Stuck at level 81, can you help with my build?

So as the title states I'm stuck at level 81. I can get maybe 20-40% of a level before dying a bunch of times and am back at 0. I don't think it's because I'm attempting content that is too difficult for me, as I have only been doings maps upto level 73 (so that I can grind my way to 82 without dying -_- not going very well).

This is my first real character, I'm relatively new to PoE and started playing just as the last temp. leagues ended. I haven't been following a specific build, just kinda going where I think would be good and kind of taking a stab at what gear/mods I should go for. I can't really think of anything specific that is killing me, and I'm fine with map bosses. Like, I'm not running headlong into a boss 5-6 times in order to get it down, which would obviously lose all of my experience, it's actually just random groups of mobs that kill me multiple times. This is pretty frustrating because they're mobs I've killed before with no problem, but for some reason sometimes I just die.

Anyway I'm beginning to ramble; while my main goal is to get this character to 82 for the challenge, I would like to play past 82 because I'm really enjoying it, which is why I'm asking for help here.

Reduce the amount of fire damage nodes by 50%, take all those life nodes.

Gems! Increased aoe does nothing for flame totem and duration is a wasted slot imo. I would be running FT-casting-pen-faster projectiles-added chaos (lightning is fine) and probably blind or item rarity, even reduced mana would work if that is what you need. You should have a cwdt setup, I prefer enfeeble and frost wall on my FT builds but I havn't used 2.0 frost wall tbh. I can't look at tree at the moment but above is probably correct.

If you want only 82 farm dried lake, did this on my failed duelist build,

dont use aoe and inc duration on totem


use Cast when damage taken with enfeeble curse

Could also +20% Quality all your items, your shield is kinda weak, could upgrade it for cheap. Agree with others. Main thing is your 6L chest, need to change the colors and put in stronger gems like mentioned above.

Also, your chest could be killing you with that level 20 curse. If your totem dies and say you get lvl 20 vulnerability you are going to degen and take extra damage so it could be causing unnecessary 1 shots. Advise you switch to a rare chest, even at 5L will be better survivability wise.

Too much focus on damage when you have big nuggets of life waiting to be taken all over the tree. I'd be surprised if you're breaching even 3.5k life, when you should have at least 5k at that level.

You also take the holy fire cluster, which does almost nothing for flame totem. Burn is a status effect caused by fire damage that scales with the individual hits of fire damage. Since FT hits for many small chunks of damage, burn is negligible and wasted.

E: another thing is that soul mantle is kind of wasted with flame totem. One of the major perks of this unique is that it has spell totem built in, making it an effective 7L. Flame totem is already a totem, and doesn't get any benefit from the spell totem bonus. The self-curse effect is also a huge downside.

Okay how's this:





Edit: also, I've heard something about not leveling CWDT so that you cast whatever it's attached to more often; is there a level I should get the gem to before stopping or is that not true at all?

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JahIthBer89 wrote:

You also take the holy fire cluster, which does almost nothing for flame totem. Burn is a status effect caused by fire damage that scales with the individual hits of fire damage. Since FT hits for many small chunks of damage, burn is negligible and wasted.

Oh, I didn't know that! Thanks, I'll refund those points next time I log on :D

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JahIthBer89 wrote:

E: another thing is that soul mantle is kind of wasted with flame totem. One of the major perks of this unique is that it has spell totem built in, making it an effective 7L. Flame totem is already a totem, and doesn't get any benefit from the spell totem bonus. The self-curse effect is also a huge downside.

I really like the Soul Mantle for FT because I want to run 2 totems without Ancestral Bond, and FT is the only totem I want. By putting it in the Mantle I don't have to run any other totem. Plus, I'm actually okay with running what would effectively be a 7L item imperfectly, because I was only trying to 5L my Mantle but got lucky. Also, the curses are very manageable, and I have a Curse Removal flask for when they get a bit much.

Where to start...
most important - gems! Remove more area and and icreased duration. Add cold damage, chaos damage, iron will or faster projectiles. I don't see you using auras. Why is that?
gear - shield sux, amulet would greatly use replacement if you can get other stats, rings are also mediocre.
tree - why no ancestral bond? No reason to skip that along with its nodes. Burning damage is not very good with incenerate type spells, you can also drop the breath of flames cluster for that reason. Light of divinity and retribution are good nodes you can pass by. Get purity of flesh and the surrounding life, get the scion life wheel. Aside from life what other defensive mechanic are you using? I'm assuming ES - get some ES nodes, you have plenty of good ones in your start area. If you have mana problems get the unrelating cluster. I'm nost sure if going crit was a good idea - either get most crit nodes and get crit on gear or drop them all.

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LadyZeyra wrote:

I really like the Soul Mantle for FT because I want to run 2 totems without Ancestral Bond, and FT is the only totem I want.

Why do you avoid ancestral bond? You don't have any selfcasting spells on you, there's no drawback to it.

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Ire_of_Desire wrote:

Where to start...
most important - gems! Remove more area and and icreased duration. Add cold damage, chaos damage, iron will or faster projectiles. I don't see you using auras. Why is that?

Added faster projectiles. I don't really know which auras to run, plus I don't really like having a lot of mana reserved >_> I have herald of Thunder which reserves some already. But if there are some auras I really do need or should have I am open to it.

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Ire_of_Desire wrote:

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LadyZeyra wrote:

I really like the Soul Mantle for FT because I want to run 2 totems without Ancestral Bond, and FT is the only totem I want.

Why do you avoid ancestral bond? You don't have any selfcasting spells on you, there's no drawback to it.

I use Fireball and to a lesser extent Magma Orb for mobs that get past, or are being ignored by, the FT.