Level 91 Crit Winter Orb Totem Hierophant^3.25

Notes

Tatiantel2 made this build in the past. I did my best to update it. If you are a totem enjoyer, join his community for best tips&tricks out there: https://www.twitch.tv/tatiantel2
Guide made for players that know something about the game. Newbies might have some issues/questions understanding some aspects, but I'm trying to explain as much as I can..

Build made by: Maniac(Discord maniac_.), based on Tatiantel2's old build.


In addition, in "Configuration" tab you have 2 different configs, one default and one with ramped damage, which is fully stacked cold mastery and 10 mines placed.
If you are going HC with my build, you probably want to switch arctic armor + tempest shield for determination or grace for less RNG defense. Then... good luck!



Update 3 of 3.25:
I just realised buffs granted by golems are cool now. We might include one in our build, maybe two with points on tree, but we're already going low on points.

Update 2 of 3.25:
Made previous suppress cap the only version. Switched tree a little. Now we use double curse in basic version.
Leveling trees added.

Update 1 of 3.26:
I updated some descriptions, options, gems etc.
PoB is still not updated, among the stuff waiting for update are:
- arcane surge providing 20% inc cast speed instead of 10%
- Winter Orb changes(effectiveness of added damage 60%->80%, 30% more base damage, some changes around projectile frequency and amount of stages resulting in slighty faster ramp
and slightly lower projectile frequency)
- Among patch notes there's a new cold mastery granting +1 to all cold spell gems at the cost of -30% fire res

Once patch notes and PoB get update, expect around 30%-35% more damage than what you see now.




OFFENSIVE & BUILD IDEA:
This build utilizes area damage overlap(multiple area damaging effects hitting one enemy per cast), critical strikes, mines, skitterbots and other stuff. More explained below.
After reaching maps, we rush for freeze prolif source. Trust me, you will learn why.

Based on my calculations(which are most probably wrong, but mostly true), this build with some more investment into freeze duration is capable of freezing everything, even pinnacle bosses.
They cannot be fully slowed, but they will count as frozen, thus taking more damage thanks to cold mastery.
(note mostly to myself cuz I forget it every time)If you are checking calculations for freeze threshold, double it due to double damage from mines.

This build utilized 25% chance to invert enemy resistances. Not anymore! Sadly it was nerfed to 15% chance only.
Invertion allowed us to do some random huge hits on enemies which together with freeze prolif guaranteed everything being frozen.
Without it, that might not be a scenario, but I believe we will still have pretty consistent freezes across the game.
Invertion + mark is slightly lower DPS than curse + exposure, but removes a lot of RNG in said DPS. It was either 75% to deal low hit or 25% to deal huge hit, not very noticable
with ~20 hits per second but there were some cases where enemies weren't frozen from the first hit cuz it didn't roll inverted resistance, now it's 85% vs 15%.
I believe curse version is stronger now. Especially double curse will.

Mana RF now grants 25% MORE cast speed! Sadly, we cannot utilize it on this build, as projectile frequency scales only with increases and reductions, not mores and lesses.
All it would do is reduce the time for winter orbs to reach max stacks by around 0,3-0,4s with no effect on dps.

There's new support gem called Focused Channeling. It might work on totems and it could be used on Winter Orb, but there are some issues.
Winter Orb totems choose a target and channel the spell. Once that target is dead, they stop channeling for half a second, choose new target and channel again.
Those stops will reset the bonus from Focused Channeling, meaning that support will be close to useless during mapping and will work only against tough rares and bosses.
While it's great 60% more damage bonus, it also ramps up for 3 seconds, meaning if totems channel for shorter than 3 seconds, they won't use their full potential.
And even if they channel for 3 seconds, they need to channel longer to make real use of that support.
Winter Orb already has to ramp up its stages(around 1,8s after placing a totem).
If I would use it, I could probably swap one of critical supports, but each support gem already does a big role in main link so it's a hard choice.

DEFENSIVES:
All gear should have armour and evasion, so we are able to roll suppression and raise some phys resistance.
Dex requirement is a must to roll suppress, but pure evasion baes require too much dex so we go hybrids.
For shield, evasion + int base is best because it has suppression implicit. However in early game we don't care about the base that much, cuz we need shaper shield first.
If you are not suppression capped yet, make sure to pick "lucky" suppression chance from its mastery.

We have some block from tempest shield and phys damage reduction from arctic armor.
If you really don't like those, switch them to determination or grace. I run with two above in fear of last league nerf being too strong.
In addition freezes we inflict(especially after getting freeze prolif) and taunt provided by mastery/decoys greately help with survability.

Watch the amount of unreserved mana. You need around 45 mana to place a decoy totem, then some more just to have flame dash available.
Luckily we're on constant 100+ mana regen per second. I think a minimum of 80 unreserved mana should be comfortable.

If you find Southbound gloves, feel free to use them. They grant you 100% increased freeze duration with a penalty being able to kill only frozen targets.
When I played 3.25(played only till red maps), I was able to freeze everything without issues all the way to red maps and met only 4 rares that refused to freeze. Had to
take gloves off for 1s and reequip them, so no issues at all. No idea about red maps tho, testing required.

CALCULATIONS:
Shown full DPS is not consistent, cuz it requires a lot of clicks to sustain. DPS you see right now considers 6 totems placed, 2 curses cast, 3 frenzy charges up.
Enemy being frozen for 10s+ and double damage from mines around enemy are not included in that DPS(but there's a config set for "ramp" calculation).
All calculated against guardian/pinnacle booss.

For winter orb, cast speed increases the speed of projectiles being fired, which is nice to scale. However we also want to scale damage for freeze thresholds.
The amount of cast speed this build has is already a bit too much. 3.26 update: with arcane surge buffed 10%->20% cast speed, it is definitly too much now.

This build shows you an early version of build, with some mandatory stuff for idea to work, but without uniques that might work great with it.
Everything obtainable SSF, mostly in the first week of the league(unless super bad RNG, last league I got that unique jewel below when I was entering t14+ maps on SSF).

PoB calculates Winter Orb damage wrong. You need to add "100% more dps" per additional projectile hitting enemy.
Based on research Tati did in the past, average of 4 projectiles were able to hit enemy constantly, meaning with +2 proj you hit constantly and with +4 proj will most probably miss.
For +2 proj, we use Rain of Splinters unique jewel or LMP. For +4 proj we use GMP. However using jewel gives us a free support gem slot, which is the best option.
Custom mods in config has "200% more dps" as we are hitting with 2 additional projectiles.

HOW TO GET:

Frenzy generation:
- eldritch implicit on chestplate "gain frenzy every 15s" + 100% charge duration mastery - saves gem slots(lazy)
- mines with charged mine support - saves passive points(prefered, optimal)

Freeze prolif(big survability when mapping):
- eldritch implicit on gloves
- large cluster notable "Blast-Freeze"(68+ ilvl)(prefered) <============ FOCUS ON THIS AFTER REACHING MAPS, EVEN 12 PASSIVE CLUSTER IS WORTH IT

Unnerve debuff(tick config when using it):
- eldritch implicit on gloves(prefered)
- small cluster notable "Doedre's Apathy"(68+ ilvl)(not recommended)

Rain of Splinters unique jewel:
- vaal every single crimson jewel you find, straight from league start, make sure your filter shows those <========== FOCUS ON THIS RIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE LEAGUE
- BEFORE THAT, USE LMP/GMP

Less mana issues:
- make sure wave of conviction is lvl 1, so it reserves low amount of mana
- make sure you use lvl 1 flame dash
- more sources of increased mana reservation efficiency(1 passive point should be enough)
- enlighten lvl 2+ on auras
- life mastery "skills cost life instead of 15% of mana cost" to make decoy totem cheapier
- remove Swift Assembly from mines if you can't afford anything else, however it's important dps loss

More physical damage mitigation:
- I have no fucking idea
- We use Arctic armour, as we are probably going to stand still a lot. We have decoy totem that takes most of hits for us, we stand still while throw mines and summon totems.
Also when we first get hit and adrenaline hits us IRL, we stand still, then flame dash while standing still, then start moving away from danger, so AA works pretty consistent.
Just make sure all your skills are set to "cast without move".

- Shield with +1 max totem:
1. League start with expedition, harvest and essence atlas tree(or whatever if playing trade league, but I don't know if people won't scam on prices of those shields or if there will be any supply for these)
2. Focus on Gwennen and blue harvest essence.
3. Once you hit lvl 90, gamble all shields on Gwennen(you get the highest ilvl once you are lvl 90 yourself), preferably evasion ones so they can roll suppression
    You are aiming for a shield with ANY influence
4. If it's not shaper influence, throw found shield into harvest, then use "randomise influence" craft until you get a shaper influence
5. Essence craft your shield for a suffix of choice(preferably chaos resistance or crit chance with spells) and stop once you have 3 suffixes on it, where one of them is suppress.
    If you're rich, exalt slam if it has 2 prefixes 2 suffixes to hopefully fill suffixes.
6. Craft "suffixes cannot be changed". Double check if shield has 3 suffixes.
7. Harvest craft "reforge including influence modifier". Suffixes cannot be changed and there's no space for a new one, so it is a guaranteed prefix.
    There's only 1 prefix from shaper influence shield, so this is a guaranteed craft.

ALTERNATIVE WAY THANKS TO 3.26:
1. Find a good shield base: ilvl 86 evasion shield.
2. Essence craft it for a suffix of choice, just like in step 5 above. Reroll(or annul) anything with 3 prefixes
    You are basicly more free to craft it, but make sure that there is a free prefix and there are either 3 suffixes or 2 suffixes and 3rd can be crafted
3. Once you are done, shaper's exalt slam it. Since it already has 3 suffixes, it can only add a prefix, which is also a guaranteed +1 max totem.

WHY DO YOU USE:

Mines:
After summoning a totem and casting a curse, you stand still. Might as well use that time to throw mines which greately increase your dps(worth about the same as an additional support gem, which is big)
Also with this setup, mines grant us multiplicative damage and frenzy charge generation, so that's even better.

Decoy totem:
Great defensive layer for totem players which cannot be tracked by PoB nor calculated by a living being. Monsters throw everything they have on totem instead of you, so as long as it lives, you can stand still.
Issue is we lost flat armour passive point for totems and from determination, which might make decoy totems die faster(especially if not annointing Ironwood notable point)
Also linked with multiple totems support, it grants 10% more dmg from Hierophant ascendancy and won't take up WO totems slots.

Skitterbots:
Apply both chill and shock. While shock being obvious damage multiplier, linked with bonechill, chill also applies damage multiplier. And applies chill before our totems start hitting. Both offensive and defensive.

Arctic armor/tempest shield:
Defensive auras that we can use because we have free mana to reserve. If you want more damage instead of survability(not recommended), use zealotry or herald of ice.

+1 max totem shield:
Grants us at least 35% more damage. 4 damaging totems instead of 3, which is 33% dmg increase and also 5% more because of additional totem(Hierophant ascendancy).

Freeze prolif:
Huge defensive layer. I fell in love in cold damage once I saw how it works. Try it yourself, you will understand.

Rain of Splinters unique jewel:
We don't use Lesser Multiple Projectiles Support/Greater Multiple Projectiles Support, but instead we use Rain of Splinters for +2 projectiles.
That saves us a gem slot. I saw lots of players on poe.ninja using +4 proj instead of +2, but IIRC average of 4 projectiles are able to hit consistenly.
So you can either use Rain of Splinters, get constant 3 proj hits and have a support gem slot free or use GMP, have 4 proj hit and have jewel slot free.
If you don't have that jewel yet, use LMP/GMP instead.

Pantheons:
Use Lunaris. Avoiding chained projectiles is a good defensive layer, as projectiles can easily chain off your totems right into you, which makes maps with chain rippy.
Gruthul for some bonus phys mitigation.
Eventually Shakari for chaos & poison mitigation.

Bandits:
Kill all for one extra point still seems the best one.
You can help Alira for extra resistances instead.
Eventually help Oak for 10 more life than life mastery and probably 3 minutes faster campaign and 100 more mouse clicks lifetime lol(gotta run away from Oak so he won't regen with enduring cry).

Annoint:
Either Vigour for extra endurance charge(make sure to craft another ring with +1 minimum) or winter's embrace for freeze duration without need of wasting 5 points.
For this version I prefer winter's embrace, as the build is pretty close to be able to freeze pinnacles and benefit from cold mastery on them.


Early game tips:
- rush +30 attributes nodes, I hate not having attributes early to equip gems/items
- look for 4L upon entering act 3
- movement speed boots, minimum 15% early, minimum 20% on maps



Gameplay loop:
1. Throw decoy totem
2. Throw some WO totems
3. Use your curses
4. Throw mines, a lot of them
5. If you don't have 3 frenzy charges, detonate mines, otherwise keep them on the ground
6. Place your second decoy totem or keep going forward
    Keep track of your decoy totem health bar, be ready to throw another one if first one is about to die


Stuff to look out for on maps:
- enemy action speed cannot drop below base value - no brainer avoid or be extra careful, your freeze nor chill will simply not work
- enemies cannot be taunted - removes defensive layer granted by decoy totems
- enemy projectiles chain additional times - they will chain from your totems into you, you will be hit much more often, try placing a line of totems in front of you so chains will hit the next totem in a line instead of you


Alternative gems:
- malevorence or herald of ice instead of defensive auras if you want more damage(not recommended, we have weak survi against phys damage already)
- LMP/GMP until you find Rain of Splinters
- Power Charge on Critical Support instead of Increased Critical Strikes Support if we need more damage to reach pinnacle boss freezing point


FURTHER BUILD UPGRADES

Ring with Frostbite on hit, pure drop from Delve "cold items" node or Redeemer influence ilvl 75+(no easy way to craft it, maybe chaos spam for cast speed then harvest reforge guaranteed caster mod or
reforge more likely for same mod types, since only cast speed and curse on hit are the only caster modifiers). This upgrade will save 1 click and make mapping better as you will apply frostbite on every pack
with the very first hit and not only on rare packs.

Get medium range Thread of Hope and put it top right to catch both Winter's Embrace, Whispers of Doom and Throatseeker. You spend same amount of points, but gain extra crit multi and annoint slot.

Obviously awakened support gems or alternative +1 curse limit for trade leagues.