The Slormancer Wood Totem Knight

Core Mechanics

Slorm ReaperWe are gonna build around the reaper “The Great Shaman”, and we are using totems to deal damage. Since the primordial version of this reaper effectively disabled primary and secondary skills as well as support skill, we are using those only for passive upgrades.

The primordial version of this reaper (achieved by killing a total of around 42k monsters on the non-primordial form, base weapon and evolution combined) is not mandatory, but it’s a plus and helps for the very good feeling of the build. Before you get the primordial, you can use your other skill, but keep in mind that you will lose the bonus from attribute Dexterity.

Wood StickThe totem shoots 6 wood sticks in a circle around them, so we benefit from 5 base additional projectiles. Note that at the moment (0.3.106), this reaper benefit from additional projectile on gear (or ultimatum), but since the devs have confirmed this isn’t intended (Link to discord message here[discord.com] ), we are not gonna use any additional projectile, in order to keep the build viable after the bug fix.

GameplayThe gameplay is very straightforward and quite safe. It’s useful to note that since we do not want to cast primary/secondary nor support skills, I'll recommend unbinding those skills and binding ancestral skill 1 / 2 to the mouse button (LMB, RMB). This way you’ll play the build with the normal LMB/RMB button, without using your class skill. See Dexterity for more information why we want that.

Perks And Passives

Wood StickIn order to deal some damage, we are gonna use the additional damage coming from thorns. We can achieve a good amount of thorns with gear, and the additional damage is 200% of this value.

We take the splintered mechanics, because it’s very strong, and with the Belt Splintering Vine, we are always gonna have the maximum amount of stacks, since we do have some projectiles and splinters.

For the splinters you want to take Forest blast, making an explosion of splinters upon collision with a wall, making the belt more effective by pre-stacking the debuff splintered on enemies further.

We are of course taking Wood Log, to have another 150% damage increase. Note that this perk drastically decreases projectile range, so we want some projectile speed in order to feel good.

DeflectWe are using deflect, because it’s just a good way to increase the survivability of the build.

The build is using some kind of block, not really relevant, but still a nice little boost to defense. Basically we are always having at least 15 blocks stacks, which is a 15% damage reduction on average. (Since we are taking Mastering block)

You want to take the 20% life, since we are scaling a bit of life as our primary source of defense.

For the last two you want the Mastering Block, and the 100% tenacity and since we are not casting deflect, the area damage immunity is useless, I really like not being slowed down when I play. You can also take Shielding Intensifies, but it’s pretty negligible (it’s working with crest shield passive generation).

Elder ArmorYou can always swap the 100% tenacity for this, if you are struggling to survive. This will greatly boost your life pool, if you do have Max Life AND % Max life on your cheat, making them both double effective.

Crest ShieldNothing really interesting here, only taking crest shield for the passive generation of block charge, as well as the minimum block of 15.

Ancestral Legacy Tree

There is nothing required here, so I like to take some move speed and attack speed, as well as magic find.

The ice aura helps a bit against melee enemy, by reducing the enemies attack speed.

Attributes

This is the attribute I’m using for this build. Nothing is really necessary apart from dexterity (and isn’t really needed, you could probably do very well without).

DexterityThe primary attribute used in this build is dexterity. Since we are not using any of our own skills, the first greater trait of this attribute is free. While in combat, our damage will be boosted for every stack we have.

We also gain some attack speed, which helps to spam activate totems.

The 50% projectile speed is what we really want, since the perk wood log from Wood Stick decreases the projectile range.

25% Damage to elites also quite helps.

BraveryBravery 15 is almost an auto pick for critical build, it’s basically 15% free critical strike chance. When you pick fragments on the map, you get a stack. This will basically always be up (except on floor start).

On top of that we get some movement speed, slorm find, influence gain (at this point influence only unlocked new enemies).

FuryWe take those few points to benefit another 10% critical strike chance.

Nothing really more here.

Ultimatums

Flawless powder, Critical strike damageSince this build was made without any real epic stats investments, the use of the critical strike damage ultimatums is really nice. It’s allowing you to boost your critical strike for low cost.

Gear

Mod poolIn this priority order, you want the first available stat in the pool. Skip to the next if not available on this particular item:

Thorns Damage, % Thorns Damage (pure stat farmable)

Attack speed

Critical strike chance (See Reaching crit cap)

Max life, % Max life

Damages to Elites

Movement speed

Critical strike damage (See Ultimatums, Flawless powder)

At least one stat of mana and life leech

Totems effect, mostly restricted to epic stat

Legendary requiredThose legendary items are not really required, but helps a lot toward the good viability of the build, as well as the good feeling of it.

Splintering Vine\Use this to boost the damage of your wood stick. Even if you hit an enemy with a splinter from wood stick and not directly with a wood stick, you will apply a splintered stack. You should have 3 stacks on every enemy, especially elites, making crit proc do high damage.

Biting FortressThose shoulders are basically just a damage increase. Since it’s thorns damage multiplier, you will basically increase all your damage by this value.

Winds of HarmonyYou want to reduce as low as possible the cooldown of activated prime totems, in order to cast as fast as possible. To do that, you will need some attack speed (gear, attribute), and you can further reduce the cooldown with Winds of Harmony.

Legendary nice to haveSteaming Ancestral FervorSince we are only using ancestral skills (summon totems and activate them), taking this amulet is nearly a must. You will always (nearly) have the buff up, giving you around +22% critical strike chance for a +10 item.

Vitalizing Vital Helm of VitalityIt boosts your life pool. Pretty straightforward nothing to add here.

Damasius AwarenessBoost your critical strike chance against near full life enemies, you can hit 100% critical strike chance with those bracers.

Common Problems

Life sustainAt the moment the wood stick sent by the totem is considered as direct damage, meaning you can use leech to sustain. The easy way to have leech is to put in gloves on magic/rare stat. You can remove this later by taking one epic stat on any gear for leech.

Mana sustainThe same way as Life sustain, we can utilize leech to counter all mana problems. The mana leech stat is available on bracers, on magic/rare stat, or in epic stat on any gear. I’ll recommend taking the bracers mana leech (magic or rare stat), it’s the cheapest option and will need it early on to sustain mana.

SurvivabilityMake sure you have both Life sustain and Mana sustain covered. If you are still struggling after those two steps, try to have more life on your gear. You can reach a good amount of life (10k+) without too much cost. Consider taking Elder Armor if you are struggling with your life pool. If you take it, try to have Max life and % Max life on your chest.

Reaching crit capIn order to deal massive damage, you need to have a nice critical strike chance. Since we are using Bravery 15 as well as Fury 10, and the Steaming Ancestral Fervor, we “only” need to achieve 53% bonus crit chance (with an amulet +10, giving +22%) to have 100%.

Complete Gear Setup

At the current time of writing this guide, the planner is not up to date with the reaper, I'm just using manabender instead (but it’s really Slormandrite sword of the great shaman).

Good Gear (+5 magic/rare)Link here[cayrac.github.io]

End-game Gear (+10 epic)Link here[cayrac.github.io]

Video done with this setup

Very late-game Gear (+15 legendary)Link here[cayrac.github.io]

Google Docs & Other Guide

Here is the google docs made for the build, which is easier to read.

Link here[docs.google.com]

Other guide https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2576684185

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2719159132

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2742264491

Wood Totem Knight