[3.1] Max block molten strike gladiator, League starter, All content viable

DO NOT POST IN THIS THREAD, LET IT DIE

3.1 in nutshell:
"In today's manifesto, we have highlighted and explained most of the significant nerfs in 3.1.0. Of course, there are plenty of buffs in 3.1.0 as well, but we'll leave those as pleasant surprises in tomorrow's full patch notes."
"We have a decent list of buffs to go with it, which will be posted tomorrow in the full patch notes!"

Single non-minion buff of all patch:
"Passive skills which previously granted increased Melee Physical Damage while holding a Shield now grant increased Physical Attack Damage while holding a Shield (it is no longer restricted to Melee)."
"Many passive skills which previously only provided defensive bonuses while using a shield now also grant increased physical attack damage and damage with ailments while holding a shield." That's false, they buffed one irrelevant cluster no-one ever takes

3.1 Patch rambling:
After Vaal Pact nerf only 3 strong defensive mechanics left: block on gladiator or necromancer, dodge/spell dodge and MoM.
MoM location makes it useful mostly for spell casters;
Necromancer is mostly for summoners;
Dodge/spell dodge can be quite hard to max out(Raider is probably the best here);
=> gladiator is our choice for post non-Vaal pact meta

Why it works:
Before "Melee Physical Damage" could not be used with Molten Strike - melee doesn't scale MS projectiles. Now its possible with "increased Physical Attack Damage while holding a Shield". Also, new support gem "ancestral call" should be good with MS for clearing maps.

Pro and Cons:
+ Very tanky, looks HC viable
+ potential for 78% chance to block with good shield and Anvil amulet,
+ 1-h weapon and shield melee build that actually does damage
- molten strike can still be subpar for clearing, even with Ancestral Call
- block is unreliable, you can always die to one-shot spike damage
- ele resistance penetration sucks 75% fire damage 76% cold
- threshold jewels could be expensive at the start of the league
- no space for new Abyss jewels
- some int rolls on gear are required

Why molten strike: its a highest scaling melee skill in the game, for comparison:
Blade Flurry DPS with perfect channeling: 334% of base damage
Average MS DPS with 7 balls: > 545.96% of base damage
Average MS DPS with 12 balls(dying sun + helm enchant): > 831.21% of base damage

This should compensate for RT 1-handed + shield low DPS setup; max block gladiators doomed to have this problem.

Links:
Against Bosses(ordered by importance): Molten Strike, Elemental Damage with Attacks, Conc. effect, Elemental Focus, Multistrike, Physical Projectile Attack Damage, Faster attacks, Added fire, (Cold to Fire, Fire penetration)
General mapping: Molten Strike, Ancestral call, Increased Area, ...



Auras: Hatred, Herald of Ash

Utility: Reckoning, Endurance charge on Stun, Curse on Hit, Elemental Weakness

CWDT, Immortal call, Increased duration, Tempest shield

Mobility: Shield Charge, Foritfy, Faster attacks

Ancestral Warchief/Protector

Quality of life: Vaal Haste, Vaal Grace, Vaal Lightning Trap, Golem of choice

Block chance:
28%(ascendancy + tree) + 8%(damaged by hit recently) + 8%(anvil) + 3%(tempest shield) + 31%(shield) = 78%

31% shield is needed to reach max block, can get additional 1% from marauder area for 1 point

Tree:
Get outmatch and outlast for Uber lab; Socket jewels with x2 Wildfire

Base Tree

If you manage to convert all damage to Fire

With focus on Axes

Items:
High pDPS one-handed weapon; Anvil amulet if you want max block; maybe Kaom's roots; helm with Uber lab +3 MS enchant.



Flasks:
Atziri's Promise
Lion's Roar
Wise oak while having same fire and cold res,
Dying Sun,
Taste of Hate,
Sin's Rebirth

Reason for writing build:
Gotta make those Uber lab Molten Strike enchants more expensive

Other variations:
Can be used with frost blades or static strike, damage would be much lower even with threshold jewels though

it seems really odd that you dont take fire pen nodes as molten strike, it would add insane amount of extra dps, and you could take iron grip since u convert from phys dmg

Aetherium, "If you manage to convert all damage to Fire" case is mentioned for that.

I looked at damage conversion tab, there is simply no way to convert remaining 40% without Avatar of Fire. And "Avatar of Fire" kinda ruins atziri's flask, hatred, taste of hate and sin's rebirth.

Right now:
60% phys to fire from MS, 15% from herald of ash = 75% fire
40% phys to cold from tree, 36% from hatred = 76% cold

There is a way to get "Avatar of Fire" and keep all cold conversion bonuses by using "Cold to Fire" support or "Pyre" ring, BUT "Cold to Fire" is worse compared to say "physical projectile damage" support + "Avatar of Fire" requires Xoph's amulet OR bad tree deep into templar area AND we already want Anvil. Chaos Flasks still ruined => not worth.

We'll see if new uniques solve conversion or penetration problems though.

EDIT: I guess, you can use both pyre AND "Cold to Fire" to convert 90% of cold damage to fire, not sure if its worth using bad support and ring for that, but it's an option.

Deep penetration tree

What about blasphemy+ele weakness?

hatred + herald of ash = 75% mana reserved; curse on hit setup in Reckoning, you can use orb of storms instead if you want

That will be my league starter. Did not have the time to make my own build.

Wanted to do a gladiator block or bleed with a ancestral call.
This build will be perfect !


I will report back :D

I was thinking of something like Mathil's ST build (thunderfist for a pseudo 5l spectral throw and 6l molten strike) but with gladiator for the tankiness in HC. I wonder how this build would do if I swapped in spectral throw for clearing. The only thing holding me back is not knowing how expensive Lycosidae is going to be. I'm not sure it's even worth going non crit ST.

leveling guide?

"

leakvoid wrote:

3.1 in nutshell:
"In today's manifesto, we have highlighted and explained most of the significant nerfs in 3.1.0. Of course, there are plenty of buffs in 3.1.0 as well, but we'll leave those as pleasant surprises in tomorrow's full patch notes."
"We have a decent list of buffs to go with it, which will be posted tomorrow in the full patch notes!"

Single non-minion buff of all patch:
"Passive skills which previously granted increased Melee Physical Damage while holding a Shield now grant increased Physical Attack Damage while holding a Shield (it is no longer restricted to Melee)."
"Many passive skills which previously only provided defensive bonuses while using a shield now also grant increased physical attack damage and damage with ailments while holding a shield." That's false, they buffed one irrelevant cluster no-one ever takes

3.1 Patch rambling:
After Vaal Pact nerf only 3 strong defensive mechanics left: block on gladiator or necromancer, dodge/spell dodge and MoM.
MoM location makes it useful mostly for spell casters;
Necromancer is mostly for summoners;
Dodge/spell dodge can be quite hard to max out(Raider is probably the best here);
=> gladiator is our choice for post non-Vaal pact meta

Why it works:
Before "Melee Physical Damage" could not be used with Molten Strike - melee doesn't scale MS projectiles. Now its possible with "increased Physical Attack Damage while holding a Shield". Also, new support gem "ancestral call" should be good with MS for clearing maps.

Pro and Cons:
+ Very tanky, looks HC viable
+ potential for 78% chance to block with good shield and Anvil amulet,
+ 1-h weapon and shield melee build that actually does damage
- molten strike can still be subpar for clearing, even with Ancestral Call
- block is unreliable, you can always die to one-shot spike damage
- ele resistance penetration sucks 75% fire damage 76% cold
- threshold jewels could be expensive at the start of the league
- no space for new Abyss jewels

Why molten strike: its a highest scaling melee skill in the game, for comparison:
Blade Flurry DPS with perfect channeling: 334% of base damage
Average MS DPS with 7 balls: > 545.96% of base damage
Average MS DPS with 12 balls(dying sun + helm enchant): > 831.21% of base damage

This should compensate for RT 1-handed + shield low DPS setup; max block gladiators doomed to have this problem.

Links:
Against Bosses: Molten Strike, Elemental Damage with Attacks, Multistrike, Conc. effect, Elemental Focus, Physical Projectile Attack Damage, Faster attacks, Added fire
General mapping: Molten Strike, Ancestral call, Increased Area, ...

Auras: Hatred, Herald of Ash

Utility: Reckoning, Endurance charge on Stun, Curse on Hit, Elemental Weakness

CWDT, Immortal call, Increased duration, Tempest shield

Mobility: Shield Charge, Foritfy, Faster attacks

Ancestral Warchief/Protector

Quality of life: Vaal Haste, Vaal Grace, Vaal Lightning Trap, Golem of choice

Tree:
Get outmatch and outlast for Uber lab; Socket jewels with x2 Wildfire

Base Tree

If you manage to convert all damage to Fire

With focus on Axes

Items:
High pDPS one-handed weapon; Anvil amulet if you want max block; maybe Kaom's roots; helm with Uber lab +3 MS enchant.

Flasks:
Atziri's Promise
Wise oak while having same fire and cold res,
Dying Sun,
Taste of Hate,
Sin's Rebirth

Reason for writing build:
Gotta make those Uber lab Molten Strike enchants more expensive

Other variations:
Can be used with frost blades or static strike, damage would be much lower even with threshold jewels though

Running this build because I really like MS and also had the idea that it was op with AC, I'll write back to let you know my experiences. But so far in act 1 it actually feels SO good to level with with a decent unique one handed weapon. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how this build develops since I've been wanting to make a gladiator for a while.