*-*[2.2 PHC] Dual Wield Molten Claw Striker -T15 Twin Tank -225K Shotgun - 78%/78% block -Budget*-*

Can i get a little help? I am thinking of going Versatile Combatant and Violent Retaliation but am wondering what i should aim for last - Gratuitous Violence or Outmatch and Outlast? Playing softcore Prophecy. Also, what supports should i use for Molten Strike? I see PPAD and Fortify in the OP but see a lot of discussion about Physical to Lightning and Faster Attacks (and OP hasn't updates his post since April). Also, is Enfeeble required or i can run HoA (+ Hatred)? If i get Gratuitous Violence and it doesn't work well Physical to Lightning i guess i shouldn't look into the Forces of Nature node? Last question - how do you sustain mana vs single targets without Thief's Torment and is it a good idea to get it with The Anvil? You can take a look at my character and give me some suggestions if possible. Thanks!

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Azrash wrote:

Can i get a little help? I am thinking of going Versatile Combatant and Violent Retaliation but am wondering what i should aim for last - Gratuitous Violence or Outmatch and Outlast? Playing softcore Prophecy. Also, what supports should i use for Molten Strike? I see PPAD and Fortify in the OP but see a lot of discussion about Physical to Lightning and Faster Attacks (and OP hasn't updates his post since April). Also, is Enfeeble required or i can run HoA (+ Hatred)? If i get Gratuitous Violence and it doesn't work well Physical to Lightning i guess i shouldn't look into the Forces of Nature node? Last question - how do you sustain mana vs single targets without Thief's Torment and is it a good idea to get it with The Anvil? You can take a look at my character and give me some suggestions if possible. Thanks!

I would grab gratuitous violence last, not worrying about endurance/frenzy charges is nice. Physical to lightning is fine to use i didn't update guide though. I like multistrike/ppad/fortify on a 4l but that was hardcore maybe replace fortify with PtL. Don't use faster attacks support you already have enough attack speed. For single targets you only need two +2 mana gained on hit jewels to sustain 6l mana costs vs single targets. Blasphemy+enfeeble only required for hardcore otherwise link it to cwdt. After looking at your character you should look into upgrading your rings next.
Not much else to update for 2.3 patch.

Just as a starting point, if in doubt go with what Link1313 says in the build guide. It absolutely works, and works great, and anything I'm posting may be kind of untested/theorycrafting.


For softcore this season I did the following and am quite happy with it:

Ascendancies:
Gratuitous Violence first, then 2 point block node, then Versatile Combatant, and lastly I'm planning on getting Violent Retaliation with the 8 pointer when I get it.

I feel like Gratuitous Violence is enough of a clear speed bonus that it's worth it for softcore levelling, but it's a matter of preference. IMO, Gratuitous first = clear speed, 2-point block node first = survivability, Outmatch/Outlast convenience and easy charges.

Links:
For levelling, I did Molten Strike > Multi Strike/Faster Attacks > WED > Faster Attacks/Added Fire. I added Added Fire when I got a lucky five link. I'm not a fan of PPAD, personally, because I like to boost the melee portion too. PPAD feels very noticeably worse to me than WED.

The reason why I didn't do Phys To Lightning is because I went Gratuitous first, and that gem will disable the bleed effect explosion (which is the whole point really) because no physical damage will be dealt. If I didn't go Gratuitous first, I would have used that instead of Added Fire or Faster attacks maybe.

I think that Link has a good point and Faster Attacks might be overkill at endgame, so I'll experiment with other options (Inc Critical Strikes, Poison, Fire Penetration, or Added Cold/Lightning maybe). I know when I took faster attacks out of my Whirling blades setup at level 65 or so the difference wasn't even noticeable.

Anvil
I think both Anvil and Thief's Torment is overkill, or at least would require a higher level of gear and an unavoidable sacrifice of total EHP. I'd pick one or the other and go with it. Anvil is the default option, but maybe try both and see which you like better. It's tricky to cap block without Anvil, though.

Enfeeble
I run Blas-Enfeeble, Arctic Armor and HoA personally. HoA + Hatred would definitely work too and are clearly more offensive, but I find the combo of AA and always-on enfeeble is a very powerful defense.

Thanks for the answers! I managed to beat the Labyrinth on Merciless today and decided to get Violent Retaliation. I guess Gratuitous Violence will be last if I manage to beat the Uber Labyrinth one day. Before the Violent Retaliation node there was a 2% block chance node so now I am at 72%. I guess I'll look into selling my 3% block chance corrupted Anvil and getting a 2% one (i guess i can make some currency out of that too), and removing the 1% block chance jewel I have for a better one. This will leave me at 70% again which is enough and I can focus on more life and damage jewels. Decided to take the OP's suggestion and put Enfeeble in the CWDT setup. I have a question though. What should I focus on mainly - evasion gear or armor/evasion hybrid? I feel like I am not tanky enough and I think that is because I have low armor/evasion and low HP (+ no chaos resistance). Maybe that's just my imagination because I've played only up to T3 maps (no luck with map drops) and I haven't been close to dying but sudden spikes of damage sometimes leave me at around 50% HP which leads me to think that at around T10+ maps and hard mods I would die a lot (although I will have more HP and defense when I get there so as I said it might be just my imagination).

Yeah, some of your gear has no life on it or low life rolls on it, and you can pick up a lot of life with more levels if you want, and life on jewels is great. I find that having really high life rolls is very important. With a Belly of the Beast, I was able to hit 5.3k life in Perandus (while using Thief's Torment, which means no life from rings), at level 90, and I coveted every last HP (even in SC). I think it's probably even possible to hit 6K with this build if you tried really hard and used all rare jewelry. Lightning coil would also be great and I might try that this league if i can get the resists. But, yes, you can do crazy stuff like facetanking twinned red map bosses, running red 8 mod maps, and just generally laughing at most difficult content (especially SC).

In higher level maps, the main threats I've found are one shots from really large hits (usually physical), or very strong DOT (particularly chaos DOT). With the block and insane life gain on hit, this build laughs off anything else. That's why I like Enfeeble Blasphemy... it's that FIRST hit I want to reduce. Arctic armor was also very helpful for that.

I think armor, armor/eva, or full eva would all work (though coloring could be tricky for full EVA chestpiece). Armor/eva is also nice for the lower STR requirement. I liked being at least partially evasion... I found it helped me to keep my Endurance charges up surprisingly well even with a level 1 CWDT Immortal Call.

I'm also debating sacrificing some DPS and going 5 Endurance charges with bandits and the duelist nodes.

Really digging this build so far. I just completed merciless lab yesterday, but it took forever with my current 10k tooltip in a 4link. 66 block, gotta get that +4% Anvil soon.

So, i reached 5k HP. I wonder what nodes should i pick. I was looking at the crit nodes in the Shadow area (Assassination) and the 2 Claw Critical Strike Chance and Multiplier + Claws of the Magpie or maybe Twin Terrors, but i don't think crit is right. I guess Forces of Nature? Any suggestions?

**Bought a really nice helm with 2 Additional Molten Strike Projectiles for 2ex ^^

Assassination is definitely worth getting. I think I need to update the OP with it. The others aren't as good until late late game.

Wow norc, gratuitous violence 1st!? Can you post a video of it in action? I know with our high attack speed most monsters will be bleeding/exploding and I know this build can clear faster. If it makes that big a difference I will update the OP for a soft core version with that first. (obviously for hardcore it will be last as we need endurance charges/block ascendcies first)

Any endgame alternatives to essentia sanguis?

How come you don't use GMP anymore?