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Name: Akihiko Sanada
Character and Lvl: 71 Shadow

Playstyle: Eternal Leech 2 face lightning assassin shadow. Offense is my best defense.


Auras: Vitatlity, Grace, Discipline, Wrath.

Wrath - grace - vitality - reduced mana
Discipline - blood magic - reduced mana

1.7k hp (1.3 after blood magic), 30hp regen/sec, I have 3 modes of combat.


I use 2 styles, dual wield claws and wand + ES/EV shield.

Skills that stay constant in both modes:
Phase run
Spark - spell totem - elemental proliferation
Critical Weakness


Dual wield claw skills
Blood rage
Flicker strike - melee physical - increased critical damage
Dual strike - melee physical - increased critical damage - increased critical strikes
Devouring totem
Enfeeble

Backup skill - frenzy

29% dual wield block chance, 40% chance to evade, 2.4k energy shield


Wand + Shield
Power siphon - lesser multiple projectiles - increased critical damage
Arc - mana leech - increased critical strikes

29% block chance, 45% chance to evade, 2.7k energy shield


Gear that is constant


Claws



Wand + Shield
Unfortunately can't link them cause they are on weapon swap, but my wand is the unique moonsorrow imbued wand, and a 1.1k evasion 110 ES shield.




Style

• Dual wield claws

Note: Quality dual strike, and flicker are needed to increase crit chance. The more i crit, the better. Unfortunately quality bloodrage is bugged, so i'm missing out on 4% extra leech.

My main attack is dual strike. I have a total of 13% physical dmg leech. With dual strike, I gain 26% physical dmg leech. I have the unique claws essentia sanguis which give me ghost reaver.

I have 2 modes with claws. Blood rage active, and non blood rage. With blood rage I gain 5% physical leech per weapon ( :'( missing out on 7%) per weapon. Bringing dual strike to 36% physical dmg leech. My 30hp/sec regen is there to offset some of the chaos dmg being dealth to me when blood rage is active.


-Blood rage active

My 3rd and 4th flask are the flask i use the most in blood rage. Especially my 3rd which couldn't have been better. With my 3rd flask i gain an extra 2% physical damage leech per weapon when it's active. Bringing dual strike up to 40% physical leech when blood rage is active. My flasks recharge quickly since i crit often, so don't be afraid to use them.

When blood rage is active I can be very tanky. Coupled with enfeeble and devouring totem to the side for a little extra leech buffer, and i can seem almost impervious to elemental and physical dmg monsters. When my life reduces i use my 3rd flask to refill it. I deal so much physcial and leech back so much when i crit, that I can literally refill 3/4 my energy shield, and more, when i crit with dual strike. Attacking fast is also crucial. The faster i attack, the more damage i deal. The more damage i deal, the more i leech. Hence offense is my best defense.


-Blood rage inactive

This mode is best for maps with chaos damage monsters. I can also run chaos dmg map mods in this mode. I have less leech (26% compared to 36%), but my energy shield recharges when i run away, unlike with bloodrage active where i have to keep attacking to regain any lost energy shield or have devouring totem out refill my ES.

I have frenzy in an open slot for when non-bloodrage adventures are called for. This still allows me to use flicker. With bloodrage, i automatically gain frenzy charges after each kill.


Critical weakness is also a great curse for this mode as well. Spark totem shock stacks enemies and increases my kill speed. I evaluate every situation.

1. Monsters need to die fast, but i need to be a bit tanky: Spark totem + enfeeble curse (both modes). Or crit weakness + devouring totem (better with blood rage active)
2. I'm going to take a lot of hits and need to be as tanky as possible: devouring totem + enfeeble

Ofcourse bodies aren't always on the floor to be devoured, so enfeeble is my tanky spell. Coupled with my 29% chance to block, and 40% chance to evade, you start to see how helpful enfeeble is. I'm blocking and evading so many attacks while leeching back so much more. Hence the tag "eternal leech". At times it feels like my energy shield goes on forever.

I also use phase run to attack. Heck most of the time i forget i can use it for movement and end up running slowly around the place. Phase run gives me 66% extra melee damage. When i'm attacking mobs i just activate it and either flicker or dual strike. When i crit with phase run active on dual strike (with both weapons) i can go from 0 to 100% es, and i'm not joking either. I also use phase run on necros or certain targets in mobs that need to be eliminated. That depends on the risk/reward ofcourse, but don't be afraid to activate it while bein surrounded by enemies and dual strike/flikcer. The extra physical, which gives more leech, will save you many times.

As you can see, with claws i only have single target skills (hence to assassive style), and my only crowd control is spark totem, but devouring totem is more important in this mode for leech.

• Wand + shield

Even with all that leech, I know my limits. This is my "when things go wrong with claws" or I need some crowd control mode. This mode is also the best at handling chaos dmg. Even my non-bloodrage active claw mode can find maps with heavy chaos dmg mobs troublesome.


I only have access to spark totem, and spark totem is strongest in this mode. Moonsorrow imbued wand increases lightning and spell dmg, which increase spark totem's and arc's damage. Critical weakness is the only curse in this mode as well, and is the best.

I play a range-keep away style. I cast spark totem to the side, curse the enemy with crit weakness, and generate power charges with power siphon. When i have 3 charges, then i use Arc. My 4th adn 5th flask are used the most in this mode. Spark totem shock stacks all the enemies, and arc deals 120% more damage. My crit multiplier for spells is at 240%, with the extra dmg from moonsorrow, and 120% from shock stacks, spark and arc get the job done.

This mode is not as powerful as my claw mode, and i don't have ghost reaver, but it's style of play gives me the most survivability. I purposely don't use bloodrage as this mode is not good with it.



The power charges gained from my wand and shield also benefit my claw mode. I can do some crowd control in wand and shield, then switch to claws. With the increased crit chance, i have over 40% chance to crit with claws. If the enemy is cursed with crit weakeness, my crit chance with claws go over 50% for dual strike. The more i crit, the more dmg i deal. The more dmg i deal the more i leech. The more i leech, the more my energy shield seems to never end. Lol, my playstle tagline starts to make a lot more sense now doesn't it. The more offensive i am, the better.

• Conclusion

Each mode comes with it's perks and disadvantages:

Blood rage claws
-Very tanky. Can take the most damage, and sometimes is the only way to survive.
-Increased attack speed, and free frenzy charges for flicker.
-Losing life, which is offset with life regen and flask.
-Not very good when facing many chaos monsters, and can't be used in maps with chaos dmg mods

Non-blood rage claws
-life regen, can handle chaos dmg monsters. Can play chaos mod maps
-Energy shield recharges when i run away. Not losing life.
-Less leech, which is crucial at times for up close combat. Leech is still very good, but the extra from blood rage makes a big difference.

Wand + Shield
-Highest survivability. More energy shield, and more evasion + ranged style
-Best at handling chaos dmg of all types
-Crowd control
-Not as much dmg as claws, not even close. Sometimes some enemies have to die quickly, which can be troublesome.
-Although i have more evasion and more energy shield, due to lack of ghost reaver, i can't take as many hits as i can in claw mode. I can get surrounded when using claws and my leech can offset the damage i'm taking from all angles. This mode you want to get out when monsters jump you from all sides.


This creates a very fun and versatile character, with an on the fly playstyle that is engaging at all times :).

MacArthur(legacy league, lvl 64):
He is a Point Blank, Lightning Strike, Templar utilising double totems.

It might not be the most special build, but i saw a lot of discussion about lighning strike and that many people use it for its range ability rather than to use it in melee with the nice additional effect of multiple enemys beeing hit in a group.
So i decided to make a character who gets the most of the skill especially when engaging in close combat - thus he has the point blank support gem, since in the most important situation (a larger group of enemies) the projectiles will never fly far when you hit the outer monsters.

Now about the double totems: i utilise a Elemental weakness totem (i buid the character before the new curses came, so i have 'only' ele weakness) and a Arc totem - i'm buffed for elemtal damage with a slight prioriy for lighning so a lighning spell makes sense and arc seems like a great choise to do some little damage and minly spread shocked status (i also have the passive Static Blows so it does not need to crit for that) - in addition to that the Arc totem works great as a distraction for enemies, inceasing the survivability of my Templar.
(note that the Arc gem isn't as leveled (yet) as i wished it to be, since i found it only recently, but i think it already does its job, and it'll only get better at it once it reaches higher lvls (it's lvl 7 currently, while my other gem are mostly around 15))

This is my build so far: Link (EDIT: fixed the link for the last patch - also the templar is now lvl 65)

About survival: the character hasn't that much life - he has around 2k life and little more than 200 ES, but for additional survivability he regularly uses Enduring cry (he can have 4 endurance charges) and Molten Shell as well a Summon Zombies (he has not specced into minions, but they still serve as a meat shield - the 3 Zombies and the 2 totems do a great job at reducing the damage incoming to my templar).
In case that he gets into a problematic situation he also has the Enfeeble curse and Shield Bash to move out of trouble.
If everything goes wrong i can also use a rejuvenation totem (though i'm still leveling that gem as well)

Mana management: the Clarity aura together with his passives and gear mana regen makes it easy to cast the totems, enduring cry, molten shell and after that 'spam' lighning strike.

Auras: Anger, Clarity and (i know not an aurra, but kinda similar because of mana reservation) Tempest Shield (another ability spreading shock status) - yes, i don't use wrath - the primary reason is that this templar was respecced once after a passive reset and he wasn't 'lighning' templar before (so i didn't have wrath), the second reason is that having some fire damage doesn't weaken me much (because the majority of the passives i have are general ele damage, i think only about 18% bonus is only for lighning) and having a better mix means 1. a enemy with lighning resist resists the main part of my damage output, but there are other damge types as well and 2. maps with EE are not difficult for me - actually i'm get a slight advatage from them (though not enough that i would pick up the passive), because my zombies do some additional fire damage and trigger EE, while i deal all types of damage (cold because of my gear) and thus i don't reset the -25% to lighning resists my zombies achieve (the totem does reset it though, so i don't use the arc totem in such maps)

My equipment:

(ignore some of the gems, i'm just leveling a few just in case if i would ever have the desire to include them in the build -> the added cold, added fire support and item quantity gems)

Special notes: the character i really fun to play and he doesn't require any really outstanding gear to be good (though i currently have a 5L for LS it would (better said it did) also work with a 4L). Since i have almost no currency items in the legacy league (the character died in the legacy hardcore league against the Vaal oversoul in merciless - though that was before the respec...) i couldn't roll/reroll my item much (most were rolled with only 1 alch, most were 3 rolls (for the chestpiece) - so a lot of the hardcore player would probably say that my equipment sucks :P but as i said it still works - so it is a great character for more casual players as well (the unique boots are not really important for the uild...)), except the flasks, but they require only alterations to reroll, so that is not a problem

Updated my build with a nice new triple res mace

The last two weeks I tried to create a new lightning witch built up around the two lately introduced support skills fork and chain as well as the use of the skill arc. The build uses the keystone passive chaos inoculation combined with a fairly high spell damage as well as a high critical damage multiplier using the shadow, templar part of the skilltree and of course the witch part of it.

I'm currently playing the build under the blood rage buff to get the cast speed increase of 15% with three! curses (using Doedre's Damning and Windscream Reinforced Greaves) which are all three supporting this build in a highly effective way:

1. Conductivity (+ lightning resistance; + chance to be shocked)
2. Temporal Chains (+ buffs and debuff expire 50% slower, enemies slowed)
3. Critical Weakness (+ more extra damage from critical strikes)

Conductivity and Temporal Chains are linked to a reduced mana cost gem.





How to play:

Depending on the situation I spam either one or two totems. They act as a decoy as well as a shocker for the enemies. Shortly after summoning the totems I cast the conductivity curse, then the temporal chains curse (even possibel to use critical weakness here when your timing is good). Then I cast blood rage, phase run and I finally spam arc [using diamond flasks]. Last but not least, if more damage is needed, I even use critical weakness combined with diamond flasks too boost my damage but most of the time enemies won't live long enough to be face with this creepy combination :)

Double totem:
Spell Totem + Spark + Fork + Faster Casting + [Elemental Proliferation + Increased Critical Damage] (multiplier 360%)

Main skill:
Arc + Increased Critical Damage + Chain + Faster Casting (multiplier 513%)

I'm currently using two auras clarity and discipline which are both linked to a reduced mana cost gem.


I honestly have to state that the devastating effect of this build took my by surprise: my gear is not that bad but fairly mediocre, the only high-level thing that I'm using is a 20% spark and I'm only level 66 but able to clear 63/64 maps without problems. Only boss monsters with very high lightning resistances, additional life and reduced damage taken can cause troubles due to the rather low damage base of the build.

I'd love to see this build with high level gear 5-linked with elemental proliferation. The effect of the spark totem with elemental proliferation is absolutely devastating and imagine a 6-linked vestement with increased critical damage... scary! :D Sadly I couldn't buy Maligaro's Virtuosity for a decent price, that would boost the cs-multiplier on 570% for the arc combination.

Concerning skilltree:

- Rather take 15% Increased spell damage in the beginning of the witch three to get to the templar three (1 more node will be used - my fail)
- A lot of Lightning, spell and elemental damage in the shadow part of the tree (isn't used now due to my low level)
- Increased critical damage multiplier in templar three (isn't used due to my low level)

It sounds quite easy to play this build but in fact you need to have a very good timing due to the excessive use of mana flasks and diamons flasks in critical situations as well as finding the right time to cast the curses and to sustain the blood rage buff using the arc combination. It took me some time to get a routine but I can honestly say: it is a hell of a fun to play this build.

lol i changeed my hole build from fire to cold it only took me 24 orbs of regret xD

"

moomaaru wrote:

Spoiler

edit: i fixed some more things


I present to you my untouchable critical coldwitch:

MaaraBaara_Deathwitch


No enemy stands a chance against her, no matter how many there are.

I outrange everything with Ice Spear off screen
They are linked with Greater Multiple Projectiles, Faster casting ,Increased Critical Damage and Mana Leech.
If something comes in view sight then I freeze it with Cold Snap
whitch is augmented with Elemental Proliferation, Add Cold Damage (with quality because of the freezing chance) and Increase of Aerial Effect
it usually makes everything stand defenceless against more Ice Spears
If something comes near me then a Flame Totem with Greater Multiple Projectiles, Faster Projectiles and Knockback, will make it inpossible to come in melee range
It's so funny to look at ;D

I took the Chaos Inoculation keystone and run on Bloodrage to get a little more cast speed without any drawbacks... Ice Spear is kinda slooooo
I took the Conduit keystone to share my franzy charges and sometimes use Enduring Cry to give other party members extra charges.


Skilltree (updated version)


It is not necessary to have any unique items for my build but as always the can be usefull
I've got two staples as a gift (thanks Leathal!)

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the rest is pretty normal endgame gear

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I dual wield with wands because of the spelldamge increas and I see no use for a shield because I have enought energy shield to withstand some hits if need be
same goes for my boots, they have low energy shield but I would take movementspeed over everything else.
The belt is not the best but it has a increased flaske recovery mod
And I must admit that my witch is a bit of a Dimont flask addict
I use 5 all the time for rare mobs.

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My chritical strike chance is decent at 32%, but I took more critical strike multiplier notes
and use Critical Weakness Curse to compensate.

The build uses three auras linked to Reduced Mana
Clarity, Discipline and Purity
I used Hast befor the new resistance penalties, but well I hade to change them.

Also note my alternative wapon slots

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this gear doubles my energy shield in case that i do get surrowned
then I can wierlding blades my way out of the situation
or use leap slam for movement.


I'm currently level 78 but this build should work from early on
I don't really konw though, because I used zombies befor I changed to Flame Totem.

Thanks goes out to Wisdorin for the Flame Totem idea!

Edit: Updated with skilltree for the new patch. Some items have been replaced by better versions.

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After all the nice high level builds here, it too me a while to grab the courage to post my lowly try here;

Man_of_Madness
Level 57 Marauder

Playstyle: A Strength Caster that aims to incinerate enemies with Etheral Knives by means of Physical -> Fire Damage Conversion. ...wait, wut?

My Main Damage comes from Etheral Knives, supported with 'Iron Will', 'Added Fire Damage', 'Chance to Ignite', and 'Cold to Fire'.
Against strong single Targets, Bear Trap offers considerable damage and stun.

My most important Item is:


I utilize Hatred, Hrimsorrow Gloves, and the Cold to Fire support to squeeze every last bit of fire damage possible from Etheral Knives; This combination also buffs Bear Traps.

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My Passives
Post-Patch-Passives

Notable are the choice of Inner Force, which buffs Hatred and Clarity, and in the future maybe Purity or Discipline, and the +20 / +30 Strength Passives, which I took because they combine Spell damage and life, thanks to Iron Will.
I currently have around 10 unspent Passive points, which i originally planned to go to the Witch Fire nodes with, but I might actually get just slightly less final fire damage by making a beeline to the central 30 str node, grabbing 70 Str for just 5 points; Alternatively, I could go for the lower Fire cluster below the Marauder start; The distance is higher, but there's strength nodes on the way, each of which is effectively +2% spell damage and 7.5 life.


The Helm adds enough Fire Damage that I'm really starting to contemplate spending my remaining passives on life instead;
Quill Rain was chosen for the increased Projectile speed.
What I could improve:

• I could use a better Amulet, Preferable all Attributes, Spell Damage, and Mana regen.
• I originally aimed for 'The Magnate' Unique Belt, for a nice boost in damage and Strength, but the other unique Belts, Wurms Molt aside, would also be beneficial, and a Belt with flask recovery/consumption buffs and extra health/fire resist would greatly improve the builds survivability.
• I wonder if Deshrets Vise might be a good unique for the build, total damage would surely be higher, as would survivability.
• My Dream Item for this specific Build is a 6L Cloak of Flame; Sure I'd lose armor, but at 80% resists, 20% phys to fire conversion would already reduce the received physical damage by 16%; and the improved burn chance surely helps. Hey, one can still dream....

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Gameplay:
I normally try to round up a decent group of Monsters, cast 'Flamability', then fire away, hoping to kill them all / burn them to ashes.
Bear Trap is used against rares and uniques.
As the build is expectedly low on Mana, I have to fire selectively and kite.

For a Marauder, this character is pretty fragile.
My biggest weakness are skeleton Archers, combining Fire Resistance with ranged physical damage, while often coming in large groups or small rooms.
I managed to die less in Merciless than I expected, but progress is rather slow. Still, it's a quirky build that I felt deserves a bit of publicity.^^

Darkscorn offers 25% phys to chaos. This is essentially free damage in most cases.

It's level 52, though.
Being as fragile as I am, I think I'll prefer the range in any case. I might try it, though.

"

UnDeaD_CyBorG wrote:

It's level 52, though.
Being as fragile as I am, I think I'll prefer the range in any case. I might try it, though.

Just curious, but why no Faster Casting for EK? Seems even more needed as you're using Iron Will, or do you pick up some cast speed nodes?

Yeah, faster casting is going to be better for your dps than CtF most likely