[DISCONTINUED] GROUNDSLAMMER BUILD

I finally leveled. took out one strength node and then grabbed the one I needed to get to Blunt Instruments. Armor is up to 7165 and damage is 13K+ for ground slam.


EDIT: I am now running Dried Lake in Act 4 and Docks. I'll run those till level 80 (at 77 now). Pump armor and life nodes if they're nearby. Then I'll try to take on the rest of act 4.

Hey, recently started playing again and had a ~lvl30 marauder lying around so I gave this build a go since it looked rather simple and I got a 5l marohi erqi relatively cheap. No big ambitions you see ;)

Reached lvl 80 yesterday and wanted to add a few things/provide some more in-depth info

This build is perfectly fine but its mechanics aren't honed and its potential is limited. With the stats in OPs post on the first page even Voll in merciless a4 will hit you very hard when you just stand there and Heavy Strike/Ground Slam him (Disregarding Leapslamming away -> Groundslam from distance -> repeat; since you want to be able to "just stand there" against a weak boss like Voll).
So a rather important addition, as with most melee builds, is Fortify, preferably on your Leap Slam so you'd jump every now and then to keep it up. This will allow you to also go for that >Rampart< notable passive which will, all combined, considerably boost your defense (optimally with 4 endurance charges up from Warlords Mark).

Now for the offense, it has been discussed (around page 7 in this thread I think?) whether there should be a focus on the stunning portion of Ground Slam and Stun/Endurance Charge on Stun have been mentioned as support gems. I have to say that, from experience, this is uneccessary and will only hinder your map clearing potential. As is, white/blue/gold mobs won't ever get to you, the regular Ground Slam stun chance will already lock most of them in place until they die, so just opt for more dps. Regarding dps, even less than what OP has on page 1 will suffice at first. With 14-15k dps on Ground Slam you will breeze through anything but unique bosses in lvl 70-75 areas.

I will post my gear for reference. With the highest investments being the 5l marohi erqi and the belt (20c each) I still got all of this relatively cheap, only the helmet, gloves and rings are self-found.



All in all you will want around 100%+ more armor than OP in the stats on p. 1 and at least 2k+ more life. You will want to add a Fortify-applier and Warlord's Mark to your attack rotations.

As has been pointed out in the discussion here before, this build won't let you ascend to dps heaven, nor to immortality, but with the right tweaks it's a very viable and imo satisfying build for anything before endgame.

PS: this build is exactly what ConnorJ (OP) says it is (see build's title and description). With a few aditions it can do quite well and it's really fun anyway, thank you for posting it! :)
PPS: an endgame-viable "advanced" version of this build can be found here

necroing this thread.

Planning on making a character with ground slam, vaal double strike(faster attack, +phys, +phys on full life or duration) and Lion's roar flask.

Reasonning is that the new jewel seems very good for clearspeed. Vaal double strike is an extremly potent single target skill for pesky yellows or uniques(charges fast and stacks)

Hello. I have recently started my first play through of PoE and I was super stoked to see this build, as I always choose maces/hammers for my class. As you say, it is a really fun build to use because it makes taking care of mobs easy. That being said, i am having some difficulties acquiring a weapon with the right slots to fit the support gems to link them to my ground slam. Is it worth taking a weaker weapon with more slots or the appropriate slots? Also, is it necessary to have them slotted on your weapon, or can you slot them into an armor and get the same effect? Thanks for the build and (hopefully) your response.

@Hammertime51

-If it were me, I would take the weaker weapon early on, but switch after. If you have more linked slots, you can really buff Groundslam.

-Again, early on it doesn't matter, but then i would recommend switching to your weapon.

Good evening !

Is there any option for the curses? Such as the Blasphemy, but when I use the blasphemy I lose a lot of life, would have some other way to activate the curses automatically, just getting close to the enemy out instead of doing it manually ??

Good evening !

Is there any option for the curses? Such as the Blasphemy, but when I use the blasphemy I lose a lot of life, would have some other way to activate the curses automatically, just getting close to the enemy out instead of doing it manually ??

"

Connorj177 wrote:

@Hammertime51

-If it were me, I would take the weaker weapon early on, but switch after. If you have more linked slots, you can really buff Groundslam.

-Again, early on it doesn't matter, but then i would recommend switching to your weapon.

Thanks for the adivce. Also if I find a weapon of sufficient quality, it is better to enhance it using orbs or save my orbs for later. I am only act 3 and at level 28. So I guess what I'm really asking is, do orbs become more common later on in the game?

Thanks for this! I'm pretty new to the game so still learning quite a bit. I just got Ground Slam recently and it quickly became my favorite attack so I was hoping I could build around it. The aoe is op when dealing with groups.

Thanks for the guide, I'll be starting a groundslammer here but I see your missing a few very important things.

I wouldn't use the bloodmagic keystone. Instead I will be focusing on using Hatred, Herald of Ash, and Arctic Armour providing additional damage. *Auras are too powerful to overlook

I will be using the blood magic support gem for all my skills along w/ cast when damage taken (CwDT).

I think your using too many different attacks. Ground slam, Heavy strike, and leap slam. I would just stick w/ Leap Slam and Ground Slam. and free up that other spot for more supports.

My Setup will be as follows (I'll be leveling with this build and swapping over to a Cast on Crit build around lvl 76:

Helm
1 Herald of Ash (more dmg)
2 Arctic Armor (dmg reduction)
3 Hatred (more dmg)
4 Vaal Lightning Trap (free shock)

Chest
1 Leap Slam (movement / fortify)
2 Blood Magic
3 Fortify
4 Faster Attacks (faster movement)
5 Endurance Charge on Melee Stun
6 Stun

Gloves
1 CwDT
2 Blood Rage (free leech / frenzy charges)
3 Fire Golem (additional damage)
4 Wither / Arctic Breath / Molten Shell (buffs / enemy debuffs)

Boots
1 Flame Totem / (additional damage for when I need weapon upgrade)
2 Warlords Mark (endurance charges and leech)
3 Blood Magic / Fortify
4 Minion Life

Weapon
1. Ground Slam
2. Blood Magic
3. Melee Physical
4. Weapon Elemental Dmg
5. Multistrike
6. Added Fire Dmg


Let me know what you think. And I'll let you know how it goes. I'm starting HC Talisman right now.


Edited.
I recommending grabbing a fire trap and flame totem. Ground slam is painfully slow right when you spawn I kinda gave it up for the first few levels I just killed everything with flame totem and fire trap.
In A2 now. Bought the 3 heralds and running all 3 plus blood rage. Just ditched flame totem and fire trap. The heralds and blood rage really speed things up. I'm also using sweep instead of ground slam. I've been switching back and fourth between the two. I like to leap slam right in the middle of a large pack and just sweep them to death. Groundslam you have to kite around. I guess it's just situational If it's a scary area then groundslam is the way to go. If your 1 shotting everything then sweep is quicker.