[2.0 update!!!] Dyz's School of Stun - Stunlock the game - farm Atziri

This build is pretty tanky at endgame with capped all resists (including chaos), 7 endurance charges, high duration CWDT Immortal Call, and permanent everything stunlock (2.0 content unverified). This build is (normal) Atziri viable (Uber untested). This build has no problems with physical damage, even with relatively low armor. This build scales mainly physical damage, uses a 2handed maul, and will eventually STUNLOCK EVERY STUNABLE MONSTER IN THE GAME (2.0 content unverified). Full game stunlock does require a high hit damage maul, but this build can otherwise be geared very cheaply, and complete end game maps relatively easily.

This build works well in parties as added support/boss lockdown. The build itself is great for solo players, and farming alone, but also works well in parties. The stun mechanic does not account for increases in monster health due to party size. So you will stun just as well in a party of 6, as you do solo. This is great for end game maps with some tricky bosses. You can run in, lock down the boss, and then allow your teammates to safely enter the fray and kill the boss.

Please note this is not the "end-all" build for stun. There are variations, some choose duelist, some focus more damage, some use different defenses, or any other deviations. This is simply what I did, how I did it, and what it accomplished. If you choose to try something different, and succeed, feel free to create your own stun build guides. There is a noticeable gap in stun builds.

The following is proven to succeed in:
Stunning all stunnable monsters in the game. The hardest monster in the game to stun is either 78 Map Dominus, or Atziri's split form, because of their extremely high HP. This build stuns well enough to make map bosses trivial, including the 3 generals of Atziri.

ACT 4 CONTENT IS UNVERIFIED FOR STUNLOCK, AS IS NEW HIGH LEVEL MAP CONTENT.

Fun Facts
-Did you know that when Atziri splits into 4 copies, her copies can be stunned?
-This build also works well with from the Duelist start point, and can get 10% extra attack speed.

I've not attempted act 4 content, or higher level map content yet, the following impressions will attempt to take into context that content, and plan for it, but please note that it IS NOT TESTED for that content. This build should still stunlock pre 2.0 content reliably, once I've had time to get through 2.0 content, I will update this guild to reflect my findings.

ICE CRASH
Can replace GS completely, Swap Multistrike gem for WED in the GS links. For trash mob clearing, it does fine without adding an INC AOE gem.
Ice crash skills/links
IceCrash + IncMeleeDamage + EndChargeStun + WepEleDamage + AddedFire + FasterAttacks

MAUL SPEED/DAMAGE CHANGES
This is a biggy for the build. It is an overall increase in damage, but only because of the increased attack speed associated. I have 5.21 aps with GS, and 2.7 aps with heavy strike in 2.0 with the below skill tree. My overall hit damage on HS has shrunk to 9509-14826 which could affect high level stunlocking. Especially the new content. Keep in mind that the skill tree below has 16 unallocated points at lvl 94, so those points could be used to increase damage further. Also, fire golem would be essential for the build, and would replace vaal molten shell in the CWDT link. That would keep fire golem active for the damage boost in most cases. This could cause some flapping in damage though.

FIRE GOLEM
Put it in CWDT links. This will help buff our damage again. Replace Vaal Molten Shell as it doesn't work with CWDT anymore.

VENGENCE
If you want it, you could put it in the 6th link of the GS skill. It's not really necessary though.

FORTIFY
Could be put in with leap slam. I attempted to try and replace HS with vigilant strike with lackluster results. I think it works well with leap slam though.

REDUCED MANA
We can't run 3 auras anymore without reduced mana nodes, or a lvled Enlighten. Maybe for end game, enlighten can be a goal, but you can also easily get 18% reduced mana reserved with 9 skill points from the updated tree, getting the sovereignty nodes, and reduced mana reservation nodes at the bottom of the duelist area.

HERALD OF THUNDER
This may also be run if you get the reduced mana reservation nodes. This isn't a huge damage increase, and the proc will be iffy, but this will also give lighting damage to the build, thus allowing the 10% chance to shock/freeze/burn in the build full range of status effects.

LIFE LEECH
Life leech has been greatly reduced. This is another area that could benefit from the extra points left over after obtaining the "core" build in the passive tree below. The tree goes right beside a number of clusters that could be utilized to increase life leech significantly. I don't know how much would be necessary for endgame content, and remains untested. Due to the built in endurance charge accumulation and IC combo, I'm unsure if the build really NEEDS the leech. From just messing around in early act 4 content, IC procs, and while IC is active, the 1% leech from Death's Oath is still plenty to get you back to full before IC wears off. This wasn't "hard" content for the build though.

PASSIVE TREE
This passive tree is what I've allocated in standard on my original character. From the end of this tree, you can specialize into different builds, whether you need more damage, more armor/life, or more life leech.


Personally, since the maul changes nerfed damage a bit, I would probably go a damage specialization over more armor/health/life leech.

Skills shouldn't be too surprising here. Gems are listed in order of importance.
Groundslam - 49 mana in stun mode

Standard issue groundslam here. For DPS mode, consider swapping ECoMS for WED.

Vengeance Option - for a 5 or 6 link, consider putting vengeance in the same link as your ground slam. You don't need added fire to stun whites and blues, and you may not need faster attacks with the new tree. This makes a good location to pop in a counterattack gem.

Heavy Strike - 16 mana in stun mode

NO MULTISTRIKE. Multistrike decreases your single hit damage. We want huge numbers in single hit. For DPS mode, trade stun and ECoMS for multistrike and WED respectively.

Movement and curse

Pretty standard here. Blood magic allows you to chase easily, and mana independent. Last league, vulnerability had the increased stun chance and added damage. I put Warlords Mark in here simply for the stun chance increase, but I've not tested this vs Vulnerability yet. As assassin's mark is additive, I would assume Warlords mark is as well, meaning that the stun chance could greatly outweigh the increased damage of Vulnerability.

Auras


Optional - Herald of Thunder

Physical damage scaling auras here. Vitality is optional if you can sustain it. All three auras should be sustainable with a lvl 20 reduced mana, and some mana on gear. Warlords blood and some mana leech should keep your mana full assuming you consistently hit mobs. Groundslam is the only real mana hungry skill in this build. You should have no trouble sustaining Heavy Strike with any amount of mana leech.

Herald of Thunder adds that last elemental status chance to the build. I haven't tested this, but this would also be a welcome damage increase using Celestial Punishment.

CWDT

No Enduring Cry. Your endurance charges are gained through your melee attacks. You should always have charges at full unless you are in a no stun map. Since this is 3 links, you could add an Enduring Cry gem, and level it past the CWDT gem to use on no stun maps. I personally leveled CWDT and IC to level 15 each. This, along with 20% gems and 7 charges gives you roughly 12 seconds of physical immunity. Plenty of time to build your charges again.

There are 2 ways to go about stunning monsters, damage or threshold reduction. This build focuses on the latter. Lets do a bit of math.

stun_chance (%) = 200 * damage / defender_effective_max_life

For example hitting a monster with 1000 effective max life, for 50 damage would result in a 10% chance to stun. This would be great, if it were that easy. It turns out that stun chance lower than 20% is ignored, so our character isn't stunning anything yet. So lets introduce stun threshold reduction.

Defender_effective_max_life = monster_max_life * stun_threshold_reduction

Heavy strike and ground slam have inherent 25% stun threshold reduction. So lets see what using one of those skills would do to our chance to stun.

Defender_effective_max_life = 1000 * (1-0.25)
Defender_effective_max_life = 1000 * (0.75)
Defender_effective_max_life = 750

Now lets plug it into the stun formula, again with just 50 damage.

stun_chance (%) = 200 * 50 / 750
stun_chance (%) = 10000 / 750
stun_chance (%) = 13.33%

Man, we still aren't hitting that 20% chance to stun. From here, you can scale damage, or stun threshold reduction. Let's see how much stun threshold reduction it takes to stun with 50 damage.

Stun threshold reduction suffers from diminishing returns above 75%. The formula above 75% is as follows. Please note that SR is stun reduction.

75 + ( SR - 75) * 25 / ( SR - 50 )

So someone with 110% SR effectively has

75 + ( 110 - 75 ) * 25 / ( 110 - 50 )
75 + 35 * 25 / 60
75 + 35 * 0.42
75 + 14.6 = 89.6% reduced Enemy Stun Threshold

So, lets see what 110% SR does to our 50 damage formula.

stun_chance (%) = 200 * 50 / 1000 * (1 - 0.896)
stun_chance (%) = 10000 / 1000 * 0.104
stun_chance (%) = 10000 / 104
stun_chance (%) = 96.2%

NOW we are talking. Keep in mind, that 110% SR is relatively easy to obtain. You can get 15% on both a 2H mace, and belt, and the stun gem starts out at 30% (lvl 1). So, there, you already have 60%, plus the 25% from heavy strike or ground slam, and you are already at 85%. Keep in mind that there is additional SR gained from the Endurance Charge on Melee Stun support gem as it levels, and passives on the tree we will look at.

Lastly, before moving into the build guide, we need to hit on stun duration. The default length of a single stun is 350ms. Keep in mind that 1000ms is 1 second. In the passive tree below, we get 120% increased stun duration. This doesn’t include any duration from gear, which you will most likely have.

Stun duration = 350 * 2.2
Stun duration = 770ms

That is a good number, especially if we can attack quickly. Attacking 2 times per second would result in stunlock, with this duration. Keep in mind that bosses tend to have stun recovery, so this number isn’t a definitive end all of stun duration. More is always better, but attack speed will be a better choice over more stun duration. Even if you only stun a boss for 350ms, if you can attack 2.85 times per second, increased stun duration doesn’t matter.

Stat goals
Strength - 182 (Karui Mauls)
Dexterity - 109 (Faster Attacks) - 136 (haste)
Intelligence - 66 (Hatred) - 130 (lvl 15 Vulnerability) - 151 (Herald of Thunder)

Normal - Level any way you want, as gear, links, and skills don't really matter in normal. Buy some leveling uniques such as brightbeak and perandus shield to make it through. Easy stuff here. Work your way over to Resolute Technique, and head down to get Unwavering Stance. Also, Wurm's molt will solve any mana problems.

Cruel - Consider switching to 2H Mauls here. Get a Geofri's Baptism ASAP. Carnage Heart is also a good item for leveling with decent stats for gearing. Geofri's Baptism should carry you through Cruel. If you want to start stunning now, grab Stun Master, and get some life as you move to the Duelist area. Alternatively, head up to the Templar area and get Amplify to increase your range. Pick up the +30 Dex/Int nodes if necessary for gems. Keep using Wurm's Molt.

Merciless - Get something better than Geofri's, start really gearing out. Resists shouldn't be too hard to cap, your main task here is to get your Chaos resist up. Chaos resist will let you run blood rage until you can work up to wearing a Death's Oath. Aim to not have any of the +30 stat nodes on the tree. These are wasted points if you can get enough stats for your gems from gear.

Bandits - Oak. Just Oak. If you don't need additional endurance charge, I would recommend the passive.

Resolute Technique: This allows the stunlock. If you miss a hit, that is a missed stun. This also allows you to remain life based, and stay alive through leech and Unwavering Stance.
Unwavering Stance: If you get stunned, you don't attack. If you don't attack, you can't stun, and you can't leech life. This build gets (relatively) no evasion nodes, and focuses purely on armor, so evasion is unnecessary.
Stun Mastery: This is 10% SR, and a total of 15% SR and 80% Stun Duration by the time you get this node. That's awesome. Unskippable.
Skull Cracking: Maces are a stunner's best friend. This cluster of nodes give 72% increased phys damage with maces, and 18% SR.

NEW
Celetial Punishment/Elementalist: We did a lot of elemental damage before, but with RT, there USED TO BE NO WAY to proc status effects. This will buff our damage against those hard to kill bosses, and while the proc rate is only 10%, the 1.3 tree has buffed our speed. More speed, more procs, and this affects enemies over their full life span. I chose this over the Executioner node because with Skull Cracking, we are going to cull at 10%, thus making Executioner only effective for 20% of their health window. Chances are your hits may skip over this block all together. I'd rather have a 10% chance from the beginning to deal more damage.

Other notables
Master of the Arena: This is a great all around melee passive, with damage, melee range (this helps with heavy strike especially), and health regen. The added health regen from the patch is nice.
Art of the Gladiator: Awesome node. Just awesome. Move/attack speed buff/dex/inc armor, good good good.
Berserking: In addition to stunning, you need to make sure you are hitting fast enough to keep the enemies stunlocked. This notable goes a long way towards acheiving this.