[2.0] Zads Dom Blower for Warbands

Youtube Explanation of Build





Build cost at the time of making: 1c for pillar +120ish jewellers and 300 fuses 5 linking, atziris foible 5c on day 1, resi rings 5c each, meginords belt 8c. Boots/gloves 2c. Build was functional with 4 linked pillar and 1c +2 minion helm holding zombies and 2c chest from lvl 55. BoR Was added after early mapping and currency farming.

Armor nodes and armor or arm/eva gear wont make you tanky but it does give baseline survivability to not be a portal waster on maps. Pillar scales with str travel nodes and can be used for easy leveling with ground slam/cyclone or your favourite staff skill.

Dom blow mana cost is among the higest of all skill in game and picking up mana cost reduction makes dom blow sustainable without blood magic gems and thus wins you extra support gem which outdoes any other option. As in if you use blood magic gem and spec the mana cost reduction to other things the build will be MUCH weaker. Atziris foible is easy mode for sustain.

Dom blow scales with content. At the time of writing at character lvl 77 its tested with solo maps up to 75. Map mod to avoid so far is only beyond mobs. Otherwhise the higher the mobs the more deeps tehy do. Simple.

Skill has low dps and steamroll effect. Its clear speed is mediocre but functional. Deal with it.

Build is not tanky enough to consider for hardcore league. You will lack physical mitigation and its melee skill with ranges of dual/double strike. You will be hit. A lot. And it will hurt.

Once enough currency swap helm for for rare with armor/life/resi and get decent armor/life/resi chest. Astral plate looks to be best option. In the end chest for zombies, staff for dom blow, helm for utility skills.

Gearing:
Pillar. Gear with life/resists/flat phys. Once rich enough buy BoR. Once even richer get 6 link chest and proper helm.

Build works on all 4 links. Just remove last gem.

Skill linking priority:

Inside Bringer of rain:
Dom Blow -> Multistrike -> Melee Splash -> Fortify (can be swapped for minion damage)

Inside Staff:
Zombie -> Multistrike -> Melee Phys -> Melee Splash -> Fortify. Minion damage would be 6th link

For chest + helm combo:
Chest: Dom Blow -> Multistrike -> Melee Splash -> Fortify -> Melee Phys -> Minion Damage
Zombies in staff as previous.
Helm would hold desecrate, flesh offering, increased duration, Convocation

Boots or Gloves 4 links:
Vaal Grace, Vaal Haste, Generosity, Increased Duration
Hatred, Haste, Rallying Cry, Increased Duration (swap haste for purity of elements until you get jewels with minins resi)

Playstyle:
Rallying cry has 20+ sec duration of mana and hp regen, while running into pack rallying cry. Hold down right click assigned to dom blow until victory. Flask usage as usual.

Queastions that probably will pop up:
Why no vagan weapon it would save passive points?
-Dont have one.
Why no bones of ullr?
- Not needed and resists + life is sexier. Even better if its armor base
Build suck in parties, any way to fix?
- Poke GGG to make dom blow function on shattered monsters.
Soultaker would make it easy.
- And it would give you ability to wear shield. I just dont have soultaker.
Blood magic?
- As before said, getting rid of blood magic gems allows for +1 support gem which at 4 links is ultra valuable.
So few minion nodes. Whats up with that?
- They are NOT needed. After first 4-5 dominations the minions have enough punch to kill stuff.
Rallying cry and no curses?
- Rallying cry helps to solve mana issues. No sockets left for curses.

Hey, I'm kinda interested in trying this build as it seems to be much fun but there was this last patch which made DOM + Melee splash unlinkable. Is it still worth trying it afterwards? Thanks for reply!

I'm glad to see a dominating blow build on the forums for 2.0.

I decided to make a dominating blow build in Warbands because I had always wanted to try it. I started out with a 2h mace (leveled with groundslam) and went full blood magic. It was just OK, nothing special or very good. I kinda gave up and tried out ice crash which was fun for a while until I found that I got like 15 FPS while using it (and I'm NOT using a toaster for a computer). I kinda gave up and played my frost blades ranger.

Then I got this:


and I decided to give Dominating blow another try. It is pretty awesome. I specced out of blood magic and switched to 1h axe and shield nodes. If you want to play in a party, you can even switch out dominating blow and some of the other gems in the setup for something like static strike. It works really well. On my wishlist is an Aegis Aurora shield, for super tankiness.

TL;DR: found a soul taker, 10/10 would recommend for Dom Blow.

Also, your build looks really cool. I'm not sure about the BoR, but if it works for you, that's great.

If you want to check out my character, the name is "The__Wave"

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Chalias wrote:

Hey, I'm kinda interested in trying this build as it seems to be much fun but there was this last patch which made DOM + Melee splash unlinkable. Is it still worth trying it afterwards? Thanks for reply!

unlinkeable? where in the patch nodes is this confirmed? that'd clearly destroy the whole build

I'm using melee splash and dominating 4-5 mobs in one blow quite regularly.