Warbringer Sunder Totems Endgame Build

Build Introduction

This is a very tanky build, quite affordable, and comes with solid DPS. It is 100% beginner-friendly and it simply smashes! This build is an all rounder that can do Waystone 15 and 16 maps with ease. If you invest more currency into it, you’ll be able to farm even tougher bosses (like King of the Mists and Olroth up to difficulty +4), and it can even farm Simulacrums +4 once maxed!

The Warbringer ascendancy provides significantly higher levels of defense compared to a Titan. Our block is greatly empowered by the Turtle Charm ascendancy node, allowing us to block many more types of attacks. Additionally, our totems absorb 20% of the incoming damage we receive from hits.

While both Titan and Warbringer are viable for totem builds, the latter is much tankier and safer to play, making it ideal for new players and casuals. The build offers great defensive capabilities while still maintaining high damage. The Warbringer Sunder Totems setup is an excellent choice for mapping. This has been my main build in Path of Exile 2 since the early access launch. Excluding the Arbiter of Ash on difficulty +4, I have completed all available content with it, and I have plenty of videos on my channel to showcase the power of this simple build.

This build changed slightly with Patch 0.2.0. Click here to see the full breakdown of the changes.

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Strengths and Weaknesses

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Video Guide

If you’d like to follow this build as a League Starter, you can follow my Dawn of the Hunt daily summaries:

For leveling from level 1-52 go here. For leveling from level 52-80 go here. Rest is in the build guide. Good Luck!

Build Mechanics

This is a totem-based build. We place totems that target and kill enemies for us. We also don’t need to worry about Mana since we are using the Blood Magic Keystone. For this build we scale our damage greatly via gem levels.

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Skill Rotation

The skill rotation is pretty straightforward. You place the totems and run in circles until everything dies. For harder enemies, you can add the Orb of Storms setup to the mix for more damage and life regeneration.

1. Ancestral Warrior Totem
2. Orb of Storms

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Gameplay Tips

For general mapping, try to spread the totems. Don’t summon them in the same place, as this will help with clearing speed.

Always stay on the move while your totems attack. Moving around is a natural defense. This is a good practice that can help with maps that have deadly modifiers.

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Skill and Support Gems

Our build revolves around the Ancestral Warrior Totem supported with Sunder. Additionally, we will use Orb of Storms in order to trigger Font of Blood and Font of Rage ( that will give us Rage generation and extra Life Regeneration ). Leap Slam will be used to cross ridges and impossible terrain. Additionally you can add Shield Charge for faster map navigation. Everything else is automated. The fewer buttons we have to press, the better

The following Support Gems are listed in order of socket priority for each Skill.

Skill Gems	Support 1	Support 2	Support 3	Support 4	Support 5
Ancestral Warrior Totem	Sunder	Brutality	Heavy Swing	Heft	Martial Tempo
Orb of Storms	Font of Blood	Font of Rage	Persistence	Arcane Tempo	–
Leap Slam	Holy Descent	–	–	–	–
Shield Charge	Ingenuity	Second Wind–	–	–	–
Ancestral Spirits	Meat Shield	Culling Strike	Blind	Minion Mastery	–

For the Orb of Storms try using a level 4 uncut skill gem to minimize your investment in Intelligence.

This is the setup for the NORMAL VERSION of the build. For the MAXED SETUP click here.

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Spirit Gems

The Spirit Gem setup requires 100 total Spirit. Completing the first and second bosses in Normal and Cruel difficulty in the campaign rewards 100 base Spirit.

For the Spirit Gem Setup, you have two options.

OPTION#1

Spirit Gems	Support 1	Support 2	Support 3	Support 4	Support 5
Time of Need	Fast Forward	Vitality	–	–	–
Companion (lvl 9)	Loyalty	Last Gasp	Elemental Army	–	–

How to get a Beast Companion:

1. Use a Level 9 Uncut Skill Gem (not a Spirit Gem), and cut it into the “Tame Beast” skill. This requires 72 Dexterity.

2. Head to Act 3 CRUEL, -> then go to the Jungle Ruins area. (Infested Barrens works too. There are two rare monsters near the Troubled Camp.)
3. Find the Troubled Camp checkpoint. Near the camp, look for a Rare Quadrilla enemy, but do not kill it yet!
4. Check if Quadrilla has any mods/modifiers you want.
5. If Quadrilla does not have the right mods, press ESC → Respawn at Checkpoint, then run back to check again.
6. Repeat this process until Quadrilla has the mods you’re looking for.
7. After you get what you wanted, cast “Tame Beast” on Quadrilla before killing. You have around 9 seconds to kill the enemy after casting the skill.
8. If you accidentally kill Quadrilla before casting “Tame Beast,” you will need to restart the instance; he will not respawn otherwise.
9. If successful, your “Tame Beast” Skill Gem will transform into Companion: Quadrilla, which requires 42.3% Spirit Reservation.

REMINDER: You can also find rare beasts inside your maps. Have a “Tame Beast” gem equipped just in case you encounter one.

MODS to look for:

• Haste Aura (+25% action+movement speed on you and allies) <- recommended!
• Temporal Bubble (Enemies inside the dome get -25% action speed, debuffs expire 40% slower, and 60% reduced CD recovery rate)
• Extra Physical Damage Aura (+40% phys for you and your allies)
• All Damage Shocks <- recommended! Free 20% more damage ( Add Lasting Shock & Coursing Current to your Companion Skill Gem if you have this modifier )
• Trail of Lightning <- recommended! Free 20% more damage ( Add Lasting Shock & Coursing Current to your Companion Skill Gem if you have this modifier )
• Breaks Armour
• Proximal Tangibility (beast is immune to everything outside melee range (DoT ground excluded). making him stay alive longer.)

I’ve also made a video guide on how to get your companion. You can see it HERE.

*The Haste aura is the best-in-slot modifier for two big reasons:
First, it makes you move faster in your hideout, inside maps, Trial of Chaos, Trial of Sekhema etc. (not during combat, obviously).
Second, it helps greatly in tough 1v1 situations—like map bosses or pinnacle bosses—by granting extra attack speed and absorbing 10% of incoming damage for you (During those fights, your companion will survive much longer, giving you support exactly when YOU NEED IT MOST.)

**Know that your Beast Companion can only have ONE AURA ACTIVE! So don’t waste time on a combination of two auras.

OPTION#2

Spirit Gems	Support 1	Support 2	Support 3	Support 4	Support 5
Time of Need	Fast Forward		–	–	–
Blasphemy (lvl 8)	Enfeeble (lvl 8)	Magnified Effect	Ritualistic Curse	–	–

If you don’t want to use a companion, then you can use my old setup from Patch 0.1.0. Blasphemy turns the Enfeeble curse into an aura. As you move, enemies will be cursed with Enfeeble, causing them to deal less damage. We use Magnified Effect and Ritualistic Curse in order to bump the area of effect.

You will want to use lower-level Uncut Gems for Blasphemy & Enfeeble (ideally level 8 to avoid Intelligence problems). We will also drop the Vitality and Herbalism supports to make room for our new “aura” setup.

Reminder: Applying 20% quality on Blasphemy will reduce the Spirit reservation. Applying 20% quality on Enfeeble will raise the curse effect. If you later add more spirit sources (modifier on the body armor, Soul Core of Azcapa on the weapon, helmet corruption etc.), you can add back Vitality support.

TRADE LINK FOR a lvl 8 UNCUT SPIRIT GEM here:

https://www.pathofexile.com/trade2/search/poe2/Dawn%20of%20the%20Hunt/aDZ0Yz8ue

TRADE LINK FOR a lvl 8 UNCUT SKILL GEM here:

https://www.pathofexile.com/trade2/search/poe2/Dawn%20of%20the%20Hunt/9vOnW6RfK

Ascendancy

Warbringer is a tanky ascendancy class, and also has good synergy with our totems here. The most impactful nodes are Wooden Wall, redirecting 20% of damage taken from hits to nearby totems and Turtle Charm, greatly enhancing our block. This allows you to block more stuff, and is far superior to the regular block.

The ascendancies should be unlocked in this order:

• Answered Call
• Wooden Wall
• Renly’s Training
• Turtle Charm

Try to unlock these ascendancy nodes as soon as possible; especially Wooden Wall and Turtle Charm!

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Passive Skill Tree and Path of Building

*To make things easier to follow, I’ve split the build into two setups. First, there’s the Normal Build, which is an excellent Waystone 15/16 mapper that can handle all map-related content with ease while being very tanky. Then, there’s the Maxed Build, which is perfect for farming Simulacrums, Olroth, and the King from the Mist pinnacle bosses. Know that the Maxed setup is not cheap! (Only the normal setup is affordable)

Skill Tree allocation order:

• All the totem-related nodes (you always start by allocating the bottom nodes that grant you +2 extra totems)
• “Resolute Technique” & “Blood Magic” Keystones
• All the block chance-related nodes (until you are block chance-capped; you can also use rare jewels in this regard)
• You spec toward “Battle Fever” & “Relentless” nodes.
• You spec towards the big attribute nodes ( “Beef” & “Polymathy” )
• If you have a lot of evasion on your items, allocate the “Iron Reflexes” Keystone / If you want to go for a Two-Handed mace, allocate “Giant’s Blood” Keystone
• Lastly, we will spec towards the “Brute Strength” node and invest all our excess points into damage-related nodes

POB link for the normal version of the build HERE. Remember that the “PoB Community Fork” program for Path of Exile 2 still needs some work. It doesn’t track everything properly.

This is the setup for the NORMAL VERSION of the build. For the MAXED SETUP click here.

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Gear

The preferred gear for the “Build” is listed below with affixes ranked in order of importance. Prioritize gear with the correct base stats and beneficial explicit affixes.

Equipment Slot and Base Stats	Affixes	Notes
Helmet (Armour OR Armour/Evasion)	1. Maximum Life 2. Resistances 3. Strength	For the rare items, prioritize those with high life, strength, resistances, and, if possible, life regeneration. If you decide to go for corruption, look for an extra socket.
Body Armor (“Ornate Plate” – rare base)	1. Maximum Life 2. Increased Armour 3. Resistances 4. Strength	The body armor must be an “ORNATE PLACE” base. This base provides significant life regeneration, which is essential for this build. Aim for one with high life and armor above 1000. If you decide to go for corruption, look for an extra socket.
Gloves (Armour OR Armour/Evasion)	1. +2 to Level of all Melee Skills 2. Maximum Life 3. Resistances 4. Strength	Since we scale damage drastically via gem levels it’s important to get gloves with “+2 to Level of all Melee Skills”. If you decide to go for corruption, look for “+1 to Level of all Melee Skills” or an extra socket
Boots (Armour OR Armour/Evasion)	1. Movement Speed 2. Maximum Life 3. Resistances 4. Strength	For the rare items we prioritize those with high life, strength, resistances, and, if possible, life regeneration. If you decide to go for corruption, look for an extra socket
Main Hand (One-Handed Mace / OR Two-Handed Mace with “Giant’s Blood” Keystone)	1. +# to Level of all Melee Skills 2. Strength	For the weapon, we only care about this modifier: “+# to level of all melee skills.” On one-handed weapons, this modifier can roll up to +5, while on two- handed weapons, it can roll up to +7. ( allocate Giant’s Blood Keystone if you decide to go for a two-handed mace ) – the weapon’s damage gets ignored. All that you care are the gem levels, and if its possible, extra Strength If you decide to go for corruption, look for an extra socket
Shield (“Rise of the Phoenix” – Unique)		For the “Rise of the Phoenix” shield, try to get one with the following corruptions: “Life gained on block” or “2 sockets”
Amulet (“Idol of Uldurn” – Unique )		For the amulet, instill “Flashy Deflection” (a cheap instilment that will help cap your block chance more easily). Remember to apply 20x “Flesh Catalysts” to it. The best in slot instilment is “Parrying Motion” ( is not budget ) Flashy Deflection -> Greed, Guilt, Greed Parrying Motion -> Ire, Fear, Ire FOR BUDGET ON LEAGUE START: Get a random rare amulet with “+# to Level of all Melee Skills” ( it can roll from 1-3 )
Rings	1. Maximum Life 2. Adds # to # Physical Damage to Attacks 3. Resistances 4. Strength	For the rare items we prioritize those with high life, strength, resistances, and, if possible, life regeneration. Know that flat physical Damage to Attacks works with our totems! Remember to apply calatysts on your rings to further boost your stats.
Belt	1. Maximum Life 2. Resistances 3. Strength 4. +# Charm Slots	For the rare items we prioritize those with high life, strength, resistances, and, if possible, life regeneration. Having additional Charm Slots is also nice, but not needed

For the armor sockets, use “Soul Core of Jiquani” (2% Increased Maximum Life), “Soul Core of Tacati” (7% to Chaos Resistance). “Greater Robust Rune” ( +10 to Strength ) depending on what you need.

For the weapon sockets, use “Greater Rune of Alacrity” ( 8% increased Skill Speed ), “Soul Core of Azcapa” ( +15 to Spirit ) depending on what you need.

Jewels

For the jewels look for block chance, increased life regen, totem damage, melee damage, attack damage, increased global physical damage. The Most important mods being %Block Chance and %Increased Life Regeneration Rate. We will use these rare jewels to cap our block chance.

To simplify things for you, we’ve made a Trade Link search filter here for the ideal jewel. Here is another trade link for budget. Remember that you’ll want to upgrade these later as you farm more currency!

Venom Draughts

+25% increased Stun Threshold

+10% Chaos Resistance

Since Time of Need helps us with the Elemental Ailment removal and because we don’t use mana in our build, for the first Vial Quest our best pick will be “25% increased Stun Threshold”.

For the second Vial, choose “10% Chaos Resistance” since this is a precious stat for the build.

Miscellaneous Items

Some players like to weapon swap to 2x two-handed maces for a total of +14 melee skill gems, which gives a massive DPS boost for your totems. We do not recommend doing this, especially if you are new to the game and want to play relaxed! When weapon swapping, you become vulnerable and can die quite easily. Do it at your own risk!

You can also use a rare amulet with “+3 to Level of All Melee Skills”, but make sure it has great modifiers; otherwise, the ‘Idol of Uldurn‘ amulet will remain the better choice! Using the unique amulet grants you +1 extra totem and 1 more Ancestral Spirit (which is better for safer mapping). Four totems cover more area and clear the maps faster! Unless the rare amulet has some incredible modifiers, it’s best to stick with the ‘Idol of Uldurn’ unique amulet. In reality, the damage difference is not that significant because having one additional totem will compensate the absence of +3 melee skill gems. the ‘Idol of Uldurn‘ amulet will also grant you two Orb of Storms.

[Important Reminder]: The in-game DPS tooltip does not track the number of totems! For example, if you equip an Idol of Uldurm amulet for +1 extra totem, you won’t see any changes in your DPS tooltip. You might see 40k—up to 130k (maxed build) -> but the actual damage is much higher since EXTRA TOTEMS are a huge damage multiplier. So, even if you had 50k DPS and added an extra 30 totems to your build, the DPS tooltip would still show that you’re doing just 50k DPS.

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Flasks and Charms

• Life: Ultimate Life Flask
• Mana: We don’t care about the mana flask since we are using the Blood Magic Keystone
• Charms: Thawing Charm (Mandatory)

If you have more charm slots, you can add a Silver Charm and Grounding Charm.

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Maximizing Build Potential

If you want to push the build to its limits, here are the most potent upgrades you can make. Everything you need to know about maxing it out is explained in detail in the video.

In this video, I discuss the weapon, “Svalinn” shield, “The Deepest Tower” helmet and the new skill tree node allocation, “Olroth’s Resolve” Flask, “Megalomaniac Jewel”, “Prism of Belief” Jewel, DPS tooltip reminders, how to upgrade your gems properly, and more! I need to stress that these are not mandatory upgrades, but rather ideas you can consider for later! The core build is very affordable!

In terms of Gem setups, we will do just one tiny change. You will swap Brutality with Execute. The Execute support gem has great synergy with “The Deepest Tower” helmet!

POB link for the maxed version of the build HERE. Remember that the “PoB Community Fork” program for Path of Exile 2 still needs some work. It doesn’t track everything properly.

Common Mistakes

• The player forgets to level up their main skill gems. The player forgets to upgrade their items. The player doesn’t use jeweller’s orbs in order to add more support gems to their main skill (most common issue).
• The player hasn’t unlocked their ascendancy points. The player has taken the wrong ascendancy class!
• The player forgot to allocate “Resolute Technique” Keystone, a big DPS loss!
• (For the Endgame Phase) The player doesn’t have their Fire, Cold, and Lightning resistances capped! These should always be at 75% for the endgame. Additionally, aim for a good Chaos Resistance too (around 50% Chaos Resistance is more than enough for this build.)
• The player forgets to complete all the campaign side-quests! They give 24 Passive Tree nodes, Free Resistances, and Spirit up to 100. This is a very common issue! Be careful.
• For Waystones 14, 15, and 16, you will want to have above 3k life, above 300 life regen per second for the normal version (or above 200 life regeneration for the maxed version), all 4x Trials unlocked (8 Ascendancy Points), and physical damage reduction around 50%. This should be more than enough for lazy and stress-free gameplay.

Waystone Modifiers You Should Avoid

Listed below are Waystone Modifiers that you should avoid. If you really want to run maps with these mods, you should play very defensively and carefully!

• Players have 60% less Recovery Rate of Life and Energy Shield.
• Monster Damage Penetrates 25% Elemental Resistances.
• -15% maximum Player Resistances.
• Monsters have 400% increased Critical Hit Chance and +45% to Monster Critical Damage Bonus.
• Monsters deal 40% of Damage as Extra Chaos. (If you have Chaos Resistance 75% you are fine!)

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[NEW!] Patch 0.2.0 Changes

• The “Turtle Charm” ascendancy node got buffed, from 35% down to 25%, less block chance penalty!
• The “Answered Call” ascendancy node got buffed, so now we get much more powerful minions!
• Totems die much harder (at gem level 20 totems now have +75% to all Elemental Resistances and +35% to Chaos Resistances).
• Summoning totems costs less.
• Sunder attacks much faster.
• Expert Steel Plate body armor was renamed into Ornate Plate.
• The Skill Tree received minor changes.
• “Split the Earth” node no longer works with totems, which means we cannot trigger aftershocks from totems anymore.

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Changelog

• April 18th, 2025: The “Maximizing Build Potential” section has been updated.
• April 17th, 2025: Second/Alternative Option for Spirit Gems added.
• April 11th, 2025: Updated Skill Tree allocation order.
• April 9th, 2025: Added Patch 0.2.0 changes and how to get a Beast companion.
• April 8th, 2025: Full POB added.
• April 3rd, 2025: Build Guide Video added and updated for Patch 0.2, Dawn of the Hunt.
• March 28th, 2025: Guide created for Path of Exile II, Early Access.