Overview
This is a Mortar Cannon totem build that fires Cluster Grenades, built as a day-one league starter on gear that costs a couple of Divine at most. Map traversal is Pounce plus dropping totems, and with an endgame crossbow it collapses into a genuine one-button build once Armour Break can be linked directly to the Mortar Cannon instead of hand-thrown Flash Grenades.
The mechanical centrepiece is totem replacement. Each newly placed Mortar Cannon spawns with two fresh Cluster Grenades — one naturally, one from Grenadier — so replacing totems rather than waiting on cooldowns keeps grenades firing continuously. Payload reduces the cooldown pressure further, and the high mana cost of constant re-placement is why an Ultimate Mana Flask with strong recovery rate is treated as core gear rather than a luxury.
The second piece of tech is a life-regeneration snapshot. A Reverie chest makes non-unique life flasks apply their recovery constantly, and stacking flask life recovery clusters on the weapon-set-one passive tree pushes that constant recovery up toward 1.4–2k. The snapshot must be taken on the talisman weapon set before entering a map, or it applies at the much lower crossbow-set value.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Crossbow is self-craftable on league start for one to two Divine, and the crafting sequence is shown step by step
- Full T15 maps and Arbiter clear on explicitly budget gear
- Collapses toward a one-button playstyle once Armour Break moves onto the Mortar Cannon
- The Reverie flask snapshot gives a very large permanent regeneration pool that ordinary gear cannot match
- Gemling’s Advanced Thaumaturgy adds totem limit and cuts Cluster Grenade detonation time, so quality investment pays twice
Cons
- The snapshot is fragile — enter a map on the wrong weapon set and you lose most of your regeneration
- Constant totem replacement is mana-hungry and demands a well-rolled Ultimate Mana Flask
- Cluster Grenade damage is mostly physical, so Armour Break is mandatory rather than optional
- The creator had only two days to prepare and did not build past-maps loadouts, so post-transition planning is thin
Key Skills
- Mortar Cannon — the totem that carries every link; gets the six-link and the Perfect Jeweller’s Orb
- Cluster Grenade — socketed into the Mortar Cannon, the actual damage source
- Pounce — map traversal and boss marking
- Flash Grenade — early Armour Break vehicle, dropped once the crossbow is good enough
- Ult Grenade — boss-opener burst in the single-target rotation
Gear & Anointments
Craft the league-start crossbow from a magic percent-physical base: Essence of Abrasion for T3 flat physical, then a Citadel Necromancy with Sovereign for a guaranteed +1 Ballista prefix, then Greater Exaltation on the suffix and an unveil at the Well of Souls. Idol of Uldren for the extra totem is the first purchase priority; Reverie is the second, for the snapshot.
Everything else is life, resistances and armour, with percent armour preferred since Reverie scales it. Utopia is the charm pick for tankiness, with Amethyst if chaos resistance is short and Thawing if strongboxes are on the menu. Later targets are Paragon as the anoint, plus Prism of Belief, Heart of the Well and eventually Mageblood. Gem-Studded slots take blue gems for reduced cost.
Endgame Notes
Scaling past the starter setup runs through curse immunity via Necromantic Ward and Gem Enthusiast for the extra maximum life that pairs with the ascendancy. Once Spirit allows, Cast on Dodge Roll with a projectile-plus-Spirit amulet gives faster dodge rolls in wolf form.
Credits & Source
Build credited to aer0planeGaming. See the source video for the full build’s gameplay footage + voice commentary: Cluster Mortar Gemling Leaguestarter ft. snapshot tech | POE 2 0.5.5.