The totem as a stable damage in PoE is widely welcomed by players. Ancestral Warchief can creates a totem which will attack enemies with melee AoE slams. This build takes Ancestral Warchief as the main skill and uses Facebreaker to get awesome power. You can do all map mods and hard to die because you stay behind your Totems.

 

Quick Jump

Pros & Cons

  • + over 6k Life
  • + ~1000 life/s with enduring cry and all charges (over 15% life reg)
  • + 73% phys reduction (hideout) 90% with flasks
  • + hard to die because you stay behind your Totems
  • + can do all map mods (reflect is a bit meh because your totems will kill themself on hit)
  • + at lvl 16+ (facebreakers) all content ezpz
  • + perfect for hard bosses like Ulab/Uatziri/guardians/Shaper
  • + Stun immune with over 25 Rage stacks
  • - clear speed is average
  • - Totem playstyle is not for everyone
  • - 10% life degen (but with ~15% life reg we still have 5% and dont degen)

 

Skill Tree

Ascendancy

We take the Berserker Class for most DMG

First we go to War Bringer because this will be our main heal skill. After that we take the Aspect of Carnage and with the next 2 points from the Merc/Uber Lab we take Rite of Ruin to get the double bonus from our Rage stacks (picking Rite of Ruin at last helps us doing a smoother Ulab run for ourself, because of the lower degen from 5%. After the Ulab and Rite of Ruin we have 10% degen at max Rage stacks).

Bandits

Help Oak - He gives us all we need: Phys dmg/reduction and life reg

Pantheon

The Pantheon List

  • Major: Soul of Brine King
  • Minor: Soul of Abberath

Skill Tree & PoB Link

Beginner Tree lvl 94: https://pastebin.com/d7hS35kZ

Blood Magic Tree lvl 94: https://pastebin.com/4MwXa4AR

the most important thing is Resolute Technique. After that we pick Ancestral Bond and as soons as we got our second Labyrinth we pick up Avatar of Fire

Note: Take the +30 Dex/Int notes only if you need them ;) e.g. you can roll these stats on the rings if you can handle the resistance

 


 

 

 

 

 

Gears & Gems Setup

Helmets

Abyssus gives us the most adds # - # physical dmg to attacks ingame

Low Budget

Low Budget show
Gems: CWDT -> Immortal Call -> Increased Duration -> Stone Golem

High Budget show
Gems: Shield Charge -> Faster Attacks -> Fortify -> Culling Strike

Shield

Low Budget show
The Great Old One's Ward is the best Physical attack dmg Shield. The Vix Lunaris is a good Quality of Life tradeoff with the "Cannot be Frozen" and with the right corruption you can go up to a lvl 25er Herald of Purity and you dmg will be nearly the same. We take Hatred and the Purity Herald. The other slot is open for your choice. e.g. a Vaal Haste, or a Portal gem etc
Gems: Herald of Purity -> Hatred -> XXX

High Budget show
The Tukohama's Fortress shield is way more expensive than the Great Old One's Ward, but u get nice Life, Totem DMG, +1 Totems(!!), 300 Armor per Totem (3 Totems = 900 Armor). The Blood Magic can be a downside, but we use it anyway so... ;)
Gems: CWDT -> Immortal Call -> Increased Duration

Armours

The best and cheapest Armour for us is the Loreweave. This armour gives us a huge dps boost, some life and raises the max resistances up to 80% (and they are fix, wich means they cant go higher through flasks, but also cant go lower from map mods like -12% max res). The Belly of the Beast is good alternative with around ~ +700 life

Gems: Ancestral Warchief, -> Melee Damage, -> Damage on Full Life, -> Increased Aoe (Concentrated Effect) -> Maim -> Faster Attacks 

Switch Increased Area to Conc Effect for Hard Bosses. You can switch Faster Attacks with Ruthless if you feel you have enough attack speed (wich is also a dmg increase)

Gloves

The Facebreaker should be clear - if you can, get some with a Curse on hit corruption, Temporal Chains for defense or Elemental Weakness / Vulnerability for offence. Vulnerability is stronger at the beginning and Elemental Weakness is stronger with min-maxed gear/flasks. Instead of Vaal Lightning Trap you can also use a Vaal Cold Snap for a good and free Frenzy Charge generation.

Gems: Enduring Cry -> Increased Duration -> Blood Magic -> Vaal Lightning Trap(Vaal Cold Snap)

Belts

The Meginord is BIS. The Darkness Enthroned is a good upgrade from the Meginord (with the right jewels ofc). The Headhunter is best for Mapping as always (you get the Mods when your Totems kill a Rare)

Boots

Low Budget show
The Atziri's Steps for Spell Dodge, Life and high armour (because iron reflexes: evasion = armour). Good Alternatives are the Redblade Tramplers or some rares with resistance, life and movementspeed (e.g. if you use the Bloodgrip Amulet). The Death's Door are way more expensive but give also good Quality of Life bonus with "Cannot be inflicted with Bleeding".
Gems: Shield Charge -> Faster Attacks -> Fortify -> Blood MAgic

High Budget show
Death's Door Boots is a good choice. Bleed Immunity, All Res, up to 40 STR and good Movement Speed. The only Downside is the 50% Increased Status Ailments Duration, wich can be easy compared with a Freeze Flask. Instead of Vaal Lightning Trap you can also use a Vaal Cold Snap for a good and free Frenzy Charge generation.
Gems: CWDT -> Stone Golem -> Vaal Lightning Trap(Vaal Cold Snap) -> Increased Duration

Rings & Amulet

Rings and Amulet with high adds # - # Physical damage to Attacks and all Resistance you need, because its the way for us to cap our Res (my are not bad but they should have a high liferoll too, Steel Rings are ofc the BIS). Another good Amulet is the Bloodgrip, wich provides nearly bleed immunity (good for the Labyrinth), ~100 life reg, good life roll and average phys dmg. Best in slot would be a Shaper/Elder Amulet with additional dmg mods.

Jewels

The normal Jewels you need should have these Stats: %Max life -> Phys dmg -> Add phys dmg while holding a shield. Melee dmg, Increased dmg, Area dmg and Totem dmg are all at the same dmg level. You can also take some with Attack speed if you feel the need.

Your Abyss Jewels should have the highest Flat Physical Dmg roll as possible (max is 5-8) together with a good life roll (i prefer 35+). After that you have 1 open Prefix and 1 open Suffix on them for your prefered bonus.

But keep in mind that you have to take the projectile notes because you only get the bonus for UNALLOCATED notes

Flasks

The first Flasks we need are a Bleed (if u dont use the Bloodgrip Amulet) and Freeze Immunity one (You can take a Life Flask for it. If you dont feel the need you can also pick a Basalt Flask for Defense or a Silver Flask for Offence). After that try to get the Lion's Roar (best dmg flask) and Taste of Hate (good defense and offence). Sin's Rebirth (good defense and offence and 3 (!!) uses) or the Atziri's Promise, wich is imo the little Brother compared to Sins' Rebirth

 

Enchantments

Helmet

For DMG:

  • 40% increased Ancestral Warchief Totem Damage
  • Ancestral Warchief Totem grants 30% increased Melee Damage while Active
  • 30% increased Vulnerability Curse Effect

For Defense:

  • 30% increased Enduring Cry Cooldown Recovery Speed
  • 36% increased Enduring Cry Buff Effect
  • 30% increased Temporal Chains Curse Effect

For Others:

  • 12% increased Ancestral Warchief Totem Radius

Boots

For DMG:

  • 10% chance to Freeze, Shock and Ignite if you haven't Crit Recently (wich is BIS with additional 10% chance to shock)

For Defense:

  • Regenerate 2.0% of Life and Mana per second if you were Hit Recently
  • 8% chance to Dodge Spell Damage if you've taken Spell Damage Recently
  • 10% Chance to Dodge if you've taken a Critical Strike Recently

For Others:

  • 10% increased Movement Speed if you haven't been Hit Recently

Gloves 

For Defense:

  • Cast Commandment of Reflection when Hit (because the clone takes some dmg for you)

 

Leveling

Skill Tree

The most important thing is Resolute Technique. You can decide to pick Ancestral Bond as fast as you want. I picked the Jewel slots at the very end, BUT you can pick them asap if you get some juicy jewels you want put in

Note: These Parts are only for showing you they way through the Tree. Dont look at the Ascendancy or Bandits in here, they might be wrong/different from the main Build!

Gems

  • At lvl 1 take Ground Slam/Cleave/Molten Strike and the Ruthless gem.
  • At lvl 8 take Maim and take Additional Accuracy until u get the "Resolute Technique" Note
  • At lvl 10 take Shield Charge for Movement (wich is also nice for lvling if you have some Facebreaker)
  • At lvl 12 Take Sunder instead of you lvl 1 gem until you have the Warchief Totem (note: you cant use sunder with facebreaker)
  • At lvl 16 take the Facebreaker. If you dont have some, pick a Rare/Unique 2Hand weapon with high physical Dmg (With Facebreaker i prefer lvling with Infernal Blow + Melee Splash/Ancestral Call and Shield Charge).
  • At lvl 18 take Faster Attacks, Melee Physical Damage, Melee Damage on Full Life and Concentrated Effect
  • At lvl 28 take Ancestral Warchief
  • At lvl 38 take increased Area of Effect