With POE 3.24 right around the corner, I’m finally back with my powerful yet cheap league starter build, which is Crit Cold Shockwave Totem Hierophant! It can take you all the way to kill Uber Pinnacle Boss with a reasonable investment.

Before we get into that, however, I have to warn you that this build is not intended for Solo Self-Found. So if you want SSF builds, look for other ways.

How To Scale Damage?

Shockwave Totem is a purely physical spell, with multiple ways to scale its damage. In this build, we equip Hrimsorrow Gloves, which convert all physical damage into cold damage. This allows us to use things like Cold Penetration and Hatred Aura for high damage.

I use Bitterdream Unique Sceptre as my chief weapon. As we said before, all support gems help scale cold damage. Chills and Freezes are like a layer of defense that makes me feel very safe while mapping.

Next, place your key skill here and you will get a pseudo 9 link. You can equip this Scepter starting at level 32. However, I highly recommend equipping it only after completing the campaign, otherwise you may run into some mana issues.

Thrillsteel is another unique item I use that provides permanent Onslaught.

Since Shockwave Totem scales very well with cast speed. Therefore, it is very important to increase the casting speed on your gear, especially jewelry. For other stats, focus mainly on Life, Resistances and Attributes.

Shockwave Totem has a glaring weakness in that it can only hit enemies within range, and enemies are always pushed out of range after knock-back, meaning you need to constantly re-summon your totem, which can be annoying. However, Astral Projector Unique Ring will be of great help to your Totem.

Using Astral Projector, you can place Totem anywhere and they will cast Nova spells directly on enemies. The cost should be around 30 Chaos Orbs at the start of the league.

Of course, you can get through tier 16 maps without it, but if you want to start doing harder content, buying Astral Projector should be your priority.

Gear

Next, let’s take a look at the gear for this build.

These 3 unique items I mentioned earlier are all you need to start mapping up to tier 16 maps.

You don’t need life on your Body Armor because when using this Life Mastery, if we don’t have the life modifier on our Body Armor, our life will increase by 15%.

However, we can’t increase totem life from anywhere, so anoint Ironwood to prevent your totem from dying quickly. This is especially important when you get to Red Maps, but don’t worry, the oils you need are very cheap.

Your priority after this is to purchase Astral Projector Ring. Once you get Sleepless Sentries Cluster Jewel, you can change the helmet. Using Essence of Loathing can improve mana reservation efficiency on the helmet. Until you have enough POE Currency to switch to Devouring Diadem.

Devouring Diadem provides Eldritch Battery, which allows us to reserve all mana and spend Energy Shield instead of skills. Along with the shields, they are crucial to incorporating all our auras into this build.

When purchasing Skin of the Lords, make sure you get the correct socket color, as they cannot be modified later in any way, including Tainted Chromatic Orb. With this gear equipped, you can unspecify Ancestral Bond from the skill tree.

Leadership’s Price is a good amulet both offensively and defensively. Brittle Conflux will increase our critical hit chance, Scorch Conflux will reduce the enemy’s elemental resistance, and Sap Conflux will reduce the damage caused by the enemy.

In order to get these Confluxes, your two highest attributes must be equal. Even though my intelligence is 70 higher than my strength, with the return of tattoos we should be able to easily match the 2 highest attributes. Of course, don’t forget to anoint your amulet.

How To Convert All Physical To Cold Damage?

When you get into the late game, you may want to use a rare pair of gloves instead of Hrimsorrow. So, how do we convert all physical damage into cold damage?

First, we get Cold Mastery, which converts 40% of physical damage into cold damage, another 39% from Watcher’s Eye, and then another 20% from my gloves. I know it’s 99% total, but you could try to get 25% Eldritch Implicit on your gloves, then you’d get 100% cold damage.

100% Chance Of Avoiding Elemental Ailments

Also, this build has a 100% chance of avoiding Elemental Ailments. Of this, 30% comes from Astral Projector, 51% comes from My Boots, and the other 20% comes from Shield Mastery.

Mana Reservation Efficiency

I’m running 6 auras on this build. I gained mana reservation efficiency from my Skill Tree, Level 4 Enlighten Support, Charisma Anoint, Devouring Diadem, and my Shield. Assuming you’re still a little short of mana after getting all of this, you can try adding some mana to your gear.

This build has a critical hit rate of around 98% without Bottled Faith because of Brittle Conflux by Leadership’s Price. In order to reach Brittle cap of Uber Boss, I acquired Critical Mastery and Militant Faith, and added the effect of non-damaging ailments.

Avoid Farming No Hit Sanctum

This build can complete most mechanics, but I don’t recommend it for farming no hit Sanctum, as this build does not apply Freeze, which is also the major defense for running no hit Sanctum.

That’s it for the complete guide to Crit Cold Shockwave Totem Hierophant build. Necropolis League is coming soon, so get your best build ready to get into the game!