VarthDaver's Witchslap | 48k DPS Melee CI

More then anything, i would appreciate just a 3 step leveling guide in the build links, it would really help alot as I Level up and choose which points to allocate where

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sherkhan wrote:

This build is fun (impossible for non-CI to pvp against) and tanks maps like crazy. 6L that Oath.

Up for grabs for the lucky copycat ;>

Will have to see this to believe it. You are just saying so to sell abyssus and advertise in this thread.

That low es pool to soak hits, and armor / evasion hybrid - worst thing ever, jack of all trades, master of none, AND abyssus extra physical dmg taken .... and no stun / freeze immunity, WORST amulet choice ever ... 10 ms? crap ... and 60 increased dmg and +2 range??? ... travel from VP to duelist MOTA area if you really want them. But area passives + splash = enough range. An x-x dmg amu will net more dps (base dmg is the biggest dmg adder with fb gloves). You are losing out on more dps and losing ES with that amu. Also the chest's usefulness is arguable as well.

So yeah, lets just say he will have a hard time with maps past level 68

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VarthDaver wrote:

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?

you dont 'exceed' abyssus damage with 2 charges!

They all come in at different stages in the damage formula, and vulnerability / abyssus are the same thing, 'extra damage taken', additive with each other and come in at the very end after armor / charges.

if you take 3k from a kole crit, you now take 4.5k assuming 0 armor. (rounding things to a nice number assuming 50% abyssus)

with endurance charges ... you reduced the 3k by 12% ... to 2640 ... and then take 3960 with abyssus. You didnt 'exceed' or 'negate' it, no. Actually, thats 3 charges. You still take 4xxx with 2 charges.

So yeah, abyssus is cool and all, but its not easily offset with armor and charges because of how it works.



So with determination, granite and 3 charges you are very close to negating it, BUT you could have reduced the hit to much more if you didnt have abyssus. And also, this is an unmodded boss, mods would make it impossible to close the gap unless you had more charges and 60k+ armor.

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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

What bollocks is this? /facepalm. You dont compare hit before armor to hit after armor + abysuss, you compare armor hit to armor + abyssus hit. The normal player would have that armor too and reduce the hit to <70 dmg, thats the point here. This is with a 100 hit, so you can imagine the difference with higher numbers and the way the same amount of armor scales differently with different hits. (Armor is not a fixed % on every hit, the character screen is only an approximation vs an average white mob physical hit of the same level as you, I hope you know that)


You NEED to drop that evasion and get US or chayula and IR. And more block nodes. Reasons :-

(1) Reflect. You have some of the craziest raw damage I have ever seen in an RT build. Close to 12k max raw dmg, with 3600 physi and 8700 ele, with 5 aps, per target ... insane. You are going to weep a lot on reflect. I didnt even mention the explosions.

With vaal pact + GR, it doesnt matter. You heal, then take damage, then heal again etc. You have a very low ES pool. If the damage taken exceeds your ES pool before you heal again, you STILL DIE, even with 100% life leech. You dont have life leech gem, so you are only healing from your physical part. And with that average amount of armor and just 10-15% life leech with blood rage, you will still die to reflect except vs single physical reflect because you just break even on the physical reflect / leech ratio (on a single physi reflect not dual) and take the full damage from the ele reflect.

Now evasion + RT means reflect will hit you all the time, as it checks your own chance to hit for reflect when evading. Block does not. So basically, by getting evade and block together you are ironically killing yourself on reflect almost every time as evasion is checked before block. Also, spell block can help against the explosion reflect. Evade cannot. Which is HUGE. Evade also wont help you vs alira / lunaris shaman corpse explosion, weaver's EK, and EK / bear traps from perpetus / ghetto boss. This makes the build super softcore only, while doing my changes might make it hc viable (tho not really, it still has horrible ES pool)

I would recommend IR, SOL amulet, tempest shield and enough block nodes for close to max block. And swap one of the more melee dmg gems for life leech in case of reflect rare / map, and forget about reflect forever. Well not really, but you can afford a lot more mistakes here and there. Slightly less raw dmg, more leech, more armor, and block will make reflect a 100 times more manageable.

(2) Stuns. Need I say more? With CI stuns are handled via your life, which is very low on a CI build. Stuns will become YOUR BANE. You need some form of stun immunity as your evasion chance is low (this is the only good thing evasion has going for it, but we want to get rid of it anyway), and with block any damage that would have stunned you will stun you and put you in block recovery animation anyway. I recommend US passive.

So in short, you are going to get buttraped / murdered / demolished in maps with this kind of CI melee, the way you are building it.

My suggestions, again in list format:-

Get US or drop the amu for eye of chayula --> I suggest US and SOL amulet (Would tell you to get rathpith shield, but you have already low ES as is, with it you lose 250ish base ES, so no)

Get IR + grace aura (determination too if you can)

Get max block or close to, and use tempest shield

Drop faster attacks for melee splash --> slightly less attack speed, also aoe and slightly less raw damage = these 2 points + block makes it much much more reflect friendly.

Drop one of the more melee gems for life leech in certain situations --> needed for ele / mixed reflect / reflect maps of both kinds. An absolute necessity.

Dont know what you are going to do about freeze, you either make sure you can spam heat flasks or else get a dream fragments, as anything with cold will make you weep, just like stuns and reflect. The 15% avoid status ailments are cute, but wasted points. I would remove.

Here fixed tree for ya, without Daresso's courage amu, and your gear, and all the ES / shield defense nodes, you now have 8k es and max block, stun immunity, and decent damage for being reflect friendly.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMAAecEBwW1BjkHYwkzDPIOrRFQFHUV1xkuGjIaVRrbG60dFB6BHwIn7SjFKaUqOCsKLL8tHzbFNug6UjvhPV894j7PQ2NHBkjuS41MNUyzT31RR1FgUlNWBFZjVvpXDVcrWK9Y9VnzX2phUmSjZp5tGXB9cU1yqXRBeA15wHzZf8aAVoXFhmCGrot6jb-PRo_6l5Waz53Ens2fy6C0oqOly6cIpyunMKluqZWsqq6TtMW18rcxt9O71r3mwBrBxcHzwuzDbdE20iHXhtfL2CTZYdvn3rDi9-OC5nzmgecL7BjuDvMG877z3flj-tL7qv8c

One of the most original and well thought builds I've seen

The use of +ES from shield nodes is really interesting


Have you tried cyclone ? Seems like you have the perfect build for it, and it will also give you stun immunity while spinning

what's the bandit reward choices?
skill+speed+skill?

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sherkhan wrote:

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mvm199 wrote:

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sherkhan wrote:

This build is fun (impossible for non-CI to pvp against) and tanks maps like crazy. 6L that Oath.

Up for grabs for the lucky copycat ;>

Will have to see this to believe it. You are just saying so to sell abyssus and advertise in this thread.

Nah, I've been running with him since he started working on this build. He pretty much single-handedly made me get my ChaosRes up for PVP. Also, I've watched him obliterate maps, including reflect mobs.

Abyssus sold outside this thread ;>

obliterate maps means nothing, as i said ... you could be talking about tropical island maps for all i know

freeze, stuns, low es, low armor, (low es/hp pools and armor ratings seem to be the consequence of going for crappy evasion as always). I gave strong feedback on how to make it a better tank, including skill tree and gear / gem changes.

Welp, i did it guys :^)

lol 2 blue rings and an amy with max phys dmg would get u like 12k more dps than those ele wep dmg rings...

its like.. hum... 1000%(plus gems) phys dmg but no base to mult it from aside of the helm.... smart(ima take a meginord for 10-20phys but not take rings and amys with decent flat phys...

use warlords mark for mana leech and ditch the clarity...
inf blow has such a low mana cost u dont need anything aside of 1%mana leech