1.2.0 /// Hardcore Viable, Self Found Dual Wield Melee Guide (Beginner friendly)

You could drop the nodes leading up to Cloth and Chain, and then reroute a bit, to end up with something like this tree.
You lose a bit of evasion, but gain more block, dodge, spelldodge, and even some life, while keeping damage about the same (+4as, -10ipd). Both trees could use a bit of accuracy from the tree, and there are at least 9 nodes on the way, but I didn't want to take away from the hp you have currently.

Also, I've found Soul Siphon to be pretty useless since it gives no mana regen. If you're finding yourself short on mana, it's better to take Revelry.

last thing you want to take with an armour + evasion hybrid build is acrobatics. When you get hit, and you will get hit, you need armour. If you look at the coil version in the last post that has acrobatics instead of cloth and chain because Coil is mimicking having decent armour, without it you want to be aiming for as much armour as possible. The hybrid tree in the last post also takes the endurance charge on the way to c&c, and it also has resist which, when you're self found like this, can make the difference between using a crap bit of gear or a considerably less crap bit of gear. So that pathing isn't just about getting armour and ev, though that is important.

If it were a pure Ev build of course, go acro, but personally I wouldn't play a pure Evasion melee build in Hardcore, I'm not sure I'd play it in Sc either. I do love Acro, I use it all the time on characters, but always with a Coil. I'd have about 1,500 armour if I took Acro right now, even at 3k I wouldn't be happy going into high maps. I found a coil, but I used it on my bow ranger. If I find a second I'll take this one the coil route, if I find a 1,600 armour chest with good life and res first I'll go full hybrid option, but Id want 5-6k armour + 5 Endurance Charges before taking on the real heavy stuff.

If we look at the idea of dropping c&c though for theory sake, it gives us 6 points, 5 for acro then you could spend 1 point on 6% attack speed. Then the difference between your suggest and the current tree is losing 10% phys, 2% attack speed and 8% movement speed for 4% life, 8% evasion and 4% block chance... it's a fairly even trade, the full hybrid spec at end end takes Swagger and that life node though, as well as keeping Gallantry etc. So it's not that I disagree with all those node choices, I just chose to take them in this order.

Dropping Quickstep to go out from the end of Aspect of the Panther was a route I considered when going back and forth over the tree for a while. It costs 1 less point, and gives you 8% attack speed, but you drop 12% attack speed and 8% move speed. So it comes down to that 1 extra point being 4% attack speed and 8% move speed and weighting that against taking 6% attack speed from Duelist start as you have done. I was in 2 minds about it but I decided I'd rather have the movespeed, it's 8% move speed vs 2% attack speed, if I had the option to craft one on a bit of gear for equal cost I'd take the movespeed every time I think.

Mana Regen is based on max mana, so Siphon does up your regen. Revelry is a good set of ndoes, I like them, cost one more point though. Not everything we do leeches or kills, like warping, leaping, spamming skills into desynced monsters that arnt there etc. With it I have 97 free mana, Id have less free mana, less natural regen and my leech would be capped lower without it, imo for 2 points it's worth it over spending an extra point to lose all that and just have mana on hit/kill.

Accuracy is one of those things, the coil build has it, I rate it, but I don;t ever notice myself missing monsters that are really there, even through being blinded with shouders I still connect with the majority of hits so while yep, ideal world I want that acc, what would I drop for it? We have Weathered Hunter through the leveling process, but honestly when I drop it for cloth and chain in lat merciless I don't notice the difference. Like you say, acc v hp? Hard to justify it.

So is this noob friendly? I am very new to the game and i play standart. Some gear is quite expensive :(

Very nice guide, probably the most descriptive I have read through. Not a beginner, but stumbled on it looking for ideas for a duelist build. Kudos to you, new players will be able to jump in and not only play through the build but understand why and how it all works.

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gokulnath wrote:

12.uber

Im glad you enjoyed the guide gokul :) I like the videos idea. (Apology for long reply, it just sort of ended up that way :D)

Uber though, Im playing self found in hardcore, I dont even have a sacrifice set, never mind a mortal set.

This isnt really that sort of build, this is a build designed to work self found from nothing and get people from lvl1 to the lvl80 immortal achievement in hc in a sure, easy, simple manner. It's not "can take down uber with 100 exalts of gear and 35k crit arc dps" type deal. Don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with that, Foxtactics is my guild leader and he was running ubers non stop in Ambush, with a build that actually scaled really well from low price items like Geofris, Moonsorrow and a Cloak up to the rf vertex uberkiller version.

But that doesn't help players for whom a Cloak in itself seems like something they will likely not find and can barely afford. A Cloak is in the same range as a Coil, and a Coil would be a game changing upgrade on the current gear I have on this character. This is as sound at taking on the lower half of the map brackets as a budget Cloak+Geofris ninja arcer using gear that is far cheaper and more abundant, using far simpler mechanics in a manner that can be repeated on day 1 of a league or by a new player with no means to acquire semi rare uniques. That's what the guide is aimed at, I feel like if people are up to killing uber then they don't need a guide to show them how to spec for it.

Theres a lot of people out there who are stuck in a loop of coming unstuck somewhere between lvl50 and 75, trying to pull off crit or ci builds etc with low tier gear following the bright lights of some 100k dps uberkiller buildguide. I think they need to forget all the razzmatazz and learn how to create basic, functional characters that will go all the way to 80+ without hitting these walls in cruel/merciless/early maps. If you try and run before you know how to walk you don't get very far.

I have no idea how to make videos or the guide would no doubt be littered with them, Im not sure I really have the time but maybe it's something I should work out. Self found hardcore, I dont have a Palace or a Courtyard, I dont even have a Graveyard I think. For hard hitting maps like Valley this char would either want to have gone the coil route or found a semi serious armour chest and hat, but once the phys mitigation is right this is the sort of build that would chew up that room without a problem. Something like Torture Chamber, its just lightning damage so Im as ready for it now as I'll ever be. It can be done, wait for the beam near a post, break los then attack, retreat, repeat. Would I risk it with a self found melee char in hardcore? No lol, for the same reason I see people like Mors pass on it when they stream Hc mapping, in an online game the risk vs the reward just does not add up. Puncture bow ranger? sure, walk in the park.

But it would be fun to show how to do it with melee like this I agree, esp for sc players who just want to have a crack at everything. If I work out how to make videos I'll relevel this build on standard, equip realistic low/mid tier gears and make a video for each meaningful boss in the game. I think you're right, it would be a good addition.

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SoonBanned wrote:

So is this noob friendly? I am very new to the game and i play standart. Some gear is quite expensive :(

its about as noob friendly as it gets I think.

Thanks for the impressive guide. I am not a new player but wouldn't say I'm experienced either. I find the details expressed in your guide to be the best I've seen on these forums.

Since I have started (and deleted) so many characters, I have a good supply of low level items that I have found. This build simply shreds all mobs dual wielding Ungil's Gauche :) My block chance is 63% at level 29.

One thing I noticed quickly is Leap Slam doesn't work with claws. While you recommend Leap Slam in the guide, I am currently using Whirling Blades.

Thanks again and great job!

Slice

*edit: spelling

oh ya ungils will absolutely destroy when you can equip them. Last Resort, Redbeak, Mightflay, almost all of the low level "trash" unique swords, daggers and claws will be op as hell when you cna first put them on. Eventually they will fall off and using the recipe for phys % on a decent base claw will give you an upgrade but its possible just to hop from unique to unique through a lot of the game if you have them.

Glad you are enjoying the build. It is never going to be a 100,000 dps 1 shot lvl78 bosses build but if you want to get from 1 to 80+ and be destroying content the entire way without hitting any difficulty walls it works imo. It can be used as a spring board too, I recently leveled a cast on crit shadow and basically ran this tree in reverse using the same weapons and skills then used the quest respecs to flip my dual wield damage nodes over to crit in late merciless.

You need a sword in the main hand for leapslam yes, basically theres slam, blades and warp, you can flip between combos of them as weapons allow, youd keep them all at lvl1 gems anyway so theres no harm in bitching one for a time and then putting it back on.

A very well-written guide. I don't know if I will do this build, but I think I learned stuff by reading your thought process either way. Thank you.

The passive trees are showing as blank on my page, is the error on my side alone ?

Edit : My bad, I found the correct link to the new tree.