Ice Spear Freezing Pulse Totem Hierophant Build Guide (PoE Lake of Kalandra 3.19)

Out Of Date

March 5th, 2023, 14:49

GhazzyTV Ice Spear Freezing Pulse Banner

INTRODUCTION

Due to the latest balancing changes, we do not recommend playing this build anymore, as it does not meet the high standards we apply to our guides in terms of fun and performance. We are leaving it up as a reference and it might be revived in a later patch.

The build is abusing certain mechanics surrounding self-cursing which will barely if at all affect us and allow us to deal significant amounts of damage. The details about these mechanics that we will be abusing is listed in the guide!

Since this is a very niche playstyle I would strongly recommend watching the video linked below to determine if it’s something you’d find enjoyable to play.

Below, you can see the build in action from my YouTube guide. Do note that the video might be outdated in terms of information, and you should always refer to this guide to make sure you have the updated information.

BUILD OVERVIEW

In this section, I will outline the pros, cons, and general playstyle. This will help you to determine if this is the right build is for you!

PROS

+ High Sustaining – Due to the nature of this build, sustaining our defensive layers is very effective as the tools are provided by the ascendancy as well as skill-tree choices.

+ League Starter – The only mandatory item is generally very cheap early in a league.

+ Bosser – The damage output this build can achieve even in low budget is completely absurd.

CONS

– Squishy – The build is not designed to face-tank enemies and can, in lower levels of gear, feel somewhat squishy. A careful playstyle can negate this issue.

PLAYSTYLE

This playstyle is based around leveraging the unique Soul Mantle to summon an army of powerful totems that bury your foes in ice while also utilizing a variety of tools to negate the dangers of the unique’s self-curse effect.

DAMAGE SCALING AND DEFENSIVE LAYERS

This build deals solely cold damage and, due to the scales of crits, we are consistently chilling and freezing enemies resulting in them being shattered. This is a very effective offensive mechanic that also provides a defense against monsters such as porcupines and bone husk. Using the Soul Mantle, we will consistently curse ourselves and when combined with the Self-Flagellation jewel this results in our damage output skyrocketing.

To counter the massive amount of curses we are applying to ourselves we have a couple of options. The cheap one being 2x Kikazaru coupled with the Soul of Yugul pantheon power to reach 100% curse effectiveness reduction. Do keep in mind that curse-rolled maps in the red tier will still afflict you with a minor curse. To avoid being below elemental resistance versus an Elemental Weakness rolled map, you’ll need 15% fire, cold, and lightning resistance above the cap. The more expensive alternatives include Viridi’s Veil and Atziri's Reflection. Since Atziri’s Reflection has become much more accessible after it was moved to the Uber Atziri drop pool, it is the recommended piece to use.

PoB AND PASSIVE SKILL TREE

The PoB community fork created by Localidentity is the only version being kept up to date, so make sure you have the correct version: PoB Community Fork.

Here is the Freezing Pulse Ice Spear Totem Hierophant Low Budget PoB:. This tree contains both, the setup prior to acquiring Atziri’s Reflection, as well as the post Atziri’s reflection setup.

You can find more information about this, as well as about the gem links for the build, on our dedicated page.

IS/FP Totem Hierophant PoB, Passive Skill Tree & Gem Links

GEARING

A lot of the end-game gear can easily be crafted. For a general overview of crafting and to learn how to craft specific items, check out my crafting guides here.

You can read more details about our gearing recommendations on the dedicated page. You’ll find a summarized version below.

IS/FP Totem Hierophant Gear, Jewels & Flasks

Item Slot	Item Name	Rarity
Head	Life then res/attributes as needed	Rare
Amulet	Life then Res/Attributes as needed, + level of skill gems & crit multi will improve dmg by a lot too if possible	Rare
Chest	Soul Mantle	Unique
Gloves	Life then Res/Attributes as needed	Rare
Boots	Life then Res/Attributes as needed	Rare
Belt	Darkness Enthroned	Unique
Rings	1x Kikazaru & Essence Worm for determination. When you have Atziri's Reflection you will drop kikazaru for dmg taken as life recoup ring	Unique & Rare
Weapon	Rare wand with spell dmg/cast speed/spell crit, eventually you will want to have +1 level of all cold spell skill gems with this	Rare
Shield	Atziri's Reflection once you acquire it. Before that you can use 2 rare wands or a wand and shield	Rare & Unique

ASCENDANCY, BANDIT & PANTHEON RECOMMENDATIONS

You can read about the recommended Ascendancy, Bandit choice, and Pantheon Power recommendations for this build on our dedicated page.

IS/FP Totem Hierophant Ascendancy, Bandits & Pantheon Powers

LEVELING

It is recommended to level this build by self-casting your abilities till you’re able to spec Ancestral Bond. Once you’ve allocated this Keystone passive, you’ll be able to utilize totems and the build’s masochistic power will begin to shine.

BEFORE YOU GO TOTEMS

Generic spell abilities before totems comes in play:

Stormblast Mine for single target
Freezing Pulse for clearing
Frost Bomb for clearing when you get it instead of the Freezing Pulse

Once you reach level 4, you are able to get Holy Flame Totem:

This works very well together with Flame Wall

The Aura decision comes in Act 2, which is when you will enable Herald of Ice, Herald of Thunder and Herald of Ash.

Once you get access to the Ancestral Bond Keystone, you can continue using the Holy Flame Totem or simply run with Freezing Pulse.

For more general leveling advice, we recommend the following guides.

Our step-by-step leveling walkthrough, which allows even more experienced players to save time and speed through the leveling process.
Our guide to Unique Items for leveling, which helps you gear up your characters for the leveling process.
Our beginner leveling guide, which answers many of the questions new players might have and will set you on the right path.

QUESTIONS?

To guarantee that my guides are tools you can utilize to enhance your experience in Path of Exile, all you need to do is post your question in the comments and I will personally attend to them as soon as possible.

FINAL NOTES

As much as I love making build guides, it is very crucial in a game like Path of Exile that you play the game the way you enjoy playing it. With that said, if you’ve made any tweaks to the build compared to what I’m showing in this guide I would love it if you’d posted it in the comments! Sharing this information is an extremely effective way to help other players and it helps me grow as a build guide creator!

I hope you found the build guide useful and I wish you all many Exalted Orb drops!