Official Blender Post! Lets theory craft for 1.2! 123k Cleave DPS!

After playing around a bit more on high maps (doing double dominus @ residence twice, notably) I've decided to respec into this at level 92:



The reasons for my respec are many fold. The first reason is that I feel that with two armor keystones, the armor/life hybrid nodes from the marauder path of life, and the life/armor nodes south of resolute technique, I just had too much armor for my liking. Although it's inefficient, I just think that stacking life once you get 40k+ AOE dps is prudent, and in line with this philosophy, I've taken the ancillary templar area life cluster.

You could argue that efficiency should be the goal with this build but I think that mentality doesn't take into account just how much easier it is to die now - I'm an ambush player (who mostly plays standard) and if I feel uncomfortable at times on high maps I can't imagine how guys in invasion feel with damage builds as compared to stacking alot of life as I have.

Frankly speaking, I think that if you play an efficiency build you run the risk of simply not having enough life to manage what comes with high maps - desync killing you in 4 seconds; multiple projectiles academy boss, double crematorium boss, soul conduit fracture, vulnerability/added damage/fracture, and so on. The only real benefit that the blender has gotten from this new tree is the capability to stack alot of life - everything else is worse (well, arguably, we can take more damage as well, but I don't think anyone doing high maps with this build in the previous patch had damage problems - I know for sure that I didn't).

I have no set plan for the remaining 8 points. I might stack life or take damage or both. I might prioritize berserking or not. Frankly speaking I'll need to see how it feels playing with 6.8k life and "only" 41.6k dps. With a full damage build I'm pretty sure I could get close to 60k but I think that grabbing all of this life is the only safe way to play this build, now that GGG has blessed us with the option. Soul conduit, fracture, double bosses, vulnerability - there are so many ways to die now in addition to the ones which were present before. This is my working solution.

Well, that didn't last long. I just had a very frightening encounter with the boss on 76 precinct with my new spec and I've decided to immediately retake the 3x life/armor nodes. It looks to me that having the two armor keystones, the path of life nodes, and the 3x life/armor nodes are absolutely necessary. Either that or taking a 3rd armor keystone. I'm thinking about re-taking sentinel and dropping the 3x life/armor nodes and going from there.

Here's a new spec motivated by the idea that we don't get enough compensation for traveling from steel skin to the wheel of life:



This nets us both more life and more armor then all previous builds.

I propose this because I think grabbing the 4x 8% nodes is superior to having the option to take the 15% 1h node and berserking. From the 4x nodes is the same travel distance to the wheel as from steel skin, only we get to pick up sentinel along the way.

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sawseech wrote:

I propose this because I think grabbing the 4x 8% nodes is superior to having the option to take the 15% 1h node and berserking. From the 4x nodes is the same travel distance to the wheel as from steel skin, only we get to pick up sentinel along the way.

Hi, do you mind posting your gears for this build? Thx a lot!

my gear is good but grossly imperfect

354 phys sword
taker
legacy bringer
v good rustic but the rest is merely good

i posted my gear earlier, scroll through my message history if you care enough to see

just did an amazingly strong clear of 78 courtyard. mods: fire resist, shocking ground

oh and i found a lioneye's too, didn't even notice :D

//also did double dominus @ 78 palace, vulnerability mod, no deaths although i had to tank touch of god due to an error - build works

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sawseech wrote:

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ressiv wrote:

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G4ndi wrote:

life leech in tree is overrated, im using atm my build which i posted here and works very well.
86lvl and doing easy 75-76 maps solo (coz still didn't go 77 and higher but will do soon)

e: ambush league ofc

Could you post your gear with gem setup :)?

@sawseech thanks for your respons on the dual strike tree question, very helpful!

Bleh, you asked. I normally run blood magic/vuln/increased area of effect on the taker but just got finished doing temple in party with added lightning.

Nice gear you got there.
My question is: I don't have a soul taker, but like to play with Cyclone for more damage. Do you think Cylcone with blood magic is viable for 70+ maps? Currently the highest I have done is 69 with ok-ish mods.

In addition appreciation if you can have some comments on my gears:



And my spec:

hi people have question for help plz

is blind is important for this build or not? tell me plz

And my spec:

[/quote]

IIRC cyclone w. blood magic is actually less damage than dual strike. I like playing dual strike up to like 73 maps (except vs torture chamber boss and jungle story boss, cyclone makes those two so much easier). Running cyclone anyways is certainly viable but for end maps I don't feel right with anything less than a taker. I could experiment with 2x 300dps swords for amusement but I don't think it'd be worth my time and besides it would be less fun for me.

If you're going to run cyclone w. blood magic you need alot of life to offset the mana cost of cyclone.

Your gear looks fine for 70ish maps. I would look for at least 4% lifeleech, 30% movespeed, and more life/intelligence on gear in that order. Then you can look at WED for your belt on a rustic and attack speed.

Re. your spec if you don't want to change alot:



Although I would recommend switching trees to something that takes the templar area.