Overview
This starter plan hands Bonestorm over to Spell Totems and lets the Infernalist do the scaling. Because the totems are the ones landing the critical hits, the ascendancy’s self-ignite drawback on its critical damage bonus never applies to the character, so the node is effectively a free 50% more critical damage bonus. Stack low life on top — trivially reached by reserving 25% of maximum life for Spirit — and the multipliers pile up fast for very little investment.
The leveling half is a completely different character. Essence Drain plus Contagion carries the campaign as a chaos damage-over-time setup, with Bonestorm slotted in from the start as the single-target answer. Living Lightning generates lightning minions that consume the impale Bonestorm builds up, which is why bosses fold so quickly during the acts. The conversion to totems happens late, around the end of Act 4 or the Interlude, and the creator is emphatic that rushing it earlier feels noticeably worse.
The stated target for the 0.5.5 event is Ritual and the reworked Trial of Chaos — both single-target-heavy, both places where a channelled slam of twenty projectiles is exactly what you want.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Enormous single-target damage for a very small budget, aimed squarely at Ritual and Trial of Chaos
- The Infernalist critical damage node carries no downside on a totem character, since the totems crit instead of you
- Low life is reachable in the campaign with a cheap belt, unlocking Execute and extra cast speed
- A well-trodden Essence Drain / Contagion leveling path the creator has run many times
- Demon Form adds movement speed and a better dodge roll on top of 30% more spell damage
Cons
- Requires weapon swap sets throughout leveling to cover both physical and chaos scaling — non-negotiable, and a genuine complexity tax
- Hard gating on the respec: 225 Spirit and a level 14 Spell Totem gem, or you are stuck at two totems
- Demon Form drains life constantly, so life regeneration on gear is close to mandatory
- Clear speed leans on Mana Tempest splitting; this is a bossing plan first, a mapping plan second
Key Skills
- Bonestorm (Spell Totem) — the endgame payload; channels to maximum projectiles, so cast speed and extra projectiles are the primary scalers
- Essence Drain + Contagion — the campaign clear engine, chaos damage over time on a separate weapon set
- Mana Tempest — adds lightning damage and splits projectiles; the default clear layer while running zones
- Flame Wall — routed projectiles pick up fire damage; saved for bosses and tougher packs
- Execute — 30% more damage, doubled against low-life enemies, unlocked by going low life yourself
Gear & Anointments
Wands or a staff carrying plus levels to all spell skills let you lock one weapon across both sets; otherwise run one physical and one chaos weapon in separate sets. Extra lightning damage somewhere on the weapon is required or Living Lightning never triggers. A cheap low-life belt is the key early purchase. Spirit comes from a sceptre plus amulet and body armour rolls to clear the 225 threshold. Later the build layers in charge generation to empower Flame Wall and feed power charges into Bonestorm; specific unique names beyond that should be confirmed against the source video.
Endgame Notes
Mid-game the Flame Wall becomes empowered and adds lightning on top of fire, while power charges feed back into Bonestorm’s channelling. Combined with 80% more critical damage bonus from low life plus the ascendancy, this is where the damage numbers turn absurd. Grim Pillar is called out as a viable alternative payload on the same Infernalist crit shell.
Credits & Source
Build credited to Lowepe. See the source video for the full build’s gameplay footage + voice commentary: Mein Starter Build Plan⇒ Bonestorm Totem Infernalist | PoE 2 0.5.5.