The "I want to AFK and not die build" - Molten Strike

EDIT: 7-31-14 Updating the post, to me more reflective of the build now.

Current Level: 72

Background on why I tried to do this (You don't have to read this)


My Current Gear


Gear Update: 8/12/14
Swapped to Multistrike to give it a whirl. I still hate the support, but I can't deny the increase in clear speed.
Picked up a Doryani's Invitation on the cheap (fire version). There is definitely a nice increase in DPS, even though I lost some HP from the last belt (just barely above my 4k "plateau".


Uniques I have used:

Crest of Perandus:
This is not required*. Does it make life easier? Sure. Nice, high life, highest block % in the game. It's nice. I would almost say that the Crest is required, but... I don't know.

*While not required, I'm at a point now where I just don't know if I would swap to another shield. Even with the absolute Overkill on Lightning Resistance that I'm currently Experiencing, it's just so freaking nice to have reduced my damage intake with the block. I have picked up a Thousand Teeth Temu, and am currently trying to sort out some Jewelry to give it a whirl. (I'm 9 dex short).

Temu is my secondary option, because it still exhibits a nice amount of block, it still has Life Leech on the Shield, and actually plays into my secondary defense (armor). Sure, I could probably find a rare shield that has more EV or Armor, and more health, and comparable block. But, until I have the Leech covered in other places on gear, I just can't give up the Leech on the Shield. I'm sure my opinion will change as I keep going. I might just find a mythical, amazing, super high life, super high ev, 38% block buckler, that I can pair with some Life Leech on Jewelry and Gloves, and have a good time. Time will tell. Right now, I'm not there yet.

Meginord's Girdle
A great belt. It's superb for DPS. But, I found that I could find a nice STR Belt, that didn't cause a "huge" loss in DPS, that had more resists and armor. I might go back to Meginord's when I get in more "end game" gear, and start tacking on more raw DPS.

Wurm's Molt
I keep one of these lying around, and I still toss one on from time to time. If I know that I'm going to be doing something that requires a lot of leech to live, I will still toss it on.

Mightflay
I had originally planned for the build to be sword based, but I decided while leveling, that I would stick with vanilla "1h'd" nodes, and keep my options open. Mightflay was a nice option while leveling.

Doryani's Invitation:
-Fire Damage Version: Nice boost in damage. Plenty more AoE, and the Fire Leech seems to be making up for the lack of life on the belt.
-Physical Damage Version: (Still Looking for one to test with)



Unique's I plan to get / use / try.

Doryani's Catalyst: I'm pretty sure that this is going to be my BIS weapon. It doesn't hurt that in the grand scheme of things, it's also the cheaper of the two "Unique" options for BIS.

Soul Taker: A guy can dream right? This could end up edging out Catalyst, because I could drop the Blood Magic Gem for another Support. If, I were to ever get one, I'd try it out, but... I'm not holding my breath.


My Tree.
This is my current build At level 72. It has gone through some vast changes since I started, but this is what I'm going with for now.

If I were to try and "Coach" someone on how to do this from the ground up? I would say.... .

First 21 points
This will get you rolling. Nice and broad start. Life, Block, IR, and some damage.

40 points
Iron Grip is amazing with Molten Strike. Period. Also, if you didn't notice, we're going to be getting some HP Regen. With Vitality running, I'm regenning enough that I feel one good Life Flask is all I need right now. That might change, but right now, I'm good.

61 Points Resolute Technique. Love it.

80 points
I went and grabbed more max resists at this point. I like not taking a lot of damage.

From here, refer to the first tree. That's the next 12 points. I'm level 72. That's where I'm at. From there, we'll say.... Level 85. That will be 103 points.

This is currently what I'm shooting for. More Life, More armor, More Block, More Leech and a little more DPS.

Bandits
Oak - Oak - Oak (or kill all)

Endurance Charges
I did opt for the 4th Endurance charge in the tree, and I purposely routed myself near the others. I killed Oak in Merc, because I wanted the passive point, but you could get another charge from him. Endurance Charges are nice, as they lower incoming damage, and I know I'll not get to block cap, or spell block cap. So, with more endurance charges, and the regen from them, when things go bad, I'm regenning hp, while reducing my damage intake.

(As Long as I keep using Crest of Perandus, I will hit Block Cap at level 75, by using a regret. This could change in 1.2, I'll keep you posted.)

Auras
I currently use Hatred, Tempest Shield, and Vitality. I have thought about speccing points into reducing the cost, so that I can run a Purity of X aura. I'll see what I think once I get into harder content, and decide if I need the bonus to max from those auras. Right now, I shrug off plenty of damage, so I'm not sure it will be needed, but I've not yet downed Atziri either.

Gear to look for while leveling
I tried to stick with Onyx or Turquoise Amulets while leveling, as I know I'm light on Dex and Int.

I tried to find the biggest baddest Phys 1h'er I could.

Other than that, Attack Speed on Gloves, Cover your resists, and stack life. The build is light on life, but with my current build / gear I'm at 4200+ 4000+ (Belt Change) HP, maxed resists, and I'm just looking to add more life at this point.

Chaos Resist
I have -1% CR in my current gear, and I would like to raise that more. While I can stand in desecrated zones on maps, and shrug off Chaos Damage, the point of the build was to AFK and not die. I want to AFK in a desecrated zone with one of the A2 Chaos Spitters wailing on me, and not die. When I get there, I'll be pleased with my Regen / CR.

Thanks for taking the time to read. If you have questions, by all means ask away. If you want to make fun of me, that's fine. But I don't much care if you have an issue with the build. It's my build. I'm having fun (finally) in 1.1.

I haven't had as much time to play recently as I would have liked, but I have made definitive progress, and I still haven't died. (that's more exciting for me than anyone else I'm sure)

I have picked up some new shinies, and I'm laughing maniacally as things try hard to kill me.



The 5L was nice, in letting me get Molten Strike onto blood magic, and the lower leveled faster Attacks wasn't much of a DPS dropoff over Melee Phys (which was surprising less DPS than WED)

It allowed me to run Tempest Shield while I wait/Shop for a Reduced Mana Gem.

My Clear Speed is starting to slow down a little. I am thinking that it should be helped once I get Resolute Technique, as my current accuracy is ~85%. Or, it might be my lack of desire to get a "lot" of DPS nodes in the build, as so far I've just been focusing on surviving.

A few of the A3 Cruel Corrupted Areas have tested my defenses, but nothing awful.



A couple quick questions for people who have more knowledge of Molten Strike than myself.

1.) The tooltip is showing just the Strike DPS right? I can't seem to figure it out, but I tried a few projectile supports, and they weren't augmenting the DPS at the tooltip level.

2.) Would Iron Grip be worth it?

3.) What about Slower Proj?


Thanks for any info people may be able to pass on to me.

"

shoju wrote:

1.) The tooltip is showing just the Strike DPS right? I can't seem to figure it out, but I tried a few projectile supports, and they weren't augmenting the DPS at the tooltip level.

2.) Would Iron Grip be worth it?

3.) What about Slower Proj?


Thanks for any info people may be able to pass on to me.

The tooltip only shows the initial hit not the projectiles. Projectiles have 30% less damage than the initial hit.

As a lvl80 Templar, Molten strike powered, i can assure u Iron Grip is must.

Forget slower projectiles. I would suggest Iron Grip + point Blank combo from skill tree. As for molten strike, focus on main dps as the projectiles scale based on that.

Recommended:

(For 6 link) Molten Strike + Multistrike + Weapon Elemental Damage / Melee Physical damge + Faster Attacks + Concentrated Effect + Life leech. (I use life leech. because i hate dying :P)

My passive tree:


Although i started as templar, i touched Duelist start area, so u can also use it in reverse if u want :D. My toon is Armour + Evasion + Block based... that means rarely i take big hits. Even if one gets passed evasion and misses block, i have good enough armour and life to survive easily. Done upto lvl74 maps with no problem.

My gears:


Please ignore the gem combo in my gear as i was testing my dual strike duelist with the same gears. :P

Cheers.

Thank you for the info. So far, with the 3% leech on the shield, and the LGOH (which I'm assuming, from the way I've been using it, does in fact count the projectiles), I'm staying alive pretty well. I've been thinking about picking up the 2% in the tree, and seeing if I can forgo a leech / lgoh gem all together. I might toy with that later, right now I'm just focused on getting Piety and Dom down in cruel and moving on to Merc, so I can hopefully get this thing mapping before ambush ends.

Thanks for the build link as well, It gives me some ideas on how I'm going to progress. Still not sure I will end up speccing a weapon until very late, and I have decided on a specific weapon that I'm going to stick too. Right now, I'm just cruising along, using whatever is best.

Into A1 Merc, farming ledge for upgrades. Still no deaths. Dominus was a little dicier this time, but still completely doable.

As for my current gear:





The hallowed flask gets swapped in and out really.

"

I really at this point only use it for the staunching, as my health (outside of dominus) never really gets tested much. I'm currently only rocking 50% block, and 2800 HP, and I'm regening 4.5% HP a second. Once I get my Reduced Mana gem leveled a level more, I should be able to add vitality, and have plenty of regen.


My next goal is to upgrade my weapon, and boots. If nothing else, when I level again, I have


That I can strap on, which will give me a few more options in terms of what neck I can wear.

.... And I died.

Because Stream of Monsters + AOE Effect + Certain Rogue Exiles popping out of a strongbox will still freeze the client, but not DC you.

Stream of Monsters + Poison Cloud + Totem / Flameblast ROgue Exile, and when I finally unfroze, I was dead.

This. This is why I will never play Hardcore in this game.

Upgraded some gear.



I've now died twice. Both times to "stream of Monsters + Rogue Exile + AoE thing" from a stronbox freezing the client.

Merveil Down, Everything else is going swimmingly. Level 61, and smashing A2 in the face right proper.

My current debate, is how long will I keep using the shield. As you can see in the gear progression, I've dropped LGOH from the 5L Molten Strike, and I'm still cruising along with just 4% Life Leech on gear, and not having any problems at all.

I think, if I were to swap shields, I would need to go back to sporting Life Leech or LGOH as a support, unless I retooled my gear to get more leech somewhere else.

I do have a Wurm's Molt belt that I could use, but I'm not sure about the drop off in DPS / Life would be a worthwhile trade off.

Closing in on Piety in Merc. I would love to get Dom dead in Merc before the league ends, but my playtime has been far too sporadic, and my dislike of death to client freeze has kept me from pushing harder.

I yolo'd the chest, thinking: HEY! I have a couple of spots open, and couple of pretty good affixes left in the pool. This is why I don't Yolo.



Changed up some jewelry so I could continue to level up Tempest Shield.
Swapped out Meginord's, to try using a little more armor / get a little more CR. I lost ~200 HP, and 100 ish DPS. Not sure that's it's a noticeable difference either way.

I'm thinking I might try a shield swap, and see if I notice the difference in block%.


The kicker is, really at this point, My life doesn't end up seriously tested, except for the awesome client freeze on strongbox opening that occurs in the previously mentioned times. Other than that, i don't really drop below 75%. The only change to flasks has been swapping out the Hallowed for



While I'm going through some of the lightning heavy areas in A3, to deal with the mixed packs of arcmages / spark throwers, and shield chargers.

Goodluck with your build sir. i leveled a sword and board tanky marauder with molten strike and i have to say it is REALLY good dmage.

"

DTODD wrote:

Goodluck with your build sir. i leveled a sword and board tanky marauder with molten strike and i have to say it is REALLY good dmage.

Thanks. It's been a trip. I enjoy the build, it's nice to do something completely different than what I've been used to doing. I do have issues with some parts of the build, but we'll see what works.