VarthDaver's Witchslap | 48k DPS Melee CI

Why am I posting?
I have gotten tremendous interest and wanted to share a fun build idea. This is my first time writing up one of my builds, so bear with me while I try to get it all documented. There is just something all too gratifying in witch slapping piety into the ground.
I will update this post with more info, but it takes a lot more time than I expected to write out.

What is this build about?
Use the amazing DPS potential of Death’s Oath and neutralizing the detriments. The build focuses on survivability stacking of “shield defense” nodes to use powerful physical DPS gear while maintaining the strength of CI. It uses hybrid mitigation methods (Armor, Evasion, Block, and Ranged Evasion) and while it has incredible DPS, it does so while taking only a single DPS node (Blast Radius). It uses Facebreaker and Infernal Blow as a primary attack, and I am a Witch.

***Updated***
Map Videos - I finally got some capture working



I am planning a full update to this post soon.

Keystones

Energy Shield on Shield / Shield Defense | These nodes offer massive scaling for ES from shield, and enable this build to be possible. It allows my 467ES Shield to add 2,565ES (2,331 ES with Daresso).
Chaos Inoculation | Unlocks Death’s Oath, allowing you to ignore the chaos damage it causes. Additionally, you are always at full life as a result. Creates synergy with Melee Damage on Full Life and Daresso’s Salute.
Ondar’s Guile | Amazing mitigation and survivability. One of the most underrated skills on the map.
Resolute Technique | Must have for high DPS endgame. It reduces the spikey nature of critical hit damage and allows to avoid taking any accuracy nodes.
Vaal Pact | Necessary to survive physical reflect, and burst damage. Uncaps inbound life gain from leech. No significant draw back due to CI (No Health to Regenerate)

HC Viable?
Possibly, but I wouldn't want to test it there yet. Abyssus is called the SC helm for a reason.

Gameplay Videos



Skill Tree

Current Gear


This build is VERY gear dependent. It is focused on taking advantage of a few seldom used interactions to make some frequently used ones seem outright OP. It can be adapted for many situations, but it revolves around a few key items:

Death’s Oath – The reason for the build. 6L is only needed if you want to do high dps, but why else would you bother? The + All Stats, almost 2k Armor, Attack Speed, and AOE Chaos Damage. They just need to fix the graphic.

Insane Spikey Shield – Since we are scaling EV and ES, the bigger the better.
FaceBreaker’s – Damage scaling is key. The unarmed physical damage (980+) is the reason such obscene numbers are possible.

Abyssus – You need something to scale with your gloves. Unbuffed, Abyssus accounts for 20,000dps. I do not use the crit part, this is simply the power of 40-60 Physical Damage. You could use bringer, but then you lose Oath (and its weaker). This elemental likely means not HC viable for some. I believe testing will prove otherwise. The 40% increased damage is neutralized by the effect of armor not normally present in an ES build. For example:
Normal ES | 100 attack - >100 dmg
32% AC + Abyssus (42%) | 100 attack - >142 dmg -> 96.56dmg

Daresso’s Salute – Amazing item with a big draw back (-50% ES). This item is powerful for the high resists, increased (60%) melee damage on full life (always), 10% move speed (always), and extended unarmed range. It is used in this build as it appears to only function on normal ES, not the additional ES from shield nodes. This means that while it indicates 50% (900 would go to 600), it is much less impact here. It reduces my ES by about 12.5%.

Meginords – Physical Damage, enough said.
Rainbow Striders – Spell Block, Mana, ES, Resist All, what’s not to love?


Output




There are limited attacks available for unarmed. Infernal blow is the most as a primary attack, peak damage is derived by stacking scaling effects. Overall, I get higher clear speeds with Splash instead of Multistrike even though its lower DPS. The primary reason has to do with the explosion on death elemental.

40-50k DPS
Infernal Blow + Melee on Full Life + Melee Physical + Faster Attacks + Added Fire + Multistrike

20-30K DPS
Infernal Blow + Melee on Full Life + Melee Physical + Faster Attacks + Added Fire + Melee Splash

Additional Skills
Arctic Armor – Lvl1 Q20 – Additional 7% move speed, chills those around me
Enduring Cry – Taunt used to bring mobs closer. The most there, the more damage dealt. Endurance charges are not a bad side effect.
Clarity – Regen without using mana leech. Can be swapped for mana leech (and lose faster attacks.

More Soon
This is taking a lot longer than expected, I will update more in the next few days.

Rofl , this is why softcore is awesome , I would be doing shit like this all day long

Looks awesome bro , keep us updated on how it's going in maps :>

um, sick 3k es :D

For the ES lost with Daresso's, are you counting that it's reduced ES and not less?

I was actually just taking the item on and off. What I thought was interesting is that the amount reduced did not take my "final" ES like most things that calculate in a reduced manner.

It appears to only "reduce" the base ES, not the amount that is added to "shield specific" scaling. Much in the same way that Necro Aegis is not passing scaling on it.

So...um why are you using deaths oath again, especially since you one shot just about everything with infernal blow...

Lol, exactly the build i was runnig recently, i am not sure about death oath and since i am on standart i cant have that ammy either. I have witch as my starting class too, and a slightly different approach. I went for block chance too, which is 75 with tempest shield, which is very good. Also i adore this build because it is very flexible. Basically it makes it possible to use life based items in other slots since you get almost all es from shield. I went for crit and power charge build though, but for now i run with the unique axe (forgot the name) because i have some mana issues and need to optimise gear a little more. Still nit sure wether i use resolute or eye of chauya for stun, and dream fragments or alphas howl (but i lose too much dps in that case) i run this with 600 es shield though with + block though, maybe will go all out for 750 es shield if i feel i need to improve. I have 4.4 k ES but low dps, need to reroute some nodes.

However imho this build without some form of stun immunity does not work,.

"

VarthDaver wrote:

I was actually just taking the item on and off. What I thought was interesting is that the amount reduced did not take my "final" ES like most things that calculate in a reduced manner.

It appears to only "reduce" the base ES, not the amount that is added to "shield specific" scaling. Much in the same way that Necro Aegis is not passing scaling on it.

Reduced and Increased are Additive with each other. So if you have 1000 base ES, 200% increased ES from tree, you have 3000 ES. However, with Daresso's amulet, the 50% reduced makes that now 150% increased ES instead of 200%. That leaves you with 2500 ES. If it were 50% less, then it would be 1500 ES.

"

TheuberClips wrote:

"

VarthDaver wrote:

I was actually just taking the item on and off. What I thought was interesting is that the amount reduced did not take my "final" ES like most things that calculate in a reduced manner.

It appears to only "reduce" the base ES, not the amount that is added to "shield specific" scaling. Much in the same way that Necro Aegis is not passing scaling on it.

Reduced and Increased are Additive with each other. So if you have 1000 base ES, 200% increased ES from tree, you have 3000 ES. However, with Daresso's amulet, the 50% reduced makes that now 150% increased ES instead of 200%. That leaves you with 2500 ES. If it were 50% less, then it would be 1500 ES.

Exactly. I've been running a CI Reave Shadow (that I'm half considering writing a guide for) using this amulet, and the benefits greatly from this, with the drawback being pretty mild due to all the ES nodes you pretty much have to take to be viable anyway. I've actually trying to phase out of it, though, as where I'm sitting, I'll most likely make up the DPS from a base physical damage, without having to take a penalty to ES.

The whole initial goal was to make Death's Oath based build. Its important here for two reasons that are both related.

The first is the massive +stats that allow you flexibility in path and gem level.

Abyssus is one of if not *the* most powerful helms in game. It isn't safe like Bringer, and the "increased" 42% damage is a risk.

By using Oath with Abyssus, you are well on the way to neutralize the additional damage of Abyssus. You easily exceed it with just 2 endurance charges. Determination would also allow you to exceed it, as would granite Flasks, and as would Enfeeble.

I think we can all agree, that if your final dmg reduction from armor exceeds the increased (precalc) amount added from the helm , its a breakeven.

Could you be even more tanky without the helm, sure; where is the fun in that though?