Overview
Lowepe’s 0.5 plan revives Spell Totem as a Witch Infernalist league starter, leaning on the patched Ancestral Bond keystone — the new wording doubles your totem limit and removes the cost and charge requirement to place a Spell Totem. That single change converts what was a niche, charge-cycle abuse setup in 0.4 into a comfortable two-totem clear archetype that scales hard into a mana-stacking Infernalist endgame.
Through the campaign the plan is intentionally conservative: Essence Drain plus Contagion plus Bonestorm for leveling, swapping into two Spark Totems in early Act 3 once Ancestral Bond is allocated. The creator stresses this is not a speedrun build — it trades raw clear time for a hands-off, totems-do-the-work feel and aims for the Arc Mage / Mind over Matter / Low Life ceiling once the character is full endgame.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Two free totems with no charge bookkeeping — the Ancestral Bond change unlocks the archetype cleanly
- Infernalist’s life-reservation nodes feed mana for Arc Mage and Mind over Matter scaling
- Lowlife belt enables Painted Human, Executioner support, and on-low-life damage stacking
- Crit Damage Bonus passive removes the usual self-crit fire damage downside since totems crit for you
- Spark on Spell Totem covers both pack clear and single-target once the build is fully online
Cons
- Campaign damage is moderate — explicitly not a meta speedrun build
- Heavy gem-juggling: ED + Contagion + Bonestorm leveling, then a hard pivot into totems + curse + frost bomb
- The endgame mana-stack and low-life setup is gear-gated and untested at launch
- Spell Totem rules still allow only one Spell Totem setup at once, capping bossing flexibility
Key Skills
- Spark (Spell Totem + Ancestral Bond) — primary damage once you transition in Act 3+
- Arc — self-cast filler and lightning-charge generator
- Essence Drain + Contagion + Bonestorm — leveling loop through Act 1 and 2
- Frost Bomb / Flame Wall — boss prep and ground effects through the campaign
- Curse (Conductivity) — multiplier for the spark totem damage
Gear & Anointments
A spirit scepter is the main lever for landing two totems early — the creator targets 75 spirit per totem plus comfortable headroom. The Resonance jewel is mentioned as a strong-but-mirror-tier addition you do not chase on day one. The lowlife belt is the centerpiece of the endgame transition and slots in alongside one of the Infernalist 25% life-reserve nodes. Expect a Mind over Matter pathing through the central mana cluster and Eldritch Battery for energy-shield to mana conversion late.
Endgame Notes
The full endgame plan is still in flux — Lowepe explicitly calls the linked build document a living draft. The intended ceiling is a mana-stack, low-life, crit-scaling Spark Totem Infernalist using Painted Human and the Execute support gem; the creator argues Oracle is the safer ascendancy but Infernalist has the higher juicing ceiling.
Credits & Source
Build credited to Lowepe. The source video is in German and walks through the build document, leveling plan, and endgame theory: Infernalist Spell Totem Starter Build Konzept für Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.5.