Shockwave Totem
Infernalist Build

Updated for Path of Exile 2 Early Access

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Shockwave Totem, similarly to other Totem Skills in Path of Exile 2, has unusual damage scaling. It uses its own weapon with a quite low base damage, and the best way to increase it is by increasing the Skill Gem level, which exponentially raises the Mana cost of the skill at the same time, increasing the overall build's complexity. Our recommended setup offers a very easy and reliable fix for this. By using Infernalist with Pyromantic Pact, you can freely use Skills regardless of their Mana Cost, but you will take damage whenever you fill your Infernal Flame. By increasing your Maximum Fire Resistance, not only does the damage become insignificant, but you also become very tanky.

In this setup, we have decided to convert most of your damage to Fire, as there is an abundance of Fire DPS nodes near the Witch's starting location. You can also easily get Two-Handed Maces with over 150% Increased Elemental Damage with Attacks, which, unlike generic Increased Physical Attack Damage, will apply to your Shockwave Totems. This build is generally much simpler than most Totem builds out there. You don't need any complex Passives or Uniques to begin with, and the damage is very high, allowing you to farm all the Bosses in the game. Additionally, you are quite tanky with over 4,000 Life and high damage mitigation from your Ascendancy.

Shockwave Totem is your primary source of damage, and you should have three summoned at all times. Additionally, you can summon a fourth Ancestral Warrior Totem with Earthquake, thanks to the Overabundance Gem. It deals some extra damage while creating Jagged Ground, which slows enemies and can be detonated by Shockwave Totems. This build relies on a very high Life Pool with moderate Armour Rating and 90% Maximum Fire Resistance. With Altered Flesh and a summoned Hellhound, a lot of incoming damage will be mitigated, making it a very tanky character.

You can also check our other Path of Exile 2 builds right over here Best PoE2 Build Guides by Odealo.com

1. Gameplay

This build offers a typical Totem playstyle - your run around Maps summoning new Totems constantly, and those kill enemies for you. You are quite tanky, so you can progress faster than usual, allowing you to rush into new packs while Shockwave Totems kill most enemies in a single hit. Your goal is to have three Shockwave Totems summoned and have a fourth Totem spawned by using the Overabundance Gem - it's recommended to use it for Earthquake, which is more of an utility Skill in this setup, primarily focusing on applying powerful slows, on top of some extra moderate damage. You will also have the Infernal Hound summoned, which Ignites enemies and applies Fire Exposure. It will also redirect some damage from your character. Against Bosses, you can use Flammability Curse and Orb of Storms with all three Fonts allocated for various bonuses. Stampede can be used for some extra mobility, Rage generation, and damage from Aftershocks.

2. Build PROS & CONS

3. Leveling tips

As we have already mentioned earlier, it's basically impossible to level up with Shockwave Totems, and it would be completely unreliable. The most efficient way to level up an Infernalist is by using Fire-based Minions. You should just focus on summoning Raging Spirits by casting Flame Walls and summon additional Minions like Skeletal Arsonists, Skeletal Warriors, or possibly Skeletal Snipers. If you are leveling up with Minions, it will be heavily recommended to get Uniques like Enfolding Dawn Armour and Oaksworn Shield - both grant a lot of extra Spirit and additional Resistances. The leveling can look something like this: Infernalist Leveling Tree base

[DPS] Skeletal Arsonist
	Skeletal Arsonist - the recommended Minions for the leveling phase, which deal a solid AoE damage with the command skill
	Scattershot - Increases the number of Projectiles fired with linked skills but reduces the damage slightly
	Concentrated Effect - Increases the damage at the cost of reducing the Area of Effect

[DPS] Raging Spirits
	Raging Spirits - a persistent Minion Spell that summons short-lived Minions constantly when you use Fire Spells. In this scenario, you should use Flame Wall for that purpose
	Fire Infusion - grants additional Fire damage, but makes the skill deal less Cold and Lightning Damage
	Martial Tempo - grants 25% More Attack Speed
	Feeding Frenzy - makes supported Minions deal more damage but also makes them more fragile

[UTILITY] Flame Wall
	Flame Wall - creates a fire wall that deals moderate Fire Damage, Ignites enemies, and makes Projectiles that fly trough it to deal additional Fire Damage
	Fortress - makes Flame Wall to be created in a circle instead

4. Final Skill Tree, Ascendancy Points, and Pantheon

Final Skill Tree:

Click on the image to open the Passive Tree preview in a new window Or import the build into PoB: Path of Building 2 code

Ascendancy points:

Preferably in this order:

1. Loyal Hellhound
2. Altered Flesh
3. Pyromantic Pact
4. small Life nodes

5. Final Gems links

[DPS] Shockwave Totem
	Shockwave Totem - your primary source of damage. You should have three of those Totems up at all times. The following setup offers the best compromise between single-target DPS and clear speed, but the Gems related to AOE can be naturally changed for more damage against stationary targets like Bosses if needed
	Astral Projection - makes the Nova Attacks from the Totems to be used at your target rather than Totem location
	Magnified Effect - Increases the Area of Effect of linked skills. It can be replaced on Bosses with Concentrated Effect for more damage but even smaller AOE
	Fire Infusion - adds additional Fire Damage but makes the skill deal less Cold and Lightning Damage (which is irrelevant in this build)
	Martial Tempo - grants more Attack Speed
	Immolate - grants extra Fire Damage against ignited enemies

[DPS] Earthquake Totems
	Ancestral Warrior Totem - a Skill that summons a Totem that can use a linked Slam Attack. In our case, it's Earthquake.
	Earthquake - a powerful Slam attack that creates Jagged Ground that slows down enemies and can be detonated by Shockwave Totems for some extra AoE damage
	Elemental Focus - Increases Elemental Damage of linked skills but makes them unable to inflict ailments
	Overabundance - allows you to summon an additional Totem with linked skills (the 4th Totem in our case) but reduces its duration
	Fire Penetration - makes linked skill Penetrate additional Fire Resistance
	Primal Armament - Increases Elemental Damage with supported Attack skills

[UTILITY] Stampede
	Stampede - a Travel Attack which is used for extra mobility and to deal extra damage with Aftershocks. Since your weapons don't have any actual base DPS, the only way is to scale it via the Stomping Ground Support Gem. It should also generate extra Rage
	Stomping Ground - moving with Stampede will cause Aftershocks that deal damage based on your Strength attribute
	Momentum - after travelling a certain distance with Stampede, you will deal significantly higher damage with it
	Rage - generates extra Rage on Melee Hits with Stampede
	Aftershock - grants a chance to create additional Aftershocks with the supported skill
	Inspiration - if you have free Sockets, you can use Inspiration to lower the Mana Cost, but it's not really that important here

[UTILITY] Summon Infernal Hound
	Summon Infernal Hound - Infernalist's exclusive Minion which issued to Ignite enemies, apply powerful Fire Exposure, and reduce some of the damage taken by your character
	Meat Shield - reduces the damage taken by supported Minions Skills, but makes them deal less damage
	Minion Mastery - Increases the Gem Level of all linked Minion Gems
	Fire Exposure - makes the Hound apply Fire Exposure whenever it Ignites enemies, which it does passively
	Strip Away - Increases the effect of Exposure applied by your Infernal Hound
	Elemental Army - Increases the Elemental Resistances of linked Minions, boosting their defenses

[UTILITY] Orb of Storms
	Orb of Storms - an area Spell which is used mainly for the Font effects that can be applied it via Support Gems. It should be used against Bosses
	Font of Rage - when you stay in the radius of Orb of Storms, you will generate Rage passively
	Font of Blood - grants increased Life Regeneration Rate when you stay in radius
	Arcane Tempo - increases the Cast Speed of linked Gems. You can also use it with Flammability, depending on which of the Spells you use more frequently

[UTILITY] Flammability
	Flammability - the best Curse Spell for this build, which reduces the Fire Resistance of affected enemies. Just like Orb of Storms, used it against Bosses mainly
	Heightened Curse - Increases the effect of linked Curses
	Cursed Ground - makes the linked Curse to apply its effect to all enemies around targeted location

[UTILITY] Time of Need
	Time of Need - the only Persistent Aura buff that we recommend using. It will recover a portion of your Life periodically while also removing ailments from your character
	Fast Forward - reduces the "cooldown" of Time of Need effects, causing it to trigger more frequently
	Cannibalism - makes you recover a small portion of your life on Kill
	Precision - Increases your Accuracy Rating
	Vitality - increases your Life Regneration Rate

6. Gear Setup

This build is quite easy to assemble, as it can be done solely with Rare Items. You should primarily focus on getting Two-Handed Maces with +7 to Level of All Melee Skill Gems and Elemental Damage with Attacks. Nearly all other bonuses on the weapons are irrelevant, so they shouldn't be that expensive. Other than that, you need to reach 90% Maximum Fire Resistance, which is necessary to mitigate the damage you take when using Skills. Then you just stack as many generic defensive stats like Life, Resistances, and Armour Rating as possible, and obviously Strength to provide the requirement attributes to wield your weapons (on top of the extra Life it also provides). 

This build doesn't really require any Unique Items, but some of them will make the gearing-up process much easier and flexible. Against the Darkness Jewel with Maximum Fire Resistance can cover almost all your needs for the Maximum Fire Resistance stat and also possibly provide bonus Strength on several nearby nodes. Megalomaniac with Watchtowers or Ancestral Artifice is also highly recommended, as it saves you a bunch of Passive Skills that you will normally have to spend to get the latter Passive on your Tree (with Watchtowers getting anointment on the Amulet).

(Weapon) Rare Two-Handed Maces - you need two Two-Handed Maces with +7 to Level of All Melee Skill Gems and preferably 80%+ Elemental Damage with Attacks. Unlike other bonuses, Elemental Damage applies to your Totems, greatly boosting your damage. It's best to look for bases with lower Strength Requirement or get this attribute here

Min. requirements: +7 to Level of All Melee Skill Gems 80% Elemental Damage with Attacks Optional affixes: Strength Reduced Attribute Requirement

(Helmet) Rare Helmet - look for highest defensive stats possible, including Life, Resistances, and high base Armour Rating

Min. requirements: 120 Maximum Life 100% Total Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: High Armour Rating

(Gloves) Rare Gloves - again, look for high defensive stats. If you can also afford those, you can try getting added Physical and Fire Damage to Attack modes here

Min. requirements: 100 Maximum Life 100% Total Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: High Armour Rating Added Physical/Fire Damage to Attacks

(Boots) Rare Boots - again, we aim for high defensive stats and at least 25% increased Movement Speed. You can also try getting some extra Strength here

Min. requirements: 25% Increased Movement Speed 60% Resistances 100 Maximum Life Optional affixes: High Armour Rating Strength

(Amulet) Rare Amulet - you are looking to get all the missing Attributes and/or Resistances here. It's also one of the few Items that can give you extra levels to Melee Gems, and it's highly recommended to get. Getting Watchtowers or Ancestral Artifice Anointment here is a must, and it depends on whether you are using Megalomaniac or Tree for the second of the Passives

Min. requirements: 100 Maximum Life +# to Level of All Melee Skill Gems Optional affixes: Attributes (Strength, mainly) Accuracy Rating Resistances Anointments: Watchtowers Ancestral Artifice

(Ring) Rare Rings - Rings are an extremely important part of all builds in PoE2 - even more so if you are using the Ingenuity Belt. You should aim at getting 100 Maximum Life here and all the missing Attributes and Resistances here. You can also get added Damage to Attacks or an increased Fire Damage mod, if possible.

Min. requirements: 100 Maximum Life Elemental Resistance Attributes Optional affixes: Increased Fire Damage Added Physical/Fire Damage to Attacks Accuracy Rating

(Belt) Rare Belt - if you are still leveling up or progressing through lower Tier content, just get a Belt with high Attributes, Life and Resistances - stats you will want to get later on the Rings in larger quantity to be further boosted by Ingenutity Belt

Min. requirements: Missing Resistances 150 Maximum Life Charm Slots Optional affixes: Resistances Strength

(Belt) Ingenuity - the best Belt in the game, which can massively Boost the stats on your Rings, that have much more valuable mod pool than your regular Rare Belts

+(40-80)% increased bonuses gained from Equipped Rings

(Body Armour) Rare Body Armour - look for the highest combination of defensive stats you can afford. Prioritize Life and Armour Rating, as they can be found here in bigger quantity

Min. requirements: 1500 Armour Rating 150 Maximum Life 60% Total Resistances Optional affixes: Strength

(Jewel) Rare Ruby Jewel - you need to get 90% Maximum Fire Resistance when playing this build, and this can only be found on Rubies. It also has other valuable Melee DPS mods

Recommended affixes: 2% Maximum Fire Resistance Increased Totem Placement Speed Increased Attack Damage Increased Melee Damage Increased Elemental Damage Increased Fire Damage Increased Area of Effect

(Jewel) Against the Darkness - This Jewel, almost alone, can cover a big part of your needs for Maximum Fire Resistances. Even with Bonus strength, it can be quite cheap, and if you socket it right next to Blood Magic, you can get the extra effects on 5 or even 6 nodes

Recommended affixes: Notable Passive Skills in Radius also grant +1% to Maximum Fire Resistance Notable Passive Skills in Radius also grant 4% increased Strength

(Jewel) Megalomaniac - getting Megalomaniac can save you a bunch of Passive Points on your Tree that you would normally need to get the Ancestral Artifice Passive. You should get it with either that or Watchtowers while anointing the other. The other potential Passives are the ones you would normally take around Blood Magic, making it particularly valuable if you have the Against the Darkness Socketed there. Vengeful Fury, Revenge, and Bestial Rage are the most interesting ones

Recommended affixes Allocates Ancestral Artifice/Watchtowers Allocates Vengeful Fury Allocates Revenge Allocates Bestial Rage

If you have any other build requests please leave that in the comments below. We are always open to suggestions and constructive feedback.

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