Level 92 crit glacial hammer shadow 46%/45% dodge/spell dodge 55k aoe 88k single target dps

Hello everyone!

I have been trying to make a build which can do most of the map modes and game content for almost a year now. As i am mostly playing solo my goal was to combine good damage output, decent defenses and life pool and also i wanted to achieve decent critical strike chance combined with average critical strike multiplier that allows me to survive reflect packs. I have done enough testing and build seems very stable so i decided that i should post this in forums. Whole concept of this build suddenly came up when i was almost out of ideas what build to make next.



1)Character stats overwiev:

>AoE damage per second without power charges + onslought:


>AoE damage per second with power charges + onslought:


>Single target damage per second without power charges + onslought:


>Single target damage per second with power charges + onslought:


>Defensive stats:


2)Current passive skill tree:


3)Level 100 passive skill tree:


While planning passive skill tree i knew that i need as much critical strike chance/multiplier nodes as possible because i use Doryani's Catalyst mace which has only 6,68% base crit. Accuracy rating and attack speed are very important as i am generating power charges through Romira's Banquet ring so i need to land as much hits as possible. I took all life nodes along the way moving from shadow starting area to the templar area. As for defenses i took full Acrobatics cluster because i use Atziri's Step and Daresso's Defiance to max both dodge/spell dodge at 46%. Vaal pact is needed for instant life leech as i dont have physical damage mitigation so i take spike damage from time to time but vaal pact allows me to regain life instantly. As for level 100 skill tree - i am planning to put all skill points in life nodes because i feel comfortable with damage output at the moment. Still it is possible to boost dps by adding more points into attack speed/critical strike chance nodes or you can even take Celestial Punishment node in templar area which gives nice damage aswell.

4)Bandit rewards:

>Normal - Oak for +40 maximum life
>Cruel - Oak for 18% physical damage
>Merciless - Alira for +1 maximum power charges

5)Gear overview and explanation:

>Weapons:
-Doryani's Catalyst costs 3-6ex depending on the rolls, it has ~ 300 physical dps, increases all elemental damage done including that from herald of thunder and herald of ice. It also boosts your critical strike chance, has decent attack speed and adds 1% life leech from elemental damage. As Glacial hammer skill is 50% physical/50% cold this mace gives everything you need. Also it must be used in main hand because glacial hammer skill works only with maces or staffs. To max your dps you are looking for all near max rolls on this mace except cast speed.

-Soultaker is used in offhand for boosting my attack speed and also lets me swap out blood magic gem for damage support gem. At first i tried to sustain glacial hammer by using 2% mana leech from Romira's Banquet ring but physical damage is too low for this purpose. To max your dps you are looking only for max attack speed roll because you attack with your main hand only and physical damage rolls on soultaker doesnt affect your total dps. This weapon also adds 20-25% cold resistance depending on the roll which help me cap resists.

>Chest/Helm/Gloves/Boots/Belt:
-Daresso's Defiance armor is used for additional 6% dodge, extra life, also it gives me onslought buff when i get hit by physical attacks or spells for maximum of 3 second (depends on your maximum number of endurance charges) that boosts my aoe dps by 4-5k. Dps boost gets bigger if you swap gem for single target setup. It also adds high evasion rating that helps combined with acrobatics.

-Atziri Step boots give me additional 15% spell dodge, extra life, movement speed and also boosts evasion rating.

-I use rare helm, gloves and belt to increase my life pool and cap resists. It is neccesary to have ES or AR/ES based gloves for Herald of thunder curse on hit setup. Otherwise you need 4 offcolours on pure armor or evasion gloves and thats quite expensive to achieve.

>Jewelery:
-Romira's Banquet ring for power charger generation, it also adds quite a lot of accuracy rating, 15% critical strike multiplier and maxiumum of 30% critical strike chance.

-Voll's Devotion amulet is used to get endurance charges when power charges are consumed on critical strike which synergizes with Romira's Banquet ring. So basically i have unlimited endurance charge uptime for immortal call setup and also for gaining onslought buff from Daresso's Defiance armor. It also gives me neccesary intelligence, extra life and resists.

-Rare ring for extra critical strike chance, extra life, weapon elemental damage, accuracy rating and resists.

6)Gem setup and explanation:

>6-link chest: Glacial hammer-Weapon elemental damage-Multistrike-Critical damage-Life leech-Melee splash (AoE setup)
Glacial hammer-Weapon elemental damage-Multistrike-Critical damage-Life leech-Melee physical damage (single target setup)
>4-link helm: Cwdt-Immortal call-Increased duration-Decoy totem
>4-link boots: Reduced mana-Hatred-Herald of ice-Life leech
>4-link gloves: Reduced mana-Herald of thunder-Curse on hit-Frostbite
>3-link Soultaker: Reduced mana-Herald of ash-Vaal grace
>3-link Doryani's: Leap slam-faster attacks-culling strike

I use decoy totem as additional defense as i have free slot left because i get constant endurance charges from Romira's Banquet + Voll's Devotion amulet. I use all heralds because they get boosted from elemental damage nodes and Doryani's Catalyst mace. Herald of thunder curse on hit frostbite is additional damage increase against cold resistant mobs and also gives me additional chance to freeze enemies with increased freeze duration. This leads to permafreezing level 77 shipyard/shrine unique bosses even in 6-man parties. Some of the unique mobs cant be frozen because of their huge life pool.
Trash mobs are constantly frozen even if i play "monsters are immune to curses" map modes. I use life leech added to Herald of ice which gives me additional instant life leech when doing hard map modes. Vaal grace is used when i get surrounded by a lot of mobs and its getting dangerous, also it is used against heavy spell damage boss fights. Leap slam is used for fast movement and avoiding dangerous situations, also when used in Doryani's Catalyst mace it gets elemental proliferation which lets me freeze whole screen on critical strike including rare mobs.

7)Flasks:
-I use recharge on critical strike + increased evasion rating flasks which boosts my evasion from 25% to 33% every time i use them. Jade flask increases my evasion from 25% to 51%. Sapphire flask with remove curses effect is used in reflect maps when there are mobs who curse me with elemental weakness/frostbite. I have 2 instant recovery life flasks with remove bleeding effect to counter corrupting blood mod monsters and also instantly heal myself if my life goes down too quickly. I use different flasks for different map modes and boss fights. But you are free to do your own testing and see what flasks with what effects suit you the best.

Thats all for now, i will constantly test this build with hard map modes and see what it is capable of. Im planning to do Atziri soon aswell. I will upload map videos but first i have to do research which software is best for this purpose and how to use it as i have never taken gameplay video. Any tips about skill tree/gear/gem setup are welcome as i dont have that much experience in theorycrafting and game mechanics. Still i am determined to push this character to level 100 because i have finally found a build that suits my gameplay and i never get bored playing it. I will answer any questions about any aspect of the build/skill tree/gear/gem setup/flask/gameplay so feel free to ask me here or in game. I will update this build constantly depending how the skill tree gets changed after each patch.

I am also streaming from time to time: http://www.twitch.tv/scrublord123

reserved for future updates

how does this work in terms of clear speed? there does not seem to be any aoe dmg going on there.. :)

Hi, can we expect gameplay video any soon? I think I could love this build too. I'm really interested :)
GL!

Is anyone playing a glacial hammer build?

-really dead bump after a year later-

I have not found any recent gh build with shadow so I have to ask on this thread, is this build still viable and if it is can you please link an updated skill tree? ty ♥