I saw Mathil with a Divine Ire Totems build the other day and it intrigued me as I had been pondering doing something with Divine Ire for a while. Originally, I was considering creating another Trickster, even though I already had done so in the previous league. However, I didn’t get to the endgame with that character for one reason or another and decided to commit to an extent to this build. One thing comes to mind: fastest leveling I have done this league!
While my overall skills in Path of Exile have improved, I still find leveling to be hit and miss depending on the build. The thing with Divine Ire is that I knew going in that a single beam would do an incredible amount of damage. So how about 7 beams?
That was the main appeal in Mathil’s basic build where he talks about how each shot is worth a good million or so DPS. The thing is that I wanted to build this one slightly different because I wanted to use the Soul Mantle piece. This time around I had roughly 1200 jeweller’s orbs and over 100 fusings, which made me just want to make an attempt at a 5 link. To my surprise, I ended up getting the 6Link with 7 fusings left.
From there it was a matter of pushing my way up and rearranging gear. When you use a Soul Mantle, you pretty much need either an Atziri’s Reflection (which generally is ridiculously expensive and hard to obtain) or two Kikazaru’s for the reduced efficacy of curses on you. I did that along with a +1 totem shield that I had from my Chieftain Holy Flame Totem build that I no longer was using. So combined I ended up with 7 totems (which is pretty insane).
The build itself starts pretty slow because the charge up from Divine Ire takes some time. In a way, it reminds me of Flameblast because of how slow it takes to build stacks before releasing a beam. And for Legion League, that can be a big deal breaker, especially with the timer issue.
With 7 totems, you end up dealing with curses all the time. It can get pretty bad where you just have a huge number stack up (even the previous 5 would feel light by comparison). So I ended up going with two flasks that eliminated or made me immune to curses along with Kiara’s Determination.
On top of that I ended up following a bit of Mathil’s build in using the Devouring Diadem so that I could use Zealtry, Wrath and Herald of Ice (supported by a level 2 enlighten at the moment). Because of this setup, I pretty much was forced to take Mind Over Matter since my energy shield pretty much is ineffective as solely a source for mana.
For my weapon, I ended up going with a Cerebrus Limb since I can get more energy shield from my totem shield. Also, I have some decent gloves that have lightning conversion damage on them. My other items are just rares for resistance, energy shield and life (including one talisman).
Right now, I think the build is a bit squishy. I feel myself getting pounded pretty badly and occasionally running out of mana/energy shield because of EB and MoM. From what I hear, you need to use Zealot’s Oath to compensate, even though this isn’t a pure energy shield type of build.
One thing I’m missing is my last ascendancy. Here’s where Mathil and I differ greatly. He goes for Illuminated Devotion and Arcane Blessing whereas I am choosing Conviction of Power and eventually Divine Guidance. With both MoM and EB, I feel that Divine Guidance will probably be more useful because of the mana increase and complimentary defensive layer to MoM. Also, I didn’t want to wait for my last ascendancy in using the benefits from Illuminated Devotion.
For the most part, this build feels like an arc totems build with regards to the gear and skill tree. I think just in swapping Divine Ire for Arc you won’t see any notable difference in the basics, Most of it is built with critical strike and multipliers along with lightning. With the nerfs to Arc though, I think this build has better overall single target and area coverage. The only issue really besides squishiness is the charge up time.
That said, against bosses this build is pretty sturdy. You probably much just drop your totems and Storm Brands before a fight to warm up your power charges then let everything rip. I would say that if I can get a few more levels and add some jewels (like my Watcher’s Eye that has phys to lightning and figuring out where to put my Militant Faith timeless jewel), then I think this build should be pretty fantastic.
I think if I could obtain an Atziri’s Reflection, I would prefer that over my +1 totem shield. The curse management can be really annoying. Also, I have an Assassin’s Mark ring in my stash, which might allow me to use some other combination of gems (for say more defense) and a different ring setup.
Another possibility would be to go full shaper/elder with the Shroud of Eternity setup. I think in that situation it would be a complete min-max setup that’s ultra expensive and painful. The end setup would be amazing but at this stage of the league it feels like overkill.
At any rate, this was probably my smoothest leveling experience in the game thus far. I think the combination of my improved skills with the game and the high damage output from Divine Ire made leveling a breeze. While there has been some tense moments, this build definitely is a contender for one of the chillest builds I’ve worked with.