Level 95 MoM Storm Burst Totem Hierophant^3.22

Notes

Build made by Tatiantel2
If you have any questions/suggestions - feel free to ask in chat on Twitch (streaming every day):
https://www.twitch.tv/tatiantel2


------ HOW STORM BURST WORKS ------
In order to scale Storm Burst damage we can use all the normal sources of Spells scaling like: Cast Speed, Elemental Damage, Spell Damage, Elemental Penetration.
But the unusual and the most efficient way to scale DPS is to scale Skill Effect Duration.
While Totems channel the Storm Burst Spell, the skill creates Orbs that last 1.2 seconds, and jump each 0.4 seconds. When the orb just it does damage. The intervals at which orbs jump cannot be changed (always 0.4s), but 
the duration of orbs can be extended.
So, by default orbs jump 3 times (1.2s / 0.4s). If we scale duration of the orb to 1.6s it will jump 4 times instead, and that equals to 33% more damage, because the amount of Orbs spawned is the same, but each Orb jumps additional time.
To get 1.6s orb duration, we need 34% increased Skill Effect Duration (1.2s * 1.34 = 1.6s).
Obviously, next duration thresholds are: 2.0s, 2.4s, 2.8s etc. It corresponds to 67%, 100%, 134% etc increased Skill Effect Duration.
In this build we take 90% increased and 10% more duration from tree, and that's equal to 109% increased duration. This duration gives 100% more Full DPS. It is possible to scale duration even further, but sources of this stat are scarce.


------ PLAYSTYLE ------
Mapping. Place totems in the middle of the pack of monsters.
When encoutering bigger pack of monsters - place Decoy Totems in the middle of a pack. Decoys have much bigger AoE for their Taunt (and it lasts longer), so monsters will group around Decoys, and you and your SB totems will not get hit.
Against packs of monsters with Rares (or when you need more damage) cast Conductivity Curse and Wrath Aura (temporary aura linked to Divine Blessing) after you placed all the totems.

Bossing. The "rotation" of skills is as follows:
1. Place Decoy Totems if not on cooldown (to not get hit and lock Boss in place)
2. Place Storm Burst Totems
3. Cast Conductivity Curse
4. Place Sigil of Power
5. Use Wrath aura (temporary aura linked to Divine Blessing)
6. Cast selfcast Storm Burst for 0.6+ seconds (to proc Infusion buff that gives totems +16% more damage)
7. Throw and detonate few Stormblast Mines (or Wave of Conviction Mines) until you get 3 Frenzy charges (from Charged Mines Support)
8. (optional) While not busy with replacing totems or dodging boss mechanics, keep throwing Stormblast Mines (or Wave of Conviction Mines) without detonating them (in order to proc 3% increased damage taken on Monsters from Mine skill gem)

This rotation of skills might seem overwhelming but you get used to it pretty quickly. Totems last 20 seconds, and they are tanky, so there's plenty of time to do something else - like throwing Mines and 
maintaining Frenzy Charges from them.

Arcane Cloak (or Steelskin and Molten Shell while leveling) - just put it on Left Mouse Button, so that it automatically activates once it's not on a cooldown.

How Sigil of Power works:
Your char has to be inside of the circle created by Sigil of Power in order for totems to have extra damage. It doesn't matter where your totems are. The timing also doesn't matter - whenever you are in the circle ALL totems get 
extra damage (all totems summoned before or after placing the Sigil). So you can freely walk out and back in the circle if needed - the extra damage is automatically reapplied once you're back in the circle.
The build has a lot of increased Area of Effect for Sigil of Power, so this skill doesn't really lock you in place - there's plenty of room for maneuvers.
Getting to maximum stages of Sigil of Power is fairly easy, because each cast of Divine Blessing Aura or Arcane Cloak immediately triggers +1 stage.


------ EXPOSURE DEBUFF ------
Exposure is a debuff that lowers enemy's Elemental Resistance.
The best way to apply exposure with this build is to get implicit on gloves "Inflict Lightning Exposure on Hit, applying -11% to Lightning Resistance". You can get it by spamming Eldritch Ichors on Gloves until you randomly
get this mod. Lowest tier Ichors give 11% Exposure, Grand Ichors give 13% - the difference is not too big, so it's not worth investing in higher tier Ichors (unless there's nothing else to upgrade anymore).
With this implicit mod Totems will automatically always apply Exposure.

But BEFORE you can get your hands on such Gloves (hehe), there are 2 ways to apply Exposure:
1) Throw and detonate Wave of Conviction Mines - recommended option (shown in Leveling Gems section);
2) Cast Hydrosphere (also can link to Hextouch+Conductivity).
Option 1 is far better, because it applies 15% Exposure (vs 10% from Hydrosphere), plus you get Frenzy and Power Charge generation, and there's "2% chance to deal double damage" to enemies 
around Mines (from High-Impact Mine Support).
Only use option 2 (Hydrosphere) if you're looking for much lazier playstyle (and you're ok with losing a lot of damage), because you get both Exposure and Curse with 1 button press. Triggering Curse from Hextouch 
also result in damage loss, because you also lose Curse effectiveness from Doom mechanic. So I heavily recombend reading the "Can I not use Mines" paragraph first.


------ CAN I NOT USE MINES? ------
Short answer: YES, BUT
Mines are really efficient because of few reasons:
1) Mines provide the easiest accessible source of Frenzy Charge generation (from Charged Mines Support), plus at the same time they generate Power Charges too (which help with proccing Elemental Overload more consistently);
2) Stormblast Mines have aura around Mines, which makes enemies take 3% increased damage per mine. That's effectively 3% more damage per Mine in most cases (which means from 10 mines it's 30% more DPS multiplier);
3) Stormblast Mines have built-in increased effect of Shock, so they actually apply decent (~8-10%) Shock against Pinnacle Bosses. (Not relevant for this build as Totems apply bigger Shock);
3*) Before you get Exposure Gloves, Wave of Conviction Mines apply big Exposure (15%), and give 2% more damage to enemies around Mines (instead of 3% from Stormblast Mines, but still good).

So I would really recommend trying to overcome this initial struggle and play with Mines for few days, because eventially they will even become enjoyable to use.
I would recommend binding Mine Throwing Key and Detonate Mines Key to 2 buttons that are next to each other on the keyboard - this way it doesn't feel like you need to press 2 buttons.
For example, I use "W" for Mine and "E" for Detonate, and when I want to use Mines I hold down "W" with middle finger and spam "E" key with pointing finger. It's also possible to just press and hold down both keys simultaneously.

IF Mines still don't work for you, then you need to at least find different source of Frenzy Charges. Possible ways:
1. Craft Minimum Frenzy Charge on Rings and Amulet.
This gives permanent Charges, but most likely you'll have to sacrifice other stats on jewellery in order to be able to craft these Minimum Charge mods;
2. Use Cold Snap / Vaal Cold Snap.
This is very unreliable source of Charges;
3. Use 4-link setup: Frenzy - Additional Accuracy - Greater Multiple Projectiles - Faster Attacks.
This uses a lot of sockets on gear, and not much lazier than using Mines.

As you can see, all these sources have their own downsides.


------ LEVELING ------
In "Tree" section at the bottom you can select different trees for different Levels to see which passives to take at each stage.
In "Skills" section you can see which skills to use at each Level.

As shown is Skills section we level with Holy Flame Totem and Flame Wall, this combination of skills can clear early acts pretty easily.
In 3.21 it is possible to mule Sniper's Mark curse, which will increase damage of Holy Flame Totem even more. "To mule" means - you create a Duelist, and get to Submerged Passage waypoint with it, and Sniper's Mark will be offered
as a quest reward.
Adding Wave of Conviction Mines as early as possible (level 16) is recommended. Make sure that
your highest elemental damage dealt with WoC is fire, so that you apply Fire Exposure. If it's not fire, you can add Added Fire Damage Support to WoC + Blastchain Mine.
We use Wave of Conviction Mines until we get Gloves with "Inflict Lightning Exposure on Hit, applying -11% to Lightning Resistance" implicit mod (explained in "------ EXPOSURE DEBUFF ------"), and once we get it 
we switch to Endgame setup - Stormblast Mines.

Switching to Storm Burst Totems - at around Level 32, once first Labyrinth is completed.
Switching to Mind over Matter - at around Level 56, once second Labyrinth is completed. It gives really good source of Mana Regen, so it makes having damage taken from Mana less painful.

Manacost of Storm Burst Totems is really low (especially in comparison to Holy Flame Totems), so we only start using Determination Aura after we switch to Storm Burst.

After you'll get Exposure on hit on Gloves implicit, switch Wave of Conviction Mines to Stormblast Mines: Stormblast Mine + Charged Mines + Swift Assembly


------ EXTRA DEFENSIVE LAYERS FOR HARDCORE ------
Since the damage got significantly buffed in 3.21 patch, it is reasonable to switch the Curse from Conductivity to Enfeeble - it will add a great amount of survivability.
Also we can add additional Elemental Ailment mitigation - we can roll on Gloves implicit (with Eldritch Embers) "Chance to Extinguish enemies oh hit" instead of chance to Unnerve. Extinguished enemies cannot apply any elemental ailments.

















Build made by Tatiantel2
If you have any questions/suggestions - feel free to ask in chat on Twitch (streaming every day):
https://www.twitch.tv/tatiantel2