(Retired Thread) Wallach's Hierophant Freezing Pulse Totems

I still consider myself new even though this is my 3rd league I think, but I have never used righteous fire before. How would you keep it from killing you in this build since it is not an ES build?

I have been using this build so far and am up to about lvl 70 or so and loving it. I just noticed the RF gem list, went out and bought it and after reading it right before putting it in my boots, I went "hey.. hell no!" lol or do you only use the vaal portion? (which still sounds a little dangrous but does not say anything about the 1 hp part).


*Edit* Sorry..even after reading it over, I do not understand how cast when damage taken will not trigger the RF gem since there is no mana cost listed.
Last edited by Apostolos on Sep 7, 2019, 11:35:54 PM
"
Squatch wrote:
For anyone currently leveling with this build: Do NOT put off doing your labs. Once you finish cruel lab and get your 2 First Snow jewels, you'll start to cruise.
Absolutely. That second Ascendancy is bonkers.

I play PS4 (although I still post on my defunct PC account), so for me Blight hasn't hit yet. Also, I just returned to PoE mid-Legion, so I'm unfamiliar with league start market values. But after predictably failing with my first character and using this with my Pulse Totemer, here's what I think is a solid twink strategy for virtually any crit elemental caster, while leveling, starting around Act 4.

1) Trade for some low-level caster unique 1H weapons and dual-wield them. Lifesprig and the Axiom mace are both quite good, and the latter is a very common drop (I've had 3 drop for me in Legion, and I don't grind that hard.)
2) Trade for a pair of Windscream unique boots and a Deodre's Scorn unique helmet. In particular try to get a good "per curse" roll on Scorn (max 20%).
3) Make sure to pick up Bane and 3 curses when you get to Sarn.
4) Make sure to pick up Whispers of Doom prior to character level 39. With this build, that's 4 points out of the way; if you want, you can respec out later.
5) 4L the Scorn and put your Bane in there when you can wear it.

That set up isn't just triple-curse, but also 60-100% increased damage against cursed enemies — in particular, single targets. At the stage in the game it comes online, that's a huge increase, and with this build it's even viable for low to mid mapping — although eventually you'll want survivability from your helmet, and that's something Scorn just doesn't offer.
When Stephen Colbert was killed by HYDRA's Project Insight in 2014, the comedy world lost a hero. Since his life model decoy isn't up to the task, please do not mistake my performance as political discussion. I'm just doing what Steve would have wanted.
Last edited by ScrotieMcB on Sep 8, 2019, 12:05:09 AM
Any idea for anointing? Heartseeker?
"
Apostolos wrote:
I still consider myself new even though this is my 3rd league I think, but I have never used righteous fire before. How would you keep it from killing you in this build since it is not an ES build?

I have been using this build so far and am up to about lvl 70 or so and loving it. I just noticed the RF gem list, went out and bought it and after reading it right before putting it in my boots, I went "hey.. hell no!" lol or do you only use the vaal portion? (which still sounds a little dangrous but does not say anything about the 1 hp part).


*Edit* Sorry..even after reading it over, I do not understand how cast when damage taken will not trigger the RF gem since there is no mana cost listed.


No worries. This is a pretty complicated game and most of us who have been playing for years still learn stuff most days.

So, Vaal Righteous Fire is the only version I currently recommend for the build. However, if you're going to run Vaal Righteous Fire, that gem needs to be high enough level that your Cast When Damage Taken support can't trigger it. If you look at your CWDT gem, it will tell you up to what level gems it can support; your Vaal RF gem has to be higher than that, so the regular RF doesn't get triggered by CWDT.

We just slot the Vaal RF as it is mechanically different than regular RF; when you activate it, it simply takes a fixed amount of health as an up front cost (which you can heal back immediately) instead of applying a constant degen to you while it is active. In exchange you'll get a large spell damage multiplier for the duration it is up.

That gem slot is pretty flexible though so you don't need to feel pressured to even run Vaal RF; I sometimes run Vaal Haste there, which just costs souls to activate and grants a large cast speed & move speed buff while it's up. Less powerful than the effect of Vaal RF for our totems, but you can hit it whenever you want without thinking about the health activation cost of Vaal RF.

"
zebrap wrote:
Any idea for anointing? Heartseeker?


After seeing the rarity table of notables, I definitely think Flash Freeze is one of the more reasonable targets right now. It is much cheaper than most of our other good options. I was quite surprised (and a bit disappointed) to see the best defensive notable options be the outright most expensive anointments in the game. Soul of Steel would cost you something silly like 6ex to anoint.
Last edited by Wallach on Sep 8, 2019, 1:32:40 AM
I was kind of looking at Disciple of the unyielding, but have not looked up the oils yet to see how rare each one was.

Also, I was curious about how effective it would be to look at spell block via something like Deflection since it synergizes at least a little bit with the build. It would probably not be a big enough bang for the buck in the long term though.
Some tips regarding towers in blight.
Use that shock tower (with stun) near the pump, don't make them overlap because they don't stack their effect. Final upgrade - time warp, slowing bulb.
That is clean and not laggy solution, slows everything so totems can work on stuff.
In blighted maps, add cold towers with final upgrade that creates frost walls, put them far away from pump.
Spend rest of the money on fire towers - meteor. It has huge range, so it doesn't matter where they are, easy to upgrade during those clusterfuck encounters where you don't have much time selecting optimal position.

I found that minion towers can decrease performance in already poorly optimized encounter, so I stopped using them.
I started this league with this build. Its ok but it started to make psycho to my eyes. Really annoying these freezing pulse totems. Any alternatives? Holy flame or arc? Is FP top tier skill?
"
Apostolos wrote:
I still consider myself new even though this is my 3rd league I think, but I have never used righteous fire before. How would you keep it from killing you in this build since it is not an ES build?

I have been using this build so far and am up to about lvl 70 or so and loving it. I just noticed the RF gem list, went out and bought it and after reading it right before putting it in my boots, I went "hey.. hell no!" lol or do you only use the vaal portion? (which still sounds a little dangrous but does not say anything about the 1 hp part).


*Edit* Sorry..even after reading it over, I do not understand how cast when damage taken will not trigger the RF gem since there is no mana cost listed.


They Vaal portion is all you would use, it works a little different than the regular version, instead of taking continuous damage you just take 30% of your health as damage immediately and then you apply the righteous fire burn around you for a set duration, so its mostly used at the start of boss fights as added damage and you just pop a health pot right after using it
"
HELLERcz wrote:
I started this league with this build. Its ok but it started to make psycho to my eyes. Really annoying these freezing pulse totems. Any alternatives? Holy flame or arc? Is FP top tier skill?


Most totem builds are pretty flashy, HFT and Arc will be even worse on your eyes.

---

Continuing to post my progress for fun:

Day 1 Gear

Spoiler

"
livejamie wrote:
I leveled just fine, go self-cast FP with a Totem FP until you get Ancestral Bond.

My Day 1 Progress



Next I'm going to focus on getting Jeweller's Touch, Soul Mantle and Self-Flagellation.

So far it's been a breeze.


Day 2 Progress

Farmed some currency, sold some items and bought Jeweller's Touch and switched over to the Self-Flag setup like I said yesterday. :)

Made some other minor upgrades but using the same Wand and Shield from Day 1.



Next big upgrade would be Coward belt. Boots and amulet could be better as well.

I'm confident I should be able to do most content in the game though with this gear I'm breezing through everything.

Going to finish my atlas tomorrow.
livejamie
Nice little qol is phase run + duration, for totem characters. You pop this at same time as quicksilver flask, extra 50% movement speed for 3s, pretty useful.

Report Forum Post

Report Account:

Report Type

Additional Info