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

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Mental_One wrote:

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gogofrisko wrote:

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Mental_One wrote:

Do you thin it will still be viable to level with flame totem now they destroyed its damage? I was expecting a small nerf at the start but 40% has just ruined flame totem in my opinion. Think you will still use it to level?

You defenately misread the update.

Flame Totem cast speed has been reduced from 200ms to 250ms. Flame Totem now does 25% less damage at Level 1, up to 24% more damage at Level 20. When combined with the cast speed changes, this now does 40% less DPS at level 1, up to 0% at level 21. It does more damage at levels 22 and beyond.


Doesn't appear i read it wrong mate.

That is at low levels mate. The felt that Flame Totem was too powerful early on and nerfed the damage, however at late game is just as good and if you manage to get it above level 22 they have actually buffed the damage.

You are only going to feel this is if you decide to level with flame totem (although it should still be fine for spell casters)

Regarding the skill tree, I was wondering if the totem damage node you skipped in 2.0 near Ancestral Bond is now worth taking. It is 8% damage, 2% totem cast speed, 3% totem attack speed now. I thought in the past it was just 8% damage.

That node hasn't changed; It's the same stats currently in 2.0.

The level 22+ buff is one reason I really want to try to re-arrange my links in 2.1 to fit in Empower and Controlled Destruction -- should bring far more damage than Added Lightning/Chaos can provide. I was testing it yesterday with the Three Dragons, and it does seem like they are getting shocked, although I couldn't figure out if it was due to Crits or not.

For the moment, I picked up a second 6-socket Infernal Mantle from Vorici for 8c which saves me a step, and I'm trying to 6L it with random fuses every now and then, but my luck is terrible. At the very least, it doesn't impact my current character since she's still running with her 5L copy.

leveling skilltrees are for maradeur, not witch

DPS per totem down for me from 18.5 to 15.9. Guess I will need to repsec.

SAme here my totems lost tons of dmg now :(

So the build stills viable?

Hi, Just would like to suggest trying with the new content controlled Destruction instead of added chaos damage. This was a massive dps gain even with just a level 1 gem. Even with the nerf, still loving this build :) so ty!

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mac2monster wrote:

Hi, Just would like to suggest trying with the new content controlled Destruction instead of added chaos damage. This was a massive dps gain even with just a level 1 gem. Even with the nerf, still loving this build :) so ty!

Yes it is a good suggestion, and I will probably add it to the guide. I just wanted to make sure to test it before adding it. Thank you for sharing though=)

I tested it briefly earlier doing a couple quick runs in Dried Lake before I went off to make a new character in Talisman. I was trying to figure out what exactly happened to the DPS values, since the patch notes seemed to indicate that by about level 21 there should have been no difference in DPS, but I noticed that my listed DPS went down about 2k, from 13k down to around 11k.

Not too sure why, but I think the 0.2s -> 0.25s base cast rate affected the DPS drop more than I expected. Even going with the average base damage values of a single projectile multiplied by the old speed of 5 casts per second exceeded the new speed of 4 casts per second with the new higher base damage values up through level 21-22.

That said, I did swap in Controlled Destruction in place of Added Lightning Damage and the listed DPS went back up to about 13k for me, close to 14k actually. It also appears to be +1% more spell damage per level, with no scaling of the Critical Strike Chance reduction.

My plan right now is to continue using your build as a base, but throw in Controlled Destruction, alongside the bits of Crit I can still muster with the points freed up from not taking Heart of Flame and use The Three Dragons. In the little time I spent testing that combination, it seemed to work really well -- the FT's shocked, and the extra Lightning damage from Herald of Thunder allowed the FT's to freeze and shatter fairly often.

I think I will try to see if I can get away with not using Faster Projectiles, having only the 40% or so from the Wand. I believe faster projectiles is not so much for damage output as it is for clear speed in allowing you to not have to resummon the totems so often -- is this right? In this case, if I grab Shaman's Dominion, I'll have to make sure to resummon the totems every 4 seconds anyway (and I currently reposition them extremely often as it is, having no projectile speed bonuses at all.)