Sunder Totems Champion (We survived the patch notes somehow) [PoE 3.25]

Apologies for talking so fast, just very hyped for the new league.

I’ve played this build in 3.24 all the way to 100 and 40/40, swapped around between ancestral warchief and earthbreaker. Build could run T17 fairly ok towards the end of progression, hovering around 30-40m dps. From top of my head, nerfs and buffs I’m seeing in patch notes: Nerfs: - Ancestral warchief gone – it was better dps than any slam skill by at least 20%, depends what slam, earthquake was most damage slam on average in 3.24 - Ancestral protector speed boost gone + totem buff effect nodes/clusters, that’s about -50% dps, but with saved tree points probably around 30% less - Earthbreaker doesn’t provide AOE bonus, which was very significant paired with totem effect from ancestral guidance+panopticon, basically doubled (about 40% inc aoe in total). It can suck for sunder, because it heavily relies on shockwaves overlaps. - Dawnstrider caps us at 5L, but with earthbreaker granting more damage compared to 3.24 it turns into 5,5L. - ancestral guidance cluster nerfed, highest dps medium cluster node gone, makes investing in double large cluster tree not worth it - facebreaker build will not benefit from weapon buffs and weapon quality Buffs: - Slam skills buffed, some by nearly 100% - 1 totem playstyle, no need to summon protector - +1 impale - Flesh and stone buff - Buffs to block - Ancestral bond for free, lot better tree pathing With all free skill points I try go to Precise Technique later, and get the accuracy, it is worth it in terms of dps per point, and if you don’t need Ancestral Bond and clusters aren’t so good, you have points for it. Build may require getting bunch of aoe, sucks to use AOE gem and lose damage, so maybe using straight up carcass jack would be an option. As for ascendency nodes, you wanna get adrenaline one, and with petrified blood, all it takes is to pop life flask every 20s, and upon using a totem it’ll trigger. I doubt banners will be usable with totems, as totem kills won’t grant their stacks. Biggest flaw of build imo, is shitty totem activation range, so even if you have huge aoe on slams, they didn’t feel better than relatively small range on warchief, because totems simply won’t activate if enemy is too far, even though they could easily hit that enemy if they just slammed the ground. As for earthbreaker skills, ground slam is fairly good, it has both single target, aoe and is easiest one to make enemies stunned, good defensively. Build worked best for heavy abyss investment atlas, with earthquake totems, so you sat there and waited for all mobs to come out, earthquake hit entire screen over and over. If totems are surrounded low activation range isn't a problem.

I'm gonna start this. Thanks for all the work!

I am interested in this build and wondered what you thought of Wilma's Requital as a Helm option? Swap the Quicksilver for Onslaught, and maybe an Aul's for Haste since socket pressure will be relieved by using a chest piece you could even add arrogance support to it. All of that attack speed (Adrenaline, Haste, Onslaught) could help shore up the loss from losing Ancestral Protector - plus a good amount of Accuracy to boot for precise technique. It is a bit of a sacrifice for the added phys though compared to a Abyssus :(.

With my understanding of "effectivenes of base and added damage" and how sunder is massively buff, abyssus seems like a no brainer and potentially best in slot with its flat added phys right? Or will there be better options? in terms of end game scenario?

Wont your totems run into surviving issues if you dont grab the shamanistic fury/ironwood wheel?

Set & Forget

we lost totem leech right?