[3.4 HC Chi/Slay] Totems of Agony: Ele Hit totems+Herald of Agony 6k-7k+ life gain/second [videos]
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Why this build?
Because you love totems but have been banging your head against how to get enough sustain to play hc delve while getting enough dps for both good clear and endgame bossing. This build is what you've been looking for. What is the build? (TLDR)
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Offense: 2 elemental hit totems socketed in frostferno (using skirmish but not ancestral bond) provide enough clearspeed to mow down T16 maps. Herald of agony socketed into a 4-6 link Quill rain assists in the clear and provides solid single target dps. Herald is summoned and kept strong via barrage>poison>GMP>Life Gain on hit>Blood Magic>[faster attacks] socketed into Elder gloves that provide poison or poison & faster attacks support.
Defense comes in several parts: 1.Life pool is 8k+ since we can use Kaom's heart and take 231% increased life on the tree before counting up to 3 non-unique jewel slots. 2.As of this writing, on the level 89 tree, the barrage set up -without faster attacks- fires 45 arrows/second, which can all hit since we use Resolute Technique. LGOH and thief's torment combine to provide upward of 110 life gain per hit. Poacher's aim gives each of those arrows 1 pierce for additional life gain when fighting larger packs, like in delves. After accounting for blood magic, this yields close to 5k life gain/second against a single target. 2. We use the chieftain and slayer ascendancies for totem leech with slayer overleech. With our 8k+ life pool, this provides another 1600+ leech/second that doesnt require us to stand still and shoot. 3 We also have incidental regen of around 400 life/second. 4.Blink arrow, even with no supports or quality, used with quill rain is as close to an instant teleport as this game gets. Videos:
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1. Delve lvl 180 Vaal City: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwpDZOlnyQE 2. Atziri walk over: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaGWPepzWm8 3. Maze of the Minotaur: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jbEsy1iIT0 4. Lair of the Hydra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rltvKt5m_jo 5. Red Elder, from earlier when I was experimenting with Hie/Chi instead of Chi/Slay. Though I defeated it, this video is the best explanation of why we go Chi/Slay instead, to maintain solid life gain when not attacking.https://youtu.be/MalDmt2Uudc Gem Links:
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Bow: Herald of Agony>Minion damage>Damage on full life>vicious projeciles>Empower (lvl 2-4)>vile toxins. Helm: (Frostferno):Ranged attack totem>Elemental hit>elemental damage w/ attacks>damage on full life Gloves: Barrage>GMP>Poison>LGOH>Faster attacks>LMP (Poison, faster attacks, or both come from elder gloves) Boots: Convocation, Blink Arrow, CWDT (lvl 1)>Immortal call (lvl 3) Notes on the links and leveling: Herald of Agony: This doesn't really need to be in a 6 link until late, late endgame. Budget version while leveling can slot it in Embalmer gloves (available lvl 50) and swap faster attacks or slower projectiles for empower. Early leveling perfectly smooth with only HOA>Minion Damage>Full life>Vicious proj. Barrage: for early leveling, Barrage>GMP>Poison>LGOH works fine, but you will want to keep at least 1 mana/hybrid flask to kick start your barrage when you zero out, as happens once in a while until you have your thief's torment. {earlier version of this guide suggested blood magic here. This was an artifact of when I experimented with Hie-Chi and was necessary with the use of MOM. As Chi-Slay, BM is unnecessary as the first hit of an ordinary attack will grant enough mana to kickstart barrage. Elemental Hit: I choose ele hit for clear in the totems, because it maintains solid dps in a helm slot while using quill rain. Quill rain is best in slot by a long, long way for both Herald of agony and for Barrage/LGOH/Thief's torment defense. Added benefit is that slotting it into frostferno and slotting in a crimson combat focus jewel (viridian is not needed in this set up) is better than a simple 6 link and frees up the chest slot for Kaom's heart, which is huge for survivability in the late game. While leveling, ele hit>Rat>elemental damage w/ attacks>Full life gets the job done. Don't forget to slot a Rain of splinters jewel, which eliminates the need for LMP. Key Uniques:
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Notes on the Uniques: 1. Quill rain: BIS for offense by keeping Crawler at or near max stacks very efficiently and defense due to LGOH & Thief's Torment. 2. Skirmish: Provides the second totem, since we don't go ancestral bond. 3. Thief's Torment: Arguably BIS for ring slots in this build. Even two perfect elder rings will have less LGOH and require at least three jewels adding mana on hit to let build function reasonably. The curse reduction on TT means that the effective elemental res on this ring is even better than it looks for reaching the needed overcap (109 without curse reduction, 92 with). 4.Frostferno: Gives enough dps to Ele hit while freeing up chest for Kaom's heart. 5. Kaom's heart: BIS survivability. 6. Rain of splinters: Gives all totems LMP with only a minor penalty to damage. 7. Poacher's aim: Provides 1 pierce to totems and barrage. Important Defense/QOL 8. Combat focus crimson: Not strictly necessary (I didn't get one until well into maps) but provides a solid dps boost to totems with Frostferno Other Gear at lvl 89:
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Not pictured are two jewels that both provide 7% life and some lightning res. Bandits:
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Kill all
Ascendancies
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1. Toward Chieftain 2. Chieftain, dex/str toward slayer 3. Slayer 4. Path of the Marauder The combination of totem leech from chieftain and overleech from Slayer is magic. You won't notice when you are burning down mobs with barrage, since your life will generally stay topped off. You'll notice for sure when you are fighting red elder and either repositioning or frozen while your totems keep attacking and funneling you life. Pantheon:
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Matter of taste/situation. I am currently using Solaris & Shakari. Because I like being immune to poison. A lot.
Skill Tree
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POB pastebin: https://pastebin.com/30f76RjG Direct Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAABAADBAl8DlgSzBqANzQ48EFEQzBQgFE0UcRZvGJEaOBzOJKolIScvK1AspzD4Mgky0TWSNuk6UjrGOtg64TsoPC09_EVHRZ1KxErIS1dN41BHU1JYY1nzXz9gQ2CzYN5g-GL0ZIRmVGaeaGVsRm49bqpvnnGycg9ybHKpdqx34nfleGl7IHvDfNmCB4KbguSDCYNfg8yEU4qvjM-QEZBVlG-YTZrgogCkDKZXqLuqqayqrY2vp7Xytz68n76AvrzAZsDjxPbGrsbYz37Yvdl83tzjauRV6hjr7u8O7_3wH_Gz8kHyRfPd9kj2rvcy-JP46_m9-tL8S_4K_lT-h_6P?accountName=Orion72&characterName=Yet_Another_O_Crawler Leveling Advice:
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Tree:
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1. Start by following the tree directly to Spiritual Command, then Spiritual aid in the templar area. Get jewel sockets as needed along the way. Your first jewels will be rain of splinters and poacher's aim. This will incidentally provide enough life to be comfortable for a while and enough res to make early leveling easier. The minion damage wheels serve triple function by providing badly needed accuracy to the crawler (which doesn't really benefit much from the damage), damage to your totems via Spiritual aid and spiritual command, and extra attack speed to you for barrage/LGOH/Virulence stacks. 2. Grab totemic zeal, berserking, and harrier next, along wih adjacent sockets. Zeal is important QOL. The others provide attack speed which is both an offensive and defensive stat in this build. 3. Ignore the totem wheels for the time being and get all the life. The totem wheels aren't really necesary until mid tier maps. 4. Complete the tree. Gear:
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1. Very early leveling is a matter of taste. My current favorite is Ice shot>Mirage Archer>Volley>pierce. Use this setup until you can equip skirmish and Herald of Agony (level 19 minimum) and then switch over to rat/ele hit, Herald, and barrage. Quillrain, skirmish and rain of splinters are your first important pieces. Poacher's aim is available for killing Utula in Act 5. Quality your LGOH first, as the early benefit of quality on that gem is disproportionate. 2. LGOH alone will get you through most of the storyline portion of the game, but you will want to acquire a thief's torment as soon as possible, as it makes everything easier/better. Look for high stats in life gain and ele res. 3. Embalmer gloves can be used at lvl 50 and provide a nice power spike for your herald. Vile toxins is highly effective single target dps, since you will keep over 9 stacks of poison on all bosses you fight almost all the time. 4. At or after lvl 60, Frostferno and Combat focus crimson together provide a solid dps boost over a 4 or 5L, and are superior to a 6L in that damage will be slightly better and you can use Kaom's heart. 5. At or after 68, Kaom's heart provides a massive survivability boost. That said, Kitava and low maps are entirely possible without it, allowing you to either farm volcano for cards, or just farm up the currency to buy one. 6. Elder gloves: Not too hard to get one with poison. Particularly in delve, a simple pristine/aberrant craft doesn't take too many tries to generate a useable pair with poison. Pristine/aberrant/shuddering can get you one with both poison and faster atacks, but this is significantly more expensive & challenging. 7. 6L Quill Rain: There is tech for making one that i have used successfully. For those who don't know, here are the steps. a. Gather 6 porcupine cards. They drop in high gardens in the story line, also in the garden and plaza maps. These turn in for a 6L short bow. b. Chance and scour the short bow. Research indicates that the more common a unique, the easier it is to chance. QR is on the lowest tier of uniques. It took me 62 chance/scours to make mine the first time. I understand that average is around 175. Concluding thoughts:
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This build has the best sustain of anything I have ever made, whether for bossing or delving. But remember that you are mortal. There are enemies that will do over 7k damage/sec under the wrong circumstances. If you get complacent because you feel invincible (which you will) you will die anyway. Otherwise, it's been super fun, with a play style all its own. I hope some of you enjoy it as much as I have. -Orion P.S. Props to Engineering Eternity for inspiring the idea for this build with his Molten Strike / Herald of Agony Champion. -O Last edited by Orion72 on Nov 8, 2018, 10:52:18 AM Last bumped on Dec 7, 2018, 5:15:25 AM
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Here's a new thing I learned last night:
If you log from an elder fight and zone back in, don't move for at least 8 seconds. The swirling vortex that explodes has that duration. The act of logging out and back in can render it invisible, but doesn't make it go away. In other news, this build can't tank that. RIP. That said, it remains one of the strongest I've made. -O | |
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This looks really cool and I might try it out for next league!
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How is mapping when you only use Barrage/HoAg? Looking at the POB, the Ele Hit totem DPS seems incredibly low compared to the crawler, so I don't see any real benefit from using the totems. Is it strictly for clearing? I didn't try out HoAg this league, so I don't know how the crawler performs in maps.
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Re: Mapping
I have actually tested this both ways. I know the numbers look like the totems aren't contributing close to the dps of the crawler, but I can confirm first hand they add tremendously to clear speed when mapping, all the way to T16s. Clear with only the herald isn't miserable--I leveled that char to 92. But clear adding the totems is significantly better and that version was much more fun to play. In addition to clear speed the totems are very important for both the Shaper and elder fights. Shaper, because although the crawler has the dps, it doesn't handle the minion add phase well enough to keep zana alive on its own. Elder for two reasons: First, because the totems provide body blocks and better clear for the protect Shaper phase. (I did manage this with a frost wall>inc duration set up with only the crawler, but the totems also add dps that makes it a safer fight.) More importantly, the totems are providing about 1600 life/second of passive life gain, through the chi-slay combo. This is huge both when you are frozen by the elder and during the chaos of the last phase of the Elder fight, when you will periodically need to reposition. -O | |
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one question: what's the point of Slayer ascendancy when you dont leech for shit.
edit: oooooh Chieftan ascend, got it Last edited by DamageIncorporated on Nov 8, 2018, 7:43:31 PM
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welp, I'm bored. GOnna give it a go.
Bought to take it to the next level lol How about Combat Focus Viridian so it can't choose lightning, and you get max benefit from Cold to Fire? Kinda useless when it choses fire but at least lightning is removed? I dunno Last edited by DamageIncorporated on Nov 8, 2018, 9:10:10 PM
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Re: Point Blank and Viridian jewel.
Going to preface this by saying I always encourage experimentation with anything I post--my builds are just jumping off points. PB:That said, I think PB might be the wrong direction. You use that for extra damage bossing. But the totems aren't really trying for that, and PB will cut down some on the clear that they are there for. Your 40 stack crawler will do its job. Viridian: The crimson CF jewel provides a big dps boost because cold damage (which starts lowest) gets cut in half by Frostferno. Eliminating that 1/3 is a big jump. The viridian jewel will definitely boost damage some, but you may find the incremental value isn't worth the price of the jewel or the slot you could use for more life/res etc. The dps without it is enough to clear T16s quickly--see videos. Those said, give it a shot and let us know how it went. Good luck! -O Last edited by Orion72 on Nov 9, 2018, 12:46:34 AM
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Good point. Will swap in the PB Skirmish for tough bosses and leave in generic one for mapping. PB corruption should be indisputably a shoe in for say, Elder or Guardians.
As for the Combat Focus...maybe I'm confused or not understanding the current state of Ele Hit, but I thought damage conversion no longer works like it used to and if it chooses fire, it does fire, if it chooses cold, it does cold etc, no conversion silliness like before. So I wonder what the point is in choosing the can not choose cold variant. It should be a dps loss, not a gain to illiminate cold considering the level 30 cold to fire support on Frostferno. Last edited by DamageIncorporated on Nov 9, 2018, 1:38:10 AM
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Re: PB
Agree that it is useable for boss fights, though what it will add, even under optimal conditions, will still likely be no more than 10% or so of the damage done by your crawler. Personally I prefer the ordinary one for the elder fights, as it allows your totems, particularly during the shaper phase, to form a protective wall around shaper while still doing full damage to the adds half a screen away. Ymmv. Re: Explaining combat focus post nerf Here is quick math on why the crimson combat focus is useful with frostferno. (all numbers are rough approximations only) 1. Assume that before frostferno, you have an equal chance of doing light/cold/fire The damage ratio is -roughly- 19:14:17 for average damage per hit of 16.66x. 2. Add frostferno but not combat focus and you get this new ratio after acounting for the level 30 cold to fire: 19:7:25.5. The cold has converted 50% at full value, then added another 39% of that and you still have an equal chances of doing lightning/cold/fire on any given hit, for average damage of slightly over 17x. 3. Use combat focus crimson to remove the cold (at the same time halving the converted cold damage) and your new ratio of lightning/fire is 19:21.25 with an equal chance of doing either for average damage of slightly over 20x. This is nearly 20% more. 4. Adding the viridian at this point eliminates lightning without changing fire. leaving you average damage of 21.25x--less than 5% more. This is why I say that the crimson combat focus with frostferno is worthwhile for an almost 20% damage boost and the viridian one not so much since it provides less than 5% additional at significant cost. Hope that all helps/makes sense. Best, -O Last edited by Orion72 on Nov 30, 2018, 12:20:33 PM
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