Level 12 Hybrid Holy Flame Totem Templar^3.21

Notes

Act 1.

Nothing can beat the Rolling Magma + Flamewall combo in Templar skill choice, so stick with it.

Do not try to kill Merveil with Storm Brand + Arc. Just don?t. Forget about Stormblast mines, Orb of Storms, and Lightning Tendrils.

Do not take the Runebinder keystone before you kill Merveil. You won?t be able to use the Holy Flame Totem if you get it.


What to do:

1. Kill Hillock - get Rolling Magma.

2. Search both Tarkleigh and Nessa for BB(B) linked.
Link Rolling Magma with Elemental Proliferation.
If you get 3b linked - you are lucky. Buy Arcane Surge from Nessa and add it to Rolling Magma.

3. Holy Flame totem would be a decent addition later, so try to find RR(B) too.

4. After the Mud Flats get Flamewall, Holy Flame Totem and War Banner. Don?t forget about Frostblink and Mercy Mission for a Quicksilver flask.

5. After entering the prison you can get some support gems as a reward:

Combustion for Rolling Magma (instead of Arcane Surge in 3-link (or instead of Elemental Prolif if you still have 2 links)).

You will need Added Lightning damage later. Add it to the Holy Flame totem if you have RRB. Added Fire Damage is optional for holy Flame Totem.

Flame Dash is better than Frostblink, the earlier you get it - the better. We are not using Lightning Warp until the late game, so yeah, stick with Flame Dash.

6. Don?t forget about the lab trial and go for Brutus. Place War Banner during the Brutus fight. Go through the remaining Act 1 area and quests until The Cavern.

7. Get Storm Brand as a reward, and buy Arc.

Again, don't switch to them yet. Don't allocate the Runebinder.
Kill Merveil with Rolling Magma, Holy Flame Totem, and Flame Wall. Place War Banner during the fight.


Perfect gem links at the end of the Act 1:

Rolling Magma - Elemental Proliferation - Combustion.
Holy Flame Totem - (Added Fire) - Added Lightning.
Flame Wall - Flame Dash - (Arcane Surge)
War Banner
Arc
Storm Brand

Mechanical interaction: Flamewall adds damage to each projectile (including spells) that goes through it. Both Rolling Magma and Holy Flame totem are benefitting from it.

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Act 2.

Updated: Continue to play with Rolling Magma until the end of the Act 4.

Bandits: Help Alira.

What to do:

1. I prefer to complete everything in the East of the camp 1st.

2. Go in the Den for a second Quicksilver flask if you need it. If not - skip it.

3. Go and kill Kraityn first after allocating teleport at Crossroads.

4. Go to the Chamber of Sins, don?t forget about the lab trial. Kill things, talk to Helena, and teleport to the town.

5. Take Herald of Ash as a reward. Arcane Cloak isn?t required until the end of Act 4, so can skip it for now if you don?t have enough currency.

6. Go after the a lab trial in the Crypt if you need. Skip the quest here.

7. Go West. I prefer killing Oak and allocating the Portal to Wetlands before going to the Western Forest.

8. Help Alira, do a quest for a skill book, and go after the spiders and teleport to the town.

9. We will need those gems form here by the end of act 4:

1x Concentrated Effect,
2x Elemental Focus,
1x Overcharge.

Get everything you can for leveling for now. It would be good if you could buy one of each, can skip the second elemental focus. If you don't have enough of alts - not a problem, by the end of act 4 it should be enough for everything.

10. Finish Act 2.

Perfect gem links at the end of the Act 2:
 
Rolling Magma - Elemental Proliferation - Combustion.
Holy Flame Totem - (Added Fire) - Added Lightning.
Flame Wall - Flame Dash - (Arcane Surge)
War Banner
Herald of Ash
Arc
Storm Brand

In brackets is what you can ignore if you don't have 3 links for it.


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Act 3.
 
In Act 3 we just continue this kind of gameplay with Rolling Magma, while obtaining at least 3 links for each gem setup above. Just breeze through the act, it should be easy.

Check the merchant every time you are in town. He sells 4-links from time to time.

Ascendancy: Hierophant -> Arcane Blessing.

What to do:

1. For the 1st quest reward, pick Elemental Weakness and buy Anger, Wrath and Conductivity in that order. It is ok to drop War Banner for the Anger. Wrath and Conductivity for lvling, but can skip buying if you don't have enough currency.

At this point be sure to keep your mana flask up to date, bc there would be mana issues overwise.

2. Run through the act like usual, and don?t forget about lab trials in Crematorium, Catacombs, and Imperial Garden. Feel free to skip Gravicius if you feel so, we don?t need his rewards. Or kill him if you want Armageddon Brand for some time instead of the totem.

3. Unfortunately, I don?t recommend skipping Siosa in the library, because we need Swiftbrand support hard. Only after obtaining this gem, Storm Brand becomes good.

4. Do the lab if you feel good. Or skip it until Act 4 transition to Arc + Storm Brand.

Choose Hierophant, and get Arcane Blessing.

5. Finish the act, and get some snacks. Breathe in, breathe out.

Perfect gem links at the end of the Act 3:

Rolling Magma - Elemental Proliferation - Combustion - (Concentrated Effect).
Holy Flame Totem - Added Fire - Added Lightning.
Flame Wall - Flame Dash - Arcane Surge
Herald of Ash - Anger
Arc
Storm Brand
Elemental Weakness
Wrath
Conductivity


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Act 4.

At the end of this act, we will have a final major skill gem switch. After it, your only goal is to get lvls, better gear, and progress up to the ubers.

What to do:

1. Get your buddy - Lightning Golem after that Big Dude dropping banner (Voll).

2. Go through the act, and don?t forget about Deshret?s spirit in Mines 2.

3. Don?t forget to pick up every wand, rune dagger, and sceptre to check if they are good or not. Check the merchant every time you are in town for 4-links.

4. Kill Daresso, kill Kaom - go into town for rewards before entering the Belly of the Beast. We have some work here. Get Unleash support. Buy the Hydrosphere, Eternal Blessing, and Hextouch support.

5. Do your links like below, finish the act and move on.

Perfect gem links at the end of the Act 4:

Storm Brand - Concentrated Effect - Elemental Focus - Swiftbrand.
Arc - Overcharge - Unleash - (Arcane Surge)*
Hydrosphere - Elemental Focus.
Flame Dash.
Lightning Golem.
Wrath - Eternal Blessing.
Arcane Cloak - (Increased Duration).
Conductivity

*Lightning Penetration is better than Arcane Surge before you get your curse setup with Anathema, but the difference isn?t much. No real point to waste currency for penetration unless you are in SSF and there is no Anathema yet.

Mechanical interaction:

1. Wrath + Eternal Blessing saves us a lot of mana, so we can use the Mind over Matter keystone, which is surprisingly good in acts. It is absolutely worth dropping Herald of Thunder here and starting to use Arcane Cloak.

2. Arc - Overcharge - Unleash is one of the key mechanics of the build. It's your bread and butter for clearing and applying strong shocks.

3. Hydrosphere is used to apply lightning exposure and curse on hit. Linking to Elemental Focus is necessary to block it from applying weak shock.
It also can block monsters at doors, is ranged, and is fun to use. Paired with elemental mastery ?Exposure you inflict applies at least -18% to the affected Resistance? it becomes a better alternative to WoC.
Another thing about Hydro - it always applies cold and lightning exposure, so you ain't required to get only added lightning damage to spells. If you find a weapon with added fire or cold damage being higher tier than your current weapon - go for it.

4. Storm Brand becomes a main dps skill.

Gameplay wise you want to throw hydrosphere to a magic pack, rare or boss, apply shock with Arc and throw some Storm Brands while dodging their attacks. For clearing just use Arc and some Brands.

Weapons upgrade:

Act 3 offers everything we need for our weapons:
Spiraled wand, Copper kris bases are really good.
Lunaris Temple 2 have recipe we need - <Adds (1-4) to (39-42) Lightning Damage to Spells>.
Kill Piety, unlock the crafting recipe, get either 2x Spiraled wands or Copper kris + Quartz sceptre from act 2 and craft that added lightning to spells to them.
This should be enough up to act 7, where you can get another lightning craft.

Don't forget about dual wield mastery for Sceptre + Dagger combo: <60% increased Damage while wielding two different Weapon Types>


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Act 5-10.

There won't be anything major, just breeze through acts, do your labs, fix resistances and get better wands or sceptre+dagger. Be sure to have life/mana flasks up to date. Get the required 4-links if you didn?t get them before.

Learn how to play this build.

Ascendancy:

Arcane Blessing - Sign of Purpose - Divine Guidance - (Conviction of Power).

Get Conviction of Power in the uber lab, you won't need it before respeccing to a crit build.

Pantheon: Brine King + Abberath

Weapons upgrade:


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T1-T6 maps.

The same goes here - just breeze through them while getting better gear. Uber lab is perfectly doable here after you will get better weapons and some passives. I did at lvl 79, right after I got my 1st offering.

The best bases are:

Tornado Wands.
Vaal Regalia.
Sorcerer Gloves/Boots.
Hubris.
Stygian Vise/Crystal belt.

We are not running any defensive auras and flasks, so getting more life/mana/es is the best choice.


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T9-T10 maps.

Before hitting red maps I strongly recommend getting at least 5-link. Start preparing to switch to a crit. Your starting atlas tree should be the essences, focus on them and craft your gear.