[2.1 Video Guide] Tanky Beginners SRS/Summon Raging Spirit Build [Atziri & HC/SC Viable]

"

daish0 wrote:

A +3 staff (plus blood magic support crafted) will cost you _a lot_ more!

"

LiftingNerdBro wrote:

I have made a few adjustments to the primary skill-gem setups. They are now:

With a 3+ staff:

- SRS, Spell Echo, Minion Damage, Melee Splash, Melee Physical Damage, Added Fire Damage, Empower (lvl 2+).

With Pledge of Hands:

- SRS, Minion Damage, Melee Splash, Melee Physical Damage, Multistrike, Empower (lvl 2+) & Added Fire Damage

"

daish0 wrote:

I just calculated how much culling strike actually does for SRS.

This tree has:
- 12% attack speed
- 80% minion damage

Items give us:
- 15% minion damage (Sidhebreath; not calculated in the increased minion movement speed!)
- 15% minion damage (rare gloves, crafted)

20 quality Gems give us:
- 10% increased melee physical damage (basically minion damage)
- 15% increased minion damage

Jewels give us (maximum):
- 5x14% up to 5x16% minion damage = 70 - 80% minion damage (if you take rare jewels for all slots)

With 5x14% jewels this is 205% increased minion damage (215% with 5x16%)

Haste (without Generosity) gives us:
- 21,44% attack speed (took the 34% increased aura efficiency nodes into account)



A quality 20, level 20 Culling Strike gem provides:
- 38% Increased Damage
- 10% Attack Speed (I hope this applies to minions, if not ... calculations will be off by far)
- 10% Cast Speed (nice boost, not taken into account for damage calculation)



The increase from 205 to 243% minion damage is 18,53% more damage
The increase from 33,44 (21,44+12) to 43,44 attack speed is 29,9% more damage
As our SRS cull at 10% life, this also means 10% more damage (well, as the culling strike is not always on exactly 10% life ... it's probably more 8-9% more damage)

So Culling Strike gem actually provides us with 18,53 + 29,9% + 9% = ~57 MORE damage.
(this assumes the 10% attack speed from quality applies to the minions)

---

So while running around without any buffs except your own (Haste, Hatred), Culling Strike actually outperforms Minion Damage and Melee Physical Damage which surprises me myself.

Although I did not take into account that with higher physical base damage SRS could "penetrate" more armor on enemies (if you take Minion Damage or Melee Physical Damage instead of Culling Strike), but I don't think it is that important as everyone will have at least a 4- or 5-link anyway! (so Minion Damage and Melee Physical damage gems will always have a place)



Keep in mind, that this number changes when your SRS are affected by buffs, as Culling Strike is not a fixed more multiplier but increases already existing stats!
Examples:

Flesh Offering (lvl 20) provides:
- 30% attack speed

Now Culling Strike (q20/lvl20) increases attack speed of our minions from 63,44 to 73,44 which is now only 15,76% more damage.


Vaal Haste (lvl 20) provides:
- 36% attack speed (I assume it does NOT stack with normal Haste, not sure about that)

This increases attack speed from 48 to 58 which is 20,83% more damage.



Both together means that our minions already have 78% increased attack speed, Culling Strike increases that to 88% which means that it now only provides 12,8% more damage (on the attack speed part).



While Culling Strike is just amazing while running around while playing half asleep, the advantages of it's quality diminish when you provide other buffs like Vaal Haste and Flesh Offering.

Still, Culling Strike always benefit this build with:

- around 18,53% more damage because of Increased Damage (from Gem level)
- at least around 12% up to 30% more damage because of Attack Speed (from quality)
- around 8-9% (estimated) from the Culling effect.

So it is at least ~40% more damage but can also provide up to ~58% more damage overall!
Keep in mind that this is calculated that you have at least 14% minion damage in ALL JEWEL SLOTS.

If you could not afford to have that for whatever reason (unique jewels to fix mana regeneration, cast speed or life) - the relative damage of Culling Strike is EVEN HIGHER! (and still on the positive side, a 20 quality one also provides 10% cast speed which is also a huge boost to reach max SRS).



So ... long wall of text, Culling Strike really seems to be a must have.
My suggestion for gems, in that order:

SRS - Melee Splash* - Minion Damage - Melee Physical Damage - Culling Strike - Empower 3 or 4 (else maybe Added Fire)
*swap to Multistrike for Bosses like Atziri etc.

Try to get at least a 5 link otherwise you have to forgo a damage gem for Melee Splash (map clearing without it is just too cumbersome and slow).



Unfortunately I cannot calculate if it is worth swapping out a gem with Empower (2, 3, 4) before the 6th link as we do not have minion base damage values - GGG should really post them. I don't think Empower level 2 is worth it, I'd rather put in an Added Fire which itself does 44% more damage on level 20 (only fire, so it will be resisted more than physical probably ... but that can be mitigated by Arc Spell Totem with EE).

/Edit: Oh and btw ... I would not bother with a non-quality Culling Strike, the attack speed part does a lot and without it I would rather put in an Added Fire gem. So just level the Culling Strike in your second weapon slot until it reached level 20 for the vendor recipe or just buy a 20q one.

"

LiftingNerdBro wrote:

With Pledge of Hands:

- SRS, Minion Damage, Melee Splash, Melee Physical Damage, Multistrike, Empower (lvl 2+) & Added Fire Damage