1.3 [Newbie Friendly] GROUNDSLAMMER BUILD

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BulKratos wrote:

Hey, great guide well written and good to read. Since this is my first char i still have some questions.

Right now i use Tabula Rasa i found it by myself. Is it possible to use a Bringer of Rain and link Groundslam in it? Are there any pro-cons, or shoud i aim for a 6L-Rare chest with Mahori Erqi? Right now iam saving for a Carnage Heart, is that a good investition? If i can afford a Mahori any day do i have to use Conc-efect, i think it will be hard to sustain Int for it and Dex for Fasterattacks.

My resistance is capped and i have 3k hp, 5.3k dps on Groundslam and 3.5 on Heavy Strike( only 3-Linked).

Gear:

Spoiler

"

Monty_The_3rd wrote:

@DjNanos:
Both seem ok to me... One life node doesn't make much difference imo.

Personally i would drop a couple of a dmg nodes to take Amplify.
Also if you are going to take Acceleration, you could go 2 points more and take Leather and Steel: 24% AR is nice, but the Move speed is the one i like the best. Pure AR Armors have a 8% Move Penalty (check http://www.pathofexile.com/item-data/armour).

"

Monty_The_3rd wrote:

Maybe like this?

http://poebuilder.com/#character/AAAAAgEAAdwB5wJxBLMPzBQgFE0YkRkuGjgb-iXfJ-0ppS3SMZ4yCTWSNug62DrhQT9HfkrITdhN404qUEdQUFHmVElXDVhjWK9Z818_ZU1qk2xGbmluqnJscql4DXuMfNmBb4LkgziE2Yjxiq-MdozPkBGQVZHOmSuePJ7NogCkGaZXpmSnMKeEqWipbqvFrFmsqrQvtfK2QbndvYG-ir6nvrzAD8AaxtjJmNIh0k3Uj9Xt2WHeweSt51LsOO8O73zwH_Iv8kX2SPe-_gr-jw==

Still there is no right or wrong, it's a matter of personal preference...
You can have your dmg nodes if that is what you like best :)
If you can afford it (Regret orbs value has gone sky-high since the Bandits respec recipe), you could try it for 2 points. That is what i did, and i will never go back.

Relative:
Here is the difference one node does (HP and DPS): http://imgur.com/a/PD0Gl#0
*Note the life is +12 to base, not 12%

"

NinjaArabStrategist wrote:

v5.1
Added partial trees (sequence).
NAS

Thanks to Sunshimaro for some tree feedback!

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If someone if curious:
Build has about
» 5,300 words
» 35,300 signs without spaces
» 40,300 signs with spaces

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Hello, my dear fellows!

Let me present you well known cookie cutter build: Ground Slam Mace Marauder. It is made especially for new players, so they can learn the ropes, simultaneously creating very powerful end-game character.

» Are you tired of dying at normal Merveil?
» You don’t have shitloads of alchemists to afford equipment that will make your build at least… viable?
» Keep trying to get past cruel Vaal?
» Or maybe game mechanics is too hard, and you want easy build to start off?

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This build is especially for you!
» Generally you will be ableto rush through ALL difficulties with gear bought… from vendors!
» For maps… you will have to get some crap rare items of course, but those are end-game feature. They are to be hard!

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How is it even possible?!
» This build is connecting two of very powerful features: high Armor and Life Pool for maximizing your defense (defense is very important in PoE!)
» Simultaneously build dish out very high damage (that will allow you do one-shot white critters), because of wielding two-handed weapons. Precisely speaking: maces, as they are most powerful melee weapons in game (no, not axes!)
» High damage output will improve our defense even more, due to enormous amount of life leeched form enemies (this build can reach up to 20% life leech cap).

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Yea, sure. So this build is either highly complicated or expensive…
» Your main statistics (as for Marauder) is STR, and you won’t need INT nor DEX
» All equipmentpieces you will wear are STR-type. Additionally they add armor rating!
» Also all sockets you will need are red. Additionally they are most common in strength type equipment we wear!
» Your gems are all STR based!
» Also, all gems are quest rewards! You won’t need to buy a single one!
All this features makes your character unbelievable easy, and cheap. What is more, build has another, awesome ones:
» Resolute Technique will make you forget about accuracy
» Blood Magic will make you forget about maintaining mana – pure skill spam!
» High Life Regeneration will make you forget about drawbacks of Blood Magic. It looks like skills have no mana cost! Serioulsy!
» Unwavering Stance will make you immune to deadly stuns. Yes, stun in end-game is also known as “furiously smashing <<resurrect>> button”.

NEWBIE FRIENDLY BUILD:

Spoiler

”Newbie Friendly” tag DOES NOT mean build is worse. No, it means that build is written in more accessible way.

NEWBIE FRIENDLY BUILD <<CLICK ME>>

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How do I follow it? Which nodes are to be taken first?
Sequence as always:
1. Resolute technique <<CLICK ME>>
2. Blood Magic <<CLICK ME>>
3. Bottom-right part <<CLICK ME>>
4. Scion's area <<CLICK ME>>
5. Upper-left part <<CLICK ME>>
You can mess a bit with Damage Nodes and Armor Nodes if your equipment can handle this.

PR0TIP! Don’t get Armor Nodes and Elemental Adaptation before 40-50th level! Life is much more powerful earlier!

PR0TIPIf you are 60+ and have a lot evasion from your gear you can take Iron Reflexes! It is just 6 nodes away!

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Why only 97 points! Tree allows you to use 120 of them!
» You won’t reach 100 level.
» Best players reached about 90 level, what gives us about 110 points.
» You will probably reach maximally 80 level, equally 100 points.
» But you will want build to be finished by 70 level, to be able to map safely and powerfully, which is 90 points.

There are various end game options, and they are quite complicated, so they are shown in different section – I don’t want you to overload you with informations.

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For sure you want some explanation
General assumptions:
» General assumption of build is collecting as much life as possible. This is our main source of defense. And I can say – it’s a bit overpowered, when used along with life regeneration. You will reach 200 life per second. Yes. PER SECOND. (This is not maximum, as you can reach even 600 life/s)
» Second general assumption is getting those overpowered Endurance Charges. This is the best defense against physical damage in the game (To be honest, you won’t need it before Cruel or Merciless).

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Additional features:
» We take Resolute Technique, because always-hitting will skyrocket our damage output. Critical hits? 5% chance to deal 50% more damage? It’s like 8% increased averaged damage. It simply does not worth sacrificing tonnes of nodes, equipment’s mods and even sockets for such minor upgrade.
» High Life Regeneration allows us to take safely Blood Magic. Seriously – don’t be afraid of it, because build is prepared for this. You won’t see ANY disadvantage of Blood Magic in terms of sucking life. But you will notice advantage of mindless skill-spam, that will improve both: your play comfort, effective damage output and even survivability (more life leeched per second).
» Some Armor Nodes are strongly related to END-GAME. Don’t take them before 40-50s, because at those level life is much better.

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You take nearly no damage nodes! I will deal no damage, you idiot!
Your damage will be more than sufficient with no damage nodes. Why is that? Because of strange and complicated why damage is calculated. 6% increased damage nodes are nothing, they won’t increase your total damage by even 1%. We will get damage in much more effective ways, so even 50% increased damage won’t affect it much.
Do you want general rule? Over 10% increased damage per node => does worth it.
Remember – STR also gives you some damage bonus.

SKILL GEMS:

Spoiler

With this guide you will need just two skill gems with supporting them support (sic!) gems. What is more: all of them you will get very early and from quest rewards! Those skills are most often used in melee builds. Let me point, that all those skills require red socket - color, which is most probable for us to get.

Because a lot of people ask: you simply do level gem to the max.

PR0TIP! You don’t have to have 3 times 4-linked equipment. You can wear one 4-link, and swap gems according to your needs!

ATTACKS:
» "GROUND SLAM"
It’s your’s primary AoE attack. It has everything: high range to keep us safe from enemies, also high range let us hit bigger packs of enemies, and one of the highest damage rate of all AoE Melee skills. No, you can’t use Cleave nor Sweep, because they suck. You won’t notice it in normal, but you WILL notice it in curel and later.
Support Gems:
1. "Life Gain on Hit"
2. "Melee Physical Damage"
3. "Fire Physical Damage"
4. Faster Attacks

PR0TIP! After you reach ~1000 dps you can safely swap "Life Gain on Hit" to "Life Leech".

PR0TIPIf you want estimate Life Gain on Hit versus Life Leech relation more precisely:
1. Take your dps you have multiplay it by % of damage leeched
2. Take your amount of life gained per hit and divide it by your attack speed and then multiplay it by 0.7 (for Ground Slam) or 1.5 (for Heavy Strike)
3. Compare those two values: higher means more life gained per second

PR0TIPLet me repeat: you can’t use Sweep or Cleave. I know – early on they seem superior. You just leap in crowd of critters -> spam sweep -> profit. Problem is that is late game leaping in crowd or even getting surrounded is also called “furiously smashing <<resurrect>> button”.

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» "LEAP SLAM"
It’s your’s secondary AoE attack. It is not as powerful as Ground Slam, because it orders you to leap into enemies – what often cause death. But it is very useful in few situations: for example it’s perfect for hit-run technique for bosses, also does good for those awful flicker-strike critters.
Support Gems:
1. "Life Gain on Hit"
2. "Melee Physical Damage"
3. "Fire Physical Damage"
4. Faster Attacks

PR0TIP! After you reach ~1000 dps you can safely swap "Life Gain on Hit" to "Life Leech".

PR0TIPIf you want estimate Life Gain on Hit versus Life Leech relation more precisely:
1. Take your dps you have multiplay it by % of damage leeched
2. Take your amount of life gained per hit and divide it by your attack speed and then multiplay it by 0.7 (for Ground Slam) or 1.5 (for Heavy Strike)
3. Compare those two values: higher means more life gained per second

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» "HEAVY STRIKE"
This is your main 1vs1 (bosskiller) attack. I has high effectiveness, what make our one-to-one damage just huge. And that’s everything.
Support Gems:
1. "Life Gain on Hit"
2. "Melee Physical Damage"
3. "Fire Physical Damage"
4. Faster Attacks

PR0TIP! After you reach ~1000 dps you can safely swap "Life Gain on Hit" to "Life Leech".

PR0TIPIf you want estimate Life Gain on Hit versus Life Leech relation more precisely:
1. Take your dps you have multiplay it by % of damage leeched
2. Take your amount of life gained per hit and divide it by your attack speed and then multiplay it by 0.7 (for Ground Slam) or 1.5 (for Heavy Strike)
3. Compare those two values: higher means more life gained per second

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SELF-BUFFS:
» "ENDURING CRY"
Enduring Cry is a kind of spell, that creates a buff named Endurance Charges. It provides enormous physical damage reduction. Therefore is your main source of defense against this type of damage. It is the best one, because 7 charges result it 35% lower physical damage.
Support Gems:
Enduring Cry needs no support gems.

PR0TIP: Probably you won’t use it by cruel, or even merciless difficulty. So don’t bother taking early nodes related to it.

PR0TIP: Armor is not viable against high-physical critter, because of the way it works. Don’t look at <<estimated physical reduction>> - it works only against white critters. High-physical ones will pierce majority (if not all) reduction from armor. They won’t pierce Endurance Charges.

PR0TIP: Increased Duration Gem and Buff Duration nodes and Inner Force does not influence Endurance Charges.

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CURSES:
» "WARLORD’S MARK"
Curse that gives you fair about of life and mana leech and additionally grants you Endurance Charges (so you won’t care about enduring cry anymore!).
Warlord’s Mark needs no support gems.
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TOTEMS:
» "DECOY TOTEM"
It serves you in two ways: 1st as a meatshield, and 2nd concentrating critters so you can madgroundslam them all at once!
Decoy Totem needs no support gems.

AURAS:
After release we use no auras.

WEAPON:

Spoiler

We use 2-HANDED MACES. They are simply best in terms of dps.
No, you can’t use axes or swords. Well, you can, but then – you will be far, far worse.
Also 1h+shield makes no sense. We will lack too much damage and damage paradoxically adds some defense via life leech.

What mods should we look for?
1. % Increased Physical Damage
2. +x-y Increased Physical Damage
3. % Attack Speed
No other mod makes difference for us.

Simply:
1. Look at written damage range
2. Take average of it
3. Multiply it by “hit per second”
4. Compare those values, and choose mace with highest one.

PR0TIP: DO NOT care about added fire/cold/lightning damage at your weapon. Ignore it!


PR0TIP Let’s assume I have two maces:
1st one deals 150 damage and hits 2 times in second.
2nd one deals 200 damage and hits 1.5 times in a second.
Both of them deals the same 300 damage per second. Which one is better? Or are they equal?

Surprisingly second one is better -> it deals more damage per hit, means more critter’s armor is penetrated resulting in higher overall damage.

EQUIPMENT

Spoiler

This build is very gear independent. But it does not mean we can run Merciless naked, but allows you to finish game with vendor-bought items. There is one thing we have to fulfill: reached elemental resistance cap (default 75%).

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What type of equipment do we use
You can use any equipment piece you can wear. It doesn’t matter if it is evasion-, armor-, or even energy shield-related. Just use that, with highest recommended mods.

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Recommended Modificators:
» Elemental Resistances – those have to be maxed!
» Life – boosts our general survivability.
And… that’s all. As I said – this build is very gear independent. We just need two modificators. You can boost your character a bit, by adding high (“high” word is crucial) armor gear – but not at the cost of other two modificators!
We do not need: x-y Increased Physical Damage, x-y Increased Elemental Damage or others similar.

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Equipment
Firstly we need one four-linked item (later five-linked one), so we can put gems there. This can be any piece of equipment (expect weapon), can be white, without any modificators.

» Helmet –life
» Chest –life
» Boots –movement speed
» Gloves –life
» Rings –resistance
» Amulet –resistance

PR0TIP: Do not look at armor-rating. It is very likely to be pierced by enemies. Make a rule: 300 more armor makes a difference. Also don’t look at armor before 30-40th level.

PR0TIP: At the very first level buy coral amulet and two coral rings. This will enormously increase your survivability

PR0TIP: You can get awesome life/resistance mods from… vendors! Really!

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Equipment Samples (feel free to post yours!):
Halinn, level 54, act 1 merciless

Spoiler

Fusion33, level 65, act 3, merciless

Spoiler

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Useful Uniques
Generally for this build rares are superior, but there are quite a few uniques that worth a look
Amulets
Astramentis – it adds about 100 to all Attributes, so it’s very good for some aura-alternation-build
Carnage Heart – huge boost to Attributes (~40), Life Leech (~8%) and Resistances (~15%), but has one drawback – 25% reduced maximum life. Note that this isn’t 25% from your total life. It’s our 151% increased life will be reduced by 25 resulting in 126% increased life. So it’s not that bad.
Belts
The Magnate – gives 25% increased Physical Damage in case we would need more damage. Generally life tends to be better.
Meginord’s Girdle – awesome belt that grants boost to base physical damage (that is further multiplied) and gives 10% increased maximum life.
Wurm’s Molt – nice belt for bloodless character as it adds mana leech (also life leech)
Rings
Kaom’s Sign – Adds +1 maximum Endurance Charge, so it is good for high physical damage maps/critter, but rings are generally better used for elemental reistances.
Le Heup of All- It has generally everything we need (damage, Attributes, Resistances) except life.
Body Armor
Carcass Jack – An Armor designed directly for groundslammers – it grants armor, life resistances, some damage and… radius of area skill! (and gore, we all love extra gore)
Kaom’s Hearth – 1000 base health is further multiplied and results in about 2,500 additional health – a huge boots for our survivability. Drawback is one – it is so expensive so hardly anyone will get it.
Tabula Rasa – just if you want 6L as fast as possible
Helmets
Abyssus – another you-will-never-get-this. Adds enormous 40-60 physical damage. I would do facebraker mara if I ever get it, seriously. One-hitting Piety was never that fun.
Ezomyte Peak – easy and simple source of life and damage. It’s drawback does not touch us since we already take Unwavering Stance.
Goldrim – cheap and easy source of elemental resistances
Weapons
Kaom’s Primacy – AN AXE?! You said to never touch axes, dude! Yes, indeed. This axe is perfect for one special case – bosses. You will probably leap-slam-in&leap-slam-out bosses and you can use axes with leap slam, so why don’t we use this one? Especially it is very cheap comparing to Mahori Erqi.
Geofri’s Baptism – An OVERPOWERED weapon that can serve you from 27 level even up to 50s-60s.
Mahori Erqi – Best weapon you can get – huge damage boost, and additionally increased Area of Effect.

BANDIT'S REWARD

Spoiler

NORMAL DIFFICULTY: Oak - Health - there are no skill point that will give you so huge benefits. Note, that this health is multiplied by our 'increased health' - resulting not in only 40 points, but over 100.
CRUEL DIFFICULTY: Oak - Physical Damage - 18% increased Physical Damage is something only few nodes (already taken) may grant to you.
MERCILES DIFFUCILTY: Oak - Endurance Charge or Kill All - Skill Point - it depends on you, how often you use charges. If you use them often - Endurance Charge. If not - choose a Skill Point. Recommended one – Endurance Charge.

MORE SKILL GEMS YOU CAN USE

Spoiler

Let me present you gems, you can use along this build. They are not required for build. Some of them are recommended, some of them are not and some of them are useful in some, certain case. This is generally a list of such gems. More informations about recommended ones will be provided in improvements section.

ATTACKS:
1. Glacial Hammer – Strength Based. Quest Reward. Some of you prefer this instead heavy strike due to freeze effect.

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UTILITY:
2. Immortal Call – Strength Based. Quest Reward. Useful boss-related buff that makes you invulnerable to physical damage for short amount of time.
3. Molten Shell – Strength Based. Quest Reward. Fun armor booster
4. Rejuvenation Totem – Strength Based. Quest Reward. Some of you prefer to be decoy themselves and use totem as healer.
Bear Trap – Dexternity Based. Quest reward. Useful for immobilizing bosses
5. Blood Rage - Dexternity Based. NOT Quest Reward. Well, I would not recommend it, due to insane Life Drain it brings. But if you’ve maxed your chaos resistance you should definitely use it for easy Frenzy Charge and some Life Leech.
6. Detonate Dead - Dexternity Based. NOT Quest Reward. This skill gem is useful at Normal Fedit Pool, and that’s all. Maybe at Normal Prison. It allows to detonate corpses, so that Necromancers cannot revive them. Recommended to support it with Spell_Totem, so corpses will detonate by themselves.
7. Frenzy - Dexternity Based. NOT Quest Reward. Another way to score Frenzy Charge.
8. Summon Skeletons – Intelligence Based. NOT Quest reward. Skeletons are much more durable than simple Decoy Totem . Best combined with Spell_Totem that will endlessly spam skeletons for you.

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CURSES:
1. Temporal Chains – Dexternity Based. NOT Quest Reward. Slows enemies, so it’s much easier to kite.
2. Vulnerability – Intelligence Based. NOT Quest Reward. Simple damage booster.
3. Enfeeble – Intelligence Based. NOT Quest Reward. Lowers enemies’ damage.

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AURAS:
Keep in mind that post-release it is very hard to keep auras. Usually it does not worth that!

1. Anger – Strength & Intelligence Based. Quest Reward. Flat reservation. This aura adds some flat fire damage. Because our build is strictly physical you won’t see any difference in damage.
2. Determination – Strength Based. Quest Reward. Percentage reservation. This aura brings plenty defense against physical critters, because it gives significant boost to armor. But it has percentage reservation, therefore can’t be used in basic build.
3. Vitality – Strength Based. Quest Reward. Percentage reservation. This aura boosts life regeneration, so it would be perfect for our (high-life) build. But it has percentage reservation, therefore can’t be used in basic build.
4. Haste – Dexternity Based. NOT Quest Reward. Percentage reservation. This aura brings minor bonus to attack speed. Also it has percentage reservation, therefore can’t be used in basic build.
5. Hatred – Dexternity & Intelligence Based. Quest Reward. Percentage reservation. This aura grants huge boost to damage (up to 25% of total physical damage). But it has percentage reservation, therefore can’t be used in basic build.
6. Clarity – Intelligence Based. NOT Quest reward. Flat reservation. This aura grants additional mana regeneration, so it may be helpful only before taking Blood Magic Keystone to maintain mana cost.
7. Purity – Intelligence Based. NOT Quest reward. Percentage reservation. One of the best auras, as it grants bonus to maximum elemental resistance accompanied with some elemental resistances itself. But it has percentage reservation, therefore can’t be used in basic build.
8. Wrath - Intelligence Based. NOT Quest Reward. Flat reservation. This aura adds some flat lightning damage. Because our build is strictly physical you won’t see any difference in damage.

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SUPPORT GEMS:
1. Blood Magic – Strength Based. Quest Reward. It may be used instead Blood Magic Keystone, but brings terrible increase in mana(life) cost which is hard to maintain.
2. Increased Duration - Strength Based. Quest Reward. Support gem often attached to curses, so that you are not forced to cast them so often. It does NOT increase duration of Endurance Charges.
3. Item Quantity - Strength Based. Quest Reward. Often used when farming items.
4. Melee Splash - Strength Based. Quest Reward. It does NOT works of Ground Slam nor other AoE attacks. It does work on Heavy Strike and similar turning it into nice AoE. But it lack one thing, which makes difference between life and death: it’s range sucks (just like sweep one).
5. Multistrike - Strength Based. NOT Quest Reward. I am very reserved in judging this skill. It generally increases attack speed two times, but halves damage. It may thought that overall dps is unchanged, but lower damage pierces less armor efficiently lowering effective dps.
6. Reduced Mana - Strength Based. Quest Reward. Very often used to lower mana/life reservation of auras.
7. Spell Totem - Strength Based. Quest Reward. In this build may be useful to create machine that summon skeletons, which is much more efficient than Decoy Totem.
8. Mana Leech - Dexternity Based. NOT Quest Reward. In case you wouldn’t take Blood Magic Keystone nor Blood Magic Support Gem you may try to maintain mana cost via this support.
9. Concentrated Effect - Intelligence Based. NOT Quest Reward. Awesome gem in terms of increasing damage as it grants huge multiplier, but has one downside: it highly reduces our survivability drastically decreasing range.
10. Increased Area of Effect - Intelligence Based. NOT Quest Reward. Mention worthy gem, that increases our survivability by increases Ground Slam’s range.
11. Item Rarity - Intelligence Based. NOT Quest Reward. Often used when farming items.

IMPROVEMENTS

Spoiler

I’ll list several improvements that may buff your character even more. But keep in mind that most of them either decreases your survivability or requires stats other than strength. Do them ONLY if you are sure, that you can handle survivability hit. If you don’t you can always come back to basic build.
I’ll try to list them from easiest, to hardest.

LIFE LEECH FROM GEAR
After some time you will be able to fully handle mana(life) cost and incoming damage via life leech support gem. Then why don’t ask ourselves a question: we deal almost only physical damage. Why don’t use items with “% Life Leech from Physical Attack” mod. Well, there is nothing to keep us away from this! Collect the gear with “% Life Leech from Physical Attack” mod (only gloves, rings and amulets can have this mod), and you will be able to drop Life Leech Support Gem for another damage-oriented!

REQUIREMENTS:
» Damage output high enough to maintain life. Usually over 1k from Ground Slam.
IMPROVEMENT:
» Collect gear (gloves, rings, amulets) with “% Life Leech from Physical Attack” mod.
» Swap Life leech Support Gem with another damage oriented.
» Profit!
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UBER-DECOY TOTEM
To be honest: Decoy Totem itself is weak. It dies fast. Even quality one dies pretty quickly. But there is a way to create even stronger one. Let’s link Spell Totem to Summon Skeletons and we will end up with totem that keep spams skeletons. Yes, they fell off pretty quickly, but they will replenish even faster!

REQUIREMENTS:
» Intelligence high enough to maintain Summon Skeleton Gem (151 at 20th level).
» RED-BLUE link in your gear.
IMPROVEMENT:
» Get Spell Totem and Summon Skeleton linked together.
» Profit!
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6-LINKED CHEST ARMOR
Another step of improving character is getting an 6-linked chest armor. Yes – chest armor. Not mace. Let me repeat: chest armor, not weapon. Mace is used for damage and should be maximized in that direction. It’s way cheaper to get 6-linked armor than uber-damage AND 6-linked mace.

You’ve bought it yet? Perfect. Now you probably want to know what Support Gem you may put in. I won’t tell you which exactly, because it hardly depends on your equipment. You should consider choice according to your case. Gems you can add:
» Concentrated Effect - if you feel tanky enough to take survivability hit (lower range) you can consider this gem as it grants huge increase in damage. Intelligence Based.
» Area of Effect – if you lack of defense you can add this gem to get more range, which highly increases your survivability. Intelligence Based.
» Multistrike – you can consider this this gem, but as I said I’m very suspicious about it’s efficiency. You have to check it out on your own skin. Strength Based.

REQUIREMENTS:
» Enough currency to buy 6-linked chest armor
» Enough statistics to maintain chosen support gem(s)
IMPROVEMENT:
» Add support gem(s) of your choice to Ground Slam
» Profit!
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DROPPING RESISTANCES NODES
You had to notice that there are many skill points wasted into resistance nodes – total of 8! That’s a lot of points, which could be used in much better way. If only you can max out resistances without these nodes – respect them! Keep in mind that you still have to have resistances maxed. It is crucial for survivability. An increase from 75% to 80% would bring and 25% lower elemental damage!

REQUIREMENTS:
» Maxed resistances without certain elemental resistance nodes.
IMPROVEMENT:
» Respec some unneeded elemental resistance nodes
» Profit!
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DROPPING BLOOD MAGIC
There are some awesome auras, but you can’t use them, because they would reserve percentage of your life? So what about respeccing Blood Magic, so we could reserve mana instead of life? Then we would be able to use some of out those four awesome auras:
» DETERMINATION – that grants huge bonus to our armor rating
» VITALITY – that let us regenerate even more life
» HATRED – that boosts unbelievable our damage output
» PURITY – that grants plenty of elemental resistance and what is even better: maximum elemental resistance! (80% to 84% means ~30% lower elemental damage received)

But wait – how would we maintain mana cost then!
There are two ways dealing with that:
» Supporting Ground Slam with Blood Magic and getting enough Life Leech Support Gem or items with “% Life Leech from Physical Damage” mods.
» Leaving Ground Slam as it is and maintain it from mana using Mana Leech Support Gem or items with “% Mana Leech from Physical Damage” mods.
Second way if more profitable, but harder to realize, because we have low mana pool. And there is a cap, that only 20% of total mana/life can be regenerated per second. If Ground Slam sucks more than 20% of your mana per second you won’t be able to use second way.
Also keep in mind that Blood Magic strongly increases (over two times) life cost of a skill. You have to be ready for this.

SUPPORTING GROUND SLAM WITH BLOOD MAGIC
REQUIREMENTS:
» Damage output high enough to maintain life. Usually over 1k from Ground Slam.
» Free slot for Blood Magic
IMPROVEMENT:
» Collect gear with “% Life Leech from Physical Damage” mods or use Life Leech Support Gem
» Respec Blood Magic
» Support Ground Slam with Blood Magic Gem
or
» Run two auras of your choice (supported by Reduced Mana)
» PROFIT!!!

MAINTAINING GROUND SLAM WITH MANA
REQUIREMENTS:
» Damage output high enough to maintain mana. Usually over 1k from Ground Slam.
» Mana cost per second of Ground Slam CANNOT exceed 20% of your total mana.
IMROVEMENT:
» Collect gear with “% Mana Leech from Physical Damage” mods or use Mana Leech Support Gem
» Respec Blood Magic
» Run one auras of your choice supported with Reduced Mana
» PROFIT!!!
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GETTING INNER FORCE
If we dropped Blood Magic we can run some awesome auras. There is a way to increase their effect by 30% by getting Inner Force, which is located here: <<CLICK ME>>. For example: this will boost our 20th level Hatred by 7.5%.

REQUIREMENTS:
» Spare skill points
IMPROVEMENT:
» Get Inner Force
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GETTING STATIC BLOWS
To be honest – I have no idea if that would work as I never tried it. Idea is simple: running Wrath with Static Blow would give 20% chance to shock enemies – which cause 40% more damage. I highly doubt if anyone would manage to accumulate shocks to achieve 80% or even 120% more damage, but that’s the idea.

I don’t give location of Static Blows to prevent newbies touching this truly MAD idea.

REQUIREMENTS:
» Running Wrath
IMPROVEMENT:
» Get Static Blows
» Profit(???)
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DROPPING RESOLUTE TECHNIQUE
You may want for some reason to unlock criticals. I dissuade this, because there is hardly any way to increase melee critical hit chance and critical hit multiplier. But if you somehow managed to do that you can drop Resolute Technique and use Additional Accuracy Support Gem with addition of accuracy mods in gear.

REQUIREMENTS:
» Shitloads of critical strike chance
» Shitloads of critical multiplier
» Slot for Additional Accuracy Support Gem
» Dexterity required to maintain Additional Accuracy Support Gem
» Get some accuracy mods on your gear.
IMPROVEMENT:
» Drop Resolute technique
»Profit(???)

TYPICAL ISSUES

Spoiler

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

CHANGELOG

Spoiler

GTM+1
01.44 18.04 – v4.00 About 30% more content added
12.55 14.03 - v3.00 Guide has been completely rewritten
12:24 03.02 - v2.02c Progress skill trees
12:40 03.02 - v2.02b Added example equipment. Thank you guys!
22:15 02.02 - v2.02a Some minor changes in skill gems section
22:52 01.02 - v2.02 Another minor changes in build.
14:16 30.01 - v2.01 Build section and builds itself rebuilded - to be more visible.
01:41 28.01 - v2.00a Added ChangeLog and To-Do Sections
14:51 26.01 - v2.00 ULTIMATE MAKEOVER, because of massive feedback in the thread
22:48 24.01 - v1.00 First, basic build

TO-DO

Spoiler

Typical Issues Section
How to get DEX for Faster Attacks?
What for 'increased one handed melee damage?