MoM Spark of the Nova Totem Hierophant

October 15, 2019  |  SPELL TOTEM  |  


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 SPARK WORKS ------ In order to scale Spark damage we can use all the normal sources of Spells scaling like: Cast Speed, Elemental Damage, Spell Damage, Elemental Penetration. But the most important stats to scale are: increased Projectile Speed, increased Skill Effect Duration, and projectile pierce. This is because Spark can hit more than once per cast, and in order for that to happen, the projectiles need to bounce of off a wall (or any other obstacle). Without any investment projectiles move pretty slowly, and they don't last long. That's why increasing Projectile Speed and Skill Effect Duration significantly increases the chances of Spark hitting more times per cast. Also having multiple +Pierce is important, so we use Pierce Support - it also gives good amount of more damage. The value shown in Full DPS is only per 1 hit per cast. In most maps we can safely assume we will get ~3 hits on average, so the DPS is multiplied by 3. In very open maps (like Fields, Reef, Ashen Woods) the build will kinda struggle, as we will not get many extra hits. But in very tight indoor maps (like Cage, Pen, Waste Pool) the build truly shines, because most likely we will get 5+ hits per cast. That's why after completing most maps on the Atlas, I'd recommend to make indoor maps your favoured maps.

So, we get Skill Effect Duration and Pierce from tree and a gem, but Projectile Speed we need to get from gear and cluster jewel. It is the most important mod on Wands, also craftProjectile speed on amulet.

------ 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 big AoE for their Taunt (and it lasts long), so monsters will group around Decoys, and you and your Spark totems will not get hit. Against Rare Monsters (or when you need more damage) cast Sniper's Mark 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 Spark Totems
  3. Cast Sniper's Mark
  4. Place Sigil of Power
  5. Use Wrath aura (temporary aura linked to Divine Blessing)
  6. Throw and detonate few Stormblast Mines until you get 3 Frenzy charges (from Charged Mines Support)
  7. (optional) While not busy with replacing totems or dodging boss mechanics, keep throwing Stormblast Mines without detonating them (in order to proc 3% increased damage taken on Monsters from Mine skill ge)

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 - this skill is linked to Automation Support, so it will be automatically activated 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 uprade 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 ------

Early on I prefer leveling with Holy Flame Totem and Flame Wall, this combination of skills can clear early acts pretty easily. 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 Spark Totems - after Level 31, once first Labyrinth is completed, and we get access to Pierce and Faster Projectiles Support from Library quest in Act 3. Switching to Mind over Matter - at around Level 61, once second Labyrinth is completed, and we got enough Mana and Mana recovery from tree. Second Ascendancy node - "Ritual of Awakening" - gives really good source of Mana Regen, so it makes having damage taken from Mana less painful.

Divine Blessing + Wrath we only start using after 4th Ascendancy is taken (level 82+), because it gives 50% less mana cost multiplier, and that helps with using Divine Blessing a lot.

Before we get a Shaper Shield with +1 Totem crafted on it, we dual-wield two Wands with increased Projectile Speed on both of them. It will make leveling much smoother as we don't really have other sources of Projectile Speed early on. Because of dual wielding, we also take really efficient cluster on tree - Dark Arts. And when we switch to a Shield, don't forget to spec out of it since it only works with dual-wielding.

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



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