[3.5] Ghostly Quad Totem HOWA. 10k ES, 77% Evade, 1.9 Mill Shaper DPS

I was recently playing FB totem build and it felt... clunky and slow. This build seemed nice and Ive never ever played ES build before. Also never respecced before so I saw a multiple chance of trying something new and unexplored for myself. I had about 20regrets, 50c, 1ex and about 50c worth of other orbs to start the process with. Managed to scrape something together and respeccing cost a chunk of regrets too. I almost literaly spent all that I had to these items. I havent respecced out of alira yet and ascendancy is wrong too but it definetly feels better than pizzatotem.
Im thinking I should invest for pure talent next but hoping to get some ES and dmg from somewhere. Not sure where yet. Also Im thinking of heading to get the remaining 2 jewel slots between CI and essence surge and far right one before thunder. Should I get thunder first? Any toughts what I should reach for next? Gems bit low lvl still too as I literaly just started on this and Lilly Roth didint have leveled ones under the counter.

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rapper4u wrote:

It seems i'm missing something and don't really know what as i'm kinda new. I die in T3 maps quite easily so could someone take a look at my char and setup and let me know what i did wrong ?

It makes sense that you are dying since you have low resistances and ES.

You have not upgraded your chest into a Geofri's Sanctuary as the guide recommends. It costs practically nothing and will help on both fronts. You should also buy 2 jewels with +% all resistances to make sure you are hitting the 75% cap, your shield has a low roll so you could also replace that with one with better resistances but that shouldn't be needed.

You seem to have not followed the advice in the skill tree link and taken many pure damage nodes before ES ones. I went back and cleared up the language of that section in case it wasn't clear. I would remove heart of thunder and the two jewel sockets that you reach through bad (4% ele/mana) nodes and instead take the Int nodes that are present in the level 70 linked tree

After these changes you should be resistance capped with a much more respectable ES total and can start looking to upgrade more gear and getting closer to completing merciless and uber lab which provide more defenses.

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2letterz wrote:

Really solid and kinda cheap build, im pretty sure that i could kill all the bosses also with a 5link splendour. Only negatice aspect is, after u got your gear there is no real upgrade to look for, dunno if atziri's reflection even exists :D

Thanks for the words. Its a pity that reflection seemed non existant. Either its rarer then the currency mirrors or something is wrong, the build could do some interesting things with it and it would make soul mantle work using.

A really good watchers eye with clarity mana into ES and something else good is really the only chase item for this build at the moment unless reflections start joining the market.

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Hartsa wrote:

I was recently playing FB totem build and it felt... clunky and slow. This build seemed nice and Ive never ever played ES build before. Also never respecced before so I saw a multiple chance of trying something new and unexplored for myself. I had about 20regrets, 50c, 1ex and about 50c worth of other orbs to start the process with. Managed to scrape something together and respeccing cost a chunk of regrets too. I almost literaly spent all that I had to these items. I havent respecced out of alira yet and ascendancy is wrong too but it definetly feels better than pizzatotem.
Im thinking I should invest for pure talent next but hoping to get some ES and dmg from somewhere. Not sure where yet. Also Im thinking of heading to get the remaining 2 jewel slots between CI and essence surge and far right one before thunder. Should I get thunder first? Any toughts what I should reach for next? Gems bit low lvl still too as I literaly just started on this and Lilly Roth didint have leveled ones under the counter.

Ouch respeccing a late game build can be expensive. I always just reroll the new character and power level my way through.

Your characters are set to private so I can't take a look at your tree but I would focus on the Int stuff first as its more defensive. Heart of thunder and the 2 jewel sockets you reach through bad (4% ele/mana) nodes are very last. Don't forget to quality your gear, that'll help

Cool i did the things you said and i just finished merc lab.. Thanks for the tips and the good guide, i don't know why i took those nodes i think i followed the path of building link and didn't see the 70 and 90 trees

Did anyone kill Uber Elder with this build?

didnt try, but t15 elder easy mode.

@Hartsa-
Hah- you and I prolly rerolled from same build- Lifting quad fb totem? Not that it felt... clunky to me, but DPS was low-ish, took a lot to scale to a decent amount, and with a staff, movement was friggin pokey. Sure, QS between packs, but as soon as you had to go halfway back across a map through area you'd cleared already, ugh.


This build is darn near perfect. I was originally worried about whether it would clear packs fast enough, but it totally seems to. The combination of claw/shield so we can use either shield charge or whirling blades with 4 totems- and scaling both offense and defense with int is.... just plain beautiful. And the defenses in this build- my god. I'm used to melee builds which die if they stop attacking/leeching, or caster builds which die if they get hit twice in succession.

@WaffleT - thank you. I think this may be my favourite build ever.

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Ikariusrb wrote:

This build is darn near perfect. I was originally worried about whether it would clear packs fast enough, but it totally seems to. The combination of claw/shield so we can use either shield charge or whirling blades with 4 totems- and scaling both offense and defense with int is.... just plain beautiful. And the defenses in this build- my god. I'm used to melee builds which die if they stop attacking/leeching, or caster builds which die if they get hit twice in succession.

@WaffleT - thank you. I think this may be my favourite build ever.

That might be the nicest comment I've had. Thank you I really appreciate it :)

For reference, just cleared a T8 map, w/ 85% worth of yellow mods at lvl 74, with a 4L chain for totem- quickly, easily, and with zero deaths. Next level I get both 5L and Atziri... I can't wait.

For some additional "things to know" -

Lightning warp + faster casting + reduced duration makes a lovely chain for the claw, get you over barriers and cheat lab traps.

Lvls 58-68 were rough for me. Once I hit 68 and equipped HOWA and coil belt, had a friend drag me through uber lab, the build changed completely. I think I'd start ascendency by getting the two totems, but as soon as merc lab was done, I'd scrub the 4th totem to punch int to ES, then get uber lab for 4th totem.

But once you get the lvl 68 gear and labs done, the build turns into a monster.


For reference, I spent ~1ex 40c buying gear for this - and that didn't include gems or flasks. Note that of that, 1 ex was this:



.... and I'm clearing T8 maps without difficulty with only a 4L. Still need Perandus Signets, flasks, and any of the expensive gems; getting by on 1-5c 3-stat gems for now.

Enjoying the build- thank you.

One question, though. I'm often not able to cast my totems after taking damage- even really small hits. Maybe I'm missing something or maybe it's just the Hiero ascendancy 10% MoM type thing, but how did you overcome this? Or am I just not seeing something in the build guide?

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Ikariusrb wrote:

Lvls 58-68 were rough for me. Once I hit 68 and equipped HOWA and coil belt, had a friend drag me through uber lab, the build changed completely. I think I'd start ascendency by getting the two totems, but as soon as merc lab was done, I'd scrub the 4th totem to punch int to ES, then get uber lab for 4th totem.

True the 3.2 changes make ritual less required. Getting the ES on merc lab is probably better.

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naterjy2003 wrote:

Enjoying the build- thank you.

One question, though. I'm often not able to cast my totems after taking damage- even really small hits. Maybe I'm missing something or maybe it's just the Hiero ascendancy 10% MoM type thing, but how did you overcome this? Or am I just not seeing something in the build guide?

You only have a level 2 enlighten. The build mentions that until your enlighten is level 3 you'll need to take a 4% reduced mana reserved node in the tree. This will solve the problem