Warping Bond Totemplar

[Disclaimer]Not for those who want to roflstomp, we are using Searing Bond as main damage source after all. Why Searing Bond? Because everyone (most people) dismisses it and says it isn't viable it looks cool.[/Disclaimer]


Sounds pretty good, huh?
Well it isn't. It suffers from being burning damage, so not pumped by spell/fire/fuck all. On top of that, it's fire type, yet most fire supports don't work with it, and it can't even use IIQ/IIR gems. I currently have found increased burning damage and minion and totem elemental resistances the only worthwhile supports, with the option of reduced mana. Pretty shitty skill design huh? Great idea, poor implementation. It looks awesome so let's roll with it anyway.

So, how to maximise damage with such a weak skill?

[Step 1] Burning Damage
a)The Pyromaniac cluster between templar and witch is a no brainer, especially being so close to starting area.
b)The increased burning damage gem is a given, especially being the only support that actually increases Searing Bond's damage (prove me wrong, please. I beg you please find something).
c)Searing Touch. In case the name didn't give it away? 70% increased burning damage. This is a fixed mod on the item, not a variable, so any low-roll cheap-as-chips Searing Touch will do. We care little for the spell/fire damage. Also +2 to fire gems, perfect for increasing Searing Bond damage (and inc burn dmg).
And you know what else? Because Searing Bond links with fuck all, you can get away with 3-4 links on your Searing Touch for extra savings.

Epic lowrollz.

This gives us about 200% Increased Burning Damage.

[Step 2] Shock Stacking
a)The Static Blows cluster gives 35% increased shock duration and 20% chance to shock the enemy on hit with lightning damage.
b)Warping totems (lightning warp+spell totem). They perform a multitude of functions for this build; shock stacking, delivering the searing bond damage (searing bond has an AoE at each end, but because this is searing bond, increased AoE doesn't apply of course), drawing aggro all while surviving well via high mobility. Link elemental proliferation for them shock stacks.
Did I mention warping totems speed is based on your movement speed? Quicksilver Flasks of Adrenaline + Faster Casting makes for turbo totems, for faster/more shock stacking.

So we have 200% increased burning damage and up to 120% increased damage via shock. That's almost going to make Searing Bond kill something, but we are going to need something to back it up, and we can't deal damage ourselves due to Ancestral Bond keystone, so...

[Step 3] Fire Traps
We aren't worried about the initial hit, we're already specced into burning damage for the ground effect. Another reason you can get by with a "shit" Searing Touch. You know what's neat about fire traps in this build?

"

Burning Ground Effect: The burning area left behind after a Fire Trap explosion does not act like other burning damage. It will do fire-based health degeneration damage simultaneously with other burning damage for as long as an enemy is within the radius of the Fire Trap.

It stacks with Searing Bond.
I think igniting the enemy is additive as well, for three simultaneous burns, but I'm not certain on that 3rd one. Damage would likely be pitiful anyway, but it all helps (yay, Searing Bond).

What else?

Minions
Zombies. Not Skeles because we aren't putting it on a totem. Could be Specters. I'm considering a switch to Specters later, but that's at least 13 levels away, after I get Iron Reflexes (for 9 SP) and into Death Attunement (+1 Specter) for 4 SP.

Totems
Ancestral Bond keystone and Soul Mantle for triple totem. Usually it will be 2x Warping Totem and 1x Searing Bond, but sometimes 2x Searing bond and 1x Warping Totem will let you focus damage more, especially if you are unable to keep shock stacks up on the enemy. In this situation you take the place of the second Warping Totem, so for this you're going to need some survivability, which is why I want Iron Reflexes + Granites of win Iron Skin, for about 19-20k armour if I calculated right.

But other than that, we're using a staff, and definitely not going to touch staff passives, so have a pitiful amount of block and a bit of ES.

ES that gets converted to mana via Eldritch Battery keystone! Yay! Lots of mana for...

Auras

Discipline for massive mana boost, Grace for Iron Reflexes. Clarity for mana regen (you can even level it to max!) and Purity and Vitality to add survivability and sustain for you and your totems/zombies.
Reduced mana (non quality) and Alpha's Howl help a lot here. Oh yeah, I fuckin' <3 Alpha's Howl.

Round the build out with...

Curse
I'm just running Flammability for fire penetration and chance to ignite, don't have sockets free for a defensive back up, not really needed so far anyway.

Silver Bullet
An un-linked socket in my Soul Mantle is the perfect place for a Detonate Dead gem, putting it on a level 14 spell totem. Perfect for situations I will soon face when I run these:


Down to the business end.

Current Passive Tree (72)

In 9 levels (81)

With the Static Blows duration node and Elemental Adaption as 1 pointers to pick up when needed.

Gear/Skill setup

With the primary role of the jewelery being to provide stats, allowing me to reach further on the passive tree. Astramentis. Do want /derpy_house_face.jpg


I'll update this with more in the future if there is even a shred of interest in the build, which I doubt.

Leave you with a few videos, these early ones show some progression of the build, I tried a few different things (like anger for the zombies with chance to ignite via flammability and the increased burning damage as they share links with my SB gems), may go back into it if I get a little more mana.
First vid: Fellshrine Ruins. This was when I first specced into this build and was still playing around with various things. I had never recorded video of myself gaming before and was using some real horrible trial thing that only made 30s clips and made massively oversized files.
Second vid: Perandus. This was before the 0.11.0f patch, so I was crashing so often I'd only make it through City of Sarn (a small area) about 1/5 times. This was the second time I found Perandus, but the first time the game crashed during the encounter due to wtfsearingbondisnotonlyweakbutbuggyasshit that I struggled through for a couple of days. Rollbacks on every crash. Awesome way to level gems.
Third vid: Kole. First encounter with him, have had several much neater and faster kills on him since.
Fourth vid: Tropical Island. First map, running with summoner friend.

I have a funny one facing the Blacksmith for the first time that I'll upload soon. I really hope I did press record for that fight. I feel like Vash the Stampede in that one, where I blunder around and somehow get the job done despite nearly dying several times.
[2nd edit]And here it is.


[edit][tl;dr] This is probably not the build for you.

[Reserved]

Incredible idea! Dont know if that will be "competitive" or "end-game suitable" but it looks like a hell lot of fun. :-D

I will try something like that (change it a bit, though). Depends greatly on finding soul mantle, isnt it? Hope i find it some day. ^^

Yeah, Soul Mantle is required.

Updated with another vid.

This looked like a really fun build to do a while back but suffered greatly due to Searing Bond's abysmal damage because it couldn't be supported by fire damage, and the only support gem that worked with it was increased burning damage.

After 1.02, I believe searing bond now scales with increased fire damage nodes, as well as trap and mine damage nodes. Remote mine, trap, and reduced duration gems can really boost the burning damage of searing bond as well.

I believe totem damage nodes will also increase the damage of searing bond as well.

Can anyone take a look at the idea behind the OP's build and apply it to the current 1.02 version of the game to see if it is now a fully viable build?

This seems to be a very fun build, and may actually now be viable with the way burning damage works!