PoE Ancestral Bond — Path of Exile

Ancestral Bond is a keystone passive skill in Path of Exile that significantly alters your character’s gameplay by allowing you to summon an additional totem at the cost of being unable to deal direct damage with your skills. This keystone is crucial for totem-based builds, offering a powerful boost in totem count and encouraging a playstyle focused on indirect damage through totems and other proxies.

PoE Ancestral Bond

Key Features

  • +1 to Maximum Number of Summoned Totems: The primary benefit of Ancestral Bond is the increase in the maximum number of totems you can summon by one. This allows for a more aggressive and versatile totem playstyle, as you can have more totems attacking or supporting simultaneously. For builds that rely heavily on totems for dealing damage or providing utility, this additional totem can greatly enhance overall effectiveness.
  • You Can’t Deal Damage with Skills Yourself: The trade-off for this powerful totem enhancement is that your character can no longer deal direct damage using skills. This restriction means that all damage must be dealt indirectly, typically through totems, minions, or other sources of damage that are not directly controlled by your character.

Mechanics

  • Totem-Focused Playstyle: With Ancestral Bond, your character becomes fully dependent on totems for dealing damage. This makes it essential to invest in totem-related skills, passives, and support gems to maximize the damage output and survivability of your totems.
  • Indirect Damage Only: While you cannot deal damage directly with skills, you can still cause damage through indirect means. This includes damage dealt by totems, minions, or effects that do not require direct damage, such as the burning ground created by Flame Surge or damage over time effects from traps and mines.
  • Hits and Critical Strikes: It’s important to note that Ancestral Bond does not prevent your character from hitting or landing critical strikes. This means that while you can’t deal damage directly, you can still trigger on-hit effects, apply debuffs, or generate charges through skills that interact with hits or critical strikes.
  • Synergies with Minions and Traps: Ancestral Bond pairs well with builds that use minions, traps, or other mechanics that deal damage independently of your character. For example, a build that uses totems in conjunction with minions or traps can continue to deal significant damage despite the restriction imposed by Ancestral Bond.

Optimal Use Cases

  1. Totem Builds: Ancestral Bond is a staple keystone for totem-based builds, allowing you to deploy more totems at once and increasing your overall damage output through these proxies. Whether you’re using spell totems, ranged attack totems, or any other type of totem, this keystone is essential for maximizing your totem potential.
  2. Minion or Trap Builds: While not the primary focus, Ancestral Bond can also be useful for builds that rely on minions or traps for damage. Since these builds do not rely on the character dealing direct damage, the keystone’s restriction has little to no impact, allowing you to benefit from the additional totem without a significant downside.
  3. Support and Utility: For characters focused on support or utility roles within a party, Ancestral Bond allows you to contribute to damage through totems while focusing on providing buffs, debuffs, or healing to your allies. The inability to deal direct damage is less of a concern in these roles, making Ancestral Bond a viable option.

Considerations

  • No Direct Damage: The inability to deal direct damage with your skills requires a significant shift in playstyle. Ensure that your build is fully committed to totems or other indirect damage sources to avoid a loss in effectiveness.
  • Investment in Totems: To make the most of Ancestral Bond, it’s important to invest heavily in totem-related passives, skills, and support gems. This will ensure that your totems are as powerful and resilient as possible, compensating for your character’s inability to deal direct damage.
  • Survivability: Since your totems will be doing all the damage, it’s crucial to ensure they are well-supported and protected. Consider using skills and items that increase totem life, resistances, or regeneration to keep them alive in tough encounters.

PoE Ancestral Bond Build

Classes:

  • Hierophant: 55%
  • Elementalist: 13%
  • Pathfinder: 11%
  • Champion: 6%
  • Guardian: 4%
  • Necromancer: 4%
  • Ascendant: 3%
  • Trickster: 2%
  • Chieftain: 0.9%
  • Inquisitor: 0.6%
  • Warden: 0.5%
  • Occultist: 0.4%
  • Juggernaut: 0.3%
  • Deadeye: 0.2%
  • Saboteur: 0.2%
  • Slayer: 0.1%
  • Assassin: 0.1%
  • Berserker: 0%
  • Gladiator: 0%
  • Shadow: 0%

Main Skills:

  • Shockwave Totem: 21%
  • Explosive Arrow: 17%
  • Power Siphon of the Archmage: 11%
  • Storm Burst: 10%
  • Toxic Rain: 7%
  • Summon Holy Relic of Conviction: 6%
  • Ensnaring Arrow: 3%
  • Ice Spear: 3%
  • Scourge Arrow: 3%
  • Frenzy: 2%
  • Unhinge: 2%
  • Freezing Pulse: 2%
  • Power Siphon: 2%

Masteries:

  • 60% increased Global Critical Strike Chance if you’ve Summoned a Totem Recently: 42%
  • 12% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills: 40%
  • Auras from your Skills have 10% increased Effect on you: 32%
  • Totems Taunt Enemies around them for 1 second when Summoned: 28%
  • 8% increased Damage for each of your Aura or Herald Skills affecting you: 27%
  • 3% increased Damage per Endurance, Frenzy or Power Charge: 27%
  • +25% to Critical Strike Multiplier against Unique Enemies: 27%
  • +30 to maximum Life: 24%
  • 15% increased maximum Life if there are no Life Modifiers on Equipped Body Armour: 24%
  • Increases and reductions to Maximum Mana also apply to Shock Effect at 30% of their value: 19%
  • 5% of Damage from Hits is taken from your nearest Totem’s Life before you: 17%
  • 10% more Skill Effect Duration: 16%
  • Hits have 25% chance to treat Enemy Monster Elemental Resistance values as inverted: 13%

Summary

  • Effect: Increases the maximum number of summoned totems by 1, but prevents your character from dealing direct damage with skills.
  • Ideal For: Totem builds, minion or trap builds, and support-focused characters.
  • Playstyle Shift: Requires a focus on indirect damage sources and a full commitment to a totem-based playstyle.
  • Key Synergies: Pairs well with totem-related passives, support gems, and items that enhance the effectiveness and survivability of your totems.

Ancestral Bond is a powerful keystone for players who want to fully embrace a totem-focused playstyle, offering significant advantages in totem summoning at the cost of direct damage. By leveraging the power of totems and other indirect damage sources, players can create highly effective builds that excel in various content throughout Path of Exile.

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