[1.1.3] Molten Strike Build,.. (pre-release theorycrafting)

So, a new skill has been announced, and it just looks AWESOME!




(Click image for YouTube video!)



Now, what do we know about this skill? Well, nothing really, but maybe we can make some educated guesses, based on what we can see.

It looks like it will be combined physical/fire AoE, similar to what the recently released Glacial Cascade does with physical/cold AoE, but except that it works on melee rather than by casting. The physical/elemental ratio might be slightly different (in favour of physical), but most likely it will share GC's mana intensiveness.

Templar might seem the most logical choice for a build, but a Witch has easier access to a second vital AoE node (Blast Radius) and EB to sustain our mana consumption. Plus, melee Witches are cool. A basic build could be:

but a more interesting one, taking full advantage of the Witch's position, could be:

Both builds take relatively little life, but gain a lot of survivability through a combination of high armour, excellent usage of shields, and good regen/leech possibilities. Because of the latter I have also deliberately passed on Avatar of Fire, since it would break any leech percentages we can get on gear. While the basic build could possibly expand towards Iron Reflexes. The second build has a lot of options for curses (on hit!). For example:

LMB (5L): Molten Strike + Fire Pen. + Chance to Ignite + Concentrated Effect + Life Leech
RMB (4L): Leap Slam + Curse on Hit + Flamability + Elemental Weakness

The gauntlett has been thrown,..

Le bumpe,..

Seems like a good idea. I will certainly be testing out the new skill ASAP, so I hope to see the build guide updated when further knowledge comes into hand :)

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AbyssGFX wrote:

Seems like a good idea. I will certainly be testing out the new skill ASAP, so I hope to see the build guide updated when further knowledge comes into hand :)

Yes, there're rumours spreading that MS's AoE distributing "balls" will be independent from your weapon damage. If that's the case nodes like Catalyse and Lava Lash would be poor investments.

I'm quite happy with the Curse variant setup so far, but we have to wait for a bot more info to truly get this to work.

We need to see, indeed. But something like Doryani's Catalyst would be great for this either way.

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CantripN wrote:

We need to see, indeed. But something like Doryani's Catalyst would be great for this either way.

Ha, you again?!

Looks like we both got a thing for ice and fire XD

Doryani's would definitely work, even if the crit. mods are somewhat wasted. More interestingly, even on a pure elemental build it would still have some significant physical damage output, which could have huge implications for secondary effects such as LL on physical (Blood Drinker) stacking with Doryani's LL on elemental. The Elemental Proliferation is also great, though unfortunately it won't work as an addition to the main attack, as 1H's are three-slotted at best.