How are you, exiles? I believe that most players have had a good experience during the early access of Path of Exile 2, because this new sequel not only retains some popular mechanisms in the original, but also readjusts the overall game difficulty and quality of life functions, so that more players can enjoy the charm of POE series of games here.
Among these changes and reworks, the most concerned must include Melee Totems, especially for some melee builds enthusiasts. Its impact on the build is crucial. Here, we will talk about the changes of Ancestral Warrior Totem in POE 2 and bring a melee build with this as the core. If you just want to enjoy the exciting and gorgeous effects brought to you by the totem effect, then don’t miss it!
Ancestral Warrior Totem
First of all, Ancestral Warrior Totem is a main skill that can be linked to any eligible Mace skills. Here, we have Stampede Totem and Sunder Totem.
You can then convert everything to fire damage via Avatar of Fire keystone, and scale damage with fire, which is more cost-effective and easier. Since it is in the lower left section of the passive skill tree, it only costs less POE 2 Currency and you can change skills as needed, whether it is Volcanic Fissure, Earthshatter, or even Shockwave Totem.
At the same time, we also tried Titan and Warbringer, and found that Gemling Legionnaire can better make up for the weaknesses of melee builds.
In POE 2, Melee Totems have its weapons, and the way to make a totem weapon more powerful is to upgrade the gem or increase the global damage. Since the skills will consume a lot of mana because of the upgraded gem, Gemling Legionnaire can both reduce the mana cost and increase the gem level as needed. Also, change Blood Magic and Life Regeneration to Mana Flask so that you don’t have problems on maps with reduced mana regeneration.
Another advantage of using Gemling Legionnaire is that you can use skills across classes without being restricted by attributes. This way, you can use skills that support totems even if they require a lot of Int and Dex.
Build Basics
In this build, we used 2 weapon sets. The dual wielding set as an offensive set, and the mace and shield set as a defensive set. We put all totems in the dual wielding set, which will snapshot our passive offensive skills. At the same time, we switch back to the mace and shield set to support our totems, which have passive skills for support and defense.
Offense
In terms of offense, as you know, in Path of Exile 2, to get the most out of totems, we need to increase the gem level and increase global damage. We can increase the gem level by:
- One-handed Mace up to +5
- Two-handed Mace up to +7
- Gloves and Amulets will give you +2 and +3
- +1 from Ascendency
You can corrupt gems with Vaal Orb to get higher skill levels, but it is risky and you may end up with nothing. All in all, you can get to a level 40 Totem.
Then, we will convert all damage to fire damage from the passive skill Avatar of Fire. So in weapons, we need to look for the prefix “Increased Elemental Damage with Attack”, which is a global increase. We can also add Soul Core of Citaqualotl to increase the fixed damage from other parts such as gloves and rings.
In the passive skill tree, we focus on finding nodes that increase Totem Damage, Attack Speed, Area of Effect, and Attack Area Damage, as well as jewel slots with Totem Damage, Fire Damage, or related content.
In this build, Fire Penetration doesn’t do much besides mapping. Because when we face the boss, the boss resistance can already be lower than 0 just by using Curse and Fire Exposure. So when you encounter the boss, just place Solar Orb, cast Flammability under the boss, and channel Incinerate on the boss to help the totem cause more damage. For Curse, if you have to fight a boss that changes position frequently, you can use other auxiliary in addition to Cursed Ground Support.
Defense
Next, let’s look at the defense mechanism of this build. Since we start from the bottom and have a lot of Evasion or Armour nodes, we equip a hybrid armor that can increase both at the same time, and assign a keystone called Iron Reflexes to convert all Evasion to Armour, providing us with some survival armor.
In addition, at the bottom left of the passive skill tree, there are a few points that can increase the maximum elemental resistance. So if you still have some points, increasing these resistances is a good choice. When combined with gems that increase maximum resistance, you can even increase resistance to 90%, especially for Fire Elementals, which is easier than other elements.
For defensive skills, we use Scavenged Plating, because it has a good synergy with Resonating Shield, which can increase our armor by more than 80%. That’s almost double. In the meantime, Crest of Ardura Shield and Cooldown Recovery Rate in the passive skill tree allow you to quickly get away from danger.
Gear Selection
Finally, for the equipment selection of this build, you can rest assured that it does not require mandatory unique equipment, which means that it is completely affordable even if you don’t have a big budget. For all starting items, you can use them at a cost of no more than 20 Exalted Orbs each.
The helmets, body armor, gloves, and boots we need are all mixed Str and Dex, which can provide us with Evasion or Armor. The only thing to look for is gloves with +2 for all melee skill levels and amulets with +3 for all melee skill levels.
For weapons, in the offensive set, you look for 2 two-handed maces with a required level of 64 or lower, which have +7 melee skill and increase elemental damage on attack. The reason for looking for level 64 or lower is because they easily convert the stats to Int and Dex, and it costs about 2-3 Divine Orbs. Whereas the ideal mace is one that has both +7 and elemental damage without the conversion requirement, but they are very expensive, about 20+ Divines.
For the defensive set, if you have the spare money, you can find another mace similar to the offensive set. If not, you can also put in a one-handed mace, or use Sceptre to get more Spirit, and try other skills.
For the shield in the defensive set, you can use a rare shield that mixes Str and Dex, or you can just go with Crest of Ardura Jingling Crest Shield to get the movement skills and mana regen rate.
If you have more currency, it’s better to just grab gear with better stats, but if you’re short on money, keep an eye on the giveaway channel in IGGM Discord and be active in the group, you might be able to get some of the items you need for your build!
That’s all you need to know about this Ancestral Warrior Totem build, which has crazy coverage, speed, and DPS to help you eliminate all the non-uber content in POE 2. So, give it a try and enjoy the fun of totems blasting through dense groups of monsters!
