[3.23] black cane storm burst totem heirophant | 6M DPS

This is my first build that didn't completely suck! I designed the build as a 3.23 league-starter that could get my voidstones and then immediately transition into a harvest farmer without needing a ton of currency and it achieved its goal. I was able to progress up to T16s on a <1 div budget and was able to transition into T16 altar+harvest on a 5 div budget. I didn't need to stop to farm currency along the way.

As of Dec 28, I'm only person playing this build on poeninja. so I wanted to share the build in case anyone finds it helpful. This build uses multiple uniques and mechanics that are likely to be specific to 3.23 so I doubt it will be supported in future leagues.

Path of building doesn't account for the flat added spell damage from black cane. For this reason, I've added it manually to the configuration, which assumes you have 11 phantasms from lv21 summon phantasm support. Although these minions die very quickly, they are also instantly re-summoned due to how quickly storm burst hits.

https://pobb.in/BnMFTsTMW18C

Pros:
+ Clear up to T16 and complete voidstones on <1 div
+ Farm T16 altar+harvest on 5 div
+ Only 4 active abilities, 2 of which are movement skills
+ Off-meta build means that some items are very cheap
+ Totem + ramping damage makes it very effective at harvest farming
+ Can run all map mods except "players cannot regenerate mana". Elemental reflect requires that you re-summon your totems more frequently but isn't that bad due to the way storm burst explodes when your totems die or expire

Cons:
- Delayed damage due to storm burst + totems
- Doesn't scale well past juiced T16 + altars + wisps
- Clear isn't great compared to meta builds like lightning arrow
- Off-meta build means that some items may be difficult to acquire

The build uses a few mechanics that were introduced this league (unsocketted gems) and a unique (black cane) that is seldom used. The result is a fairly unique build where most of your sockets are empty and we scale the large amount of flat physical damage from black cane.

We use the new https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Oath_of_the_Maji ascendancy along with the new unique amulet https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/The_Untouched_Soul. On the <1div budget we have no socketed gems in our boots, helm, and gloves giving us: 30% movespeed, 50% ele res, 25% maxlife, +480 max life.

The build also uses https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/The_Black_Cane and summon phantasm support for ~500 added physical damage to spells.

In the >5 div build we use a 7 link helm to enable us to empty the sockets in our body armour granting us 240 life and 5k base armour.

Defences:


Offenses:

Shield charge + frostblink around the map, placing totems whenever you encounter a pack. This build has very few buttons to worry about because we have so many empty sockets.

You phase through packs leaving your totems behind you to kill the mobs. You really have to trust your loot filter because you don't get to see packs die. I like to put down rejuvenation occasionally for the regen. It feels similar to other totem builds with delayed damage (e.g. explosive arrow ignite ballista totem, toxic rain totems).

Once you get "totems taunt nearby enemies" from the "that which was taken" jewel, mapping feels very safe.

Once you start using https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Algor_Mortis you use frostblink on tougher mobs for the increased damage taken + sap.

cortex https://youtu.be/0W2yXr52-9o
drox https://youtu.be/7wZOs96mmiY
T16 wildwood + harvest https://youtu.be/Dt71p2-W-SgT16

This build uses very few active skills because we try to run as many empty sockets as possible.

On the <1 div budget our main links are in our body armour:



We have our rejuvenation setup in our shield. Before getting "that which was taken" with "totems taunt nearby enemies for 2s" you can use optionally decoy totem:

Our movement skills and auras spread across our 1H and 2x unset rings:


When we transition to the 5 div budget we move our main skill into a 7L helm. lv5 awakened lightning pen is important because it is our only source of exposure:



And after we get "totems taunt nearby enemies when summoned" we can drop decoy totem for molten shell

On the <1 div budget we need black cane, 2x unset rings, and the untouched soul. The helm, body armour, boots, gloves, and belt just need life, resistances, and empty red sockets. I opted for a body armour without any life modifiers for the increased life mastery. I also used thrillsteel and a budget totem shield until red maps:




My first upgrades after the campaign were my flasks, ideally getting triggers to automate. I decide to try the overflowing chalice to help with flask sustain. Rumi's for spell block and armour, it is set to "trigger when an adjacent flask is used" so that it triggers whenever I use my life flask. The quartz flask is important because our damage is delayed and you'll want to phase through mobs. Getting a flask with "increased armour during effect" is also very important because we have few sources of increased armour.


The big transition to the 5 div build is switching from thrillsteel to a 7L helmet. To replace onslaught we used a medium cluster jewel with "sleepless sentries". This enables you to benefit from the "double defences from equipped body armour" from Oath of the Magi. You'll want to find a body with a high armour value and you'll have to replace other items to make up for the 50% elemental resistances that are now missing by socketing gems in your helmet. At this stage, I did not have quality on my jewellery. We proc the effects of algor mortis using frostblink, which creates chilling areas, on bosses/tanky rares. Finding a ring with "conductivity weakness on hit" is important because we don't have the sockets for a traditional arcanist brand + curse setup. Arn's anguish also adds more damage, we need slightly more skill effect duration to reach the next storm burst breakpoint (<10% I think) and a corrupted implicit on the belt is a good place to get it. At this stage we can cap our attack/spell block with glancing blows, passives, body armour crafts:



Upgrading to the 15 div budget involves
[1 div] large cluster
[1 div] lv5 awakened lightning pen
[1 div] "that which was taken" unique jewel with totem taunt + recoup
[1 div] watcher's eye
[3 div] forbidden flame/flesh jewels

Beyond 15 divs our upgrade options start to thin out and I think switching builds might be a better option. A few upgrades you could look into are:
* I managed to get an almost perfect double corrupted "black cane" for 5c, not sure how much this costs now!
* buying a boost to lv100 to get more skill points -> add a reservation efficiency small cluster to fit in barkskin for more armour
* corrupted "untouched soul" with +1 curse and 20% fertile quality + corrupted algor mortis with "elemental weakness on hit"
* rare ring with converts 10% of physical damage to lightning will fully convert our physical damage
* there are probably some flask upgrades

The path of building contains a few levelling trees.

I started with purifying flame totem + flame wall and rushed ancestral bond (+1 totem) and then elemental overload (40% more elemental damage).

Around act 3 I started running the league content and got oath of the magi + unsocketing gems from my helm and boots for 50% elemental res and 30% movementspeed.

The first ascendancy (heirphant) is pursuit of faith for the +1 totems

The second ascendancy is ritual of awakenening for sustain and some extra damage. At this point you can switch to storm burst totems or continue running purifying flame. A few good links are: added fire damage, physical to lightning, controlled destruction. I ran herald of purity + herald of ash

The third ascendancy is arcane blessing, at this point was grab the "increased effect of arcane surge" nodes on the tree to scale the 20% more damage. At this point you should be able to swap to the 1div version of the build. As soon as you get black cane and a high level summon phantasm support you have enough dps until red maps.

The final ascendancy is conviction of power. Its not that great but we make use of it with arn's anguish for brutal charges => more damage. You don't need this to complete your atlas