My dual flame totem Witch got Blood Magic and (after a little trepidation) now she’s plowing through A3C at 51-ish. Blood Magic was a big deal for me because I’m the kind of guy who hates seeing that red orb even missing a little, so to have my health powering my spells was a big step into the danger zone for me.
I’m making my way to the Docks to farm for a level or two before moving on to Piety and Dominus. So far I haven’t had any real issues with anything, though the Piety and Dominus fights will be interesting. I really like the Forsaken Masters crafting system, as I’ve been able to put added life on a couple of pieces that were good but had no life on them. That sure does plow through the alteration orbs though.
I definitely would not have gone after Malachai at 58 in hardcore. Had a couple scares in there; he nearly one-shotted me with his emerge when I was a dumbass and/or dodging 30 other things; must have been a crit because I got hit one other time and it took me to ~half. I also would be gearing somewhat differently.
I do have an assload of regen and made it the #1 priority to keep Malachai Enfeebled for the whole fight, so I was set for a long grind. Biggest thing I should have done was to take Vaal Skeletons off my bar (his stupid zombies don’t have souls, sigh) and replaced it with Chaos Golem; he died a bunch but would have been better dps (through Instability if nothing else) than the one-shot Vaal skellies.
Thank goodness I picked up Mind over Matter at 58. Would have died for sure without it. I had skipped it forever ago because I was struggling with mana for a long time thanks to resummoning dudes and needing to spam lots of spirits, but my mana refills in like 2 seconds with Clarity (to 30% or whatever I have not reserved for Clarity/[Haste/Purity]).
Summoner is still pretty awesome. Very easy to autopilot through the easy stuff, but surprisingly intense to maximize her damage/survivability in tough spots between manage curses, resummons, SRS, Flesh Offering, and dodging.
I can totally understand that feeling about Blood Magic, especially in hardcore. “Wait, I can actually kill myself by using my skills? Danger!” If you build around it, though, it’s one of the most powerful keystones since it lets you (mostly) skip everything mana-related on gear and the passive tree. Use those resources for life instead, and it’s a good trade. On my flame totem marauder, I have so much life regen now that I don’t even notice the life bulb move any more. The gem version of Blood Magic can be good too, letting you reserve the heck out of the mana bulb while still using your skills via life.
Yea, the most successful character I ever had was an arc witch using blood magic node and some unique that no one liked and I can’t remember the name of but which worked beautifully for the build. Made it to level 89 with her.
I really like the blood magic node, makes gearing and passive choices much easier especially as I only play the hardcore leagues so I’m hitting almost all the life and regen nodes anyway.
So, talking to just my fellow hardcore players for a second, I’ve got a Stephen Colbert-style question:
Fire Trap: Is it just one of the greater low level skills or the greatest low level skill gem in the game?
I mean, no other level 1 skill gem is this kick ass is it? It doesn’t even matter what class I start the game as when my current hardcore character dies. Whoever the new character is, equip them with Fire Trap for some nice reliable area of effect damage that also applies damage over time most of the time even if they get out of it’s area.
I had contemplated dual totems on the passive tree for a potential build, and the one you linked pretty much goes to those far flung totem nodes that I had my eye on. But there’s some choices in there that I’m wondering about. For example, right at the start of the witch version of the build, why go with greater casting speed over greater spell power? Is better casting speed really important early on for some reason? I’ve always ignored the casting speed nodes in the past in favor of spell power or mana shields, depending on the build.
Also, I’m surprised that they went with through the strength nodes (not useful in this build is it?) to get to “Devotion” which gives +20 str (not useful in this build?) and +8% max life (useful but also available through other route), and 3% increased Aura effect. Is that last one the reason they they went through Devotion? They do mention that this build uses the Enduring Cry Aura (along with cast when damage taken), so maybe making that 3% more effective is important.
I want to try out this build, but I’m not sure if this particular build is better than the more obvious one I was looking at through the tree. I am still wondering about that cast speed though. That must be pretty important if they went for 9% increased cast speed over 30% increased spell damage.
I certainly agree that Fire Trap is outstanding for any character in the early game. Works great without any special support from other gems or the passive tree well up into the 20s. And you can get it from Nessa with most classes, with the post-Awakening vendor gem changes.
In the later game, it’s only going to be good if you focus on it. Much like any skill, really. Trap and fire/burning damage passive nodes can really ramp up the damage. But outside of a focused trapper or DoT build, flame totem is probably better.
My understanding is that the cast speed does more for your totems as you get up into the really high levels, but I can’t imagine it would make that much difference taking 30% spell damage vs 9% cast speed.
This I understand a little better. Strength nodes are always useful in that you get more life, plus you get a physical damage bonus which can be added to your totem via an Iron Will support gem. That last bit may not matter until really high levels, but the life is always good. And since this build is armor-based, it’s important to have the ability to equip those high-strength armor or armor/ES items. I don’t think that Aura bonus isn’t really important, just comes along with the strength and life.
It’s funny you should mention that. I ran a Shadow through the 1 hour Emberwake last night and leaned on firetrap to power through the caverns and out to The Ledge to level. It was extremely effective (shocking lag aside). I decided to swap it for a Magma Orb that dropped before ascending The Climb and into The Prison. Magma Orb was much less efficient against groups of mobs (even with dual supports) and tbh, also nearly killed me against Brutus. I think I would have been better off sticking with dual supported fire trap.
So yeah, Fire Trap is nice.
The Iron Grip keystone should also apply to totems, since their attack is a projectile. I am surprised that build omits it, but the guy behind it seems to have a pretty good handle on the efficiency of such things. Damage nodes elsewhere probably out perform Iron Grip, I guess, which is probably why he also suggests removing Iron Will in favour of other supports if you don’t have the links.
I had that exact same question when I first looked at the build. Turns out that Iron Grip doesn’t apply to Flame Totem (or anything else without a physical damage component). The Iron Grip keystone says “The increase to Physical Damage from Strength applies to Projectile Attacks as well as Melee Attacks” and the key bit there is “increase to Physical Damage”…if there’s no physical damage to begin with, there’s no increase. Iron Will, on the other hand, says “Strength’s damage bonus applies to Spell Damage as well for Supported Skills” which doesn’t say anything about physical, so it applies to the fire-only Flame Totem damage. Not particularly clear, especially if you look at the Iron Grip support gem: “Strength’s damage bonus applies to Projectile Attacks made with Supported Skills” That one doesn’t work for Flame Totem either, because of the word “attacks” instead of “damage”…no physical damage in the attack, so no bonus.
PantsVZ
1631
I remember when cast on damage taken didn’t have that silly limitation, that change was too much and it seems they left it in. I don’t like that they’ve put new definitions on existing stuff like spells becoming casts so they can’t be triggered anymore. Automation was what I loved about this game and thankfully I can still do stuff like CODT - > Immortal call <- Increased duration even if it’s severely gimped. That thing is a life saver against heavy burst damage.
I would love for them to put in a lot more trigger gems. Cast on critical strike seems untouched but I haven’t seen many of the old school discharge builds. Man those were annoying.
KevinC
1632
I think CoC got a small internal cooldown that brought the discharge dudes back down to earth.
Yeah, triggers are the most fun you can have with crazy builds in this game. Also probably incredibly abusive if not very carefully designed, which is my guess as to why there aren’t many.
Wow did the horde eat Brutus and Merveil in Merciless. I think I lost one zombie on Merveil.
Bateau
1634
Have you tried Mon’tregul’s Grasp yet Adam? I see they’re VERY affordable now (I paid through the nose for one in Bloodlines) and it makes zombies really strong. Back then I also used a Vis Mortis chest, mainly because I was focused on using Undying Evangelists but the Unholy might on kill is a really strong buff too.
Actually, it seems like most of the good summoner items are incredibly cheap now: Bones of Ullr, Sidhebreath, just to name a few.
Ok, how exactly does one go about buying something in PoE? Hang around the chat channel spamming requests? I really, really hate that the game has no formal system of exchange between people.
Bateau
1636
http://poe.trade
Write in the item name (or parameters if you’re looking for a rare item with specific stats), check buyout only and online only then submit to get the list. Once you have a list of available items you can first check via Verify button if the item is still for sale (takes a few mins to update, hence this on demand check) and for ease of use you got a Whisper button which formulates a premade message which you then copypaste to the game chat.
edit: make sure you select the correct league the first time you visit the page!
Thank you. That seems…Byzantine, to say the least, but I guess it works!
Then again, given all the flak Blizzard got about the AH, perhaps this isn’t so bad…
Thanks much for the tips on using poe.trade as well as the item suggestions, Bateau! I am pretty casual and have played entirely self-found until now, but I might pick up some of these cheapies for hilarity’s sake.
Surprised at how many people are running around in Tabula Rasas still at 60+ in Warbands.
Hahaha, ok, I just got a 3L Montregul for 1 Chaos. Awesome.
Bateau
1640
If you’re on Warbands I can give you the boots and amulet since they’re just taking up space in my bank. My IGN is Bawtzki and I’m usually on a ReaverOfBabylon character (all the good reaver names were taken :<).
