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

Hey there!
I've been following your work for years and consider your totem build my ride or die and the build I have played the most. It is always my go to in standard and is the build I've sunk the most currency in. So I don't play enough to have killed Sirus or have done anything else except run the occasional maps or delve and I feel a bit squishy. What upgrades could I make to my passive/gear other than the obvious enchantments? Could my weapon be any better? https://pastebin.com/4zy7iF47

Hello. I do not harm the enemy. Help!

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Apostolos wrote:

There a 'best way' to go about crafting that first medium jewel? I have seen some on auction from anywhere between 40c and 2ex with varying degrees of value to the small passives, so thought I would see if it was better trying to make my own.

Ignore the small passives, they don't really matter until you're super into optimising at level 99 or whatever. Just save and buy one.

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Elyndrys wrote:

I also don't play much but I noticed wands with %Cold Damage or what not don't seem to change the Damage on Freezepulse at least in tooltip. Maybe I am missing something, I am struggling a lot more after the swap so far

This is almost always from someone taking avatar of fire, or someone using very low level FP. What's your hideout DPS, no skills active?

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limevan wrote:

The Penetration enchant on boots is so danged juicy, but I find that a permanent 70% increased Mana Regen helps to keep us topped up so MOM is at its full effectiveness all the time. This is especially since I'm thinking of swapping Clear Mind off next for a Crit Multi jewel, so there's going to be even less Mana Regen available. Thoughts?

Yep, this is what I have done in past leagues and intend to do in this one.

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limevan wrote:

(PS: Is there a way to spawn the Trialmaster or is it pure RNG? I've been trying to string full completions to "frustrate" him but no luck so far.)

Pretty sure it's pure RNG. I've had him zero times and complete the trials every map...

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limevan wrote:

Any idea what's the next upgrade to go for?

I'd get a 3-notable large cluster jewel first.

I suspect you can get better wands. +2 gems is nice, but they both come with pretty heavy prices of dud mods elsewhere.

A crit cobalt is much better than Clear Mind. It also lets you use Precision, expanding the Eye pool.

You don't need Sanctum of Thought anymore, and there are more damage efficient nodes than Divine Judgement now.

Then if I were you I think I'd do all the small things. Get the perfect First Snows, Self-Flagellation, ES on belt, that kind of thing. These all add up.

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cjmartinez1991 wrote:

So I don't play enough to have killed Sirus or have done anything else except run the occasional maps or delve and I feel a bit squishy. What upgrades could I make to my passive/gear other than the obvious enchantments? Could my weapon be any better?

Normally you feel squishy due to playstyle problems or lack of dps. If you watch Wallach or some of the videos in the OP, you can get some tips for the former. For the latter, you'll want 21/20 freezing pulse, 20 auras, and ideally a better wand: +1 gems is nice, but %cold, %crit chance are low level affixes.

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destle wrote:

Hello. I do not harm the enemy. Help!

What level content are you doing?

Really helpful reply, thanks!

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NoImagination wrote:

I'd get a 3-notable large cluster jewel first.

What notables are you looking for in a triple large? I've read the helpful section that Wallach mentioned, and bouncing ideas off you folks will help me get a better understanding. Here are my thoughts:

1. Vengeful Commander - Nerfed to the ground, but 15% on a strong Hatred (past the 20% more cold damage threshold at lvl 25) is still worth 2 passive points.

2. Cold to the Core - about 25% increased Cold damage, meh.

3. Blanketed Snow: Awesome permanent 10% cold penetration

4. Cold-Blooded Killer (2%life on killing chilled enemy), Inspired Oppression (mana regen on freezing enemy, ele dmg, effect of non-dmging ailment) - Do we count as killing enemies, and thereby proccing these effects? Or is it taken as our totems doing the dirty work so these notables are useless?

5. Deep Chill (inc. effect of cold ailments) - further reduces chilled mob's action speed, meh-ish.

6. Blast-Freeze - 20% cold damage upfront is nearly equal to what Cold to the Core offers, but this help to proliferate freezes. Not sure how strong give how all monsters seem to be frozen all the time.

7. Blizzard Caller - Crit chance is always welcome. 25% increased Frostbite effect is huge IMO.

8. Prismatic Heart, Sadist, Corrosive Elements, Doryani's Lesson, Disorienting Display, Widespread Destruction, Snowstorm, Deep Chill, Stormrider are nearly useless, so they can be the filler notable on the other side of the cluster jewel.

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NoImagination wrote:

I suspect you can get better wands. +2 gems is nice, but they both come with pretty heavy prices of dud mods elsewhere.

I see. I was expecting the damage growth of the skill gems to be really high between 21 and 30, so I went full ham on those. In addition, they help to boost the levels of Hatred, Sniper's Mark, Frostbite and other gems, so I didn't hesitate. Which mods are better to aim for? More crit multi?

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NoImagination wrote:

A crit cobalt is much better than Clear Mind. It also lets you use Precision, expanding the Eye pool.

Fantastic idea, I'll do this.

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NoImagination wrote:

You don't need Sanctum of Thought anymore, and there are more damage efficient nodes than Divine Judgement now.

Jeez, what the heck am I doing with Sanctum of Thought? ^ . ^
Which nodes are better than Divine Judgement? Looking at it, DJ gives 78% elemental damage (10 + 12 + 6 + 50) and 2% penetration for 4 points. I suppose it will be better filling up the Clusters?
What do you about dropping that entire section (including Devotion)? Is there a whole better segment to go into?


Again, brilliant work on going through my post, thanks!

(Running with Divergent Dash for perma phase and Sleepless Sentries for perma onslaught make it feel like we're eating into Raider's ascendancy, and this makes ultimatums a lot safer since we can just run through everything)

My triple notable large jewel came from buying the cheapest that had 2 decent mods alongside blanketed snow. But I'm definitely interested in figuring out what the best possible one is, so here we go:

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limevan wrote:

4. Cold-Blooded Killer (2%life on killing chilled enemy), Inspired Oppression (mana regen on freezing enemy, ele dmg, effect of non-dmging ailment) - Do we count as killing enemies, and thereby proccing these effects? Or is it taken as our totems doing the dirty work so these notables are useless?

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limevan wrote:

6. Blast-Freeze - 20% cold damage upfront is nearly equal to what Cold to the Core offers, but this help to proliferate freezes. Not sure how strong give how all monsters seem to be frozen all the time.

I don't fully understand this either. This post talks about it a bit. Although I could be wrong on any one of these, my takeaway was:

- 'When you hit' won't work, so we can expect 'when you kill' or 'when you freeze' won't either

- 'Your hits' will work

But that the effects will generally affect your totems, rather than you. So, I believe cold blooded killer works, but recovers 2% life of the totems. Not horrible, not great.

Inspired oppression doesn't work, because of 'if you have frozen'

Blast Freeze doesn't work, because of 'freezes you inflict' - though it would work if it was 'freezes your hits inflict', for example.

Sadist doesn't work, because of 'if you've chilled'

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limevan wrote:

8. Prismatic Heart, Sadist, Corrosive Elements, Doryani's Lesson, Disorienting Display, Widespread Destruction, Snowstorm, Deep Chill, Stormrider are nearly useless, so they can be the filler notable on the other side of the cluster jewel.

I find Prismatic Heart to be useful - 30% ele damage and some resists. Super late game, it lets you get away with only needing two resists on gear (see my 100 char from last league).

Corrosive elements works, by the rules of the first quote, if they're right. That makes for a pretty nice node, though as we one-shot most things and can hydrosphere bosses, it's not great. Perhaps it can replace hextouch with hydrosphere, but if so, what's good for the hextouch instead?

Disorienting display is pretty decent I find. I ran two rather than Pandemonius last league - I BELIEVE they stack. That makes a 2nd cluster jewel really good, even if just to get a 2nd blanketed snow.

You have deep chill in useful and in useless, and I tend to agree - it's mediocre, the equivalent to a crafted boot affix.

Stormrider isn't terrible, as it's 25% damage on the second hit, but it's pretty mediocre too.

So I think we're left with wanting Blanketed Snow, plus two of:

Vengeful Commander (15% to Hatred)
Corrosive Elements (15% damage, 25% chance cold exposure on hit)
Doryani's Lesson (25% damage, totem survivability)
Disorienting Display (25% damage, some defence)
Prismatic Heart (30% damage, 30 total resist)
Widespread Destruction (20% damage)
Cold to the Core (~25% damage)
Cold Blooded Killer (totem survivability)
Inspired Oppression (20% damage, 10% ailment)
Deep Chill (30% ailments)
Blast Freeze (20% damage)
Stormrider (25% damage on 2nd hit)
Blizzard Caller (15% crit, 25% frostbite)

Blizzard Caller is interesting, and as there's no cap on negative cold resists, it's effectively ~11% extra damage when you need it, as in 1.11x, plus some freeze chance. I think that has to make it the 2nd best node.

The third best.... I dunno. Prismatic Heart? Doryani's Lesson? Disorienting Display? Corrosive Elements, if we can find a better hex-application skill than hydrosphere? It might be that Vengeful Commander is 3rd best still. It's 7% extra damage without needing to do anything.

I'll also reply to the rest of your post later on, but I've spent quite a while typing instead of playing now! I'd like to figure this out properly too.

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limevan wrote:

I see. I was expecting the damage growth of the skill gems to be really high between 21 and 30, so I went full ham on those. In addition, they help to boost the levels of Hatred, Sniper's Mark, Frostbite and other gems, so I didn't hesitate. Which mods are better to aim for? More crit multi?

I recommend generating a weighted sum search with this:

https://github.com/VolatilePulse/PoB-Item-Tester

You're right that both +1 gem mods are the best ones for the wand, and that crit multi is next best. After that, it's cast speed.

I believe the tester works correctly, but on POB DPS rather than hideout DPS. Sometimes items just don't look like much of an improvement when you equip them, but they are in reality.

The general outcome is a few T1 mods, a few T2 mods, and some random stuff that works out decently enough (e.g. I ended up with T1/2 added fire on both wands at the moment - obviously added cold would be much nicer, but we're not late enough in the league that such items exist.

If you link me your wands in-game, I can use the item tester to say how much better (if at all) my ones are, so you can see the differences of the mods.

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limevan wrote:

I suppose it will be better filling up the Clusters?

Yes, exactly. My plan is to take a 2nd cluster jewel eventually, and it may be that I need to go to the Devotion one for the strength (the one by Whispers of Doom otherwise being better). Given that we need to take Ancestral Bond, the jewel socket is only 3 nodes away, so Devotion is pretty effective still, I don't think we can avoid it. If I can find enough life, I'd drop the Quick Recovery nodes I think, and/or Mental Rapidity.

It would definitely be interesting to go Thread of Hope. I couldn't make it work with double-cluster jewels last league, but as our gear will be worse this time round, perhaps there's a way.

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limevan wrote:

(Running with Divergent Dash for perma phase and Sleepless Sentries for perma onslaught make it feel like we're eating into Raider's ascendancy, and this makes ultimatums a lot safer since we can just run through everything)

I just straight up use phase run, though your way reduces the number of gem sockets used (as I take flame dash too). I'm not currently even using all my sockets though - what else could we usefully take?

I'd really like to get into sleepless sentries too, but cold conduction/astonishing affliction seems too strong. The curse cluster is definitely worse for now, but I'll get awakened hextouch 5 sooner or later and just have to switch back anyway. It probably needs to wait for the 2nd cluster jewel.

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destle wrote:

Hello. I do not harm the enemy. Help!

What level content are you doing?[/quote]

I doing blood aqueduct


I noticed that during the broadcast, the author does not go through all the stages of the new ritual to the end. Does this mean that the guide is not suitable for this league? Standard only?

Again, thanks for the reply! I really appreciate the effort you're putting in them.

I've been wondering the same about the cluster jewels, but they're so expensive to test :P My pick is Blanketed Snow (cold pen), Blizzard Caller (stronger Frostbite) and Vengeful Commander. I've no idea if that can even be rolled. To rule out the i75 mods (Corrosive Elements, Inspired Oppression), we can focus on clusters of i68 to i74, though these nuisance notables don't weigh much.

Do you know if there's a convention to how the notables roll in a large cluster? I read about this but it didn't agree with what POB showed, so I'm hesitant. This isn't usually an issue if we're going for all 3 notables, but I was hoping to run a second set of clusters too (even if it's just a medium one for even more proj speed).

I'm enjoying the build versatility from the open sockets, so here's my take:

Arcanist Brand - Blast Blast (high lvl, high qual) - div. Frost Bomb (high qual) - Sniper's Mark (high lvl, high qual)

Every couple of seconds, cast a couple of these suckers. Permanent -25% exposure from Frost Bomb, constant Sniper's Mark which hops around as mobs die, and a good AOE Unnerve. I'm not sure if I'm reading it wrong, but Unnerve feels like a HUGE deal. 10% increased spell damage taken is a straight up MORE multiplier. This sticks nicely to bosses too, so you can focus on other tasks.

Summon Chaos Golem (high lvl)- Culling Strike - Meat Shield Support

It dies often, but when you have it up (sniggers), it gives a huge 5% phys reduction. With an average of 20% phys reduction, a 5% increase is a great deal for flexible sockets. The taunt from meatshield doesn't do much, since everything's constantly frozen, but I don't know a better way to keep it alive. I usually recast it when the boss is at 25% HP so it will shimmy over and give it a nice love tap for culling.

div Frostbite (high lvl, high qual) - Spell Cascade - Arcane Surge - Inc. AOE

Having this on Viridi's Veil gives a +2, and having two +2 wands brings it to lvl 26 Frostbite. This takes enemies down by 50% cold resistance and 45% chance to freeze. It triggers lvl 13 Arcane Surge on a single cast, which is 16% more spell damage. I've been itching to replace inc. AOE with an Empower4 and Spell Cascade to the awakened one for equal coverage but way stronger curse. However, things are 1-hit at this point so it feels unnecessary.

div. Dash - Second Wind - Enhance

Dash once, get 3.6s of phasing to cast totems and curse while moving. Rinse and repeat.

What links are you running ATM? I feel like there's still a lot of room to tinker around with this. I was planning to spend a couple of passives to grab Elemental Exposure and run some Arcanist Brand + big AOE Fire/Lightning tests.



PS: I tried the Precision route and it didn't seem to increase the overall POB damage significantly -- I found that with lvl 21 Precision (60% crit, costing 273 mana) the shaper DPS (with diamond flask enabled) wasn't substantial enough to combat the 60% increased spell damage from Clear Mind. This reserves 10% of my mana, robbing a little from the MOM effect. Gem sockets are also used, but that's not huge atm. Let me know if I'm overlooking something.

Regarding the discussion of notables - the order does seem to follow their internal ID listing, so some combinations will not work as they'll scuff the layout. The order that they are listed in PoEDB is their internal ID order, so if you do something like Prismatic Heart, Widespread Destruction has to be the suffix notable or it'll shove Blanketed Snow into the back slot. I haven't seen any clusters that don't obey this ordering so far.