[2.5] Tempada's Dreamfeather Lightning Flurry Raider: Acro, Alpha's/Blood Dance/QotF, 200k+ DPS

What's new in 2.5: Raider buffs, most notably Way of the Poacher now grants a 20% chance to gain a frenzy charge on hitting a rare or unique enemy. My character stats were taken while using Cleave, but Blade Flurry is the better option for most people.

• Featured as Build of the Week S04E09 and on Reddit
• 60k+ dps potential with auras activated, 200k+ with all buffs, not a crit build
• Gotta go fast! An exciting build that will keep you on your toes

This build plays on the synergy between Dreamfeather and Queen of the Forest, where more evasion means more damage and celerity. Blade Flurry or Cleave is my preferred attack, but you can choose between a number of skills powered by either mana or Soul Taker. Arctic Armour, dodge, evasion, flasks, Fortify, and movement speed (on top of a little block chance and plenty of life and regen) provide defense.

While comparatively inexpensive, this is not a budget build; it requires some very specific items and socket colors. Despite layered defenses, this is not an ideal hardcore/level 100 build since the odds are simply stacked against pure evasion melee characters (Volatile enemies will f*** you up even when you have over 6k life and all defenses active). This is, however, a unique build that's fast, fun, and challenging. I hope some of you enjoy it, or at least the concept, as much as I do. Please let me know if you have any suggestions.

[spoiler="Gear & Links"]Aside from life and resists, get "increased elemental damage with weapons" on accessories whenever possible. Also look for flat lightning damage because of its synergy with Herald of Thunder/Wrath and Added Lightning Damage. Try to get some accuracy as well.

Body Armour

• Cleave/Frost Blades/Lacerate/Lightning Strike + Faster Attacks + Weapon Elemental Damage + Multistrike + Added Lightning Damage + Added Cold Damage/Lightning Penetration
  or
  Blade Flurry + Faster Attacks/Added Cold Damage + Weapon Elemental Damage + Added Lightning Damage + Lightning Penetration + anything you want (try Life Gain on Hit)

[spoiler="Which skill should I choose?"]

• Blade Flurry is the meta right now. It's powerful, has good range, it hits faster than anything else (easy Elemental Overload), and it doesn't need Multistrike (flexible gem setup).
• Cleave excels at boss kills and, when used properly, its clear speed rivals or exceeds that of the other skills. Its small radius (annoyingly small until you reach Amplify on the tree) requires leaping into packs of enemies for efficiency, which works great when Leap Slam is linked to Curse on Hit and Fortify. Unfortunately the red gem makes it difficult to roll ideal socket colors on a pure evasion chest, and the limited area coverage is anti-meta, so I don't recommend Cleave to most players.
• Lightning Strike is great for leveling and for its melee/ranged flexibility... if your computer can handle the graphics without massive fps drops. Its power is right up there with Cleave and its range is crazy, but the projectiles can be stopped dead in their tracks by the smallest obstacles and you need to hold shift to attack in place.
• Lacerate is like Lightning Strike without the mechanical downsides. It feels great but has crap tooltip dps and isn't as powerful as Cleave or Lightning Strike despite its overlapping waves. Still, it's better than most other melee skills.
• Frost Blades, like Lacerate, is a step below Cleave and Lightning Strike, but it can shine with Ricochet from the Deadeye class.

Level multiple skills at once so you can try them out and see which one is your favorite.

Alternatives: Ice Crash hits hard but has reflect problems, so I'd avoid it. Reave is fine, just not top shelf here. Molten Strike too. Cyclone (which only works with Soul Taker or the Trickster class) and Wild Strike are viable but even less effective, although there might be a way to make Cyclone better through fire prolif.[/spoiler]
Boots

• CwDT lvl 20 + Summon Ice/Lightning Golem + Vaal Grace/Haste + Increased Duration

Gloves

• Leap Slam + Fortify + Curse on Hit + Conductivity/Elemental Weakness
  Consider hybrid gloves instead of pure evasion for easier socket colors

Helm

• Grace + Herald of Thunder/Wrath + Arctic Armour (+ Enlighten)
  Use HoT with Dreamfeather x2 and Wrath with Soul Taker; add Enlighten to mana builds

Weapon 1

• CwDT lvl 6 + Poacher's Mark/Enfeeble lvl 9 + Summon Skeletons lvl 12

Weapon 2

• Blood Rage + Enhance + Blood Magic/Empower
  Blood Magic is necessary if you reserve all mana when using Soul Taker

Flasks

• Look for the following:
[dbLinkedItem id="10198274972"][dbLinkedItem id="10198274974"][dbLinkedItem id="10198274977"][dbLinkedItem id="10198274981"][dbLinkedItem id="10198274984"]
• Yes, I have a legacy Taste of Hate and Vessel of Vinktar, but they're certainly not required. Sapping Eternal should only be used with Soul Taker; use Bubbling/Seething Divine or Seething Hallowed in a mana build. If you can't get Taste of Hate, a Basalt Flask of Reflexes will do. If you don't have Vessel of Vinktar (which should be paired with a Jade or Stibnite Flask of Grounding to avoid Vinktar shock), get a Jade and a Stibnite Flask of Reflexes; they're like Quicksilvers on crack once you're properly leveled and geared. Replace an evasion potion with a Silver Flask if you play as a Raider with Avatar of the Chase.

[/spoiler]
[spoiler="My Character (Level 97 Raider)"]

<< Passive Skill Tree >>

DPS: 35k unbuffed tooltip dps
57k with auras (Grace + Wrath)
123k with auras + Ice Golem + 7 frenzy + Blood Rage + Elemental Overload
192k with previous buffs + flasks (Atziri's + Taste + Jade + Vessel)
216k with all previous buffs + Vaal Haste

*This dps is with Lightning Penetration and without Concentrated Effect*

Life: 5869, 264/sec base regen, 675/sec with 7 frenzy
Accuracy Rating: 2685 main hand, 2276 off hand before Ice Golem (90% Chance to Hit)
Evasion Rating: 42k (73% Chance to Evade Attacks) with Grace, before frenzy and flask
Chance to Dodge Attacks: 46%
Chance to Dodge Spells: 30% (40% with full frenzy charges)
Chance to Block Attacks: 11%
Movement Speed Modifier: +105% with Grace, up to 218% with all buffs[/spoiler]
[spoiler="Videos"]2.3

• Lacerate demonstration in Gorge

2.0

• Garena/Taiwan demonstration (thanks to forum user yexing0013)
• Build explanation and Gorge Map/dps demonstration with Cleave
• The Awakening beta build (thanks to Reddit user Lloydicus)

1.3

• Build of the Week S04E09 (thanks to Chris Wilson)
• Original build explanation and Shipyard Map demonstration
• Gorge clear (thanks to forum user Jack89)

[/spoiler]
[spoiler="F.A.Q."]

• Can I use a shield?

No. You need to dual wield to make the most of Dreamfeather.

• How do you deal with X monster?

Target ranged enemies first. Keep Fortify and potions up, especially around Volatile enemies. Immediately get out of the way after killing Flame/Frost/Storm Bearers. Watch out for exploding corpses.

• What about reflect?

Basic reflect is easily countered by potions. For elemental reflect maps, replace WED with LGoH, use Blood Rage unless you're in a low/no regen map, and watch out for shocking ground. Avoid the -max resist/reflect combo; that's just asking for trouble.

• What map mods/bosses do you avoid?

Every individual map mod is doable if you're careful, although I'd think twice about certain combos with -max resist or vulnerability. I've fully cleared almost every map up through T14 with this build, and often with crazy mods.

• Is the build Atziri viable?

Most builds that can do high level mapping can take on basic Atziri. I'm sure a talented player could kill Uber with a few gem changes, but the build is not designed for Atziri farming.[/spoiler]
[spoiler="Credits & Related Builds"]Mathil's Spectral Throw Pathfinder
-Queen of the Forest, non-crit chaos/poison-based, Uber viable

Proximi's Crit Chaos Buzzsaw Assassin
-crit, Cospri's Will, Uber viable

Novalisk's Cleave/Reave Poison Raider
-A non-crit chaos build

Lyralei's Dreamfeather: Post-Mortem
-The Dreamfeather design process

VictorDoom's Elemental Cleave Templar
-The origins of elemental Cleave[/spoiler]

Updated gear and tree.

Updated gear. I can get over 24k dps with Faster Attacks + Culling Strike + WED and over 30k dps with Faster Attacks + Added Cold + Added Lightning + WED. I stay away from Multistrike because of the high mana multiplier.

It looks fun, i'm making your build right now , may i know is it Queen Atziri's viable?

"

No_Secret wrote:

It looks fun, i'm making your build right now , may i know is it Queen Atziri's viable?

Glad to see some interest in the build! It is pretty fun.

I would not personally attempt Atziri with this build. I'm sure there are people who could do it, but it would be really tough as a melee character without crazy dps or high block chance.

Was curious how you think this build would work in beyond? Am planning on doing a build similar to this.

"

Waffleshop wrote:

Was curious how you think this build would work in beyond? Am planning on doing a build similar to this.

I think it would be stressful in Beyond. Until you can get Life Leech in your setup, you have to stay on your toes and rely on potions to keep you alive (although some people find that aspect enjoyable). If you like a challenge and want to give it a go in hardcore, you might use Warlord's Mark in a Cast when Damage Taken setup or linked to Leap Slam and Curse on Hit. Frost Wall is another useful CwDT link.

Now level 90.

This can also be made into a Spectral Throw build. Added a note and possible skill tree in the Passive Skill Tree section. Cleave is more efficient, but some people prefer to play ranged.

I may be totally wrong here but I think when you have hatred + anger running while dual wielding they are a flat addition to attacks not applied to each weapon; so with cleave it gets the 65% effectiveness rather than 130%. IF this is the case then swapping cleave for reave should improve your damage (and make colours easier to get yaay!)