If you have any questions, comments, concerns (or praise!), please do not send me private messages as I tend to ignore all of them. Instead, post them in the thread or whisper me in-game and I will answer them as soon as possible.



Introduction







Combined with the unique item



Our second and third pieces of special equipment for the build come in the forms of



Without further ado, let’s get started!



Flame Totem versus Incinerate Totem

As with any build utilizing Incinerate Totem (Iron Will or otherwise), this argument will inevitably rear its ugly head.



All of this is well and good until you consider the damage potential of either spell. Flame Totem has more base damage than a basic Incinerate but Incinerate also has four effective stages on casting (its initial stage and a 100% spell damage increase per stage after that). Upon only reaching the secondary stage of its spell damage increase, Incinerate actually surpasses that of Flame Totem. This means that with even a minute amount of cast speed to easily reach even just the secondary stage, we are already pushing past the damage ceiling of Flame Totem.



This does, of course, come at a cost. Incinerate has a projectile speed that, unfortunately, leaves it trailing behind Flame Totem by a large margin. This means that we are basically required to, at minimum, run a quality Incinerate. In an ideal and perfect scenario, we are also required to run our sixth link of Faster Projectiles to push the clear speed even further. This means that instead of being able to run our build at the start of a league with nothing, we tend to be forced to run a normal Flame Totem spec until such time that we have the ability to fully transition over to this version.



In the end, we want to run the Incinerate Totem version if at all possible. With good enough gear, it far surpasses Flame Totem in all respects (especially if we reach a point where having a



Pros and Cons



Pros:

-Your damage will match or exceed that of all non-crit spellcaster builds around.

-The damage ceiling for the build only stops at the quality of gear you have. This correlation relates to this build far more than any other build around.

-Since we build around strength, our damage source also directly increases our survivability, resulting in our being just as tanky as actual “tank” builds.

-Can run every single map mod



Cons:

-It’s expensive. Even though the build has only been made cheaper in 2.0, the required uniques and specific pieces of gear results in it being a relatively large base buy-in compared to most builds.

-We scale worse in parties unless you have the gear to make-up for it.



Skill Tree & Leveling



Mana:

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwEAAdwEswUtBg4J9g3NEMwUIBZvGS4aOBzOJKonLyftKhMrUC5TMZ41kjbpOtg64TwtPQ89_EGHQzFG10d-TeNQR1cNWGNY5VnzWitfP2P9ZU1mVGaeZ5toZWjybztxhXIPdO11y3asd-N4DXrmeu97IHy7ggeCm4Nfg8yE2YV7jM-NfpBVmjuiAKPyplepbq2Nr6exQrXytz69Nr6nwBrAZsS4xPbGrsbYzZjPftIh02_UfNSP1abV-Ni92WHZfNrB4XPjauRR6mLsOO087w7wH_JB8kXzEfOb9kj4k_no-tL-Cv5U_of-jw==

Originally the build ran around based on the Blood Magic keystone but given the low base mana cost of Incinerate (which we are abusing since instead of channeling, we are simply casting a totem), it becomes fairly simple to sustain it completely off of mana. With this completed version, I can run the build even without the use of Clarity. Without the Shaper node (meaning only Mana Flows for regeneration), I had to run a level 8 clarity to keep up sufficient mana for the totem.



Blood Magic:

https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwEBAecEswUtBg4J9g48FCAUTRRxFm8YkRkuGjgaVSSqJbwnLyftKhMspy5TMZ426DbpOlI62DrhPC09_EZpRtdKxFBHWGNY5VnzWitfP2EhY_1mVGaeZ5toZWjycYVyD3KpdO12rHrmeu999YIHgpuDX4PMhO-Fe4cpjM-QVZo7ogCj8qZXrKqtjbFCtz68n8BmxPbGrsbYz37Tb9R81I_Vpti92XzawdtP37_gw-Fz42rkUeoY7DjtPO8O8B_yQfJF8xHz3fZI9q73Mvjr-tL8S_4K

The Blood Magic version is still perfectly viable but you do lose out on the damage that Anger and Herald of Ice provides. I was clearing 79 maps with this tree and having zero issues so the potential is still absolutely there, though you will never reach the point that the mana version can get to. If you happen to be trying this build on a relatively low budget or early in the league, this version will likely be easier to push into than the mana version since you can focus purely on survivability and strength as opposed to balancing the flat mana and possible mana regeneration you receive from items and your tree.



Righteous Fire:

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwEAAdwEswUtBg4J9gxfEMwUIBZvGFYZLho4HKckqicvJ-0qEy5TNZI26TrYOuE8LT38QYdG10d-TeNQR1OlWGNY5VnzWitboF8_YSFj_WSjZU1mVGaeZ5todGjybztxhXIPcql07XfjeA165nrveyB8Dn31gpuDX4PMhNmE74V7kFWUoJo7ogCj8qZXp1WpbqyqrY2xQrXytz69NsAawGbEWMS4xPbGrsbYz37Tb9R81I_VptX42L3ZYdpi2sHhc-Nq5FHsOO087w7wH_JF8xH2SPiT-ej60v4K_of-jw==

We get an enormous amount of base regeneration as it is so it only requires minor respeccing to be able to easily perform utilizing



Leveling:



With this tree and our focus on fire damage and life, we cannot rely much on abilities that require huge amounts of cast speed. Amusingly this actually pushes self-cast Incinerate out of the equation even though we will be using it later. Instead, I would use a mix of Fire Trap, Flame Totem, and Fire Storm depending on your preference. Even though Flame Totem and Fire Storm like cast speed, neither requires it to perform well enough during your leveling experience so they can absolutely be used. Push for relevant added damage gems (mainly Added Lightning) when you have the slot, otherwise just throw in Fire Penetration and Faster Casting.

You should also keep in mind that I am making this leveling portion based on the mana version of the build so if you choose to run Blood Magic, you can follow the principles displayed here still but keep to the other tree.



27 Points:

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwEABg4J9hQgGS4n7TrYPQ89_FBHWGNfP2ebfLuCm4zPmjuvp8T2xtjUfNSP1abkUew47TzvDvZI



Our damage will be lacking in the beginning since the overall tree does not give us too many actual damage nodes (nor will Iron Will really be relevant until you have 400+ strength) so we want to push towards Templar as early as possible. To that, if you are willing to respect more you can ignore Arsonist and run straight north into the Templar area and get your damage nodes a few levels early. I’d suggest this if you are leveling alone, especially if you have no leveling gear.



46 Points:

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwEABLMGDgn2FCAZLho4Jy8n7TrYPQ89_EbXUEdYY1nzXz9j_WZUZ5to8nGFcg965ny7gpuFe4zPkFWaO6IAr6exQsBmxPbG2NR81I_Vptq54XPkUew47TzvDvAf9kg=



As with before, our base survivability will be fine so we want to push as much damage as possible to ease the quality of our leveling. The jewel node taken there runs under the assumption that you have something remotely usable so don’t bother taking it if you haven’t found anything.



64 Points:

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwEABLMGDgn2EMwUIBkuGjgnLyftKhM62DwtPQ89_EbXUEdXDVhjWOVZ81orXz9j_WZUZp5nm2hlaPJxhXIPeuZ7IHy7gpuDX4V7jM-QVZo7ogCj8q2Nr6exQsBmxPbGrsbYz37UfNSP1abZYdq54XPkUew47TzvDvAf85v2SPiT_oc=



At this point we should be able to run Flame Totem by itself so we push towards Ancestral Bond. I would also start grabbing whatever Cobalt Jewels you can and alting them until they have a relevant damage percent on them. Don’t bother alting for perfect rolls or regaling non-perfect bases because all we care about is a little added damage (meaning a 12-15% damage increase along is perfectly acceptable). This is the point in the build when we are at our weakest because we have less damage on our tree than most builds and our strength isn’t at the point where it is all that helpful just yet. Ideally you want to run with a party if at all possible here or it will be a struggle to finish the build.



85 Points:

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwEAAdwEswYOCfYQzBQgGS4aOCcvJ-0qEzWSOtg8LT0PPfxG10d-UEdXDVhjWOVZ81orXz9j_WVNZlRmnmebaGVo8m87cYVyD3XLd-N4DXrmeyB8u4Kbg1-DzITZhXuMz5BVmjuiAKPyqW6tja-nsUK18rc-vTa-p8AawGbEuMT2xq7G2M9-1HzUj9Wm1fjYvdlh2rnhc-RR6mLsOO087w7wH_Ob9kj4k_4K_oc=



By this level, you should have enough strength where it’s well worth running Iron Will. You want to get a five-link as fast as possible so you can finally feel relevant and strong. As with the previous point, grab a usable Cobalt Jewel to throw into our extra jewel slot on your way over to the Duelist area.

From this point onwards, grab whatever nodes you feel you need at the time until you finish the build. By 100 or so points, the build should be “complete” depending on the gear you have managed to acquire. Once you have your six-link, quality incinerate, rain of splinters, and at least one Doon Cuebiyari, you can finally swap over to Incinerate Totem and join in all the fun.



Gems

Required/Suggested Gems

Optional/Personal Choice



Outside of our main six-link setup, all other gems are purely support and optional depending on your preference of play. If you would like to see my current setup, I will always have my current gear and gem links showing in the Current Gear section of the guide. You can, however, just use this area as a template for ideas on how you feel like you want to build your character. All gems are also listed in preferential order of priority. While ideally you are running all of them in the list, prioritize what I have listed here in that order.



Incinerate > Spell Totem > Faster Casting > Fire Penetration > Iron Will > Faster Projectiles



In most situations, these links will not change. They are the bread and butter of this build and you will learn to love and appreciate each and every one of them. The only consideration at this point would be Elemental Reflect maps you happen to roll. For these, you are welcome to swap out Fire Penetration for Life Leech which will cut your damage by a reasonable portion but helps to keep your totems alive long enough for them to kill anything.



Flame Dash > Faster Casting > Portal



This is your mobility setup. You are welcome to take out Portal in favor of Reduced Duration and Flame Dash in favor of Lightning Warp if that is your preferred movement skill. This offers better long-term movement but less dynamic movement while fighting when compared to my Flame Dash setup but it’s up to you.



Cast When Damage Taken (level 20) > Molten Shell (level 20) > Enfeeble (level 20) > Increased Duration (level 20)



This four-link setup is fantastic for mitigation during fights. My current Molten Shell results in an added 2500+ armour on my tooltip which, when combined with the Enfeeble that is linked here, gives us a nice, healthy boost to surviving everything. The important thing here is that Molten Shell gives flat armour as opposed to percent armour akin to Determination, meaning that it scales based off of our strength thanks to Doon Cuebiyari.



Flammability > Blood Magic > Enduring Cry > Increased Area of Effect



More survivability in the form of Endurance Charges are nice but keep in mind that when you cast Flammability, you are taking off Enfeeble from mobs that may have it so learn to stay aware of how dangerous certain situations are getting.



Cast When Damage Taken (level 20) > Immortal Call (level 20) > Increased Duration (level 20)



Only use this setup if you are running Enduring Cry somewhere in your setup. Immortal Call levels only provide added benefit based on the Endurance Charges you consume so, if you have no charges, you are far better off simply keeping it and Cast When Damage Taken at level 1.



Anger > Herald of Ice > Enlighten > Clarity/Empower



Depending on your gear, level, and the level of your Enlighten, you may or may not be able to run the Empower. I was finally able to swap our Clarity upon reaching level 95 with my build but if you get some mana regeneration on your jewelry or get Shaper early, you can maybe do it earlier. Regardless, keep all of these in your Black Sun Crest so that they receive extra levels from it.



Other possible gem links are as followed:



Cast When Damage Taken (level 10) > Summon Chaos/Flame golem (level 12) > Blind (level 20) > Minion and Totem Elemental Resistances (level 20)



Flammability > Blood Magic > Rallying Cry > Increased Area of Effect



Cast When Damage Taken (level 1) > Immortal Call (level 1) > Increased Duration (level 20)



Gear



Required Gear:



Doon is the core to this build and the primary reason as to why these sorts of builds are even allowed to exist. Big thanks to Morsexier for making it as his supporter item. That said, there’s a few important things to take note of here on why this weapon is so good. In your main hand, it becomes better than any possible rare weapon depending on how much strength you have. It will end up giving you upwards of 120% spell damage for most builds but eventually reaches 150%+ as you get more strength (1200 strength equates to the 150% but for my character, as an example, with better gear I can definitely reach thresholds of 1350 or so with ideal pieces). This combined with the cast speed makes it close to irreplaceable as our main weapon. The only time you would look to swap this out would be if you came across a wand of equivalent spell damage and cast speed but also with added projectile speed AND a gg shield to pair it with (2000+ armour, perfect strength, perfect life, resists). It is at this point and this point alone that it becomes replaceable as we would take off Faster Projectiles, throw on Added Chaos, gain a lot of damage, and only lose a few hundred armour.



To that point, your off-hand slot will pretty much always be a secondary Doon Cuebiyari. The second effect of Doon gives us an increased percentage of armour based on our strength. The thing to note here is that it gives percent armour rather than flat meaning it is mostly reliant on our chest due to our helm and boots slots already not having a lot. My current off-hand Doon equates to ~2200 armour with no additional buffs so it is obviously quite effective, though this is mostly due to how much armour I have on my chest. Keep that in mind because often until the very end of your gear search, a nice shield will actually be better for you (especially when handling your resists).





Its use is an obvious one as it gives 18% increased strength to your character. Nothing much to say here. If you are struggling with resists and are deciding over this versus Black Sun Crest, go with the BSC. While you will be receiving more strength from this, you would be otherwise missing out on the added gem levels and potentially huge amounts of increased dexterity and intelligence from BSC as well. As soon as you can afford to do so, however, throw these bad boys on.





Our newest toy for this style of play is quickly becoming one of my favorite uniques in the game. It does so much for the build it’s actually unreal that this thing exists. First and foremost, we get our added strength, this is obvious. Next, it gives us the crazy addition of added gem levels. What is so insane about this is that we can basically double-dip here with Empower, Enlighten, and our auras. Most effects like this in the game (Alphas, Prism Guardian, etc) specify a certain type of gem but not BSC. We get everything here. Its third benefit is the increased dexterity and intelligence which we tend to lack, so it is always handy to get more.



Rain of Splinters

Another reason for why this build is now viable. Prior to this jewel, we would either be relegated to Flame Totem or forced to swap out Faster Casting for Lesser Multiple Projectiles/Greater Multiple Projectiles. This basically gives us a free gem slot. An important thing to note here is the fact that its negative damage is additive rather than multiplicative to the rest of our Increased damage so the rolls do not matter as much as it may seem (this meaning that instead of being in the same realm as multiplicative damage decreases akin to Chain, LMP, and GMP, it would be similar to lose a few % damage nodes on the tree).



Optional Gear:



Spire of Stone

Another neat jewel that we can potentially use. My current character cannot physically afford to wear it (my jewels are way too specific to my required resists and stats) but ideally you end up with a slot to just passively throw this in (or more specifically throw it into the slot near Templar as it has the most strength to pull from). This is going to give our totems a substantial amount of health so that they hold up to reflect but, just as important, it makes them stun immune which, for a channeling spell like incinerate, is invaluable. In most circumstances this will not come into play but in maps with a lot of leapers, chargers, or simply high physical damage, this will come in handy.



Current Gear



Linked below are all the pieces that I am currently running around with. I will try to always keep this updated so if you ever have a question about my gear progress or the link setups I am mapping with, this is the best place to check. If I have something in here that is not updated, feel free to yell at me until it is fixed.







Current Stats





These are my base stats with just my gear on. With a procced Cast when Damage Taken - Molten Shell plus my Granite Flask, I reach 29.5k armour. Combined with Enfeeble and you can see just how tanky we get.





To note here is that this offensive tooltip is also misleading for our build. Due to our having two totems, it is actually double this number assuming both totems are hitting the same mob, leaving our actual dps at closer to 32.6k base, an unreal number for incinerate.



Bandits



Oak – Skill Point/Alira – Skill Point/Oak



Another amusing point on the list for this build is all of your options for bandits. If you have mirror worthy gear and are confident in your ability to play the build in the end-game, you don’t actually need Oak in normal since eventually you reach the point where a skillpoint speccing into 4% life actually outperforms the 40 life he gives. For your first run-through, however, I would simply take the flat life and do the math later on for when it becomes better for your character to take the skillpoint.



The Cruel choice revolves purely around your preference. The cast speed will be just as effective as an extra skill point in most cases but this can change depending on how much cast speed you are receiving from your gear and jewels. If you are lacking some, it would be preferential to grab the cast speed here rather than the skill point but again, this all depends on you.



Once you reach Merciless, we are again at a dilemma because while we enjoy skillpoints, the endurance charge helps both our innate survivability and our Immortal Call setup (assuming you are using one). Choose this depending on how readily and responsibly you actually cast Enduring Cry. If that your answer here is “I am way too lazy to press a button every 10 seconds” then just get the skillpoint.



Videos

79 Shipyard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVyZY5qFCcU

77 Necropolis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yHLVN59JCE

76 Arid Lake

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY1UZ9tfxqc



FAQ



Can I do this on a five-link?

The short answer is yes but the long answer is no.

For reference here, understand what our sixth link is in the build: faster projectiles. Due to this gem being percent increased damage as opposed to more damage, it is simply additive to our already massive amounts of increased damage from Doon Cuebiyari and Iron Will meaning that its overall damage addition is barely noticeable. That said, the more important effect comes in the form of Increased Projectile Speed. Outside of a single node by Duelist and our ideally quality Incinerate, we do not get any projectile speed anywhere else. This combined with the lacking totem life from Spell Totem means that our totems are on the squishy side of things so we do not want things hitting them. Huge amounts of Projectile Speed solve this problem by killing things before they even reach us and our totems.



So can you run the build without Faster Projectiles? Yes. Would I recommend or suggest it? Absolutely not.



Hankinsohl did actually did a nice write-up on running the 5L for the build which is well worth reading for those of you who want to play this spec but do not have access to a 6L:



Hankinsohl's Thoughts



Flame Totem - Fire Penetration - Iron Will - Faster Casting - Faster Projectiles



This setup worked very well until I began mapping, at which point I was dissatisfied with my DPS.



So I bought a Kauri Ward, ran a few Increased Projectile Speed jewels and dropped Faster Projectiles for Added Chaos Damage. My DPS was much, much better and clear speed was greatly increased.



At level 89 I switched to dual Incinerate (Spell) Totems. My links currently are:



Spell Totem - Incinerate - Fire Penetration - Iron Will - Faster Casting



My Incinerate gem is 20% quality (gives 40% increased projectile speed) and I'm using Kauri Ward (30% increased projectile speed) and a PS jewel (8% increased projectile speed). This gives me a total of 78% increased projectile speed.



By way of contrast, if I were to use a Faster Projectiles gem instead of the Kauri Ward and the jewel, I'd have a total of 108% increased projectile speed.



With 78% increased projectile speed, my Incinerate Totem flames deal damage almost, but not quite, to the edge of the screen.



In the image below, I'm attacking mobs spawned by a Carrion Queen. You can see the legs of the Queen to the far right of the image. The Queen is just barely out of range - although the blue flames from my totem appear to stop fairly short of the Queen, it's because the exploding mob is obscuring the end portion of the flames.

Spoiler



After taking the screenshot shown above I temporarily re-geared and attacked the same mob using Faster Projectiles instead of the Kauri Ward/jewel (108% increased projectile speed); at 108% increased projectile speed the Queen was damaged by my Incinerate Totems.



Finally, some DPS numbers:



Flame Totem (level 20): 13.5K DPS tooltip, 27K total

Incinerate Totem (level 19): 8.1K DPS tooltip, 64.8K total



Basically, I'm doing double the DPS with Incinerate totems even though my Incinerate gem is a level lower.



In conclusion, I strongly recommend this build, even running on a 5-link, so long as you can achieve a total of roughly 80% increased projectile speed which is easily doable with a Kauri Ward and one increased projectile speed jewel.



If anyone is interested in my gear/passive tree, you can examine my character TotemsTotems_ (my profile is set to public). Please note that my passive tree is a total mess at the moment. Eventually I'll be using the mana version of this build, taking advantage of the Witch start. But right now, I'm out of Regret Orbs and will push on to level 90 as-is. Originally I leveled my character using a fairly standard 5-link, dual flame totem setup:Flame Totem - Fire Penetration - Iron Will - Faster Casting - Faster ProjectilesThis setup worked very well until I began mapping, at which point I was dissatisfied with my DPS.So I bought a Kauri Ward, ran a few Increased Projectile Speed jewels and dropped Faster Projectiles for Added Chaos Damage. My DPS was much, much better and clear speed was greatly increased.At level 89 I switched to dual Incinerate (Spell) Totems. My links currently are:Spell Totem - Incinerate - Fire Penetration - Iron Will - Faster CastingMy Incinerate gem is 20% quality (gives 40% increased projectile speed) and I'm using Kauri Ward (30% increased projectile speed) and a PS jewel (8% increased projectile speed). This gives me a total of 78% increased projectile speed.By way of contrast, if I were to use a Faster Projectiles gem instead of the Kauri Ward and the jewel, I'd have a total of 108% increased projectile speed.With 78% increased projectile speed, my Incinerate Totem flames deal damage almost, but not quite, to the edge of the screen.In the image below, I'm attacking mobs spawned by a Carrion Queen. You can see the legs of the Queen to the far right of the image. The Queen is just barely out of range - although the blue flames from my totem appear to stop fairly short of the Queen, it's because the exploding mob is obscuring the end portion of the flames.After taking the screenshot shown above I temporarily re-geared and attacked the same mob using Faster Projectiles instead of the Kauri Ward/jewel (108% increased projectile speed); at 108% increased projectile speed the Queen was damaged by my Incinerate Totems.Finally, some DPS numbers:Flame Totem (level 20): 13.5K DPS tooltip, 27K totalIncinerate Totem (level 19): 8.1K DPS tooltip, 64.8K totalBasically, I'm doing double the DPS with Incinerate totems even though my Incinerate gem is a level lower.In conclusion, I strongly recommend this build, even running on a 5-link, so long as you can achieve a total of roughly 80% increased projectile speed which is easily doable with a Kauri Ward and one increased projectile speed jewel.If anyone is interested in my gear/passive tree, you can examine my character TotemsTotems_ (my profile is set to public). Please note that my passive tree is a total mess at the moment. Eventually I'll be using the mana version of this build, taking advantage of the Witch start. But right now, I'm out of Regret Orbs and will push on to level 90 as-is.



Astramentis has nice strength, can I run it in the build?

Sort of. Before giving my answer, understand the math behind Astramentis. A perfectly rolled one gives is 112 strength which equals out to 22.4% increased damage from strength and 14% increased damage from your main-hand Doon Cuebiyari, totaling 34.6% increased damage. Now this is pretty alright but also understand that you can get up to 24% spell damage and added cast speed (cast speed more notably coming in the form of effect more damage as opposed to increased damage) from an amulet already, not to mention other added benefits such as resists, more strength, and even some flat life.

This ends up with Astramentis being a fine addition to our arsenal but also not even close to best-in-slot or even recommended. One might also argue that the added intelligence and dexterity give enough that it can be further recommended but, at least for my current character, that only saves two passive points which would not go anywhere relevant to make up more damage (besides maybe 20 strength which does not come anywhere close to giving more damage). In the end, I’d stray away from Astramentis.



Can I use Meginord’s Vise?

I won’t do my math for this argument but it falls under the same category as Astramentis as an “ok” addition but not wholly recommended for the exact same reasons stated above. We also tend to struggle for resists as it is so limiting yourself on uniques that give strength but no resists only makes it harder to find usable and efficient rings and belts.



Your build is bad and I want to personally yell at you for it.

Not a question but I will address it anyway. If you want to personally chat with me, feel free to PM me anytime in-game and I’d love to have a discussion, assuming I am not in the middle of a mapping session (at which point I will let you know when I am down to talk). If you just want to leave a comment, feel free to PM me in-game as well but you may be better off leaving it in this thread for others to answer or address, should they see it before myself. Iron Will has been one of the most interesting mechanics to me upon joining Path of Exile several years ago. Casters are traditionally closer to glass cannons than anything else in most video games but this mechanic allows us to be as tanky as possible whilst still allowing us to match or even exceed the damage of your normal caster build.Combined with the unique item Doon Cuebiyari , we receive some incredible percent-damage buffs for our spells which typically ends in Iron Will providing around half of our total damage output. Wielding a Doon Cuebiyari in our off-hand as well gives us a pseudo-shield that, depending on the base armour your receive from your other pieces, eventually ends up giving you far more armour than a normal shield as well as more cast speed and strength.Our second and third pieces of special equipment for the build come in the forms of Black Sun Crest and Alberon’s Warpath . Alberon’s Warpath is a simple inclusion due to its implicit stat of providing percent strength increase, something we are obviously building around for the build. Black Sun Crest is a relatively new unique which not only gives more percent strength, but also provides dexterity, intelligence, and added socketed gem levels. The other stat gains are important because while we have an overwhelming amount of strength at our disposal, we tend to be relatively starved for dexterity and intelligence. The added gem level is also incredible and becomes one of the main reasons for why Iron Will builds tend to now push towards revolving around mana as opposed to their predecessors that relied on either the Blood Magic keystone or the Blood Magic gem.Without further ado, let’s get started!As with any build utilizing Incinerate Totem (Iron Will or otherwise), this argument will inevitably rear its ugly head. Flame Totem has some great base damage and due to its nature of receiving extra projectiles on leveling, gives us another jewel slot. It would also provide us the ability to remove the gem Spell Totem from our link setup and in place either allowing the build to function on a five-link or, even better, give us another link for more added damage.All of this is well and good until you consider the damage potential of either spell. Flame Totem has more base damage than a basic Incinerate but Incinerate also has four effective stages on casting (its initial stage and a 100% spell damage increase per stage after that). Upon only reaching the secondary stage of its spell damage increase, Incinerate actually surpasses that of Flame Totem. This means that with even a minute amount of cast speed to easily reach even just the secondary stage, we are already pushing past the damage ceiling of Flame Totem.This does, of course, come at a cost. Incinerate has a projectile speed that, unfortunately, leaves it trailing behind Flame Totem by a large margin. This means that we are basically required to, at minimum, run a quality Incinerate. In an ideal and perfect scenario, we are also required to run our sixth link of Faster Projectiles to push the clear speed even further. This means that instead of being able to run our build at the start of a league with nothing, we tend to be forced to run a normal Flame Totem spec until such time that we have the ability to fully transition over to this version.In the end, we want to run the Incinerate Totem version if at all possible. With good enough gear, it far surpasses Flame Totem in all respects (especially if we reach a point where having a Spire of Stone jewel socketed becomes viable) but it does require more effort on our part to actually reach that point.-Your damage will match or exceed that of all non-crit spellcaster builds around.-The damage ceiling for the build only stops at the quality of gear you have. This correlation relates to this build far more than any other build around.-Since we build around strength, our damage source also directly increases our survivability, resulting in our being just as tanky as actual “tank” builds.-Can run every single map mod-It’s expensive. Even though the build has only been made cheaper in 2.0, the required uniques and specific pieces of gear results in it being a relatively large base buy-in compared to most builds.-We scale worse in parties unless you have the gear to make-up for it.Originally the build ran around based on the Blood Magic keystone but given the low base mana cost of Incinerate (which we are abusing since instead of channeling, we are simply casting a totem), it becomes fairly simple to sustain it completely off of mana. With this completed version, I can run the build even without the use of Clarity. Without the Shaper node (meaning only Mana Flows for regeneration), I had to run a level 8 clarity to keep up sufficient mana for the totem.The Blood Magic version is still perfectly viable but you do lose out on the damage that Anger and Herald of Ice provides. I was clearing 79 maps with this tree and having zero issues so the potential is still absolutely there, though you will never reach the point that the mana version can get to. If you happen to be trying this build on a relatively low budget or early in the league, this version will likely be easier to push into than the mana version since you can focus purely on survivability and strength as opposed to balancing the flat mana and possible mana regeneration you receive from items and your tree.We get an enormous amount of base regeneration as it is so it only requires minor respeccing to be able to easily perform utilizing Righteous Fire . With this respec, however, you lose 50 base strength and 60% maximum life, not to mention effectively losing all of your regeneration. This version might have the highest damage ceiling in the list but it only gets that after knocking off a large portion of its survivability, ending in my only suggesting this build to the brave or those of you playing in softcore and want to push your tooltip to its absolute limit. Also keep in mind that due to our utilizing the Black Sun Crest, we are actually one of few builds that can push Purity of Fire to level 24 and thus 5% increased maximum resists. This would require a level 21 PoF and a level 2 Empower (or level 20 PoF and level 3 Empower) but it is absolutely doable, giving you back at least a bit of survivability.With this tree and our focus on fire damage and life, we cannot rely much on abilities that require huge amounts of cast speed. Amusingly this actually pushes self-cast Incinerate out of the equation even though we will be using it later. Instead, I would use a mix of Fire Trap, Flame Totem, and Fire Storm depending on your preference. Even though Flame Totem and Fire Storm like cast speed, neither requires it to perform well enough during your leveling experience so they can absolutely be used. Push for relevant added damage gems (mainly Added Lightning) when you have the slot, otherwise just throw in Fire Penetration and Faster Casting.You should also keep in mind that I am making this leveling portion based on the mana version of the build so if you choose to run Blood Magic, you can follow the principles displayed here still but keep to the other tree.Our damage will be lacking in the beginning since the overall tree does not give us too many actual damage nodes (nor will Iron Will really be relevant until you have 400+ strength) so we want to push towards Templar as early as possible. To that, if you are willing to respect more you can ignore Arsonist and run straight north into the Templar area and get your damage nodes a few levels early. I’d suggest this if you are leveling alone, especially if you have no leveling gear.As with before, our base survivability will be fine so we want to push as much damage as possible to ease the quality of our leveling. The jewel node taken there runs under the assumption that you have something remotely usable so don’t bother taking it if you haven’t found anything.At this point we should be able to run Flame Totem by itself so we push towards Ancestral Bond. I would also start grabbing whatever Cobalt Jewels you can and alting them until they have a relevant damage percent on them. Don’t bother alting for perfect rolls or regaling non-perfect bases because all we care about is a little added damage (meaning a 12-15% damage increase along is perfectly acceptable). This is the point in the build when we are at our weakest because we have less damage on our tree than most builds and our strength isn’t at the point where it is all that helpful just yet. Ideally you want to run with a party if at all possible here or it will be a struggle to finish the build.By this level, you should have enough strength where it’s well worth running Iron Will. You want to get a five-link as fast as possible so you can finally feel relevant and strong. As with the previous point, grab a usable Cobalt Jewel to throw into our extra jewel slot on your way over to the Duelist area.From this point onwards, grab whatever nodes you feel you need at the time until you finish the build. By 100 or so points, the build should be “complete” depending on the gear you have managed to acquire. Once you have your six-link, quality incinerate, rain of splinters, and at least one Doon Cuebiyari, you can finally swap over to Incinerate Totem and join in all the fun.Outside of our main six-link setup, all other gems are purely support and optional depending on your preference of play. If you would like to see my current setup, I will always have my current gear and gem links showing in the Current Gear section of the guide. You can, however, just use this area as a template for ideas on how you feel like you want to build your character. All gems are also listed in preferential order of priority. While ideally you are running all of them in the list, prioritize what I have listed here in that order.In most situations, these links will not change. They are the bread and butter of this build and you will learn to love and appreciate each and every one of them. The only consideration at this point would be Elemental Reflect maps you happen to roll. For these, you are welcome to swap out Fire Penetration for Life Leech which will cut your damage by a reasonable portion but helps to keep your totems alive long enough for them to kill anything.This is your mobility setup. You are welcome to take out Portal in favor of Reduced Duration and Flame Dash in favor of Lightning Warp if that is your preferred movement skill. This offers better long-term movement but less dynamic movement while fighting when compared to my Flame Dash setup but it’s up to you.This four-link setup is fantastic for mitigation during fights. My current Molten Shell results in an added 2500+ armour on my tooltip which, when combined with the Enfeeble that is linked here, gives us a nice, healthy boost to surviving everything. The important thing here is that Molten Shell gives flat armour as opposed to percent armour akin to Determination, meaning that it scales based off of our strength thanks to Doon Cuebiyari.More survivability in the form of Endurance Charges are nice but keep in mind that when you cast Flammability, you are taking off Enfeeble from mobs that may have it so learn to stay aware of how dangerous certain situations are getting.Only use this setup if you are running Enduring Cry somewhere in your setup. Immortal Call levels only provide added benefit based on the Endurance Charges you consume so, if you have no charges, you are far better off simply keeping it and Cast When Damage Taken at level 1.Depending on your gear, level, and the level of your Enlighten, you may or may not be able to run the Empower. I was finally able to swap our Clarity upon reaching level 95 with my build but if you get some mana regeneration on your jewelry or get Shaper early, you can maybe do it earlier. Regardless, keep all of these in your Black Sun Crest so that they receive extra levels from it.Doon is the core to this build and the primary reason as to why these sorts of builds are even allowed to exist. Big thanks to Morsexier for making it as his supporter item. That said, there’s a few important things to take note of here on why this weapon is so good. In your main hand, it becomes better than any possible rare weapon depending on how much strength you have. It will end up giving you upwards of 120% spell damage for most builds but eventually reaches 150%+ as you get more strength (1200 strength equates to the 150% but for my character, as an example, with better gear I can definitely reach thresholds of 1350 or so with ideal pieces). This combined with the cast speed makes it close to irreplaceable as our main weapon. The only time you would look to swap this out would be if you came across a wand of equivalent spell damage and cast speed but also with added projectile speed AND a gg shield to pair it with (2000+ armour, perfect strength, perfect life, resists). It is at this point and this point alone that it becomes replaceable as we would take off Faster Projectiles, throw on Added Chaos, gain a lot of damage, and only lose a few hundred armour.To that point, your off-hand slot will pretty much always be a secondary Doon Cuebiyari. The second effect of Doon gives us an increased percentage of armour based on our strength. The thing to note here is that it gives percent armour rather than flat meaning it is mostly reliant on our chest due to our helm and boots slots already not having a lot. My current off-hand Doon equates to ~2200 armour with no additional buffs so it is obviously quite effective, though this is mostly due to how much armour I have on my chest. Keep that in mind because often until the very end of your gear search, a nice shield will actually be better for you (especially when handling your resists).Its use is an obvious one as it gives 18% increased strength to your character. Nothing much to say here. If you are struggling with resists and are deciding over this versus Black Sun Crest, go with the BSC. While you will be receiving more strength from this, you would be otherwise missing out on the added gem levels and potentially huge amounts of increased dexterity and intelligence from BSC as well. As soon as you can afford to do so, however, throw these bad boys on.Our newest toy for this style of play is quickly becoming one of my favorite uniques in the game. It does so much for the build it’s actually unreal that this thing exists. First and foremost, we get our added strength, this is obvious. Next, it gives us the crazy addition of added gem levels. What is so insane about this is that we can basically double-dip here with Empower, Enlighten, and our auras. Most effects like this in the game (Alphas, Prism Guardian, etc) specify a certain type of gem but not BSC. We get everything here. Its third benefit is the increased dexterity and intelligence which we tend to lack, so it is always handy to get more.Another reason for why this build is now viable. Prior to this jewel, we would either be relegated to Flame Totem or forced to swap out Faster Casting for Lesser Multiple Projectiles/Greater Multiple Projectiles. This basically gives us a free gem slot. An important thing to note here is the fact that its negative damage is additive rather than multiplicative to the rest of our Increased damage so the rolls do not matter as much as it may seem (this meaning that instead of being in the same realm as multiplicative damage decreases akin to Chain, LMP, and GMP, it would be similar to lose a few % damage nodes on the tree).Another neat jewel that we can potentially use. My current character cannot physically afford to wear it (my jewels are way too specific to my required resists and stats) but ideally you end up with a slot to just passively throw this in (or more specifically throw it into the slot near Templar as it has the most strength to pull from). This is going to give our totems a substantial amount of health so that they hold up to reflect but, just as important, it makes them stun immune which, for a channeling spell like incinerate, is invaluable. In most circumstances this will not come into play but in maps with a lot of leapers, chargers, or simply high physical damage, this will come in handy.Linked below are all the pieces that I am currently running around with. I will try to always keep this updated so if you ever have a question about my gear progress or the link setups I am mapping with, this is the best place to check. If I have something in here that is not updated, feel free to yell at me until it is fixed.These are my base stats with just my gear on. With a procced Cast when Damage Taken - Molten Shell plus my Granite Flask, I reach 29.5k armour. Combined with Enfeeble and you can see just how tanky we get.To note here is that this offensive tooltip is also misleading for our build. Due to our having two totems, it is actually double this number assuming both totems are hitting the same mob, leaving our actual dps at closer to 32.6k base, an unreal number for incinerate.Another amusing point on the list for this build is all of your options for bandits. If you have mirror worthy gear and are confident in your ability to play the build in the end-game, you don’t actually need Oak in normal since eventually you reach the point where a skillpoint speccing into 4% life actually outperforms the 40 life he gives. For your first run-through, however, I would simply take the flat life and do the math later on for when it becomes better for your character to take the skillpoint.The Cruel choice revolves purely around your preference. The cast speed will be just as effective as an extra skill point in most cases but this can change depending on how much cast speed you are receiving from your gear and jewels. If you are lacking some, it would be preferential to grab the cast speed here rather than the skill point but again, this all depends on you.Once you reach Merciless, we are again at a dilemma because while we enjoy skillpoints, the endurance charge helps both our innate survivability and our Immortal Call setup (assuming you are using one). Choose this depending on how readily and responsibly you actually cast Enduring Cry. If that your answer here is “I am way too lazy to press a button every 10 seconds” then just get the skillpoint.79 Shipyard77 Necropolis76 Arid LakeThe short answer is yes but the long answer is no.For reference here, understand what our sixth link is in the build: faster projectiles. Due to this gem being percent increased damage as opposed to more damage, it is simply additive to our already massive amounts of increased damage from Doon Cuebiyari and Iron Will meaning that its overall damage addition is barely noticeable. That said, the more important effect comes in the form of Increased Projectile Speed. Outside of a single node by Duelist and our ideally quality Incinerate, we do not get any projectile speed anywhere else. This combined with the lacking totem life from Spell Totem means that our totems are on the squishy side of things so we do not want things hitting them. Huge amounts of Projectile Speed solve this problem by killing things before they even reach us and our totems.So can you run the build without Faster Projectiles? Yes. Would I recommend or suggest it? Absolutely not.Hankinsohl did actually did a nice write-up on running the 5L for the build which is well worth reading for those of you who want to play this spec but do not have access to a 6L:Sort of. Before giving my answer, understand the math behind Astramentis. A perfectly rolled one gives is 112 strength which equals out to 22.4% increased damage from strength and 14% increased damage from your main-hand Doon Cuebiyari, totaling 34.6% increased damage. Now this is pretty alright but also understand that you can get up to 24% spell damage and added cast speed (cast speed more notably coming in the form of effect more damage as opposed to increased damage) from an amulet already, not to mention other added benefits such as resists, more strength, and even some flat life.This ends up with Astramentis being a fine addition to our arsenal but also not even close to best-in-slot or even recommended. One might also argue that the added intelligence and dexterity give enough that it can be further recommended but, at least for my current character, that only saves two passive points which would not go anywhere relevant to make up more damage (besides maybe 20 strength which does not come anywhere close to giving more damage). In the end, I’d stray away from Astramentis.I won’t do my math for this argument but it falls under the same category as Astramentis as an “ok” addition but not wholly recommended for the exact same reasons stated above. We also tend to struggle for resists as it is so limiting yourself on uniques that give strength but no resists only makes it harder to find usable and efficient rings and belts.Not a question but I will address it anyway. If you want to personally chat with me, feel free to PM me anytime in-game and I’d love to have a discussion, assuming I am not in the middle of a mapping session (at which point I will let you know when I am down to talk). If you just want to leave a comment, feel free to PM me in-game as well but you may be better off leaving it in this thread for others to answer or address, should they see it before myself. Last edited by Fenrils on Nov 27, 2015, 10:46:38 PM