[3.17] Wallach's Hierophant Freezing Pulse Totems (No Further Updates)

Question,

Instead of frost bomb setup, why not do what you are doing in your other build but replace Combustion with added cold? That way you can use wave of conviction to apply cold exposure and gain two extra totems plus some bonus sauce dps? Also means you can use the crit boot enchant.

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faytte wrote:

Question,

Instead of frost bomb setup, why not do what you are doing in your other build but replace Combustion with added cold? That way you can use wave of conviction to apply cold exposure and gain two extra totems plus some bonus sauce dps? Also means you can use the crit boot enchant.

Y'know I hadn't thought about that one for Freezing Pulse, but I think that would work. It does have a bit more downside here - WoC totems will do less damage since we aren't scaling it as much, we lose the life regeneration penalty on Frost Bomb for stuff like HoGM or red beasts - but it's worth considering for the benefits.

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Wallach wrote:

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Asymat wrote:

Hi there!

I'm planning a similar build (Ice Spear FTW) and came here to get some inspiration... and maybe give some!

I've noticed your last support gems are pretty meh (looking at you Added Cold Damage) and can be replaced by Inspiration Support Gem for basically free. Less mana per totems and more damage. EZ PZ.
In case you are wondering, "Totems, Minions, Mines cannot gain Inspiration Charges" doesn't mean they cannot give Inspiration Charges. The Player has them and thus the Skill does more damage.

Cheers Wallack

Yeah, I actually do know Inspiration works for totems, but I have never gotten around to doing controlled testing to see the actual uptime when linked to totems.

With Inspiration linked we have a totem cost of ~87, so we've already spent just over half the 800 mana threshold just getting to the 5 charge cap, right? So we'd blow the Inspiration charge stack another 5 casts later.

The actual relative uptime is going to vary wildly (i.e. you may get a long set of sustained DPS from your 3rd/4th casts at max stacks in a boss encounter before needing to refresh your totem, can manipulate stacks during certain phase transitions), but such a high base cost skill feels like one of the poorer use cases for Inspiration generally.

Not to say it isn't competitive considering base Added Cold Damage isn't a particularly good gem either (though I wouldn't give up the Awakened level 5 version, maybe instead for Increased Critical Strikes), but I'm not sure it's a clear upgrade either.

For the math with a 20/20:
087 > 1
174 > 2
261 > 3
348 > 4
435 > 5
522 > 5
609 > 5
696 > 5
783 > 5
870 > 0

Average charges: 3 = 30 (total charges from all stages) / 10 (stages)
More damage with your actual PoB (instead of Added Cold): 23.5

With a 21/20: mana cost 86 / average charges 3.18 / more damage 24.9

But you point remains. It is less than what I thought. Also, supporting another skill with it makes it better and better.

Thanks for the guide!

Noob question: At what level do you pick Ancestral Bond (and thus stop using Freezing Pulse)? In the PoB it's already skilled in "Normal Labyrinth", but in the leveling section you write that only in act 7 you will make the switch from Freezing Pulse manually and Holy Flame Totems to Freezing Pulse Totems and Ancestral Bond.

I wonder if the newly teasered Beacon of Madness debuffs are curses. Because if they are....

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2779241

Honestly, I am torn between toxic rain mines and this build. I kinda have my doubts that on day 1 with garbage gear, FP won't be able to deal with Delirium mobs since they are said to scale defensively.

Hey Wallach!

As we spoke earlier in the thread I was doing practice runs with FP to get it to the 2nd lab quickest and after 2 days of testing I believe I have finally found the fastest way plus extra tips for your leveling section.

Firstly I take the 5 damage nodes at the start of the tree, then progress with your standard tree, this helps give us a big boost early on and cheap to respec out later.

I also believe it would be benefitical to add to your leveling tips about looking out for Sapphire rings for the cold damage to spells receipe, two of these on wands nearly tripled my DPS and would probably carry me till act 7/8.

I ran self cast with arcane then linked FP + Controlled Destruction + Faster Casting + Added Cold (Changed faster to spell echo at 38)

I also ran a FP spell totem instead of the holy flame totem, aslong as your mindful on the placement it clears up very nicely and synergises massively with the added cold on the wands, frost bomb and frostbite. it even adds even more defensives during the leveling phase as your now freezing with both self cast and totems.

Once I hit my First Snow both the totem setup and self cast became insane until I could change over to soul mantle and I had no massive dps issues through the run.

Overall really fun build and looking forward to smashing it in 7 hours! Might go for my first level 100 with this build.

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Wallach wrote:

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faytte wrote:

Question,

Instead of frost bomb setup, why not do what you are doing in your other build but replace Combustion with added cold? That way you can use wave of conviction to apply cold exposure and gain two extra totems plus some bonus sauce dps? Also means you can use the crit boot enchant.

Y'know I hadn't thought about that one for Freezing Pulse, but I think that would work. It does have a bit more downside here - WoC totems will do less damage since we aren't scaling it as much, we lose the life regeneration penalty on Frost Bomb for stuff like HoGM or red beasts - but it's worth considering for the benefits.

So thinking about this more, I had the following added thoughts.

Primary Six Link: FP totem (Chest)
First 4 Link: Curse + Arcane Surge Set Up
Second 4 Link: WoC Totem (Exposure) Set Up
Third 4 Link: Cold Snap + Spell Totem + Multiple Totem + Bonechill
First 3 Link: Movement
Second 3 Link: Steel Skin + CWDT + Increased Duration

Thoughts: Having the minus resistance of Coldsnap something you only cast when you are damaged doesn't seem very optimal. The frenzy charges and damage increases are pretty meaningless against trash (in fact, cause of how well FP Totems plays, you do not take much damage clearing maps). Against bosses this would award us a constant stream of chilled ground, and extra damage (both from the totems and through Ritual of awakening).

You would lose vaal righteous fire, but I generally think this is fine? You do not start the hardest fights in the game with vaal skills ready to deploy, so its a tool that generally makes easy content easier.

I might be misunderstanding something, but as I read it different sources of 'multiple support totems' should each increase the local limit by 2. If true this means in bossing we would maintain 4 totem animations periodically (2x FP, 1x WoC, 1x CS) and self cast curse.

Just a quick message to say to anyone wondering if they should play this: go for it.
Played it in Legion, it was great. Played it again in standard a little between leagues, it is still great.

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NoAimNecessary wrote:

I also believe it would be benefitical to add to your leveling tips about looking out for Sapphire rings for the cold damage to spells receipe, two of these on wands nearly tripled my DPS and would probably carry me till act 7/8.

This is my 5th league and I am still learning stuff like this. Really good tip thank you.

Planning on trying this build and your post convinced me in the end to give it a try. I had some concerns about leveling with it. I really hate leveling and want a somewhat smooth leveling experience but from what you write it seems to be ok.