Iva's Vaal Ground Slam Build

Note: This build was heavily nerfed on patch 2.1.0 and everything in this post is pre 2.1.0


With the introduction of the Jewel system, builds that were never possible before are now possible. The concept of this build is to run Vaal Ground Slam permanently while it self-sustains max Endurance and Power Charges by using 3 of the unique Jewels, Hegemony's Era and one notable passive.


By using Hatred aura, shattering enemies for the 80% chance to gain an additional soul from Chill of Corruption is now possible. Sacrificial Harvest gives another 20-30% chance to gain another additional soul on kill. Since shattering only happens when you kill a frozen enemy, we need a lot of critical strike chance to freeze. This is where Vaal Sentencing comes in. By using up to 4 Vaal Sentencing we can increase our critical strike chance from 80-480%. From the passives on the skill tree we get another 135%. Summon Ice Golem 20-35%.

Hegemony's Era synergizes with Vaal Ground Slam natural knockback and 100% to hit enables Vaal Ground Slam to self-sustain 5 Power Charges (if you help Alira in Merciless for +1 Power Charges for the 5th) for another potential 250% critical strike chance. This totals to 900% increased critical strike chance and you can still get more from pieces of equipped gear. This amount of increased critical strike chance should cap your chance to deal a critical strike and pretty much guarantees to shatter every enemy. The real kicker here, is that you don't even need this amount of critical strike chance. Only half the amount of critical strike chance is needed if you use it always in good mob density. When Vaal Ground Slam is not usable, use Cyclone.



Smashing Strikes notable also synergizes really well with Vaal Ground Slams 100% to hit, big area of effect and when at high critical strike chance enables Vaal Ground Slam to self-sustain max Endurance Charges.





Q. This all seems too good to be true, so what is the downside?
A. Getting too much damage which is easily obtainable will instantly kill your character to reflect even with good defence mitigation. You will get carried away with the insane clear speed this build is capable of. Having to stop and check every enemy to see if it has reflect is counterproductive to the concept of this build. One mistake, you're dead. The other downside to this build is that, it's expensive.

Q. Is this Hardcore viable?
A. Yes. There are players level 85+ in Tempest League using Vaal Ground Slam.

Q. How do you deal with reflect?
A. Use Arctic Armour, overcap fire and cold resistances, have at least 6000 armour without buffs and 4000 life, have max endurance charges up, use the link setup in the link spoiler tag, do not get any critical strike multipliers and use Surgeon's Granite Flask of Iron Skin. Since it is a critical strike build you should have no problem running Surgeon's Granite Flask of Iron Skin permanently. You should manage reflect when casting Vaal Ground Slam as long the mob density isn't high. The much smarter choice is not to use Vaal Ground Slam on reflect and to use Cyclone instead to kill them without risking your character.

Reserved.

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I'd like to see some mapping please. Maybe a 75?

Bump!