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

has anyone thought of trying divergent vitality with clarity for really good regen of both health and mana?

i mean theres only so many skill gem slots so not sure if this would wreck things. im a pretty laid back player so regen helps me a lot from not dying.

you gain 20% damage on full life but lose clear mind obviously however it would also free up a jewel slot.

i swapped in both to see what i would lose and it was about 10k dps (standing in town) thats not real dps but still i went from 198-188 and gained a ton of health and mana regen. i didnt swap in any jewel so essentially i had a free slot.

just curious , i know its all about damage but that regen might outweigh the small loss in dps. and the right jewel could have more health and damage , again i havent checked all the possibilities , nor have i checked if theres a divergent or anom clarity.

Well RIP hierophant ascendency, the change to Ritual of awakening is brutal for mapping

https://web.poecdn.com/protected/image/echoes/screenshots/Panel10/Screenshot2.jpg?key=oYoAKmA8WJffVUZM0t-Kqw

ripped of damage, cast speed, ele pen, reduced damage taken, DOUBLE TOTEM WTFROFLANBDOAGBOUAGH=§E)§&?&)§ §QTN NT?N§T? BUT HEY! WE GET PLACEMENT SPEEDDDDDDDDDD)?§H?%T)§? HJ§)?H § NZ U=QBN§BNZB§=ZGBN=§ZBN

I mean, its fair though. Hiero is THE!!!! top ladder buster in the house. We roflstomp Sirus 8 on a 10c budget with Tabula.

What a fucking joke.

Rest in peace FP Totem, have played you for over 4 leagues now , probably that was the last time.

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Souse03 wrote:

Well RIP hierophant ascendency, the change to Ritual of awakening is brutal for mapping

Why exactly though, you are getting twice the placement speed so wouldn't you get the same amount of totems down theoretically?

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bobwes wrote:

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Souse03 wrote:

Well RIP hierophant ascendency, the change to Ritual of awakening is brutal for mapping

Why exactly though, you are getting twice the placement speed so wouldn't you get the same amount of totems down theoretically?

Hierophant currently gets a total of 90% totem placement speed from the Ritual of Awakening line - 50% from Ritual of Awakening itself, and 40% from the two minor nodes on that line (20% each). I suspect that those minor nodes have changed to 20% Mana Regeneration and 5% Attack & Cast Speed, replacing the old 10% Attack & Cast Speed bonus that was on Pursuit of Faith. Either we're going from 90% to 100% totem placement speed, or we're going up to 140% totem placement speed and losing 10% cast speed altogether.

All told I'm not very happy with the Hierophant changes, but I don't think the build is dead or anything. Currently, we don't run Multiple Totem Support because we get the dual totem drops from Ritual of Awakening, but even right now it's essentially a sidegrade to Increased Critical Strikes in terms of single target. The issue is that it is noticeably worse for clear speed because it drops your per-hit and per-totem damage significantly (and has a vicious mana multiplier to boot at 150%), so there is no real upside to using it other than being able to cover more directions at once.

While I'd like to see the full patch notes before commenting too heavily on the build changes, it wouldn't be that serious to change to Multiple Totem Support as a primary damage link. In exchange, we are getting another 2% more multiplier per totem, so another 12% more damage in single target context, which is certainly welcomed even if it shouldn't be coming at a clear speed cost. The clear speed is further hurt by the loss of the stacking damage buff from the old Pursuit of Faith just being straight up removed, so the 12% more multiplier is really just going to wind up offsetting that loss rather than helping make up the clear speed we lose switching to Multiple Totem Support.

The rest of the changes in the tree seem pretty inconsequential in my opinion. We'll gain +1 Endurance and Power charges without any need for generation, but that's exchanged for 5% reduced elemental damage taken and 5% elemental penetration, so that change overall is kind of a wash. It will be nice to never have to worry about Endurance generation during any forms of downtime, though there is some flexibility lost. You couldn't for example run Immortal Call anymore without additional maximum Endurance charges as well as another source of Endurance charge generation. Arcane Blessing is more of a consideration than it was before, though I'm not sure I'd take it over Conviction of Power or Divine Guidance still.

My biggest issue is that the changes really don't accomplish much of anything for totems except making totems feel slightly worse to build into. Multiple Totem Support needs a buff if they are going to put more pressure on this gem being a primary damage support for totems, because currently it is awful at this role. The only real upside I see from here is that you will get access to the 100% totem placement speed much earlier than before, so playing a more totem-focused playstyle will feel better in the Act 3 to Act 7 range, but this is a pretty small consolation prize.

Otherwise, this will be a significant clear speed nerf in exchange for a ~10% single target gain. That's not build-killing, but I don't really see the receipts for these changes either yet. There are no spell totem builds in this game that needed a clear speed nerf. We were already sifting through garbage bins to find our 6th gem link compared to most builds, so to see further strain put on the primary gem links is a poor outcome in my eyes. Maybe we'll see some further changes in patch notes like a reduction in the Multiple Spell Totems less damage modifier, or new skill tree changes that better justify what is being shown today.

I think we get a Keystone in the Tree that says: ''Skills that would Summon a Totem, Summon two Totems instead, but with less Placement Speed'', or so. That not only Hiero have the benefits.
Same they did with Occultist in the past, with Wicked Ward.

wallach whatever the changes please keep updating this,

ive been using this build for like 4 leagues haha

This build is too much fun. Please don't let it die.

I was just planning to run Wallach's build for the first time this league. I had all my hand written notes ready to go...

Please keep us updated OP I appreciate all the work you have done on this.