[2.1]Hardcore Dual Wield Elemental Wild Strike W/ Dual Curse

Hello! I want to share with the community my HC Talisman build. This build was not previously possible before the 2.1 patch so if you are looking for something new to try, this may be something you enjoy! Without further delays, let's jump into the details of this amazing build.

If you would like to see the build in action before reading about it, I do have a few videos of it.


Build Overview

The idea behind this build was to create something that was flexible. This build is tanky enough to survive hard content while doing decent damage solo. The flexibility part comes into play when we can are up against challenging content or join groups. In small 2-3 person groups, this build can be considered a semi support. Thanks to the dual curse, we can either provide group damage or survivability depending on which curses we choose. In large groups, this build provides no auras. However, because we don't run any auras ourselves, this build scales really well in large groups because there are no overlapping buffs between ourselves and the other members. I've literally seen my tooltip dps more than double in larger groups. This allows us to earn our spot regardless of group size.

Required items

This build requires the following items to function:



The Windscream boots provide us with the +1 curse attribute. These boots are the most efficient way going dual curse as the "Whispers of Doom" passive is too far away on the passive tree and the "Doedre's Damning" unique ring provides less benefit while also taking up a more important item slot at the same time.

The Bringer of Rain provides us a cheap and effective way of increasing our damage and survive-ability without putting a huge dent in our currency tab as trying to buy a good six link. It also gives block chance which we will take advantage of.

The soul taker is required because this build reserves 100% of its mana without using things like Eldritch Battery or Blood Magic to use our abilities.

Enlighten level 3 is required because this build runs two blasphemy curses, Herald of Ash, and Arctic Armor. If you add the total reserved amount up before reductions, it comes out to 120% mana reserved. Obviously we can't do that. In order to save precious passive points on our skill tree, we use this gem. Also, while this may sound like a turn off considering how long this gem takes to level, you can just do like I did and buy someone else's bricked attempt at a level 4 gem. I paid less than two exalts for this enlighten gem.

Conqueror's Efficiency is used the same reason as enlighten 3. We only need the 2% reduced mana reserve it offers, but thanks to that 2% when combined with our other reductions, we can hit 100% reserved mana which is perfect when using soul taker. We spend 2 passive points unlocking a jewel socket for this jewel, but if we did not, it would cost us at minimum 6 passive points to get more reduction nodes from the tree. That's a net gain of 4 points to spend else where such as on life or damage.

Passive Trees





As you can see from the tree, we have very little invested into reduced reservation nodes. That little amount combined with our enlighten level 3 and Conqueror's Efficiency is just enough to add another herald or Arctic Armor buff to our character. Along side blasphemy, that means we are running two curse auras, a herald, and Arctic Armor for 100% of mana reserved. Combine that with Soul Taker and you have a winning combination. I should also point out that the Int nodes this build takes are all efficiently placed along paths we were going to take regardless. Because we want to be able to run level 20 enfeeble and Elemental weakness, we have to have higher than average int for a melee character. However, you still need to be efficient about it. That is why our amulet has int on it. There is no more efficient int on the tree for us to take so it was best ,in this case, to get some on our gear.

You also can see from the tree that we get a lot of life nodes. Combined with the two jewels I have with %maximum life affixes, at level 85, this build has 221% life. With top tier gear, this build can break over 6k hp, have 30k+ tooltip dps without auras, and provide dual curse all by level 90. I am currently level 84 and I have 5554 hp and 27343 tooltip dps in my hideout on the hardcore talisman league.

Another thing to point out is the leech nodes in the duelist section that we take. These new life leech nodes work with any attack damage, including elemental which is what our character does. Those 4 leech nodes are equivalent to having the life leech gem! Between the Bringer of Rain and these leech nodes, that is an eight linked main ability!

Lastly, you can see this build gets iron reflexes, life regen, as well as some block nodes. At level 90, with Rumi's concoction, you can hit 70% block chance during the flask duration. With Iron reflexes and the life regen from the tree, you don't have to worry about bleed effects at all. All these defensive options combined create a massively defensive character capable of surviving end game content.



We use the physical to lightning gem to convert our wild strike to 100% elemental damage. However, because we are doing a physical -> elemental conversion, we can take advantage of both physical and elemental damage increases.

Frenzy is linked to fortify. We use frenzy when we aren't running Poacher's mark as a means to get frenzy charges to increase our damage on bosses. It is linked to fortify to keep the buff up on longer fights.

Whirling blades is linked to fortify because we use it to move into packs of mobs. This ensures we have fortify up when we start fighting.

The curses I rotate are Poacher's mark, Elemental Weakness, Temporal Chains, and Enfeeble. Depending on the situation, we can either go offensive or defensive without having to recolor the sockets on our gear.

My Items


The items I've chosen are important because of what they offer. The dagger is specifically a "Sai" dagger because this build is NOT a crit build. As such, the crit implicit of other daggers is basically wasted. That is not the case with a Sai dagger as we can put that 6% block chance to use! Also, you can use whirling blades thanks to this dagger. With the windscream boots having low movement speed, you really need another way to keep up with the group members in maps. Whirling blades gives us the ability to keep up. Also, when linked to fortify, you have an easy way to engage mobs with fortify up already without having to give up a damage support gem in our main ability.

You can also notice that all my jewelry and belt have damage mods on them. Because this build's passive tree has a lot of life and defenses, you have to get your damage increases from somewhere else. Unfortunately, this means you can't just slap random pieces of gear together and expect the build to function flawlessly. You have to make sure you get the most out of each slot. This is why doedre's damning unique ring isn't a good option. Each of my rings are worth at least 1000 dps with my amulet being even more.

Currently, my total expenses on this build total up to 10 exalts and 40 chaos. That includes everything from the soul taker, to the enlighten level 3, the two 4 stat jewels, and the rumi's concoction flask. I know that sounds like a lot and it is, but from a min max point of view, there is still plenty to be spent on this build and there are cheaper ways to start this build. For example, giving up Arctic Armor instantly drops the price of my expenses by 2 exalts spent to buy a leveled enlighten gem that could have been leveled for free if I was patient about it.

So far I am really liking this build, but what were your bandit options?

Only lv50 right now but liking the build so far.

I got 40hp from Oak and atk spd from Kraityn. Probably gonna go with Kraityn in merciless for the extra frenzy charge