[3.21] MoM Crit Power Siphon Totem Hierophant

I want to post about a build I started playing in Kalandra league. One of best builds I ever had. I did 40/40 and leveled to 100 by myself in Kalandra league and did 39/40 and leveled to 100 by myself in Sanctum league.

The build allows you to plant many totems in rapid succession. We clear with Kinetic Blast totems and single target damage comes from Power Siphon totems.

Flat lightning damage comes from Arcane Cloak, Sigil of Power and Mind of the Council. The latter is our build defining unique. We convert mana into lightning damage to attacks.

At endgame crazy Power Siphon totem numbers are possible, like 7+ totems and 14+ projectiles. And each of them will return!

In Kalandra league we had crazy -xx% lightning resistance jewelry which allowed for some totally crazy Doryani's chest shenanigans.

In Sanctum league we had an endgame version using Berserk and converting all elemental damage taken into lightning/chaos using Lightning Coil/Timeless jewel which meant that we did not need any fire or cold resistance.

In 3.21 Crucible league the current endgame plan resolves around the newly changed attack projectile return mechanic, the Vengeant Cascade notable and the new elemental mastery: "Hits have 25% chance to treat enemy resistances as inverted".
We still want Panopticon and Watchtower at endgame while having Vengeant Cascade annointed. To do that we need an Impossible Escape for Iron Reflexes in our endgame setup.

I am exited for the new league and eager to try out the new setup.

The guide has a fully fletched out zero to hero leveling guide. You can start this build at league start no problem.

PoB Level 21: https://pobb.in/sQUEMxpoP1dG

We level and farm with Armageddon Brand until we can afford 2 key items. Then we can switch to the ballista totem build around level 70.

Idea is Purifying Flame+Holy Flame Totem into
Storm Brand+Wave of Conviction into
Armageddon Brand+Wave of Conviction

The real build can be started earliest at level 59 when you can equip Mind of the Council helmet and Piscator's Vigil wand. At league start that is going to be later since you need to farm a bit doing the chaos orb vendor recipe to buy those uniques. They should be really cheap though, even at league start.

Bandits: Either Alira or 2 passive skills.

The vendor recipes are gone, but it does not really matter. Once we reach Solaris Temple we can craft fire damage to spells on our wands for 4 transmutation orbs each at level 24.

We go Arcane Cloak as soon as we can get it in Act 2. The added damage does not work with Wintertide Brand since it does not hit. So Storm Brand into Armageddon Brand.

Level 1: Get Purifying Flame
Purifying Flame-Elemental Prolif (BB)
Level 4: Get Frost Blink, Holy Flame Totem, Flame Wall, Arcane Surge
Purifying Flame-Arcane Surge (BB)
Holy Flame Totem-Elemental Prolif (RB)
Flame Wall, Frost Blink (B,B)
Level 8: Get Combustion, Added Lightning x2
Purifying Flame-Added Lightning-Elemental Prolif (BBB)
Holy Flame Totem-Combustion (RB)
Flame Wall (B)
Frost Blink-Arcane Surge (BB)
Level 10: Get Flame Dash, Vitality and Clarity
Remove Frost Blink
Vitality,Clarity (R,B)
Purifying Flame-Added Lightning-Elemental Prolif (BBB)
Holy Flame Totem-Combustion-Added Lightning (RBB)
Flame Wall (B)
Flame Dash-Arcane Surge (BB)
Level 12: Get Storm Brand, spec into Runebinder at 12
Remove Holy Flame Totem
Vitality,Clarity (R,B)
Storm Brand-Added Lightning-Elemental Prolif (BBB)
Purifying Flame-Combustion-Added Lightning (BBB)
Flame Wall (B)
Flame Dash-Arcane Surge (BB)
Level 16: Get Wave of Conviction, Arcane Cloak, Brand Recall
Remove Purifying Flame and Flame Wall
Vitality,Clarity (R,B)
Storm Brand-Added Lightning-Elemental Prolif (BBB)
Wave of Conviction-Combustion-Added Lightning (BBB)
Flame Dash, Brand Recall (B,B)
Arcane Cloak-Arcane Surge (BB)
Level 18: Get Faster Casting
Remove Elemental Prolif
Vitality,Clarity (R,B)
Storm Brand-Added Lightning-Faster Casting (BBB)
Wave of Conviction-Combustion-Added Lightning (BBB)
Flame Dash, Brand Recall (B,B)
Arcane Cloak-Arcane Surge (BB)

I suggest using Jade Amulet and Heavy Belt for Str/Dex

PoB level 40: https://pobb.in/m3GwyPS6welN

Make sure to grab the fire damage craft in temple of Solaris. Since there are no more vendor recipes we use them and 4 transmutation orbs on each wand to help up out. For more check the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qovZCtbCtk

When you switch to Armageddon Brand make sure to keep pressing Brand Recall. It will call all 7 brands to you and nuke anything around you.

Starting in act 3 you will see 4 links. You might check vendors too. You want BBBB and BBBG. You want Phys to Lightning for Wave of Conviction and Culling Strike for your brand.

Storm Brand-Added Lightning-Concentrated Effect-Culling Strike (BBBG)
Wave of Conviction-Added Lightning-Combustion-Phys to Lightning (BBBB)

For leveling through act 1 to 10 we get 20 respec points. We will spec in roughly 20 skill points to help our Armageddon Brand playstyle and respec out of them when we have bought Mind of the Council and Piscator.

We travel to the witch area, grab EO and the second brand cluster.

Level 24: Get Elemental Weakness (use on bosses, if possible get Faster Casting too and link it to Elemental Weakness)
If you have reached Solaris level 2 do the fire damage to spell wand crafts.
If needed craft movement speed on boots.
Level 28: Get Armageddon Brand and remove Storm Brand
Put Brand Recall on left mouse and let Armageddon Brand do its magic. Make sure to keep Arcane Cloak up aswell. Keep upgrading your life and mana potions. You want to chug a mana potion each time you have activated Arcane Cloak.
Vitality,Clarity (R,B)
Armageddon Brand-Added Lightning-Faster Casting-Culling Strike (BBBG)
Wave of Conviction-Combustion-Added Lightning-Phys to Lightning (BBBB)
Flame Dash, Brand Recall (B,B)
Arcane Cloak-Arcane Surge (BB)
Elemental Weakness-Faster Casting (BB)
Level 31: Do library, get Increased Duration and link it to Arcane Cloak.
Arcane Cloak-Arcane Surge-Increased Duration (BBR)
Level 34: Once you reach act 4 town do the first lab
Grab Conviction of Power Ascendancy and Hierophant (+4 Power Charges)
Elemental Overload will now be up nearly all the time.
Armageddon bombs should annihilate everything left and right. Keep Arcane Cloak up and use Wave of Conviction and Elemental Weakness on harder enemies. It should feel insane at this point.
Level 38: Get Sigil of Power and put in in the 2nd weapon slot for later.

PoB for level 70 with Armageddon Brand: https://pobb.in/WmNFH9t9B2Sv

We start filling out mana nodes and go south to the Dynamo cluster. There will be a point around level 60 where I suggest speccing into MoM.

Sadly we do not have enough respec points to spec into the Brand Ascendancy as Hierophant at league start. Cruel and Merciless lab will go into both totem ascendancies but since the cruel lab will do nothing for us we wait and do cruel and merciless lab later once we have the 2 key items and intend to switch builds in act 10 around level 70.

Act 6 ~Level 45: Fix your resists with the bench crafts and buy 2x Ballista Totem, Barrage Support, Power Siphon and Kinetic Blast. Level them in the second slot.
This is in preparation for when we can afford Mind of the Council and Piscator.

Armageddon Brand will carry us easily through the acts to level 70.

At league start my tip would be to use rogue markers that start dropping at be beginning of act 6 to do the following: Being able to do the chaos orb vendor recipe requires a lot of rare rings/amulets/belts which hold you back the most. Starting at level 59 I highly suggest that you use 1 rogue marker each level up to get to rogue harbour and buy out any Lockpicking, Perception, Counter-Thaumaturgy, Trap Disarment contract level 60+ contracts. These will give you level 60 jewelry items and currency. Do the chaos vendor recipe until you can afford the helm and the wand.

Once you have the helm, the wand and did Cruel and Merciless lab with Armageddon Brand you can do the switch to Power Siphon ballista totems. I suggest doing that at level 70. A bit of farming in Quarry might be needed, but that is no big deal. You need 18 respec points from quests.

If you have resistance/dexterity/stength needs you can spec into Practical Application in the witch area for 2 points. It can help you get going.

Level 70 PoB with Power Siphon ballista totems after respec: https://pobb.in/qrHuczQBvQA-

Piscator has no added damage on the wand. Thus in the early 4 link setups we keep Added Lightning damage. You can start with this. If resistances are a problem you can switch Wrath with Purity of Elements.

Power Siphon-Barrage Support-Added Lightning Damage-Ballista Totem (BBRG)
Kinetic Blast-Added Lightning Damage-Ballista Totem-Greater Multiple Projectiles (BBRG)
Arcane Cloak-Arcane Surge-Increased Duration (BBR)
Precision, Flame Dash, Blood Rage (GGB)
Frenzy,Sniper's Mark-Faster Casting (G,GB)
Wrath-Inspiration-Divine Blessing (RRB)

~3m dps with some really cheap uniques, 5 link and level 19 gems.
https://pobb.in/nG4AvQRyhfsq

In this step we buy Breathstealer, Ephemeral Bond. Depending on costs you can already buy Atziri's Foible instead of Ephemeral Bond.
Buy oils for Panopticon and Watchtower annoints.

18m+ guardian dps with 8 totems: https://pobb.in/pvaB0fwBr72c

Goals are the following:

* Get a shaper shield with +1 totems
* Get a six link rare chest
* Get 2 good normal jewels
* Get a Stygian with one good abyss jewel
* Get a good imbued wand
* Get a Healthy Mind jewel
* Get Dance the Offered
* Get Atziri's Foible and Annoint Watchtowers
* If possible use Amethyst rings

Juggle your str/dex and resistances with all the above and your tree.

Good luck. :)

I tested Vengeant Cascade.

https://www.reddit.com/r/PathOfExileBuilds/comments/12hcv27/analysis_of_how_vengeant_cascade_works_with_power/

It is working but we cannot use Sniper's Mark. Our options are Assassin's Mark or Punishment. Personally I went with Punishment since it works while mapping and there are some very spicy rares in 3.21.
Vengeant Cascade is not factored in PoB. Your damage against single target will be doubled!

Once you have all that the final step is buying Impossible Escape with Iron Reflexes. That allows the annoint of Vengeance Cascade. In that process you need buy alternate quality gems since you must have pierce on both totems.

I intend to buy:
* Impossible Escape with Iron Reflexes
* Anomalous Frenzy (gives us Frenzy with 3 projectiles)
* Anomalous Power Siphon(21/20 for +2 projectiles) and Anomalous Barrage Support (2 pierce)
* Anomalous Kinetic Blast (2 pierce)-Divergent Fork (1 pierce)

Here is my PoB from 3.21 at 100. I am only a couple of enchants away from that.
PoB: https://pobb.in/35IgnGAoz3c9



If you want tank grab the Lightning Coil PoB from 3.20 from the archive. But who cares about that in SC if we get one league of Vengeant Cascade.

Since patch 3.21 the Piscator wand is now an Imbued wand base which is insane. Any 18% speed and 30% crit chance Piscator below 1 divine is so worth it.

When you have 4 divines leftover you can craft yourself a ~14% damage upgrade against the best Piscator you can buy.

Cost: couple chaos for the fractured base, 4 div for the meta mods, some essences, 1 exalt for spell damage as chaos and a couple of chaos for mana.

1. You need a fractured 38% crit chance ilvl 85+ imbued wand (cheapest fracture). The fractured 19% attack speed one would of course be better. Then you would use the crit essences instead of attack speed essences.
2. You use the highest Essence of Zeal (17-18 attack speed)
3. You need zero suffixes other than crit + attack speed. Basically the wand must have at least 1 open prefix (prefixes that are whatever) and 2 suffixes (crit+attack speed). It is probably cheapest just to use another Zeal and hope you only roll prefixes. You need 1 open prefix though!
4. Craft 3 crafted mods (suffix) and suffixes cannot be changed (prefix)
5. Veiled Chaos Orb

You will most likely end with an item like this:



6. Craft Spell Damage+Chaos.
7. Craft Mana
8. Unveil Elemental Pen.



Get Hillock in Transportation and apply 28% quality to the wand.
Harvest enchant either critical strike chance or attack speed. You can check PoB which would be better for you at that point.

Crafting the final wand. This wand will have 19% attack speed, T1 crit chance (essence), T2+ global crit multi as suffixes, elemental pen as prefix and then any good beneficial exalt slam outcome and a good craft.

I would only start this craft with a good amount of currency in the bank ~20div.
It is another 10% more damage against your 4div wand. If you do not care for 10% more damage do not craft this wand!

1. Buy a fractured ilvl 85+ Imbued wand with 19% attack speed (nothing less)
2. Use the highest Essence of Loathing for critical strike chance. The goal is to get T2+ global critical strike multiplier, filling all 3 suffixes. The odds are 1 in 50.
3. Craft Suffixes cannot be changed
4. Veiled Chaos Orb. You either need zero prefixes other than the unveil or a T3+ of a good prefix. If you only got the unveil go to step 5. If you got lucky go to step 7.
5. Craft lightning damage to spells.
6. Exalt Slam and hope for: T3+ elemental damage with attacks, spell damage, spell damage and mana, + maximum mana, %lightning damage, added lightning damage. The odds are 1 in 16. If you did not hit it go back to step 3.
7. Craft %physical damage
8. Unveil elemental penetration.
9. Craft either %spell and chaos damage or +maximum mana.

Result will be sth. like this:


Get Hillock in Transportation and apply 28% quality to the wand.
Harvest enchant either critical strike chance or attack speed. You can check PoB which would be better for you at that point.

3.20 Level 92 - Lightning Coil switch. Requires a lot of items. Read before switching!

3.20 Level 98 Lightning Coil + Berserk

3.20 gear with Lightnig Coil at 100

Level 100 PoB from 3.20

3.19 gear with Doryani at 100

My level 100 PoB from 3.19 (will not work in 3.20)