Level 97 MoM Crit Storm Burst Totem Hierophant^3.25

Notes

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


------ "EARLY MAPS", "MEDIUM / SSF" and "Min-Max" VERSIONS OF THE BUILD ------
There's a newer feature in PoB - "Loadouts". It allows switching between different versions of the build.
Find the drop-down menu in the top-right of the screen (to the right of "Level", "Templar", "Hierophant" -> "Loadouts").
There you can find "EARLY MAPS", "MEDIUM / SSF" and "Min-Max" options. When choosing each option, pob will switch the Passive Tree, Gear, Skills and Configuration to the respective version.

In Game - switch from "EARLY MAPS" to "MEDIUM / SSF" once you get the gear with necessary Eldritch Implicits (Frenzy Charge generation on Body Armour, Exposure on Gloves, Physical taken as Elemental on Helmet and Body Armour).
Switch from "MEDIUM / SSF" to "Min-Max" once you get all the uniques, and at the same time Rare Items with enough Spell Suppression for 100% Suppression cap, and stats and resists.


------ 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, Critical Strike Chance for Spells, Global Crit Multi.
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 1.6 seconds (with 20% quality on Storm Burst Gem), and jump each 0.4 seconds. When the orb jumps 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 4 times (1.6s / 0.4s). If we scale duration of the orb to 2.0s it will jump 5 times instead, and that equals to 25% more damage, because the amount of Orbs spawned is the same, but each Orb jumps additional time.
To get 2.0s orb duration, we need 25% increased Skill Effect Duration (1.6s * 1.25 = 2.0s).
Obviously, next duration thresholds are: 2.4s, 2.8s, 3.2s etc. It corresponds to 50%, 75%, 100% etc increased Skill Effect Duration.
In this build we take 90% increased and 10% more duration from tree, plus 49% more from More Duration Support. This results in 211% increased duration. This duration gives 200% more Full DPS. It is possible to scale duration even further, 
but sources of this stat are scarce.


------ PLAYSTYLE / SKILLS TO USE ------
Mapping.
Place totems ahead of your char, right next to packs of monsters. This will immediately Taunt them to attack totems (because of Totem Mastery), and your char will not get hit.
When encountering bigger pack of monsters - after placing Storm Burst Totems, place Decoy Totems slightly to the side. Decoys have big AoE Taunt, so monsters will group around Decoys, and it will allow Storm Burst Totems to cast freely.
Against packs of monsters with Rares cast Assassin's Mark on Rare monster to kill it faster.

Bossing.
Against tougher enemies the "rotation" of skills is as follows:
1. Place Storm Burst Totems;
2. Cast Assassin's Mark;
3. Place Decoy Totems (it gives more Damage from Ascendancy, and 10% less Damage taken from Taunt debuff);
4. a) "EARLY MAPS" version of the build: Throw Wave of Conviction mines in order to generate Frenzy Charges and apply Exposure debuff to enemy. Mines will be auto-detonated with Detonate Mines - Automation gem setup.
    b) "MEDIUM / SSF" version of the build: (optional) Throw Stormblast Mines WITHOUT DETONATING them (in order to proc 5% increased damage taken per Mine on Monsters from Mines Auras).
    c) "Min-Max" version of the build: Self-cast Creeping Frost in order to trigger Algor Mortis Gloves. Creeping Frost duration is 15 seconds, and the chilled ground follows the enemy.

Arcane Cloak (or Steelskin while leveling) - this skill is linked to Automation Support, so it will be automatically activated once it's not on a cooldown. (Don't forget to activate Automation on your skill bar)


------ 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. You don't need to use all the gems here if you don't have enough sockets in gear.

As shown is Skills section we level with Holy Flame Totem and Flame Wall, this combination of skills can clear early acts pretty easily.
It is also 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, then Sniper's Mark will be offered
as a quest reward in town.
Adding Wave of Conviction Mines as early as possible (level 16) is recommended.
Once we finish quest in Library in Act 3, we can buy "Detonate Mines" skill gem, put it in gear and link it to Automation Support - this way we won't need to press Detonate Mines anymore, only throw it. (Don't forget to activate Automation on skillbar)

Switching to Storm Burst Totems - at around Level 32, once first Labyrinth is completed.
Make sure that the Storm Burst and Spell Totem Support gems are at appropriate level - if they are way lower level than your char, then level up gems in weapon-swap first while still playing Holy Flame Totems.
Switching to Mind over Matter - at around Level 57, once second Labyrinth is completed. It gives really good source of Mana Regen, so it makes having damage taken from Mana less painful.

We use Wave of Conviction Mines until we get Gloves with "Inflict Lightning Exposure on Hit, applying -11% to Lightning Resistance" Eldritch implicit mod and Body Armour with "Gain a Frenzy Charge every 15 seconds" Eldritch implicit.


------ LEVELING UNIQUES------
Good uniques items to use for leveling:
Replica Prismweave belt
Sacrificial Heart amulet
Thrillsteel helmet
2x Replica Tasalio's Sign rings
Nycta's Lantern sceptre


------ POSSIBLE UNIQUE ITEMS TO USE ------
Before we're able to craft/buy most of the gear in "MEDIUM / SSF" Items, we can use these early uniques to buy in trade: 
Mindspiral, Singularity, Valako's Sign, Dream Fragments, Le Heup of All, Replica Prismweave
Also these uniques are good, but they might be more expensive:
The Dark Seer (Life and Mana version), Replica Dragonfang's Flight (for +3 to Storm Burst)


------ IMPORTANT GEAR ------
The most important item in the build is a Shield with Shaper Influence
On the Shaper Shield ilvl70+ it's possible to have a "+1 to maximum number of Totems" prefix. This gives us 35% more damage, and good QoL.

On Gloves it's important to bench-craft "(20-25)% of Physical Damage Converted to Lightning Damage". We only need 10% conversion, so the roll doesn't matter.
If you switch to "Min-Max" version of gear, we use Algor Mortis Gloves, so the phys to lightning conversion we get from Watcher's Eye Jewel modifier.

Eldritch implicits on gear are important too, the most important ones:
1. On Body Armour - "Gain a Frenzy Charge every 15 seconds" (get it by spamming Lesser Eldritch Ember);
2. On Helmet and Body Armour - "% of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Lightning Damage (or fire, cold)". On Helmet we get it with Lesser Eldritch Ichors, on Body Armour - this mod is new in 3.25 patch, and we don't 
know exactly yet, but I assume it's also Ichors.

By the time we start farming t16 Maps we should get 100% chance to Suppress Spell Damage, so we need to have Suppression on most pieces of gear.

Having up to 16% Cast Speed on Rings is very nice too, and it's pretty easy to craft - spam "Reforge Caster modifier" on Harvest Station (each caster reforge guarantees Cast Speed).
On Rings we bench-craft "+1 to minimum Endurance Charges" once we get +1 to Maximum Endurance Charge from passive on Skill Tree, and the second one from Amulet Annoint.


------ FRENZY CHARGE GENERATION ------
We have 6 minimum Endurance and 5 minimum Power Charges, so these will be active all the time.
In order to get permanent Frenzy Charges, we need to get:
1. On Body Armour by spamming Lesser Eldritch Embers we get implicit "Gain a Frenzy Charge every 15 seconds";
2. On Skill Tree in Charge Mastery (Disciple of the Forbidden notable), we take 100% increased Charge Duration.
This way once we enter a map 3 Frenzy Charges will be generated over 45 seconds, and they will keep refreshing automatically.


------ EXTRA DEFENSIVE LAYERS FOR HARDCORE ------
Since the damage on this build is very high, it is ok 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.


------ FAQ ------
Q: Which Pantheon power, Bandit choice?
A: Bandits: kill all. Pantheon: Soul of Brine King, Soul of Garukhan.

Q: Is it ok to use Multiple Totems Support in main totem link?
A: No. The Support itself will provide only 20% more overall damage, but will reduce hits of each totem, which reduces Shocks they apply. So in comparison this Support is a big dps loss over any other option.
    Also using Multiple Totems Support in main skill link reduces mapping speed, because we can place totems only in 3 different spots (3x2 totems), instead of 4 different places (4x1 totems), so overall coverage of damage reduces.

Q: Soul Mantle with Self-Flagellation is a good option?
A: Combo of Soul Mantle, Self-Flagellation, Viridi's Veil and Coward's Legacy with Pain Attunement from tree. It gives total of 60% more damage, and 55% less Effective Hit Pool. Right now the build has very good damage, and good defences. 
    Swapping to Soul Mantle will make it into: great damage and bad defences. I think it's not worth it, since instead of well-rounded build we're gonna get closer to glass-canon'ish build.

Q: Why Arcane Surge is linked to Arcane Cloak, we get Arcane Surge from Hierophant Ascendancy already?
A:  From Ascendancy we get level 1 version of Arcane Surge buff. From level 20 Support we can proc more powerful version of this buff - it gives extra cast speed and mana regen at higher levels.

Q: I linked Arcane Cloak to Automation Support, but it doesn't work, why?
A: You need to put the "Automation" Skill on you skill bar, and then activate it like an Aura. Since patch 3.25 Automation skills don't trigger In Hideout anymore. If you go in the zone with enemies, it will work.

Q: Any particular league mechanics that this build excels at?
A: It's great at Essence, Sanctum, Jun, Blight, Einhar, Boss-rush (Destructive Play). Good at Harvest, Abyss

Q: If Totem Taunt mastery is back, why is Decoy still in the build?
A: Taunt from mastery is applied instantly, so it's great for distracting enemies fast. But it only lasts 1 second. So we want to use Decoy, which taunts permanently, after the initial short fast taunt from mastery.

Q: How's the build vs Uber Bosses? T17 maps?
A: It's good for Ubers once you get to ~30 mil DPS. If you try Ubers before that, you gotta be good at dodging bosses mechanics, since we don't have very strong sustain.
     It's possible to complete T17s, but not farm them on repeat. For t17s - it's not the best totem build to farm them, since the damage from Storm Burst takes few seconds to ramp, and totems sometimes get killed too fast there. 

Q: What unique items to use while leveling on trade league?
A:  There's a ------ LEVELING UNIQUES------ section here in the Notes.

Q: I switched to Storm Burst Totems at level 32, but totems keep dying / deal small damage?
A:  Make sure that the Storm Burst and Spell Totem Support gems are at appropriate level - if they are way lower level than your char, then level up gems in weapon-swap first while still playing Holy Flame Totems.

Q: I started using Eternal Blessing Support on my Aura, but Wave of Conviction Mines stopped working.
A:  The mines need to be linked to Arrogance Support.














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