[2.4] zSavage's Budget Voll-less Mjolner! [Juggernaut] - Updated for 2.4!

2.4 'broke' a lot of the mechanics this build relied on, but I was able to adapt with some minor changes, and the build actually seems to function better than in 2.3. 100% proc chance on Mjolner means more Discharges than before, and Romira's interaction with Ball Lightning enables us to keep up high levels of power charges.

Actual changes:
-Dropped 1 Power charge (6->5) and moved points into other areas on tree
-Divined Mjolner and setup is now Ball Lightning + Discharge + Light Pen

Not much has changed with this build in 2.3. It essentially functions exactly the same as before. The Juggernaut class got buffed, which gave the build some more attack speed, and extra fortify effect. Extra Ascendancy points from the Uber Lab should be put into Unstoppable. Also, I've swapped into Lighting Golem instead of flame golem to spend less time standing in place, and have swapped out flicker strike for shield charge.

My initial goals were as follows:

-Have some form of life recovery without socketing the life leech gem into Mjolner. The Voll's build(s) do this through the use of the Kingsguard unique chest without needing life leech, but we won't be able to do this.

-Have high physical mitigation. The Voll's build(s) do this through CWDT Immortal call, which reliably works due to constant endurance uptime, a luxury our Voll-less build will not have.

-Retain ability to crit to potentially be able to charge Surgeon's Flasks. We don't want the crit chance to be too high, as without a Voll's to 'catch' lost power charges the DPS will go down a lot if the build is critting too often.

The solutions:

-(Life recovery): I opted to use Warlord's Mark on Blasphemy. This not only gave life leech, but also the ability to generate some endurance charges, as well as solid stun chance (which actually works a lot)

-(Physical mitigation): The use of the Juggernaut Ascendancy class lets us double the armor from our chest. I also use the Determination aura. This combined with good armor gear makes physical damage no big deal (I currently have 35K+ armor unflasked).

-(Crit Ability): Again, use of Juggernaut gives us +1000 accuracy, allowing a 90%+ hit chance for more or less most of the game. Retaining the ability to crit (though at rather low frequency) has allowed me to grab the Elemental Overload keystone - more on this later.

All you need for uniques is Mjolner and Romira's to generate your charges. I recommend BBB in Mjolner. Since our leech is from a curse, we can use Lightning Pen to amplify our DPS, esp since our damage is predominantly lightning.

Highly recommended for leveling:

Atziri's Foible is so cheap it's practically free (like 1 alc each). I bought 5 and spammed Vaal orbs till I got a new prefix. The key thing here is that at level 60 (the min level to use Mjolner)you probably won't have the required 412 STR and 300 INT needed. With this ammy, you will only need 312 STR and 225 INT, which is easy to get at 60 if you've pathed correctly. Great to use until you have the needed stats, then swap out for a good rare ammy or something.

Potential Uniques to use:

Astramantis: My original planned neck. Upon seeing they were more expensive than Mjolner (40 c + atm), I decided to skip out. The Foible does the job way better when needed for a fraction of the cost.

Repentance: A great DPS booster at the cost of life and res, as well as attack speed, that you could get from a rare. These don't drop often, so I didn't include them as mandatory. I used to rare gloves myself, but if you can cover the resists, Repentance is pretty good to use. It increases spell damage output by about 40%.

My current tree at level 90 - 8 Ascendancy Points

Bandits: Oak (life), Kraityn (attackspeed), Alira (+1 power charge)

Keystones: Elemental Overload - This grants us 40% more ele damage if we've crit in the last 8 seconds. Due to the fast casting nature of Mjolner, combined with the potential 5 power charges I have, give pretty much 100% uptime.

Ascendancy: Juggernaut - Undeniable (attack speed, RT like accuracy), Unbreakable (Cannot be stunned, mega armor from chest), Unyielding (extra damage and life regen while fortified, fortify effect), Unstoppable (Extra movespeed, cannot be slowed/frozen).

Mjolner Setup (socket in this order): Ball Lightning + Discharge + Lightning Pen
-Ball Lightning generates 1 PC per tick against an enemy with a status ailment

Main Trigger Skill: Molten Strike + GMP + Fortify + Multistrike (+ Faster Attacks 5L)
-You don't really need more than a 5L. A 6th link could be something like Life Gain on Hit or Culling Strike, but they're by no means required.

Movement Skills: Leap Slam + Faster Attacks + Fortify + Shield Charge/Flicker Strike
-I like flicker to close gaps fast or to dodge certain attacks. Use of it is up to you and is a matter of personal preference. In 2.3 I've swapped it out for Shield Charge.

Auras: Determination, Warlord's Mark + Blasphemy
-Socket where you can. Very much needed, as explained earlier.

Utility: Vengance, Reckoning, Bloodrage + Increased Duration
-Socket where you can. Counter attacks can proc Mjolner, and get charges. Bloodrage adds attack speed, and charge generation. We have more than enough regen to handle it.

CWDT: CWDT + Immortal Call + Blade Vortex + Increased Duration
-Defensive Setup. The immortal call still does some work and Blade Vortex generates additional power charges for discharge.

Golem: Flame Golem! (I've swapped to Lightning now, works well - more attack speed = less time standing in place)

Ignore the skill links in these items
Weapon

Mandatory; the core of the build.
Helmet

An armor helm with resists and life. On your enchant go for something like Discharge Damage/not consume charges, Arc Damage, Molten strike projectiles, bloodrage attack speed.
Gloves

Armor rare with life, attack speed, res, or Repentance as described in the uniques section. Aim for an enchant that 'attacks', as these can trigger Mjolner (I recommend Decree of Fury as BiS)
Boots

Armor rare with life, movespeed, resists. For an enchant I recommend either regen if you've been hit recently or leech if you've killed recently.
Shield

High armor, rare or unique. Life with res is nice here as well.
Chest

As high armor as possible to interact with Unbreakable bonus. Life and res nice if available. This is going to be your 5L for main trigger skill.
Amulet

A rare amulet that fills your stat requirements, with other nice things if possible. You can also use one of the uniques I've mentioned earlier in the guide.
Belt

Life, res, STR on a rare is usually best.
Rings

Romira's and whatever you need to cover your res with some life.
Flasks

Flask to taste. I recommend at least 2 life flasks and a granite flask to work with all of our armor bonuses.

I had over 5K life and 35K armour with this gear at level 83.

I've been testing using Innervate for speedrunning labs. It's really nice to clear through trash faster.

At level 60 is when this build starts working as itself. Until then, I leveled with 2H cyclone with a sword. You can level however you want, but some kind of 2H setup is usually best. Take advantage of the 2H nodes near duelist, marauder, and templar to keep your damage up while pathing through the nodes that the build will use but will still benefit you (like life, AoE, etc). When you hit 60 spec out of your 2H nodes and equip Mjolner (probably with Atziri's Foible). Be sure to be leveling your spells so they're at the right level when you start using them!

I was able to do both the normal and cruel labyrinths with my leveling setup deathless on level, taking Undeniable in normal, Unyielding in Cruel, and Unbreakable in Merciless after I had Mjolner and a high armor chest.

Two handers like:

Are readily available for cheap and can carry you to the end of A4C, where you can hit 60 and use Mjolner for the rest of the game.

Level 59 pre swap (2H swords/axes)

Level 60 post swap (meets stats using foible)

2.4 Update build guide
Main build guide vid

I'll more add gameplay videos as I get higher level and do more content with this character. I've been pumped about getting the guide out so I pushed it out once I broke the 5K life threshold.

Here's the current plan to handle Atziri:

The biggest concern is the split phase of Atziri. Specifically, the mirror. The oversouls and trio aren't really much of a struggle.
For the Oversouls: Get them both low then kill both to minimize Onslaught time.
Trio: Kill the dualstriker and ranged one in some order and leave the cycloner for last, who we can facetank. Don't attack the dualstriker while his VMS is up.
Atziri: Swap out Arc for Ball Lightning. This keeps us from killing ourselves on during the split phase with arc chains. If necessary, swap out shield for Saffel's with PoF, PoL, and Arctic Armor.

Q: Is there ever a point where it becomes better to switch to crit and crit multi versus using Elemental Overload, without a Voll's?
A: No. Critting more often nets less damage due to loss of charges from Romira's. Without Voll's to 'catch' these charges, there's no reason to get a lot of crit and thus no reason to get a lot of crit multi.

Q: Why not use Elemental Equilibrium?
A: Although my trigger hits do pure fire and physical damage, there is a concern about making enemies resistant to lightning damage with the Ball Lightning hits. While this would likely improve single target damage, it'll require some testing to verify. It's something I could check in a couple levels.

Q: How does this build handle the Labyrinth?
A: The labyrinth is pretty easy. Since the armor is so high, spikes and darts do little to no damage. You'll still need to be careful around degen traps. Izaro can be facetanked for the most part. I've also easily facetanked Argus in merciless. 35K armor makes him a joke.

There's quite a few Ascendancy classes that can work with Mjolner. I'll list the ones I would recommend here, in no particular order (each has its own advantages).
Juggernaut (build shown here): Superb Accuracy and Attack Speed, ability to stack up and abuse a lot of endurance charges. Also has Fortify Effect OR extra chest armor, depending on choice. Very strong choice, with or without Volls.
Berserker: Strong damage bonuses and attack/movement speed bonuses. 100% leech can be strong but really needs Vaal Pact to actually work well on its own w/o Kingsguard heal.
Inquisitor: Very strong for a spell crit build. Ignoring resistances on crits means a defensive curse like enfeeble can be used. Doesn't need a penetration gem either so frees support link. Also has elemental damage reduction/boost aura that is quite effective. Would not recommend w/o Voll's.
Hierophant: Great for a budget Volls-like build without having Volls, as can generate endurance charges whenever he gets power charges.
Elementalist: This class has a lot of strong interactions with Mjolner. Liege of the Primordial can be quite strong, as it lets you have a lightning and fire golem (if using Voll's) which will function very well. It takes reduced reflect damage, and has conflux. The tricky question is whether to get the prolif or Pendulum of Destruction. I think I would favor Pendulum, personally. But a solid looking class.
Gladiator: Very strong if you'd like to incorporate some block into your build. Also has solid pack clearspeed thanks to exploding dudes from molten strike hits causing bleed.
Champion: A solid all around class, with nice damage bonuses. Permanent Fortify frees a couple of gem slots on your gear, so there's some potential for some interesting setups there.
(All tree links shown are for other recommended classes for the budget version with modified starts and without specific changes for that ascendancy. I will modify these tree links in the future to be more specific).