[1.3] "Masochist" Marauder CWDT+Self-curse Punishment

Punishment only reflects physical damage, and the Life Leech gem grants healing from all hits of damage with the supported skill. So in order to not kill ourselves we simply need enough non-physical damage to compensate for the amount that is reflected.

The required ratio varies depending on many factors:

-Level of Punishment.
-Target Physical Resistance.
-Target Elemental Resistance.
-If we are cursed with Vulnerability or not.
-If we are shocked or not.
-Target or physical or elemental reflect aura.
-Map physical or elemental reflect property.
-Player physical/attack damage mitigation.
-Player %life leech.

Without bothering with all the shitty math, it is quite obvious that healing becomes very inconsistent due to these factors. Going for the bare minimum will not even suffice for general clearing, we need to overcompensate on non-physical damage as much as we can, while still reflecting enough damage to ourselves to maintain an adequate proc-rate. This is primarily done via %based damage conversion.

Sources of non-physical damage added:

-Static Strike or Physical to Lightning damage conversion.
-Hatred Aura.
-Herald of Ash and Lightning.
-CWDT Molten Shell+Discharge (although I would avoid relying on these due to single target scenarios).
-Atziri's Promise flask.
-Added Fire Damage gem (not used in this setup).

5 Power Charge+3 Endurance Charge Discharge

I chose Static Strike as my primary skill for three reasons:

-Damage conversion allows me to outheal the physical reflect from Punishment.
-Built in aoe.
-The damage delay allows us to get more hits in per-second than we would with other targeted melee skills. Very important for getting as many cwdt procs as our damage allows (maximum 4 per second).

My original build idea used Cyclone to trigger CWDT spells that would compensate for it's small aoe. Cyclone is still a viable contender for this build, especially if I can get a 6l. However, we need both Life Leech and Physical to Lightning linked in order to not kill ourselves, as well as Blood Magic to reliably support the mana cost. With Static Strike however, we only need to sacrifice one damage support to fit in our Life Leech gem and the build is good to go.

For my trigger gems I decided to go with Molten Shell and Discharge. They simply deal a lot of damage and do it in an aoe. We can reliably trigger Molten Shell because we are reflecting physical damage to ourselves.

UPDATE: Despite doing lower damage do to support gem restrictions, cyclone is very strong in a 6l. On a 5l I would not suggest it, despite the clearspeed boost we get from being so mobile.

Ended up going with Weapon Ele as my 6th link over Conc Effect. I assumed Conc would be best as it scales both my phys and ele damage, but I took a big hit to overall clearspeed and also noticed myself taking a lot of self damage. While Weapon Ele does not increased our CWDT proc-rate, it does give a hefty boost to both Static Strike and Cyclone dps as well as improved healing ratio.

Other options:

-Potential to run a Vaal Molten Shell setup.

-Ethereal Knives has the potential to proc itself, although I intend to roll an entirely new build for this purpose, as my current setup only has elemental damage scaling.
UPDATE: I tried this on a new character (crit glacial cascade) and simply ended up murdering myself. Maybe at higher gear levels/with a more optimized setup it could work.

-Scold's Bridle? Not sure exactly what we could do with this, but it is another source of self-damage that can trigger CWDT, on top of a hefty spell damage boost.

I leveled up with Facebreakers, then swapped over to my main setup at level 67 when I had Vaal Pact and could use my leveled cwdt gems from my other character.

Afterwards went for dual curse and the mace damage notables.

Switched from 1h/shield to dual-wield doryani's at 75 and hopped into 70+ maps.

23 Points

44 Points

70 Points

90 Points Some respeccing here.

102 Points

Planned Level 90 Tree

Possible? Yes. Recommended? Hell no.

This build is intended for 6-player group play. A simple (or needlessly complicated depending on how you look at it..) point-click-explode character that will contribute large amounts of damage and not kill itself to reflect.

I did a test run of the Apex at level 85 with this character (when I was still on a 5-link). As expected, it blew through trash like it was nothing and cleared double vaals quickly and without issue.

On the trio I grabbed myself an extra bleed flask and killed Alia asap, followed by the dualstriker, and finally the cycloner (with correct positioning and flask usage he can be facetanked). Very important to keep the others seperated from your target as the build is quite fragile.

Died 3 times against Atziri before swapping to another character to kill her.

This is a scenario where Cyclone would be superior to Static Strike, and possibly a quick respec would be wise (dropping Vaal Pact and playing without self-curse). I will likely attempt this again next time I get myself a set.

Apex
Shipyard
Catyard