage types

So we got your very good main skill now lets talk about your farming skill. AND With any totem build u cannot off screen like with most QUALITY and QUANTITY build out there in exchange for superior boss killing potential and sustain with makes it a pain to level from experience

Main Farming skill (Flame totem)
The Elder gloves cheap Buy or Solo self-found is a good pick for the faster proj. the base could be better though(For ES Base or some armor)
Flame totem
Added Fire damage
(Just drop it the Added is not worth enough with the low base damage and the effectiveness of added damage)
Unlike WoC Effectiveness of added damage of 160% Flame totem of just 30% makes most flat onhit near worthless. In this a rare case where % fire damage and % spell damage is better
Change to fire Pen or faster casting

Infused channeling
you are telling me your totems cannot live normal mobs? why not just use Controlled destruction like in your WoC it has higher damage
BTW Totems cannot gain infusion sooo... ya... kina of a wasted slot.
Resist and totem survivability from Passive tree is enough to carry you to end game most of the time (the reflect mobs still kill your totems most of the time)

*Damage conv from gear is good in any way because you need it for WoC and cant be helped

Now for Supporting skills

Self case Assassin Mark

If u have time to self cast curse and feel super safe u can consider dropping Ancestral bond to have a Scorching ray cast while channeling set up to cast curses and brands to boost damage higher(brands are a good option cause u can cast and forget the brand (of course this set up will mess with your lab enchant but with your crit chance and some ignite chance from tree u finally have access to ignite damage and since u are building fire damage from tree it is a good damage source for hit and forget. Dot Damage = less time casting and standing still))

Flame dash set up
Good. mobility is king in the game

Immortal call set up
Good. Best classic setup for high phy burst

Lightning totem
Not flame totem(more global damage) or Stone totem(life regen)? well I guess its user preference

Auras
Big No No For MOM Build with not enough mana regen (50%+25%=75% reserve minus some from shield and hierophant)
More mana = Safer
Herald of Ash - Reasonable with the new ring
Zealotry - big nope (Big mana prob even with reduce mana reserve. trust me)
Extra blue slot Put in clarity since the flat mana reserve means almost nothing in the face of a large mana pool and also help with MOM
mana regen = life regen but easier to get then life regen

And Finally Stats

Most important MANA
Are u sure u have 2k of free mana for MOM and not reserved in any way?. from what see in items and passive tree I don't think u have 2k free mana

Second important stat HP 5K.
A bit over kill for a non righteous fire build(even though u have vaal righteous fire but I am sure u cannot sustain the normal one with the build u have). I see u invest a lot into Hp and not enough into mitigation of damage. u must at least have some armor and resist as most mobs in the game are phy or gain damage based on phy (map mods)

Hidden stat that I almost missed Life regen.
with the nodes on the tree you have at least 3-5 % of life regen near Templar?. And I see u also focus to have some on your gear. I don't think its enough to save you with all the curses u are having. the consecrated ground with the regen u have is too little in t6 and above to cover corrupting blood and bleed considering u don't have any way to remove bleed effects. I suggest u drop it completely or think of it as a buffer for Dot based damage like ignite and poison/bleed because I don't think its reliable in a boss fight

Energy Shield
Since u are investing so heavy into life I suggest u drop any ES nodes in the tree and focus on getting some armor or more flat/% life or life regen
Do not ever try to build both at the same time and play like a Low life character u will die to chaos damage very fast without CI. focus on hp and let ES from your mana (Hierophant) be a damage buffer to proc your Cast when damage taken setup

I hope u take this hints in improving your build to Join the PATH OF ONESHOTTING ALL BOSSES





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