Beginner/Inexpensive/Farm build...?

Ball lightning is great for 2.1.
My guildmate who started playing POE with Flame Totem and then tried BL build said it is much better.

gorgre run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqfHvpmsFDY
guide: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1481578

ziggyD's iron will arc is very cheap and effective.

I run it with 30/300, no problem in hc whatsoever, ran up to tier 6 maps solo

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Bada_Bing wrote:

For a first char with the purpose of farming gear while being as independent of gear restrictions as possible, dual totem is still the best option.

[2.1 VIDEO GUIDE]PoE Beginners Build: Dual Flame Totem, BM [Atziri & HC/SC Viable]

I agree with this - Dual Flame Totems is super simple and cheap to gear (and level also... you wont have to waste time trading AT ALL if you don't want to - 100% self found/crafted very doable unless you wanna trade), flexible with their tree points, can play with 1 - 2 buttons, barely gets hit, makes a joke out of 90% of the games Bosses, farms fast, it's SC/HC viable and it's flexible to run any map mod later on.

I play a non-crit Blood Magic variant myself (due to Incinerate getting nerfed recently) and my tree/gear is sort of half-defense half-offense and I have run all map tiers and Atziri (never done Uber Atziri - would likely RIP). It's definitely my preferred build choice in PoE. Good luck with whatever you decide :)