1.3 [Newbie Friendly] GROUNDSLAMMER BUILD

Monty:

Your explanation was perfect, thank you very much. I really did not understand, your comments are a great help, thank you.

Ishkabibble

endurance charges also grant 4% to all resistances for each charge.
even with the free base 3 charges you are looking at 12% to all res. This happens to be the same as picking up diamond skin or diamond flesh.


The physical damage reduction stacks with the damage reduction from Armour, so that they are both applied at the same time. For example, if a monster deals 100 damage, and you have 8% Damage Reduction from two endurance charges, and enough armour to prevent 30 of the 100 damage, the incoming damage would be reduced by 38.

Hello there. I love the guide, been using it since release.

I didn't play in the beta, so my knowledge of the game is still pretty limited. By this I mean I don't really know which stats I should get on which items, optimally. I was hoping a kind soul would take a few minutes to give me some advice.

I have a fair amount of wealth, so I can afford to buy pretty decent items (within reason of course, not going to buy a Kaom's Heart).

I'm looking to upgrade my gear. More specifically, I want the following:

- More resists so I can drop resist passives. Following numbers are on merciless difficulty.
I have 80 lightning resist.
I have 107 fire resist.
I have 79 cold resist.

I want to drop some, if not all of these passives:
2*15 fire resist, 2*15 cold resist, 2*15 lightning resist, 1*18 cold resist and 1*18 lightning resist.

I have also had to take a +30 intellect passive which I would like to get rid of. For this I need another 10 intellect on gear. Probably not a major issue, but something that should be kept in mind regardless.

Anyway, here's my gear:



Of course if I get some more life, life leech or damage on top of resists, that'd be great.

I have considered a few unique amulets, mainly Astramentis and Carnage Heart, both excellent, but I feel a good rare amulet would probably be better.


I know I have a lot of random gems in my gear, even more on my swap weapon. These are just gems I level in case I'll need them later or perhaps even to sell as level 20 or 20% quality.

Since someone suggested using Spectral Throw and I was bored, so I decided to try it out. Here are my initial thoughts. It's not a complete in depth look, but maybe they will help others get started with it. I am using Spectral Throw linked with LMP to give it some AOE to replicate what we use Ground Slam for. Also I have linked Life on Hit and Added Fire Damage.

**These are initial findings on a level 50 character in Act III Cruel. They may not be representative of how things are after scaling to end game. Also I have limited availability of support gems so not all possibilities are investigated.**

Many aspects seem to be not necessarily worse or better, just “different”. Further testing may change that.

- Range is increased. Due to ST mechanics you get more hits and and therefore possibly more damage at max range. This increases survivability when you can maintain that range (perhaps with Decoy totem?)

-Different support requirements. So much of our build depends on everything scaling together. ST Scales with Physical Damage, but not “Melee Physical Damage” This means that extra damage via the “Melee Physical Damage” Support gem is not doable. Other supports like Added Fire Damage can still be used however. Having to diversify into Dex requirements for gems does kill some of the simplicity of this build only requiring Str.


- Damage at first seems to be much lower. Tooltip damage is not necessarily the whole picture due to mechanic differences in the two skills.
-Ground Slam only hits once per attack whereas ST will hit multiple times, up to one hit per 0.3 sec per attack (note with LMP/GMP this means per attack, not per projectile) With many attacks in motion at once this can lead to a great many more hits per attack than GS. At low damage numbers this leads to Life on Hit outperforming Life Leech. (Scaling issues may come into play here) .

Hi, i just bought on domination league, hope its viable for groundslam marauder from this build? What do you think about respec Resolute Technique and go for Pure Brutality? Is this weapon worth it?

p.s. should I jeweler's orb it till 6 slots - chromatic till 5red1green and then try to link them all or should I leave this idea for now and start looking for 6L vest?

Just completed normal mode following this guide...I did it with what I consider cheap/rushed items and a very VERY SLOW 2-h mace...dominus wasn't hard with a couple portal scrolls to refill flasks...

thank you for the guide! you rock!

i'm using the build in nemesis. works great
lvl 67 just fiished merciless library quest

what do you guys think about getting ancestral bond for 2 totems? it's "only" 4 points and you can run

double decoy
double rejuv
devour/decoy

etc

edit: nvm. forget the "you can't deal damage with your skills" part:D

hello, great guide. just one question (might be stupid)

in the

NEWBIE FRIENDLY BUILD <<CLICK ME>>

you have taken "melee damage" (15% more melee damage)


while in

5. Upper-left part <<CLICK ME>>

you have taken "executioner" (12% more damage with towhanded weapons)


is there a reason for that?

thanks

Great build, especially for a new player like me. Right now I've started cruel diff and I must say normal was a breeze, even Dominus was quite easy.

Tip for beginners: at level 27, buy the Geofri's Baptism (2h unique mace) - it is really good (I'm still using it at level 40) and not that expensive (I've paid 1 regret orb for mine).

Anyway, thanks once again for a build!