[0.9.12] Show us your interesting characters and be featured on our YouTube channel!

so, we've had a build showcasing 95% crit chance. Why not have a build showcasing 53% crit chance and 1300% crit damage multiplier?

this build also uses/abuses (not sure if it was for intended use) double melee damage skillgems. melee damage on full life and melee physical damage which when linked with flicker strike gives obscene DPS. 30k even after the recent nerf to Flicker. this DPS never fluctuates with the usage of melee damage on full life, as being a CI user, my hp is always at "full life".

Unique points that are "BoTW-Worthy" or not featured in BOTW before
- Utilises the Shadow Class and is the perfect example of what a shadow is: a swift, clinical, killing machine with ninja-like skills (Flicker, Whirling Blades) who leaves no remains of his victims (coz of the high crit chance and cold damage leaving shattered pieces of ice in his wake)
- Uses double strike (if first hit is a crit, second hit is also a crit, allowing for double charge of surgeon's flasks as well as shock stacking)
- Deals alot of damage yet able to be a tank at the same time (1h + Shield)
- CI Melee that is HC-viable
- Utilises the Eye of Chayula unique to great effect
- Makes use of the new Ghost Reaver node to leech ES
- Can leech ES from range due to the physical damage component of LS
- Utilises both Melee phys damage and on full life gems.
- Alot of synergy in the build in terms of gear/skills/flasks (not alot had been mentioned on flasks before)
- Deals 30k DPS on tooltip with Flicker Strike that goes to 48k with phase run.

Synergy of build/skills/items
-- the character's passive skill tree has +1 Frenzy Charge, which coupled with Blood Rage and when used with Flicker Strike allows for sustainability of Flicker Strike spamming
-- Critical based build with critical based gear (Maligaro's in the case of Invalesco) which synergises well with surgeon's flasks
-- Eye of Chayula + Dream Fragments + Blood Rage + Ghost Reaver = cannot be disabled constantly ES-stealing character
-- CI Melee Tank with high survivability and high DPS --> 9k ES + Constant DR of >50% (due to usage of Surgeon's granite flasks of Iron Skin) + 33% Evasive chance + 37% Block Chance + ES Steal + 30K DPS Flicker Strike pretty much means Invalesco will find it pretty difficult to die yet able to deal alot of DPS.
-- Uses double strike (if first hit is a crit, second hit is also a crit, allowing for double charge of surgeon's flasks as well as shock stacking)

2 Characters following this build
Invalesco from Default League (now legacy league) - Level 72
Keiianved from HC League (no HC Legacy) - Level 77 (was a 1 week HC Race char that reached level 77 within a week, proving that this build doesn't have to be that gear-intensive to do well)

Playing style and skills
Lightning Strike for AoE/CC
Elemental Hit/Double Strike for Single Target bosses
Flicker Strike for dealing massive DPS and for killing ranged mobs rapidly (able to spam flicker for a long time)
Whirling blades for increase in mobility
Invalesco uses Critical weakness curse to complement the high crit chance/crit multiplier of the build whilst Keiianved uses elemental weakness coz I only managed to find that in the 1 week race.
Keiianved uses skeleton totem to distract mobs and shift aggro away from him. however, due to the lack of sockets in his current gear, he will have to sacrifice the elemental weakness curse socket in order to use skelly totem. hence skelly totem is somewhat more situational based

Invalesco is somewhat more offensive and deals massive dps with flicker (30K DPS) and uses 4 auras - Grace, Discipline, Wrath, Hatred

Keiianved being a 1 week HC Char was more defensively geared in terms of auras - Grace, Discipline, Wrath, Purity but build remained the same and still dealt respectable DPS values but not as high as Invalesco

Overall, I wouldn't dare to say that the build or the skills this character uses is unique or different, especially in light of the just released botw, but I dare say that the synergy of the build, gear, skills, flasks make for a very intelligently (dare I say) and carefully thought out build which although not the easiest at the start and can be quite challenging in the beginning (which adds to the fun) will eventually evolve into a formidable and very very fun character to play.

as for the viability of the build, the fact that a character using this build can reach level 77 in the space of a week in the 1 week HC race (3 days 8 hours total gameplay) proves that it is indeed viable as a starting character, even in HC

Try it out Chris and see for yourself! :D

Some stats:
Lightning strike deals 11k DPS and has 46.7% crit chance and 774% crit dmg multiplier w/o using the critical weakness curse yet. after critical weakness curse it should have 54.7% crit chance and 1316% crit dmg multiplier

More info as well as the passive skill tree builds can be found here:
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/42623

I hope my character build is still up for consideration.

At the very least you guys should look it over to consider whether it should be nerfed or not. It kinda makes a joke of virtually any map (that isn't completely incompatible with the build) as long as you play smart.

I really want to see a Summoner build in the build of the week video since the new patch did a lot of changes to summoners.

Maybe this is not the most "interesting" build, but it's very dear to me because It grew naturally while I was learning the game, and I can do high level maps with hard mods without any problem.

When I started this game I didn't know much about it other than I wanted to be:

1) Witch
2) Main Fire Damage
3) Pure Int

I discovered early that full fire damage was not so easy so, I went with minions to support my pure int/fire damage.


Character: Amsra, lvl75 witch


Build:

Being Fire/Summoner I try to get all the fire/burning/elemental damage nodes and minion nodes that I can.

The two major passive are: Minion Instability and Chaos Innoculation

Having Chaos Innoculation I can skip all life nodes and only get Energy Shield nodes. Also as you get better Items and you have more linked items you will need more mana efficency because It can get very mana intensive.


Current Build (level 75)

Build Growth:
Level 30

Level 60

Skills:
The two main Damage dealers are Firestorm and Fireball

Active:
Firestorm (your main aoe spell) with Chance to ignite and Elemental Proliferation to get the max out of those burning nodes. I also got concentrated effect and Added Lightining Damage for more damage

Fireball (your single target spell) with Faster Casting, Increase Critical Damage and Increase Critical Chance

Curse:
Elemental Damage with faster casting (you are a fire witch after all)

Minions:
(Zombies/Skeletons/Spectres) with Minion life and Minion Damage.
I used to have also Minion Speed but the cost of casting the minion was getting a bit high. Also since you can't put your aures in the second weapon slot I need the extra slot for the auras

Aureas:
Clarity for increase mana regeneration (I stopped at lvl 9) depending on your items and your mana pool you probably can level it a couple of level more.
Discipline to maximize your Energy Shield.
Wrath with increased area of effect to cover as many minion as possible with the aurea.



Items:
I have a good chest but overall I don't have great items.

What you are looking as main stats are Energy Shield for defence and Spell Damage/Fire Damage for offence.
Other than that +mana and +mana regeneration to keep casting Firestorm as much as possible.

Obviously don't forget your resistences and try to keep them around the 70% mark.

This are my current items


Flasks:
Granite is for safety in case something goes wrong. Use one of those and with the increase movement speed you can go out and recover.
The rest are mana flask to keep up with your mana consumption. 1 should have dispel frozen/chilled ("just in case")

1 or 2 granite with increase movement speed

2 or 3 mana with Increase Recovery speed

1 mana with Dispel Frozen/Chilled


Play Style:
When you don't have minion you start with some skeleton and try to build your army of zombies and specters. Specters, if possible, should be summoned from caster/ranged types.

Playing normally you mainly use firestorm. With proliferation and ignite chance and set everything on fire while your zombies are keeping the mobs away from you.
Your fireball is the skill that does the most damage but is single target. You will use it for rares/bosses and to finish off the white mobs.

Just remember to cast elemental weakness before starting to use spam your damage skill.

Skeleton are mostly occasional use. If you are doing doungeons is a good thing to use them as scouts. They are very helpful also when there are a lot of caster that are killing of your zombies since you can cast them directly over them and with minion instability the will take care of them pretty fast.

Also with bosses the more the merrier if they get hit the Minion Instability passive will do it's job. It's not as good as when you were able to summon them 4 at a time but still very usefull.

Maps:
You can do almost any mods, the only problems are Blood Magic, Temporal Chain and No mana reg./50% mana regeneration

Blood Magic: With CI I can't do much about it
Temporal Chain: I don't do them not because I can't. It's not a very hard mod since with your build you don't rely much on movement speed. But because I don't need movement speed I don't have it in my items and doing them is just annoying.
No Man reg/50% man reg reduction: They are very doable. You just go a little bit slower. You just have to change a bit your playstyle and let the minions do most of the damage. Remember to keep your minions up and instead of spamming Firestorm use it only when you really need it or you know you can because you have enough flasks. The +% on quantity is usually worth the slow down.

Okay so I got a build i'd like to submit, its another marauer (sorry).

_Redex(63)

Main skills
tempest shield
grace
Enduring cry
molten shell
viper strike
double strike
whirling blades

Passive Tree
Blood Tanked

Equipment/support gems


As you can see I went highly defensive with this build, but alot of my dps come from being hit. So damage reduction and life regen is key. I went with Iron reflexes specifically for grace as it doesn't have a %mana reserve like determination does. my "main attack"(as it is a very passive way to attack =D) skill is molten shell augmented by Iron will supported by tempest shield also with iron will , concept behind its is get surrounded by enemies, cast enduring cry, cast molten shell, and boom goes the dynamite! all while blocking with tempest shield. For single targets, high life targets, or just general before molten boom I use double strike with a faster attack speed and life on hit support, and viper strike. The reason I chose Life on hit over Life leech is because of the attack speed on my weapon which has a low overall damage and the speed support added to double strike. Double strike is mainly use as a health regain and not as a full on attack. and viper strike is...well...viper strike, it does what it does.

Its not a "one shot" build but its fun to play and I enjoy it at least ;P

I feel it's worthy of a video to show off how insane this build it but I'm worried it's not very unique.

I did a long post in the character section on it if you'd like to check it out. http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/52656

Toon - MoosiferpracticeII
Level - 60
DPS - HS 4.2k Sweep 2.5k leap slam 2.9k (the last two are rough estimates)
Armor - 5k
Life - 2.9k

Basically, blood rage and warlord's mark. Leap slam into a crowd and sweep them down. It's amazingly fun. It's on the same idea as the build of the week 12, flicker strike duelist but I can actually tank large groups easily.

I still don't understand why Invalesco's build wasn't picked as BotW... A run-of-the-mill flicker strike duelist with no survivability and no damage gets picked over a shadow utilizing a definitely not very common build and achieving a very impressive race placing with it. Doesn't really make sense to me.

So I heard the cry for a shadow to be in build of the week, and I couldn't help but answer the call. Hopefully you enjoy my character :).

Name: EragonVo
Character: lvl 70 Shadow
Playstyle: Dual wield claw (primary), wand and shield (weapon swap) chance to shock shadow


I specialize in claws, and they are my 75% offense - 25% defense mode. My wand and shield is my 48% defense - 52% offense mode (pun intended). Lol you'll understand those numbers when you read the details :). I use evasion/energy shield hybrid gear, and don't have CI. Lol, yes an evasive energy shield shadow with HP. I also don't use a crit flask

This build is a lot of fun, as I have to figure out what mode to use depending on the map, and the mobs in the map. Some maps are better suited for claws, others wand and shield. Most times I switch between modes when fighting a mob and inbetween mobs.

I also rely on chance to shock, and shock stacking mobs and enemies for more dmg. This build is mainly about trying to create a fun effective way to play that utilizes 2 different styles that are complementary with each other.

Enough talking, here are the details.

Universal for both

Auras: Grace, Discipline, and Wrath
Skills: Spark + spell totem + elemental proliferation + faster projectiles

• Claws

Curses: Enfeeble, elemenatal weakness, and temporal chains

Skills:
--Primary attack = Frenzy + mana leech + melee physical dmg on full life - added lightning dmg + weapon elemental dmg
--Secondary = Flicker Strike + weapon elemental dmg + elemental proliferation + mana leech
--Zombies + faster attack + minion dmg

• Wand and Shield

Curses: Projectile Weakness, and Temporal chains

Skills:
--Primary: Power Siphon + increased critical strikes + lesser multiple projectiles
--Summon skeletons + Additional Accuracy

(frenzy is available, but I don't use it as it is not needed when I use wand+shield.)


This is the gear that stays constant.






I'm having trouble linking my weapons. I've tried so many things, but i'm guessing when i equip them back, because of alt swap, it messes it up on the site. Oh well.

• How to play

Note: I have no wand/shield passives. I specialize in claws and lightning specifically, but my spark totem benefits best from my wand and shield mode.

The entire build, in both modes, is about build up. The weaker enemies are more "hazardous" for the stronger enemies because of shock stacking.

Activate auras (grace/wrath/discipline) by switching out temporal chains, in any mode, and switch it back when you're done.


Wand and Shield

I use 2 uniques. Moonsorrow imbued wand and Crest of Perandus Pine Buckler. Moonsorrow's innate chance to blind and crest of the Perandus' 48% chance to block are very good for defense. When I go wand and shield, I play more like a ranger, although at times i'm in the mist of mobs just attacking without retreating.

Power siphon is the skill of choice here. I have a max of 4 power charges. Even with the 4 charges and increased crit chance, the dmg done with power siphon is "okay" so to speak.

What makes this mode good is that it works best with my spark totem. Moonsorrow increases lightning dmg and spell dmg, which both benefit spark totem. Spark totem is also linked to elemental proliferation. Even with 4 charges, spark totem still doesn't do that much dmg, but it's not the dmg that i'm after, it's the shock. Once it shocks any enemy, the entire mob is shocked as well. Most people don't like spark because of it's erratic nature, and opt for lightning strike. But it's erratic nature is why i love it. When I have 4 charges, and the room/field is filled with sparks, so many enemies get shocked. If not for the fact that the cap is 3, I would have set a world record for the amount of shocks you can stack on enemies.

When the mob is shock stacked, they fall down like flies. Especially with me in the back ground still stacking power charges with power siphon. I also have skeletons to help with aggro when needed. They are linked to additional accuracy cause i want to make them the most use of them when they are summoned since they don't follow you like zombies. Missing is not an option.

Power siphon's culling strike ability is also god sent. I don't deal that much dmg with power siphon, so getting them down to 10% for autokill is really helpful.

Projectile weakness and temporal chains benefits both power siphon and spark totem. Frenzy is also available for use, and can help, but I generally don't use it.

I use #1 and #4 flask the most in this mode, as they get 1 charge every time I crit. #3 flask with increased charges is also helpful.


This mode can be just as powerful as my claws when 4 charges are stacked constantly and spark totem is out with skeletons helping, but it can have trouble in maps with powerful creatures that can take a lot of hits. I have to stack the power charges first, and in a map with creatures that have a huge health pool, that can be problematic.

This mode is based more on shock stacking through crits. It is an "Okay i'm gonna be defensive, but I also want to be as offensive as possible" mode. The 48% defense - 52% offense comes from Perandus' 48% chance to block. Which is kinda funny cause my defense and offense are just about even, with a slight edge in offensive capability, in this mode.



Claws

This is where most of my passives have been invested in, my dmg dealing source. This playstyle is based primarily on chance to shock.

I use a rare claw and the unique claws, Essentia Sanguis. This gives me a 25% chance to block when dual wielding claws, and yep....you guessed it. 75% offense - 25% defense (lol I thought it would be clever, and it is true. I'm mainly offense with some defense in this mode).

I have a standard 5% chance to shock enemies on hit with lightning dmg from the passive tree. Frenzy is linked to 20% quality added lightning dmg, which gives me a 12% chance to shock on hit with frenzy. Flicker is linked to elemental proliferation. Since it deals more than frenzy, when it shocks the proliferated shock will last longer. (Flicker cost less mana than frenzy, and is the proliferated skill. Elemental proliferation increases the mana cost of a skill, but doesn't increase the dmg, hence why it's linked to flicker, and not frenzy even though frenzy has a higher chance to shock)

Elemental weakness curse increases my dmg, yes, but it's primary effectiveness is in the fact that it gives me a higher chance to shock. At lvl 17, cursed enemies have a +13% chance to be shocked, bringing frenzy up to 25% and flicker up to 18%. Spark totem is weaker in this mode, not by much mainly due to moonsorrow's bonuses and power charges, but it's 5% chance to shock and 18% with elemental weakness curse more than make up for it.

Whereas elemental weakness increase my dmg output, dmg isn't everything, and this is where enfeeble and temporal chains come in. Evasion benefits best with enfeeble, as their accuracy/dmg is reduced. Temporal chains slows mobs down, making it easy for me to kill things before they can kill me. Even without elemental weakness, and lack of crit, i can still shock. This is where the 5% from the passive tree comes in. Although 5% is small, I tend to shock stack more often than you would expect when enemies are cursed with temp chains/enfeeble.

This mode is more curse dependent than my wand and shield, and using the right curse at the right time makes things a lot smoother. Enemies that attack and move fast are best cursed with temporal chains/enfeeble. Normal attack speed and average dmg - enfeeble/elemental weakness(depending on how fast they can kill you vs how fast you can kill them). Huge life pool and can deal a lot of dmg (maps with golems/increased blue or rare monsters) - elemental weakness/temp chains/enfeeble. You will mix and match the curses and know when to use what mid battle. One moment you use enfeeble, only to realize that the mob is too dangerous and needs to be killed quickly so you re-curse with elemental weakness.

I don't need minions on the go, as i consume a lot of mana in this mode, but rather companions like zombies that stick around.

You see a mob, curse(dependent on enemy type and map mod), spark totem to the side, and you + zombies + totem go to work shock stacking every thing. You generally want to target the weaker enemies and shock them so proliferated shock stacks last for a long time. Although some mobs require the rares to be taken out first, i tend to flicker the entire mob, shocking multiple enemies, more so than one target.

I also have ghost reaver. So although i'm up and close i can take more hits to my energy shield, than my wand+shield.

Having to invest in life, energy shield, evasion, and lightning dmg left me no room for dual wield block passives. This is were Essentia Sanguis comes in. the 10% block chance would have been an investment i couldn't make. Giving me ghost reaver saves me one extra point that i used on life. It adds extra points to my energy shield pool as well. Plus, it just so happens to have a good attack speed, good physical dmg for leeching, and lightning dmg which is icing on the cake. I want to attack fast, leech as much as possible, and with good lightning dmg. So it fits the bill nicely.



Conclusion

The map mods and enemy type determines how I play. Some maps are best for wand+shield, others claws, or both. I switch between styles (and curses) frequently depending on what is needed most at that given moment (more offense or more defense).

Maps infested with chaos dmg monsters and mods like slower regen/no regen are best for wand+shield, but at times i have to kill monsters in those maps quickly and don't have the chance to stack charges. So for a brief second I change to claws.

Or maps with necros. My wand and shield takes to long to kill rare necros even with 4 charges, spark totem, and skellies out. While the mob is being distracted by my skillies and spark, I can switch to claws quickly to dispose of the necro and switch back for a more defensive style.

The only things that don't transer over on weapon swap are my minions. This isn't problematic though.

At times I can get 4 charges with wand and shield while having spark totem and skellies out. I then opt to get frenzy charges as well then switch to claws. My crit chance increases to 22% with claws, and the great thing is spark totem still benefits from the crit. Then i flicker in on the mob from a distance, with increased crit chance, and when i crit with flicker the shock proliferates, with spark totem critting and shock proliferating the mob as well. lol, I wasn't joking when I said if not for the 3 stack cap I would have created an unmatched amount of shock stacks record. I don't do that often though (crit and frenzy charges with wand then switch and flicker with claws) as it can be dangerous at times, but have done so every now and then just for fun. I don't use frenzy with wand+shield either so don't bother with it when either.

***********************EDIT***************************
In other words the power charges also help my claws.

At the same time, I can shock everything with claws and totem, then switch to wand and shield to deal more dmg without the crit.


The style can take a while to get used to, as not only do you use every skill that is equipped constantly, you also have to know when to switch modes and what curses to do when with claws.

As you will note, i also have warlords mark and detonate dead in my inventory. I remove elemental proliferation, spark, and faster projectiles when i realize a map has necros in favor for detonate dead totem.
Warlord's mark is for no mana/life regen maps. I take out melee physical dmg and put it in that socket. Then i replace elemental weakness/projectile weakness with WM.

Both styles complement each other very well, and create an intuitive "in the moment" gameplay that is very fun to play. It's not about "how high can your dps go", no, but more about me wanting to make use of the chance to mechanic, although the tree could use some more chance to nodes.

Many people say weapon swap is useless after the bug fix, but if not for it my character would not be as effective as he is. If anything weapon swap is a build enabler on it's own, and I look forward to possibly creating more weapon swap oriented builds.

Hello first time posting but after watching all of the videos of the week I really wanted to post a little guy I have been working on by the name of BigBag. He is a shadow that revolves around casting totems and using traps.

With my shadow I have gone ALL the way to the murader/templar tree to pick up the ability to cast 2 seperate totems.

The first totem I use is an icewall totem with an added chaos damage support gem that constanly keeps an ice barrier between me and enemies as well as dealing a moderate amount of damage. Depending on the amount of enemies I will drop one or 2 of these. As they try to go to one side or the other it just casts another which eventualy makes a big circle.(I keep lightning warp on my skill bar in case I trap myself)

The second totem I use is a firestorm totem also with an added chaos damage support gem. If the single ice totem is enough to keep the zombies at bay, I will drop one of these down as it sprays a steady stream of damage on top of the crowds of enemies on the other side of the wall.



While I have my totems keeping me safe I curse my enemies with elemental weakness and gingerly lay (by that I mean throw) fire traps out and around the perimeter of the surrounding wall while also blasting a multi-projectile increased projectile speed (the increased speed actually causes it to go further) freezing pulse at my attackers. (I know its over used but I use it because it can peirce the icewall without any additional support gems/passive skills)



For tougher enemies I use bear trap as it seems to deal MASSIVE ammounts to stronger enemies as well as hold them in place



I also use a clarity aura gem for obvious reasons.

I realise that the build needs a few tweeks and I have been experimenting with the trap support gem for some different spell effects. I really wanted to use ethreal knives hoping they would shrapnel out but they seem to cast in one direction every time. I also havent had a chance to use any other trap skills either because i havent been able to find them.

I also havent played since 0.9.12b fearing I might burn myself out and have not gotten a chance to use the new flame totem or ranged attack totems.

Time to present my newest creation: SlasherVillain, 2H Sword Shadow!

What makes him unique?

- Vaal Pact keystone!
- No life or mana flasks!
- Has 6 frenzy charges & 4 endurance charges!
- High critical multiplier!
- Highly mobile and aggressive playstyle!


Skill build (Level 73)


Skills used:

- Frenzy
- Leap Slam
- Warlord's Mark

- Phase Run
- Enduring Cry

- Clarity
- Grace
- Hatred / Purity


Important gear pieces:



The build combines several keystones for survivability: Iron Reflexes converts evasion rating into armor, Unwavering Stance makes him immune to stun and Vaal Pact gives instant life leech. Carnage Heart unique amulet is used to get high life leech.

Several passive points are picked to give high attack speed including the maxed out frenzy charges. The build also includes some critical strike damage and main attacks (Frenzy & Leap Slam) also have the Increased Critical Damage support gems. The character has 4 Perpetual Diamond Flasks, a belt with reduced flask charges used and uses Warlord's Mark curse to have almost constant access to 100% criticals.

Main tactics include building up frenzy & endurance charges, leaping into groups with Leap Slam and using Diamond Flask in mid air. With enough attack speed and precision, the character can demolish large moster packs almost instantly!

EDIT: 7.10.2012

I updated the skill build since the character is now level 73. I've been running several maps and made some slight changes. Critical Weakness has been dropped because there never really was a situation where it would have made a huge difference. Purity has been quite useful and I have often used it over Hatred when running maps with Elemental Weakness mod.

The biggest weakness of the character seem to be degenerative effects like burning and viper strike damage. Since I'm running with Vaal Pact, I have no other means to gain life but leeching it. That may become problematic after fights if there are no other enemies neaby.

I also updated my gear a bit. I bought a quality Frenzy gem which I also upgraded to full 20% quality. With that, I'm able to reach 4.63 attacks per second with Frenzy and a DPS value of over 13 000 with Diamond Flask active.

EDIT: 12.10.2012

Character has survived the legacy migration!

I'll keep it short! Check out my:

Ice Bow Shadow!

Here is how he looks like (click the link):

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/50804


Enjoy!