suchbalance wrote:Why would you not use deathlord on hc? It literally has no downside for totems. Death ward is also preferable, you won't be able to keep jinns alive too much early on penalty or not.
I've seen a lot of players who play totem use deathlord, especially on HC. It certainly is a nice option, but I never cared for it for two reasons:
1.) It takes an extra 5 skill points to spec into, which I normally put forward to gaining an extra Rampagor or two as a new tank, eliminating more of the need for the boost defense (though I can see how you'd enjoy the str/dex boost from it).
2.) It locks us out of using Funeral Pyre. This part is dependent on the playstyle of the individual player, but I like having this 1-pointer early game as a utility skill for single targets or large mobs that you know are going to all walk into eachother.
Jaedong wrote:if you really want to play hc u need to go for death ward, else your defense is way way too low and ur units cant tank all types damage of all units
I'm fairly new to HC myself, but I've never had an issue with using Jinn over Death Ward because we have summons that near a later mid-game into end-game, virtually don't die except to one-hit mechanics or to things like Quov Tsin's beam, which we have no control over protecting our minions for.
I'm considering editing out the HC Friendly part in the post title and just keeping it as a small disclaimer in the Intro section just because I know it's a very easy build for general gameplay, but haven't messed with ubers enough in HC to really credit myself for saying "Yea, it's fully HC friendly."
Also, in terms of your Volrath suggestion, Buckshot/Death's Fury Totem is certainly a nice option. I've done that before. It just felt way easier and faster to spec full energy and 1pt Boneyard early on because it'll pave the way more towards what we are going for. A respec will still be necessary to get rid of Massacre once we have Frostclaw Totem, but it feels less of a hassel, along with Boneyard providing us with full screen range, instead of having to run into melee range (especially helpful for this challenge season where you can get killed fairly quickly to the newer area monsters). Suchbalance provided a video, I believe, in the comment on Page 2 here.
Jaedong wrote:might considder highlighting the 1 Pointer and MAX for the lazy people like me
wouldnt it be easier for skillswitching to use a honfour head? so you have dagger and head on switch instead of wand and dagger
In the actual skillplans for each game section, they are written in bold, but it's tricky to see. I might go back and alter the color a little bit to make them easier to read.
As far as the Hounfor head is concerned, yes that's an option, but we want to get Trollskull as soon as we can, so I chose to just keep it as a wand RW, which is really easy to make instead of spending some extra time crafting or rolling for the head.
void wrote:embalming does not boost totem life, and as far as i know they are uneffected by any type of item minion boosts, including res
totem get shadows and jinn boost twice. once when they are cast by the nec, and it is applied again when they were summoned, so essentially its not necessary to put more than 1/2 of what you need to reach 100 or 200% pierce enemy res that you dont get from gear or charms
for early game/gris box farming nef staff is highly recommended (personally this ladder i used it as main until i was able to make the creep), not just because its an ok item early, but also as switch the blink saves some time to cut corners or blink away in a very difficult situation (heretics) where bend the shadows would take too long
would be good to mention that you can bless crafted items too, so there are even more gg rolls possible
I don't have access to the game right now, but why would Embalming not boost Totem Life or receive %Minion Res bonuses? They are a summon, and display their HP amount in the skill icon itself, thus my confusion why boosts to minion life would not affect them. I know %Minion Damage doesn't affect them for the very clear reason that they don't do physical damage.
You can use
Pax Mystica
Pax Mystica
Staves
'Tir'
Runeword Level: 10
+1 to All Skills
+7% to Spell Damage
+(2 to 5) to Blink
Elemental Resists +(11 to 15)%
(11 to 13)% Magic Find
for early game if you want, but there isn't really a need to. Totems fly through Tristram without having any gear equipped at all, and those reanimates that they spawn are rather overpowered in terms of strength, numbers, and durability through early Act 1 -- They drop off pretty quickly and can be annoying since they lock out any other useful reanimates that you might have, but oh well.
I thought I mentioned craft blessing somewhere around the midgame notes when I discussed the Magical Crafted circlet. I'll go back and check again to make sure.
void wrote:its sometimes useful to resummon totems far away with sacrifices. this is useful for places like tran or mangler areas
Resummoning totems can be useful and/or necessary early game with that method if they are still dying to incoming damage, especially in Tran Athulua, but it's not that necessary if you look at how we MO our Honorific items. Seekers took a screen for me in the Level Challenge 1 section where you can see he completed LC1 at Level 31 with not even half of the gear mentioned and only 114 (?) Defense, facerolling the level while the minions took the hits for us.