[3.17] Hybrid's Molten Strike Jugg - Hold right click to TANK anything |MELT the Atlas|Divine Flesh|

Read the updates section before you play this build.




*dont try this at home*

Sirus stop! its tickling

T16 UGS map, the more they hit me - the tankier i get ^^





Videos:


Patch Updates:
Spoiler

3.17:
Same as 3.16

Update:
i played a little bit after the patch, fortify mechanic is pretty meh, even after the change they did in 3.17

without fortify the build doesnt feel as tanky.
cant recommend playing the build at this state.
it already requires a lot of investment, not worth the currency and time.

maybe when/if they rework the fortify system or something, but right now- just dont play it.

3.16:
basically the same as 3.15.
Divine Flesh isnt mandatory as you can pretty easily get 80% all max ele res.
use the POB link, guide itself might no be updated.

3.15:
Game got nerfed overall.
build plays basically the same.


3.14:
so we lost a little bit of damage from wave of conviction, -15% res vs -25% before.

this means that other sources that apply exposure would be a good replacement if they have a better \ more consistence up time like the implicit on the new helmet.
because now its -10% vs -15% and not -25%.

might be worth to replace WoC for hydrosphere to try and boost single target with overlapping AoE from the balls.


as for Petrified Blood- completely worthless for us.
the 40% modifier doesnt increase with gem level, which means you are just more likely to get one-shotted.
basically only meant for builds that are already at low life and not something you could slap on a "normal" build.


other than that i didnt see anything that affect us.

3.13:
Build is the same pretty much.
the only change i would make if you want to farm the real end game with multiple bosses at the same time is a mark ring instead of manually applying it since it can be annoying to target each boss one at a time.

3.12:
there are some interesting changes that we can take advantage of.
for example:
vitality now has a flat mana reservation, so we can use it at level 1 with a watchers eye for the life recovery mod.
poachers mark now grant more life and mana on hit AND has a chance to grant frenzy charge on hit.
on top of that, hexaproof monsters are no longer immune to marks.

update: i made a new POB with some interesting changes:
for our curse we swap from flammability to poachers mark- it got reworked and now is tagged as a "mark" so it doesnt lose effectiveness against bosses.
on top of that it now grants damage by two ways, one from adding flat phyz dmg against cursed enemies and the other is frenzy charges on hit.
another big change is the life and mana gained on hit, 50 life per hit allows us to "ditch" the LGOH mod on the rings thus making it easier to get better rings for lower price.

a huge change to the build is the use of glorious vanity timeless jewel to get Divine Flesh, thats a big boost to tankiness! more on that in the FAQ section.

this time i made the POB a little bit more optimized gear wise, things like 7L helmet and a corruption for the sword, just so people will have an idea for the build setup at the endgame.

another update:
since we now use Divine Flesh we dont need Arakaali and Shakari panthens for chaos damage mitigation.
Solaris and Tukohama are better for the build now and also go along very well with the playstyle.
those pantheons grant more physical damage mitigation, which leads us to the next change.

we no longer use Imbalanced Guard.
with the new setup the breakpoint for the keystone is much higher and causing more harm than good.
the explanation is in the FAQ.

3.11:
kind of rewrote the guide, cleaned a lot of unnecessary text.

for now i only made a quick POB for people that want to play the build in the new league, there might be other changes, but i will probably make another version.

POB is done.
changed it again after the league started (sorry ^^), removed the enduring cry gem and "call to arms" keystone because after some more testing i felt it didnt add enough to the build while costing too much.

i also replaced the anointment from Tenacity to Tribal Fury because of the above change, saves us a bunch of points (and one less golden oil).

wave of conviction - flammability setup moved to a CWDT instead of self cast with curse on hit.





Build idea:
I tried many kind of builds when i started playing POE but was never fully satisfied.
there was always a big downside to them, some were lacking defense\clear\damage and others were too expensive or just too clunky.

so i decided to create one by myself that fill my needs, the project somewhat failed in the first tries and needed some work.

i chose Jugg because its a very good defensive ascendancy with some QOL.
to further increase our defense, i made sure that every gear piece we are using has a life roll on it while allocating all of the life nodes on the skill tree.

but being tanky isnt enough, we needed damage and jugg dont provide much of that, so i needed a way to deal a good amount of damage.
Molten Strike caught my eye because it is an interesting skill, not the "typical" melee build and the damage scaling is very different.
you focus on the projectiles damage and count rather than the melee portion.

i also wanted the build to feel smooth and nice for clearing, so attack speed helps for both.

at this point i felt the build is in a good state and decided to share it in the forum so i released my Molten Strike Juggernaut, this was around Delve league(3.4), and seems like it got well received as it is filling a hole for an all-rounder build.
since then there were a lot of changes to the game and build (can be seen in the Archive on the first comment) but it is still alive :)


all the information to make the build is down below, enjoy!




Gear:
Spoiler

Main Hand:


The sword has a high attack speed and good physical damage, but it doesnt end there!
we also get +2 projectiles when hit, which is all of the time with a melee build.
Point Blank that increases projectile damage based on the distance from you, and as we know, we are always at close range with the enemies.
on top of that we get increased armor and Iron Reflexes while stationary, something that we want since its suites the build's playstyle perfectly.

this is the BiS weapon for the build, an upgrade from the is a good corruption like %attack speed, flat phyz or fortify on hit.
fortify corruption will allow you to drop the fortify support gem for something else like vitality.


Off Hand:

we use a shield for higher defense.
ideally you would want a shield with +2% to all max res and\or +3% to maximum chaos resistance and high life roll, then anything else you need like chaos\elemental resistance.
those are expensive, but worth it for the big defense boost.

*all maximum resistances mod also applies to chaos res.
*all max res and max chaos res can spawn together on the shield.


for the lower levels and the phase before you switch to Divine Flesh, use:


This shield has a very high life roll and with the implicit we can get over 200 life.
also gives armor.



Gloves:


The best option is a pair of hunter influenced gloves as they can roll the +1 target mod.
this mod is important because when paired with "Tribal Fury" on the tree we get a total of +2 target which makes clearing so much smoother and more importantly eliminates the need to use Ancestral Call support gem so we are always using the best damage setup.

hunter gloves can also roll the intimidation mod, which is a really nice damage boost, but really hard to hit with the strike mod.

for more advanced users, i would suggest to make a pair of elevated +2 strike targets and awake them with a pair of culling strike gloves, as its kinda the best option for us in big boss fights.



*if you dont know what this section means go to the FAQ.



Amulet:

This amulet is BiS, every mod on this items is useful for us.

10% str that gives us more life and damage
10% life
fire res
fire pen - more damage
cover enemies in ash - more damage
Avatar of Fire - again, more damage :)


We need Xoph's Blood also for Avatar of Fire mod that saves us points on the skill tree.
this mod convert phyz, cold and lightning damage to fire so we get more damage.
also this mod makes us deal only fire damage so phyz reflect maps are not a problem.

as for the anointment: Cleansed Thoughts or Tribal Fury.
if you can cap your chaos res by your rare gear alone, go for Tribal Fury, otherwise Cleansed Thoughts is the way to go.
visit the FAQ for explanation.

NOTE: dont anoint cleansed thought if your chaos res isnt above 0% yet, it literally doubles your chaos res, so if you have -20% anointing it will get you to -40%.

as a corruption- aim for +1 all max res, but there are other mods which are useful for us.


Belt:


Rare belt with life, res and wed.
preferably stygian vise or leather belt to squeeze out just a little bit more life and damage.

an upgrade would be an influenced belt, which has more interesting mods.
elder can give you mods like %max life, life recovery rate and other damage mods.

examples:


warlord can grant up to 30% reduced damage from crits:




Boots:

Rares with life and resistances, movement speed is really nice to have.

for enchant aim for the 10% pen, its more damage against bosses.
120% crit enchant is also nice for easier Elemental Overload procs.

if you feel you have enough crit, a tailwind pair of boots is a good dps boost and a nice QOL because of the attack and movement speed increase.



you can also use

these will cancel out the grasping vines slowing effect completely.
they are also special because you can anoint them.
although capping res would be a challenge with this pair.



Body armor:


Well, do i really need to explain this one? :)
a TON of life
fire damage
and some armor too

an upgrade to that would be a good corruption like +1 all res, reduced damage from crits, %life, %damage..


WAIT! no 6L!?

we actually get our 6L from the helmet.
we can do that with the elder mods to get another 2 gems in the helmet itself.

Helmet:


you are looking for the "immolate" and "conc effect" mods with any other useful mod like life or res.

we socket our main skill (molten strike) in the helmet and it will be automatically linked with the elder mods, effectively making this helmet a 6L, just like an armor.
we do this so we could use the big chunk of flat life from kaoms heart since it has a very big downside of not having any sockets.


easiest way to find this helmet is with this search filter:
Standard
change to the current league in the search options.


if you can afford it, there are ways to make the helmet even better.
the first one is an enchantment for more projectiles, the second is an essence mod for 30% more elemental damage.



and if you really want to go big, elevated immolate at level 25 and flat crit mod would boost the damage even further and make EO proc much more consistence.



Rings:

you want as much life and resistances on your rings, preferably using Vermilion base for even more life.
chaos res is important, for damage aim for WED, proj dmg, %ele dmg, %fire dmg and so on.



opal rings are a good base too for more damage.



Life Gained on Hit mod on elder rings is a really nice to have, but will make rings more expensive and harder find\craft.

also since 3.12 poacher's mark grant 50 LGOH and on top of that we can use cinderswallow flask for the recovery while mapping so the elder mod isnt as important.


if you want to go higher, get a synthesized ring with +1 max endurance charge implicit.
Spoiler

*dont show this to Chris



Jewels:
We use a cluster jewel setup with this build.
for the large jewel you want

those mods will grant us damage, but more importantly life and mana leech which saves up skill points on the tree.
Feed The Fury and Fuel The Fight are the most important ones as they grant us life and mana leech.
Smite The Weak is pure damage and could be replaced with Martial Prowess for the same dps.

Important: large cluster jewel should have a maximum of 8 passive points or else you are wasting skill points. medium ones can have up to 5 without wasting points.

large jewels creates 2 more jewel sockets, you want to use two medium cluster jewels in them.

Eye To Eye is a must, repeater is the best 2nd mod.
Shrieking Bolts is only "ok" damage wise.

this will leave you with 2 more sockets, in one of them you want to use a small jewel with "Born of Chaos" mod.
with this jewel we actually want to have 3 passives instead of 2 so we could get the additional chaos res, unless you are already capped with other gear items.


ideally you want the other mods to be something like 25-35% increase effect, chaos res, dex\int.

and in the other one the unique small cluster jewel Natural Affinity.

with this jewel we get Nature's Patience, check the FAQ and videos on how it works.

NOTE: this is the best jewel slot to get corrupted blood immunity.

Timeless jewel:

we use a Glorious Vanity jewel with the Xibaqua variant to get the Divine Flesh keystone.
the exact location for this jewel is in the POB, we convert Mind Over Matter keystone.

as for why we are using this jewel, go to the FAQ.


another good unique jewel is Watcher's eye, you can get different kind of mods for this build.
Anger mods are good for damage like phyz as extra fire, fore pen, %fire damage.



for more defense a vitality life recovery mod is a good option since vitality is now a flat mana reservation gem and we can leave it at level 1.



for even more defense, vitality has another mod which grant up to 30 LGOH.



the rest of the jewel sockets on the tree should be filled with rares.
those need to have %life, attack speed and another damage mod like projectile damage, fire damage and so on.
also could be rolled with dex or resistances.

for a nice QOL, you can get a mana gained on hit mod on one of your jewels.



*NOTE: for STANDARD players, use the legacy version of Wildfire threshold jewel.

grants +2 projectiles.

league players shouldn't use it since it got reworked in patch 3.11 into this:

we dont need the chain and losing 50% of our projectiles is a big no-no.


Flasks:

We have a very big life pool and normal flasks just wont be enough.
with divine flesh and enough maximum chaos res the degen is very neglectable.
*dont quality this flask, you want the duration to be as low as possible.

another life flask to consider is:

the flask has a good recovery, but its real power is the full life refill at the end of the flask effect.
*dont quality this flask, you want the duration to be as low as possible.



more damage.
consecrated ground give us more life regen when we are standing on it.
you want anti bleed flask for the rare case you get that 20 stacks of bleed.
most bleed effects wont have much impact on us and you probably wont even degen at all.

if you got corrupted blood immunity this flask could be upgraded to

for more damage and larger coverage of consecrated ground.
also helps with procing EO by granting a flat crit to enemies on consecrated ground.



try to get a good pen roll on that.
you also want to get your uncapped fire res higher than cold&light but its not a big deal if you cant manage it because we use the next flask the grant us +50% fire res and should fix that problem :)


this flask gives us 2 more balls for a damage boost.
you want to get a flask that consumes 30 charges or less so you can get 2 uses out of it. if it has the mod "increased charges uses" its not good for you.
you either want it to not have that mod at all or have the "reduced charges used" mod.
also try to get the lowest increased area of effect rolls, more area means less balls hitting the target.


Onslaught gives more attack speed which is very good for us.
you want anti curse mod on this one.
also you need the roll "reduced charges used" to be at least 23% to get 2 uses out of the flask.

if you manage to overcap your resistances to the point you are capped even in ele weakness maps, you can upgrade to

for more damage and nice recovery while mapping.





Gem links:
Spoiler

Main skill in Helmet:(6L)
Molten Strike - Multistrike - Combustion - Elemental Damage With Attacks
you get Immolate and Conc effect from the helmet's elder mods so they are automatically linked.

*if you dont have +1 gloves and tribal fury you will have to use Ancestral Call instead of Ele Dmg With Atks for mapping.

a tip for a damage boost against bosses:
Spoiler

slower projectiles will get you more damage than EDWA, the reason is that since 3.11 molten strike's balls are affected by projectile speed, slower speed means tighter spread and more balls hitting the target.
the big downside is that its terrible for mapping, and even worse with conc effect (from the helmet).
so its only recommended for pretty "sterile" fights like Sirus, Shaper and so on.
for map bosses you should have enough dps with EDWA.

slower projectiles vs EDWA video

*if you have Awakened EDWA dont bother with this swapping.


Movement skill:
Whirling Blades - Faster Attacks - Fortify

*you dont need fortify if you got the corruption on the sword.

i personally prefer WB becase its very fast and responsive, however you can use leap slam\shield charge if you like it better.

also WB is safer than leap slam since you are getting hit by the monsters gradually as you dash into the pack.
with leap slam you get hit from all of the monsters at once which can be more dangerous.

Auras:
Anger- Blood and Sand - Precision - Enlighten

enlighten isnt a must, just makes life easier if you have a free gem socket.

*NOTE: make sure you are in Blood stance (red icon) and not Sand stance.

Vitality
since 3.12 vitality is a flat mana reservation gem so we keep it at level 1 just so we could use the vitality life recovery mod from watchers eye.
if you dont have a watchers eye with the recovery mod, there is no reason to use vitality.
ideally you have fortify as a corruption on your sword.

CWDT:
Cast With Damage Taken - Immortal Call - Summon Lightning Golem - Wave of conviction

*keep wave of conviction at level 1.

DPS boosters:
Blood Rage, Ancestral Protector
both skills will boost the attack speed of the build.

you can link blood rage to the CWDT setup if you like, but it might be annoying for no regen maps.

Poacher's Mark
this is our curse, you "mark" the enemies to apply it.
note that since 3.12 you can only "mark" one enemy at a time so make sure you are targeting the bosses and rare monsters to get the most out of it.

*visit the FAQ for more info about this curse.



Pantheon:
Spoiler

Major: Soul of Solaris

Minor: Sould of Tukohama

in 3.12 we moved to a Divine Flesh setup so choosing Aeakaali and Shakari doesnt make much sense anymore.
Solaris is a solid defense option and Tukohama just suits to the playstyle of the build.

dont forget to actually upgrade the pantheon for its full effect.



Leveling:
Spoiler

not much to say here, normal leveling items.



use Thief's Torment as early as you can get it.

I used Molten Strike from level 1 with ancestral call.
you want to link it with faster attacks and multistrike later on.

you can add ele dmg w\ atks and added fire damage to the setup.

for a weapon, try to get a fast attacking sword.



when you get to lvl 68 you can equip


this is the closest to a grelwood while you are saving for the real deal.


alternatively, just level with hollow palm and respec everything later.




POB, Skill Tree, Ascendancy and Bandits:
Spoiler


Bandits: kill all. we need the points :)

Ascendancy progression:
1. Undeniable for damage, hit chance and attack speed.
2. Unstoppable for QOL.
3. Unbreakable for a lot of defense mods.
4. Unflinching as endurance charges have more effect in endgame where physical damage is high.

Skill tree progression:
doesnt really matter, but getting Elemental Overload should be a priority.


You can take Avatar Of Fire node until you get a xophs blood.
Point Blank is too far to take on the tree and you lose alot of points, its better to save for Grelwood Shank.


POB:

https://pastebin.com/fgEqk3hh


*im using the community fork version.




FAQ
Spoiler

What is "+1 target"?
Strike skills, like molten strike, only target one enemy with their melee attack by default, secondary effects aside.

this behavior makes clearing slow and clunky.
there is an "easy" solution to that in a form of a support gem called Ancestral Call, this support makes strike skills target 2 additional enemies.
the problem with this solution is that it comes with a big downside of losing significant damage multiplier since the gem itself isnt providing any damage.

to work around this, we take Tribal Fury on the tree and use a pair of gloves with a specific hunter mod.
with those two sources we can get +2 targets just like Ancestral Call, but without any loss of damage as we can now use a proper support gem instead of Ancestral Call.


What is "intimidation"?
intimidation is a debuff that can be applied to an enemy.
it will make the target receive 10% increased attack damage.


What is Nature's Patience?
Nature's Patience is a keystone only available by using Natural Affinity unique small cluster jewel.

the keystone enables a mechanic which make the character gain 2 Grasping Vines each second while stationary.
naturally the vines only have a strong less base movement speed multiplier debuff which is very undesirable.
but we actually want those vines to stack, up to maximum of 10, because the keystone also provides benefits for those vines.
2% chance to deal double damage per vine, up to 20% and 1% less damage taken per vine, up to 10%.
both are very welcome in our build, but we need a way to counter the movement speed penalty.

Juggernaut's ascendancy notable Unstoppable will make sure you wont be slowed below 100% movement speed.
from my testing i decided its enough and there isnt a real need to use The Stampede boots.

although you can still use them if you choose to.



What is Divine Flesh?
Divine Flesh is a keystone available only by using a timeless jewel, specifically Glorious Vanity with the Xibaqua variant (exact location is in the POB).

usually "50% of Elemental Damage taken as Chaos Damage" is a really bad mode as most builds dont invest in chaos res and many have negative res.
but we can get most of the chaos resistance we need from our rare gear and then double it by anointing Cleansed Thoughts.
this means we only need to get half of our chaos res to cap it.
and we really need it because our max chaos res isnt 75, we get +5% just from the keystone, but increasing it even more with other mods like Born of Chaos from the cluster jewel, max res from a rare influenced shield and even from a kaoms heart max res corruption.

our build doesnt scale ES so we dont have the downside of "All Damage taken bypasses Energy Shield".

why would we want to go through all that?
well, just converting elemental damage to chaos with 75% chaos res isnt worth it, we want to get as much maximum chaos res as possible because its effectively increasing the maximum resistance of fire cold and lightning.

how?
without the keystone a normal hit would be mitigated by 75%, but with the keystone and a max chaos res of 85% it would be mitigated by 80%.
50% of the damage is mitigated by the normal 75% resistance and the other half is mitigated by the 85% of our chaos res.
the total damage taken would be 50% X (25%+15%)= 20% instead of 25%.
or another way to look at it is the average of the resistances 0.5(75%+85%)= 80%.

so 1% max chaos res is 0.5% max res for each of the three resistances! thats pretty huge.

divine flesh plus the nerf to Soul of Steel are the reasons we dont get it on the tree anymore, its not worth the points.

another big benefit for converting elemental to chaos is penetration.
enemies with elemental penetration could be deadly since they are lowering your resistances.
against a boss with 20% penetration your effective max is 55%, taking almost double the damage [from 25% to 45%].
but with divine flesh the penetration is only 10%, because elemental penetration doesnt apply to chaos res, which makes your effective max res 70% [0.5(55+85)=70].


Why not using Herald of Ash?
the build used to, but Precision is the better solution now.

with the chances to the jugg ascendancy node 'Undeniable' the build lost some accuracy, combined with a fortify corruption on the sword instead of the flat accuracy you can drop below 100% chance to hit.

Precision grant high amount of flat accuracy and gets us back to hit cap.
due to the undeniable node we also get some attack speed from our accuracy rating, providing a slight boost to dps.
on top of that precision grant a decent amount of crit chance which helps with proccing Elemental Overload.


Can i use "this" weapon?
the build is using a setup of sword and shield
grelwood shank is the best weapon for the build, there is no other sword that will give you more dps.
as for the shield, a rare influenced shield with life implicit is the best option.


Can i use "this" armor?
there is no better option than kaoms.
we use an elder helmet as a 6L so there is no need for a 6L armor.


How much dex&int i need?
Dex: at least 122 so you can equip the sword.
try to get 155 for a level 20 poacher's mark and blood rage, but the dps difference isnt that big.
Int: 111, only for lvl20 combustion.


What level should my CWDT gem be?
lvl 20 so you can use higher level golem and less frequently endurance charges loss from immortal call.

What is Wave of Conviction and why are we using it?
wave of conviction is a spell that applies exposure corresponding to the highest type of damage dealt by it.
since we use Avatar of Fire, we only deal fire damage so we will always apply fire exposure for -25% fire res.
on top of that we link the CWDT gem with Flammability so we can curse enemies for have even less fire resistance.
by using CWDT we are automating the process so we can focus on the fight itself.

Curse
we use Poacher's Mark for our curse.
while technically Flammability is more dps when you compare the two curse directly against each other, poachers mark is overall better.

in 3.12 poachers mark got reworked, it is now a "mark".
the 3.12 changes makes poachers mark better for a few reasons:
"marks" dont get reduced effectiveness against bosses and arent affected by "hexaproof" mods, so you can always apply it.
also poachers mark now grant you flat physical damage against cursed enemies and chance to get frenzy charges on hit with quality (thats why we dont use curse on hit ring, they dont have quality).
on top of that we get 50 LGOH and 25 MGOH against cursed enemies.

so when you factor in all of this you get more damage than flammability plus added tankiness.

the only downside to marks is that you can only target one enemy, but its not that big of a deal since we have blood rage for frenzy charges generation while mapping and enough damage for anything else.


How much extra dps lvl21 gems will give me?
dont bother, the dps increase is very neglectable.
although getting a lvl21 molten strike could be nice for the extra 1 melee range.

What about using Empower?
see last answer :)

Awakened gems?
very expensive, should be your last upgrade pretty much.
the upside is that we can only use 2 awkn gems in our molten strike setup: multistrike and EDWA.

How is my dps? \ Why my dps is so low?
go over the guide again and make sure you have all the correct gear and complete skill tree.

Spoiler

What is Imbalanced Guard and why we use it?
its basically like having double armor.
the cap on 50% only applies to "physical damage reduction" and not modifiers like "reduced\less damage taken".
its also important to note that the cap doesnt apply to elemental damage, so its not like having 50% elemental resistances.

so for our build the cap refers to armor and endurance charges.
there is a formula for this keystone but long story short- with ~20k armor and 6 endurance charges the break point is about 5700.

5700 represent a hit which will be mitigated by exactly 50%, regardless of the keystone.
lower hits would be mitigated more, bigger hits would be mitigated less, because of how armor works.

when allocating the Imbalanced Guard we can get more mitigation against bigger hits while sacrificing less mitigation for smaller hits, but its totally worth it.

examples:
1. a hit of 4000 physical damage would normally be mitigated by 57%, so you only take 1720 damage.
with the keystone allocated the mitigation would be capped at 50%, resulting in taking 2000 physical damage.
as you can see, we take 280 more damage, but its a very small difference for us since we have a big life pool and so much recovery (regen, leech).
those kind of hits arent deadly for us anyway.

2. a hit of 15000 (15k) physical damage would normally be mitigated by 36%, resulting in taking 9600 damage, a pretty deadly hit, even with 10k life thats a very dangerous attack to tank.
with Imbalanced Guard we get double armor so the mitigation would be 45%, resulting in taking 8250 damage.
thats a noticeable reduction! could actually be the difference between surviving the hit and getting one-shotted.

i hope i explained it well enough.
*those numbers only referring to armor reduction, we have other sources to mitigate the damage (ascendancy, natures patience, fortify..)


3.12:
with the new 3.12 setup Imbalanced Guard isnt worth it since we have less armor and more %physical damage reduction from the Pantheon.

we now have around 13K armor, you might think that Imbalanced Guard is worth using even more with this amount of armor, but we get additional physical damage reduction from our new pantheon choices which makes Imbalanced Guard cause increased damage taken from most hits.

see, the previous breakpoint for a hit in our build was around 5700, which made sense to use the keystone.
but now our breakpoint with maximum reduction from the pantheon is ~10K.

if i will use the numbers from the old explanation, it means that now we only take ~1500 damage from a 4000 hit instead of 2000 with Imbalanced Guard and have the same mitigation against a big 15K hit.








NOTE: please do not PM me in game for help, check the FAQ section if you have questions, then post those in the thread if you couldnt find an answer.

please no linking ALL of your gear and asking "what to upgrade now?", its annoying and spammy.
Zuletzt bearbeitet von HybridBoy um 07.02.2022, 11:52:56
Zuletzt angestoßen am 10.12.2022, 04:56:45
Archive
Spoiler

look at "Patches Updates" for the latest updates.





*dont try this at home*

T16 UGS map, the more they hit me - the tankier i get ^^

Sirus stop! its tickling




Videos:
Spoiler

Did uber elder but forgot to recond in the first time and the second time got corrupted :(

Deathless Uber Elder
Finally! remembered to record the Uber Elder fight.
but ofcourse i forgot to swap AC for EDWA XD
decent fight never the less.



Deathless Uber Elder
At last! did it right and used EDWA instead of AC :)



Deathless Shaper (3rd phase with full hp)

waited for shaper to fully regen after the 2nd phase.
Full fight here


Mastermind Boss


Deathless Red Elder (with mapping setup)
also tanking the expanding nova.

All the Guardians kills

T16 Mino just holding right click, ignoring boss mechanics completely

T16 UGS bosses with mapping setup (ancestral call instead of ele dmg w\ atks)

Post 3.5 patch: Still face tanking everythig


Uber Lab Demo

Phoenix and Esh demo



Patch Updates:
Spoiler

3.11:
for now i only made a quick POB for people that want to play the build in the new league, there might be other changes, but i will probably make another version.


3.10:
no changes to the build.

the new cluster jewels could be interesting but will require some sacrifice on the tree for the skill points.
if i see a good one i will update the skill tree.



after testing new mechanics to increase the DPS without losing defense i finally made a new POB that utilize the new cluster jewels.
unfortunately the mods from the new cluster jewels arent that strong for this build (ah um Purposeful Harbinger ah um) so the options are limited.

i also used the new Nature's Patience keystone, but it requires some sacrifice in a form of what boots we can use, i will explain:

Nature's Patience spawns 2 grasping vines each second up to total of 10.
for each vine grasping us we get 2% chance to deal double damage and 1% less damage taken, so 20% double damage and 10% less damage taken!

the big downside to having 10 vines grasping you all the time is the fact that they significantly slows you down, at 10 vines you are almost stuck, and Jugg's ascendancy node "Unstoppable" wont make us immune to that because grasping vines actually reduces the BASE value of movement speed.
so in order to solve that we can use The Stampede boots.

at first glance they look worthless, and for most builds they are, but they have one mod that reads: "your movement speed is 150% of it's base value".
which means that your base value is set to 150%, cannot be increased or decreased, not even by grasping vines.
(just like how Loreweave locks your max resistances to 78% and modifiers from gear\tree\map mods can change them)

the vines losing their grip on you while you are moving, but we dont actually want to remove them, so the playstyle is more about moving around with whirling blades \ leap slam rather than running since those movement skills wont remove the vines on use.

another benefit we get from those boots is that we can anoint them like an amulet to get extra damage\life on the tree.

for the rest of the cluster jewels mods, as i said before, nothing too impressive, but still increase our DPS by quite alot.
i went for the attack mods rather than the fire\elemental nodes since they are overall a little bit stronger and on top of that save us 3 skill points because they solve our life and mana leech needs.
for the medium mods i chose Repeater and Eye to Eye, the latter one is basically 60% increased damage even tho its not shown in POB.
the small cluster jewels are Natural Affinity for "Nature's Patience" ofcourse and one with Fettle for a big life boost.



POB: updated, check the POB section.

complete tree for lvl 97, i just allocated both Dervish and Defiance so its easier to switch between setups (shield vs dual wield) while testing.
you only need one of those nodes depends on your chosen setup.



3.9:
buffs: we got another base projectile from the skill.
nerfs: Point Blank got nerfed which affect the build because we mainly scale our projectiles damage and count.

other changes: elder (and shaper) bases going to be harder to acquire since map influence is being removed and shaper\elder encounters will be available only through Zana.
this also affects our weapon drop rate since its exclusive to an elder guardian (Constrictor).

To sum up: in 3.9 the build will work about the same, just less damage and harder to gear.
i cant recommend it as a league-starter until we get an idea of the new drop rates.


3.8:
the new anointing system brings an interesting option for molten strike.
there is a new passive skill node called "Tribal Fury" that only available with anointing.
this node makes your strike skills target 1 additional target.
which could mean dropping ancestral call as a support gem and using the bossing setup even for mapping.

i will have to test this, but this might be a big buff for the build.

also some minor buffs to ancestral call and multistrike.
tiny bit higher crit chance from the tree to proc EO more often.

3.7:

i made a new POB with the new skill tree.
there is a big change to leech:
the new skill tree solve our leech "problems".

we can now get the leech easily from the tree, no need for a watchers eye anymore.
also, mana leech can be obtained more easily and with less "cost".



there are div cards for xophs blood and elder helmet.
which can make acquiring the gear easier.





3.6.4:
nothing mechanically, just improved performance.
this is very important since we throw so many balls per sec which could cause some fps issues even to high-end PCs.


3.6:
Again, some buffs and nerfs to the build.

the removal of min crit chance cap wont affect us since we are not using anything that lowers our crit chance.
actually, in this patch it would be easier to proc EO since consecrated ground now grants 100% increased crit chance.
plus there is a new flask that triples the consecrated ground area AND grants +2% crit chance against mobs in it.

so if previously we had a 5% crit chance, we now have 14%.
5 (base from sword) +2 (from flask) X 2 (100% increased from consecrated ground) = 14 .
(would be closer to 13% due to hit chance cap and how POE works, but thats nvm :) ).


blood rage's mana cost has been reduced, but we dont really care, was never a problem.

anger damage got buffed slightly.

tombfists got nerfed and no longer grants attack speed.
they are still a good choice for the build tho since you can still have abyss jewels in them and the intimidation debuff is a nice dps boost.

this league a rare pair of gloves with life, attack speed and some damage mod\s could make a decent alternative (but still less damage).
this will also open a new source of getting dex and res from gear.

skill tree wise - cant see anything that will affect us.
edit: i changed the tree a tiny bit to get extra 10 dex, and 4% life.
also another 20 int so you dont need to get int on your gear anymore.
nothing to do with the 3.6 patch tho.


3.5:
There are some nerfs and buffs to the build but it would still be strong.
i dont see something that "breaks" the build really.
i think that in this league more people would gravitate towards a dual wielding shanks instead of the sword+shield setup to compensate for the reduced number of balls from the threshold jewels.

the build never had damage issues even though i never focused on dps anyway.
my "philosophy" here is that as long as you can tank the damage you can always kill the boss.

i might of made this build a tiny bit too tanky and GGG decided to nerf it ^^

but if you follow the build you could do all of the content easily, even as a league starter.
gear to acquire as a league starter in order of importance:
1. Thief's Troment - will hard carry you to endgame if you can manage the resistances and dex.
2. Grelwood Shank - massive dps boost (wont be available in the first few days though so you will have to find a fast attacking sword\claw meanwhile)
3. elder helmet - that would be your 6L (you can start with a 5L).
4. Kaom's Heart - cuz big life is easy life :)




I know, i know!
there are many Molten Strike guides out there, probably with more damage too.
but they are focusing on damage too much and it hurts the build in other aspects IMO.
so i made my own build that fits my playstyle without compromising too much (if any) on damage.
Edit: after watching and analyzing more MS builds, i can safely say that mine is among the highest DPS ones.

Pros:
-VERY tanky: many layers of defense
-Lots of life: 9k without GG gear
-Lots of damage
-Can do all content
-Excellent lab runner
-Fast mapping
-Can start on a budget, a good league starter too
-Scales greatly with better gear
-No clunky mechanics
-Can do any map mod, rippy maps isnt a big deal anymore

*ele ref is possible on a 3L, i swap for any other helmet with molten strike-multistrike-ancestral call. (no elder mods!)
i still do enough damage, yes! i tested it, still melts red map bosses :)
you can add Greater Multiple Projectile to further reduce the damage of each ball and increase the tankiness with more ball.

Cons:
-Not a "ZOOM ZOOM" character like deadeye TS\KB (but is it really a con? :P)
-could get expensive if you try to min\max the build



Explanation:
Where the tankiness comes from?
1. we scale lots of life from tree and gear
2. capping resistances (OFC!)
3. armor and endurance chargers to mitigate hits
4. we get life from 3 sources: regen, leech and life gained on hit

We abuse the mod "life gain for each enemy hit by your attack" with the molten strike balls.
each ball that hits a monster grant us INSTANT life.
and since we throw alot of balls with high attack speed we get TONS of life recovered per sec.

Funny note: i survived almost 400 stacks of darkness in Delve before dying.


the build can throw up to 12 balls for EACH swing.
base skill is 3
2 balls comes from the threshold jewel
2 balls from the sword Grelwood Shank
2 more from the Dying Sun flask
and last 3 comes from the helmet enchant


OK! show me the actual build already!

NOTE: please do not PM me in game for help, check the FAQ section if you have questions, then post those in the thread if you couldnt find an answer.

Gear:
Spoiler

OLD pre 3.10
Spoiler
Weapon 1:


Try to get a good attack speed roll on this one.


Weapon 2:
well, its a shield actully :)



This shield has a very high life roll and with the implicit we can get over 200 life.
also gives armor.


Gloves:


You dont have to get the dual abyss sockets, works the same with one socket too, just more damage.

Important note: make sure at least one of the jewels you are using in these gloves is a "Murderous" type so you get the damage boost from intimidation mod.

For abyss jewels you want life, fire damage and/or physical damage.



in 3.6 tombfists got nerfed and no longer provide attack speed.
if you are playing STD, that wont affect you since you can get a legacy pair.

if you are playing league, tombfists are actually still the best dps option.
to match a dual abyss tombfists (non legacy) in terms of dps you need a pair of rare gripped gloves with the incursion mod ("50 to 80 added fire damage against burning enemies) on it and attack speed.
which is pretty rare and expensive.
and you will still have less life and less sockets to get blind on hit jewel.

one abyss socket tombfists are also still better than a pair of rare gloves with attack speed and another dmg mod like phyz or fire.

abyss jewels and the intimidation debuff are too good to give up for.

with that being said, you can get a pair of rare gloves to solve your dex\res problems if you are really struggling.

for comparison, i lose about 15% damage if i use a pair of rare gloves compared to my legacy dual socket (which is huge really).
your results may vary depending on your gear ofc, POB is your best friend for that :)

Amulet:

Pretty much BiS, every mod on this items is useful for us.


10% life
fire res
10% str that gives us more life and damage
fire pen - more damage
cover enemies in ash - more damage
avatar of fire - again, more damage :)


We need Xoph's Blood also for "Avatar of Fire" mod that saves us points on the skill tree.
this mod convert phyz, cold and lightning damage to fire so we get more damage.
also this mod makes us deal only fire damage so phyz reflect maps are not a problem.

this amulet can be expensive, an alternative to that will be a rare ammy with life and res plus anything else you need like dex\int.
you can look for a "add fire/phyz dmg to atks" mod but that could get expensive too.


Belt:


Rare belt with life, res and wed.
preferably stygian vise or leather belt to squeeze out just a little bit more life and damage.

For another layer of defense, you can use abyss jewel with blind on hit mod.



Boots:


Rare boots with life and res.
movement speed is just a bonus because you will be using a movement skill for moving around.


Body armor:


Well, do i really need to explain this one? :)
TON of life
fire damage
and some armor too


WAIT! no 6L!?

we actually get our 6L from the helmet.
we can do that with the elder mods to get another 2 gems in the helmet itself.

Helmet:


you are looking for the "immolate" and "conc effect" mods with any other useful mod like life or res.

easiest way to find this helmet is with this search filter:
Standard
change to the current league in the search options.




Rings:


try to get as much "life gained on hit" as you can and then any other mod you need like res or dex.
life is a good bonus on the rings but it can get very expensive.

alternatively you can use


but managing res and dex could be difficult.

*make sure you check the "cheap version" section too, there is a unique belt that gives you alot of life and mana GOH.

Jewels:
One of this for more balls:

you get this as a quest reward at act 5.


one of you rare jewels need to have the mod "2 mana gained for each enemy hit by your attacks" so you can sustain mana. 1 mana on hit could result in you not having enough mana to attack.
you want life and attack speed, AS is the best way to scale our damage.


Watcher's eye with Anger fire leech mod.
later you can upgrade to a double anger mod with leech and phyz gained as extra fire or increased fire damage.




Alternatives:
Watcher's Eye with vitality life leech and swapping Herald of Ash with vitality, but its not ideal.

an elder ring with "Warlord's mark on hit" mod can probably work too.
thing is tho, you want rings with life gained on hit mods so that could be expensive with the warlord's mod.
also the leech from that curse is weaker compared to the watchers.


*post 3.7: we no longer need a watchers eye to leech life, we can get it on the tree.
which saves you money and allowing you to leech earlier in the league.

you might still want to use it since both ways are 3 points, but with watchers eye you get more life and potentially more damage if you manage to acquire a double/triple mod jewel.


Flasks:

We have 9k life and normal life flasks just wont be enough.
you wont be using this one really, since we get so much life regn\leech\gain.


more damage.
consecrated ground give us more life regen when we are standing on it.
you want anti bleed flask for the rare case you get that 20 stacks of bleed.
most bleed effects wont have much impact on us and you probably wont even degen at all.


try to get a good pen roll on that.
you can also try to get your uncapped fire res higher than cold&light but its not a big deal if you cant manage it because we use the next flask the grant us +50% fire res and should fix that problem :)


this flask gives us 2 more balls for a damage and tankiness boost.
you want to get a flask that consumes 30 charges or less so you can get 2 uses out of it. if it has the mod "increased charges uses" its not good for you.
you either want it to not have that mod at all or have the "reduced charges used" mod.
also try to get the lowest increased area of effect rolls, more area means less balls hitting the target.


Onslaught gives more attack speed which is very good for us.
you want anti curse mod on this one.
also you need the roll "reduced charges used" to be at least 23% to get 2 uses out of the flask.



Weapon 1:


Try to get a good attack speed roll on this one.


Weapon 2:
well, its a shield actully :)



This shield has a very high life roll and with the implicit we can get over 200 life.
also gives armor.


Gloves:
with the new cluster jewels setup it would probably be hard to cap our resistances when using tombfists, so a rare pair (gripped gloves) with life and resistance would make more sense here.
if you can afford it, a pair with +1 target to strike skills will make mapping even smoother and you could drop Ancestral Call entirely.





You dont have to get the dual abyss sockets, works the same with one socket too, just more damage.

Important note: make sure at least one of the jewels you are using in these gloves is a "Murderous" type so you get the damage boost from intimidation mod.

For abyss jewels you want life, fire damage and/or physical damage.




Amulet:

Pretty much BiS, every mod on this items is useful for us.


10% life
fire res
10% str that gives us more life and damage
fire pen - more damage
cover enemies in ash - more damage
avatar of fire - again, more damage :)


We need Xoph's Blood also for "Avatar of Fire" mod that saves us points on the skill tree.
this mod convert phyz, cold and lightning damage to fire so we get more damage.
also this mod makes us deal only fire damage so phyz reflect maps are not a problem.

this amulet can be expensive, an alternative to that will be a rare ammy with life and res plus anything else you need like dex\int.
you can look for a "add fire/phyz dmg to atks" mod but that could get expensive too.


Belt:


Rare belt with life, res and wed.
preferably stygian vise or leather belt to squeeze out just a little bit more life and damage.

For another layer of defense, you can use abyss jewel with blind on hit mod.



Boots:


this is a required unique to cancel the effect of grasping vines on us from the Nature's Patience keystone.

*full explanation as for why we are using this is in the "patch Updates" section, 3.10 patch.

Body armor:


Well, do i really need to explain this one? :)
TON of life
fire damage
and some armor too


WAIT! no 6L!?

we actually get our 6L from the helmet.
we can do that with the elder mods to get another 2 gems in the helmet itself.

Helmet:


you are looking for the "immolate" and "conc effect" mods with any other useful mod like life or res.

easiest way to find this helmet is with this search filter:
Standard
change to the current league in the search options.




Rings:


try to get as much "life gained on hit" as you can and then any other mod you need like res or dex.
life is a good bonus on the rings but it can get very expensive.

a more offensive option will be to get one ring with Flammability curse on hit mod.

alternatively you can use


but managing res and dex could be difficult.

*make sure you check the "cheap version" section too, there is a unique belt that gives you alot of life and mana GOH.

Jewels:
One of this for more balls:

you get this as a quest reward at act 5.


one of you rare jewels need to have the mod "2 mana gained for each enemy hit by your attacks" so you can sustain mana. 1 mana on hit could result in you not having enough mana to attack.
you want life and attack speed, AS is the best way to scale our damage.



for cluster jewels you want a few of them:
one large cluster with Feed the Fury, Fuel the Fight, Smite the Weak and 2 jewel sockets, those are the best options.
you also want the jewel to only add 8 nodes.

two medium jewels with Eye to Eye, Repeater and 1 jewel socket.
4 and 5 nodes are the same, try to avoid using a 6 node one.

one small cluster with Fettle for a nice life boost.

and the most important one- small cluster called Natural Affinity.




Watcher's eye with Anger fire leech mod.
later you can upgrade to a double anger mod with leech and phyz gained as extra fire or increased fire damage.




Alternatives:
Watcher's Eye with vitality life leech and swapping Herald of Ash with vitality, but its not ideal.

an elder ring with "Warlord's mark on hit" mod can probably work too.
thing is tho, you want rings with life gained on hit mods so that could be expensive with the warlord's mod.
also the leech from that curse is weaker compared to the watchers.


*post 3.7: we no longer need a watchers eye to leech life, we can get it on the tree.
which saves you money and allowing you to leech earlier in the league.

you might still want to use it since both ways are 3 points, but with watchers eye you get more life and potentially more damage if you manage to acquire a double/triple mod jewel.


Flasks:

We have 9k life and normal life flasks just wont be enough.
you wont be using this one really, since we get so much life regn\leech\gain.


more damage.
consecrated ground give us more life regen when we are standing on it.
you want anti bleed flask for the rare case you get that 20 stacks of bleed.
most bleed effects wont have much impact on us and you probably wont even degen at all.


try to get a good pen roll on that.
you can also try to get your uncapped fire res higher than cold&light but its not a big deal if you cant manage it because we use the next flask the grant us +50% fire res and should fix that problem :)


this flask gives us 2 more balls for a damage and tankiness boost.
you want to get a flask that consumes 30 charges or less so you can get 2 uses out of it. if it has the mod "increased charges uses" its not good for you.
you either want it to not have that mod at all or have the "reduced charges used" mod.
also try to get the lowest increased area of effect rolls, more area means less balls hitting the target.


Onslaught gives more attack speed which is very good for us.
you want anti curse mod on this one.
also you need the roll "reduced charges used" to be at least 23% to get 2 uses out of the flask.









My Gear \ "what to upgrade":
Spoiler




For corruption, look for attack speed implicit.
while %phyz or flat phyz corruptions might get you slightly higher dps, attack speed mod will make your build feel much smoother.



i personally moved to a shaped shield because i went all in and min\maxed the char.
but its really unnecessary and very expensive, remorse is more than enough.



For corruption, you want attack speed.
elemental weakness on hit might show a MASSIVE dps boost in POB, and its kind of is, but only against non-boss mobs, where you dont really need that much of damage to clear maps.
bosses have elemental resistances along with reduced effect of curses, so dps wise against bosses both corruption will be about the same, just that attack speed will make your build smoother.



a life recovery belt is very recommended since it buffs both regen and leech.



ele pen enchant is the best here.
gives us more damage against big bosses like shaper and elder.



useful corruptions would be increased damage for more dps or +1 to max res for defense.



a GG helmet.
"30% more elemental damage" roll is a massive dps boost, essentially making it a 7L helmet.



since im not running any offensive curse i went for poachers mark on hit ring for more life and mana GOH.

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Poacher%27s_Mark


i have stumbled upon this beauty

so i swapped herald of ash with vitality.

i dont lose any dps due to the anger mod and i can still leech life.
but the real upgrade is the second vitality mod.
this mod plus the aura itself grants me about total of 1k life recovery over the old setup.
"increased life recovery rate" mod also affects leech rate :)




in 3.6 a new flask is coming out.
this flask triples the consecrated ground area and grants +2% crit chance against mobs in it.
this in conjunction with how consecrated ground works now will increase our crit chance significantly, allowing us to proc EO much more often.
on top of that, we get 10% increased damage.

this will replace your magic sulphur flask.


another flask from 3.5 is


10% increased damage and some life+mana recovery.
this flask also have a veiled mod available so you can get one with life regen or increased crit chance.

this will replace your magic silver flask.



in order to use those flasks you need to change your setup slightly.
if you add them to your "belt" you are now using 5 unique flasks which means you dont have space for an immunity mod like bleed\curse.

in order to give up on bleed immunity you need a jewel with "corrupted blood cannot be inflicted on you" mod, since this is the only bleed effect that can be stacked and be dangerous for us.
normal bleed effects are mitigated completely by our regen.

for curses, you need to worry about elemental weakness maps as this is the most dangerous curse in maps without a curse immunity flask.

this can be solved by stacking your resistances to the point your res is capped even in ele weakness maps.
the curse reduces your res by 34% so make sure your res rate is your max res (75% probably) +34.
tip: dont rely on your endurance charges to cap your res in those maps since its very risky.

other map curses are:
temporal chains - but we are immune to that curse due to JUGG :)
enfeeble - not dangerous, only less damage.
vulnerability - semi dangerous, but depends on the type of mobs\boss that in the map.

if you dont feel like giving up on one of those immunities, you can use a magic life flask.

but either way, you are only giving up on a little bit more damage so you are not really missing out on anything.



Cheap\budget\league start version?
Spoiler

getting LGOH rings with all the other needed mods can be expensive.
so there is a cheap way to get the same effect, with some sacrifices ofc.

this belt:

at first glance it looks pretty terrible, but check the poackers mark mod.
poachers mark at lvl30 gets you 34 LGOH and 15 MGOH, which apply to hexaproof mobs too!
on top of that, you get culling strike.

that means you can get your res and dex from the rings easily with some other damage mods and life.
if you cant cap your res for some reason, use a rare shield with life and res.

the phyz dmg taken with every movement skill isnt a big deal since we have enough life regen to counter it.
get the lowest damage roll and you are good to go.

this also means you no longer need a +2 MGOH mod on your jewel.

the downside is that it limits your potential and you have no armor so phyz dmg from big hits can be more deadly.


another cheap ring you can use is

you basically always ignite monsters so this ring acts like it has a LGOH mod.


if you cant afford xophs blood, take avatar of fire on skill tree, its a 3 points investment.

+2 MGOH jewels arent really expensive or hard to acquire, but in case you really need that jewel slot or free mod you can take "revelry" node on the tree, its a 2 point investment.



Gem links:
Spoiler

Main skill in Helmet:(6L)
Molten Strike - Multistrike - Combustion - Ancestral Call
you get Immolate and Conc effect from the helmet's elder mods so they are automatically linked.
for hard single targets swap Ancestral Call with Elemental Damage With Attacks.
Personally i dont swap gems because i still melt T15 bosses with the mapping setup.

Movement skill:
Whirling Blades - Faster Attacks - Blood Magic
you can use fortify instead of BM.
i use BM cuz i can run out of mana sometimes on long travel distances.
i personally prefer WB becase its very fast and responsive, however you can use leap slam\shield charge if you like it better.

also WB is safer than leap slam since you are getting hit by the monsters gradually as you dash into the pack.
with leap slam you get hit from all of the monsters at once which can be more dangerous.

Auras:
Anger- Blood and Sand - Herald of Ash - Enlighten
Enlighten gives us more room to breath with the mana, also its a great QOL in no mana regen maps.

*NOTE: make sure you are in Blood stance (red icon) and not Sand stance.


CWDT:
Cast With Damage Taken - Immortal Call - Summon Lightning Golem


DPS boosters:
Blood Rage - Ancestral Protector
the totem gives more attack speed.
Blood Rage gives attack speed and frenzy charges on kill for even more AS.

i have a dual socket tombfists so in my 2nd socket i use a portal gem, thats the way i like to play.
you can use war banner instead or put the banner in the auras setup and give up on the enlighten if you feel comfortable with the limited unreserved mana.



Pantheon:
Spoiler

Major: Soul of Arakaali

you need to upgrade it for the life recovery rate.
its works with blood rage and immortal call.
when immortal call proc with CWDT you are immune to physical damage and since blood rage degen is physical damage over time this scenario activate the pantheon buff.

Minor: Sould of Shakari
upgrade it for full effectiveness.
i used to roll with sould of gruthkul for the phyz mitigation, but in 3.4 poison got buffed, so monster's poison also cause more damage and can be very deadly now.
pre 3.4 poison wasnt even noticeable.




Leveling:
Spoiler

not much to say here, normal leveling items.



use Thief's Torment as early as you can get it.
this ring can also be your endgame ring if you manage the res and dex.

I used Molten Strike from level 1 with ancestral call.
you want to link it with faster attacks and multistrike later on.

you can add ele dmg w\ atks and added fire damage to the setup.
damage is high right from the getgo.

for a weapon, try to get a fast attacking claw\sword.



when you get to lvl 68 you can equip


this is the closest to a grelwood while you are saving for the real deal.



POB, Skill Tree, Ascendancy and Bandits:
Spoiler


Bandits: kill all. we need the points :)

Ascendancy progression:
1. Undeniable for damage, hit chance and attack speed.
2. Unstoppable for QOL.
3. Unbreakable for a lot of defense mods.
4. Unflinching as endurance charges have more effect in endgame where physical damage is high.

Skill tree progression: (you can use the POB link too, it has the tree progression as well)
OLD use the POB to see the new tree with the cluster jewels.


for easier mana sustain, we take the life and mana leech node on the right side of the tree.
you still want to use a +2 mana gained on hit jewel, especially for no leech maps.



General tree progression:
*Feel free to spec the points where ever you need\want.
you pretty much alternate between damage and life.
there are no "build enabling" nodes so you have alot of freedom.

You can take Avatar Of Fire node until you get a xophs blood.
Point Blank is too far to take on the tree and you lose alot of points, its better to save for Grelwood Shank.


Dual Wielding:
you can use the same tree to easily switch between dual wield setup and shield setup.

if you dont feel like it, take "Dervish" node instead of the two small projectile nodes.
(you still want to take "Fury Bolts")


POB:
https://pastebin.com/AGWJx6NX

also include all of the tree progression.

*added a correction for multistrike on a jewel.
OLD,pre 3.10

https://pastebin.com/2wSg7r8U

complete tree for lvl 97, i just allocated both Dervish and Defiance so its easier to switch between setups (shield vs dual wield) while testing.
you only need one of those nodes depends on your chosen setup.




DPS:
Spoiler

well, im not sure, just know that its very high and will MELT bosses :)

ingame tooltip only shows the melee party of molten strike damage.
POB probably shows damage per ball but its hard to tell how many balls hits the monster as its depends on RNG and the mob's hitbox.

the theoretical dps formula is:
damage per ball X attack speed X number of balls per attack X % balls that hit the enemy.

EDIT: i have tried multiple calculators in the past but they all seemed to either exaggerate or under estimate the dps.this calculator looks more accurate, you will still need POB for this tho.
Molten Strike DPS Calculator



Useful Tools (Warning! contains awesomeness)
Spoiler


Gear Shop:


Very nice sheet with pictures and links to the build's items with variety of options and rolls.
made by Yokzjumper



Tool for calculating resistances:
I like to use an EXCEL file i made for calculating res needed to cap.
here is a link:
http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=67947714524391132233




FAQ
Spoiler

Can i use "this" weapon?
my build is using grelwood shank and lioneyes remorse.
there is no other sword that will give you more dps.
though you can replace the shield for more dps but less defense and life.
best option will be another grelwood shank (what a surprise ^^) or beltimber blade.


Can i use "this" armor?
there is no better option than kaoms.

we use an elder helmet as a 6L so there is no need for a 6L armor.
loreweave's life roll is just way too low to consider as an option.
even with belly of the beast you lose 1k life over kaoms.

also those would be more expensive than a kaoms+elder helmet.
so i cant see why would you even bother with anything other than kaoms.


I cant afford "this" item, what to do?
first, there is a budget section for that.
second, there arent any "build enabling" items in this build so you can use something else until you can afford it.

also, dont try to search for the most GG items or the perfect rolls if you dont have the money for it.
get what you can afford at that moment.
the only things that you should really invest in them are the helmet and sword.
get a good attack speed roll on the sword and you are set for endgame.
on the helmet you want the dual elder mods (conc effect+immolate) and a decent life roll, anything else is a bonus and will probably be expensive.

for example:
single abyss socket tombfists are perfectly ok and very cheap, dont be so stubborn on having a legacy dual socket.

enchants on boots or helmet arent required!
sure they help alot, but you will be totally fine without them.

there are plenty alternatives for the rings, and you dont have to get damage mods on them, focus on LGOH and life\res\dex.

double\triple mod watchers eye is nice to have, but you only really want the leech mod from it.

not having the Dying Sun flask wont cripple the build, i promise.

n fact, none of the items would break the build if you cant get them right away or with the perfect roll.


Why not "this" aura?
we use anger and herald of ash since both are the biggest dps auras we can use.
you can replace HOA with vitality if you have the vitality leech watchers eye.

war banner has a very small effect on us since we already have alot of accuracy and we are almost at the hit chance cap anyway.
the attack speed gained from the banner's increased accuracy is pretty low.
in addition, the increased damage taken isnt global, its phyz, which we do not deal, only fire.

the adrenaline is a big boost, but its active only when you place the banner and for a short period of time (like 2 sec?).
this is almost useless against bosses, where you actually need the dps boost.
while mapping you have enough damage.


I cant sustain my mana, what gives?
First, make sure you are using all the right gear and you are past the leveling phase (AKA at least lvl 80) with all the ascen points.
Second, link the Enlighten gem to your auras setup (3L).

then, dont hold the attack button for too long while mapping.
usually its enough to just tap it once and dash away.

you need to get used to it, because the projectiles are delayed.
they take some time to hit the target so it might feel like you are weak\slow.
but you are probably attacking like once or twice too many times and then there are no monsters to hit and gain mana from.

if you still cant sustain mana, try getting another +2 mana jewel and be less "trigger happy".

if you cant sustain your mana after all of this, delete the game, it doesnt like you :)

there is a budget gear option that solve the mana issue, check it out.


Why arent you using curses?
a curse with blasphemy takes too much mana.
warlords mark isnt really useful for us since we have the fire leech and we get mana on hit.
poachers mark isnt really needed and wont work on hexaproof maps.

flammability is a dps curse, but we are not using it because its not reliable enough with CWDT setup (not that we have spare sockets anyway).
and manually casting the curse is just having an additional mechanic to manage and in some fights will get you killed, or you will forget to use the curse.

same story for wave of conviction..

im not a POB DPS warrior, i would rather focus on real performance in practice.
i could easily make a bullshit dps POB that only works on paper, or with real headache to set up.
like this 800k+ dps file.



How much dex&int i need?
Dex: at least 122 so you can equip the sword. (you now have 134 dex from the tree)
you can try to get 155 dex for a lvl20 blood rage, but its not a big deal.


Int: 111, only for lvl20 combustion.
you now have 124 int (104 previously) natively from the tree so you dont need to worry about it.



What level should my CWDT gem be?
lvl 20 so you can use higher level golem and less frequently endurance charges loss.


How much extra dps lvl21 gems will give me?
dont bother, the dps increase is very neglectable.

What about using Empower?
see last answer :)


How is my dps? \ Why my dps is so low?
first, make sure you are using POB to analyze your dps and not the ingame tooltip.
also verify you tick all the right boxes in the configuration tab (like "is the enemy ignited?"), you can compare it with my POB link i provided, and that you have the complete skill tree (at least level 93).
also use Elemental Damage with Attacks gem instead of Ancestral Call.
second, take a look at the gear section and confirm that you are using all the correct items.

if everything above is right, your dps is fine.
you should be around 200k dps against normal monsters with the magma balls (not melee hit section).

ofcourse that your dps isnt really 200k, check the DPS section for more information.

sometimes you just hit bad RNG and your EO wont proc so it might feel a little bit weak.

I cant kill Phoenix | getting REKT by phoenix
so apparently ive heard that more than once so i wrote a small in one of my comments:

"
HybridBoy schrieb:


First, i would try this boss with ancestral call instead of EDWA so it would be easier to kill the mobs around and get better positioning.
Second, unless you have enough hp, it will kill you really fast with its explosions.

so i would recommend dodging its big attacks and/or killing the mini phoenixes around so you wont get hit by too much damage.

the fight is a bit chaotic, cuz the mobs around are shooting you and there are those small fire tornadoes that follow you.

its big attacks arent that hard to dodge, it takes a short time for the boss to charge them.
you can see this at 0:08 in the video.

so the strategy would be kind of: dodging the big attacks and meanwhile kill the mobs around, repeat until its dead.

the big explosion did over 6k damage to me, but i barely noticed cuz of the high life recovery.
pretty much tanked the big attacks+3 fire tornadoes+projectiles from the mobs around.

GL!

Phoenix fight



Can i pm you ingame?
EDIT: NOPE, sorry.

i used to allow people to PM me, but i only got bombarded by silly questions that are answered in the guide and people were too lazy to check the FAQ or just read the guide carefully.
so dont be offended if you are being ignored.

if you have questions, post them in the thread.




that's it!
would love to hear your feedback :)

EDIT:
please no more linking ALL of your gear and asking "what to upgrade now?", its annoying and spammy.
just look at my gear and and try to get something similar.
if you REALLY cant resist doing it, at least use the "spoiler" option to hide the items.



Zuletzt bearbeitet von HybridBoy um 19.06.2020, 01:19:40
Solid build, really is as tanky/strong as is claimed, i have the same build essentially, just using 2x grelwoods.
Will carry you though endgame with absolute ease.
Sickeningly OP!
Any suggested alternatives for the helm? Literally there is only one up for sale on Delve league right now and they are very pricey. Seems this build needs the help with the "supported by socketed gem" helm though so I am curious if you can still make this work if you can't afford or find that helm yet.
bandits?
"
krut0n schrieb:
Any suggested alternatives for the helm? Literally there is only one up for sale on Delve league right now and they are very pricey. Seems this build needs the help with the "supported by socketed gem" helm though so I am curious if you can still make this work if you can't afford or find that helm yet.


there is no alternative for the helm as its our only way to get a 6L with kaoms.

these helmets are really cheap.
i got mine at the first day of delve for like 25c.


you can find these for 10-15c in delve or std no problem.
i made this build so you can start cheap :)

here is a link to poe.trade search filter i made:

Standard
Delve

GL!


"
Rohak schrieb:
bandits?


KILL ALL! :)

i will add this to the guide, ty.
Zuletzt bearbeitet von HybridBoy um 08.09.2018, 05:13:33
preferred order of ascendancies?
Zuletzt bearbeitet von Rohak um 08.09.2018, 07:20:23
"
Rohak schrieb:
preferred order of ascendancies?


I would go with:
1. Undeniable for damage, hit chance and attack speed.
2. Unstoppable for QOL.
3. Unbreakable for a lot of defense mods.
4. Unflinching as endurance charges have more effect in endgame where physical damage is high.
what do you think about drop sword and use Dreadsurge + sprinkler for dual hand? price of giving up little bit of defence
Is there a leveling tree that we may be able to use as a guide as well? Thanks for the build.

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