[2.5 Video Guide] Beginner's Build: Dual Flame Totem, Blood Magic Chieftain [Atziri & HC/SC Viable]

Chaos golem dmg isn't significant enough and its just physical dmg reduction.... I am tempted to make a dive for dual curse nodes.... because , i don't want to lose my current gear/move speed.... itemization is hard with dual curse stuff....

Well, when we are talking about defensive improvements the Chaos Golem certainly derves a mention.

I have been following this thread for a while and decided to try the build with a lvl 40 witch from back then. I don't have an Infernal Mantle so I went with a 6L Belly, plenty HP.

If you have the the links 2 spare, you can add Tempest shield for better block chance, maybe linked with Blind.

And speaking of Blind, for culling I'm using Kinetic Blast + GMP + Culling Strike + IIR. Even though my aim is notoriously poor this works very well from a distance. Maybe I will replace IIR with Blind. Or maybe I'll change this setup to Firestorm + Culling Strike + CoH + Flammability... I'm still experimenting.

As for an additional curse, for levelling I was using Asenath's (just grabbed some random low lvl Unique gloves) and I must say Temp Chains on Hit was really nice actually, I kinda miss this now. ;)

My Flame Golem is linked to Minion Life, Minion Damage and Fire Penetration, not sure if it's worth it but I had the free sockets so why not pimp that little fella a bit.

I just have started mapping, will see how it goes and report back.

I am running dual Flame totems with I am getting almost instant shock status on all enemies and the DPS increase is very evident, and fun. I am not proccing the lightning strikes from Herald of Thunder since the totems are responsible for the kills. So far, I am running 72-74 maps fairly easily without missing the HP that a different helm may add. My other gear :

I am at 4k hp, max resis, my main totem is doing 11k tooltip before shock and passives, and my culler is at 8500. I am currently looking for gear upgrades to increase my hp without giving up 3 dragons, but higher maps may make it tough to justify keeping that helm. I could also equip a lioneyes shield for more armour, but I like the spell damage I currently have. If I did give up 3 Dragons, I have theoried that a +2 minion helm with great life and resis stats would be good.

What uniques should I focus on grabbing first once I hit end game?

Can someone help me path out a hierarchy to what uniques I should work toward in the order I should try to get them to increase my usefulness in maps?

Flame Totem DPS: 1.226



Flame TOtem DPS: 1.297

How is it possible these 2 items are equal? I expected a little higher damage increase ...

The added FLAT fire damage from the first DOES NOT apply to spells, it must specifically say "Adds X-Y fire damage to spells" for it to apply. That is likely why the second one has more dps (has way more to spell damage).

The best thing you can find on weapons for Flame Totem is CAST SPEED and Adds X-Y dmg to spells, then spell damage.

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cablemodem wrote:

What uniques should I focus on grabbing first once I hit end game?

Can someone help me path out a hierarchy to what uniques I should work toward in the order I should try to get them to increase my usefulness in maps?

As claimed in the OP, this build does not require any uniques. If I had to pick one from the list, it would be Lioneye's Remorse because it is dirt cheap compared to a rare high-end Tower Shield.

My witch is currently lvl 78, she's got 5.5k HP and more than 12k tooltip DPS (unbuffed). The only unique I am using at the moment is a 6L Belly and only because I had it handy, it will be replaced with a kicky Astral Plate once I have it 6-linked.

Focus on life, strength, armour, cast speed, spell and increased fire/elemental damage on your gear and you'll be doing fine in maps.

Maybe this is a silly question but why are we using Faster Projectiles in the Flame Totem setup if the DPS is in fact higher with Culling Strike at the same level?

According to the change log, Culling Strike has seen some significant buffs with the release of The Awakening: it does no longer carry a speed penalty and the damage increases by 2% per level.

The Totem range does not increase either with FP according to the tooltip. And both gems will add 10% cast speed with 20% quality.

DPS Tooltip screenshots with 20/20 Faster Projectiles and 20/20 Culling Strike:



Am I missing something?

Im runnin this, around 12.5k dps and More than 5k hp

any ideas to improve the build?

swap to piety and stuff on h-maps





lvl 85, at now runnin easy maps lvl 75-82 with my duo partner and kill all kind of bosses like beyond 77 and stuff

funniest thing is all items is self found, self linked or crafted , already droped 4 pure exalted on maps and judgement staff (16ex) on the warbands league
sweet build :)



I wish to link items but when i do it it link 10x my ring , thats fuckin stupid

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tomay wrote:

Maybe this is a silly question but why are we using Faster Projectiles in the Flame Totem setup if the DPS is in fact higher with Culling Strike at the same level?

According to the change log, Culling Strike has seen some significant buffs with the release of The Awakening: it does no longer carry a speed penalty and the damage increases by 2% per level.

The Totem range does not increase either with FP according to the tooltip. And both gems will add 10% cast speed with 20% quality.


Am I missing something?

Totem Range isn't the relevant factor, the Totem Range is the distance the totem can target. Faster projectiles allows your flame totem to hit significantly further away, thereby increasing both your survivability (mobs die further away) and dps.