[2.1] Thief's Torment Claw Double Striker (RT, MoM) - Good Attack/Defense + MF and other perks

The idea for the build came from the Thief's Torment unique ring:



One of the advantages of using this ring is the large value of Life Gain on Hit (up to 30) and Mana Gain on Hit (15). We combine these mods with a fast hitting skill, Double Strike, to capitalize on life recovery, greatly improving survivability, and mana recovery, easily sustaining our main skill and also Mind over Matter for damage redirection.

The ring also provides other very nice mods. Firstly, up to 16% Increased Item Quantity, which I combine with Increased Item Rarity for a nice MF boost in an otherwise non-MF-dedicated build. Secondly, we gain 50% reduced effect from curses, enabling maps with nasty curses to be run without problems. Temporal Chains is barely noticeable and hostile damage-increasing curses are a lot less effective.

The downside of the ring is a pretty big one: "Can't use other rings". This means you can only equip one Thief's Torment, and nothing else in your other ring slot. The biggest implication of this downside is the loss of two important mods that melee physical builds usually have on rings: flat life and flat added physical damage to attacks. However, it is easy to obtain these mods elsewhere to compensate for this downside.

We don't really lose a lot of elemental resistances by using Thief's Torment because it can have up to +22% to all elemental resistances.

To summarize: by using Thief's Torment, we trade a little bit of extra life and extra damage for a big life and mana recovery mechanic, the ability to run cursed maps without rerolling them, and 16% IIQ.

Pros:
- Huge life recovery (LGoH) and mana recovery (MGoH);
- DPS scales pretty well as you improve your gear;
- Pretty tanky with 6 endurance charges, armour, block, Fortify, Arctic Armour and MoM;
- No problems with damage reflection;
- 16% IIQ and around 50% IIR without reducing build effectiveness;
- 50% reduced effect of curses on you;
- Fast movement with Whirling Blades;
- Great skins and MTX :3

Cons:
- Not exactly beginner friendly or super cheap;
- DPS is good but not huge;
- Unable to equip any rings besides one Thief's Torment;
- For MF optimization, some mods are sacrificed on gear to make room for some IIR;
- Good endgame claws can be very expensive and difficult to find;
- Main skill is a little 6-Link dependant - works ok with less but only starts to really shine when you get the 6L

Our main skill is Double Strike. It is used both for single and multiple targets, which was made possible after Patch 2.1 introduced a revival of the Melee Splash support gem by removing the damage penalty from its initial attack and improving its Area of Effect.

Double Strike was chosen because of its nature of multiple hits. Each time you attack with this skill, it hits twice. These 2 hits are repeated 2 more times if supported with Multistrike. So you can hit up to 6 times, spending the mana cost for the skill only once, while all on-hit mechanics trigger for each of the 6 hits. With Thief's Torment alone, this means Double Strike will gain you 6*30=180 life and 6*15=90 mana every time you attack with it and all hits land. This is per enemy, so it gets multiplied by a lot when attacking big groups of enemies.

With the 6-Link setup used by this build (shown in detail in the corresponding section below), Double Strike costs 25 mana to use. That is a low cost, also made possible after the 2.1 Patch, as it made many attacks spend a fixed amount of mana independently of their skill level. Double Strike's base mana cost is only 5. Because of this low cost, the build gains a lot of extra mana after attacking. I decided to make use of this extra mana recovery by allocating the Mind over Matter keystone, which is explained in more detail in the next section of this guide (Defensive Mechanics).

Our weapon of choice is the Claw, a One-Handed Weapon with fast attack speed. Claws can have a few different implicit mods related to regaining life and/or mana: Life Leech, Life Gain on Hit, and Life + Mana Gain on Hit (Gemini Claws). To synergize with Thief's Torment, you want claws with Life Gain on Hit only or Life + Mana Gain on Hit. After playing the build to level 75 I feel that both choices are viable as long as the rest of the mechanics are in place. If you find yourself frequently out of mana, then Gemini Claws are the best choice. If you feel like your mana pool is being sustained without too many problems, then the best bases are the Eye Gouger (more LGoH) or the Imperial Claw (more APS).

To improve our damage and attack speed further, we invest on Frenzy Charges. This build has a maximum of 5, which grants 20% More Damage and 20% Increased Attack Speed. To maintain our Frenzy Charges up we use the Blood Rage and Frenzy skills.

Secondary offensive/utility mechanics are:
- Frenzy, used to gain/maintain Frenzy Charges;
- Blood Rage, used for extra Attack Speed and to gain/maintain Frenzy Charges;
- Whirling Blades, used for very fast moving;
- Flame Dash, used to travel over obstacles

Most PoE builds nowadays use what has become known as a "layered defense", which means stacking different sources of damage mitigation. This is also the case with this build. This is the list of all its defenses:

- Decent amount of armour (aiming for 10k+);
- 6 Endurance Charges;
- Capped Resitances with +1% to Maximum Fire Resitance;
- Arctic Armour;
- Fortify;
- Mind over Matter;
- Block chance

To achieve a decent amount of armour, we use pure armour gear (including a tower shield) and get the most efficient armour passives in the tree (for instance, the Soul of Steel cluster).

6 Endurance Charges are obtained relatively easily as the pathing chosen in the tree allows for their allocation. The Endurance Charges are maintained during combat both actively (casting Enduring Cry) and passively (using Vengeance and Reckoning linked with Endurance Charge on Melee Stun).

Capped resistances are a basic attribute of any PoE build. 1% Maximum Fire Resitance is obtained through the Barbarism notable passive in the Marauder tree.

Arctic Armour is used, reserving 25% of our mana to provide extra mitigation against Physical and Fire damage.

The Fortify support gem is part of the 6-link setup on Double Strike, ensuring 100% Fortify uptime (20% reduced Damage Taken from all hits).

The Mind over Matter keystone is allocated, redirecting 30% of damage taken from hits to our mana pool, which is quickly filled up again with the Mana Gained on Hit mechanic. With the Thief's Torment ring equiped + the Revelry notable passive allocated, each hit performed by this build gains 17 mana. Double Strike hits 6 times, using 25 mana and gaining 102 mana (6*17), of which 77 (102-25) is extra recovery used to fill up the mana orb.

Using claws as our weapon allows us to equip a shield in our offhand, which provides some Block Chance. This Block Chance is further increased by a few passives allocated in the tree. While this build does not reach super high block chance, it has enough to help mitigate some attack damage, trigger the Reckoning skill frequently, and help against damage reflection.

Armour and Endurance Charges apply only to Physical Damage. Arctic Armour applies only to Physical and Fire Damage. Elemental resistances apply to their respective types of damage. As you can see, all these types of defensive mechanics are specific to certain damage types. Fortify + MoM, however, is a very strong defensive combo, as both mechanics apply to all damage types, as long as they are delivered by hits and not DoTs.

Body Armour (6-Link):
Double Strike, Melee Splash, Multistrike, Melee Physical Damage, Fortify, Faster Attacks
- Melee Splash is required so we can use Double Strike for both single and multiple targets.
- Multistrike and Melee Physical Damage are simply the best supports for any melee physical damage skill, and Multistrike also synergizes really well with the on-hit mechanics of this build.
- Fortify is used for extra tankiness, adding one more layer of defense.
- Faster Attacks grants slightly less DPS than Added Fire Damage or Weapon Elemental Damage, but is chosen because of the great increase to Attack Speed which also benefits the on-hit mechanics.
A pure Armour chest piece should be used for extra tankiness. The setup includes 4 red gems and only 2 green, which are easy colors to roll on pure Armour gear.

Helmet (4-Link):
Vengeance, Reckoning, Endurance Charge on Melee Stun, Stun
Vengeance is a counter-attack which has a chance to trigger when you are hit, and Reckoning is a counter-attack which triggers when you block. Both trigger frequently in this build, and are supported by Stun and ECoMS to grant a passive way to gain and maintain Endurance Charges. Your helmet is going to be a pure Armour helmet, making it easy to roll 4 red sockets.

Gloves(4-Link):
Whirling Blades, Frenzy, Blood Magic, Faster Attacks
These two skills work as support/utility. Whirling Blades supported by FA will help you move really fast through maps. Frenzy supported by FA will make sure you are able to gain Frenzy Charges in situations where Blood Rage cannot do so. Both these skills are also supported by Blood Magic to ensure they can be used even in situations where you reach 0 mana, which are a possibility in this build. Because they don't spend mana but still trigger the Mana on Hit mechanics of the build, they can actually be used to regain some mana if necessary. Your gloves are going to be AR/EV hybrid to enable the RGGG sockets.

Boots(4-Link):
Flame Dash, Faster Casting + Cast When Damage Taken, Enfeeble
Our movement skill, Whirling Blades, unfortunately cannot go over obstacles such as cliffs etc. For that, we have to use something like Flame Dash, which I support with Faster Casting just for quality of life. On the other 2 slots, I have CWDT at level 3 linked with Enfeeble at level 7, to get a little more damage mitigation. Your boots are going to be AR/ES hybrid to enable the RBBB sockets.

Claw(3-Link):
Hatred, Arctic Armour, Enlighten
Our aura is Hatred, the obvious choice for Physical damage builds. We also use Arctic Armour for improved damage mitigation. This reserves 75% of our mana. We still need to leave a considerable amount of mana unreserved to serve as buffer for our Mind over Matter mechanic. To increase this buffer, Enlighten is linked to decrease the amount of mana reservation. Claws are perfect for the colors of these gems, GGB.

Shield(3-Link):
Enduring Cry, Blood Rage, Increased Duration
Blood Rage grants extra Attack Speed and the ability to gain Frenzy Charges. Enduring Cry is used to actively gain Endurance Charges when necessary. Both gems benefit from Increased Duration. The RRG socket colors are easy to roll on a pure Armour shield, which should be the choice here for extra armour rate.

Passive tree at 37 skill points
I like the Marauder start for this build, but it can also be done with a Duelist. Marauder gives more damage per hit, more armour and more flat life, while Duelist gives more attack speed.
Start by allocating both initial nodes in the Marauder tree (Melee Damage and Life and Life and Armour). These initial ones are more powerful than average. Follow the Melee Physical Damage path towards Born to Fight. After it you have an option to specialize in Two-Handed Weapons or One-Handed Weapons. The final build uses One-Handed weapons, but Two-Handers are usually better for leveling, and you can respec into One-Handers later. After that, move into Barbarism and then Resolute Technique. Get Heart of the Warrior for more life. Continue moving up towards the Templar tree, allocating useful notables along the way, and also the Jewel socket if you already have enough currency for a good Jewel. Stop once you have finished allocating the entire Purity of Flesh cluster.

Passive tree at 57 skill points
Move down towards the Unwavering Stance keystone, allocating more life, armour, jewel socket and endurance charge along the way.

Passive tree at 73 skill points
Move into the Duelist tree and allocate the Battle Rouse and Revelry clusters, which are resposible for your mana management. Once you have allocated both cluster, go back to the Templar tree and finish traveling to Mind over Matter. By now you should already have your Thief's Torment ring equiped, and you could be using a Rigwald's Charge (two-handed sword) for fast leveling.

Passive tree at 90 skill points
Get more life and more charges (endurance and frenzy). Spec out of Two-Handed weapons and into One-Handed weapons in the Marauder tree, then get Melee Physical Damage while holding a Shield, along with Master of the Arena and Art of the Gladiator.

Passive tree at 107 skill points
Get 2 more jewel sockets, more damage and attack speed while holding a shield, and move a bit into the Scion area for more life and attack speed.

Normal: Help Oak for +40 to Maximum Life
Cruel: Help Kraityn for +8% Increased Attack Speed
Merciless: Help Kraityn for +1 Maximum Frenzy Charge